I couldn"t help but bury my face in my palm.

"Okay, I get that you want the treasures and elixirs, and I understand that by the rules of tomb exploration, it"s fair for us to fight and compete for those. But…is there really a need to kill us? Why can"t you just s.n.a.t.c.h them without having to resort to murder?"

"Are you an idiot?" Li Xue Wu burst out laughing at my complaint. "We"re a demonic sect. we don"t need to justify our reasoning to you. If I want you dead, then I"ll kill you. It"s just that simple."

"The problem is that this sort of situations normally result in shallow, superficial one-dimensional antagonists such as yourselves who exist for the sole purpose of getting your a.s.s kicked by the protagonist." I closed my eyes briefly, already foreseeing the criticisms from the existences beyond the fourth wall. "You have no depth, you"re easily forgettable, you appear just to get beaten up and it becomes repet.i.tive. Nonetheless, you do have a point. In reality, not every criminal requires a complex reason to murder or rob. Just look at the high school shootings in America or the brutal murders in j.a.pan. Some people kill for the sake of it."

"Oh, shut the f.u.c.k up!"

Li Xue Wu was getting irritated by my monologue, and he dove at me. Drawing his weapon, which was a blood-red spear, he spun it around, gathering as much demonic qi as he could draw from the surroundings into it.

"Just die here! Divine Dragon Strike!"

The spear transformed into a blood-red dragon, which roared silently as it drilled toward me.

"Oh, so scary."

Trembling exaggeratedly and whining in a mocking manner, I drew my sword and deflected the tip of the spear away, repelling Li Xue Wu.

"Impossible!"

Li Xue Wu stared at me in disbelief as he staggered backward. His expression was ashen, as if he had just seen a ghost.

Frowning in puzzlement at his sudden change in expression, I c.o.c.ked my head to the side. "What"s the matter?"

"This is impossible!" Li Xue Wu repeated. "I"m not just any regular Pure Spirit Stage martial artist. I"m a top-tiered prodigy from the Heavenly Fiend Sect. Regular Pure Spirit Stage martial artists wouldn"t even be worthy to tie my shoelaces!"

"He actually deflected the spear of Senior Li…who exactly is that guy? How can the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect have such a fearsome individual?!"

Behind Li Xue Wu, the disciples from the Tian Sha (Heavenly Fiend) Sect were also stunned and whispering to themselves. Evidently, they couldn"t imagine how I was able to do something as excruciatingly simple as deflecting a spear strike.

Like…seriously?

"Is there something wrong with these guys?" I asked, glancing at Zhu Jiao as the vein in my temple twitched in annoyance. "Are they all idiots or something?"

Zhu Jiao shrugged. "They are all frogs in the well, or sheltered, spoilt brats. They don"t realize that just because Li Xue Wu is a top prodigy in the Heavenly Fiend Sect, it doesn"t mean he"ll be a top-level genius in the outside world. They are either very narrow-minded or deluded to the point where they deny reality even when it"s staring right in their faces."

Li Xue Wu"s features transformed from a ghastly gray to an enraged red.

"What are you waiting for?!" he roared at his fellow disciples. "All of you, charge! Go kill these two motherf.u.c.kers!"

The first one to emerge was my a.s.sailant from earlier, the one with shadow blades. Wielding a single sword that was as black as night and emitting a chilling, terrifying aura of demonic yin qi, he swung it down to cleave me in half.

This time, he wasn"t alone. He as accompanied by several of the Tian Sha Sect disciples. Zhu Jiao wasn"t able to help me, being a.s.saulted by an equal number of demonic sect followers, all of them wielding vicious weapons from wickedly cuved halberds to deadly scythes and snaking chains.

"We can"t fight this many!" Zhu Jiao shouted as he fended off three a.s.sailants at once and jumped to avoid a chain and sickle. His golden aura of dense yang qi flared up protectively to block against several slashes, but he was driven back from the combined impacts, blood trickling down his mouth. "We"ve to retreat!"

"I concur." Deflecting the shadow blades, I ducked under an axe before spinning around to counter with a kick while parrying a lance at the same time. Jerking my head back before a lethal scythe could reap it off my neck, I then slashed and felt the satisfying parting of flesh as blood spurted from the screaming attacker. Without turning to look at my victim, who had lost her arms (and was a girl judging from the high-pitched shriek), I twisted my sword and beheaded a disciple who was trying to stab me in the back with a dagger. Huffing as I deflected an axe and kicked the guy"s knee, causing him to fall to a height where I could conveniently cut his head off his shoulders, I added, "where do you suggest we withdraw to?"

The path were we came from had been blockaded, blocked off by the hordes of bellowing and screaming Tian Sha Sect disciples. That meant we had to continue onward, past the chamber of elixirs and hoped that the corridor didn"t lead to a dead-end. Otherwise we would be trapped like rats in a mousetrap.

Even though Zhu Jiao and I were holding our own against the lower ranks of the Tian Sha Sect disciples, we were under no illusions that we could hold the fort for long. We didn"t have the stamina (despite Zhu Jiao having three s.e.xagenaries of artificial qi), and the elite, stronger ones such as Li Xue Wu had yet to make a move. They were content watching their cannon fodder sacrifice themselves on our blades, hoping that we exhausted our strength before they made their moves.

Truly despicable tactics fitting of followers of a demonic sect. I guess it was not that much worse than the utterly illogical and murderous Jiang Jun Hao, but at least these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds weren"t hypocritically touting themselves as paragons of justice and exemplars of the orthodox sects. They knew they were evil and they acted appropriately.

Unfortunately, that didn"t mean much for me and Zhu Jiao, who didn"t exactly want to end up as their victims.

On the other hand, Zhu Jiao has plot armor, so we"ll be able to find our way out of this.

Trusting in Zhu Jiao"s plot armor, and if all else failed, his master Qi Lin to pull us out of the water, I followed his lead.

"This way!" Zhu Jiao yelled as he punched five unlucky Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples away with a single strike, rendering them unconscious or worse (wouldn"t be surprised if his Heavenly Golden Draconic Gauntlets smashed their skulls and turned their brains into pulp), and gestured for me to follow him down the opposite direction. "There"s a labyrinthine cavern down this way! If we can get there, we"ll be able to lose them there!"

"Great!" I felt a little relief. It was a great choice to follow Zhu Jiao after all. Kicking away another Heavenly Fiend Sect disciple before he could cut me down with his machete, I used footwork techniques to escape and pull to a safe distance. Appearing beside Zhu Jiao, I slashed and hacked two of the unsuspecting disciples trying to stab him in the back and drew them off him. "Let"s go! Lead the way then!"

Even though his instructions were clear, I could see the corridor branching off toward at least three different directions. One of them surely led to the labyrinthine cavern, but I wouldn"t be surprised if the other two were dead-ends. Meaning I still needed to rely on Zhu Jiao (and no doubt he was informed of this by his master) to show me the way.

"Sure! This way!"

Zhu Jiao also fought off another guy, but this time his opponent parried his fist and countered almost perfectly, drawing some blood. Hissing in pain, Zhu Jiao stepped back. I moved to help him, but three disciples got in my way. I struck swiftly, hoping to take them by surprise, but the first guy blocked my sword with his halberd. Before I could disengage, the second guy slashed at me with his saber, and I just barely managed to avoid it by an inch.

Slash!

"Gah!"

The third guy, moving in flawless coordination with his two comrades, took the opportunity while I was distracted by his teammates to stab me in the back with his dagger. I twisted around and kicked him, but he blocked my foot with his arms and only staggered back a step. While I moved to retaliate, the first guy slashed me with his halberd, and despite my reflexes, I felt searing pain in my back as red-hot blood spewed out.

"Ugh!"

d.a.m.n it!

These guys were clearly on a different level from before, unlike the cannon fodder that Zhu Jiao and I had already dispatched. Having seen that we were tiring and attempting to beat a fighting retreat to shrug them off, they had decided to act and cut off our escape.

"Ha ha ha!"

Li Xue Wu was folding his arms smugly and laughing as he watched. He didn"t join in the attack because he had embarra.s.sed himself earlier by having his thrust deflected easily, and was most likely looking for an opportunity to fell either of us in one desc.i.p.able sneak attack to regain his honor and reputation in front of his sect mates.

"If we continue to kill more of the orthodox sects" disciples and reduce their fighting power, Father will be pleased!"

So they weren"t just blindly killing for the sake of it. As a demonic sect, one of their missions was to strike back at the orthodox sects who persecuted them. Earlier, there were far too many orthodox sect members cl.u.s.tered together for them to attack, so the Tian Sha Sect held back. But within this labyrinthine ancient tomb, the Tian Sha Sect had plenty of opportunity to pick off stragglers one by one, two by two, three by three, with their vastly superior numbers. At the same time, they could take whatever treasures or spirit artifacts that these stragglers found or were about to find. That was why they had been stalking us since earlier.

Killing two birds with one stone. Very efficient, to the point where I would be impressed if they didn"t choose me and Zhu Jiao as their present victims.

"Kuh…"

I staggered back, blood dripping from my back and tried to strike back. The three of them continued to a.s.sault me, and opened up numerous wounds on my body with stealthy strikes from their halberds, saber and dagger.

Closing my eyes briefly, I tried to use my Heaven and Earth qi sense, Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps to predict their next movements. Calming myself down, I was able to avoid the coordinated attacks from all three and answered with a few counters of my own. Even then, I only managed to nick the guy with the halberd, cut the arm of the guy with the saber and discouraged the guy with the dagger, unable to leave any lasting wounds or incapacitate any of them.

They"re strong…!

As expected of the Heavenly Fiend Sect, huh?

Blocking another strike from the halberd, I followed my instincts and stepped to the side to avoid being cleaved in half by the saber while moving to ram my elbow down on the guy"s arm before he could stab me with his dagger. However, he also dodged my follow up to his face, and despite me only grazing his cheek, he quickly retreated.

"d.a.m.n it…"

I had hoped to at least break his nose with that, but not everything could go my way.

"Hah!"

"?!"

The three of them quickly dispersed when Zhu Jiao smashed his fist onto the ground. twisting around, I stabbed the guy with the dagger in the chest, slaying him, but his two comrades swiftly withdrew instead of sticking around for revenge especially when they saw that Zhu Jiao had joined up to watch my back.

"Whoa, how did you…?"

I didn"t even bother to finish my question, having caught sight of the slain Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples lying on the ground, their corpses strewn across the chamber. Zhu Jiao was breathing heavily, but he had succeeded in slaughtering the majority of them.

On the other hand, there were still at least fifteen elite disciples left, with most of them not yet raising a hand to help. Especially their leader Li Xue Wu. Even though I blocked his attack earlier, I wasn"t able to counterattack, which meant that he wasn"t an easy opponent. And now, backed up by all these disciples…

I dreaded to think of what would happen if they all decided to join the fight. And now that Zhu Jiao had eliminated most of the Tian Sha Sect like the Mary Sue that he was, no doubt they would be joining in.

What the f.u.c.k is he, Li Fu Chen? Is everyone going to call him heaven-defying and all that sort of Mary Sue bulls.h.i.t nonsense?

I wasn"t particularly fond of that development, especially since I hated Mary Sues, but I had to grudgingly admit that it was the right decision to follow Zhu Jiao after all. His plot armor was as thick as a b.l.o.o.d.y encyclopedia. And the guy was evidently on G.o.d Mode, with dozens of Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples unable to hurt a single hair of him while he slaughtered them breezily like Li Fu Chen or Lin Feng or one of those overpowered G.o.d Mode Mary Sue xianxia protagonists who literally couldn"t be threatened by any character in their stories.

"Let"s go!"

Seeing the chance, and also knowing that even his G.o.dlike plot armor and "heaven-defying" skills wouldn"t help him against such a large number of elite disciples, Zhu Jiao resorted to the next great tool in his protagonist armory – the Deus ex Machina – and raced toward one of the pathways, which evidently led to the labyrinthine cavern.

Using my footwork, I made to follow him, but…

"Oh no, you don"t!"

"!!!"

I sensed a murderous surge of qi and glanced over my shoulder, spotting Li Xue Wu c.o.c.king his arm back before throwing his blood-red spear.

"Demonic Dragon Spear Strike!"

"Watch out!"

Seeing that the spear was lancing straight for Zhu Jiao, I shoved him out of the way, kicking him right into the pathway that he intended to lead me into. Unfortunately, that meant that the spear struck the spot where he was milliseconds ago – right in front of me – and exploded with such force I was sent hurtling backward.

The tremendous power of the Demonic Dragon Spear Strike shattered the corridor, bringing down debris from the roof and sealing off all three pathways, blocking me from Zhu Jiao. I lay on the ground, stunned, as blood dribbled out of my motuh and a deafening ringing insistently stabbed at my ears. Fortunately, my gla.s.ses had darkened to shield my eyes from the full flare of the blast or I would be momentarily blinded right now.

"Kuh…"

"Wu!!!" Zhu Jiao shouted from behind the debris. Unlike me, he was safe and sound, his protagonist plot armor allowing him to escape from near-death like every other main character of a xianxia story.

Unfortunately for me, I didn"t share the same kind of plot armor. To my horror, I realized that I myself was part of Zhu Jiao"s plot armor. I was the stereotypical stupid best friend who followed the protagonist around and sacrificed my life so that he would continue living and avenge me later. It just didn"t occur to me that my being that sort of trope was a high possibility because I had mistaken Zhu Jiao to be the typical G.o.d Mode Mary Sue protagonist who didn"t need anyone to save him, least of all his friends. Rather, he usually would be the one doing all the saving. Then again, in this scenario, it would be his job to save me.

h.e.l.l, no! I didn"t want to be reduced to a plot device for the protagonist to engage in one of his usual rescue missions or revenge fantasies! And I sure as h.e.l.l didn"t want to die or be taken prisoner by these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! I had enough of being tortured and imprisoned by s.a.d.i.s.tic f.u.c.ks like the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect!

"Ha ha ha ha ha! What an idiot! To think that you"ll sacrifice yourself so that your friend would escape. I"m so impressed that I"m tempted to spare your life!"

Li Xue Wu was laughing madly, clutching his sides at the scene. As much as I would love for him to actually spare my life, I knew there was a catch. Li Xue Wu"s idea of sparing my life probably involved taking me prisoner or hostage and then torturing and abusing me during captivity. I wasn"t an idiot, and I didn"t want to go through the whole Chinese Parasol Tree Sect arc again.

Straightening myself, I glanced from Li Xue Wu to the other Heavenly Fiend Sect disciples, trying to a.s.sess my options. Unlike a Mary Sue protagonist, I didn"t have plot armor and I didn"t have the G.o.d Mode skills that came with being a xianxia main character. There was no way I could win in a direct fight against so many elite disciples from one of the most notorious demonic sects in the great Zhou Empire. I had the advantage in speed and footwork, but they had me surrounded and cut off any path I had for escape.

I would have to force an opening through them and escape, but I was aware of the risks. I would inevitably suffer serious injuries in the process, and might even fail and die in the attempt.

"Phew…"

Exhaling deply, I pushed my gla.s.ses up and adjusted them, especially since they had somewhat slipped off during the explosion earlier. The future looked bleak, this was not a battle I could win – at least not if I fought conventionally, anyway.

But looking at it from another angle, I might be abe to salvage my survival through unconventional means, by outthinking my enemies.

"What? Do you still seriously think you can fight all of us? Just give up and die. Maybe your death would be a lot easier, quicker and painless."

"Are you an idiot? Do you honestly think anyone will say, "yes, I will happily let you kill me!" because you ask them to?" I couldn"t help but shake my head at the sheer stupidity of Li Xue Wu"s statement. The head disciple flared up furiously.

"You asked for it!"

He surged forward suddenly, stabbing with his spear. I deflected his strikes, noting how well honed his techniques were. Every single one of his attacks resembled a venomous dragon that burst out of the sea, spinning rapidly with explosive penetrative power. If I get hit by even one of those powerful strikes, Li Xue Wu was capable of drilling a hole in my body.

"What are you all waiting for?! Help me!"

Even after trading several blows with me, Li Xue Wu realized he couldn"t bring me down easily and he yelled for his milling comrades to help him. They glanced at each other, and aware that they couldn"t waste too much time waiting for their leader to bring me down, obeyed without hesitation. The guy with the saber from earlier slashed at me, his heavy blows descending with meteoric force. The guy with the halberd swung his weapon to behead me, forcing me to step back and give up the idea of a counterattack on Li Xue Wu"s exposed back. Another guy thrust his sword at me and cut my side before I could fully avoid him.

"Kuh…!"

Clang!

Doing my best, even with Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps, it was all I could do to avoid and evade each and every one of their attacks. I couldn"t even afford to think of countering or retaliating, every ounce of focus spent on escaping the next a.s.sault. My breathing was getting ragged and I could feel my strength slowly ebbing, my stamina gradually drained by the relentless a.s.sault from so many people. Only an overpowered xianxia protagonist would be able to effortlessly evade, defend and block all these and still counterattack and kill his opponents.

Too bad I wasn"t an overpowered xianxia protagonist.

"Ugh!"

I winced as blood flowed from my shoulder, dripping down my arm. Another blade pierced my chest, just centimeters away from my heart, and I fell back. Someone slashed my leg, and I was lucky to pull it back intact before the blade could reach the bone. Gathering my qi, I unleashed an explosive burst of ice, freezing the area around me, but the majority of them escaped unscathed, their instincts warning them.

Even those who were caught by the ice managed to break out easily and retreat to a safe distance, watching me warily.

"Huff…"

That was fine. It was never my intention to defeat them with Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula. I only wanted to buy myself some breathing s.p.a.ce, some room to think, to rest and recover. Otherwise I couldn"t maintain this pace for much longer.

Unfortunately for me, I didn"t have even half a minute to rest. Li Xue Wu was already lunging forward with his weapon. I eyed it closely, realizing that I hadn"t seen him unleash his full prowess with his treasure weapon just yet.

Clang!

I was right.

The blood-red spear suddenly separated into three segments, each linked to the others by a metal chain. Evidently Li Xue Wu"s dragon spear was a three-section spear, which was able to be both powerful yet flexible. He executed a series of strikes, perfectly demonstrating his ability to both hit or to chain them together, taking me by surprise on a few occasions and bruising my head or arm. I staggered back from the painful impacts.

"Blood Dragon Moon Bind!"

Li Xue Wu shouted as he swung his spear. His three-section spear transformed into a lifelike blood dragon that coiled around me, immobilizing my movements.

"Why the f.u.c.k are you shouting out the name of your technique?" I demanded as I tried to struggle out of the binds.

"Heavenly Fiend Twenty-Eight Slashes!"

The guy with the saber hollered, completely ignoring my wry comment. Seeing that I was locked down, he seized the opportunity to unleash his most powerful technique and sent twenty-eight slashes of qi blades to cut me apart.

"Kuh!"

I twisted around desperately and kicked off the ground, trying to fight the binds while Li Xue Wu held me down. It was useless. My restraints held firm, locking me to the ground and forcing me to take the saber slashes.

It wasn"t just the saber. The halberd guy from earlier also sent a deadly blast of qi searing toward me. As did a guy with a sword. And another with a blade. And…

d.a.m.n it!

Unlike Zhu Jiao, I didn"t have much of a defensive technique because I relied exclusively on speed and evasion. As the countless destructive lights of qi streaked toward me, I desperately thought of the next best thing.

Nine-Tailed Frost Fox Formula!

Again, I froze everything around me, conjuring thick glacial walls of ice. Despite my makeshift defense, the numerous lights of qi smashed the ice immediately and struck me, rupturing my body in many different places and drawing lots of blood.

"UGH!"

Fortunately, my impromptu barriers had reduced the impacts of the strikes drastically, or I would definitely have died from that, my body ripped apart from the destructive attacks. Even then, I was seriously injured, unable to fight back. Blood dripped not just from innumerable wounds on my body but also from my mouth.

Unable to endure any further, I collapsed.

On the other hand, the attacks had also struck the three section spear that Li Xue Wu had used to bind me, and I felt the restraints loosen for a moment. Wincing, I crawled out of the three section spear and used my footwork techniques to quickly throw myself into a safe distance.

"You…!"

Realizing that I still wasn"t dead yet, Li Xue Wu was enraged.

"Dragon Head Turn! Die!"

The three section spear twisted around my body while I was hurtling in midair. Infusing his weapon with a large amount of qi, Li Xue Wu threw it at me. At the same time, his fellow discples raced after me, slashing and striking with their myriad of weapons.

Why the f.u.c.k were they so determined to kill me? Just let me go already. I just didn"t understand the complete bulls.h.i.t logic of xianxia villains. Then again, as Li Xue Wu pointed out, they didn"t need to justify their reasoning. If they wanted to kill, they killed. It wasn"t for some bulls.h.i.t reason like I would become a ma.s.sive threat in future so they needed to end me now (if anything, that should be more of a reason to befriend me, not kill me), or because I "offended" them, or any of those bulls.h.i.t illogical reasons that xianxia stories concocted for their protagonists to be targeted by the entire sect. In any case, I wasn"t being targeted by the Tian Sha Sect per say, but just a group that happened to be from their sect. And they were cold-blooded murderers intent on robbing me (they didn"t know I had no spirit artifacts or treasures on me, and even if I told them that, they wouldn"t believe me anyway – they would only believe what they could find or not find after searching my dead body). It was just that simple, really.

"ARGH!"

Normally, if this was a cliché xianxia story, I would suddenly experience a breakthrough like Li Fu Chen and get some 15th level of some True Inferno technique, or you know, the usual bulls.h.i.t Deus ex Machina things in xianxia story where I get saved by a G.o.dlike master, or suddenly attaining some form of enlightenment in combat. Or something…

Unfortunately, I wasn"t a typical xianxia protagonist, and such convenient developments will never happen in reality, so I ended up getting slashed and cut in many different places. Fortunately, I had an icy aura and impromptu frost armor shrouding my body, which reduced the impacts tremendously and allowed me to escape certain death.

Even so, I found myself sprawled on the ground, blood flowing from my body. I raised my head weakly and watched as the Tian Sha Sect disciples approached to finish me off.

The guy with the saber raised it and beheaded me.

"?!"

My figure shimmered for a moment and then blinked out.

"How…?!"

"No! He"s there!"

One of the Tian Sha Sect disciples pointed, yelling angrily. d.a.m.n, I had been spotted. Here I was, thinking that a desperate use of Ying would buy me some time, but they saw through the illusion.

Fortunately, thanks to my footwork tehcniques, I was able to stay ahead of my pursuers. Unfortunately, thanks to my injuries, my speed and agility had been drastically slowed and I knew I couldn"t maintain that pace. My chest burned, my wounds screamed as if they were on fire and my mind was blanking out.

I wouldn"t be surprised if I collapsed at any time.

At least I managed to force an opening – sort of, anyway – and escape through their ranks. As I thought, I ended up severely injured, but that was a price I was willing to pay to survive. As long as I could survive, any injuries I sustained right now, I could heal later.

"After him! Don"t let him escape!"

"Trying to make a fool of us, eh?"

"Hah! Once we set our eyes on a target, we won"t let you go!"

I smiled grimly when I heard their enraged shouts and threats. They still weren"t going to give up, eh? To be fair, if I were in the same position, I probably wouldn"t either. I recalled the times when I was gaming in my previous lifetime. I would mercilessly shoot an escaping enemy in the back even though his team had been slaughtered, just so I could raise my own score…or I would toy around with an enemy in a real-time strategy game, holding back so that I could spam hi-tech units like Battlecruisers while containing him inside his base and slowly starving him of resources even though I could finish him off sooner…

Maybe this was karma.

However, I had no intention of letting them kill me so easily.

If I"m going to die…I might as well take all of you down with me!

A flare of defiance surged inside me, and I forced my burning body to move just a few more steps. As I did, I suddenly felt the bone-chilling sensation of icy yin qi from the other direction. At the same time, the fork where Zhu Jiao and I came across when we first entered this particular corridor showed up.

Right…what did Qi Lin say again? Something about there being an icy death trap? Right, the Nine Thousand Yin Ice h.e.l.l Formation…

A smile spread across my face when I thought of the possibilities – especially one where I could turn this around and survive while eliminating my enemies.

Then I pivoted quickly on my feet and dashed in the direction where the source of the h.e.l.lishly cold qi awaited.