"Grand Elder?!"
Quite a few sword cultivators were montarily stunned when they heard their own grand elder issue that order. The enemy has already arrived. Yet instead of ordering a counterattack, he is calling for a retreat without a fight?
"Grand Elder, we are ready to fight to the death, yet you want us to retreat first?!" a great cultivator, who seed to be in charge of discipline, questioned through psychic consciousness.
Song Xuan hurriedly waved his hands. "It wasn’t . I didn’t do that. Don’t spout nonsense!"
His gestures and expression were so vivid that the aning was clear even without psychic transmission.
That great cultivator imdiately realized that the Heavenly Palace cultivators of the Nine-Cauldron Sect were behind it.
However, the Nine-Cauldron Sect did not give them any ti to communicate further. The second wave of attacks followed imdiately, consisting entirely of sword cultivators specialized in slaughter.
The sword formation exuded terrifying pressure. It was akin to pitch-black storm clouds rolling in from the edge of the heavens at an unbelievable speed, carrying a torrential downpour capable of tearing everything apart. In an instant, it blanketed every cultivator of the Xuanming Sect.
And yet, the Xuanming Sect’s cultivators were still fighting as scattered individuals. They could barely form coordination, let alone a sword formation. The storm-like sword qi combed through more than a hundred great cultivators of the Xuanming Sect, cutting back and forth.
A great cultivator exhausted himself to erupt with sword light and shatter the sword rain filling the sky. Naturally, even soone as powerful as him had to pause to catch his breath. The next wave of sword rain descended precisely at the critical mont of exhaustion. He was blasted into a cloud of blood on the spot, with almost not a single intact piece left.
A sword formation was the fusion of dozens of sword cultivators’ power into a single whole. Moreover, the Nine-Cauldron Sect’s sword cultivators were sowhat superior in individual quality to those of the Xuanming Sect. Even if their quality had been equal, dozens against one ant certain death. What could he possibly use to block that?
Perhaps only a Golden Core cultivator who had laid a solid immortal foundation could contend with such a formation—one who relied on an incomparably deep foundation and, inevitably, the most advanced flying swords.
Wherever the sword rain swept through, the Xuanming Sect’s great cultivators fell.
In just the first wave of attacks, nearly thirty percent of the sect’s strength was wiped out! Certainly, there were factors such as being ambushed and failing to react in ti. Nevertheless, the most critical reason was that their information transmission and psychic consciousness communication had been compromised.
Moreover, as soon as the first wave ended, the second wave arrived right on its heels. Watching the numbers around him plumt in an instant, Song Xuan’s anger and unwillingness surged to an extre.
These were all great cultivators who had successfully reached the Foundation Building Realm! Every single one was incomparably precious. Their number directly represented the depth of a sect’s foundation and its general strength!
Sure, they had tens of billions of people and no shortage of geniuses. However, a year was nowhere near enough to nurture even seven or eight great cultivators! Losing more than forty in one go nearly drove him insane!
The grand elder roared at the top of his lungs, "Counterattack! Counterattack! Don’t panic! The more chaotic it gets, the faster you die! Form battle formations according to our past training, defend and counterattack! Once our sword formation is ready, they absolutely won’t be able to crush us so easily. When our people at Fangyuan Island move, we may even have a chance to turn the tables..."
He used vibrations of true origin to send his voice across a fifty-kiloter radius. Though his voice traveled far, it was pointless. The shrill screams of flying swords tearing through the air, the thunderous booms of clashing true origin, and the shockwaves from flying swords piercing protective artifacts drowned out his voice.
Moreover, when he was roaring, even stronger psychic thought and psychic consciousness stread into the great cultivators of the Xuanming Sect.
"Run! Run!"
"Kill! Kill! Even if I die here today, I’ll drag soone down with ... ugh..."
"We can’t block it. We can’t block it at all! Run! Save whoever can!"
"Hahaha, the Xuanming Sect gave birth to and raised . Today, it’s ti for to give my life for the sect!"
"Don’t die pointlessly on a battlefield dood to fail. Preserve your lives and flee back to the sect. Your life is worth more than anything!"
With no organization, no command, and no coordination, the battlefield descended into absolute chaos!
All kinds of psychic consciousness, psychic thought, furious shouts, and roars mixed together, making it impossible to tell anything clearly. Worse still, when these chaotic voices flooded people’s minds, they stirred irritation and confusion. It got to the point that one wanted nothing more than to block everything out entirely!
Thus, when the Nine-Cauldron Sect’s second wave of attacks descended again, the Xuanming cultivators were still in an uproar. Even with nearly a full breath of downti in between, they couldn’t adapt to a large-scale battle where communication had been utterly suppressed.
The Xuanming Sect’s primordial psyche cultivators struggled with all kinds of thods to break through the blockade. However, the more they struggled, the deeper their despair grew.
Several primordial psyche cultivators of the Xuanming Sect continued to speculate and deduce.
"Impossible! Not a single strand of psychic thought can get through! Unless the Nine-Cauldron Sect had gathered all its Heavenly Palace cultivators on this battlefield, they couldn’t possibly suppress us to this extent?! Heavenly Palace cultivators stand high above the nine heavens, monitoring the entire world. How could their control over a localized battlefield compare to ours, who are right here in the middle of it?!"
"No, that’s not right! Even if they really mobilized all of their Heavenly Palace cultivators, other powers would have reported and warned of it in the Void Psychic World! Even if they truly had concentrated all their Heavenly Palace cultivators, their control over the battlefield could never reach this level! This is not a power that primordial psyche cultivators, including Heavenly Palace cultivators, could possess!"
Gradually, they arrived at a conclusion they found hard to believe, yet one that was frighteningly close to the truth.
"An information blackout zone! This is an information blackout domain forged by a Dharma Form cultivator! They are using this zone to suppress us completely, leaving us no chance to resist!"
"That’s impossible! How could the Nine-Cauldron Sect possibly have a Dharma Form cultivator?! Not even the Lunar Sect, the Dharma Heaven Pavilion, and the Golden Temple have it!"
The unbelievable truth and the fact they refused to accept collided violently in their minds, battering their psychic minds. Coupled with the fully suppressed environnt, and the constant deaths of fellow sect mbers, they finally collapsed. Fear, despair, and the crushing pressure poured in from all sides.
"This isn’t real... This isn’t real..."
Clouds of blood exploded apart with thunderous booms.Flying swords tore through the defenses of the outer ring of sword cultivators. Or rather, as large numbers of sword cultivators died or fled, the opposing Foundation Building sword cultivators charged straight into the formations of spell cultivators and primordial psyche cultivators.
In an instant, it beca a one-sided massacre. Spell cultivators fared slightly better, managing brief resistance with defensive spells. As for primordial psyche cultivators, they couldn’t even withstand a single life-bound flying sword.
After all, these life-bound flying swords embodied the entire Foundation Building sword cultivator’s divine abilities and cultivation. Wherever the sword light passed, it forcibly pierced even a level 6 defensive array. It was only a matter of ti.
Already ill-suited for life-or-death combat as they were, how could these primordial psyche cultivators possibly hold their ground? The flying swords imdiately stirred up a storm of blood and slaughter within. Wails filled the air, while blood flowed like rivers.
In contrast, the Nine-Cauldron Sect’s side was entirely shrouded in jubilation.
"This is way too easy. This kind of battle is ridiculously easy!"
"Even their powerful Foundation Building cultivators are quacking and panicking like a flock of dumb geese! They couldn’t even form sword formations or coordinate counterattacks! I’ve never fought such a satisfying battle in my life!"
"Hahaha, it feels like going back a hundred years. Back then, all cultivators fought on their own, with zero coordination. What we’re doing now is basically using tactics from a hundred years in the future to fight enemies from a hundred years ago!"
One Foundation Building sword cultivator after another laughed loudly, venting their exhilaration. Everyone genuinely felt the sa way. They had never fought such an easy battle.
The Xuanming Sect, who could stand on equal ground against them, had been beaten to utter helplessness.
While most of the Foundation Building cultivators were still basking in their joy, Shen Qinglian and the others at the forefront were different. They fell into deeper thought, carrying an inexplicable heaviness about them.”
"I still rember the great sword cultivators clashing in small teams across the East Sea islands. Although we had the advantage, it was never overwhelming. The Xuanming Sect was not weak. Yet now, even though they have nearly a hundred sword cultivators, they can’t mount any effective counterattack at all.
"Is this the power of a Dharma Form cultivator? No! This isn’t even the full extent of Dharma Form power. Yet the effect is this devastating?"
"It’s simply unimaginable. In a battle with similar numbers... No, our side has fewer great cultivators than the Xuanming Sect, but we haven’t suffered a single casualty. At this rate, we might actually end up with a record of 146 to 0!"
"I finally understand why the Infinite Star Palace could crush the Quicksand Sect so effortlessly seventeen years ago, even though the latter was no weaker than we were back then. All communication was completely restricted. Even effective orders were nearly impossible to deliver. Everyone was forced to fight individually or in small groups. How could anyone possibly fight under those conditions?"
That battle had made them aware of the gap between the sides, which was why the Nine-Cauldron Sect had devoted itself fully to developing Heavenly Palace cultivators over this period. As a result, the number of Heavenly Palace cultivators had risen from three to fourteen.
Even so, today’s battle still made them keenly aware of just how enormous the impact of having a Dharma Form cultivator on the battlefield. The annihilation of the Quicksand Sect had not been unjust.
Hum!
Suddenly, information was transmitted directly into Shen Qinglian’s mind."The main force of the Xuanming Sect has been eliminated. Hall Master Shen Qinglian, please pursue the designated targets..."
Sixteen red dots were marked out, along with the fastest pursuit routes in detail. Those dots represented the Xuanming Sect’s sword cultivators who were scattering and fleeing in all directions.
Among the targets assigned to Shen Qinglian and two other sword cultivators was the grand elder, Song Xuan, the second most important figure in the entire Xuanming Sect.
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