With an order from me, the whole group split up and ran toward their a.s.signed positions. As I directed, Song Ting Yu and her entourage of bodyguards headed right for the front gate, charging in an intimidating manner. Oceans of furious qi bubbled from them and saturated the area, scaring off even the native wildlife.

The sentries didn"t even have to look up to sense them coming. They were completely oppressed by the vicious qi that drifted toward them, their faces turning pale and perspiration dripping down their cheeks.

"Enemy attack!" one of them roared as he sounded the alarm, a shrill bell that shrieked over the cries of magical beasts and creatures fleeing the path of Song Ting Yu and her forces. "All hands to battle stations!"

It was too late. Song Ting Yu and her bodyguards crashed into the sentry like an unstoppable tsunami. In seconds, the sentries were obliterated. Their bodies burst apart, blood spurting into the air, as Song Ting Yu"s bodyguards slammed their fists into them.

They really were the elite forces of the Martial Arts Alliance. Well, that was expected, given Song Ting Yu"s status. There was no way her father was going to let her wander around freely without a.s.signing the best bodyguards the Song Clan had to offer. Unlike a certain story where the daughter of the Song Clan basically walked around on her own without any escorts or professional cultivators to protect her.

Then again, not much in that story made any sense. Just look at Liang Shao Yang and his incomprehensible motives, for example.

Now wasn"t the time to complain about that, though. We had a job to do. While Song Ting Yu and her men were taking care of the Black Venom Cultists who were now flooding the front gate to stem the sudden, violent a.s.sault, my smaller group moved stealthily through the back. We infiltrated silently while the majority of the Black Venom Cultists were engaged in battle.

I could hear the explosions and feel the tremendous impacts from qi collision and exchanges of attacks. Taking a deep breath, I glanced about, consulting my gla.s.ses and studying the 3D holographic map that it beamed into my lenses.

"This way," I told my friends, and ducked down under a tree. Following a slightly shallow trail between the trees that was highlighted by my gla.s.ses, I proceeded toward the fence. I gestured for my team to climb up. Dropping to my knees, I cupped my hands, ready to give them a boost to scale the relatively high wall.

Tong Xue, Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si stared at me.

"What are you waiting for?" I hissed impatiently. "Hurry up and go over!"

The three of them exchanged glances, and completely ignoring me, they jumped up and cleared the fence in one bound. I remained kneeling at the foot of the fence, feeling a bit foolish, then shook my head as I forced myself to stand up and follow them.

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, just let me play soldier, okay?

"Which way is it?" Tong Xue asked me when I landed beside them. I consulted my gla.s.ses again, and then pointed toward the house where I saw the prisoners were held.

"That way. And be careful! We don"t want to attract any attention!"

We crept from house to house in an ordered formation, taking cover and watching out for enemies. Only proceeding when the way was clear, we managed to reach the place in short order. Pressing myself against the wall, I held up a hand to stall the others.

"What…?" Lian Rou asked, but I silenced her with a finger to my lips.

Taking a deep breath, I tip-toed toward the door, and scanned the interior with my gla.s.ses. I could detect no lifeform, either through the visual devices embedded in my gla.s.ses or my Heaven and Earth senses. Once I was confident that the way was clear, and the house was deserted, I quickly opened the door as quietly as I could.

They didn"t lock it.

Inwardly disapproving of their carelessness and utter lack of caution (though, to be fair, I doubted that the guinea pigs were their first priority to protect during a crisis, and the last thing they wanted to protect when someone broke into their base). I covered the others" entry. Once everyone was in, I quickly proceeded toward the pens.

"…you are…?"

One of the victims held up his head and stared at us blearily when we barged into the corridor where the cells were.

"We"re here to help you," Lian Rou a.s.sured him, reaching for the door and trying to open it. As expected, it wouldn"t budge. "It"s locked."

"Obviously." I tried not to roll my eyes. "How else do you think they stop their prisoners from escaping? Otherwise all these guys can easily open the door and leave by themselves long ago."

"We"ll have to find the keys," Tong Xue declared as he reached toward what looked like the warden"s office. "They must have something to unlock those cell doors…"

"Or we could just destroy the doors and let them out," I suggested, already moving in. drawing my Shadow Fox, I sliced through the first cell door with ease, the blade shearing through the metal as if it was paper and carving an opening.

"Thank you." the prisoner held within quickly stumbled out, only for Lian Rou to help him up. Tong Xue and Yi Ding Si stare at me in awe.

Ignoring them, I proceeded to cut open all the other doors with my Shadow Fox and freed the rest of the prisoners. Tong Xue and Yi Ding Si rounded them up quickly, gathering them into a group. Fortunately, none of the prisoners impatiently ran out of the house to embrace their newfound freedom, or they would give the game away.

I didn"t want the enemy to realize that we were right in the middle of their base just yet, or it would make our escape a lot more difficult.

After cutting through the last door, I scanned the area to make sure there wasn"t any other cells or prisoners left. After a couple of quick surveys, I turned back to the prisoners.

"No one else is here, right?" I asked. "I didn"t leave anybody behind?"

The would-be guinea pigs glanced at each other, and then shook their heads.

"I don"t think so," an older man replied. "I haven"t seen any other places where they held other prisoners. We were either kept here, or brought to the laboratory. And no one has returned from the laboratory alive."

Remembering the gruesome deaths of both Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao, I grimaced and nodded. Those who were injected with the experimental poisons of the Black Venom Cult were probably better off dead. Perhaps we would be able to find an antidote or something, but it didn"t seem like any of those we just rescued were poisoned.

"They didn"t inject you with anything, right?" I asked.

"If they did, let us know." Lian Rou stepped forward. "I should be able to concoct an antidote." She glanced toward the laboratory with trepidation. "Perhaps we should grab some of their poisons and bring them back for research. If I want to develop an antidote, I would need to know what kind of poisons they use."

"No."

"Not me."

"They didn"t inject me with anything."

The victims all replied in the negative. Just as well. Those who were injected would probably die shortly after that. In any event, all of them looked healthy enough, other than the usual malnutritioned state.

But Lian Rou had a point. It was better to be safe than sorry. I would rather bring the poisons back and not need them (in that case, we could just happenly destroy and burn them) than leave and then realized that we needed to bring a few back to formulate antidotes. It might be too late to come back here by then…

However, life had a funny way of getting in my way.

"No time," Tong Xue said, as if he had read my mind. He glanced toward the door. "There"s a few coming. If they realize we"re here…"

"d.a.m.n it!" I cursed angrily. "Let"s go before they find out!"

We filed out of the house pretty quickly, with Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si taking the lead, and Tong Xue and I forming the rearguard. I closed the door, to make sure nothing seemed out of place. The longer the enemy took to realize something was amiss, the better for us.

Fortunately for us, the battle at the front was still raging strong. The Black Venom Cult was resisting fiercely, but a good number of them were dead right now. Surprisingly enough, quite a few of the bodyguards were killed too, their corpses blackening from vicious poisons as they lay on the ground.

Song Ting Yu was still alive, leading from the front and engaging about three Black Venom Cultists at the same time. Her skills were exquisite and her power formidable. She was easily suppressing them with her pink and purple robes, petals scattering as she sliced them up. I had no idea how people use clothing as a weapon, but there she was.

Whatever. It was none of my business what she chose to use as a weapon. My current worry was getting all these weakened abductees out of here and to safety without drawing any attention from the besieged Black Venom Cult.

"How do we get out of here?" Lian Rou asked when Tong Xue and I caught up. The group of abductees were pausing by the fence, looking lost and unsure at what to do. When she caught my questioning look, she frowned in annoyance. "Obviously we can"t ask them to climb the fence. They are weakened and don"t have the skills to do so."

Right. Not everyone in this world was a martial artist.

I exhaled worriedly. As much as I wanted to, I couldn"t just blow a hole through the fence for everyone to exit through. That was practically yelling at the Black Venom Cultists and telling them, "Hey, we"ve come through here! We broke into your base camp while you were busily fighting with other invaders!" it would defeat the whole purpose of sneaking around undetected and being stealthy in the first place.

Making a snap decision, I decided to create an ice stairway on this side, and an ice slide on the other side. Pressing my hands against the ground, I hastily constructed the basic structure with ice, freezing the water vapor in the air with my qi.

"Let"s go!" I hissed. The victims nodded and hurried up the stairs, only to slide down on the other side. Just to err on the side of caution, Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si jumped up to land on the other side to watch out for any threats, while Tong Xue and I remained behind to cover our victory. Only when the last abductee got over, did I melt all the ice and covered up all signs of us having been here, then followed Tong Xue in scaling the fence.

"All clear," Yi Ding Si told me when I landed next to him. I nodded.

"Good job." Rounding up the rescued prisoners, I smiled. "All right, let"s go!"

"Follow me!"

Lian Rou led the way. Being the person most familiar with the Toxic Marshes, she knew the place well enough to sound out the safest route. Stepping into a worn trail, she guided us into the trees and allowed us to disappear from view. Behind us, I could still hear the vicious din as Song Ting Yu and her bodyguards continued to clash against the Black Venom Cultists.

The enemy was still fighting against the stronger Martial Arts Alliance experts with a defiance that was almost admirable. Knowing Song Ting Yu, she wasn"t lying when she claimed that her forces had the skill and power to exterminate the Black Venom Cult.

Best to leave it to them then. For now, I focused on getting the h.e.l.l out of here.

Our group moved quietly through the Toxic Marshes for what seemed like hours. Lian Rou took care to take the safest routes, avoiding potential dangers such as venomous creatures, or hazardous terrain in the form of bogs, soft soil and marshes. Too many insidious creatures lurked under the surface of the swamp, ready to ensnare an unsuspecting victim and drag him under. Worse was the quicksand-like areas where a person would just get sucked into the soil and disappear.

Fortunately, Lian Rou knew where these danger spots were, and skillfully navigated around them. We might be taking the long route, but in the long run we were saving time. If we had to stop and rescue people from quicksand or fight off magical beasts and monstrous creatures every time, or treat poisoned patients whenever they got bitten or stung by a venmous monster or a bug every time, we would never get out of here.

The ex-prisoners didn"t complain. To my surprise, they soldiered on determinedly, not even uttering a word of pain. They appeared exhausted, but they refused to stop, pushing themselves to keep up with our punishing pace to the point I admired their tenacity. Don"t forget, these were untrained, non-martial artists. They were physically and spiritually weaker than us.

Just what sort of horrors did they experience when abducted, to become so tenacious…or perhaps so numb? They were so traumatized that they didn"t mind trekking through such a treacherous swamp just to get away from their abductors.

Those Black Venom Cult b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…

"!!!"
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I froze when I suddenly sensed something. Turning around, I brought my hand up to my gla.s.ses.

"What is it?" Tong Xue asked, noticing that I had halted. I shook my head and continued to scan the forest.

"We"re being followed."

Tong Xue paused for a moment as he extended his own senses or techniques to detect the stalkers. He then nodded. "You"re right. Three of them. About two hundred meters south of us, and approaching fast." He glanced at the kidnapped prisoners, who weren"t exactly moving very quickly. "They"ll catch up at this rate."

"Worse…they"re from the Black Venom Cult." I gritted my teeth. From my own Heaven and Earth Senses, I had come to the exact same conclusion as Tong Xue. "They"ve found out that we"ve taken their guinea pigs."

"They probably want to use us as guinea pigs as well," Yi Ding Si muttered, his face pale. He shuddered, evidently remembering the demise of his two friends, Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao. Given his name, he would definitely die, just like how Zi Sha committed suicide, and how we weren"t able to save Jiu Bu Liao.

"I won"t let that happen." I stood my ground, turning around to face the approaching enemy. "You guys go ahead.

"Are you sure?" Lian Rou asked, concerned. I nodded.

"I"ll stay with you," Tong Xue offered, but I shook my head.

"Then who"s going to protect Lian Rou and the prisoners?"

"Can you really hold them off by yourself?" Yi Ding Si sound skeptical.

"I"ll make sure I do. By any means necessary." I was already retrieving Azure Lotus Sword and Shadow Fox, while activating my Snow Aegis. "Now stop wasting time and go!"

Spurred on by my words, my group moved immediately. Just as they did, the first figure broke through the cl.u.s.ter of trees.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" he snarled, a gray streak that dashed forward. I stood in his way, holding both my swords up.

"You shall not pa.s.s!" I bellowed and swung them, unleashing a Heavenly Draonic Meteor Strike that sliced deeply into him. Blood spurted out from his wounds and he faltered. I took advantage to deliver a roundhouse kick that sent him smashing into a tree. The trunk splintered and the whole tree crashed down on him, burying him in the soft soil.

However, while I was distracted with my current opponent, I heard a cry. Turning around in horror, I saw one of the other two emerging from the foliage. He had accelerated suddenly, taking me by surprise. I tried to use my footwork techniques, but I was too late.

"You think we"ll just let you go like that?!" the Black Venom Cultist roared as he lunged at one of the prisoners, his hands outstretched, as if to grab them. The girl who he was aiming for recoiled in horror, tears welling up in her eyes when she realized that she was his target.

d.a.m.n it! I wasn"t going to make it in time!

To everyone"s astonishment, it was Yi Ding Si who reacted first. Imposing himself between the approaching Black Venom Cultist and the girl, he raised his hands and intercepted the a.s.sailant"s attack. The both of them sprang apart after the violent collision of qi, with Yi Ding Si spitting out a mouthful of blood.

I finally reached them, just as the Black Venom Cultist fell back, and beheaded him while he was stumbling from shock.

"Yi Ding Si! Are you all right?!"

Our newest teammate was frightfully pale, blood streaming from his mouth. He looked up, and forced a smile.

"I"ve felt better."

I was about to reply to that when I noticed the guy I had kicked earlier slowly emerging from the broken tree where I had buried him under. Not only that, the third and last guy was fast approaching. He seemed more powerful than the other two, judging from the tremendous amount of his qi, but at least he was slower.

"Get them out of here!" I yelled at Tong Xue and Lian Rou. Tong Xue nodded and quickly approached Yi Ding Si to help him up, but Lian Rou stopped him.

"He"s badly poisoned!" she cursed as she fumbled for an antidote in her medical pouch and fed it to him. "Take this for now. It should slow the poison, though I don"t know if it will neutralize it completely." she glanced at Tong Xue. "Don"t touch him yet."

"Then how…?"

"Wait." Lian Rou produced a bunch of bandages, and wrapped them around Yi Ding Si"s hands. Once they were securely bound, she then stepped back and nodded. "You can touch him now. That should stop the poison from spreading."

Tong Xue tepped forward wthout hesitation and helped Yi Ding Si up, throwing his arm around his shoulders. They then proceeded after the ex-prisoners. Lian Rou hurried to the front, taking the lead once again.

"Follow me!"

"You guys go ahead." I was already slashing at the rising Black Venom Cultist, but he swiftly dodged my swords. He retaliated with a poisonous palm strike, but I spun away with an elegant footwork technique and avoided getting hit. It wouldn"t matter, since I was immune to poison, but it was to give Lian Rou and the rest a peace of mind. "I"ll hold them back!"

"Hah!" the Black Venom Cultist snorted. "You think you can defeat us by yourself, brat?"

I grinned. "Actually, I can."

Then I kicked him in the gut, sending him flying once again. The poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d coughed out another mouthful of blood, but slowly rose to his feet.

"I"ll admit, you"re strong. But you"re still no match for my senior!"

The third guy who was approaching must be his senior, huh? He wasn"t exaggerating. I could literally feel the potent qi emanating from the last guy. No wonder, he was so confident.

However, I wasn"t stupid enough to a.s.sume that strength was the deciding factor. Just because the guy had a lot of qi and was powerful didn"t mean I was no match for him. No doubt this would be a difficult battle, so I couldn"t underestimate him, but I definitely wasn"t going to give up just because he was powerful.

All this time I had been fighting strong opponents, and while I didn"t win all the time, I had often taken them by surprise, and even s.n.a.t.c.hed victory from the jaws of defeat. Unlike bulls.h.i.t xianxia stories, I wasn"t going to automatically roll over and surrender just because my enemy was of a higher realm or whatever.

A match between martial artists was a lot more complex than a simple contest of qi and strength. Speed, tactics, skill and other factors came into play too. As long as I played this right, I might just be able to prevail.

Swallowing, I took another step back and steeled myself for the confrontation to come.

Ducking under another palm strike from the Black Demon Cultist, I retaliated with a riposte that cut his chest. As he staggered, he roared in fury.

"Don"t get too c.o.c.ky, brat! Once my senior get here…!"

"How pathetic. To think you can"t even take care of a kid on your own."

A deep voice rumbled and the third and last guy landed in the clearing. I watched in awe as the gra.s.s and plants around him began to literally wither from just being in contact with his poisonous qi. This guy was literally the walking embodiment of toxicity.

"Now then…" the gigantic Black Venom Cultist cracked his knuckles as he glared at me. "Where did you take all our guinea pigs to?"