Chapter 289: Escaping Like a Cicada Shedding Its Skin

After Lu Yuanfeng and the others discussed it, they immediately replied to Wu Xiang on the mountain, agreeing to his request, but demanding that they must open the formation tomorrow night.

In the middle of the night the next day, Song Qingming and the others, who had been prepared at the foot of the mountain in advance, indeed saw a commotion suddenly arise on Eagle Nest Ridge. Following that, the mountain-protecting formation that had blocked them for half a month flickered a few times in the air and then disappeared.

"The mountain-protecting formation has been closed. It seems Wu Xiang has succeeded. Everyone follow me and kill our way up. Except for those with white ribbons tied around their waists, leave none alive." Following Lu Yuanfeng's order, more than a hundred cultivators hiding at the foot of the mountain, led by several Foundation Establishment cultivators including Song Qingming, directly killed their way up Eagle Nest Ridge.

In this mountain attack, except for leaving a dozen people to guard the foot of the mountain, all cultivators were divided into four teams, surrounding them from four different directions. The distance between the teams was not far, and as long as a battle broke out on one side, the other directions could quickly come to support. With such an arrangement, as long as there were no accidents, not even a mouse could run down the mountain, let alone a person.

Not long after rushing up the mountain, the team led by Gao Jinhe and Gao Yubai suddenly saw more than a dozen cultivators rushing down the mountain in a panic. Seeing that these people all had white ribbons tied around their waists, Gao Jinhe stepped forward to stop them but did not choose to fight them. Lu Yuanfeng had already agreed with Wu Xiang beforehand that those with white ribbons tied around their waists were his subordinates.

"Where is your boss Wu Xiang, and what is the situation up there?" After stopping these people, seeing that they were all Qi Refining cultivators, Gao Jinhe asked sternly.

"Wu... Boss Wu is behind. The people on the mountain have already chased down. Please, senior, let us go down the mountain quickly."

After being stopped, these people appeared very panicked, fearing that Gao Jinhe and the others would attack them, only wanting to escape from here in a hurry.

"No one is allowed to go down the mountain casually. Wait for your boss to come and confirm your identities first." After Gao Jinhe said this, he had his men take these people into custody.

Not long after, two sword lights suddenly flew down from the mountain. The person in the lead wore a bamboo hat and also had a white ribbon tied around his waist. He was holding his waist as if he were fleeing and was also injured. The person chasing him not far behind was Cheng Yilong of Eagle Nest Ridge.

"Wu Xiang, you backstabbing fool, let's see where you can run." At this moment, Cheng Yilong looked utterly furious and exasperated, his heart set on catching up to Wu Xiang ahead and grinding his bones to dust.

Because Wu Xiang was injured, his escape speed was greatly affected. Not long after he started moving, he was caught up by Cheng Yilong. The two sides fought dozens of rounds in the air one after another.

Seeing that the already injured Wu Xiang had been beaten back by Cheng Yilong and was about to suffer a big loss, Gao Jinhe and Gao Yubai hurriedly stepped forward to help block Cheng Yilong.

"Two fellow Daoists, this guy is Cheng Yilong. Most of the goods snatched from Qinghefang this time are on him. You must not let this person go." Seeing someone helping, Wu Xiang hurriedly hid behind Gao Jinhe, pointing at Cheng Yilong who was chasing after him and shouting loudly.

His shout instantly focused all the attention of the two Gao family members on Cheng Yilong.

In the blink of an eye, Wu Xiang, who was seriously injured, suddenly revealed a strange smile and directly used a golden spiritual talisman at close range to trap the two Gao family members in the middle.

"Damn! This person is not Wu Xiang."

Gao Jinhe was very surprised to see Wu Xiang behind him suddenly launch a vicious attack. They had been so eager to save someone that they hadn't noticed that the person under the bamboo hat was not Wu Xiang at all, but Chen Zicong in disguise.

The two Gao family members were suddenly shrouded in a golden light. They hurriedly used their respective magic tools, wanting to quickly break this golden light, but found that the spells they used were like mud cows entering the sea, not producing much effect.

Seeing that his attack had succeeded, Chen Zicong smiled and said to Cheng Yilong who was rushing over: "Boss Cheng, my acting is not bad, right? Otherwise, it wouldn't be an easy thing to trap them at such close range."

"Don't be happy too early. It's not certain whether we can escape smoothly. The Purple Light Talisman can't hold them for too long. Let's retreat quickly!" After Cheng Yilong said this, he and Chen Zicong directly commanded the large group of cultivators following behind to rush straight toward the foot of the mountain.

Before discovering Wu Xiang's betrayal and contact with the foot of the mountain, Cheng Yilong and Chen Zicong had secretly discussed and came up with this escape plan of shedding their skin like a cicada.

Taking advantage of Wu Xiang's surrender, they deliberately opened the formation, pretending that Wu Xiang had succeeded. Afterward, they performed the scene just now and successfully used a second-tier mid-grade spiritual talisman to pass the hurdle of the two Gao family members. As for the real Wu Xiang and his subordinates, they had long since been killed by them on the mountain.

The team of cultivators brought by the two Gao family members was obviously no match for so many cultivators of Eagle Nest Ridge and was quickly scattered.

Not long after Cheng Yilong rushed down the mountain with nearly a hundred subordinates, people from the other directions also discovered the movement here and came to support the Gao family's side.

Seeing the bandits of Eagle Nest Ridge swarming down, Song Qingming and the others instantly turned pale. They hadn't expected the two Gao family members to be subdued by the other party so quickly. This immediately rendered the encirclement strategy they had formulated at the beginning into nothing.

Things had reached this point, and there was no time to investigate the cause. After helping the two Gao family members out of trouble, everyone hurriedly commanded their own men to chase after the many bandits not far away.

Because the elite cultivators brought by everyone this time were all late-stage Qi Refining or above, their own strength far exceeded that of Eagle Nest Ridge, so their pursuit speed was naturally faster than the bandits' escape speed. If there were no accidents, even if these bandits could escape down the mountain now, it would be difficult for them to shake off their pursuit.

Dealing with these Qi Refining bandits below was not difficult. The ones that were hard to deal with were Cheng Yilong and Chen Zicong, the two leading Foundation Establishment cultivators. Once these two people escaped, even if they razed Eagle Nest Ridge to the ground today, it would be hard to say it was a complete victory. As long as they were alive, they could gather a group of bandits again after a while in another place. This was a huge hidden danger left for Qinghefang, and perhaps the incident of Qinghefang being attacked would happen again in the future.

Seeing Cheng Yilong and Chen Zicong running in the front, Lu Yuanfeng hurriedly assigned pursuit tasks to everyone.

The two Gao family members, along with Lu Xingde and the Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Cao family, were responsible for intercepting Chen Zicong. The two Huang family members, along with Lu Yuanfeng and Song Qingming, chased after Cheng Yilong.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 290 =====