I Pick Up Talents on the Interstellar Battlefield Chapter 609 - 470: Wrath, Zero-Binding Lock_2

"Crack!"

Yet another layer of the golden shield broke apart precisely as expected, its shards scattering across the snow-laden ground before the icy gusts whisked them away in an instant.

Kaine's complexion drained to a ghostly pallor, blood trickling relentlessly from the edges of his lips. His dark robe was thoroughly saturated with gore, and his formerly straight-backed form now stooped under the weight of grievous wounds—against Inzaghi, bearer of the Asura Battle Physique, even he, a Tier Seven Nine Stars Spiritualist with a Golden Bloodline, stood utterly powerless to fight back.

"Golden Spear!"

Through clenched teeth, Kaine whispered hoarsely, channeling the final dregs of spiritual energy into his shortsword before stabbing fiercely at Inzaghi’s chest, a last-ditch effort to push him away and seize a brief breather.

Inzaghi made no move to evade. His left fist of iron hammered straight down onto the blade. A sharp metallic ring echoed as the shortsword flew from Kaine’s grasp, his arm shuddering wildly from the colossal force, bones on the verge of splintering.

In the vicinity, Alaya, Crowne, and Cheng Zhou trailed at a cautious distance. They refrained from meddling in Inzaghi’s fight—under the Asura Battle Physique, his slaughter aura raged fiercely, and getting too close risked unintended harm.

Still, they fretted that Inzaghi might succumb to berserk fury and slay Kaine on the spot, leaving no one to reveal the mastermind and dooming their report to the clan.

All three watched tensely from afar, hearts pounding in suspense.

"Bang!"

A thunderous impact boomed as Inzaghi’s right fist crashed into Kaine’s torso.

A horrifying power flooded Kaine’s frame, his ribcage compressing like it had been smashed by a massive rock, collapsing inward while he vomited a gush of blood laced with bits of shattered organs, dyeing the snow scarlet.

He hurtled backward, gouging a lengthy crimson streak across the white expanse, and though he struggled to rise, not even his arm would obey.

"It’s over!" Desperation flooded Kaine’s mind.

Over and over, he yearned to clarify that he too had fallen victim to a scheme, yet Inzaghi’s merciless barrage allowed no opening for words. The slightest distraction could spell instant death.

Noting the intensifying kill-lust in Inzaghi’s gaze, he knew full well that speaking up now would fall on deaf ears.

Battered near death’s door with three predators circling, escape seemed impossible.

"If I have to... even if I die, I’ll take someone with me!" Savage resolve ignited in Kaine’s eyes as he glimpsed Crowne from the corner of his vision—among the trio, the ice mage’s close-combat prowess was weakest, offering a slim shot at dragging another down.

Just then, Inzaghi’s blood-drenched longsword arced once more, its slashing gust laced with frigid malevolent qi, aimed squarely at Kaine’s throat.

Kaine refused to parry—he understood that blocking would invite Inzaghi’s remaining four iron fists, sealing his doom.

Summoning every ounce of might, he wrenched his broken body aside in a bid to evade the lethal strike.

Yet his ravaged form lagged behind his will, reactions dulled from prior damage.

"Boom!" Inzaghi’s fist slammed into his chest with crushing weight, flinging Kaine away like a ragdoll with strings cut, smashing him into a towering ice cliff scores of meters distant.

"Rumble—" The icy peak quaked fiercely, vast chunks of frost tumbling down, ice boulders cascading everywhere amid a billowing shroud of powdery snow.

Alaya and her companions’ faces twisted in alarm, itching to rush forward and inspect, when a faint spatial ripple caught their senses—a flicker vanished in a blink. Without their heightened alertness, it would have slipped by unnoticed!

"You seek death!" Inzaghi bellowed in rage, his body blurring toward the ruined ice cliff as if teleporting, all six limbs lashing out in unison to pulverize the blocking debris.

Upon arriving at the wreckage, however, he found merely a bloodstain marring the snow—Kaine had vanished without a trace.

"Ah——!!!"

Rage and bloodthirst obliterated Inzaghi’s reason. He roared skyward, Asura malevolent qi exploding outward to birth a colossal crimson vortex, spiraling upward into the heavens.

The twister pulverized storm and snowfall in its path, ground ice fracturing relentlessly, the whole snowfield drowned in scarlet hues like a nightmarish bloodsea inferno.

Beneath the crimson maelstrom’s oppression, Alaya and the rest shivered uncontrollably, heads bowed without daring to glance up—the Military Lord’s wrath surpassed their worst fears.

......

"It went smoother than I expected."

A strange voice drifted faintly to his ears. Kaine pried open his leaden lids with effort, blurry sight revealing four silhouettes ahead—one his mission’s quarry, Dongfang Haoyue.

"You all... cough cough..." Kaine attempted words, but agony wracking his chest forced out bouts of blood, his features ashen and twisted with wrath and hopelessness.

Now mangled and spiritual energy all but exhausted, he couldn’t match Dongfang Haoyue and Zhuge Yu, a pair of Tier Six experts, much less a standard upper-rank spiritualist.

The operation had collapsed in total failure, dooming him to death, a bitter pill he couldn’t swallow.

His stare shifted from Dongfang Haoyue, sweeping over Zhuge Yu and Lan, before locking onto Qin Tian—it had to be him! The schemer behind it all!

Instant loathing blazed in Kaine’s eyes. He’d probed deep into Dongfang Haoyue and Zhuge Yu’s powers; neither wielded spatial talents. The stunning woman radiating chill was plainly an ice spiritualist, equally void of space control.

Thus, the one who’d drawn him to the Luoho Clan’s hidden outpost, nearly dooming him, then spirited him here—none other than this man before him!