Shen Yuan shouted at her, "Hey, come over here. What are you still doing there?"
Li Yu gave him a cute smile as she opened her mouth to say, "Got you."
BOOM!!
An explosion erupted as the cave's wall was destroyed and arrows shot toward Shen Yuan and Han Ming. Both of them wielded their weapons and defended themselves as Shen Yuan angrily asked, "What the hell is happening here??"
To which he got no reply as Han Ming was busy keeping himself alive. Shen Yuan looked towards him and saw an arrow flying towards his blind spot. He took out a dagger from his storage ring and threw it to deflect the arrow
Han Ming's eyes widened as he saw the attack being deflected. He would have been a goner if not for Shen Yuan's help. He cast a grateful gaze towards Shen Yuan who only nodded his head and continued deflecting the arrows.
He then remembered that he had forgotten someone as he looked towards the cave's entrance, where Li Yu was still standing. But the strange thing was not a single arrow was aimed at her.
Shen Yuan's mind churned as he thought of various possibilities, but he refused to believe any of them as he screamed towards her, "Help Han Ming, Li Yu. He won't be able to last for much longer."
Li Yu's eyes revealed coldness as she didn't even reply to Shen Yuan's questions. She merely stood there and saw the struggle of Han Ming and Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan felt his back turn cold at this sudden betrayal as he didn't expect that one of the first friends he made in the outside world would betray him.
Shen Yuan felt anger surging in him as he used Falling Leaf Slash and slashed straight forward and deflected all the arrows flying towards him.
All the arrows soon ceased firing at them, and Shen Yuan soon noticed that Han Ming was injured by arrows, with one struck in his ribs and another at his back.
Shen Yuan hurriedly walked towards him and pulled out the arrows, in fear of them being poisoned. "Ughh..." Han Ming grunted as he felt the pain, he breathed heavily while hurriedly eating a healing pill.
"Thanks, Brot-" Before Han Ming could finish saying his thanks, Shen Yuan silenced him with a gesture as he said, "We have bigger problems to deal with than just thanking me."
He pointed to the outer area where the arrows were coming from as they saw that a lot of people were gathering together.
Shen Yuan narrowed his eyes as he realized that they were the so-called criminals his Mom warned him about.
He wasn't expecting them to create a trap for sect disciples by joining forces.
"I didn't expect Miss Li Yu to bring two prey together to us." One of the men spoke after stepping up, he was a bald man with a ferocious face, and there were scars all over his body, probably from fighting for years. His cultivation was also impressively at the 9th level Foundation Establishment realm.
"I will fight with the saber wielder, you all finish off the one with the sword, and be careful he is strong. Don't die a worthless death." She spoke ruthlessly as she rushed towards Han Ming. All her cuteness was gone from her face, only bone-chilling cold was left.
Shen Yuan tried to stop her, but others jumped him. There were 25-30 people in total. The majority of them were in the early levels of the Foundation Establishment realm, while a few were in the mid-levels of the Foundation Establishment realm, and only 3 were in the High-level Foundation Establishment realm cultivators.
Shen Yuan was going to face all of them at once. He didn't have any time to spare as he cast one last glance full of encouragement to Han Ming and shouted, "Hold her back until I'm finished with these guys." He sprinted towards the bald man after encouraging Han Ming.
He unsheathed his sword and swung it in a large arc by utilizing his saber technique Earth Cutting Saber, attacking the head of the bald man. "Take this, you Baldy." He shouted as he pressed his sword further down. He had practiced that technique enough times that he could now use it even without a saber. But its might was obviously weaker than using it with a saber.
'System, withdraw a higher-level sword from my inventory.' He spoke to the system in his mind, ordering it to withdraw a higher-tier weapon so he could fight more easily.
But the system did not respond and remained silent. 'Fuck! I can't even withdraw a higher-level weapon from my inventory?' he cursed in his mind, but he knew the system was doing it for the sake of his training.
The bald man felt his face twitch as he defended against Shen Yuan's attack. He shouted back, "Let's use the formation to match our powers and kill this little bastard!" His voice was full of anger as he couldn't let that slide.
The other two high-tier Foundation Establishment realm cultivators also joined in, one of them using a sword and the other a saber. All 3 of them fighting together with a formation as this powered them further, reaching infinitely close to the power level of a Inner Sea Realm Cultivator, but the chasm between both realm was not something which can be transverse with a mere formation.
The other weaker cultivators shot arrows from a distance, looking for an opportunity.
Shen Yuan had to defend against all of their attacks simultaneously using his various techniques and fight back. He was still able to fight toe to toe with them due to his formidable stamina and various techniques but he didn't know for how long he could last.
He tried to think of various strategies but couldn't come up with anything. He decided to stop overthinking and focus on finishing off his current opponents.
He attacked the bald guy from various angles while defending against the attacks of both high-level cultivators, as well as the rest of the cultivators.
He finally found an opportunity to land a solid strike on the bald guy's shoulder. He swung his sword from the right utilizing his Falling Leaf Strike, striking the bald guy's shoulder and making him break out in a cold sweat as he lost his balance.
Shen Yuan aimed his sword at his neck and moved to finish him off, but he froze at the last second as he realized that the person he was about to kill wasn't a beast or a puppet but a real, breathing human being.