Chapter 205: Return
The clash between the Heavenly Palace cultivators came to an end with the intervention of the Infinite Star Palace’s Heavenly Palace cultivators. The Great Sun Sword Sect and the Infinite Star Palace broke through the interference and blockade set up by the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s Heavenly Palace cultivators, projecting their powerful psychic thought down from the nine heavens to probe this region.
But there was nothing. This stretch of airspace was completely empty. The Sea Guardian Institute was gone, and the Great Sun Sword Sect’s Sky Patrol Warship was gone as well. If not for the tsunamis caused by the shockwaves of battle, still surging relentlessly toward the surrounding islands, no one would have believed that a battle had ever taken place here. When the news reached Chi Songzi, it nearly made him think he was hallucinating.
"Gone?!" The deputy hall master of the Warfare Hall sprang to his feet, staring at Bai Shi, the hall master of his sect’s Heavenly Palace Hall, who had brought the report. Disbelief was written all over his face. "A Sky Patrol Warship that large, carrying dozens of our great cultivators and three thousand high-tier cultivators, and now you’re telling me it’s gone?!"
"Yes," Bai Shi said gravely. "The reason I’m telling you this is so you immediately dispatch the Vajra to search for it, and also send the Divine Wind Institute to investigate the battlefield and find out what actually happened."
"The Vajra will take at least a day to get there. As for the Divine Wind Institute... I just sent them to reinforce the Divine Fire Institute..." Chi Songzi said, looking at Bai Shi, the displeasure clear in his voice. "Does your Heavenly Palace Hall really not have any useful information at all?"
"The battle with the Quicksand Sect seventeen years ago made the Nine Cauldrons Sect realize the importance of psyche cultivators in their combat system. Over the past seventeen years, they have vigorously developed their psyche cultivator framework. We originally thought that, given how difficult that path is, the Nine Cauldrons Sect wouldn’t achieve much even in thirty-five years. But we never expected that in such a short time, their psyche cultivators would grow so rapidly. It was like this when they crushed the Xuanming Sect, and now... It’s the same again!" Bai Shi spoke with a trace of unwillingness. "Whether we admit it or not, the result of this battle shows that, on the path of psyche cultivation, they’ve already moved ahead of us."
"Damn it!" Rage burned in Chi Songzi’s eyes. A sect founded less than a hundred years ago dares to provoke our Great Sun Sword Sect!?
"The Vajra will head to that sea region immediately. In addition, the Divine Wood Institute will also be mobilized. I want to see them defeated, dead or alive! Scour the East Sea to the last inch. Even if it means chasing them to the border of the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s homeland, we must recover the Spring Rain," Chi Songzi ordered on the spot.
"The Heavenly Palace Hall will provide as much informational support as possible," Bai Shi said. As for how much "as possible" actually meant, he no longer dared to state it outright.
***
When Li Qingshan received the message from Yaoguang, even though he was in the middle of a critical engagement with the Divine Fire Institute, his mind could not help but waver. "Captured a Sky Patrol Warship?! What do you mean we captured a Sky Patrol Warship?"
"It means exactly what you think, Sect Master." As Yaoguang spoke, he directly transmitted images of the Spring Rain through the Void Psychic World.
And when Li Qingshan saw the solid, unmistakable Sky Patrol Warship, even he, seasoned by countless storms, could not help but gasp.
"I’ll take this Sky Patrol Warship straight to Sky Patrol Research Institute No. 3. We’ll modify it at the fastest possible speed," Yaoguang said.
"Modifying it... probably won’t mean much. The Great Sun Sword Sect will still be able to recognize that this warship is their Spring Rain," Li Qingshan replied.
"Them knowing is one thing. Whether we acknowledge it or not is another," Yaoguang said, pausing briefly. "Of course, doing this may push the Great Sun Sword Sect past the limit and provoke a full-scale war with us..."
"They won’t dare!" Li Qingshan said at once. "Our Nine Cauldrons Sect has a Golden Core cultivator guarding it. The Great Sun Sword Sect doesn’t have that courage. At most, they’ll encroach step by step in the East Sea, trying to shrink our living space and reduce our spirit stone output until we can no longer sustain the ancestor’s Golden Core state."
Yaoguang nodded. Li Hanqiu was the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s greatest safeguard! As long as that Golden Core cultivator could still maintain its condition, no sect would dare to launch an all-out war against the Nine Cauldrons Sect.
"If the Great Sun Sword Sect takes control of the entire East Sea, it will also greatly affect our development. The best solution is to ensure that the Great Sun Sword Sect cannot shift all of its strength to our East Sea islands," Yaoguang said.
"The Thousand-Beast Sect has disputes with the Great Sun Sword Sect in the Sea of Storms, and even before the Northern Alliance collapsed, the Great Sun Sword Sect had already completely aligned itself with the Infinite Star Palace. The conflicts between them are irreconcilable. Next, I’ll contact the Thousand-Beast Sect’s sect master and try to get the Thousand-Beast Sect to stir up some trouble in the Sea of Storms. That way, the Great Sun Sword Sect will have to guard that direction and won’t have much strength left to commit to the East Sea islands," Li Qingshan said immediately.
"Then that settles it," Yaoguang said with a smile.
He thought of the various arrays aboard that warship. "With this Sky Patrol Warship in our hands, we can reverse-engineer it, understand its layout, and then manufacture our own second-generation ones! We might even push further and develop our own third-generation Sky Patrol Warships, completely catching up to Cangwu’s leading standards."
"Third-generation Sky Patrol Warships..." Li Qingshan’s thoughts drifted.
Suddenly, Yaoguang seemed to sense something and said, "The Great Sun Sword Sect is moving. They’ve deployed another battle institute, even sending out the Vajra Sky Patrol Warship. And reinforcements from the Divine Wind Institute are not far from you. To be safe, I’ll assist you in crushing and heavily damaging the Divine Fire Institute, so they don’t get a chance to gain an advantage."
"Alright. I’ll contact Murong Hui immediately to coordinate!" Li Qingshan said with a solemn nod. "If necessary, I’ll leak the existence of the Origin World."
Yaoguang acknowledged with a quiet response.
The Nine Cauldrons Sect’s repeated display of overwhelming superiority on the path of psyche cultivation was bound to draw investigation and prying from all major factions. Secrets approaching the Dharma Form Realm simply could not remain hidden for long.
After all, those who occupied high positions were rarely fools. More often than not, they were simply accustomed to resolving problems through violence. Once violence stopped working, their intelligence naturally returned.
Just like many situations in which eliminating the person who raised the problem was obviously easier than solving the problem itself. Only when matters spiraled out of control, when deception no longer worked, did people finally start examining the root of the problem.
Soon, Murong Hui, the hall master of the Heavenly Palace Hall, once again unleashed his might. Vast psychic thought swept across the battlefield where the Sword-Wielding Institute and the Divine Fire Institute were locked in combat.
On this battlefield, the Sword-Wielding Institute already held the upper hand. The Divine Fire Institute could only struggle to hold on, waiting for the Spring Rain to turn the situation around and arrive with reinforcements.
As Murong Hui’s immense psychic thought descended and the outside world lost all perception of the battlefield, the Sword-Wielding Institute led by Li Qingshan suddenly seemed aided by the heavens.
Not only did they instantly suppress the momentum of the Divine Fire Institute, but their sword cultivators also reached an entirely new tier in strike precision. In just a few rounds of clashes, more than a dozen sword cultivators on the Divine Fire Institute’s side lost their combat power.
What had been only three deaths over more than ten minutes of fighting surged to ten within a single minute. When two evenly matched forces clashed, even a small advantage would quickly grow large. If this continued, the Divine Fire Institute faced the risk of being annihilated in just another ten minutes.
"Something's wrong! Something's definitely wrong!" The chief of the Divine Fire Institute keenly sensed the abnormal change on the battlefield.
Primordial psyche cultivators! Our side’s primordial psyche cultivators have been rendered useless. And this has happened almost instantaneously, utterly defying common sense. There are only two possible explanations. One is that a powerful expert has entered the battlefield by means we can neither comprehend nor perceive. The other...
"A spirit treasure!" The chief of the Divine Fire Institute looked toward the figure positioned further back. It was Li Qingshan, sect master of the Nine Cauldrons Sect.
According to their intel, the Nine Cauldrons Sect had only eight spirit treasures. But as the inheritors of the Artifact Sect, who would believe they truly possessed only eight?
With Li Qingshan personally leading the Sword-Wielding Institute into battle, it was entirely reasonable for him to reveal a ninth spirit treasure beyond the known eight, especially one that enhanced the combat power of primordial psyche cultivators!
Even after market shocks, spirit treasures still commanded prices in the tens of millions of spirit stones. By comparison, the production cost of a high-grade third-generation treasured artifact flying sword was only a little over a hundred thousand.
From this alone, one could see just how valuable such an artifact truly was. If he also considered the ability of a spirit treasure to locally alter the course of a battle... The Divine Fire Institute’s chief immediately chose to sever an arm to survive. "Retreat! Fight while retreating! Regroup with the Divine Wind Institute!"
With his order issued, the spell cultivators and primordial psyche cultivators withdrew at once. The highly agile sword cultivators stayed behind to cover the retreat. Seeing how decisively the Divine Fire Institute’s chief reacted, Li Qingshan threw caution to the wind.
With a single command, more than a dozen sword cultivators surged forward, chasing down the retreating spell cultivators and primordial psyche cultivators. Although the Divine Fire Institute’s chief tried desperately to stop them, the Sword-Wielding Institute’s remaining life-bound flying swords were frighteningly precise and responsive, leaving them no chance to rescue their cultivators.
Worse still, even their own position became increasingly precarious, forcing them to form defensive arrays just to protect themselves.
Just as the entire Divine Fire Institute teetered on the brink of annihilation, Yaoguang’s psychic thought sounded within Li Qingshan’s perception. "We have to withdraw. The Divine Wind Institute has arrived, and the Divine Wood Institute is closing in fast. Given the current condition of the Sword-Wielding Institute, once they start clashing with the Divine Wind Institute, they will inevitably be dragged into a battle of attrition. When the Divine Wood Institute arrives, the situation will become extremely dangerous."
Li Qingshan felt a surge of regret. If every one of them carried rapid true-origin recovery pills... Or even if the Nine Cauldrons Sect had just one elite battle institute available to reinforce them and block the Divine Wind Institute, they would have been fully capable of wiping out the Divine Fire Institute entirely. They would not be forced to let the Divine Fire Institute escape with what little strength they had left. But with things as they were, they could not pursue them further and secure a complete victory.
"This victory is already sufficient. If we continue, the Great Sun Sword Sect might truly go mad..." Yaoguang sensed Li Qingshan’s regret and offered a word of advice.
"No," Li Qingshan replied. "Deputy Hall Master Yaoguang, you don’t understand. The Great Sun Sword Sect, and the other sects as well, are not like the Nine Cauldrons Sect. For them, there is only one way to make them behave: Beat them up until they don't dare fight back. Without a complete victory, they won't accept it and provoke us again..."
He did not continue. There was no point. The fact was that the Nine Cauldrons Sect could no longer mobilize a battle institute capable of holding off the Divine Wind Institute. Otherwise, the situation would never have escalated to the point where the sect master himself had to lead the Sword-Wielding Institute into battle.
"Let's return. Every cultivator of the Sword-Wielding Institute fought splendidly today. It's time to properly enjoy and digest the fruits of victory."
