81: Chapter 81 Different Endings

Eita's face turned extremely pale as he began to restrain his own red qi to combat the wounds eroded by the potent poison on his body.

His gaze turned dangerous. Eita stood in a bow stance on the ground, holding his sword in his right hand raised above his shoulder, his left hand supporting the blade.

["Fang Thrust": A straight-line thrusting technique, piercing the opponent with extreme speed and precision. Its inspiration may originate from the thrusting techniques of the Hokushin Ittō-ryū.]

Ryan watched this strange, unprecedented opening stance, a shiver running down his spine. It felt like being stared down by the god of death. He decided to reveal all his cards. He smeared his own blood onto [Silvermoon Guardian]. The single-sided double-ring ear stud shone with a soft glow.

A sudden gust of wind arose. Eita thrust forward at a speed several times faster than before, instantly appearing before Ryan. The tip of [hirumaru] had already pierced his breastplate, reaching straight for his heart. At that critical moment, something furry suddenly shot out from Ryan's shoulder armor and bit down on the demonic blade.

"Xiaoya?!" Ryan looked at the [substitute doll] hanging from the blade. This one-time-use magical tool, a replica made by Luo Xiaoya, was rapidly charring to carbon, but it indeed stalled the blade's momentum for an instant. That instant was enough for him to slam the edge of his shield into Eita's collarbone.

Ryan vigorously scraped the hammerhead against his shield. The sparked embers ignited the residual petroleum on Eita's body, causing flames to erupt fiercely for a moment.

Eita howled miserably within the flames, then released his red qi again, suppressing the fire on his body, and fled deep into the forest.

Ryan's health had already fallen below the warning line. With the enhancement of [Bloody Hunter], he sensed Eita leaping into a mountain stream not too far away. Dragging his body, he slowly made his way back along the path he came. The ground was covered with footprints cast in blood. He hastily swallowed two bottles each of Mia's purple and red small vial potions.

"Heh! Thanks to Xiaoya, didn't die at the hands of the demon Eita..." As Ryan's consciousness began to blur, he vaguely saw Loran's figure, her clothes fluttering, casting a [Rejuvenation] spell towards him.

A purple flare shot into the sky above the suspension bridge. According to the prior agreement, Mia had already brought the Tang Clan's First Master, Tang Jiaren, back to the evacuation point. Loran used [Azure Green Vine · Parasitic Seed] to parasitize Ryan's body, using the vine's powerful vitality to nourish him and absorb the baleful aura from his recent battle with Eita within him.

Their journey back looked eerily like a scene from a horror movie: a beautiful female ghost leading a beast's corpse parasitized by vines back for a ritual. It scared Li Ding, who had just finished off a squad of Japanese soldiers, so much that he followed them from afar, terrified that Loran might go berserk upon returning to the assembly point and kill her own allies.

Four bodies lay by the suspension bridge. Three were the Bihe Mountain Shinobi members Ryūta, Ryūji, and Ryūzō. The other was the Quanxing member Bai Xiao Liang Ting. Standing by the bridge were Li Ding, Tang Tongbi, Dong Chang, Yang Lie, and Xu Xin.

Gao Yingcai seemed to have lost his soul, slumped on the ground. It appeared that after successfully achieving revenge, he had lost all his vigor and spirit.

Wang Li and Tang Mingyi still fell in battle within the dense forest. They traded their lives for that of the Original Owner Chūchō's sister, the female ninja specializing in stealth assassination, and the grief-stricken, nearly insane Bihe Mountain Jonin who came to ambush Wang Li as he was evacuating with Tang Mingyi.

Lying on the ground were Du Fosong, Tang Jiaren, and the newly returned Ryan. Mia was urgently treating their wounds, pouring in medicinal concoctions. Tuaner was directing Yang Lie, Dong Chang, and Xu Xin to bind stretchers for them to use.

Tang Tongbi squatted in front of Du Fosong, enumerating his faults, though the anxiety on her face was genuine. While Tang Tongbi was fiercely battling the shikigami, the Onmyoji was indeed pierced through the skull by Du Fosong's hand spike. However, the Onmyoji's final desperate strike landed squarely on Du Fosong.

A team of armed personnel came down from the mountain to meet everyone but was stopped by Mia. She informed them they could first go check out the Japanese bandit base in the forest and bring back any usable equipment for themselves. The Shinobi Group and Japanese soldiers in the mountains had been mostly cleared out by the group. By the time they returned, Mia's treatment of the wounded should be nearly complete.

Not far away, Wugen Sheng stared intently at Mia, not uttering a word for a long while. Li Ding positioned himself between them, a hint of warning in his eyes, both for Mia's sake and for his fellow disciples lying on the ground.

"It seems the Tang Clan's rules will have to be broken once more in the future," Xu Xin squatted on the ground, a stalk of grass clenched between his teeth.

"Hmm?" Yang Lie turned his head to look at him, a flash of cold light in his eyes.

"Exactly. In the future, who would dare take a contract on Miss Mia and her companions? The First Master and the Old Sect Leader would probably hang him up, beat him for three days and three nights, then send him out on a mission," Dong Chang also chuckled as he spoke.

"Yeah, it's not that we won't take it, it's that we really can't win, ha," Li Ding also came over to help them finish tying the stretchers, which were then padded with soft cushions Mia had produced from who-knows-where. All the seriously injured were transferred onto the stretchers.

The Xia State armed forces returned. They also brought one of the captured trucks and handed it over to Mia, instructing her to take the Tang Clan's righteous warriors back to the Tang Clan.

Xu Xin nudged Dong Chang. "What are you looking at? Handing it over to Mia is correct. She holds the rank of major, after all." Dong Chang rubbed his nose, chuckling as he went to help lift the stretchers onto the truck.

"Those explosions in the forest earlier were probably Mia's doing," Tang Tongbi looked at Li Ding, though her gaze seemed somewhat unfocused.

"You want to ask how many hits my fully-mastered Wu Shao Armor can withstand? Just say it," Li Ding stroked his bushy beard.

Tang Tongbi widened her eyes, waiting for Li Ding to continue.

Li Ding brushed past her shoulder and said something rather puzzling, "I think that fellow Zhang Zhiwei could probably withstand three hits. Not one more."

Tang Tongbi was still a bit confused and wanted to press further. On the stretcher, Du Fosong weakly raised his hand and knocked on his wife's head.

"Old Li means he couldn't withstand a single hit! Do you have to make him say it out loud? Didn't Zhang Zhiwei trounce him during the sect competition? At best, he could achieve mutual destruction with that giant killed by Miss Mia, as per her intel... and only if the opponent was careless... Ah!..."

Amidst the clamor of the group, Li Ding repeatedly pinching Du Fosong's wounds causing his agonized screams, and—oh right—the agonized screams from Ryan as [Azure Green Vine · Parasitic Seed] was slowly extracted from his body, the truck drove off towards the direction of the Tang Family Fortress...

At the rear of the truck, two coffins. Wang Li and Tang Mingyi had been prepared by Mia, their appearances tidied, sprinkled with preservative incense powder. Swaying along, they too followed towards the group's destination. May the heroes rest in peace!