Chapter 538 - The Battle Ends
Translator: DavidT Editor: DavidT, Rock
Yu ZhanKong decided that as long as he recovered a trace of strength, he would escape for his life immediately! He would rather return and face the anger of his Family Head than face the black-masked assassin again!
Perhaps only the heavens would know that when escaping from the 'shadow' previously, this top-notch expert of the Yu Family, an elder class figure, actually wet his pants along the way! At the same time, he was whining for his parents in his heart and was truly terrified out of his wits!
Ling Tian suddenly sat upright and a trace of surprise could be seen in his eyes, "It has only been a few days since I last saw him and Ling Jian's martial arts actually improved so swiftly? All of these years, this is the first time I am surprised by Ling Jian's improvement! It seems like the near-death experience in Northern Wei truly was a great help to Ling Jian's improvements. For an extreme XianTian expert to make another breakthrough it was necessary for him to feel the danger of life and death!"
"That's right, the instant before life and death may also be the instant before their breakthrough. This logic is one that applies to any world!" Li Xue snorted before rolling her eyes, "You probably didn't know, right? This number one subordinate of yours, the number one assassin in the world, issued me a challenge the moment he recovered from his injuries. He said that he wants to teach me a good lesson for my pranks after this matter with the Shui Family is settled. Cheh! I am so afraid! The number one assassin in the world wants to teach me a lesson!" Li Xue twitched her lips.
Ling Tian was first stunned before he had the urge to burst out laughing. My dear Ling Jian, why is your luck always so poor? The last time you excitedly challenged Ling Chen to a battle, you got beaten up by her miserably. Now, you actually want to provoke Li Xue?! Li Xue was someone that even Ling Tian wouldn't dare to provoke. Even with Ling Tian having a huge improvement in his martial arts and the confidence to win against her, he knew that it definitely wouldn't be an easy fight!
While it was true that Ling Jian did improve swiftly after this breakthrough, he was still a distance away from Li Xue's martial arts realm! If the two of them were to engage in an all-out battle, Ling Jian being abused would be the inevitable outcome. To think that this little brat still had the confidence to issue an official challenge.
"At that time, I will be the judge for the two of you. Don't worry, I will definitely be impartial. How could I miss such a classic battle?" Ling Tian said while gloating with schadenfreude.
"Mmm, it would be good for you to be around. I will let him know that there is another emotion in the world called regret! Who asked him to frighten me with those scary looks of his!" Li Xue puffed angrily.
Ling Tian chuckled, "I believe that before he realizes that emotion, he will feel something else first. Something else that he has felt before!"
"Feel what? Something that he has felt before?!" Li Xue asked curiously.
"Pain!" Ling Tian said with all seriousness and Xiao YanXue who was in his embrace burst out laughing. She suddenly felt that this lady who was called Li Xue had exactly the same character as Ling Tian. She was also someone who did not care about anything and felt that she was the biggest in the world. In the face of such a bloody scene beneath them, the two of them could actually have such a casual conversation and joke with each other!
Li Xue's gaze swept past the battlefield coldly. The members of both the Shui and Yu Families were more or less dead by now. Of the six Shui Elders, three had already died! As for the Yu Family, there was only Yu ZhanShui and another fifty odd White Jade experts left on the battlefield. The Shui Family was in a better shape and still had a hundred odd members at least. However, all of the Shui Family members left were completely exhausted and also in a pitiful plight.
It was obvious that both sides suffered heavy losses in this battle!
"It's about there. Don't let them all die. Before the main character enters the stage, it would be boring if all the extras died." Ling Tian remarked lazily.
Li Xue nodded her head and waved her hand again. A sharp shrill whistle then sounded and the three black-masked men sheathed their swords. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, the three of them disappeared to three different directions! In this short duration of their presence on the battlefield, the forest floor was littered with more than a hundred corpses.
Both the Shui and Yu members had killed to the point their eyes turned red. Even after the departure of the black-masked men, they were still engaged in an all-out slaughter. It was only after a short while where they realized that these three baleful existences had disappeared! This discovery made both parties extremely shocked as they froze on the spot without fighting.
There were less than 200 people left from both parties and they all stood rooted to the spot like wooden poles, forming an extremely strange sight!
It was too strange! It was too bewildering! Why did these three assassins suddenly leave? What was their motive?
If they were here for riches, they didn't bother picking up a single tael of silver from the ground! If they were here to take revenge on the Yu Family, they let Yu ZhanKong off. If they were here to aid the Shui Family, they killed more than a hundred members of the Shui Family including three Shui Elders! If they were here to wipe out both the families, why would they suddenly retreat at the very last minute?
Everyone could not help but have a big question mark in their hearts. Such a confusing situation was something that puzzled all of them! Just what was going on?
Just when everyone was still in bewilderment, Yu ZhanKong who had collapsed by the side was the first to react. After this short moment of rest, some of his inner qi had been recovered. More importantly, the departure of the three masked men also meant that the fear in his heart was swept away! He suddenly felt his body full of energy again! This poor old fellow was truly terrified by Ling Jian!
Yu ZhanKong sprung up from the ground and his eyes swept the surroundings with a lingering fear. After confirming the fact that the three asuras had left, he shouted, "There aren't many members of the Shui Family left! Kill our way out! Our reinforcements are waiting for us at Nine Swallow City! Squeeze out every last ounce of strength that you have. The fiercer you are, the more likely you are to make it out alive!"
These words immediately summoned the souls of everyone back and they were brimming with an intent to battle again. This was the final battle intent that they could muster. How could the battle end before their enemy was dead?! Everyone let out a battlecry of rage as they forced their fatigued bodies to continue the battle. But this time, the Yu Family members no longer fought to the bitter end but sought to escape.
The fifty or so White Jade experts gathered together and they were spurred on by Yu ZhanKong's words. At this moment, their will to survive helped them to explode forth with a powerful strength and the strength they displayed was no different from their prime! While the Shui Family still held the numerical advantage, how would they be able to block the desperate escape of the Yu Family?
While the three black-masked men did not manage to kill all of these experts, there was something that they managed to accomplish! The three of them had wiped out the deeply rooted arrogance of these disciples from a thousand-year-old family!
If both parties were engaged in an evenly matched battle, none of them would feel anything and could even see past their life and death! But after the entrance of these three assassins, a question rose in each and every one of their hearts. As compared to those three assassins, how should our thousand-year-old family be considered? What right do we have to be arrogant? What right do we have to be proud?!
The members from both the families no longer wanted to stay in this place for even a moment!
Under such a mindset, the Yu Family was easily able to break out from the encirclement and at this moment, none of them had the interest to take their riches along with them! As long as they could escape from this slaughterhouse, they would thank their ancestors for their blessings. If they still wanted to take the riches on the ground away with them, it would be an incomparably foolish decision!
As such, after the Yu Family members successfully broke out from the encirclement, they did not dare to even turn their heads back once as they hastily escaped for their lives. They were truly like dogs that had lost their homes and fish that had escaped from the net! After this bitter battle, the Yu Family members had a shadow of fear cast over them throughout the whole journey and traveled through the day and night. They did not even dare to stop too long for a meal and they would be startled by any small disturbance. Even the barking of a wild dog would cause all of them to be on guard as though they met an enemy. When they finally met up with the troops that the Yu Family sent to receive them, half of them had actually collapsed from a nervous breakdown! Just what kind of a pressure did they endure?!
The few lucky ones who were able to emerge alive had all turned frail and skinny and no longer looked human. After returning to the Yu Family, they would be haunted by the three masked men every time they closed their eyes. They would have nightmares every night and end up shouting in their dreams because of fear. This caused another wave of commotion in the Yu Family and everyone thought that these survivors must have been possessed!
The Shui Family members no longer had the will to continue battling. Upon seeing the leftover forces of the Yu Family breaking out of their encirclement and escaping, many of them threw down the swords in their hands and collapsed onto the ground. They could no longer be bothered by the bloodied limbs that were scattered all over the place.
After this miserable battle, apart from the unbearable fatigue which they felt, there was also the sudden emptiness of their souls. The comrades that they were joking with before the battle had all turned into a pile of mush littered all over the ground that they were stepping on. The brothers that they had grown up with together had been diced up into pieces by their enemies not even leaving an intact corpse behind. The extreme grief and emptiness that they felt filled them with loneliness and frustration!
The sound of an incoming carriage could be heard and a troop of neatly dressed soldiers appeared following the lead of a white-robed young man.
That white-robed young man had a sharp gaze like a sword and his face looked cold like the body of a sword. The outline of his face was extremely distinct as though it was carved out by a sword and the feeling being emanated from him was as though he was an extremely sharp treasure sword! The killing intent that was being emanated was also one which could only be felt from a treasured sword!