The group soon reached the foot of the mountain and Song Lian led them towards an old abandoned path. After following the path for some time , Song Lian suddenly stopped and dismounted his horse. He approached Yang Changtian and said something to him .
Yang Changtian nodded and turned to the others, " The horses can't go further , we have to cover the remaining distance on foot. We'll leave our horses here. 2 of you will stay behind to tend to the horses, " Yang Changtian ordered.
All of them dismounted their horses and two disciples quickly stepped forward to take the horses over to a shaded area.
Yang Changtian was speaking with Song Lian , so Liu Ying and Jin Wei approached them .
Song Lian turned to Kong and ordered him to figure out where the smoke signal came from. Kong looked around for while before spotting a tall tree , and with monkey like reflexes he climbed up the tree and surveyed the whole area , after he was done , he climbed down with ease and rushed up to the others.
" Brother Song , looks like the smoke is coming from near the cave entrance, " Kong informed Song Lian.
Song Lian's eyes widened at this , they had to hurry !
" Mr. Yang , we have to speed up ! Follow me ! " Song Lian tried to rush off .
He was held back by a strong hand , he turned to see Yang Changtian grabbing him by the shoulder.
" Don't rush , we need to be completely prepared for the enemy, " Yang Changtian warned him, he then turned to Liu Ying and nodded at her.
Liu Ying nodded back and walked over to a wooden crate they had brought along. She opened the crate and handed Jin Wei multiple small crossbows , Jin Wei rushed over and handed them one each. Liu Ying distributed the remaining crossbows amongst the remaining disciples. She pulled out a small bag from inside the wooden crate and then looked inside before showing it to Jin Wei , who's face went dark , then she came up to Yang Changtian and pulled him aside for a while.
" Mr. Yang , we don't have enough arrows for everyone , how should we proceed ? " she asked .
Yang Changtian thought for a while , " Ms. Liu , can you fight without the crossbow ? "
Liu Ying nodded , in fact it was much easier for her to fight with her own weapons.
" In that case , you and I will use our own weapons , I reckon you have some sedatives with you ? "
Liu Ying looked at him weirdly and nodded , " How did you know I brought along sedatives ? "
Yang Changtian broke out in a small smile , " I've learned to adapt to you , when you decided to consult me about this issue instead of solving it yourself , I knew you had a back up plan , besides it unlike you to not bring any."
Liu Ying looked at him impressed and gave him a thumbs up before going back to speak with Jin Wei.
Jin Wei nodded at her and began handing out the sedative laced arrows to the others , meanwhile Liu Ying waked over to her horse and pulled a bag out from the side of her saddle.
She walked back to Yang Changtian and handed him two small bottles along with some gloves and some pieces of cloth.
Yang Changtian took them and walked over to a stone , sitting down he pulled his sword out and began to apply a thin layer of the sedative on it . After he was done , he saw Liu Ying also lacing her weapons , he really hadn't seen Liu Ying's weapons after the day they fought with the Crazies.
Liu Ying usually used hidden weapons , so she laced her needles and darts with the sedatives before moving onto her blades . In addition to her hidden weapons , Liu Ying also used a pair of short needle like swords.
Yang Changtian walked over and began to admire her blades, Liu Ying spotted him and smiled , " They're called Pine Needles, " Liu Ying informed him, she handed one blade over to him .
Yang Changtian accepted and took a closer look , the handles of the swords were made with jade and obsidian. While the sword itself was made from an unusual metal, Yang Changtian took a closer look and noticed that the metal had an usual sheen and grain pattern to it .
Seeing his confused look Liu Ying explained , " Mr. Yang in case you're unfamiliar , those swords were made from a fallen star , at night they become luminous. "
Yang Changtian stared at her in wonder. A normal fallen star is already rare , but here Liu Ying was casually fighting with two swords made out of a luminous fallen star. Truly fitting for the only remaining heir of the Liu family.
Yang Changtian carefully handed the blades back to Liu Ying , who didn't bat an eye before sheathing her swords . She preferred to keep them on the sides of her waist, to make it easier for her to access them.
Yang Changtian began to help her with her remaining weapons , " Ms. Liu , you sure have a lot of hidden weapons " he grumbled.
Liu Ying just flashed him a small smile.
After they were done lacing all the weapons , Yang Changtian and Liu Ying walked over to the others.
Song Lian quickly approached them , " Mr. Yang we must hurry ! "
Yang Changtian just nodded and turned to the others , " Gather around , we're leaving now , " he ordered. And all the disciples formed two neat lines behind him and Liu Ying.
Yang Changtian turned back and nodded at Song Lian , who nodded back before leading them up the mountain , after a while they arrived at a clearing , and they spotted Mo Ling and Ling fighting a group of Crazies , looking around they also spotted , Da Xiong trying to fight the Crazies while simultaneously trying to protecting Old Jin who was sitting on the ground blood staining his pants, and his hands tightly clutching his left leg.
Liu Ying and Yang Changtian turned to look at each other , they nodded at each other and Liu Ying rushed to aid Da Xiong. She immediately pulled out several needles hidden inside her sleeves and with extreme precision , she threw them at the Crazies , striking 3 perfectly in the neck.
Da Xiong turned to see Liu Ying rushing over and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
" Senior you're here ! " he stammered , he was getting exhausted and with Old Jin hurt , the burden on him was greater.
Liu Ying nodded and patted him on the head before standing in front of him , following closely behind was Jin Wei leading a few juniors. They all formed a semi circle around Da Xiong and Old Jin with Liu Ying in front , the Crazies had also stopped attacking and they were just observing them too.
Seeing their ghastly faces, fear began to spread amongst the disciples , but when they saw the calm and serene look on Liu Ying's face , they all thought the same , everything was going to be okay. They all took in deep breaths and calmed down.
The Crazies were still looking at them , and suddenly one lurched at Jin Wei , it was so fast that he barely had time to dodge , but when he stood up again Jin Wei found himself being pinned down by the same Crazy.
The rest of the Crazies also followed suit and began to attack , Liu Ying rapidly took down multiple Crazies , and when she saw Jin Wei being pinned , she grabbed a dart from her boot and chucked it right at the Crazy. It embedded itself right in the middle of the Crazy's head , and it immediately collapsed onto Jin Wei who quickly pushed it away.
Jin Wei scrambled to his feet and thanked Liu Ying.
They had now overpowered the Crazies completely , so the other Crazies decided to turn their attention to Yang Changtian's group. Liu Ying looked at her group , and immediately ordered some of them to guard the injured and then she reviewed the amount of arrows they had left. Finding out that they didn't have much left , Liu Ying made a rather dangerous decision , she instructed the others to stay behind , while she headed into battle herself .
When he saw Liu Ying rush off to aid Da Xiong , Yang Changtian led the remaining group to help Mo Ling and Ling . Yang Changtian began to slash at the necks of the Crazies , Song Lian and Kong were following close by , soon they cleared out the path and stood in front of Mo Ling and Ling , who almost immediately collapsed due to the extreme exhaustion.
The disciples following Yang Changtian all managed to take down a considerable amount of Crazies , but they just kept coming.
Soon they began to run out of arrows , noticing that Yang Changtian asked them to fall back . Soon only Yang Changtian , Song Lian and Kong remained , but Kong and Song Lian was running out of arrows too , so they decided to change to their swords , seeing this Yang Changtian pulled out a bottle Liu Ying gave him earlier and handed it over to them , " Here's some sedative , apply some to your swords, " he instructed , " I'll hold them back for a while till you two finish. "
Song Lian immediately nodded and moved back to do as he was told .
Meanwhile Yang Changtian was trying his best to hold the Crazies back ,seeing no other way , he activated his skill , The Sword of Light . His second personal skill , allows him to gather energy from light and channel it into his sword, forming what some might call a blade of light. The only drawback of this skill was that he couldn't use it in dark places, hence why he couldn't use it when he was attacked at the underground lake.
Yang Changtian closed his eyes and began to channel the energy from the surrounding light to his sword and the sword began to get brighter. He then began to slash at the Crazies , to his surprise the Crazies were hurt from the light , but instead of being deterred away from it , it was like they were continually drawn to it , like the flies that are drawn to a lamp , and they continued to attack him , soon it was getting harder for him to keep up.
Song Lian and Kong rejoined him , but they didn't have much effect either. Then from the corner of his eye Yang Changtian saw a flash of blue cutting through the thick wall of Crazies , soon the blue figure stood by their side. Liu Ying was here !
Liu Ying took one look at Yang Changtian and sighed deeply , she unseated one of her swords and slashed at the Crazies attacking Yang Changtian , simultaneously she used her other hand to quickly draw a pattern on his back and she began to transfer energy. Yang Changtian immediately felt rejuvenated, and got noticeably faster at cutting down Crazies.
Once she was done , Yang Changtian thanked her, he felt much better.
Liu Ying nodded at him before pulling her other sword out , she then took up battle stance and began to slash at the Crazies .
Song Lian and Kong were exhausted so Liu Ying pulled them both away to get some rest. And they both sat down next to Mo Ling and Ling who had fainted.
Song Lian sat against a rock and admired Yang Changtian and Liu Ying. He had gotten the chance to see The Sword of Light , so he was content. Yang Changtian looked godly , wielding light itself, his slashes determined and strong, righteous and direct. While Liu Ying was the opposite , her slashes were foxlike , aiming at the opponent's weakest points , she took advantage of her extensive anatomy and medical knowledge to fight , making her silently deadly.
Her short swords were a blur to others, but Yang Changtian saw them clearly , in mere seconds she would sever the jugular vein and some tendons , letting the opponent bleed out without being able to move.
Seeing her fight everyone felt shivers run down their spines , she was scary enough normally , but seeing her fight brought them greater fear .
Soon Song Lian and Kong rejoined the fight, but they were still exhausted , but the tide was turning and Liu Ying and Yang Changtian needed help.
Soon the Crazies likely sensed their disadvantaged situation and the remaining ones decided to fall back.
The remaining Crazies all turned around and ran into the cave . '
" No ! " Song Lian yelled
And he attempted to run inside . but he was held back by Liu Ying.
" Ms. Liu ! Let me go , I must - " he tried hard to get rid of Liu Ying's grip. But her grip was strong and he failed .
" Mr. Song , just give her a minute , if we enter that cave in our current situation , we'll just be walking to our deaths , " Yang Changtian said.
" Brother Song , the hideout has the closable door , so they're likely safe for now , " even Kong tried to persuade him too , with their current state they'll just be heading to their deaths , and finally Song Lian relented.
Jin Wei came over , behind him was Da Xiong supporting Old Jin and their juniors .
Song Lian spotted Old Jin and ran to him , " Old Jin ! Are you okay ? " he asked panicked
Old Jin just shook his head , he was too tired to even speak , so Da Xiong spoke up. " When we reached the cave , Old Jin went inside the cave first , but then he suddenly yelled and when we rushed inside , a Crazy was pinning him down . We did manage to get the Crazy off and save him , but the Crazy managed to puncture his leg , and the wound was quite deep so I tried to stop the bleeding with pressure, but then the Crazies began to surround us and we got separated, so I had to leave him to apply the pressure himself " Da Xiong explained , while he could walk and stand , he was still a bit out of breath and exhausted, so his speech was slurred.
Song Lian and Kong took Old Jin from him and sat him down , Liu Ying walked over to check on Da Xiong . " You're just exhausted , some rest and you'll be good as new , " she said after examining Da Xiong. " Jin Wei , help him sit down ."
Jin Wei nodded and immediately jumped to help Da Xiong.
Liu Ying then walked over Old Jin , after examining , she turned to Song Lian , " His main issue is the blood loss , be sure to give him some blood nourishing herbs later , but for now we have to stop the bleeding and infection. But I do not have any medicine, " she explained.
" We have medicine at the hideout ," Song Lian said.
Liu Ying nodded , " I need to check on the others first , so let's stop the bleeding for now. I need a strip of cloth and some sticks.
Song Lian and Kong nodded immediately , Kong rushed off to find some sturdy sticks while Song Lian ripped out a strip of cloth from his robe, handing it to Liu Ying . Kong soon returned with some sticks and Liu Ying used these to make a tourniquet to stop the bleeding completely.
" You can release your leg now, " she instructed Old Jin who was still clutching his leg.
Next Liu Ying moved on to check up on Mo Ling and Ling , who were beginning to wake up.
" Brother Yang ? Ms. Liu ? " Mo Ling croaked . Yang Changtian nodded and Liu Ying just continued to examine him .
After she was done , she moved on to Ling wordlessly . " You both are just tired , except for the minor scratches you'll be fine, " she explained.
Liu Ying then stood up and walked over to Yang Changtian, she pulled him away from the others, " Mr. Yang , our people are too tired to go on , and we are out of arrows completely , so our only option is to fight upfront."
Yang Changtian nodded, he too was worried about this very issue. Asking the disciples to go inside and fight now would be like asking them to walk to their death, some could barely stand and some were injured.
" So I suggest leaving the injured and others out here , Jin Wei and Da Xiong are trained in using hidden weapons , so they can use my weapons . We'll need Mo Ling , and these guy's might be able to help us too , " Liu Ying continued, nodding towards Song Lian and the others.
Yang Changtian nodded again , " But Ms. Liu , almost everyone's exhausted they can barely fight won't leaving them out here be more dangerous, especially now that they can't fend for themselves ? "
Liu Ying shook her head , " I'm planning on restoring their energy now , "she stated nonchalantly.
Yang Changtian was shocked , ever since they started fighting , Liu Ying had restored his energy multiple times already , and there were close to 60 people here , while it was in her range , Yang Changtian couldn't help but worry , Liu Ying was an essential part of this mission , so he couldn't risk it. " Ms. Liu , you can't- " he began.
Liu Ying held her hand up to stop him , " I know what you're thinking Mr. Yang , but I can assure you , it won't affect me , and it's the only way now ,and we have a duty to save both those people inside the cave and our own people, " reaffirmed her decision , so Yang Changtian could only nod in defeat.
Liu Ying walked over to the center and began to draw a sigil on the ground , she crouched down and placed her palm right in the middle of it , and she closed her eyes . Soon multiple similar sigils began to appear under each person.
Jin Wei and Da Xiong looked at Liu Ying panicked9 . But they didn't dare to move , fearing that one wrong move would cause Liu Ying backlash.
Meanswhile the other's tried to avoid the sigil . Liu Ying frowned and seeing this Yang Changtian immediately ordered them not to move , " Don't move , that's just Ms. Liu, and she's going to restore your energy so don't move away from the sigil or you might cause her backlash, " Yang Changtian warned them.
Song Lian and Kong looked at the sigil under their feet .But they didn't dare to move .
Soon Liu Ying stopped frowning and all the sigils began to glow with a blue green colour
And everyone felt a cool energy enter their body through their feet and disperse inside , and they all began to feel their power and energy rising. Mo Ling and Ling opened their eyes and looked around, they were suddenly feeling better , but they spotted the blue sigil under them and they tried to step away subconsciously. Seeing this Yang Changtian growled , " Don't move ! That's just Ms. Liu restoring your energy. "
Hearing this, Mo Ling and Ling immediately stopped moving and relaxed.
Everyone began to feel revitalised. Da Xiong's scratches even began to clot and heal.
But Jin Wei , Da Xiong and Yang Changtian were looking at Liu Ying worried , while she had reassured them multiple times that this would affect her , the amount of people here was not small, and she had been fighting hard just moments. So they couldn't stop worrying .
" Senior , that's enough ! " Jin Wei's yell broke out amongst the other's excited chatter.
Suddenly the chatter died down and everyone turned to look at Liu Ying , they had completely forgotten about the potential burden on her !
" Senior stop , that's enough " her juniors began to insist.
Yang Changtian also spoke up , " Ms. Liu , that's enough, we're all fine now ."
But Liu Ying kept going , it was as if she was in trance , and no outside voice could reach her.
" Ms . Liu , " Yang Changtian repeatedly called out, getting angrier. Finally he snapped , " Liu Ying ! That is enough ! " he yelled .