Chapter 77: Crimson Skies, Part I

All those who could fight had gathered at the front gate. Even Father was present. He would not be fighting against the two Anima Realm cultivators, but he said that he could not sit back when his clan was in danger. Wu Jian understood how he felt. Perhaps the others did too, which was why they were letting him participate even though he was unable to use his chi.

Wu Jian’s heart was thudding so loudly against his ribcage that he was sure the others could hear it. This would be his first large-scale battle. He had fought against assassins, kidnapping attempts, and mercenaries, but he had never been in such a large battle before.

His hands were slick with sweat.

His breathing felt heavy.

A hand grabbed his. He looked down at the pale hand, then followed it up to the arm, shoulder, and face of Wu Meiying.

“Are you nervous?” she asked.

“I think scared might be more apt,” he muttered.

“Yeah, I understand. I’m scared too.”

Another hand grabbed onto his other one. He looked over to find Hou Jingshu’s face not too far from his own. Her face was red to the roots of her hair.

“I’m not nervous, but I’ll hold your hand until it’s time for battle to comfort you,” she said, not daring to look at him.

He smiled and squeezed her hand back. It was clear that she was every bit as scared as him, perhaps even more so. That made him appreciate the thoughtfulness of her gesture all the more.

“This is it!” a sudden shout went up. The person shouting was Wu Taohua, who stood right before the gate alongside the three elders. “Everyone! Our bodies are tired, hungry, and our morale has been weakened. The Ming Family has arrayed their forces against us and allied themselves with the former Elder Wei to wipe us out! However! We! Will! Not! Fall! Unlike those honorless cowards who can only achieve their goals by using dirty tactics, we will fight with our honor and pride on the line! You all do the Wu Clan proud! Let us fight! And let us bleed our enemies dry!”

Wu Jian had never heard Wu Taohua speak with so much vigor before. She was always so quiet and soft, cold and emotionless, that hearing the passion in her voice left him stunned.

However, her words served a purpose. They galvinized the people around him. As the Wu clansmen beside him sent up a cheer, he realized that she was rallying their people to give them courage. A speech right before battle could sometimes turn the tides. At the very least, he was certain everyone would fight much more fiercely now.

The gates opened and everyone streamed out through them, sweeping along Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu, who were the youngest people battling.

The Fierce Tiger Sect and the Ming Family were not waiting at the front gate but a few li beyond it. Wu Jian caught sight of them after they crested a hill. A large, open plain lay before them, a crazy amount of people congregating not too far away. Wu Jian could not count how many people were present. He assumed there were at least two or three hundred.

The enemy army responded to the sudden appearance of the Wu Clan quickly. They must have been expecting it. Techniques soon flew through the air toward them in a plethora of colors. Lightning slammed into the ground and struck people as they ran, causing them to tumble across the plain as their bodies were shocked. Flames struck the chests of Wu clansmen and lit them ablaze. Several wind blades sliced through arms and legs. However, the Wu Clan did not stop running. They released a vicious battlecry that even Wu Jian could not help but mimic as they increased their speed and finally crashed into the enemy forces.

Clashing blades echoed across the battlefield. A young man and woman crossed swords, trading a dozen blows in half as many seconds, before the young woman was impaled through the chest. She was not a member of the Wu Clan. Before the man could shout in triumph, someone struck him from behind. The Wu clansman’s head was removed from his shoulders.

The battlefield was very quickly stained with blood.

Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu remained together as they waded into the thickest part of the fighting. He had once read that the thickest part was actually the safest because it meant no one could sneak up on you. He didn’t know if that was true or not though.

While Wu Jian and Wu Meiying fought with fists and feet, Hou Jingshu had opted to use a pair of butterfly swords. They were small, six-cun long weapons with curved blades. She had coated them in poison before the battle began, which would hopefully give them an edge in this fight.

A pair of fierce men in mercenary garb appeared before them. Wu Jian took the one on the left, slipping underneath a thrown fist and pummeling his opponent with a series of strikes to the kidney. Each hit echoed out like a thunderclap and the man was lifted into the air. Right next to him, Wu Meiying had flipped herself into a handstand, wrapped her legs around her opponent, and used her incredible leg strength to lift him off the ground and slam him head first into dirt. Wu Jian was fairly certain her enemy’s neck had snapped.

Someone else rushed over to them, a man wielding a sword. He was clearly not a cultivator since his sword did not glow with the power of chi. Hou Jingshu intercepted him, swift like a falcon. She blocked his sword strikes, then retaliated, slashing through the tendons in his wrist. As he dropped the sword, she spun around and kicked him in the chest. While not as strong as either him or Wu Meiying, she was more than strong enough to send him flying.

The battle became even more chaotic and fierce. Pandemonium was reigning everywhere. Blood filled his eyes and the scent of iron clogged his nose. Despite the chaos, Wu Jian stuck with Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu, fighting off anyone who managed to reach their little triangle. They worked together to take people down.

“I can’t believe a couple of brats have dared to come and fight my family! Do you think the battlefield is a place for kids who still stink of their mother’s milk?!”

The person who had shouted was quite old, with graying hair and drooping eyebrows. He looked like a typical old man in his long white robes. While Wu Jian didn’t know this man by sight, he could tell this person was an elder from the Ming Family.

Hou JIngshu pointed one of her butterfly knives at the man. “Who are you? Name yourself!”

“Ha! My name is Ming Cheng! I am the third elder of the Ming Family and your death!”

Ming Chen. Wu Jian recalled what information he had on this man. He was at the fifth subrealm of the Hunger Realm, which meant he was strong, but he wasn’t as powerful as any of the Wu Clan’s elders.

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Not that being less powerful meant much in this battle. He was fighting a couple of kids who were still at the Body Forging Realm, after all. He might as well have been a dragon.

“Elder Ming must enjoy picking on children,” Wu Meiying said with a vicious smile.

“Shut up, you snot-nosed brat! Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re a cute little girl!”

“So you think I’m cute? I’m flattered, but I’m not into wrinkly old men.”

Ming Chen’s face turned a blistering shade of red. His chi flared so much that it became visible. The brown coloration let them know this man practiced some type of earth-style cultivation technique.

“Let us see if you can remain snarky when I’m done with you! Earth Spikes!”

The ground in front of Wu Meiying erupted into almost half a dozen spikes, though she leapt back as if she had already predicted what would happen. As she vanished behind the spikes, Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu rushed forward to engage this man. They hoped to reach him before he fired another technique.

Sadly, they were too slow.

“Earth Slide!”

The man stomped on the ground and the area around Wu Jian suddenly turned into a slippery slope of mud. Gritting his teeth as he slipped closer to Ming Chen, Wu Jian tried his best to control his fall. Ming Chen didn’t look like he was going to give him the opportunity, though, since he had already started preparing his next technique.

“Earth—what the hell?!”

Ming Chen’s technique was canceled as Hou Jingshu threw one of her butterfly swords at him. He managed to unsheath his weapon and swat it away. However, this provided Wu Jian the distraction he needed to close the distance. He slid down the earth slide, rolled off at the last second, and tried to sweep the man’s feet out from under him.

Ming Chen leapt over the attack, of course, and then came down, swinging his sword at Wu Jian’s head—but Hou Jingshu appeared in time to intercept. She grabbed her thrown butterfly dagger before it fell to the ground, leapt forward, and crossed her blades.

Sparks flew as their weapons clashed, but it didn’t last long. In a contest of strength, someone at the Body Forging Realm could never win against someone at the Hunger Realm. The young princess fell to her knees and gritted her teeth as her arms shook.

Hou Jingshu released a roar as she rotated her wrists, forcing the man’s jian aside.

As Ming Chen’s jian struck dirt, Wu Jian darted past Hou Jingshu and launched a series of kicks that struck the man in the chest. Ming Chen bit back a scream as he stumbled backward. He tried to release another earth technique, but Hou Jingshu was already present to interrupt him. She thrust a dagger at his face. He dodged her attack, a snarl twisting his visage as veins throbbed on his forehead.

“You brats! You dare to try and contend against—gurk?!”

Ming Chen never saw Wu Meiying as she raced behind him and struck the back of his knees. As he was forced to the ground, Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu rushed forward. He struck the elder once in the face, breaking his enemy’s nose and chipping a tooth. Hou Jingshu only managed to get a small cut on the man’s arm. That was enough, however.

“I am going to kill all of you! Do you hear me?! You’re all dead!!”

There was no way a Hunger Realm cultivator could stand to be humiliated by someone at the Body Forging Realm. Even three-on-one, he should have had the clear advantage. The fact that he was unable to harm them, and they had hurt him instead, no doubt struck a wound on his pride. Cultivators were all prideful. The best way to make one lose it, then, was obviously to hurt their pride.

Unfortunately, the battle became much harder after that.

Ming Chen roared as he raised his fist in the air and brought it down. The earth shook and a small chasm formed. The cracks weren’t big, but the shaking made Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu lose their balance. Ming Chen rushed toward them and leapt into the air. He spun around and extended his foot as though to break open Wu Jian’s skull.

Wu Jian was barely able to roll out of the way. He leapt to his feet some distance away, only to find Ming Chen already standing before him. The taste of blood filled his mouth as he gnashed his teeth, twisting his body away from his opponent’s formidable jian. The sword came inches from cutting through his flesh.

Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu rushed forward in a pincer maneuver, but Ming Chen wasn’t about to let himself get caught unaware again. He leapt into the air and landed a dozen feet from them. The moment he landed, he stabbed his sword into the ground.

“Earth Spikes!”

Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu were forced apart as a dozen earth spikes tried to skewer them. Ming Chen then turned to Hou Jingshu and raced forward. It seemed he had realized through their battle that she was physically the weakest among them. That was a Hunger Realm cultivator for you. He had accurately taken their measure even while enraged.

Sweat dripped into Wu Jian’s eyes as he raced over toward Hou Jingshu and Ming Chen. She was managing to avoid death by the narrowest of margins, redirecting her enemy’s sword swings with deft flicks of her wrist, but she couldn’t deflect all of them. They were coming in too fast. Wounds were appearing on her body. Blood leaked from each cut and fueled a fire that burned inside of Wu Jian’s chest.

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