Backlash Part 2

Chapter 231: Baifeng Mountain - Too Much Blood

Warning: There is a non-canon character death in this chapter

Fierce corpses crawled through the trees like ants. The thick forest of Baifeng mountain made it difficult for Jiang Yanli to gauge their exact numbers. For each one that fell another seemed to emerge from the trees to take their place. There were too many corpses.

Jiang Yanli's night-hunting experience was limited. The first true fights she engaged in were not against any yaoguai on a nighthunt, but were instead against the QishanWen sect cultivators in the fires of battle. Her skills were good. In a generation of talents like the Twin Jades and her own brothers Jiang Yanli was not going to stand out much, but she had come far in a short period of time.

Had she the background of the average cultivator her skills would usually indicate a great deal of experience with yaogaui. The fact that her skills were sharpened in a human war created an odd gap between her fighting skills compared to her experience with yaogaui. She had seen many fierce corpses on the battlefields, but they were not something she had to fight. They were controlled by Wei Wuxian who never would have allowed them to hurt her.

Zidian flashed bright when Jiang Yanli struck the corpses. Quick bursts of violet lightning vanished as quickly as they appeared with every hit. For every corpse that fell another emerged from the trees. Even with Jiang Yanli's limited experience with yaoguai she couldn't believe that this many fierce corpses was a natural occurrence. Even with this being a dedicated hunting ground, surely the LanlingJin sect would regulate the number of fierce corpses on the mountain.

Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan were currently surrounded. Nearby a group of three disciples from the RunanWang sect were struggling to keep from being overwhelmed. If the rest of the mountain was like this it would be a disaster. Most participants would be in small groups on the hunting grounds. Making it easy for them to be surrounded and overwhelmed. Jiang Yanli narrowed her eyes imperceptibly as she took note of the movement of the corpses and the increasingly frantic movements of the RunanWang disciples.

Jiang Yanli flicked Zidian out into a cluster of corpses that separated her and Jin Zixuan from the struggling disciples. The crack of the whip was accompanied by the flash of lightning that knocked all the corpses in the area of Zidian back.

"Follow me!" Jiang Yanli said firmly as she ran through the path she had just cleared.

Jiang Yanli did not look to see if Jin Zixuan was following her. He was a skilled cultivator and had fought in the war as well. There was no room for hesitation in battle. Another crack of Zidian before her scattered the last of corpses separating her from the RunanWang disciples. The corpses wouldn't stay down. The thunder crack of her whip was more useful for disruption and crowd control. Zidian could be lethal, but individual strikes would take more time. That would slow her down in a way they could not afford right now.

"Keep close to me. Kill the corpses that have been thrown off by Zidian when you can, but focus on staying together. Jin-gongzi, cover our backs. I'm going to clear our way forward so we can meet up with the other disciples that are fighting." Jiang Yanli commanded, giving firm eye contact to each disciple briefly before she returned her attention to the fierce corpses.

Jiang Yanli wasn't certain if these disciples had participated in the Sunshot campaign. They were young enough that they might have been recent recruits, or very young survivors from the war. Either way it was a decent bet that Jin Zixuan was probably a better fighter than any of them. He was talented enough to hold his own among the top disciples of their generation and she had actually seen him in a battle before. He had the skills.

Signal flares continued to spark into the sky, guiding Jiang Yanli's direction. By the time she heard the flute music there were close to thirty cultivators following behind her. Jiang Yanli tried not to get her hopes up. There were many GusuLan cultivators on the mountain. Most of them used the guqin, but not all. Zewu-jun himself used a xiao in battle. It could be a GusuLan cultivator playing one of their battle songs.