Chapter 1617: Familiar Scenes

The Moji Dao Sect had already issued orders for Pure Yang Hall and Heart-Refining Valley to cease their fighting, and they had compensated the Seven Tiger Alliance with significant benefits. Since the matter had faded into history, Alliance Leader Ding hadn’t gone out of his way to learn the names of the three little Nascent Soul survivors.

Hearing it now, however, his mood shifted. Not a single person from his Seven Tiger Alliance—neither the Spirit Transformation experts nor the Nascent Soul cultivators from the subordinate sects—had returned alive from that ordeal. Whenever he thought of it, his hatred for Tianshan Orchard and Fuling Villa deepened.

“Yes, it is him!” Elder Zhou chuckled and said no more.

Over an hour later, the group returned from the Deacon’s Hall, each wearing a faint smile. Moji Dao Sect had truly invested heavily in them; the prices for equivalent items were at least forty percent lower than those in the marketplace. Furthermore, many of the pills, materials, artifacts, and talismans were treasures rarely seen in the outside world. Since there were such bargains to be had, Li Yan and Mu Guyue did not hesitate. Even for items they didn’t immediately need, they bought them up without ceremony.

As everyone stepped back onto the teleportation array, Li Yan’s party was stunned to find that seventeen more Spirit Transformation cultivators, thirty Nascent Soul cultivators, and two hundred Golden Core cultivators had joined them. These newcomers were all clad in ink-green Daoist robes, identical to the ones worn by the Moji Dao Sect members they had seen earlier.

Li Yan noticed that the Spirit Transformation experts from Pure Yang Hall and the Seven Tiger Alliance did not seem surprised.

‘In a sect war of this scale, the primary combat force consists of Golden Core cultivators, followed by Nascent Soul cultivators. They are needed to occupy territory, guard it, and mine cultivation resources. These people are all from the Moji Dao Sect; even Nascent Soul cultivators from our own Pure Yang Hall aren’t permitted to participate.’

‘To put it bluntly, this is a way to sustain war through war, constantly plundering resources. We are only here to assist Moji Dao Sect in suppressing the high-level cultivators of the opposition so that these lower-level disciples can be tempered through battle. Since the array is being activated anyway, they won’t waste the teleportation power; Moji Dao Sect simply sent a batch of their own disciples along with us.’

At that moment, Elder Zhou’s voice rang out in the minds of Li Yan and Mu Guyue. Clearly, he had noticed their shock and realized Chongyangzi hadn’t revealed much to them. Li Yan and Mu Guyue were internally shaken.

From this, they could imagine the terrifying strength of the Moji Dao Sect. They only required subordinate sects to send Spirit Transformation and Void Refining experts, while they themselves could teleport hundreds of disciples at a whim. Just how many cultivators did they possess? This was something no tribe or top-tier power in the lower realm could compare to. Li Yan estimated that based on low-level cultivators alone, the combined strength of the four great sects of the Desolate Moon Continent wouldn’t match a single Moji Dao Sect.

Previously, they had only heard from Chongyangzi that a battle between two first-rate sects could involve over ten thousand people. They had assumed that second and third-rate sects would also have to send low-level disciples, differing only in number. Seeing only Spirit Transformation and Void Refining experts this time, they had thought it was just the rotation for those specific levels. It turned out the situation was far more complex.

After his telepathic message, Elder Zhou immediately conjured a massive light shield, enveloping everyone within. As the roar of the teleportation array erupted, a pillar of light shot into the heavens, and the group vanished.

Even with Elder Zhou’s protection, Li Yan suffered through waves of nausea, tinnitus, and dizziness. This transit lasted for a full two hours.

When it ended and Elder Zhou withdrew the shield, it was no surprise to see a floor full of cultivators who were either unconscious or in a state of delirium. Li Yan and Mu Guyue felt sick to their stomachs, their bodies swaying unsteadily.

However, Mu Guyue’s performance slightly surprised Elder Zhou, prompting him to give her another look. He mentally admired the powerful physique of the demon race; a cultivator at the initial-stage Spirit Transformation Realm possessed a physical body comparable to at least the late-stage of the same realm. But he knew this wasn’t something to be envied; it was the innate talent of the demon race. To put it bluntly, they were like humanoid demonic beasts, born stronger than cultivators of the same grade.

Li Yan’s condition appeared significantly worse than Mu Guyue’s. His dark face had turned a sickly pale, and he staggered back and forth, though his gaze remained clear. To be able to maintain this much clarity was already impressive, befitting a body-tempering cultivator of the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Next to him, Mu Guyue did not look at him, but she mentally rolled her eyes. ‘He’s putting on such an act; does he never tire of it?’

She knew Li Yan’s true strength and his terrifying physical body. Thinking of how his body was as resilient as an ancient fierce beast—so much so that even she could barely withstand his “storms”—Mu Guyue felt her ears heat up and her face flush. She lowered her head and hurried toward the exit of the teleportation hall.

She understood that if Li Yan hadn’t presented himself as a body cultivator to the world, the state he portrayed would have been even more pathetic. Mu Guyue felt that even if Elder Zhou hadn’t protected them, they would have been fine, but for the sake of appearances, her condition had to look slightly better than Li Yan’s.

Soon, once everyone had recovered, they finally stepped out of the teleportation hall. Under Elder Zhou’s command, the group found themselves in a small valley. The valley contained nothing but the hall they had just left. It was eerily quiet; aside from a dozen or so guards watching the array, the valley was empty.

High vegetation lined the slopes surrounding the valley, and the ground was covered in dense thickets of shrubs. These plants were a deep, ebon black, resembling strips of wrought iron. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the valley felt dark and oppressive. The hall was built into the mountainside, and the ground in front of it was covered in coarse, dark-yellow grit, looking desolate.

Though no patrolling cultivators were visible, Li Yan and others with sharp senses felt like needles were pricking their backs. They felt as if countless fierce beasts were hiding within the dense forests and shrubs, staring fixedly at them.

However, until the entire group had exited the valley, everything remained silent. It was like a valley of the dead; not a single cultivator appeared.

Beyond the valley, a vast sea of black water stretched out before them. It turned out one side of the valley bordered the coast. Elder Zhou waved his hand, and a massive flying boat appeared in the sky. Li Yan noted that it was similar to the one he had taken to the Bone-Melting Wind desert years ago—it had a blue light shield, though the hull was far larger.

“Everyone, enter. Once inside, you may choose your own rooms to rest. We have a journey of about half a month ahead of us. Use the time to cultivate and recover, but you must remain on the first floor. You are not permitted to enter the second floor above.”

Elder Zhou and Alliance Leader Ding took flight and vanished into the blue light shield of the upper deck. As Li Yan’s group flew onto the first deck, Li Yan looked around, feeling an even stronger sense of familiarity. At the bow of the boat was a staircase leading to the second floor, shrouded in a faint white mist that obscured the view above.

‘This type of flying treasure must be a standard production of the Pure Yang Hall, likely used for transporting large numbers of people like this. With the sudden addition of so many Moji Dao Sect disciples and a half-month journey ahead, Elder Zhou naturally deployed such a vessel,’ Li Yan thought.

The two Spirit Transformation cultivators from the Seven Tiger Alliance stood on the deck, nostalgia clearly visible in their eyes. They had participated in the battle for the Grand Void Fruit and also found the vessel familiar. They didn’t know how many such boats Pure Yang Hall possessed, but this one had been expanded to be far larger, with four to five hundred cabins on the lower deck alone. Even with their numbers, every cultivator could have their own room.

Seeing that staircase at the corner of the bow and the people on deck, images of that heart-pounding battle flashed through Li Yan’s mind.

‘Elder Zhou, will you be keeping an eye on Alliance Leader Ding this time? There is no Bone-Melting Wind to take advantage of here…’

Looking at the familiar scene, this strange thought surfaced in Li Yan’s mind, though he knew he was just overthinking due to the environment. He scanned the area and headed toward the center of the boat. Mu Guyue, unaware of the strange thoughts plagued Li Yan’s mind, immediately followed.

Li Yan’s choice of the center was subconscious; he instinctively felt it was the safest part of the vessel. As they walked, he sent a telepathic message.

“I thought we would be teleported directly to the border, yet we switched to a flying boat here. Has the environment at the border deteriorated to the point where a teleportation array cannot be maintained?” Li Yan looked at the gloomy sky outside. The boat had taken flight the moment they boarded. They were now ten thousand feet in the air, with an endless black sea below.

“I suspect there are teleportation arrays there, but likely only one or very few specialized ones reserved for Body Integration experts or for transporting vital materials. The characteristic of such arrays is that the controller can destroy them remotely in an instant without needing to physically dismantle the base,” Mu Guyue replied without hesitation, sounding as if she had been there before.

“Oh? Why such a guess?” Li Yan turned to her. He hadn’t heard her mention traveling to the northern regions; she had mostly moved between the Heaven-Slaying Prairie and various marketplaces. Furthermore, an outsider would be intercepted tens of thousands of miles away from such a battlefield.