I was naïve. Too naïve.
At first, I thought that everyone would unite to fight against the Qin Emperor and his summoner, Wang Ni Tian. However, before the first few minutes were over, the fight had already devolved into a free for all, with several cultivators deciding to settle their grudges here and now, fighting against each other rather than the army of terracotta soldiers.
To be fair, the collateral damage from their clash spilled over to the legions of clay soldiers, destroying squads of them in the process. The Qin Emperor himself remained unmoved, watching us from afar. Whatever stray projectiles or elemental blasts that arced too close to him were blocked by his Great Wall.
Lu Bu smashed his way through a tightly packed defensive formation, his flanks covered by Yue Fei and Gan Jiang and Mo Ye. The four spirits bulldozed their way to the front, and then Lu Bu and Yue Fei pulverized a great part of the wall with their spear, revealing the Qin Emperor's chariot behind it. Terracotta soldiers flooded the space to plug the breach, but Gan Jiang and Mo Ye skillfully fought them off, their cerulean and crimson swords flashing in deadly sweeps that decimated the desperate defenders.
Behind them, the terracotta soldiers milled about, engulfed by the chaotic melee that had swept across the square. Explosions sent dozens of them flying into the air, in parts rather than intact. Others crashed to the ground, only to shatter from the tremendous impact.
But none of that mattered. To me and the rest, the only thing we could do was take out the Qin Emperor.
Lu Bu surged ahead, his spear lashing out to split the Qin Emperor's skull in half.
However, his weapon never reached his target.
The Qin Emperor dodged the fatal strike at what seemed like the very last moment, slightly shifting his head. The spear lodged itself into the chariot, but otherwise missed him completely. Lu Bu growled and tried to yank his weapon out of the wood.
Fortunately, Yue Fei was on hand to follow up with another attack, his spear slashing toward the Qin Emperor's neck.
The Qin Emperor took a step back and bent his back, dodging the slash by a few centimeters. Perhaps a few strands of his hair was cut by the extremely sharp blade, but otherwise there wasn't even a scratch.
"Damn bastard!" Liang Cai Gui cursed under his breath. "How is he…?!"
"The Qin Emperor's legend included accounts of how he escaped at least two assassination attempts," I muttered, analyzing the situation coolly. "That has been crystalized into one of his Divine Treasures."
"The fuck?! Doesn't that make him invincible then!?"
"He is one of the most powerful summoned spirits," I acknowledged. "But he's not unbeatable."
"So any way to beat him, smart guy?"
This was weird. Just a few days earlier, Liang Cai Gui was trying to kill me with his Yue Fei. I might have driven him off, but he didn't harbor a grudge against me for hurting him, and was indeed seeking advice from me.
"Continue attacking. Whatever that Divine Treasure is, it will only last for two attempts."
Indeed, Lu Bu's next strike had savaged the chariot and the Qin Emperor was retreating, blood streaming from a cut in his face. He then staggered when Yue Fei's blade cut through his shoulder, sending up a spray of blood and tearing his luxuriously embroidered robes.
Even so, he displayed no fear, his face as impassive as ever. More soldiers retreated toward his position, determined to repel the assassins.
"Hold them off!" Huang Hong Lin ordered. Gan Jiang and Mo Ye obeyed, physically standing shoulder to shoulder at the breach of the Great Wall and fending off waves of terracotta soldiers. I glanced at the Qin Emperor, surprised that he hadn't dismissed the wall.
Huh, perhaps it wasn't that he didn't want to but that he couldn't. As powerful as the Qin Emperor was, he wasn't omnipotent. There were limits to his abilities, after all.
"Damn, but they just keep coming!"
Beside me, Mu Rong Shu fought ferociously, using her Eight Trigrams palm to blast the terracotta soldiers back or apart. I nodded grimly, spinning around and throwing a terracotta soldier into his squad, breaking him against his faltering comrades. Taking a step forward, I slammed a palm into another terracotta soldier, shattering his midriff and allowing pieces of him to topple onto the ground. Mu Rong Shu covered my back, flames and water – the Li and Kan trigrams – activating to incinerate or wash away more of the approaching soldiers.
Some distance away, Huang Hong Lin was using her charms, casting ready-made elemental spells to send a chain of lightning snaking through the thickly packed ranks of terracotta soldiers. Another charm conjured a wall of earth that kept them away from her and Liang Cai Gui, who didn't seem that competent on his own. Clearly he also lacked the wealth of Huang Hong Lin, for he wasn't using any charms or talismans.
But that didn't mean he was helpless, however. Far from it. Unlike his summoned spirit, Liang Cai Gui was using a short sword, spinning his weapon to hack and slash at any terracotta soldiers who got too close to him. I could see that he was a competent swordsman, but not exactly a warrior who excelled in close combat. That made sense, like most cultivators, he had focused on summoning techniques instead of combat skills.
On the other hand, Mu Rong Shu was in her element, her assassination techniques allowing her to excel in close combat and blow away dozens of the enemy. Thanks to her, we were able to hold the breach, preventing any reinforcements from flowing into the Great Wall to help out their monarch. This time, she executed the Xun and Zhen trigrams, sending wind blades and thunderbolts into their ranks. Whirling around, she crunched her palm against the chest of a terracotta soldier, causing him to crumble, then spun to punch a second one off his feet. Moving her leg forward, she snapped it upward and kicked the head off a third.
"Hmm?"
She suddenly jumped away in reflex when a new assailant crashed into her position, her sword leaving a deep impression in the ground. I spun about in surprise, realizing that the new foe wasn't a terracotta soldier.
She was a woman. Not just any woman, but judging from the armor and her branded clothing, she was a servant of the imperial family…no, she was a direct member of the imperial family. One of Wang Ni Tian's sisters or cousins. She had been standing beside Wang Ni Tian earlier, slightly apart from the other fifty guards, and also dressed differently. I had originally thought that she was the commander of the bodyguards, but it appeared that her status was much higher than that.
Rising from a crouch, she pointed her sword at Mu Rong Shu, as if issuing a challenge. My wife frowned, puzzled.
"Who are you?"
The lady didn't respond. Instead, she thrust her sword forward, trying to stab Mu Rong Shu in the chest. My wife slid to the side, and she slammed her elbow against the flat side of the blade, deflecting it away from her. She couldn't help but smile wryly to herself.
"Stupid question. You're the enemy. That's all I need to know."
She then rammed her palm against the girl's chest, sending her flying back. Her opponent cursed, blood dripping from her lips, and glared at Mu Rong Shu in rage.
"I'll kill you."
"You won't be the first to try and fail," Mu Rong Shu replied with a shrug. "I don't know why you seem to hate me so much, but it doesn't matter. Once you're dead, whatever grudge you hold against me will become meaningless."
The daughter of the imperial family scowled at what she perceived to be her opponent's overconfidence and she charged forward.
I wanted to help, but I found myself facing more terracotta soldiers than before, especially now that I didn't have Mu Rong Shu by my side to offer her assistance. I had to deal with this threat on my own and trust that my wife could defeat her opponent.
However, I ended up having a crisis of my own.
"Ugh!?"
Nine fireballs crashed heavily into my location, sending up infernal explosions that consumed the field in colossal conflagrations.
"You!" I coughed, skidding to a stop, my body smoldering. Fortunately, that was all the extent of the damage I had sustained. I was lucky to still be alive. If I hadn't dove to the side and quickly escaped, I would have been incinerated along with another hundred or so terracotta soldiers.
Su Da Ji drifted to the ground, flames still flickering on her hand. I glared at her.
"What's that for?! Aren't you supposed to be…?"
"Supposed to be what?" Hu Li Jing appeared beside Su Da Ji, giggling. "Supposed to be allies? Whatever gave you that impression?"
"Didn't you ask us for help?" I asked, annoyed. Hu Li Jing nodded and shrugged.
"Yes, and you have already helped. But I never said I would be your allies."
At her words, I glanced around and realized that the once unending hordes of terracotta soldiers had dwindled down to almost nothing. There were still a few pockets of clay warriors left fighting against other cultivators and spirits, but they were isolated and slowly being destroyed.
"You have all fulfilled your usefulness. I might as well eliminate you along with the imperial family and their lackeys."
I should have known. I wasn't all too surprised, just annoyed. I never actually thought Hu Li Jing would actually ally with us, but I had calculated that she would at least wait until the common threat – Emperor Qin – would be eliminated first before making her move.
"You're the next biggest threat, after the imperial family and their Qin Emperor," Hu Li Jing explained. I smiled wryly.
"I'm flattered, but you overestimate me."
"Regardless of the case, I would much rather you die here before you can pose a threat to me in future."
At her commanding gesture, Su Da Ji obeyed and hurled another nine fireballs at me.
Taking a deep breath, I moved my hands in a circular motion. The flames were coming at me too fast, and too many. Unlike the last time, I wouldn't be able to evade because I no longer had the terracotta soldiers from earlier to use as meat shields and absorb most of the explosive blast from the attack. I would have to take the attack head on.
Black and white qi swirled around my hands and a gigantic yin yang symbol formed behind me.
"Whatever you're doing, it won't work," Hu Li Jing sneered. "Just obediently get burned to ashes for me!"
Was she an idiot? Who the fuck would just roll over and die simply because someone told them to? I certainly wasn't going to. I was determined to fight to my very last breath.
Stepping forward and still moving my hands in a circular motion, I caught the first fireball, but not directly. Rather, I slid to the side and gently pushed the enormous fireball, nudging it off its current trajectory and altering it. With a slight shove, I sent it crashing into a second fireball.
As both exploded upon contact, sending superheated shockwaves, I was already spinning away to hide behind a third fireball. Still moving my hands continually, I circulated the air around them before pushing the third fireball away with both hands. It propelled away from me and slammed into a fourth, the two of them detonating and consuming a fifth to cause a chain reaction and triggering the sixth and seventh.
There was still the eighth and ninth fireballs. Standing my ground, I gritted my teeth and stoically shouldered the pain of my scorched hands. Smoke rose from reddened, blistering skin, but I knew that the alternative was death. So I endured.
Flicking both hands outward, I sort of caught the eighth fireball before it could strike me and spun it about to hurl it into the path of the ninth. The resulting explosion sent me hurtling away from the expanding conflagration, but I whirled around and landed somewhat gracefully on the ground. Slowly moving my hands to dissipate most of the excess force and heat that I had somewhat absorbed, I reformed my stance and stood firm, the yin yang symbol shimmering majestically behind me.
"How the hell?!" Hu Li Jing demanded.
"The power of Tai Qi," I replied with a shrug and lowered my hand. Countering hard with soft, strength with gentleness.
However, I didn't tell her that I was almost at my limit. Just altering the paths of the fireball took out a lot from me. And my hands were screaming in red-hot agony.
Hang in there, I told myself grimly. I was going to find a way to survive this mess…and prevail.