Chapter 251 – Injuries and Flying Ship
The scouting teams were quite thorough in their work, but that didn't mean there were no casualties. There were a lot of them since not all of them brought along Detoxifying Pills, and while they didn't die outright, their treatment would last the rest of the fight.
This played into the duo's assassination attempts. Their attempts dropped significantly since there were too many large groups of Cultivators.
They could still pick off a few Cultivators here and there, but that was just about it.
"We have set up the Soul Seeking Array!" One Cultivator shouted.
Umbra and Wanshu were not familiar with that kind of Array and could only hide in the dark.
However, the next moment as the Array lit up a Cultivation Technique flew their way almost injuring them.
"Kill anyone that is not from our Sect!" Fiend Wang shouted. She had no intentions of engaging in combat. While she was not lazy, this could not be considered even a warm-up, so she left it to the Outer Disciples to solve, while the regular Disciples supported them and inner Disciples commanded them from afar.
The duo was overwhelmed almost immediately, as they didn't expect to be found out so easily. They had to distance themselves from the groups or guide them into the traps.
Umbra and especially Wanshu suffered quite a lot of injuries from this.
They had to retreat and use the carefully prepared traps as defences so they would not be killed.
It was an all-out battle that they could not avoid. Each of them munched on a healing Pill before engaging with the Cultivators once again.
Umbra used her superior speed to bridge the gap of strength. She weaved between the groups, not quite engaging in direct combat, as that would be suicidal, but still luring them into more and more traps where she executed them.
All of Umbra's and Wanshu's wounds were shallow, but there were a lot of them. They had to use the Blood Replenishing Pill in order to recover at least a bit of lost blood.
They could not use the Blood Clotting Pill as it would make it harder to move and it would make them an easier target.
Wanshu was much worse off as she was a lot slower, but since she was a Demonic Fox, her feral nature made her more dangerous.
The Outer Disciples were much more cautious about the Demonic Fox than the Shadow Fox.
Moreover, none of them unlocked their Divine Sense, so even if they knew their positions, it was still somewhat hard to track them with accuracy.
The duo used this to lure them deeper and the casualties skyrocketed thanks to that.
...
They lived like this for a few days until Fiend Wang got upset.
"You useless salted fish!" She cursed at them. "You can't even take care of two horny Foxes and you dare to call yourselves our Sect's Disciples?!" She berated them again and again.
Fiend Wang huffed in annoyance before walking to the front of the ship. She jumped down on the ground looking around.
She was upset that her Sect's Disciples were so useless.
Fiend Wang placed her fist on the ground and shivers went up Umbra and Wanshu's spine.
They immediately retreated, but they were a step too late.
"Earth Shattering Fist!" Fiend Wang shouted as her fist formed a vortex of Qi, reminiscent of the one caused by Aiko's Evolution.
She slammed her fist into the ground and a shockwave passed through part of the forest.
The flying ship creaked as the Defensive Arrays and Inscriptions tried to take the brunt of the force, but even those were significantly weakened after Fiend Wang was finished.
The forest screamed as the trees shattered and were uprooted by the force. The earth caved in as the shockwave spread.
The duo were knocked back, crashing through a few trees before finally stopping.
They were paralysed and coughed up blood from their internal injuries.
They were in pretty bad shape, despite only being hit by the edge of the shockwave. If they had reacted any later they would not have survived!
The duo could not move for a while and the Disciples redoubled their efforts, especially towards them.
Fear gripped the duo's hearts when a hearty laughter shattered this tense atmosphere.
"Hahahaha!" A male Cultivator on another flying ship in the skies laughed. "The old fogeys from the North crashed!"
Everyone on his ship laughed loudly.
He then added. "I can't believe that you lost against the Foxes! I would take my own life if that happened!" He kept laughing with his crew made out of Shadow Units.
"You old bastard! You dare to come back?!" Fiend Wang shouted.
"I do dare and I even dare to laugh!" The male Cultivator laughed.
"Back off, Tao!" Fiend Wang shouted.
"Hahahaha! I think not!" Tao Xin laughed once again.
"You will regret this!" Fiend Wang roared as she readied her energy.
Tao Xin jumped out of the ship high into the sky. They were still out of Aiko's influence and kept flying towards it.
"Sky Shattering Stomp!" Tao Xin shouted loudly as a huge boot appeared in the sky.
Unlike other Cultivators who were all about the upper body, he spent all his time researching leg Techniques. After all, his legs were much more powerful than anyone else's.
The boot created pressure on the crashed flying ship and Fiend Wang's eyes widened.
"You dare to target my ship, you old bastard!?" Fiend Wang roared. "Sky Splitting Fist!"
They were previously friends from the same Sect, so their Techniques were quite similar. After all, they were too old to change anything about their old ways...
The boot met the fist. They clashed harshly, sending waves of forces all around their clash.
The tips of the mountains were crushed or cut off by the forces, but Tao Xin had an advantage over Fiend Wang, as he was older and with higher Cultivation.
The Sky Splitting Fist crumbled as the Sky Shattering Stomp descended on her ship.
Fiend Wang barely managed to run away with her disciples before their Flying ship was drowned and destroyed by the force of that boot.
Tao Xin felt strange as he could not steady himself in the air and he crashed into the ground. Fortunately, he had some Techniques to help him descend without fall damage.
Tao Xin felt puzzled, but he could not think about it as an infuriated voice entered his ears.
"You old shitty bastard!" Fiend Wang roared, completely red in the face from anger.
"It's nice to see you again, wifey!" Tao Xin grinned like a fool. "I'm here to play with you until the Treasure gains sentience!" He laughed again delivering a few Qi-powered kicks towards his wife.
"I have already severed all relationships with bastards like you, so don't call me like that!" She roared as she delivered powerful jabs and strikes towards her former husband.
They clashed together. Their clashes caused many aftershocks that blasted the innocent Disciples away, injuring them.
The duo didn't care at all as they battled against each other. Tao Xin was more powerful than Fiend Wang, but because he still loved his wife, he did not deliver any killing blows and only stalled for time.
*Creak**Crack*
A very familiar noise for Fiend Wang drifted into their ears. Tao Xin was puzzled where that noise was coming from, but he did not need to think about it for too long...
*CRASH**BOOM*
They turned around at the same time and his face turned red. "You bastards! I turn around for a moment and you crash my ship?!" He roared at the Shadow Unit.
"Shadow Tao, it's not our fault! This place has flying restrictions in place!" One Shadow Unit shouted.
"Bullshit! This place is in the middle of nowhere! Do you believe that-" Tao Xin suddenly paused and looked towards the mountain, where the Heavenly Clouds were gathering.
"Dammit!" He was much quicker on the uptake than Fiend Wang, so he immediately identified what was wrong.
"Call to the others to not approach from the skies!" He shouted loudly as he sent more kicks towards Fiend Wang.
"We can't contact anyone!" The same Shadow Unit shouted again.
Tao Xin cursed under his breath and shouted. "Engage with the Northern Sect!"
"Kill the Southern Bastards!" Fiend Wang shouted back.
A war soon spread, which was fortunate for the pair of Foxes. Giving them enough time to recover and sneak back to the Blood Fox.
"Are you alright?" The Blood Fox who was guarding the entrance asked in concern, seeing their state.
"We were fortunately able to reduce the impact of the shock-wave, but it still got us. We will need a few days to recuperate before we can engage with them again..." Umbra cursed weakly.
"That's alright." The Blood Fox nodded. "I will hold this place. Give me the Igniter for the Explosive Talismans." She said to Umbra before guiding them inside to rest.
"The Qi is pretty much gone, huh...?" Umbra chuckled weakly.
"Yeah, I have never experienced anything like this..." The Blood Fox shook her head, she could feel her body being much weaker without Qi around.
"The outside is a mess..." Umbra sighed.
"Get some rest. There is plenty of blood to make things difficult for them." The Blood Fox smiled sinisterly.
"There are also some dark-robed guys that engaged with the other guys, but we don't know if they are on our side." Wanshu said weakly, she almost passed out numerous times.
"I got it." The Blood Fox knew about this and the hilarious sight of another flying ship crashing.
"What unfortunate bastards..." The Blood Fox shook her head. She relished the fact that the flying ships crashed and that Aiko was making it difficult for everyone, even if she didn't intend to.
"I will watch the show until they approach." The Blood Fox still had to guard the entrance especially now that her teammates were trying to recover from their wounds.
"It's unfortunate that most food is with Aiko..." Umbra sighed.
"Even more so since it will absolutely be consumed by her evolutionary tendencies..." The Blood Fox added and they all sighed.
"I should've taken that Storage Ring from her, but I was so occupied that I forgot." The Blood Fox shook her head sadly.
"No matter, as long as we survive, everything will be alright." Umbra comforted the Blood Fox.
"Let's hope it will go smoothly like this moving forward..." The Blood Fox sighed before moving outside the cave to keep guard and watch the show.
The duo meanwhile popped more Pills into their mouths and circulated energies to recover.