Chapter 96
Leaving the cave, the group instantly noticed a complete change in the scenery.
Looking around, Qian Yu nodded as he said, “There’s a lot more trees here, this should be good.”
“I agree, let’s find out where we are first,” Zhao Xieren said as she brought out the map.
There weren’t many cavern entrances or exits on the map and before long, Zhao Xieren quickly found out where they were. Smiling, she said, “At this rate, we should reach the inheritance area by tomorrow.”
Hearing her words, Sun Hong smiled as she said, “Thank you for everything.”
“It was nothing, I didn’t do much anyways. I’m sure you would have been fine on your own,” Zhao Xieren replied humbly. From Sun Hong’s tone, Zhao Xieren could tell that she was very sincere. It was something Zhao Xieren didn’t expect from Sun Hong who she hadn’t really interacted with yet.
“Now, don’t say it like that. Don’t belittle your actions. Routing and planning are complicated but you did a good job,” Qian Yu said.
“Anyways, let’s get going,” Zhao Xieren smiled as she heard Qian Yu’s compliment.
Leading the group, Zhao Xieren looked at the map as they started moving. With the dense forest and many more mountains, they felt a lot more comfortable moving at a faster pace.
“Haha, not only is it a lot harder to be seen with this landscape but I’m sure the enemy had to move most of their forces to protect the other border,” Qian Yu laughed. Inwardly, he was also excited to see what was the inheritance hidden deep inside this region.
Yet just as Qian Yu said that, Sun Hong suddenly stopped. Noticing her movements, the rest of them similarly stopped.
Waving her hand, she motioned everyone to get down as she quietly whispered, “There’s a group nearby. Damn it, too late. I think they noticed us too. Their movement just turned strange as well. Get ready to fight.”
Hearing her words, Qian Yu instantly knew what it meant. The only people who could locate them would be others at her cultivation stage as well. In other words, there were Martial Fighters nearby!
“Only 1 Martial Fighter, a couple of soul foundation cultivators though!” Sun Hong said before she instantly dashed to the left.
*Bam* Merely a few seconds passed before the sounds of battle erupted. Summoning Tian Xinyi, Qian Yu didn’t hesitate as he instantly prepared for battle. By his side, Zhen Yue and Zhao Xieren didn’t linger as they started looking around for their enemies.
“We are most likely going to be outnumbered. Let’s move, else we'll get surrounded,” Qian Yu gritted his teeth as he warned the other two.
Nodding their heads, the group of 3 instantly started running forward.
As they ran through the forest and found a nearby clearing, they found their first two enemies.
“Take them down quickly!” Zhao Xieren shouted as she instantly burst forward.
“Wandering Blade – 5 Slashes!” Zhao Xieren instantly performed her martial skill. Compared to the first martial skill of the cultivation technique, Wandering Blade – 3 Slashes, this one was just a more complex and stronger version. Nonetheless, this was a rare occurrence but it didn’t mean it was bad.
Due to the techniques not being too different, it was easier to gain mastery and ascend faster. After reaching the higher layers, it would naturally diverge into more skills after you have gained more understanding regarding wind laws. Even then, the Wandering Blade martial techniques were undoubtedly useful already with its strong offensive power and burst in speed.
“Damn it!” one of the two cultivators shouted in surprise as they didn’t expect the sudden attack coming out of nowhere.
*Clang* Still, he managed to block parts of the martial technique.
*Zap* Yet before he could rejoice a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere landing directly on the man.
*Bang!* The man was sent flying back as a large burnt wound was seen on his abdomen. Blood gushed out from his mouth as he stared in horror at the source of the lightning.
“A spiritual beast? What the fuck?” He cursed as he saw Tian Xinyi who Qian Yu didn’t hesitate to summon.
Compared to her normally small state, where she could casually sit on Qian Yu’s shoulder or head, she had turned into her regular form, the size of a young horse, where she was considered a rare stage spiritual beast. That being the case, she naturally had her own skills that she could use.
*Tap tap* As the man struggle to get back up and run, he noticed a small and semi-transparent fox by his side.
“Am I seeing things?” The man blinked his eyes as he wondered why the fox looked so weird.
*Boom!* Zhen Yue detonated the fox spirit as it got into contact with the injured fighter.
‘Wow… I didn’t even do anything…’ Qian Yu thought as he didn’t know whether he should be happy or sad.
“One down!” Zhao Xieren shouted. Turning her head to the other cultivator, she saw that he had already started running off realizing he would instantly be killed if he tried to stay.
Yet that short scuffle had been enough time for the other soul foundation enemies to catch up.
Hearing the rustle from behind them, they turned their heads as they saw a few enemies come out from the depths of the forests. Seeing their targets, they instantly ran towards Qian Yu and the rest.
“There’s 7 of them!” Qian Yu shouted as he tightly gripped his hands.
Noticing the spiritual beast that was clearly much more intimidating and threatening than the other three, four of the soul foundation fighters split off as they surrounded Tian Xinyi.
‘Will you be fine?’ Qian Yu worriedly asked her. Not only were there four of them, Tian Xinyi still had to suppress the poison in her body, limiting her fighting capability.
‘Don’t worry about me, they won’t be able to kill me but it’ll still be difficult dealing with four of them,’ Tian Xinyi replied.
Hearing her reply, Qian Yu sighed in relief as he looked at the other three enemies in front of them. Two of them were holding sabers while the third one had a spear. Nonetheless, they were all soul foundation cultivators like Sun Hong warned.
“Charge!” one of them yelled as the fight finally started.
“Behemoth Rampage!” one of them yelled as he immediately used a martial technique.
Seeing the charge, Zhao Xieren didn’t hesitate as she ran forward blocking his attack.
Suddenly, his aura grew as it felt like a tremendous beast was coming at them. Waving his saber, he hacked towards Zhao Xieren.
*Clang* In return, Zhao Xieren blocked it as she brought her sword upward. Still, faced with his overwhelming pressure she was sent flying backwards.
*Thud* Zhao Xieren landed near Qian Yu and Zhen Yue. Getting up, she cursed as she said, “Damn it, he’s likely a late soul foundation expert.”
Hearing her words, Qian Yu and Zhen Yue frowned as they realized their precarious situation.
“Inferno Waves!” One of the other cultivators yelled. In a few seconds, a wave of fire was sent towards Qian Yu and the rest.
*Swoosh* Nonetheless, it was easily dodged as they rolled to the side.
“Let’s do what we did before with the fox spirits,” Zhao Xieren didn’t have time to think of anything as she resorted to their previous strategic maneuver and turned towards Zhen Yue.
“Sounds good,” Zhen Yue agreed as she summoned her fox spirits before controlling them to run forward.
Gritting his teeth, Qian Yu couldn’t help but feel useless once again! In terms of brute strength, he could easily beat those at his own level with Lightning Spasm but against those much stronger than him, he was nothing.
Fastly running forward, Zhao Xieren followed the two fox spirits as they approached the late stage soul foundation expert.
“Inferno Breath!” Seeing the enemy coming, the spear user didn’t hesitate as he shot out a cone of fire in front of him.
Seeing the incoming fire, Zhen Yue controlled the fox spirits as they leaped forward and took the full brunt of the attack.
*Boom!* A cloud of smoke erupted once again putting the enemy in confusion for a few seconds.
“Wandering Blade – 5 slashes!” From the smoke, five distinct sword slashes were seen as Zhao Xieren took advantage of the few moments of vulnerability.
“Arghh!” The man yelled out as Zhao Xieren attacked, indicating it was somewhat successful. By the time the smoke dissipated the man had retreated back a few meters as there was a large cut on his dominant arm forcing him to use his other arm to fight!
Seeing this, Zhao Xieren immediately turned to go on the offensive as she charged forward.
Zhen Yue didn’t stay idle either as she had already started fighting the other saber wielding cultivator.
Seeing the two girls fight, Qian Yu looked at the spear user as he thought about what to do, ‘I need to be careful. If I get taken out of the fight, it will become a 3v2 and the other two will instantly get killed!’
Glancing at Zhao Xieren, she was holding a clear advantage currently as she fought with the injured late stage soul foundation expert.
Of course, the other spear wielding enemy realized this as well as he started his attacks.
“Inferno Breath!” “Inferno Wave!” Continuous fire attacks were sent at Qian Yu.
*Swoosh swoosh* Even then, Qian Yu smiled as he dodged them like before. Maybe because it wasn’t a very strong cultivation technique or had a relatively low level of mastery, the ranged attacks were easily dodged as Qian Yu swiftly ran around.
“Damn it!” the unknown cultivator cursed as he ran forward intending to engage in a melee battle against Qian Yu.
Seeing this, Qian Yu smiled inwardly. Even though the other cultivator was most likely an early-stage cultivator, Qian Yu didn’t care. Knowing that he likely had no close combat martial technique, Qian Yu felt completely at ease.
*Clank Clunk* As the two started fighting, Qian Yu observed his fighting pattern looking for an opening to land Lightning Spasm on him. It wasn’t everyday that Qian Yu fought another spear user. Each person had their own fighting patterns and this would even change against the type of weapons they were fighting against.
‘This might be a little hard…’ Qian Yu thought as he realized his fighting experience against another spear user was pretty low.
‘Still, this is fine since Zhao Xieren should win,’ Qian Yu however, didn’t feel discouraged as he continued to observe and learn from the opponent’s attacks.
The seconds passed and a few minutes later, the fight was still at a standstill between the two spear wielding cultivators.
“Tch,” The enemy realized that this was going nowhere and if it held out any longer, then their side would lose.
Turning his head towards Zhao Xieren, he performed a martial technique as a cone of fire was sent towards Zhao Xieren.
“Scumbag!” Qian Yu yelled out as he ran towards Zhao Xieren who was focusing on her fight. Even though she was winning, she was naturally still injured as several wounds and bruises were seen on her body.