Chapter 167: Surrounded

The instant Li Luo's voice fell, his figure had already appeared ten zhang away. Bai Bai Mengmeng hurriedly turned and followed, and Xin Fu twisted his body even more, as if turning into a faint shadow, and bolted after them.

The clean-cut escape of Li Luo's trio also made that Yeh Hua daze for a moment, clearly not expecting this Purple-Glow Squad to be so decisive...

"Where is your pride as a Purple-Glow Squad?!" he roared.

At this moment, shouldn't that Li Luo step forward, let out a great shout, isn't it just thirty people? I'll take them all by myself?!

"Pride my ass, does pride come with score bonuses?!" From far away, Li Luo's voice drifted back.

Yeh Hua gritted his teeth and said: "We chase together! If we let them escape, and they come after us one by one for revenge later, none of us can handle it!"

The captains of some other Gold-Glow Squads, upon hearing this, also nodded forcefully. Indeed, since they had already made a move, they had to see it through to the end. Moreover, if they could eliminate a Purple-Glow Squad, they'd have bragging rights for the whole year. The five Purple-Glow Mentors were watching the field at all times—who knows, they might just decide these squads performed well and had the potential to become Purple-Glow students?

Thus, the next moment, over a dozen Gold-Glow Squads charged out at full speed, pursuing in the direction Li Luo and the others had fled.

Li Luo, fleeing ahead, saw the dust clouds rolling behind him and couldn't help cursing: "Isn't that going too far? Giving the Purple-Glow Squad no face at all?"

"Captain, didn't you say you were going to lead us into a 'slaughter'?" Xin Fu's voice came through.

Li Luo turned a deaf ear, focusing entirely on running. In his heart, however, he noted down this troublemaking squad member who always poked at sore spots, and decided he'd have Bai Mengmeng prepare a big meal for him later.

Still, Bai Bai Mengmeng kindly explained: "We can't really blame the captain. There are too many of them. Even if we could wipe out a few Gold-Glow Squads, we'd eventually fall into massive attrition. And we don't even know if they have reinforcements nearby. So the captain choosing to leave that place was a very rational decision."

"Captain, am I right?"

"Uh..."

Li Luo was stunned. So there could actually be this many reasons? In truth, he had simply seen that the enemy had too many people and didn't want to take them head-on.

"Mm, Bai Mengmeng, you're absolutely right. As captain, I must see further ahead. After all, our goal isn't just to be satisfied with grabbing a few Jin Se Hui Zhang." Still, Li Luo nodded swiftly, his tone unhurried, as if everything were under his control.

"The captain is amazing." Bai Bai Mengmeng sighed in admiration.

Xin Fu was a bit suspicious, then asked: "So we're just going to keep running like this?"

Li Luo glanced back and said: "Not necessarily... This is over a thousand academy points. The fact that they could band together—isn't that itself an opportunity?"

Xin Fu looked at Li Luo with some surprise. He actually wanted to swallow up these dozen-plus Gold-Glow Squads?

But the enemy had overwhelming numbers, and among them were quite a few capable students. Even though their side's individual strength far surpassed the enemy's, under such a numerical disadvantage, once they got bogged down, the trouble would only be theirs.

"Xin Fu, conceal your figure and scout the terrain ahead at full speed. If you find a forest or a stream, come back and report immediately." Li Luo deliberated for several breaths, then suddenly said.

Xin Fu, upon hearing this, said nothing this time. His figure moved, and he turned into a blurry shadow that swiftly shot away—his speed noticeably faster than Li Luo's at full tilt.

"Worthy of a Shadow Phase."

Li Luo let out a sigh of admiration at the sight. This Xin Fu was truly a born scout, a killer in the making. Shadow Phase power was far too secretive and unfathomable, impossible to guard against. Its only flaw was that once exposed, frontal combat power dropped significantly.

"Bai Mengmeng, use your own phase force to create an illusion of Xin Fu. Don't let them notice we're short a man."

"Also, don't run too fast. Let them feel like they're slowly catching up."

Bai Bai Mengmeng, upon hearing this, immediately replied crisply. Then starlight-like phase force surged, and a blurry shadow appeared as if following beside Li Luo and the other.

Then they resumed their sprint.

While Li Luo and the others were fleeing, on the high platform outside the arena, the perception of the five Purple-Glow Mentors was also constantly monitoring every situation within the field.

And as one of the five Purple-Glow Squads, Li Luo's team naturally received plenty of attention.

So Li Luo's flight was also detected by the five Purple-Glow Mentors.

"This Li Luo—why is he always running in every match?" Mentor Cao Sheng couldn't help but laugh.

"We can't really blame him. We can only say that Yeh Hua is a capable one—to be able to convince so many Gold-Glow Squads to follow him and surround Li Luo at the first moment, he's a promising seedling." Mentor Chu Zi said with some appreciation.

Mentor Xi Chan also shook her head helplessly; this could only mean Li Luo's team was unlucky, as the four Purple-Glow Squads in other directions were currently unstoppable—after all, no one on their side possessed the execution capability that Yeh Hua had.

Her gaze swept toward Shen Shen Jinxiao, who was holding a teacup and sipping lightly, a faint, elusive smile hanging on his lips.

Although Shen Shen Jinxiao said nothing, Mentor Xi Chan still knew this guy was enjoying the show. Perhaps he was even waiting for Li Luo's team to be directly eliminated by Yeh Hua and these Gold-Glow Squads.

Mentor Xi Chan snorted coldly in her heart, then her gaze turned toward the vast competition arena.

Li Luo, you'd better step up. I'm still waiting for you to get the Twelve-Section Brocade so I have a reason to mock Shen Shen Jinxiao. If you let my expectations fall flat, you'll have a hard time afterward.

Li Luo's chase-and-flee situation lasted a full dozen-plus minutes.

The Yeh Hua and the others behind showed enough patience. Perhaps they too understood that once they let Li Luo's team escape, their temporary alliance would fall apart. It was likely that disputes over badges would erupt among them, and if Li Luo's team secretly circled back at that moment, they would probably all be eliminated.

So right now they had to push through, and eliminate Li Luo's Purple-Glow Squad first!

Sustained by this determination, the dozen-plus Gold-Glow Squads pursued relentlessly. Finally, they saw Li Luo's trio turn into a stretch of mountain forest, clearly intending to use the complex terrain within to shake them off.

"Yeh Hua, what do we do?!" asked the captain of another Gold-Glow Squad.

Yeh Hua deliberated for several breaths and said: "We can't give up. Chase them in. This terrain isn't that wide—we can box them in."

"I suggest grouping every three Gold-Glow Squads together, keeping mutual support distance. As long as our formation doesn't break, they absolutely won't have a chance to counterattack!"

"The moment they try to strike, even if we only hold them up briefly, we can form an encirclement!"

The others, upon hearing this, all nodded.

The Gold-Glow students who had chased this far were all fairly strong, and they also had some ambition. Naturally, they didn't want to let go of this chance to make a name by defeating a Purple-Glow Squad.

And Most Important, since they'd already made a move, giving up now would just mean waiting for Li Luo's team to come after them, wouldn't it?

Once the group had a decision, they no longer hesitated. One figure after another shot out swiftly, finally charging into the mountain forest ahead.

After entering the mountain forest, the dozen-plus Gold-Glow Squads began spreading out their encirclement, advancing steadily.

And soon, the squad led by Yeh Hua was the first to spot traces of Li Luo's trio. Without hesitation, he waved his hand, and over a dozen phase arts attacks shot out directly, bombarding the trio's Suo Zai Chong Chong heavily.

Boom!

Phase force exploded, and the ground was blasted into pits the size of human heads.

But Yeh Hua's expression changed at this moment, because he found that these phase force attacks had actually passed straight through the figures of Li Luo's trio in the field.

And when the phase force attacks landed, the three figures vanished.

"Th-this is an illusion?" Yeh Hua blurted out.

"Where are they?!"

At this moment, a whistle suddenly came from the right side—that was a warning signal from another squad.

"Li Luo and the others are over there!" Yehua said hurriedly. "Quickly, surround them!"

Squad after squad of Golden Radiance teams rushed off in that direction at top speed.

A moment later, when they arrived and formed an encirclement, carefully flipping over all the jungle growth ahead of them, they found no trace of Li Luo and his two companions—only a patch of water stains on the ground that was slowly fading away.

But before the look of astonishment could fade from their faces, another urgent whistle came from the left.

Yehua and the others had no choice but to rush over again in a hurry.

But by the time they arrived, panting and gasping, they saw only three afterimages slowly fading away.

"Damn it, they're trying to wear us down!" Yehua's face was shocked and furious.

Moreover, with these random whistle signals being passed around, their original encirclement formation was gradually being thrown into disarray.

"That Li Luo is really cunning!"

Yehua gradually began to feel uneasy; this encirclement had clearly been a bit too hasty.

And while he was feeling uneasy, more and more urgent whistles began coming from all directions, which meant many squads had started encountering Li Luo's three afterimages and were sending out support signals without being certain of the enemy's movements.

This couldn't really be blamed on those squads for panicking—after all, without a sufficient numerical advantage, a lone Golden Radiance squad running into Li Luo and his group would just be delivering themselves as a meal.

"It's falling apart, falling apart!"

Yehua watched as the once orderly formation began to turn chaotic; some Golden Radiance squads, in their panic, had already stopped following orders. He could only let out a helpless sigh.

In the end, he made a decisive choice.

"Quick, retreat! Don't stay here—our encirclement has failed!"

Having made his decision, he no longer cared about the other Golden Radiance squads and directly led his own team to turn around and leave.

And just as Yehua made the choice to retreat, somewhere in the mountain forest, Li Luo heard the chaotic whistles coming from all around, and a smile also rose onto his face.

He looked at Bai Bai Mengmeng and Student Xin Fu, rolled his neck, and stretched out his limbs.

"Alright, next is our time to perform..."