Volcanic Age

Chapter 25: A Hero Speaks with His Back (2)

Zhou Xuchuan shouted confidently and lunged again. His target this time was Mo Yuanjia.

"Wh-what are you all doing?!" Mo Yuanjia stepped backward in fear. The tyranny from when he burst the door open was no longer there.

"Take care of that guy first!"

He no longer called Zhou Xuchuan a kid or a brat.

"B-big brother. He's apparently a swordsman from the Mount Hua Sect," a cultivator spoke in fear as he now stood at the forefront because of the demise of the larger man. His body trembled slightly.

Mount Hua Sect. That name struck fear into the hearts of lower-ranked Evil Valley cultivators.

"A-and seeing as how he doesn't look even twenty…"

"He must be from the Lotus Pavilion!"

Everyone present knew what it meant when a disciple of Mount Hua was out in the world training when they hadn't reached the age of twenty.

The Lotus Pavilion was a group of talents that Mount Hua protected. They couldn't touch a member of that group so easily in fear of retaliation.

"You idiots!" Mo Yuanjia shouted. His face flushed red with anger, veins bulging in his neck. "So you're planning to just retreat here? Everyone knows there are only injured people here. If we run away, forget mockery, our lives will be over!"

They had split off a hundred cultivators as a diversion, which meant that the damage to their main forces would increase. They had to conquer Weng'An town and take every inhabitant hostage.

"And even if he's a disciple of Mount Hua, or even the Lotus Pavilion, he's just a kid who's fifteen at most!"

Mo Yuanjia kicked the backs of the retreating cultivators.

"In the first place, the fact that he was left behind while the Fourteenth Sword Hero is in battle means that he lacks skill! Don't be scared, subdue him, you incompetent lot!"

Whether they were persuaded or stricken with fear after what Mo Yuanjia said, the cultivators from Evil Valley gripped their swords, most focusing on Zhou Xuchuan.

"You guys are more talkative than the orthodox cultivators."

Zhou Xuchuan wiped the smile from his face and tightened his grip on his sword.

"Enough chatter, let our swords do the talking!"

At Zhou Xuchuan's words, the cultivators of Evil Valley and the Weng'An branch clashed again.

"Remember what Young Hero Zhou told us!" shouted the Second-Class cultivator, who went around supporting areas the Third-Class cultivators had a hard time defending.

Around thirty minutes prior, Zhou Xuchuan devised a makeshift plan with the cultivators present. At first, they didn't even listen to him; they all thought that he was incompetent.

When that happened, Zhou Xuchuan had told them, "I'll spread rumors that you all ran away to survive and died while trying to steal wealth. If you're cultivators with a family at home, you know what will happen to them, right?"

"A demon! There's a demon here!"

They had no choice but to comply.

They had practically resigned themselves to their fate, so they didn't cause a fuss and listened to Zhou Xuchuan's instructions obediently.

The plan wasn't anything special, in fact, it was very simple. All they had to do was to stand guard in front of the doorway so that their enemies couldn't barge in all at once.

Another part of the plan was that the Second-Class cultivator would support areas that looked like they would be broken through. Meanwhile, Zhou Xuchuan would stand in the center and defeat the cultivators of the Evil Valley one by one to secure victory.

When they first heard of the plan, the cultivators thought that Zhou Xuchuan was crazy, or had too much confidence in his martial prowess. It couldn't really be helped, however, as he was only a twelve-year-old kid, even if he was from the Lotus Pavilion. Not only that, this was also his first time out in the world.

They didn't even know how he would react to his first kill, and yet he told them to leave everything to him? Of course they would find it ridiculous.

The problem was that the cultivators from Evil Valley closed in before they could object to the plan, and they all started the mission in despair.

Yet, to their amazement, the plan was successful.

At this point, it wasn't the plan itself. It was Zhou Xuchuan's astounding martial prowess that left them dumbfounded.

However, after he defeated one person, followed by another three in an instant, they started believing in him.

They didn't understand how Zhou Xuchuan's martial prowess defied common sense. However, as hope of survival overshadowed their confusion, they couldn't contain their joy.

"Left wing, watch out! You're going too far. I get that you're enthusiastic, but we're outnumbered, so calm down!"

Zhou Xuchuan instructed, swinging his sword as he assessed the battle. Though inexperienced, Zhou Xuchuan had some experience commanding others before he regressed.

"Yes!" replied a Third-Class cultivator earnestly, the despair of moments ago replaced by determination.

They were outnumbered, and their morale was low. There seemed to be no hope, and everything felt gloomy.

Behind them lay the injured, and those unable to fight, hiding and trembling. They were ashamed of themselves for thinking of abandoning those people, even if it was just for a brief moment. They repented and took action.

There is hope.

The Third-Class cultivators saw hope.

There is the sturdy back of Mount Hua.

They saw the back of someone more reliable than anyone else, the back of a boy who couldn't even be called a youth. It might be embarrassing, but they relied on the back of such a boy and fought vigorously.

"Die!" shouted a cultivator from the Evil Valley.

Zhou Xuchuan pulled out his sword embedded in the chest of the cultivator in front of him and spun around on the spot while swinging his sword.

Swoosh-!

The sword sliced through the air, drawing a horizontal line.

"Hup!" The cultivator from the Evil Valley jerked his head backward as if anticipating the strike. The tip of the sword barely scratched his chin.

"Hahaha! It's over now!" shouted the Evil Valley cultivator triumphantly.

No matter how powerful Zhou Xuchuan was, he would need time to retract his sword. The cultivator tried to swing his sword before he could regain his footing.

"Oho, you're quite skilled," Zhou Xuchuan praised. At the same time, he put strength in his legs. His well-trained leg muscles tensed. Then, he circulated qi into his toes and kicked the cultivator in the shin.

"Argh!"

The sound of bones snapping filled the air as the cultivator collapsed, his leg giving way before he could swing his sword.

"H-he's supposed to be a swordsman from Mount Hua, so why the hell…"

Orthodox cultivators, especially those who prided in their sword techniques like those from Mount Hua, usually avoided using techniques that weren't sword arts. They might have trained in the Plum Blossom Fist Technique, but some members even took their own lives if they lost their swords during battle.

Considering that, the Evil Valley cultivator couldn't understand why this young boy in front of him, who belonged to the esteemed Lotus Pavilion of Mount Hua, would use his feet.

"I rarely resort to it either unless I'm in real danger. Also, when you've been through enough wars, orthodox cultivators are bound to loosen their pride a bit."

Zhou Xuchuan also used to be a stereotypical orthodox cultivator in that sense. However, desperation and a few life-and-death battles changed his mindset.

This didn't only apply to Zhou Xuchuan. The orthodox cultivators with stiff mindsets encountered all sorts of changes during the Era of War and Chaos.

"Spare me…"

"What was that? Couldn't hear ya."

Slash-!

The head of an Evil Valley cultivator rolled off.

"Hieek!"

The cultivators from Evil Valley, who were planning to force their way in, all fell back in fear. The cultivators waiting behind them also paled.

As Third-Class cultivators, they were powerless against such overwhelming might.

Evil cultivators didn't really value pride or reputation either, so fear quickly spread among them.

"H-he's taken down thirty people already!" someone exclaimed in fright.

The hundred cultivators at the beginning were now down to seventy.

"Think about it differently! He fought thirty people, so he must be exhausted!" Mo Yuanjia shouted desperately.

We can't fall back here. The others may have it easier off, but as the person in command, they'll track me down even if I run away.

Mo Yuanjia gulped. As someone in command, he had an easier time accumulating achievements, but the punishments were just as harsh. This was particularly the case for Evil Valley, where the rules were merciless.

"Push forward! Push! Push them back!" Mo Yuanjia kicked the back of the subordinate cultivators. He raised his sword and shouted. "Anyone who brings me the head of that kid, I will report you to the superiors and have them bestow you a gold coin!"

Mo Yuanjia had no such authority. He just said anything out of fear.

"Raaaaah!"

The cultivators reacted to the word gold coin. Evil cultivators, especially those at the bottom of the rung, coveted material wealth instead of pride and reputation.

"Th-this is bad!"

The Second-Class cultivator from the Weng'An branch became pale. They had been holding off well, but they had a harder time holding the line steady when the cultivators from Evil Valley all charged at once in agitation.

Although they had been passive thanks to Zhou Xuchuan's absolute display of skills, now it was the opposite.

"Y-young Hero Zhou!" cried the Second-Class cultivator.

The Third-Class cultivators also flinched and started being pushed back.

Oh, no!

Zhou Xuchuan attempted to go back quickly.

"Die!"

However, the cultivators from the Evil Valley blocked his path. Although they weren't much of a threat to him, they prevented him from helping his allies.

Just as he thought that they might break through, he heard someone's voice on the battlefield.

"Hey you punks!"

Kaboom!

He didn't know what it was, but there was an explosive sound.

Whizz!

Before he could even discern what the noise was, something fell on the heads of the Evil Valley cultivators.

"Arrgh!"

"Ack, where are these coming from?!"

Screams erupted everywhere. The cultivators from Evil Valley, who were charging like boars, all stood back in fright.

What fell on their heads were at least twenty arrows.

"...Hahaha!"

Zhou Xuchuan was also in the range of the arrows because he was in the middle of the Evil Valley cultivators. However, he didn't take any damage because he deflected them with his sword.

Amidst the chaos stood Zhuge Shengji, holding a section of bamboo with a rope attached, his expression furious.

"The Zhuge Family is truly a hot mess alright."

Bamboo crossbow.

It was a type of hidden weapon where dozens of arrows were put inside a bamboo, which were fired by pulling on a rope attached to it.

Originally, it started being used decades from now, during the Era of War and Chaos, as a new weapon invented by the Tang Clan in Sichuan.

But somehow, a member of the Zhuge Family was using the bamboo crossbow, not the Tang Clan, decades earlier.

In other words…

"Shengji developed a hidden weapon, so they couldn't use it because of their pride as orthodox cultivators, so they sold it to the Tang Clan?"

He felt displeased, but at the same time, it gave him conviction.

"Haha, success!"

Zhuge Shengji raised the bamboo crossbow in the air and rejoiced. It was pure joy stemming from the success of a trial.

He's the Posthumous Genius without a doubt!