Chapter 1571: Preparing for Battle

“Elder Zhou is correct. You need not worry too much. Since it is an assessment, the superiors will naturally consider all aspects. Otherwise, what would be the point of the assessment? Other sects would find it difficult to be convinced. In fact, for this pass guarded by the Blood Lantern Sect, as long as you pass the assessment, your sect’s promotion is basically assured.” At this moment, Chongyangzi also spoke indifferently.

Shangguan Tianque’s question was merely a worry. Thinking about the rules set by the other party, since it was targeted at the Bright Flame Sect as well, this was the only way. However, while Shangguan Tianque and the others had not yet reacted to Chongyangzi’s words, the demonic-looking youth immediately caught a hint of something.

‘This old fellow has always been praised for being impartial and incorruptible. How is it that today, in his every word, one can sense a favoritism towards the Broken Army Sect?’ As he thought this, he also nodded and simply continued, “Just as Fellow Daoist Chongyangzi said, once you pass the Blood Lantern Sect’s gate, you have, in fact, successfully been promoted. But there is another assessment to follow, which is a duel between you and the Bright Flame Sect. We will designate a certain area for you two sides to conduct the duel. The outcome of this battle may determine the amount of reward you ultimately receive from the Pure Yang Hall. This is also different from the past. Since you wish to replace the Heavenly Mountain Garden and the Spirit Subduing Manor, we also want to know which of our subordinate third-rate sects has more potential. This may even affect the distribution of cultivation resources to the sects in the future. Therefore, we hope you will do your utmost. However, there are a few rules and limitations here.

“For the first pass, since the Blood Lantern Sect is making the move, the difficulty of breaking through will naturally be very high, so only the Spirit Transformation cultivators on the roster are permitted to participate. Moreover, any cultivator who fails in this pass cannot appear in the second pass. When breaking the first pass, as long as one of you succeeds, the rest are considered to have succeeded, meaning you have smoothly passed the first stage of the assessment. The one who fails, however, loses all further qualifications. Take your sect for example: if none of you four can succeed in breaking through, then there is no need for further assessment.

“As for the second pass, apart from the failed Spirit Transformation cultivators who cannot participate, because it is a battle between two sects, the remaining Spirit Transformation cultivators will be allowed to lead no more than ten Nascent Soul and one hundred Golden Core cultivators to participate in the duel! One very important thing here: at the request of the Blood Lantern Sect, it is very easy for fatalities to occur in the first pass. If you feel you cannot break through, do not force it!”

This time, the demonic-looking youth explained the rules and content of the assessment, which left the four people below with various thoughts. This kind of assessment was, in fact, very unfavorable for the Broken Army Sect. Although they didn’t know the content of the assessment before, nor did they know they would be assessed together with the Bright Flame Sect, Shangguan Tianque had been constantly gathering information on the Bright Flame Sect’s preparations over the years for reference.

According to the information obtained on the Bright Flame Sect so far, the other party had six Spirit Transformation cultivators participating in the assessment. To be assessed together with them clearly put them at a disadvantage in any pass. For instance, in the first pass, to put it bluntly, their side only had four chances, while the other side had six. Moreover, they hadn’t confirmed whether the Bright Flame Sect would have a new elder, like Mu Guyue, who had suddenly joined successfully. In that case, the other party would have even more opportunities.

And the result of the first pass, even if successful, would directly affect the second pass if there were losses. The rewards from the Pure Yang Hall were definitely first-rate for a third-rate sect, even top-tier cultivation resources. Naturally, the more, the better. No sect would be willing to give up and would fight with all their might to seize them! But if the failed Spirit Transformation cultivators from the first pass were to be excluded, the top-tier combat power in the second pass would be even less.

Shangguan Tianque and the others didn’t think for a moment that they could succeed in breaking through the Blood Lantern Sect’s pass in one go. There was a high probability of their entire force being annihilated. As for life and death in the assessment, Shangguan Tianque and the others didn’t think much of it. They had walked their path by stepping on the corpses of others. This time was just another life-and-death struggle. But at this moment, their biggest worry was the lack of top-tier combat power.

“This is actually fair. Before you participated in the sect promotion, you knew that the application you submitted was at the lowest threshold—three Spirit Transformation cultivators! So, since you want to use the minimum conditions to vie for the best resources, you must be prepared for a high probability of failure. Otherwise, there would be no point in setting such a condition.” At this moment, Chongyangzi spoke again. When he had suggested this to the Broken Army Sect back then, he had repeatedly mentioned this root issue.

After he finished speaking, the four of them, Shangguan Tianque and the others, exchanged a glance. Without any further objection or hesitation, they immediately stood up and bowed to the two above. That Elder Zhou had explained it very clearly and patiently. This was clearly out of respect for Chongyangzi. Otherwise, he wouldn’t care whether you agreed or not.

Afterward, Shangguan Tianque wanted to know the details of the assessment, but Chongyangzi and the other shook their heads. Such things would only be revealed on the day itself.

After these matters, Shangguan Tianque still had other worries. He didn’t know the specific situation of the Bright Flame Sect. But with all of the Broken Army Sect’s high-end combat power leaving the sect, the sect itself would be in danger. Had the Pure Yang Hall considered this? Would the assessment location be placed in a more appropriate position? To this, Chongyangzi gave an answer.

This situation had, of course, occurred in other sect assessments before. The Pure Yang Hall would dispatch two Spirit Transformation cultivators to each of the Broken Army Sect and the Bright Flame Sect to stand guard. But it was best for the sects themselves to activate their sect-protecting grand formations. The dispatched cultivators would just guard secretly from the periphery.

After getting this answer, Shangguan Tianque finally felt relieved. It seemed the Pure Yang Hall had considered all aspects very thoroughly. This was also because they had accepted requests for sect promotion from subordinate sects more than once, so they had all sorts of preparations. They had even considered the issue of not entering the core area of the sects even when sending people to stand guard, only defending from the outside.

Moreover, Elder Zhou stated clearly that this time, apart from the Seven Tigers Alliance, no other sects were allowed to observe the assessment. So, sects like Jia Fugui’s would definitely be unable to participate!

An hour later, after Chongyangzi and the other gave them a jade slip, they departed gracefully. After Shangguan Tianque and the others respectfully saw them off, the four of them returned to the council hall.

“Now that the major matter is settled, although we still don’t know the specific content of the assessment, we still need to roughly discuss some corresponding countermeasures!” The other three naturally agreed with Shangguan Tianque’s proposal.

Regarding the first pass, the Blood Lantern Sect’s assessment, they all believed that the difficulty would be immense. It was an absolute desire to prevent the Broken Army Sect from succeeding. The Blood Lantern Sect would use this opportunity to show the other sects and let those with ideas know that the Blood Lantern Sect’s strength was chillingly powerful. They would definitely have the idea of killing the chicken to warn the monkey, so that other subordinate sects would not easily harbor dissent. Even if you had several Spirit Transformation cultivators, that was just a fleeting success.

And after this pass, there was still the fight with the Bright Flame Sect. It was best to pass the first pass in one go, to preserve the maximum strength to face the second. Therefore, for the first pass, after getting the specific content and method of the assessment, the four of them could only send the most suitable person to break through, striving for a one-hit success, and not compete out of pride.

As for the second pass, the situation was even more unclear. They had no idea how the duel would be conducted. It was just that Elder Zhou had said that the sect could bring at most ten Nascent Soul cultivators and one hundred Golden Core cultivators. After careful analysis, they felt that perhaps a group battle or an offense-defense battle model would be adopted. The four of them unanimously felt that these two possibilities were the greatest.

At the same time, they also thought of a problem. In a duel between two sects, they would certainly not let too many Spirit Transformation cultivators perish. Otherwise, if all the core cultivators were dead by the end, what was the point of promoting the sect? But all of this, they still didn’t understand what rules the Pure Yang Hall would adopt. Would it be Spirit Transformation against Spirit Transformation, Nascent Soul against Nascent Soul… And then the Pure Yang Hall elders would act as protectors, and so on. These situations were all likely to occur!

Finally, Li Yan suddenly spoke. “As for the response to the latter pass, although the rules are not yet clear, it should be within the scope of our discussion. Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Pure Yang Hall to control the situation. I think there is still more than a year. The sect can hand over the three Nascent Soul and the selected Golden Core cultivators to Mu Guyue to train in group battle tactics. This is her specialty. If we happen to be able to use it, it should give our overall combat strength a boost!”

Li Yan only knew the number of Nascent Soul cultivators in the sect, but not how many Golden Core cultivators there were. As soon as he finished speaking, Shangguan Tianque’s and Ren Yanyu’s eyes lit up, and they immediately looked at Mu Guyue, while Mu Guyue shot Li Yan a sideways glance.

“Excellent! I’ve long heard that the Demon Clan’s army is formidable in battle. Junior Brother Li’s proposal is excellent. I wonder what Junior Sister Mu thinks?” Ren Yanyu’s beautiful eyes were fixed on Mu Guyue, her eyes already brimming with a smile as she asked.

“If you want to become elite soldiers, there will be casualties among the disciples!” Mu Guyue’s phoenix eyes carried their usual killing aura, and her voice was ice-cold, devoid of any emotion.

“So what? The four of us might perish while breaking through the pass. As disciples of the Broken Army Sect, they should be prepared for the same!” Ren Yanyu, however, didn’t seem to mind at all. At the same time, a long-vanished aura of battle-hardened iron and blood began to emanate from her body…

A day later, on the sect’s plaza, led by Yu Banjiang, eighty-six Golden Core cultivators stood behind him. These were all the combat-capable members of the Broken Army Sect. This included many rogue Golden Core cultivators who had sought refuge in the past two hundred years.

Shangguan Tianque and Li Yan stood side by side, while Ren Yanyu, in her great red dress, stood with Mu Guyue. Mu Guyue was in a long black dress, a full head taller than Ren Yanyu. Her expression was cold and proud, like a returning king.

Following a speech by Shangguan Tianque, the morale here soared. Li Yan couldn’t help but admire Shangguan Tianque’s eloquence in his heart. Subsequently, Mu Guyue also spoke coldly, “I hope you can all manage to stay alive in the time remaining!”

Then, without waiting for the dozens of people below to react, with a wave and a sweep of her hand, she wrapped up Yu Banjiang and the several dozen others and vanished without a trace.

Shangguan Tianque and the other two exchanged a glance. They knew that the next year or so would be a busy and tense time for them. The sect’s mid-tier combat power had almost completely disappeared, with only a dozen or so Golden Core deacons remaining in the sect. At the same time, there were still over thirty Golden Core deacons outside, but those were important posts left to guard the sect’s expanded territory and could certainly not be recalled.

It could be said that this time, the Broken Army Sect had staked everything. For the next period of time, Ren Yanyu would no longer be idle, becoming the temporary acting sect master. There was no helping it; the sect’s foundation was what it was! And Shangguan Tianque would have to seize the time to refine some formations and magical treasures. These were for Yu Banjiang and the others to use. As for enhancing their own combat power, what could be prepared had already been prepared. Relying on the remaining year or so would not have much effect.

And now, among everyone, only Li Yan was still relatively at leisure, but he would also enter into cultivation. In all these years, he had been studying that last type of Fragmented Poison. He had already made some progress and naturally had to continue his research…

A little over a year, not enough to withstand the slumber of the ages, passed in a flash! In this year, nothing major happened in the Broken Army Sect, but there was a sense of an impending storm.

Just two months before the assessment, Mu Guyue returned to the sect with a group of disciples! The place they had gone to was an area set aside by the Broken Army Sect after its expansion, which this time served as Mu Guyue’s training ground.

In the end, Mu Guyue brought back only seventy-five people, and this included the three Nascent Soul cultivators!