Ke Li's response was cold-blooded, and the man on the other end cursed viciously in anger.
But then Wu Yan'er sighed again. "Fine, then wait half an hour first."
Fighting the Weird Race was real warfare, with no room for soft hearts or mercy. He could be angry, but Ke Li's response was the correct one.
A lone Knight assigned to reconnaissance should never have become embroiled in a battle like this.
By firing a signal flare to establish contact and showing an intention to provide support, the other party had already fulfilled his obligations.
But he truly was somewhat desperate. "If we can't break out, take in however many you can. At least get the news back!"
"Mm," Ke Li grunted, a trace of disdain on his face. You have information, but you can't tell me now, is that it?
Still, it was understandable. Who wouldn't consider their own interests? Besides, some information might not be suitable for him to relay.
Then he glanced at Oliwen, who had fallen behind, his gaze ice-cold. You'd better only be thinking about guarding the rear!
Ten minutes or so later, someone appeared on a distant ridge. He looked as though someone had thrown him up there, and he even staggered upon landing.
Only then did everyone notice that he was actually carrying another person on his back.
The man swept his gaze around, spotted them, and waved frantically. "Here, here!"
Instructor Ke Li raised a hand and waved as well. "Come over yourselves!"
A horse could run itself to death chasing a mountain in sight. The two sides seemed close, but they were on separate hilltops; the difficulty of crossing between them went without saying.
Immediately afterward, two more people charged up, followed by a fourth...
They were fighting formless beings, at most visible as wisps of faint gray mist.
"The real Weird Race." Ke Li's expression grew grave. "Get all your Weird-Breaking Projectiles ready!"
More figures flickered into view, until finally over a dozen people had charged onto the ridge.
Aside from the person being carried, three others had injured legs and had essentially lost their ability to fight.
As far as he could sense, there were three Knights among them, with the rest all Knight Apprentices.
A team of that strength wasn't particularly weak by the current standards around Suotu Town. Who knew how they had provoked the real Weird Race?
Seeing Instructor Ke Li standing on another hilltop, they mustered their courage and charged toward him.
As they ran, they also had to fight the formless Weird Race, stumbling along with great difficulty.
Although reinforcements were clearly nearby, they only grew more panicked. Fresh blood inexplicably spattered from some of their bodies.
"Send two students to help us!" someone shouted for rescue.
There were no paths through the mountains to begin with, only grass and bushes, not to mention that some of them were wounded.
Ke Li ignored the plea and simply glanced at Wu Youren and Qigeli. "Which of you wants to go?"
The youth from Jin said nothing, while the latter replied, "My strength is limited."
"Even if you're strong, you still need to be cautious," Instructor Ke Li remarked casually. "The situation is unclear."
They truly were teacher and student; lessons in battlefield common sense could happen at any moment.
When those people began charging down into the valley, wisps of gray mist broke away and drifted toward Instructor Ke Li.
"Prepare for battle," the instructor said unhurriedly, glancing again at the youth from Jin. "Whatever tricks you have, use them."
Qigeli couldn't help speaking up. "Little Wu, you really do have some tricks?"
"The instructor thinks too highly of me." Wu Youren drew his pistol and took aim.
All four raised their guns, though Oliwen was aiming down the hillside behind them.
Ke Li judged the distance, then spoke a dozen seconds later. "Fire!"
The next moment, he and Qigeli opened fire together, both using Weird-Breaking Projectiles. Faint screams sounded amid the gunfire.
Wu Youren was still shifting his aim back and forth, whether because he couldn't choose a target or for some other reason.
Qigeli grew anxious. "Why aren't you shooting yet?"
The instructor had even lent him a gun. Didn't he know to lay down covering fire?
Wu Youren hesitated before answering, "When you reload, someone needs to maintain deterrence, right?"
This was his guess, based on what he had known before transmigrating. He didn't know whether it held true here.
"Heh." Ke Li grunted without saying more, but inwardly he was puzzled.
An underage hostage prince actually understood the role of firepower as a deterrent. The people of Jin... aren't all useless after all!
"But we don't know the Weird situation yet!" Qigeli said anxiously. "What if more and more come as we fight?"
"If you don't know how to talk, keep quiet!" Ke Li couldn't hold back. "Can't you hope for something good?"
He didn't think Wu Youren was necessarily right, or that his own student must be wrong.
But since they knew the "Weird situation was unclear," wasn't it perfectly normal to keep something in reserve?
The four of them were very close to the road. If they proved outmatched, they could unleash a fierce barrage and run.
Overall, he thought the youth from Jin's response was more sensible, but he wouldn't say anything that bolstered someone else's prestige.
Qigeli's pistol had an ordinary rate of fire and limited range. Instructor Ke Li's repeating gun was the real force, powerful and fast-firing.
The continuous gunfire, accompanied by bursts of red light, was ample proof that they had plenty of ammunition.
The Weird Race facing them clearly possessed intelligence too, and their advance visibly slackened a little.
Support from the two guns greatly reduced the pressure on the martial academy's team, and their retreat noticeably accelerated.
But the situation also grew increasingly chaotic.
Wu Youren couldn't help inwardly shaking his head. That was it?
He truly couldn't imagine how these Liang martial artists, with their fighting spirit and tactical coordination, had managed to defeat Jin.
Observing for a while confirmed another of his guesses: members of the Weird Race killed by others gave him approximately zero experience points.
It wasn't absolutely nothing. The gray mist he had watched for longer gave him a slight improvement.
So these experience points... are tied to my own ability to detect them?
As he pondered this, Ke Li suddenly spoke. "Get ready. I'm changing magazines!"
The instant he stopped firing, Wu Youren fired, unhurriedly, seemingly without any intention of laying down suppressive fire.
But the youth from Jin maintained an excellent rhythm, firing roughly once every two seconds, as steady as someone keeping a beat!
Every shot was followed by a scream. Two of those shots, fired at different points, were aimed at empty space.
That was precisely what was strange: there wasn't the slightest trace of gray mist, yet screams rang out.
"All right, my turn." Instructor Ke Li had changed magazines. "That perception of yours really is something!"
He could vaguely sense some of the concealed Weird Race himself, but even he wasn't very certain.
Yet this youth from Jin remained unhurried and actually dared to fire into empty space. Those were Weird-Breaking Projectiles!
The crucial thing was... it actually worked!
That perception alone was already beyond the level of a Knight Apprentice. Even an ordinary Knight might not be capable of it.
What surprised him even more was the youth's composure. He absolutely deserved the description "steady as an old dog."
"Mm." Wu Youren grunted and stopped shooting, opening the cylinder to reload.
This round of shooting had earned him more experience points. Unfortunately, it didn't feel like much.
"Whew, finally made it through!" Someone at last let out a long breath. It was a relatively portly Knight.
Of the dozen-odd people in the group, there were three Knights in total. He was charging at the very front, his movements surprisingly light.
"Stay right there!" Ke Li grunted and said flatly, "Come any closer, and I won't be polite!"
"Cut that crap, Ke Li!" the portly Knight said discontentedly, still darting forward. "We..."
Bang! A gunshot rang out, blasting apart the dirt at his feet.
The man twisted, executing an extraordinarily strange sideways shift, and stared ahead in shock. "You!"
"Anyone who won't follow my arrangements can find their own way out!" Ke Li looked at him calmly, his gaze holding nothing but indifference.
"All right." The second Knight arrived too, his face pale and the right side of his body soaked in blood.
"Can we withdraw down the mountain together?"
"The vehicle is mine!" Ke Li stated calmly. "The wounded can ride. Everyone else runs alongside!"
"I need rest!" The second Knight couldn't bear it. "I was the one who ensured they broke out!"
Of the three Knights, he was the most seriously injured, so he did have grounds to say that.
"That has nothing to do with me." Ke Li was terrifyingly calm, continuing to attack the Weird Race as he spoke.
"If you won't accept that, we'll leave... at least we've helped you reach the road."
They were still several hundred meters from the road, but it was only a downhill dash. Once on the road, fleeing would be easier.
"All right, we accept!" the third Knight spoke up. "Don't argue with Ke Li. He's famous for being rigid!"
Everyone retreated to the road. The four seriously wounded people boarded the vehicle, along with two lightly wounded ones.
Apart from Qigeli, who continued driving, Ke Li, Wu Youren, and Oliwen all sprinted alongside the vehicle.
Going forward was now impossible, so everyone retreated the way they had come.
A large expanse of faint gray mist pursued them from behind.
The Weird Race moved swiftly and were no slower on flat ground.
But humans were heavier, which greatly hindered their movement in the mountains. On flat ground, that effect was much smaller.
The key was that the wounded had all been put in the vehicle. Even if members of the Weird Race circled around ahead, the Knights could charge them.
Of the three Knights, the fastest runner was Wu Yan'er, who showed little warmth toward Ke Li over this limited rescue.
It was the second, wounded Knight who felt being rescued at all was already something to be thankful for, and he gave a rough account of the situation.
Their team had also taken a reconnaissance mission-unlike Ke Li's, theirs was compulsory.
As they approached Suotu Town, they encountered another team led by a Great Knight, who subdivided the reconnaissance areas.
Since this was a thorough search, they couldn't simply stay near the road. They had to venture deep into the mountains.
One night a few days earlier, they lost contact with the convoy left on the road, then encountered the Weird Race.
They had killed at least four Knight-level members of the Weird Race, but there were simply too many low-level ones, forcing them to fight as they fled.
Then, very unfortunately, they got lost in the mountains.