The Almighty Ring

“Clear a path! We need to get out of here!” Ge Hong exclaimed as he finally decided to desert the Redsands. In that situation, he could only afford to protect and care for members of his own sect.

“Let them go.” Desir sighed.

“The game had only just begun, there’s no need for us to be so greedy,” he added.

The Snow Mountain Sect was unharmed since they had deliberately slowed down during the initial charge. Moreover, all of the Snow Mountain Sect was outside of the “cage”, to try and surround them would be impossible.

As the leader of the current fighting force in Japan, he had only one goal in mind—to defeat the Chinese martial artists. However, he would not want to sacrifice 8,000 of his soldiers just to kill 10,000 of his enemies. It was not a worthwhile trade.

Right then, the naval fleet of America had reached its designated location. The next step was to use the same tactics that the Japanese Bio-Humans used against them before—technological weapons. Instead of going into battle and fight with their abilities, they could simply use guns and other projectile-based weapons to weed down the martial artists. When their numbers went lower, the Mutants could then enter the battlefield and defeat them one by one easily. It was the easiest strategy with the lowest possible casualties.

It was considered a great success to kill over 50 elite martial artists in a surprise attack. Even though most of them were only Level 3 fighters, the surviving Level 4 martial artists were subjected to the same fate.

Following Desir’s command, the Mutants surrounding the Azure Cloud Sect begun to spread out and regroup. The Azure Cloud Sect with the Snow Mountain Sect, cooperated with each other to open a pathway to regroup and escape to safety. Now that the others had escaped, the only prey left in the battlefield were the Redsands. In a chaotic bombardment, every last one of the Redsands Clan was killed. Even Cai Bei, their clan leader.

It was a sudden turn of events for the Chinese martial artists. They had lost over 50 Level 3 fighters and more than 5 strong Level 4 fighters. The Redsands were completely annihilated. Those lower level disciples back in the mainland would eventually turn their backs to the clan and move on to another sect. The clan that was built up over hundreds of years, was wiped out of history and would forever be remembered as a second-rated sect that was destroyed in the battle against the Mutants.

Even though the Azure Cloud Sect had suffered a great loss, their sect leader and a few Level 4 fighters were able to survive. Although they had sustained some permanent injuries, it was not fatal. At the very least, they could still pass down their knowledge to future students and live on.

Snow Mountain Sect had sustained the least amount of loss. Only three Level 3 disciples were killed during the fight to clear a path for the Azure Cloud Sect members to escape. The rest of the sect members were basically unharmed.

“Brother Bai, I owe you a great debt,” said Ge Hong as he bowed down.

“This is nothing. We are brothers-in-arms,” said Bai Wanli with a smile.

“I have a request…”

“There’s no need to be so reserve. How can I help?”

“My disciples are greatly injured and neither of us could fight anymore. If you would allow, we wish to join you,” said Ge Hong as he hid his shame.

Everyone that was still living and breathing, albeit sustained serious injuries, were Level 4 fighters. However, they were already at their limit. Their combat capabilities were close to zero. Even though Ge Hong was asking to join their group for the rest of the mission, Ge Hong was basically asking Bai Wanli to protect them!

“Brother Ge, why are you asking me as if you are asking a stranger? I am a fellow martial artists, just like you, how can I leave you behind when I could help you? No worry, as long as I am still breathing, I will not allow any danger to befall any of your members!” Bai Wali replied as he patted Ge Hong on his shoulder.

“Words cannot express how ashamed I am now. This great debt… I will return it!” Ge Hong nodded gratefully.

“Enough with this. Let us find a safe place to rest and recuperate,” said Bai Wali as he noticed that his own disciples were tired.

They were all still within the attack range of the Mutants. If they stayed too long, the Mutants would catch them. Bai Wanli dared not to play with fate as their superior numbers were too much for his sect to handle.

“Ding, my friend, where are you?” Bai Wanli asked as he contacted Ding Tianqing. After the encounter with the enemy, he now understood their strength. Knowing that they were severely overnumbered, Bai Wanli had decided to work together with the other sects.

“We are near the sea. What happened? I heard that you had an encounter with the enemy. How did it go?” Ding Tianqing asked. Until now, he had not yet understood the enemy’s true fighting prowess.

“How did it go? Heh. You don’t want to know. We’re lucky to even be talking like this,” said Bai Wanli.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Ding Tianqing asked worriedly when he noticed Bai Wanli was not behaving like his arrogant usual self.

“The Mutants are much stronger than we had ever thought. There are more than thousands of Level 3 and Level 4 fighters! It was not as we predicted!” said Bai Wanli with a face of regret.

“How could this happen?” Ding Tianqing wondered, floored.

“It seems that Jiang Fei was right all along. Bio-Enhancement technology had greatly enhanced the enemy. Even though we could defeat them when it comes to hand to hand combat, they were so strong that they could just crush us without batting an eye!” said Bai Wanli as he recalled seeing projectile bombardment raining down from the sky.

“If we don’t work together, we will be picked out one by one! We need to stand together!” said Bai Wanli.

“Have you contacted the other sect leaders?” Ding Tianqing asked.

“Not yet. I… I don’t even know how to tell them,” said Bai Wanli, frustrated.

“Start with the truth. They may seem arrogant but they are not dumb. If you explain the severity of the situation, they will consider it!” said Ding Tianqing.

“… Very well, I’ll try!” said Bai Wanli. Even if they refuse to work together, it was still best to inform the others of the enemy’s strength. For better or worse, at least they would not have themselves completely annihilated like the Redsands.

…

“Impossible.”

“Old Bai, perhaps you are exaggerating it. You could just admit that your students are just weaker than the enemy.”

“That’s right. Even if I believe that the Mutants had a larger army, most of them should be Level 1 and Level 2 Mutants. How could they defeat the lot of you?”

“Heh. I understand the Bio-Enhancement technology is powerful but it is impossible to grow from Level 1 to Level 3 overnight!”

…

Alas, even after explaining the situation to the other sect leaders, none of them were completely into the idea of working together. Worse of all, they did not even believe that the enemy they were facing were all stronger than Level 3! In fact, because of one comment, everyone had believed that the Snow Mountain Sect had purposely trying to exaggerate the situation because of his lack of competence.

“Sect Leader Bai. I trust your words. Let us work together. That way, we could protect each other!”

“I stand with you Sect Leader Bai!”

“I am in as well.”

…

When most of the other sect leaders had called bullsh*t on Bai Wanli, others had decided to join forces with him, like Granny Jiang Hua. The rest of the sect leaders who were too arrogant, like the Soaring Cloud Sect that had decided to go on their own.