I Am Supreme
chapter-244

As the bow was released, it sent the arrow streaking like a meteorite.

The bow Tie Zheng used was also made from the Carapace Rhino’s horn, but due to his innate gift of superior arm strength and long arms – in addition to the bow being made from two complete horns and the bowstring from double layers of mystical tendons, his Deicide Bow’s formidability and shooting range was much better than ordinary Deicide Bows!

Upon being fetched and tossed three consecutive times, Yang Botao was only a small black dot in the air, yet Tie Zheng took aim and shot the arrow without hesitation.

The arrow disappeared in the blink of an eye as if it was freed from the constraints of space and distance.

Yun Yang’s sight was excellent, able to witness the blood spurting from Yang Botao. However, the distance was simply too great. He could not be sure where the man was injured or if it was a fatal wound. A man sprung up high beneath Yang Botao but this time, he carried his body close and pranced several times in midair to avoid three more mystical steel arrows before both of the men vanished completely.

With a single thought, Yun Yang turned into a breeze of wind and followed the disappearing pair.

Yang Botao, where could you have gone to?

The battle around Tiantang Square’s stage was ascending into a climax instead of simmering down.

Yang Botao’s men were at least seventh peak and above in their cultivation bases while more than half of them had reached the ninth peak. The comparison of the individual cultivation base and that of military experts ensured that Yang Botao’s men would totally subdue the latter.

However, it was only a theoretical point. When they had gone head to head with the army, sunken into their besieging capabilities, they were immediately engulfed within the crowd!

Furthermore, there was a strong general like Tie Zheng who was commanding the fight from the stage; victory and defeat had long switched places.

"No one escapes!"

"Deicide Bows! Free shooting! No empty targets!"

"Outer circle, retreat. Drive the citizens out of the square, prevent accidental injuries as much as possible!"

"Center squad, maintain formations and listen to my command!"

"Left side, advance! Go in with your life!"

"Right side, forest of spears! No distinction of friend or foe!"

"Front and back, forest of spears! No distinction of friend or foe!"

Tie Zheng, who was standing higher than the rest being on stage, commanded the strategy of battle, his voice hoarse despite the short time it took to bellow those orders.

The tactic Tie Zheng was using now was exactly the one that always saw success whenever the army had to go against experts of the martial arts world.

So what if you could fly, sprint, hop, or fight? You’re at an advantage with your cultivation base and skills; I won’t be able to fight you under normal circumstances but I still can risk my life to bring you down.

I can die, taking you with me!

I use my life to trick you and bring you along to the underworld with me!

I dare to die. Do you?

The four-sided siege was all about sacrificing one front – the particular side’s men would hinder the experts’ movement with their own lives before their comrades from the other three sides killed the enemy by piercing the spears through them as well!

It was a brutal kind of warfare, but it was also the most effective tactic in tackling experts.

The slightest misstep during an exchange of skills by the experts would result in significant consequences, thus the experts were always wary of the brief lapse in deciding life or death. When the army had staked their lives to create many brief moments in hindering the experts’ movements – as long as one of the briefest lapses was utilized, an expert had only one life to give away, no matter how skilled or tremendous one was.

As cries belonging to the dozens of Four Seasons Tower’s seventh to eighth level experts chorused, they lost the ability to defend themselves completely, pierced through by the spears under such barbaric tactics.

A dozen soldiers hopped off from their comrades’ shoulders, swinging their sabers about, going down like dumplings into soup. As one was flung or kicked away, another took his place…

Even when the experts’ reaction was sharp and swift, as long as they could not fling one away in time when held down, the hesitance would make way for another five people to tackle them and spears piercing through the pile from every direction!

If the soldiers could find no gap, they would plunge the spear right through their comrades' bodies, clenching their teeth and tearing up – no matter the cost, they had to stab their target to death!

It was because all of them were clear that as long as the expert who was about to fall could regain his footing, all their prior sacrifices would be meaningless.

Their efforts would be wasted!

Therefore, they could only follow through with their tactics; they had to finish killing their targets.

"Revenge for the Nine Supremes! Exterminate the traitors! Fight to the end!"

Tie Zheng roared on the stage; he was standing at a higher point so he could see everything clearly. He was throwing weapons to attack the enemy, not even using his bow; his exceptional arm strength was put to good use now as his higher position helped in his accuracy, allowing a clear view of those he intended to attack.

As the army from all four sides joined in the battle, the scene dissolved into utter chaos.

The five men who were fighting in the air had stopped their duel. Although the three men from the Four Seasons Tower were injured and bleeding profusely, the other two men could not grab hold of them.

Besides, Supreme Wind who had been perched on the flagpole had vanished some time ago.

Now that the target of the battle was gone, what was the point in continuing to fight?

The mid-air tussle could be called to a halt, but when the three men glanced downwards, they knew that the situation was bad.

The twenty-seven to twenty-eight people who had come with Yang Botao had all fallen during Yutang army’s siege. Other than the handful of men who were initially planted for the escape plan who had fled, the rest might all be doomed.

Even if the three men had gone in to salvage the situation, it was useless; they might even go through the same thing and lose their lives.

"The days are vast, we shall meet again!"

The three men spat in hostility before turning to leave.

Just as they left the area of the fluttering flag, a phalanx of Deicide mystical steel arrows came shooting up at once. Their cultivation base was exceptional, however, forcing themselves to spring up higher and they managed to escape the shower of Deicide mystical steel arrows.

As the three Tenth Perfection experts left, the tumultuous fight in Tiantang Square came to an end. The handful of ninth peak experts left were still putting up a fight, but it was obvious they could not hold out for long.

Other than the fact that the three Tenth Perfection experts whom they thought of as their saviors were gone and there was no more help to rely on, it was because the militants were all mad!

Cultivators who could reach the ninth peak and above were people who had seen and been through a lot; they had roamed far and high, coming across countless military troops but they had never encountered such a troop before!

There were only two words coming out from each of their mouths, "Seek revenge!"

With the ability of ninth peak cultivators, a troop of soldiers was a joke to them. They could wipe them out with a single wave of their hands, not even giving them a chance to get close; what more allowing them to engage in close combat. However, they were now dragged into the waves of militants. Everywhere they could see was filled with ordinary soldiers who were charging towards them with raised spears.

They were surrounded!

What could they do?

They could only retaliate forcefully with their cultivation base, to counter and avoid in a small area. To direct the flow of mystical skill, shift and maneuver themselves agilely and leverage incoming forces to their advantage was near impossible; there was no chance to do so…

As for the idea of flying into midair, it was hardly a feasible one. Hovering in midair would mean becoming a living target as there were thousands of Deicide Bow archers in the square! What made matters worse was that these soldiers were not afraid of accidental injuries, they only wanted death!

To kill someone on the experts’ side, the troop would not hesitate to send hundreds and thousands of their men into the fray – as long as they could kill one of them!

The experts had watched with their own eyes, their companion of a ninth peak intermediate expert being shot by arrows released from Deicide Bows all over the place just as he sprung into the air. In a flash, the expert had turned into a human porcupine, covered in arrows from head to toe.

Although the storm of arrows cost Yutang’s military between twenty to thirty lives, no one was affected!

"Revenge for the Nine Supremes!" A soldier cried out in determination as he leaped up high and charged downwards.

As the ninth peak expert focused his gaze on the militant and slashed his sword instantaneously to chop both the militant’s arms off easily, he did not expect the soldier to lower his head and widen his mouth to bite his blade that was swinging in to decapitate the hapless man.

The soldier had actually used his own teeth to bite the blade made of refined steel of hundred cultivations.

The ninth peak expert had encountered plenty of formidable foes but when had he ever met such a ferocious one? He was taken aback, but his arm did not hesitate to carry through his motion. With a ring from the blade meeting the soldier’s teeth, the sword went through.

In the unexpectedly brutal fight the soldier who lost his arms had put up, the military managed to spot the briefest split second of a gap, yet it was this tiny gap that had six soldiers around him pouncing onto him as hundreds of men around them cried, "Revenge! Revenge!"

Hundreds of spears came plunging in simultaneously.

Knowing that avoiding or defending with his blade would be too late, the ninth peak expert could only erupt his cultivation base in a forceful retaliation to fling the six militants off and away from the spears surrounding him. However, he staggered back from the force of the quake; immediately, more spear points came stabbing from around him…

No matter how much the ninth peak expert had poured into defenses, he had still succumbed to the ceaseless attacks!

The battle had only approximately taken the time it took to savor a cup of tea before all the men Yang Botao had brought with him had died under the stage, with no exception.

The furthest they had fled was only two thousand feet.

Tie Zheng walked over with a limp and blood on his face. He was not supposed to be wounded but the ninth peak expert who had held out to the end was too skilled and Tie Zheng had joined in the fight. Although the man was successfully killed, the price paid was great too. The area below his waist to his thighs had received about a dozen slashes while accidental injuries from his own side cost him another dozen stabs around his buttocks and thighs.

He was not defiled but he was definitely damaged; it seemed that Marshal Tie had almost been sacrificed!