Within the Extreme Celestial Hall of Extreme Celestial Sect, Sect Master Wan Jiecheng was seated on the highest seat, listening to the elders who were constantly reporting the situation to him.
Every report he heard caused his eyes to twitch uncontrollably.
There had been no good news since the war began.
“What"s the situation with First Origin City?” After listening for a moment, Wan Jiecheng then said, a slight frown on his face.
“First Origin City is holding very well,” one of the elders said.
“Very well? Humph! The enemy has surrounded Extreme Celestial Mountains. First Origin City will not be able to hold on for much longer.” Wan Jiecheng had always displayed a calm and lofty disposition. At that very moment, however, the situation was truly not looking good. Ever since Extreme Celestial Sect"s founding, such an incident had almost never happened before.
Wan Jiecheng had already cultivated up to the high-level Human Immortal stage. Generally, he would not interfere too much with the affairs of the sect and instead focus whole-heartedly on his cultivation. He wanted to reach an even higher level. Should he successfully make it to the next level, he would be able to cast off the burden known as Sect Master and set off to explore outer s.p.a.ce. At that very moment, however, it would appear that his plans had come cras.h.i.+ng down. Extreme Celestial Sect may end up destroyed in his hands.
“It really is holding up very well. Some of the hidden experts in First Origin City had taken action,” seeing the dark look on the Sect Master"s face, the elder cautiously said.
“Hmm, First Origin City is very close to our Extreme Celestial Mountains. There are indeed some cultivators with formidable cultivation bases there. I know of a few una.s.suming shopkeepers there who are Human Immortals. However, I didn"t think they would help us.” Wan Jiecheng nodded.
“The ones who chose to help us are quite strong. However, another force has appeared there as well. It is led by Sage Enigma Flame.”
“Sage Enigma Flame?” Wan Jiecheng was taken aback.
“Sage Enigma Flame had left our sect for quite some time now. There has been no news of him all this time. Back then, he had some conflict with our sect, but now he has re-appeared to help. He is truly a member of our Extreme Celestial Sect.”
“Sage Enigma Flame is already a Human Immortal. Not to mention, there are a few other Human Immortals with him. Their appearance has helped relieve First Origin City of some of the pressures it is facing.”
“Hmm, they must be Sage Enigma Flame"s friends. If our Extreme Celestial Sect can survive this, we must be sure to properly thank those who have chosen to help us this time.” Wan Jiecheng nodded again.
However, our chances of surviving this are too small. The words were left unspoken. Should the Sect Master utter such words, it would badly impact their morale.
“This time, Nine Firmaments Palace chose to attack us but none of the sects are helping us at all. Rather, some are even secretly taking advantage of the situation to plunder the burning house. Despicable!” Another elder fumed.
“It is a very normal situation. At any rate, fighting Nine Firmaments Palace is the equivalent of fighting the Three Palaces. The combined might of the three sects is just too strong. Although the sects are clearly afraid of Nine Firmaments Palace, they will not openly fight them. Sigh! If the rest of us can stand united, the Three Palaces would not have been able to grow so strong. Humph! If our Extreme Celestial Sect is destroyed, it will be their turn next. Short-sighted fellows!”
“Alright. We"ll end today"s session here. Head out and immediately organize our men. Conduct a strict check and ensure that the enemy do not make it into our Extreme Celestial Mountains,” Wan Jiecheng then relayed his orders.
“Sect Master, should we mobilize that force?” It was then that the frontmost elder asked, his voice a whisper.
Wan Jiecheng"s eyes flashed with light and he said, “For now, do not mobilize that force.”
“But-” The elder had wanted to continue only for Wan Jiecheng to stop him with a wave of his hand.
“If we possess such a force, then Nine Firmaments Palace will also possess such a force. Truth be told, in such a situation, even if we are to mobilize all of our forces, we will only be able to delay the inevitable. Rather than bringing that force out to fight now, it would be better to keep it till the end. In the worst-case scenario, we might be able to use them to preserve a spark.”
Moving away from the Extreme Celestial Mountains, Chen Feng was now leading his force to attack one of the forces under Nine Firmaments Palace.
Originally, Chen Feng"s plan was to rush to Extreme Celestial Sect. Once his men reached the Extreme Celestial Mountains, they would be able to help relieve the pressure on Extreme Celestial Sect.
However, after obtaining detailed information from the various great trade a.s.sociations, coupled with the discussions he had with the others, Chen Feng changed his plan.
His new plan was to directly attack the important strongholds and base of operations of the Three Palaces.
The current target of attack was one such example. It was a large city under Nine Firmaments Palace and also a very important stronghold.
There were several Human Immortals and an Earthen Immortal standing guard within the city. For a large city, this line-up was somewhat lacking. However, Chen Feng knew that this was because they had dispatched most of their forces to the frontlines.
Due to that, taking this city away from Nine Firmaments Palace took practically no effort on Chen Feng"s part.
The most important reason why Chen Feng decided to take over this city was because of the large-scale teleportation array it housed. Frankly speaking, this city served as an important transfer station for Nine Firmaments Palace. The forces from Nine Firmaments Palace needed to come here in order to head to the other locations.
Chen Feng"s actions of taking over this city was the equivalent of sticking a bone in Nine Firmaments Palace"s throat.
This would throw Nine Firmaments Palace"s side into a state of chaos and reduce the pressure on Extreme Celestial Sect.
After leaving some men behind to guard the city, Chen Feng set out again. He split his forces into four groups. Every group consisted of 100 Human Immortals and 5,000 Sky Human cultivators. Chen Feng also sent out the four Earthen Immortals he brought with him, leaving none in his group.
All four Earthen Immortals were from East Dragon Island. The h.e.l.l Dog, Divine Phantom Mink, Premier Clearwind, a human and Patriarch Blue Eyes, a yao beast.
Originally, Chen Feng had wanted to dispatch the two Earthen Immortals from Heavenly Sword Faction out as well. However, after considering it for a moment, he decided against it. At any rate, they were not his subordinates. Giving them orders did not feel right. It would be better to have them stay beside him.
With the exception of the two Earthen Immortals, the cultivators Chen Feng left with him were the weakest amongst the forces he had brought over. Naturally, given Chen Feng"s present level of strength, not even Earthen Immortals would be a match for him. By utilizing his Immortal artefacts, he could even put up a fight against Ascendant Immortals.
Additionally, Chen Feng speculated that some others would follow along and keep an eye on him here. For example, Bi Qing, Heavenly Premier Absolute or the experts from Heavenly Sword Faction. Chen Feng did not believe that they would be at ease leaving so many of their disciples in Chen Feng"s hands.
However, that was a good thing. With several experts keeping an eye on the situation, Chen Feng felt slightly more emboldened.
Next up, Chen Feng moved swiftly, sweeping through 18 cities in one day. Naturally, he only took down the cities and not occupy them. At any rate, Chen Feng did not have that many men under him.
Amongst the 18 cities he stormed, there was only one large city. The others were all mid-sized cities. Leading the Human Immortals and Sky Human stage cultivators, Chen Feng advanced. Nothing could obstruct him. The higher-ups of the cities, left behind by Nine Firmaments Palace, were either killed or captured. None managed to escape.
That was only the result of Chen Feng"s group. The number of cities felled by the other three groups was in no way smaller compared to the number of cities Chen Feng felled. In fact, one of them managed to take down way more.
This group consisted mostly of the students from Absolute Academy. They were the geniuses amongst geniuses, the elites amongst elites, capable of defeating enemies on a higher level. Chen Feng did not feel too worried for them.
After resting for a short time, Chen Feng then led his men forward to once again rampage his way across Nine Firmaments Palace"s territory.
In just one day, he swept through over 100 cities. Due to that, Chen Feng had to stop. His actions simply felt like that of a bully.
Just imagine it. A group of Sky Human stage cultivators, led up a group of Human Immortals, was attacking a mid-sized city, but there wasn"t a single Human Immortal defending the city.
Due to that, Chen Feng revised his plan. He would only attack large cities. This would speed up his movements.
After sweeping another 10 large cities, Chen Feng and his men finally entered the inner territory of Nine Firmaments Palace.
On this particular day, Chen Feng had his men stop.
Firstly, he wanted to rest and reorganize his men. Secondly, and most importantly, Nine Firmaments Palace had dispatched a high number of men to intercept Chen Feng.
“We received reliable information that the 20,000 men that Nine Firmaments Palace sent out are now half a million kilometres away from our current position,” the Human Immortal in charge of gathering information reported to Chen Feng.
“20,000 men. That"s quite the scary number. Tell me the details,” Chen Feng said smilingly.
“There are at least 4 Earthen Immortals and 50 Human Immortals. The rest are all Sky Human stage cultivators.”
“How strange!”
Hearing that, Chen Feng revealed a serious look. He was not afraid of them. Rather, he had sensed something amiss.
“Logically speaking, Nine Firmaments Palace"s side should not be able to muster such a large force so quickly.” In Chen Feng"s opinion, most of Nine Firmaments Palace"s forces should"ve been used against Extreme Celestial Sect.
“No, it is because my way of thinking is wrong. Nine Firmaments Palace will not mobilize all of its power because it still needs to be on guard against unexpected circ.u.mstances. For example, the other sects might suddenly decide to interfere.” Chen Feng"s eyes flickered as he pondered the situation.
“Even so, I have this strange feeling. Looks like there is something I am unaware of here.”
“Senior Brother Chen, what should we do next?”
As Chen Feng was pondering the situation, a cultivator who was beside him could not stop himself from asking. He was from Absolute Academy, a high-level Human Immortal. He had even fought against Earthen Immortals before. Despite that, he had still respectfully addressed Chen Feng as senior brother. Chen Feng"s performance back in Absolute Academy had been too terrifying.
When Chen Feng split up his force into four groups, he had also split up the men accordingly into each of the four groups as well. Of course, the strength of the other three groups was relatively stronger than his group.
This group under him only had a few students from Absolute Academy.
“Naturally, we"ll be taking the enemy head on. If we can devour these 20,000 men, the faces of the higher-ups of Nine Firmaments Palace will surely twist in a wonderful way.”
By facing them, he would surely be able to figure out what he wanted to know.
“Fellow seniors, please deal with two of the enemy Earthen Immortals. Leave the rest to me,” Chen Feng turned around and said with a smile.
1 li = 0.5 km