As he turned to run, Wu Ying caught the flicker of power that wrapped around the tombstones and the talismans. A wall of power enclosed the area, blocking off the direct route to the group even as they ran. It was not a big diversion, barely fifty feet in length, but it would force the cultivators to choose to destroy the formation or run around it. And destroying the formation would do the one thing they had avoided thus far—destroy the gravestones that anchored the formation.
It was one reason the group had managed to make it so far. The other reason was that the cultivators left behind were of the lowest cultivation level. Most of them were, at best, low Energy Storage stage, with the vast majority in the middle Body Refinement stage.
Wu Ying hopped over the next tombstone, continuing his headlong sprint down the hill as his friends regrouped around him. He kept casting glances backward, mentally reviewing the map he had created of the city. He shouted as he ran, husbanding his breath as best he could.
“We’ve got three blocks of residential houses before we reach the walls,” Wu Ying said. “We should make sure to stay close and don’t split up. If you do get lost, we meet at the horses. Get over the walls as far as you can.”
Wu Ying felt the lurch in the thread that connected him and the talismans, informing him that their pursuers had managed to break through. He grimaced, casting a glance back, and noticed that they’d managed to add another hundred yards to their lead. Rather than just smash through as he’d expected, their pursuers had somehow managed to disrupt the formation without destroying the tombstones. It was quite possible they had an actual formation master among them, able to discern the issues with the hastily constructed talisman wall. In either case, Wu Ying’s group had gained enough distance to put them at the edge of the graveyard. Except…
The ward that had triggered when Yin Xue had first walked onto the graveyard came to life once more. It glowed a deep red, a shimmering wall that enclosed the entire hilltop and surroundings. If they could fly, they’d probably be able to reach the top of the forty-foot formation wall, but even if they’d had good qinggong skills, this was no rough wall to run up. This was pure energy, meaning they’d have to jump directly up to reach the top. Only someone at the Core Cultivation level or maybe the late Energy Storage stage would be able to do that.
“Hun dan!” Li Yao swore as she spotted the impediment. She held her spear down at her side, infusing the spearhead with her chi as she got ready to pierce the formation.
“Bao Cong, keep them busy,” Wu Ying ordered, falling in line beside Li Yao. He held his sword down near his hip, sword pointed at the formation as he readied himself. “Yin Xue and I will hit the formation before Li Yao. We’ll weaken the formation first. On my mark.”
Yin Xue grunted, raising his sword to his forehead and placing a pair of fingers on the edge of the sword. In silence, the pair focused, drawing their power into their weapons before, at Wu Ying’s signal, letting out a shout in unison. The bolts of chi and sword intent flew forward as Wu Ying’s count bottomed out, striking the rippling wall of the formation and creating a burst of rainbow light. The explosion of energy rippled, making the wall vibrate, but it did not give way.
Li Yao was right behind them. Even as they struck, she planted her feet into the ground as she formed a single line with her weapon, putting all her intent, all her energy into a single focused point. The blade flew between the rapidly moving forms of the pair, so close that Wu Ying felt a deep chill along his back and side as the ice-coated weapon flew by him. The spearhead struck the formation, and for second, it seemed as if the wall would hold. But with a screaming screech, the tip pierced through.
It was enough.
Most formations could fail when too much energy was sent into them. The larger the formation, the weaker they were, as they had to spread their energy across the entire area. Overburdened, the formation was unable to keep its integrity, and lines of energy, freed from their constrained locations by the formation, rippled outward. Like the crumpling of the thinnest metal, the formation released a screeching wail that set hairs on end and teeth on edge. With a burst of light and energy, the formation shattered. Smaller displays of rainbow light and noise erupted from concentrated locations around the graveyard, the anchor points for the formation.
“I think we broke something,” Wu Ying said with a slight grin.
With a wave, he directed everyone to run again, calling out to Bao Cong as well. As Wu Ying looked back, he noticed that the area behind them was filled with arrows, their assailants hiding behind tombstones. All but one, his body skewered with a trio of arrows.
For all that, cowering or not, their assailants kept creeping forward, cutting down the distance between them. Once he knew Bao Cong was ready to leave, Wu Ying took off as well. Spotting Yin Xue ducking into an alley, he headed in that direction, only to have his attention drawn to the clatter of footsteps as a group of guards ran out from another street corner. They hesitated for moments, pointing their spears at the cultivators before charging.
“Gan[15]! More of them.”
***
Yin Xue cut his way through his opponent, his sword catching the man high in the throat and carrying body and head backward as Yin Xue rushed down the narrow alleyway that their opponents blocked. Another guard, hidden behind his shield, was blown back by Li Yao’s strike with the butt of her spear, crashing into his friends and knocking them all to the ground. Wu Ying followed her rushing figure, swinging his sword as he ran past the group of fallen enemies, cutting wrists, necks, and ankle tendons to cripple and kill them. Bao Cong, in the back, lurched over their fallen opponents, ducking to snatch up a crossbow that had fallen. He spun, triggered his chi, and released the bolt. The metal within the crossbow head replicated and filled the air behind them with sharp needles of energy.
Their pursuers ducked and covered behind shields. Some of them were too slow to hide, falling to the attack. The attack cost Bao Cong though, as the blacksmith staggered, his face pale as he drew upon his already overdrawn dantian. Wu Ying grabbed the back of Bao Cong’s robes, dragging him away from the recovering soldiers, not allowing him to fall.
As Bao Cong let the crossbow drop from his hands, Wu Ying snapped, “Rest. We will need you at the walls.”
“But the pursuers…”
“I’ll deal with them. Just run!” Wu Ying commanded.
As they ran across the busy street they’d exited into, Wu Ying grabbed at a nearby empty stall, pulling the wooden contraption to the ground behind them. It would offer little impediment to strong cultivators, but they were mostly being chased by the militia and a few soldiers from the army. One advantage of the large number of people chasing them and the narrow alleys they kept ducking into—their pursuers were getting in each other’s way.
The three blocks they had to cross turned into seven as they ducked in and out of alleys, backtracking at times rather than take on full platoons. Wu Ying swore more than once, but being at the back of the group, he could only trust that Yin Xue and Li Yao knew what they were doing.
As Wu Ying ran, he heard a shout, one that reached all the way across the blocks to his ears. At the voiceless shout, a chill of premonition ran through him. He turned, never stopping as he pulled Bao Cong along. On one end of the street, strolling forward, his giant sword over his arm, the armored form of the cultivator who had held the wall approached. Wu Ying’s eyes grew wide as the man lowered his hand and sword, pointing it straight at Wu Ying.
When he noticed that Wu Ying was looking, he spoke, his voice so loud that it rattled the windows and made the stones on the ground tremble. “You can run. But we’ll find you, you little rat.”