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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
When Chu Qing finally met up with him, he had thought that they would be able to topple Hidden Light Sanctuary in one fell swoop. However, he was shocked to find that her group was less than thirty strong!
Over a hundred House of Wintry Blossoms cultivators had entered the Rift of Fortune this time. Even if some of them were unlucky enough to be caught and jailed by the Xianyuan City Watch, they should still possess a considerable amount of troops.
In reality, their numbers had dwindled to just thirty or so including those who hadn’t met up with Chu Qing yet. That wasn’t enough people to overwhelm Hidden Light Sanctuary’s defense line in one go. At best, it was adding flowers to a brocade.
Since the beginning, Qi Ming had messaged Chu Qing to focus on Hidden Light Sanctuary first and everything else later. If the Grand Sky Coalition sect was vanquished, then the remaining cultivators would only be sand they could sweep away at their leisure.
However, Chu Qing could not let go of Lu Yi Ye. He could’ve accepted this if she at least succeeded in taking out the cultivator, but no, they were reduced to less than thirty people.
Although Sunlit Mountain wasn’t the one who suffered those casualties, their loss had greatly impacted his plan. Naturally, he was incredibly displeased with this outcome.
In fact, he would’ve called her a bimbo if they didn’t share a good relationship with each other.
Chu Qing could hear the criticism in his words as a matter of course. She felt aggrieved, but she could not deny that she had screwed up big time.
She had told him everything on the way here. The main reason Lu Ye was able to destroy around two-thirds of her force was all thanks to that woman in the red dress. They would not have suffered such a horrendous defeat if the apparition hadn’t commanded them to find that Tang Yuan they still had no idea about.
Still, she definitely deserved the blame for the screw-ups. She was already trying to make up for it.
“We should take out the apparitions first. They are more trouble than they seem,” Chu Qing suggested.
The House of Wintry Blossoms had had enough of the apparitions. While the Xianyuan City Watch did not have many ways to kill the enemy, the Spirit Shackling Rope alone was enough to cause havoc among their ranks. In a big battle like this, getting caught by the Spirit Shackling Rope was practically a death sentence.
“I know,” Qi Ming replied in a disgruntled voice before giving an order. Dozens of people immediately switched targets to Lu Ye and launched their spells and flying weapons at him.
The fearless Ju Jia immediately stepped forward to block all the attacks with his flesh and blood. At the same time, Lu Ye attempted to intercept as many attacks with his two flying weapons.
His flying weapons moved quickly even though he could only control two of them at a time. Combined with Ju Jia’s defense, they were able to reduce much of the attacks flying toward the Ghost Spirits.
Moreover, since they drew away a good amount of pressure from the Grand Sky Coalition cultivators, the latter was able to recover and mount a much better counterattack. What should’ve been a landslide defeat actually started trending toward a stalemate.
This outcome greatly invigorated the cultivators of Grand Sky Coalition as a matter of course.
The wailing noise was grating on the Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators’ senses more and more. The constant bombardment of Spirit Shackling Ropes was a source of great annoyance as well. The lucky ones managed to break free before the flying weapons and spells could hit them, and the unlucky ones were killed as a matter of course.
More and more Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators were killed. The situation really was starting to stabilize.
Realizing that Lu Ye’s team was having a huge effect on the overall battle, Ju Yan immediately ordered a squad of a dozen or so cultivators to move in their direction and share some of their burden. This allowed the Ghost Spirits to act to their heart’s content. This was especially true for Pipa Girl as three cultivators surrounded and protected her at all times.
Both Ji Yan and Qi Ming had realized the massive effect Pipa Girl had on a battlefield like this. The Xianyuan City Watch and even Liu Sanbao’s method of attacks was monotonous—the former could only shoot their Spirit Shackling Ropes, and Liu Sanbao his dice—but Pipa Girl’s wailing affected an entire area. Every time she cried, countless Thousand Demon Ridge cultivators would suffer a short but potentially fatal loss of concentration. Combined with the twangs of her pipa, she was a killing machine capable of dictating the direction of any battlefield. Of course Thousand Demon Ridge would attempt to kill her as quickly as possible.
While everyone was busy murdering the hell out of each other, a blurry figure was slowly making his way toward Lu Ye.
The man wasn’t moving particularly quickly. Those who knew what they were looking for might even be able to spot a vague outline of sorts. However, no one had the energy to do so since they were embroiled in the big battle right now. No one could imagine that the enemy would be bold enough to infiltrate their backlines at this time either.
Obviously, only a ghost cultivator was capable of such a feat.
The ghost cultivator had withdrawn his aura so thoroughly that even the Spirit Artifact in his hand was fully hidden. He was slowly but surely approaching the tiger on Lu Ye’s shoulder, Amber.
According to Chu Qing’s intel, the pet was the true reason Lu Ye was able to control the Xianyuan City Watch. That was why Qi Ming had ordered the ghost cultivator to kill it. The apparitions should no longer constitute a threat if it was dead.
In fact, the ghost cultivator had been skulking about since the beginning. His original target was Ji Yan, but he was unable to find a good opportunity to carry out the assassination until Qi Ming changed his focus to Amber.
Thirty meters, fifteen meters, seven meters. No one saw it coming when the ghost cultivator finally launched his surprise attack.
Right before the attack could land, his vision suddenly blurred, and the surrounding noise suddenly vanished into nothing. Before he knew it, he found out that he was standing in the middle of a stone forest.
Lu Ye looked behind his back immediately. Yi Yi also took a few steps away from the front in a hurry. She lifted the concealed Nine Realm Scroll from the ground and saw that an unknown figure had appeared within the painting.
She immediately channeled her Spiritual Power to stabilize the Nine Realms Scroll. After she nodded at Lu Ye, the young man set Amber on the ground and waited for Yi Yi to throw the ward scroll over his head.
Ten breaths later, Yi Yi shook the Nine Realms Scroll and Lu Ye reappeared along with a corpse.
Lu Ye had to admit that a Ninth-Order ghost cultivator was someone to be feared. They were able to conceal their presence so well that he never noticed a thing until it was too late. If he hadn’t anticipated such a possibility and laid down the Nine Realms Scroll beforehand, Amber would already be dead.
This was a good reminder to be careful whenever he went up against one or multiple ghost cultivators. They could sneak up on him at any moment.
Of course, it wasn’t completely his fault. The situation was a bit chaotic right now.
Qi Ming vaguely sensed something amiss when his ghost cultivator had perished. He immediately checked his Battlefield Imprint and confirmed that his fear had come true. His expression darkened instantly.
The Ninth-Order ghost cultivator was a member of Sunlit Mountain and extremely proficient in the art of concealment. However, the enemy still killed him somehow!
When he observed the battlefield again, he also noted that the enemy had recovered to the point where they were capable of launching effective counterattacks from time to time.
Since Lu Yi Ye had shown up with the apparitions, Thousand Demon Ridge’s body count had climbed to thirty plus or so. Although they still outnumbered Grand Sky Coalition for the moment, the one-sided beatdown they were applying on their enemies before was long gone and nigh impossible to regain. The apparition’s wail also ensured that their numbers advantage was neutralized.
At this rate, they would end up with a pyrrhic victory even if they won.
Qi Ming hesitated to make the call, but he could see that the battle was growing worse for his side. In the end, he had no choice but to order a retreat.
The Grand Sky Coalition wasn’t going to let them go easily as a matter of course. They gave chase until Ji Yan gave the order to stop. Both sides suffered some casualties during the process.
That was the end of the first big battle between the Grand Sky Coalition and Thousand Demon Ridge. Almost everyone on the Grand Sky Coalition had suffered some degree of injury, and even Lu Ye had lost a considerable amount of forces. Liu Sanbao and Pipa Girl were fine, but his dozen of sentry leaders had dwindled to just three. Most of them had been destroyed during the battle.
It couldn’t be helped. Considering how chaotic the battle had been, he could not have protected his Ghost Spirits perfectly even with Ju Jia’s and his allies’ aid, not to mention that Thousand Demon Ridge had tried to mow them down for a while.
If Ju Jia wasn’t present, he was sure he would’ve lost all of his Ghost Spirits.
Ji Yan and a few Hidden Light Sanctuary cultivators strode toward them. Before they even came close, they clasped their hands together and said, “Thank you for your timely assistance, fellow cultivator.”
“We are all Grand Sky Coalition here. It is only natural that I aid my faction,” Lu Ye returned the salute.
Ji Yan remembered Lu Ye now. They had spoken briefly in the valley before. Unfortunately, the young man had rejected his invitation at the time.
“May I know your name, fellow cultivator?”
“I am Lu Ye of the Crimson Blood Sect!”
“Crimson Blood Sect?” Ji Yan’s eyebrows moved up. “Is it the Crimson Blood Sect of Bingzhou?”
The cultivators accompanying him looked surprised as well. They were clearly aware of the Crimson Blood Sect.
“Exactly!”
Ji Yan looked Lu Ye up and down before asking doubtfully, “About half a year ago, a Crimson Blood Sect cultivator named Lu Yi Ye had fought a great battle against the experts of Thousand Demon Ridge at the peak of Goldentop. Could it be…”
“It is I.”
Ji Yan immediately exclaimed in realization, “It really is you? I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time, Brother Yi Ye. On that day, Brother Gu had told me how impressed he was with your feat, and that he regretted not being present to witness your greatness firsthand that day. Brother Gu would be most envious if he learned that I was able to meet you before him. If only…”
He suddenly cut himself off as if thinking better before smiling. “Anyway, you are most deserving of your fame, Brother Yi Ye.”
“You praise me too much, Brother Ji.”
Ji Yan made an inviting gesture. “We have much to discuss, Brother Yi Ye. Please, follow me.”
A while later, they arrived at a large courtyard that had clearly seen better days. As they went inside, Lu Ye saw many cultivators receiving medical attention from the medicine cultivators.
Most of the time, large groups like this were accompanied by some medicine cultivators. The same applied to Thousand Demon Ridge. However, very few cultivators were medicine cultivators, and that was even more obvious in this city. There were only a few medicine cultivators among the one hundred strong group, meaning that they were absolutely swamped right now. Only those with serious injuries were carried into the courtyard to be treated. The ones with light injuries basically had to treat their own wounds.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why is Ju Jia traveling with you, Brother Yi Ye? Where is Sima Yang?” Ji Yan asked while shooting a glance at the blood-soaked Ju Jia. He had a feeling he knew the answer, but he didn’t dare to make baseless assumptions.
“Sima Yang is dead. I decided to travel with Ju Jia after running into him by coincidence.”
“Sima Yang is dead?”
Lu Ye wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he thought that Ji Yan was happy to hear of the death of the spell cultivator.
“That is a shame. Sima Yang may be an independent cultivator, but he is not without some merits. I had attempted to recruit him to my Hidden Light Sanctuary to no avail. I did not expect him to die at such a place.”
He called out after saying this, “Sister Lin! Sister Lin!”
A blood-soaked female cultivator with a scarf tied to her forehead ran over. “Yes, Brother Ji?”
Ji Ya pointed at Ju Jia and said, “Please treat Brother Ju Jia’s wounds. He is one of the reasons we were able to seize victory today.”
“Of course,” the female cultivator responded before gesturing for Ju Jia to follow. “Come with me.”
Ju Jia did as she said.
