Chapter 3: Enemies
12th hadn’t been this nervous in a long time; his heart beating rapidly. He already saw everyone as his family now, and in the span of less than a year he had already integrated into this group extremely well. Upon seeing the flying hunting chariot fire randomly at the ground, 12th could feel hatred and anger well up inside him.
“Who are they? Why are they attacking us?” Chen Bing asked as he bit his lip and clenched his teeth.
12th continuously prayed, “Please let them be safe, please……” He didn’t have any thoughts of retaliating, his only thoughts were that they weren’t strong enough to take on these three hunting chariots alone.
On them there were only eighteen people, but they were well prepared. They were all strangers, but the hunting chariots especially amazed 12th for they had the ability to fly, which 12th had never seen before.. It’s not that he hadn’t seen a machine that could fly, in his past life, not only were there airplanes in the sky, but there were also rockets, however this was different, this world is terribly unadvanced so the flying chariot was beyond the limits of imagination in a world like this.
Even though Luo Jie had reached the level of a Great FuZhou Master, he could levitate a few meters off the ground at most, but not fly The hunting chariots were fast, which was very convenient for hunting creatures, be they men or beast, and fighting back was difficult because they were attacking from above. The hunted could only run or hide.
This was a cruel tactic. Through a gap between the rocks 12th could see the people on the chariots fire downwards repeatedly, one after another. That thing was basically like the bazookas of his past life—whatever it hit would instantly explode, and soon he could hear the horrible screams without knowing who exactly got shot.
12th’s face went pale and he looked terrible as he started looking more and more depressed, while his body was shaking uncontrollably. Seeing this Chen Hong thought that 12th was scared, but in actuality he was furious. She took his hand in an attempt to console him. 12th turned and looked at Chen Hong, understanding immediately, he shook his head slightly. Chen Hong, on the other hand, was in shock because 12th’s eyes were so bloodshot. They seemed completely red.
Huo Bao was so eager that it gave 12th a headache. 12th quietly said, “Let’s retreat and go back to that underground room! It’s too dangerous here! If one of those hits us then we’ll all die for sure!”
“We have to help them!”
12th shoved him and said quietly, “Don’t be stupid! Not holding them back is the biggest help we can give! Now think of a way to get us back!”
Huo Bao saw 12th’s crimson eyes, and was also scared, he whispered, “Fine, we’ll go. No need to get so angry.” He sighed and mumbled, “Since when did he get so fierce?” What was strange was that they didn’t have any thoughts of objecting at all. They all quietly followed 12th as they retreated. They were very careful, doing their best to hide amongst the gra.s.s and trees as they made their way back.
Not long after they started moving a green ring of light shot towards one of the chariots. Luo Jie finally made his move.
Ring of Heavenly Thorns!
Luo Jie started with his most powerful attack. He fired three Rings of Heavenly Thorns consecutively, slicing towards the nearest chariot.
The Ring of Heavenly Thorns was fast beyond compare, and in the blink of an eye, it hit the chariot. Luo Jie’s timing was impeccable, making his move between the enemy’s shots. The Ring of Heavenly Thorns bit deep into the chariot, countless sparks were flying from the impact as the materials of the chariots were trying to resist the attack, however it could only stop one, and there were two more following so with the chariot’s defences having been broken, the entire chariot came crashing down.
The five people on board jumped off. It seemed that the Fu Beast Spirits pulling the chariot were under the control of the driver, as they quickly caught the five falling people. Just like that the five of them successfully landed on the ground. 12th then heard a loud voice shouting, “Fire!” and millions of Fu Arrows shot towards those five people.
This synergy was sculpted by Luo Jie after many years of working under him, needless to say, as soon as Luo Jie attacked, the rest of them know exactly how to back him up.
Thankfully Xiao Feng got there in time and everyone hid quickly, however there wasn’t time to notify everyone. As such the other small group was discovered by the hunters and they were fired upon. Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan couldn’t let anger cloud their judgment, so the two of them formulated a plan beforehand and only then did they attack.
Luo Jie attacked suddenly, first downing one of the opposing chariots, and then continued to attack, shooting three more Rings of Heavenly Thorns, focusing on the next chariot with such great timing that it was breathtaking.
Once the second chariot exploded, the last one quickly flew to evade, not daring to fly randomly lest they get attacked too.
This was a death match, there was no chance of negotiation, it was a kill or be killed situation. As soon as the people from the chariot landed on the ground the Fu Arrows were flying in their direction, and moments later screams and shouts could be heard as they got hit by the arrows and were wounded.
The enemy were well prepared, it was unknown what type of armour they were wearing, but their entire body glowed with Fu Patterns and as soon as a Fu Arrow made contact, countless Fu would appear to block the arrow and stop it entirely. However they never thought that there would be so many Fu Arrows, so once the armour was overwhelmed with numbers, the men could do nothing except get hit and wounded.
Two chariots exploded and twelve people fell, landing in two locations, even though the distance wasn’t far, it was still difficult for them to group up. At that moment Qi Nan Shan was in a rage. The reason why he and Luo Jie were raging was because two Fu Warriors were killed by the enemy attacks. This was also the cause of their collective anger and why they initiated an attack.
Qi Nan Shan, like an arrow, rushed towards the closest six people, with a longsword in hand, which was an uncommon but powerful Fu Weapon. Unleashing a warcry, he swept his sword in an arc in front of him and a giant crescent of silver appeared. He aimed towards the enemy’s waist area.
Those few people were also experienced in combat, so seeing Qi Nan Shan slicing his sword this way, the two of them stepped forward and each held up a giant Fu Shield. The Fu Sword’s strike hit the Fu Shields heavily, and the two guys were surprised as they didn’t think one strike could have this much power in it.
Bang! Bang!
Two loud sounds followed by the two shield men being knocked back, as if they were hit by a giant ball, and in the air they spat out some blood. The Great Fu Master wasn’t some weak, common man, even though he wasn’t the strongest person where they came from, he still wasn’t someone to be underestimated. This one strike just injured two of them.
Qi Nan Shan shouted, “Go to h.e.l.l!”.
This time he aimed at the young man who fired the heavy artillery, striking in front of him, clean and precise. It was as if he was being cut by light. The old man next to the target suddenly raised his foot and kicked the young man away, but he was slightly too slow as the young man still got hit, but only lost a leg, which was proceeded by screams.
One strike cut off one leg, the young man grabbed his stump as he was rolling on the ground crying and screaming. The old man was the driver of the chariot, and he rushed towards Qi Nan Shan shouting, “You motherf.u.c.ker!”. The two of them clashed, and after boom they both leapt back. Qi Nan Shan could still find his footing, the old man on the other hand could not There was still a difference in strength as he spurted some blood.
Qi Nan Shan was dauntless as he briefly stabilised himself and immediately started running.
Suddenly a piercing scream was heard, stumbling and tottering, a woman ran. Qi Nan Shan didn’t bother to chase her, but instead rushed to catch that old man.
Two Fu Warriors nearby started chasing after the woman.
Like the wind, Qi Nan Shan sprinted in front of the old man, without hesitation he brandished his sword. The old man stuttered, “You…… You dare kill us?…… I- “ Qi Nan Shan cut him short with a strike from his sword. Smiling coldly he said, “Since you attacked us, then you should have prepared to die!”.
He darted towards the other guy in a crazed rage.
The guy was pale with fright as he said, “Stop! Stop! Please don-……”
Qi Nan Shan swept his sword back, and with a boom, that guy was lifted off of the ground. He attacked unabated, and not waiting for the guy to finish he thrust his sword, and all that could be heard was a crunching noise as all the bones in that guy’s body was crushed. The guy’s body went limp in the air in an arc, and with a thud, hit the ground, dead.
No matter who it was, being hit by a Great Fu Master up close was an incredibly frightening thing. In the brief time of ten seconds, six people were either killed or heavily injured.
The ones who landed on the other side suffered likewise for they were surrounded by Fu Warriors. However those Fu Warriors didn’t fight head on, instead they relentlessly fired volleys of Fu Arrows. Luo Jie used ranged attacks to quickly end the fight. Seeing the twelve people on the ground being slaughtered, the remaining chariot in the sky quickly retreated, disappearing into the horizon.
Luo Jie said gravely, “Loot the dead, I’ll go find 12th!”. He was smart, these three flying chariots, although the people on board had similar skill levels may be a bit weaker, their preparations were strong. It was also clear that these were three small groups. Had there been one or two dozen of these groups, then the consequences would have been more serious.
“Hurry! Let’s leave!”
Qi Nan Shan looked a bit worse for wear, he: lost two of his Fu Warriors, had one heavily injured Fu Master and one lightly injured. So even though he killed over ten of the people who had randomly attacked them, he was still seething with rage. In the Mysterious Lands it was rare to encounter these attack-first-questions-later people.
“There’s still one alive!” reported on the the Fu Masters. Qi Nan Shan brusquely replied, “Kill him!”.
Luo Jie interjected, “Wait! Bind him and take him with us!”.
Qi Nan Shan was angry beyond words, he said, “Elder, are you really going to let him live?”
“I’m not letting him live, I want to know who they are! I almost forgot about it during the killing! Good thing there’s still one alive to talk.” replied Luo Jie.
Qi Nan Shan said, “d.a.m.n, it seems I also forgot about that. f.u.c.k…… Who the h.e.l.l are they, attacking without warning, did they take us for prey?”.
They all made their retreats quickly. 12th and his group hadn’t even made it all the way back to the underground room and were already caught up to. Luo Jie yelled out, “12th are you okay?” as he grabbed 12th by the shoulders and looked him up and down. The worry on his face made 12th very emotional, knowing his Master really cared about him.
12th replied, “Master, I’m fine! Don’t worry! So…… Where do we go from now? We can’t stay here!”.
The people present, other than the five kids, were all experienced fighters and they didn’t fear fighting. Luo Jie nodded and said, “We’ll go into the forest, maybe we can hide there”.
Surrounding the ruins was a giant ma.s.s of trees, 12th thought very hard for a second and looked down at his feet.
“What’s wrong?” asked Luo Jie.
12th replied, “The trail that we’re leaving behind…… it’s too obvious, it’ll be too easy for them to follow us!”.
Luo Jie couldn’t stop smiling wryly. Usually he would rarely need to cover up his own tracks because he was a Great FuZhou Master and barely anybody would dare challenge him, however this time is different, so even though he had killed those initial attackers, he knew that if more groups came it would be impossible to beat them all. Especially since they had those bazooka-like weapons, which made things all the more difficult.
Qi Nan Shan said, “Follow us? Perfect, I’ll kill them all!”. His hatred for those strangers was incredible.
12th said, “First thing’s first, we should get to the forest. It’s too open here. If any of those people flew over now, we wouldn’t even have anywhere to hide. It’s too dangerous!”.
Luo Jie agreed, saying, “Alright, let’s go!”.
“Luo Zhan, carry 12th. Xiao Feng take Huo Bao and the others. We should go as fast as possible.” Qi Nan Shan said.
A few minutes later, everyone made their way into the forest. As soon as they entered the forest 12th yelled out, “Stop! Stop!”.
Whether it was Luo Jie or Qi Nan Shan, they all respected 12th’s opinions. Right now his words bore a lot of weight so everyone stopped immediately. Luo Jie asked, “12th, why are we stopping?”.
12th smiled and said, “Master, Grandpa Nan Shan, wait a bit. Uncle Luo and Uncle Feng, give me a hand!” as he motioned for the two Fu Masters to dig a hole here and there, peel some bark, etc.. Everyone watching were utterly confused. Next he pulled out a Single-use Fu and placed it inside. Luo Jie understood instantly, asking, “12th, this is a trap isn’t it?”.
“Yep, it’s a trap!”
Luo Jie stated, “Single-use Fu are too weak, it might not work on them.”
12th smiled, saying, “I wasn’t planning on hurting them in the first place,. Of course if it can hurt them then all the better, but it’s a shame that there aren’t any more powerful Single-use Fu, haha. The purpose of this trap is forewarning, it let’s us know if and when those people are chasing us, so we can better prepare ourselves!”.
Luo Jie said, “I have a few decent Single-use Fu, haha, I’ll give them all to you.” as he pa.s.sed over six Fu. 12th didn’t think too much as he immediately buried another two. Keeping the other four, if his Master said they were decent then they must be quite decent, so he didn’t want to put them all into the trap.
After a delay of about fifteen minutes, 12th finished his preparations. He said, “Alright, it’s done, Master, let’s go.”
They didn’t go towards the mountain valley, but instead they continued deeper into the forest, slightly changing their direction. They originally went East, but now they were heading North East.
After hurrying for about 100 miles, Luo Jie said, “Stop! Search the area, see if there’s a suitable place to rest.”
Luo Zhan put 12th down, saying, “12th, you’ve gotten heavy again……”
12th, using the most innocent of expressions, said, “My bones are heavy…… Uncle, this little bit of weight shouldn’t affect you that much, right? You run faster than a rabbit!”.
Luo Zhan didn’t respond, and a few moments later he said, “f.u.c.king rabbit, you’re the rabbit here……” He could help but laugh after finishing.
12th laughed too and shrugged as he turned around and walked to his Master’s side, saying, “Master, we can’t stop here for too long, rest a bit, but the sooner we leave the better.”
Luo Jie nodded, saying, “We have a hostage, we should interrogate him, and try to find out who they are.”
Qi Nan Shan smiled cruelly, volunteering, “I’ll go!”.
12th immediately followed, “I’ll go too!”.
Luo Jie nodded, “Alright, let’s go together, I want to know who they are too.”
It was a man in his mid twenties, wearing fancy clothes, who had lots of Fu Patterns on them. There were also many small Fu pieces hidden in them, and the Fu Belt around his waist was also beautiful, there was even a pretty little Fu on his buckle.
Qi Nan Shan meekly said, “12th, you ask him!”
Shocked, 12th asked, “Me?”
Qi Nan Shan nodded, “I’m afraid I’ll lose my temper and kill him!”
12th wasn’t even nervous, he had already interrogated a captive before in his past life, he said, “Alright then I’ll do it!”. So he walked up to the captive and said, “Give me a waterskin!”. He filled his mouth with water and sprayed the guy all over. The guy was woken up by the sudden coldness, but he was still dizzy.
Qi Nan Shan and Luo Jie gathered some Fu Masters and surrounded him, they wanted to see how 12th would interrogate the captive.
The first thing 12th said gave everyone shivers.
“Bro, what’s your name?”
It’s like this kid calls everyone he meets ‘bro’. If it was with someone he knew, then calling them ‘bro’ or ‘uncle’ wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but calling a captive ‘bro’? Everyone watched 12th with wonder, not knowing how he’d deal with this captive.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Let me go!”
12th told him, “Good children don’t swear!” as he took the guy’s hand and pinched his little finger. He didn’t have Qi Nan Shan’s strength, able to break that bone like a twig, however his method was more effective, and he bent the finger back. There was a snapping sound, and the first section of the finger snapped at the joint.
The man screamed, breaking a finger was very painful. 12th asked, “So brother, what’s your name?”
Everyone could feel the chill down their spines, a nine year old kid doing something like this, so calm and collected, it was a little unsettling.
“Hnng…… Aaaggghhh…… You……I’ll f.u.c.king kill you! I’ll f.u.c.king skin you alive……”
12th took out the Fu Knife he used to cut up Fu Beasts, “Good idea! But you know brother…… I have a better idea! How about this, I’ll skin you alive first! What do you say?”
Once he saw the Fu Knife that 12th was holding, he knew that that knife was used for collecting materials. Fear crept into his eyes, and at the same time he confirmed that 12th was indeed a pract.i.tioner of Fu. He screamed, “You won’t get away! Even if you kill me, you still won’t get away…… You’ll be sold as slaves…… Ugh…… Just you wait……”
12th frowned, saying, “I hate being threatened, hehe,” he continued, “I’ll dig your eyes out, who knows if that can be fixed……. Heh, maybe I’ll cut off your eyelids and let your eyes slide out?” as he ran his Fu Knife along the guy’s eye socket lightly.
At that moment the man gave up, he said, “You…… you win! Ask what you will, I won’t hide anything. Kill me or free me…… Just don’t torture me!”
12th nodded, asking, “Name?”
“Fu Ye Jie. My name is Fu Ye Jie!”
12th curiously asked, “That’s a strange name! Your family name is Fu?”
(T/N: In case you’re wondering, that Fu in his name is not the same character as the Fu (Runes). It’s strange because it’s rare that someone would have that as the family name.)
Fu Ye Jie replied, “No, my family name isn’t Fu, it’s Fu Ye, I’m from the Fu Ye clan!”
12th was at a loss as he asked, “Master, have you heard of the Fu Ye clan?”
Luo Jie replied, “No, I’ve never heard of such a clan.”
12th continued to asked, “How many of you came? Why did you attack us?”
Fu Ye Jie smiled coldly, “Hah, You came from the lower levels of the FuZhou Lands right? We came from the upper levels, unlike you…… needing to wait for the right moment and luck to enter the Mysterious Lands, we can enter any time we want. This Mysterious Land is a training area, and every so often hundreds of people come to train! This time…… there are over three hundred hunting chariots just from my clan! If only we didn’t separate from the group…… Argh!”
12th continued, “Why did you attack us?”
Fu Ye Jie said coldly, “This place is a training area, so anybody who didn’t come with us from the upper levels of the FuZhou Lands are all enemies, so if we encountered anybody from the lower levels, haha, then they are all trophies, our slaves! That’s why, that’s the reason we attacked you!”
12th smiled coldly, “But now you’re our prisoner, you’re our slave!”
Fu Ye Jie laughed, “Haha, in your dreams! You won’t get away! This time, tens of thousands of hunting chariots came through! Along with the leading group there are hundreds of thousands of people, you really think you can escape? Haha……”
12th, “Does everyone have their own Fu Door?”
Fu Ye Jie replied, “Fu Door? Only each clan has a giant Fu Door, How could each individual have their own?”
12th turned and looked at Luo Jie, there was shock and non-understanding in his eyes. 12th continued to ask, “Are Individual Fu Doors rare?”
Fu Ye Jie said, “Individual Fu Doors? They exist? How come I don’t know about it! In any case you people from the lower levels, you couldn’t possibly have such a thing.”
12th asked, “How big is this Mysterious Land? Have you got a map?”
Fu Ye Jie’s expression changed slightly, he said, “No, we only came to train, why would we have a map!”
12th knew that this guy was lying, but he didn’t call him out on it immediately. He continued, “Your power, compared to the others who were with you, are you one of the weaker ones?” He said provocatively.
Fu Ye Jie smiled, “You don’t have to gauge our strength, infact, I’ll tell you…… I’m not the weakest but there are at least ten thousand who are as strong as me or stronger than myself…… There’s also at least ten thousand, hehe, if our elders were here…… they would be more than ten times more powerful than us! Good luck going up against them!” The connotations of what he said sent shivers down everyone’s spines.
12th calmly asked, “How do you differentiate between the people from upper levels and lower levels?”
Fu Ye Jie said, “Stop dreaming, it would be impossible for you to disguise yourselves as people from the upper levels!”
12th smiled, “Smart! You guessed that?” He stood up and said, “Master, I’m done here.” Qi Nan Shan smiled, “He asked everything that should’ve been asked, I don’t have anything more to add. Elder have you got any questions left?”
Luo Jie asked, “Where are you all gathering?”
“East,” answered Fu Ye Jie, “don’t torture me, just kill me, please!” he knew the hopelessness of his situation and realised that trying to escape was futile. All he could do was beg for a quick death.
Qi Nan Shan nodded, “Very well, you deserve this much!” Raising his hand, he struck the prisoner once, killing him.
Then, from far away, the sound of the trap rung.