"Even if it is so, I still do not think it is safe!"
Lu Renjia frowned further. He got up and paced up and down before making up his mind, ordering, "Send down my order immediately, use the spiritual messenger! Order Blood Demon and the Crippled Brothers to abandon the mission and return immediately!"
"This..."
The blood drained from the face of the head of the Bone Melting Sect as he stuttered, "Sir are you afraid it might be...a trap?"
"Correct! If the Wu Zong who captured s.h.i.+ Yutong was in cahoots with Old Liu, then they are trying to create a diversion!"
Lu Renjia paced around the room in a circle a few times. His thoughts were clearer, and he said, "Since we have to go, we must rally all the veteran martial artists together on this trip! I am not only going to foil Old Liu"s sneaky plan, I am going to make him pay too!"
"Good!"
Just as the head of the Bone Melting Sect stood up, two loud shrill calls of an eagle pierced the air from the sky above.
"We"re under attack!!!"
The deafening noise of the bell and drum reverberated through the air above the Bone Melting Sect. The junior disciples were completely out of control and were in utter chaos. However, the guards closer to the core group stood at high points and aimed their arrows towards the sky.
"Haha... I have been tolerating their nonsense for too long, it"s payback time! Charge straight down, do not be frightened of the arrows!"
Liu Yan laughed heartily. With a stretch of his hand, six green fire dragons appeared in front of him, baring their teeth and claws as they roared threateningly. The dragons emitted blistering heat waves into their surroundings as they charged downwards at incredible speed.
"Voom voom!"
An archer"s tower got struck by a flame of green fire and burst into flames immediately. The locked and loaded 8 Oxen Bowls caught fire in no time and the archers by the side were not spared the painful death, screaming in agony as they fell from the tower.
"Shoot! Shoot!"
The head of the Bone Melting Sect exploded with rage and flew onto a roof. He s.n.a.t.c.hed away a huge bow and pulled the string to its maximum tension. The arrow shot out with amazing force towards the two spiritual birds.
Behind the head of the Bone Melting Sect, the disciples and elders of the sect who were originally in utter chaos eventually found their composure and got a hold of the situation. At the same time, several long-range weapons shot into the sky to meet the great enemy.
"Elemental force of heaven and earth, do my bidding!"
Liu Yan did a finger gesture as he shouted out the incantation. Immediately, two green and red fires burst out in front of Iron-tailed Black Eagle and Wind Chasing Falcon, as though forming a s.h.i.+eld.
At the same time, a huge flame exploded in mid air and rained down like a meteor shower.
This was the spiritual fire. Even though it was in a small quant.i.ty, it was terrifying enough for most of the lower ranking disciples. To use it in such a big environment, it became a fire disaster in no time, lighting up all the beautifully constructed buildings.
"Liu Yan! You old thief!"
Seeing this, the head of the Bone Melting Sect seethed with anger as he shouted, "One of us must die today!"
"Snap!"
He drew back the string on the bow as he prepared his next shot, but as he exerted too much force, the bow snapped into two.
"Lu Renjia...you old thief, show yourself!"
As Liu Yan"s pa.s.sions got intensified in the fight, he shouted out for his enemy.
Fang Yuan a.s.sessed the situation closely and was on his toes. With the dispersal of the powerful magical elemental force, Fang Yuan communicated with Iron-tailed Black Eagle as they dodged the lethal arrows shooting up from below. With the s.h.i.+eld of fire, they could move about freely in the barrage of arrows.
"According to what Liu Yan said on the way here, Lu Renjia is an alchemy master. He hired a spiritual knight who goes by the name of Blood Demon and also has two servants who are Wu Zong martial artists going by the name of the Crippled Brothers! With the combined might of these people and the heads of three sects, this was almost enough to overpower the Secluded Mountain Prefecture!"
With the combination of powers of seven martial artists who had elemental force, it was more than enough to overpower the existing head of the Secluded Mountain Prefecture.
Before, this Liu Yan definitely had more than three generals in the secluded mountain. But after one of them rebelled, he fought another general to their deaths in the war earlier. This pattern continued which severely weakened the power of Liu Yan"s forces.
"If I did not arrive, the Secluded Mountain Prefecture would be wiped out even though they have two spiritual knights, three Wu Zongs and the scarily impressive power of Liu Yan! As for just now, if Liu Yan had dared to even use such that technique without Iron-tailed Black Eagle covering for him, he would definitely be encircled and trapped without a chance of survival!"
"Chief Bai!"
Looking at the disaster unfold in front of him, Lu Renjia shook his head and said, "We are overpowered now, we must avoid the tip of the enemy"s spear and head for open ground where the spiritual fire cannot work its magic to cut our losses!"
"As of now the enemy is pressing its advantage. Now that the Spirit Returning Sect is in trouble and the head of the Huang Kun Sect has rushed here, we should still not take the enemy on. All we can do now is to wait for Blood Demon and the rest to hurry back quickly!"
Combining all of their powers, it would be more than sufficient to deal with Fang Yuan, Liu Yuan and their spiritual beasts.
"Do not care about this sect now, head straight for the camps at the foot of the mountain to break out!"
"Woo woo!"
Earlier when the Bone Melting Sect was enveloped in flames, the army camps at the bottom of the mountain sprang into full alertness. Horns blared anxiously, and arrows were loaded into their bows. They were definitely more disciplined and ready than the Bone Melting Sect.
After all, it was the elite soldiers of the three counties who resided within the camps. They were a uniformed and legitimate force, not a bunch of rowdy disciples.
"Move!"
The head of the Bone Melting Sect winced and ignoring the pain in his heart, commanded loudly, "Disciples of Bone Melting Sect, disperse and break out!"
This was a painful decision, but it was very effective.
After all, Liu Yan was just one person, even if he was more powerful, how many could he possible kill?
Anyway, if the sect got burned down, it was just a matter of losing face. He could always rebuild it later. Even Liu Yan"s own city got destroyed.
"Chase them!"
Upon seeing each other, the enemies raged further.
Without much effort, Liu Yan spotted Lu Renjia behind the head of the Bone Melting Sect and shouted angrily, "Prepare to die!"
"Bang! Bang!"
Several huge falls of fire formed on his arms and they crashed downwards from above, like from a flamethrower.
"Haha...you old devil you expanded everything you had, aren"t you afraid that you might have went a bit too hard?"
Lu Renjia laughed and as he waved his hand three alchemy b.a.l.l.s flew out.
"Voom!"
The white ball exploded in mid air and the temperature fell drastically immediately. The whole place became freezing cold and neutralised the raging fire.
"Even though this person is an alchemy master, it seems that he isn"t that inflexible!"
Seeing this, Fang Yuan thought of an idea and silently ordered Iron-tailed Black Eagle to soar up higher.
How could spiritual knights and the Wu Zong act so speedily?
In no time, Lu Renjia and the head of the White Bone Sect cross the mountain and arrived at the foot of it.
Within the camp, a gust of dust sped towards Lu Renjia. The leader wore a yellow robe and had a thunderous voice as he shouted, "Master Lu, I will help you!"
"Be careful Chief Huang, this old devil got himself a spiritual eagle from somewhere which is even more powerful than the Wind Chasing Falcon!"
Seeing the head of the Yellow Brothers sect arrive personally to help him, Lu Renjia heaved a sigh of relief and cautioned him.
"Haha, do not worry Master Lu. This Liu Yan could not have possible expected me to be defenceless against his spiritual bird right?"
With a wave of his hand, the cover sheets on a few carriages were removed to reveal 5 unique looking crossbows. The arrows had several unknown prints on it and the arrow head looked slightly illuminated by a dull green light.
"Aim!"
"Fire!"
With a few shouts from the troops, the five cross bows let out a deafening roar.
"Bang!"
The tremendous recoil caused several carriages carrying the weapons to exploded instantly.
The power of such a gigantic crossbow was naturally tremendous.
"This..."
High in the air, Fang Yuan immediately felt anxious and realised danger was coming his way and commanded, "Iron-tailed Black Eagle, dodge to your right!"
"Shoo!"
Almost instantaneously after spiritual will was activated, a ray of green light pa.s.sed through the s.h.i.+eld of fire and brushed past the wings of Iron-tailed Black Eagle, shooting down some of its iron feathers.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"
By the side, Liu Yan thrusted his five fingers outwards and flaming claw appeared, causing the other crossbow to combust into ash.
Iron-tailed Black Eagle was lucky that Fang Yuan pre-empted it and saved its live. However, the Wind Chasing Falcon next to it was not so lucky.
Along with the gasps of awe from the people, Wind Chasing Falcon increased its speed and dodged two of the arrows, but got hit by the last one in its wing. The arrow pierced into it and blood flowed out as it let out a painful shriek.
"Fantastic!"
Looking at the unsteady Wind Chasing Falcon fall towards the ground, Lu Renjia heaved a sigh of relief and said, "You skills are incredible Chief Huang, you have helped us a lot!"
"Our sect started off constructing equipment and mechanisms and I made this crossbow myself. The most crucial parts of the crossbow are made from iron of top quality. The arrows were also further enhanced with the inscription of spiritual prints. Even if they had the protection of feathers of 4 Heavenly Gates level, the arrow could still penetrate through!"
The head of the Huang Kun sect boasted with satisfaction.
"Surround them and kill them off!"
Seeing Wind Chasing Falcon fly closer to the ground, rays of frosty light shot out of Lu Renjia"s eyes.
"Just us? Unless the entire army surrounds them, if not..."
Upon seeing the people on top of the spiritual birds, the head of the White Bone Sect lost a bit of confidence.
Would the two highly skilled Wu Zong and spiritual knight even stupidly fall for the trap and allow the army to surround them?
"Do not worry, even without the help of the main force, we can take them on ourselves!"
Lu Renjia winced a little and then painfully drew out an item and said, "With this, it doesn"t matter if our opponents double in force, we can delay them here until Blood Demon and the Crippled Brothers return! When they do, it will be time for Liu Yan to die!"
"This is...the Spiritual Array Map?"
The eyes of the head of Huang Kun sect lit up as he licked his lips and said, "This is such a rare and precious item you have!"
"Brother Huang, you flatter me!"
Lu Renjia smiled grimly and said, "Spiritual Array masters are no longer in existence in this area. This Spiritual Array Map is the last of its kind and it can only be used once. To do so will be to spend half of my life"s possessions..."
"Sssss.... I"ve long heard that it was difficult to become a Spiritual Array master. But if one were to succeed, it would be extremely powerful and difficult to defeat."
How much possessions did an alchemy master have? Even if it was just a fraction, it was still enough to make any sect desirous.
To achieve the Spiritual Array Map at such a huge cost, its powers and effects must be devastating.
To be able to see Lu Renjia be so confident of delaying and holding up such formidable martial artists, it was a sight only a privileged few could enjoy!
"Chase!"
The heads of the Huang Kun Sect and the Bone Melting Sect made eye contact and hurriedly followed behind Lu Renjia as they moved towards the area where Wind Chasing Falcon fell.
"Erm!"
Fang Yuan who was still in the air caught sight of this immediately and grew suspicious, "They are extremely daring to leave the protection of the army and come out on their own!"
Based on their flexibility, in order to chase up to people like themselves, the only way to do so was to leave behind the main army.
But to so courageously do so when they were clearly at a disadvantage, they must have something they were relying on for support!
"Hehe...Could it be that Lu Renjia thinks that just because he behaves so daringly I wouldn"t dare to fight him?"
Liu Yan pointed somewhere deep into the mountains and said, "Let"s go there!"
Deep in the mountains and the jungle was where the main army could not enter easily, which was also where they could effectively execute their techniques to the maximum extent.