Chapter 22: Total Defeat (1)
Liu Wenyan had broken through into the Skysoar Realm. One would not be able to soar into the sky without first entering the Skysoar Realm. Clearly, Liu Wenyan had successfully achieved willpower materialization, officially becoming a Skysoar cultivator. His body was still unrefined, but the rich source qi gathering around him would take care of that.
Dozens of meters away, Wu Hen was also floating in the air, his expression ugly. He had failed to stop the breakthrough.
"Fortunately, he has just broken through. His body remains in the previous realm..."
Wu Hen could only rejoice that it wasn't the worst case scenario yet. Liu Wenyan was an old man with a waning body. Even if his willpower had reached the Skysoar Realm, his body was still stuck in the Great Strength Realm. Wu Hen was a second-stage Skysoar cultivator. He did not fear a brand new Skysoar cultivator like Liu Wenyan.
The cult still had the upper hand here. They had more Infinite Strength cultivators while the Infinite Strength cultivators of the Martial Dragon Guards were kept occupied by Hallmaster Chen. The school had only been able to last this long due to the larger number of Great Strength cultivators on their side.
"Die!" Wu Hen unleashed all his strength, materializing a short blade from thin air. The glowing blade instantly shot toward Liu Wenyan.
"You're trying to fight a cultural researcher from range?" Liu Wenyan laughed. "I guess I can't expect much from a bunch of animals. Scum like you are incapable of comprehending the might of cultural researchers."
"Freeze."
The flying blade froze mid-flight.
"Return."
Whoosh!
The blade spun around and shot toward Wu Hen instead. Wu Hen was about to move aside when Liu Wenyan's head erupted with a blinding golden radiance.
"Freeze."
This time, he was freezing Wu Hen instead of the blade. Instantly, Wu Hen felt the space around him constricting, fixing him in place.
"Don't even think about it!" With a roar, Wu Hen started bleeding from his seven orifices. Golden light erupted from his eyes as he used all his strength and forcefully took a single step aside.
Splurt!
The blade that was aimed toward his head stabbed into his shoulder. Blood sprayed out like a fountain. He had still been hurt, but at least he had avoided a fatal hit.
"Impossible..." Fear covered Wu Hen's face. "This is not possible! You have just broken through! Even if cultural researchers are stronger, you shouldn't be able to freeze me!"
Cultural researchers were willpower cultivators. Thus, they were stronger than regular Skysoar cultivators. Physical cultivators might not be able to contend against willpower cultivators in terms of mental power, but they had stronger bodies and plentiful vitality. Liu Wenyan shouldn't have been able to fix his body in place.
"That's because you're too weak." Liu Wenyan laughed. However, he still paled slightly. Clearly, the previous move hadn't been easy for him.
Even so, he still laughed loudly. "Myriad Race Cult? Merely frogs at the bottom of the well trying to contend against the sun and the moon. Die!"
With a roar, the blade in Wu Hen's shoulder started trembling. Wu Hen's face changed as he pushed the blade out with his source qi before turning around to flee. However, he wasn't Liu Wenyan's actual target.
The blade streaked through the air and pierced through the head of one of the Infinite Strength cult members that were facing off against the commander of the city guard and the head of the Windcatcher Department before any of them could react.
The others were alarmed and instantly tried fleeing. As Liu Wenyan made another move, the cult members found their bodies fixed in place. The commander and department head wasted no time in swinging their blades and killing two of the frozen cult members. At the same time, the third cult member was stabbed by the flying blade. Four down! Four Infinite Strength cultivators had been killed in the blink of an eye.
"Wu Hen!" The woman who was fighting the mayor roared furiously, "He has just broken through. He only has a limited amount of willpower. Keep him busy! Damn it! Keep him busy! Do you want to be tortured to death?"
If Wu Hen had not fled in fear, Liu Wenyan wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to kill the four Infinite Strength cultivators. That was a heavy loss for the cult. Wu Hen's expression changed. He clenched his teeth and charged Liu Wenyan once again. At this point, Liu Wenyan's face was turning more and more pale.
In truth, Liu Wenyan was only putting up a brave front. At this point, he was basically an arrow at the end of its flight. He had used his willpower on the blade and several Infinite Strength cultivators in a row. Thus, he had almost exhausted all his existing willpower. Without his willpower, he was only as strong as a Great Strength cultivator. He would be much less dangerous with only his body.
When he saw Wu Hen turning around, his face fell as he hurriedly retreated. Wu Hen was overjoyed to see that. With a wave of his hand, he recalled his short blade and increased his speed. Liu Wenyan continued retreating, but Wu Hen was able to instantly catch up before stabbing the blade into Liu Wenyan's head.
"Die!"
The blade penetrated the head without any resistance whatsoever. Wu Hen was overjoyed.
Right that moment, a voice rang out behind him, "Idiot! Retreat!"
The roar woke Wu Hen from his excitement. He felt like he had just awakened from a dream. As he checked around him, the dead Liu Wenyan was nowhere to be seen. He had been tricked by an illusion! Willpower interruption!
"Impossible! He has only freshly broken through! How can he..."
The thought had just crossed his mind when a needle stabbed through his Spirit Palace. Source qi started leaking from his body, making it difficult for him to even stay in the Skysoar Realm.
"Damn it!"
The woman and the old man from the cult were getting anxious. Wu Hen's willpower was too weak, to the point Liu Wenyan had successfully cast an illusion on him. And with his Spirit Palace punctured and his source qi leaking, everything was over for Wu Hen.
Boom!
With a palm attack, the old man pushed Xia Bing back before turning around to flee. But nine Infinite Strength cultivators from the Martial Dragon Guards instantly charged him, stopping him from escaping.
"Retreat!" Instead of shouting the order, the old man only looked at the woman and signaled her with his eyes. He was telling her to let the others stay as a distraction while they made their escape.
Wu Hen was already finished. Sure, even with the addition of a cultural researcher on their opposing side and the loss of a Skysoar cultivator on their side, the cult still had the chance to win this fight. But what was the point of putting their lives on the line?
At worst, they would just fail the mission. Did the higher ups really expect them to fight until the end? The two reached an agreement. Not far away, Wu Hen's head had just been stabbed by his own blade. Even toward the end, he still couldn't believe everything that was happening. He had been killed. By Liu Wenyan, a brand new Skysoar cultivator whose physical body was still stuck at the Great Strength Realm.
Plop!
The corpse fell to the ground.
Liu Wenyan landed on the ground while breathing heavily. Looking at the Skysoar cultivators that were still fighting bitterly, he smiled and said, "Kill them all!"
Once again, he unleashed his willpower. The escaping Infinite Strength cultivators found their bodies turning sluggish. During combat, that was fatal. Zhang Yun and Zeng Hua promptly killed them all. The two were ninth-stage Infinite Strength cultivators, after all. As high-ranking individuals of Nanyuan, the two were not weak and were able to work well together. They were able to easily kill the cult members the moment Liu Wenyan slowed them down.
Corpses of Infinite Strength cultivators fell one after another. At that point, the other cult members lost all their courage. If they actually had the courage to stand their ground and fight until the end, they might still stand a chance at winning the battle.
After all, they still had around twenty Infinite Strength cultivators around and their two hallmasters were still keeping the mayor and Martial Dragon Guards occupied. Thus, the cult could definitely still fight it out despite being weakened. After all, Liu Wenyan did not have unlimited willpower.
But they wouldn't have joined the Myriad Race Cult if they were really so courageous. These people were only brave when things were going well for them. The moment things went sideways, they would fall like dominoes.
"Retreat!"
"Run!"
"Run quickly!"
Hundreds of cult members had participated in this mission, and they were all fleeing in fear. With their back exposed, the instructors and city guards were able to instantly kill over a dozen cult members. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred of the three hundred cult members were killed. The remaining members started fleeing in all directions.
"Run!"
The two hallmasters were no longer in the mood to keep fighting either. The mission had failed. Since the mission had failed, they would flee. There was no need to throw their lives away. As for things like honor and glory, they were nonexistent for these cult members. For them, nothing was more important than staying alive.
Even knowing that Liu Wenyan was probably unable to fight much longer, they still fled unhesitatingly. This was Nanyuan. If they allowed themselves to get bogged down by combat, it would only be a matter of time before they were killed.
The two hallmasters were respectively third-stage and fourth-stage Skysoar cultivators. They were able to fight while retreating. After all, they were stronger than the two Skysoar cultivators they were facing.
At the same time, the other escaping cult members were using everything they had to flee the scene. ?At that moment, a group of people arrived outside the school. Some were old, some were middle-aged, and some were disabled.
"Archers, shoot!"
A white-haired old man roared, and instantly, over a dozen old men unleashed the arrows from their bows.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, about a dozen cult members were killed.
"Spears, formation!"
Dozens of old and middle-aged men stepped forth and stabbed out with their spears.
"Sabers, advance!"
"Die!"
Sounds of dropping limbs echoed in the air as the morale of the cult members dropped even lower. Some started crying in fear and some started begging for mercy. The leading old man merely curled his lips in disdain. They were making trouble in Great Xia with only this much strength?
"Nanyuan's militia is here! Kill! Leave no mercy!"
"Die!"
The roars of the group of elderly individuals rumble through the air.
Plop! Plop!
One head after another fell onto the ground. In the blink of an eye, dozens of people were killed. Behind the cult members, the pursuing city guards approached and subjected the cult members to a pincer attack. The cult had suffered a complete defeat.
"Idiots. How can one retreat like this during combat? By exposing your backs to your enemies, what else are you supposed to do apart from dying."
The old man appeared completely indifferent. This was nothing. This was merely a skirmish with several hundred participants. Could this even be considered a battle? Some of the cult members saw the leading old man and were in complete disbelief.
They knew this old man. He was someone who would have difficulties climbing the stairs, a stingy neighborhood grandpa who would always bargain even when buying some cheap groceries. An old man like that was leading a group of senior citizens who were supposed to be doing recreational activities at the local park to kill them?
"What are you looking at? Have you never seen a killer before?" The old man roared, "Where are the ax-bearers? Throw your axes!"
Whoosh!
Instead of axes, about a dozen cleavers one could usually see in the kitchen were thrown through the air. They accurately struck the cult members, instantly cleaving through about a dozen heads.
"Old Zhang, are you blind? You nearly hit me with that!" The leading old man cursed. One of those cleavers had nearly struck him.
Behind him, an old man with a crooked back said helplessly, "My hand was trembling. I'm getting old. Come on, it's not like it hit you."
"Cut the crap." The old man roared again, "You! Youngsters over there! Have you been missing your meals or something? Why are your attacks so weak? Don't you know that we can't hold on much longer? Kill them faster! If they left the encirclement, us old bags of bones won't be able to keep up with them!"
"Die!" That drove the instructors, city guards, and Windcatcher Department officers mad. This was too embarrassing! They had allowed hundreds of enemies to escape, but these old fellows that couldn't even run were able to instantly kill about a hundred of them. If they didn't pick their pace up and kill some, they would be too embarrassed to show their faces in the city anymore.
The battle proceeded smoothly. The cult members had no discipline whatsoever, and with their crumbling morale, it didn't take long before most of them were killed. Only a few Infinite Strength cultivators were still trying hard to escape, but it was only a matter of time before they were taken down.
Of all the fights occurring, the fights of the Skysoar cultivators were the most intense. They were currently fighting outside the school. The two cult members no longer intended to fight and only wanted to flee.
Seeing that they wouldn't have much chance to kill the two, Xia Bing suddenly roared, "Let him go. Focus on the woman."
The ten Martial Dragon Guards did not hesitate and gave up on the old man to charge the woman instead.
"Hallmaster Chen!" The woman yelled desperately, but Hallmaster Chen did not even spare her a glance. He soared into the sky and streaked away. As far as he was concerned, nothing was more important than keeping himself alive.
In the blink of an eye, the old man had flown hundreds of meters away. In his eyes, one could see the joy of someone who had escaped calamity. They initially held the upper hand, but after deciding to flee, they had lost almost all their members. This old man no longer felt like staying. The people of Great Xia were indeed fierce, including their civilians. He had not expected that a bunch of retired veterans could unleash such a powerful combat strength.
Some of those veterans were only middle-stage Great Strength cultivators with weakened bodies due to old age. But after entering a military formation, they were able to kill a large number of high-stage Great Strength cultivators in the blink of an eye. That was actually one of the strengths of humanity: strict army discipline.
The old man felt very lucky that the woman had attracted the firepower away from him. The woman was dead for sure. He couldn't afford to keep thinking and focused only on fleeing, disregarding the high exhaustion rate of his source qi as he flew quickly.
He could be stopped easily if he escaped on the ground. But by choosing to fly, he also made himself an obvious target. While the old man was rejoicing his escape, a young man suddenly appeared before him.