"Have the captains from other teams responded yet?" Li Meng asked.
They will be arriving soon. They are gathering forces from around and wrapping their work."
"Tell them to surround this base first. Half need to be on the lookout from shadows and make sure that no other force interferes in this raid. We also need to be on the lookout for any backup they might have." Li meng didn't want his hunt to be interrupted by anyone. He was insistent on taking his revenge from the Black-Devil Church.
"The other half is going to follow me in and attack the group. We aim to kill as many of them as possible. They are sure to have the required frost lilies which we are searching for."
" They are sure to have a lot of treasures with them. We have estimated that they are having three peaks Qi Kings, and the rest are advanced Qi Kings. Taking them one on one is not favourable and hence you are to form small teams and kill the three peak QI king first. The scouts are responsible for not letting any of the other practitioners escape."
"We need to perform a surprise attack, and hence we need to take care of two peak Qi Kings immediately. The captains who are in the peak Qi kings will be responsible for taking out the first one. Don't let him get the time to respond and alert the others."
"I will be responsible for taking out the other qi king. The last Peak Qi King will be the captain as he is bound to be a difficult opponent. We just need to surround their camp so that they don't get to escape and bring reinforcements. As for the other practitioners, the rest of the group members should be taking care of them."
"We just need their captain to be alive to get information about their expedition and the location of their actual base."
"We might have hit the jackpot brothers." One of the mercenaries spoke in an enthusiastic voice.
"Move in slowly and communicate with the scouts." Li Meng directed his men as they approached near the hiding spot of the Black-devil group.
.......................
Hiding spots, depths of Misty-Ridge-
"Captain YinLuo, how long would you be waiting here? Th escouts are back and they have reported that the Emerald Amethyst group has just entered the Ridge." One of the peak Qi King asked the man named Yin Luo.
"The commander has ordered us to be the first one to ambush them. He has asked me to let the group from Emerald Amethyst in, and when the whole force is gathered near the main base, we will be attacking them from behind. The success of the operation pretty rests on our shoulders."
"But sir, the more time we spend within this spot, the more will be the chances of our force being discovered by other people."
"A scout team is placed at the entrance to the valley according to the commander's orders. They will be responsible for conveying any irregularities which might occur within the valley to us. They will alert us as soon as the group from the hall enters our region and also warn us if any other group comes in our range."
"Our plan is quite simple. We will be waiting at this location and moving forward through this passage once the group from Emerald Amethyst Hall passes our checkpoint. Wait for them to engage the core group in battle while taking care of any backup that might come to assist them."
"After the main group is busy dealing with our core group, we will initiate an attack from their back and take them by surprise. The commander's instructions were clear. We are not going to let anyone live. The aim is the provisional Holy son of the Amethyst Hall."
"Should we proceed into hiding then."
"Please do. Before that, contact the rest of the group members." The men who were instructed started to initiate the message talisman and send message to the group members. To their surprise, they weren't receiving any reply.
"There seems to be a problem with the message talisman, sir. We aren't receiving any reply from the other side." When Yin Lupo heard this, he immediately rushed out from his station and looked around their base, just to find the atmosphere submerged in dead silence.
"Something is wrong. Try to contact others immediately. The talisman was personally formulated by the top formation masters of our church. There is no way they were dysfunctional. The men tried contacting the other leaders but to their surprise, there was no response from the other side.
"They are dead." Yin Luo immediately took his weapon out and so did the other two. The men who were accompanying them were preparing for battle too, but soon enough an arrow appeared out of nowhere and hit one of the lower grade practitioners in his head, killing him.
"Group up. Cover all directions and leave no blind spots. The enemy is trying to attack from the shadows." Yin Luo had just said that when a whole bunch of arrows appeared out of nowhere and the group lost another two people even after increasing their defence.
"Bring out the shield and proceed towards one of the corners fast. Another set of men begin to initiate their earning talisman and inform the main group about this attack. Fast people." But another three people were killed. The men didn't get time to warn about their backup. Soon enough the only people left were the three peak Qi Kings and two advanced level Qi Kings.
"I have to commend you on your ability to stay calm. Anyone else would try to rush out and escape from the situation." Li Meng came out from the shadows and confronted the group.
"That would only result in me lowering my defence and I would be taken down easily by your group." Yin Luo said.
"As I said earlier, commendable performance. Would you like to give up on your own, or should I kill two more of you and then watch the other give up?"
"Whoa re you?" Yin Luo's voice was calm and collected. He didn't lose his composure in the situation. He was trying to survey his environment and collect information about the situation from the enemy. Even if he were to die, he wanted to warn the main group about this sudden interference from Li Meng' group.
"Good way to try and buy time. Too bad I am not patient enough to waste time on you. Li Meng raised his hand and the whole group of attackers came out of the shadows. Yin Luo thought that the group attacking them would be a moderately powerful one, but the number of enemies scared him.
"I don't have a chance to escape. You all have to use the warning talisman and alert the main group.' Yin Luo thought.
"I initially thought of taking care of the other two beside you, but they hid in the centre of the group. Doesn't matter anymore." He turned towards his group and said. " You will be taking care of the two peaks Qi Kings in the group of five. Leave the leader to me." The group rushed out and started to assault the Black-Devi team.
The advanced Qi kings were the first ones to die since they weren't able to cope with the attack from five people simultaneously. Li meng's group was comprised only of advanced Qi Kings and peak Qi Kings. It was a formidable force. The attack turned into a one-sided massacre.
"The ones who are finished with the attack join with the other two groups." The two peak Qi King was soon riddled with scars. Yin Luo was too amazed to act fast enough. He didn't expect the enemy to be so brutal. They didn't even think of taking them hostage. He was going to kill everyone except him.
"I hope you choose wisely. You are still of use to us." Li Meng slashed his sword towards Yin Luo who instinctively dodged back, avoiding an open gut. He then came back to his senses and took his sword out from the sheath. He then flung it at Li Meng with a swift side movement, which Li meng countered with his sword pointing downward.
He then pushed him back and moved towards him with his sword held sideways. As he approached Yin Luo, he flipped his body around and attacked him with a powerful thrust. The body movement distracted Yin Luo, preventing him from actively guessing the sword's direction. His defence was sloppy and resulted in a deep injury in the stomach area.
Yin Luo pushed back quite a bit and finally managed to hold his ground. " If I am going down, I will take half of you with m for sure."
"Quite a dedication you have towards your church for you to actively sacrifice yourself. They wouldn't even bother to collect your corpse." Li meng said with a mocking tone.
"My commander will take revenge for me. You are powerful, but he is stronger."