51 Traitors

Jack held a dull-looking knife in his arms as he led the way towards the dark forest. He had applied camouflage paint to as many of their weapons as he could; otherwise, they would illuminate half of the forest from reflecting the battle in the sky.

"Go forth and end this decrepit old Sect, my Slaughtering Sword School! Kill!" roared a booming voice from the direction of the Vast Sky Mountain's sky as a sea of silver energy spread around him.

Light blue clouds of spirit energy rose up from the peak of the Vast Sky Mountain to clash with the silver energy as an aloof voice ordered "To battle Vast Sky Mountain! Do not let the scum of the Slaughtering Sword School take one step on our dear Sect's land."

Similar exchanges happened at the peaks of each of the five mountains that made up the Endless Cycle Sect.

As Jack's group reached the forest, the booming voice of Fan Aolan growled "Come and face your death like a man, traitor." from the sky above the Eternal Rest Mountain. His spirit energy formed a burning sea of flames from which white-hot sabers started forming.

Just before he launched his attack, a flash of deep blue erupted from the center of the Tranquil Lake and slammed into Fan Aolan. Both Fan Aolan and his flaming sea disappeared into the horizon, together with the blue flash that collided with him.

Jack gave a hand signal to his men, and Shi Furui, Yin Ping, Ma Ruiman, and himself ran out in front of the rest of the group and spread themselves into a fan formation. They kept their distance far enough from the group that they could spot trouble and warn them in time, but close enough to run back if something disastrous happened.

As the four people ran to the front, a woman's hate-filled voice rang out from the direction of the Eternal Rest Mountain "You will die by my hand this night, Bai Shetai!"

Unrestrained laughter answered the woman as Bai Shetai mocked "Come then if you have the guts, sweetheart."

A furious screech came as a response to Bai Shetai's mocking as sounds of battle intensified from that direction.

Every now and then a different whistling bird call sounded out over the ever-present noise of the battle, which Kuang Bindun used to direct the group towards the correct way.

The pale-faced old Long came up to Kuang Bindun and whispered "What are they doing?"

Kuang Bindun gave the old man a glance and signaled to Bi Tuohui to move him away.

Bi Tuohui dragged old Long back to the middle of the group and whispered "Don't bother him; he has to lead us through the forest. We first planned to go through the valley between the Eternal Rest and Unbreakable Rock Mountains, but this attack made all of our scouting go to waste. The new map that Tanda got marked this as the best route for survival in these circumstances."

Old Long looked skeptical at the ability to scout through the dark forest through sound, but he held his mouth shut and just nodded his head in acceptance.

Twenty minutes later, Jack reached a break in the tree canopy and could finally see the fight in the sky above him. He placed the tips of his thumb and index finger under his tongue and whistled out the signal to stop and wait. Four different whistles responded in acknowledgment a few seconds later, giving him the peace of mind to focus on the battle.

He felt tiny as he stood between the two tall mountains from which all kinds of different spirit energy attacks flashed out towards the night sky. A few seconds later his brows furrowed as he studied the two major battles in the sky.

Above the Blooming Life Mountain, a light green and a teal field of spirit energy clashed against each other, but the light green field seemed to retreat a few meters towards the Undying Flame Mountain with every clash. A bright red and a golden field of spirit energy stood evenly matched above the Undying Flame Mountain and looked like they could continue for a while.

From the rest of the fights on the mountains, it looked like the Endless Cycle Sect managed to hold their own against the invading Slaughtering Sword School, and even push them back a little.

Jack's brows furrowed more and more the longer he observed the fighting, a minute later he cursed under his breath and gave the signal to continue their escape.

Fifteen minutes after they continued, a female voice from high above Jack's position shouted "Undying Flame, lend me some help! I cannot hold him for much longer."

Jack started cursing towards the sky as he raised his fingers to his mouth and gave the signal to double their speed. As soon as he did he started jogging through the forest.

A few minutes later an enraged male voice roared "Argh! Blooming Life, you traitorous w*ore! If I am to die this day, I will make sure to take you with me!"

"Blooming Life Mountain Elders and disciples, show your loyalty to me by ripping the Endless Cycle Sect's crest from your robes and attacking the Undying Flame Mountain dogs!" Screamed the Blooming Life Peak Mistress.

Almost at the same time, a similar declaration came from the direction of the Vast Sky Mountain, only they targeted the Eternal Rest Mountain.

A second later Bai Shetai roared "Damn your Endless Cycle Sect, old Eternal. You have more traitors than loyal members!"

An old voice croaked through the night "Apologies, Brother Bai. As penance, I will hold back Vast Sky, his accomplice, and my foe as long as I can. You get rid of that woman and help me out."

Jack's face turned cold as his worst fears came to light. For a few seconds he wondered if he had the time to turn his people back and try a different path, but after Vast Sky Mountain Peak Master's declaration he discarded that thought and kept leading his group forward. He couldn't waste any time backtracking.

Fifteen minutes later, the internal fighting on the Blooming Life Mountain stopped, and they started launching attacks towards the Undying Flame Mountain. Jack only felt a few spirit energy attacks land near him, but his entire uniform became drenched in sweat.

He stopped moving and signaled his scouts to go back and regroup with the rest.

With the help of Kuang Bindun's whistles, they soon found the group huddled around a few trees and looking up through the cracks in the canopy with fear.

Ma Ruiman returned as the last of the scouts and exclaimed "I almost died out there!" When he got closer to the leading group they saw that his face had more dirt than paint for camouflage. He rubbed his face and added "A cursed huge thorny vine broke through the ground right next to me. A bit more to the left and it would have killed me for sure."

Jack furrowed his brows as he said "We can't go on like this. If we stay in the center of the valley we'll get hit by both sides of the battle."

Kuang Bindun frowned as he asked "Should we go over to the Undying Flame Mountain side then?"

Jack shook his head as he said "No, we're going to the Blooming Life Mountain side. They have the Undying Flame Mountain surrounded and fewer attacks should fly towards them. We just have to be careful that they don't discover us."

Shi Furui crossed his arms in front of his chest as he said "Once their Elders focus the fighting to the top of the mountain, they will send their disciples to fight the Undying Flame Mountain disciples at the bottom for sure. We'll walk right into them."

Jack nodded his head in acknowledgment, but said "Even with that, we have to do it."

They all gave grim nods to Jack's declaration and roused the resting people to their feet.

The group started moving straight towards the Blooming Life Mountain. A few attacks fell around them, but nothing came too close to endanger their lives.

When Jack saw that the attacks stopped falling on the valley between both mountains altogether, he signaled for everyone to regroup and made a new plan.

A squad of five teens in light green robes with their crests torn off walked through the forest in a relaxed manner.

The one in the front sneered "We are fortunate that Elder Chen decided to side with the Peak Master, or else we might have turned into fertilizer like those other fools."

A bird call sounded out in the night.

The guy walking on his right added "We are also fortunate that he chose you, Senior Brother, as a personal disciple, otherwise who knows what would have happened to us, outer disciples."

The teen in the lead started to chuckle at the praise, but he suddenly stopped moving and yelled "Show yourself!" towards the dark forest in front of him.

A few seconds later, the sword from his hip jumped into the air as he shouted "Show yourself, or else!" The rest of his squad grasped their weapons in their hands and stared in the same direction as their Senior Brother did.

Bird calls started sounding out all around the five teens all of a sudden. The four disciples in the back started looking over their shoulders at the darkness and withdrawing.

Only the Senior Brother didn't care about the trap as he stated "The dogs are only at the third and fourth grade, stand your ground and fight." He pointed a finger at the forest in front of him and growled "Kill!" as his sword flashed into the darkness.

A short two-toned whistle sounded from the tops of the trees almost at the same time as a cry of pain sounded out from the darkness.

A second later a dozen rocks flew towards the five-man squad. They either dodged them or batted them away with their weapons. The Senior Brother even caught one in his hand and looked down at it in surprise as he laughed "They are throwing rocks at us. Who taught these imbeciles how to fig…"

Before he could finish his sentence a tiny crack appeared on the rock in his hand and his eyes widened in surprise. He dropped it from his hand and covered his face with his arms as fast as he could.

In the middle of falling the rock blew up, along with all of the rest of the rocks.

The five-man squad could only protect their faces as numerous rock fragments scored shallow gashes over their bodies. Just as the rain of rocks stopped, the Senior Brother got a chill on his neck and looked up at the tree canopy.

A blade of a knife that had sigils etched on it covered half of his field of view. Before he could do anything else he no longer had the ability to do anything else.

Jack dragged his knife from the eye socket of the leading disciple. He looked around and saw that the rest of his unit managed to take down the rest of the enemies with little trouble. Every other enemy had two of Jack's men standing above them; he had to double up just to make sure that they succeeded.

He left the looting of the corpses to the others as he ran towards where the leading disciple sent his sword.

There, one of his bravest men lay in the arms of his companion. He had a stab wound in his gut, the offending sword piercing him straight through.

Jack frowned as he took out some bandages from his Star Bag and used them to stop the bleeding. He instructed the other member of his unit to hold the bandages there while he went back to the rest of the group and told them to build a stretcher.

Shi Furui walked up to him with relief and worry battling on his face as he asked "How is he?"

Jack frowned as he looked down at the naked dead enemy disciples and said "Probably dead, but we'll try to save him." Shi Furui nodded his head as Jack looked up at him and asked "Your side?"

Shi Furui glanced at the dead bodies as he said "Their robes have holes, blood, and dirt on them, but they're wearable."

Jack's face split into a cruel smile as he growled "This is a battlefield, it's natural for people to get blood on their clothes. I expect we will be soaked in it by the time we're done with them."