The six knights were set down by the grand knight. For a time, none of them dared speak.
Everyone could tell that the chief instructor's temper was on a razor's edge.
Fortunately, he reined his emotions in before long. "Enough. Prepare to make camp. We cannot spend the night in the open."
"I'll dig out a cave," the stocky liaison volunteered.
"Too slow. I'll do it myself," the chief instructor replied, shaking his head and reaching forward with an outstretched palm.
A massive cascade of sand, stone, and earth came slumping down—at least seven or eight cubic meters in volume.
This was done with great care, his power deliberately restrained for fear of alarming the surrounding Guizu aura.
Otherwise, his earthmoving capabilities would have been far greater than this—no one could look down on a grand knight like that.
The others understood immediately upon seeing this. If even the chief instructor was doing the heavy lifting himself, they had better... hurry up.
In less than two minutes, a new campsite had taken shape, and the defensive and warning mechanisms in the perimeter were fully deployed.
Say what you will, the fundamental proficiency of Tianjing Martial Academy's martial artists really was... well, never mind, no need to say it!
Only after retreating into the shelter did someone speak up. It was a clean-featured young man. "Master, will this definitely work?"
"It's not much better than the previous one," the stocky liaison chimed in. "There's still half the night left. Hurry and get some rest."
The clean-featured youth asked again, "What if they pursue us again?"
During their frantic flight under the chief instructor's lead, the others had gradually pieced together what they had encountered.
Though that confrontation two days prior had felt somewhat baffling, a fire had been smoldering beneath everyone's chest.
Had they been outside the Guizu domain, they would have made the other party pay dearly!
None of them thought their own conduct had been out of line—a Guizu domain was a public enemy of Liang, not anyone's private property!
"Pursue us?" The grand knight let out a scornful chuckle. In this kind of environment, how could anyone still pursue them?
Yet in the next breath, the sneer froze on his face. Previously, he too had assumed the other side lacked the guts to give chase.
Yet facts had proven that the enemy had not only tailed them hot on their heels, but had launched an attack!
Up to this point, there was no concrete proof indicating who had detonated the three ghost-destroying mines, but did they even need proof?
It came down to what the stocky liaison had said: if the other party possessed special means to rely on, what was so impossible about it?
At that moment, everyone caught the shift in his expression.
"It was my fault," the tall knight spoke up first to admit his mistake. "I failed to fully consider the viciousness of the real world."
From the moment Rossi had shouted at them to halt, he had been a staunch hardliner, advocating firm suppression of the other side.
Beyond coveting the harvest, he possessed the ingrained pride of a Tianwu student—not just anyone had the right to yell at him.
Yet now, he finally realized: an academy was merely an academy, while the outside world was the harsh reality!
"It isn't really your fault," the stocky knight spoke up. "People this vicious and ruthless are rarely encountered out there, either."
"What you're saying doesn't match your earlier words, Officer," the clean-featured youth asked earnestly. "Didn't you say there were plenty of vicious people out there?"
The stocky knight shook his head with a bitter smile. "Even the vicious have limits, don't they?"
"Even I have rarely seen someone this overbearing," the chief instructor couldn't resist adding.
"Exactly. How deep of a grudge could it be?" the sharp knight sighed softly. "Chasing us for three whole days... without even letting up at night."
As he finished speaking, he couldn't help shivering. Being hounded by people like that felt utterly wretched.
If time could turn back to three days ago, he would certainly have strongly urged communicating as amicably as possible.
Regrettably, there was no medicine for regret in this world.
The clean-featured youth blinked twice. "Then why... didn't they strike during the first two nights?"
"Perhaps they hadn't caught up yet," the tall knight replied without thinking. "Catching up is extraordinarily difficult."
"They caught up the very first night," the stocky liaison stated flatly.
In truth, he wasn't completely certain either, with only seventy to eighty percent confidence at best.
But now, it had to be a hundred percent. They were all human—did they really think only the chief instructor cared about saving face?
The tall knight froze upon hearing this. "Then why... why did they..."
He stopped mid-sentence, because everyone had already thought of the answer.
If their side had brooded over the previous clash, the other side was even less willing to swallow that grievance.
"They wanted to tail us all the way and wipe out our main base camp?" The clean-featured youth was dumbfounded. "Where do they get the nerve to think that?"
Sabotaging a temporary shelter and storming a fortified main camp were entirely different matters of difficulty.
Even leaving aside the defensive works, the sheer presence of garrison personnel possessing extraordinary combat power was more than enough!
"Because they possess the ability to launch attacks in the dead of night," the stocky liaison said with a shake of his head. Without special means, who would dare pull off something like that?
The tall knight sighed softly as well, answering stiffly, "Because they're crazy enough."
The group fell silent at his words. Truly, the reckless fear the ruthless, and the ruthless fear those who don't care about their own lives...
***
At that moment, the crazy trio was holed up in a tiny cave, waiting in torment.
The entrance wasn't large, barely over half a square meter; one had to crouch low or crawl in on hands and knees.
The interior had about four to five cubic meters of space, so it wasn't overly cramped.
The entrance had already been sealed from the inside with sandbags, leaving only a tiny crack to breathe air.
The sandbags were mixed with ghost-dispelling powder, and even more had been sprinkled around the gap, then sealed with mud to solidify it.
Apart from that, all they could do was hold their breath, steady their minds, and quietly wait for the storm to pass.
"I can't hold out anymore, I need to sleep for a bit," Rossi said, unable to endure any longer. "By the way, I don't snore."
Namuzha nudged the youth with his elbow. "Still pursuing?"
"Tsk," Wu Youren smacked his lips, letting out another yawn. "I never imagined the commotion would be this huge."
Not only had the Tianwu squad been scared out of their wits, but the three culprits were also stunned: detonating ghost-destroying mines at night actually caused such massive devastation?
Seeing that he didn't answer directly, Namuzha said faintly, "They say whenever a Guizu domain forms, there is at least one Shenwei-tier Guizu."
Wu Youren's attention was finally hooked. "Really?"
He had combed through a lot of literature on ability masters, and none had mentioned such a claim.
"What do you think?" Namuzha didn't give a straight answer either, asking again, "Are we chasing them or not?"
Unable to dodge this time, Wu Youren pondered a moment before replying, "What is our ultimate goal?"
Namuzha was stunned, only speaking after a long pause, "Do you Jin people do things in such a rigid way?"
*Brute!* Wu Youren smiled faintly. "I was just asking to remind you."
Namuzha genuinely gave it some serious thought before answering, "At the very least, we need to know who they are, right?"
What he truly wanted was to vent his spite, but that answer would make him look simple-minded.
As long as they knew where the other party came from, they could always settle scores later.
*Grown some brains, haven't you!* Wu Youren felt a touch of regret inside—didn't he also want to vent his frustration?
However, those words couldn't come from his mouth. With Namuzha immune to provocation at the moment, he could only nod. "Fine, then!"
It wasn't until dawn that the raging Guizu aura began to gradually subside.
By the time they risked crawling out of the cave, another two hours had passed.
Seeing the complete devastation outside, Namuzha couldn't help furrowing his brow. "Let's go take a look first."
The turmoil of the Guizu aura hadn't entirely ceased, and Guizu-transformed creatures still darted about erratically. Advancing was far more arduous than the day before.
Under these circumstances, however, they basically didn't have to worry about the enemy doubling back to ambush them.
They arrived at their adversaries' previous campsite. Aside from the cave choked with gravel, broken stones, and foliage, the scene was virtually unrecognizable from yesterday.
"The destruction is too severe," Rossi remarked with regret. "No traces can be found; even tracking beasts probably wouldn't work."
"Follow the trail with the heaviest signs of impact," Namuzha said with a furrowed brow. "That grand knight was carrying several people."
The last time the grand knight fled, he had also carried his people away.
Yet on that occasion, the enemy had retreated in relative composure, bypassing trees and boulders, and Wu Youren's group had ultimately tracked them by locking onto their heading.
This time it had been nighttime, making it impossible to fix a directional bearing, but in such an emergency, the enemy wouldn't have had the luxury of neatly maneuvering around obstacles either.
There were several trails bearing severe impact marks. Namuzha casually picked one. "My luck has never been bad."
Rossi yawned and nodded. "Fair enough. Let's set a half-day limit? If we can't find them, we head back?"
His original plan was to viciously sabotage the other party a few times; even if they couldn't kill anyone, they'd make those bastards regret what they'd done.
However, after venting that frustration, his desire had cooled considerably.
Most importantly, roughing it in the wilderness night after night was exhausting body and mind, and the toll on their biguijue was too high.
As usual, Wu Youren took no stance, keeping a very clear grasp of his own position.
Namuzha's luck really lived up to his words—at least, it was spot on this time.
Three hours later, they found the enemy's second campsite.
After probing the surroundings and confirming no one was around, Namuzha cautiously approached the cave entrance.
"Wait," Wu Youren called out abruptly. "There seems to be a trap!"
By now, his words carried immense weight; Namuzha stopped instantly, not daring to twitch a muscle.
"I knew it. How could they retreat so cleanly? Hmph, who doesn't have someone who understands mechanisms?"
He said so, but he himself was truly no expert in traps.
Wu Youren stepped forward to examine it, and Rossi followed—lately, he had also been studying mechanics and traps.
The mechanism was a well-camouflaged tripwire trigger.
Why hadn't they used a pressure plate? That was no surprise—in that case, pursuers would have to step directly on the exact spot to trigger it.
Connected to the tripwire were eight full ghost-destroying mines and one ordinary hand grenade! The rigged area spanned over a square kilometer.
Beneath one of the ghost-destroying mines lay a leather pouch, upon which was written a line of characters:
"Within this pouch lies a Guizu relic. Disarm the trap, and our grievance is settled. If you are not satisfied, come find Chief Instructor Saixi at Tianjing Martial Academy!"
The ordinary hand grenade was placed inside the cave, fitted with a secondary trigger switch, weighed down by a palm-sized vial.
Inside the vial was half a bottle of... Guizu-luring agent!
"Bloody hell," Namuzha's mouth twitched. "That's truly underhanded!"
Chapter 132