Chapter 364 I Don’t Believe It
Soon the battle was over. After switching to his dagger, the dark-skinned monk only managed to wave it a few times. Li Ye, who flew past him, cut his head in passing. As for those Land Buddhism monks behind him, they were eventually killed by the demon clan cultivators after the short resistance.
To no one’s surprise, they won this battle and quickly cleaned up the battlefield. Li Ye sheathed his Luke Sword and glanced around to see if there were any other enemies.
“Your Highness, there are two parts for the battleax.” Zuo Che’er submitted the captured trophies to Li Ye. The two parts from the battleax demonstrated that this defeated team must have eliminated two other teams before.
In fact, this team with five or six monks had pretty good military strength. But unfortunately, they met Li Ye’s group, whose men were far superior numerically.
Li Ye frowned a little when he took the two pieces of copper from Zuo Che’er. After taking a glance at the other end of the stone bridge, he swiftly ordered. “More people are coming! Everyone, break ranks and scatter. Carry these corpses away and remove the traces of this battle. Let’s make an ambush again!”
His team acted quickly. In a well-ordered way, they cooperated and shared out the work. Within a few breaths of time, they entirely cleared the battle traces at a fantastic speed.
They could manage such a thing with ease now because they had been in continuous combats since they left the ruined Dingyuan. Along the way, Li Ye kept taking in cultivators from the demon clan and ambushing cultivators from the Immortal Court or the Land Buddhism.
In this process, Li Ye brought into full play his military capability. Based on his opponent’s number and military strength, his tactics differed. Sometimes, he would lure the enemy troops in deep to annihilate them, and sometimes, he would cut up and surround his enemies. What was more, he would make a feint to the east but attack in the west. Beyond that, among the strategies that he adopted, ambushes or surprise attacks were common. No matter which tactics he took, he could use them to the best.
In no time, these cultivators of the demon clan blended into the stone forest beside the bridge’s end and lay in ambush once again.
Within a few breaths of time, seven to eight cultivators from the Immortal Court rushed out of the forest located at the other end of the stone bridge. Soon, they stepped on the bridge.
However, they were obviously much more cautious than those previous Land Buddhism monks. When they moved forward, they kept watching the other end of this stone bridge warily. Also, they were dispersed along the bridge. It looked like that all of them were ready to deal with any possible crises.
After Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen died, the Immortal Court cultivators were troubled without a leader. Thus, they certainly had to be cautious wherever they went. Compared with them, these Land Buddhism monks acted more aggressively because they thought that they were sure to win. After all, they had the powerful Feihong Bodhisattva, and their formidable enemies from the Immortal Court had fallen into decay.
In any case, these overcautious Immortal Court cultivators still came to the other end of the stone bridge.
Frankly, they had no other choices. The purple-blue power grid was at their heels. If they hesitated for too long, they would be engulfed and killed by thunder and lightning.
Besides, they did not notice anything unusual.
Under the guidance of Li Ye, these cultivators of the demon clan could ambush with unerring skill. It was easy for them to hide without being spotted after they made full use of the geographical advantages.
Now that the leading Immortal Court cultivator arrived at the battlefield where those Land Buddhism monks were killed. Suddenly, his expression changed because he noticed a faint smell of blood from the cleaned ground. But there was no time left for him to react at this moment.
About a dozen arrows and crossbows that shot from the rock piles and woods came straight toward them and covered them.
At the open bridgehead, there were not many shelters for those Immortal Court cultivators to hide.
These arrows and crossbows hit right at them. Some cried out in alarm, some screamed, and some fell down. People were fleeing like mice, covering their heads with sleeves. Some of them forced themselves to stay calm while some bawled out and shot their crossbows to counterattack. The scene was a mess.
Just as their arrows landed, Li Ye carried his sword and jumped out of the forest with those demon clan cultivators. They launched an offensive against this group of Immortal Court cultivators.
Soon, all of the Immortal Court cultivators collapsed and died. On Li Ye’s side, there were only minor injuries to three demon clan cultivators.
Li Ye reaped another two parts of the battleax from this team of Immortal Court cultivators.
Li Ye put the two copper pieces away. But because the purple-blue power grid had come close to this stone bridge, he didn’t order others to clean the battlefield. Since this place would soon be destroyed, they had to hurry up and evacuate.
After leaving the stone bridge, Li Ye and others ran all the way wildly, and soon they pulled away from the purple-blue power grid. In the evening, they stopped over at a mountain top with a broad field of vision.
From here, they overlooked the terrains around and remembered where the ruins were. On this basis, Li Ye sent out some cultivators to sneak up on the ruins. They were asked to contact other members of the demon clan who might hide in the ruins by using the demon clan’s secret methods.
Together with the main force, Li Ye followed up. He would decide on the next actions only after the scouts ahead found out the situation of the ruins. Then, they would either go to support the demon clan members who were fighting in the ruins, or go to attack the places with many cultivators from the Land Buddhism or the Immortal Court, or avoid the dangerous zones that had powerful enemies.
By applying different battle tactics, Li Ye took more and more demon clan members in. Meanwhile, the number of cultivators from the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism killed by his team was gradually increasing.
When Li Ye had been through nearly half of the secret region and had gotten 30 cultivators under his command, he knew that the critical moment was coming.
As Li Ye looked up, he noticed the thick fog that connected heaven and earth in the middle of the mysterious center was already very close to them.
...
In the last fierce battle, Li Ye’s group killed more than ten Land Buddhism monks at the cost of the lives of five demon clan cultivators. They eliminated their last barrier to the thick fog area.
The scouts discovered long ago that the enemies were lying in wait for Li Ye’s group along the main road that went through the mountain gap. But since Li Ye was particularly skilled in dealing with such kind of ambush, he knew how to handle them. However, because of the special topography here, Li Ye could only prevent his team from walking into the ambush. The two sides still engaged in a fierce battle in the end.
Out of the canyon, it was an open area, and everyone suddenly could see for miles. However, half of their field of vision was full of the dense fog filled between heaven and earth. The fog was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, which spiraled around like tornados. It was just that these “tornados” were so huge that the diameter of their eye of wind could reach as long as tens of kilometers.
Under the thick fog was a boundless forest. What they could see were these luxuriant trees going on continually like endless walls, but they didn’t know how deep the forest was.
“There are altogether 49 battleax parts. We have 30 parts while the other 19 parts are certainly in the hands of Feihong Bodhisattva and others. To get the Luck of heaven in the thick fog, we should first of all collect all the 49 parts and piece together the battleax. Then only relying on the powerful strength of the battleax can we make a way through the thick fog!”
Looking at the forest in the dense fog, Yang Tingge said. He looked quite calm, but deep down, he was very eager to do that because their victory seemed to be just around the corner. After all, they had gone through all manner of hardships and finally got there. Along the way, he was almost killed.
Zuo Che’er offered advice, his eyes shining with excitement. “We have to enter the dense fog forest, and so do those Land Buddhism monks. Since we have arrived here first, we may as well make an ambush for them outside the forest. When the Land Buddhism monks also come here, we can attack them by surprise and defeat them. Then the copper pieces of Feihong Bodhisattva will be ours!”
Zuo Che’er, who only had brute courage in previous, had also learned some fundamental tactics under Li Ye’s long-term influence. Though his advice appeared too simple, it was rare progress for him. After all, he was from the demon clan, which always advocated the sheer braveness and disdained schemes.
Li Ye glanced at the dense fog forest, smiling somewhat helplessly. “Attacking those Land Buddhism monks by surprise is a pretty good choice for us. However, it looks like that this plan won’t be fulfilled.”
But Yang Tingge, Zuo Che’er, and others did not ask him why this plan could not be realized.
This plan could certainly not be carried out.
Because a group of people had already walked out from the edge of the dense fog forest.
They were Land Buddhism monks.
Feihong Bodhisattva took the lead. Dressed in white, she stood out among those monks in kasaya. From a distance, she looked at Li Ye with obvious sarcasm in her eyes, though her expression stayed unchanged.
Li Ye looked surprised.
He certainly knew why Feihong Bodhisattva looked at him with a sneer.
Two persons whom Li Ye knew well were among those Land Buddhism monks.
They were now two captives in custody.
They were Nangong Diyi and Su Emei.
“Insidious bald asses! They caught Nangong Diyi and Su Emei! Are they threatening us?” Face flushed with anger, Zuo Che’er said with a strong sense of righteousness as if he had seen the darkest thing in the world. At this time, he completely forgot that he was scheming against those bald asses a minute ago.
Yang Tingge was not so emotional as Zuo Che’er. He stroked his beard and said after a moment of pondering. “Feihong Bodhisattva has arrived first, but she didn’t set an ambush for us. What a surprise!”
“I’m not surprised.” Li Ye said lightly, “They don’t have enough men to make an ambush.”
It was true. Only a dozen Land Buddhism monks showed up.
In contrast, the number of demon clan cultivators was more than twice of theirs.
Li Ye’s group would surely outnumber Feihong Bodhisattva’s. It was the fruit of the battles that Li Ye had been fighting these days. By alternately using his various tactics, Li Ye tried his best to get as many demon clan cultivators as possible and weaken the other two parties at the same time.
It now seemed that Li Ye had basically achieved his purpose.
Now, the two sides had the same number of ordinary cultivators, but Li Ye could besiege Feihong Bodhisattva together with a dozen demon clan cultivators. In the secret region, it could barely be called the huge-crowd strategy.
No matter how powerful Feihong Bodhisattva was, Li Ye still got a chance to win.
Of course, the premise was that Nangong Diyi and Su Emei were not captured.
But it was not their fault.
Since their level of cultivation was too low and their combat force was not strong enough, they were not able to fight against Feihong Bodhisattva. In fact, they were lucky that Feihong Bodhisattva took them prisoners when they didn’t meet Li Ye. Otherwise, they were probably dead.
“Your Highness, what shall we do now?” Facing the current situation, Zuo Che’er knew that only Li Ye could make the decision.
Li Ye’s plan was quite simple. He wanted to ask Feihong Bodhisattva’s opinion first.
With these demon clan cultivators, Li Ye went down the mound before the canyon and walked toward the dense fog forest several kilometers away.
It was not a long journey, but Li Ye walked slowly with caution. He had to be careful in case Feihong Bodhisattva made an ambush for them. He could not afford to act rashly.
But it turned out that Feihong Bodhisattva did not lay any ambush.
Li Ye walked up to Feihong Bodhisattva and stopped dozens of steps away from her. Cupping his fists to salute, Li Ye greeted her with a smile. “Feihong Bodhisattva, how’s everything?”
Feihong Bodhisattva landed her eyes on Li Ye. Her flawless pretty face was expressionless as ever, but Li Ye could clearly feel her smile. “Do you want to get your people back?”
“Sure,” replied Li Ye.
Feihong Bodhisattva said, “Then you have to offer me something of equal value in exchange for them.”
Li Ye said, “It cannot be all the copper pieces.”
Feihong Bodhisattva asked, “In your eyes, are they not as important as those copper pieces?”
Li Ye answered, “But if I give you all the copper pieces, you will kill us all, including them.”
Feihong Bodhisattva asked again, “Are you sure?”
Li Ye said, “You will never be kind enough to let all of us enter the secret region with you, will you?”
Feihong Bodhisattva said, “Perhaps I will.”
Li Ye said, “I don’t believe it.”
Feihong Bodhisattva asked, “Are you sure to choose not to believe me?”
Li Ye answered, “I have no choice.”
Feihong Bodhisattva said, “You have actually made your choice.”
Li Ye said, “It’s my only way out.”
Feihong Bodhisattva said, “Then go ahead!”
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