Chapter 100: The Demonic Assault (Part 2)

"AGH-AAH!" The lifeless body hit the ground, a massive hole where its heart used to be.

"Hm. Was that the last one?" With a sharp flick, the girl shook the blood droplets off her spear.

"We need to reach the mountain pass as fast as we can. Everyone else should've fallen back there by now." Dusting himself off, Mo Fan climbed down from the ledge, where several lifeless bodies in black robes lay scattered.

"I hope everyone's alright on their end..." Hua Zhen adjusted the bracelets on her wrists, glancing toward the rising columns of smoke in the distance.

"Don't worry. With Sister Mi's bottomless supply of artifacts, they can hold their own just fine." Standing beside Mo Fan, Lia Kult sheathed her sword.

"We need to hurry. If we keep wasting time talking, the demonic disciples could cut us off from the other groups." Holding a pair of smoking, cracked artifacts, a young man channeled his Qi to clean off his white robe, patterned with dragons. He leapt down from a scorched, towering tree and landed beside the other three disciples.

"Shen Romun's right. We can't afford to waste time." The girl covered in tattoos stretched her arms, working out the stiffness from the long fight.

"Junior Brother Ruste? What do you think?" Nea Emmia hoisted her double-headed axe off the ground and strapped it to her back without even bothering to wipe off the blood and scraps of flesh clinging to it.

Ruste Zen frowned suddenly, staring toward the horizon, where dense thickets blocked the view. "It's already too late!"

Everyone turned at once toward wherever Ruste Zen was looking.

"Heh. Your golden-eyed friend's right... It really is too late!" A cultivator stepped out of the darkness, tall, broad yet somehow lean at the same time, his long hair tied back into a ponytail, his burning red eyes enough to send a chill crawling down anyone's spine on contact.

Right behind him walked out a girl with black hair and gray eyes, flanked on both sides by a small army of puppets.

Whoosh!

The puppets unleashed their Qi at full force, through runes carved into their bodies, and the pressure that followed was so dense some disciples' knees buckled under it.

'Foundation Establishment! That's Foundation Establishment pressure, no question!' Mo Fan's grip tightened on his sword, his face draining of color.

<"Relax, don't be afraid. Sure, they're putting out pressure like Foundation Establishment cultivators, but these puppets are only right on the edge of moving from first rank to second."> Hearing the old man's voice in his head, Ruste Zen eased up slightly.

"These puppets only carry Foundation Establishment energy, not the bodies to back it up! We've got a shot!" Dropping into a stance, shielding Nea Emmia with his own back, Ruste Zen leveled his sword at one of the puppets, fully ready to strike the moment an opening appeared.

"Heh. Golden-eyes is right again. There's just one thing you didn't count on-!" Lu Shen waved a hand, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.

Instantly, dozens of puppets and zombies burst out of the treeline, charging straight at Mo Fan and the others.

"Ruste Zen, take the puppet on the right! I've got the second one! Everyone else, stay sharp!" Channeling his Qi, Mo Fan leapt straight at one of the puppets radiating that Foundation Establishment pressure.

Frowning slightly, Ruste Zen matched him, closing in on the second one.

"Hmm. Let's see what you're really made of... you bearers of immortal flames." Grinning, hands folded behind his back, Tender Rose fully shielded behind him, Lu Shen watched the battle build with obvious interest.

….

"Ah! Senior Sister!" The girl ran up, grabbed her sister under the arm, and hauled her to her feet. "We have to run! N-now!"

"Hehe! And who said you two were going anywhere? Huh?"

"Brothers, who's up first tonight?"

"What d'you mean 'brothers'? Been way too long since I've had any!"

"I'll take the pale one, her cheeks remind me of my Senior Sister back at the sect!"

Circling the two girls, five demonic disciples with hungry eyes had already started dividing up the spoils.

"Ah! How dare you! Filthy beasts!" Gathering what strength she had left, the older sister snatched her sword off the ground and, in one motion, put herself between the men and her sister. Turning her head slightly, she whispered, "J-junior Sister Mayu. The moment I attack, run, don't look back. Understood?!"

"B-but what about y-you?" Eyes brimming with tears, Junior Sister Mayu clung tight to her sister's robes.

Feeling that death-grip on her back, feeling her sister trembling with fear, the older sister could barely hold back her own tears, her voice cracking. "I'll be right behind you! Just, don't be scared, okay?!"

One of the demonic disciples, overhearing all of it, finally lost his patience. "Ha?! You two done yet? I'm already good and ready, and-"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Before he could finish the sentence, several flashes of light shot past faster than the demonic disciples could even register, and then all their heads burst open at once, like watermelons.

Plop! Plop!

Their bodies, still twitching, dropped to the already blood-soaked ground, adding fresh red to it.

"Ah? N-no!" The older sister nearly dropped her sword from the shock of it.

Finally pulling herself together, she saw the corpses, turned, and found the entire stretch between the tents, or what was left of the tents, completely empty, littered with nothing but headless demonic bodies.

She sprang to her feet, grabbed Junior Sister Mayu, and dragged her along. "Hurry! We have to get back to our own people!"

"Wh-what happened?" Eyes wide, still wet with tears, Sister Mayu kept whipping her head around. "Senior Sister! Did someone just save us? Senior Sister?!"

"Don't get distracted! Move faster! Focus!" Terrified of letting her guard down even for a second and ending up in the same situation again, the older sister sprinted with everything she had toward the gorge behind the camp, gripping her sister tightly and dragging her along, ignoring every one of her questions.

….

'Hm... they should make it safely now. As for what happens after that... I can't keep holding your hands forever. The rest is on you.' Watching the two sisters disappear, An turned and started wandering aimlessly between the tents.

"The modified Qi Silence technique's working way better than I expected..." he muttered, barely audible, walking up behind three demonic cultivators rifling through the belongings inside one of the tents. This one was noticeably bigger than the rest, decked out in decorations, right down to ornaments studded with precious stones.

Standing right behind them, barely a meter away, 'Hm, only if they actually look straight at me and focus on me... only then can Qi Condensation cultivators even see me. Great. My genius knows no bounds.' Smiling to himself, he turned and left the three to divide up their loot, wandering off between the tents again.

Drifting through the camp, testing his modified Qi Silence, he ended up saving righteous disciples a dozen times over, including a few he'd shared a warm evening and some cheap brew with, around a campfire.

Each time, once he was sure the disciples he'd saved could make it safely to the gorge behind the camp, An just kept wandering, no particular direction in mind.

"Hm?" He suddenly turned toward the area near where he'd found that third-rank fruit, the tall mountain everyone had marked off-limits for ordinary cultivators.

'Should I go check out what's happening over there?' Sensing massive surges of energy, he knew right away a fierce battle was underway. Weighing it for a moment, he changed direction and headed straight for the fight.

Reaching the edge of the camp, An lifted off the ground and drifted slowly toward a massive clearing lit up by countless techniques, like some kind of open-air concert.

Settling onto a tree branch, he watched. 'Oh? This demonic disciple's right on the edge of Qi Condensation, all he's missing is... a pill, and a little help from an elder. That's it, really.' Remembering everything what ordinary cultivator needed just to break through to the next realm, An's mood dipped a little, just thinking about everything cultivators had to grind through, knowing the same thing was waiting for him too, if he got unlucky and his Qi Silence failed him.

'Why am I even thinking about that right now... Sigh. Unlucky guy, running into two protagonists of this world at once. Doesn't matter how hard you try, their plot armor won't let you get anywhere close to winning... Being the villain here really doesn't pay.' Settling comfortably onto the branch, An leaned his side against the trunk and kept watching the fight unfolding on the clearing below.

….

"That's really all you've got? Hundred and Eight Nodes of Wrath!" Dropping into a stance, Lu Shen gathered his Qi into both hands and, with a sharp thrust, sent two massive palm prints, each made up of fifty-three smaller palms, hurtling straight at Mo Fan and Ruste Zen.

"Black Dragon Step! Eternal Darkness! Second Form!" Stepping back several paces in an instant, Mo Fan swung his sword and sent a huge black wave of energy, devouring the light around it, to meet the palms head-on.

"Dragon Scale! Clawed Palm!" Ruste Zen's whole body armored over in something like dragon scales. He swiped a hand through the air, mimicking the strike of some ferocious beast, and his technique tore out five waves of energy.

BOOOM!

The attacks collided, halting both massive palms and sending out a shockwave that tore up and flattened the ground for dozens of meters around.

"Hahaha! More! Give me more! I refuse to believe that's everything! You can barely stop even half my strength! Righteous scum!" Throwing his hands up to the sky, Lu Shen laughed, contempt and disgust dripping from his eyes.

"Ptooh!" Spitting out a clot of blood, Mo Fan wiped his face, activated his ring, and pulled out several white talismans. Slapping them onto himself, he shouted, "Black Dragon Step!"

Whoosh!

His speed shot up several times over, leaving dozens of afterimages trailing behind him. In an instant, he'd closed the distance to Lu Shen and raised his sword overhead.

"Ha?!" Not expecting that kind of speed, Lu Shen nearly stumbled when the brat's face suddenly appeared right in front of his own.

"Phoenix Strike! Vertical Silence!" Pouring every ounce of his physical strength into the blade, he brought it crashing down.

"HA!" Barely managing to yank his sword off his belt and block the strike inches above his head, Lu Shen felt like a mountain was bearing down on him, trying to grind him into the dirt.

"GHAAA!" As the pressure kept building, heavier and heavier, his sword began to crack, hairline fractures spreading right where the two blades met.

"Dragon's Gaze! Precise Strike!" Wasting no time, Ruste Zen channeled his Qi and unleashed his own technique, driving his sword straight for Lu Shen's heart.

Seeing a second blade closing in fast, Lu Shen dumped everything he had into his already cracking sword.

BOOOM!

Detonating his own sword with a burst of Qi, he sent the blast wave straight into Mo Fan's face.

Lu Shen let go, releasing his grip, and crossed his hands into the gesture of the All-Seeing Eye, energy already gathering inside it. "Eye of Osor! New Night!"

"Damn it!" Blinded by the sudden flash of light, Ruste Zen flinched, and the next instant, darkness swallowed him whole, stripping away every last bit of his sense of the world around him. Completely blind, completely deaf, before he could even collect himself, a searing pain tore through his chest.

<"Get up! Wake up!"> The old man's voice screamed inside his head, but Ruste Zen didn't respond. He just lay there, his chest caved in, blood pouring from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

<"Damn it all, I've got no choice! I have to protect the boy! Even if it costs me months in hibernation! There's no other way! Just, live, that's all that matters!"> Channeling his Qi, the old man inside the ring wrapped Ruste Zen in his energy, healing him completely, clearing his mind, wiping out every trace of Lu Shen's technique.

"UGH! AAH!!" Coming back to his senses, every inch of his body screamed in agony.

<"Listen to me carefully! I don't have much time left! Because you got caught in his technique, I had no choice but to step in! Now I'm going to have to hibernate for a few months! Be careful from here on out! Understood?"> Through the pain wracking his whole body, Ruste Zen managed to focus just enough to catch the old man's fading voice in his head.

<"I-I understand! Th-thank you for saving me, Teacher!"> He found the strength to push himself up onto his feet, and immediately collapsed back down, completely spent. 'Even with Teacher healing me... I can't keep fighting. I need time to recover. I just hope Mo Fan can hold out a little longer...' Remembering the battle was still raging, he snapped his gaze forward, and froze in horror.

….

"AAAAH!!! N-no!" With a hand protruding straight through her chest, Hart Alia dropped her spear. Grabbing at the bloody arm with both hands, she tried desperately to push it out of herself.

Everyone around went still, the fighting grinding to a halt. No one had expected it, the moment Lu Shen shoved Mo Fan aside, everyone assumed he'd use the opening to land a killing blow on him. Instead, he'd gone straight for the most exposed of Mo Fan's companions and driven a clean, fatal strike through her.

"Hm? What's with that face? Feeling sorry for her? Guess she was more than just a comrade to you, a good friend, huh? Such a shame! Go ahead and cry, if you want." Without so much as glancing away from Mo Fan, he wrenched his hand free from the chest of the now pale, trembling Hart Alia.

Plop!

She crumpled to the ground, her eyes wide and lost, brimming with fear, rage, denial, and despair, straining just to lift her own head.

"S-sister Hart!"

"OH NO!!"

"Hurry! We have to help her!"

The rest of them, Nea Emmia, Onie Alia, Lia Kult, Shen Romun, Hua Zhen, seeing her body drop, abandoned everything and rushed to help. But at that exact moment, Tender Rose and her sect brothers and sisters pressed their attack even harder, cutting off every path to her.

Standing apart from it all, Mo Fan watched the light drain from Hart Alia's eyes, watched her body go still. Even the blood running from her mouth slowed to a stop.

"You... you're finished! I-I'll destroy everything you hold dear! AAAAARGH!"

"Eternal Darkness! Third Form!" Rage spilling over, Mo Fan stepped forward, swinging his sword.

"Hahaha! Think your anger's going to make you stronger? Pathetic!" Smiling like a psychopath, Lu Shen channeled his Qi, ready to meet the attack head-on.

The moment he activated his technique, hundreds of black swords materialized around Mo Fan, greedily swallowing the light around them, plunging the already dark forest into deeper shadow.

"HAA!" Unleashing every one of those energy blades straight at the bastard in front of him, Mo Fan didn't hesitate for a second, charging forward right behind them.

"Oh, hell... Shit!" Seeing the sheer scale of the attack, feeling the density of the energy behind it, Lu Shen realized he couldn't just brush this one off.

Acting purely on instinct, drawing on years of experience. "Eye of Osor! Moonrise!" Crossing his hands into the shape of the All-Seeing Eye, a clump of energy resembling a full moon formed inside the symbol. He was about to finish the technique.

"Dragon's Roar!" Concentrating Qi in his throat, Mo Fan unleashed a wave of energy from his mouth at hypersonic speed.

"NO!" The wave struck the clump of energy inside the Eye dead-on, and the resulting explosion sent Lu Shen flying backward, slamming him into the ground.

"UGH! Closed Shield!" Feeling the hair on his body stand on end as hundreds of black swords bore down on him, Lu Shen focused and threw up a shield around himself. 'My shield technique absorbs energy. Once it soaks up his whole attack, I'll fire it right back at him!'

The instant he tensed, every single sword struck at once, all aimed at the same spot on the shield, trying to break through together.

"AAAAH!" Feeling his shield hit its saturation point, unable to absorb any more of the attack's energy, its structure starting to buckle, Lu Shen fought with everything he had to keep it intact, feeling the black swords' energy start seeping through, shattering his focus completely.

Finally, the shield gave out, but Lu Shen didn't lose his nerve, shouting instead, "Arroyo's Flame!"

Feeling cold sweat break out across his forehead, death closing in fast, he had no choice left but to unleash his immortal flame. The moment the thought crossed his mind, it engulfed his entire body.

Whoosh!

Fully unleashed, his Arroyo's Flame began tearing through and incinerating the black energy swords mere millimeters from his face.

"Who would've thought! You actually forced me to use my Immortal Flame! You're finished now!" Roaring with fury, completely wrapped in white flame, Lu Shen stepped forward and appeared right in front of Mo Fan's pale face.

"Drughono's Flame!" Nearly thrown off by his opponent's sudden speed, Mo Fan activated his own flame, wrapping himself entirely in black fire, concentrating most of it into his hands to block.

"UGH!" The force of the blow sent Mo Fan flying back several meters. He hit the ground and sprang right back up, only to notice that where the strike had landed, his flame had gone noticeably paler. 'What just happened? Wait, what kind of immortal flame does he have that can weaken mine?'

Eyes gleaming with greed, Lu Shen studied the black flame wrapped around Mo Fan closely. 'Didn't see that coming, did you? The moment you unleashed your immortal flame, that's the moment you signed your own death warrant! I'll absorb it and burn you from the inside out! And then I'll take the second one's flame too! Hahaha!'

"Arroyo's Flame!" Crossing his hands into the shape of a blooming flower, he gathered a massive clump of flame and fired it off like an arrow.

"AAH!" Forming up a shield of his own fire, Mo Fan went pale. The instant the clump of flame touched his shield, his fire wrapped around it began dimming, thinning out. 'N-no! His flame's absorbing mine and feeding itself off it! I need to do something, now!' Feeling the attack only growing stronger, pressing harder against his shield, he finally understood exactly what was happening.

"Black Dragon Step!" Using his movement technique, he shifted clear of the flames. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, he drew his sword from his ring and, readying his technique, wrapped the blade in black fire: "Phoenix Strike! Drughono's Flame Enrichment!"

Whoosh!

A massive black wave of flame shot toward Lu Shen at blinding speed.

"Hm?! NO!" Sensing the horrifying energy packed inside that wave, Lu Shen's whole body broke out in goosebumps. "Closed Shield!" Throwing up a shield in front of himself, even knowing it wouldn't be enough to save him, Lu Shen started backing away fast, toward the far end of the clearing, where the rest of the fight was still raging.

"STOP! Don't you dare run!! Black Dragon Step!" Catching on to his plan, Mo Fan, consumed by rage, activated his movement technique and appeared in front of Lu Shen in an instant. But instead of the fear he expected, he found a smile spreading across his opponent's face.

"So predictable!" Realizing his plan had worked, that the trap had snapped shut exactly as intended, Lu Shen unleashed every last drop of flame energy into his hands: "Hundred and Eight Nodes of Wrath! Arroyo's Flame Enrichment!"

"Ah?" Caught completely off guard, Mo Fan didn't even have time to react, he just saw two massive palm prints flash in front of his eyes.

"GHAAA!!" Like a battering ram, both palms drove him backward nearly a hundred meters, tearing straight through the membrane of his immortal flame.

"Mo Fan!"

"Brother Mo!"

Everyone else, still locked in their own fights with no way to break free, could only scream in helpless frustration, watching their brother, their friend, suffer.

Straightening his back with a loud crack of bone, a triumphant smile spread across Lu Shen's face as he stepped forward. "Did you actually think you had a chance? With strength this pitiful? Or what, thought if you wanted it badly enough, the heavens would just hand it to you? Ha! What a joke!" His eyes wide and hungry, he stared down at Mo Fan sprawled on his back, but his attention stayed locked on the flame barely clinging to life on Mo Fan's hands. "The second my flame absorbs yours, it'll grow several times stronger! I'll grow several times stronger!"

Walking right up, standing over him, he looked down with contempt. "I'll give you one chance to save your friends... whoever's left of them. Hand over your immortalflame willingly, and I'll let them live! Refuse, and I'll tear you apart first, take the flame, leave you right on death's doorstep, then rip your friends apart right in front of you, make you watch them beg for mercy! And only then will I take your head! Choose now, while I'm still in a good mood!"

Lying on the ground, propped against a rise in the earth, Mo Fan stared straight into his eyes without looking away, and suddenly started laughing. "Ha... Haha... Hahaha!"

"Heh?! Lost your mind? Or you think that's actually going to help you?" Even with the smile still fixed on his face, unease crept into Lu Shen's chest. He couldn't understand why a defeated opponent would suddenly start laughing in his face, humiliating him, needling at his pride. Sensing something was off, Lu Shen dropped the idea of dragging out the humiliation any further and gathered a clump of white flame into his palm instead. "Guess I'll just send you off first, then!"

"I think... you're the one going first." Smirking, Mo Fan glanced down at Lu Shen's belt.

"Hm?" Following his gaze, Lu Shen looked down. Spotting a red pill stuck to his robes, a cold chill shot straight up the back of his neck. "Damn it!!"

He reached to knock it away, but he was a fraction of a second too slow, it detonated, spraying molten lava that instantly burned through his robes and clung to his skin like glue, boring deeper and deeper.

"AAAAH!" Feeling that substance cooking him alive from the inside, he nearly lost every shred of rational thought, one single idea cutting through the agony: 'Run! I have to run!'

"Arroyo's Flame!" Gathering a massive amount of flame into his hands, he released it in front of himself and let it detonate.

"Ugh!" Caught off guard by the move, Mo Fan scrambled, throwing everything into defense.

"Ah!" Even pouring every last bit of his Qi into rebuilding his flame as a shield, Mo Fan was still thrown backward, left with dozens of small wounds across his body.

Without wasting another second, Lu Shen spun around and, pouring everything he had left into his movement technique, took a single step and vanished into thin air.

"B-Brother Lu!" Tender Rose, still holding off three of Mo Fan's friends, hesitated for a split second seeing him flee. But she quickly composed herself, wiped the disappointment from her eyes, and shouted, "Fall back! We're retreating!"

Hearing her order, her sect brothers and sisters, surrounded by corpses and puppets, fell back as one, moving in the opposite direction from where Lu Shen had disappeared.

….

"Ah... Ugh! Don't, don't let them get away! They have to pay for Sister Hart's death!" Finally back on his feet, realizing his enemy had already slipped away, Mo Fan felt his thirst for revenge go unanswered, and immediately turned his fury on whoever was still within reach.

"HA! Die!" Eyes flooded with rage, he threw himself into the attack, holding nothing back, not for his enemies, and not for himself.