Chapter 241 Retreat
Lei Bao went around rampaging savagely with his lightning-based magic as if he was a lightning storm himself, moving towards a bunch of giant mountain rats right after dispatching the pack of hyenas.
These mutated rodents looked horrifyingly large, being at least one meter long, and their long incisor teeth, sharper than even the keenest blade, gnashed against each other, ready to grind and chew on human bones. Scores of warriors had fallen with their limbs being bitten off or maimed while fighting them.
A ball lightning hurled by Lei Bao landed right in the middle of the mischief of rats and exploded, kicking up more torn flesh and blood.
Heartened by Lei Bao’s strength, the routed warriors gradually recovered from their panic and regrouped for a counterattack.
Aside from a few with remarkably terrifying powers and viciousness, most of the other mutated wild beasts were only as strong as warriors of the Acquired Realm.
Violent clashes and bombardments blanketed the entire area, and not only were more beasts killed. Even the warriors sustained more casualties as well.
This prompted them to rally together. They needed to fight together if they wish to survive.
With no shortage of superior warriors among the thousands of them—including several Human Kings—they began to mow down more wild beasts with greater efficiency.
Nevertheless, all the carnage they doled out hardly made a dent on the never-ending surge of wild beasts that kept flooding the lands around them.
Even the Human Kings could not help but feel a tinge of despair. The sheer overwhelming numbers of the stampede could easily tire out the warriors defending desperately for their lives.
Even with the numbers of slain and slaughtered beasts piling up, the warriors also soaked up heavy casualties themselves. More than hundreds of warriors have perished. Hardly any corpses were intact, most of them having ended up food for the rampaging beasts.
“I’d say things aren’t looking any better, my Lord,” Winsome Widow murmured grimly.
“I suggest fighting our way out now,” Yan Chong hissed insidiously.
Swoosh!
Not far away from where Chu Xun was standing, the group split opened suddenly and a few gigantic pangolins clambered up to the surface. With armored scales as thick as chain mails to protect them, the monster reptile-like animals swung their scythe-like claws and made any warriors nearby reacting slowly, dismembered into halves.
Blood splattered everywhere and the putrid stench of it wafted everywhere.
The scent of blood instead drove the pangolins into a delirious bloodlust. They flailed their claws and swung their tails like whips, easily crushing an Acquired-Realm warrior into pieces.
“Impudent vermin.”
Winsome Widow could stomach none of the carnage any more. A ball of flames erupted to life at the center of her palm and she tossed it at one of the monster pangolins, and it exploded.
The explosion blew open the back of the beast and it fell, a smoldering mass of blood and flesh, proving her magic useful against the animal’s impenetrable hide.
Winsome Widow charged into battle, waving a saber conjured from fire.
Puff! Puff!
She made short work of the seven to eight pangolins, relieving them of their heads quickly, leaving not only the stench of blood, but also the musky aroma of burned meat.
The flesh and blood of the beasts contained much minerals and nourishment which could prove helpful to warriors.
Chu Xun smiled. He had had his fair share of food made from rare and exotic beasts and he had lost touch with such epicurean delights since returning to Earth and the sight of the grilled pangolins made him feel hungry.
He walked over to the burning carcass and selected two of the fattest pangolins he could find and stored them into his Storage Ring in full view of the others.
“It’s good stuff and it tastes good after its cooked. Feel free to try some.”
The others stared at him, bewildered beyond words. How could anyone think of eating now when they were assailed by hordes of wild beasts from all sides?!
“We should be thinking of getting out of here. Surely you don’t hope to be eating the flesh of animals only to end up as fodder for these mindless beasts?” scowled a young man contemptuously.
That remark nearly made Winsome Widow lash out at him, but Chu Xun stopped her before she could do anything.
“Comrade,” a First-Grade Human King, who easily sent a bolt of magical energy and squashed to death a ten-meter long centipede, called Lei Bao, “How about forcing a route out of here together?”
Lei Bao looked inquiringly at Chu Xun.
That prompted the Human King to look at Chu Xun. He frowned at Chu Xun’s youthful looks and the lack of magical radiation coming from him. He had an intense dislike for slothful scions of rich and wealthy families born with a silver spoon in their mouths and the notion that Human Kings as powerful as Lei Bao being degraded to nothing more than glorified bodyguards infuriated him.
Chu Xun shook his head at the proposal.
Angered, the Human King snarled impatiently, “Fool. Have you failed to realize that we will all die here if we don’t find a way out soon?”
“Watch your tone, sir!” Lei Bao growled defensively.
Chu Xun waved a hand to calm Lei Bao, having taken notice of this particular Human King for some time. He had been slaughtering the wild beasts while saving as many lives as possible. It was his extraordinary prowess that had saved many a number of warriors from terrible and painful deaths.
“Your name, sir?” asked Chu Xun.
The Human King’s eyes gleamed and his face shone with pride. Raising a chin, he uttered, “Yu Cheng. They call me the Lord of Healing.”
“Wow... The infamous Lord of Healing, as I live and breathe.”
“It is said that he’s eccentric and has a very mercurial temperament, although his medicinal skills are paralleled to none.”
“And they say there are three kinds of people he rejects helping: evil people, rich but nasty people, and those that he dislikes.”
Hushed murmurs buzzed around them.
Chu Xun heard everything, especially the last bit, and he smiled. What an interesting figure, he mused, especially that bit about not saving people that he dislikes. A willful and headstrong person, no less.
“Your reputation precedes you, Lord of Healing,” Chu Xun remarked, saluting.
Yu Cheng snorted and carelessly returned the gesture.
But Yan Chong and the others were left fuming at Yu Cheng’s arrogant demeanor.
An otherwise amused Chu Xun pointed a finger, “Look that side.”
Everyone followed his finger and looked. Chu Xun was pointing at the top of a mountain a thousand meters away where a huge snowy-white wolf the size of a locomotive engine perched proudly. There was not a single tangle on its flawless coat of fur, making it so smooth as silk that it gave off a perfect luster of white.
“Wh-What the...” the Lord of Healing gasped hesitantly.
“The Beast Lord,” Chu Xun revealed, “He is the reason for this never-ending stampede. The call of the wild that summons them. Slay the Beast Lord and so ends the stampede. But how many of you would survive if you were to try to go near it?”
Yu Cheng’s lips twitched irritably at being contradicted. His foolhardiness had nearly cost the lives of everyone here, especially those below the strength levels of a Human King.
“Let me go and slay that accursed beast,” he said, hoping to redeem himself.
“I’m afraid you are no match for it,” Chu Xun pointed out coolly.
Yu Cheng’s eyes boiled with indignance. He would have given this young man a good beating, if not for the presences of Winsome Widow and Lei Bao. At nearly two hundred years of age, Chu Xun looked no more to him than a young good-for-nothing who could use some good whipping.
“The constitution of these beasts is more robust than that of us humans,” Chu Xun explained, “But to cultivate any magical capabilities, they needed to work on the more spiritual aspects: their intelligence and intellect. That makes their path to greatness decidedly harder than us humans. Yet, if they succeed, that makes them more powerful than humans of similar rank.”
Yu Cheng pursed his lips, looking visibly annoyed, although his perception of Chu Xun changed. “So this young brat is not utterly useless after all,” he thought.
“Lei Bao, Yan Chong. Go with the Lord of Healing. You are to help him slay the Beast Lord,” ordered Chu Xun.
Yu Cheng gasped. He did not expect to see another Human King next to Chu Xun. “Gods in Heaven, who is he really is?” he wondered, “What is his identity that three Human Kings are needed to protect him?”
However, he found pleasure in being able to return Chu Xun’s favor for contradicting him earlier. “Look at the sheer volume of animals rushing around us,” he pointed out mockingly, “We’d be lucky if we can cover more than ten meters, never mind getting close to that bloody wolf. Unless we could melt into the ground or become invisible.”
“Well, I don’t suppose there’s any way to melt into the ground at the moment,” said Chu Xun as a-matter-of-factly, “But I can make you invisible,”
“Huh?! What are you talking about?!” yelled Yu Cheng incredulously, thinking that he had heard wrongly.
Chu Xun did not answer him; instead, he retrieved three old jade pieces from his Storage Ring. It was what he looted from the ring belonging to You Tianyi after killing him at Gujiang City.
He aimed a finger at the pieces of jade in his hand, moving as if he was writing something in the air while he weaved an enchantment. He tossed one of them to Lei Bao and instructed, “Try injecting some Internal Breath into it.”
Lei Bao did as he was told and funneled some of his Internal Breath into the piece of mineral stone in his hand. The old jade piece gave off a white sparkle and Lei Bao vanished.
Everyone jumped as if they had seen a ghost. No one could speak and their eyes bloated as if they were going to pop out due to the shock.
“All right,” signaled Chu Xun.
Lei Bao stopped and he reappeared.
“What’s wrong?” asked a dubious Lei Bao, who did not understand the shocked expressions of the people around him.
Only after an explanation from Winsome Widow, Lei Bao finally understood that he had just become invisible and was utterly dumbstruck himself.
Chu Xun cast the same enchantment on the other two pieces of jade.
“Remember,” he said, “The effects only last a quarter of an hour.” The ancient jade stones’ magical potency was not as good as Spirit Stones’ and the short duration was all he could do for now.
A silent Yu Cheng had been watching Chu Xun strangely as if he was looking at a specimen from another world.
“You... Are you a cultivator of arcane magic?”
“That’s one way of putting it, I guess,” Chu Xun answered simply.
The three Human Kings transmitted their Inner Breaths into the ancient jade stones and vanished before making their way towards the Beast Lord.
The raging beasts could hardly stop what they could not see. With speeds that could easily cover hundreds of meters in mere seconds, the Human Kings raced towards their quarry.
“We need a diversion,” instructed Chu Xun, “Attract the attention of the Beast Lord to help them find an opening to strike.”
His words were only heard by the onlookers right beside him. The rest of the other survivors were still fiercely defending themselves against the rampaging monsters and were none the wiser over what happened.
But Chu Xun’s instructions roused the warriors around him into action. They threw themselves at any beast they saw, throwing forth whatever skills or weapons they could and brought down more wild beasts with renewed vim and verve.
This stirred the other surviving warriors, rekindling their will to fight on and strive for dear life.
By then, the three Human Kings were nearly close to reaching the Beast Lord.
The giant white wolf had been surveying the battlefield when they drew close. Suddenly, it withdrew its gaze; its eyes burning like blue embers. Then it sniffed the air cautiously and arched its back with all its fur standing on ends. A soft white glow enveloped its massive frame and it kept a watchful eye around its surroundings.
The Human Kings were just a few hundred meters away when they saw the monster wolf’s reaction. Had they been noticed?
Howl...!
The white wolf threw back its head and let loose an ear-splitting howl that rumbled across the entire battlefield, compelling every beast to stop. The stampede stopped abruptly at the call and warily, the beasts retreated with piecemeal step until they finally wheeled around and started retreating.
“Damn, we’re blown.”
Realizing that their presence has been discovered even with two hundred meters still between their quarry and them, the Human Kings knew that they had to attack now.
They lunged, brandishing their magically-conjured weapons: chains of white, ball lightning, and sabers forged of flames.
But they were no match for the white wolf in speed; it leaped into the air and like a bullet of light, it shot into the thickets of the forest and was gone.
Boom!
The top of the hill where the white wolf once stood on had been leveled by the three Human Kings in an earthshaking explosion.
Unfortunately, the Beast Lord’s acute senses warned it of their attacks and it managed to escape in time.
Tongues of fumes rose into the air, broken and mangled limbs scattered everywhere and streams of blood were all that remained when the stampede finally withdrew.
In their wake, they left a battlefield strewn with countless animal carcasses. The nearly 1,000 warriors have lost almost one-third of their number and in the midst of the foggy gloom that hugged the battered, blood-soaked battle grounds, one could hardly miss the painful din of wailings and sobbing of people mourning the dead.
The three Human Kings returned, their heads hanging over their shoulders in downcast gloom.
Chu Xun could hardly say anything himself. He had underestimated the white wolf’s intelligence and vigilance, its cruelty and cunning. What was more, it could really well be catastrophic for mankind if there were more Beast Lords like this one.
Bodies of dead warriors were buried on the spots by their surviving companions while the rest of the other travelers rushed quickly as they could towards Longcheng City. It was imperative that they get there fast, lest the stampede return and catch them unawares and exhausted.
“Let’s go,” said Chu Xun.
Yu Cheng said his farewells to Chu Xun, prefer to come and go alone. But this time, he knew there was more than meets the eye with Chu Xun.
“You have extraordinary skills, young man. But the cultivation of your magic is still too weak. Working on improving your fitness. That wouldn’t hurt. I find only one reason for your lack of strength: laziness. I hope you spend more time improving yourself. Know whatever quaint tricks you have is nothing before raw power,” advised Yu Cheng earnestly before he left.
Unbeknownst to him, Yan Chong, Lei Bao, and the others were watching him so strangely as if their eyes were almost popping out. They watched him leave, their lips twitching once... then again... and again...
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