Chapter 1457 - Endless Harassment Attacks
Just a moment ago, that bunch of goddamn rogues had ambushed his men right in front of his eyes!
Out of the 17 Supreme Martial Artists there, 16 of them died in this attack!
Even the last surviving one was on his last breath, his body riddled with wounds!
The enemy assault had come at them like a flash of lightning, launching before one even realized and ending before one could even react!
It was simply too out of the blue.
It gave them absolutely no chance to counter-attack nor pursue the attackers at all. After launching a one-strike attack, they withdrew immediately with no regard as to whether their attacks landed or not!
The standard style of an assassin!
Up against such enemies, no matter how infuriated Xiao Chenlei was, there was nothing he could do about it!
Even if his cultivation was exceptionally high, what could he do when the enemy refused to engage in a head-on battle and was even well-versed in concealment tactics? The only thing he could do was to sigh and lament in frustration.
During the next four to five days, Mo Tianji took command of the brothers to conduct multiple raids, setting them into action frequently. They seized every opportunity to attack and assaulted the enemy from all directions. And every time, they would escape the moment they attacked!
He would come like a shadow, and he would leave without a trace! They came and went like shadows, leaving behind no traces of themselves!
Even their poorest battle results had resulted in two to three casualties. Naturally, their most glorious battle results weren’t that great either, only killing slightly more than ten people and destroying a few facilities…
But against such an attacking style, the Xiao Clan members were so tormented that they were already close to breaking down.
Everyone was fearful and jittery, scaring themselves at the mere rustle of leaves in the wind and seeing enemies in every bush and tree. To them, it seemed as if enemies would storm them from the back anytime and anywhere…
“The current situation is that the enemy has more manpower than we do.”
“If we engage them in a proper fight, we’ll be done for.”
“Thus, when the enemy thinks that we will strike for sure, even if we have absolute confidence in victory, we mustn’t move!”
“If we fight them head-on, even a sure victory would result in us bearing losses!”
“When killing enemies on the battlefield, there is no problem in resorting to every conceivable means!”
“As such, at the point when they believe that we won’t strike, we must instead take action. Not just that, we must also strike in succession!”
“While we are capable of wiping out the enemy should we engage them in a proper battle, we would need to bear losses on our end too. On the other hand, conducting ten raids can also allow us to annihilate the enemy while avoiding the need for us to bear losses. In that case… As long as no special circumstances crop up, even if we must conduct 20 raids, I would still avoid having to bear that bit of loss on our end.”
“Thus, in this battle operation, no one is allowed to take more than one opportunity to strike in every raid and battle!”
“It’d be the best if you deal only one attack each!”
In a dark corner, Mo Tianji patiently explained the battle strategy for the operation this time. “Therefore, do not think of this as something embarrassing, much less hold pedantic mindsets such as ‘I am a gentleman and I should fight people in an aboveboard manner’.”
“On the battlefield, there is only life and death, victory and loss between enemies. There are no gentlemen or despicable scoundrels!”
“At present, we have already conducted more than 30 successful raids in the last five days… so the subsequent raids are going to be tougher. Furthermore, we’ve basically attacked them everyday during the last five days, so they will definitely be on guard now… Therefore, we’ll rest for today.”
Mo Tianji issued the order to rest.
All the brothers felt as if they had just been granted amnesty.
We’ve really been worked to the bone during these last few days. While the Xiao Clan members are certainly jittery and on edge, how can we possibly not be nervous too? In fact, every single one of us is even more tired than they are. We’re practically all worn out and exhausted from running about on these missions…
And now, this Mo Tianji who has been exploiting us like a tyrant has finally been pricked by his conscience.
The group dispersed at once.
Dong Wushang and Mo Lei’er disappeared together in the blink of an eye, while the others chatted idly in every pose and position one could imagine. Mo Tianji, who hadn’t participated in any of the battles this whole time, started to carry out manual labor. First, he used his internal energy to excavate a cave, soundlessly creating a resting area in the underground. Then, he used Purple Crystals to set up an array on the surface, constructing a natural array formation before allowing the brothers to go in.
Mo Tianji said, “Rest assured and sleep without concern about snoring. With this array, nobody will hear you even if you overturn the heavens in here!”
The moment he said that, the sound of loud snoring could already be heard.
Mo Qingwu shifted sneakily to lean against Chu Yang before closing her eyes and falling asleep peacefully. When Mo Tianji caught sight of what she did, he couldn’t help but sigh again.
A puzzled Chu Yang looked over at him curiously. When he saw Mo Tianji’s somewhat fuming expression, he realized right away the reason for his annoyance. Winking at him smugly, he pulled Mo Qingwu into his arms before closing his eyes and falling asleep too, a smile on his lips.
Mo Tianji could only fume silently.
Over here, they had certainly gone into vacation mode and entered a state of relaxation. Every one of them slept soundly and comfortably.
However, over at the other side, how could the Xiao Clan possibly sleep in peace?
They had been assaulted for five consecutive days! The raids came at different timings everyday. How could such losses be described with just one word ‘tragic’?
On the first day, the other party came and fought a great battle with the Elder Master. They had thought that everyone was heavily injured after the battle and so, there wouldn’t be any movement within the next two to three days. In the end, the other party launched a raid on the base camp that very night!
They threw the whole base camp into the sky with a great flourish.
The raid this time was extremely vicious and savage, causing the Xiao Clan members to end up having to eat only the food they carried on themselves.
Of course, these were all experts from the Xiao Clan. No matter what happened, they wouldn’t die of starvation.
However, all of them had assumed that since the other party had already achieved such a battle objective, they would definitely hold off further attacks for the time being. Who knew that right after they had raided the base camp, they immediately launched a sneak attack on the reinforcements while they were still trying to catch their breath!
And this wasn’t the end yet!
After the reinforcement troops suffered heavy casualties, they finally withdrew. Shortly after, they were besieged a second time at the entrance to the Purple Crystal mine!
They were wiped out in the blink of an eye.
On the first night, four raids were carried out, every single time at a timing outside of their expectations.
On the second night, the Xiao Clan members searched for a whole day and night without any discoveries. But the moment night fell, the entire Purple Crystal mine was actually attacked by the enemy!
At that point, the sky had only just turned dark. Nobody would have expected a raid to take place at that timing. Didn’t raids typically take place in the second half of the night?
And so, they suffered a complete defeat once more.
Before they could even reorganize themselves, the other party actually executed once more the same attack from the same position they had originally attacked from!
Xiao Chenlei flew into a towering rage, launching a mighty attack of divine wrath. He overturned and crushed that entire expanse of land with his ninth-grade Supreme Martial Artist cultivation but to no avail.
After that, the first half of the night passed and they finally determined that the enemy wasn’t going to attack again. But when it was almost daybreak, they came again.
The Xiao Clan experts almost broke down then.
The most shameless thing was that shortly after daybreak, they were attacked again!
And then once more right after…
They actually suffered a total of 12 raids in a single day! Every time they were attacked, this thought would occur to the Xiao Clan members —”This should be the last one for today, right?”
And yet… it simply wasn’t! More just kept coming, and it repeated again and again…
Every time, it began in the blink of an eye and before one could even finish blinking, everything had already ended…
At last, the Xiao Clan experts understood something — It looked like this bunch of fellows were going to torment them for a day… Every time they reached this point, hatred would fill all of them. Even if they had to sacrifice sleep, they would stay on high alert regardless and fight them with their full power…
Then, the other party fell completely silent and stopped coming.
One didn’t even need to imagine the frustration and wariness in the Xiao Clan experts that night.
All the way until nighttime on the fourth day, nothing happened at all. Everyone was so tired that they wanted to die. Just as they wanted to take a break, they were suddenly attacked again. It wasn’t even just once but thrice in succession.
Just as everyone was wondering whether this was going to continue up to 12 times again… The other party’s actions came to a sudden stop again.
They thought that the other party was going to attack again at close to daybreak but they didn’t in the end. When they saw the sun already shining high up above their heads, all of them cursed and swore before they finally went to rest for a while… Who knew that the attacks would come again right at this point!
Not just that, the moment they attacked, it went on for four to five times…
…
In short, they just couldn’t figure out the other party’s battle strategy!
After being raided countless times, from the initial fury and raging wrath, Xiao Chenlei’s emotions slowly turned into that of resignation. He sighed to the heavens. “As expected, the think-tank of the Nine Tribulations truly comes and goes like a shadow! Against such mind battles, there’s nothing that this old man can do at all! We can only look for an opportunity again and again… But how would they possibly give us such an opportunity…” Feeling the same way too, all of them sighed to the heavens in unison.
If not for the fact that the dragon and phoenix remains were here and were of great importance, Xiao Chenlei would already have led his men back to the clan long ago, rather than staying here and suffering this ridiculous and endless frustration.
Yet… the dragon and phoenix bones couldn’t be transported away nor disassembled. Neither could it be broken into pieces, much less lifted…
There was nothing Xiao Chenlei could do about this. They could neither leave nor retaliate. Yet if they stayed, it was terribly frustrating! Neither being able to advance nor retreat was what was the most torturous.
At this point, after having just suffered an attack, all the Xiao Clan members had come to understand something — There was no way that the other party would give up. Everyday, no matter the time, they would definitely attack no matter what…
Thus, all of them were on painstakingly high alert.
But… after half a day went by, they became even more nervous. The day went by… and they became increasingly nervous… When night fell, all the more they were on edge…
Yet all the way till noon on the seventh day, the enemy didn’t show up at all!
Xiao Chenlei was in a thundering rage!
Although the enemy was nowhere to be seen the entire time, as time went by, the Xiao Clan experts instead became more and more high-strung. Even when Xiao Chenlei tried to allay their fears, it was to no avail.
After all, the enemy might appear at any moment…
Watching the 300-over people in the mine, Xiao Chenlei was rather dismal. Ever since the Xiao Clan had stepped into this place and discovered the dragon and phoenix bones, they had immediately informed the clan. The clan moved on a grand scale and had dispatched a team of 700 men here, all of them experts above Monarch-level.
And now, they had already lost 500 of them within a span of six days!
At this point, there was already no one remaining from the Monarch-level experts. Everyone below seventh-grade Martial Saint had also been completely wiped out. Among the remaining 300, slightly over 100 of them were purely miners…
Out of the remaining 200-over experts, less than half of them were unscathed…
Xiao Chenlei heaved a heavy sigh. “Withdraw all the guards on the outer boundary and get them to gather here where the dragon and phoenix bones are. Firstly, we can concentrate our forces and secondly, everyone can also rest a little. Thirdly… the dragon and phoenix bones cannot be destroyed. And with them here, the mountain is indestructible. We’ll wait for them right here and fight to the death with them!”
Everyone’s spirits were revived. At last, a bit of hope appeared in their eyes.
Everyone moved according to the plan and filed into the mine one by one. Needless to say, the ‘gravely injured’ Second Master Ji also got to withdraw into the mine with good reason.
In here, after being bedridden for eight days, Ji Mo finally saw the dragon and phoenix bones with his own eyes for the first time!