"Not late, be careful!"
As he spoke, Hua Yiyou used the Iron Ruler in his hand to fend off a blade swung at Feng Yuan by a man in black. Taking a step back, Feng Yuan revealed Xiao Ji behind him, staring intently at the attacker. Without waiting for the enemy to prepare a defense, Xiao Ji fired a series of accurate, ghostly blue fireballs directly at the man.
Watching the man in black, his soul incinerated by the ghostly blue flames, Feng Yuan patted Xiao Ji with a chuckle. Hua Yiyou didn’t find this strange — he had witnessed Xiao Ji’s strength outside the village.
Meanwhile, an archer was being chased by Little Green Snake. Seeing Little Green Snake’s cat-and-mouse antics, Feng Yuan stopped paying attention and turned his head to look at Mo Li. Mo Li was vigorously attacking the men in black with his long spear, flashing with purple lightning, while his guards engaged those who tried to get close to him.
Guo Huai knocked back an enemy wielding a greatsword and took the chance to glance over at Hua Yiyou. Upon seeing that Hua Yiyou was unharmed, he noticed Feng Yuan standing to one side as if watching a show, which made him somewhat discontent.
"You’re really not going to fight?"
While talking, Feng Yuan raised his hand, and in his lifted right palm formed a ghostly blue fireball. Xiao Ji looked at Feng Yuan with some confusion — just now, Feng Yuan had directly called upon its power, leaving it puzzled.
Flinging the fireball behind him, Feng Yuan said resignedly,
"Why do some never learn and seek their own demise."
No sooner had he spoken than a figure, wrapped in ghostly blue flames, appeared out of thin air. Xiao Ji narrowed its eyes, clearly angered, and let out a long cry. It was furious that someone had managed to sneak up on Feng Yuan without its notice. In its anger, Xiao Ji flapped its wings on the ground, sending a barrage of ghostly blue sparks flying in all directions.
The others, caught up in the midst of battle, were immediately affected. Feng Yuan quickly stopped Xiao Ji’s actions, saying,
"Don’t do that! Your sparks don’t distinguish between friend and foe!"
Hearing Feng Yuan’s words, Xiao Ji folded its wings and nestled beside him. After a moment of thought, Xiao Ji spread its wings to shield Feng Yuan under its body. Peering through the gaps in Xiao Ji’s wings, Feng Yuan thought for a second and didn’t push Xiao Ji away. Little Green Snake, noticing the commotion here, immediately stopped teasing the men.
Quickly dealing with those men, Little Green Snake slithered over to Xiao Ji and hissed inquisitively. Hearing Xiao Ji’s response, Little Green Snake cast a threatening glance around.
As the fight grew more intense, Feng Yuan yawned, leaned against Xiao Ji, and said,
"I’ll take a rest. Call me when they’re done."
Agunas’s silent specter glanced at Feng Yuan and asked,
"Aren’t you afraid of any accidents?"
Feng Yuan, closing his eyes and leaning on Xiao Ji, waved his hand dismissively,
"What accidents can happen? Xiao Ji will watch over me."
Guo Huai, seizing a break from repelling enemies, glanced over towards Feng Yuan and saw that Xiao Ji and Little Green Snake had completely shielded him inside, muttering somewhat helplessly,
"He really means what he says..."
Mo Li deflected a long knife slashing at Guo Huai from behind and, noticing the peculiar purple aura on the knife, Guo Huai immediately retreated towards Mo Li. Advancing, Mo Li intercepted the enemy for Guo Huai, saying,
"Be careful not to get hit by those weapons; best to use your own arms."
Suddenly realizing that his identity seemed to lack weapons and that his usual practice involved only his fists, Feng Yuan parted Xiao Ji’s wings, stepped forward a few paces, drew out a Black Greatsword, and tossed it to Guo Huai, saying,
"Catch. If you don’t catch it and get hurt, don’t blame me."
Guo Huai quickly crouched down and nimbly dodged the spinning greatsword flying his way, shouting irritably at Feng Yuan,
"How could anyone catch that!"
Ignoring Guo Huai who picked up the greatsword, Feng Yuan looked over at a guard holding his arm, with blood oozing from his fingers and the hand gripping the knife trembling slightly. Approaching, Feng Yuan pulled the guard’s hand away.
"Just as I thought..."
Seeing the edges of the wound on the guard’s arm infected with a purple substance, which was spreading along the veins, Feng Yuan tightened his grip on the guard’s arm and said sternly,
"If you don’t want to become a monster, don’t move!"
Pulling out the pitch-black Sickle, streams of ghostly blue light flowed slowly along the patterns etched on the Sickle. Feng Yuan gently aimed the tip of the Sickle at the Guard’s wound. The Guard inhaled sharply and endured the severe pain, trying not to cry out as a sticky, purple substance was reluctantly drawn out of the wound by the Sickle’s tip.
Mo Li, who noticed the activity here, glanced over and shouted,
Feng Yuan suddenly released the Guard’s arm, and in his hand unexpectedly appeared a black long halberd, covered with patterns similar to those on the Black Sickle. The halberd was raised, and sparks flew. The black-robed person who tried to ambush Feng Yuan saw his long sword blocked by the halberd and, realizing that Xiao Ji’s attack was imminent, quickly rolled aside to dodge.
An angry Xiao Ji kept spouting ghostly blue flames in the direction of the fleeing enemy. In his hand, the long halberd transformed into black starlight and vanished. Feng Yuan once again grabbed the opponent’s arm and continued to draw out the purple substance with the Sickle.
The other Guards and Mo Li gradually retreated to Feng Yuan’s side, forming a protective circle around the two. Hua Yiyou, taking out a fan, said with some helplessness,
"It seems we have a tough opponent..."
With a flick of the fan, several columns of fire burst from the ground, shooting up into the sky. Feng Yuan, while watching the Sickle draw out the purple substance, said,
"Those assigned to carry out assassination missions won’t be simple characters, after all, I just foiled their scheme not long ago."
"You mean they’re targeting you?"
Hua Yiyou asked in surprise, to which Feng Yuan nodded and said,
"Quite likely. After all, those who can protect you must be strong, and within the whole region of Yongning, on the surface, I am the only one with such strength."
"You sound quite confident."
Hua Yiyou picked up the Iron Ruler again and warned,
"Be careful of those weapons glowing with purple light. If you get hit, even if you can help, there will be problems, right?"
After glancing at the Guard who now seemed a bit weak, Feng Yuan nodded and said,
"Right, once the Eclipse begins, extracting it will drain vitality. The more severe the Eclipse, the greater the loss."
Looking at the Iron Ruler in his hand, Hua Yiyou said with a wry smile,
"Short-range weapons are a bit unsuitable at times like these..."
Feng Yuan, who had just finished extracting all the purple substance from the Guard’s wound with the Sickle and completely eradicated it with black flames, handed the Sickle to Hua Yiyou and asked. After trying to swing the Sickle, Hua Yiyou said with some resignation,
"No, I’m not accustomed to it."
"It’s all because I rarely practice with long weapons."
Handing the Sickle back to Feng Yuan, Hua Yiyou sighed with a hint of regret and then took out a pitch-black Longbow. Feng Yuan looked curious and said,
"You can’t use this either?"
"This I can, but... where are the arrows?"
Accepting the Longbow from Feng Yuan’s hands, Hua Yiyou asked in some confusion. The Guard who was bandaging the wound looked at Feng Yuan with a puzzled expression, as during this period, spatial equipment was extremely rare, and people like Feng Yuan who could produce several weapons at will were almost unheard of.
"Just draw the string, it comes with energy arrows. The reserve energy is enough that I estimate you could use it for a whole day without running out."
Testing the Longbow, Hua Yiyou pulled the string back, and a pitch-black energy arrow appeared out of thin air, resting steadily on the bowstring. He shot the arrow at a black-robed person attempting to sneak attack. Regretfully, Hua Yiyou said,
"What a waste... if I could have tried a few more times, he wouldn’t have escaped just now."
"It’s not too late to try now."
Holding Pomiti, Feng Yuan calmly said as he saw both sides still gauging each other. With a resigned smile, Hua Yiyou picked up the Longbow again to help the others in their standoff against the black-robed attackers.
Mo Li’s side was wary of the enemy’s weapons and didn’t dare to get too close, while the enemy’s strength was just slightly weaker than Mo Li’s side. Had it not been for the advantage of their weapons, Mo Li and his people might have already subdued the enemy.