Druid Fairy

Chapter 170 Confrontation
Taking drugs makes you feel good for a while, and taking drugs all the time makes you feel good all the time.

That's exactly how the Tiger Guards felt at that moment.

The black-clad assassins, who were once arrogant and ruthless with their strange moves, were now as fragile as paper lanterns in front of these drug-addicted "brutes".

Just as one of the assassins was about to use the same trick again, he used his strange movement to get behind a Tiger Guard and prepare to slit his throat.

But the moment he moved, the tiger guard, with his surging reflexes, didn't even turn his head, and with a single, precise grab, reached behind him and seized his head.

"Hey, got you."

"Crack!"

With a sharp crack, the assassin's head was turned 180 degrees and fell limply to the ground, his face still bearing the sinister grin he had before the attack, making him look incredibly eerie.

On the other side, two assassins joined forces to besiege a Tiger Guard, one attacking from the top three routes and the other from the bottom three, their cooperation was excellent.

Normally, this Tiger Guard would probably have been beheaded within three moves.

But now, he grinned, revealing a set of gleaming white teeth, and neither dodged nor avoided, letting the two poisoned daggers pierce his body.

"Ding! Ding!"

With two crisp sounds, the dagger, powerful enough to pierce iron armor, left only two shallow white marks on his skin, which shimmered with crimson gold.

"Didn't you eat? Is that all the strength you have?"

Tiger Guard grinned maliciously, spread his arms wide, and like an eagle snatching chicks, lifted the two stunned assassins up one in each hand, and then slammed them together!
"boom!"

A dull thud, like two ripe watermelons colliding, splattered red and white watermelons all over the ground.

The assassins instinctively gasped.

They are suicide squad members, not fools.

How the hell are we supposed to fight this? The other team is cheating!
…………

On top of the cliff.

Wei Ling'er's face had already lost all color.

She watched helplessly as the assassins her mother had personally chosen for her were felled like wheat before Li Mengze's drug-addicted guards.

The scene that was originally envisioned—Li Mengze kneeling and begging for mercy, being trampled underfoot and wantonly humiliated—did not happen. Instead, it turned into her own assassins being crushed by the other party in a crushing manner.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!"

She was so angry that she trembled all over, her nails digging deep into her palms, but she felt no pain at all.

Seeing that the last assassin had been beheaded by the Tiger Guard Captain, and with the situation hopeless, a chilling fear finally rose from the bottom of his heart.

Run! We have to run right now!
If she were caught, given Prince Yong's protective nature, even she would definitely not fare well!
Wei Ling'er no longer cared about the demeanor of a county princess. Without hesitation, she took out a jade talisman engraved with intricate spatial runes from her bosom. This was a life-saving item that her mother, Princess Zhaoyang, had obtained for her at great cost, and it was extremely precious.

Without hesitation, she poured all her magical power into it and crushed it!

"Li Mengze! You just wait! This county princess will repay this humiliation a thousandfold one day!!"

Wei Ling'er's figure was enveloped by a distorted spatial ripple and instantly disappeared from the spot.

"Want to run?"

Below, Li Mengze noticed almost the instant she crushed the talisman. His eyes turned cold, and with a flick of his finger, a sharp gust of wind shot through the air.

Unfortunately, it was too late. The finger strike only hit the dissipating spatial ripples, failing to harm them in the slightest.

Looking at the deserted cliff, Li Mengze's eyes were as cold as knives.

He felt neither anger nor resentment; he simply noted the matter down in his notebook.

Some people are beyond reasoning with.

Since there's no way to avoid it, the only option is to find an opportunity to completely crush her into the cesspool, ensuring she can never rise again.

…………

"Clean up the battlefield, collect evidence, take one survivor, two seriously wounded, and deal with the rest."

Li Mengze's calm voice rang out, pulling the Tiger Guards back from their drug-induced berserk state.

"Yes, Master Alchemist!"

The Tiger Guard Captain was the first to react. The look in his eyes as he looked at Li Mengze had changed from initially following orders to genuine awe.

This young alchemist was not only highly skilled in alchemy, but also frighteningly calm.

Despite the perilous ambush, he showed no sign of panic from beginning to end.

Such skills and such a temperament—he's simply a born general!
The Tiger Guards sprang into action, carefully collecting the weapons and badges from the assassins.

Li Mengze walked up to the captured leader of the assassins.

At this moment, the leader of the assassins had one arm crippled, and all the meridians in his body had been sealed by the Tiger Guard Captain using a special method. He lay paralyzed on the ground like a dead dog.

He looked at Li Mengze, his eyes filled with no pleading, only a deathly desolation.

“I won’t say anything,” he said hoarsely.

"I didn't want you to say anything."

Li Mengze squatted down, took out a jet-black pill from his pocket, and, under the horrified gaze of the assassin leader, pried open his mouth and forced it into his mouth.

"This is called the 'Heart-Eating Pill,' a little gadget I made in my spare time."

Li Mengze clapped his hands, smiling like an innocent and harmless boy next door. "It won't kill you, it will just slowly gnaw at your heart, making you feel like a thousand ants are eating your heart, causing unbearable pain, for all twelve hours of the day. Oh, right, it can also stimulate your soul, making it impossible for you to faint even if you want to. Tell my guards whenever you want to talk about it, they have the antidote."

The leader of the assassins trembled violently, and large beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.

After doing all this, Li Mengze walked up to the wounded Tiger Guards.

In the previous battle, three Tiger Guards were seriously injured while protecting him, and now they were leaning against the mountain wall, their faces pale.

"Thank you so much, Master Alchemist, for saving our lives!" The three Tiger Guards struggled to bow.

"Lie still and don't move."

Li Mengze waved his hand, took out a few emerald green pills, and stuffed them into their mouths without saying a word, "It's just a minor injury, you won't die."

The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth, and a gentle yet pure life force flowed throughout the body in an instant. The lacerated wound began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even the physical strength consumed was rapidly restored.

The Tiger Guards were extremely grateful.

There's the "Battle Pill" that can instantly boost a person's combat power, the "Heart-Eating Pill" that can cause excruciating pain, and a holy medicine for healing...

Just how many other amazing things are hidden in this alchemist's medicine chest?

…………

On a small hill a few miles away from Broken Soul Slope.

Li Pingcan sat cross-legged, with a plate of melon seeds and a pot of tea in front of him, looking quite content.

His [Fungus Master Domain] is like a surveillance camera with a full-map God's-eye view, allowing him to see everything that happens on the battlefield clearly.

He nodded in satisfaction when he saw his son directing the Tiger Guards in an orderly manner.

"Hmm, not bad, not bad. This kid's quick thinking is pretty good. He has some of my style from back in the day. I'd give him an eight out of ten." When he saw his son pull out the poison pill, he almost spat out the tea in his mouth.

"Good heavens! I taught you the Druid's Way of Nature so you could connect with nature and appreciate life, and you've gone and learned to use poison! Who taught you that? It certainly wasn't me!"

He complained, but his smile grew even brighter.

The student surpasses the teacher!
Seeing that the war was over and his son had handled things perfectly, requiring no further attention from him, Li Pingcan stretched contentedly and handed a recording rune stone to Li Mengze through the golden eagle Xiaofei.

The talisman clearly recorded Wei Ling'er's figure.

With a thought, he quietly withdrew control from the bee colony and the plants.

Those killer bees that had just been so fearless seemed to have suddenly received a notice to go home. With a buzz, they turned around and slowly flew back to their hive.

The wildly growing vines and thorns silently retreated underground, as if they had never existed.

Apart from the mess and the pungent smell of blood, there was no trace of any natural interference on the entire Broken Soul Slope.

Li Pingcan dusted himself off, hummed a little tune, and then disappeared into the forest.

"Time to go home and hug my daughter!"

Hidden strength and name.

…………

The night in the capital should be peaceful.

But tonight, a menacing group, like a black lightning bolt, shattered the tranquility of the suburbs and headed straight for Prince Yong's residence.

The one leading them was Li Mengze.

He was still dressed in a blue robe, but his face was no longer gentle. Beside him were the Tiger Guards, whose bodies were still stained with blood.

Pedestrians on the road, seeing this menacing group from afar, were all horrified and gave way, secretly wondering which unlucky family had offended this menacing figure from Prince Yong's mansion.

The guards at the gate of the Prince's mansion were also shocked to see their captain return covered in blood.

Seeing Li Mengze's cold face, no one dared to step forward to question him; they simply instinctively made way for him.

"I urgently request an audience with Your Highness."

…………

The study in Prince Yong's mansion was brightly lit.

When Prince Yong saw that all the Tiger Guards he had sent out were wounded, and then saw the corpses of the assassins that had been carried in, as well as the assassin leader whose meridians had been sealed, his face instantly darkened.

"good very good!"

He didn't roar; he just squeezed out those three words through gritted teeth.

Everyone present could feel a terrifying, almost tangible killing intent emanating from the old prince.

That was the iron-blooded, murderous aura forged in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Throughout his life, he valued promises and his reputation above all else.

The person he had personally promised to protect was nearly ambushed and killed right under his nose, within the territory of his capital!

This isn't just provocation; it's peeling his face off, throwing it on the ground, and then stomping on it!
"Speak." Prince Yong walked up to the leader of the assassins and uttered only one word.

The leader of the assassins raised his head and met those tiger-like eyes that seemed to see right through people. His heart trembled, but he still gritted his teeth: "The victor is king, the loser is villain. Kill me if you want, I have nothing to say."

“He has backbone.” Prince Yong nodded, a cruel smile appearing on his face. “What I like most are tough guys with backbone. Men, bring out that ‘skinning and tendon-pulling’ technique from the dungeon of the Prince’s Mansion, and loosen up this hero’s muscles.”

Upon hearing the words "skinning and tendon-pulling," several old stewards from the Prince's mansion nearby couldn't help but shudder.

That was the torture method the prince used when interrogating spies from enemy countries in his early years; it was said to be able to make stones talk.

"Your Highness, there's no need for such trouble."

Just then, Li Mengze slowly stepped forward, took out a small porcelain bottle from the medicine box, and poured out a grayish-brown, seemingly unremarkable pill.

"This is my newly concocted 'Muscle-Softening Powder.' It has no other effect than to amplify a person's pain a hundredfold and make their bones as soft as noodles. Even if he wanted to bite his tongue to commit suicide, he wouldn't have the strength."

Li Mengze smiled and flicked the pill into the mouth of the assassin leader. "I believe that with the help of the prince's methods, we can definitely get this hero to reveal the names of his ancestors for eighteen generations."

The leader of the assassins: "..."

Tiger Guards: "..."

Prince Yong couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his eye when he saw Li Mengze's harmless smile and the extremely insidious pill in his hand.

He was starting to wonder if Li Mengze was a true genius in alchemy or a little devil in human skin.

Half an hour later.

A series of shrill, inhuman screams echoed from the dungeon.

When the leader of the suicide squad was carried out again, he was a pile of mud, with no part of his body intact, and his eyes were filled with boundless fear and collapse.

"It's...it's Princess Qingyang...it's Wei Ling'er..."

"She ordered us...to ambush at Broken Soul Slope...to kill without mercy..."

"Wei Ling'er!"

Upon hearing the confession, Prince Yong's purple clay teacup shattered with a crack.

"Prepare the carriage! Change your clothes!"

He left those words behind and turned to walk towards the inner hall.

A moment later, when he reappeared, he was wearing a purple-gold python robe that symbolized his supreme military achievements!
This staff was bestowed by the late emperor; seeing it is as if the late emperor himself is present!
In the entire capital, apart from the current emperor, no one can stop him!

His goal was clear: he headed straight for the palace of Wei Ling'er's mother, Princess Zhaoyang—Zhaoyang Palace!

Inside Zhaoyang Palace, the air was still filled with the fragrance of incense, and the room was warm as springtime.

Princess Zhaoyang had just finished bathing and was lazily reclining on a soft couch, letting her maid gently massage her legs, her face full of a contented expression.

In her view, after tonight, Li Mengze, who had caused her daughter so much suffering, should have become a cold corpse.

"boom!"

With a loud crash, the two heavy palace doors, made of golden nanmu wood, were kicked open from the outside!

Prince Yong, clad in purple and gold armor and radiating a terrifying aura, strode in.

"Prince Yong... Prince Yong?"

Princess Zhaoyang was startled by this sudden turn of events. She sat up abruptly, a hint of panic flashing across her face, but it was quickly replaced by the pride of royalty. "Uncle, what is the meaning of your intrusion into my palace in the middle of the night?"

"reason?"

Prince Yong sneered. He didn't even glance at the trembling palace maids and eunuchs around him. Instead, he slammed a pile of things in his hands down in front of Princess Zhaoyang.

"Your Highness, please take a look at these things first before asking me why!"

(End of this chapter)