The assault had been launched 1 hour after nightfall. The fortress of Qingdao overlooked the sea. The cultivators had gathered to free those of their own who had been taken prisoner in the past 6 months.

Taking advantage of a moonless night, Lan Xichen thought the time for their attack would be right.

The Qingdao garrison was not as well supplied with soldiers as Qishan. The recovery of the prisoners should not be too complicated. It was decided to form a small group of about 50 cultivators. Thanks to Meng Yao, they had managed to obtain the plans of the place. Lan Xichen had been appointed to lead the attack.

None of the cultivators had noticed the black figure spying on them and following them step by step on their journey.

They had managed to get past the city walls through an old sewage pipe. When they reached the foot of the main building, they had to split into two groups to make sure they reached their goal. Lan Xichen and Nie MingJue looked at each other and each took a group. The dark shadow followed the elder jade twin.

This was too easy, Xichen thought. They had hardly met any guards. Something was wrong. Xichen had a bad feeling. He suddenly heard sounds of fighting on the side where MingJue's group had gone. He hoped that everything was all right with his Brother-in-Heart. He was all he had left.

An arrow flew into his shoulder. Then a second and another... Their opponents were coming out of hiding. They were far more numerous than they were.

Xichen gave the order to retreat, but their path of retreat was blocked. They had been ambushed.

The sound of a flute rose in the night. Wisps of black shadows swooped down on their attackers. Terrible screams echoed through the fortress. Then the screams stopped, the flute fell silent and the shadows disappeared. Xichen had just enough time to see a man dressed in black on the roof of a nearby building.

He gathered his men and continued on his way. They had to get to the jails as soon as possible. They found the stairs to the lower floors without difficulty. He hoped that MingJue had also made it out and that they would end up at the dungeon level as planned.

The bad feeling he'd had when he'd arrived still hadn't left him. If they had been ambushed at the entrance, they should have expected a second one on the lower levels!

Xichen also wondered about the identity of the mysterious man who had helped them. He wondered about the method he had used. What were these black wisps that seemed to spread terror in their path. He had glanced, in passing, at their victims. All had an expression of intense terror on their faces.

They went down the stairs. Xichen left several of his men behind to defend them in case of trouble. At the bottom, Xichen asked his entire group to wait. On the other side of the guardroom, at the second staircase, Nie MingJue's group was also watching. If they were ambushed inside, they had little chance of escaping unscathed.

The room was large and oval in shape. A gallery with arches ran along the upper floor. If they were to be ambushed, their attackers would be there, hidden behind the pillars. There was only one way to get to the dungeons. The entrance was on the other side of the room. Xichen took half his men and entered the guard room. On the other side MingJue did the same.

The two groups walked along the walls, carefully observing the gallery. When they reached the halfway point, the arrows began to rain down! Men-at-arms rushed in from the dungeon passage. The battle began between the two opposing factions.

They heard the characteristic demonic laughter of Xue Yang. The damned soul of Wen Ruohan. He had just appeared at the entrance to the passageway leading to the dungeons.

Given the number of opponents they had, they would not have the upper hand. Xichen wondered how they knew about their incursion. He himself had only decided to do so a few hours before! His fears of having a traitor among them were confirmed.

He managed to make his way to the stairs. One of the men he had left at the top of the stairs came to tell him that the courtyard was again filled with soldiers. They were caught in the crossfire! MingJue came over to him.

"What do we do ?" he asked.

"We can't retreat. We have two options: to die fighting or to surrender."

"Surrender is inconceivable! We are warriors!" replied MingJue.

"Then we will die fighting!"

The two brothers-in-arms looked each other in the eye and nodded as they went back into battle. One by one the fighters fell. Soon there were only a handful left, and they could be counted on the fingers of both hands.

A whistle sounded in the room.

"Come on gentlemen, why continue to fight, there is no hope of victory for you!"

Nie MingJue stood in the center of the room.

"Xue Yang, you vile murderer, we will not surrender! We will not give you the privilege of our disgrace. We will fight to the death!"

"Very well, but since you speak of privileges, I will give you one. You will be the first to face our new elite warriors!

With these words, all the soldiers withdrew to the back of the room and let 5 hideous monsters pass.

Their skin was crumpled, they looked like corpses. Their teeth looked like those of wild animals and black veins marbled their skin everywhere it was visible. They threw themselves on their victims, screaming in a frightening manner.

The survivors tried to resist. Several fell.

The flute was heard again. The monsters hesitated, stopped, and finally turned around and charged their own troops! Xue Yang reached for the purse on his belt. The flute was getting closer. The man in black appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He walked slowly into the room and stopped next to Xichen and MingJue who were standing back to back to fight.

The man's face was hidden by his hood. The long black cloak covered a red and black robe. The dark-colored flute left the musician's lips.

"Where is he?" the black shadow asked Xue Yang.

Xue Yang ordered to charge. The music rose again and the monsters resumed the fight they had left when the music had stopped. They slaughtered the troops of the citadel in record time.

The flute left the lips of the black shadow again.

"Where is he? Know that I will not ask you a third time. I want back what you stole from me!

Seeing that he no longer had any control over his monstrous guard dogs, Xue Yang decided to leave the place.

"You only have to find him yourself, if he is still alive! .... Attack, slaughter every last one of them!"

More soldiers came out of the dungeon passage. The fighting and the music started again. After a few minutes there were none left standing. The archers in the galleries had long since fled! Silence fell, the flute fell silent, the monsters stopped. There were only corpses on the ground.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)