Chapter 572: Continuous Fishing (2)
Suddenly, intense source qi undulations erupted from the mountain ahead of them. The air warped as several dao protectors appeared. All of them were staring ahead with solemn expressions.
"Damn it, it's the blood devourer!" A middle-aged man with some black fur on his face exclaimed with a fretful expression.
The old man from the cloud tiger race said, "Stay calm. It's fine. That fellow won't be able to do much to Old Horse alone."
He added, "We'll continue observing. Only leave if Old Horse asks for help. We can't leave this place."
He might be saying that, but he was sneering inwardly. It would be even better if the old sky horse was killed. That would save them some trouble.
At this moment, two Mountainseas were engaging each other in combat ahead of them. Bloodmoon had launched a surprise attack, successfully injuring the old sky horse. However, the old sky horse was no pushover. The mountain itself seemed to be on the verge of collapse as the two fought.
A short while later, Bloodmoon fled as Great Mountain had shown himself.
"Chase him!"
With a roar, Great Mountain gave chase. The old sky horse did not hesitate and gave chase as well. Seeing that the old sky horse was still alive, the cloud tiger and the other dao protectors sighed inwardly in regret.
They had nearly forgotten that Great Mountain was nearby as well. With Great Mountain around, the old sky horse would remain alive.
Suddenly, the iron-winged bird, who was observing the pursuit in the sky, screeched.
At the same time.
A beam of light shot into the sky.
In the blink of an eye, the beam pierced the iron-winged bird's head. With a boom, the iron-winged bird transformed into his original appearance of a massive bird. Alas, that bird was now headless. Its corpse started falling from the sky.
"Bastard!"
"Damn it!"
The other Mountainseas exclaimed in alarm. The expert from the cloud tiger race rushed over.
Seeing that, Su Yu hurriedly shouted, "Keep someone here. Watch out!"
With that, the expert from the cloud tiger race turned stiff for a split second. That gave the attacker the chance to put the headless bird corpse away before fleeing.
"Damn it!"
At this time, the old sky horse and Great Mountain had returned. The old sky horse cursed in fury, "It's someone from the devileye race. Damn it! How dare you kill an ally of humanity in Great Xia?"
Everything had happened too quickly. None of the dao protectors had expected that there would be a second Mountainsea hidden nearby.
The devileye race was very good at illusions, and that hidden expert was very strong. He had been able to hide from everyone and instantly kill a ninth-stage Cloudbreach with a sneak attack.
The attacker was none other than One-eye. Both One-eye and Bloodmoon had successfully escaped after the sneak attack.
Before long, both Great Mountain and the old sky horse returned to the group. Meanwhile, Zhan Fei had turned deathly pale. Someone was killed just like that? Everything had happened too quickly. He had lost his dao protector in the blink of an eye. Someone had been killed right in front of six Mountainseas.
Landing in front of Su Yu, Great Mountain's body shrunk to a regular size as he apologized, "Sorry. I failed to stop the attacker..."
Su Yu waved his hand. He looked at the others with a frown and solemnly said, "Two Mountainseas."
He then looked at Zhan Fei and apologetically said, "My apologies, Brother Zhan. I did not expect something like this to happen..."
The old sky horse's gloomy voice rang out, "It's not your fault. We were too careless. I was too focused on pursuing the blood devourer. Who would have guessed that there is a second enemy? Damn it!"
This was a bad start. There were six Mountainseas in the group yet a ninth-stage Cloudbreach had still been killed in their presence. The old man from the cloud tiger race had an unsightly expression. One of them had perished. Sure, that wasn't a Mountainsea, but they hadn't even reached their destination. He had not expected any of them to die before that.
***
At the same time.
High in the sky.
Two middle-aged men looked at each other silently.
After a while, one of them spoke with voice transmission, "Why is there another Mountainsea? Big Brother, should we make a move?"
These were the experts dispatched by Xia Huyou.
They were brothers.
The elder brother said, "No. Huyou said that we're only in charge of protecting Su Yu. We will ignore everything unless Su Yu himself requests for help. In any case, we still don't know who the true enemies are."
He was very confused. He only knew that he needed to keep Su Yu safe. That was his top priority. Even if they were to encounter the cult, that would be a matter for someone else to deal with.
With a gloomy expression, the younger brother asked, "Big Brother, who exactly are our targets? Su Yu must be keeping an eye out for the single character faction, right? Do you think that we're being tailed?"
"That's likely."
The elder brother said nothing else. He sighed inwardly as he gazed at the distant Su Yu. That was the cause of everything that had been happening. All the blood that would flow today would be on that youth's hands.
What an impressive young man. Was the death of that iron-winged bird a result of that youth's plotting as well? Where did the two Mountainsea beasts come from?
***
Even further away.
Both Yu Hong and Old Zheng were frowning. Yu Hong said, "Are both those fellows from the cult?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
Old Zheng was speechless. This was Great Xia. Yu Hong should know more.
Yu Hong took out a voice transmission talisman and started conversing with someone. After a short while, she said, "We're unclear. A lot of cultists have arrived. Not all of them know each other."
Old Zheng nodded and did not push for more answers. He preferred to know less about this. There was no saying what Yu Hong's source of information was.
"That iron-winged bird was too weak. How could he get himself killed so easily?"
Old Zheng was filled with contempt. No matter what, that was a ninth-stage Cloudbreach. How could someone like that die so easily? Sure enough, these minor race fellows were unreliable.
Somewhere else, Blood Rakshasha demanded, "Bloodmoon, what are you doing? We agreed to operate together. Why are you moving alone?"
"Hmph!" Bloodmoon replied, "Fool! I told you to help me earlier! Why hadn't you done anything? We need to kill those fellows any chance we get. Are we supposed to wait until we reach the ruin before fighting all of them with our lives on the line? Are you stupid? They have six Mountainseas. Do you think we stand a chance? We should kill as many of them as possible while they are still busy protecting those kids. Blood Rakshasha, do you have a brain?"
Bloodmoon added, "I already contacted a fellow daoist I know. We will be working together. Open a communication channel with your people. I'll talk to them. If we can't reach an agreement, we should just start working independently. Why are you waiting around doing nothing? This is stupid. Blood Rakshasha, is your Blood Fire Sect filled with idiots?"
Bloodmoon started questioning Blood Rakshasha, "Don't ruin the plan with your stupidity. Blood Rakshasha, if you don't want to do this, just give up. No wonder your Blood Fire Sect is doing so badly nowadays. It's because of fools like you."
He held nothing back, using this as a chance to blame the others for not trying hard enough. Otherwise, they would have been able to kill the old sky horse as well. Blood Rakshasha was rendered speechless. After a while, he created an open channel through the voice transmission talisman.
Immediately after, someone spoke in the channel, "Is the friend from the blood devourer race looking for us?"
"Yes. I am wondering if your group is really aiming for the ruin. Or perhaps you're planning something behind my back? They have six Mountainseas and several Cloudbreach cultivators. Why are we not weakening them any chance we get? Are we supposed to face them all head-on at the end? We should focus on capturing Su Yu."
Someone replied, "What do you think, Blood Rakshasha? We're also getting curious. It's not a good idea to keep waiting and doing nothing."
Blood Rakshasha said, "I understand your worries. Everyone, Su Yu is clearly aiming for the ruin. We don't necessarily need to capture him right now. We can let him lead us to the ruin instead. We don't want to alarm him before even reaching the ruin. He is already scared after the attacks earlier. I'm afraid that if we apply more pressure on him, he will give up on the ruin for now."
Not everyone in the group had received the same information. Unlike some of the people in the group, Blood Rakshasha knew very well that Su Yu was heading toward the ruin. Some of the others were unaware of that, so they were planning to capture Su Yu before interrogating him about the ruin.
Blood Rakshasha could understand Bloodmoon's urgency, so he couldn't help but feel rather helpless. This sense of urgency might end up ruining their plan. Left with no choice, he could only tell them the truth, "We can only make further plans after reaching the ruin. Even if we capture him now, we can't guarantee that he will tell us the location of the ruin. Fellow Daoist Bloodmoon, please don't do anything rash."
After giving his explanation, he asked, "Is that devileye your friend, Fellow Daoist Bloodmoon?"
"No." Bloodmoon said, "I encountered him not long ago. LIke you, he came to me with a proposal to work together after my previous attack. He sounded more reliable than you so we decided to work together. He suggested that we kill some of their experts and weaken them. The plan sounded feasible so we did just that."
Blood Rakshasha was helpless to hear that. He asked, "Can you contact him? If this keeps happening, Su Yu will eventually change his plan and stop heading toward the ruin. That will only make things difficult for us."
Bloodmoon said, "You only have yourself to blame for hiding important information from us. Blood Rakshasha, if you're not sincere in working together, we can part ways. If you really want to work together, stop hiding things from us. Six Mountainseas can't be dealt with so easily. Rather than killing six Mountainseas for the ruin later, I still think that we have a higher chance of kidnapping Su Yu from them and interrogate him for the ruin. Friends, what do you think?"
"I agree. Capturing Su Yu is much easier than killing six Mountainseas. We only need to launch a few more attacks. Some of them might decide to turn around in order to protect the geniuses of their races. That would be our chance."
Someone else started questioning Blood Rakshasha. Knowing what they were worried about, Blood Rakshasha hurriedly said, "Everyone, we still have other allies."
"Are they Mountainseas?"
"Yes."
Bloodmoon asked, "Who are they? I feel like we should really part ways. We have too many Mountainseas. How are we supposed to split the rewards? We are better off working independently. The lucky one will get Su Yu."
Blood Rakshasha said, "Our allies are not interested in the ruin."
"Would anyone believe that?" Bloodmoon suddenly exclaimed, "You're not talking about the single character faction, right? It's possible that they're only here to kill Su Yu. I can't imagine anyone from the cult will be willing to give up on the ruin."
"Yes."
"How many of them are here? Be careful lest we end up stabbed by them in the back. Blood Rakshasha, I honestly can't bring myself to trust your plan. Maybe they're working with Great Xia to exterminate all of us instead."