by Tinalynge
Four hours went by, and Hui Yue was almost unable to keep going, but he could see that the end of the forest was coming closer and closer, so close that he could almost reach out with his hand and touch it.
Four and a half hours after starting, Hui Yue finally allowed for Qi Fans to disappear. The group had their feet planted on the road which they had been at days before, the road where a forest appeared out of nowhere.
Landing on the ground, Hui Yue was about to sit down and recollect himself as exhaustion was evident all over his face, however, he did not have the luxury to do so as around twenty men were standing in front of them. The twenty men were all wearing mismatched pieces of armor and weapons, clearly something they had looted from their previous victims.
“Well if it isn’t Guild Master Xu,” One of the men said smiling, yet his smile did not convey any sense of warmth at all, instead, it seemed as malicious as a rabid dog. “Why has the Guild Master graced our presence?” He asked, but his expression showed that he was already aware that Xu Piao was travelling in this group.
“What is your purpose for trapping us in the illusion of an endless forest?” Xu Piao asked, his voice condescending as he looked at the mercenaries in front of him. Mercenaries who were supposed to be his employees.
“Don’t take it the wrong way,” The man from before said, still smiling at Xu Piao his grip on the mace in his hand tightened slightly, “We are just doing business that’s all. An our current mission is to obstruct your way and preferably reduce the amount of people in your little party.”
Hearing that, a serious expression appeared on Xu Piao’s face, but it was quickly replaced by laughter. The older man was laughing so loudly that at the end he wiped tears from the corner of his eye.
“Sure,” He said while still chuckling, “You are forgetting one thing though,” Xu Piao said while still chuckling, golden energy gushing forth from his body summoning a protective barrier around him.
“I might not take on missions, but do you truly believe that they would hand me a whole branch of the Mercenary Guild could I not deal with ordinary King ranked experts such as yourself?”
A haughty atmosphere surrounded him and an arrogant expression adorned Xu Piao’s face as he mockingly laughed at the man in front of him.
Seeing the arrogance on Xu Piao’s face, the man with the mace also laughed out loud before he lifted the mace above his head. As soon as the mace rose a thunderous yell sounded out supporting their leader.
Hearing the cheer everyone should have gotten worried, yet no such emotions were shown on Xu Piao’s face, instead, slight embarrassment was visible.
“To think that I was dumb enough to fall for something as simple as the illusion craft,” He sighed while scratching his head, “And as though that was not enough, who would have imagined that I had to be saved by someone who is not even a King ranked expert. A simple Master ranked guy had to save me and my subordinate. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?”
Hearing Xu Piao speaking, the man with the mace looked at him confused as though he did not know the man standing in front of him. The golden light which kept gushing forth from Xu Piao was incredibly domineering and although the man with the mace was a strong King ranked expert, he was far from being at the peak of the King rank like Xu Piao.
“Xie Lan, stand by and keep Hui Yue safe,” Xu Piao suddenly barked out orders, and the woman who followed him nodded her head and stood next to Hui Yue, golden light shone from her hands and clad her body in an otherworldly aura making her beautiful appearance even more bewitching.
“Deng Wu, Sha Yun deal with all the small frys, Wang Ju Long assist whomever needs it. I’ll deal with this guy on my own.”
Hearing that Xu Piao was the one giving orders mixed expressions were visible on the faces of Hui Yue’s friends, yet after contemplating for a few seconds all of them nodded approving the plan of action which was their best solution.
The cultivators whom Xu Piao called ‘small frys’ were all either Master or Grandmaster ranked, something which caused a wry smile to appear on Deng Wu’s face. With a glance backwards, Deng Wu noticed that Hui Yue entered meditation, seated still with Xie Lan by his side. His expression was completely blank focused entirely on his meditation alone.
Seeing this, Deng Wu snorted slightly but deep within was a feeling of relief. Hui Yue truly pushed himself past his limits forcing his body to hold out until he had safely managed to get them out of the illusion. For him to sit back and meditate was something they all felt he deserved.
The golden shine around Xu Piao had been gushing out for some time, and as the Guild Master raised his arm the golden light surrounding him took the shape of a massive golden arm which made the exact movements as his actual arm.
Using Wu Wei in battle was the strongest force one could have. Wu Wei was an energy which allowed for anything to be formed from it. Unlike martial art skills one did not need to practice specific skills and activate the Qi in specific patterns within their meridians.
Instead, Wu Wei can be created into any shape or form the creator desires, allowing for quicker changes in the shape that Wu Wei takes, along with no limits on what one wishes to create. The thing which holds one back is the amount of Wu Wei one can control.
The arm which was created from Wu Wei was now three meters long, the palm of the hand a meter and a half long.
The golden arm and hand was raised above Xu Piao’s head and ever so slowly it started to descent upon the mace-wielding man and his followers. The pressure increased multiple times and it felt as though the palm was not only descending down upon the men, but also squeezing the air, itself, multiplying the pressure which they had to endure. It did not take long before the first men started collapsing on the ground.
Seeing this, the man with the mace had a grim expression on his face before golden energy also gushing out from his hands forming a square which protected his men and himself.
After having protected his men, the man used more of his Wu Wei to create yet another item. This time it was a golden spear which he threw up towards the massive hand.
The spear pierced right through the hand and Xu Piao gritted his teeth in reply, his face slightly more pale than it had been before but, nonetheless, the hand continued its descent. The pressure growing increasingly stronger as more and more of the ‘small frys’ collapsed on the ground.
One forced himself to stay standing, but eventually his leg bone snapped.. Others were not as strong as him being able to stay standing against the heavy pressure, instead, they collapsed right away.
Seeing that his barrier made no difference the golden energy used for the barrier gathered into the hands of the mace wielding man and then his mace suddenly grew in size turning golden. After a few moments the mace was the same size as Xu Piao’s golden arm; with gritted teeth and determined eyes, the man slammed the gigantic golden mace into the golden arm and hand causing Xu Piao to stumble backwards, blood spraying from his mouth.
Chapter 53 – Needles
Staggering backwards, blood sprayed from Xu Piao’s mouth as his gigantic hand was utterly destroyed by the mace, yet Xu Piao was not the only one who was severely damaged in the last exchange of blows.
The big mace vanished, leaving behind the sweat covered man a small stream of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Looking at each other surprise and enmity was visible in their eyes as neither expected the other to be so strong, but gritting their teeth there was no other choice than to go all out.
While these two were fighting, Deng Wu, Sha Yun, and Wang Ju Long stayed behind, all aware that if they went in to fight the ‘small frys’ as they had been told to do, they were likely to be swept up in the Wu Wei attacks and die a pointless death.
Although Xu Piao lost the upper hand in the previous exchange the other side lost manpower as the supportive members of the mercenary group were greatly affected by the pressure. Many of the members had fallen unconscious while othe
rs were injured internally. Xu Piao did an amazing job with his first attack.
Looking closely at the ground one could see how it was caved downwards, a massive palm mark visible on the dusty road and within that palm mark various cultivators were laying around, some wounded and awake others unconscious.
A group of around seven men managed to back away quickly enough to not get touched by the pressure emitted from the palm.
Seeing that they managed to escape, Deng Wu and Sha Yun, although still hesitating, got ready to attack the seven men. Sha Yun was not known to be good at waiting patiently and suddenly flashed forward moving towards them. She managed to edge past the two fighting King ranked experts to unleash her fury on the seven men who were taken by surprise.
Sha Yun left nothing to be chance as her tail swiped through the air locking around the neck of a Master ranked cultivator and clenched tightly, severing the head from the neck.
Blood sprayed from the neck onto the dusty road below, and as the six remaining men were stunned by the swift attacks, Sha Yun activated her Earthen Spear attack. It injured two other men, however, no one was killed this time.
“That useless beast!” Deng Wu sneered, as he saw how Sha Yun ran straight into the enemies knowing that Hui Yue would blame him later if she suffers any serious wounds. Deng Wu followed suit to attack and slapping his storage stone producing one inscription after another.
Seeing that both Xu Piao and the mace-wielding man were gathering their remaining scraps of Wu Wei, Deng Wu activated two inscription rolls by injecting a minor drop of spiritual energy and within seconds two of Hui Yue’s red Fire Orbs appeared within his palms.
These two fireballs were then thrown at the mace-wielding man, causing activation of Wu Wei to be slightly interrupted, once more giving the upper hand to Xu Piao, and a gratified smile was shown on his face. Xu Piao focused on using the small advantage he was gifted by Deng Wu to quickly gather his Wu Wei and hopefully finish off this battle quickly.
Jumping into the battle, Deng Wu did just as Sha Yun had done moments before and released fierce attacks from the get go. Fire Orbs bombarded the six experts constantly from the sky as
Deng Wu threw one after another. At the same time, they had to constantly watch the ground as Sha Yun was summoning Earthen Spears after Earthen Spears not allowing for the six cultivators to get their footing to return attacks.
Deng Wu had diligently spent day after day writing inscription patterns and after having completed as many as he had, he managed to perfectly merge with his element allowing him to release the attacks which he had spent hours inscribing with nothing but a thought.
By merging with his element, the abilities which were used by Deng Wu, along with the bond between his soul shadows and he himself had grown much stronger, allowing for the soul shadows to increase far more of their abilities along with them growing in strength.
Sending Fire Orb after Fire Orb through the sky and Earthen Spear after Earthen Spear through the ground while staying out of range from the opposing men, Sha Yun and Deng Wu quickly managed to make the cultivators unfit for battle with either severe burns or wounded and broken legs.
Standing as far away as they were, killing the other cultivators was a much harder task than injuring them, but the goal had never been to kill only to ensure that they did not interrupt Hui Yue. When he finished cultivating he would decide what to do with the survivors.
That had been the plan originally. The plan which Deng Wu told Sha Yun about, however Sha Yun, although she seemed human, was truly a magical beast by heart and magical beasts did not allow for their prey to live.
Every now and then Sha Yun would rush in for a kill and it was very rare if she did not succeed. After having killed four of the men and leaving behind only two behind, Deng Wu finally gave up tossing Fire Orbs at them aware that it was only a matter of time before these two would die as well.
While this took a long time to explain everything happened within a few moments, and during these few moments Sha Yun and Deng Wu completely suppressed their opponents.
The two, magical beast and human, were not the only ones who made a move, Xu Piao was the same, but unlike last time his weapon was not a massive arm nor a palm, instead it was small golden needles. They appeared within his hands and as soon as he threw them they moved faster than the eye could see all of them aimed straight for vital points going for the kill.
Had this been just one needle or perhaps two, then the mace-wielding man would have no problem blocking them with the oversized mace, however, it was a sea of needles, all of which were filled with Wu Wei ready to pierce through the body in front of them.
A very thin barrier of Wu Wei appeared in front of the mace-wielding man. At first a clattering sound was heard then the golden barrier shattered into thousands of golden pieces and only four or five golden needles were blocked the rest hit their target spot on and a blood curdling scream could be heard.
The scream broke Hui Yue’s meditation and also caught Sha Yun and Deng Wu’s attention, causing them all to look at the mace-wielding man who collapsed onto his knees, blood gushing from his heart and his throat where the needles slowly dissipated into nothingness. The man was dead after releasing his final scream.
Seeing how everyone’s eyes were stuck on the mace-wielding man who collapsed to the ground, the surviving two men who were both shaking in disbelief took the opportunity to flee as fast as they could, sparing no time to wait and see what would happen later.
Watching them run away, Hui Yue sighed but said nothing. He could already imagine that they were rushing back to their employer with the details about their failed mission.
Hui Yue managed to thoroughly absorb the entire divine flower and although his cultivation base was slightly unstable it was nothing he could not handle with exercise and sparring matches against his friends.
“You guys clean up here,” Xu Piao said as it was his turn to sit down. He was clearly wounded after the fight. Seeing him wounded Wang Ju Long and Xie Lan both rushed to his side to use their healing abilities.
Xie Lan was by far the most efficient of the two, however, Wang Ju Long did her best and as a reward she got to learn from the older woman. Xie Lan helped her pick up a few ways to make her healing more efficient.
Deng Wu sighed, as he looked at the ground where he was just fighting and depression was visible on his face because he knew how many inscription scrolls he had used. Although they were fairly simple to make, they were still something which took time and effort and considering that he had used fifty to sixty of these scrolls during the battle, a pained expression was evident on his face.
As though it was too painful to look at the traces left behind by the Fire Orbs, Deng Wu turned around and went towards Hui Yue who was standing up, stretching his body and generally looking much better than he had after exiting the illusion of the Endless Forest.
Sha Yun was watching the retreating men, but although she wished to pursue them she decided to stay behind and protect Hui Yue. He was after all more important than finishing off these two men who were escaping from her.
Hui Yue stood up and went towards the King ranked expert whom Xu Piao killed and nudged him with his foot until he turned over revealing his features.
Hui Yue frowned slightly as he saw the numerous holes that pierced through him; each was around one centimeter and seeing how they pierced deep enough to finish the man off, Hui Yue could not help but feel astonishment and somewhat surprised at the strength of Wu Wei. This was, after all, the first time he saw it close up.
Looking at the corpse near him, Hui Yue finally understood that although he was capable of fighting a Duke ranked expert it was definitely impossible for him to even hold the smallest candle to a King ranked expert.
Shaking his head with a wry smile, Hui Yue picked up all the memory stones he could find on the person and placed them within one of his own storage stones to check them later. He then created a Fire Orb which consumed the body leav
ing behind only a foul stench of burnt flesh and a small pile of dust.
He repeated this process with all the corpses which were laying around and the foul stench of burnt flesh increased, making even Hui Yue frown.
It was not long after Hui Yue burnt the last corpse before Xu Piao was up and standing again, his complexion much better than before, albeit still slightly pale.
Xu Piao was not the only pale person, Xie Lan and Wang Ju Long’s faces were the same slightly grey color, but none of them were injured and everyone was ready to continue their trip towards the capital of Demon Dwelling Cave.
Getting ready to move once more, Hui Yue and Xu Piao were standing side by side as they looked at the many piles of ashes which were spread on the ground and the torn up ground proving their battle.
The road was completely torn up, some broken Earthen Spears were still sticking out of the ground while the big palm print depressed a large area on the road. Looking at the ground one could easily see that a fight took place here and after ensuring that they had left nothing behind, Hui Yue and the group started moving down the road once more.