Sect Meet Up

After we made it outside we soon moved into the forest incase those men from before actually found their exit. Since exiting that stronghold we made a consensus to look for our sect members. The 45% lost of manpower was just too massive to overlook.

We took a quick rest and then started moving. Where were we going? No one knew, not even which direction we were facing. That didn't stop us though as we continued to keep progressing through the forest. Throughout the night we met with a few creatures, but they weren't too difficult to battle.

The night was gradually starting to end, and the darkness slowly receded as light replaced it. The dark forest brightened up as well, in fact, becoming like a relaxing nature site. Everyone gave a good look at our surroundings. Our appreciation of the scenery didn't last too long though as many people quickly lost interest or had gotten used to it.

Our walking seemed almost endless as we just kept walking. The forest looked the same throughout most of the journey. The same reoccurring trees and wildlife kept appearing. The lack of excitement of any kind lowered our guard.

The once cautious group I was a part of slowly became more and more casual about everything. Oh another wild animal to slaughter, cool. More walking? My favorite! The chirping of the morning birds, I've heard that a few times! Distance sounds of metal clashing against each other along with screams of agony and pain. Che-...

"…"

'Wait a minute.'

By the second time the sound was heard everyone had started looking in that direction. By the third time people started moving toward the sounds. The children once again clung onto me as I became their transportation. Moments later we finally made it to the edges of where we heard the clashes of metal weaponry.

..

They were situated in a field and it was as I thought was happening. There was a battle between sects, the only problem we faced though was that none of the people in front of us wore the robes of our sect.

It seemed like this battlefield had many different parties mostly from minor sects which came, but a specific color of sect robes stood out to us. They were dark red, the color which the Spirited Sun Sect wore.

They were the most prominent group there which were, in fact, massacring the minor sects around. Dozens of bodies from various sects littered the ground ahead and some of those bodies were even from the Grey Hound Sect. It seems that it was them against all these other sects.

Their grey robes scattered around the field; the Spirited Sun Sect of course had some casualties as well, but not nearly as numerous compared to the other sects.

'I thought that the Spirited Sun Sect only had groups of 25 though? Why is this one's count closer to 50? Did they just happen to be near each other when this happened?'

Of the small remaining non-Spirited Sun Sect members they formed a semi-circle against the their approaching doom. From the sidelines they were definitely fucked, their numbers were 11 and the other side still had around 4 times as many as them.

"W-We have to go, like right now." Tang He hesitantly spoke from behind me.

Our group turned around prepared to leave back into the safety of the forest. It was safe there, we had to cherish it whenever we can after all!

But before I could even take a single step away from here someone spoke from behind us, "Go? But you all just arrived! Why don't you all stay a little while and chat?" The domineering tone of a woman reached our ears.

When we turned around I saw that the woman was only 5 meters away from us. She had her weapon, a saber, drawn as she stared us down from her field.

I heard a few whispers of exclamation around me.

"𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳!"

"𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳?!"

'Her? Who is she? Why couldn't you just say a name that I still probably wouldn't know!'

The sun just had to be behind her though. The rays came from behind her and I actually could barely even see her silhouette, only being able to distinguish that she had a weapon from her shadow on the ground.

'Why the fuck did the sun have to be here now? I can't see shit, but it seems everyone else can see perfectly fine! Is this some plot armor that I'm too side character to understand?'

"So what do you all pick? Would you all like to stay or 'leave?'"

I looked toward the remaining survivors of random sects. Their numbers had gone down to 8, but it seems they had surrendered as they were starting to be restrained by their members.

"Uh um, you won't kill us right? We have children here with us." Zhen Wuying spoke on our behalf

"No no, why would we? It's not like you participated in attacking us, we would only like to speak with you all. Who do you think we are?" She spoke as if it were factual. "Where did you even find these children?"

"We rescued them from some cultivators, that's all." Zhen Wuying answered

"Why don't you all come out of the forest? Your Fortunate Sky Sect has no animosity with us, so there shouldn't be any reason for you to be worried. As long you don't harm us, we won't harm you either." The woman spoke yet the only thing I could see was her shadow moving.

"𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳?"

"𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵."

"𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺."

"𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯?"

"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦!"

"𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥. 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰?"

*Shhn* *Shhn* *Shhn*

The sounds of people shuffling forward over grass could be heard. Out of the corner of my eye I could also see as people moved up so naturally I followed along. When we made it out to the clearing the sun blocking my vision moved away as well.

When I looked up I finally saw the woman who spoke to us. She was extremely beautiful, but clearly not nearly as much as Yao Ya; She's my girlfriend now after all. She had shoulder length reddish-orange hair with a matching set of eyes to go along with it.

Her outfit was different as well. It wasn't just dark red, but had some extra decorations and distinguishing features that the others didn't.

As someone who is now in a relationship with another, I shall not be tempted by another woman!

'Wait, what about Li Lian? Oh god, this is going to be hard!'

"Everyone come here! We have some new guests! Bring the old ones as well!" She turned her head and ordered the 40-ish men over.

'She can order those men? She must be someone important then I wonder who though.'

Chen Huang appeared to my side, "Do you know her?"

"No, I don't. Do you?"

"*Sigh* I had a feeling you wouldn't. Her name is Qiao An, the up and coming star of the Spirited Sun Sect." He explained giving a few glances at her every once in a while.

"That might explain why there's so many of them here."

Soon the group of Spirited Sun Sect members came over with the people from earlier restrained.

Qiao An stood in front of the group of dark red robed men and spoke, "Now that we're all here let's talk. Why are you all out here?"

..We recounted our story of being inside the stronghold for her..

"That all happened in the matter of one day? Hmm..."She stood seemingly pondering something. "Alright I've decided! You all can join our group for now!"

"What?"

"W-We can't! we have to find our sect members."

"Yeah, we can't join you. After all we're from different sects too."

"Relax, all of you. I'm merely trying to help out. After all wouldn't it be safer if you stuck with us? It's not like this realm is a competition; we can all work together in this. Look I'm not forcing any of you to-" Mid sentence it seems one of the restrained people finally had enough and decided to speak up while Qiao An spoke.

"You people are from the Fortunate Sky Sect right?! Please help us! These people killed our entire group! She took our treasure that we found, please avenge u-" He had managed to get quite a bit out before one of the Sect members knocked him out with a punch.

"Please disregard his statement. These SCUM decided to cooperate with each other to take OUR treasure that we found fair and square. When we found the treasure it had originally been one group who saw, but then they gathered two more minor sects and even a quite a few members of the Grey Hound Sect, such as that one over there." She looked over at the restrained men with pure distain.

That one look must of sent shivers down their spines as they even slight shook when they were stared at.

Hearing the two sides of the story I'm leaning more towards believing Qiao An, but it could also all just be a ruse she'll use to get us. Why does she want us to join her anyway? Does she gain anything from this?