Half a month later.
Outside the Golden Sand Floating Island.
Luo Chen gazed out past the perimeter of the floating island at the boundless expanse of yellow sand stretching beyond the horizon—vast enough that even the sharp sight of his spirit eyes could not take it all in. A wistful look crept into his gaze.
How many cultivators' lives had been swallowed up every day by these seemingly tranquil, desolate sands?
Tomorrow, he too would step onto that battlefield.
As he stood lost in thought, footsteps approached from behind.
"Association Leader, Yuan Xiaoyue and the others are ready."
Luo Chen turned to see cultivators boarding the Langqi Flying Boat under the guidance of Yuan Xiaoyue and Qin Liangchen.
Li Yingzhang stood by his side. Three days ago, Luo Chen had completely purged the residual earth fire fiend qi from his body.
Although Li Yingzhang's foundation had suffered minor harm, normal cultivation was no longer an issue.
"Take great care on the road back, and make proper use of that Foundation Establishment bandit's head."
"Understood, I know what to do."
"Once you get back, fill ten more doses of medicine according to that Azure Pill Valley physician's prescription and keep taking them. You may appear recovered now, but some injuries caused by the fiend qi's corrosion cannot be healed by my arts alone; you must rely on medicinal formulas."
"Thank you for your concern, Association Leader. I will keep it firmly in mind."
"As for the Luotian Association... follow the President's lead. I trust her judgment completely!"
Li Yingzhang nodded solemnly.
He had etched every single word Luo Chen spoke deep into his heart.
As they were parting, Luo Chen smiled. "If an opportunity arises, I will certainly try to retrieve your Li family's Chilong Precious Sword."
Li Yingzhang shook his head at once. "You have already bestowed the Nine Canals Spirit King upon me, Association Leader—that is already an immense blessing. How could I dare ask for more? You truly need not take any risks for that sword."
Luo Chen chuckled and said no more.
After all, the Chilong Sword was different from ordinary treasures.
It was not merely an heirloom of the Li family; it had also been the personal sword of his late friend, Li Jinhuang.
If the opportunity never presented itself, so be it.
But if he ever came across it, he would do everything he could to take it back.
"Alright, board the boat. They are all waiting for you."
Li Yingzhang looked up. The Langqi Flying Boat was already slowly powering up, a shimmering barrier of spiritual qi gradually spreading over its hull.
When it had arrived, it had been laden with vast quantities of materials, swelling to an immense size and flying at an agonizingly sluggish pace.
For the return journey, however, it was mostly empty.
It carried only rare materials Yuan Xiaoyue had gathered from the Ice Fort, which she intended to bring back to sell in Tianlan Immortal City.
After all, they could hardly let the flying boat make the trip completely empty!
As a result, the vessel had shrunk down to a length of about a hundred feet—the standard length of a superior-grade flying boat.
At these proportions, its flight speed was at its peak.
Should they encounter an insurmountable foe, they would also be able to escape far more swiftly.
Li Yingzhang leaped aboard the flying boat.
Standing alongside Qin Liangchen and Yuan Xiaoyue, he turned back to look at Luo Chen.
"Association Leader, see you next year!" Qin Liangchen shouted.
"Association Leader, you must stay safe!" Yuan Xiaoyue waved, bidding him farewell.
Luo Chen said nothing in reply.
He simply nodded to them.
Under his watchful gaze, the Langqi Flying Boat slowly lifted into the air.
Then it flew out, leaving the Boundless Yellow Sands behind.
In his line of sight, the massive vessel gradually dwindled into a tiny black dot before vanishing from view entirely.
A twinge of melancholy rose in Luo Chen's heart.
Turning around, he strolled slowly back along the streets.
When he reached the very center of the floating island, he came to a halt.
In that circular plaza stood a colossal white stone stele, across which lines of golden characters shimmered.
The Merit Board!
Cultivators of the four sects were not listed on it, as they possessed their own internal system for calculating merits.
This stone stele primarily recorded the merits earned on the battlefield by their subordinate forces and by rogue cultivators.
Consequently, most of the entries were either the names of various factions or those of individual rogue cultivators.
These merits were not merely for display or prestige; they held practical value.
Merit points could be redeemed with the leader of the Four Sects Alliance, the Luoyun Sect, for corresponding resources and treasures.
For instance, there were the first-order Spirit Purifying Pills urgently sought by late Qi Refinement cultivators, as well as precious Foundation Establishment Pills.
Other rare pills were also available for exchange.
Luo Chen even noticed a middle-grade Hanguang Pill suited to his own cultivation.
Supposedly, this was a specialty cultivation pill of the Luoyun Sect. Its medicinal potency rivaled the second-order pills of the Medicine King Sect and Azure Pill Valley, and it had been concocted personally by Fairy Mu Yunyan, the Luoyun Sect's Chief Alchemist.
For an ordinary Foundation Establishment True Cultivator, a middle-grade second-order cultivation pill held immense allure.
At present, however, Luo Chen had little interest in it.
Tao Wan of Azure Pill Valley was still steadily supplying him with superior-grade Soaring Dragon Pills.
Until his body developed resistance to them, Luo Chen had no intention of switching his primary cultivation pill.
Beyond medicinal pills, the Four Sects Alliance offered many other resources.
There were magical artifacts and treasures, talismans and spirit herbs, cultivation techniques and secret arts, as well as the Luoyun Sect puppets that cultivators coveted most of all.
There were puppets of equivalent cultivation tiers, and even third-order puppets available for redemption.
If one could acquire such an item, walking unhindered through the Foundation Establishment stage would hardly be an exaggeration.
Precisely because there were so many magnificent treasures listed, the rankings on the Merit Board could not be used to judge which faction had truly contributed the most.
The reason was simple: every subordinate force worried that the listed resources were limited.
Thus, as soon as they earned any merit points, they spent them as quickly as possible, lest they end up holding points with none of their desired resources left to claim.
The Luotian Association was no exception.
Over the past two years, every bit of merit they had earned had gone toward redeeming Foundation Establishment Pills.
They had redeemed three in total.
At present, only a hundred merit points remained under their name.
As a result, the Luotian Association's ranking sat in the lower-middle tiers, only slightly higher than that of certain rogue Foundation Establishment cultivators.
"Once I get back, I'll have to ask Xu Huanzhen in detail about how these merits are calculated."
Luo Chen's gaze swept over the stone stele as he familiarized himself as much as possible with the various subordinate forces of the Four Sects Alliance.
Among them were several factions he recognized.
The Lianyun Merchant Alliance, for example, was ranked nineteenth.
There were also the Luo family of Luosha Workshop, the Chen family of Tianyi Workshop, Mount Bailian, the Chang family of Changliu Gorge, and the Wei family of Mount Xuchen.
All of these were second-rate forces based in or around Tianlan Immortal City.
Over the past half-month, Foundation Establishment True Cultivators from several of these families had taken the initiative to pay him visits.
Some had come to exchange cultivation insights, while others voiced their anxieties about how the war might unfold.
A few he had yet to meet, either because they were in secluded meditation recovering from wounds, or because they had gone up to Mount Thunder Accumulation's Nine Peaks and had not yet returned.
Yet seeing so many familiar names and factions gathered here gave Luo Chen a disorienting sensation.
It felt almost as though he were still back in Tianlan Immortal City.
Yet harsh reality reminded him that this was the Golden Sand Floating Island.
It was the Four Sects Alliance's primary stronghold within the Boundless Yellow Sands.
Once the war ended, how many of these familiar factions would return home in one piece remained entirely unknown.
Perhaps some forces would lose their few Foundation Establishment True Cultivators on the battlefield, only for their home territories to be usurped by others.
"Perhaps the great sects might even be pleased if more die—that way, they can collect another round of rent!"
Luo Chen never hesitated to view these Golden Core sects with the utmost cynicism.
In their eyes, subordinate forces meant virtually nothing.
So long as their own sect stood firm, subordinate factions were like weeds: even if wiped out today, new ones would come flocking to attach themselves before long.
Just as the Luotian Association and Luo Chen had once sought the patronage of the Ice Fort.
Because Luo Chen had stood before the Merit Board for a long time, people gradually began to take notice of him.
Over the past few days, his appearance and deeds had become widely known across the Golden Sand Floating Island.
The vast majority of people recognized his face or had heard of his renowned title, Danchenzi.
Luo Chen possessed formidable spiritual sense. Even without deliberately eavesdropping, the whispered voice transmissions exchanged between lower-realm cultivators nearby could not escape his ears.
"Is that senior over there Danchenzi?"
"Indeed. Just standing there, he has an air of profound stillness and grandeur, carrying the true poise of a grandmaster. As expected of an outstanding figure among rogue cultivators!"
"We are rogue cultivators too, but who knows if we'll ever reach such heights in this lifetime? Not only has he made a name for himself across the Jade Cauldron Domain, but he has also established a force like the Luotian Association to do his bidding."
"Haha, you're dreaming. Though the Luotian Association is merely a common second-rate force, the experts within are in no way inferior to the true disciples of the great sects. Take Lei Zhenzi, for instance—at merely the early Foundation Establishment stage, he slew five cultivators of the same realm. Do you think you could ever command a genius like that? You'd struggle to manage yourself, let alone him!"
"Er... life is hard enough already, Fellow Daoist. There's no need to be so harsh."
"Haha!"
Hearing the hushed transmissions buzzing in his ears, Luo Chen could not help but curl the corners of his lips into a smile.
Only in the past half-month had he learned that Min Longyu had earned himself a Daoist title.
Or rather, Min Longyu himself might not even know he was now called "Lei Zhenzi"!
That honorary title had only begun spreading long after his departure.
Setting up the Five Thunder Heavenly Strike Array and slaying five cultivators of the same realm single-handedly was a dazzling feat of arms. Coupled with his status as an array master, people naturally sang his praises.
In fact, Luo Chen had finally realized why the Luotian Association cultivators showed no signs of demoralization despite having suffered a defeat before his arrival.
Their spirits were far better than those of the other factions.
It all stemmed from that previous night raid launched by the Yan Alliance on the Seventh Peak.
In that night raid, the Four Sects Alliance had suffered devastating losses.
Many subordinate forces had sustained staggering casualty rates of up to seventy percent.
By comparison, less than half of the Luotian Association's personnel had died. Although among their three Foundation Establishment cultivators, one had been heavily wounded and one had gone missing, none had actually fallen in battle.
On the contrary, they had slain dozens of Qi Refinement cultivators and killed five Foundation Establishment cultivators on the spot.
Rumors that followed claimed that among those who had pursued Wang Yuan, two middle Foundation Establishment cultivators had also perished.
With such glorious achievements to their name, how could the Luotian Association's cultivators not feel proud and maintain soaring morale?
The Luotian Association's defeat had not been due to failing on the battlefield.
It was the collapse of the overall front that had forced them to retreat alongside everyone else.
On their localized battlefield, the Luotian Association had actually won.
Of course, such granular details were only fussed over by subordinate forces like them; the true disciples of the four sects naturally looked down on such distinctions.
After studying the Merit Board for a while longer, Luo Chen found his interest waning.
Apart from the puppets, Hanguang Pills, and Foundation Establishment Pills offered by the Luoyun Sect, he had no interest in the other resources.
Ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators might scramble for them, but given his current wealth, they simply did not catch his eye.
"Since there is nothing that particularly tempts me, nor anything that would greatly benefit the Luotian Association, there is no need to exert myself on the battlefield just to chase merits."
"When the situation looks grim, retreating immediately is the true path to self-preservation!"
That had been Luo Chen's purpose in examining the Merit Board.
Since they had offered nothing that stirred his interest, his tactical strategy needed a proper adjustment.
Unlike other factions that had no choice but to throw themselves into the fray, the Ice Fort would surely show him leniency given his standing. No one would fault him for slacking off.
***
The moon set and the sun rose as time flowed on.
Soon, the next day arrived.
Waking early in the morning, Luo Chen assessed the condition of his body and felt invigorated.
Over the past half-month, he had opened twenty ordinary acupoints in succession.
Combined with the thirty-six major acupoints he had opened during his Qi Refinement days, he had now unsealed fifty-six acupoints in total.
Although there was no earth-shaking transformation just yet, he could genuinely sense a subtle difference.
Namely, his spiritual qi reserves and conversion efficiency!
The dantian's sea of qi could essentially be seen as an acupoint within the human body; it was only due to its unique position and the nature of cultivation techniques that its capacity was vastly larger than that of ordinary acupoints.
Moreover, it was continuously being developed and expanded.
Now that he was opening his ordinary acupoints, they could be viewed as miniature versions of the dantian.
These acupoints could store substantial amounts of unrefined, ordinary spiritual qi.
In this manner, his overall spiritual qi reserves were increased.
At the same time, with this reserve spiritual qi available, his refinement efficiency when running his cultivation technique was dramatically enhanced.
"If I can open all seven hundred and twenty acupoints, it will practically be equivalent to opening a second sea of qi within my body!"
"My spiritual qi is already seven to eight times more abundant than that of my peers; at the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, it rivals that of late-stage cultivators. If all seven hundred and twenty acupoints are unsealed, backed by twin seas of qi, the moment I step into the seventh level, my spiritual qi might surpass cultivators at the eighth or even ninth level!"
"It might even match a cultivator at Foundation Establishment Great Perfection!"
Thinking of what the future held, Luo Chen could not help feeling a surge of excitement.
Such an enhancement would not be limited merely to cultivation speed.
It would also directly bolster his methods in combat.
Evidently, his prior decision had been correct.
Cultivation was a slow grind that required time to endure.
Yet at every step, he could draw inspiration from various fields, compensating for his weaknesses while playing to his strengths, advancing both faster and more solidly than others.
While he was envisioning the future, the Luotian Association cultivators were already mobilizing one by one under Duan Feng's command, checking their artifacts, talismans, and other combat preparations.
In fact, it was not just the Luotian Association.
The nearby Ice Fort encampment—and indeed the entire Golden Sand Floating Island—seemed to have come alive.
Bustling voices echoed from every direction.
Numerous streaks of light, led by formidable Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, flew out from the Golden Sand Floating Island and surged into the expanse of the Boundless Yellow Sands.
Half an hour slipped by in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, a hundred-man squad flew toward the Luotian Association's camp.
Seeing this, Luo Chen stepped forward to greet them.
"Is everyone ready?"
Tantai Jin asked as he swept his gaze across the hundred Luotian Association cultivators.
Though these were cultivators newly assigned from the Battle Hall, each stood tall with vigorous spirit and a fierce aura.
It was clear that this was a unit tempered by many battles.
"All is in order." Luo Chen smiled faintly, cupping his hands. "For this operation, we shall be relying on you for guidance, Fellow Daoist Tantai."
"Good. Then let us depart!"
Tantai Jin nodded and gave a sweeping wave of his hand.
The two groups promptly merged into a single column, though a clear distinction remained between the men and women.
Nor was it only their side.
From the Ice Fort's camp, four more contingents soon assembled.
While Tantai Jin's contingent numbered only two hundred all told, the other four contingents each boasted three to four hundred cultivators.
Every one of them was larger than theirs.
From this, it was evident that Master Yinyue had not spoken falsely to Luo Chen; the Jueqing lineage truly was waning in influence.
"Set out!"
A resounding voice boomed across the grounds.
Over a thousand cultivators—some riding artifacts, others soaring on mist and clouds—flew in unison into the desolate expanse of the Boundless Yellow Sands, heading toward the nine high peaks perpetually shrouded in thunderclouds at its heart.
Empowered by multicolored spiritual light, this massive host of cultivators soon converged with the main forces of the other three sects.
Myriad streaks of light merged into a roaring torrent, the wind howling as cloud layers billowed.
Viewed from afar, they resembled shimmering mayflies rushing toward a perilous, unknown cosmos fraught with profound terrors.
Chapter 372