"Thirty experts, twenty-eight eliminated!" I exclaimed in surprise. Of those I knew, Chu Qi had taken one down, but another had escaped. This meant that out of the twenty-eight experts ambushing on the ridge, only one had gotten away!
Seeing my astonished expression, Yao Yao immediately distanced herself, "It has nothing to do with us, Diana did it all herself!"
"...How is that possible? Why didn't they run?" I frowned. Logically, those twenty-eight experts had formed a large circle about five kilometers in circumference on the mountain. Even if Diana was skilled, she couldn't have eliminated them one by one in such a short time, unless...
"Who told them not to give in? Like the Calabash Brothers saving their grandpa, they came one after another. For the last one, he didn't run. I told Diana to leave him alive to take the message back," Yao Yao chuckled.
This was indeed Yao Yao's style. Sending this message back to Sakura Country and letting it spread to create deterrence would be more effective than annihilating them all.
"Perhaps this is their martial world spirit," Chu Qi scoffed. "Secondly, it was also because their dispersed formation couldn't form a numerical advantage to pose a substantial threat to Diana. They thought they had a clever plan, a tight Bagua formation, but they didn't expect you and Yao Yao to see through it and use Diana's high attack power and speed to skewer them like candied hawthorns."
Chu Qi managed to praise all three of us. She was good with words.
"So, what's the reaction from Sakura Country now?" I asked Chu Qi again. This kind of feedback would have to come from Shabia's intelligence department; Yao Yao and the others might not know.
Chu Qi nodded. "The reaction is strong, no less than the Battle of Pingling Pass back then. The Cangjing Group is Sakura Country's most proud warrior group, and we've caused them to lose two-thirds of their experts in one go. I believe after this battle, in the short term, neither the human groups nor the Mountain Sea Yao tribes in Sakura Country will dare to provoke Yan Xia again."
I nodded in satisfaction. This was the effect I wanted.
"What about Mohe and Chi You then?" I asked again.
"One good news, one bad news," Chu Qi spread her hands, letting me choose.
"Bad news," I preferred to start with the bitter and end with the sweet.
"The bad news is that Mohe's Long Yue and Chi You's Miao King met in Guangling," Chu Qi took out her phone, as if finding some information.
"And then?" I asked.
"It was a secret meeting, and the content of their discussion is not known to outsiders. However, after the meeting, Mohe and Chi You ceased hostilities, which essentially means they reached some consensus. This is not good news for you, nor for us in Shabia."
I nodded. My original intention in tricking Long Yue into going to Jiangnan to find the Miao King was to make the two branches of the Mountain Sea Yao tribes fight amongst themselves, weakening both sides. If one could be eliminated, that would be even better.
"The good news is," Chu Qi put away her phone, "it's said that because of the Battle of Fanshen Village, the Mohe Group has decided not to return to the Northeast but to remain in Jiangnan. I don't know if they were frightened by your formidable strength."
After speaking, Chu Qi glanced at Diana. Our team's combat output relied 80% on the Whale God, who possessed a demon core, there was no doubt about that. The remaining 20% was split with Yao Yao and Chu Qi each taking 5%, the sprites taking 10%, and myself, Chen Ke, Bing Bing, and others, including Qian Xun and Zhang Xiaomiao, were currently zero-combat-power members.
However, from my understanding of Long Yue, I felt this news might be a smokescreen. Would she fear the Whale God's people? She might not be unable to defeat the Whale God either. Last time, when Mohe and their group went to Changbai Mountain to capture the Whale God, they ran away after losing one expert. That was because Long Yue wasn't present. Long Yue was a high-level purple energy cultivator, and the Whale God was also a high-level purple energy cultivator. It was just that Long Yue's was grape purple, and the Whale God's was black purple. She could sense the aura, but Long Yue, like Yao Yao, knew magic, which might compensate for the aura difference. At least she could fight the Whale God for a few rounds without immediately fleeing without showing her face and colluding with the Miao King.
Of course, another explanation might be that my imagination was too rich, and I was being superficial, emotional, and gossipy. Could it be that after meeting the Miao King, Long Yue was so captivated by his handsomeness and charm that she was willing to stay by his side and become his partner?
"That's all," Chu Qi said, interrupting my slightly jealous fantasy.