Chapter 52: Rescue

A/N:Hey everyone! Here's another chapter! Hope you enjoy. On another note, writing went okay but not so well that I have an extra chapter ready for the weekend. Sorry. But next week will be three chapters instead of two again so there's that.

Edit notes: Changed Foxtail Clone stats to 50% instead of 25% in previous chapters.

Chapter 52: 

“Hey, we might have a problem,” I said to Pan Song after thinking about things for a moment. I had my fox crouch low behind some rubble so it wouldn’t be seen in case the source of the noises I was hearing got closer.

“What is it?” Pan Song said, not looking up from his work with the greater transportation formation. 

“I sent my fox into the tunnel,”  I said, also trying to focus on the noises my fox could hear. It still sounded too vague, just shouts and maybe the sound of clashing steel and crumbling tunnel. “I wanted to use it as a lookout. But now… I can hear something. The sound dampening of the underground formations is down here, I guess. And I think I hear people fighting in the distance.”

“Oh…” Pan Song said, finally stopping his work and looking up at me. 

We met eyes, and I could tell he could probably guess what that was most likely to be. There was a slim chance it was just other people from the trial. We’d assume the tunnels down here were safe from anyone else, thanks to the formations, but with how damaged this section of the tunnels was, perhaps someone else had managed to get in.

Yet, if that was the case, what would they be fighting and why? With Rank 2 spirit beasts fighting Foundation Establishment Masters above, I doubt the seeded spirit beasts would be eager to get into fights and attract attention. Though I suppose it could be spirit beast and other trial takers trying to hide in the same place.

But then there was the other possibility. That it was the Qian clan and those part of the assassination. And if there was still a fight going on, then they hadn’t succeeded yet.

Which left us with just one question. Did we do anything about it?

“Can you get your fox closer and see who it is?” Pan Song said after a moment.

“I can,” I said, nodding. “If you're fine with taking the risk.”

Pan Song frowned and looked back towards the transport array. He narrowed his eyes, nodded, then walked towards the tunnel I’d sent the fox down. He held up his formation plate.

“It’s fine,” he said. “Your fox is a technique, right? You can sacrifice it if you need to?”

“Yes,” I said, following along.

“Then it's fine,” he said. “If it turns out to be trouble, I can just activate one of the ancient defense formations down here. That should buy us enough time. There’s no other way into this chamber, and we can just transport out.”

“Alright,” I said, eyeing this section of the tunnels. Cracks were running through large sections of the walls, and the light lines were disabled in those places. “But are the formations down here intact enough for that?”

“Yes…” Pan Song said after pausing a moment. He gestured at the walls around us. “The damage is severe. But the formations of the ancients should not be underestimated. I should be able to generate a defensive field for us like before… However… It might not be as impenetrable. It will still be far stronger than anything else I can set up in a short amount of time. That I’m sure of.”

“Okay then,” I said, stopping when Pan Song stopped and started working with his formation plate. “So you think it will still buy us enough time for you to activate the transport array?”

Pan Song nodded. “Yes. I was close to getting access. I will set up the defenses here, then finish.”

“Alright, then I’ll check out what the fighting is,” I said, focusing back on my fox to send it forward carefully. I made sure to use the large pieces of rubble as cover in case anything suddenly appeared. “And… What do you think we should do… If it is Xing Yaling and the Qian Clan.”

Pan Song was quiet for a long moment before he sighed. “My master would say leave it and have us escape first.”

I frowned at that. I could understand being practical, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. “That would be the smart thing to do…”

Pan Song nodded. “But… I think it depends. If there’s something we can do, then I’m willing to take a chance. As long as we have a chance and aren’t throwing our lives away.”

I relaxed at that. I felt the same way, but asked because there were two of us here. I wouldn’t want to risk my friend’s life if he wasn’t up for it. But since he was…

“Then we’ll try to save her if it really is her, if possible,” I said, grinning. “And if it's just some other people from the trial, we should probably save them too.

Pan Song looked up and nodded at me, smiling as well, before getting back to work. 

As he did that, I closed my eyes and completely focused on the fox. I stopped being a human for a moment and became the fox scampering from rubble to rubble. My fox wasn’t as strong as me, not by a long shot, but it seemed to be almost as fast and more agile. Excellent for scouting like this.

The sounds of fighting got louder and louder as I continued. The tunnel also seemed to get worse and worse; the damage to the walls and formations here was far greater. At least it left me with lots of rubble to hide behind.

“Stay still, you… Accept… die!”

I could start to actually make out words from all the shouting. And the sounds of battle continued to get louder. It was definitely the sound of metal against metal. So cultivators were fighting each other.

Staying low to the floor, I sped up and continued heading forward.

“Formation is set up,” I vaguely heard Pan Song say from beside my real body. “I’ll go work on the transport. Yell if you need me to open the formation.”

“Alright,” I said softly with my own mouth, far more focused on sneaking around as my fox.

I reached the end of a section of the tunnel, passing a partially collapsed entrance way into another chamber. This one looked much larger, like an underground gymnasium or something. But whatever purpose it might have had before, I couldn’t figure out, given all the damage.

There was rubble everywhere and practically no light lines except for in small sections of the walls. But there was still enough light to see by, even if it wasn’t for my fox's better night vision, because there were also several large holes in the ceiling. Each of the holes had sunlight pouring through, showing that they led all the way up to the surface. 

“Get back here!” a voice echoed through the chamber.

I looked away from the holes to find the source, but I couldn’t see it thanks to all the rubble. My diminutive height didn’t help things in this form, so I leapt up several pieces of debris to get on top of a pile. I stayed crouched low and was ready to get out of sight to avoid being spotted.

“Surround her! Don’t let her escape!” the same voice echoed out. 

It sounded… wrong. Bestial and filled with anger. And when I saw the source, I realized why.

It was… a person. They were dressed in Qian Clan robes, as were several other figures I could see on the other side of the chamber. But I didn’t really recognize any of them. I was sure of that, because I would have recognized members of the Qian Clan that looked like… well, like a horrified cross between some kind of beast and a person.

Perhaps something like a werewolf transformation, but some of them seemed to have other kinds of animal traits.

It would have almost been comical if most of them weren’t so horrific-looking, with disproportionate limbs and blood dripping from wounds all over their bodies. And then there were their movements. They were jerky and off-putting, but it was also fast. At minimum, Mid-stage Qi-Gathering, with sudden bursts of speed that made me think they might even reach Late-stage levels.

The leader, the one doing all the shouting, was the fastest. He was also the only one who didn’t look like some twisted monster. He still had animal traits—wolf-like ears grew out of his head, a tail came from his back, hair covered lots of his body, and his face protruded a bit like a mix between a human face and wolf’s snout—but they seemed like they were meant to be there, while the rest looked like someone had grafted animal parts to them or their animal parts had mutated grossly.

The leader was constantly on the verge of catching a figure in blue, white, and gold robes. It was Xing Yaling. The robes told me that much, even if she was without her veil and looked far less composed than I’d ever seen her before.

The leader and the rest of the twisted beast-like men kept trying to corner her, but she kept them at bay with the use of a pure white spear and barrages of razor-sharp icicles. Her spear met flesh every time they got too close, cutting deep and leaving freezing wounds. But they kept coming after her. And she was clearly not in the best shape either.

Despite the speed they were all still moving and fighting at, she was visibly limping. A large tear in her robes showed why, as she had a vicious-looking leg wound that bled freely. She had another wound near her stomach as well, which stained her robes red there.

Yet, despite all that, she fought with ferocity as she tried to make her way over to one of the holes that led out of the underground. Near one of the holes, there was enough debris that she should be able to reach it. But the ones attacking her were doing everything they could to stop her.

I cursed mentally and started towards the fight. I wasn’t sure what I could really do. Even as injured as all the fighters were, it was clear that several of the fighters were superior to me, even if my actual body was here and I was uninjured. But I couldn’t just do nothing.

“Don’t let her escape!” the leader shouted again, and the blood dripping out of his few wounds seemed to boil. They ignited into black flames and shot forward towards Xing Yaling.

Xing Yaling spun her spear, deflecting the flames with an aura of icy white, but one of the flames got through. It hit her in the arm, making her gasp and falter in place. My heart leapt to my throat as it looked like she was done for, but I wasn’t close enough to do anything.

“I have you now,” the leader said, snarling in victory and exposing his lengthened canines. He slashed out with his black, blazing saber.

“Wretched demonic filth!” Xing Yaling shouted as a lotus of ice appeared beneath her. It enveloped her in the blink of an eye, blocking the lethal blow from the leader of the assassins. 

His blade cut into her protection, but it got stuck, and the flames extinguished. 

“Begone!” Xing Yaling shouted before the lotus spun rapidly.

The assassin leader tried to keep hold of his sword, but it was ripped out of his hand. Then he was sent flying as the lotus exploded, ice petals shooting out at startling speeds. All the attackers who surrounded her were hit as well by the razor-sharp petals, each the size of a forearm.

The attackers screamed as they were skewered and sent away. Xing Yaling took the chance to run up the small mountain of debris to the hole in the ceiling. I followed, wanting to see her get out.

When she reached the top of the mountain, just shy of the hole out, she jumped, her robes fluttering in the air along with her long white hair. She soared and—shit! At the last moment, a familiar semi-transparent barrier blocked her way. The ancient formations! Even with a hole in the tunnels, the formations still kept the tunnels and the above-ground separate.

Xing Yaling cursed, kicked off the air as ice appeared beneath her feet, and lashed out with a white spear. The tip, billowing with icy air, stabbed right into the center of the barrier, sending a shockwave through the chamber. 

But all she got for her efforts was a crack in the barrier. A crack that healed before she could even strike again.

Xing Yaling fell back towards the debris, her face twisted in a scowl as she held her arm. The black flames there had died, but the skin beneath looked burned and blackened.

“Xing Yaling!” I called out as my fox clone neared. It came out half sounding like a yip, but for some reason, I could mimic human words enough to sound coherent. I wasn’t sure if it was a fox thing or a spirit beast thing, but it made things a whole lot easier. “It’s Li Lan! We met in the Sun estate. I have a way out!”

Immediately, all eyes turned towards me. Most of them were hate-filled. Only two of the attackers had died to the ice lotuses, while the rest were injured but still standing and now glaring at my fox. Xing Yaling’s eyes turned to me as well, confusion and suspicion in them.

“Head through the tunnel behind me,” I said, not having anything else I could say to convince her. “We have a way to hold them off and get away!”

At the same time, I called out with my real body. “Pan Song! Get over here! Xing Yaling’s going to be coming our way with a bunch of people chasing her!”

Then, before I got any replies, I turned and started to run. Given the strength of everyone else involved, regardless of their injuries, I needed as much of a head start as I could get. At the same time, I primed the enhanced foxfire inside my fox and moved it to its tail. If I got lucky, maybe I could take out another one of these guys with it, though I doubted it.

This foxfire wasn’t anywhere as strong as the one I’d created before and brought into the trial. But maybe if I used all the Qi inside my fox clone too, it might be enough to be lethal to at least one of these guys.

I felt my fox clone’s heart beat hard as I rushed over the debris back the way I came. Behind me, I could hear everyone else start to move. And they were headed towards me. Which hopefully meant Xing Yaling believed me.

As I leapt off a tall piece of debris, I took the chance to look behind me to see just what was happening. My actual body jolted as I saw how close everyone had already come. All the attackers were rushing towards me, while Xing Yaling kicked off hard against the ground, and suddenly, she was beside me.

Her hand lashed out, and an iron grip was around my fox's neck. An icy chill ran through the fox, which made both my bodies freeze and shiver. The Qi in my fox also felt like it had been frozen solid. I had to pull back my focus from the fox clone to avoid the uncomfortable sensation.

“How can I trust you?” Xing Yaling hissed, even as she ran towards the tunnel I’d come from.

“I don’t know how to convince you,” I had my fox say in its yippy voice as it struggled to speak. “All I can say is that you have a working relationship with Sun Xia, right? I’m friends with her retainers, and I wouldn’t want to ruin that relationship.”

At the same time, Pan Song arrived at my main body. He started interacting with the formation, getting ready to open it. Hopefully, he could do it fast enough.

Xing Yaling frowned but kept hold of my fox and ran into the tunnel. She didn’t let up on the icy Qi she was flooding my fox with, leaving me unable to do much with it. I could only barely twist my head around to see the status of the assassins.

They chased after us, snarling with hate and anger. And they were coming in fast, especially the leader. The rest we might be able to outrun, but if the leader maintained his pace, we wouldn’t be able to get through the opening to the defensive array safely.

Shit!

Oh well, guess it was time to see just how bad the backlash of losing a fox was.

“He’s going to catch up,” I said softly. It was hard to speak with how cold the fox alone felt. “Throw me at the leader.”

“What?” Xing Yaling said, looking down at me incredulously.

“This is a technique,” I said, focusing on pouring the fox’s Qi into the foxfire in its tail and burning it. It was really hard to do with her suppressing me. “This isn’t my real body. Just chuck me at the leader and stop suppressing me. As fast as you can. It doesn’t matter if this body survives.”

The icy suppression dissipated after another moment as we hurtled down the tunnel. I quickly forced the rest of the Qi I had available without disrupting the Foxtail Clone Skill into my foxfire. It grew larger and brighter, and I had to focus as much as possible to keep it from going out of control. 

I felt Xing Yaling lift me up. I grimaced at the feeling but nodded when she looked into my eyes.

She spun without slowing down and hurled me back towards our attackers. My fox went flying, and in the blink of an eye, I was far too close to the fanged maw of the leader of the attackers. He lashed out with his saber, cutting through my fox clone in a single blow. But I had just enough time to flick my tail and send my enhanced foxfire right into this face.

The last thing I heard through the connection was his screams of pain and outrage.

But I didn’t get a chance to enjoy it as it felt like someone punched me in the head. The whole world seemed to spin around me as I fell to the ground. Vaguely, I could hear Pan Song saying something, but it was hard to make out. 

“She’s almost here!” I forced myself to say, fighting off the pain and nausea of the abrupt disconnect. “You’ll have to close the formation fast.”

Pan Song said something else in reply, but I couldn’t make it out. I had to close my eyes to stop the world from spinning. Then, after taking several long, calming breaths, I forced myself to open my eyes and focus on the present.

I was just in time to see the ancient defensive formation open up. Not all the way, but partially. Just enough to let the lithe form of Xing Yaling leap through the opening. Then the formation closed again.

A dark flame-clad saber hit the formation a moment later, causing things to shake. But the shield held. For now. 

We’d done it. We’d save Xing Yaling and stop her assassination.

Before I could celebrate, however, the assassins continued to attack the defensive formation, making things shake more and more. Then a crack formed in the formation.

“We have to go!” Pan Song shouted and ran over to me. He helped pull me up, and then all three of us ran back towards the transport array.

We weren’t in the clear just yet.