Lu Ye was just inches from giving up when a pleasant surprise presented itself.
The arrangements of elements on the shield’s surface changed once more, and this time, a portion of the patterns appeared to be oddly familiar!
And as if in a stroke of ingenuity, he knew why.
The Tree of Glyphs had many bits and pieces of incomplete Glyphs that had used to boggle Lu Ye as to what their purpose could be. Unlike Glyphs like Sharp Edge or Protection that Lu Ye used during battle, they appeared nothing more than—um, well—incomplete Glyphs.
That was until Lu Ye began his tutelage of Glyph-weaving under Lady Yun. His rapid progress could not have been possible without the incomplete Glyphs which were nothing more than useless bits and pieces of Yin-Yang elements.
Yet, right here, right now, Lu Ye discovered that the arrangement of Yin-Yang elements in the shield matched the ones on one of the leaves on his Tree of Glyph!
There was no time to think. No time for the slightest inkling of hesitation. Lu Ye immediately conjured the element directly from the Tree of Glyphs and the moment he set it into place, the patterns spread all over the whole surface of the shield like a virus.
A tiny click could be heard, followed by cascades of popping noises of balloons bursting open.
A gaping hole almost three meters wide yawned open on the surface of the phosphorescent shield.
“CHARGE!” Lu Ye grunted aloud.
Ready as ever, Ju Jia bolted forward like a loosened arrow. He stepped through the hole quickly and dove into the Sunlit Mountain outpost with Lu Ye peeling after him closely.
Lu Ye was well inside when the rest of the nine Body-tempering Cultivators broke from their stupor and rushed in after them.
The hole in the shield quickly closed behind them, sealing them in.
The energy shield of an outpost’s defensive ward was usually able to regenerate and repair itself. A hole like the one Lu Ye created would close itself before too long unless the defensive ward had taken too much damage and one that was barely just three to four meters was hardly crippling enough.
Panicking, all eighty Sunlit Mountain defenders let loose their attacks on the invaders.
The Cultivators had been stricken with lethargic tedium and monotony when Lu Ye was still trying to figure out a way to defeat the shield. But as soon as the hole in the shield cracked open, the sensation of regret hit them like a sledgehammer, for they now had to contend with not only just Lu Ye but also a coterie of ten heavily-armored Body-tempering Cultivators that included Ju Jia!
The surface of the skin of the Body-tempering Cultivators—with Ju Jia as then de facto leader—emanated a soft glowing crimson gold aura like iron red-hot in the furnaces as they summoned their powers. Colorful strips of light belied how dangerous they were actually hit by the invaders, but the defensive aura that shrouded them reduced the spells to just harmless pops and sizzles. Those that managed to penetrate the aura too were, at the very least, greatly weakened.
Ju Jia lifted a shield Spirit Artifact. Like a raging bull, he fearlessly charged straight at the defenders.
Lu Ye stayed close at his heels. Rummaging through his Storage Bag and finding what he wanted, he flung into the air four tiny sparkles of steel that zipped through the air as one. Like a flying scythe, they flew in front of Ju Jia, cutting a path through the enemies for him; felling foes like shearing reed stalks.
Since the spiritual enrichment he experienced at the Lost City of Xianyuan had resulted in his control of Spiritual Power greatly enhanced, Lu Ye could now handle four flying weapons simultaneously. He could have used more than four, but he did not want the strength and force to wane.
The rest of the Body-tempering Cultivators quickly caught up. Forming up to Ju Jia alongside his flanks, they charged together in an arrowhead formation with Lu Ye nestled safely in the middle.
“STOP THEM!” a Sunlit Mountain acolyte roared, to no avail.
Their number was eight times that of Lu Ye’s, but that did not make stopping the monstrous stampede any easier.
That was a testament to Ju Jia’s strength and endurance. No one in the Spirit Creek Realm could stop him when he began charging around like a thunderous rhinoceros—not unless anyone could kill him swiftly.
On the other end, Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei had heard the commotion. They soared up into the air to get a good look at the situation inside the Sunlit Mountain outpost and there was the arrowhead formation plowing through the outpost, not unlike an insectoid stampede that could make any witness quake with trepidation.
“They’ve done it!” Gu Canyang murmured with some degree of disbelief. For so long Lu Ye had not been able to produce results that he was almost giving up. But Lu Ye had proven himself yet again. Not only had he managed to gain entry once more; this time, he even took ten Body-tempering Cultivators to wreak havoc behind enemy lines.
“Gods, he’s just so marvelous,” Zhou Pei exclaimed with envy.
Lofty Plume Court had once extended an offer to recruit Ju Jia before.
But that accursed Sima Yang had flatly refused it on his companion’s behalf and Zhou Pei could hardly abduct Ju Jia and force him to join Lofty Plume Court. Doing that was nowhere near honorable and Ju Jia would never respect or be loyal to him, to say the least.
Fortunately enough, Ju Jia had somehow pledged himself to Lu Ye and thankfully, they now had him to depend on in this skirmish.
Breaking through the Sunlit Mountain outpost was only the beginning. The true test awaited.
The hole in the outpost’s defensive ward meant that Lu Ye and the others were trapped inside without help and reinforcements. With Ju Jia spearheading the charge, they might be in control of the initiative temporarily, but the unfavorable odds of more than ten enemies to one of them remained their biggest disadvantage.
For this reason, Lu Ye knew that he needed to secure the defensive ward jade tablet as soon as possible so that he could deactivate the ward and let the rest of the invaders in.
That was why the arrowhead formation did not stop to fight the eighty-or-so defenders; it kept pressing deeper into the outpost.
Sunlit Mountain acolytes rushed here in their dozens to try to thwart the invaders’ advance, but few could stop them. In barely ten seconds, they cleaved through the defenses like a hot knife through butter, trampling through all defensive lines and marching forward rapidly and unhindered.
Sunlit Mountain acolytes who crashed to the ground quickly recollected themselves and gave chase, attacking the charging formation from behind and filling the air with the din of steel-on-steel clangor and explosions amid their enraged snarls and roars.
The defensive gear that the Body-tempering Cultivators had put on earlier had been instrumental. The gear had kept them safe from the relentless attacks the defenders rained so desperately on them. But no amount or quality of equipment could be expected to hold on for so long under such an onslaught. As explosions began to blossom and balloon around his defensive detail, Lu Ye recognised what he was hearing, the death rattles of the protective gear failing.
Ju Jia’s shield, too, was beginning to collect more holes than a chunk of cheese, prompting him to discard it.
The nonuple-enchantment shield was given to him by Lu Ye during their adventures in the Lost City. That it was reduced to nothing but scrap iron indicated just how determined the enemy defenders were in wanting to thwart their advance.
But he just retrieved another shield from inside his Storage Bag and went on charging headlong.
Sima Yang had been hogging all the kills himself and he never tried to buy anything for Ju Jia. Equipment never came cheaply and Sima Yang was hardly generous enough to equip Ju Jia with enough gear. But things had changed since he joined Lu Ye, who had never been stingy with making sure that the lumbering giant of a man had all the items he needed.
Four to five defensive Spirit Artifacts. That was the minimum number of gear that Ju Jia now carried with him at all times.
Fortunately for the whole band, they had managed to punch through the eighty-man Sunlit Mountain defensive line.
They pressed on at full speed like a procession of siege engines rolling forward at full steam. Nevertheless, the defenders remained hot on their heels with dogged ferocity. The Body-tempering Cultivators holding up the rear began to realize that the group would never make it inside in time. A few of them peeled off and turned around to face the pursuing enemies.
“GO!” one of them cried.
With their own bodies a few nobly aspired to hold back the force of many. Not many could proudly claim to have the same courage.
Yet their resolve wasn’t enough to bridge the gap between the huge numbers. In seconds, they crashed to the ground, splashing into puddles of their own blood as Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei watched with wracking guilt and misery.
These were some of their best Body-tempering Cultivators; the cream of the crop that could not be easily replaced. Losing one was painful enough and yet there were almost a handful of them.
But the enemy defenders did not stay long to make sure that their fallen enemies were truly dead; the Body-tempering Cultivators might be grievously hurt, but they could be alive too.
Nevertheless, they had bought Lu Ye and the rest more time, allowing them to put at least three hundred meters ahead. That was when they spied a group of thirty-or-so Sunlit Mountain Cultivators huddled together.
Lu Ye caught sight of a man kept safe in the center of a ring, wearing an aghast expression of disbelief as if he was still having trouble believing that anyone could defeat the outpost’s defensive ward shield.
That must be the legate of the Sunlit Mountain outpost and the jade tablet must be with him!
[Victory is at hand], Lu Ye realized. [Capture the jade tablet from him and destroy it and the eight-hundred-man-strong army will be able to come in!]
“STOP THEM!” the Sunlit Mountain legate cried as he saw the stampede of Body-tempering Cultivators led by Ju Jia charging his way. The rest of the defenders did not need to be told that this moment marked the very survival of the outpost. With a signal, beams of light arced from all directions, homing in on the blitzing group.
With an angry roar, Ju Jia lifted his shield, ready to ram into his enemies. But with all the hails of attacks crashing down on them, the glow of the shield was waning fast and his pace was gradually slowing.
On the other hand, the pursuers were swiftly catching up. Lu Ye, Ju Jia, and the others were about to find themselves caught between the hammer and the anvil.
Without their momentum, everyone would be sitting ducks.
A crimson burst of Spiritual Energy erupted and Lu Ye unfurled his wings. He shot up into the air, catching everyone’s attention.
Sparkles—telltale signs of flying weapons—swarmed around the sky, streaking straight for Lu Ye.
Lu Ye grabbed Amber. The tiger had been in its cat form, riding on his shoulder. With as much strength as he could exert, Lu Ye sent kitty-Amber hurtling through the air.
A pair of steely sparkles grazed its fur, dangerously missing all vitals even though they left trails of blood in the cat’s wake.
Eldritch energies swirled around Amber’s feline form, the ochre brown effulgence enveloping it as cat turned to tiger at a speed visible to the naked eye; Amber was back into its full form in mere seconds.
All thanks to Lu Ye’s forceful toss, the tiger landed in a roll—just barely thirty meters away from the legate and his protective detail.
Every man in the detail shuddered. They saw their own reflections staring back at them. A strange sensation of dread and disorientation clenching its fist around them and petrifying them.
“ROAR!”
Amber bared its fangs viciously at them, its earsplitting roar setting loose a ferocious wave of aura rolling forward and engulfing the men.
As soon as the waves hit the men, some staggered. A few nearly stumbled. But all of them felt the same throbbing and crashing discombobulation as if they had been bashed with a sledgehammer.
For a long time, Lu Ye knew that there had been something unusual about Amber’s roar. Every time it roared, he would experience some form of an unknown force. But being a low-tier Cultivator back then, he was not sure if the unknown force ever existed, let alone what manner of power it was.
But as his rank of cultivation heightened and his knowledge increased, he began to understand that his hypothesis was true.
Amber’s roar did have some form of power to stun enemies—spiritually.
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