Chapter 43: Falling Apart

ere she had just intercepted it, she turned back and met its gaze. There was a calm in those eyes that hadn't been touched by the panic of the numerous Yang Li Zong experts who hadn't noticed him. The..."If you want to take a share from our plate, you better ask yourself if you're willing to fight us for it." Luo Yuan took a step forward, glaring at the group of thugs led by the big-headed man.

Zhang Guang had been ambushed by the other party once before, narrowly escaping with his life. He already hated those monstrous figures with a burning passion, “That’s right, we have one more person on our side. If we really fight, we might not be afraid of you despicable scoundrels.”

Wang Yuan and the others each held their weapons tightly, their faces grim as they prepared for battle. They had all expended a considerable amount of energy. At this time, not sticking together would only hasten their demise. Moreover, besides the single Qi Refinement Level Six cultivator among them, the enemy only had two Qi Refinement Level Five cultivators. Overall, their cultivation levels were lower than theirs, and they were by no means certain to lose.

“Well then, a battle it is. Big monster, there's nothing more to say. The silver-winged centipede is dead, the cave may still have spirit bug eggs. Let's kill these disrespectful fellows first, then go into the centipede's den and see what's going on.”

The burly man behind the tall, wealthy figure let out a cackle, holding a wolf-toothed club and patting his spirit beast pouch at his waist. From the white mist emerged a black giant ape nearly ten feet tall, its two massive palms excitedly slapping against its thick chest with a booming sound.

"That's right, these people have been in the mountains for over a month, their storage bags must be full of spiritual objects." The others all echoed in agreement.

The big, strange man laughed loudly and stared at Fan Qing. "Since that's the case, then let's fight to the death! Blood Hand Daoist, it seems like we're destined to clash today."

"You're being too much!" Wang Yuan, despite being just a woman, couldn't hold back her anger any longer. She fought with the man in crimson armor wielding a wolf-tooth club and a black ape, facing two opponents alone and yet not falling behind.

Also, Wang Ping and Zhang Guang went to look for their opponents.

Luo Yuan, He Luozizi rushed towards another pair of twins with green birthmarks on their faces. However, just as Luo Yuan drew his sword to strike one of them, He Luozizi suddenly showed a ferocious expression, his spirit sword stabbing at Luo Yuan's back heart.

Let me know if you'd like me to translate anything else!

Although Luoyuan sensed a sharp energy bearing down on him, the distance was too close for him to dodge. In a hurry, he used the fastest speed to perform a "Earth Armor Technique"!

But the earthen shield was still far from taking shape, and He Tuzi's sword had already neared Luo Yuan's skin.

“Fools, it is your side that is truly lacking in numbers. Prepare to die!” He Duzi's aura suddenly erupted, revealing a cultivation level of Qi Refinement Sixth Layer. Between breaths, he used some unknown method to conceal his true strength.

"Brother Lu!" Both Zhang Guang and Zheng Shiqi were astonished.

"Big brother!" Luo Qing's face lost its color, and for a moment she was so frightened that she didn't know what to do.

But at this time, no one noticed that Lu Xia Tian had disappeared at some point.

Suddenly, a person shot out from the ground. It was Lu XiaTian, who had disappeared for a moment earlier.

Lu Xiaitian's face held a sneer. In He Duozizi's astonished eyes, his short sword flashed. He Duozizi, because of his outdated moves, was too late to dodge. He could only slightly shift his body, barely evading the vital points.

"My arm!" With a shriek from He Tuzizi, the sword-wielding arm flew into the air, carrying with it a large amount of blood.

He Tuozi retreated several dozen steps, hurriedly took out a bottle of healing pills, swallowed one, and then looked at Lu Xiaitian with a face full of belief and resentment, "How did you find me"

The big-man weirdo and the others also stopped their actions, staring at Lu Xia Tian with jaws agape. They had used the same method to attack the other two adventuring parties, but they were unexpectedly seen through by Lu Xia Tian.

"Even back in Wangyue City, I felt something was off. You're only a fourth-level Qi cultivator, your cultivation is not high. Not only do you have the recipe for Yuanqi Dan, but you also have information about the Silver Wing Centipede. Plus, you know the mountain path like the back of your hand. This isn't something a fourth-level Qi cultivator could easily accomplish. However, at that time, I only had some suspicions."

Later, when attacked by the Azure Bamboo Bees, although I suspected it, there were too many unkind teams in the望月 Mountains. I couldn't suspect you, but now that we are here and a team of strange people appears, I can't help but doubt. If our team had suffered more casualties from the Azure Bamboo Bee stings before, you probably would have made your move by then.

"They are just big, weird guys who saw that we only injured one person and our strength wasn't seriously affected. They didn't want to fight a battle where both sides were severely wounded. So you changed your plan, waiting for us to fight the silver-winged centipede until one of us is weakened, then you'll come out to take advantage and kill us for cheap. Isn't that right"

Lu Xia Tian said coldly, he didn't want to say so much nonsense, but Luo Yuan, Wang Yuan and the other team members had already consumed a lot of energy. At this time, He Tuzi, the traitor, appeared in the team. People's hearts were unstable, and what he had to do first was to stabilize the hearts of other team members, otherwise, once people's hearts scattered, they wouldn't have to fight at all, and they would just escape for their lives.

“I should have killed this traitor in the first place.” Zhang Guang angrily waved his spirit blade.

Luo Yuan's face was grave as he said, "Brother Lu, I owe you my life."

“I was startled just now. I thought this trip into the mountains would be for nothing, but it turns out that Daoist Lu had everything under control all along.”

Wang Yuanyuan chuckled, although they were one person short without He Tuchizi, Lu Xiaottian's composure infected them.

"Having said all that, you are now one person short. Although He Duzi has lost an arm, which does affect his ability in a duel against cultivators, he has stopped the bleeding, so the impact is minimal." The man in brocade armor waved his wolf tooth staff menacingly.

"Is that so"

Lu Xiaotien sneered. An ordinary martial artist, after such serious injuries, would definitely suffer a significant decline in combat power. For cultivators, the impact is relatively smaller. He Tuzizi had previously concealed his cultivation level, being at the sixth level of Qi refining. By merely releasing spells from the sidelines, he could hold his own against either Luo Qing or Wang Ping, even gaining the upper hand. The situation was still unfavorable for their side, but he wouldn't be without a fallback plan.

“Ah!” He Duzi just used the elixir to stop the bleeding, and suddenly a sharp pain exploded from his chest, turning his entire face green.

“Sword, the sword is poisoned, you are truly despicable!”

He Duozi's face was ashen, his eyes burning with rage towards Lu Xia Tian. If looks could kill, Lu Xia Tian would have died countless times over. After the initial fury subsided, He Duozi frantically pulled out all the antidote pills from his storage bag and shoved them into his mouth, but it was useless. Lu Xia Tian had coated his sword with several highly potent poisons; within moments, He Duozi's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain.

"Compared to your desire to get our entire squad killed, isn't it allowed for us to fight back" Wang Ping swung his big stick and said with a grin, "Lu Daoist did a really good job, Wang admires you."

“The big guy, this young man is a very skilled alchemist. He seems to have many Qi Gathering Pills on him. He exchanged them for a large amount of spirit herbs and Spirit Stones. In the team, he has the most Spirit Stones. Judging by what I see, the value of his Spirit Stones, spirit herbs, and Qi Gathering Pills is at least over two hundred Spirit Stones.”

He Tuozi, filled with resentment, immediately spoke words that were extremely detrimental to Lu Xiaoteng. As expected, the moment He Tuozi's words left his lips, the man in brocade armor and everyone else looked at Lu Xiaoteng with greedy eyes.

The giant monster nodded and took two steps forward, his voice sinister. "Now the numbers are even again. You young man aren't bad, but you think delaying time will work It seems you haven't seen my abilities yet."

Lu Xiaottian's face turned ugly. He regretted not killing He Tuzi with a single sword earlier. He had kept him alive hoping to use his injuries and conversation to give Luo Yuan and the others some time to recover their strength. It seemed he had failed to achieve his goal and instead lost something valuable.

The burly weirdo patted the black gourd at his waist. With a buzzing sound, a large swarm of green flying ants poured out from it. There were over a hundred of them. Because they were so close, when these little green ants flew out, it gave people a feeling of being completely overwhelmed.

"Shadow Ants!" Wang Yuan and the others exclaimed in astonishment, their faces paling. Even cultivators at the later stage of Qi Refinement had to treat such a large number of Shadow Ants with caution. Insect cultivators often had an advantage over cultivators of the same rank.

"Hehehe, you know your stuff," the big-man monster cackled gleefully. He commanded his shadow ants to split into several teams, each with ten ants, and the leading ant of each team was noticeably larger than the rest.

The Big-Eyed Monster seems to be able to control only seven Shadow Ants, while dozens of others fly around like locusts.

Lu Xia Tian didn't expect to run into a fellow cultivator who kept Shadow Ants. However, the eccentric expert controlled the Shadow Ants far better than he did. Seven Shadow Ants were divided into several directions to encircle him. Lu Xia Tian cast a fireball, but it was blocked by the leading ant. Although the leading ant cried out continuously and swayed in the air, wounded, it didn't die. The other Shadow Ants swarmed over from different directions.

After a brief moment of dizziness, Lu Xia Tian sneered inwardly. The venom of the Shadow Ants was only secondary; the key was that these little flying ants were more resilient than the Blue Bamboo Bees and, once they bit a few times, would disrupt one's qi flow. This was fatal in a duel. Perhaps the Shadow Ants posed a huge threat to others, but for him, they were merely a bit of trouble.

At the same time Lu Xiaitian drew his spirit sword, he used his left hand to grab a pill and prepared to swallow it. However, something unexpected happened at this moment. As the leader of their squad, Fan Qing, their main combat force, suddenly threw them aside and ran away.

Fan Qing's escape before the battle was a well-considered decision. He had fought against large, powerful creatures several times before and never came out on top. He knew their strength, and at present, several of his spiritual artifacts were destroyed, and his dantian qi was less than one-third full. He was simply no match for them. Although Lu Xiaoteng was cunning, he was ultimately still young and might not be able to defeat a powerful creature. Even if they managed to hold their ground, their chances of winning wouldn't be more than half.

Most importantly, he now possesses the final second-order demon pill required by the Beast Sect. He has gathered them all. As long as he returns to Moon Viewing City, he can join the sect. There is no need to risk his life in the Moon Viewing Mountains any longer.

"Shameless!" Lu Xia Tian, Luo Yuan and the others shouted angrily. They were already at a disadvantage, and now with Fan Qing, their main combatant, gone, it was like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

>

“Our strength has already been greatly reduced, and now we've lost two more people. We can't fight this. I'll withdraw first!”

Wang Yuan had originally intended to fight on, but now the situation had taken a turn for the worse. After weighing her options, she felt that her chances of winning were almost nonexistent. She quickly made a decision, forcing back the charging Jinyi warrior with a sword, then stuck a "Wood Escape Talisman" to her body and jumped towards a nearby tree. Her figure instantly disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, she was near another tree before disappearing into the grass.

>

Immediately following, Wang Ping's expression changed, and he also cast the Wind Control Art, dashing wildly towards the distance.

“Where to” One of the opponents, an elderly man wielding twin swords, chased after him swiftly.

"Lu Brother, what should we do" Wu Guang, Luo Yuan and the others looked anxious. At this moment, the situation had deteriorated to an irreparable point for several people. The remaining few were all very trusting of Lu Xiaoteng, those like Wang Yuan and Wang Ping who were calculating in their hearts had already disappeared without a trace.

"We're down to just a handful of us left. What can we do We have no choice but to flee for our lives. May fate decide our destinies."

Lu Xia Tian coldly said a sentence, then turned and fled. He was not heartless, within his ability, he would lend a hand to Luo Yuan and others.

After Fan Qing and Wang Yuan escaped separately. The big-shot weirdos all set their sights on him respectively. It naturally stemmed from He Tuozi's words before he fell ill, a skilled alchemist with abundant spirit stones and pills. Now that he was barely able to protect himself, how could he care about others

"Keke, Daoist Zou, let's go after that kid surnamed Lu together. The rest of you, two people guard the corpse of the Silverwing Centipede, and the others continue to hunt!"

The giant monster's mind was racing, and Hecate had now fallen victim to the poison, unconscious on the ground, her life hanging in the balance. No one had time for her right now; the silver-winged centipede was already cooked like a duck, nowhere to run. But Lu Xia Tian, as an alchemist, might well have assets exceeding the value of the refining materials on those silver-winged centipede limbs.

If he were to go after him alone, firstly, based on the situation just now, Lu Xiaoteng was cunning and might have some backup plan. Secondly, the other members of the squad might object. Calling upon Zou, the armored man whose strength was second only to him, would allow the two of them to divide the spoils better than if it were shared among seven or eight people. Even if others objected, they could only swallow their resentment.

"Haha, good. The two of us join forces to kill this kid and avenge He Tuo!" Zou Xin was very satisfied with the big-eared monster's arrangement and immediately agreed. The two chased after Lu Xiaoteng one after the other.

>

Luo Yuan, Wu Guang and the others looked at each other in dismay, then quickly fled in different directions. Right now, it wasn't just a wasted effort, being able to escape with their lives was already considered a good outcome.

"Little lady, don't run away! Stay and have some fun with this old master!" A scruffy-bearded monk chased after the Luo siblings, along with Zhang Guang and Zheng Shiqi trailing behind. In the blink of an eye, the small group had fallen apart.

Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate! Lu Xia Tian remained calm and collected, not making much resistance.With just a lift of his hand, dozens of Xuanhuo flying needles shot out, piercing through the demonic forms that emerged from the c...