Chapter 2078: Cavalry Charge
The next morning, Zhao Hai and the others got up full of vigor. After eating, they rode off with their demon horses. During normal times, there was no need to use the unification of man and beast. Otherwise, it would be equivalent to cultivating all the time, which wasn’t a good thing.
But since everyone had just learned the unity of man and beast, they were excitedly chatting nonstop along the way. Thus, time pa.s.sed by quickly.
After two hours of travel, Zhao Hai knitted his brows, then he said, “Brothers, from the time we departed until now, did we meet any carriages?”
As soon as they heard Zhao Hai, everyone stared. Then one of them shook his head and said, “We didn’t. From the beginning, we didn’t see anyone else. What happened? Is something wrong?”
Zhao Hai couldn’t help but turn serious, “Everyone, be more careful. This is a main road of the Divine Armament Sect. It’s been several hours and yet we haven’t met anyone. Isn’t this strange?”
Everyone was stunned, then their complexion changed. Originally, they didn’t feel anything wrong. They simply didn’t care about people they met on the road. Now that Zhao Hai mentioned it, it was indeed strange.
Zhao Hai said, “Prepare yourselves. I feel that something will happen today.” After saying that, Zhao Hai urged his horse to continue. The others followed soon after. This time, everyone had lost the mood to converse. Instead, they sat firmly on their mounts and observed the surroundings.
Seeing everyone’s reaction, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but feel disappointed. These people were too tender. Their actions are clearly telling the enemy that they were on guard. When the enemy attacks, they would also be more thorough. But Zhao Hai didn’t remind them. They need to experience these things slowly by themselves.
After traveling for an hour, Zhao Hai’s group spotted a village. Upon seeing the settlement, Zhao Hai’s pupils couldn’t help but shrink. Then he said, “Everyone, be careful. Something is strange in the village ahead. Let’s pick up speed. In one breath, we’ll break through the village. Don’t ever stop halfway.” Everyone quickly complied. They used the unification of man and beast and began to charge.
Demon horses were innately large and heavy. With more than 20 demon horses running together, their momentum was equivalent to ten thousand horses galloping. The speed of the demon horses was also augmented by the unity of man and beast.
Meng Qi stood on a tree that grew in the village. His gaze was directed at Zhao Hai and the others. The village had already been vacated. Over a hundred Divine Armament Sect disciples were lying in ambush. In their hands were crossbows aimed at the main road of the village.
Seeing Zhao Hai’s group accelerate, Meng Qi’s eyes flashed a hint of solemnity. He couldn’t understand why Zhao Hai and the others suddenly accelerated. Did they discover the ambush? How was that possible? But right now, Meng Qi couldn’t think about it too much. Zhao Hai and the others were very fast. In a blink of an eye, they had already reached the village.
Meng Qi quickly waved his hand and said, “Fire!” Along with his voice, rows upon rows of crossbow bolts flew towards Zhao Hai’s group. At the same moment, Zhao Hai and the others took their blades out to block the projectiles.
Then all of a sudden, Zhao Hai felt his demon horse landing on something soft. Zhao Hai stared and then lowered his head. He discovered that the village’s roads were filled with pitfalls. The horse had fallen into a formation trap. As long as the demon horses step into the trap, their mobility would become limited.
Zhao Hai revolved his spiritual qi, giving strength to the four hooves of the demon horse. The horse proceeded to leap out of the trap. At the same time, Zhao Hai shouted, “Everyone, be careful. There are traps on the ground!”
Zhao Hai’s reminder alerted the rest of the group. They immediately controlled their horses to leap. But later on, more and more traps appeared. This caused Zhao Hai and the others to have trouble moving. All this time, Meng Qi’s group didn’t stop their attacks. On the contrary, seeing Zhao Hai’s group suffering from the traps, Meng Qi ordered everyone to attack faster. Zhao Hai and the others don’t only need to be careful of the traps, they also need to block the crossbow bolts. For a while, the group was having a hard time, and two people became injured.
Seeing the situation, Zhao Hai coldly snorted. He waved his blade as eight golden colored gates appeared around him. All crossbow bolts were stopped by the gates.
Zhao Hai’s group continued their charge and before long they managed to get out of the village. And in a blink of an eye, they vanished from sight. Meng Qi and the others were very confident that they could deal with Zhao Hai’s group. They didn’t expect them to be very fast.
Meng Qi’s expression was ugly as he looked at the direction Zhao Hai left in. His hatred for him deepened even more. At this time, cultivators who held the ambush flocked towards him. These cultivators weren’t very strong. Most of them were at the Rebirth Stage. They only depended on the crossbows to attack. This is also the reason why Zhao Hai and the others were able to safely escape. If these cultivators were at the Clone Stage, Zhao Hai might have a harder time escaping.
A cultivator looked at Meng Qi and asked, “Senior Brother, what do we do now?”
Meng Qi was still looking in Zhao Hai’s direction, he coldly snorted and said, “We have plenty of cities and towns along the way. We have plenty of opportunities to deal with them. But by this point, Zhao Hai and the others know that we’re out to deal with them. This is also good. I want to see what Zhao Hai plans to do next.”
After escaping the village, Zhao Hai and the others ran another 100 kilometers before finally slowing down. Zhao Hai turned his head and looked at the two people who were injured. Seeing that their injuries weren’t serious, he felt relieved. However, everyone’s expression wasn’t good.
Zhao Hai looked at everyone’s expression and knew what they were thinking. A crossbow attack was a method of the Divine Armament Sect. This meant that the ambush was done by disciples of the Divine Armament Sect.
They were attacked by the Divine Armament Sect’s disciples inside the Divine Armament Sect’s domain. It seems like they could no longer stay here for long. And their future path would be more dangerous.
Zhao Hai looked everyone in the eyes and said, “Everyone, you’ve seen what happened. This is a blatant attack of the Divine Armament Sect. It seems like they no longer consider our face. We cannot just sit and wait for death. No matter who is following behind us, we’ll have to take a risk. Let’s travel on foot for a while. Put away your horses. This way, the Divine Armament Sect wouldn’t find our whereabouts and we will be safe for the time being. I reckon the enemies behind us would be easier to deal with than the Divine Armament Sect. What do you all think?”
By this point, everyone was completely convinced by Zhao Hai. Their breakthrough from the village might seem safe, but thinking about it, it was very thrilling. If Zhao Hai didn’t discover the strange situation of the village ahead of time, and if he didn’t give them the method of unification, then they wouldn’t have been able to get out of the village.
The Divine Armament Sect’s crossbows were very famous artifacts. It might not be useful against powerful cultivators, it was very useful against cultivators in the Soul Fusion stage. If they didn’t know the unification of man and beast, then Zhao Hai’s group wouldn’t have been able to jump over the traps. And they would have died in the village. They don’t believe that the village didn’t have any powerful experts. Once they were trapped in the village, then crossbows wouldn’t be the only thing they needed to worry about.
Now that Zhao Hai asked for their opinions, n.o.body expressed their disapproval. Everyone nodded and said, “We’ll follow the team leader.” Zhao Hai nodded and then had everyone ride their demon horses into a valley.
The road was lined with dense forests. Not far away was a large mountain. It was quite famous in the Divine Armament Sect. The mountain was called Arrow Tree Mountain. This was because of the arrow trees growing on it. The tree was called such because it was the best material for making arrows.
Arrow Tree Forest wasn’t tall at only three kilometers high. However, it was quite a long mountain range.
After Zhao Hai and the others entered the forest, riding the demon horses was no longer an option. The trees in the forest were big and tall. If they rode the demon horses, not only would they remain slow, the horses might not progress well. Therefore, not long after the group entered the forest, they began to walk on foot. Then once all of their traces were removed, they proceeded to head deep into the forest.
An hour later, Zhao Hai’s group formally entered Arrow Tree Mountain. Huge and straight trees grew all around the mountain. Looking from the base, the trees looked as if they pierced through the heavens. It was truly the best material for arrows.
Zhao Hai took a few tree seedlings for the s.p.a.ce. Then he led everyone forward. Zhao Hai was very careful. This was because as soon as he entered the forest, he quickly felt that he was being haunted by a ghost. And this time, the feeling was more intense.
Zhao Hai led the group forward without making a sound. In turn, their speed wasn’t very fast. He also made sure that everyone didn’t consume too much spiritual qi. If they met an attack, everyone needs to be prepared.
The group remained safe when night came. They met some beasts along the way. These beasts were weak, but Zhao Hai didn’t want to provoke them in fear of leaving traces. Therefore, he had the group go around the beasts.
The sky soon turned black. Zhao Hai knew that they had to rest. They pa.s.sed through an ambush and marched the entire day on a mountain. The others should be tired. Unlike Zhao Hai, these people weren’t body cultivators. They needed to rest.
Zhao Hai looked around the forest and saw dense clear ground. Then he looked at the others and said, “Alright, let’s stop here. Rest for the evening. We’ll depart tomorrow.” Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they sat on the ground. To be honest, today was a very long day. They were exhausted.
Seeing everyone’s tired eyes, Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Alright, take out your beast skin mats. Let’s eat and then sleep. I’ll stand watch tonight.” After saying that, Zhao Hai planned to go around the camp to plant a few formation discs.
After hearing this, the cultivators jumped up. Then one of them said, “Team leader, we can be the night watch. We’ll divide into s.h.i.+fts. This way, everyone can rest well.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Forget it. Go and rest well. You don’t have to worry about me.” Before long, Zhao Hai set up the formations around the camp. He took his own beast skin mat out and spread it on the ground. He had also taken food out for the others to eat. Honestly, the others also brought their own food, but they preferred Zhao Hai’s food. Compared to what they brought, Zhao Hai’s goods were more delicious.
After eating, Zhao Hai had everyone rest. Everyone also knew that they needed to be at the optimum state. They sat on their beast skin mat and regulated their breathing before lying down to sleep.
Zhao Hai also sat on his mat and regulated his breathing. On the other hand, his clones distributed themselves around the camp. Some went underground while some hid inside arrow trees.
Zhao Hai felt that something would happen tonight. The feeling was becoming stronger. He could even sense killing intent.
He was too familiar with this feeling. Each time he was attacked, he would have this feeling moments before. Moreover, this attack was clearly directed at him. The killing aura was focused on him, the killing aura on the others wasn’t as strong.
Zhao Hai sat in place and recalled. He wanted to know who would target him at this moment. From the killing intent, he could sense a gloomy and cold feeling. This was a familiar feeling. But as to where he felt it before, Zhao Hai couldn’t recall.
As he sat on his mat, Zhao Hai’s thoughts arrived at the time of his trial. He suddenly recalled the Wu Clan’s village. As he went around the village, he could feel the same gloomy and cold aura.
Zhao Hai opened his eyes as he realized the source of the aura. It was from a Ghost Cultivator!