Li Mo's vision blurred as a black blade pulled from his stomach, his hands gushing with blood as he covered the injury.
He did not die instantly from the strike but he was severely injured, as his vision started to fade he fell while turning back, the last thing he was able to see was the face of Chen Bingshan holding an undulated black blade.
Chen Wei looked back with a pale face to an empty space, the man he was guarding a moment ago disappeared and had now struck down Li Mo.
"Uh? Uncle?", the trembling voice of Chen Lin called out as he looked in disbelief.
"Li Mo!", a voice shouted as a flying dagger whistled through.
Chen Bingshan stood beside Li Mo's body, he barely took a look at the flying dagger when he avoided it with a slight movement.
However, a figure quickly closed in on his field of vision.
Xiao Shan struck at Chen Bingshan, releasing a ray of dagger energy.
Chen Bingshan avoided it by stepping aside as Xiao Shan closed on him with the dagger in his hand, Chen Bingshan blocked with his sword, making it seem as easy as flipping one's hand, he pushed back at Xiao Shan with his sword.
Xiao Shan used the force of the counter to spin around and kick him on the head. But Chen Bingshan blocked with his arm, the force of the impact actually made him stagger a bit.
As Chen Bingshan staggered he contorted back as the first flying dagger slashed at him, narrowly avoiding it with a backflip.
After regaining his footing Chen Bingshan noticed a line in his cheek, "Oh?, not bad, I'll have to remove this thing so it won't get damaged", he then sighed as he grabbed his face, the skin sagged and was pulled out like a mask, revealing a face thinly veiled in black mist.
"What are you guys waiting for? Take Li Mo!", Xiao Shan shouted as he faced the man with the sword.
Chen Wei and Chen Lin broke out of their stupor, what they had seen was just bizarre. Chen Wei gritted his teeth and ran to Li Mo's body, dragging it out of the field.
"Very good, it is a pain to fight with this on, so fragile!", Chen Bingshan raised his sword as he flashed an incantation with his other hand.
The sword started humming, a black mist was released as shrill screams rang, like a thousand ghosts crying out in the mist.
Chen Lin reunited with Chen Wei, who was tending to the bleeding Li Mo, "Does not look good, do you have a blood replenishing pill?", Chen Wei looked at Chen Lin.
Chen Lin nodded as he patted his bag of holding bringing a wood box, the wood box had several pills arranged and labeled.
As they fed the pills to Li Mo a figure approached from the carriage debris, "Quickly follow me", the old coachman looked disheveled and bruised.
A few feet from them Xiao Shan was flashing double hand incantations, releasing small firebirds who flew towards Chen Bingshan circling around him.
As soon as 12 birds formed a circle with a shout Xiao Shan flashed an incantation, the birds started to spin rapidly as a wheel of fire formed, slowly descending on Chen Bingshan.
Chen Bingshan's eyes narrowed, "Fire cultivator!", he gritted his teeth as he swung the sword towards the fire wheel releasing a black ray of ghostly sword energy.
The fire wheel merely paused a moment as the sword energy struck, although the wheel managed to absorb the hit it had slowed down considerably.
Xiao Shan slashed with his dagger in one hand releasing rays of dagger energy to entangle Chen Bingshan.
As Chen Bingshan was being restrained by the fire wheel pressing down and Xiao Shan's relentless attacks, Chen Kang struggled against his two attackers several dozen feet away from the carriage.
He was being pushed back by a spear strike to his shoulder, however, his robe was enhanced by a protective treasure lessening the injury, the thin man with the spear jumped back and thrust again for another attack.
However, at the same time Chen Kang finished the previously interrupted hand sign, at some point a small saber gold hilt had appeared in his hand, he swung it at the incoming attack.
From the hilt an almost invisible stream of water formed a long blade, the water blade was blocked by the incoming spear, however, the blade wrapped around the spear slashing at the thin man's face.
The thin man was startled for a moment but was able to evade the attack, drops of blood could be seen falling from his obscured face as the thin man clicked his tongue in anger "Tch".
The robust man with an axe arrived next swinging at full force, Chen Kang slashed at the incoming ray of axe energy, successfully blocking it, however, he suffered some physical backlash as he was pushed back.
"Quick help restrain the other guy, I'll take care of this one", the robust man shouted as he brought out a small cloth bag.
The robust man threw the bag in the air as he flashed several invocation signs, finally pointing to the bag in mid air with a ray of yellow spiritual energy.
The bag burst as sand came out forming a net, the net flew towards Chen Kang.
Chen Kang slashed several times at the net, however, as the net became torn the robust man shouted with a double handed incantation, "Earth buries water", the net became whole again and the gaps quickly filled becoming a layer of sand quickly wrapping Chen Kang.
The water saber slashes rang behind the sand layer as Chen Kang tried to break through, however, the sand easily resisted.
At the same time this was happening the thin man closed in to the carriage location only to be surprised by the sight of his fellow disciple being restrained by fire.
"It had to be fire, the report we got said nothing about this", the thin man clicked his tongue in anger as he analyzed the situation.
The wheel of fire had almost completely descended forming a fire whirlwind trapping Chen Bingshan.
Seeing this the thin man gritted his teeth and moving swiftly launched a sneak attack at Xiao Shan from behind.
While Xiao Shan seemed distracted manning the fire wheel in reality he had already completed the incantation, as such he noticed the thin man approaching and he was able to avoid the blow.
With one hand flashing incantation signs and the other holding a dagger he slid through the spear attack and slashed at the thin man.
The thin man clicked his tongue and slammed the spear redirecting the force to Xiao Shan.
The rod of the spear struck Xiao Shan pushing him back a dozen steps, however, Xiao Shan simply stood up, his free hand beckoned and the other flying dagger landed in his hand, he then threw both daggers at the thin man.
As the daggers entangled the thin man for a breath of time, Xiao Shan pulled a pill from his bag of holding, quickly throwing it in his mouth as he flashed hand signs, the thin man repelled the daggers and was quickly closing in.
Xiao Shan pointed at one of his flying daggers, a shrill phoenix scream rang out, the thin man stopped in mid attack and swung his spear back as he felt an intense heat and sense of danger.
A fire phoenix the size of a barrel had formed and was diving on the thin man from behind.
As the spear collided the phoenix exploded into waves of flames, engulfing the thin man, who flashed an incantation and struck his spear down the soil, a black wind tornado sprang from the spear and pushed the flames back.
However, while the thin man gained some breathing room the flames started to intensify as if enraged from the wind.
The thin man thrust the spear down to push himself out of the flames surrounding him.
However, in mid air he noticed Xiao Shan closing in with a dagger in hand.
The thin man thrust his spear, easily blocking and pushing Xiao Shan back.
However, he felt a searing sensation on his back, he fell to the ground, his legs weakening he was forced on his knees, as he looked back, a red hot dagger was lodged in his spine, the smell of charred flesh inundated his senses as he looked back at Xiao Shan with red eyes.
At the same time, the shrill scream from the ghostly sword intensified as the whirlwind started to show gaps and fade, with a heavy blow his black sword burst the fire whirlwind open, freeing Chen Bingshan.
While all this sounds like it took a long time, in reality the battle had only raged for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.