Bi Fan and the others hadn’t gone very far when they realized that they were being followed by Gu Feng and his twenty-three man team.
“It seems that Gu Feng had been keeping an eye on us the entire time; and has even decided to forgo the Stone Giant’s corpse, as he’s coming after us with his entire team.” Bi Fan said in a very serene, and undisturbed, tone.
Even though the opposition was a lot stronger than them, Bi Fan’s body language reflected no fear; however, there was a subtle hint of excitement.
w.a.n.g Zhong asked: “Are we leaving, or are we fighting?”
“Fighting! I’m not afraid of them.” Blue Dragon spoke up.
At present, after the breakthrough, his strength had seen ma.s.sive rise, and so had his confidence. He was full of fighting spirit; even more than usual.
Lone Leaf was the only one who hesitated in that moment; after all, he was a disciple of the Jiu Yu Da Sect. So naturally, he didn’t want to pick a fight with Gu Feng, as it could spark a dispute between their schools, which may not work well for him in the end.
Bi Fan knew this well: “Brother Lone Leaf, we will not force you. If you don’t wish to partic.i.p.ate, then you may stand aside, and only spectate this fight. We can take care of Gu Feng and his men on our own.”
“No, that’s out of question, Brother. Since the other party is coming to s.n.a.t.c.h our treasures, it is my responsibility to counter-act. I will not pa.s.s on my responsibilities.” Lone Leaf said in a loud voice.
“Well said Brother. Now that we are all in, let’s kill them!” Blue Dragon said.
“Brother Gu Feng, why are we following these people? Do they have something even more valuable than the body of the Stone Giant?” The speaker was a tall and brawny youngster, the strongest under Gu Feng’s command. His name was Tie Fei Yun.
Gu Feng smiled: “What is more valuable: half of an Ogre flower, or the Stone Giant’s body?”
“The Ogre flower petals are obviously more valuable. Are you saying that these men stole the Ogre flower?” Tie Fei Yun was completely shocked.
“Yes, they were the ones to steal the Ogre flower. You thought that I would simply abandon a Stone Giant’s body, like that?” Gu Feng laughed.
“That’s really awesome Brother. You were tracking these people all along, and no one found out! That was a very wise move Brother!”
Gu Feng suddenly started feeling very comfortable; and was rather pleased with his position, after hearing all the flattering from his juniors.
“We will divide in three squads. One squad will continue to chase them from behind, while the other two will flank them from both sides. We will need to make sure that we intercept them.” Gu Feng revealed the plan.
Soon, they split into three teams. Gu Feng put himself in charge of the team that was supposed to attack from the right hand side.
The teams dispersed, marking the beginning of the fight.
Bi Fan had been slyly keeping an eye on the developments at the back, so he knew that Gu Feng had already kicked his plan into action.
“Brothers, the enemy is coming for us, and we must retaliate heavily. There will be no room for mercy here, and we must to aim for the kill.” Bi Fan sneered.
w.a.n.g Zhong said: “Previously, I wanted to avoid this fight. But now that they have decided to attack us, its time they found out our real strengths.”
“Brother Bi Fan, what’s the plan? It’s best to kill them all. If word gets out, then the relationship between Jian Shen and Bei Ming will be very severely impacted.” Lone Leaf said.
Bi Fan smiled: “They will try to surround us. We obviously can’t allow them to do that. We will turn around, and take them by surprise…”
Suddenly, Bi Fan and his team, turned around, and darted towards the Jian Shen team that was following them.
“We will not attack them first. We will let them start the fight. If anything goes wrong, we can always play the ‘self-defense’ card.” w.a.n.g Zhong said.
Since they weren’t a hundred percent sure of the being able to wipe of the other side completely, the ‘self-defense’ card could come in handy later.
As long as the Jian Shen men drew their swords first, Bi Fan and his party could attack them under the pretext of ‘self-preservation’.
Lone Leaf was strongly in favor of the idea. As long as Jian Shen was first to attack, he could kill them unrestrained. Killing Jian Shen disciples would no longer be an issue for him, in this case.
If the matter was ever inspected into, Bei Ming faction would provide him their full support, and protection against Jian Shen School, since he acted out of ‘self-defense’. Under any other circ.u.mstances, they were likely to denounce him, for the fear of losing face in public.
Bi Fan and his friends were moving awfully fast; plus the other side was also moving towards them. And soon, the two sides came face-to-face with each other.
The Jian Shen platoon, which was following them, comprised of six men, and was being led by a ‘transformation’ layered man named w.a.n.g Sheng.
As soon the Jian Shen platoon saw the other side charge towards them, the look on their faces changed drastically. w.a.n.g Sheng was the only one who was able to maintain his composure; and only barely so.
w.a.n.g Sheng had just entered the ‘transformation’ layer, so he wasn’t exactly considered a very stronger fighter yet.
Since Bi Fan and his party, had suddenly changed direction, w.a.n.g Sheng and his team found themselves unprepared to handle the situation.
“Brother Sheng, what do we do now?”
“We need to stop them. Brother Gu Feng, and Brother Tie Fie Yun, will be back soon.” w.a.n.g Sheng clenched his teeth.
If w.a.n.g Sheng and his team, let Bi Fan and his companions through, then it was likely that they would be able to get away, as chasing after them, after reuniting with the others, could take some time, and would make things awfully difficult for the Jian Shen Sect.
w.a.n.g Sheng acted decisively, but knew that he was biting the bullet here.
He had personally witnessed the strengths of the men who stole the Ogre Flower, so he knew that they couldn’t defeat these men on their own. He no other option, and could only pray that Gu Feng, and the others, returned in time to a.s.sist them.
“Kill them!” the Jian Shen disciples were the first ones to launch an attack.
They were all using good quality swords, so obviously their attacks were reasonably powerful.
Unfortunately for them, Bi Fan and his party were more than prepared for it, and they immediately dodged their attacks.
As soon as they dodged, they immediately charged back in, and cut down the distance from their enemies in a split second, and launched a quick counter-attack.
“A snap of the finger!”
“Defying Domination!”
“Six Yang Horseshoe!”
“Hegemon Blade Domination!”
Bi Fan, and his companions, simultaneously launched their attacks. Blue Dragon, especially, launched his best attack with all his strength. His Scimitar charged through the air with enough force to split a small hill.
“Oh s.h.i.t! They are too strong… they are all inside the ‘transformation’ layer!” The sheer force of their momentum made w.a.n.g Sheng realize his mistake, as soon as the four of them made their moves.
But w.a.n.g Sheng’s warning came a little too late, and Bi Fan’s team had already landed their attacks on their respective targets; the weakest four of their enemies.
At their strength and skill levels, killing anyone who was under the ‘transformation’ layer was an easy task.
In an instant, the six-man strong Jian Shen squad, was cut down to two-men; w.a.n.g Sheng, and the other remaining disciple, were both already shivering with fear.
“You attacked us first, so don’t expect any mercy!” Bi Fan shouted loudly.
He deliberately shouted these words out loud, so Gu Feng, and anyone else in the vicinity, would know of their innocence. Jian Shen was the aggressor; that was the simple truth.
Of course, if Gu Feng managed to get out alive, then he would surely shift the blame on to Bi Fan, and his team’s, head by saying that the four of them ambushed his team, in the hope of stealing their valuables.
The moment Gu Feng heard Bi Fan’s words, he knew that something bad was about to happen. He quickly turned around, and accelerated his pace, as he made his way back.
Of the two men that were left, Blue Dragon, alone, took charge of the man who below the ‘transformation’ layer, while the other three teamed up against w.a.n.g Sheng.
“Don’t kill me; I’m a disciple of the Jian Shen faction….” w.a.n.g Sheng started begging for mercy.
Unfortunately for him, Bi Fan and his team weren’t going to let him get away.
“Rainy-fly Sword!”
“Defying domination!”
“Six Yang Horseshoe!”
Bi Fan, w.a.n.g Zhong, and Lone Leaf, started the fight on a very high-ended note, giving w.a.n.g Sheng no room to move.
w.a.n.g Sheng’s spirited resistance was broken down by the three of them in a matter of seconds, and they quickly finished him off.
Blue Dragon took slightly longer, but managed to finish his fight with ease as well.
Bi Fan quickly incorporated the bodies of the six men, as they really had no time to divide the loot right now.
“Let’s move! They still have seventeen more men; we can’t afford to be reckless.”
The four of them quickly left the scene, with Gu Feng chasing right behind them in full force. They could see him at a distance, trembling with rage.
“I’ll chase you to the end of the world and back; I’ll chop you into pieces, run!” Gu Feng was completely exasperated.
The seventeen remaining Jian Shen disciples quicken up their paces, but were failing to keep up with Bi Fan and his party. They started using divine essence seals, and renewed their pursuit.
They were so busy chasing after the men that were ahead of them, that they never noticed the shadow that was quickly approaching them from behind.