I finally understood why in the deserted village, Yao Yao dared to take on Shen Xingyue and so many others. It seemed she won with formations, but in reality, it was because Yao Yao knew that among Shen Xingyue's group, only Shen Xingyue, a beginner in Blue Qi, was somewhat capable, while the others were below Blue Qi. Yao Yao herself was Purple Qi, which made her fearless. She deliberately used the Five Elements formation to show off her skills, primarily to display her strength.
"Careless, careless," Shen Xingyue patted his head, looking towards the dark Cui Ping Mountain behind the villa. "That's a primeval forest over there, no roads. I didn't expect them to go around that way. I'll have the people up front come back to help defend!"
"No need," Yao Yao said. "The front has already engaged. This is likely Chiyou's 'feint to the east, attack to the west' strategy, to draw the four of us away for support."
As expected, a few seconds later, Shen Xingyue received a call from the front line saying that the black-clad figures had collectively turned back and were advancing into the tunnel. They were about to be overwhelmed!
"Hold them back, layer by layer. If you can't hold them, drag them! We absolutely cannot let them pass through the plank road and the forest!" Shen Xingyue issued a strict order.
"Yes!"
"How far are they from here?" I asked Yao Yao.
"Less than a kilometer."
"...So fast!" I exclaimed, surprised. Did they also have eagles as mounts?
Soon, I understood. It wasn't eagles, but high-tech—helicopters!
Whirring... A sound like a swarm of flies came from the back of the mountain. In the dark night sky, many small red dots flickered. The red dots grew larger and larger. By the time they flew over the villa, I saw clearly that they weren't traditional helicopters, but large quad-rotor drones. Although called "drones," they carried people beneath them, essentially acting as individual flying vehicles.
No wonder it sounded like flies in a toilet instead of the loud noise of helicopters. These large drones were electrically powered.
I counted over thirty of them. After flying over the villa, they dispersed and descended onto the four sides of the courtyard, surrounding us. They then quickly detached the drones from their backs, placed them aside, and pulled out various cold weapons from the drone's cabin.
Most of them were dressed as night-walking black-clad figures from ancient costume films. Only three were special. They wore black, white, and grey sportswear respectively, and masks of the same color, their faces obscured. I could only tell that the one in grey was a woman, and the other two were men.
Before they could speak, Yao Yao took the initiative, smiling at the three of them, "Heh heh, only three beginners in Purple Qi dare to try and steal dragon eggs. Truly overestimating yourselves!"
Alright, bluffing. Yao Yao must have learned this from me.
The black-clad man in the middle, seemingly the leader, asked in a deep voice, "Who are you people?"
Yao Yao looked at me. I also pretended to be relaxed, crossing my arms and arrogantly retorting to the black-clad man, "Southern Maoshan, Northern What?"
The big brother in black smiled slightly, "Shaman? Heh, long gone."
It seemed this title didn't scare him. I suddenly thought, the Nine Immortal Cave, which even Old Master Jin and the Mohe tribe had heard of, was probably known in the Jiangnan martial world, especially now in the information age.
So I said again, "We are not ordinary shamans. See this beautiful lady? She is a shaman from the Nine Immortal Cave."
The big brother was indeed surprised. He took a deep breath and asked softly, "Are you... Mu Jige?"
This name still worked!
Yao Yao smiled without answering, snorting, "You have too many people coming. I don't want to kill innocents. How about this: you send one person to duel me one-on-one. If you win, you take the egg. If you lose, scram."
The big brother in black thought for a moment, then grinned sinisterly, "You know we have many people. That doesn't seem fair. How about this, we have 'best of three'. We send three people, you send three people. What do you say?"
"Hahaha," Yao Yao laughed heartily, "Then I'll deal with all three of you. Will you come one by one, or all at once?"
Is this showing off going a bit too far?
Yao Yao and those three seem to be at the same level!
"As the number one sect in Jiangnan, how can you bully others with numbers?" Shen Xingyue interjected, perhaps also feeling Yao Yao was being too presumptuous.
Unexpectedly, the big brother in black was very unchivalrous and said with a smile, "Since Mu Jige says so, then the three of us will go together. Otherwise, wouldn't that be disrespecting you?"
It's over. This is a disaster. The cow just tried to be a toothpick and overestimated itself...