53 Raising a Flag

The young man in red robes looked down at the rope in his hands for a second, then threw it to the side. He looked at Jack in confusion as he asked "Lead you where?"

Jack's face turned serious as he answered "To Senior Brother Mai, of course."

The young man's brows furrowed as he said "The Young Master only said to let you in, he did not mention anything about leading you to him."

Jack nodded his head as he agreed "Of course not, he doesn't know that I have vital information that will help him break this siege. Thus, you have to take me to him so I could hand it over."

The young man's eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion as he asked "Why not just give it to me and I will pass it on to him?"

Jack shrugged as he said "Can't do that, it's for his ears only. Traitors seem to run around everywhere these days."

The young man studied Jack for a few seconds, before he sighed, waved for Jack to follow, and started walking along the wall. Jack followed in his wake while he eyed the ruins of the guard houses.

The back part of the encampment had a few almost intact buildings, but the end that faced the Blooming Life Mountain only had a few scattered low walls remaining behind the main wall.

Jack ignored the flying spells that came at their walls as he focused on the back of the encampment. There, shivering servants stood guard on the doors of the few remaining buildings, while the crying of frightened children came from behind the closed doors.

His expression turned solemn as he saw the tired and hopeless faces of the Undying Flame Mountain disciples on the walls.

Jack sped his step up to walk alongside the young man from the Undying Flame Mountain and asked "How many people do you have here?"

The young man looked at Jack from the corner of his eye, considered lying, sighed, and answered "Around six hundred people. Half of that are civilians, mostly families and servants of the Elders, and their children. Our fighting force consists of around forty wounded disciples, sixty inner and core disciples, and two hundred outer disciples." He looked over his shoulder at his former home and whispered "Everyone else either stayed back to buy us time, or died."

Jack nodded his head slowly as he did some mental calculations. A few seconds later his face turned grim and he didn't ask any additional questions.

The young man led Jack down a flight of stairs into the encampment proper, past the crumbled buildings, and to the end of the guard complex where dozens of disciples of the Undying Flame Mountain sat in meditation under the outer walls.

Above them, on the wall, other disciples of the Undying Flame Mountain stood and blocked the spells that the enemies sent at them. At their head stood a young man in blazing red robes with a flaming whip in each hand. He used the whips to cut down any spell that came flying his way. The rest of the disciples seemed to look to his every move for strength to push their tired bodies past their limits.

The young man that led Jack told him to wait there, while he ran up to the top of the wall and yelled something to the bald middle-aged man standing in the shadow of the young man with the whips. A few seconds later, the middle-aged man shouted something to the young man with the whips that made him fall back to the back of the wall. The middle-aged man took out a flaming whip of his own and stood in his place where he started to repel the incoming attacks.

Jack's guide led the young man with the whips down to where Jack stood and stepped away to the side to give them a semblance of privacy.

The young man, Mai Younu, looked down at Jack with slight surprise in his eyes, but his voice remained calm as he stated "I knew that my instincts did not lie to me when they told me to let you live. Due to that, you have bought yourself an additional thirty breaths of life to tell me why an outer disciple of the Eternal Rest Mountain found his way to this side of the battlefield with battle information for me."

Jack nodded his head slowly as he said "I'm not here as a disciple of the Eternal Rest Mountain, I started planning for my escape ever since yesterday's attack, and thought that this route would offer me the easiest way out of the Sect."

Mai Younu's eyes narrowed as he looked at Jack like a bird of prey that just saw its next meal, but he remained quiet and allowed Jack to use up the time allotted to him.

Jack noticed the change in Mai Younu, but he remained calm as he continued "I took my subordinates and a few people from Tranquil Lake Town, and lead them through this valley once the Sect-protecting formation went down. But we can't continue on our own anymore."

Mai Younu didn't hold back the feeling of wanting to snap Jack's neck the more of his story he heard, but he kept it in check and he watched him with cold, calculating, eyes.

Jack ignored the threatening air that Mai Younu exuded and said "I have seen this battlefield from multiple sides. If your people don't break away from here before dawn, they will all either die or become the slaves of the enemies."

Mai Younu finally couldn't hold himself back as he grabbed Jack by the neck and lifted him up into the air as he growled "Do you think that I do not know my own situation, boy?" With a visible push of his willpower, Mai Younu managed to rein himself back in as his calm voice returned when he added "The messenger said that you have some information that might help us. Speak or die."

Jack felt the grip on his neck loosen enough for him to breathe, but Mai Younu still held him dangling in his grasp. He took in a few shallow breaths, looked Mai Younu straight into his eyes, and rasped out "I'm your best way to save the people stuck in this deathtrap. Kill me, and you kill yourself."

Mai Younu stared into Jack's eyes for a few seconds as the hand holding Jack's neck trembled in the desire to squeeze. Just as Jack started doubting if his gamble would pay out, Mai Younu loosened his grip and allowed Jack to fall back to his feet.

After letting out a long, tired sigh, which gave a small chance for the fatigue that assaulted him to leak out for a moment, Mai Younu regained his straight-backed calm stance and ordered "Tell me what you have in mind."

Jack rubbed his neck a little as he looked up at Mai Younu and said "You need to take every inner and core disciple, even the wounded ones, and make a break towards the outside world."

Mai Younu's brows furrowed as he glared at Jack and growled "And leave the outer disciples and the families of my father's men here to die, or to a worse faith?"

Jack remained calm as he said "That won't happen. I will do everything that I can so that they all get out, but we'll have a better chance of surviving than waiting for the Elders to finish their fight and then come for us down here. The reason why I need to you to take all of the inner and core disciples away…"

Mai Younu's eyes widened as he listened to Jack's plan, but he didn't say anything and let Jack continue his explanations. He knew that the enemies were just holding them here until they got the reinforcements from the Elders. If they really wanted to, they could have stormed Mai Younu's position and taken his men down in exchange for a decent number of lives already.

Half an hour later, Jack and his men stood on the wall that surrounded the guard buildings of the Undying Flame Mountain and watched as Mai Younu assembled all of the inner and core disciples from the encampment to the far end of the wall and shouted out loud enough for the other side to hear.

"Brothers, we have no chance of holding this position and keeping our lives! Follow me outside on a path of blood and freedom!" Mai Younu spun his whips through the incoming attacks and dashed towards the enemy encampment while deflecting their attacks to provide cover for his men.

A few of the strongest core disciples of the Undying Flame Mountain followed from behind and helped him. The rest of the disciples dashed towards the exit out of the valley while firing a few spells at the enemies to divert their attention.

When Mai Younu saw that his men managed to get away he roared "Hear me, you traitors and dogs of the Slaughtering Sword School! One day I, Mai Younu, will return and take all of your heads!" With that, he executed a strategic retreat towards the exit of the valley as the attacks from the enemies rained down on him and his helpers.

A second later a loud voice shouted from the Blooming Life Mountain side "After them! We cannot allow the elites of the Undying Flame Mountain to flee!"

A mass of over a hundred people ran out of the Blooming Life Mountain encampment and chased after the fleeing Undying Flame Mountain disciples. The battlefield fell silent.

Shi Furui looked over at Jack with wide eyes as he asked "How did you know they would do that?"

Jack looked over at Shi Furui and asked "What would you do if you had the numerical advantage over the enemy on all fronts?"

Shi Furui thought for a few seconds before he answered "I would divert a part of my forces from the fronts that I thought I could hold, and focus everything on the one where I could make a decisive victory as fast as possible."

Jack shrugged his shoulders and looked up at the two major battles still happening above them as he said "I told you, these people consider themselves honorable deep down in their bones. Otherwise, why wouldn't some of the combatants from the other battles come down and clean up this little skirmish in a few minutes?"

He lowered his gaze and looked into Shi Furui's uncertain eyes as he concluded "It would lose them a lot of face if they did something like that in front of their peers. Only when they finish their own fights will they deem it proper to interfere in the fights of the younger generations."

Shi Furui's eyes shined with understanding as he followed Jack on a walk down to the rubble of the guard houses, where Jack started rummaging through a collapsed wooden building.

With a frown, he asked "What are you doing now? Don't we need to go and seek negotiations with the enemy?"

Jack remained silent for a few seconds before he exclaimed "Aha!" and pulled out a three-meter-long wooden pole from the ruble, and then the top part of the ceremonial uniform for the Gravediggers from his Star Bag.

He tied the uniform around one end of the pole and propped it up in the air so it fluttered as he stated to a confused Shi Furui "We can't start peace negotiations without a white flag." He smiled at the confused look in Shi Furui's eyes as he started walking towards the main gates of the Undying Flame Mountain encampment.