Bai Zhi's Crisis, The Situation Is Dire

With a light tap of his toes against the sand, just as his palm was about to touch the ground, Chen Wuya's peripheral vision suddenly narrowed.

Dust erupted from the flank. Several black shadows darted out from behind the jagged rocks, surrounding one person like hawks pouncing on a rabbit. Amid crisscrossing sword light, that moon-white figure was forced back three steps. Her left shoulder dipped slightly as her flexible sword swept across, sealing off the path before her throat. It was her.

Before he could unleash his palm force, Misaligned Force abruptly recoiled through his meridians. His fingertips trembled faintly, and his palm stopped half an inch above the ground.

Seven attackers surrounded her. Their steps appeared disorderly, yet secretly followed a rhythm; every strike landed precisely in the gaps between breaths. They were clearly death warriors trained specifically for assassination. The Misaligned Practice Connects to Spirit system silently vibrated:

[Long-range vibration-frequency analysis complete—target's footing bears weight unevenly; three targets' centers of gravity are shifted right. Can disrupt.]

But before he could act, Wu Chi on the other side had already sensed something amiss. His massive axe smashed into the ground, blasting open a crack with a thunderous boom. A wave of sand surged straight at Chen Wuya's face. He had no choice but to withdraw his palm and defend, crossing his arms before his chest. Misaligned Force ran in reverse from beneath his ribs, and he borrowed the rebound to leap backward.

The curtain of sand obscured his sight. By the time he landed, he had changed position, but his gaze had never left Bai Zhi. With her back against a broken boulder, she arced her blade and forced back an assassin closing in with a short dagger. But another had already leapt to high ground