651: Fearing For Their Lives

Fearing For Their Lives

Face to face with these masked figures, the Witch stared at them dead in the eyes. 0

"I had a strange feeling and now I know why. To think that we'd have a few people on our tails like this. So, tell me, what is it that you're going to do now?" she asked them. 

Ying Yi looked at her, shifting his eyes over to the others. 

He didn't even take another second to decide as his hand moved swiftly, grabbing something from the folds of his sleeves and throwing it at the ground. A small crack came, followed by a hissing sound as some sort of gas burst out. It was thicker than mist and billowed outward, expanding quickly. 

Just like that, no one could be seen. 

Seconds later, the members of the Azure Wind Kingdom quickly burst out of the fog. There was only one option in their minds. 

Flee. 

"Even with everyone here, we can't contend with her. She's leagues beyond our level."

Ying Yi and everyone else understood this fully well.

Staying and fighting meant death for them and that was not something they wanted. On top of that, their main goal was to only observe and follow, not fight. But with such commotion, the night watch would notice sooner or later and once they did, everyone was up in arms. 

"We have rats on our tail?! Where are they?!"

"Are we going to taste blood tonight?!"

Ying Yi's group could hear them, the shouting and the hooting as the camped cultivators went on the move. But none of them cared about that, what they needed to watch for were the leaders, the six members of the Fourteen Evils, especially the Witch. 

Staying in the rear of the group, Ying Yi glanced over his shoulder seeing shadows coming after them. 

"They're catching up."

Muttering to himself, he took out several other things, throwing them out behind him. More smoke came out as blinding light constantly flashed out. All of them carried such tools to aid them in escape, tossing out one thing after another. 

So long as they could lose those six individuals, they would live to see another day. 

Unfortunately, that was nothing more than wishful thinking. 

"Really now, such cheap tricks won't be enough."

The Witch's voice echoed throughout the forests as everyone suddenly heard tapping just faintly in their ears. But then the sound grew louder and louder before it was drumming into their ears. All of them cried out in pain, clutching their heads as the drumming only grew louder. 

"Ugh, agh! Stop this! Please!" 

None of them could endure it for long, falling to the ground, twisting, and turning. Meanwhile, a figure slowly made her way there, taping away with her staff. 

"Really, did you think you could just run off like that?"

It was none other than the Witch. This old woman looked down at them with interest. The sunken cheeks, the pale skin, she was like a denizen from hell, an inevitable force. 

Moments later, the other members of the Fourteen Evils soon joined her, standing by her side while staring at the dozen or so unconscious people. Soon after that, the followers finally reached their location, grabbing Ying Yi and the others to bring them back to the campsite.

"Who are they?" one of them asked. 

She didn't bother looking over and instead turned around. 

"Whoever they are, I have new test subjects now. I was beginning to think that these next few days of traveling were going to be boring but... never mind."

Walking away, one could hear the tapping of her staff even as she was long gone. 

Elsewhere, Ming Yue was flying through the air, just above the trees. Both Xiao Yin and Hei Yue were behind her, keeping up with the pace. Their surroundings were nothing more than a blur. 

"Hm, it shouldn't be too long before we reach the borders. Hopefully, Ying Yi is getting ready to move", she thought to herself. 

"Still, Zhi Jinguo, the Witch. Let alone the other five, just dealing with her is going to be difficult. There's not much known about how she fights as she's mainly focused on her research and has other people help her. The only thing I could find is that there's something about her staff. At least with the Ogre or the others, there was more information about them but for her... there's barely anything." 

This was troubling for the young cultivator. After all, not knowing the enemy's real capabilities is a massive disadvantage. Going into a fight blind is much worse than fighting against a stronger person that you know more about. At the very least, there'd be some expectation but for the Witch. the only thing she could find aside from the experiments was a warning about her staff. 

Ming Yue didn't even know what the staff will even do.

"I suppose the best move is to just observe", she muttered to herself. 

Reaching into her spatial ring, she took out the white jade and noticed its glow. 

"Hm, a message, I wonder what he has to say."

Putting it close to her ears, she activated the jade and listened closely. It was a short message and one that seemed to go in and out. 

"We've bee... found...don't come... for us..."

Her eyes widened as she looked at the white communication jade, putting it close to her ear and listening again. 

"They were found?!" 

She quickly moved, putting the communication jade away before glancing back at the two beasts. 

"I'm going to move ahead!"

Giving them a fair warning, her armor suddenly transformed, greedily eating up her energy while doubling her speed. She shot off, flying even faster than before. Both the owl and the fox understood, picking up speed and following her but they could not keep up. 

The gap widened as Ming Yue's pace slowly grew quicker and quicker. Even the clouds of the night sky seemed to be moving fast now. 

"It shouldn't take me long now. It's a good thing that he gave me their location earlier."

She was nothing more than a blur, leaving behind a trail of her silhouette. Ying Yi might've been willing to die for this but she was not going to let such a thing happen. Sometime later, just as the moon had set, a clearing emerged from the horizon, one with several burning campfires. 

Slowing down to a stop, her armor returned to its original form. 

"That must be it."

Thinking this, Ming Yue descended, entering the shadows of the trees before moving closer for a better look. She didn't get too close, examining the area dozens of meters away. As her eyes glossed over everything, she noticed the biggest group of people, all of them dressed differently with hooded uniforms. 

"Must be the Witch's followers, so each campfire represents a member of the Fourteen evils then."

And near the center of the camp was a group of people huddled together, away from the fires. All of them wore black uniforms and none of them had their masks on. Their faces were beaten and bruised while their clothes were a mess. 

All of them stared down at the ground, unmoving and quiet. It seems like even with the pain that was inflicted by the Evil Cultivators, none of them would speak. 

Then, she noticed something. 

"There's twelve of them but... where's Ying Yi?"

Strangely enough, the leader of this group was nowhere to be found but it didn't take very long for her to find his location. Among the tents that had been set up, only one was still lit and there seemed to be quite a bit of a bustle. 

"So he's there then but that's her tent."

As soon as she realized this, there was a shout of pain from that very tent, breaking the silence. 

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