Zeron, while carrying the injured mortal reliance sect cultivator escaped with Sake. His little pulse and meridian stage cultivation could not do anything to help the current situation because many body refining cultivators stronger than him were in the enemy camp, not counting the qi accumulating and qi condensation rank individuals. The situation was hopeless
Phew phew
Zeron speedily ran on the trees, with the sound of the wind current flapping behind him. Beside him is Sake who has a terrified look on his face but he clenches his gum, trying to not show his fear because he knows that what this situation requires now is not fear but for them to escape the pursuit behind them
"Sake, your movement technique is impressive," said Zeron, to Sake, who surprisingly could keep up with his speed, even with a lower cultivation level of bone refining stage.
" It's my master self-invented moves. He called it fatso in the wind technique."
Pfft
A laugh escaped Zeron's mouth, who found the naming funny.
Even if the name of the technique is lousy, the practical use of it is not short of impressive.
"Can you speed up?"
"Yes," Sake replied. "But if I do, I can only last for half an hour at most"
"Half an hour is fine. We can reach the ambush site by then."
Zeron was not escaping randomly but had a plan to stop the pursuers. The place he thought to ambush them was at a swamp where their group passed before.
The surface of the swamp is filled with dirt, aquatic plants, and rotten wood, but that is the surface level. Inside the swamp, the water is clear, but it has a numbing effect on the body, which, if submerged for long, can paralyze the body. Even cultivators are affected. Sake was the one that discovered the effect of the water because part of tier 1 medicinal plants required for the Sake mission was found in the swamp.
When it was almost strenuous for Sake to exert strength, they passed through a thick foliage, and up ahead was the swamp, which covered a wide area.
"Jump in," Zeron shouted
Together with Sake while holding the mortal reliance sect cultivator, he jumped into the swamp.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh
Eight cultivators appeared where they stood before,
"They jumped into the swamp." A gruffy-voiced man said.
"No matter, they can't escape us. Let's jump in." Another man said that, and immediately after, he dives into the water.
The others followed inside too.
On entering the water, they discovered that it was clean, and not what they would expect from a swamp.
"I feel something is off." One of the eight men said.
"What can be off? It is just two body refining trash and a cripped qi accumulation cultivator. What do you think can go wrong?." Another person said
"True." The one who was being cautious thought about it, and reasoned that even with all schemes, the difference in strength is not something that schemes can cover. When he thought about it, he relaxed.
"Let's find them, spread out, but keep a hundred meters among us." The gruff-sounding man whose voice is more irritating in the water said. He was the leader among those that chased Zeron. He is half a foot into the qi accumulation class.
""Let's go."" The others shouted.
....
Behind a large rock, Zeron's group was hiding.
Zeron looked toward the mortal reliance sect cultivator who was leaning off the rock, then directed his gaze towards Sake.
"What is with that look?" The boy asked angrily.
Seeing that Zeron and Sake ignored him while planning on how to finish the others, he could only sigh.
(For now, I am a cripple, but if I can master the creation chapter of the dominating sky manual, I might be able to recover my cultivation and heavily damaged meridian.)
(But it's difficult.) He sighed.
When he came out of his reverie, he saw that Zeron and Sake had finished planning.
"Stay here, Sake will bait them to the spiritual plant area, where the fish demon is"
"That fish demon? It's just a peak awakened class demon, when we were picking up the herbs, it was scared away, not daring to come close and attack us that was picking up it's guarded herbs"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean the demon is harmless, remember that Rexi and the rest were with us, so the demon coming to fight us is to court death, but now-"
Before finishing his statement, Zeron drew out his sword, which traced a beautiful curve in the water.
"But now, we are all body-refining rank cultivators, and the fish demon should be very angry now, what do you think will happen when it discovers that somewhat beatable humans are trying to steal the remaining herbs"
Zeron chuckled and finished his statement with "It will become very aggressive"
"Alright hide"
Sake nodded to Zeron and swam away to lure the other cultivators into a trap.
After a few minutes
Clang
An unattentive red villa cultivator deflected an arrow shot toward him reflexively
He had cold sweat in his body
"Damn, that was close. Thankfully, the power behind it is weak."
When he angrily looked toward where the arrow came from, he saw a fat fish swimming away. Not a fat fish, but Sake, who has a fast dexterousity in the water.
"Stop here fatso!"
The loud sound was heard by the others who swiftly arrived at the man's location.
"Do you see them?" The gruff-sounding man asked
"Yes, up ahead" the man who Sake shot answered
"Let's go."
The eight of them chased in the direction of Sake
...
They chased for a few minutes and arrived at a canyon underwater.
"Be careful, it might be an ambush" The gruff-sounding man said
The rest became cautious immediately. Don't mind how arrogant they look, but evil sect disciples are the most cautious bunch.
They carefully swam past the canyon.
"Huh?"
Someone among them noticed the glowing plants in the canyon.
"Wow, these are the tier 1 muskgrass that is an essential ingredient in almost all tier 1 pill recipes."
They noticed the green plants growing along the rocks.
The eight evil cultivators immediately stopped and started to harvest the muskgrass.
"Wait, something is not right." The cautious evil sect cultivator who formerly speculated an ambush stopped, because he was perceiving danger."
They looked at him, then towards the gruff-sounding man who did not join them in harvesting the plants but at some time, became quiet.
They kept on looking at him because his quietness was unnerving. He stood with his right hand on the hilt of his sword, facing toward a certain direction. The others observed him closely and saw that there was sweat on his brows and his lips were tensed.
They looked toward where his gaze was directed, and they wished they never looked there. Because a few meters away, a pair of big glowing red eyes was looking at them. It might be a misconception, but they thought the eyes looked angry.
"Attack!" The gruffy-sounding man shouted.
He speedily drew his sword and attacked the fish demon.
The others recovered immediately and attacked together.
The fish demon became angry, and the twenty-meter fish with dark scales attacked the eight evil
sect cultivators