Chapter 61: Rescue

(Chapter 72 Rescue)

They couldn't wound them, and pressing on would make the outcome unclear, so Li Bucai just leapt off the boulder.

The four swung their swords at empty air, saw Li Bucai suddenly leap backward, his figure vanished, then they chased, leapt from the stone, yet Li Bucai's silhouette was still unseen; looking back, they saw Li Bucai with one hand on the stone edge, hanging there, not actually having jumped down. When they tried to pursue again, Li Bucai had already jumped back, vaulted once more, and disappeared into the night.

The four gave up and went to aid their comrades in besieging the Goblins.

The others were also impervious to swords and spears; the Goblins' blades and spears could not hurt them, yet the Goblins formed three walls of flesh, staunchly guarding the cross, holding their ground. Whenever someone tried to rush forward to rescue the bound person, they, fighting alone, were no match for the Goblins. Seven or eight people would break a gap together and charge forward, but the strongest Goblin in front of the cross swung a flurry of knives, blasting them all away. No one could break through the line of sword‑wielding Goblins; they had to retreat, relying on their numerical advantage and their bodies that defied swords and spears to continue the stalemate, waiting for the Goblins' strength to wane before rescuing the captive…

Li Bucai leapt from the boulder onto the stone steps below, paused briefly, and saw that the others were not pursuing. From the earlier scene he realized the Goblins were powerful, and Rui Tong's silhouette was still absent. Given her nature, if she had spotted the Goblins in the woods she would have followed them. Worried that her disappearance meant either the Goblins had taken her or she was involved with these sword‑ and spear‑impervious elves, he turned back to search for Rui Tong.

First, he tied a rope at a cliff edge for escape, then skirted the large rock, separately inspected the spots where those people had hidden, finding nothing. Seizing the moment while the campfire blaze was fierce, he slipped to the back of the stone house, peered inside through a crack, searched every stone house, yet still could not locate Rui Tong.

At that moment, the situation on the open ground suddenly changed; the Goblins that had been in three rows abruptly shifted formation, starting from the center, flanking to both sides, leaping into the air toward the cross and attacking from the left and right.

Seeing the opening, more than seventy people, while guarding the flanks, surged toward the cross, hoping to rescue the captive. Yet the sword‑wielding Goblin before the cross stepped aside, revealing a Yellow‑Robed Goblin behind it. As the path cleared, the Yellow‑Robed Goblin had already completed its move, clasped its wooden staff with both hands, and thrust out a burst of yellow energy that surged toward the charging crowd.

"Poison‑infusing Curse, everyone be careful, dodge quickly," someone at the front shouted, scrambling to the side. Those behind couldn't evade in time and were hit squarely by the yellow flow. In an instant, aside from a dozen agile individuals who dodged, the rest fell one after another, stunned by the gas.

The Yellow‑Robed Goblin was a level‑10 Poison Branch Shaman; its move "Poison‑infusing Curse" is a corpse‑poison spell containing lethal toxin. For ordinary people, being hit wouldn't instantly strip their resistance, but for these sword‑ and spear‑impervious elves, while weapons are useless, they are uniquely vulnerable to corpse poison.

Soon after collapsing, white smoke rose from their bodies as their muscles rotted away, turning into piles of bone. Goblins stepped on the bones, producing a crisp crack as they crushed them into fragments. The white smoke kept drifting upward, eventually turning into dust. Over fifty people were eliminated by that single move of the Yellow‑Robed Goblin.

In their haste to rescue, they grew careless; the seventy‑plus were reduced to just a dozen, while the Goblins still numbered over thirty, with the Yellow‑Robed Goblin guarding. Rescue seemed hopeless, risking total annihilation. One person blew a whistle; a dozen surged out of the Goblin encirclement, fleeing downhill. The Yellow‑Robed Goblin jabbed its staff, and the Goblins pursued, leaving only a few around the cross.

The Yellow‑Robed Goblin turned its face toward the bound person, knowing a blade couldn't kill them, and raised its staff again, preparing to use corpse poison to dissolve the captive.

Li Bucai stayed hidden behind the stone house, counting in his mind: there were still over thirty Goblins; they are natural enemies of us, and also of those sword‑ and spear‑impervious lolis. Those lolis could contend with numbers, but now I have only six people, three of whom know no combat, and Rui Tong's whereabouts are unknown. This shadowed valley is a huge gorge; there may be many more Goblins inside. If I can rescue the captive while the Goblin numbers are at their lowest, perhaps we could ally with them against the others; even if they don't join me, at least one enemy is removed.

He knew the combat power of those Goblins; after undergoing Luo Ping Hai's forging, Li Bucai's Martial God Mantra had reached level nine. Though with his current skills he could handle two or three, there were five there, plus the sword‑wielding Goblin and the Yellow‑Robed Goblin. Relying solely on himself, he needed a plan. So he picked up a piece of broken stone…

The Yellow‑Robed Goblin was muttering a spell, preparing to unleash its corpse poison, when a sound of stones breaking came from the left, distant. The other Goblins didn't hear it, but its keen ears caught it, and it ordered two Goblins to investigate the source.

The sound was Li Bucai hurling a stone that way, intending to scatter them.

When the two Goblins moved away, the Yellow‑Robed Goblin's chant was interrupted and it began to recite again. Li Bucai picked up another stone, aimed at the Yellow‑Robed Goblin, and threw it. "Bang"—it struck its occiput, infuriating it, and it ordered its strongest Goblin to come this way.

Li Bucai hurried from the darkness to the back of a stone house at the crossroads and shouted through a crack, "Here." It was a sturdy stone house where the bound person had previously been locked, as if to lure a guest into a trap.

Seeing that Goblin approach, he leapt back into the darkness, quickly moved to the stone house two units away, continued shouting, and simultaneously hurled a stone to disrupt the Yellow‑Robed Goblin's chant.

At that moment, the sword‑wielding Goblin had just arrived behind the stone house where the sound originated, checked and saw no figure, assuming someone was inside. He drew a key, opened the door, looked in, saw no one. Then the sound resumed from the original house; he rushed to another stone house, but the sound again came from the first. This time he opened the door and entered to investigate. Li Bucai timed it, leapt to the doorway, and locked it from the inside.

In front of the cross only two remained, including the Yellow‑Robed Goblin. They saw clearly; one charged forward. Li Bucai vanished into the darkness again. When it arrived, no figure was visible. While it searched, Li Bucai, seizing the moment its gaze shifted, descended from the sky, caught it off guard, and drove a sword into its throat, killing it with a single strike.

While the other two couldn't return, he sprinted at the Yellow‑Robed Goblin.

The Yellow‑Robed Goblin had already assumed a stance there, ready to meet him.

Li Bucai charged toward the fire pit; as he neared, he suddenly swung his sword, extracting several burning wooden sticks from the flames, hurling them at the Yellow‑Robed Goblin, and followed with a thrust of his own sword.

The Yellow‑Robed Goblin hurriedly used its simplest, quickest skill to emit a plain gust of air, pushing the flames back. Li Bucai slashed the flames apart while delivering a "Flat Sword Form" thrust to strike its vital point.

The assault was fierce; the Yellow‑Robed Goblin realized it couldn't block, flashed, vanished from its spot, and in the blink of an eye reappeared ten steps away, again propelling a gust toward Li Bucai. Li Bucai, using the evasion, leapt to the cross, slashed the rope on the captive's right arm. The captive was already unconscious, arm limp, unable to free themselves. At that moment, the Yellow‑Robed Goblin was about to finish chanting its "Poison‑infusing Curse," ready to unleash the yellow corpse‑poison flow. In desperation, Li Bucai crouched and swung his sword at the base of the cross.

Since the bound person's feet were also nailed to the cross, a wooden post about twenty‑plus centimeters was exposed below. Li Bucai successfully cut the cross; as the yellow flow surged, he lunged forward, propelling both the person and the cross ten‑plus meters away, evading the flow, slashing the rope, while the other two Goblins had already turned back and were attacking.

Li Bucai quickly moved the person aside, wielded a large piece of the cross as a spear, and executed a "Wind‑Assault Stab" charge. The attack was so swift that the two Goblins, focused on moving forward, couldn't dodge and collided with the spear shaft, being flung away.

Although the "Wind‑Assault Stab" was powerful, the wooden cross's destructive capacity was limited, unlikely to incapacitate the two Goblins. Escape was urgent; Li Bucai turned, hurled the cross at the Yellow‑Robed Goblin, forcing it to retract its hand from the captive, then leapt ten steps away, evading the massive cross.

Seizing the chance, Li Bucai thrust his sword forward, driving it farther away, then turned, scooped up the person, and ran toward the stone house, leaping over it, using the house as cover, causing the Yellow‑Robed Goblin's renewed "Poison‑infusing Curse" to be blocked by the house, sparing him, and then he vanished into the darkness.

The two Goblins had already risen; the Yellow‑Robed Goblin released the sword‑wielding Goblin that had been guarding the stone house, and the three Goblins pursued together.

Li Bucai, in the darkness, circled to the crossroads, leapt over the boulder, retrieved the pre‑placed rope, hoisted the person and swung down; shortly after, they reached the bottom of the cliff.

When the three Goblins reached the cliff edge and tried to cut the rope, Li Bucai was already below, forced to stare up at the cliff and let out a series of angry roars.

Li Bucai broke out successfully, unable to find Rui Tong, so he carried the person away, unable to descend the stone steps further. He walked down through the forest; the slope leveled, and hearing no Goblin sounds, he turned west toward the camp.