Chapter 950: Hatred Maxed Out

The moment Zhao Yan sent out the blood-red retreat signal, the other squads in the mountain forest immediately sensed it—their first reaction was: has Zhao Yan lost his mind?

Clearly, every side held the advantage right now; the Five Dragon Veins were all about to hit their limits, and if they dragged things out a little longer, some squad from the Five Dragon Veins would inevitably be forced to withdraw.

Yet at this critical moment, Zhao Yan actually issued the order to retreat.

If they didn't all know that Zhao Yan's elders were also mid-level figures within the Vein, they would have been unable to stop themselves from suspecting that Zhao Yan had defected to the enemy.

The leaders of every squad were now filled with doubt and unease; the direction of that signal was still the eastern face of the mountain forest—the same place where the very first distress signal had come from.

Hadn't Zhao Yan taken people to go rescue them?

Judging by the current state of things, could even Zhao Yan have fallen there? What on earth was over there? Had a "Marquis-level" existence actually appeared?!

Otherwise, how could even Zhao Yan have been forced to abandon such a great advantage and retreat outright?

Based on their understanding of Zhao Yan, something must have happened over there that even he couldn't resolve.

The many squad captains on the Zhao Li Tianwang Vein side were all immensely conflicted at this moment, because they had to make a choice: obey Zhao Yan's order, or continue to harass the Li Li Tianwang Vein squad right before them?

But this conflict didn't last long, because if they retreated now, even if problems arose later, the blame would fall on Zhao Yan; yet if their failure to retreat led to some major loss in the end, then the responsibility would be on their own shoulders.

How to choose between the two was actually not difficult.

So a few breaths later, every squad captain issued the order, and then they turned and retreated swiftly; streaks of light whistled through the air, and the sound of breaking the void rang out across the mountain forest.

This bizarre move of theirs also left the squads on the Five Dragon Veins side utterly stunned.

On the Dragon Scale Vein side, the leader Li Guan was single-handedly entangling three "Guardian Spirits" of five-star Tian Zhu Jing strength; originally he had a steady upper hand, but earlier when the Zhao Li Tianwang Vein people arrived and began attacking him from afar, he could only divide his attention to cope, and for a time looked rather wretched.

He had been waiting bitterly for an opening, but who would have expected the enemy to suddenly retreat.

Although he didn't know the specific reason, Li Guan decisively seized the chance; the phase force within his body erupted without reserve at this moment, and simultaneously he caught a flaw and struck fiercely at one "Guardian Spirit."

"Marquis-tier Art, Golden Scale Quan Yin!"

One saw heaven-and-earth energy whistling in, merging with Li Guan's own phase force, and directly transforming in midair into a golden Quan Yin roughly a hundred zhang across; atop the Quan Yin, golden dragon scales were densely packed, and this punch seemed like a giant dragon clenching its claw and striking down from the heavens—enough to shatter mountains.

When the golden Quan Yin descended, it instantly blasted one "Guardian Spirit" into a skyful of light specks; the aftershock even sent the other two "Guardian Spirits" flying, with energy ripples constantly spreading across their bodies.

Taking advantage of the momentum to eliminate one "Guardian Spirit," the pressure on Li Guan's side immediately lessened greatly.

The morale of the Dragon Scale Vein people was also lifted, and then everyone erupted with fierce attacks, clearing the "Guardian Spirits" in waves.

After a while like this, the situation was considered completely under control, and only then did the Dragon Scale Vein people gather together.

"What exactly happened over on the eastern side?" someone couldn't help but ask first; they had seen it clearly—it was precisely because of the change on the eastern side that the Zhao Li Tianwang Vein had failed to have its way this time.

"The eastern side—that's where the Dragon Fang Vein squad is, right? Could it be that the Zhao Li Tianwang Vein fell at their hands?" Lu Lu Qingmei gripped her glazed staff tightly, her gaze looking far toward that direction, and said.

Li Guan hesitated for a moment, then said: "Earlier, even Zhao Yan went to the eastern side to reinforce; his strength is in no way inferior to Li Li Wuyuan. Even if the Dragon Fang Vein side has a Li Li Lingjing, she should at most be evenly matched with him—how could she possibly force Zhao Yan to send out a retreat signal?"

For Zhao Yan to act this way, the eastern side must have encountered an enormous crisis.

The others exchanged glances, all utterly unable to figure it out.

"Forget it, let's not worry about it for now; immediately clean up the 'Guardian Spirits' here,

and then take the Spirit Phase Golden Dew and link up with the other four Veins," Li Guan said at this moment.

Hearing this, everyone agreed, then turned to clear away the remaining "Guardian Spirits."

And similar things were happening at the same time in other directions of the mountain forest.

But if one were to say who found it most inconceivable, it would actually be the people of Yanmodian.

Tian Miao of Yanmodian had originally led his men watching the Dragon Blood Vein people while harassing them from afar; in his view, with Zhao Yan personally taking the field, the Dragon Fang Vein on the eastern side should soon be dealt with, and the advantage would still be on their side.

But what he hadn't expected was that he didn't wait for Zhao Yan's return—instead, he waited for the retreat signal Zhao Yan had sent.