Chapter 50 Still the White Lion

Damn it!

Galloping hooves stirred up clouds of yellow dust and smoke across the hundred-hectare sand sea swept by sand-worms, where the chase flared up once more.

"The damned crazy old hag is on our tail again!"

Dragon Bamboo turned back, shouting curses at the White Lion Cavalry who had already crested the dunes and lunged toward the crowd on the main road.

"Unhaunted by the ghost! Bamboo, with me..."

Dai Longmei immediately drew her jade sword, preparing to spur her horse forward against the roaring white lions.

"Fifth Master, your mission isn't here!"

Seeing Dai Longmei's intent to charge the White Lion Cavalry, Liu Huaxi shouted at the top of his lungs.

"For you and little Lili, the utmost priority is to enter the West Gate, to enter the main city!"

"Lili remembers clearly where you dropped your body!"

"I remember!"

Lili still felt somewhat uneasy.

"President, your brothers told us that my body was protected by the mice appointed by the Jade God."

"They started running the moment they met you, and I didn't get a chance to ask... what are those mice?"

"The aboriginals of the dungeon, who share a master-servant relationship with that old man, the Jade God."

"They are protecting your body near the place where you landed."

"But these mice cannot leave the dungeon, which is why they couldn't bring it to you."

"Ah? No wonder..."

"Swish!"

A void-infused arrow hurtled swiftly toward Dai Longmei.

"Damn it!"

Dai Longmei instantly ducked to evade the arrow, then nocked, drew, and loosed in one fluid motion.

A feathered arrow imbued with jade qi struck the White Lion Cavalry flanking them from the side.

The arrowhead shattered the hastily generated thick void shield of the White Lion rider, forcing her to abruptly halt her pursuit.

"The situation is critical! Once you reach the West Gate and enter the dungeon, we will rendezvous and talk then!"

"President, you're... not coming with us..."

Having witnessed Liu Huaxi "die" once before, Lili grew anxious for this former benefactor.

"Hmph! Those Star-men scum don't have the capability to kill us!"

"Go! Young General, little Lili!"

"We'll see each other in the main city!"

Liu Huaxi immediately whipped his horse around, turning with his elite Gold-Excavators to charge at the pursuing White Lion Cavalry.

"Go! Hurry!"

"Don't let down the President's good intentions!"

Dai Longmei exchanged a glance with Dragon Bamboo and Dai Yousheng, and the two men quickly organized the brothers on the left and right wings into a triangular formation, galloping down the wide road.

This broad asphalt road, built by the civilization of the old days, though weathered by years of wind and frost, was protected by a thin layer of void qi and had not yet completely collapsed.

"Hah!"

A hundred-strong cavalry troop rapidly trampled forward along the ancient road.

Behind them, however, more than a dozen White Lion riders had already relied on their speed to bypass the Gold-Excavators' blocking force, charging straight toward Dai Longmei and her group!

"Lord Na's order! None shall harm the key!"

"Disobeyers will be beheaded!"

"Understood!"

The White Lion hags uttered shrill, piercing screeches, their longbows frantically showering void-infused arrows upon the retainers.

Although the void qi in the Jade Realm was currently weakened, and the power of the arrows was inferior to the conquest at East Pine, the retainers could still sense an invisible, nameless flame burning alongside the arrows that grazed past their bodies.

"Damn it, they really have the same freakish strength as you and Bamboo!"

Dai Yousheng had learned of the existence of void qi from Dai Longmei, Lili, and the others, but now, clashing with enemies wielding true void qi for the first time, he still felt a trace of tension.

"Uncle Yousheng, leave them to Lili, Bamboo, and..."

"And me~"

Sitting behind the horse, the fox-girl smiled and blinked at Lili.

"This wretch!"

Lili looked at Fox, feeling an increasing sense of disgust. Yet perhaps this seductive princess from Fulin could truly help them.

"Bamboo!"

"Yeah!"

"Let's fall back to the rear guard!"

The two slowed their pace, intending to head to the back to intercept this squad of pursuing White Lion Cavalry.

"Whoosh!"

The deputy squadron commander of the White Lion Cavalry, charging at the front, raised her hand and loosed an arrow directly at Dai Yousheng, who was supervising the right wing.

"Agh!"

Dai Yousheng let out a miserable scream, tumbling off his horse.

"Uncle Yousheng!"

"Ha, so much for the invincible three thousand retainers, what a joke..."

"Whoosh!"

With the sound of a bowstring, the deputy commander's smile quickly vanished.

For Dai Yousheng leaped back up from the side of his horse, his sixty-pound horn bow pulled to its maximum draw, and loosed an armor-piercing arrow straight at the deputy commander.

"What?"

The deputy commander, who had inwardly looked down upon the Sky-Jade people, was forced to hastily generate a void shield for defense.

An uninfused arrow could naturally never pierce her void shield, but the equally arrogant white lion beneath her failed to even generate a surrounding void shield. The bronze arrow predictably pierced its left leg.

The white lion fell with a bitter howl, throwing the dainty Star-girl riding atop it headlong into the dirt.

"Uncle Yousheng! Awesome!"

Dragon Bamboo couldn't help laughing out loud, but when he saw Dai Yousheng's left arm—hit by the void-infused arrow and slowly burning—his laughter died in his throat.

"I heard you and Plum say that void fire, once touched, can never be shaken off!"

"For someone like me who doesn't know void qi,"

"There is only one way now."

Dai Yousheng drew his jade sword, and with one swift stroke of his hand,

"Slash!"

The arm tainted with void fire was immediately severed, tumbling down into the sand sea.

"Uncle Yousheng!"

Lili shrieked at the bloody spectacle.

"It's fine~"

Dai Longmei wore the expression of a spectator watching a play.

"You know why our Liaodong retainers haven't had many die off to this day?"

Lili looked closely and saw that the stump, which should have been gushing blood, was already dry. Even as they spoke, Dai Yousheng's wound had begun to heal, sprouting a mass of granulation tissue that grew at a visible rate.

"An hour, and a new arm will be ready."

"Too bad~ I just clipped the fingernails on that arm the day before yesterday, and now I'll have to trim this one too~"

The galloping retainers burst into earth-shaking laughter.

"Damn... monsters..."

The pursuing White Lion Cavalry couldn't help but shudder at the sight, even though these void-wielding hags were monsters themselves.

"Bamboo!"

"Yeah!"

"Serve these wretched scum some void-infused arrows!"

The twanging snap of bowstrings rang out, and several void-infused arrows slammed like swift falcons into the slightly flustered White Lion Cavalry.

"Watch out!"

"Agh!"

"Retaliate! Quickly!"

Dai Longmei and Dragon Bamboo held the rear of the cavalry column, drawing their bows left and right. The void qi on both their bodies surged; even Dragon Bamboo, who had only recently mastered void qi, wielded it with exceptional fluency due to frequent guidance from an enigmatic master in his dreams.

Fast, accurate, and lethal arrows pierced the skulls of the white lions, and with the aid of void qi, the bronze arrows even penetrated the iron-scale armor of the White Lion riders.

The arrogant white lions tumbled and fell like barrels. Although their masters escaped mortal peril thanks to fine iron armor and enveloping void shields, they were inevitably covered in dust and battered all over.

"White Lion Cavalry, nothing special after all~"

Lili, who had always feared the White Lion Cavalry, now lifted her chin high and spat void-bullets at the demons that had tormented her for so long.

Mortals devoid of void qi were wantonly raining a storm of arrows down upon the void-wielders pursuing them—a sight unseen before in the virtually qi-barren Jade Realm.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Sitting on the ground, the deputy commander shed a few tiny tears of frustration, ruining the blue eye-shadow she had painstakingly applied at the camp that morning.

"Heh-heh, the Young General and the brothers are truly mighty~"

Fox had remained seated behind Dai Longmei all this time, neither striking back nor dodging the flying arrows. Yet bizarrely, not a single White Lion rider attacked her, causing Dai Longmei and Lili to eye her with heightened suspicion.

The Liaodong warhorses galloped swiftly toward the West Gate of the main city, but the diverting Gold-Excavators were not as fortunate as the Sky-Jade retainers.

Liu Huaxi led his elite brothers in a desperate charge against the oncoming White Lion Cavalry.

A cavalry force of several hundred men, each clad in leather armor and wielding sharp blades, theoretically possessed a momentum superior to the seventy-odd White Lion riders.

Yet accompanied by the roars of the white lions, a rain of void-infused arrows shattered the formation of the Gold-Excavator elites instantly.

The void-infused arrows, wreathed in deep blue void qi, punched through the leather armor and flesh of the Gold-Excavators, churning their organs as they burned.

Even the slowly burning void fire was enough to cause these mortals—lacking the constitution of Liaodong retainers—to thoroughly lose their balance and tumble from their horses.

The surviving Gold-Excavator elites were then subjected to the slashing blades wielded by the White Lion Cavalry. Fierce battle-lions smashed into the horses of the Gold-Excavators like thunderbolts, biting through their windpipes.

Deep blue longswords bit through the throats and bodies of the Gold-Excavators like venomous snakes, spewing a venom called blue void fire that stained the desolate sandy ground into a bizarre realm intertwined with void fire and blood.

"President! Run! Hurry..."

"Ptoo!"

After a brief melee lasting barely two quarters of an hour, the seventy-odd White Lion riders suffered zero casualties while surrounding Liu Huaxi completely.

The more than two hundred Gold-Excavator elites who had followed him—brothers of blood and birth who had traveled far and wide through countless dungeons—had all perished in battle.

Liu Huaxi had long anticipated this outcome.

Gold-Excavators, possessing neither void qi nor the physical combat techniques of the retainers, were simply no match for warriors of the White Lion Cavalry's caliber.

All four hundred-plus brothers he brought along had thus fallen in battle.

But they had bought time—enough time for Dai Longmei and Lili to enter the West Gate.

Once inside that massive, chaotic main city, the likelihood of these few dozen White Lion riders quickly finding Lili and her physical body would be slim.

With his left leg struck by a void-infused arrow and the void fire beginning to burn slowly, dragging this mortal vessel devoid of void qi, Liu Huaxi—or rather, White Tiger—nevertheless let out a hearty, booming laugh.

"Damned mortals!"

Though her White Lion Cavalry had brilliantly slaughtered the enemy, Thorna felt not a shred of joy.

She had just learned via telepathic transmission that the deputy squadron commander sent to intercept Dai Longmei and the others had failed, even losing several sisters and white lions.

Meanwhile, this mortal about to be consumed by void fire had delayed them for the precious time they needed.

Now, the hard-earned key was slipping away into the even harder-to-track main city.

Thorna was consumed by blazing fury.

She neither wanted nor could afford to fail the commander's trust once more.

The tall warrior raised her bloodthirsty sword and lunged toward the kneeling Liu Huaxi.

"Hmph~ What took you so long~"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A dense volley of gunfire erupted from around the sand dunes.

A rain of small-caliber rifle rounds battered the surroundings from all directions.

"Damn it! What is that?"

Despite being protected by surrounding and thick void shields, the White Lion riders were suppressed by this concentrated barrage. Unlucky sisters were pierced through the flesh by bullets and collapsed to the ground.

"Damn it, is that false god's helper here again?"

Frela searched frantically for the shooters, but her void qi detection picked up no trace. Protected though they were by void shields, the White Lion riders crumbled under the intense firepower.

"Fall back! Evacuate here! Take the detour and pursue!"

In panic, the White Lion riders abandoned the main road and fled into the sand dunes beside it.

"Lass~"

Dozens of fighters clutching bullpup assault rifles emerged from concealment near the dunes, wearing camouflage ghillie suits. Their trigger-fingering hands, however, were entirely skeletal in appearance.

Only their leader was an exception—not a skeleton, but a masked, shapely woman wearing a baseball cap.

She tossed her ponytail and hoisted up the fallen Liu Huaxi.

"Brother White Tiger~ How so battered~"

"It breaks this little sister's heart."