Chapter 1623: Give and Take

The buzzing sounds were the alarm from the defensive array, triggered by the soldiers on the wall. The garrison was divided into five squads of ten men each. Currently, one squad was on patrol under the leadership of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Since their sector spanned only a few hundred li, the patrol didn’t need to fly; they only needed to rotate Divine Sense scans. Additionally, a Nascent Soul cultivator would conduct periodic sweeps to catch anything the lower-ranked soldiers missed. Li Yan and Mu Guyue would also conduct their own checks at irregular intervals.

While the soldiers could use command tokens to trigger the alarm, only Li Yan and Mu Guyue could fully operate the grand array. Mu Guyue felt that the current patrol method was too passive, which was why they were planning to set up smaller auxiliary arrays. These would be designed to trap or alert them to intruders, but the problem was that such arrays didn’t distinguish between friend and foe. Friendly scouts returning from the front could easily fall into their own traps.

Mu Guyue suspected that the previous garrison had considered this but ultimately failed to implement it. They needed a way to solve this problem; otherwise, relying solely on Divine Sense scans would eventually lead to fatigue.

As soon as Li Yan finished speaking, he vanished from the room. Mu Guyue waved her hand, causing the map in the air to fly into her palm before she, too, blurred into a faint shadow. The three Nascent Soul cultivators scrambled to follow.

On the western wall, Li Yan and a squad of soldiers peered through the battlements. It was late afternoon, and in this mist-shrouded land, noon felt like twilight, and evening came even earlier. It was only the Hour of the Shen (3 PM to 5 PM), yet the sky had already turned a deep, bruised blue. In the distance, the horizon seemed as though it were pressing down against the earth.

The Gobi desert was a haze of pale green light. No living creature was visible, only tumbleweeds rolling across the gravel, driven by the fitful wind. However, everyone’s eyes were fixed on a specific spot. Even Li Yan and Mu Guyue were silent.

After about thirty or forty seconds, the air about ten li in front of the wall began to twist and warp, making the ground beneath it appear surreal. Then, seven or eight blurry figures emerged from the shimmering air.

As the figures solidified, Li Yan saw a group of people dressed in black. The leader was a burly man with a massive, dark-red nodule on his head. Behind him were men and women; the two females had unnervingly pale, sickly skin. Most of the men, including the leader, had skin with a dark, greenish tint, making the red nodule on his head stand out even more prominently.

The group looked up toward the wall. At a distance of ten li, the eyesight of these cultivators was more than enough to see clearly, especially in the unobstructed desert. The newcomers’ gazes met those of Li Yan and his men.

“I knew I smelled something different. It seems we have fresh meat,” the nodule-headed man spoke, his voice carrying to the wall. “Has that coward Tong Linghai been beaten to a pulp? Is that why they sent you youngsters? What fine essence blood and tender skin… I’m sure you’ll taste exquisite. But those women… they’re truly magnificent. I think I’ll keep them for a while before I eat them. It would be such a waste otherwise, wouldn’t it? Hehehe…”

Li Yan’s expression darkened instantly at the man’s words. Mu Guyue, however, remained impassive. She was strikingly beautiful and had encountered countless men who coveted her over the years. She had heard far worse. But while her face was calm, a cold, murderous light flickered in the depths of her eyes. Beside her, several female soldiers looked at the intruders with unconcealed fury.

“Their movement technique is peculiar,” Li Yan’s voice rang in the minds of Mu Guyue and the four Nascent Soul cultivators.

Except for the leader, who was in the mid-stage of the Spirit Transformation realm, the others were either Nascent Soul or Core Formation cultivators. Despite their strange technique, the patrolling Nascent Soul cultivator had detected them. However, he had only sensed the lower-ranked cultivators, missing the leader and the other experts.

The intruders were incredibly bold. A single Spirit Transformation expert had led a handful of subordinates to within ten li of the tower. Furthermore, the leader hadn’t even bothered to hide his subordinates’ auras, as if he completely disregarded Li Yan’s presence. From his words, it was clear he was very familiar with the previous garrison, having likely clashed with them many times.

“Who are you?” Li Yan asked coldly.

“Hahaha! Did you hear that? He’s asking who I am!” The nodule-headed man laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

“Hehehe… ignorant fool…”

“Heeheehee…”

“Giggle…”

The cultivators behind him joined in the laughter. Amidst their mockery, their figures began to twist and blur again. Soon, the spot where they stood was empty.

Li Yan and the others immediately scanned the area with their Divine Senses, unsure if the group had merely spoken their piece and vanished. Soon, Li Yan detected a faint, receding aura heading into the distance.

“Keep the grand array active at all times. Do not lower your guard!” The intruders’ behavior was too bizarre. It felt as though they had come merely to look at the newcomers without launching an attack. Li Yan gave his orders with a heavy heart. He looked at Mu Guyue, who shook her head; she hadn’t detected anything else out of the ordinary either.

“They should have retreated. We cannot pursue…” Mu Guyue whispered while continuing her scan. “They likely heard of the rotation and came to scout our strength while trying to intimidate us.”

Mu Guyue was also clad in green armor, her helmet adorned with a red plume. As a former Demon Marshal, she radiated the aura of a battle-hardened general—a cold, steely killing intent that felt like a sharp spear.

“I suspect they will attack in the coming days to truly test us,” she added.

Li Yan agreed with her assessment, but then a thought occurred to him. “But… we don’t necessarily have to wait here and defend. No one said a Beacon Tower is only for defense and observation.”

Mu Guyue glanced at him, her voice cool. “Oh? You mean we should launch a preemptive strike?”

“Senior,” one of the Nascent Soul cultivators interrupted, his voice hesitant. “We scouted the area. The enemy is stationed in large groups. Those people were likely just scouts or a small harassment squad. Surely we can’t be thinking of attacking their main camp?”

The four Nascent Soul cultivators felt their hearts skip a beat. They wondered if their vice-captain was insane. Were the people of the Demon Realm truly this battle-hungry?

A burly old man, the strongest among the four, gritted his teeth and spoke up. Though he feared offending Mu Guyue, his own safety was more important. This was a concern they had all shared privately.

“All warfare is based on deception,” Mu Guyue replied without looking back, her eyes fixed on the hazy desert beyond the battlements. “And I never said we would attack their main camp.”

Simultaneously, at a spot in the Gobi desert, night had fallen. The stars were like faint fireflies in a foggy night, providing almost no light. In the pitch-black silence, a few figures emerged silently from the ground like ghosts from the underworld.

As they solidified, the burly man at the rear looked back toward the Beacon Tower. He withdrew his Divine Sense and spoke in a low voice.

“They didn’t pursue. They’re quite cautious. We were only eight people, half of whom were Core Formation cultivators—quite the tempting bait. It’s a pity they didn’t bite.”

Had Li Yan been there, he would have recognized the voice of the nodule-headed man. The others were the same Mocha Palace cultivators. They all looked back, but their senses confirmed no one was following.

“Senior Feng, perhaps they have fewer men than Tong Linghai did, so they only dare to hide behind their array,” a delicate, feminine voice said. It belonged to a beautiful Nascent Soul cultivator who was looking at the leader with a fawning expression.

Senior Feng scanned the woman. Her skin was unnervingly white in the darkness. A spark of lust flickered in his eyes; her “cold-yin” constitution had made for a very pleasant night for him recently.

However, he then thought of the woman he had seen on the Beacon Tower. Her beauty was breathtaking, and she radiated a vibrant life force that made him imagine her skin’s incredible elasticity. He felt as though she could melt him.

He kept his expression neutral but nodded in agreement. They had sensed someone scouting the area over the past few days and guessed that a rotation was taking place. For them, this was a golden opportunity; newcomers were usually unfamiliar with the terrain. Many Moji Dao Sect cultivators were also arrogant, believing the Mocha Palace was only a threat because they hadn’t arrived yet.

Following his superiors’ orders, he had intentionally led a small group to the tower, even bringing low-level Core Formation cultivators. He hadn’t even hidden their auras. Yet, the newcomers hadn’t attacked. Even when they retreated and left intentional openings, no one followed.

This made him suspicious. He couldn’t be sure if these newcomers were truly “green.” Sometimes, the Moji Dao Sect rotated in elite, battle-hardened veterans from other fronts. If Tong Linghai had been replaced by experienced soldiers, his future missions in this sector would become much more difficult.

“It’s possible they are elites. And the people we saw on the wall might only be a small portion of their force; they could have a hundred men inside. We should return and report this to the commander. It seems they are very cautious. There’s no need to linger here.”

Senior Feng scanned the area once more. Seeing no pursuit, he spoke to a nearby sand dune. As his voice fell, dozens of figures emerged from the ground. In an instant, a dark mass of cultivators appeared, including several with auras as powerful as his own…

Hours later, at the dead of night, a figure flickered on the Southern Fangs Beacon Tower and vanished.

In the darkness, Li Yan concealed his aura and skimmed across the ground, leaving only a faint, smoke-like trail. Once he was a safe distance from the tower, he began to use both the “Tidefall” and the “Stealthy Night Art,” effectively erasing his presence. While he wasn’t using his full power, he was confident that any Spirit Transformation cultivator in the vicinity would find it nearly impossible to detect him.

As he moved, he silently extended his powerful Divine Sense, scanning everything in his path.