Every non-combatant Nine-Tailed Fox Sect member had ascended to the higher areas of Flame Volcano a long time ago. Only a very tiny portion of outer sect elders and a ma.s.sive detachment of Blood Blades martial artists were left at the outer sect. they watched vigilantly from their positions, controlling their Cybernetica Cohorts and gunning down any enemy martial artist stupid and reckless enough to charge through the front gates.

Despite the devastation the battle-automata had wrought on the ten invading sects, none of the Blood Blades were bold enough to take a single step out of the main sect grounds. They maintained in the current stalemate, withstanding the siege and repelling the trespa.s.sers with lethal force, and waited. We had enough supplies to last us for months, perhaps a year if necessary. By then even the Royal Family would be compelled to act and send their Imperial Guard to relieve us of this siege, once they cut through the convoluted red tape and conniving political bickering that saturated the Parliament. So much for Democracy.

While on paper, ideally the majority ruled and deciding everything by votes was fair, and corruption was checked by several political parties, in reality some crises require the Emperor to declare martial law and overrule the politicians so that he can mobilize the army for emergencies such as this. Unfortunately, he had fallen into the very elaborate devices that he himself had concocted to ensure the running of the empire.

Thanks to that, the outer sect elders and Blood Blades could only wait. Not just for liberation from the Great Zhou Empire we were a part of, but also for their commanders, Lang Xie and Hai Rong, to return and take charge once again.

Fortunately, we had Sect Lady Zi Da Ji to take charge and issue orders, but she was just one person, and she needed capable subordinates to delegate particular missions and territory to. Subordinates like Lang Xie and Hai Rong.

In any case, the outer regions and foot of Flame Volcano were almost deserted and few, if any, noticed that someone had just emerged into one of the old, dusty workshops that now doubled as a huge storeroom.

Having collapsed on the ground and lost consciousness, I was only vaguely aware that I had exited into a very old workshop that no one had used for many years, especially given the amount of dust that had acc.u.mulated on the floor, equipment, tools and furniture. On the same token, no one was around to help me.

Not that I cared, having fallen asleep right on the dusty floor. I was already covered in so much filth, dust and ash that I didn"t care that my clothes and skin was picking up another thick layer of grime. Right now, I had more important things to worry about than cleanliness. Having expended so much qi after fighting a literal demonic army in the underground pa.s.sages, I had collapsed from exhaustion and needed some rest to recover.

Behind me, the door had disappeared, transforming back into a wall and sealing the underground pa.s.sageways from the surface. There was no risk of the demons emerging into the open. The secret handbook was given only to the most trusted of inner sect disciples, those who had triggered a response in the Spirit Engraved Pillars like me and Tang Qi Hong. Other than us, probably only Sect Leader Zi Shou De and Elder Hai Mo possessed a copy, and none of them had any reason to use the secret pa.s.sageways.

Not yet. I had to warn them before they begin a large-scale evacuation, but knowing Sect Lady Da Ji"s temperament, I was confident that we would be staying and fighting in Flame Volcano for a long time. Not to mention we had supplies and an army of battle-automata poised to defend the main sect grounds from the invaders.

If they tried to rush in, they were in for a shock! Well, actually they had already suffered grievous losses and sustained heavy casualties, but understandably I had been so occupied with my escape through the subterranean tunnels that I was completely unaware of the larger tactical picture. I only found out about it a few hours later.

For now, I just wanted to sleep.

While I dozed off blissfully on the floor of the old workshop, my presence did not go unnoticed after all.

"Eh?"

The outer sect elder, Cheng Ping, happened to be nearby when he sensed the feeble qi signature emanating from me. Having been so exhausted I had stopped trying to conceal my presence, and my faint wisps of my qi leaked out. He closed his eyes and reached out with his senses, but at the moment my consciousness was too far gone to notice someone probing at me from a distance and thus I couldn"t exactly conceal my presence or qi.

"Someone is inside the old workshop by Sector S!" Cheng Ping cried out anxiously when he finally pinpointed my location, partially stunned. He gestured to two Blood Blades martial artists who happened to be close by, and the three of them rushed to the old workshop that was now serving as my temporary bedroom. They stopped outside, checking the place cautiously and ensuring that I was the only presence they could pick up.

Cheng Ping cautiously signaled for the two martial artists to spread out so that they could flank me. Not that I was in any condition to fight, but you could never be too careful. Then he took a deep breath and called out.

"Who"s inside?"

Obviously I was too fast asleep to respond.

Cheng Ping frowned, and at a nod, the two Blood Blades dashed in and struck at me from different directions.

The outer sect elder also barged in, brandishing a spear and getting ready to thrust it at what he thought was an enemy. The moment he caught sight of my p.r.o.ne form, lying on the floor unmoving and unconscious, he pulled his weapon up in reflex.

"Stop! Don"t attack!" he desperately shouted.

The two Blood Blades were well disciplined and had great control over their bodies. They were able to halt their blades just centimeters away from my neck or spine, strikes that would have undoubtedly proven fatal if they went through with it.

Fortunately, they recognized me, being comrades I occasionally fought alongside for the defense of the sect, and they were ready to stop even if Cheng Ping didn"t tell them to. They were even prepared to deflect his spear if he couldn"t break off his attack in time.

"Fei Wu? Hey, Fei Wu!" Cheng Ping knelt beside me and began shaking me awake. "Are you all right? What happened? Why are you here?"

I couldn"t remember what dream I was having, but it probably involved me firing my laspistol into a horde of purestrain Genestealers while wielding a chainsword and bellowing, "For the Emperor!" while soldiers of the valiant Draconian Armored infantry fired a barrage of las and plasma into swarms of Tyranids, supported by squadrons of Leman Russ Executioner tanks that spat superheated plasma and decimating their numbers while incinerating the larger bio-forms that held the "Nids together through synapse powers.

As it was, I opened my eyes and stared groggily at Cheng Ping. For a moment, I didn"t remember where I was, and vaguely registering the hard, dusty and incredibly uncomfortable floor, reflected bitterly on how I somehow tumbled out of bed and wondering why Elder Cheng Ping would personally come wake me up for school.

"Elder Cheng Ping?"

"Yeah! What happened?"

"What do you mean?" I muttered blearily. "Is it time for school yet?"

"Huh?" Cheng Ping was stunned by my response. While I struggled to wake up, nightmarish memories. .h.i.t me in the gut, and the horror of it all washed the drowsiness away from my mind. Following which, I was able to situate myself in the larger context, which was Nine-Tailed Fox Sect being under attack.

"This is the outer sect, isn"t it?" I sat up instantly, looking around worriedly. "What about the ten invading sects? Have they…?"

"We fought them off," Cheng Ping told me bluntly, and smiled. "Thanks to the battle-automata and battle puppets you brought back, we were able to destroy their lines and kill a good number of them. The survivors were forced to retreat and lick their wounds."

"Oh." I felt relieved when I heard that. Well, that much was obvious. Otherwise Elder Cheng wouldn"t be here to help me. Instead, I would be murdered in my sleep by roaming a.s.sa.s.sins from Divine Shadow Sect and Dark Asura Sect. Seriously, though, I never expected the battle-automata I brought back to the sect to come in useful in such a manner, but Fate had a way of s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with you.

In this case, I was glad it worked out for us.

"Fei Wu, how did you end up here?" as glad as Cheng Ping was, he couldn"t overlook the possibility that there was a breach in our lines, and that someone could infiltrate into the sect through the same way as I did. He glanced at the two Blood Blades and gave one of them an instruction. "Get a medic here."

"I"m fine." I briefly told him about my journey underground. "I"ve to inform Sect Leader immediately. We can"t evacuate through the underground pa.s.sageways anymore. They have been compromised."

Cheng Ping stared at me in disbelief, not knowing of the existence of the underground network in the first place. I wondered if I had made a mistake telling him about it, but right now I couldn"t care less. Even if he knew of their existence, without the secret handbook and holographic map, he wouldn"t know where the entrances, exits and pa.s.sageways were.

"All right. We"ll get you to Sect Leader later. But first you need to rest. You look absolutely terrible." He studied me, and was relieved to see no wounds, other than the mess of foul fluids splattered onto me when I fought my way through demonic hordes. "You should return to your room and rest before anything else."

"And take a shower," the remaining Blood Blades martial artist added. I scowled, and he shrugged with a smile.

The medic arrived, and did a preliminary inspection on me.

"No external wounds that I can see," he declared after probing me and testing my joints. He then shone a light into my eyes and I flinched. "Can"t say for sure he didn"t suffer any head trauma. Got to make sure." He waved a couple of fingers in front of my eyes. "How many fingers?"

I showed him my middle finger. The medic chuckled.

"Yeah, he"s fine."

"Can I return to my room now?" I asked tiredly, wanting to just collapse onto the bed and fall asleep.

"Yeah. Let"s go." Cheng Ping nodded at the Blood Blades, who went on either side of me as an escort. I frowned.

"I don"t need an escort. I"m a member of Blood Blades myself."

"Just making sure you don"t collapse on your way back," the smart-mouthed Blood Blades martial artist pointed out, and I conceded that he had a point. Especially since I was swaying unsteadily on my feet.

We had hardly taken a few steps away from the abandoned workshop when a familiar voice from afar called out.

"Old Cheng?"

"It"s all right! Fei Wu is back!" Cheng Ping shouted back.

"Really?!" Elder Zhao hurried over the moment he heard that, and I caught sight of his familiar figure vaulting over a low wall. For some reason, he was leading five Blood Blades martial artists with him, probably having detected my presence as well.

Seeing him, I was suddenly reminded of something more important than getting rid of my exhaustion.

"Right! How are Tang Qi Hong, Tong Xue, Lian Rou, Zi Xiao Ji and the rest?" the last time I saw them, we had split up, and I received no updates from them through my smartphone. Especially since I was underground the entire time and received no signal.

"They are fine," Elder Zhao a.s.sured me. "They returned safely last night. We managed to treat Qi Hong and Lian Rou and got rid of the blood technique that Blood Shadow used to restrain them. Tong Xue has submitted his report regarding the incident too." He looked at me wryly. "Looks like you"ll have to submit a report of your own."

I groaned, not looking forward to that at all. But I was too much of a solider to complain, so I nodded. "Yes, sir."

Of course, I left out the little event regarding my battle against Pang Feng, because I didn"t want to snitch on a friend, and I also didn"t say anything regarding Lu Li and the Ling sisters either. Those weren"t important. I was sure a lot of the Blood Blades had been through similar battles throughout the night, and I wasn"t the type to brag.

I didn"t know, however, that Tang Qi Hong had already told the others about my battle with Pang Feng. Fortunately, she wasn"t present when I fought Lu Li and encountered the Ling Sisters, so that little detail could be omitted without worry. I didn"t want to put the Ling Sisters on the spot and caused people to suspect them for letting me get away without difficulty. The two girls probably felt like they owed me because I saved their cousin and a.s.sisted in getting their spirit armaments forged. So I wanted to repay their faith somehow.

"How"s the situation?" I asked instead while I staggered back to my dormitory room.

"Not as bad as it could be." Cheng Ping sighed. "We managed to pull all our forces back into the main sect grounds. Sect Leader recalled all the Blood Blades and had them escort the civilians back and a.s.sist with evacuation. Even so, we were only able to save about 60% of the civilians. The rest have been slaughtered by the ten invading sects. While we sustained very few casualties with the Blood Blades – less than five – Lord Lang Xie and Hai Rong have both gone missing and we have been unable to contact them since last night."

"The ten sects have surrounded us," Elder Zhao added ominously, but he smiled. "Thanks to the Cybernetica battle-automata you brought back from the ancient tomb, though, we repelled their attacks, and dealt them great losses. We should be able to hold out for a few months at least, until the Royal Family get off their collective a.s.ses and send the Imperial Guard."

"Might as well wish for a couple of Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes while at it," I muttered. While I had faith in the Imperial Guard, they were often slow and unwiedly. Known as the hammer of the Emperor, they struck the enemy with the force of a sledgehammer, blundgeoning heretics and xenos with overwhelming firepower and sheer numbers, grinding them down with countless las-bolts, a h.e.l.lstorm of artillery strike, and heavy firepower from thousands of tanks.

…no, never mind. Wrong universe. I was still mentally stuck in the underground pa.s.sageways where I fought through a swarm of Tyranids…I mean otherworldly demons to get back to the surface.

"How are Sect Leader, Sect Lady and the Great Elders?" I asked.

"They are at the peak of the mountain, Sect Lady Da Ji is protecting them currently. They aren"t exactly combatants, after all." Elder Zhao sighed. "It is my mistake. I should have kept an eye on Hu Mei Er. I didn"t expect her to betray us. If only I noticed that something was amiss, I would have made a move and isolated her, and Qi Hong and Lian Rou wouldn"t have been kidnapped. And Lord Lang Xie wouldn"t have fallen into danger. If he could help Sect Lady command of a good portion of Blood Blades and relieve some of her burden, then we may still have a fighting chance."

"No one would have expected Hu Mei Er to betray us, so please don"t balme yourself. And with Sect Lady at the helm, we still have a fighting chance. And I believe Lord Lang Xie will return. So let"s focus on what we can do for now."

I tried to console Elder Zhao, and he smiled bitterly.

"In any case, you should clean up and get some sleep." Cheng Ping reminded me. "You look like h.e.l.l. I"ll speak to Sect Leader and arrange a meeting for you tomorrow. For now, rest. That"s an order."

"Yes, sir." I saluted and then completed my journey back to my dormitory room.

*

I ended up sleeping for ten hours. By the time I woke up, it was six in the evening. The sun had yet to set, so it was still fairly bright, but not as bright as when I first emerged from the old workshop earlier this morning.

I lay in bed for a few more minutes, my eyes shut, but it seemed that I wouldn"t be falling back asleep for a while yet. Dragging myself reluctantly out of bed despite the desire to continue lazing around, I suddenly remembered that we were technically at war and I had a few urgent matters to tend to.

Stretching myself, I grabbed a quick meal, and then headed for my workshop. As I expected, the Castellax battle-automata I had left there were still standing in front of a wall, immobile and unmoving. Of course they wouldn"t be moving. Without my qi to power them, they were just inert machines, unable to lift even a single finger.

Cursing myself for not bringing them along, I began to finish up the Spirit Engraving on the last Castellax battle-automata. The Castellax battle-automata would have helped greatly against the demonic hordes I encountered in the underground pa.s.sageways, gunning them down and decimating the tide with their heavy weapons. They would be less useful against Blood Shadow, admittedly, and losing them to such a powerful martial artist this early in the siege would be a huge blow. Repairs took a lot of time, after all, and I doubted they would have made much of a difference against him. In the end, I nuked him with my Sunburst prototype, so it was academic in any case. The only thing my Castellax battle-automata would have contributed was becoming sc.r.a.p in the explosion. As for Pang Feng, like I said, he had Castellax battle-automata of his own, so bringing mine out would just prompt him to use his. And since powering battle-automata took a lot of qi – and I didn"t have Pure Yuan Pills – it would be stupid to use them and waste so much qi against him.

As for Lu Li…she was such a pathetic loser that I could defeat her with just a couple of moves, never mind using qi-consuming Castellax battle-automata. Honestly, I would have killed her if it weren"t for the Ling sisters, but I didn"t want to lose their goodwill and get into an unnecessary fight with them, particularly when I was in a hurry to return to the sect.

"There, done."

Taking a deep breath, I stepped back and admired my handiwork. I then closed my eyes and infused the four Castellax battle-automata with my qi. They came to life, their dark domes illuminating the faint lighting in my workshop, and stood sharply in front of me, clenching their power fists. Two of them were armed with mauler bolt cannons, which began to whir and rotate as they tracked for enemies, and then stopped when they detected no hostile presence in the area. As for the other two, their plasma cannons (or Darkfire cannons) crackled with azure energy.

Good. Seemed like they worked. Now I could mobilize them and have them join the frontline. Obviously, as I said before, battle-automata were too qi-consuming to serve as sentries or guards, so the Blood Blades at the outer sect only summoned them when needed, and kept them during the lulls. Sometimes, upon seeing no sign of battle-automata, the ten invading sects thought to seize the opportunity and send waves to invade us, only for the Blood Blades to summon their battle-automata and eradicate them.

Of course, several of the enemy sects were smart enough to send small waves to waste our qi, but the Blood Blades were even more intelligent. If the enemy"s attacking force was too small to merit the summoning of battle-automata, they fought the old fashioned way, with Spirit Weapons and martial arts. Only when they were outnumbered vastly would they summon the battle-automata and battle puppets to help them.

It was also the reason why we stayed on the defense instead of launching a counterattack. The battle-automata consumed too much qi, and we wouldn"t be able to sustain a prolonged a.s.sault on the invading forces. Instead, it would render us vulnerable to a counterattack, with the exhausted Blood Blades being susceptible to the enemies" attacks after expending too much of their qi to power the battle-automata.

This time, I ensured that my Castellax battle-automata were stored inside Snow Aegis before I left the workshop. I glanced around, wondering if I had time to build another Sunburst. Might as well, given how effective it was against Blood Shadow. If I increased the amount of qi powder, I might be able to create a much larger explosion.

Large enough to nuke the entire city, even. Given how Tushan City had fallen into the hands of the enemy, I had no scruples destroying it. Better to nuke the city than to allow it to fall into the despicable hands of the Martial Arts Alliance.

Before I could begin, however, my smartphone beeped to signal that I had just received a text message. I wondered if Elder Cheng had finally arranged a meeting for me and had just send me the details and confirmation as I picked up my phone.

To my utmost surprise, it wasn"t from Elder Cheng or anyone from the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. The message was from Pang Feng. Okay, he was formerly a member of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and even fought as a Blood Blades once, but given his current status, I didn"t know if that still counted. Nonetheless, I opened the message, wondering if he had sent me an apology, or was inquiring after Tang Qi Hong"s wellbeing.

It seemed that he already knew about Tang Qi Hong, though, so his message was brief and to the point.

"I"ve reprogrammed my Castellax battle-automata and left them in my room. Since I was leaving Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, I thought I had best return them. The Spirit Engravings are still intact, but I removed my seal of ownership. Please take care of them. I"m sure you"ll need them more than I do."

"You…"

My eyes bulged in disbelief when I saw the message. Even after leaving the sect, Pang Feng was evidently still worried about us, and was looking for ways to help us bolster our defenses however he could. I knew he had sent this message secretly – Wu Tuo would not let it go if he found out that Pang Feng was secretly helping us.

So I sent him a short reply.

"Thanks."

Packing everything up, I left my workshop and headed for Pang Feng"s abandoned room. The door was unlocked, and he had thoughtfully left his key behind, wanting to return it to Elder Zhao, but didn"t because it would reveal his defection to Cloud Sky Mountain.

Pushing the door open, I stepped into the empty hallway. Pang Feng had really cleaned out his apartment, evidently believing that he wouldn"t be returning here. As promised, however, his two Castellax battle-automata sat by the far wall, hunched over and inert.

Moving toward them, I checked them over and saw that he was right. The Spirit Engravings that he had so painstakingly inscribed into them were intact, but he had removed his owner seal. He must have felt guilty taking Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s a.s.sets along with him when he decided to leave. I guess he had a conscience.

Not that the conscience was of much help, but I appreciated it all the same. He could very well had taken the Castellax battle-automata with him and no one would know, but he at least provided us with even a tiny chance of increasing the odds in our favor.

"All right then."

Taking a deep breath, I didn"t hold back and began inscribing my owner seal into the cerebral cortexes of the two Castellax battle-automata that formerly belonged to Pang Feng.