Chapter 62: A Misstep in the Saddle

"Run towards the tower, Wind Chaser!"

"You can do it!"

Little Wind Chaser ran forward, huffing and puffing.

As a proud Liaodong warhorse, it thundered its hooves, struggling onward along the ash-grey, lifeless main avenue of the city.

Dai Longmei tightened his grip with his knees, urging the little steed beneath him to run faster.

All around them, void-bound arrows continued to rain down like a hailstorm.

"Damn it!"

Dai Longmei furiously grabbed his horn bow.

The bowstring pulled taut with a sharp twang, and jade-qi surged onto the arrowhead in a flash.

The void-infused arrow pierced through the clouds, flying straight toward the forehead of a White Lion Rider pressing close on their right.

The White Lion Rider hurriedly conjured a thick void-shield to block it.

Yet this time, with the void-qi of the Jade Realm already weakened, the void-shields relied upon by the hags could no longer protect them effectively.

With a soft *thud*, the arrow tore through bone and brain matter, and the hag tumbled lifelessly from her lion.

"Ha! You think you're the only ones with arrows!"

"Jade-dweller, face your doom!"

On the left flank, a white lion's razor-sharp claws lashed out ahead of its master's roar, aiming straight for Wind Chaser's hindquarters.

The ferocious pounce shattered the thick void-shield near the horse's flank.

"Not a chance!"

Lily leaped backward from the front, spitting a void-bullet that smashed fiercely into the white lion's claws.

*Boom!*

The burning, sky-blue void-fire scorched the white lion's fur and flesh, and the beast whimpered, retracting its paw in agony.

"Hag, looking to die in a rush?"

Dai Longmei swiftly stowed his bow and drew his sword.

His left hand wielded the jade blade, slashing with lightning speed toward the White Lion Rider's right arm.

*Clang!*

The White Lion Rider's longsword blocked the strike, but as noted before, the void-qi of ordinary White Lion Riders had waned considerably.

As for Dai Longmei and Lily, though they were also affected by the closing of the void-gates and the rising void-walls, the void-qi within their bodies was noticeably much more abundant.

*Bang!*

With a single strike, the jade sword knocked the hag's longsword from her grip, followed immediately by a clean, decisive slash.

Blood immediately gushed forth from the beautiful, swan-like neck of the White Lion Rider.

"You... impossible..."

Blood choked her windpipe, and she tumbled head over heels onto the gravel of the road.

"Well done, Plum!"

Lily wagged her tail happily, then blasted a dazed white lion onto its back with a single void-bullet.

"Haha! How come I feel like these beasts' void-qi is even weaker than ours now!"

Though the remaining void-qi in his body was not vast, Dai Longmei still felt much stronger than usual White Lion Riders.

Lily felt the exact same way.

"You're still laughing! You can still laugh..."

"Sob, sob... Oh heavens, I was wrong."

"I shouldn't have schemed to take back my true form."

"Sob, sob... I should have waited until you found First Sister's body..."

"Sob, sob... and asked you for it properly..."

"I'm such an absolute fool, sob, sob!"

Watching void-arrows whizz right past her head, the Nine-Tailed Fox clinging to the horse's head wept like a three-year-old child.

First she was hunted down madly by the star-person hags, and then she stumbled by mistake into a battlefield of the old days.

The Nine-Tailed Fox, who had never fought a day in her life, now felt her death was imminent.

If not for the shred of pride she maintained as a supposedly beautiful maiden, she probably would have pissed herself out of sheer terror long ago.

"Stop sobbing, you big-chested, chicken-hearted eight-tailed fox!"

Lily was clearly still holding a grudge over how those large breasts had pressed against Dai Longmei earlier.

"Navigate our way properly!"

"Sob..."

"Still sobbing?"

Catching sight of the void-bullet forming in Lily's mouth, the Nine-Tailed Fox instantly became obedient.

"Left turn at the intersection ahead!"

"Then go just over two kilometers and we'll almost be there!"

"Will you explain what the hell a kilometer even is?!"

Dai Longmei roared, his blade moving like a swimming dragon as he parried the White Lion Riders attacking from both flanks with a flurry of *clang, clang, clang* sounds.

"Four *li*! It's four *li*, alright!"

"Damn it, old fox, can't you speak in terms people understand!"

"Sob..."

"Don't you dare sob!"

"Sob..."

*Crack!*

Coated in jade-qi, the jade sword sliced straight through a White Lion Rider's fine iron brigandine, severing her right arm in an instant.

"No!"

Gritting her teeth like a madwoman, the White Lion Rider forced her white lion to ram straight into Wind Chaser, attempting to use the beast's bodily void-qi to tear through their increasingly fragile void-shield.

"Get down with you!"

Lily delivered a timely void-bullet that pierced right through the White Lion Rider's unprotected temple.

The glamorous hag immediately tumbled onto the gravel pile by the roadside, turning into a heap of limp flesh.

The young White Lion Rider on the right knew she was no match for this husband-and-wife duo, so she hurriedly fired an arrow and retreated backward.

"Hehe~ Coward, realized you're scared now, have you?"

"Want to run?"

Dai Longmei wanted to put an arrow into the fleeing White Lion Rider, but when he checked his interspatial ring with his consciousness, he thought, *Damn it, not a single arrow left!*

Though the interspatial ring could hold thousands of items, before entering the Western Wastelands this time, he had only brought a little over a hundred arrows.

Given Dai Longmei's habit of infallible archery, this number of arrows would certainly have been enough back when he subjugated the northern wolf tribes.

Who could have anticipated that a trip to the capital city would be so perilous? The hundred-plus arrows had already been shot away down to the last one.

"Well, this is just great..."

Dai Longmei was just about to sigh when an angry roar from a war-lion echoed beside him.

He saw a tall, silver-grey war-lion lunging rapidly from the right. Treading over the gravel on the road, it leaped right up beside Wind Chaser.

Wind Chaser noticed the danger as well, the little horse instinctively lashing out with a kick at the pouncing war-lion.

However, the tall, silver-grey war-lion agilely dodged the horse's hooves and immediately snapped its jaws toward the void-shield beside Wind Chaser.

"Oh no!"

Having galloped for so long and fought through several battles, the void-shield that Dai Longmei and the others maintained around Wind Chaser could no longer hold.

The war-lion's razor-sharp teeth tore the void-shield apart.

"Dai Longmei!"

Thorner's furious roar rang in their ears at almost the exact same moment.

"Hand over the key!"

"Never!"

Seeing the silver-grey war-lion about to sink its teeth into Wind Chaser's thigh, Lily quickly spat a void-bullet at the beast.

*Bang!*

The void-bullet struck the war-lion directly on the head, only to be blocked by the void-shield surrounding its body.

"Roar!"

Accompanied by another angry roar, the massive body slammed straight into Wind Chaser.

Already physically exhausted, Wind Chaser was struck by the sudden, violent impact and immediately overturned and collapsed.

"Wind Chaser!"

Dai Longmei tried to pull tight on the reins to control their direction, but Thorner unleashed a heavy cleaving strike, his greatsword swinging down like a giant axe straight toward Wind Chaser's head.

"Hah!"

In his desperation, Dai Longmei let out a fierce roar, stepping forward to meet Thorner's thunderous blow with his jade sword.

*Clang!*

Another ringing clash of steel resounded, and Dai Longmei, Lily, and the Nine-Tailed Fox were thrown from Wind Chaser, sent flying several meters away from the horse.

"Brace for impact!"

Seeing that they were about to crash into the wreckage of a tank behind them, Dai Longmei and Lily hurriedly channeled their qi to patch up their shattered personal void-shields, barely avoiding broken necks.

As for the Nine-Tailed Fox, she performed a comical somersault in mid-air and landed squarely atop the broken barrel of the wreckage.

"Ugh~ Damn it..."

Dai Longmei rubbed his dizzy head, only to see Wind Chaser lying overturned on the ground.

"Wind Chaser! Wind Chaser!"

Dai Longmei rushed to his beloved steed's side, only to find a huge gash torn into Wind Chaser's right leg, with blood continuously gushing out.

The pain wrung a miserable whinny from the little horse.

"Wind Chaser! Hang in there, Wind Chaser!"

This little horse had accompanied Dai Longmei through over a decade of bitter cold in the northern territories of Tianyu.

No matter what happened, Dai Longmei would never abandon this steed.

On the ash-grey, pitted road, dozens of White Lion Riders closed in, the white lions beneath them emitting greedy, savage growls.

After all, a downed horse made for a lavish feast.

The hags looked at the key that was now within their grasp, satisfied smiles blooming on their faces.

"Dammit... Without a horse, we'll never outrun these things on foot..."

A flicker of worry crossed Dai Longmei's mind, yet there was no fear in his heart as he raised his jade sword to prepare for battle.

*Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!*

From the road behind them, the roaring engine of an off-road vehicle suddenly cut through the air.

*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!*

Accompanied by dazzling high-beam headlights, the blinded White Lion Riders were soon blanketed by a dense hail of bullets.

The muffled, powerful report of a heavy machine gun echoed across the avenue.

"Chief Staff Officer Dai!"

An armored Tiger vehicle rushed up to Dai Longmei and the others.

The door swung open, and a pair of stunning eyes came into view.

"Get in!"