"I don't think you'll be satisfied with whatever answer I give you right now since we're in a hurry, but do know, that I happened to obtain from the body of a dead cultivator. And since I'm not proficient in the water arts of the water realm, you'll notice that my doppelganger isn't perfect," I said as I pointed at the misshaped clone.
"But, even if it isn't incomplete," I said "within the smoke, it can act as a decoy," I added. "Now, would you please let me go, we can escape now and you're more than welcome to interrogate me as much as you want after we escape whoever is trying to kill us," I said, steadfastly and powerfully
Xue grunted, then after acknowledging that what I said came in touch with reason, he let go and said, "Let's get out of here first, I'll deal with you later!" he said.
"Right I replied and said, "Go!" I spoke and had the clone run in a certain direction, while I headed in the complete opposite one.
Seeing me still alive and not shot, the two nodded to each other and followed after me.
Only after a while of running within the smoke did I send X the command to shoot the clone that was already outside the smoke.
This was of course nothing but theatrics to make it so that the clone actually served a purpose and that the shooter was still focused on us. This will make me look far likelier to be a helpful asset than a person of unknown origin and agenda.
I'll also need to be careful with the cultivation arts I'm showcasing, I might accidentally show something that a Nascent Cultivator from the Fire King's realm shouldn't have.
Soon after we 'escaped' from our hunter, we arrived at an area that had several high shrubs and tall trees, it had a few large boulders and there were also several cultivators already standing there.
One of the cultivators looked at us and said, "Hail The Fire Lord And Let his flames forever Sunder.
Immediately, both Xue and the cultivator with him replied, "Hail The Fire Lord, And Let his flames forever Sunder."
I was a tad bit too late when I also spoke the same words.
This wasn't good. As my latency in replying almost had me exposed, I was thankfully saved by the new cultivator's following words.
"Seems that this is your first time in wars?"
"Not wars in general, but invading whole planets, first time, also," I added as I looked around, "I'm not a fan of having my already weak cultivation level suppressed even further," I said.
"Hmm. No matter, speak your names and ranks." The man said.
After replying to him, we figured out that he and Xue were of the same rank and we didn't need to follow under him. But that didn't mean that Xue was of the same thought.
"We'll stick around, we already lost several members to an ambush. We should remain vigilant," Xue said then began explaining the whole situation and what happened to us.
"Understandable, right, then if what your saying is correct, we're basically trapped. We might as well just stay here and wait for help instead of trying anything foolish, we'll serve our king no purpose by dying right off the bat." The other leader said.
Which kinda surprised me. Because I expected some arrogant snob who'll be exclusive of this planet's cultivation and think that they are all nothing but frogs in a well, weak and powerless, but he actually is using his head and decided to stand down and wait instead of rushing in as some third-rate side character villain wannabe.
Shit, I hate smart people, they make killing them hard.
"We'll follow brother Yoon's command," Xue said and this just straight up limited my mobility.
"What's the situation like up there?" asked Xue.
"I wouldn't know, we were cut off the moment we entered this area. We can't send or receive information, but at the same time, we figured out that since this spot was not protected by the planetary barrier, it could be a loophole or a trap. Seems like it was the latter." Yoon said.
"Damn."
"Don't worry, we already informed the higherups that we were using this place, if they don't hear from us, they'll send in stronger cultivators, and I'm sure some of them will have a way for us to leave this place, or even have a tool or method to break through the barrier."
'I highly doubt you'll be able to break through a formation supplemented with an entire planet's Qi unless you're a Saint Qi user, or at least as smart as Master Rain, because I used his own inscription technique to protect this whole planet.'
"We'll be waiting for assistance and aid, for now, we'll need to gather intel and figure out our next move. This invasion was supposed to be an easy takeover that we would have had no problems in doing whatsoever. But now, with this formation standing between us and the planet, we'll have to actually wait and think up a plan."
"These monkeys are really persistent and hard to control, why don't they just give up easily and let us take this planet. So much time wasted for an inevitable result." A cultivator from Yoon's party spoke up with complete disregard for this planet's inhabitants and their right to live.
"It is the nature of the weak to struggle, you will never see a mouse giving up his life even when in the fangs of a snake, it will fight and struggle even if it knows it will die," Yoon said and then added.
"Since brother Xue said that there is a type of sniper killing cultivators who are spread, let's try and lure him out, and understand how he is able to attack us from outside the barrier, understanding that is the fastest way for us to get inside, and once inside we can allow the entire legion to charge forward, granting us ease of victory and conquest," Yoon spoke with enough wits and intelligence in his words that I was tempted to follow him.
Wait… why am I admiring the enemy?
I immediately took a deep breath then realized that I was actually being 'charmed'.
There seems to be an aura around Yoon that he passively releases those causes whoever listens to him to have a fervor for whatever he says. This is an annoying and oppressive manner to control the hearts of the people around him to do his biddings.
I should be more careful around this man. Otherwise, I might invertedly reveal to him that I'm actually the traitor among them with a wide smile on my face and wait for his praise.
"We can't spread out, he can take out a soul formation cultivator without the latter ever realizing so. It will be counterintuitive to spread and be sitting ducks for him." Xue said.
"That's why we'll use decoys, from what I understood earlier, our little friend here used an art that enabled you lots to escape, this means that whoever is shooting at us has a range issue, and we can abuse that to our advantage," Yoon said.
The group began discussing a plan of work, where they'll be using smoke and decoys to try and outsmart X's shooting which was all bullshit that will never work, still, I played along because right now, I have no means to access the larger part of the invader army, nor can I even deal with them.
I'll slowly start by grinding their forces, starting from this group and whatever group that comes afterward.
As long as the barrier stands, the planet is safe, but for how long it can remain standing, that's a question only time will answer.
And by then, I pretty much have to hope that the cultivators in this world can grow stronger, strong enough to actually dare and claim that they have the right to live unoppressed.
Once Yoon gave everyone the plan of work, we were told to use our own smoke bombs and spread apart.
I handed everyone a bunch of the smoke bombs and soon they all sprinted all over the place using the smoke bombs and trying to locate the sniper.
Which will never happen.
I on the other hand took one of the pills threw it and moved into the smoke.
Yet just as I took a few steps forward I had a strange feeling. It was a faint feeling that something was not right, and as a tug on the back of my head that there was something disturbing me… I was being watched.
If I was being watched, that means I was being suspicious, so I needed to do the opposite.
I continued moving within the smoke and soon after the smoke started thinning, I threw another pill. But just as I took a few more steps, I sent X a direct command to shoot. But not at whoever was watching me.
But straight into my chest.. A shot that had me falling forward and the cultivator who was watching me was sent into a panic.