The sonic boom sounded, the ground exploded, and everyone only saw a blurred figure flash past. Then, Alida, who was nocking an arrow to pierce Li Xi and Alice, was sent flying as if hit by a giant beast. Before Alida could react or counterattack, Li Xi pursued and launched a furious assault.
Terrible, too terrible. The nearly level five barbarian Karsello was knocked unconscious by Blythe's kick, and the level five great archer Alida's physical quality was worse than Karsello's.
After enduring only three punches from Li Xi's Lianhua style, Alida was like a rag doll run over by a large vehicle, her limbs dangling as if boneless. The leather armor on her chest was penetrated by an unimaginable force, and her body exploded.
Three punches shattered Alida's heart and all her bones. Li Xi looked at the nearly a hundred level three and four vampires. Even he himself could not last against so many. Fighting one or two was fine, but so many at once was not feasible, as the Eight Inner Gates are not infinitely long. This was just a shadow clone. A sliver of thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately set a strategy.
Alice felt the breeze on her head. The sense of being protected made her not feel this was a life-or-death situation, but a garden of love.
With Li Xi's sudden appearance, not only Alice but everyone else's spirits were lifted. The disturbance caused by Alida's sudden betrayal had stopped.
Alice reacted first, slamming her staff forcefully onto the ground.
"Sacred Blessing"
A golden aura burst from the staff, instantly encasing each human in a small halo. The vampires hesitated upon seeing the Sacred Blessing's aura. The power of sacred light made them instinctively repulsed, just as a normal person walking on the street would avoid stepping on dog feces rather than deliberately treading on it.
Li Xi, who was throwing the vampires at the cave entrance into the mountainside from the sky, also received the buff. However, with only Alice at level four casting a divine spell to buff so many people, the buff each person received was minuscule. Especially for Li Xi, it was better than nothing, merely turning him into a large light bulb that didn't need a fluorite to illuminate, and it made the vampires a bit hesitant.
Li Xi's current strategy was not to resist head-on, but to kill or drive away all the vampires blocking the cave entrance behind him, clearing a path for everyone to escape the dangerous place.
"Shadow Clone Technique"
"Bang"
Five shadow clones immediately appeared. Li Xi, who had opened the third gate, found it a bit overkill to deal with these frail vampires. A high-caliber cannon was powerful, but for swatting mosquitoes, a small pistol was more convenient. One shadow clone was a high-caliber cannon; dividing into six was like having six small pistols.
The six Li Xis thrust forward in a wedge formation towards the vampires behind, like a hot knife cutting through butter. There were only about thirty vampires at the cave entrance. They only saw one enemy turn into six. Their short swords and daggers were originally aimed at the warriors below. Before they could even change their attack direction, Li Xi was upon them.
Fast, incredibly fast. Vampires, who were already masters of speed, felt like sluggish old people when facing Li Xi with the third gate open. Their presbyopic eyes could barely see the enemy clearly.
Fist, palm, leg, headbutt, knee strike – every part of his body was a weapon. Like a wolf pack entering a sheep pen, seven or eight vampires had their bodies shattered in the first exchange.
"Retreat"
Alice, at the center, knew that their hope of survival today rested on Li Xi. So, while other warriors were struggling to fend off the vampires, Alice kept her eyes on Li Xi. Seeing that the vampires at the cave entrance had their strength reduced by a quarter, Alice immediately gave the order.
The shield-bearing warriors raised their thick shields and slowly moved backward. The vampires' weapons struck the inch-thick iron shields, making metallic clanging sounds.
Originally protected by full armor and shields, the vampires felt like dogs trying to bite a hedgehog – nowhere to sink their teeth into this type of iron-clad soldier.
But now, with the hope of escape, their previously dense formation became quite disordered.
In that instant, four human assassins, two hunter-class professionals, and three shield-bearing warriors were seized upon by the omnipresent vampires. When they had hope of escape and their guard was down, they were instantly impaled by dozens of weapons, becoming bloody gourds.
Amidst the whistling attacks, Li Xi dispersed the vampires at the cave entrance with his breaths. The cost was the dissipation of two shadow clones, and twenty vampires lay on the ground, dead or disabled, unable to fight.
"Go"
Li Xi let out a muffled roar, turned, and stomped heavily in the air, arriving at the forefront of the team.
Facing dozens of vampires with blood-red eyes intent on keeping them there, and puppets that had already arrived, radiating icy killing intent, Li Xi bit his thumbs and slapped them heavily onto the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon"
The Gate of Life and Death, located between the human world and hell, was summoned by Li Xi. A pair of giant wind chimes, the size of a person, chimed melodiously. A massive sculpted demonic face rose from the ground. The height within the mountainside was only twenty to thirty meters, but Rashomon was twice that height. The heavy Rashomon, with its unparalleled power, smashed through the mountainside wall above and plunged deep into it. Even a giant would be unable to open this iron gate.
As soon as Rashomon appeared, the sound of blades and axes striking came from behind. It was the vampires and puppets using their weapons to attack Rashomon. But such attacks, against an inch-thick metal Rashomon, were like using a fluffy toy to attack an armored tank – they couldn't even break the skin.
Most of the vampires were blocked by Rashomon. The few remaining were quickly dealt with by the remaining three shadow clones and Alice's group working together.
"Hurry up and go."
Alice shouted loudly at Li Xi.
A shadow clone landed in front of Alice. Alice's eyes showed confusion and caution. Why were there so many Li Xis?
The shadow clone whispered into Alice's ear, "None of us are the original body. It doesn't matter if we die. You guys hurry and leave. There's a major upheaval in Kado City. You need to get back to help the original body as soon as possible."
Alice found it hard to believe her man had such abilities. Looking at the shadow clone's sincere eyes, she instantly understood that he was telling the truth.
"Go."
Without any hesitation or the cliché plot of "If you don't go, I won't go either," Alice led the elites of Kado City, who were still shaken but joyous at their escape from certain death, and quickly withdrew from the cave, heading towards Kado City.
Not long after, Rashomon disappeared automatically. The vampires and puppets still attacking Rashomon inside the mountainside were startled by this unexpected turn of events. In their understanding, such a strongly defensive and bizarre iron gate was not something they could break, at least not without a Duke's level power. Yet, it suddenly vanished, like attacking an aircraft carrier with a small pistol and sinking it with one shot.
They looked at the four identical Li Xis in the cave and were stunned for a moment. Then, they gripped their weapons and lunged at Li Xi. There were still about sixty vampires, and even with a ten-to-one exchange, they could keep the four Li Xis here. If only they knew the mystery of shadow clones, they wouldn't have such naive thoughts. No matter how many shadow clones were killed, they wouldn't make any difference.
Seeing this, the shadow clones bit their fingers again and slapped the ground. Numerous runes appeared.
"Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon."
The inch-thick Rashomon that had just disappeared reappeared, once again blocking the vampires inside.
"Chakra is running low. Next time, I won't be able to summon Rashomon."
"The side effects of the third gate of the Eight Inner Gates are bearable. Good physical quality is indeed powerful."
Since it was useless to keep them open now, Li Xi also closed the Eight Inner Gates. After exercising beyond his limits, his body should have been in great pain, but relying on his repeatedly enhanced body and the support of his dragon bloodline, Li Xi only felt slight discomfort. His muscles felt like those of an ordinary college student after running a kilometer – a soreness that could be endured.
"Everyone is the same. How about we do this this time? Combine the remaining chakra into one person, and then let's do something big."
"Okay, okay."
The three shadow clones immediately formed hand seals and shouted, "Kai" (Release).
Only one Li Xi remained out of the four shadow clones. This Li Xi formed hand seals at lightning speed.
He slapped the ground heavily.
"Earth Style: Opening Earth, Rising Excavation"
This was the ninjutsu with the fewest appearances. He used to think he would never need it, but he didn't expect to use it so soon.
The ground began to tremble, as if some ancient beast was about to break out of the earth. Just as Rashomon disappeared, the vampires and Kenarda were filled with resentment. This ambush, which was supposed to be a guaranteed victory, had been turned into this by someone. If resentment could be converted into money, they could buy Kado City.
But before they could make a move, the ground beneath them was pushed open by an open-mouthed volcano.
The space within this mountainside was not very large. When choosing the ambush site, Kenarda and the others had opted for a small one specifically to limit Alice's group's movement. If their plan had worked as expected, Alice and the others would have had no chance of victory. However, facing Li Xi's not-so-abundant chakra, the volcano from Opening Earth, Rising Excavation perfectly filled this small mountainside space.
Amidst the rumbling sounds, the ninjutsu, which was originally meant to blast enemies out from underground, was turned into an offensive ninjutsu by Li Xi in this special environment.
The earth churned, and a dozen-level earthquake caused all the vampires to spread their wings and fly into the air within the mountainside. Kenarda shot two steel cables from his arms, latched them onto the ceiling, and also flew up, cautiously observing the ground.
They didn't understand the characteristic of this ninjutsu. Otherwise, they would have certainly run towards the center. However, as the volcano erupted from the ground without pause and slammed heavily against the surrounding mountain walls, the vampires and Kenarda in the center were crushed into meat paste like ants under a tire.
Li Xi's face was covered in smiles as he witnessed this, like a farmer seeing a bountiful harvest.
After a while, the volcano disappeared, leaving behind multiple vampires squashed like pies on the mountain walls, much like mosquitoes you swat in the summer – no remains, just a bloodstain. However, a large portion of the vampires and Kenarda had survived through various means.
"I will kill you."
Kenarda and the others never expected that hundreds of level three and four vampires would be decimated by this one person in just a few minutes. How would they explain this upon their return? These vampires were the backbone of the blood race, and such manpower was rare even within the blood race.
If they had managed to capture Alice and the others, losing so many people would have been somewhat justifiable. But now, because of one person, Kenarda couldn't even imagine the punishment he would face upon his return. Therefore, to give his superior an explanation and to reduce his own punishment, Li Xi had to die.
The remaining vampires did not hesitate and immediately rushed towards Li Xi. No matter what happened next, they would not stop their determination to kill Li Xi.
Li Xi bared his teeth and laughed menacingly at them. Then, he formed hand seals towards the cave entrance, "Water Style: Water Severing Wave"
The high-pressure water blade cut through the stone walls like a kitchen knife cutting a potato, instantly turning the mountain walls into debris that tumbled down, burying the already small cave like a collapse. This was not a collapse of one or two meters; Li Xi buried the only exit, tens of meters long, in one go.
"You can stay here. If you're lucky, you might see me again tomorrow."
Facing the weapons filled with various killing intents that were already close at hand, Li Xi uttered a word,
"Kai" (Release)
"Bang" Li Xi disappeared. The vampires' and Kenarda's attacks all landed on empty space, creating a pit three to four meters deep on the ground where Li Xi had stood.