Beware Of Chicken

Lu Ri pondered their predicament. “We shall retreat. Miss Yuanlin, I will find a suitable place to erect the Raging Cloudy Sword Formation.” He would have to move swiftly, as he required around an hour to properly set up the formation. “After I have accomplished this, I would request that you lead the enemy to me. After that, retreat to First Den and ensure that nothing strikes it.”

Miss Yuanlin nodded at his words, instantly grasping Lu Ri’s intent, before she frowned slightly. “That is a great many demons, Master Lu Ri, and likely not all they have. I would reckon that they have stronger forces than this current showing as well, if so many are on the field. If a peer combatant arrives with similar numbers of chaff… would you be able to hold, after maintaining such a hastily prepared formation?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Lu Ri considered the predicament. “If not, I am confident in my ability to lead them away further still.”

Miss Yuanlin went quiet for a moment, before speaking hesitantly.

“What about if we used First Den?”

Lu Ri raised an eyebrow. “You would consent to leading the enemy to the fortress?”

“They already know where it is. We’ll use it to do what a fortress is best at—butchering attackers on prepared ground. The protections also allow me to help support an ally—you would not have to worry about Qi as much. And if this is the level of our foes, we may be able to draw them all out and crush them here,” Miss Yuanlan stated the bold plan with a calm voice.

Her points were valid. If this did escalate, and if Lu Ri had the support of First Den’s own protections…

“Very well then,” Lu Ri finally agreed.

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Present:

Back at First Den, Lu Ri sat, eyes closed, within the greatest technique of the Honoured Founders.

The Raging Cloudy Sword Formation.

Outside its embrace, the hordes of demons had paused—the first of their number had charged into the clouds and the first of their number had all perished in an instant.

To the enemy, it was like they had simply been cut down by a near-invisible sword. The truth was much greater than that.

The scripture for this technique was freely available to any Senior Disciple and could even be requested to be studied by Outer Disciples, if they filled out the proper forms.

Yet few did, even though this most sublime of techniques could technically be used by even the least of cultivators, if only but once because they lacked the Qi to maintain it. All it required was the requisite understanding and the formation could be deployed.

It was utterly mind-bending to contemplate. The technique clouded oneʼs intent and form from being observed by their enemy; rendering unto the disciple the state of Indeterminate. In this state, to the enemy, one is both there and not there. Their blade is both sheathed and unsheathed. A strike has already been completed—yet never happened at all.

That is why they were called the Cloudy Sword Sect: their intent and blades were so shrouded that their enemies could not comprehend what they were going to do next. Even its name was intentionally misleading; ‘Raging’ implied something different than what it actually did.

Lu Ri had discussed the concepts of the formation once with his Junior Brother, phrasing it as a thought experiment rather than the greatest technique of the Sect. That had led to a rather confusing tangent about cats in boxes and a man called Shuding Er... that after several hours of contemplation did make a sort of sense.

Miss Yuanlin’s knives flashed out, spearing the last of the birds in the air and with some thudding into demonic flesh. The demons roared at this, and the pause in their advance ended. The demons charged into the clouds that were being supported by mist.

Lu Ri beheaded the first artificial demon to enter. The strike was made perfectly, from out of vision and with no room for retaliation.

One of the demon’s comrades immediately launched an attack, trying to strike down Lu Ri. But Lu Ri was not there. He never had been.

The demon who had tried the attack was slain. A perfect thrust through the heart—again, with no room for retaliation. Then, Lu Ri was gone again; he had never been there.

He was not Elder Ge, to simply think his formation was full of his blade and make it so. He still had to swing his sword.

Another demon died to a blow that was perfect. Then another. Then another and another and another and another.