CHAPTER 44: THIRD PARTY

Yu Tian looked around him.

He thought to himself that he hadn’t detected them earlier with his spiritual sense - they seemed to have used some sort of concealment treasure.

They seemed really prepared. They had even set up a formation beforehand, trapping them inside.

According to his calculations, Xueling should be able to deal with this group even without his help. And if they worked together, it was almost guaranteed they would survive this. But what bothered him was the extremely low chances of leaving this place alive.

It wasn’t from this group, and it also wasn’t from the secret tombs.

"Could it be... a third party?" he wondered.

[98%]

Now everything made sense. It seemed someone else was looking to reap the benefits. He wondered what third party would be strong enough to cause trouble for them. He wondered if it was Su Ming.

[66%]

He thought to himself that Su Ming didn’t seem that strong. He wondered if he had an accomplice.

He smiled as he saw the results.

"So that’s it," he thought. If they got tired here fighting this mob, then they would definitely have a hard time dealing with whatever comes after.

Xueling looked around her, her sword ready. She thought to herself that she needed to first create an opening so she could drop Yu Tian onto the ground. Fighting while maintaining flight for both of them would be tiring and also dangerous as he could get hurt.

As she was thinking of this, Yu Tian said something to her through voice transmission.

When she heard this, her eyes widened in shock.

"~Is this true?" she asked.

Yu Tian just nodded. "~We need to conserve our energy. Don’t worry, I have a plan," he said.

"~Alright," she said, readying her sword stance.

She closed her eyes to concentrate her energy.

Her eyes then snapped open, filled with determination. Instantly, snow started falling around them and mist started gathering, covering them completely.

Su Jiang began panicking when he couldn’t feel their presence anymore.

"Attack!" he shouted.

Some of his soldiers charged into the mist.

In the next second, he heard shouts and screams as well as sounds of swords colliding.

"Hmm... something is not right," he thought. His eyes then widened in shock as he realized what was happening. "Wait! Everyone, fall back!" he shouted.

When the soldiers who had rushed into the mist came out, they were all covered in injuries.

At that moment, the mist cleared and Xueling and Yu Tian were nowhere to be found.

"Dammit!" Su Jiang cursed. His men had been fighting each other in that mist that interfered with perception.

"Take care of the injured. The rest, follow me," he said. He thought to himself that they had a large formation surrounding this entire area, so they couldn’t have gotten far.

The subordinates obeyed his commands and followed. They landed before a forest clearing.

"Everyone, split up and search. This is the only place they could have hidden," he commanded, and the soldiers followed his order.

He then began slowly walking into the forest. He thought to himself that they had a way to conceal their presence. Seeing as they chose to run away, it meant they weren’t confident in beating them.

If he walked with the whole crowd, they’d just remain hidden forever. With such concealment skills, if one didn’t mobilize their qi, detecting them was practically impossible unless you were a Golden Core cultivator with a level five mind.

But if he spread his members like this, those two would gain confidence and act up.

They would think of targeting the members one by one in order to reduce the number before they regrouped. Although he would lose his soldiers, it wasn’t a bad thing.

His spiritual sense was covering the area the soldiers were in - if their presence disappeared, he would be able to predict her position. He could also predict the next opponent she would probably attack and move there. Since they were using concealment, she wouldn’t dare use her spiritual sense as it would collide with his and expose them, so she wouldn’t notice him coming.

...

"This one is safe, take him out," Yu Tian said, pointing at a man passing by their concealed position.

Xueling didn’t hesitate and dropped from the tree, landing on the man’s shoulder. She instantly covered his mouth with her left hand and slit his throat with the knife in her right hand. She then jumped back onto the tree, grabbed Yu Tian, and they ran away.

A few seconds later, Su Jiang appeared at the crime scene.

"This is the fifth one already," he thought. He had believed his plan was perfect, but it seemed the other party could predict exactly what he was thinking. He tried going to the closest opponent that he believed to be the next victim, but every time, she would kill another one on the opposite side.

He wondered if she could still track him despite not using her spiritual sense. What kind of strange ability was that? He shook his head - he was thinking too much. How was that even possible? She’d have to be a shaman or something.

He sighed. He had failed to account for something. He guessed she was probably killing at random to avoid being tracked? It seemed his plan was flawed from the beginning. If they continued this cat and mouse game, his side would probably be the one losing.

He decided to end it and called for all the members to regroup.

A few minutes later, the group regrouped in an open clearing. Su Jiang looked around. During the commotion of the regrouping, she was even bolder and took out even more.

Yu Tian thought to himself that this number should be much more manageable without exerting much energy. He thought to himself that although he could continue hiding, he wouldn’t be able to hide against the upcoming enemy.

Since that was the case, they needed to make their move quickly and destroy this group before they had to fight the old and new enemies at once.