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 proposed conditions, but requiring them to open the formation tomorrow night.

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

"The mountain-protecting formation has been closed. It seems Wu Xiang has succeeded. Everyone, follow me and charge up. Except for those with white ribbons tied around their waists, leave no one alive." Following Lu Yuanfeng's command, over a hundred cultivators hidden at the foot of the mountain, led by Song Qingming and several other Foundation Establishment cultivators, charged directly up Eagle Nest Ridge.

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

Not long after charging up the mountain, the team led by Gao Jinhe and Gao Yubai suddenly saw a dozen cultivators running down the mountain in a panic. Seeing that these people all had white ribbons tied around their waists, Gao Jinhe stepped forward to intercept them but did not choose to fight them. Lu Yuanfeng had previously agreed with Wu Xiang 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 now?" After intercepting these people, seeing that they were all Qi Refining cultivators, Gao Jinhe asked sternly.

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

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

"No one is allowed to go down the mountain casually. Wait for your boss to come and verify your identities first." After Gao Jinhe finished speaking, he had his subordinates 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, holding his waist as if he were fleeing and had sustained some injuries. The person chasing him not far behind was Cheng Yilong of Eagle Nest Ridge.

"Wu Xiang, you fool who stabs brothers in the back, see where you can run." At this moment, Cheng Yilong had a gnashing-teeth, furious look, intent on catching up to Wu Xiang in front and grinding him to dust.

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

Seeing that the injured Wu Xiang was being beaten back by Cheng Yilong and was about to suffer a great loss, Gao Jinhe and Gao Yubai hurriedly stepped forward to help intercept Cheng Yilong.

"Two fellow Daoists, this guy is Cheng Yilong. Most of the goods robbed from Qinghe Market are on him. You must not let this person go." Seeing someone helping, Wu Xiang hurriedly hid behind Gao Jinhe, pointing at the pursuing Cheng Yilong and shouting loudly.

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

In that moment of distraction, Wu Xiang, who had been seriously injured, suddenly revealed a strange smile and directly used a golden spirit talisman at close range to trap the two Gao family members inside.

"Damn! This person is not Wu Xiang."

Seeing Wu Xiang behind him suddenly launch a vicious attack, Gao Jinhe was also very surprised. In their eagerness to save someone, they hadn't noticed that the person under the bamboo hat wasn't Wu Xiang at all, but Chen Zicong in disguise.

The two Gao family members were suddenly enveloped in a golden light. They hurriedly used their respective magic tools, wanting to quickly break this golden light, only to find that the spells they used were like mud cows entering the sea, producing no significant effect.

Seeing his strike succeed, Chen Zicong smiled and said to the approaching Cheng Yilong, "Boss Cheng, my acting wasn't bad, right? Otherwise, trapping them at such close range wouldn't have been an easy task."

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

Previously, after 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 "a cicada shedding its skin."

Taking advantage of Wu Xiang's surrender, they deliberately opened the formation, pretending to have been succeeded by Wu Xiang, and then performed the scene just now, successfully using a second-tier mid-grade spirit talisman to break through the Gao family's two-man blockade. As for the real Wu Xiang and his subordinates, they had long since been killed by them directly on the mountain.

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

Not long after Cheng Yilong led nearly a hundred subordinates down the mountain, people from other directions had already discovered the commotion here and were supporting the Gao family's side.

Seeing the bandit cultivators 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 enemy so quickly. This instantly rendered their initial encirclement strategy void.

Since things had come to this, there was no time to investigate the cause. After helping the two Gao family members escape, everyone hurriedly commanded their respective subordinates to chase after the many bandit cultivators not far away.

Because everyone brought elite cultivators above the late stage of Qi Refining, the cultivators' own strength far exceeded that of Eagle Nest Ridge's side, and the speed of pursuit was naturally faster than their escape speed. Without accidents, even if these bandit cultivators could escape down the mountain now, it would be difficult to shake off their pursuit.

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

Seeing Cheng Yilong and Chen Zicong running in 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, plus Lu Yuanfeng and Song Qingming, chased after Cheng Yilong.