Chapter 877: Pursuit and Encirclement

Faced with Niu Youdao's forceful breakout under the power of the Heavenly Sword Talismans, the five old men constantly shifted and adjusted their formation to surround him. Several hundred cultivators rushing over also joined the encirclement and interception.

Niu Youdao had deliberately chosen to run on foot across the ground because he was waiting for precisely this moment.

The instant every pursuing cultivator landed, he suddenly shot into the air and sped away again.

As soon as he rose, the seventh Heavenly Sword Talisman came crashing down.

He bombarded the ground below, suppressing the people there and at least slowing the speed of the pursuit.

Twelve berserk sword-aura projections came thundering downward.

The pursuing cultivators scattered in every direction to evade them.

Whenever Niu Youdao made a move, he would casually detonate all twelve sword auras at once, as though the things cost nothing.

Using Heavenly Sword Talismans this extravagantly was excessive even by extravagant standards.

Quite a few people were secretly alarmed.

Just how many Heavenly Sword Talismans had this bastard brought with him?

Earth and stone exploded. Dust rolled wildly through the air amid deafening roars.

One figure after another burst through the chaos and resumed the chase.

Ahead, the lakeshore was already visible.

Niu Youdao dropped one foot onto a soldier's head, stepped off it, and launched himself into the air again, flying straight toward the rippling blue waters of Jiao Lake.

He glanced back.

The pursuers had once again caught up, but the brief gap he had created should already be enough to prevent them from stopping him before he entered the lake.

Seeing that reaching the water was no longer a problem, Niu Youdao had just begun to relax when the huge mass of troops gathered along the lakeshore suddenly lost all restraint.

Firing toward the lake meant they no longer had to worry about hitting their own people.

"Loose!"

A general roared the order.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The incoming arrows were so dense that even the air seemed to tremble beneath their passage.

Niu Youdao was badly startled.

Even his protective spiritual barrier could not withstand that many tightly packed impacts one after another.

Drops of water could wear through stone, much less this.

He had originally hoped to save one Heavenly Sword Talisman.

Now it was obvious he could not.

In desperation, he flipped out his last Heavenly Sword Talisman.

All twelve gigantic sword-aura projections erupted at once.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The tightly packed rain of arrows was blasted apart, scattering wildly through the air.

The first wave had only just been broken when a second came immediately behind it.

That was the ferocity of a properly organized military assault.

No matter how many men were involved, they could coordinate closely enough to maintain an unbroken, meticulously layered offensive.

Niu Youdao no longer had a Heavenly Sword Talisman in hand.

Shing!

He drew the sword from his waist and immediately unleashed the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword.

In an instant, sword shadows blossomed like the radiance of a lotus.

A frantic series of metallic clashes rang out as arrows were knocked flying in every direction.

Yet even the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword could not make his defense flawless against such a dense barrage.

When he gathered spiritual power into an offensive sword technique, he could not simultaneously condense enough power around his entire body to form a protective barrier.

And he did not dare stop the sword technique.

That would be sacrificing the greater matter for the lesser and would leave him shot full of holes.

With no other choice, he twisted his body and avoided the vital points.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Three spurts of blood burst from his body before his own eyes.

Three arrows had struck him.

Already dropping close to the water, he slammed one palm violently toward the lake.

Boom!

A pillar of water exploded upward and spread into a wall of spray.

The turbulence shattered the formation of the oncoming arrows and at least greatly reduced the force behind many of them.

Seizing the opening, Niu Youdao flipped over and plunged into the lake.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The surface churned beneath a dense storm of arrows.

Countless shafts pierced the water like rain.

One after another, they trailed bubbles as they chased him beneath the surface, then lost their momentum and gradually floated back upward under the buoyancy of their wooden shafts.

Niu Youdao fled through the lake like a fish.

Even so, several dozen arrows still struck his body.

By then they had already lost most of their force.

They merely bumped against him and could no longer penetrate his spiritual defense.

Having finally escaped the immediate danger, Niu Youdao twisted around and glanced toward the light above.

His spiritual power surged.

The three arrow shafts lodged in his body shot backward through the water, each trailing a cloud of blood.

Pain twisted his expression.

Niu Youdao cursed inwardly.

So many cultivators had failed to do anything to him, yet a group of ordinary mortals had battered him like this.

Ants truly could eat an elephant.

There was no time to think further.

He turned again and rapidly fled toward the deeper waters of the lake.

The greater the depth, the more it would constrain the power of the experts pursuing him.

And for Niu Youdao, the deeper water was all the more advantageous.

Onshore, arrows were still splashing chaotically into the lake when an angry roar came from the sky.

"Stop!"

The archers immediately ceased firing.

"He has no Heavenly Sword Talismans left!"

Someone shouted out the conclusion.

The situation was obvious enough.

If Niu Youdao still had another Heavenly Sword Talisman, he would never have refrained from using it against a lethal rain of arrows.

Five figures dropped from the sky.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

The five Supreme Elders of Guiyuan Sect plunged into the lake in pursuit.

More splashes followed without pause.

Several hundred cultivators flying in from behind entered the water one after another and began a broad underwater encirclement and pursuit.

Several dozen others remained on the surface, striding across the waves as they patrolled back and forth, guarding against Niu Youdao escaping above water.

...

The earth broke open.

Yun Ji, dragging Shang Shuqing along, suddenly discovered that they had entered an underground open space.

The sound of flowing water echoed around them.

A soft glow appeared.

Yun Ji released a Moon Butterfly, which fluttered through the underground cavern.

Under its light, they finally realized they had emerged beside an underground river.

Yun Ji shook her head.

Her head abruptly transformed into that of a savage serpent.

She spat a swaddled infant from her mouth into her hands and passed him to Shang Shuqing.

Shang Shuqing immediately cradled the baby and examined him.

The little fellow who had been wailing so loudly earlier was now fast asleep again.

His adorable appearance made Shang Shuqing smile through her tears.

Then she suddenly came back to herself.

Something else occurred to her.

She looked up abruptly.

"Where is Master Dao?"

Yun Ji's expression turned grave.

"He stayed behind to cover our retreat. Without him covering us, we never could have escaped smoothly."

Shang Shuqing asked, "Are we waiting here for Master Dao to meet us?"

"Meet us here?" Yun Ji said. "How could he find a place this deep underground?"

"Commandery Princess, how do you still not understand?"

"To save you and the young prince, and to cover our escape, Master Dao is alone right now, trapped in the middle of the enemy's encirclement!"

Shang Shuqing's face changed drastically.

"Master Dao plans everything so carefully. Didn't you make any other preparations? Didn't you bring reinforcements?"

"How could anything be perfectly prepared under circumstances like these?" Yun Ji replied.

"If we brought more people, would the enemy ever have lowered its guard?"

"Would we have been able to get close enough to rescue you?"

"The only workable method was to take a dangerous gamble."

"There are many complications behind this. He has too many concerns for me to explain them all to you right now."

Shang Shuqing immediately grew anxious.

"Then what do we do?"

She was no fool.

She could imagine how dangerous Niu Youdao's present situation had to be.

He was alone in the middle of thousands upon thousands of troops, surrounded by the strongest experts the entire State of Zhao could gather!

Yun Ji had no time to keep explaining.

Her nostrils flared as she tested the scents in the cavern.

Then she looked back.

"There shouldn't be any other dangerous beasts here. This place should be safe enough."

"Niu Youdao's situation is too dangerous. If I take the time to send you all the way back first, I'm afraid I won't make it back in time."

"I have to return immediately and support him."

"Commandery Princess, you and the young prince wait here. Don't wander around, or I may not be able to find you when I return."

Shang Shuqing nodded again and again.

"All right. Go quickly."

Yun Ji swept one sleeve.

Three small snakes shot out and began slithering over the ground.

She hissed softly at them several times, then turned back to Shang Shuqing.

"Don't be afraid. So long as you don't encounter anything too troublesome, these three snakes should be able to protect you temporarily."

She waved the Moon Butterfly over and had it cling to the cavern wall beside Shang Shuqing, leaving light behind for her.

But Shang Shuqing's mind was not on any of that.

She said anxiously, "Nothing can happen to Master Dao. You must bring him back!"

Yun Ji fell silent for a moment.

That was something she truly could not guarantee.

She was confident she could escape herself.

Whether in cultivation or combat strength, she dared face those old monsters directly, and escaping was what she did best.

Protecting herself would not be difficult.

But Niu Youdao...

She did not know what condition he was in now.

She did not waste another moment.

Nor did she dare.

Her head snapped to one side and her body twisted strangely.

In an instant, her form elongated.

Before Shang Shuqing's eyes, she transformed into a massive dark-green serpent covered in scales, its body as thick as a water barrel.

The abrupt transformation startled Shang Shuqing.

Bang!

The great green serpent rammed its head straight into the earthen wall and smashed open a tunnel.

Its long body shot into the soil as though fired from a bow.

In the blink of an eye, it vanished completely.

The impact startled the baby awake again.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

His cries echoed through the deep underground cavern, sounding almost eerie.

Shang Shuqing hurriedly patted him and soothed him.

Her eyes were filled with anxiety.

...

The pursuing cultivators caught sight of the shadow fleeing beneath the water and immediately chased after it.

Yet as the pursuit continued, something began to feel wrong.

They discovered that Niu Youdao's speed underwater was simply beyond them.

No wonder he had not fled toward the Yan army.

Instead, he had risked everything to escape in this direction.

From the beginning, they had thought the direction of his flight made little sense.

The five old men immediately understood part of the truth.

Niu Youdao had not come here to die without any confidence at all.

Now that they realized it, the five felt a trace of regret.

Had they known earlier, they would have found every possible way to entangle him.

If Niu Youdao escaped after all this, their faces would be utterly lost.

Earlier, they had still been somewhat wary of the Heavenly Sword Talismans in his hands.

They believed he could not escape anyway, so they had wanted to exhaust the threat of those talismans first, then seize him in one stroke while minimizing their own losses.

Had they known the situation would become this, they should have paid any price necessary from the beginning.

The entire group immediately accelerated to full speed beneath the water.

Fortunately for them, they had numbers.

No matter how quickly Niu Youdao could flee, it was still difficult for him to escape the encirclement advantage they had formed from the outset.

The underwater terrain rose and fell in uneven ridges.

Regardless of whether the lakebed climbed or descended, Niu Youdao stayed close to the bottom as he fled toward the deepest central region.

Ahead, a row of figures suddenly converged to intercept him.

Niu Youdao slapped one palm toward the bottom, then swept both hands around him.

Wherever his spiritual power reached, the still mud on the lakebed erupted into violent turbulence.

The entire area became muddy and opaque.

Niu Youdao hid inside the clouded water with his sword already in hand, waiting.

He wanted to kill.

He was thirsty for blood.

A Supreme Elder arriving first gave a cold smile.

There was mockery in his expression, as though he regarded the trick as childish.

One palm rotated elegantly before his chest, then pushed outward.

The chaotic mud swirling in every direction suddenly seemed to encounter a strange suction.

Its flow began changing.

All of it converged toward a single point.

The murk rolled toward his outstretched palm like a yellow dragon.

It looked almost like smoke being sucked backward into a chimney.

Niu Youdao, waiting inside the muddy water, naturally sensed something wrong.

Yet the surrounding current itself had hardly changed.

The cloud concealing him was rapidly drawn away instead.

His figure was soon exposed.

The instant he appeared, cultivators attacked from every direction.

Niu Youdao did not dare hesitate.

He flashed away and continued toward the deeper center of the lake.

Several people intercepted him head-on and attacked together.

Sword light flickered through the water like ghostly shadows.

A sword came, and he met it with his sword.

Fists and feet came, and he forced straight through them.

Spiritual force came, and he broke through it head-on.

After only a brief exchange, the people of Guiyuan Sect realized something was wrong.

When their sword blades struck Niu Youdao's, it felt strangely as though there were no force to bite into.

The same happened when fists and feet collided.

More importantly, everyone else's movements were slowed to some degree by the water whenever they attacked.

The underwater environment, however, seemed to have almost no effect on Niu Youdao at all.

[End of Chapter 877]