Nine Walk-ins Formation
“None of you will escape with his life! Hahaha!”
Another thunderous punch smashed down. All it took was the gale to blow the quintet away. Mu Yu leapt over to pull Rou Anna out of the punch trajectory by a hair’s breadth. Still, the gale blew him metres away. He needed to cycle Dustfallen Mental Cultivation to keep his head in the right place. It was hard to imagine how Ghost Gate could subdue a monster of the white ape fiend king’s calibre.
Smoke whisked from Rou Anna’s face, but she didn’t spam Mu Yu’s ears with a verbal blast or push him away. He released her and said, “Please don’t hate me for this.”
“Remember it was his right hand,” Xiaoshuai kindly reminded.
“Traitor. One more time and I’ll feed you to the fiend king,” Mu Yu voiced.
“Heh, his core sits in his belly. He’ll die without fiend spirits. It’s pointless to feed me to hm.”
Rou Anna clenched her teeth and stole a glance at Mu Yu. She had her jade piece in hand when the fiend king struck and intended to teleport out. Even so, the fiend king’s fist would’ve reached her before she could’ve escaped given his speed. Meng Xin was too far to save her junior at the time.
“Thank you,” expressed Meng Xin.
“Don’t worry about it. We should be worrying about him, instead,” verbalised Mu Yu, looking to Qiao Xue.
To save Mu Yu, Qiao Xue stepped in between the two teams and stated, “Your Majesty, we cannot stay at Second Heaven. We must be on our way now.”
“Hmph.” The white ape fiend king howled toward the sky.
Fist clones launched toward the quintet from all directions. At the same time, the fiend king reverted his white-haired middle-aged man appearance. He declared, “Know your place before you challenge me.”
“Fall in!”
The phoenix eagle assumed its original form. The other fiends fell in behind it. It gusted up winds and debris as it departed with the others.
Zuo Jianfeng and company had repelled the attacks and assembled. None of them could see any hope of stopping the fiend king.
“Where’s Brother Mu Yu?” queried Meng Xin.
They looked around them but didn’t see Mu Yu.
“The fiend king didn’t just murder him, did he?” remarked Zuo Fengjian.
“He might’ve made an emergency escape back to Third Heaven?” proposed Xing Gao.
“The fiends must have a way of returning to Third Heaven if they had a means of getting here. We must report back as soon as possible,” recommended Meng Xin.
Mu Yu actually hid in his wood spirit and tailed the fiends from the sky. He was sure Ghost Gate still had a hand to play but could only speculate the presence of his companions deterred the scheming group. Moreover, he was determined to clear the air with Qiao Xue and figure out what the fiend race was up to.
They flew southward for an entire day, crossing through desolate plains and mountains. Even flying specialists, such as the phoenix eagle, needed rests when flying long flights. They were at an ocean, except it was different to when Mu Yu first arrived.
Qiao Xue quietly reported, “We can see the small island from here. We can return to Third Heaven once we reach it.”
Phoenix eagle: “We lost five elite disciples, damn it.”
White Ape Archfiend: “Did the humans back there kill them?”
Phoenix eagle: “They were severely injured, so I would not believe so.”
Qiao Xue skimmed over the surroundings and asked, “Brother Phoenix Eagle, what happened to Celestial Silkworm? I instructed him to rendezvous with us here.”
“Crimson Tiger isn’t around, either. I though he was coming with you.”
“He’s tracking Ghost Gate’s group. He should be back soon. Let’s wait for him here.”
As he couldn’t hear the fiends in the rear, Mu Yu closed in a little more, then abruptly stopped. He slowly reached out and detected a formation. Ghost mist shrouded the fiends.
“Hahaha, White Ape Archfiend, you kept us waiting!”
That screechy laughter that sent chills down spines… Gui Xuanyue!
No one even noticed an enemy sneaking up on them. The spooky cries spread as the ghost mist did.
“What are you doing here?” Qiao Xue armed herself immediately.
From the sky, Gui Xuanyue tittered. “Someone informed us you were here. I believe you’re looking for a kitty, correct?”
Gui Xuanyue summoned a crimson tiger from his sleeve. The crimson tiger shook itself out and revealed itself as a hunched-back man. Unlike his usual appearance, his pupils were pure white.
“Brother Crimson Tiger!”
The white ape fiend king cut Qiao Xue’s advance off. “He’s no longer the crimson tiger you know. The blasted human killed Crimson Tiger and extracted his fiend soul. Crimson Tiger is now just a ghoul as the ones around us are.”
Though livid his own kind was killed, the fiend king suppressed his urge to charge the enemy out of fear for the formation around.
“Brother Crimson Tiger would never die!” Qiao Xue stabbed her fingernails into her palm.
“You expected the kitty to tail us? You must’ve been born yesterday. We have him to thank. We changed our plans and waited for you here.”
“You waited for us here? You mean you waited for me to kill you?” The white ape fiend king’s tension continued to rise.
“I certainly don’t think I could oppose you. That said, the moment you set foot in Nine Walk-ins Formation, you were finished.”
Shocked, the white ape fiend king looked up, but it was too late to realise his mistake. The fiends around looked as if they were suffocating. Above them were red balls that squirmed. There was a monstrous face up against the red balls. Their squirming distorted the balls’ shapes. Whatever it was stepped back, and then savage faces replaced them. The fiends began to bleed out of their orifices until their heads splattered and, like a geyser, sprayed blood all over their comrades. The red balls then hauled their souls out of their bodies…
“You will pay!” The white ape fiend king was furious, but he was powerless. The largest red ball hovered over his head and sucked spiritual energy out of him.