198 Chapter 197: Crossroads (1/2)
Due to being injured during the battle with Pang Feng, I kept to the shadows to avoid confrontation and conflicts. Now that I thought about it, it was kind of stupid to fight him, especialy when I would have to worry about fighting other people later.
But the conflict was inevitable. Pang Feng refused to budge, and I couldn't just let Tang Qi Hong go. Sure, she would survive, but she would be condemned to a life worse than death, enslaved by Cloud Sky Mountain and forced to forge Spirit Artifacts for them while being in captivity. As much as I wanted to believe that Pang Feng would somehow mitigate that, I knew that unless he became the next sect leader, it would be decades before Tang Qi Hong would regain her freedom. If she did regain her freedom, at that.
I decided to gamble everything on my plot armor and hope that I would find a way of reversing the situation. Besides, we still had Sect Lady Zi Da Ji in the main sect grounds. If there was anyone who was capable of turning the situation around, it was definitely her. and Lang Xie, who was supposed to be on par with her or maybe even above her in terms of martial ability, was counted as the strongest orthodox martial artist in the Great Zhou Empire, so if the two join hands, we could throw back the combined forces of the ten sects assaulting us.
Or so I hope, but deep down I knew I was being overly naïve.
Even so, without any other goal, my own thought right now was focused entirely on returning to Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. I had to find a way to link up with Sect Lady Da Ji, and hope she had a plan to counterattack. Even if we lost the sect tonight, we were going to take as many bastards as we could to accompany us to the underworld!
”…”
Those thoughts sort of disappeared when I caught sight of more burning buildings while traveling down the district. From the distance, I could see the fires blazing ferociously, and the smaller, dark shapes of martial artists from Dark Asura Sect, Divine Shadow Sect, Cloud Sky Mountain and the Seven Valley Sects massacring civilians and combatants alike, rounding up the members of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and slaughtering them in the open.
I recorded the picture and emailed it to the public domain. If the royal family saw this, even they had to act. This had gone beyond ensuring that we had no weapons of mass destruction. They were committing war crimes and atrocities and violating the Geneva Convention, or whatever convention that passed off as a treaty with regards to war in this timeline. Not that I actually expect the images to have any instantaneous effect, but every little bit counted. If I published them online, it would inspire a public outrage that orthodox martial artists were actually behind such carnage and atrocities and even the royal family would have to sanction them.
They were not going to get away with this. I vowed inwardly in my heart, fury and vengeance building inside to near uncontrollable levels.
We had reached one of the nearer districts to the sect ground, and Flame Volcano finally came into view. I paused and stared at Flame Volcano through my glasses, my lenses automatically magnifying its image for me to see it clearly.
The first thing I noticed was that it was dark. Very dark. There was no trace of lights.
Something's not right.
I felt a chill run down my back. There should be lights on, even late into the night. Flame Volcano, in particular, housed the inner sect disciples and elders, who didn't adhere to any timetable. At any point during the day, you would at least see lights on and forging fires in the workshops and labs of inner sect disciples and elders who worked no matter what time of the day or night it was. I had to admit to being one of them, working until wee hours in the morning and going to bed at 7am after staying up the entire night (and most of the morning).
Even so, many of the public facilities would remain illuminated, for communual use and all that. Unless there was a total blackout, the lights in the public facilities would never go out!
The alternative, of course, was that the facilities were all destroyed…
I shook my head violently, refusing to believe that. Even if there were ten sects assaulting our city, we couldn't possibly fall this soon. We were built to withstand a siege. Sure, even though the ten sects had invaded the outlying districts of our city, Flame Volcano was a natural fortress. We should be able to endure the invasion for at least a few weeks, if not months.
There was no way Flame Volcano would fall under a single night!
”Damn it.”
I studied Flame Volcano intensely, as if hoping that just by looking, the volcano would suddenly come back to life. But it remained completely shrouded in darkness and still. There was no movement, nothing.
Biting my lip, I contemplated my options. If I turned back now, where would I go? There was no alternative place to go to. I could return home, but the ten sects would track me and Tang Qi Hong down, and I would have to fight pursuers off along the way. And my home was much further from Tushan City from Nine-Tailed Fox Sect's main grounds.
Furthermore, I knew for sure that the ten sects weren't stupid. The Martial Arts Alliance would have all the public transport systems and railways guarded. To try and get to a bus or train station would be to walk right into them and get caught. And Tang Qi Hong was in no condition to move on public transport anyway – we would attract far too much attention, the Martial Arts Alliance would swoop in, and the both of us would be imprisoned and enslaved until the royal family got off its ass and sent the Imperial Guard in to clean up the mess.
I glanced at my phone, but I didn't receive any new messages, not from Tong Xue or the sect elders. They obviously had more important things to do than to reply to my messages, and given the circumstances, I imagined that they would be receiving thousands of new messages from countless civilians trying to find out what to do. They wouldn't have time to filter through the messages to look for my text message or call.
And that was the optimistic scenario. The other possibility I considered was that they were all dead.
”Well, no use thinking too much about it,” I muttered to myself as I spared Flame Volcano one last glance and continued toward it. There should still be Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and Blood Blades fighting. I was sure Sect Lady Da Ji and Lang Xie were still alive, at least. I was going to meet up with them and we were going to find a way to take back our sect from these greedy, jealous bastards.
Or perhaps they would want us to retreat and escape, seeking refuge under the royal family. In any case, I would rather move with them as a huge group than to go on my own. I didn't even know where the royal family was, and I would need someone to follow. It was all and well saying I would fare better escaping on my own, but I highly doubted I could fight off an army from ten orthodox sects by myself, while carrying an incapacitated girl.
Speaking of which, Tang Qi Hong needed medical treatment as soon as possible, and I wasn't going to be able to provide her by running along the shadows and avoiding everybody. The only doctors I could trust were those in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. Otherwise any clinic or hospital I went into was bound to be under the jurisdiction of the Martial Arts Alliance, and…well, you know what would happen if I walked right into them.
”Damn it…” closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and then opened them with more determination. ”Let's do this.”
Tang Qi Hong looked at me inquisitively, still unable to speak, but I didn't respond to her questioning gaze. Instead, I took off, hugging the shadows and zipping through the dark roads toward Flame Volcano.
Seeing that I was going back to the sect, Tang Qi Hong relaxed. I bet she didn't want to part with her adopted family and her friends, and Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had been her home for years. Of course she wouldn't want to abandon the sect and run away by herself. And I promised to take her back, otherwise why did I fight against Pang Feng and make all those declarations? I didn't want to be a hypocrite like the Pang siblings.
Nope. Back to the sect, it was.
Unexpectedly, after fifteen minutes of weaving through the shadows using my footwork techniques and Shadow Steps (bet you forgot about that particular martial art a long time ago), I heard the roar of an engine and quickly pressed my back to the wall while holding Tang Qi Hong as close to me as possible. We cautiously waited as the vehicle zoomed past on the road, trying to navigate rubble and broken concrete while maintaining its reckless speed.
”That's…!”
I recognized the design of the vehicle. Wasn't that Da Ge's car? The one he used to chauffeur Zi Xiao Ji around?
As if to confirm my guess, my glasses captured the images of the driver, magnified them and sharpened them. There, Da Ge was in the driver's seat, fighting with the protesting steering wheel and slamming the gear abruptly while the engines grinded in complain, while Zhao Shi was leaning in the passenger's seat, watching out for enemies. In the back, Zi Xiao Ji seemed to be accompanied by a good amount of passengers, and it looked pretty cramped.
”All right!”
I felt immense relief and I quickly jumped out into the open, a good distance away to avoid being mowed down (though, with my footwork, I could very swiftly evade the onrushing car – I had come a long way since dying in that accident that transmigrated me to this timeline. Da Ge's eyes widened briefly and he slammed his foot on the brakes, bringing the car to a violent, squealing stop.
”Are you an idiot?!” he roared, winding the window down to stick his head out. ”If you want to kill yourself, don't involve other people in your suicide attempt!”
”No, wait!” Zhao Shi stopped him. ”Aren't they Fei Wu and Tang Qi Hong?”
”Eh?!” Da Ge blinked and he did a double take when he took a good look at us. I would have waved at him, but I was busily carrying Tang Qi Hong. ”You're right!”
”Sister!” Zi Xiao ji scrambled out of the car, kicking the back door open and running toward us. ”What happened?”
”Blood Shadow happened,” I replied. When Zi Xiao Ji gave me a bewildered look, I promptly elaborated. ”He used some blood technique to incapacitate her, and somehow immbolized her body. She can't speak or move.”
”I think I know how to treat that,” Zhao Shi spoke up. She frowned at me. ”So should you. We're all Blood Blades.”
”I only learned Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula,” I reminded her. ”Lord Lang Xie didn't have the chance to teach me any blood techniques before…this happened.” I indicated the fires, grisly deaths and destruction around us with a jerk of my head.
”True.” Da Ge nodded. ”Get on.”
I carried Tang Qi Hong into the car, where a bunch of other passengers waited in the cramped compartment. Realizing that I could barely fit inside, and if I forced my way in, Zi Xiao Ji wouldn't be able to ride with us, I emerged out again.
”Eh?” Zi Xiao Ji looked at me, confused. ”What are you doing?”
”After you,” I replied. Zi Xiao Ji nodded, still not comprehending, and she stepped into the car. Then she realized there no more space when she tried to squeeze in.
”Oh no,” she murmured, her face paling.
”What is it?” Zhao Shi asked, and then turned around. ”Oh.”
The other passengers glanced at each other worriedly, and I realized they were about to beg us not to leave them behind. They evidently recognized me and Tang Qi Hong as having a high status in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and were resigned to Da Ge and the rest prioritizing us over them, but my conscience would not allow such a thing.
”It is fine,” I assured them. ”I'll go on foot.” Then I suddenly realized something. ”Where were you guys going, anyway?”
”Back to the sect.” Da Ge nodded at the passengers. ”We were picking up refugees and strays and bringing them back to our sect for shelter.”
”We're a rapid response and rescue unit,” Zhao Shi added. She glared at Zi Xiao Ji. ”Even though it's dangerous, our mistress insisted on coming along.”
”Well, it was her idea in the first place,” Da Ge pointed out. Zi Xiao Ji puffed her chest out proudly and nodded.
”But thanks to that, it seems we can't fit you in,” Zhao Shi remarked rather pointedly. Zi Xiao Ji's face fell.
”I think Xiao Ji made the right decision,” I assured the daughter of the sect leaders. ”From what I can see, she's applying first aid, and she'll be able to treat Qi Hong.” Zi Xiao Ji's expression improved tremendously. ”I'll leave them to you guys and move on foot. I'll see you back in the sect. Besides…” I glanced around. ”I might want to check the districts out and gather some intelligence on the enemies' movement, so that I have something to report to Lord Lang Xie and Sect Lady Da Ji when I return.”