Chapter 129 - 125: Attack on the Marketplace
Chapter 129: Chapter 125: Attack on the Marketplace
Li Yuan was at his desk, drawing a Heart-lock Talisman.
He had just completed the third circle of the Sealing Pattern, and his Spiritual Power was about to advance to the fourth.
HUM.
A low-pitched vibration came from the outskirts of the encampment.
Li Yuan’s wrist froze. The Spiritual Ink bled into a small blot on the paper. This one was ruined.
He set down his talisman brush, stood up, and pushed open the door.
In the courtyard, a few people had already looked up. The Cultivator on duty held an Array Disc, his expression changing drastically.
"Six Cultivators, to the west, very close."
Before his voice faded, a second buzz erupted, much fiercer than the first. It was the sound of Magic striking the perimeter wall.
BOOM.
A muffled crash came from the western wall, immediately followed by the sound of splashing debris.
Li Yuan had already dashed out of his stone house.
There weren’t many people in the courtyard who could fight. Captain Wang wasn’t here today, and squad leaders like He Shou had each taken a team out on patrol and hadn’t returned.
Only seven people were left guarding the encampment, and Li Yuan had the highest Cultivation. Of the other six, two were at Qi Refining Fifth Level, three at Qi Refining Fourth Level, and one at Qi Refining Third Level.
A gap had already been smashed through the western wall.
Gray-brown rubble was scattered all over the ground, and the edges of the gap still shimmered with the residue of yellowish-brown Spiritual Light.
Six figures poured through the opening.
They didn’t pause after entering, immediately splitting into two groups.
Four of them fanned out, charging toward the guard posts around the courtyard.
The remaining two were the leader, a Cultivator in his early thirties, and another at Qi Refining Fifth Level.
These two didn’t head toward the defenders but turned and ran directly along the inside of the courtyard wall toward the eastern perimeter.
Their roles were extremely clear, as if predetermined.
The leader was of medium build, slightly stocky, dressed in a dark, short robe. His features were plain, his lips thin, and his gaze cold and swift.
Qi Refining Seventh Level.
Li Yuan had caught his aura the instant he burst through the gap.
’One level higher than my own public "Qi Refining Sixth Level".’
The four who had scattered had varying Cultivation levels; the highest was Qi Refining Fifth Level, the lowest only Qi Refining Third Level.
But their movements were extremely swift. After entering the courtyard, they wasted no time, heading straight for the nearest guards.
One of the attackers, a Qi Refining Fifth Level cultivator, flipped his palm. A Wind Blade shot out, smashing down on a guard on the south side of the courtyard.
It was incredibly fast.
That Cultivator was only at Qi Refining Fourth Level and reacted a half-beat too slow. His spiritual shield had just formed when the Wind Blade shattered it. He was sent flying over twenty feet, landing heavily on the ground. The robe over his chest was shredded, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Almost simultaneously, another Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator nearby, who had just drawn his Magical Artifact, was ganged up on by two attackers.
Each cast a spell that slammed into him. A Wind Blade split open the armor on his left arm, while an earth spike struck his side, sending him flying into a wooden shed’s pillar. With a CRACK, the pillar snapped in half. The Cultivator slid to the ground, curling up and clutching his abdomen.
Two men down in less than five breaths.
As he rushed out of the stone house, Li Yuan had already assessed the situation.
’Their leader is Qi Refining Seventh Level, and he’s running for the eastern wall. The containment group of four is spread out in the courtyard, their strongest at Qi Refining Fifth Level.’
’I have to save our people first. Those two Cultivators are already injured; one more hit and they’ll be dead.’
Li Yuan gathered fiery light in his palm, compressing it into a Fireball Technique.
He hurled the first one into the middle of the three closest attackers, not targeting any single individual.
BOOM.
Crimson flames exploded on the rubble-strewn ground, the heatwave kicking up a cloud of dust.
The Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator on the left was sent stumbling by the shockwave, while the Qi Refining Third Level on the right was forced back several steps by the heat.
The Qi Refining Fifth Level attacker in the center reacted fastest, sidestepping the Fireball’s shockwave.
Then, with a flick of his wrist, he ignored Li Yuan. The short blade in his hand began to glow as a blade qi started to form, its target seemingly one of the injured Cultivators.
Li Yuan instantly formed a fire arrow in his left hand and shot it out with a WHOOSH.
The fire arrow pierced the right shoulder of the Qi Refining Fifth Level Cultivator, passing straight through to the other side.
The short blade in his hand immediately fell.
Li Yuan could feel that his Fire Arrow Skill had met some resistance as it passed through the man. ’He might have practiced Body Refining Techniques.’
But at the same time—
RUMBLE.
The entire encampment shook.
Li Yuan whipped his head around.
Toward the eastern wall, the Qi Refining Seventh Level Cultivator had already slammed his palm onto the ground.
A huge, yellowish-brown Spiritual Wave spread out from his palm. The Spiritual Wave passed by the Cultivators without affecting them.
But when the yellowish-brown Spiritual Wave hit the base of the wall, the entire structure fractured from the bottom up, collapsing outward in massive chunks of stone that crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar.
Two wooden sheds next to the wall had their roofs smashed in by the rubble. Their wooden frames broke, and the supplies stored inside scattered across the ground.
A section of the southern wall also collapsed.
Several half-foot-wide cracks split the ground in the center of the courtyard. A stone table was knocked askew, and everything on it fell to the ground.
In less than ten breaths, nearly half of the encampment’s perimeter wall had fallen, two wooden sheds were destroyed, and the ground was riddled with craters.
’Too late.’
As the Cultivator pulled back his hand, he stood up. His face was a bit paler, but his steps were still steady.
"Withdraw."
A quiet command.
The four men behind him immediately turned to retreat. Their movements were clean and decisive, without a hint of hesitation.
The Qi Refining Fifth Level cultivator with the arrow in his shoulder slapped a Talisman on himself and forced a retreat.
The middle-aged Qi Refining Seventh Level man fell back to cover the rear.
The six figures quickly converged on the western gap.
Li Yuan stood in the middle of the courtyard and launched a Fireball Technique.
The Qi Refining Seventh Level Cultivator pulled a yellowish-brown Shield Spiritual Artifact from his storage bag and blocked Li Yuan’s Fireball.
The Fireball sank into the yellowish-brown shield, which instantly turned red-hot. The Qi Refining Seventh Level Cultivator’s casual expression immediately turned grave, and the veins on the arm holding the shield bulged.
Li Yuan watched the six of them retreat, not giving chase.
’With my Qi Refining Seventh Level speed and the Fire Escape Skill, catching up to their leader wouldn’t be a problem.’
’Once I catch him, I can go all out. With the stack of my various abilities, I’m confident I could take down even a fellow Qi Refining Seventh Level cultivator.’
’But with more than half the wall down, the encampment is wide open.’
’If there are others waiting outside to rush in while I’m gone, the people left here won’t be able to hold them off.’
’And what if I do capture him? Then what?’
’A "Qi Refining Sixth Level" Talisman Maker chasing down a Qi Refining Seventh Level Cultivator and winning... that kind of situation would draw way too much attention.’
On the south side of the courtyard, the Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator who had been knocked over was still lying on the ground, blood having soaked through half of his lapel. The other one, injured in the side, sat slumped against the broken shed post, his face ashen.
’The two injured men can’t wait long.’
The six figures scrambled out of the gap and sped away down the rubble-strewn slope outside the wall.
Just then, the sound of urgent footsteps came from the direction of the marketplace.
Reinforcements had arrived.
About a dozen Cultivators rushed over from the marketplace. The two in the lead had auras of the Qi Refining Sixth Level, followed by an Inspector General and members of other guard teams.
Li Yuan turned and walked toward the injured.
On the south side of the courtyard, the Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator who had been knocked over was lying on the ground, blood having soaked through half of his lapel. A fellow guard was crouching beside him, frantically sprinkling medicinal powder on the wound.
"Two broken ribs, but his lungs aren’t injured," the crouching Cultivator said, looking up at Li Yuan.
Li Yuan knelt to take a look. The wound wasn’t too deep, but the impact to the chest had been significant. His aura was chaotic, and his face was ashen.
He took a Heart-lock Talisman from his storage bag and placed it on the Cultivator’s chest. As Spiritual Power flowed into it, the Sealing Pattern on the talisman paper lit up, locking the injuries in their current state.
The man’s aura stabilized immediately. The broken bones were held in place by Spiritual Power, and the bleeding slowed dramatically.
"This will hold it for now. Don’t let the injuries worsen."
On the other side, the Cultivator who had been smashed against the shed post was being helped up. Most of the armor on his left arm was shattered, revealing a gash on his arm so deep the bone was visible. His side was a dark bruise where the earth spike had hit him, but it hadn’t pierced through.
Li Yuan walked over and applied another Heart-lock Talisman.
The reinforcing Cultivators had already poured into the encampment.
The leading Qi Refining Sixth Level Cultivator glanced at the rubble-strewn ground and the half-collapsed wall, his face ashen with fury.
"Where are they?"
"They ran," Li Yuan said, taking medicinal powder and bandages from his storage bag and handing them to the person beside him.
"Six of them. The leader was Qi Refining Seventh Level. Their target was the wall and the buildings, not us. They split into two groups—four to run interference, while the leader and one other went to destroy the wall. They withdrew as soon as they were done."
The Cultivator gritted his teeth and turned to shout at a few of his subordinates.
"Lock down the perimeter! Check if anyone was left behind!"
Several people dispersed.
Li Yuan didn’t go with them. He remained crouched by the injured, helping to treat their wounds.
The Qi Refining Fourth Level Cultivator who had been knocked over had his injuries suppressed by the Heart-lock Talisman and his aura had stabilized, but he was still semi-conscious. The other one with the side injury was slightly better off; he could already sit up on his own, though his left arm was useless, hanging limply at his side.
The other guards hadn’t suffered any serious injuries, merely covered in dust and grime from the shockwaves of the Earth Magic.
Li Yuan stood up and surveyed the damage to the encampment.
A large section of the eastern wall had collapsed, half of the southern wall was down, and the gap that had been smashed in the western wall was now even bigger. Two wooden sheds were destroyed, their contents scattered. Several cracks split the ground in the center of the courtyard.
Fortunately, the stone houses hadn’t collapsed. Although the Cultivator’s Earth Magic was powerful, its area of effect spread along the ground, so it had little impact on the stone structures, which were reinforced with a certain amount of Spiritual Power.
Li Yuan’s stone house was also intact. The ruined Heart-lock Talisman was still on his desk, the blot of bled Spiritual Ink now dry.
He walked back to his stone house and cleaned off his desk.
In the courtyard, Cultivators began to move rubble and clear the debris of the collapsed walls. Some were taking inventory of the lost supplies, while others fed pills to the wounded.
The clamor from outside filtered in through the window.
Li Yuan sat at his desk for a moment, then got up, went outside, and helped move rubble for a while. He also gathered the scattered supplies into one place.
He was busy until the middle of the night before a semblance of basic order was restored to the encampment.
The gaps in the wall were temporarily blocked with rubble and wooden planks. It wouldn’t stop much, but it was better than leaving them wide open. The two severely injured Cultivators were sent to an apothecary in the marketplace, their injuries kept from worsening by the Heart-lock Talismans.
Li Yuan returned to his stone house and closed the door.
He took out talisman paper and Spiritual Ink from his storage bag and spread them on the desk.
’I used two Heart-lock Talismans today. I need to replace them.’
He dipped his brush in ink and set it to paper.