When the young man reappeared in the world, he was standing next to a martial artist.
The man took out a pair of blades from his back and thrust them towards the sides of the martial artist.
“Urgh!”
The martial artist realized the intense killing intent only when the blade was a few inches away from his sides. He somersaulted to the front, avoiding the blades. However, the young man had predicted his move. He pulled back his daggers and focused only on one blade and thrust it forward. While the martial artist was still in midair, he saw the incoming attack and managed to parry it away.
“Help me!” Cai Bei cried after he landed on the ground.
“Yes, Clan Leader!” cried a younger Redsands disciple as he rushed over. Just as he was about to stand next to Cai Bei, Cai Bei drew out a sword that did not belong to him and stabbed the young Redsands disciple in his heart.
The poor lad was completely unguarded when he was stabbed. How could he expect his own clan leader kill him?
When the poor lad was killed, Cai Bei’s body started to morph into the appearance and clothes of the man he had just killed. The sword in his hands even morphed into the same kind! The man was not Cai Bei but an Advanced stage Level 4 Mutant that had the ability to change his appearance. His ability was limited to copying only another person’s appearance and not his or her entire personality and abilities. Even though it was a huge telltale sign that could be recognized, no one had the time nor the attention in that war!
“Brother! Allow me to help you!” cried the shapeshifter as he rushed over to another martial artist, ready to strike him down.
“Brother Lu! Do not be fooled by his appearance! The man is a fake!” Cai Bei cried after he had defeated a large number of Mutants.
“Urgh…” the shapeshifter cringed when he had realized that his cover was blown. By then, he could not change his form since it would immediately give away his position and identity. The man ignored Cai Bei and charged towards a Level 4 martial artist.
“GRAH!” Lu raised his sword up high and parried the blade of the fake-martial artist. With a kick charged with qi, he sent the shapeshifter flying up into the sky.
When it came to combat skills, there was no mutant right there that could match any martial artist. All they knew about close-quarter combat was mere tricks and feints. They were not trained to fool a master in the art of fists and kicks!
Being a Level 4 Intermediate stage, even though Lu had landed a clean kick imbued with qi, he was unable to deal much damage to the Advanced stage Level 4 Mutant.
“East! Head East!” Ge Hong roared as he led the last of the surviving martial artists to open a path towards the East.
The man with a short-distance teleportation ability reappeared into the battlefield once more behind the last martial artist. Effortlessly, he swung the blade towards him.
“Brother Qian! Be careful!” cried Ge Hong only after he had felt that someone was coming from behind.
“Urgh!”
It was too late as Qian had already sustained a cut. The attack was meant for the neck but Qian was able to sense his presence early and tried to dodge the blade. Unfortunately, he was still cut in the arm. At the moment when he realized that he was cut, Qian felt a numbing sensation spreading from the cut to all of his arm.
“I’m poisoned!” Qian cried. He immediately channeled his qi flow to push the poison back to resist its effect. Although it did stop the poison from spreading, Qian himself became weaker. Unfortunately, if one is to show an ounce of weakness in such a fight, one could only expect death.
The group of martial artists was still running towards the east. When Qian was injured and severely maimed by the poison, many other Mutants were able to reach his side and began to attack. The severely weakened Qian was unable to deal with that many attacks and had sustained fatal injuries, one after another. One of the Mutants that morphed into a beast clawed Qian’s arms, slicing off a huge chunk of flesh that his bones could literally be seen.
Ge Hong noticed the severity of Qian’s condition and immediately ran to his side.
“Brother Qian. Eat these!” said Ge Hong as he took out a small bottle with two pills inside.
“These are…!” Qian saw the pills and hesitated.
“Forget about everything else. Your life comes first!” cried Ge Hong as he started to fend off the incoming Level 3 Mutants that were attacking relentlessly.
“Thank you!” Qian uncorked the bottle and took the pills.
After the first pill was consumed, blackened blood oozed out of the open wound. After he had taken the other pill, his wounds and flesh healed at a rapid speed. In no time at all, the muscles that were torn away by the Mutants grew back, allowing Qian to fight, although not as well as before.
“Such an amazing pill!” Qian exclaimed as he could feel his vitality was restored. The pills that Qian had just consumed were the Grand Restore Pill and the Evil Purging Pill which Jiang Fei had distributed amongst the members of the alliance. Jiang Fei had given a large number of them to all sects, hoping that they would be put to good use in this war.
Unfortunately, the pills that were given out were limited. Even though each sect had obtained a number of pills, most of them were taken and stored away by the Level 5 master of their respective sects. Only a small portion was given to the sect members. As for the Azure Cloud sect, they were only able to obtain one to two pills. Even Ge Hong had two pills of Grand Restore Pill and Evil Purging Pill.
Now that Qian had taken one of each, Ge Hong was left with one for each pill. That was why Qian had hesitated in the first place and was forever in debt to Ge Hong for his selfless act.
“Don’t just stand there now! Pick up your sword and fight!” Ge Hong shouted. At this point, the recovered Brother Qian fought with tenacity. With speed and strength, both Ge Hong and Brother Qian opened up a path to allow other injured martial artists to move forward.
At this point, the Redsands were in trouble. Cai Bei was drunk in the killing spree that he had completely forgotten about breaking away from the Mutants. His mind had snapped and he only cared about killing as many Mutants as possible. Unfortunately, no matter how much Cai Bei raged on about killing, he was being overwhelmed by Mutants from all sides. As a result, his fellow disciples were taking more attacks than they could fend away.
The martial artists were already gravely injured the second the battle started. Now that they had to face an army 10 times larger… The martial artists were close to dying from just fatigue alone. Their Qi was depleting by the second and one by one, they were killed like flies.
“Who’s there…”
“Brother Ge, you need not fear for the chivalry is here!”
…
“Leader! The Snow Mountain Sect is here!” cried one of the Azure Cloud Sect’s last surviving members as they heard the loud roar of Bai Wanli. With their hopes up, everyone fought with everything they had and pushed themselves towards the Snow Mountain Sect.
“You’re just in time… Brother Bai!” said Ge Hong as he was already at the verge of giving up. It was truly a beacon of hope in the darkness of desperation. Most of his men were killed and the last surviving ones were withering away.
“Cai Sect Leader! Please come this way! Brother Bai is here to save us!” cried Ge Hong as he suddenly remembered about the other sect. However, Cai Bei was berserk. He did not care about reinforcements.
Ge Hong had the heart to worry about the Redsands but his worries were wasted when he saw their sect leader had gave in to bloodlust. If he tried to go back and save the Redsands, there was a chance that he might not come out alive.
