With a Knight's cultivation, getting lost was generally unlikely. At most, they might temporarily lose their bearings.
Besides, there were no particularly large mountains near the capital region.
However, they had been fighting as they fled, so getting lost was only natural.
The other man made their plight sound miserable, but Ke Li still had to ask, "Did you discover some valuable clue?"
"Well... that's hard to say," the man replied. "Something major might be about to happen in Suotu."
Ke Li fired as he considered this and asked, "Great Knights can't handle it?"
As far as he knew, the Martial Academy had already dispatched two Great Knights. Sending more would mean mobilizing an army.
"Even Divine Might Knights..." The wounded Knight trailed off. Some information really could not be spread carelessly.
Ke Li raised an eyebrow. "They've been deployed?"
"I wish they had, but probably not," the Knight answered. "It just feels like the scale of this is already about there."
While the two were talking, a sudden series of sputtering sounds came between bursts of gunfire.
Everyone turned to look. One of the three Knight Apprentices Ke Li had brought was rubbing his stomach, his face twisted in pain.
Yet he dared not stop, merely baring his teeth and grimacing as he stumbled along at a sprint.
As he ran, clumps of yellowish-brown matter dropped from his trouser legs.
"Fuck!" A Knight Apprentice with an injured arm could not help cursing at the sight. "How the fuck can you be such a coward!"
Some people were naturally timid. That was nothing unusual. But someone who was scared shitless, literally-could he fucking count as a martial artist?
"I've got... the runs!" Oliwen sucked in cold breaths through a grimace and answered brokenly. "I've been holding it in the whole way!"
Earlier, he had kept suspecting that his diarrhea might have come from inhaling something filthy off the ground outside the Jin boy's room.
But he had clearly been a little better today. Now it had started again, and he really could not hold it.
Fortunately, it did not affect his ability to flee at all. Turning around to return fire, however, was out of the question.
He had even stuffed his gun back into the holster at his waist.
"Honestly..." Wu Yan'er frowned too. "What kind of people did you bring!"
Unmoved, Ke Li continued returning fire and withdrawing in an orderly fashion.
For a Knight seasoned in battle, severed intestines and feces were commonplace on the battlefield.
Still, the fellow's inability to endure this made him feel displeased despite himself. Is that all you amount to?
After running a while longer, Oliwen truly could not go on. Even a stout man could not withstand three bouts of the runs, and his legs kept going weak.
He staggered violently, then forced himself to keep running, but his body began swaying. "Instructor Ke Li, I need to get in the vehicle!"
"No!" the wounded Knight said coldly. "Even I haven't gotten in!"
Soiling oneself was certainly filthy, but faced with life and death, that was not the main concern.
Wu Yan'er also snorted coldly. "You've got bodily toxins all over you, damn it! The vehicle's full of wounded!"
Bodily toxins meant excrement. Feces could cause fatal harm to open wounds-even ordinary people understood that.
"I... I really can't go on!" Oliwen was steadily, severely losing his strength.
His brow furrowed tightly, and he even reached for the pistol at his waist, wanting to gun down two of the wounded in the vehicle.
But seeing the four Knights watching him like tigers eyeing prey, he restrained his impulse.
"Hmph." Ke Li snorted coldly. It was not as though he had never seen filthy scum harboring such little schemes on the battlefield.
Most, however, had a thief's heart but not a thief's nerve. Show some vigilance, and they generally lost their courage.
He ran to the off-road vehicle, grabbed a backpack, and threw it out. It was Oliwen's. "You're on your own!"
He could, in principle, have carried the man and kept running. But even setting aside the filth on him, that look in his eyes alone displeased Ke Li.
No one wanted to rescue an unstable element!
By throwing out the man's backpack, Ke Li had already fulfilled his responsibility as an instructor.
"Instructor..." Oliwen wailed, but his steps faltered, and he fell farther and farther behind the others!
They rounded the foot of a mountain, and his figure vanished from their sight.
"These people you brought..." Wu Yan'er was just about to comment when his eyes suddenly widened, and he fired ahead of the off-road vehicle.
"Fuck, they're blocking us again!"
Ke Li had no attention to spare for Oliwen. He frowned slightly. "How much fucking farther do we have to run?"
"You should still have plenty of ammunition, right?" the wounded Knight asked. He knew Ke Li had only just left the Martial Academy.
But that all costs money! Ke Li was utterly speechless. The key issue was that gunfire primarily served to keep the Weird Race from closing in.
For those with a Knight's cultivation, close combat was still the way to inflict effective casualties!
He snorted coldly. "I still have plenty of stamina too!"
"But we don't!" the wounded Knight answered through gritted teeth. "We've been fighting on and off for two days!"
That was why they were in such a sorry state. Even with everyone around them at least a Knight Apprentice, they really could not hold out!
Wu Yan'er actually added, "If you want to collect weird objects, go right ahead. We can support you!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Ke Li could not contain his fury. "Was rescuing you a mistake?"
"Exactly," Wu Youren chimed in. "We even lost a companion."
His brow was tightly furrowed, making him look as though he was struggling to suppress his grief.
You... are shameless enough! Ke Li gave him a sidelong glance and could not be bothered to say more.
"Huh, he's catching up!" someone called out. A figure had appeared behind them.
It looked to be Oliwen, stumbling along with his large backpack, running at a fair speed.
Instructor Ke Li instinctively glanced at Wu Youren, only to find the Jin boy's face utterly expressionless.
The wounded Knight, however, snorted coldly. "Careful. There are hallucinatory weirds. We've encountered them!"
Oliwen waved at them as he ran, shouting desperately, "Wait! Wait!"
The third Knight, who seldom spoke, raised his gun and fired, hitting Oliwen squarely with a Weird-Breaking Projectile.
Oliwen let out a wail. After the flash of fire, he lay faceup on the ground, his limbs still twitching.
"Weird qi invasion," the man said mildly. "A Knight Apprentice... unable to withstand a Weird-Breaking Projectile?"
Weird-Breaking Projectiles primarily targeted the Weird Race. They could also injure ordinary people, but were generally not fatal.
Still, whether this man had truly been invaded by weird qi or had simply lost all his strength from diarrhea... was hard to say.
None of the martial artists present would question him, though. Neither Wu Youren nor Qigeli would, much less those in his own group.
Ke Li did say, "You write the report on this man. I'll just sign it."
"No problem," the man answered indifferently. After a moment's thought, he asked, "Whose kid was he?"
A Martial Academy student dying while fighting the Weird Race was perfectly normal, unless he happened to be some big shot's child.
"An ordinary student's life is still a life," Ke Li replied mildly.
"Tch. Everyone else's lives are lives too," the man answered indifferently. "Didn't you see? The weird qi wasn't rushing at him."
Wasn't it? Wu Youren ran calmly. He truly had not noticed that.
Oh, the instructor said so? Then it's fine!
Ke Li glanced at him again. "What do you think?"
Hearing this, the other three instructors all turned toward him. You're asking this student?
"I felt something was a little off too." Wu Youren nodded. Even if the man had not been invaded by weird qi, he had to have been.
The instructor who had fired snorted coldly. "You don't even measure up to a kid!"
"None of your fucking business!" Ke Li snorted coldly.
In fact, he was on fairly good terms with this man, who had also been the first to call him rigid.
"Another twenty kilometers and we'll be out of the mountains," the man said. "We can try making a push then. Satisfied?"
"Satisfied, my ass." Ke Li still felt resentful. "I've only just started this mission, and I've already used up so much and lost a man!"
The loss was an objective fact, but rescuing colleagues also earned points.
"You've harvested so many weird objects, while I haven't gotten a single penny... what a raw deal!"
"Bullshit!" Wu Yan'er could not take it anymore. "Who said we've harvested so many?"
"Getting worked up, aren't you?" Ke Li sneered. "If you hadn't gained anything, why would these Weird Race creatures keep chasing you so relentlessly?"
"Ke Li, we really haven't," the wounded instructor said seriously. "Don't muddy the waters!"
"Tch." Ke Li snorted coldly and said no more.
The instructor who had fired knew his temperament. "I'll replace the Weird-Breaking Projectiles you've used later. Double!"
Returning fire as they retreated, the group left the mountains before they knew it.
These people had been in such a sorry state mainly because they were trapped in the mountains. That sort of complicated terrain was very unfriendly to martial artists.
Retreating along the main road, the Knights could advance and withdraw in a measured fashion, with a vehicle to assist them. It was much less difficult.
Beyond the mountains, the sun shone brightly, and the weird creatures did not pursue them.
After running a little over another kilometer, everyone finally stopped. Whatever else happened, they needed to rest and recover.
Never mind those who had fought for two days and nights-even Wu Youren, who had simply run along with them, was a little out of breath.
Those Knight Apprentices had actually managed to keep pace with the main group. One could only say... the human body's potential really was immense.
The summer sun was a little too fierce. Qigeli took a folding parasol from the vehicle and set it up on the ground.
The shade of the trees was actually somewhat unsafe. Those who knew, knew.
But the parasol was only two meters across. Three people were the most it could shelter from the heat.
The instructor who had fired walked over. "How about resting until evening?"
"No." Ke Li refused flatly. "I've completed the rescue by bringing you here. Hurry up and contact the Martial Academy!"
The Knight looked startled. "You're still going to Suotu?"
With credit for rescuing colleagues already secured, a mission that was not particularly important really could be undertaken or skipped.
"Whether I go is my business," Ke Li stated bluntly. "Lao Liu, don't try to use this chance to hold me hostage!"
"I wasn't thinking that." Lao Liu shook his head and glanced sideways at Wu Youren. "This little fellow should have something to him?"
"I'm not too sure myself," Ke Li answered vaguely. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Your sword... is getting a little rusty!" Lao Liu said something inexplicable.
The next instant, both men drew their melee weapons in unison and locked onto the people resting in the shade of the trees nearby.
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