55 Hammer and Anvil

Jack and his two companions reached the wall of the Undying Flame Mountain guard houses and jumped to its top. A few men had to catch Shi Furui before he flew over, but they all landed safely.

Jack looked to the side where the preparations for the upcoming battle neared their conclusion and gave a slight nod to the painted face of Kuang Bindun who oversaw them.

He moved his gaze to the back of the encampment, where the civilians gathered near the side-gates that lead towards the outside world, and smiled at the calm demeanor of the people.

They lived with life and death as a constant in their lives. In his world, he would have to post a dozen soldiers to keep the people in check.

Jack took a look over his shoulder and saw that Mai Yining had already returned to the Blooming Life Mountain walls. He smiled and jumped down to the encampment proper, where most of the cultivators sat in meditation to recover their spirit energy.

He took a minute to check on his men, and when he felt satisfied with their camouflaged faces, started to change his clothes.

Kong Weilie came over to the stripping Jack and whispered "Were we not just meant to provoke him into attacking?"

Jack shrugged as he took out his camouflage uniform from his Star Bag and said "I didn't like him. He seemed too competent an enemy to let live any longer. This way their rage will blind them."

Kong Weilie nodded his head after a few seconds of contemplation. Just as he meant to ask a question about Jack's weapon, Jack gave him his white Eternal Rest Mountain disciple robes, and a ceremonial uniform out of his Star Bag as he said "Go get ready, we need to start as soon as possible or they might cool down enough to start thinking again."

With an affirmative grunt, Kong Weilie took the clothes in his hands and walked over to the disciples of the Undying Flame Mountain. He gave the clothes to two fourth grade disciples that had similar builds to Jack and Shi Furui, and who had their hair cut short in the last hour.

Jack visited his men and gave them their camouflaged uniforms and their weapons back to change into. He also allowed Kuang Bindun to paint his and Shi Furui's faces.

Once he ended his preparations, he walked over to old Long who stood near the civilians and asked "You sure that you don't want to join us?"

Old Long snorted as he refused "I would rather go back to my store than do what you plan to." A second later his face turned serious as he added "Try to stay alive, boy."

Jack gave him a smile as he said "I plan to, old man." He turned to the side to look at old Long's assistants and his wounded man as he warned "I'm trusting you to take care of him, don't let me down."

He had allowed his man to use as much spirit energy as he needed to help with the healing, but things didn't look too bright for his future while that sword still remained in his gut.

When the assistants gave their promises, Jack walked away towards Tan Boli and his family and gave them the payment he promised. Tan Boli knew that he shouldn't argue with Jack at a time like this, so he just took the coins and wished Jack the best of luck.

Ten minutes later, when everything looked ready, Jack and Kong Weilie gave each other their best wishes and went their separate ways.

Kong Weilie projected his voice out as much as he could as he roared "We disciples of the glorious Undying Flame Mountain will not die trapped like rats in this place! Move out towards freedom!" With that, the side gates of the encampment opened, allowing the disciples of the Undying Flame Mountain and the civilians in their care to start filing out of them.

Jack nodded his head in satisfaction as he leaned back onto the solid rock of the main wall and looked up at the battle above them.

Shi Furui asked from his side "Will it work?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders as he said "Probably. They can't just let them get away. And with the murderers of their leader in the fleeing group, they might just charge straight at them."

Shi Furui kept staring at Jack for a second before he asked "What would you do?"

Jack looked down at the children and wounded in the leaving group and said "Harry them from afar, make their dependents weigh them down so I could pick them off with ease."

Shi Furui gave a slow nod of agreement as he came to his final point "What if they do that?"

Jack looked into his friend's dark eyes as he said "Then we use the chaos to make a break for it and leave them all behind. I will not risk you all on a suicide mission."

Shi Furui gave a slight sigh of relief and leaned back on the wall.

They watched the battle in the sky for a couple of minutes, before they heard a bellow come from the direction of the Blooming Life Mountain guard houses "Slaughtering Sword School disciples, follow me to avenge our Young Master!" A roar of approval greeted the command.

Jack and his men stopped their short rest, and sneaked up to the walls to watch the happenings.

A dozen seconds after the declaration from the Slaughtering Sword School side, Kong Weilie's voice shouted out "Undying Flame Mountain! We will make our stand here and burn the Slaughtering Sword School dogs to ashes!" His declaration got some roars of approval too, but a lot more restrained ones.

Jack peeked his head over the wall and watched the Undying Flame Mountain disciples arrange themselves into two lines of around a hundred people in each, about a hundred and fifty meters diagonally to his left. 'I hope this simple formation works.' He thought as he watched the loose lines in which he instructed Kong Weilie to arrange his people in.

To his right, a disorganized mob of around three hundred people in dark blue robes charged across the upturned field of battle. Some of them ran a lot farther ahead than the bulk of the group, and some lagged behind a great distance.

Jack shook his head at the poor discipline, and almost forgot to breathe as the distance between the two forces melted away.

The first few people that charged forward from the Slaughtering Sword School halted their advance at around a hundred meters away from the Undying Flame Mountain's disciples and fired off their slashing spells.

Kong Weilie ordered his people to just defend from the few unthreatening incoming spells and, when more than twenty people reached the hundred meter mark, roared "Kill!"

Within the span of two seconds, almost a hundred spells got shot out from the first line in their battle formation. Different shades of strangely shaped red-tinged spirit energy bombarded the around twenty scattered Slaughtering Sword School disciples.

When the dust cleared, only seven of them survived, and most of them had burns on their bodies.

That didn't prevent the main mass of the Slaughtering Sword School disciples to charge past their wounded compatriots with added fury.

Right after firing their spells, the first row of the Undying Flame Mountain disciples rushed to the back under Kong Weilie's urging, and the second row stepped up to take their place.

As soon as they did, they finished their previously prepared spells and let them fly on the incoming enemy.

After finishing casting their spells, the front row tried to move back, while the back row tried to move forward, but a rain of spells came out of the cloud of dust and smoke in front of them, and cut down some of the Undying Flame Mountain disciples.

A few people fired off spells in response before the rest of them could, and things turned chaotic for a second.

Bai Maolong looked at Jack with excitement in his eyes and asked "Now?"

Jack shook his head as he studied the fighting and said "Not yet."

Kong Weilie managed to rally his people after a few seconds and had them fire off another volley of spells.

The return spells from the Slaughtering Sword School disciples reaped a few more lives from the Undying Flame Mountain lines and collapsed them altogether.

Kong Weilie couldn't hold it any longer as he roared "Attack!" and charged at the incoming Slaughtering Sword School disciples with his saber in-hand.

Some of the Undying Flame Mountain disciples joined him, while some fell back and fired off more spells at the enemies.

Bai Maolong looked like he wanted to run out there on his own as he asked "Now?!"

Jack gave him a sidelong glance, stood up, and said "Now!"

As soon as he stood up, everyone in his unit started to fill their empty dantians with spirit energy through their skin. They picked up a rock from one of the many piles arranged previously on the wall and placed them in their slingshots.

Only Jack had a camouflaged cylinder on his shoulder as he took aim at the back lines of the Slaughtering Sword School disciples.

When two whistles rang out from his left and his right, he shouted "Fire!" and twenty imbued rocks, and one deadly metal ball, rushed towards the unsuspecting Slaughtering Sword School disciples.

The metal ball grazed the shoulder of the disciple that Jack aimed for, so he saw the incoming twenty rocks land around him when he turned around on instinct. He looked at the unassuming rocks with confusion, and only when he saw a tiny crack on one of them did he opened his mouth to shout "Look o…"

Before he could finish his warning, the rocks exploded and slammed into the unprotected backs of the Slaughtering Sword School disciples. A few unlucky ones even had shrapnel lodge itself in their necks or heads and died or lay dying.

As the confused Slaughtering Sword School disciples turned around to look who attacked them, they saw new rocks flying towards them.

A few warnings sounded out, but most of it got drowned out by the clamor of the battle, one of the shouting disciples even had his jaw shot off by something.

By the fourth volley of rocks, the disciples in the back lines gave up on warning the frenzied fighters in the front and, almost through looks alone, decided to charge at the Undying Flame Mountain guard houses' protective wall.

Jack took down the first person that started to look like he planned to charge at them, his third hit of the battle, and shouted "Retreat and go dark!"

The eight of them in the fourth grade stayed on the wall for a second longer, just enough to push all of their spirit energy into the gathered piles of rocks, and then jumped down and ran to hide in the rubble of the guard houses.

Even before some of them managed to hide behind cover, almost a dozen Slaughtering Sword School disciples jumped up to the top of the wall and looked at them like wolves look at sheep.

The young man in the lead started saying "Just a few fourth grade nobodies." He turned towards the others on the wall and said "Brothers, let's go and…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the masses of rock on the walls exploded and flayed the backs of the Slaughtering Sword School disciples.

Jack had a cold smirk on his face as he watched the twitching bodies his victims, and only drew back into the darkness when more people jumped to the top of the wall.