Chapter 344: A Successful Escape from the Valley! Rong Ruihan is Captured

Translator: Minotauruz

After approximately one incense stick of time, Xiang Guqing began to realize that she had sorely underestimated Ye Xiuwen’s abilities.

No wonder Zhang Shuyue would fall for this little brat despite her usually high standards – who would have thought that this little brat could exchange blows with her on an equal footing despite his young, tender age?

Furthermore, his appearances and disposition were all top-notch to boot. Given Zhang Shuyue’s lack of experience in the world outside of the valley, it was hardly a surprise that she would fall for such an outstanding man.

Despite that, Xiang Guqing held the firm belief that all men were the same, and not a single one of them could be trusted. In her eyes, it didn’t matter one bit whether the man’s appearances were spectacular or dismal – his heart would invariably be ink-black and wicked.

Thus, she was hell bent on ridding the world of the vermin standing before her right now!

On the other side, Dai Yanfeng had encountered the very same issue. He had initially thought that disposing of Rong Ruihan were going to be an incredibly easy task. To his surprise, Rong Ruihan showed no signs of letting up despite their protracted duel. In fact, Rong Ruihan’s attacked only appeared to grow more vicious and powerful with time, and Dai Yanfeng began to find himself increasingly on the backfoot.

That said, all things considered, this was hardly a surprising occurrence. Combat was the forte of all demonic cultivators, and it was naturally not an easy thing to dispose of a demonic cultivator, even if the spiritual cultivator possessed cultivation that was several levels higher. Therefore, Dai Yanfeng had just begun to realize that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Meanwhile, as Xiang Guqing and Dai Yanfeng were duking it out with Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan respectively, Zhang Shuyue glared viciously at the defensive formation array surrounding the rest of the Heavenly Peak disciples as she struck it relentlessly with spell after spell.

She had to break that defensive formation array. She was determined to wound Jun Xiaomo grievously so that she could inflict Ye Xiuwen with the greatest pain and remorse!

Even though Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan had drawn the attention of Xiang Guqing and Dai Yanfeng away, the defensive formation array continued to be battered by a relentless barrage of spells from the rest of the assailants.

Finally, after two more incense sticks of time, an earsplitting crackle resounded, and one of the defensive talismans hovering about in the sky shattered into pieces. The defensive formation array began to flicker dimly, before fading away and vanishing into the dark night sky. The other defensive talismans immolated in mid-air shortly afterwards, turning into ash and drifting away into the darkness.

Jun Xiaomo had only prepared one wad of these defensive talismans that could be combined to form a defensive formation array. The other defensive talismans were all designed to be used on the individual person. With that, the Heavenly Peak disciples knew that push had now come to shove. Each of them immediately retrieved their own personal defensive talismans, applied them onto their own body, and they began to throw themselves in the way of the waves of attacks from the Eternal Summit Sect disciples.

However, without the defensive formation array in place, Jun Xiaomo was now also exposed to the attacks from the assailants. Within moments, several ice arrows slipped through the group of Heavenly Peak disciples and shot straight towards Jun Xiaomo.

“Xiaomo!” Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan cried out at about the same time as they scrambled to dash back to shield Jun Xiaomo from the attacks. Fortunately, they arrived in the nick of time and managed to block the wave of ice arrows from striking Jun Xiaomo. However, this also meant that they had just left their backs completely exposed to Xiang Guqing and Dai Yanfeng’s attacks. In the very next moment, several powerful spells struck them directly on their backs.

Pfft--! Both Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan spat out a large mouthful of blood. Nevertheless, they turned around and once again stood valiantly in front of Jun Xiaomo, protecting her.

Unfortunately, given the extent of their injuries, their offensive and defensive abilities were now far lower than they had earlier been. In the blink of an eye, the Heavenly Peak disciples’ defensive line had practically crumbled, and everyone began to sustain injuries to varying degrees.

The only person unharmed right now was the person that everyone was valiantly trying to protect – Jun Xiaomo.

The ice arrows directed at Jun Xiaomo earlier had been fired by none other than Zhang Shuyue. She had noticed that nobody was shielding or protecting Jun Xiaomo anymore, and she had hoped to capitalize on the loopholes in their defenses to kill or grievously wound Jun Xiaomo.

She had not expected Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan to be keeping an eye out for Jun Xiaomo as they dueled with Xiang Guqing and Dai Yanfeng respectively. Fortunately, Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan noticed it when Zhang Shuyue loosened her ice arrows and sent them straight towards Jun Xiaomo, and they immediately darted towards Jun Xiaomo in the shortest time possible, protecting her from the potentially deadly strikes.

Having lost the element of surprise, Zhang Shuyue knew that it was going to be far harder to succeed a second time if she did not dispose of the other meat shields that were standing between her and Jun Xiaomo.

As she thought about these things, Zhang Shuyue’s heart once again swelled with intense hatred and frustration. Most pertinently, one of the “meat shields” standing in front of Jun Xiaomo right now was none other than Ye Xiuwen!

“Hmph, you’re just a bunch of fools drawing down the last bits of your energy to force the issue. Inconsequential fools. Everyone, we’ll take them down all at once!” Xiang Guqing roared on the battlefield, igniting the morale of the assailants on her side and increasing the ferocity of their attacks.

Just as the Heavenly Peak disciples were on the brink of collapsing, Jun Xiaomo suddenly clasped her hands together, and a bright light instantly shot out from her palms.

This beam of light shot straight into the formation array beneath her feet, and the formation array immediately began to tremble, sending reverberations rumbling throughout the entire valley.

“Damn! That brat Jun Xiaomo has actually succeeded. Hurry! We’ve got to stop them!” Xiang Guqing barked as she gravely stared daggers at the Heavenly Peak disciples.

She knew that if the Heavenly Peak disciples were to slip out from right under their nose, capturing them in future was going to be far more difficult.

Fortunately, Ye Xiuwen was already prepared for this. After all, Jun Xiaomo had already briefed him on the exact details of her plans before they had entered the heart of the valley.

Ye Xiuwen immediately retrieved a Teleportation Scroll from his Interspatial Ring and tossed it under everyone’s feet. In the very next moment, the Teleportation Scroll began to glow with a bright light, casting aside the darkness in the air like a bright beacon of hope.

“Jump in!” Ye Xiuwen instructed the other Heavenly Peak disciples anxiously.

The Heavenly Peak disciples complied immediately.

The Teleportation Scroll was designed to transport a maximum of two persons at a time. Thus, everyone had to take turns jumping into the Teleportation Scroll.

Xiang Guqing was anxious to seize the Teleportation Scroll from underneath their feet or take the lives of some of the Heavenly Peak disciples before they managed to get away. Therefore, she and the rest of the assailants began to launch attacked with unprecedented ferocity at the Heavenly Peak disciples.

Fortunately, Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan had already expected something like this to happen. They immediately stood in front of the Heavenly Peak disciples and adopted a defensive posture, fending off the relentless attacks as they gradually retreated and made their way towards the Teleportation Scroll.

“Bring Xiaomo away! Quickly!” Ye Xiuwen directed the remaining disciples. Jun Xiaomo had pushed her mind and spirit past their limits, and she had collapsed onto the ground moments after succeeding with the master formation array. Nodding his head, Chen Feiyu helped Jun Xiaomo up and leapt towards the Teleportation Scroll. In the blink of an eye, both Jun Xiaomo and Chen Feiyu vanished from the valley.

“No!” Zhang Shuyue bemoaned with indignation. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to reverse the situation right now – Chen Feiyu had already successfully brought Jun Xiaomo out of this place.

Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan were the last to leap into the active Teleportation Scroll. Both had expected this to go on without a hitch. After all, they were already on the brink of escape, and the end was within reach. Unfortunately, things were never as simple as they seemed. In that critical moment, Dai Yanfeng reached into his Interspatial Ring and retrieved a powerful spirit tool and threw it at Ye Xiuwen and Rong Ruihan.

This spirit tool could only be used once every one-hundred years. Unless they were able to disable to source of energy powering the spirit tool, the spirit tool would trap its target within its domain and continuously torment him for a period of forty-nine days until he melts into nothing more than a pool of blood.

Rong Ruihan had primarily been dealing with Dai Yanfeng all this while. Thus, he noticed every single one of Dai Yanfeng’s moves.

Naturally, Rong Ruihan also noticed that very instant when Dai Yanfeng reached into his Interspatial Ring and pulled out the spirit tool. Even though Rong Ruihan was uncertain of the effects of this spirit tool, he could nevertheless tell that it was not something that one would be able to easily escape from.

The spirit tool had been aimed directly at both Rong Ruihan and Ye Xiuwen at the same time. Rong Ruihan knew in an instant that if everything went according to Dai Yanfeng’s plans, both he and Ye Xiuwen would undoubtedly be captured.

But what’s going to happen to the other Heavenly Peak disciples and Jun Xiaomo if both Ye Xiuwen and I get trapped within this spirit tool? The Heavenly Peak disciples are too weak right now. They won’t be able to protect Jun Xiaomo at all.

Thus, Rong Ruihan made his resolve in an instant. He mustered his strength and suddenly threw a palm strike at Ye Xiuwen, sending Ye Xiuwen flying into the Teleportation Scroll. Ye Xiuwen was already injured to begin with, and he immediately spat out a mouthful of blood.

Immediately, Ye Xiuwen turned around and glared at Rong Ruihan, wondering why he would suddenly launch such a sneak attack at him. However, it was also in that instant that he saw a massive spirit tool envelop Rong Ruihan, consuming him entirely.

“Take care of Xiaomo for me!” Rong Ruihan yelled as he was sucked into the spirit tool.

After an intense beam of light burst out from the ground, Ye Xiuwen was finally sent to the other side of the Teleportation Scroll with Rong Ruihan’s final words echoing in his ears – Take care of Jun Xiaomo.

On the other side, Ye Xiuwen found himself falling from a height where he appeared. The injuries he had sustained were grievous and debilitating, so he was unable to adjust his posture as he fell from the sky, and he slammed straight into the ground.

Fortunately, the ground was covered by a bed of lush, verdant grass which softened the landing.

“Martial Brother Ye!” The Heavenly Peak martial brothers dashed over to him straight away, helping him back up to his feet.

Pfft--! Ye Xiuwen spat out another mouthful of blood that had been lodged in his throat for some time. He could finally breathe properly again.

“Xiao--...where’s Xiaomo?” Ye Xiuwen asked, somewhat breathlessly. Both he and Rong Ruihan had acted as the rearguard for their escape, and their injuries they had sustained were naturally the most severe.

Unfortunately, he was the only one among the rearguard who had made it into the Teleportation Scroll. Rong Ruihan had been captured, and nobody knew what the spirit tool would do to him.

“Martial Sister Xiaomo is here, but she appears to be unconscious right now.” Chen Feiyu responded anxiously.

He had placed Jun Xiaomo on the ground and even fed her with some recovery pills. Unfortunately, the recovery pills seemed to have little to no effect. Jun Xiaomo had fainted because she had pushed her mind and spirits to the limits, and this was not something that could be resolved with any simple, ordinary recovery pills.

Suppressing the nauseating stench of blood from within his mouth, Ye Xiuwen walked over to Jun Xiaomo’s side and embraced her. Then, gently patting her face, he called, “Xiaomo? Xiaomo? ...”

Perhaps as a result of the familiar fragrance of Ye Xiuwen’s scent setting her heart at ease, Jun Xiaomo roused from her stupor and came to her senses as she slowly opened her eyes.

“Martial Brother Ye?” Jun Xiaomo blinked her eyes wearily, “Did we...did we manage to get out alive?”

She had been completely focused on breaching the defenses of the master formation array all this while, and she was completely unaware of just what had happened while she was doing so. Then, after successfully dealing with the master formation array, she heard two people call her name, “Xiaomo”, before her consciousness quickly faded away.

“We’ve made it out, Little Martial Sister, we’ve made it out...” Another Heavenly Peak disciple choked slightly as he remarked. There was elation in his voice from having narrowly escaped death; and there was also grief in his voice from having lost Zhou Zilong in the process.

“That’s good...” Jun Xiaomo sighed with relief as she scanned her surroundings. Then, without any warning, she suddenly furrowed her brows again –

“Where’s Martial Brother Zhou...and Brother Rong?”

Everyone was taken slightly aback as they exchanged sheepish glances. Finally, as though in a concerted fashion, everyone lowered their heads sullenly in tacit response to Jun Xiaomo’s earlier question.