Path of the Sect Leader

Chapter 77: Encountering Si Wenyu Again

Peaceful completion of the mission? Just a pipe dream, in the end.

Alarm flares shot up from the front lines one after another. Fierce fighting had clearly erupted there.

The shadow of battle loomed sudden and heavy. Every heart in the nameless valley tightened.

"Sect Leader Senior Brother! Incoming! A handful of Qi Condensation cultivators—plus a dozen mortals trained in martial arts!" He Yu dropped from his sword light, voice urgent as he reported.

All eyes turned to Qi Xiu.

"Your orders, Sect Leader?" Zhang Shishi's words carried a thread of strain.

No room for debate. "We took the job. We see it through. Prepare for contact!"

Bai Muhan snapped into sharp focus, her commands crisp. "He Yu! They likely spotted you already. Fake a retreat—pull back far enough, then fire off another alarm flare. Once we engage here, circle back and take out their strongest. If you miss the kill, disengage immediately. Hunt for the next opening! Everyone else—into the illusion array. Hold until my signal. Then unleash everything. We seize the first strike, no exceptions!"

He Yu nodded and veered off, continuing his feigned withdrawal. When his distant flare bloomed, twenty-five figures came into view: eighteen mortal warriors bounding with lightweight martial leaps, trailing seven low-flying Qi Condensation cultivators. Dust-caked, bloodied—every one of them.

"Mark your targets! Brother Zhang—sweep the mortals with your pagoda's area blast. Brother Yu—hit that purple-robed woman on the right..."

Bai Muhan whispered assignments, voice low and steady. The enemy plowed ahead, glancing back in panic, oblivious to the Chu Qin group concealed on the reverse slope.

"Hold on—that's Si Wenyu up front?" Yu Denuo muttered in surprise.

Qi Xiu's gaze narrowed as recognition hit. "He slipped the net too. Fate's got a twisted sense of humor. Fine by me—settles an old score today."

"Engage!"

Bai Muhan's sharp order cut the air. No hesitation. From the illusion array, artifacts and talismans erupted in a coordinated storm. The Shan Du group, caught dead center in the valley, took devastating losses on the spot. Over a dozen dropped instantly—that late-stage Qi Condensation woman in purple robes caught Yu Denuo's date-pit spike square in the skull. It burst like overripe fruit, gruesome and final.

"Press the attack! No mercy!"

Under her direction, the second volley followed seamless. More lives snuffed out.

With only a ragged few left on the enemy side, victory tilted hard their way. Si Wenyu, panic twisting his features, shot skyward—abandoning his comrades, fleeing alone toward open ground.

He Yu wheeled back just in time. A flash of chill light from his Water-Nurturing Sword forced the man reeling back into the kill zone.

"You're... from Chu Qin—He something?" Si Wenyu yelped in recognition. Years back at the arena tournament, He Yu had fought early and left; Si Wenyu knew the face, but not the reverse.

Two Shan Du cultivators clung to life in the chaos, scrambling to raise defenses, pouring everything into holding on.

The remaining mortal warriors charged the source of the onslaught in a desperate rush. Blind to even a first-tier illusion array, they threw themselves like moths into flame—cut down just outside the Pseudo Four Symbols barrier.

Lives ended like weeds under a scythe. Chu Qin held every advantage, yet faces paled across the group. No thrill in the slaughter—only the hollow weight of it.

A guttural roar tore from Si Wenyu as He Yu harried him high and low. No escape. No victory. "Chu Qin scum! I'll take you all with me!"

Eyes bloodshot, he ignored the pursuing sword entirely. Dove straight for the array in a frenzy.

"Brother Zhang—shield up!"

Cool as ever despite the shift, Bai Muhan called it. Zhang Shishi yanked back his rampaging Dao Earth Life Pagoda, swapping to the Heavy Earth Shield and planting it firm.

"Together—in hell!"

Hope gone, desperation flipped to mad resolve. Si Wenyu's skin cracked inch by inch, flesh boiling like molten rock. Fire Spiritual Qi raged unchecked inside him—echoes of Huo Hu's terrifying Five Tigers Gate Smash flooding back.

"Damn it—he's blowing himself up! Full defense!"

Alarm bells screamed in Bai Muhan's mind. Calm shattered. She yelled the warning.

Zhang Shishi poured every drop of Spiritual Qi into the shield. It swelled massive, blocking the suicide plunge. Qi Xiu's black winds, Yu Denuo's golden sword—everything hammered into Si Wenyu.

Mind lost, he shrugged off the hits. Throat rattling with mindless "Hurgh! Hurgh!" grunts, he slammed into the shield and detonated. A final strike trading his life for power rivaling Foundation Establishment.

Boom.

The valley thundered like the earth itself splitting. Illusion array shattered. Heavy shield crumbled. Chu Qin cultivators hurled backward in the blast, formation ruined. Most sprawled motionless—alive or not, impossible to tell at a glance. Rolling heat waves scorched the hill bare, leaving charred earth in their wake.

He Yu, alone outside the array, saw the carnage and surged forward, blood pounding in his ears, eyes blazing red for rescue.

The two surviving Shan Du cultivators intercepted him together. He reined in the rage, steeling for the fight.

Qi Xiu's innate gift, Clear Self Heart, kept iron grip on his body amid chaos—one of the few still conscious. Clothes burned to ash, he staggered up bare, glanced He Yu holding steady against odds, then fished a spare robe from his storage bag. Slipping it on, he rushed to the fallen disciples.

A Life Therapy Talisman slapped onto Bai Muhan. She gasped awake, clutching her gushing abdomen. Guilt hit her first. "My fault... bunched everyone together. Never saw—"

"Cough..." Qi Xiu shoved pills into her hand, a robe too, eyes flicking urgent signals.

She registered her own nakedness then—everything exposed to the open air. A mortified yelp escaped as she spun away, yanking the robe on fast.

"Hold the line, brothers! We're here!"

Qi Xiu turned toward the shout, gut sinking like stone. More Shan Du—two cultivators leading over a dozen mortal archers, closing fast.

"How are there still..."

Bitter taste flooded his mouth. Their reinforcements nowhere—yet the enemy's arrived first?

No choice left but to fight to the last. His go-to Black Wind Banner lay in ruins from the blast. He scattered Life Therapy Talismans over the downed disciples in a flurry of petals, then summoned his prized Linglong Pagoda, hurling it at one incoming cultivator.

Bai Muhan, clothed now, brought out a delicate octagonal hammer to engage the other.

Desperate to save their own, the newcomers threw everything—artifacts, talismans flying. Mortal archers loosed volleys, arrows raining thick.

Qi Xiu and Bai Muhan raised elemental barriers just in time, deflecting the heavy shafts.

Luck held: these fresh Shan Du reinforcements scraped the bottom of Qi Condensation. With archer support, they barely matched Qi Xiu and Bai Muhan's fifth-layer strength.

Stalemate locked in, tense and grinding.