Chapter 237: Breaking Out

The silence lasted only a moment.

Everyone present froze at Fan Li’s dreamlike mutter.

Then, Fan Li thrust out a huge hand and shoved the sleeping Helian Baozhu directly toward the Blind Man.

At the same time, his feet hooked upward.

The two great axes that had been resting near them flew into the air.

Without the slightest pause, Fan Li lunged forward and caught both axes in stride.

Then, riding the momentum of his charge, both arms came crashing down.

The axes split in two directions.

One hacked toward Gesang’s head.

The other swept toward his lower body.

Inside the cramped cave, Fan Li’s entire sequence of movements flowed with astonishing smoothness.

There was not the slightest trace of clumsiness despite his massive build.

Gesang’s gaze sharpened.

He had been sitting cross-legged, but his legs suddenly exploded with force.

His entire body shot backward.

He did not choose to pit flesh and blood directly against Fan Li’s twin axes.

A Martial Artist’s physique was indeed formidable.

The savages’ cultivation path was not identical to the orthodox Martial Artist path, but the methods both used to temper the body were not fundamentally that different.

The legendary indestructible vajra body was not mere fantasy.

But one had to reach at least the peak of the martial path before achieving something like that.

Only figures on the level of Sha Tuo Queshi or Tian Wujing could rely on their own bodies to temporarily ignore blades and weapons in the midst of a chaotic army.

Fan Li, however, pressed his advantage without mercy.

One axe flew directly from his hand toward Gesang.

At the same time, his right hand gripped the remaining axe and continued advancing with a Mountain-Splitting strike.

Simple moves.

But what they revealed was an absolute determination to trade life for life if necessary.

Whether Fan Li was genuinely stupid was something no one could truly say.

But when it came to fighting when it came to killing among the Seven Demon Kings, not one could honestly claim less experience than anyone else.

Gesang twisted aside and avoided the thrown axe.

But because of that, he had no time to rebuild enough qi and blood to counterattack.

Faced with Fan Li’s second axe, he could only retreat again.

Using the opening Fan Li had created alone, the Blind Man rushed out of the cave with Helian Baozhu in his arms.

Xue San, A’Ming, and Zheng Fan followed right behind.

“Take Master Yao and go!”

Hero Chen shouted toward Miss Su beside him.

He drew his sword.

A wave of sword qi roared outward, surging directly past Fan Li from behind.

Fan Li sensed it.

Instead of continuing forward, he abruptly retreated.

He cleared the path perfectly, handing Gesang—who had just been forced back twice and was preparing to counterattack—directly over to Hero Chen.

Hero Chen engaged Gesang.

Fan Li himself charged out of the cave.

The instant he emerged, before he even had time to catch his breath, he saw groups of soldiers in blue-green armor appearing outside.

They had already surrounded the area.

“ENEMY ATTACK!”

In the distance, A’Tong, who had been standing watch outside and had now fought his way back covered in blood, let out a roar.

A moment later, an officer pursuing from behind swept his saber across and cut off A’Tong’s head.

As for A’Mu, he was probably already doomed as well.

Those two were the most pitiful of all.

Even if they had remained cautious while standing watch, they could never have imagined that an inescapable net had been prepared here long in advance.

Nor could they have imagined that the number-one warrior of their own settlement was actually a traitor.

The enemy had too many men.

The Blind Man immediately said, “Break through to the east. Their numbers are thinner there.”

In the darkness, trapped inside an encirclement, they had no choice but to rely on the Blind Man to point out the route.

Only then did they have even the slightest hope of escaping alive.

The instant Xue San heard him, he charged first into the woods to the east.

Miss Su came out carrying Yao Zizhan in a princess carry.

Seeing the direction Xue San had gone, she immediately sprinted east as well.

Yao Zizhan was extremely obedient now.

He understood that at a time like this, his only job was to behave and follow instructions.

As for dignity and appearances to hell with them.

Not far away, armored troops of the Situ Clan were already charging in.

“ROAR!”

Fan Li bellowed.

Instead of using his remaining axe, he bent down, wrapped both arms around a massive boulder in front of him, and hurled it straight into the approaching crowd.

“BOOM!”

A’Ming immediately charged in behind it.

He carried no weapon.

But his fingernails always managed to pierce precisely into the unarmored gaps of his enemies’ bodies.

In moments, four or five Situ Clan soldiers had collapsed beneath A’Ming’s attacks.

“CLANG!”

Zheng Fan knocked aside the saber of an armored soldier rushing at him.

Qi and blood surged around his body.

At present, both his reaction speed and raw strength far exceeded those of ordinary soldiers.

After deflecting the enemy weapon, he followed the motion with a slash.

The edge of his saber bit into the side of the man’s neck.

Then Zheng Fan kicked the corpse away and turned to face the next attacker.

“Master, withdraw!”

The Blind Man’s voice sounded directly in Zheng Fan’s mind.

“More and more of them are coming!”

Zheng Fan glanced back toward the cave.

At that moment, a figure shot out from inside.

Several arcs of sword-light came crashing down.

The three armored soldiers in front of Zheng Fan were cut in half at the waist.

Hero Chen glanced at Zheng Fan.

Then he grabbed Zheng Fan’s shoulder with one hand, clearly intending to carry him away.

Zheng Fan did not resist.

Fine.

If you want to give me a ride, then give me a ride.

Who would refuse a free lift?

But suddenly an extraordinarily powerful arrow shot toward them.

Hero Chen was forced to alter his movement.

His sword swept horizontally and cut the arrow in two.

Immediately afterward, rows of crossbowmen and archers advanced from the outer perimeter.

“Run on your own! Head east!”

Zheng Fan shouted at Hero Chen.

Then he turned and yelled, “A’Ming!”

“…”

A’Ming.

A’Ming moved over and ran side by side with Zheng Fan.

“WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!”

A dense volley of arrows came raining down.

Zheng Fan sprinted desperately toward the east.

A’Ming matched his pace exactly.

Arrow after arrow buried itself in A’Ming’s body.

A’Ming did not react at all.

He was practically an emotionless arrow-catching machine.

Fortunately, once they escaped the immediate area around the cave and entered the eastern forest, perhaps because Xue San’s advance had disrupted the ambushers stationed there, the pressure on Zheng Fan and the others suddenly eased considerably.

After another round of desperate fighting, everyone finally disappeared fully into the forest and began running for their lives again.

In truth, after sprinting for about fifteen minutes, they could no longer see any pursuers behind them.

But no one had any intention of stopping.

They gritted their teeth and continued running.

The mountain forests were unsuitable for cavalry.

Everyone understood perfectly well that whether they could truly escape the encirclement and survive now depended entirely on their own legs.

Fortunately, on Zheng Fan’s side, aside from the useless Yao Zizhan, everyone possessed excellent individual ability.

Even Miss Su herself was an Eighth Grade Martial Artist.

She actually managed to keep pace while carrying the burden that was Yao Zizhan.

Helian Baozhu had already been transferred from the Blind Man’s arms to Fan Li.

As the Blind Man used mental power to assist his running, he looked almost like some martial artist skimming across water with lightness skill.

The desperate run lasted for more than one two-hour block nearly three hours.

Finally, Miss Su could no longer endure it.

Still holding Yao Zizhan, she collapsed to the ground.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

Clearly, the previous run had severely overdrawn her qi and blood.

Seeing that, everyone else also stopped.

One after another, they finally allowed themselves to rest.

Zheng Fan spat onto the ground.

His lungs felt as though they were burning.

Every breath now felt like someone was stabbing tiny needles into them.

He had experienced thousand-li forced marches before.

But that had been on warhorses, with two horses per rider.

This time they had run entirely on their own legs.

The level of exhaustion was completely different.

After sitting down, Zheng Fan licked his lips.

They had cracked badly enough to bleed.

“Master, water.”

Xue San proactively handed him a waterskin.

Zheng Fan nodded and took it.

He swallowed several large mouthfuls, then immediately retched all of it back up.

Many professionally trained long-distance runners could indeed maintain prolonged runs.

But that depended on keeping their own rhythm.

Zheng Fan and the others had just been sprinting desperately for their lives.

The two situations were entirely different.

A’Ming sat beside Zheng Fan.

He held his personal waterskin and began drinking.

Small sip by small sip.

Not because A’Ming was reluctant to waste blood, but because if he drank too quickly, it would leak right back out.

Zheng Fan turned toward him.

“Where are all the arrows that were in you?”

A’Ming replied, “Too heavy. I pulled them out while we were running.”

Zheng Fan reached over and patted A’Ming on the shoulder.

“You worked hard.”

He meant the part where A’Ming had shielded him from the arrows.

A’Ming shook his head and sighed.

“Master, if you were Sixth Grade right now, I wouldn’t have had to work nearly so hard.”

“Heh. That realistic, are we?”

“It’s a pity we don’t have a camera.

“Otherwise, if we took a picture of that scene, then after Master advances next time, we could pull out the album and reminisce together about the glorious old days.”

“Relax. I’ll remember it.”

“The other meaning of that sentence is that you don’t really take it seriously.”

Xue San, who had been anxiously trying to secure some credit for this trip, immediately objected.

“A’Ming, how can you talk to Master like that?

“Being able to take arrows for Master is a blessing for subordinates like us.

“If I hadn’t gone ahead to open the path, I would’ve taken arrows for Master too.”

“You?”

“What about me?”

“If you tried shielding Master from arrows, aren’t you afraid he’d protect his head but leave his ass exposed?”

“…”

Xue San.

Zheng Fan stood and walked over to Hero Chen.

Hero Chen was sitting there tearing open his clothing.

There was a very obvious depression over the left side of his chest.

“How bad is it?” Zheng Fan asked.

“He hit me once. I stabbed him once.”

“So you didn’t lose out?”

Hero Chen nodded.

“I came out slightly ahead.”

“Looks like your skills improved again.”

“Mm. Last time, after I took a punch from that man, once the injury healed, I felt my realm had improved quite a bit.”

What could Zheng Fan even say?

Aside from being a little too straightforward, Hero Chen was practically another kind of protagonist template.

As long as the great villain didn’t kill him outright, he would return home and immediately achieve enlightenment.

Unfortunately, Hero Chen was from Qian.

If not for that matter of political allegiance, Zheng Fan felt he would absolutely have spared no effort in conning this man into working under him.

Just then, Miss Su suddenly spoke.

“You Jin people really are unreliable!”

Before Zheng Fan and the Demon Kings could even react, Yao Zizhan hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed apologetically to everyone around him.

“Heroes of Yan, this foolish woman has something wrong with her head. Please, please don’t lower yourselves to her level.”

[End of Chapter 237]