And Fu Hua was sure that they were near their goal at this point. Otherwise, the guard would have no reason to spill all this.
"Say good night now" and the soul attacked with a loud cry.
The souls attacked without any stops. The falling bodies of the dead were parried away with the help of a scythe which was a blur. The Pingjing was a blur as it parried the bodies away from Fu Hua.
The guard who had been opposed to him was taking steps backwards to escape. The sinister grin on that face indicated the pleasure of being driven away at Fu Hua's expense.
"You will die right here without any help at all. Would you join all those unfortunate souls or would you enter the reincarnation cycle? I wonder what direction your soul would take?" The guard had too much free time.
He gloated Fu Hua to get a response. It was clear that he was enjoying this interaction a lot which was getting on Fu Hua's nerves. He did not generally find such humour vulgar but right now he did, mainly because unfortunate souls were involved.
His Pingjing was a divine weapon, one of a kind that was able to serve the soul from one's body. It was capable of granting reincarnation to the other at an expense of Fu Hua's own merits so he rarely used it.
Once his merits ran out, he would die as well so this weapon was a double edged sword for him. To clean the other's filth while smearing it onto himself - that was the fate he had been served with.
How ironic that he ended up betraying the one he took this scythe up for.
Still, he had decided to use it now to liberate these poor souls but there was no visible effect on them. He could slash all he wanted but these souls had no chance of reincarnation.
They had been burned into the Hinoe uma's flames.
"Really unfortunate for you to end up like this. You'll die here and your friends will die at my lover's hand. A rather romantic end won't you say?" the guard taunted as Fu Hua pushed another soul away.
He had to look for an opportunity to attack the very source of the problem here - the guard. Only then would he be able to escape this place.
"You're sick in the brain, do you know it?" Fu Hua called out to the guard who just grinned a twisted grin of his.
"I know right" the grin flashed brighter when the next soul managed to graze Fu Hua on his arm. The sting was real, the burn spreading a little more. But it was inconsequential to his present body. Still, there was no opening to be exploited.
"Well, I don't think my companions are at any risk at all. Besides, there are three of them. Are you sure your partner would be able to handle it all?" Fu Hua teased back, his voice panting from the exertion. The army in front of him showed no sign of getting any thinner.
"You think so? My partner is tougher than me. She would dispose of your small -" the guy froze all of a sudden, his skin going ghostly and sweating.
This was the opportunity Fu Hua had been looking for all this time. He made a quick flick of his wrist and his Pingjing went flying right at the guard.
Another soul jumped at him but it was a delayed reaction. Fu Hua had enough time to parry the soul off with a magic spell. With a small moment, he had a circular shield around him, approximately 2 M diameter which forced all the souls out of the way.
"N-No. W-Why?" The light was fading from those eyes faster than Fu Hua would have liked. He wanted to confront the other but there was no time.
Pingjing had stuck its mark and the other would have his soul cleaned in a matter of seconds. It would be another mark on Fu Hua's records, but would it really count? After all, this was not Fu Hua's real body at all.
"Hey, wait -" but it was no use calling back to the dead. The soul cannot be forced back once it had entered the reincarnation cycle and Fu Hua had just lost a valuable lead of his. It was a failure on his part.
Hopefully, the other one would still have a soul to question and drag back. Otherwise, it would not be a helpful situation for anyone involved here.
Without any leader to follow, the souls of the others lost their direction and fled out. Fu Hua could not allow this so he cast a spell to keep everyone bound in one place. Even if he purged them, they would just come back.
Even now there were far more of them than he had first started which meant some souls have migrated from elsewhere to here. More unfortunate victims?
Anyway, once the barrier was constructed, Fu Hua could leave to find his companions. A hot flame barely missed as it ran past him and scorched his arm. This was a far worse burn than the injury from those unfortunate souls.
"Fu Hua, don't let it escape. It is the Hinoe uma and also our last chance" Xiao Lan shouted from the distance as he covered the ground. He passed Fu Hau pretty soon along with commander Yuhan.
"You summoned it?" Fu Hua asked but he did not get an answer. The others had far-left him behind at this time and he had to hurry up to follow. Detective Song's whereabouts did cross his mind once but he shook that thought away.
He would be a burden throughout the way.
......…..
One second, the Hinoe uma was attacking Fu Hua, the very next seconds he had changed its targets.
It rammed into the female guard and burned her alive. Not even her hair survived the ordeal. One second she was there and the next she was not.
Detective Song made a tactful retreat from his position as he inched away slowly to not alert the horse, but it had obviously lost its interest in the party. His eyes were focused outside the window into the wilderness.
It took off before the shock wore off and the party was left reeling back.
"After it. We need to stop its rampage" it was pretty obvious where the horse was going. Xiao Lan knew the village would not be safe at this time and they had to hurry. Most people were not ready for such an assault and it would cause a lot of harm.
"I'll s-stay here and manage things here" Detective Song called out weekly to the others. It was obvious to him that they were not happy with him. However, no one had the time to say anything to him. The situation had already spiralled out of hand.
Xiao Lan was the one who took action first. He chased after the fire horse and spotted a shadow at the side.
"Fu Hua, don't let it escape. It is the Hinoe uma and also our last chance" Fu Hua seemed hurt by the way he cradles his arm but that was an afterthought to the Hinoe uma. The horse would hurt much more than Fu Hua if it was given a chance.
He felt Fu Hua run after himself and commander Yuhan, the magic letting him know that the other was alive. He had known that Fu Hua was alive and relatively unharmed but seeing it brought relief to his mind.
Something he should not be feeling for a traitor but he still did anyway. He could not stop himself.
"I'll go to divert its route. You make your way to a clearing. Don't worry, I'll find you" Fu Hua ran ahead of the group and disappeared into the forest. Xiao Lan and commander Yuhan stopped short of that.
"A clearing? Where should we find a clearing in this dense forest?" there was no way one exited anywhere near. All his magic could feel were trees and a burning trail. Thankfully, this was not a type of fire the wet trees would be able to catch.
Green leaves were the only thing saving this forest from burning down but it would not last.
"If there is no clearing available then should we not make one?" Commander Yuhan suggested and Xiao Lan pretended to think it over.
However, he had already made up his mind and he would much rather follow it through till the end.
"You're right. Give me a little space so that I can clear it out" Commander Yuhan jumped quite a few steps back. This would effectively give Xiao Lan a 100 M diameter to work with, a rather huge range.
"Let the gluttony eat" energy exploded and it devoured everything in the given radius. The trees disappeared along with the grass and the upper layer of the earth.
Then there was Xiao Lan and the clear 50 M of space all around him.