Less Than One in Ten

Cui Yu hurried out of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Battle Saint Hall. He had just fought an intense duel here against the deputy hall master, adding considerably to his combat experience. It had to be said that the deputy hall master was truly a rare genius. Even though he was only at the Dao Foundation stage and had just entered its late phase, he had given Cui Yu an excruciatingly difficult fight. Out of Cui Yu's sixteen Liuren heavenly soldiers, eleven had been blasted apart, and Cui Yu had barely managed to scrape by with a half-move victory. If this deputy master had been born in the outside world, his abilities would certainly be no less than Xiaoyu's. Yet in comparison, even though the hall master possessed only ordinary talent and an ordinary Dao Foundation, and had not even reached the late phase, Cui Yu found him even harder to fight. The hall master commanded a dizzying array of methods, carrying no fewer than several dozen magic treasures on his person, and was exceptionally adept at ingesting medicinal pills. His magic treasures possessed all manner of bizarre, unthinkable functions that could produce miraculous results in battle, particularly a set of glittering golden bamboo swords that left a deep impression. This hall master possessed exceptional movement techniques and was remarkably slippery. Every sparring match with him left Cui Yu utterly exhausted in spirit; a single round felt like fighting over a dozen battles in a row. Leaving the Battle Saint Hall, Cui Yu went straight to the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute, heading directly for the top floor. The top floor remained completely empty, with only a single seat placed there. Yet for some reason, Cui Yu had felt lately as though someone were watching him. Taking his seat, Cui Yu routinely pulled over the orb of light and began inspecting the assigned tasks, soon losing all awareness of self and surroundings. Even though he had already achieved a dharma idol, Cui Yu still liked coming here to work. Each time he finished his duties, he could feel his dharma idol's spirituality improve, proving that at least in the Spirit Nurturing Realm, this was an excellent method of cultivation. Soon, two tasks were laid before him. One needed to be divided into thirty-two parts, while the other needed to be broken down into sixty-four, all to be processed simultaneously. Cui Yu hesitated for a moment. But thinking that he was already a dharma idol cultivator, he gritted his teeth, selected the task requiring sixty-four processes, and buried himself in the work. In the blink of an eye, nearly half an hour passed. Enduring his dizziness and blurred vision, Cui Yu clicked submit. Within a few breaths, the task feedback came back: Good. Cui Yu was thrilled. He pumped his fist hard and hummed a few bars of a favorite tune. This time, no new tasks were distributed from the orb of light. Instead, a cup of clear water appeared on the table before Cui Yu. Cui Yu picked up the cup and drained it in a single gulp. Instantly, waves of cool refreshment washed through his sea of consciousness, easing much of his headache, though his mind remained weary. He knew he had reached his limit; a task that required being split into sixty-four parts was indeed no small matter, exhausting his mental energy in one go. Yet Cui Yu had always been curious about the clear water's efficacy. As far as he knew, this water was concocted from spiritual herbs cultivated by mortals within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, functioning to soothe the mind and nourish the origin soul. But how could medicine grown within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World take effect on him? No matter how hard he thought, Cui Yu could not fathom it. Putting the thought aside, he exited the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World and sat up from his bed. At this moment, Cui Yu felt deeply exhausted in spirit, as if he hadn't slept for days. Yet he knew this was an illusion; the reality was that he slept every day, and quite a lot at that, which made the mental fatigue all the more stark. Cui Yu did not get out of bed immediately. Instead, he pondered carefully and grew certain that his intuition had not deceived him: someone had indeed been watching him just now. He decided to find time to ask Wei Yuan. The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World was Wei Yuan's dharma idol, so he ought to know something, or at least be able to tell him who was secretly observing him. Within the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute, Zhang Sheng raised her head, watching Cui Yu drink the clear water and vanish from his seat. The hall was packed with people across over a hundred seats. As some drank the water and vanished, others would enter the hall and take the vacant seats. At that moment, a new task appeared in the orb of light. Zhang Sheng sent her divine sense into it, and sixty-four military intelligence dispatches materialized before her. What she needed to do was synthesize these scattered reports to produce a unified, comprehensive intelligence dossier. Naturally, such a task posed no difficulty for Zhang Sheng. With a shift of her divine sense, she first brought up a map before her, then opened all the military reports at once. She extracted key elements such as time, location, troop types, headcounts, and directions, compiling them onto the map. In the blink of an eye, it was transformed into an exhaustive, comprehensive intelligence report. Zhang Sheng casually clicked submit and proceeded to process the next task. The ground of Ding'an City trembled faintly as scouts galloped one after another out of the city gates, disappearing into the vast, murky green expanse not far away. Next, a cavalry troop of several dozen riders rode out of the city, departing silently into the distance. This troop was extraordinary: their military qi was condensed to an extreme degree, hovering barely three feet above their heads, making it nearly impossible to detect from any distance. Within the troop, Sun Lie was clad in the armor of an ordinary scout, riding at the fore as they galloped deep into the Wu domain. His expression was resolute, yet the knuckles gripping his reins were white. He knew that his unit was the primary force of this operation. Hidden among their ranks was a dharma idol warrior, and whatever this dharma idol saw and heard was what the Domain Lord saw and heard. The Scout Battalion numbered nine hundred riders in all, every single one handpicked and personally trained by Sun Lie. He recognized each of them and had led them on missions himself. Now, man for man, any rider of the Scout Battalion could go toe-to-toe with the Inkblood Vanguard, the Shamans' natural scout tribe. Ten against ten, they would claim a narrow victory. A hundred against a hundred, the Scout Battalion was guaranteed a decisive triumph. However, the Inkblood Vanguard tribe possessed five thousand cavalry in total. Sun Lie therefore exercised the utmost caution on every operation, never making a move unless victory was assured. But whenever an opportunity arose, he never let it slip. Yet Sun Lie knew that the credit did not belong entirely to him. Perhaps a third of it, or even more, belonged to those mysterious Dao Foundation riders in the ranks. They hardly ever spoke, yet they maintained a mystical connection with the Domain Lord and communicated with one another through methods unknown to outsiders. Thus, Sun Lie could always know where every scattered patrol was and what they were doing. Consequently, he was always able to seize fleeting opportunities in battle, mobilizing several nearby scout squads to converge abruptly, deal a heavy blow to their old rivals, the Inkblood Vanguard, devour several or even a dozen enemy riders in a single bite, and then disperse once more, vanishing into the vast wilderness. Sun Lie had originally thought that before long, he would be able to expand the Scout Battalion to two thousand men, or even three thousand. With two thousand scouts at his command, he would dare to stalk the enemy like a ravenous wolf, hunting for battle opportunities around the clock. And given three thousand riders, he was confident he could suppress the Inkblood Vanguard completely, constricting the Shamans' vision further and further until the enemy was forced to deploy another tribe comparable to the Inkblood Vanguard. Now, however, Sun Lie knew his hopes were dashed. It was because of Wei Yuan's order, and because of the plan he had drawn up with his own hands. Under this plan, even if the entire Inkblood Vanguard mobilized, they would not be able to stop him from driving five hundred li out to see what the Shamans were up to. Yet it was also this very plan that would leave less than one in ten of the Scout Battalion alive.