Book 1 Chapter 43: Fleeing and… worrying
That feeling of dizziness in his head slowed down Bai Yunfei’s movements slightly. In a moment of carelessness, he was forced back into the encirclement.
The captain of this group of men was none other than Zhao Ping. And the dark-skinned man who had reacted earliest just then by swinging his saber at Bai Yunfei was the vice captain Wei Xu, a late Soul Apprentice.
After forcing Bai Yunfei to retreat, not giving him a chance to channel his soulforce to regain his composure, Zhao Ping shouted loudly again “Catch him!” then took the lead and charged at Bai Yunfei.
In his current condition, the Fire-tipped Spear was unsuitable to be used. Moreover, there was little panic in his heart. Even though the enemy vastly outnumbered him, he had already noticed that they did not have any soul cultivator more powerful than him.
He flicked a stool beside him up with his foot and threw it at a batch of men who were charging at him on the left. Taking advantage of when they dodged it, he rushed over at high speed with a push of his feet.
These men obviously were all very experienced fighters. They were even several times more formidable than the bandits Bai Yunfei had killed before. Knowing that they would be put at a disadvantage if they let him come near them, they immediately retreated several steps. The men who used long weapons then quickly held their weapons out, blocking Bai Yunfei’s way.
Bai Yunfei’s body halted for a moment. Originally he had wanted to jump out over them, but because some attacks were already coming at him from behind, he had no choice but to turn around to ward them off.
After raising his dagger to block Zhao Ping’s incoming short sword, he leaned to one side, avoiding a saber hack from Wei Xu, and forced him to retreat with a kick. At the same time, he withdrew his hand and grabbed a long spear which was being thrust at him. Blue veins popping out of his right arm, he made a fierce horizontal sweep with the spear, forcing the people who were charging up back.
Bai Yunfei shook his head with force. There was already a furious look in his eyes. If he had not been drugged by them, it would not be impossible for him to use all of his power and so he would not be surrounded like this!
After being forced back, Zhao Ping did not stop at all. Holding his short sword, he charged up again. When his sword was about to hack at Bai Yunfei’s neck, Bai Yunfei’s body suddenly tilted to one side in a strange manner. The moment Bai Yunfei almost hit the ground, he sprung back up like a roly-poly toy. Then he took steps, his legs turning into several blurs. When he turned around, he unexpectedly had already closed in on Zhao Ping.
This was none other than the Wave Treading Steps!
Bai Yunfei raised his dagger and thrust it at the midpoint between opponent’s eyebrows! Terrified, Zhao Ping hurriedly lifted his sword to block it, but he suddenly felt a pain in his lower abdomen and was sent flying with a kick!
Just when Bai Yunfei wanted to chase and attack him, a large saber was swung at him horizontally. He gave a cold snort. In an instant, his body tilted backwards, turning into a bunch of blurs, avoiding several incoming weapons successively. Then he dashed out from among these several men, went straight up to Wei Xu’s face and threw a punch without pausing at all!
After taking a swing with his saber, Wei Xu only saw a blur before his eyes. In no time, the opponent went up to his face with an attack that was already about to hit him! In panic, he made a block by raising his large saber and holding it in front of his chest, wanting to ward of this punch with the blade of the saber.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed with solemnity and blue veins popped out of his right arm. Carrying along short buzzing sounds, his arm hit the blade in an instant. There was a soft crack as the large saber was shattered directly. Before Wei Xu could rejoice at having blocked this punch, he was immediately knocked over one meter into the air by the punch as if he had been hit by a force of thousands of pounds then fell down towards the rear of the battlefield. After spouting a mouthful of blood in midair, he fell to the floor and did not move at all. Although he was still alive, he was also powerless to fight again.
Overlapping Waves Art, Threefold Fist Force!
Bai Yunfei was in no mood for fighting. Taking advantage of the opportunity created when everybody had frozen with shock because of the strike just then, he took steps continuously, running towards the entrance of the hotel in a blur.
Before he could reach the entrance, his way was blocked again by an incoming short sword — this was none other than Zhao Ping, who had been sent flying with a kick by him earlier.
Facing an obstructive sword, Bai Yunfei’s galloping body suddenly came to a halt in a strange manner. Under the opponent’s look of disbelief, it leaned backwards then, with his feet being the center, moved in a semicircle like a round object moving in a bowl. When he stood upright again, he was already on the other side of the short sword!
His eyes glittering with coldness, Bai Yunfei swung the dagger in his hand and thrust it at the opponent’s heart resolutely!
It was simply too late for Zhao Ping to withdraw his sword to make a block so he had no choice but to clench his teeth and move aside about an inch. He then let out a painful groan as the dagger penetrated straight into his left shoulder.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment. Casting a quick glance at those men who had now reacted and were charging straight at him, he suddenly lifted his left leg and kicked Zhao Ping in the stomach again.
A deep bang rang out. The dagger was pulled out, creating a trail of blood, and Zhao Ping’s body was shot towards the men who were chasing up like a cannonball. Those men were immediately thrown into disorder.
After sending Zhao Ping flying, Bai Yunfei turned around and rushed out of the door without hesitation.
As soon as he set his foot outside, a back blur suddenly shot out from the shadow beside the door without a warning sign, going straight towards him!
Frightened, Bai Yunfei hurriedly raised his dagger to his chest. At the same time, he changed his footwork, moving away to one side.
That tiny black blur and Bai Yunfei grazed each other. However, it seemingly did not want to attack him at all. When they were passing each other, Bai Yunfei suddenly felt a chill on the back of his right hand, which was being held in front of him. It seemed a small mass of liquid had hit the back of his right hand.
The moment he got out of the hotel, he cast a glance backwards and saw that blur fall to the ground — it was unexpectedly a small gray animal looking like a squirrel.
All the men in the hotel looked on hopelessly as Bai Yunfei disappeared after several dashes. They then looked at their captain and vice captain, both of whom were wounded, and looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing what they should do.
Zhao Ping was sitting on the floor with his teeth clenched in a cold sweat. That kick thrown by Bai Yunfei just then had been really powerful. If he was an ordinary man, he would probably have passed out by now.
“He already got away. Why are you still standing there?!Quickly go check Wei Xu over!” Only after a dozen seconds did Zhao Ping take a deep breath and manage to scold in a raised voice.
Seeing his subordinates run over to check Wei Xu out like a swarm of bees, Zhao Ping shook his head in a frustrated manner. He then silently channeled his soulforce to heal the injuries on his body. At the same time, he sighed to himself in his mind.
“Alas… I miscalculated. According to the information obtained earlier, this man was obviously just a late Soul Personage when he killed young master. But now it looks like he’s broken through to the Soul Warrior stage. Having a breakthrough in such a short time, perhaps he was already at the peak of the Soul Personage stage when he killed young master…
“He was so difficult to stall. In the entire fight, I could only thrust my sword out a few times. He simply didn’t give me a chance to draw him into a dogfight. Plus, the move he injured Wei Xu with should have been a soul technique! And that ghost-like body maneuvering skill was a soul technique too! He’s obviously powerful but he wasn’t interested in fighting at all. Though in the end he had a big advantage, he still ran away without hesitation… This man has quite an extraordinary mind too.
“According to our investigation, two months ago he was still a mere commoner. What kind of lucky encounter did he actually have?!
“It will be hard to find him now. After he was tricked and surrounded, we still managed to let him get away. Luckily my ‘tracking gray rat’ has already left a ‘mark’ on him so he won’t be able to escape! Now we only need to wait for master to arrive. Afterwards, we’ll just use the tracking gray rat to find out where he is…
“The tracking gray rat’s saliva is effective for three days. A courier pigeon was already released. Given master’s speed, he should arrive tomorrow evening. That man definitely doesn’t know about this so after running away for a day at most, he’ll relax his vigilance. And then master will have enough time to catch up with him!
“Not bad… Now looks like this is not a complete failure either.”
… … … …
After escaping, Bai Yunfei did not dare to pause at all. Instead, he estimated the directions a bit and ran all the way. Only after running for nearly four hours did he finally stop on a bank of a small river.
Using the Wave Treading Steps unceasingly for such a long period had almost exhausted his soulforce so he had no choice but to stop and rest for a while before he could make other plans.
In fact, if he had wanted it, all the people in that hotel would have been killed. But he did not know if the enemy had reinforcements or not so he would have been in more danger if he had stayed in there longer. Moreover, it would have been pointless to kill them all too, therefore right from the beginning he had only wanted to flee.
That faint feeling of discomfort in his head had already gone away. Bai Yunfei was sitting on a large rock, silently recovering the soulforce he had used.
“I’m still too inexperienced in the outside world. Who would have thought I would fall into the enemy’s trap so easily? Fortunately, I don’t drink, otherwise…” Recalling that feeling of being drugged, Bai Yunfei still could not help having a trace of retrospective fear.
“Damn it, just how great is the Zhang family’s influence? How can they have so many men in such a small town? Could it be every other town is like this too? Impossible, there are too soul cultivators in that group of men. Even if the Zhang family had a greater influence, it would still be impossible for them to send this kind of manpower to every town. This means… I was too unlucky?” At this point, Bai Yunfei could not help shaking his head in self-derision, feeling rather frustrated.
Actually, he indeed was too unlucky to have arrived in this town of Old Well instead of another town. It just so happened that Zhao Ping’s group was looking for his whereabouts nearby. After receiving the secret message from that innkeeper, they immediately rushed over…
“Now that my whereabouts have been exposed, I believe Zhang Zhenshan will definitely rush over right away. It’s bad. I still can’t stop. I must run even father away!
“Plus, that small animal at the end of the fight was really quite strange. The liquid left on my hand at the time seems to be its saliva. Why did it want to do this?” Bai Yunfei held his right hand before his eyes and observed it carefully under the moonlight but it seemed totally unchanged.
When he put it under his nose and took a sniff, he suddenly frowned: “There’s a slight odor. Could it be… Tracking!”
At this point, Bai Yunfei’s expression became unsightly. He stood up and went to the edge of the river, reached out his hands into the water and scrubbed them nonstop. Then he took out his laundry powder and scrubbed them with it again. Only after washing his hands for ten something minutes and their skin had almost reddened did he stop.
He sniffed his right hand again and could no longer detect that strange smell. Only now did Bai Yunfei relax a bit. However, there was still a trace of worry lingering on in his mind.
“Looks like I’ll have to plan even further to be able to escape!”