Chapter 113: Ambush, Counter (2)
Time passed slowly.
They were getting closer and closer to Tianshui. At this time, the city guards were getting even more nervous. As veterans, they understood that this was the most likely moment for danger to appear.
Xia Bing had already flown into the sky several times to scan the area.
Beside him, someone reported, "We are dozens of kilometers away from Tianshui. Ahead of us is the Yuanshui Village. After passing through the village, we will reach Tianshui in 30 minutes."
They were already inside the borders of Tianshui. Tianshui was a much larger city than Nanyuan. They had more than 5,000 city guards with a large number of Skysoar experts in their ranks. In fact, they even had Cloudbreach experts in the city. When they reached Tianshui, the cult would no longer dare to attack them.
They could already start seeing some houses beside the road. Some of the locals were even gawking at the convoy. Children could be seen running around by the road. The convoy slowed down. Since this was a residential area, accidents might happen if they moved too fast.
It was at this moment that many of the city guards relaxed. Finally, they were back at civilization. Generally, this meant that they were already safe. The journey had been smooth as they had not encountered any attack.
...
More and more buildings could be seen on the two sides of the road.
Right ahead of the convoy was a relatively small roadside house. Inside the house, the hallmaster of Tianshui took a deep breath and said, "They have a Skysoar cultivator. I will keep him busy. Remember, your targets are not the city guards. Aim for the students.
"Don't kill them all. Leave some alive to slow the city guards down."
"Seriously injure some of them and lightly injure some of them before withdrawing. That way, the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards will not be able to focus on chasing after us."
If they killed all the students, this would turn into a battle until the bitter end. But if they keep some injured students around, the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards would be forced to look after the students.
The city guards would most likely stay behind to keep watch over the students while the Martial Dragon Guards would not have enough people to pursue them. This wasn't the hallmaster's first rodeo. He was well-experienced.
In the past, some brainless cult members had actually killed all the students during one of these hunts. As a result, the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards went crazy and chased after the cult members relentlessly. Ultimately, both sides ended up with disastrous losses.
"It's enough to kill some of them. This won't be too dangerous yet it will earn us a decent amount of points. After the mission, leave Tianshui's borders immediately. Do you understand?"
"Roger." The other ringleaders answered.
The hallmaster exhaled and sent his willpower out to cover the house, preventing the enemy Skysoar cultivator from discovering them.
Although warriors didn't specialize on willpower, at the Skysoar Realm, their willpower would start growing. Sure, their willpower wouldn't be as strong as proper cultural researchers, but it would be good enough for concealment.
"Xue'e..."
The hallmaster muttered to himself. That fellow never got along well with him. That fellow had ordered an attack against Nanyuan yet he himself was nowhere to be seen.
"Is he trying to use me as bait?"
The hallmaster was feeling uneasy. But Xue'e was a Cloudbreach cultivator. He couldn't disregard the order. He had spent a long time observing the convoy. He did not discover any signs of ambush.
"We'll strike once before withdrawing immediately."
The hallmaster decided. He couldn't disobey Xue'e's orders, but his mission would be considered accomplished as long as an attack was launched. He would then flee quickly. As a sixth-stage Skysoar cultivator, he could easily escape so long as he didn't try to actually kill the Skysoar cultivator from the Martial Dragon Guards.
"Xue'e, are you trying to make me serve as the bait while you profit somewhere else?"
The hallmaster started guessing, but he soon stopped thinking as the Nanyuan convoy was drawing near.
...
"We're near Tianshui."
They were slowly driving out of Yuanshui Village. Beside Su Yu, Squad Leader Ma exhaled in relief and said, "We will reach Tianshui in half an hour. This is quite a smooth trip..."
There were only a few buildings ahead of them. A vague outline of a massive city could be seen in the distance. They were around 30 kilometers away, so they still couldn't get a clear look at the city. Right that moment, a pop sounded from a truck ahead of them.
Next, someone shouted, "The tire burst."
First, everyone turned tense. But upon hearing that, everyone relaxed again. Su Yu could hear someone asking, "Can the truck keep going? We can change the tire at Tianshui."
However, the convoy still stopped. With the first truck stopping, the other trucks couldn't keep going.
"We can't. We'll have to change the tire here. It won't take long..."
Xia Bing was scanning his surroundings. Beside him, a Martial Dragon Guards soldier was doing the same. There were still some houses around them. The ruckus had attracted some gazes from the locals who were gathering around them to gawk.
"Squad Leader..." The soldier beside Xia Bing said, "Something isn't right."
"Huh?" Xia Bing was instantly on alert, "What's wrong?"
He did not notice anything. Since they were near their destination, he had relaxed considerably.
"There are too many men...and there are no children around."
The soldier's face changed. There were men and women around them. These people were all dressed in civilian outfits. But this place felt somewhat different. This place should be large enough to house around a dozen families, but not a single child could be seen or heard.
Further ahead of them, children could still be seen running around. Meanwhile, not even a domestic animal could be seen in their vicinity. There were men and women in the Myriad Race Cult, but there definitely wouldn't be any children during their missions.
Xia Bing instantly came to a realization. He was furious at himself for not noticing the same.
He hurriedly shouted, "Enemy attack! Get ready!"
Immediately after, the gawking villagers started charging at them.
Rumble!
One of the trucks was instantly slashed open by one of the villagers, causing a series of surprised shouts to ring out. Xia Bing was about to move over to help when a figure charged straight toward him.
A loud boom sounded as a saber and a sword clashed. The truck Xia Bing was on burst apart from the impact. The other Martial Dragon Guards were also kept busy by the other cult members. Xia Bing was forced to take a few steps backward before he charged the figure in the air with a roar.
They had been ambushed!
Only then did everyone in the convoy come to this realization. They couldn't believe that the enemies were actually attacking so near Tianshui City.
...
At the same time, Su Yu's truck was under attack as well. An Infinite Strength cult member was leading several Great Strength cult members in the attack. The city guards roared and jumped off the truck to face the attackers.
"Protect the trucks!"
"Students, don't wander off! Some of you go protect truck #3!"
"Team #7, protect truck #7!"
The commander of the city guards shouted a series of commands. There weren't a lot of attackers, but some of the students were running around in panic. If they left the city guards' protection, they would be killed with a single strike.
Su Yu did not take part in the fight. When he saw that the city guards near him had things under control, he jumped off the truck and rushed toward truck #1.
Chen Hao was still there!
Clad in a city guard uniform, he wasn't the priority target of the cult members. Along the way, a Great Strength cult member noticed him and was about to attack before his vision turned dark.
That was a new illusion Su Yu had created recently. Darkness. Before the cult member could react, Su Yu swung his saber and split the cult member into two. He had already consumed a drop of blood essence. This was not the time to hesitate.
With his Divine Character, the offensive strength of a seventh-stage Great Strength cultivator, and a profound-grade martial technique like the Lightning Source Blade, he was able to easily kill the Great Strength cult member.
He did not stick around and continued running toward truck #1.
The attacking cult members weren't too strong. Their Infinite Strength cultivators were all facing the city guards and Martial Dragon Guards while their Great Strength cultivators were in charge of hunting the students.
/p>
Before long, Su Yu reached truck #1. Chen Hao and the others had their weapons out. Some looked alarmed while some looked fearful. However, all of them were staying silent. No matter what, these were elite students that were far calmer than the regular students.
Outside the truck, the city guards were able to hold the line against the cult members, so the students did not panic.
Before reaching the truck, Su Yu heard Chen Hao shouting, "What are you afraid of? If they come, we'll kill them! It's not like I've never killed any of these cult animals before!"
Su Yu heaved a breath of relief when he saw that they were safe. He did not take his city guard uniform off as it wouldn't be too surprising for a city guard to kill a few cult members. But if he did it as a student, he would immediately attract the attention of all the cult members.
In that situation, even a fool would know that he was a genius. Su Yu believed that it would be safer for him to keep pretending to be a city guard. When he saw that Chen Hao and the others were fine, he stopped approaching the truck and rushed toward the battling cultivators.
Ahead of them, a few city guards were facing a few cult members. He silently recreated his illusion. The vision of the cult members turned dark. That split second of interruption was enough for the city guards to kill a few of them.
The remaining cult members were instantly placed in a disadvantageous position. They wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. Beads of sweat formed on Su Yu's forehead from the exertion. Forming those illusions had drained a lot of his willpower.
He was standing near truck #3. The students in the truck were shouting as some cult members had approached them. When he looked over, he saw that there were only two city guards protecting the truck while five cult members had approached.
He wasted no time and rushed over. One of the cult members turned around to face him. The same scene repeated as the cult member's vision turned dark. While swinging his saber around in panic, his head was cut off by Su Yu.
"Kill him!"
Two alarmed cult members turned around and charged him. Su Yu took a deep breath and consumed another drop of blood essence. A layer of electricity appeared around his saber as he imbued the power of his lightning character into the blade.
Rumbling Thunder!
This was Su Yu's first time using the second move of the Lightning Source Blade. His blade instantly sped up. Thunder boomed as he swung his blade. The visions of the two cult members darkened. When they heard the booming thunder, they hurriedly stepped back in panic.
One was able to move out of the way while the other was split apart by Su Yu's blade. The exhaustion caused Su Yu to stagger. He barely avoided falling onto the ground. When he saw that the other cult member had tumbled onto the ground, he took the chance to stab out, nailing the cult member on the ground.
In the blink of an eye, three cult members had been killed. Everything had happened too fast. When the two city guards saw how ferocious their comrade was, their morale rose as they roared and charged the two remaining cult members, forcing the two to retreat.