Chapter 136 Subjugation

Watching Lao Liu walk away, Liang Jing ignored the rest of the group and walked straight towards Gao Yaotai in the rear...

"What do you want?" Gao Yaotai asked, watching Liang Jing approach. His expression remained relatively calm. Seeing Liang Jing's previous actions, he knew the other party intended to wipe out everyone thoroughly, and he would be no exception.

Looking at the robust, formidable man standing before him—who was only slightly shorter than himself—Liang Jing noticed that the miniature map represented him with a neutral yellow dot, meaning he held neither good nor ill will toward him.

Liang Jing said nothing, nor did he hesitate for even a second. He struck decisively!

Boom!

Liang Jing threw a punch with his right hand, devoid of any fancy techniques, striking straight at Gao Yaotai. With blistering speed, immense strength, and a violent tearing of the air, it sounded like an explosion.

"Hah!"

Gao Yaotai's expression changed, turning deadly serious. He activated his Hard Qigong and physical enhancement ability simultaneously. The two complemented and reinforced each other, instantly hardening his physique to a degree capable of directly withstanding rifle bullets. However, this time he dared not take Liang Jing's punch head-on with his body alone; he crossed his arms to block the explosive strike.

Clap!

There was no sound of a violent collision as one might have imagined!

Instead, Liang Jing changed his fist into an open palm, seemingly tapping down lightly as it struck Gao Yaotai's crossed arms. Suddenly, his arms felt as though they were subjected to millions of times the force of gravity, dropping downward and dragging his straight, spear-like torso to bend forward into a staggered lurch...

Bang!

At that very moment, Liang Jing followed up with another palm strike, hitting Gao Yaotai's incredibly dense and resilient back. It produced a muffled thud like a drum being beaten. Caught off guard while stumbling, Gao Yaotai was sent sprawling face-first onto the ground without any ability to resist, a mouthful of fresh blood spraying involuntarily from his lips.

"Do you submit?" Liang Jing asked, standing to the side and looking down at Gao Yaotai on the ground.

Seeing that his opponent had only spat a mouthful of blood under his attack and otherwise seemed relatively unscathed, Liang Jing couldn't help but admire the sheer toughness of his physical constitution. Although he hadn't used his full strength, the blow was still enough to shatter stone and snap timber. He truly was a practitioner of Hard Qigong, and coupled with his post-awakening physical enhancement ability, his endurance was monstrous.

Without a strike carrying two or three times his own physical strength, it would be genuinely difficult to deal with him—unless, of course, one used divine weapons. Against something like Liang Jing's dark gold giant sword, Gao Yaotai's defense would be nothing more than paper.

"I don't submit!" Gao Yaotai struggled to his feet, his face flushed red. Without wiping the blood from his mouth, he lunged at Liang Jing once again. This time, he would take the initiative to attack.

Bang! Thud!

Too slow! Liang Jing merely shifted slightly to the side, delivered another open-palm strike, and Gao Yaotai hit the dirt once more.

"Do you submit?" Liang Jing asked again, his expression growing somewhat impatient. If he gave them face and they still refused to take it, he would resort to heavy blows.

If not for Wu Yong's recommendation, Liang Jing might not have even given him a chance to speak and would have simply killed him outright. Earlier, he had learned from Wu Yong that Gao Yaotai possessed a relatively simple mind without too much scheming or hidden depths. As long as Liang Jing used sheer force, it would be easy to subjugate him, and he wouldn't easily betray his master—making him a capable brawler and a fierce warrior.

"I don't submit!" Gao Yaotai's temper flared. He had never seen anyone bully someone quite like this, nor had he ever felt so frustrated. To be continuously beaten without any capacity to fight back, and then asked whether he submitted—wasn't this sheer bullying? If you want to fight, just fight; why torture me like this?

He stood up once more, his eyes bloodshot, and lunged at Liang Jing, though his footing was already somewhat unsteady.

Courting death! A flash of ruthlessness crossed Liang Jing's eyes. He was never a particularly patient person. Even though the other party was a competent awakened one, he would rather spend that time going out to find an elite-grade monster or higher and use [Enchantment] on it. At least that guaranteed 100% loyalty.

Since acquiring the [Enchantment] skill, Liang Jing hadn't had the time to go out and search for powerful minions. If he could subjugate those green elite monsters or higher, the assistance they provided would be immense.

Slap!

Gao Yaotai instantly felt a searing, burning sensation across his back as Liang Jing struck him once more, the blow landing like a whip lash. More importantly, his internal organs felt as if they had been struck by lightning. A tidal wave of force surged into his body, making his viscera feel as though they were being pierced and torn apart by needles. Unable to catch his breath, he felt his vision go black, and only the heavy impact of hitting the ground snapped him back to sobriety.

"Ah!――" Gao Yaotai could no longer hold back his agonizing screams. The pain even caused the muscles all over his body to twist and bulge, and he was on the verge of rolling around on the ground. He was far from as tough as he had been during the first two hits.

"Do you submit?" Liang Jing's deep pupils were icy cold. He had merely infused a bit of true energy into that last palm strike; no matter how powerful an external physical defense might be, one's internal organs remained relatively fragile.

"I submit, I submit! Kill me if you want, just don't humiliate and torture me anymore." By now, Gao Yaotai had snapped out of his blind rage. How foolish he had been earlier—trying to fight Liang Jing was practically courting death; they simply weren't competitors on the same level.

He still hadn't figured out why Liang Jing hadn't killed him outright like the others. Was he going to be tortured to death like Political Commissar Gong? Gao Yaotai's expression turned extremely unsightly. He wasn't afraid of death, but the pain just now had been simply too agonizing. He only begged Liang Jing to give him a quick end.

"If you submit, then get up. Follow me, and from now on, you're my underling," Liang Jing announced domineeringly. Without paying attention to the rest, those involved in this incident had already met their proper ends, and he had no intention of lingering here any longer.

"Huh? Oh? You want me to be your underling? Why didn't you say so earlier?!" Gao Yaotai finally processed what was happening. Couldn't Liang Jing have just said that straight away? He didn't have any major objections to being Liang Jing's underling; following by Liang Jing's side meant he could use him as a goal, constantly striving to catch up. He believed that one day, he would defeat Liang Jing.

For a moment, his expression turned bitter. He had thought Liang Jing was deliberately taking revenge on him, never suspecting that this had simply been Wu Yong's idea, nor that Liang Jing wouldn't mind having such an ambitious target as an underling who felt no resistance to serving his 'enemy'.

...

"This Liang Jing is too arrogant, too lawless! He has utterly no regard for discipline or the law. When the time comes, I'll..." Regiment Commander Zhang couldn't help cursing in a rage after Liang Jing departed. He was already deeply displeased to begin with, and now Gao Yaotai—a military expert he had long set his sights on and prepared to recruit—had been forcibly taken away by Liang Jing. He had never expected Liang Jing to be so greedy as to not let even this go.

"Alright, Old Zhang! To be honest, Liang Jing is actually not that bad. While he is bloodthirsty, there's no record of him killing people indiscriminately. This time, it was simply because someone wanted his life, and he was merely fighting back in self-defense. No matter who it is, if they were surrounded and attacked by so many people and factions, they wouldn't just sit back and wait to be captured." Li Tian looked at his old comrade and sighed inwardly. Compared to Liang Jing, Regiment Commander Zhang was even more unlikable. At least from his analytical observations, Liang Jing didn't go around offending people everywhere, whereas Regiment Commander Zhang possessed a stinking temper, spoke harshly and aggressively, and had managed to offend plenty of people.

"You—hey! Old Lee, how can you speak up for this executioner? Look at Liang Jing—does he care about anyone else? He has completely no scruples; he kills whenever he pleases. Look around—those so-called leaders of major factions are acting like obedient little babies now because they're terrified of Liang Jing the butcher! Don't you know how vile these people are? Yet right in front of Liang Jing, they don't even dare to let out a fart, and some are even thinking of sucking up to him." Regiment Commander Zhang refused to back down, furious that even his own man wasn't supporting him.

"Old Zhang, everyone is clear on how this whole matter started. Forget it! Aren't you just upset because Liang Jing ignored you? You said so many malicious things about Liang Jing, yet he didn't do anything to you either. That shows he is a person who can still distinguish right from wrong," Li Tian said.

"Regiment Commander Zhang, Captain Li, stop arguing. I didn't understand what was going on before, but judging from what Captain Li said and what we just witnessed, Liang Jing is actually a decent person. As long as we don't provoke him, he won't casually kill people. Perhaps what we should be thinking about now is how to reconcile with Liang Jing and mend our relationship with him," chimed in Yi Shili, who had accompanied Regiment Commander Zhang. He was the regiment's political commissar, holding a rank no lower than Regiment Commander Zhang's—in fact, slightly higher—and he spoke without hesitation.

"What? You want us to take the initiative to seek reconciliation with him and patch things up? That's impossible!" Hearing that they needed to proactively seek reconciliation with Liang Jing and improve relations, Regiment Commander Zhang immediately exploded, leaping up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"Regiment Commander Zhang, our purpose in coming here was to fetch reinforcements. Right now, we need manpower, we need powerful individuals to come and help," Yi Shili said with an unsightly expression. He had returned to fetch reinforcements, never expecting to find the regiment's political commissar and commander at each other's throats—one injured (and only recently awakened), and the other even more outrageous, not only abusing public office for private gain but also recruiting for and working on behalf of the Japanese. More importantly, they had done it all so openly, terrified that others wouldn't notice, thoroughly dragging the government and the military through the mud.

"Regiment Commander Zhang, all of this happened because you couldn't control your own mouth! What you should be doing right now is figuring out how to remedy this, how to win over Liang Jing. We need reinforcements," Political Commissar Yi Shili said loudly. Anyone could see that although Liang Jing hadn't done anything to them, he already held a poor view of the military because of Political Commissar Gong, and the situation had only worsened now. Getting him to step in and help would be exceptionally difficult.

Of course, what frustrated him even more was looking at the carnage inside the hall—all of it slaughtered single-handedly by Liang Jing. Combined with the recent news of him killing so many people, private soldiers, and awakened ones within a span of a day or two, it all pointed to Liang Jing's formidable strength. And his current mission happened to require powerful assistance.

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Chapter One!

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