Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 264: Engaged

As soon as she said it, Zhu Jiaos face twisted. She obviously wasnt happy about the situation herself, but she yelled it at Yue Xingqing out of spite. On the other hand, the unintelligible screaming that came from the girl before she was pulled back into the window, made up for the situation a bit. The window closed right afterwards and Zhu Jiao riled up the crowd, knowing that it was no longer the time for talking.

They tore the cloaks and helmets off the suicide warriors that the Yi Yang Group had sent out and a great clamor rose up through the crowd. They were the friends and relatives of many in the crowd. One of the reasons so many had assembled today was because they believed the Yi Yang Group to be responsible for the disappearance of these people. To be killed by their friends and loved ones, or to be responsible for killing them. Many in the crowd were devastated. A rogue cultivator that was a Doctor started to check a few of them before he was brought to Zhu Jiao.

There is a poison in their bodies that corrodes their mind and makes them act like mindless automatons.

Zhu Jiao had the Doctor speak before she did, The Yi Yang Group is even more evil than we all thought! How long would they have kept the people to use as their puppets if we werent here today? How many atrocities would they use them to commit!? We have saved them from a fate worse than death. Everyone be ready to hold your breath and watch out for Hidden Weapons, dont let them poison you!

The Yi Yang Group was within their own fortified manor, so of course they wanted to try and draw out as many of them as they could. That said, now that they were using innocent people as suicide warriors, Zhu Jiao didnt want to give them time to prepare any other terrible tricks. She waved at an old man standing to the side of her. The old man nodded and a half-dozen teenagers standing behind him moved into a strange formation. Two stood behind the old man and placed a hand on each of his shoulders. The four others repeated the action, putting their hands on the first two teenagers shoulders. Then they all started channeling their energy. Four of them fed into two and two fed into one. The old man received the strength of the six behind him and he pulled out a large staff with a fist sized ruby on the top of it.

The ruby started to glow with light. After a few moments the ruby light illuminated the whole of the Yi Yang Groups compound and a few places in the sky and on the ground began to shimmer with a golden glow. Zhu Jiao barked an order and her men threw out talisman papers with extreme precision. Each of them landing on one of the glowing spots and floating there in mid-air or burying into the ground. Then each of the men formed a symbol with their hands and let out a loud shout. When they did, the talismans burst into flame and the entire protective formation around the Yi Yang Groups manor slowly melted away. The energy barrier drooping and fading until it ceased to exist.

Charge!

Zhu Jiao yelled while taking off into a run. Her men gathered beside and behind her, but she bravely led the charge. Sage glanced over to Black Saber, Stay here with King. If you hear three sharp whistles in a row, then back me up.

Sage ran to join the crowd, working his way through the masses and heading towards the front. At the same time, he was suddenly astounded as Zhu Jiao acted personally. When she reached the gate of the Yi Yang Groups compound she didnt slow down. She just measured her steps, leading with her left foot and then stepping forward with her right fist. A simple straight punch. Her fist flew straight out like the gate wasnt even there. Everyone heard the loud boom a moment later, the heavy metal gates were blown off their hinges and sent flying into the manor house like projectiles. One of them smashed open the front door and the other created a new doorway on the wall beside it.

Zhu Jiao held her pose, fist forward, for just a few moments before she brought her hand down and started to run again. This time she was laughing loudly, and her previously flawless skin was now covered with protruding blue veins. Rushing forward, she lifted her leg and did a quick front kick. The twisted remnant of the front gate was buried into what used to be the front door. Her kick hit the gate and fired it into the manor like a bulldozer. The front hall of the manor echoed with loud crashes and the splintering of wood. At least a dozen trap mechanism and arrays were immediately triggered and destroyed by the tyrannical action.

Zhu Jiao walked into the front hall and next to one of the large pillars that held it up. Each of the dozen pillars was about three feet wide and thirty feet tall. She swung her foot out, like she was tripping the pillar and there was a loud scream as the bottom of it deformed to keep up with her motion. The bottom flew out and the top of it came tumbling down. She lifted her arms and caught the top of the pillar like it wasnt a piece of wood that weighed five tons.

Get down.

Her men immediately fell down to the ground while she swung the huge pillar sideways. It swung to the left and back towards all of her men and swept over their prone forms. Then she took a short hop and pivoted her hips, switching her stance and pulling the pillar from behind like she was swinging a baseball bat from the right side. It smashed through another couple of the pillars on the way before she released it. Tossing it deeper into the manor like a weapon, the huge pillar spinning on its side and causing even greater destruction. She was a one woman demolition crew.

One of her men jumped up from the ground and dashed in front of her, intercepting a few dark flashes. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and the dark flashes stuck into his forearms. The man then threw off his cloak, showing he wore heavy armor on his arms and a dozen needles were stuck into the metal. A dark green liquid was dripping from the needles and making a hissing sound where it contacted the mans armor. He dragged the outside of one forearm against the inside of his other forearm, knocking all the poisoned needles out before repeating the gesture with the other arm.

Zhu Jiao seemed quite annoyed at the sneak attack, so she started to pick up the remains of the other pillars in the room and tossed them in the same direction as the first one. Moving past the front hall was likely to lead into the core areas of the manor and Zhu Jiao was tossing huge objects into that direction with vigor. There was still the possibility of others being kept here as prisoners, otherwise she might have just stayed outside and knocked the building down from a distance.

With the defenses of the front hall completely destroyed and the initial sneak attack from the second room being thwarted, Zhu Jiao stopped for a moment to recover. As she did, the crowd of mercenaries and rogue cultivators flooded into the building. They spread out into every direction, not wanting to let even one of the Yi Yang Group escape. They also felt a bit anxious, some of them worried about what other terrible things might be going on in the building, and worried about encountering the poison that had turned their friends into puppets.