Chapter 250: Life-and-Death Siege
The Guzhang Mountain brothers threw themselves into the fight like they had no regard for their lives. They weren’t thinking about consequences at all, fighting even more recklessly than Fang Bu'ai ever did. They hadn’t always been like this, which just showed how much they hated Lu Xiansheng.
The three of them charged into the fray, swinging their cudgels without the slightest concern for their own openings, smashing straight toward Lu Xiansheng’s glass shield.
The eldest brother’s cudgel was knocked clean out of his hands by the shield, but instead of backing off, he lunged forward barehanded, grabbing for Lu Xiansheng’s head.
The sixth brother took a blow from the pill furnace square in the back, but he didn’t even flinch and kept jabbing his cudgel toward Lu Xiansheng’s ribs. Then the furnace struck him again, right in the lower spine. Blood burst from his mouth, splattering across the glass shield and staining it red.
The seventh brother tore through the blood mist. His cudgel slammed against Lu Xiansheng’s glass shield and bounced off. Without hesitation, he tossed it aside and lunged forward, jaws open, trying to bite Lu Xiansheng’s neck.
Lu Xiansheng swung a flying kick into his left leg. There was a sharp crack as the bone snapped.
The seventh brother grunted in pain but didn’t stop; he sank his teeth into Lu Xiansheng’s arm. For the first time since the battle began, Lu Xiansheng bled.
The three brothers of Guzhang Mountain were all at least eighth or ninth layer in Qi refinement. And their suicidal ferocity finally shook Lu Xiansheng. With a burst of true qi, he spun in place, flinging off the eldest, who was clutching his head, the sixth, clinging to the glass shield and refusing to let go, and the seventh, still biting into his arm. Then he broke free and fled.
If Lu Xiansheng really managed to get out of the manor, no one there could caught him.
Fang Bu'ai merged with his sword again, turning into a streak of blinding light that shot straight at Lu Xiansheng. Lu Xiansheng sidestepped with ease and slapped him aside, sending him crashing into the courtyard below.
That brief clash was all it took for Liu Xiaolou to block his path.
Lu Xiansheng swung the pill furnace toward him, trying to smash Liu out of the way. But in the blink of an eye, the world around him changed. Suddenly, he was standing in a courtyard filled with green willows and broad banana leaves.
Liu Xiaolou had already tossed out his formation disk. The formation snapped into place, trapping Lu Xiansheng inside.
Lu Xiansheng’s heart sank. He knew how dangerous this was. If the formation slowed him down and the others caught up, being surrounded by those crazed cultivators again... he didn’t dare imagine the outcome.
He didn’t understand formations, but he knew one simple rule. If you couldn’t unravel it, smash your way through.
Across the pond stood a small, elegant pavilion. The carved flower doors hung half open, half closed, their shadows inviting. For a moment, an odd urge rose in him. And he wanted to step inside and see what lay within. But... he forced it down.
Instead, he drove his pill furnace and glass shield madly in every direction, crashing and slamming with reckless force until the very air inside the formation trembled and warped.
It was Liu Xiaolou’s first time using the Abyssal Blackstone Formation against a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Under Lu Xiansheng’s wild, aimless onslaught, the formation quaked violently, on the verge of collapse.
He didn’t dare hold out any longer. He hurriedly withdrew the formation disk, releasing Lu Xiansheng.
The world shifted again. No sooner had Lu Xiansheng left the formation than the eldest of the Guzhang brothers, who had been thrown aside moments before, charged at him again like he didn’t care if he lived. The sixth and seventh brothers were already too badly wounded to fight on.
The Guchang Mountain brothers’ wild attacks lit a fire in the others. One by one, they joined in: Qi Laoqi, then Daoist Hu Du, then Old Cripple, then Captain Hu…
They all threw themselves at Lu Xiansheng, fighting like madmen. Even if it meant broken bones or bleeding out, they were determined to tear off a lock of his hair, a shred of his robe. Anything to leave a mark.
To Lu Xiansheng, the enemies seemed endless, swarming from every direction, crazed beyond reason. He fought desperately, summoning his pill furnace and glass shield to to defend against everything he could see, and everything he couldn’t. But no matter how he struggled, the attacks just kept coming. His guts churned with panic, and for a moment he faltered.
Gritting his teeth, he spun his furnace and made a series of hand-seals, striking multiple enemies in front of him at once.
Forget the furnace... if it can blast open a way out, that’s enough!
With a thunderous boom, Lu Xiansheng detonated the pill furnace. Blinding light burst forth as waves of true qi surged out in all directions.
The entire courtyard beneath his feet -- halls, walkways, pavilions, and towers -- shattered instantly under the terrifying energy wave.
Half of the Wu Long Mountain heroes attacking him were sent flying.
But the explosion was too close. And Lu Xiansheng wasn’t spared. The shock tore through him, shaking his organs like they were coming apart inside his chest.
Still, the blast had broken the encirclement. Coughing up a mouthful of dark blood, he staggered forward and ran for his life.
But just as he thought he’d escaped, the scene twisted again. And he found himself back in that damn garden of green willows and broad banana leaves.
Am I really going to die here? The thought finally surfaced in Lu Xiansheng’s mind, sending a shiver through his whole body. For a moment, fear threatened to take over. But he forced it down and raised his glass shield once more, striking out to shatter the formation.
The world trembled again. The illusion ripped apart, and before him appeared a young cultivator sitting cross-legged, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his face deathly pale. It was Liu Xiaolou.
Lu Xiansheng instantly understood. This young man was the formation master. If he didn’t take him down, there’d be no escape. He charged straight at Liu Xiaolou...
All of sudden, three figures stepped in his way. Dai Shenggao, Zuo Gaofeng, and Dragon Mountain Wanderer spread out in a triangle, closing him in once more.
There was hardly a moment to breathe. Another burst of sword light slammed toward him. Then came Tan Bajhang, Daoist Hu Du, Qi Laoqi, Old Cripple, Captain Hu… one after another, wave after wave.
Suddenly, Lu Xiansheng felt the glass shield slip from his control. He couldn’t form the hand seals anymore, because at some point, one of his hands was gone.
Then his body dropped lower. His right leg was gone too.
An ear. Gone.
A chunk of flesh torn from his left side. Gone.
His right eye. Gone.
A strip of scalp. Gone.
Lu Xiansheng let out a heart-rending scream: “I don’t want to die!”
No one paid him any attention. Pieces of him kept disappearing, more and more, until he couldn’t see anything at all. Darkness swallowed his sight, and then even his consciousness began to fade.
Still, those fragments kept vanishing. But he no longer reacted in any way.
Dead water, without a ripple.
Baiye Manor had fallen completely silent. The dozens of servants and attendants had long since fled. Only the heroes of Wulong Mountain remained, standing around what was left of Lu Xiansheng. A mangled heap of flesh and blood. Their eyes were bloodshot, their chests heaving as they gasped for breath.
Liu Xiaolou was the first to come to his senses. Joy surged through him like fire, and he threw his arms up, shouting: “He’s dead!”
The heroes of Wulong Mountain suddenly erupted into thunderous cheers. Some burst out laughing: “He’s dead!”
Others broke down crying: “He’s dead!”
Others were still on edge, shaking all over from nerves. “He… he’s dead… dead!” they stammered.
The Guzhang Mountain brothers lay sprawled among broken bricks and rubble, coughing and weeping without shame.
This was the first time the heroes of Wulong Mountain had joined forces to attack a manor guarded by an inner-sect Foundation Establishment cultivator. And the first time they had ever managed to kill one. Even with every advantage on their side, the battle had been brutal beyond belief. Nearly everyone was wounded; more than half were seriously injured.
Liu Xiaolou shouted out the roll call, checking names one by one. Everyone answered except for Guzhang Mountain’s Fifth Brother, Qi Laoqi, Daoist Hu Du, and Huang Ziniu, who were all still unconscious.
No one was dead. Liu Xiaolou let out a ragged breath, relief flooding him, though a cold aftershock of fear still gnawed at his ribs.
Killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator… that had been way too hard!
“Captain Hu! Old Hu!”
“I'm here!”
“Take some men and search the manor. Hurry!”