Chapter 161 The Power of Language

Ailu shoved away the slab of stone weighing down on her, her eyes blazing with anger as she stared straight ahead. Heidwell, holding a sword in one hand and an iron whip in the other, walked slowly toward them from the distance, leaving a deep footprint with every step.

"Ailu, you are no match for me. Come back with me, and we can pretend none of this ever happened." Heidwell reached out a hand toward her. Ailu merely let out a cold snort, hoisted herself up from the ruins, raised her White Oath, and pointed it at the man before her. "You haven't defeated me yet."

At that moment, Xie Liu stepped forward, taking his place behind Ailu. He gently patted her shoulder and whispered, "Your real name is Ailu, is it not? A fine name. Leave the rest to me."

Ailu froze slightly, watching in astonishment as Xie Liu walked past her, a strange look in her eyes. "You are no match for him," she warned. Xie Liu just smiled and shook his head, pointing a finger at his own temple.

"Combat isn't solely about raw strength. Sometimes, what matters more is right here."

With those words, Xie Liu blocked Ailu's path, resting his right hand casually on the hilt of his blade as he addressed the approaching Heidwell. "Let's talk."

"What is there to talk about?" Heidwell stopped in his tracks, standing his ground and locking eyes with Xie Liu. "Are you the so-called Dead Eye? Ace mentioned you to me. I can tell—even though he refuses to admit defeat, he holds a deep respect for you."

"I thank him for the praise," Xie Liu said with an elegant, sweeping bow.

"However, I don't share that sentiment," Heidwell replied, shaking his head, a gaze of utter disdain fixed on Xie Liu. "Ace claims you showed him what the art of combat truly is, but I don't buy it."

"I believe the only reason you fight this way is because you lack true strength. You rely on underhanded tricks to win. Am I right, Dead Eye?" Heidwell's tone was sharp and accusatory; it was clear he looked down entirely upon Xie Liu's combat style.

Xie Liu offered a helpless shrug. "You're entirely right. The reason I fight like this is precisely because my strength is lacking. I have never denied that I am a weakling in the eyes of powerhouses like you—a good-for-nothing. But we weaklings have our own wars to fight. We, too, yearn for victory, and we struggle desperately just to survive. Therefore, if we cannot conquer you through brute force, we have no choice but to carve out a different path."

"For the weak, winning signifies nothing, but losing means losing everything. Because of that, no matter the method, no matter whether it is deemed shameless or despicable, I care not. The only thing I pursue is victory, and nothing more."

Xie Liu spoke with complete nonchalance, but upon hearing this philosophy, Heidwell raised an eyebrow, as if reassessing the man standing before him. Then, he nodded in affirmation. "Your words make sense. I respect your conviction. Since you are weak, you must devise a strategy and fight with everything you have. Only victory can allow you to keep moving forward."

"Yet, what is your weapon at this very moment? What do you intend to use to fight me?" Heidwell's gaze shifted toward Ailu and Wendy. Both were peerless powerhouses; even Heidwell dared not guarantee he could escape unscathed against the two of them.

"My weapon is language, and I have always believed it to be the ultimate weapon." Xie Liu raised his index finger with a smile. "In my view, wielding a sword to fight is a manifestation of incompetence. It is only when one fails to conquer others through words and conviction that they resort to physical force."

"Furthermore, anyone who resorts to violence at the slightest disagreement is either a barbarian or a beast. We are all civilized people; there is no need to lay hands on one another."

Heidwell let out a cold laugh. "Such a glib tongue. If mere words are your so-called weapon, I think you are ready to die right now."

Xie Liu hastily shook his head, pulling a pistol from his waist and twirling it casually in his hand. "You've got it wrong. If you want to kill me, I'm afraid you'll find it rather difficult. As you can surely see, the two women behind me are each fully a match for you in power. Can you truly be certain you can finish me off?"

"Admittedly, you are protected by two powerhouses. But that does not mean I cannot eliminate you before they have a chance to rescue you," Heidwell countered, shaking his head. He kept a wary eye on Wendy and Ailu at all times while maintaining his focus on Xie Liu.

"Feel free to try," Xie Liu said with a grin, taking a step forward toward Heidwell. This caused Heidwell to frown; the fellow was approaching him with reckless disregard, making him wonder if there was some hidden trump card he was unaware of. Fearing as much, Heidwell actually took a step back.

"See? That is the power of language." Seeing Heidwell retreat, Xie Liu sneered. "You backed away involuntarily simply because of my words."

"You are merely hiding behind the two women at your back! Do you truly take me for a coward?" Recovering his senses, Heidwell saw that both Wendy and Ailu had closed the distance by a step, realizing instantly that he had lost his window to strike Xie Liu. Rage flared within him.

Xie Liu shook his head, leaning down to pick up a pistol dropped by a fallen Coalition soldier. "The second power of language is that anyone who gets the worst of it in a verbal exchange invariably loses their cool. I like to call this brief loss of composure a 'brain-cell-destroying blow'—though for certain people who don't have many brain cells to begin with, that's another story entirely. Once they lose their cool, they invariably resort to harsh rhetoric like 'nonsense,' 'shut up,' or 'you're asking for death' to mask their irritation. At that exact moment, their awareness of their surroundings drops yet again, and they tend to commit actions uncharacteristic of their usual habits. For instance... you just took a step forward."

Heidwell froze for a fraction of a second. Snapping back to reality, he looked down and realized he truly had stepped forward, carrying himself right into the lethal striking range of Wendy and Ailu.

"You!" For the first time, Heidwell felt cold sweat beaded on his forehead, a shiver running down his spine. He leaped backward repeatedly, retreating outside the danger zone of Wendy and Ailu before finally letting out a faint sigh of relief.

"The third stage of the power of language: the moment one realizes everything has unfolded exactly as the opponent predicted, a wave of sheer panic washes over them, planting a seed of retreat in their heart. Because your subconscious is still screaming at you that backing away is the safest way to protect yourself, you will retreat further. Yet, the moment you lose your fighting spirit and pull back out of the danger zone, your vigilance plummets drastically. And at that precise juncture, you have already lost."

"By the way, do you know what this is?" Xie Liu lifted the two pistols in his hands. "These are acoustic pistols, standard issue for both hunting squads and Coalition forces. Not because they possess immense lethality, but because the soundwaves they emit are designed solely to stun enemies into unconsciousness without causing physical damage. They are generally used to disperse individuals whose crimes don't warrant death."

"Have you ever wondered, however, what happens when two of these are fired muzzle-to-muzzle?" Xie Liu offered a cold smirk as he closed the remaining distance, standing quite close to Heidwell.

"Cover your ears!" Xie Liu roared at the top of his lungs, slamming the two gun muzzles together and pulling the triggers.

*Hummm—*

A deafening, ear-splitting shriek of noise erupted from the colliding barrels. Wendy and Ailu covered their ears simultaneously. Heidwell reacted as well, but his speed was just a fraction too slow; the shriek had already pierced his eardrums.

"Agh—!"

Two miserable screams rang out. One came from Heidwell; the other came from Xie Liu.

Naturally, Heidwell was the primary target of Xie Liu's focus, but Xie Liu himself stood the absolute closest to the muzzles, entirely unable to shield his ears, suffering the brunt of the trauma. He violently discarded the pistols and clutched his head, blood seeping out between his fingers.

"Quick! Strike!" Xie Liu collapsed onto the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs before his consciousness began to blur. Reacting instantly, Wendy and Ailu pushed through the agonizing pain ringing in their ears, launching themselves at Heidwell from both left and right in a pincer movement.

"Hah!" Heidwell bellowed with fury, violently swinging his weapons in an attempt to block them. But the joint assault of the two women was simply too ferocious. Even with Heidwell's supreme mastery, he was completely suppressed by their combined momentum. The ground where the three of them clashed utterly collapsed inward, the air pressure spiking violently between them before erupting outward in a shockwave. Wendy and Ailu successfully pinned Heidwell down, driving him straight into the earth. The ground violently caved in around him, sinking several meters deep and hurling up nearly all the surrounding terrain.

"Ugh!" Even Heidwell coughed up a mouthful of blood, heavily battered and injured. Roaring like a maddened lion, he swatted Wendy and Ailu's blades aside with a ferocious swipe of his sword, vaulted out of the crater, and bolted into the distance without a single backward glance.

"Don't chase him!" Wendy grabbed Ailu, who was on the verge of giving hot pursuit. "We can't trap him. His strength is too immense—he's on the same tier as us. Defeating him is one thing, but killing him is completely out of the question."

Ailu looked dissatisfied, but Wendy pulled her toward Xie Liu instead. "Let's go check on his condition."

A vast number of people had been caught in the shockwave of the noise, including Wang Qi and a group of Ravager special operatives lying further away. Yet none had suffered injuries as severe as Xie Liu's. He lay flat on his back on the earth, blood streaming from his facial orifices. Xie Liu and Heidwell had been the two individuals closest to the gunfire; while the intensity of the sonic attack attenuated drastically with distance—meaning Wendy and the others merely experienced a deafening din—Xie Liu's eardrums had been literally ruptured, and the shock had even rattled his brain.

"How is he?" Ailu asked, a rare trace of panic coloring her tone.

Wendy performed a quick inspection and reported grimly, "His eardrums are shattered, and his brain has suffered a concussion. We need to heal him immediately."

At that moment, Ye Leng rushed over from afar, cutting straight to the point. "Step aside, let me handle it."

"Why did you come back?" Wendy asked in mild surprise.

Ye Leng placed her delicate hand atop Xie Liu's head, channeling her healing arts while replying, "This guy made me come back. Our squad has a private communication channel; he told me beforehand that if I heard a massive noise, I was to return and save him." With a frown, she glared down at Xie Liu and grumbled, "Honestly, every single time with him. Does he not care about his own life?"

Wendy and Ailu exchanged glances, their eyes filled with shock.

So Xie Liu had calculated everything down to the finest detail all along. With such terrifying calculation and preparation abilities, who could possibly rival him?

Qili, who had just returned carrying Meng'er, spotted her husband crawling miserably up from the ground. Anxious, she hurried forward to check on him. Upon learning that Wang Qi was unharmed, she let out a breath of relief, then turned a gaze full of worry toward Xie Liu, who was currently undergoing Ye Leng's treatment.

Waiting was agonizing. Ye Leng spent a full dozen minutes treating Xie Liu before finally withdrawing her hand. "All right, his eardrums have been repaired. You don't need to worry, he'll be fine."

The moment her voice trailed off, Xie Liu clutched his head and groaned.

"Ugh! I honestly thought I was going to die back there." Cradled by Wendy, Xie Liu sat up while massaging his temples, blinking his eyes open. "Did that fellow leave?"

"Yes. Thanks to someone's bizarre brilliant scheme, we severely injured the bastard, though he managed to escape," Wendy said with a trace of sarcasm.

Ignoring the anger in Wendy's tone, Xie Liu struggled clumsily to his feet.

"I never expected to keep him anyway. Driving him off is enough. All right, we have no time to waste. Let's move out; we're still running for our lives." With that, Xie Liu stood tall—yet before he had taken even two steps, he pitched straight forward.

Quick-witted as ever, Wendy and Ailu lunged forward and caught his falling body just in time.

"Dammit, this guy passed out again."