Molting the Mortal Coil

The group of drummers seemed to be enhancing the strength of their allies and Sage felt their need to retreat growing. The group with stringed instruments released physical soundwaves that cut the Dragoons apart, opening a wide hole through the Million Scale Shell. A weakness that was quickly taken advantage of by their enemies. The others that Hei Bai brought along as well as Whitestaff’s disciples rushed through the gap and wrought havoc upon the Dragoons. The half-bug people constantly shifted position to maintain the formation, but it was soon out of their control. Sage ordered them to disperse, as they were just flying into a blender in an attempt to maintain a shield that was already compromised.

They flew into the air, spread into every direction while the formation they maintained disappeared. Unfortunately, the loss of the barrier meant that the Fu Clan maintaining a perimeter could also join the attack. Darts, thrown knives, shuriken, discs, nails, and all manners of hidden weapons were thrown into the air, wounding many of the Dragoons enough to start knocking them from the sky. In the air, they quickly reformed and brought up another Million Scale Shell. They were no longer protecting Sage and the Tiankong Siblings within it, but they still created a form of shelter, creating a large sphere in the air just above them. At the very least it helped block indirect ‘artillery’ style attacks and also applied pressure to their foes in the form of crossbow bolts raining down upon them. Additionally, the Dragoons in the center of the ball grouped up into attack squads and rushed out to sacrifice themselves to delay some of the cultivators that were rushing towards Sage’s group.

With so many enemies rushing towards them, they swapped roles from their earlier battle. Last time, Sage had been responsible for killing quickly while the others tied down the rest of their enemies. This time, he took the responsibility of occupying their foes, and ordered the others to act in unison. With a Nascent Soul and six Core Formation cultivators, they should easily be able to kill a handful of the enemy at a time as long as they could keep away from the enemy Nascent Souls. Now that they had started rushing towards them, Sage finally got a read on how many enemy rank 6s there were. Aside from the greatly weakened Violet Light Sect Ancestor, there was a single Nascent Soul among the Fu Clan, and two others among the group with Hei Bai. Whitestaff was the strongest in her group, and still only in the middling stages of rank five.

That made it two against three and a half. Those were not good odds. Sage hoped he could hold them off long enough for the others to shorten the gap between their sides.

His gigantic cobra body reared up and his eyes rippled just as they had early. The pupils oscillated and released the power of the Hypnotic Eye in the direction of the big group of approaching enemies. At its full power, the Hypnotic Eye could hold a person of equal strength as himself in place. It was a sort of mesmerism, like a forced staring contest. On the other hand, what he used now was a more wide area effect. If he only focused on one of the Nascent Souls, who would deal with the other three? Ruanfu couldn’t fight all four of them at the same time, even if the old man from before was without a body.

Instead, Sage focused on tying up as many of the lower ranked fighters as possible. For those a rank lower than him, he could implant subtle suggestions into their minds. It wasn’t true mind control, instead just leaving gentle manipulations into their memories. He’d used it to make people friendly to him, forget he has passed by, and other small tweaks in the past. For those a full two ranks lower? They were like puppets he could control. Just like those sideshow hypnotists, he could make them cluck like a chicken or think they were a professional dancer giving a performance. They would only resist if he violated their core beliefs, like asking them to kill their loved ones or burn down their houses. The only way to get such things to happen was to trick them with mental suggestions. To for example, slowly inject suggestions that make them question their relationships and build animosity where they used to have affection.

As it was now, the subtle application of the Hypnotic Eye was not possible. If he was held captive, he might be able to insidiously turn them against each other, but in direct combat he could only spread his power out. Any who looked into his eyes would find their bodies slowing down. If they were too weak or stared too long they would get frozen in place. The unusual eyes of the cobra would grow larger and larger. The sound buzzing in their ears louder and louder. Their vision of the rest of the world grew blurry and they would know only that droning sound and those huge eyes boring into their minds.

Most of the Fu Clan were unaffected. They maintained a perimeter, releasing hidden weapons and ready to attack anyone that tried to escape their encirclement. They were fighting from within dark clouds of black smoke, and also spread around a wide area so Sage wasn’t even able to turn his eyes towards all of them at once. Hei Bai’s allies were also remarkably resistant. Those who were playing instruments simply averted their eyes, looking away from Sage’s gaze and resisting most of the effects. The Dancer and Erhu player surprisingly stared directly at his eyes. A strange power came from them that directly resisted his Hypnotic Eyes and reduced the effect washing over their allies. The mixed forces she brought were in various states of hobbling, but seven of them in particular seemed immune. There were four swordsmen wearing different outfits, but moving in similar style. One of the Nascent Souls was among them and he quickly ordered the other three, “Blindfolds.”

They followed his instructions, stopping momentarily to pull out colorful sashes and tie them around their eyes. The others seemed slowed and moved clumsily with their gaze turned away, but these four moved with full speed and coordination even with their eyes tightly closed. They all tapped their swords with their fingers and caused a humming sound to be emitted. The other three that were immune had a similar response, closing their eyes and moving with complete freedom. These three had ‘Yincha’ written on their chests. Their skin was quite pale and their leader was another Nascent Soul, a serious looking woman.

Despite the setbacks, Whitestaff and her disciples were hit the hardest. Most of them were immediately frozen in place before she could order them to close their eyes. Whitestaff herself was able to resist and she started to slowly walk from one disciple to the other, standing in front of them to block their view and touching her staff to their head to clear their confusion.

Sage was completely committed to maintaining this attack and could not bring the size of his body or the many Heavenly Materials to play while committing so much to his Hypnotic Eyes. On the plus side, it greatly weakened or froze nearly half of their enemy. The stringed instrument trio directed their attacks at the Dragoons again, fearful they would strike their allies when their eyes were averted. The flood of enemies that would have wiped them out instantly was cut down to just two dozen or so. They glowed with a red energy aura, and rushed to close the distance.

Of course, Sage wasn’t done yet. He needed to tie up as many of the enemy as possible. A dozen Blacksilver Pawns rushed forward to meet the attack, their oily black bodies were immediately riddled with wounds. A vibrating sword sliced off the arms of one, a burst of booming sound came from one woman’s mouth to blow apart the chest of another, a long eared Shou Clansman slapped a dozen times and made another Pawn start to melt. As terrible as the damage they received, they did their job. Slowing down the enemy and buying time by taking hits and healing fast.

That wasn’t all. A swarm of giant insects appeared next to the huge cobra and rushed out towards the clouds of black smoke. They didn’t head towards the clump of powerful enemies, instead rushing at the Fu Clan trying to box them in. Sage didn’t hold back, sending out a huge swarm from his Inner World, the battle variants he had relied upon in the past. Chameleon Mantis, Emerald Dragonfly, Steel Silk Centipede, and the Charming Lance Beetle; they rushed out in swarms to harass the Fu Clan. Sage aimed to cause chaos, hopefully to form a weakness in the perimeter that they could use to escape.

Last, but far from least, the Soul Clone turned the dozen Shard Rifles onto the people that were frozen by Sage’s Hypnotic Eyes. The Tiankong Siblings would have to fight through the still capable combatants to reach them, but the Soul Clone had no such limitation. The Shard Rifles were powerful ranged weapons and it could fire many of them at the same time using its Spirit Power. While their aim was not flawless any longer without Sage’s Foresight to back them up, it was sinfully easy to punch holes in the people standing motionless.