Chapter 5: Warfare
Part 1:
12th nodded, “I’ve seen stupid…… but this is ridiculous! Now our escape path has been cut off, we need to retreat immediately! They might drag us down with them!”
Qi Nan Shan quietly said, “f.u.c.k, everyone stay hidden, stay still for now!”
12th looked up at the sky; he could only see the dozens of light of all colours heading towards them. Those were the trails left by the chariots due to their immense speed. The chariots were already closing the distance between themselves and the Beast Raising Fu Sect.
However, the distance between Luo Jie’s group and the Beast Raising Fu Sect was not that great. It seems like they too had also been victims of the hunters’ attacks. Some of the members of the Beast Raising Fu Sect screamed and cried in despair upon seeing the chariots fly towards them so quickly. A dozen or so Beast Warriors stopped and each one of them gritted their teeth while waiting, for they were going to try and delay the chariots for as long as possible to give their comrades enough time to escape.
A dozen chariots together were incredibly powerful. It wasn’t that the people from the Beast Raising Fu Sect were that weak, but if they were going up against chariots that could fly around swiftly in the sky, then they would obviously perish.
Qi Nan Shan quietly said, “I think the Great Zhou Beast Master Lu Ning is amongst them, heh, this’ll be interesting…… It doesn’t matter where they are, because the power of someone who possesses the t.i.tle Great Master shouldn’t be underestimated!”
The Beast Warriors released their Beast Spirits, each one of them gaining Beast Fu Armour, each watching the sky viciously.
The group that was still running stopped for a second. They could see Lu Ning exhale his Innate Fu Book, then, with his hands, gracefully tap his Innate Fu Book like a pianist, which caused tens of bright green lights to rise up into the air. He continued to chant and summon Fu Beasts as the air filled with shrieks, roars and howls, followed by the call of an eagle. Even a few dozen Giant Eagles with wingspans of five to six meters had appeared.
12th was shocked, “Those are Lightning Eagles!”
Luo Jie said, “That Fu was created with the Lightning Eagle’s Spirit, very formidable.”
The convocation of Lightning Eagles briefly flew in a circle before flying straight at the chariots. Lu Ning roared and the few Beast Warriors that had stopped to hold back the enemy turned and ran. It seems those Beast Warriors had voluntarily stayed behind to delay the enemy and Lu Ning didn’t want them to be sacrificed in vain, so he personally stopped and showed his hand.
This displayed the power of a Great Zhou Beast Master, for after the Lightning Eagles have been summoned they basically don’t need instructions, they’ll automatically attack the enemy. Lu Ning and his little group took the opportunity to retreat.
A few moments later, as the chariots neared the Lightning Eagles, dozens of artillery rounds were fired. The Lightning Eagles cried sharply as a few dozen lightning bolts shot from their beaks. These bolts were as thick as a forearm and lit up the twilight sky as they intercepted the volley of shots fired by the hunters.
Violent explosions were followed with b.a.l.l.s of fire in the sky as a chariot that was flying too fast shot straight into a fireball created by the explosions. There were erratic flashing lights and another earth-shattering explosion sounded. The chariot was decimated. The people on board didn’t have any time to escape, so they all died on impact.
One of the chariots shot a beam of red light into the air, bursting at the top in the sky. It was an SOS flare asking for reinforcements.
All of the Lightning Eagles targeted one chariot at a time, ignoring all the projectiles being fired at them. Since they flew so fast, it was very hard to hit even one of them. At that point in time all of the chariots had shot down a total of two or three Lightning Eagles.
After the flare was shot, numerous streaks of light appeared from afar. Qi Nan Shan squinted to see, and a moment later he sighed, saying, “Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds couldn’t win so they cried for help. There are at least a hundred chariots coming! There might even be more following them. We really can’t move now. We’re screwed!”
12th calmly told him, “The sky is almost dark, the darkness of night is the best cover, we still have a chance.”
Luo Jie nodded, “The chance is there, but…… with so many chariots, we need to prepare for the worst!”
The chariots were too fast, Lu Ning’s group had only reached half way, right in the middle between the mountain region and the forest in which was a flat plain completely exposed from above, as the chariots caught up to them.
There wasn’t just one hundred chariots, there were two. The sky was filled with them. Two hundred chariots might not sound like a great deal, but when looking at them it’s frightening. If there are six people on each chariot, then on two hundred chariots there are 1200 people to deal with the hundred or so people on the ground. They were at a complete advantage.
The two hundred chariots attacked. Lu Ning was heartbroken, for those dozen Lightning Eagles couldn’t hold them back anymore and were quickly annihilated. After the Lightning Eagles are summoned they can be returned; however, if they can no longer be returned then their Fu inside the Innate Fu Book would become useless. Losing so many Lightning Eagles in such a short span of time, of course Lu Ning was heartbroken. He gritted his teeth, chanted a few Fu Incantations and yelled, “Burst! Destroy those sons of b.i.t.c.hes!”
The Lightning Eagles acted as if they were injected with pure adrenaline as each one of them went crazy, swiftly flying high into the sky before they descended from the sky like a diving bird of prey, each firing streaks of lightning. The Lightning Eagles each zoned in on a different chariot and dove headfirst into them. Due to their fast speed, sharp sounds were constantly being emanated from their bodies.
12th thought that they sounded just like bombs as they fell from the sky from his past life. That high pitched, whistling sound gave him shivers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
If a chariot was aimed at it wouldn’t have had a chance to dodge, for the power of the Lightning Eagles’ kamikaze was too great. A large group of chariots were destroyed as they got caught in each explosion.
12th was shocked, “s.h.i.t! That was…… Is that the power of a Great Zhou Beast Master? Why didn’t he do that from the start? If he had attacked with this from the beginning then maybe those people wouldn’t have been able to fire their flare.”
Luo Jie explained, “At the Great Master level such powers shouldn’t be taken lightly. I don’t think Lu Ning could bear to open with suicide tactics, he probably cared for his Lightning Eagles too much, after all, it takes a lot of effort and resources to create Lightning Eagle Fu…… With this attack, a great number of those Lightning Eagle Fu were destroyed. I think he’s used them all up now.”
Lu Ning clenched his teeth and shouted, “I’m taking you all down with me!” as he opened his Innate Fu Book once more, and with both hands continuously tapping dozens of red haze shot into the sky. It dissipated to reveal countless flying Vampire Bats.
This time Luo Jie was so shocked his face grew pale. He exclaimed, “Vampire Bats! Where did that guy find such horrifying creatures?! Those things are terrifying!”
Lu Ning smiled cruelly, “Go to h.e.l.l!”. This was his last hurrah. At first he had plenty of Fu Beasts capable of aerial combat, but in the process of escaping the hunters he used up most of them. He only had two left for this fight: one was the Lightning Eagle, the other was the Vampire Bats.
“Kill them all!”
A scream emanated from one of the chariots.
In that moment, two chariots fell from the sky. When the chariot was less than a hundred meters from the ground, six silhouettes shot from the chariot, followed by a man who ordered, “Illuminate the area and search carefully. Don’t let a single one escape! At this point take them dead or alive, I don’t care which!”
Beams of light appeared one after another from the chariots, shining onto the ground. 12th cursed, “f.u.c.k…… As if there’s a difference between these and the searchlights. These are even bigger and brighter……”
Suddenly, from one chariot, countless Fu Arrows were shot. These Fu Arrows were different from the type that 12th had seen before. He had the feeling that these things weren’t Fu Arrows but were actually something similar to machine gun rounds, for the sheer volume of shots was terrifying, especially since as soon as they hit something, they would explode. Even though the power of the explosion was mediocre, the numbers made up for it. This one round of shots exterminated over half the Vampire Bats.
12th said quietly, “They prepared too well.”
Luo Jie replied, “Yeah. Simple, efficient and powerful!”
Qi Nan Shan called Luo Zhan and quietly told him, “If we get discovered, you need to carry 12th and escape. Remember, protect 12th with your life.”
Luo Zhan nodded, “Don’t worry, even if I should die, I’ll protect him!”
Luo Jie’s group were already down two Fu Warriors, so there were only twenty three of them and of those twenty three, five were children with next to no battle presence. If the rest of the eighteen tried to take on the few hundred chariots there would be almost entirely no chance of winning.
Six more silhouettes dropped from a chariot and made their way to Lu Ning’s company.
People from the Beast Raising Fu Sect screamed as soon as they made contact. Those six hunters killed six people in the blink of an eye. Qi Nan Shan’s pupil contracted as he quietly said, “Those people are professional……”
12th quietly asked, “Grandpa Nan Shan…… how do they compare to you?”
“Incomparible…… I’m a Great Fu Master. At most they are as strong as Fu Masters, but their preparations are excellent. Look carefully, their Fu Armour is very strange, they aren’t made from the same materials as ours back home, so their defensive capabilities are very high.” answered Qi Nan Shan.
The Great Zhou Beast Master yelled, “Surround them!” as he summoned two Spirit Beasts, roaring as they attacked the six people.
12th said quietly, “Stupid, fighting even now…… They’re even failing at dying!”
Qi Nan Shan sighed, “You can’t really blame him, as a Great Master he’s usually the more powerful than everyone, so as soon as he gets insulted or attacked his first reaction would be to kill the opponent…… If it were not for how outnumbered they were, the Beast Raising Fu Sect wouldn’t be fleeing. To humiliate a Great Master like this…… They won’t get away with it!”
Luo Jie said, “Looking at it now…… the chariots, although they’re fast and are a very good platform to attack from, they aren’t actually that scary. They also have their weaknesses, but it’s a shame that we have too few people, for if we had a Great Zhou Master with us, heh, even if a hundred more chariots came it wouldn’t be a problem.”
12th said, “Master, they all came here to train and aren’t experts, so we still have a chance. If they’re all as strong as a Great Master then we won’t even stand a chance.”
The six attackers retreated defensively. The Great Zhou Beast Master’s two summoned Spirit Beasts lead the chase, while some of other Beast Warriors followed and chased relentlessly. It seemed as if those six people were overwhelmed, but one of them gave a signal and a few chariots came their way and fired countless Fu Arrows at the chasers.
Waves of laughter came from the chariots, even the people hiding far away like 12th could hear it clearly. The Fu Arrows struck them down as if they were cutting gra.s.s. Seven or eight Fu Warriors fell, and the the two Spirit Beasts’ bodies dimmed as well.
Lu Ning once again tapped on his Innate Fu Book a couple of times and out came two more Spirit Beasts, with one in the shape of a tiger and the other the shape of a bear. It seemed like he found it hard to follow up on attacks now, for losing a great deal of Beast Fu, to them, is the same as diminishing their combat abilities a great deal.
Those six people were surrounded by the four Spirit Beasts, and one of them shouted, “Retreat!” as another one gave a signal and two chariots came as cover. In the commotion, the six people jumped onto the chariots and escaped.
Part 2:
Lu Ning’s eyes spewed rage, having those chariots seemed like cheating—they were easy to both attack and retreat with. How was he supposed to fight that? Only now did he realise the situation as he called, “Retreat! Everyone retreat!”
12th, hidden afar, quietly said, “Idiot. Now he retreats? Even if he wants to, he can’t now…… both the path ahead and behind are blocked off, where could they retreat to?”
Luo Jie laughed bitterly, “It’s a shame, since I only just noticed that we aren’t weaker than those hunters, we just lack resources and preparation…… If we had the same amount of preparation we wouldn’t be weaker than them at all!” He gave a sigh and continued, “If I had more Spirit Fu and Ancient Fu, or some of those True Spirit Fu and True Ancient Fu that Li Ran mentioned, then there would be no need to fear them at all!”
12th replied, “We won’t be able to obtain any of those unless we go to their homeland.”
“How are we meant to get there though…?” Luo Zhan wondered out loud.
12th shook his head, “I don’t know, although, if they can get to this Mysterious Land then they must be able to return. If we find out how they get back home, hehe, then there is a chance we can get there too.”
Luo Jie said, “More importantly we have no way to return to our own homeland, let alone theirs.”
Qi Nan Shan said, “It can’t be helped, this is our first time in this Mysterious Land and we don’t know the rules of this place, so all we can do now is wait.”
The battle increased in intensity as people from the Beast Raising Fu Sect were dying left and right. 12th quietly said with a sigh, “Even though those guys are all b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I’d much rather kill them personally than see them ma.s.sacred by those other f.u.c.kers!”
Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan both nodded in agreement, even Luo Zhan nodded, saying quietly, “Yeah, those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are too evil.”
The sky continued to darken, and only the place where Lu Ning’s men were was being lit up by torches from the chariots. The ground looked like a graveyard with both corpses and injured men still alive. A few of the chariots landed and about a dozen people descended and quickly grabbed the injured people, bringing them aboard the chariots.
“Slaves!”
Luo Jie said, “Those people are the spoils of war!”
Indeed, the people from the Beast Raising Fu Sect fell one after another, but the hunters didn’t kill them, instead they were captured and hauled on board.
The people around the Great Zhou Beast Master Lu Ning began to dwindle, with only a dozen or so somewhat skilled Beast Warriors, six of which protected him persistently, as his last defense.
He was a Great Zhou Master, but the number of Beast Fu in his Innate Fu Book had decreased, and so did his options. He watched numerous Spirit Beasts being killed, so with anger he yelled, grabbing his Innate Fu Book, and tore out a page, fiercely ripping it out, and threw it.
Luo Jie’s body tensed, quietly saying, “He’s betting it all on this!”
The silvery page of the Innate Fu Book flew across as it spiraled in the air. “Go to h.e.l.l!” Yelled Lu Ning.
A beam of silver light shone and the page crumbled to pieces as Lu Ning spat out a mouthful of blood. That blood separated into droplets which shot through the air, combining with the pieces of silvery paper. They formed countless wild beasts of all shapes and sizes, that spread across all directions.
12th was stunned speechless, asking, “What the h.e.l.l is that?”
Luo Jie calmly said, “A Great Zhou Beast Master’s Innate Fu Book is comprised of countless wild beast spirits. To create one page there must be at least over a hundred thousand wild beasts sacrificed. Once that page combines with a Great Zhou Beast Master’s blood, it will transform into Spirit Beasts more ferocious than you can imagine. These Spirit Beasts are different to their corresponding wild beasts for they have terribly destructive capabilities.”
Qi Nan Shan said, “Here it comes again…… Look!”
12th raised his head and watched; he couldn’t help but sigh, “It’s…… beautiful.”
A few hundred chariots flew with rainbow trails, slicing through the night sky. 12th suddenly said, “Those are a different group of people! They aren’t with the hunters currently fighting!”
Luo Jie watched carefully for a moment and asked, “You mean the colour of the chariots?”
12th answered, “Yes! Holy s.h.i.t! What power!”
Lu Ning’s gamble offered results within the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes. With one attack he destroyed over twenty chariots. The people on board weren’t terrible injured, but the chariots were all destroyed.
With another yell, Lu Ning ripped another page from his Innate Fu Book. This time he immediately spat blood onto the page before throwing it out.
This was Lu Ning’s true power. As he watched the chariots almost arriving, he thought that if they didn’t get an opportunity to escape now then they never would.
“Variant Fu Beast Spirit!”
Luo Jie almost called out, as he said, “This guy is truly terrifying, he even has the spirit of a Variant Fu Beast!”
12th witnessed first-hand the power of a Variant Fu Beast, a near-death Variant Earth Dragon still had terrifying strength. If this guy was able to obtain the spirit of a Variant Fu Beast, and even made it into one of the pages in his Innate Fu Book, he indeed must be powerful.
It was a Variant Lynx with dark turquoise fur and two glowing eyes. It wasn’t particularly big, about two meters long, and since it was a spirit it was able to levitate. As soon as it appeared in the air, the surrounding temperature immediately dropped. This was a Variant Frost Lynx.
Lu Ning yelled with rage, “Kill them all!”
That Frost Lynx moved so quickly it was like it disappeared. It attacked a chariot with lightning speed, and in that moment that chariot froze and became covered in thick ice. The Frost Lynx gave an ear-piercing screech, and with that, the frozen chariot fell from the sky. It smashed into pieces with a boom, and from the wreckage a few people managed to crawl out.
Countless Fu Arrows were fired at the Frost Lynx, however its speed was stunning. With how flexible it was, and its ability to tread air and its dark turquoise fur, it was very difficult to pin down.
Only a dozen chariots were left still attacking the people as unrelenting Fu Arrows and sniper rifles limited their movements, preventing them from escaping. The remaining chariots turned to deal with the Frost Lynx.
12th laughed bitterly, “I’m afraid that those few hundred chariots might be chasing after us!”
Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan had both noticed this as well, as their faces darkened. 12th was right, it was indeed the chariots that had chased them for months. It’s almost been half a year, but those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds hunted them down relentlessly, not letting up at all. They were only stuck here for so long before the hunters had caught up.
A few hundred chariots joined the search, ignoring the fight, and immediately went to cut off the mountain region. 12th solemnly said, “There’s at least three hundred chariots!”
“Hey! What’s the Fu Clan doing here? This is our DaZhou Clan’s prey. You’re trespa.s.sing!”
“I’m sorry to inform you but we have been chasing them for almost half a year; they killed our people! Can you please leave? They are our prey!”
“Bulls.h.i.t! They’re our clan’s spoils of war! f.u.c.k right off! Don’t f.u.c.king provoke us!”
12th quietly cheered, “Come on! Fight! Cuss them back! Start fighting!”
Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan couldn’t help but smile, knowing that the enemy had found the wrong people. Qi Nan Shan said quietly, “Pa.s.s it down and make sure everyone is well hidden. Don’t move or make a noise!”
The message was pa.s.sed from one person to the next—twenty three people quietly hidden in the forest. As long as the enemy didn’t deliberately search there, it would be unlikely that they would be discovered. Only when Lu Ning’s company has been defeated completely and when the chariots had left would they have any chance of escaping into the mountain region. However right now they couldn’t move an inch.
After destroying a few dozen of chariots, the Frost Lynx finally succ.u.mbed. It dissipated into the air as its spirit scattered. At this moment Lu Ning was also close to his limit. He ripped out two pages of his Innate Fu Book in quick succession, an incredibly draining act. He changed greatly compared to when he first arrived in the Mysterious Land, for at that time he had a great number of Beast Fu prepared, but after half a year, because he was unable to restock on Beast Fu, his strength had waned. He didn’t even have any Beast Fu for transport anymore, or else he could have escaped easily and wouldn’t have been surrounded in this flat plain.
The chariots surrounded them all, with one guy shouting, “Just surrender! Your power has already earned our respect, if you surrender and pledge allegiance to the DaZhou Clan, you need not be slaves!”
Lu Ning screamed in reply, “Go f.u.c.k your mother AND her sharts! I’d rather die than surrender! Come at me! How about you f.u.c.kers start showing off your s.h.i.tty abilities instead of your f.u.c.king numbers!”
12th couldn’t help but praise him, “He’s a real soldier!”
The Fu Clan members didn’t say anything, and it seemed like the DaZhou Clan was more powerful, so even though the Fu Clan had more chariots, the DaZhou Clan didn’t care at all.
Lu Ning said, “Xiao Peng, you guys run for it, you’ll have a better chance of surviving. Maybe you can even return home!”
The few Beast Warriors with Lu Ning shook their heads, as one of them said, “We won’t ever surrender. we aren’t afraid to die! Haha!”
There were quite a few members of the DaZhou Clan who were shot off of their chariots.
A Great Master shouldn’t be ignominious, that’s obvious. There were very few powerful people, so it was exceedingly rare. The majority of them though were all high and mighty, which was because of how they were brought up, and since they were always proven to be better than everyone else, they were always more successful. They had a great deal of self-confidence, and were used to looking down on everybody.
The DaZhou Clan really wanted to recruit Lu Ning, for he put up one h.e.l.l of a fight and was such a formidable opponent that everyone was impressed, even though they themselves have impressive fire power.
All of the attacks had ceased now, and Lu Ning’s people had been surrounded with chariots circling the sky above them, and over a hundred powerful people on the ground. Lu Ning had already exhausted all of his Beast Fu and all that was left was his Innate Fu Book, and unless he tore another page out, he had no way to fight back. Unfortunately for Lu Ning he couldn’t afford to tear more pages, as each page of his Innate Fu Book was linked to his life force, so should he tear too many pages then he wouldn’t have long to live.
Until they had died, until had they lose all hope, none of them would accept defeat. Lu Ning still had a glimmer of hope in him, so for the moment he didn’t plan on dying or giving up, because he noticed something, a secret that could save his life.
“Come out! Stop hiding! Don’t think that if we all die you’ll be able to escape!”
Luo Jie and Qi Nan Shan’s expressions both darkened at the same time. 12th, surprised, asked, “b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How did he notice!?”