Severing Time & Space

A Call For Aid

While the Wu Clan primarily used carrier pigeons to deliver missives, they did have one peregrine falcon that had been trained to deliver letters over vast distances. It was capable of traveling two-hundred forty miles per hour. The Imperial Capital was twenty thousand miles away, which meant it would take around sixty-six hours for the peregrine falcon to reach it.

Taking into consideration how long it would take for reinforcements to arrive, supposing the king even deigned to send them, Wu Jian believed they would need to hold out for at least one week.

One week locked away in this compound as their enemies assaulted them from all sides.

Their prospects weren't looking good.

Only a few hours had passed since Father and Wu Taohua returned with the rest of their beaten forces. Father was resting in the hospital. According to Wu Shaolin, he would not recover for over a week, which meant they could not rely on him for support. Fortunately, the three elders who had gone off to fight against the Juishi Family had returned. They were currently overseeing the defense of the compound.

"We should expect them to come soon," Elder Wu Jinsu was saying. "They have us on the retreat, our leader is out of commission, and our morale has never been lower. Now is the perfect time for them to attack."

"Let's not forget the former elder Wu—sorry, former head elder Wei is with them," said Elder Lin. "He knows the Wu Clan compound just as well as we do. Having been the head elder for several decades, he might even know of a hidden passage that we are unaware of. Do you think they could sneak in here undetected?"

"We've already checked the area for secret passages and found nothing." Elder Wu Jinsu shook his head. "We've scoured literally every hū of this compound and found nothing. I doubt there's a hidden passage that will let them enter unnoticed. However, that doesn't mean we can relax. The former head elder is knowledgeable about the surrounding forests and will no doubt use his superior numbers to his advantage."

Because Father was not able to lead them, Wu Taohua was temporarily in charge. She sat on the chair normally reserved for Wu Jian's father. Her expression was cold as she gazed one by one at the elders.

"I've taken a measure of their total forces. The Ming and Juishi Families combined have about one hundred people. The Fierce Tiger Sect has two hundred people, which means we are dealing with an estimated total of three hundred people give or take. Most of them are only at the Body Forging Realm. However, there are maybe one hundred who have reached the Hunger Realm and both the former head elder and the Fierce Tiger's sect leader have reached the Asura Realm."

All the elders and even Wu Jian, who was sitting in on this meeting because of his position as clan heir, sucked in a breath. Within the Wu Clan, there were only two people who had reached the Asura Realm: Wu Taohua and Father.

Wu Taohua was at the first subrealm of the Asura Realm and Father had been sitting at the ninth subrealm for some time now. After them, the strongest person in the clan was Elder Wu Jinsu, who had reached the ninth subrealm of the Hunger Realm not long ago.

"The former head elder must have been given a lot of alchemy pills that forced him to breakthrough. It would have been impossible for him otherwise," Elder Wu Jinsu said.

"We should have never kicked Wu out of the clan," Elder Wu Nin shouted suddenly.

Elder Lin stroked his beard. "I'm not sure how you can say that. The former head elder tried to use subterfuge to steal the title of clan head from Lord Yōushì by allying with the Ming Family. If anything, kicking him out was lenient."

"But look at what's happened! Now we have to face two families and the Fierce Tiger Sect!" Elder Wu Nin screeched. "All of this is Lord Yōushì's fault! If he hadn't banished Head Elder Wu Wei from the clan, then we—"