Chapter 158: Open Assault
"Did the Qian Family's Foundation Establishment cultivators refuse to act because they feared being worn down and then surrounded and killed?" Mo Hua asked.
"Yes, but not entirely," Elder Yu replied. "On one hand, the Qian Family's Foundation Establishment cultivators indeed fear attrition. As long as I take action to hold one of them down, he will not be able to escape and will inevitably die."
"In chaotic battles like this, Foundation Establishment cultivators generally restrain one another and rarely take action lightly. Once they do, it is either to decide victory in a single strike, or because they have some important goal, something that can influence the entire situation."
"On the other hand," Elder Yu smiled faintly, "the Qian Family has more than one Foundation Establishment cultivator…"
Mo Hua frowned slightly. "Isn't that an advantage for them?"
Elder Yu did not answer directly. Instead, he said, "One monk has water to drink, two monks must share the burden, and three monks have no water at all."
"Oh," Mo Hua nodded in sudden understanding. "They all want someone else to take the risk and do the dirty work, while they wait to reap the benefit."
Elder Yu nodded approvingly.
"The Qian Family schemes against itself that badly?"
"Even blood brothers settle accounts clearly. How much more so for a clan with so many branches and tangled interests? They plot against one another constantly. True familial sentiment is rare among them."
Mo Hua nodded again.
No wonder Elder Yu often cursed the Qian Family as a pack of heartless, black-hearted white-eyed wolves.
If they treated their own clansmen so coldly, how could they possibly treat outsiders any better?
"What if all of the Qian Family's Foundation Establishment cultivators come together?" Mo Hua asked.
"I would actually hope they do," Elder Yu raised an eyebrow. "If they all come, then their estates and businesses will be left unguarded. Should any enemies find out, they could plunder everything and slaughter the main bloodline. Now that would be amusing."
A trace of schadenfreude flashed across Elder Yu's expression.
Mo Hua's mouth opened wide. "That kind of thing actually happens?"
"Of course it does. You're still young. Live a few hundred more years and you'll see, there's nothing in this world people won't do, only things you haven't yet imagined."
Mo Hua was genuinely shocked. "Wouldn't the Dao Court Division intervene?"
"They might care, but what's the use after everything's already been robbed and slaughtered?"
Elder Yu nearly swore, but remembering Mo Hua was present, restrained himself somewhat.
"If all the direct descendants are dead and only the Foundation Establishment cultivators survive, then the clan is nothing but an empty shell, outwardly strong, inwardly rotten. Without successors, they'll soon be pushed out of existence."
"Besides, those major industries the Qian Family controls outside, if no Foundation Establishment cultivators are guarding them, any mishap would be catastrophic."
"When a family is that big, maintaining it is difficult. That's why they don't dare send their Foundation Establishment cultivators into battle too early."
So that was the reason.
Mo Hua finally understood.
Seeing Mo Hua's thoughtful look, Elder Yu assumed he was still worried and said reassuringly,
"Don't worry. The Qian Family's Foundation Establishment cultivators look fierce, but they're cowards inside. If one comes, I can handle him easily. Even if two or three come, I still have ways to deal with them."
Mo Hua was astonished. Elder Yu was actually that powerful?
"Elder, are you of high cultivation then?" Mo Hua asked.
"Not particularly," Elder Yu sighed with a bitter smile. "It's not that my cultivation is high, it's that I dare to stake my life in battle, while they do not."
Mo Hua looked at Elder Yu carefully.
Across his wiry arms and dark neck ran numerous pale scars, thin and crisscrossing. Because of his dark complexion, they were not easy to notice.
Those must be wounds left from life-and-death struggles…
Mo Hua thought silently.
Since the Qian Family did not attack, the demon hunters could focus entirely on excavating the spiritual mine. Yet Elder Yu knew the Qian Family would never let the matter rest.
Sure enough, several nights later, the Qian Family came again.
This time, they brought reinforcements, several sturdy earth-element cultivators, fully armored in iron.
This was Qian Zhuang's carefully devised countermeasure.
The Earthfire Array was not particularly powerful; if he could find a few thick-skinned, strong-bodied earth-element cultivators, clad them in iron armor, and simply walk through the array, the problem would be solved.
Once the Earthfire Array was gone, the road ahead would be clear.
Thus, through a mixture of pleading, bribing, and calling in favors, he gathered several earth-element cultivators skilled in body-tempering arts.
He spent nearly all his wealth to buy or borrow several sets of refined iron armor, as well as a few fire-repelling spiritual tools.
Tonight, he would definitely break the Earthfire Array!
(TN: This novel was translated by Aberto D. Tempest. Read latest chapters at "AbertoVerse.com")
And indeed, the situation unfolded exactly as he expected.
The earth-element cultivators in iron armor, carrying fire-repelling tools, charged straight through the seven-rune Earthfire Array, triggering bursts of blazing explosions.
The mountains were filled with deafening booms and blinding firelight.
The erupting fire-element spiritual force battered the iron armor, but most of its power was dispersed. The remaining heat was absorbed by the fire-repelling tools, and even the residual force that reached the cultivators caused only minor injuries.
After several passes, the armored earth-element cultivators successfully trampled through the entire Earthfire Array.
A few suits of armor were damaged; one was even destroyed completely.
Qian Zhuang's heart ached, but he believed the price was worth it.
He had finally broken the Earthfire Array!
Elated and full of confidence, Qian Zhuang led his men past the mountainside that had long haunted him, where he had suffered defeat after defeat.
The Qian Family cultivators finally reached the entrance of the mine and faced the demon hunters directly.
Then, Qian Zhuang suddenly realized something crucial...
Their original strategy had been a stealth attack…
Yet now, groups of demon hunters stood before them in vine armor, fully prepared, calm and composed, staring at them for quite some time.
Meanwhile, the Qian Family cultivators, battered and exhausted from crossing the Earthfire Array, had finally arrived.
Was this what one called a stealth attack?
The demon hunters' gazes were filled with mockery, as though watching fools.
Rage flickered across Qian Zhuang's face, but his heart went cold.
What should they do now?
Fight?
They probably couldn't win.
Retreat?
Then what had they come here for, after all that effort crossing the Earthfire Array?
As Qian Zhuang wavered in confusion, Yu Chengyi had already drawn his blade.
At once, all the demon hunters followed suit, their blades gleaming white in the darkness.
"Kill!"
Yu Chengyi roared. The demon hunters surged forward like a storm, charging at the Qian Family cultivators.
Thus, the Qian Family—who had just spent so much effort to cross the Earthfire Array—were, within moments, driven back in complete disarray.
Qian Zhuang barely managed to escape back to camp, covered in dust, to report the disastrous outcome.
Casualties were inevitable, and several sets of iron armor had been seized.
The demon hunters had aimed first and foremost at the armor; the people wearing it were almost secondary.
Accustomed to butchering demon beasts, the hunters were swift and coordinated. Within a few exchanges, they brought down the armored Qian cultivators, then stripped the armor off them in seconds.
To them, skinning a demon beast was routine, how difficult could removing iron armor be?
Qian Zhuang's heart throbbed with pain and disbelief.
Had he not been so obsessed with the Earthfire Array, he would not have lost sight of their original objective.
A stealth attack turned into a blatant, open assault.
The enemy, well-rested and prepared, crushed them utterly.
Qian Zhuang was seething with fury.
Who the hell had drawn that damned Earthfire Array in the first place?!
(TN: When Qian Family members refer to the Array, it is Earthfire array stacked together and not the Earth-Fire Reforging Array, which is a composite array, not yet studied at First-Grade. Master Qian isn't a First-Grade Formation Master yet.)
(End of Chapter)