Beastmaster of the Ages

Chapter 1418 - Turtles in a Jar

It didn’t take long for the Northdipper Swordsage’s orders to come. “I’ll lead two hundred thousand swordpupils at full speed toward the Supracloud Sanctuary to cut off the enemy’s advance. Fifteen minutes later, you’ll lead seventy thousand to use harassment tactics so they can’t smoothly retreat. The more you drag it out, the better!”

The order excited the Wind Swordlord. He had waited for this moment for too long. “That mongrel Li Wushuang is just dumbly staying at Aix Lake. If she doesn’t leave the encirclement within the next fifteen minutes, she’ll lose the chance to do so forever.”

The seventy thousand swordpupils all had bloodshot eyes, too, as they had been waiting for their chance for revenge as well. Of course, they didn’t know that the Snowsun Quadspecters had ‘kidnapped’ Yun Tianque, as that was fake information from Tianming.

Time slowly passed as the seventy thousand swordpupils tried to hold back their breathing. And finally, fifteen minutes passed.

“Empyrean Sword Sect, follow me as we slaughter the enemy and use their blood as an offering to our fallen comrades!”

Their mission was to harass and delay. Otherwise, seventy thousand facing off against two hundred thousand would be nothing short of suicidal.

……

A giant tree branch of the Azurecloud Divine Tree was snapped off by Li Wushuang. Including the Tumulus Pill God, she had sent out multiple people again to the Supracloud Sanctuary to ‘escort’ the cultivators from there to here. And every single time, the reply from the Snowsun Quadspecters was just a simple, “Soon!” Up until now, neither hide nor hair of the cultivators from the Supracloud Sanctuary could be seen.

“What are they doing?” Li Wushuang’s gaze was turning more and more sinister.

“Lady Wushuang, based on the intelligence reports, that million-man army has broken up into three groups. They’re approaching us from the east, south, and west. We can stay for at most one more hour. Any longer than that and we’ll be encircled,” her subordinate reported.

“What about those of the Supracloud Sanctuary? Have they set off yet? If they have, they should make it in an hour.” The saplings were in different places, and some were near the Supracloud Sanctuary. Those locations were the ones the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean were stationed at.

“I don’t know. Something’s strange there.”

Li Wushuang was confused. One hour seemed like it should be enough, but it was time to make her decision. Otherwise, not even she would be able to easily handle too many deaths from the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean. She didn’t have an unlimited amount of responsibility she could evade, after all!

“Fifteen more minutes! I’ll hurry them.” Li Wushuang sent another transmission stone to the Snowsun Quadspecters.

At that moment, a transmission stone from the Tumulus Pill God landed in her hand!

When she opened it, her expression immediately changed.

“The Snowsun Quadspecters betrayed you. They aren’t in control of Yun Tianque. The Myriadfold Skycloud Formation has already been reactivated and sealed off. May Lady Wushuang, please bring everyone to escape north and retreat out of the continent!” Without the Supracloud Sanctuary as a base, her period of safety was much shorter. It was no longer an hour. After being fooled by the Snowsun Quadspecters, they would be finished if they didn’t flee now!

Li Wushuang’s expression turned uglier than it had ever been before. Her eyes grew bloodshot, and she was so furious she coughed up blood. Yun Tianque had turned traitor! And that was still fine. But the Snowsun Quadspecters had turned traitor too?

They were dogs she had raised for many years. They were absolutely loyal to her, and wanted nothing more than to kneel and wag their tails to her. Their betrayal was like a sword that stabbed directly into her heart.

As her expression turned ugly, she wasn’t aware that invisible eyes were watching her at every moment. Tianming could prepare countless countermeasures based on her reaction. The Tumulus Pill God had noticed something wrong, but it was too late.

She sensed that someone invisible was messing with her. It was all too coincidental. But she didn’t know who it was; Yin Chen’s intelligence-gathering capabilities were far beyond her imagination. As soon as she received the news, Li Wushuang knew that she didn’t have time to care about the saplings and immediately needed to retreat. However, the greatest coincidence of all was that at this moment, murderous roars surged over from the south direction as seventy thousand swordpupils riding their lifebound beasts came charging over. The attackers intentionally caused a loud uproar and kicked up a massive cloud of dust to appear as a larger army of a hundred thousand.

At Aix Lake, there were only a hundred thousand wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean cultivators gathered. The other tens of thousands were all dispersed at the rest of the sapling sites. They had no way to quickly take down seventy thousand cultivators.

“We have to retreat immediately or we’ll be overwhelmed by this army!” Many people were shocked. They didn’t need Li Wushuang’s orders to know that they had to go.

Once some started moving, an entire retreat immediately began.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Seventy thousand swordpupils fearlessly charged in. It didn’t matter how strong an opponent was. If they didn’t dare to fight and only wanted to escape, what kind of counterattack could they mount?

A lie about Yun Tuanque being kidnapped had created enough confusion in the timeline that it led to the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean cultivators being thrust into danger.

Li Wushuang had no choice but to use her most furious voice to order, “Retreat!”

As they retreated, they wanted to maintain their mobility, so they didn’t dare to summon their lifebound beasts or the more attention grabbing totems. Hence, the scene of seventy thousand cultivators attacking a larger army looked like a flock of eagles swooping in on little chickens!

“Hurry!”

“Quickly!”

Despite their courage, the wargodeans’ expressions had all greatly changed. Worst of all, the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean all had obvious racial characteristics. When the area was taken over, there would be no hiding.

They would all die!

“RUN!”

“It’s all Li Wushuang’s fault. If we die, it’s because of her!”

“That bitch!”

They had stayed so long because of Li Wushuang’s obstinacy and arrogance. The Supracloud Sanctuary closing and opening showed that she was being toyed with by someone. And now it was closed again!

The seventy thousand swordpupils were like a pack of mad dogs biting at their heels. Even if the wargodeans were a fierce tiger, dragging along a mad dog would still slow them down. Some were even slowed down to the back of the crowd. Those that did were immediately swarmed by dozens of swordpupils and ripped apart!

“Vengeance! Vengeance!’

“Let their blood fill Aix Lake!”

The previous battle at Aix Lake had become an eternal source of pain for the Empyrean Sword Sect cultivators. But now was the time to vent and hunt!

This massive battle had erupted an hour ahead of expectations. The Supracloud Sanctuary muddying the waters was what had made Li Wushuang wait so long. Controlling the Snowsun Quadspecters was also a masterstroke!

An enemy who could observe everything while hidden in the dark would always be the most frightening.

Li Wushuang was currently escaping, too. “Something is wrong, something has to be!” She was very suspicious. However, how could she expect the methods of the Myriadworld Immortabeast without personally witnessing it?

Behind her, the fleeing wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean cultivators were blocked and slaughtered.

Everyone had all been plunged into despair. However, they knew this was just the start of the battle. When they were encircled, they would be besieged and killed!

Cries filled the air; it was their turn this time. When they had killed the Empyrean Sword Sect swordpupils at Aix Lake before, they’d never predicted this.

From above, a road of blood kilometers long had formed. Scarlet blood stained every leaf and branch of the tree. The area had become hell on earth.

“Faster! Faster!”

“Li Wushuang, you deserve to die!”

There were countless curses, and Li Wushuang could hear all of them. However, she didn’t have any sympathy for the fallen, only fury at being taken for a ride.

Finally, they caught sight of the distant Supracloud Sanctuary. It had completely shut itself off, bringing the runaways complete despair. Their only chance now was to flee northward and hopefully make it out of the continent alive.

It was right at this moment where, under the command of the Northdipper Swordsage, an army fell upon them from the north like a nightmare!