Molting the Mortal Coil

When the fiery red aura surrounding them suddenly dissipated, hundreds of cultivators realized that they were no longer the ones on top. In the beginning, even if many of them died, they knew that their enemy was like a cornered animal, fighting with all they had in the face of death. None of them were fools, but the rewards they had been promised by their Sects and Clans were worth the risk. They had no idea how much this rogue Lang Sheng was worth, but the rewards they were promised if they were to succeed were immense. Even their simple participation had come with generous rewards of cultivation resources, let alone their success. During the hunt earlier, they had many times fantasized about taking down Lang Sheng without any assistance and receiving a King’s ransom all to themselves.

Funny enough, the rank and file, the hundreds of rank fives and thousand rank fours had no idea how right their idle thoughts were. At this point, the battle was turning against them and the Nascent Soul’s suddenly grew worried. They’d been promised immense rewards through secret channels if they were to take down Lang Sheng and hand over his possessions, and the treasures they would be given in return for taking him alive were mind-boggling. Each of them had been approached by secret channels to participate in this mission, with the old woman Hei Bai used as a cover. A rogue cultivator like her, especially one that hadn’t formed her Nascent Soul, would never be able to move their groups on her own. While they had been approached by shadowy figures they vaguely knew these orders came from the Royal family of the Dou Kingdom. Of course, they had no proof of this, otherwise why would they even bother approaching in secret?

They would be fools to go against the Dou Kingdom’s leaders, and the rewards were great. There was also the fact that they were being asked to go against an enemy. Even if all of them didn’t care much about Lang Sheng, there was still the fact that there was enmity between their two sides. Those with cunning or experience would always choose to remove future problems when the opportunity presented itself so it was no wonder that they all chose to side with Hei Bai and attack all at once. It was only a shame they had got too greedy at the start and underestimated their enemy. They were so sure of their victory that they limited the numbers each side could bring to bear and by doing so they let Lang Sheng slip away.

At this moment the Violet Light Sect Ancestor stopped his assault upon Lang Sheng. He had a strange look on his face. Some part of him was almost happy that he wasn’t the only one to suffer from this venture, but that couldn’t quite overcome his sheer hatred for the other Nascent Soul in front of him. His body had been destroyed and a whole squad of his most loyal and skilled elites had been slain in that initial attack. His beloved ‘Sunset’ team was wiped out, one which he’d personally nurtured for many years. They had answered only to him and handled many troublesome matters for him in the past, but now they were gone. Now that things were turning against them, he felt pleased that he wouldn’t be the only one being stomped into the mud. As deep as his desire was to crush Lang Sheng into nothing, he’d been using his full strength but had still been unable to decide the battle.

Lang Sheng’s Law seemed to be stilted by his loss of body, but he had still managed to persevere with strange Spirit Power techniques and what seemed to be Heavenly Materials. The Nascent Souls on his side had first been shocked to see such abilities, but they realized there was truly a reason for such a large bounty to be placed upon this fellows head by the Dou Kingdom. Especially since they didn’t want to be associated with the matter. No matter what happened, they had no proof of who they were working for in this matter. They could only assume that Lang Sheng had a secret backer in the Dou Kingdom that the Royal family didn’t want to tangle with.

The other Nascent Souls were having similar thoughts. The enemies they fought with were only slightly weaker than themselves, which meant they would have to engage in lengthy battles to decide winners. Their chances of victory were rapidly slipping away as their supplementary forces were rapidly being killed by Lang Sheng’s reinforcements. If things continued the way they were going, their forces would be reduced to a handful of Nascent Souls while the enemy would use rank fives to pressure them. They suddenly found themselves needing to make a decision. At this moment they used their Spiritual Sense to trade secret messages.

“Fu Xidong. Are your reinforcements nearby? If we don’t act soon, all of our subordinates will lose their lives. If we retreat now we can save many of them. We can keep Lang Sheng from escaping, but we will sacrifice everyone else.”

Lady Diyin was quite terse, her Artful Life Alliance was a gathering of lesser powers, so those from her own smaller Yincha Sect were important to her. She didn’t have many armies of subordinates like the Fu Clan or the Violet Light Sect. On the other hand, Fu Xidong cared little for those who were with him, if all of these people here were to die with him standing alone at the end that would be all the better. Of the Nascent Souls in the Fu Clan, he was the weakest and so this menial task was assigned to him. For the other Fu Clan Leaders, this was merely cleaning up a loose end and doing a favor to their young genius. Fu Zedong, while having lost an arm, was still a powerful young genius cultivator for the Clan.

The other leaders only understood the seriousness of the situation when he called for reinforcement. He’d already received some harsh words when the initial ambush had failed and he had to assemble a large pursuit force. When they heard that their stubborn genius Fu Zedong was in actual danger they were greatly disturbed and rushed to reinforce them.

“The reinforcements will not arrive until tomorrow.”

In the end, Fu Xidong spoke truthfully. While he wanted to obscure the truth and keep Lang Sheng entangled, if he were to lie to his allies, they would likely become furious in a few hours after their subordinates had all passed away. At that point they might just leave anyway, and they’d also harbor thoughts of revenge against him and the Fu Clan. He would have been willing to stretch the time a few hours to make them commit, but the reinforcing team was too far away for that trick to work. While he personally disliked the arrogant Fu Zedong, the other Nascent Souls of his clan appreciated the man and he’d be in big trouble were to let the young genius die.

A few more messages were quickly shared and then Lady Diyin tossed a brilliant flare of energy into the sky. It burned a bright violet color, lighting up the stormy skies and causing all of the assembled combatants to spare a glance towards it. There were various loud exclamations that those on Sage’s side heard quite clearly and they all meant roughly the same thing: retreat.

The cultivators from the Inner World were ecstatic. This battle for the fate of their whole world was about to end! On the other hand, Sage’s reinforcements had just arrived. They hadn’t experienced the bitter deaths of their companions and were eager to exact more vengeance upon these enemies. Those with a deeper relationship to Sage were also eager to remove or at least weaken their friend’s enemies.

The cultivators from the Violet Light Sect, Fu Clan, Artful Life Alliance, and Whitestaff’s disciples pulled back in an orderly fashion, defending each other and rescuing their allies from dangerous situations. Those on Sage’s side had somewhat let up, knowing how hard it was to stop a much more numerous force from escaping. It would be quite difficult to stop them all, and if they weren’t cautious they could suffer great losses while pursuing them.

It was too bad for them that not everyone on Sage’s side had such a kind outlook. Seeing them arranging an orderly retreat, the weakest woman on the battlefield turned and strode back up the ramp and onto the Flying Ship. That woman, Wan Ling, used a Messaging Jade to send an order to the assembled Jade Horde which immediately abandoned their harassment of the Living Disaster. They rushed back from tying down the giant tortoise and re-entered the Flying Ship they arrived on.