Chapter 876: A Frantic Escape

No one had imagined Niu Youdao would actually start a fight here and court death.

There were only two of them, while this place held thousands upon thousands of soldiers and experts gathered like clouds.

Even with the precedent of Tiangu, no one had imagined he would dare seize the hostages by force in a place like this.

For an instant, everyone was caught flat-footed.

Niu Youdao had already leapt into the air.

His hands drove forward and back, releasing two enormous sword-aura projections that swept across the surroundings.

The people nearby flashed aside in alarm.

Soldiers too slow to escape were cut apart on the spot, flesh and blood flying.

Yun Ji grabbed Shang Shuqing with one hand and tore the infant from her arms with the other, wrapping both in spiritual power to protect them from the shock.

The earth churned beneath their feet.

Two adults and one infant began sinking rapidly underground.

The thunderous blasts startled the baby awake.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

Shang Shuqing looked toward Yun Ji, her jaw nearly dropping in horror.

"No!"

As they descended, Yun Ji's head abruptly shifted.

For an instant, it transformed into a serpent's head.

A huge maw opened.

Before Shang Shuqing's eyes, Yun Ji swallowed the infant whole.

Shang Shuqing nearly fainted from fright.

The serpent's head appeared only for an instant before changing back into human form.

The earth flowed shut over them.

They had already disappeared underground.

Everyone who had dodged aside instantly realized they had been tricked.

Niu Youdao had never come for secret talks.

He had come to rob them of their hostages.

"Earth escape! Where do you think you're going?"

A Supreme Elder of Luoxia Villa roared and flashed toward the spot.

A visible rosy radiance gathered around both his palms.

Niu Youdao, spinning in midair, slashed out an enormous sword aura to keep him away.

The Supreme Elder clapped his palms together.

The rosy light swelled sharply.

Two masses of radiance actually caught the tremendously destructive sword aura between them.

Then came a thunderous clang.

Another sword aura struck like lightning.

The old man abruptly released his hands and twisted aside to evade it.

From every direction, weapons came roaring toward Niu Youdao like a storm tide.

Now back on the ground, Niu Youdao refused to give up the spot where Yun Ji had disappeared.

He neither fled nor dodged.

His hands stabbed outward in blurred succession.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Sword auras blasted in every direction.

Standing at the center, he looked almost like a crystal bristling with enormous spikes.

Twelve Heavenly Sword sword-aura projections erupted in almost the same instant, without the slightest attempt to conserve their power.

The incoming weapons were blown back into chaos.

The mode of battle was earth-shaking.

The surrounding soldiers had never seen anything like it.

They turned and fled in terror.

Those who moved too slowly were swept into the air by the violent force.

Pang Teng had already been rapidly escorted away by cultivators.

Those with weaker cultivation had no qualifications to intervene in a bombardment like this and retreated one after another.

Jiang Wanlou produced a Heavenly Sword Talisman of his own.

An enormous sword aura slashed toward Niu Youdao while the residual light around him had yet to fade.

Using such an expensive treasure the instant he attacked showed just how furious Jiang Wanlou was.

Niu Youdao flipped his hand and detonated another Heavenly Sword Talisman.

The two gigantic sword auras collided with a deafening roar.

Dust and smoke exploded into the sky.

Underground, the spherical pocket of earth surrounding Yun Ji and the two hostages collapsed instantly under the violent shock.

Yun Ji urgently protected Shang Shuqing with spiritual power.

Head down and feet up, she thrust one palm into the earth and drove them deeper while forcibly recreating a spherical space around them.

She had to do it this way to protect Shang Shuqing.

Had Yun Ji been alone, she could simply have drilled rapidly through the earth and vanished.

The violent roars above continued without pause.

"The child! The child..."

Shang Shuqing clutched Yun Ji's arm and cried out in panic.

She had watched Yun Ji swallow the baby with her own eyes.

Yun Ji's belly had swollen enormously.

"The child is inside my belly," she said heavily. "I'm protecting him with spiritual power. He'll be fine. Don't panic!"

Once the crashes above had faded until only dull vibrations remained, Yun Ji slapped sideways into the soil.

The two, who had been descending straight downward, immediately changed direction and began moving diagonally.

Yun Ji was anxious as well.

She pushed her cultivation to the limit, carrying Shang Shuqing underground at the fastest speed she could manage.

...

Above the ground where the two armies faced one another, a large flying bird swept past.

Old Six Xu leapt down and landed before Shang Chaozong's horse.

"Your Highness, they've started fighting!"

Guan Fangyi, mounted nearby, felt her heart leap into her throat.

Meng Shanming's old face became more solemn than anyone had ever seen it.

Started fighting?

Long Xiu and the others still had no idea what he meant.

Shang Chaozong had not slept for an entire day and night.

His eyes were bloodshot from anxiety.

Now his face twisted ferociously.

His hand moved with frightening speed.

Shing!

He ripped the treasured sword from his waist, pointed it forward, and roared, "Attack! Attack! Attack!"

He bellowed the command three times in succession.

His voice cracked into a distorted howl.

Long Xiu and the others snapped their heads toward him.

They knew the assembled troops had been prepared to attack the enemy.

What felt wrong was Shang Chaozong's almost desperate urgency.

They could sense something abnormal in his reaction, yet could not identify the reason.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

War drums pounded in rapid succession, their thunder rolling across the wilderness.

"Kill!"

The commanders below issued attack orders one after another.

At the front of the army, soldiers raised their shields and began advancing at a jog, keeping the formation tight and unbroken.

From Zhao's prepared front lines came the ceaseless clang of alarm bells.

Shield formations snapped into place.

Behind them, ranks of archers drew their bows and nocked arrows.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Signal arrows screamed upward in staggered succession, passing the warning of enemy attack farther and farther toward the rear.

...

Amid the continuing thunder of battle, Jiang Wanlou's Heavenly Sword Talisman and attacks from other directions forced Niu Youdao to burn through a second and then a third Heavenly Sword Talisman in rapid succession.

He had no choice.

He had to answer Jiang Wanlou while simultaneously fending off attacks from every side.

Enormous sword auras erupted one after another as though they cost nothing.

The Zhao cultivators surrounding him still could not close the distance.

The sight left them shaken.

They had personally watched Niu Youdao expend three Heavenly Sword Talismans already.

The moment the third talisman was exhausted, Niu Youdao flipped his hand and produced a fourth.

Then he discovered that the attacks around him had abruptly paused.

That suited him perfectly.

He remained at the highest alert, watching the ring upon ring of cultivators surrounding him at a distance.

He still had more?

Countless faces twitched.

How many Heavenly Sword Talismans did this bastard have on him?

Heavenly Sword Talismans were not scraps of paper.

Forget Jiang Wanlou. None of them intended to keep dragging out talisman after talisman and trading them against Niu Youdao.

The things were monstrously expensive.

If they burned through large numbers here, what would they use when they later fought Yan?

This situation had not been part of Niu Youdao's calculations.

He had not anticipated it at the beginning.

But he understood almost immediately and guessed the reason.

They did not know how slowly Yun Ji moved while carrying people underground.

They probably assumed Yun Ji and the hostages had already escaped beyond pursuit.

Otherwise, they would certainly be attacking him with everything they had.

This unexpected development was exactly what Niu Youdao wanted.

"Niu Youdao, you can't escape!" Zuo Chengfeng shouted angrily. "Surrender obediently. If you honestly make yourself the hostage in their place, you may still have a road to survival!"

How could he not be angry?

He was furious beyond measure.

They had run into a madman who did not fear death, and the whole group had been played for fools.

Niu Youdao wanted to delay matters.

The longer he kept them here, the safer Yun Ji and the others would become.

He had to buy them as much time as possible.

Still keeping the surroundings under close watch, he said slowly, "Fine. Easy enough. Now we can discuss conditions at leisure."

"The reason I risked coming here is because simply withdrawing the army is impossible. Yan's three great sects will never agree."

"But the two sides can cooperate and put on a show. The Yan army can be made to retreat in defeat."

"The condition is: what benefit do I get?"

Zuo Chengfeng barked, "What do you want?"

Niu Youdao replied, "Aside from Jinzhou, carve out another three provinces and give them to me!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

His words had barely fallen when distant signal arrows began rising one after another, the warning rapidly drawing closer.

Everyone turned to look.

"Enemy attack!" Pang Teng shouted furiously from a distant hillside.

The words had only just left his mouth when Niu Youdao seized the instant everyone's attention shifted.

He flashed out of the encirclement, chose one direction, and launched himself into the air.

He had delayed long enough.

Yun Ji and the others should have had sufficient time.

Now he had to flee.

And there was no point staying.

News of the Yan army's attack had already arrived. Any further nonsense about negotiations would fool no one.

"I refuse to believe he has an endless supply of Heavenly Sword Talismans! He won't escape. The rest of you go meet the enemy. Leave this brute to us!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Five figures shot into the air in urgent pursuit.

They were the five Supreme Elders of Guiyuan Sect.

Their voices echoed down from the sky even as they sped away.

After being fooled by Niu Youdao's treachery again and again, Jiang Wanlou feared something might happen to the five venerable elders.

He swept one hand toward several hundred cultivators and ordered them to follow.

Most of the remaining cultivators moved with the army.

They followed Pang Teng to deal with the larger crisis.

Before a war between states, even the pursuit of Niu Youdao had to be pushed to one side.

Niu Youdao looked back and was badly startled.

The five old men pursuing him flew like arrows loosed from bows.

In the blink of an eye, they had nearly caught him.

Still airborne, Niu Youdao slashed out with a sword aura.

The instant he attacked, he sensed danger.

The five old men shifted positions through the air with astonishing speed.

They seemed able to change direction without borrowing force from anything, which gave them far more angles from which to attack.

Niu Youdao himself was badly exposed in midair.

Continuing to flee through the air would be courting death.

He had traveled less than a hundred zhang.

Jiao Lake, two li away, was still far from reach.

Yet with no choice left, he plunged downward in desperation.

The enormous energy inside the Heavenly Sword Talisman already in use could not be retained for long.

Niu Youdao stopped caring about anything else and released it without reservation, bombarding the air around him.

The figures above flashed aside in rapid succession.

Below, a unit of archers watched Niu Youdao descending with bows in hand and had no idea what to do.

An enormous army filled the area.

If they loosed volleys recklessly, they would kill large numbers of their own men.

Cultivators stationed throughout the surrounding camps shot upward to intercept him.

Niu Youdao flipped out another Heavenly Sword Talisman and detonated it.

Two enormous sword-aura projections slashed across the sky.

Several explosions of blood burst in midair.

Carrying the talisman's surging energy with him, Niu Youdao dropped into the panicked army below.

The vast power of a Heavenly Sword Talisman also constrained the user.

Rapid lateral movement became difficult while its power filled the body.

So Niu Youdao simply put his legs to work and sprinted through the crowd.

Whenever a cultivator flashed toward him, he answered with a violent sword-aura blast.

He forced the cultivators from the various camps to stop approaching casually.

Ordinary soldiers caught in the attacks screamed as they were swept away.

Warhorses neighed in terror.

Flesh and blood flew.

The moment the stored power was exhausted, Niu Youdao immediately ran deeper into the fleeing masses, hoping the pursuers would hesitate to strike for fear of killing their own soldiers.

But the men chasing him through the air did not care about those soldiers' lives at all.

Streams of sword light and violent blasts of force hammered down into the crowd without restraint.

Limbs flew everywhere beneath the attacks of the five old men.

Then they saw Niu Youdao pull out yet another Heavenly Sword Talisman and unleash its sword aura.

With extraordinary coordination, the five Supreme Elders split apart and dropped into five different positions, trying to box him in.

Niu Youdao did not stop running.

He sprinted desperately toward Jiao Lake, using enormous sword auras to carve open the road ahead and forcing his way through whenever a powerful enemy blocked him.

He had no choice but to break out.

He did not dare let himself be tied down.

The moment they trapped him in place, he would be dead.

He had originally believed that two li of ground would take him no more than three airborne bounds to cross.

Now it was clear the escape would be far more dangerous than he had imagined.

[End of Chapter 876]