Patter, patter...
The heavy downpour was gradually easing, yet a curtain of rain still veiled the Tianyuan Mountain Range. Torrents washed over the winding bluestone stairs, forming small streams that rushed down the mountainside.
Ran Qingmo held an umbrella with one hand as she ascended the cloud-veiled steps. Her plain white mourning robes rustled loudly in the wind, and the pendant at her waist lightly tapped against her scabbard with each stride, ringing with crisp, delicate chimes.
Not knowing how long she had walked through the drizzle, Ran Qingmo raised her eyes toward the half-collapsed archway at the summit. Thick moss crawled over the two gilded characters reading "Five Elements." She remembered her master once saying that every single tile and every blue brick within the Sword Sect bore the weight of countless histories.
In its prime, the Tianyuan Sword Sect had boasted thirteen peak sword masters. A millennium having slipped by, only six of the thirteen survived; the remaining seven peaks had faded into obscurity with time.
Those of old were gone, while the ancient site endured, yet all else was changed. The Tianyuan Five Elements Sword Peak, which cultivators across the realm had once yearned for, had long since declined, reduced to guest quarters for entertaining honored visitors.
Her plain white skirt brushed past the standing water on the steps. Holding a bamboo-ribbed umbrella, Ran Qingmo walked out from the misty rain, her dark eyes looking ahead. Beneath what was once the Five Elements Grand Hall, a young girl had already been waiting for a long time.
"You've come."
Squatting on the stone steps before the hall, Tianyan rested her cheek on one hand and watched the woman ascending the bluestone stairs. Her clear golden eyes were devoid of emotion. Her saintess gown, embroidered with intricate golden-edged patterns, spread across the flagstones like a blooming, gold-trimmed white rose.
Umbrella in hand, Ran Qingmo came to a stop several paces away from Tianyan. Rainwater streamed down the ribs of her umbrella and the magnificent, delicately carved eaves of the grand hall, hanging like two curtains of water between them.
The silence was absolute; the rain fell without a sound.
Ran Qingmo stared at Tianyan, breaking the quiet:
"Why did you seek me out at a time like this?"
Tianyan did not rise. Her eyelids lifted slightly as she looked upward, her gaze seemingly piercing through the clouds in the sky.
"According to your Sword Sect's tournament schedule, in another half hour, it will be our turn."
Ran Qingmo had no idea what she was getting at. "Mm... and so?"
"Forfeit, Ran Qingmo."
Tianyan was blunt and direct, speaking as though stating a simple fact. Her clear golden eyes were filled with calm indifference. "Between you and me, this battle serves no purpose, nor does it hold any suspense."
"..."
Amid the falling rain, Ran Qingmo's grip on the umbrella tightened slightly. Ink-wash green lotuses were painted across its surface. She did not answer immediately.
In the Three Realms of Dao Attainment, each step was a world apart.
Ran Qingmo had sparred with elders of the Transcendent Realm before, so she knew all too well that, in the Origin Realm, she could never defeat Tianyan, who had already transcended mortality.
And yet...
"I am the Sword Sect's eldest disciple," Ran Qingmo said very softly.
"I do not mean to look down on you, nor do I intend to humiliate you." Tianyan slowly rose to her feet. "On the contrary, it is precisely because I take you seriously that I make this proposal. I watched your earlier matches; the Dao charm you possess proved troublesome even to me, 'Tianyan.'"
Ran Qingmo pursed her lips and repeated, "I am the Sword Sect's eldest disciple."
Tianyan showed no emotional ripple at the repeated refusal. She merely cast a sidelong glance in the direction of the peak where Xu Yuan resided.
"You should know that he has already arrived at your Sword Sect's mountain gate."
"..."
Though Tianyan did not specify who "he" was, Ran Qingmo gripped the umbrella handle even tighter, to the point that the canopy began to tremble faintly.
"There was such a huge commotion that day. Of course I know."
"I went to see him last night."
"Ah? ...Oh."
"I could not figure out his purpose in coming to your Sword Sect, but I imagine it must involve you."
"Mm, I know. But why did you—"
Ran Qingmo instinctively wanted to ask what had happened when she went to see him last night, but she forced herself to hold back—only because she was the Sword Sect's eldest disciple.
Through the pattering drizzle, Tianyan's figure drifted up into midair. Her trailing white robes billowed in all directions as her golden eyes looked down from above at the conflicted maiden before her.
"As the Sword Sect's eldest disciple, you ought to go see him."
"..."
Tilting the umbrella up slightly, Ran Qingmo looked at the Saintess standing in empty air, her dark eyes blinking in hesitation. "...Why?"
"Because he is the Prime Minister's Manor's legitimate heir, the next head of the Xu family. From him, you can obtain much vital intelligence."
"..."
Ran Qingmo lightly bit her lower lip and instinctively tilted the umbrella down, shutting out their view of each other. In a muffled, low voice, she asked, "...Is that why you went to see him?"
"Yes."
"And the result?"
"Failed," Tianyan answered without the slightest concealment.
"I see. If even you failed, then if I go, it should also—"
"No."
Tianyan interrupted Ran Qingmo. "My failure was intentional. At this stage, there is not much information the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion wishes to obtain from him. Probing his attitude toward me was far more important than gathering intelligence."
"Attitude?" Ran Qingmo asked in confusion.
Tianyan's golden eyes remained indifferent, her voice bordering on cold-blooded:
"Whether he will hesitate at critical moments where I am concerned—for instance, whether a momentary opening will appear in him during a struggle of life and death."
"..."
Hearing this, Ran Qingmo felt a suffocating tightness in her chest, but she could find no words to reply.
Without waiting for her answer, Tianyan continued, "Ran Qingmo, you should have gone earlier. The Sword Sect is not like the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. Right now, all of Hongnong lies under the edge of the Prime Minister's Manor's sword. You desperately need the information Xu Changtian can provide."
That Hongnong was about to be engulfed in the flames of war was common knowledge throughout the realm.
The Chancellor's Manor and the Sect Alliance, two behemoths, were like desperate gamblers frantically throwing down wagers and chips across the region of Hongnong.
Given the Chancellor's Manor's structure, Xu Yuan, as its legitimate heir, would inevitably know a wealth of secrets, and any of them might become the clue that could save the Sword Sect.
Ran Qingmo understood this, which was why she fell silent once more.
Amid the quiet between the two women, the curtain of rain grew lighter. A cold wind tore at the dark clouds churning across the sky, ripping fissures through them so that sunlight poured down upon the mortal realm. Ran Qingmo closed her umbrella. Looking up at Tianyan, she said stubbornly in a low voice, "I don't want to do that."
"Which is why you are unfit."
Unfit to be the Sword Sect's eldest disciple.
The words struck like arrows, deepening the disappointment and guilt in Ran Qingmo's heart.
Tianyan's golden eyes glinted with sharp light as she pressed on relentlessly:
"I do not know whether the Sword Sect elders have informed you of the true situation in Hongnong, but I can tell you that your Sword Sect is truly only a single step from destruction.
"Starting from the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion on my journey north, the lands I passed through were all under the Sect Alliance's control, yet everywhere I looked, man-made calamities ran rampant. Orchestrated by the imperial court, disruptions such as destroyed post roads, bombed canals, beast calamities ravaging villages, and friction between officials and commoners were nearly endless. Yet once I truly arrived in Hongnong, every sound of that sort fell silent. Do you know why?"
"..."
Ran Qingmo lowered her head in silence.
Her master and master's wife had always protected her, keeping her from touching such sordid affairs. But after her master's death, Martial Uncle Liu and the others had bypassed her master's wife to have her read many classified Sword Sect reports, so she knew the reason.
While Great Yan lacked the saying Xu Yuan often quoted—"When an army exceeds ten thousand, it stretches beyond the horizon"—it had its own dictums regarding military formations, such as "When an army reaches a hundred thousand, heaven and earth fall silent."
With downcast eyes, she answered quietly, "Because... under the harmonious might of a military array, all reconnaissance methods of both sides fail. When nothing can be scouted, naturally all falls silent."
Tianyan nodded slightly, raising her eyes to gaze from the mountain peak out toward the vast, boundless land in the distance.
"Yes, impossible to scout.
"Mankind has been warlike since ancient times. Through tens of thousands of years of evolution up to the present day, the scouting methods of various factions within Great Yan number in the thousands: reconnaissance formation patterns and technologies, scouting beasts bred specifically for the purpose, countless cultivation arts developed solely for reconnaissance. Yet all of these completely fail the moment a military array coalesces into absolute power. The over-the-horizon strike capability of a military array prevents physical scouting, beast scouting, instrument scouting, and every other method from even approaching the encampment.
"In my past experiences, I have seen quite a few powerhouses capable of withstanding the might of a military array with their physical bodies alone, such as the Sword Saint, the White Emperor, and Wen Xinyun. But the military arrays they faced were merely rudimentary. Even the power Li Junwu wielded at the cost of burning her life force to force back Wen Xinyun—a figure beyond the Saint Realm—was merely a rudimentary military array.
"A military array is the absolute violence of this world; before it, no matter how formidable an individual's personal might may be, it becomes as feeble as an infant."
"..."
Listening to her words, Ran Qingmo's breathing quickened slightly, and she retorted in a low voice, "That does not mean the Sword Sect will be destroyed. We... our Sect Alliance also has military arrays capable of contending with Xu Yuan's family's Black Scales Army. Right now, over a hundred thousand troops have gathered at our Sword Sect's mountain gate, and the numbers are still increasing—"
"Are the higher-ups of your Sword Sect raising a pet?"
Tianyan interrupted again.
Ran Qingmo blinked, catching on quickly. "Are you talking about me?"
"Who else?"
Even in her State of Godlessness, Tianyan seemed to have inherited her sharp tongue, only delivered in a cold, indifferent tone. "Even at this juncture, your elders are still considerate of your feelings..."
At this point, Tianyan looked at the emotion in the depths of Ran Qingmo's eyes and paused abruptly, shifting her words:
"It seems they were right. Now is indeed not the time to let you know the truth. In your current state, going to see Xu Changtian would most likely result in him extracting information from you instead. Better to keep you in the dark for now."
"..." Ran Qingmo lowered her eyelids.
"None of that matters anymore, however."
Tianyan took slow steps toward Ran Qingmo, her voice soft and light:
"Ran Qingmo, I can tell you this: counting the forty thousand disciples of your Sword Sect's core force, the Sect Alliance has gathered nearly two hundred and forty thousand troops in the Hongnong region."
Ran Qingmo's bright eyes widened slightly, her slender eyelashes fluttering with a flicker of hope. "So many..."
"But the Prime Minister's Manor has more."
Tianyan tossed out a number capable of terrifying the entire realm as if making casual conversation: "Judging from the movements reported across various regions, counting elites alongside second- and third-tier auxiliary troops, they have already assembled nearly four hundred thousand troops north of Hongnong."
Four hundred thousand...
Ran Qingmo's dark pupils trembled faintly, her chest heaving as a child-like helplessness gradually surfaced on her cool, icy face.
From her earliest memories, cultivation had been the entirety of her life. She knew nothing of the righteousness of state and nation, nor of the sordid scheming for petty gains; she was even lacking in common everyday knowledge. Yet at this moment, she suddenly understood what her master's wife had said in that helpless, remorseful voice:
*Qingmo... the state is ruthless, and even more devoid of personal affections.*
When traveling the world, she had always seen commoners refer to cultivators as "immortal masters." Even cultivators with the lowest cultivation were respectfully called immortals.
And now,
these "immortal masters" of ordinary folk had become mere vanguard pawns before the overwhelming tide.
This was a struggle touching upon the fundamental interests of two titans,
a life-and-death contest devoid of compromise or room for negotiation,
a confrontation of hundreds of thousands of people, the anxious hopes of hundreds of thousands of families, and the rise and fall of hundreds of millions hanging in the balance behind it all.
*So naive...*
Ran Qingmo bit her lip so hard that wisps of blood seeped out, spreading a metallic tang through her mouth.
Before such an immense, crushing tide, she was truly, truly naive.
A beam of sunlight pierced through the gap in the clouds, spilling across Ran Qingmo's flawless, delicate face. After holding it in for a long time, she finally murmured in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, "I understand."
"It seems you are finally willing to face reality."
"Mm."
Beneath her wide sleeves, Ran Qingmo's small hands clenched tight.
Tianyan's youthful voice remained crisp and pleasant:
"Since that is the case, you should know all the more that Xu Yuan is both rational and callous. He will always place the grand affairs of state and family first. Even if he honors his promise, it will only be on the premise that it does not harm the foundational interests of the Prime Minister's Manor."
Ran Qingmo's delicate brows furrowed slightly, her tone tinged with a cold edge of anger. "Did he... tell you about that promise?"
Tianyan shook her head, reviewing the memories in her mind, and answered truthfully:
"When it comes to his female confidantes, Xu Yuan's mouth is very tight; he rarely mentions other women in front of me. But have you forgotten that in the very beginning, I was the one who sent you to approach him?
"You went to capture him for the survival of the Sword Sect and the lives of those forty thousand disciples, yet in the end your attitude shifted and you chose to protect him. What transpired in the meantime is not difficult to guess, is it?"
"...It seems so," Ran Qingmo murmured softly. After a moment of silence, her slender hand gently brushed the ink sword at her waist. She lifted her gaze and asked, "But Tianyan... war is not necessarily won by whichever side has more people, right?"
"In theory, yes."
"In theory?"
"There is no constant victor in the art of war."
Tianyan's clear voice was remarkably patient:
"The scale of military arrays gathered by the Prime Minister's Manor in Hongnong makes us dare not dispatch scouts. Once encountered, even a powerhouse beyond the Saint Realm would meet only death. The entire Hongnong region has fallen into dead silence. If we want to glean intelligence, our only option is to use formed military units to clash and probe bit by bit, deducing the reality of their deployments from limited information."
Ran Qingmo pondered for a moment and suddenly asked, her voice turning cool and crisp, "For Xu Yuan and his people... no, for the Chancellor's Manor, it is the same."
Tianyan descended before Ran Qingmo, the rainwater soaking the white jade flagstones in front of the grand hall instantly evaporating dry as the hem of her gown brushed the ground.
Looking up at the girl who was nearly a head taller than herself, she said in a low voice, "That is true. But when both sides are enveloped in the fog of war, the side holding the initiative to attack possesses an almost insurmountable advantage. And constrained by its structure, the Sect Alliance cannot possibly seize the initiative in the early stages of the war."
Ran Qingmo's voice sounded as if she were asking herself, yet also asking Tianyan: "Because of our Sect Alliance's internal strife?"
To this question, Tianyan gave no reply, but the answer was already in Ran Qingmo's heart.
The Sect Alliance was bloated and chaotic, riddled with internal checks and balances. Even with the imperial court's blade already drawn from its sheath, getting its apparatus running would still require a vast amount of time.
Though the copious silver and grain provided by the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion in the Southern Border and the Jiangnan aristocratic clans and sects manipulated by Wen Xinyun had accelerated the process, these matters still required negotiations—demanding exorbitant prices and haggling on the spot.
They needed to negotiate to integrate the armaments production lines of each sect.
They needed to exchange interests to integrate each sect's cutting-edge formation technologies.
Even the very foundation of waging war—the cultivation methods for military arrays—required vast amounts of time for the Sect Alliance to unify.
Whose cultivation method would be used?
How would command responsibilities be divided?
And then the method had to be distributed to the rank and file so the soldiers could switch to practicing a unified military array technique.
All of this required time, and the imperial court—or rather, the Prime Minister's Manor—would never give them that time.
Brooding over these petty, sordid calculations with complicated emotions, Ran Qingmo's brow gradually settled back into a snow-cold chill:
"Why did you deliberately tell me all this?"
"The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion needs an ally over the coming decades. The Sword Sect qualifies, but you, as its future sect master, do not. Therefore, I can only start changing you now."
"Disgusting and shameless," Ran Qingmo said with a hint of revulsion.
Tianyan merely shook her head, directly selling out Wen Xinyun:
"There is no need for you to be so hostile toward me. Sect Master Ran's death was orchestrated entirely by Wen Xinyun; the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion merely returned his corpse to the Sword Sect on her behalf.
"As for joining her in forcing your Sword Sect to become the vanguard pawns against the Prime Minister's Manor's military might, that was your own sect's choice. People are always like this: as long as a sliver of hope remains, they will clutch it desperately. Such is the price your Sword Sect pays to keep sitting securely in the position of the Sect Alliance's former master."
As she spoke, Tianyan retrieved a translucent jade slip from her Sumeru ring:
"Within this lies a military array cultivation method capable of commanding a division of elites sent jointly to Hongnong by the Black Iron Sect and the Heavenly Void Cult. It is also a token of sincerity from my Overseeing Heaven Pavilion for collaborating with your Sword Sect."
Ran Qingmo's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She knew well what this jade slip signified. "What does the Sword Sect need to do?"
"The Sword Sect does not need to do anything. I only need you, Ran Qingmo, to do one thing."
"What?"
"Today's Tianyuan Grand Tournament consists of two matches in total. I need you to forfeit in your match against me today, and then—"
Having said that, Tianyan paused slightly, glancing sideways toward the residence she had visited last night. Her girlish voice was as crisp as ever, refreshing to the ear, but the words she spoke made one feel as though plunging into an icy abyss:
"...When Xu Yuan and I duel,
"use your Dao charm to join me in killing him."
Chapter 769