Chapter 71: Breaking Out
"Attack!"
Lin Yi drew his sword and shouted as he charged forward.
Ta! Ta! Ta!
Five horses galloped madly as they made their way down the slope of the hill, reaching the maximum possible speed.
The demonic cult disciples blocking their way did not even have time to react before they were swiftly cut down by Lin Yi, their heads flying into the air and dropping onto the ground with a thud like rocks.
Lin Yi did not know how many attacks he received in the process, and he only felt as if countless sabers were slashing towards him. Those that he could dodge, he dodged. Those that he couldn't, he relied on his heavy armor to block the attacks.
Although the sabers did not manage to break his armor, the force of the impacts caused him a decent amount of pain.
As he grunted in pain, he attacked even faster, slashing madly in all directions. In a situation where there were so many people, it was pointless to use his sword arts. The most effective way to fight was to slash at the enemies directly with all his strength, killing them with one stroke.
As Lin Yi rode his horse leading his companions on, he resembled an awl, piercing through the walls of enemies forcefully and opening up a bloody path for themselves.
He was only able to succeed in doing this because the reinforcements had only just arrived and had no time to establish lines of defense. otherwise, no matter how fast their horses were, they would eventually be mired by the flood of attacks made by the demonic cult disciples.
If that happened, the only possible outcome was death by exhaustion.
Although these demonic cult disciples mostly possessed bronze grade skills and rarely learned any silver grade skills or even superior martial arts, but even ants were capable of killing an elephant with their numbers. After all, they were still third-rate experts, even if their martial arts were inferior.
As they succeeded in breaking out of the encirclement of the enemy, Lin Yi's companions were relieved.
Luckily they had Senior Brother Lin Yi with them, otherwise, they would not have made it out of this place alive.
"Go!"
However, Lin Yi did not relax. At this moment, they were still far from being safe, as this was only the first wave of reinforcements.
He believed that with his reputation as Deadly Celestial Sword and his feat of slaying Blood Raiment Prince, far more demonic cult members were going to join the hunt for the five of them.
Similarly, if the situation was reversed and a demonic cult genius was being trapped by the righteous faction, plenty of righteous sect disciples would also come forward to kill the genius for fame and justice.
Although Lin Yi realized that they were getting further and further away from Lanzhou City while going deeper and deeper into the Western Region, he had no choice but to continue leading them forward in this direction in order to escape from the enemy.
"The disciples from Five Mountain Sword Sects are here, and there's only five of them! Don't let them escape!"
"The killer of Blood Raiment Prince is also here, attack!"
The demonic cult disciples shouted in excitement as they saw the five of them escaping on their horses and continued chasing after them. There were more and more demonic cult disciples who received news of them and joined the groups of people already on the chase. Eventually, there were nearly a thousand demonic cult disciples chasing them, with dozens of people madly using their lightness arts to stick close behind them.
Left with no choice, Lin Yi and his companions could only continue to urge their horses forward.
……
Deep within the Western Region, roughly eight hundred li from Lanzhou City.
The lands were barren and sparsely populated by plants. Every inch of the place was covered by the golden sands of the desert.
It was in the dead of the night, and at a particular location, the bright flames of campfires lit up the sky.
The group of people led by Monk Jueyuan was camped here.
They had gone eight hundred li into the Western Region for the sake of hunting down the demonic faction.
However, Monk Jueyuan was disappointed by the fact that they had only encountered over a hundred of them thus far. This was much lesser compared to what the intelligence had reported.
Facing nearly eight thousand people from the righteous faction, these hundred-odd demonic cult disciples could only try their best to escape. Many of them were killed on the way but there were also many others who eventually escaped.
But because it was their first time going so deep into the Western Region, although these people were tired from chasing their enemies for the whole day, they were still feeling excited and not many could sleep, instead choosing to indulge in noisy chatter.
At this moment, numerous dark figures approached and began shooting a hail of arrows onto the camp!
"Ah! Ah! Ah!"
Terrible cries were heard as the people from the righteous faction were hit by the arrows. Those who were unlucky were turned into porcupines by multiple arrows piercing through their bodies, dying instantly.
"It's an enemy raid! An enemy raid!"
"The demonic scum are making a sneak attack!"
One after another they shouted in panic.
Among them, a figure leaped into the air like a huge bird and quickly reached the exterior of the camp in just a few movements. With his hands bent into the shape of claws, he started attacking the demonic cult disciples by grabbing at them.
With a simple squeeze, he crushed their necks and skulls.
"Shaolin Dragon Claw Hands!"
"It's Master Jueyuan!"
Instantly, the people recognized the identity of this figure. With his bald head and his white monk robes, it was Monk Jueyuan of Shaolin.
He brandished his claw-like hands furiously at his enemies, and those who were grabbed by him either had their skulls crushed or their bodies torn apart. It was an incredibly violent and bloody sight.
But it was this kind of violence and bloodiness which evoked feelings of exhilaration in the righteous faction.
"Master Jueyuan is so powerful!"
"As expected of someone from Shaolin!"
"In just a few moves, eight or nine of those demonic scum have died to his hands!"
"Seeing that Master Jueyuan is slaughtering the enemies with such vigor, how can the rest of us lag behind?"
"That's right, let's attack together!"
"Kill these scum for making a sneak attack on us!"
In just a short while, the camp which had been in chaos moments ago were filled with calls for the deaths of the enemies. Numerous figures darted out from the camp and started killing the demonic cult disciples who had shot the arrows.
At the sight of this, the demonic cult disciples did not stay to fight but instead turned to escape after they had let loose a certain amount of arrows.
"Haha, the demonic scum are running in fear!"
"They aren't capable of withstanding a single blow from us!"
"This is all due to the overwhelming power of Master Jueyuan, he has caused them to flee in fear!"
"That's for sure, Master Jueyuan is a genius of Shaolin!"
After the demonic cult disciples fled, all the people in the camp surrounded Monk Jueyuan and began heaping praises on him, making him smile widely with great pride and satisfaction.
He felt as if he had accomplished a great thing, and he said in a loud voice: "Credit does not belong to this humble monk alone, everyone has worked together to accomplish it. If not for the bravery of everyone present, how could we have repelled the demonic scum so easily?"
"It's a pity that they have fled so quickly like rats!"
As they heard his words, they replied: "These bunch of demonic scum are truly detestable!"
"When dawn arrives, we must exterminate every single one of them as revenge for what they did!"
"That's right, kill them all!"
"Let them have a taste of the righteous faction's power!"
The camp was filled with killing intent while Monk Jueyuan was happily thinking of how to gain more fame from killing the demonic cult disciples.
However, he had completely disregarded the number of casualties both sides had suffered from this night raid.
There were less than a hundred dead on the side of the demonic faction, whereas the righteous faction had hundreds dead or injured from the arrows.
Nearly all the people in the camp did not notice this fact as they were blinded by their victory.
……
On a sand dune several li away from the camp.
Ao Wufa coldly looked at the people from the righteous faction cheering loudly at their victory in the camp, his eyes full of disdain.
"When they have quietened down, send another team of archers forward."
"We shall constantly harass them and deprive them of sleep and rest."
"When dawn arrives, we will continue to lure them deeper into our territory. The moment they are completely exhausted, we shall finish them off!" He gave orders to the people standing beside him.
At this moment, a Ming Cult disciple came forward with a report.
"Old Demon Xu seeks an audience!"
"Old Demon Xu? He's here? Bring him here quickly." Ao Wufa's eyes lit up and he quickly ordered.
This Old Demon Xu was a famous devil in Jianghu and a second-rate expert, having cleared the seventh standard meridian.
What made him famous was the fact that he had once ventured deep into Shenzhou and massacred numerous minor righteous sects and clans, claiming thousands of lives in the process. As a result, the major sects offered a bounty for his head and made every effort to hunt him down.
However, he was able to escape from all the major sects and acquired great fame among the demonic cults. After all, rarely anyone ever managed to kill so many people in the territories of the righteous faction and get away scot-free.
Although he was a second-rate expert, his reputation had even surpassed some first-rate experts from the demonic cults.
Soon, a middle-aged man with a wicked looking face appeared before Ao Wufa.
The most outstanding feature of this man was his blood-red eyes which were filled with intense killing intent.
The intent was so intense that even Ao Wufa was slightly unsettled by it.
What a great Old Demon Xu!
"Subordinate pays his respect to Lord Wufa."
Old Demon Xu restrained the wild look in his eyes and greeted Ao Wufa while kneeling on one knee.
"Elder Xu, please rise!" Ao Wufa hurriedly helped him to his feet before saying: "You have come at a good time. Now that the people from the righteous faction have been bogged down by my forces, we can carry out the final attack in a few days' time once they have been exhausted."
"Haha, when that time comes, I will leave those major sect geniuses to Elder Xu!"
"Subordinate accepts your orders!" Old Demon Xu nodded and gazed at the camp eagerly.
"With a second-rate expert like Elder Xu here, those major sect geniuses are going to cry in terror!"
"Hmph, all's fair in war, as people of the demonic faction, what reason do we have to only foolishly send third-rate experts to deal with them?"
"I can't wait to see the terror-stricken looks on their faces when they see Elder Xu!"
"Hahaha!"
Ao Wufa laughed heartily, the echoes of his laughter reverberating on the sand dune.