From afar, it looked as though the sky had broken.
Xu Taiping froze at first, then said anxiously:
"This is bad! The battle between these two groups of cultivators might sweep up these villagers too!"
He instinctively wanted to warn the villagers to retreat, completely forgetting that he was only a spectator now.
"Go! Hurry! Get out of here!"
"Run!"
At last, the old scholar was the first to react, gathering the fleeing villagers and urging them down toward the foot of the mountain.
But how could ordinary mortals outrun cultivators' spells?
Though it was only the aftermath of their spells, the howling gales and torrents of water pouring from the sky still overturned this entire mountain forest in an instant.
Rumble...!
Even those fleeing villagers who escaped the blade-like Gang Wind and the surging torrents could not escape the mudslide crashing down from the mountainside.
One after another, villagers Xu Taiping had already come to know by sight died before his eyes.
In the end, even "he" himself was about to be swallowed by the mud and water.
"The child! The child! Protect the child!"
Aunt Zhao, who was holding Xu Taiping, disregarded her own safety entirely and raised the swaddled Xu Taiping high overhead.
Just as Aunt Zhao was about to be swallowed whole, the young wife beside her, who had been struggling in the water only moments before, snatched Xu Taiping from her and likewise raised him high:
"Little Taiping! Little Taiping is here! Someone, come quickly!"
Even when the flood completely submerged her, she did not loosen her hands, still holding Xu Taiping high.
Just as the rising water was about to swallow Xu Taiping again, a taller villager beside her took him from the young wife's hands and held him high amid the torrent of