Chapter 346 Calling It a Day
Relying on the cover of Yang Tingge and Zuo Che’er, Li Ye and others successfully distanced themselves from Huang Jingyuan and others, marching toward the center of the ruins. Because of the fact that there were two camps of cultivators in the ruins, at this moment, they could only enter but not go out. Thus Li Ye and others could not run out of the city.
The distance between the two sides was quite far away. If Li Ye and others did not slow down, Huang Jingyuan would never catch up. But they had not given up, and they were still pursuing.
By this time, Yang Tingge and Zuo Che’er had also evacuated from the high point, and not far away from Li Ye and others, in a parallel forward posture, echoed each other and hurried.
A short time later, Xiao Hei communicated with Li Ye for the second time with the mystery of the demon clan, and he added anxiously, “The cultivators of the Immortal Court who just entered the city had already come in from the flanks!”
Li Ye glanced back at Huang Jingyuan and crew, frowning slightly.
According to the position reported by Xiao Hei, another group of cultivators from the Immortal Court had entered the city. They were in front of the crowd and leaned towards the center of the city. Now everyone was forced to march into the city, and the other party naturally had the opportunity to intercept.
Li Ye decided in the nick of time and led his men to change direction and run in the opposite direction of the second group of cultivators from the Immortal Court’s position—Chen Jizhen and others entered the city from the west of the city. Now Li Ye and others changed their direction from originally traveling from south to north, and now rushed to the east of the city.
Walking through the streets and alleys, over many abandoned courtyards, and passing through numerous forests and grasses, Li Ye and others did not let the confluent Huang Jingyuan, Chen Jizhen and others catch up. Thanks to the vastness of the ruins, Li Ye had time to turn around, otherwise he would have had to run to the end of the city-east.
Even thus, they would reach meet the east end of the city wall. Knowing that they couldn’t get out of the city, Li Ye and his crew had to change directions once again if they didn’t want the Immortal Court cultivators to catch up to them. Li Ye had to lead the opposition in circles.
However, in this way, it became a battle of physicality between two sides, and whoever got exhausted first would lose. Owing to the fact that Li Ye and his men had already fought a battle against Huang Jingyuan and their Spiritual Qi had already been consumed quite a bit, this kind of competition was undoubtedly asking for trouble, and the consequences were self-evident.
Yang Tingge and Zuo Che’er had come to meet, and the latter added impulsively, “Prince An, we cannot run away, so let’s turn around and fight back!”
Li Ye groaned for a moment and did not answer Zuo Che’er for a while, but Yang Tingge took over the conversation, and reprimanded Zuo Che’er right to his face, “Shut up! Prince An is unparalleled in terms of wits and will. He has his own plan. There is no need for you to say more.”
The delightful victory had made Yang Tingge admire Li Ye even more.
As he rushed forward, Li Ye glanced back. After Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen merged, they already had more than ten combat powers, almost twice their number. It was not easy to fight back.
Now the two sides were not too far apart, they could still see each other, and there was no possibility to lay ambush. They could make a come-back attack, but its effectiveness was not guaranteed, at least not enough to turn the situation around.
The unfavorable situation was obvious. The Immortal Court had the numbers on their side, be it the number of men or strength, both were far greater than either of the demon clan or the Buddhists. Li Ye felt helpless that the number of people he had gathered was inferior to the opponent.
If this continued, Li Ye and others would change from being the hunter to prey. This seemed madly dangerous. It could be said that they were bound to perish. According to the previous investigation of the ruins, if there were more than two camps of cultivators in the ruins, no one could get out of the city, which meant that Li Ye couldn’t even run.
It meant that if they could not win, they were bound to lose. Or that death would be awaiting them if they couldn’t live.
As Li Ye was thinking hard and still couldn’t find a solution to the problem, a sudden change occurred.
If Li Ye and his men were facing a slim to none chance of surviving the situation of being chased by the Immortal Court cultivators, after this change, their chance had tipped over to the none side.
The sudden change did not bring hope, but despair.
The change originated from Xiao Hei’s alarm.
The warning content was very simple, a group of Land Buddhism monks in front were coming!
This news was tantamount to a thunderclap from a blue sky for Li Ye and others.
The three parties, Li Ye, the Land Buddhism, and the Immortal Court were rivals to each other, and no one would be polite to anyone. If any two parties met, it would be a battle to the death.
Now it seemed that Li Ye and his men had nowhere to go because they were facing wolves at the front and tigers at the back.
Li Ye’s first reaction was to avoid meeting with Land Buddhism monks—he turned to the north coyly and let the Land Buddhism and Immortal Court meet.
But this could not be done.
One reason was that they couldn’t hide because the cultivators of the Immortal Court had been chasing them all the time. The other reason was that the Land Buddhism monks had found them.
After all, everyone was in the process of running away. Although Xiao Hei’s perception was shrewd, it was still too late when he sensed the Land Buddhism monks. Now the distance between the two sides was too close.
They were almost headed for a dead end. Either they were headed for a frontal confrontation with Buddhist monks, or turning around to face the cultivators of the Immortal Court.
The outcome of these two choices was the same. The only difference was that when they were dying, which side’s cultivators they would pull down with them.
At this very urgent moment, they had no time to hesitate. It was better to make a decision than being undecided. Li Ye looked around, took the surroundings into his eyes, and had a decision in his heart. He led the people to immediately turn north, and after a distance of a hundred feet, they overturned a collapsed courtyard and entered a house that was neither too big nor too small.
This house had four entrances, and there were other houses on the left and right. After Li Ye entered, he ordered everyone to take their place. First, Yang Tingge and Zuo Che’er climbed to the roof of the main house and controlled the high points. Although most of the house had collapsed, the walls still existed after all. Then He Shuwen and others prepared for a sudden strike based on the eastern and western courtyards.
Originally, Li Ye and his men were running with the Immortal Court chased behind them, and the Land Buddhism monks were blocking them from the front, the three parties were on a line. Li Ye and others were in a state of being pinched by both sides. Now after this change in direction, although it was only a hundred steps away, it was not enough to get rid of anyone. But at least Li Ye and his crew were no longer wedged in between the Immortal Court and Land Buddhism.
They broke away from the middle position, and without them as an obstacle, they let the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism see each other at a glance.
Now, the positions of the three parties were roughly at the three corners of the triangle, not far from each other.
Li Ye and others had stopped. They had to stop. If they didn’t, the Immortal Court would still chase them, and the Land Buddhism would still block them. Only by stopping and letting the three parties be still instead of being in motion, then everyone had the opportunity to calm down and deal with the situation.
As expected, Li Ye stopped, the cultivators of the Immortal Court and Land Buddhism monks stopped in succession. They confronted each other, and all looked at each other with full alert and hostility. They were ready for a fight any moment.
The fight between the Buddhism and the Taoist sect had been going on for hundreds of years, and the hatred between them was far greater than that of Li Ye’s resentment—for hundreds of years, Buddhism had been suppressed by the Taoist sect. But this situation would not reduce the hatred small, but make it even bigger.
None of the three parties acted immediately.
The atmosphere quickly became fickle.
This was the first time the trilateral forces had met in the ruins on a large scale after entering the secret region.
On the side of the Immortal Court, Huang Jingyuan was low-spirited. This brain trust of seventy-two Earth Devils had always shown people the face of elegance and wisdom. And he was gentle and calm like water ordinarily and rarely would he be emotional. But at this moment, he was not intent on covering up his mood at all, and it was probably impossible to hide it.
After successive losses at the hands of Li Ye, especially the loss of several cultivators this time, it was no longer acceptable to Huang Jingyuan.
If Huang Jingyuan’s face was so dreary that it could drip water, then the anger on Chen Jizhen’s face seemed to be able to burn. He was a fierce and bold man that could not accept losses so much.
The man who made their mood unbalanced was right before them.
Both of them were anxious to attack immediately, with the intent on chopping Li Ye into minced meat.
But they could not act rashly.
Because the Land Buddhism monks were next to them.
If it were only ordinary Land Buddhism monks, with the strength of Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan, there would be no scruples at all.
However, Feihong Bodhisattva was also there.
In white clothes and a white dress, she sat on a cornice in an attic and drank. She always had endless drinks. The rules and regulations of Buddhism were as many as the hairs on a cow, and regulations against drinking wine and eating meat were naturally in it. According to this theory, Feihong Bodhisattva should have been swept out of Buddhism.
But she wasn’t.
She still looked like she was absent-minded and didn’t care about anything. At first glance, she looked unrestrained, and free, upon a second look, she seemed concerned and deep. Look again though, she revealed a sense of loneliness and despair.
Unfortunately, the world had always only seen the first level.
So it was like that to Chen Jizhen and Huang Jingyuan too.
So they were afraid.
Huang Jingyuan was silent for a while before saying to Feihong Bodhisattva, “I heard that Li Ye killed many Land Buddhism monks.”
Feihong Bodhisattva just glanced at him slightly and continued to drink.
Huang Jingyuan was not dissatisfied, even if he felt that Feihong Bodhisattva was too artificial, but she had the cache. He continued, “Since the Land Buddhism also wants to kill Li Ye, how about we take his life first and then fight for the copper billet in the ruins?”
Feihong Bodhisattva’s blackish-red eccentric lips moved. “If you want to kill him, go ahead, and I won’t stop you.”
She looked natural with an amiable tone, just like a spring breeze sweeping across the lake, and like the clouds and breeze, she was very light without any emotion.
Words had no emotions, and naturally, they couldn’t sense the weight of her words.
Huang Jingyuan didn’t move.
Chen Jizhen was unable to sit still. “In this case, cultivators! Listen to my command, attack Li Ye with me!”
He made the command, but no cultivators of the Immortal Court moved.
Because Huang Jingyuan grabbed him.
Chen Jizhen was in confusion and stared at Huang Jingyuan with annoyance.
Huang Jingyuan shook his head respectfully, and then looked at Feihong Bodhisattva. “Will the Bodhisattva guarantee that you will not do anything to me until Li Ye is not dead?”
Earlier, Feihong Bodhisattva’s sentence did not express this meaning clearly. She wouldn’t stop the cultivators of the Immortal Court from attacking, but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t take the opportunity to do something.
Right now, there were seven or eight Land Buddhism monks. The number was about the same as that of Li Ye, which was a lot less than Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen combined.
From just looking at the numbers, the Land Buddhism monks had no chance of winning against the cultivators of the Immortal Court.
In truth, it was probably just as the numbers showed.
Feihong Bodhisattva put a stopper on the flagon. She spoke in the same way as before, because there was no emotion mixed in, it sounded like reading, and she asked, “Why should I promise?”
Huang Jingyuan’s face was as dark as ink, and he was silent.
Chen Jizhen was even more furious, he wanted to scream and yell, but he stiffly resisted.
Feihong Bodhisattva just looked at them with a smile. When she smiled, only the blood-red lips curved slightly on her flawless face. There was a hint of playfulness in the way she spoke.
The atmosphere became more subtle.
Seeing this scene, Li Ye had a sunny smile on his face, and he made an obeisance by cupping his hand in the other before his chest to the crowd and added, “Since you are still undecided for a while, then discuss it slowly. I won’t inconvenience you further, and I’m calling it a day.”
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