They’d reached the wall.
Now they’d just have to disengage.
Chapter 23
A quick disengage, a tip cut to draw across his opponent’s neck just below the straps of his helmet. It opened a shallow wound, barely an inch deep, but it was more than enough. The veins and arteries that ran across the body were not deep in certain locations, locations that Wu Ying had long learned. The small motion was all it took to end a life and free Wu Ying to regard his friends.
Below, Tou Hei held the stairs, fighting Mo Hei to a standstill. Staff and sword clashed again and again, neither party gaining an advantage. Tou Hei was more skilled, able to deflect the weapon and forcing it to crash against the stone with every other attack. But his occasional retaliatory attacks did little against Mo Hei’s armored form. Slowly, so slowly, Tou Hei was being injured, his arms bleeding from missed blocks.
Behind him, Li Yao stabbed her spear into the mass of attackers below, batting aside any cultivator who tried to ascend the staircase in an unconventional manner. Even as Wu Ying watched, another cultivator took a running jump, bouncing off one of his friend’s shoulders and leaping to the stairs. Li Yao caught his sword with her spear, edging the attack away before spinning in place and kicking him back into the air.
Bao Cong stood at the top of the stairs, taking his time and firing arrows into the throng. He focused on the few archers, and from the hesitant ways the soldiers moved to pick up fallen archery implements, it was clear that he was more than effective. Even so, his movements had slowed significantly, the wounds he’d acquired slowing him down.
As for Yin Xue, he, like Wu Ying, was free and clear of any dangers as they’d managed to deal with the soldiers on the wall. After moment of debate, Wu Ying handed Yin Xue a bundle of formation flags.
“Get it set up. Outside,” Wu Ying ordered Yin Xue, gesturing out of the city.
Wu Ying drew a deep breath, removing something from his storage ring as he turned away from Yin Xue. He could only hope that the man followed his orders, for Wu Ying needed to take care of the other cultivators. He quickly approached Bao Cong.
“Shoot this when it is above the others,” Wu Ying said. When Bao Cong nodded, Wu Ying turned to face the stairs. “Li Yao! We’ll need your ice.”
Not daring to wait any longer, Wu Ying twisted and threw the object. The Flask of Never-Ending Water flew over the group crowded along the stairs, where it was intercepted by a well-placed arrow. The formations, the enchantments in the flask broke, pierced as it was by the arrow. Water contained within the storage space exploded out from the flask, flooding those below.
Li Yao released the last of her chi into the surroundings, freezing the air, crystallizing the water, and creating a sheet of slick ice that covered stairs, armored bodies, and weapons. To aid her, Tou Hei spun his staff, pulling in the released heat as he churned his own chi. His opponent, drenched in water, froze as he tried to take another step forward. He crashed to the ground as tight joints and slippery stairs took their toll. A single strike by Tou Hei to the back of Mo Hei’s helmet deepened a dent and made the large form twitch before it stilled.
“Run!” Wu Ying ordered the group.
Bao Cong made a face, pulled a pill from his storage ring, and swallowed it, his face flushing with color. Making his bow disappear, the cultivator took a running start and jumped off the wall, following the same path as Yin Xue—who’d left already at Wu Ying’s earlier command. In short order, Li Yao and Tou Hei arrived from below, but to their surprise, Wu Ying was not running. He was instead slapping even more talismans on the ground, all across the wall and in front to the stairs.
When Wu Ying saw them hesitate, he snapped at them, “Move. I’ve got this.”
Thankfully, his friends didn’t hesitate any longer and jumped off the edge of the wall. Wu Ying slapped one last talisman onto the ground, extracted a piece of rope from his storage ring, and tossed it over a crenellation on the wall before he jumped, gripping the rope as he let it play out in his hands. The rough rope tore at his hands as he fell, and he was once again thankful that he had gained numerous calluses from his swordplay. Between that and his Body Cultivation, he would not rip up his palms as he descended at speed. Unlike his friends—who had landed and were running for the forests or ducking into the hiding places and trenches the army had created—he could not withstand a full drop. Not without some injury, as he’d learned.
Wu Ying finally dropped onto the ground, and not a moment too soon as screams resounded from above. Wu Ying felt his lips pull apart in a grin, grateful that Bai Hu had been willing to sell him the talismans. The talismans weren’t all that destructive, just nerve-racking; more likely to make an individual fall on their face than to kill them. But they bought time, and that was all that mattered.
Once more, Wu Ying ran as fast as he could. But in the corner of his eyes, he saw soldiers on horses exiting the nearest gate, rushing to intercept them. He could only hope that Yin Xue had taken his orders and placed the formation.
***
“Slowly. Slowly,” Wu Ying chanted to his friends softly.
The group was crawling forward at a snail’s pace, each of them holding onto one of the formation flags as their enemies swirled around them. Deep in a trench that had been dug, created so that the army could narrow the distance, the group moved.
Finding Yin Xue had been simple enough. They’d discussed their options earlier, figured out where and when they would join up again if they were split up, with multiple fallback positions. Yin Xue had set the formation flags around their meeting spot in the ditch they’d chosen, ensuring they would be hidden the moment they entered the ditch. Once everyone was gathered, they began the slow, arduous process of sneaking away.
Unfortunately, their escape had roused the army within, and even if there were still concerns that Wu Ying’s group was just another distraction, the soldiers had sent forth a large number of patrols to find them. The patrols now crisscrossed the grounds, searching for them in an ever-expanding circle of horses and cultivators. The soldiers had even loosed spirit animals, scenting dogs that snuffled the ground in search of them. Only the liberal application of talismans and the disposal of certain demon beast cores had ensured their escape from the animals.
With their auras compressed with the talismans they’d purchased, they slowly sneaked away under the illusory formation. Unfortunately, the talismans were running out of power and it would not be long before they were forced into the open. So even if it was dangerous, they were moving the formation.
They had a tense few minutes as groups of cultivators and soldiers streamed through the fields outside the city, intent on finding them. More than once, Wu Ying thought they would be caught, especially when they were forced out of the trenches and were crossing the open ground surrounding the city. Even if they could hide behind the gentle slopes of hills, those same hills allowed their pursuers to appear suddenly and with little warning. Wu Ying stretched his senses to the maximum, doing his best to note when others might be arriving, though all he could really do was rely on the formation.
Nearly an hour later, they’d managed to sneak away to the north. The search parties had spread out so widely that they were no longer within easy shouting distance of one another.
That was when tragedy struck again. The Green Waters Sect cultivators had just crossed another hill when they spotted a returning group of cultivators. Instead of individual horses, the group led a half-dozen additional horses. Their horses.
“Dammit,” Wu Ying cursed under his breath.