The Fu Patriarch was suddenly going up against two Nascent Souls at once, but he didn’t seem to care. In fact the other two were in far more trouble when the Fu Patriarch started running towards them as he did a sort of spin move and released a cloud of poisoned needles from his back. The spin move made him launch the needles in a full spherical cloud, giving no room for the Xiyi or Wa Elder to dodge the attack. The Wa Elder was already injured so the front half of his body was instantly turned into a pincushion. The Xiyi Elder on the other hand tilted his chain’s spinning arc downwards and batted away most of the poisoned needles. After the spiked chain made a single rotation it left a disc of green water in its wake, creating a shield that blocked the needles as he rode past on his lizard.

Awck!

The large lizard mount let out a pained screech and its legs gave out underneath it. The Xiyi Elder leapt off of his falling mount and somersaulted as he hit the ground. The tiny lizard stretched out its arms and a large flap of skin between its front and back legs caught the air so it could glide away safely. A vicious looking spike covered device was latched around the large lizard’s foot, the device having caught the beast’s foot like a bear trap would have. At that moment the Xiyi and Wa Elders realized that they were already surrounded by traps that the Fu Patriarch had somehow placed without them noticing.

Someone from the Fu Clan finally noticed their side was disadvantaged. The man fighting the trio of ribbon-like scorpions was using his sand in a certain pattern that had blocked the attacks of the three flashes of light that he was battling with. He knew the triplets would break the pattern sooner or later, but it gave him a chance to look at the rest of the battlefield and from his view in the air he had a better idea of what was going on than the others. He immediately shouted to warn the others of his clan, “Things are already out of our control. Fall back to better ground!”

At the sound of his words, the Chong Clan Elders grinned and rushed to block the path back towards the Fu Clan’s base. They immediately grew eager to win the day, but they never expected what happened next. The Chong Elders were more focused on interrupting the escape so they weren’t expecting this order to be a call for a suicide attack. The pair of level 61 Elders that the Ancestor Scorpion was facing off against dove between the snapping pinchers of the giant scorpion and then let out loud yells. Their legs were snipped off at the knee and ankle, but their bodies were carried forward into the scorpion’s mouth just as they self-detonated. All of the Qi in their bodies were blasted outward as they turned themselves into weapons.

At almost the same time, the man who gave the order dove downwards. The trio of scorpions caught up to him and stung him in three different places, but he barreled towards the ground and landed between the two Wa Elders that were battling with Xiaolong. The old woman and second most powerful in the Chong Clan kicked aside the other Elder with a smile on her toad face.

Boom! Boom!

The pair of explosions made the Fu Clan Matriarch’s face twist under her mask and she let out a pained screech. Her voice carried a destructive wind along with it, one that shattered the stone spires that were confining her. She rushed downward towards the Xie Triplets, blaming them for holding back the sandstorm wielding Elder, such that he would choose to give his own life. She followed in their footsteps and turned her cultivation into a weapon. Releasing giant arcs of blade wind over the whole of the battlefield when she blew herself apart.

One of the Xie Triplets stepped forward, shielding her sisters and suffering the attack for them. The triplets were the closest so they suffered the most powerful attack. The Xiyi Elder was using his spiked chain to block against another surprise attack by the Fu Patriarch, so he could only use his trapped lizard mount as a wall, blocking the devastating blade winds with flesh and bone. The Wu Elder used his giant winged centipede for a similar purpose, the vicious winds finishing off the giant insect. He used the corpse as a shield one last time to block an attack from Chiying’s clawed fingers before the body smashed against the ground with a squishy clack. The trio of flying ribbons were also caught up in the attack, their master’s were busy defending themselves so the tiny scorpions lost the empowerment of Qi and were sliced into bits.

The rest of the fights were somewhat far from the place the Fu Matriarch detonated and just like the other Fu Elders the Chong Elders only suffered light injuries. Surprisingly, the other four Fu Elders didn’t detonate, but actually did as the first order recommended. The self-destruction of four Nascent Souls cleared a path and caused great injury to the Chong Clan.

A thick cloud of smoke covered the entrance to the Fu Clan’s underground caverns. Fu Xidong obscured the entrance while Chiying, Xiaolong, and the Patriarch rushed inside. The Xiyi Elder, who had just lost his beloved mount, rushed forward to chase after the Fu Patriarch, but he was held back by Wu Yun. Wu Yun tossed a few stones into the smoke, but there were soft thwips and crack sounds coming from the dark smoke. Wu Yun then directed his water vapor to start breaking up the dark smoke and the Xie Bian signalled the other Elders to comply.

From his distant position, Sage had only heard that single loudly shouted order. He couldn’t make out what the Chong Matriarch was saying, but from the looks of things they were regrouping and trying to recover from the injuries and losses they suffered. He saw many pills entering mouths and bandages being applied to injuries. It took some time, but the smoke eventually cleared and the Chong Clan pushed into the underground area. The weaker Fu Clan cultivators that were still on the surface were wiped out and the aboveground headquarters of the Fu Clan was quickly invaded, ransacked, and demolished. More than half of the weaker Chong Clan cultivators were spread out over the Fu Clan’s home and on watch for secret entrances to the underground cave system.

In the aftermath of the suicide attacks, one of the Chong Clan Elders, and five of their companion beasts were dead. The strongest of the Wa Faction, the old woman who was about to become a Peak Nascent Soul, had kicked away the other old man and taken the entire attack upon herself. The old woman was extremely old, and even Sage could tell that her strength did not match up to her level, which he sensed was a side effect of her nearing the end of her lifespan. The others were all injured, but with half of their Nascent Souls dying, the Fu Clan looked to be on their last leg.

Sage watched the Chong Clan head into the underground tunnel and he started to follow after them. The Observation Airship moved directly above the cave and he was about to jump down when he got a signal from the Lang Clansmen that were maintaining a secret perimeter.

What is that?

He jumped over the railing of the Airship, but he didn’t land upon the ground. Instead, a large object appeared beneath him. He landed upon the object, a large red canoe, and it suddenly shot through the air, carrying him off.