Gong Yuantai swept his Divine Sense around. Cultivators with profound Spirit Power like Wang Ning , Wuye , and Tantai Dongyue were also covered in blood, not knowing if it was their own or someone else's.
At least the few of them, with their profound Spirit Power , had managed to hold on until now and had not yet died.
Even that book-boy had joined up with the nearest Qiao Baiye , and the two of them were fighting against three opponents together.
Among the three South Sea cultivators, two coordinated with exceptional skill, and the remaining one was even fiercer. Perhaps under the stimulation of his latent potential, he already had the cultivation of a half-step Golden Core .
This person alone was enough to suppress Qiao Baiye and Bu Luo completely, not to mention the other two skilled coordinators on the side. Therefore, Qiao Baiye and Bu Luo were dripping with blood, and every breath was fraught with peril.
And what made Gong Yuantai even more uneasy was that in his Divine Sense , the Demonic Cultivators in the south who were controlling the South Sea cultivators were also beginning to approach. This was a sign that they were planning to make a move.
"No, we must retreat. Even if we are punished by the higher-ups, we can't keep fighting like this!"
Gong Yuantai quickly made a decision. He steeled his heart and also planned to leave. If this continued, there would be no second outcome for them.
If any of those Demonic Cultivators made a move, even in a one-on-one fight, he himself had no confidence in being able to defeat them.
Once Gong Yuantai's mind was made up, he hurriedly sent voice transmissions to Wang Ning , Wuye , Tantai Dongyue , Qiao Baiye , and the other few surviving Pseudo-Core cultivators.
He wanted to unite the strongest few here, and then have them each transmit a message to the cultivators near them, to gather in one place and break out of the encirclement together.
Soon, Gong Yuantai's voice transmission received replies from the others. They had also sensed that the Demonic Cultivators in the south were showing signs of pressing forward.
Just dealing with these South Sea cultivators was already overwhelming, not to mention that the opponent would suddenly self-destruct in the middle of a fight.
This kind of battle was too suffocating for them, and they had already begun to feel fear from the bottom of their hearts.
Moreover, Gong Yuantai was also the appointed vice-captain. Now that Captain Li Yan was either escaped or dead, no one knew, so only he could take over the command.
Now that Gong Yuantai had said so, the others were of course more than happy to agree. If it weren't for the fear of bringing disaster to their sects and families, they would have fled in the face of such an unequal situation long ago.
Now that Gong Yuantai was taking the responsibility, they couldn't wait to break out of the encirclement and escape.
However, there were exceptions among these people. Wang Ning and Wuye both seemed somewhat hesitant. They still wanted to fight to the death and not retreat.
In the end, the situation he worried about the most did not occur, which made Gong Yuantai feel a little relieved. At least Wang Ning and Wuye had also transmitted messages to the nearby cultivators and began to gather towards him.
...
And at this time, amidst the chaos of the great battle, Li Yan had already swayed left and right, pulled a South Sea cultivator high into the sky, and quickly killed him. Taking advantage of the brief moment when the controlling Demonic Cultivator's Divine Sense was cut off, Li Yan had already hidden himself.
With Li Yan's current cultivation, if he wanted to kill the cultivators here, almost no one could withstand a few of his moves. But that would quickly attract the attention of the Demonic Cultivators . It was estimated that wherever he appeared again, he would be met with a siege or self-destruction. Even Li Yan felt fear at the thought of such a scene and was unwilling to face it.
Seeing the enemy's strength, he had long been planning in his heart to try and turn the tide.
Previously, after "Mutual Destruction Ridge" was flattened by the enemy's high-powered magical treasure, the enemy did not give them any time to recover and charged up at the first opportunity. It was not that Li Yan did not want to defend on the spot, but time simply did not allow it.
Originally, when fighting the attacking enemy, Li Yan had also planned to divide them into several teams, with a front, flanks, and reserves, for a layered defense.
At the very least, he could have sent out a portion of the cultivators to stop them, and sent out cultivators skilled in formations in the rear to set up small-scale interlocking traps, which could have allowed for a gradual resistance.
But in the end, Li Yan did not do this. Instead, he had everyone charge up at once, just like a group of scattered and brave soldiers.
The main purpose of Li Yan doing this was to make the Demonic Cultivator side let down their guard, thinking that they had been dazed and lost their composure after being attacked by the high-powered magical treasure just now.
At the same time, he also wanted to deceive Gong Yuantai and the others, to make the whole process seem more real.
His plan was to sneak into the rear of those Demonic Cultivators . He wanted to assassinate those twenty-odd Demonic Soldiers .
If Gong Yuantai and the others knew about this plan, they would only think that Li Yan had been driven mad by the round of attacks on Mutual Destruction Ridge and had lost his mind. How could they cooperate with such a reckless act?
Twenty-odd Demonic Soldiers ... even without these South Sea cultivators, if all of them went up, it would be a pyrrhic victory at best.
Of course, Li Yan felt that he was not weak either, but he was not so arrogant as to think that he already had the ability to contend with a Golden Core cultivator.
Everything, of course, could only be calculated. This was his strong suit.
However, due to the charge of the two sides, a long distance had also been created between them and the Demonic Cultivators in the rear, about four or five li.
This made it quite troublesome for Li Yan to implement his plan.
Ever since "Stealthy Night Art" was enhanced by "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens," Li Yan appeared even more eerie and swift when he was hidden.
...
"Those human cultivators are starting to gather. They're trying to break out. We must take 'Mutual Destruction Ridge' before the superiors arrive and wipe them out. Otherwise, if we still end up with such a result when the enemy has lost their defensive grand formation, it will be too difficult to explain."
While Gong Yuantai and his group were paying attention to the Demonic Cultivators' movements, the Demonic Cultivators were doing the same. The short and stocky Demonic Cultivator who had once met Li Yan in "Zhouyang Town" felt that the battle was about to be decided.
They no longer needed to wait and was the first to shout out.
After hearing this, the other Demonic Cultivators looked at the seventy-odd remaining Windy Cool Mountain cultivators in the field, and their blood began to boil. They began to whisper to each other.
In just the few moments they were talking, more than ten people had already died on both sides. Almost every breath, a cultivator would fall.
Curses and shouts filled this part of the world, and a thick smell of blood was carried in all directions by the wind.
Facing more than seventy Windy Cool Mountain cultivators, not to mention the more than one hundred South Sea cultivators the Demonic Cultivators still had on hand, even their twenty-odd Demonic Cultivators dared to face these people head-on.
At this time, after another nine people had died, Gong Yuantai and his group finally gathered together.
"Fellow Daoist Wuye, Fellow Daoist Wang Ning, let's each lead our remaining team members. You two protect the flanks, I will lead the charge north through the middle, and Senior Sister Tantai will lead people to prevent pursuers from the south. Let's go!"
Every breath was shrouded in the shadow of death. Gong Yuantai did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately charged north. His orders, though simple, already contained specific arrangements and divisions of labor.
From this, it could be seen that Gong Yuantai was calm in the face of danger, his mind still clear.
After hearing Gong Yuantai's arrangement, the three of them did not say much. After exchanging glances, they confirmed their respective positions, then transmitted messages to their original members and quickly regrouped.
Gong Yuantai did not arrange for anyone to stay behind to block the enemy and let the others break out.
The battle between cultivators was still very different from that of mortals. In a battle between mortal armies, if one side was trapped and wanted to break out, they would usually leave a small group of people behind to hold the line, to buy as much time as possible for their comrades to escape.
But cultivators could ascend to the heavens and enter the earth, capable of anything. The enemy already had the advantage in numbers. They only needed to send out a portion to surround the blocking cultivators. The few dozen or hundred li that they managed to buy would be easily covered by the pursuers.
The retreating side's breakout was basically a fighting retreat, looking for an opportunity to escape in the middle of the battle.
Moreover, even if Gong Yuantai arranged for others to stay behind and block, who would be willing to be a human shield and pave the way for others?
Even Gong Yuantai himself was unwilling to stay behind. He was confident that in a full-on charge, he had many means to escape from here. At that time, it would be every man for himself.
Wuye swept his Divine Sense around and sighed in his heart, 'Li Yan's cultivation was not bad, but I don't know when he has already perished.'
In his Divine Sense , he still couldn't find Li Yan. He had always admired Li Yan's abilities and felt that it was a pity.
In his mind, he thought that Li Yan was the first to charge into the enemy ranks. In the subsequent explosions, he didn't know if the enemies Li Yan was fighting were among them.
Bu Luo's face still had a bloody hole. He and Qiao Baiye had joined forces and, at the cost of detonating a magical treasure, had finally killed the cultivator who had reached the half-step Golden Core stage.
Only then did he and Qiao Baiye break out and barely manage to regroup with Gong Yuantai and the others. For this, Qiao Baiye's attitude towards him had also softened a lot. Even though he knew that Bu Luo had many magical treasures, no one was willing to give up their own magical treasures casually.
A long, bloody gash had been added to Bu Luo's chest, but fortunately, it had not injured his internal organs.
Qiao Baiye was in a miserable state. One of his lower legs was almost severed by the opponent, connected only by some skin and flesh. He had temporarily stabilized the injury with his Spirit Power to stop the bleeding. He could only wait until he returned to spend a large amount of Spirit Stones to buy a limb regeneration pill.
Qiao Baiye's already fair and delicate face was now even paler.
Both of them were so heavily injured, but they had managed to kill one of their three opponents.
Of the two South Sea cultivators who had coordinated exceptionally well, only one was hit by the aftershock of the magical treasure explosion. Bu Luo and Qiao Baiye took the opportunity to launch a joint attack on him, but they only managed to heavily injure that person.
Bu Luo simply sprinkled some medicinal powder on his wounds, and the wounds on his chest and face began to heal gradually. His medicinal pills were a gift from Zuo Qiudan and were of a very high rank.
At the same time, he also threw half a bottle to Qiao Baiye . Qiao Baiye was surprised but in the end, he sprinkled some of the medicine Bu Luo had given him on his lower leg. As expected, the effect was excellent.
When he returned, he would have to spend another large sum of Spirit Stones to reconnect the broken bones and meridians. Then, his lower leg would recover after a month or two of recuperation. He, Qiao Baiye , was not short of Spirit Stones .
Because of this incident, the relationship between the two had become much closer.
Bu Luo also swept the area with his Divine Sense and was surprised not to find Li Yan. He found it strange. He had returned, but that person was gone. He didn't think that he could survive, but Li Yan could get into trouble.
"He didn't run away first, did he?"
Bu Luo said with dissatisfaction in his heart. In the end, it was Li Yan who had given the order for this charge, and now he himself had run away.
Bu Luo didn't even consider the possibility of Li Yan's death. Based on his understanding of Li Yan in the "Northern Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda," that person was clever and strong. When things looked bad, he wouldn't fight head-on. Moreover, that guy was several times more valiant than himself.
On the other side, the equally strong Wang Ning was not injured, but her aura was chaotic and fluctuating, and her expression was somewhat listless.
Just now, the exchange had only lasted for a few dozen breaths, but the degree of Wang Ning's Spirit Power consumption was almost several times that of her previous battles. She was besieged by three people. If she had been just a little careless, she would have perished in an instant.
But her character was decisive. Seeing that the situation was not good, she immediately summoned a hundred small swords at once. With great difficulty, she managed to kill one of the opponents in a gap while dodging. In the end, regardless of the consequences, all her Spirit Power gushed out, and the hundred small swords crazily chopped and killed like a downpour.
Only then did she break free from the encirclement of the other two. At that time, she was almost exhausted. If she had encountered another enemy, it was likely that she would have died.