Chapter 462: The Solitary Eight
Translator: Pika
Huang Huihong froze when he heard the voice. He decided to see how this situation would play out first.
Zu An’s heart skipped a beat. The voice was extremely familiar. Is this really who I think it is?
Sang Qian was already so excited that he had rushed to the window. He gazed at the slowly descending figure above. “Lady Qiu! It really is the glamorous Lady Qiu!”
Her eyelashes were simple and elegant, framing misty and beautiful eyes. Her soft and moist lips seemed as though they had been kissed by sparkling dewdrops, drawing in all who laid eyes on them.
A faint smile rested on her lips. When her expression changed ever so slightly, men around her began to breathe more quickly. Who else could this be but Qiu Honglei?
When Brightmoon City’s Immortal Abode lost her, their reputation had plummeted. Back then, Sang Qian had been incredibly pissed off. He thought that he would never be able to meet her again. Unexpectedly, they had crossed paths today!
The heavens are truly kind to me!
The eyes of the dark elves also grew wide, gleaming with awe. All of them were staring at her. How could there be such a beautiful woman in this world? Their first thoughts were that they had to take her to bed.
Dark Elves were very much different from their peace-loving elven counterparts. They reveled in slaughter and they didn’t hide their desires.
The eyes of the few female dark elves sparkled jealously. This woman exuded a natural aura of seduction. She had definitely toyed with her fair share of men.
“Get out of here, Lady Qiu! It’s dangerous!” Sang Qian snapped out of his daze. This place was so dangerous! A beautiful girl like Qiu Honglei showing up here was the same as a lamb stumbling into a tiger’s den!
Zu An rolled his eyes. How stupid are you? Even if you don’t know Qiu Honglei’s real identity, you should’ve seen her fly down from the sky, right? How can she possibly be an ordinary person?
Sang Hong also snorted, a frown appearing on his face. His son’s display really was too disappointing.
Qiu Honglei replied with a smile. “Thank you for your concern, young master Sang.”
At the same time, she noticed Zu An in his groom's outfit, next to Zheng Dan in her bridal dress, looking for all the world like newlyweds. She was slightly startled, clearly unsure of what was going on.
Wasn’t Zheng Dan the Sang clan’s daughter-in-law? Why did Sang Hong and Sang Qian look completely okay with this? Did their clan have some weird fetish?
The dark elves came to a sudden realization. “So, they swapped their identities, and we almost fell for it! Everyone, be careful! Capture the one in the groom’s outfit alive! He is the real Zu An.”
Someone said, “What if that woman is colluding with them to purposely mislead us?”
The dark elf leader was stunned. This was quite a real possibility! He thus said, “Capture both of them, then. Kill that embroidered envoy and the old man.”
Qiu Honglei sighed. “Should you really be counting your chickens before they hatch? Aren’t you all being a little too arrogant?”
The dark elf leader greedily scanned her body with his roving eyes. “There’s no need for you to panic, woman. Once we finish what we need to do, we’ll definitely take good care of you.”
Qiu Honglei’s cultivation seemed impressive, but they didn’t seem bothered at all.
Qiu Honglei shook her head. “Wasn’t it General Lu’s army that forced these people away from their group? Aren’t you all trying to reap the fruits of others’ labors?”
The dark elves were all shocked. “You’re Lu Sanyuan’s subordinate!”
“What?!” Sang Qian felt as if his soul had left his body. He never would have expected this beautiful woman to be a part of the renegade faction!
In contrast, Zheng Dan felt a certain admiration for Qiu Honglei. After all, she used to be one of Brightmoon City’s two biggest gang bosses herself, so she felt a connection to Qiu Honglei. If Qiu Honglei had been just a courtesan queen, Zheng Dan might have felt contempt for her instead.
“Unfortunately, the heroic Lu Sanyuan has made a critical miscalculation today by only sending a weak little girl like you! All he has done is present us with another bed-warmer.” The dark elves all roared with laughter.
“Who said I was alone?” Qiu Honglei smiled. She clapped her hands lightly, and eight figures slowly walked out from different directions.
They were a mixed group, each one either tall, short, slim, or large. There were even some women among them.
When the dark elf leader noticed their distinctive traits and their dressing, he grew frightened. “The Devil Sect’s Solitary Eight!”
One of them—a fatty—chuckled. “How surprising! Even you assassins who hide in the dark know of us.”
The dark elf’s expression immediately grew awful.
“What the heck is this Solitary Eight?” Zu An asked Sang Hong.
“They are the high-ranking members of the Devil Sect, representing the eight elemental powers—metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, and ice,” Sang Hong replied, his voice grave. “I didn’t count on the Devil Sect cooperating with the rebel army so early on... No, from the current situation, the two groups might have already been allied with each other for some time.”
Qiu Honglei turned around and gave him a smile. “An intelligent person like Lord Sang should understand that smart people don’t always live long.”
Sang Hong didn’t seem to mind. “Given how things look right now, I don’t think I have long to live anyway.”
The dark elves chose this moment to make their move. They drew their bows and fired at the Solitary Eight. The entire process of nocking the arrow, drawing the bow, and loosing it was performed in one fluid and almost-instantaneous motion.
Every single bow erupted with blue light. There was clearly a series of formations at work here. No wonder they were able to fire arrows with such devastating power!
These dark elves seemed to maintain some sort of subconscious connection to each other. Almost none of them uttered any sounds, yet they had all attacked at the same time. The arrows seemed to cross the distance between them and their targets in a flash, each arrow homing in on a vital spot.
Zu An was stupefied. These dark elves really were top-notch assassins! He might not be able to react in time if he was the one being shot at.
The members of the Solitary Eight didn’t expect the attacks to be so swift and disciplined either. The arrows had reached their bodies even before they could think of dodging.
“So, it seems like there’s nothing special to the Solitary Eight of the Devil Sect after all!” The dark elf leader sneered. Just as he was about to say something else, however, his face froze. Their arrows hadn’t impaled the bodies of their targets, but had struck a transparent layer around them and stuck fast.
The bodies of the Solitary Eight each flowed with a different-colored light, every single one producing transparent shields of their respective element. The gleaming black arrows fired by the Dark Elves had been stopped by these protective layers.
Light pulsed across the shields, and the arrows fell to the ground one after another.
Zu An was watching all of this closely. The red ball of light should be the defensive shield of the fire element. The transparent one belongs to the water element, the purple one to the lighting element, and the gold one to the metal element... Hmm, that one probably belongs to the wood element... It’s actually a pretty nice shade of green...
Shocked by this development, the dark elves drew their thin swords and stormed forward.
Every one of them left behind an afterimage in their original location. Their bodies grew transparent, and they attacked the Solitary Eight continuously, from all directions.
They were incredibly fast, and transparent as well, their true forms only appearing in the instant they clashed with the defensive barriers. Their attacks came from all directions, and the battle was a truly dazzling sight to behold.
They weren’t focused on a single target each, but switched targets depending on which attacks seemed most effective. They clearly were first-rate assassins, with their own strategies and well-drilled tactics.
Even from all the way inside the carriage, Zu An could feel the vicious killing intent swirling around the battlefield. Several leaves fluttered into the vicinity of the battlefield, only to be instantly cut to pieces by the killing intent alone.
He wondered what would happen if he himself was caught up in the whirlwind of attacks these dark elves had unleashed.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, it seemed death was inevitable. He would only have a chance of survival if he fled ahead of time to avoid being encircled.
However, the Solitary Eight of the Devil Sect seemed surprisingly calm and collected. They stood still without dodging, facing the attacks head on.
The defensive barriers around them flickered but didn’t break, no matter how ferociously those dark elves attacked.
Zu An’s eyes grew wide. “Aren’t they basically invincible with those barriers?”