The Wilderness.
The grand battle had quieted for now. Li Zhouwei was severely injured. After taking a medicinal pill, he gave a gentle wave. The gate tower hovering in the sky vanished, transforming into a stream of light that flew back to him. Beneath where it had been, three beams of radiance immediately surged upward, desperate to escape.
Yet since they had failed to escape in the heat of battle, now that they were in the Li family's grasp, how could they possibly slip away? Several figures moved in, intercepted and subdued the three magical artifacts, and brought them over, placing them in his hands.
Li Zhouwei put them away for the time being, then endured his pain and descended on a streak of light.
The Li family did not have deep roots in the Wilderness and had few places established to station themselves. But the Kong family had cultivated the area for a century, and over the past decade or so, as the ambient spiritual energy in the Wilderness surged, they had tightened their control even further, building a fair number of palaces.
He landed at the nearest one. Li Chengkun hurried forward with deep concern. Li Zhouwei exhaled a breath and asked,
"How are everyone's injuries?"
In the middle of the grand clash, chaos had reigned everywhere. Unless someone fell, no one could keep an eye on every corner at all times. Li Chengkun had only taken a rough look earlier and replied concisely,
"Only Miaoshui and Li Wen are wounded."
Everyone on the field bore wounds; for him to specifically call them "wounded," it meant they were so severely injured they could not even move. Li Zhouwei himself still felt the urge to vomit blood, and he urged hurriedly:
"Xuanyue has a Lushui 'Sound of the Cavern Spring' and a Wood Virtue 'Xiaozhong Forest.' Have them come to treat them."
Li Chengkun escorted him into the palace hall and nodded.
"I'll go right away. The 'Sound of the Cavern Spring' cultivator, Guest Elder Bai, was beaten to death, but Guest Elder Sun of the 'Xiaozhong Forest' fared better. I'll have him come."
Li Chengkun swiftly went out. Li Zhouwei gritted his teeth and swallowed the blood in his throat, forcing himself to sit on the main seat for a quarter-hour before the gold sparks dancing before his eyes finally faded back to normal. He exhaled a burst of white mist, at last suppressing his surging blood and vital energy. His temples recovered, making it difficult for anyone to perceive his weakness.
The white mist diffused through the air, instantly filling the entire palace hall with the fragrance of Chinese peonies. A group of cultivators came up to report from below the hall, led by Li Chengkun.
Li Chengkun had suffered no real injuries, having merely used a Xuan Thunder talisman. Behind him, Cui Jueyin stood with downcast eyes in respectful silence, having merely expended a bit of magical power.
As for the others, Qu Bushi had lost an arm and looked somewhat haggard, but it was nothing serious. The old man lacked combat prowess, but he had a knack for staying alive. His "Zangna Palace" was peculiar as well—after losing an arm, he only needed to find a few corpses and bones to patch himself up and recuperate for a time.
As for Miaoshui, who was not present, she was gravely wounded. Near the end of the battle, she had been cleaved into three pieces and tumbled down the mountain. Qu Bushi had tracked her down and used a Wanling blossom to keep her alive; had he been even a quarter-hour later, this Jiangbei cultivator would have perished in the Wilderness.
Although Miaoshui was a surrendered general from Miyun Cave, whether out of a desire to redeem past faults with merit or to prove her loyalty, she had fought admirably, almost throwing away her life in the process. Li Zhouwei naturally could not neglect her, so he said,
"Have someone look after her well. I will ask the Real Person to heal her."
As for Li Wen, his Immortal Foundation was "Court Guardian." Though not high in grade, it still counted as a Dharma Body. He had only broken four fingers and had more than half the bones in his body shattered, rendering him unable to move, but his life was not in danger.
After hearing the reports on his family's cultivators, Li Zhouwei felt somewhat relieved.
After all, in this clash with Duxian Dao, first, Xuanyue had borne the brunt of the assault; second, whether Xuanyue's guest elders liked it or not, they had all been placed in front of the Li family members, so the Li family's losses were not substantial.
'Still, with things handled this way, nearly all the heavy casualties fell on Xuanyue's side. Our family went all out, but Xuanyue's guest elders were practically made to hold the line with their lives. A rough glance earlier showed that a single major battle cost Xuanyue nearly five Foundation Establishment cultivators...'
'Not to mention those guest elders... I imagine even Xuanyue Gate's own direct lineage has been frightened to the core...'
Having painstakingly attained Foundation Establishment, wherever one went, if not treated as an honored guest, one was at least looked up to by all. To lose several in a single battle—who would be willing?
The Xuanyue name was no bewitching draft; how many were truly willing to go through fire and water for it? That they had not scattered in panic from the very start was almost entirely thanks to the pressure exerted by the Li family's Violet Palace.
He understood this clearly in his heart, so he deliberately turned to question Xuanyue's people.
The Xuanyue cultivator was clad in coarse hemp garments and had an aged, dispirited appearance. He was none other than Guest Elder Sun, who cultivated the "Xiaozhong Forest." He replied:
"In response to the Family Head: two early Foundation Establishment and one mid Foundation Establishment cultivator were killed, and one direct disciple at early Foundation Establishment was crippled... On our side, we also killed a mid Foundation Establishment elder of Duxian Dao, one early Foundation Establishment, and... and..."
He seemed to find the rest hard to utter. Pausing, he continued:
"Two consecrated elders were captured. One of them... surrendered before he even left the territory..."
Such a matter was disgraceful, after all, and the remaining captive was hardly likely to refuse surrender either. Guest Elder Sun quickly fell silent. Li Chengkun spoke up:
"At present, the remaining direct lineage members are Kong Qiuyan and Kong Xiaxiang at early Foundation Establishment, Kong Guli at mid Foundation Establishment, and Sect Master Kong Guxi at late Foundation Establishment. Among the guest elders, there is mid Foundation Establishment Guest Elder Sun Bai here and late Foundation Establishment Fuyuezi. The other two guest elders... are both down and incapacitated."
Li Zhouwei noted they were talking about the Kong family members, yet Kong Guxi was nowhere to be seen. That Xuanyue sect master had fought with desperate ferocity earlier, and surely half his life had been battered out of him. Li Zhouwei asked directly,
"How much of Shanji Commandery was preserved?"
Sun Bai blinked in surprise, then answered in a low voice:
"About sixty percent was preserved. Only the twenty-seven towns toward the south remain. Several mountains were lost, and the market town was lost as well, but the mountain gate remains intact... The young master is cultivating inside the mountain gate and is in no danger."
This "young master" naturally referred to Li Jianglong. With Changxi dead, the people of Xuanyue wished for nothing more than for Li Jianglong to return safely to the Li family as soon as possible; they certainly would not mistreat him. Li Zhouwei did not worry about it, only sighing inwardly:
'From now on, without external intervention, it will be difficult enough to retain our current territory in the Wilderness, let alone oversee Shanji Commandery. We should have ceded it to Ziyan Gate earlier to secure some assistance.'
With no word yet from his family's Real Person, Li Zhouwei did not dare make any rash moves. He dismissed the group, and after waiting for a short while, the long-awaited news finally arrived from the west. The moment the White Ape's figure appeared before the hall, Li Zhouwei stepped forward briskly to greet him and asked,
"How is Funan?"
The White Ape recounted everything in detail. Li Zhouwei let out a breath, but upon hearing that An Siwei had been captured, he froze slightly, then spoke up with sudden gravity:
"Have someone take Situ Ku at once and try to exchange him for Clan Elder Siwei! Once Duxian Dao takes him away... things will be entirely different!"
If the Li family offered Situ Ku in exchange for An Siwei, Situ Mo would surely agree with both hands raised in approval. But once An Siwei fell into the hands of Guan Gongxiao's people, the situation would completely change!
Guan Gongxiao would not spare Situ Ku a second glance!
The White Ape cupped his fists at once and withdrew. Though An Siwei's strength was not outstanding, he was fiercely loyal and had earned significant merits; Li Zhouwei was unwilling to let anything happen to him.
He paced a few steps within the hall, suddenly feeling that hope was slim. Moreover, Li Ximing was still entangled with Real Person Ye Gui in the Great Void, so the chances of An Siwei returning to the lake were pitifully small:
"Guan Gongxiao is no fool. Clan Elder Siwei may not possess great strength, but Guan Gongxiao cannot fail to know he is an elder of our family. He is certain to demand him from Situ Mo... and Situ Mo would have no reason to refuse!"
...
The riverbank.
The grand battle had paused for now. Ambient spiritual energy still rippled through midair, and the flora on the ground was withered. Cultivators watched over several spiritual veins damaged by True Fire and Gengjin, making the ruins bustle with activity.
Though both sides coveted the territory of the Wilderness and therefore fought in the air as much as possible rather than clashing on the ground, substantial damage had still been incurred. Fortunately, Guan Kan had died on this ground, causing the water veins to become active, so the ambient spiritual energy had not suffered too severe a loss.
Kong Guxi dropped down from midair and lifted his dharma robes. The two legs beneath his robe were missing chunks here and there as if gnawed by dogs, exposing translucent flesh and tender white cartilage.
'Duxian Dao's magical artifacts are truly formidable; these wounds will not be easy to heal.'
His magical power was exhausted with no way to replenish it, and what was worse, alien magical power plagued his wounds. He first ingested two medicinal pills, then hurriedly drew his robe closed to cover himself, asking the Xuanyue disciples who came forward to meet him:
"Several peak masters were heavily injured. I saw that Guest Elder Sun and Guest Elder Wu were somewhat better off—where have they gone now?"
The disciple stammered for a moment before answering:
"Replying to the Sect Master: the two masters went to Master Chengkun's palace to make their report."
Kong Guxi froze slightly, then nodded quickly.
"Good... good... I was too slow. I'll head over right now!"
He glanced around. Not a single guest elder was in sight. Only his kinswoman Kong Qiuyan was treating sect members within the formation. Most of the other Foundation Establishment cultivators had collapsed, and those who hadn't had rushed off to fawn upon the Li family.
Looking closer, Kong Guxi realized that even the disciples mobilized from their own sect were few and far between—just two or three stragglers, with a dozen or so lying on the ground amidst groans of pain.
He could not help but ask,
"The disciples of the seventeen peaks... why are there only these few left?!"
The grand clash between the two sides had hardly involved Qi Refinement and Embryonic Breathing disciples; while the Foundation Establishment cultivators fought in the skies, the Xuanyue disciples on the ground mostly contended with the prominent clans that had crossed the river—hardly formidable opponents. Even though the enemy had more Foundation Establishment cultivators and there were bound to be accidental casualties, it should never have come to this!
The disciple hesitated, suddenly at a loss for how to tell him. There were things a lowly disciple could sense that a sect master perched high above might not. He could only murmur in a low voice:
"Replying to the Sect Master... the fellow disciples fought along the river, retreating while fighting. Perhaps they flew further away along the way and lost their way. They should return after a short wait."
"Lost their way?!"
Kong Guxi had not held the reins of power for long, but he was no fool. Hearing this and looking at the disciple's expression, realization struck him like a blow. He pressed his lips together and said bitterly:
"Ah... gone... It is fine that they left."
Xuanyue was not a sect created out of thin air. Most of its disciples hailed from the prominent clans of the Salt Lake and Shanji Commandery. With those two places falling into enemy hands, they could not even protect their own families, so it was only natural for disciples to fly away on the wind. Though desolation filled Kong Guxi's heart, he understood:
'Once Shanji is completely lost, another batch will leave.'
Kong Guxi endured his agony and took to the wind. In midair, a man in earthy-yellow armor and a dark-patterned face visor flew toward him. Clasping a spear and an axe, drenched in blood, he bowed before him and rasped:
"Fuyue has just attended to his wounds and came at once to pay respects to the Sect Master."
Earlier, Fuyuezi had fought against four foes single-handedly until two patches of his chest were shattered, leaving grim white bones exposed. Kong Guxi hurried to help him up, clutching his shoulder and pushing him forward:
"Go see Master Chengkun! What are you in such a hurry to see me for?!"
Fuyuezi remained stubbornly unmoved. Kong Guxi was heavily wounded and lacked the strength to shove him; instead, he took a step back with a sigh. From below, an old man came scrambling up in haste, hesitating before stopping. With disheveled hair, a crooked cap, a battered appearance, and bloodshot eyes, he cut a pathetic figure.
At the sight of him, Kong Guxi felt as though a hole had been punched into an ice cavern, a chill rushing straight down to his heels. It so happened that his left heel had been sliced off, throbbing with an empty, searing agony. He asked,
"Elder Brother... what does this mean?!"
This old man was the very person Kong Guxi had dispatched to Jingyi long before. The moment Changxi died, Kong Guxi had crushed the jade pendant on his person to signal him to plead for aid. Now returning in utter disarray, the old man fell to his knees with a thud, weeping and lamenting:
"The people stationed in the market town by Mount Jingyi said... Real Person Xuanyi is not in the mountain... That sect member was so haughty, he wouldn't even deign to look down at me!"
"I asked for news of Seventeenth Brother, but they said he refused to meet. Our family wrote eight letters earlier... and he didn't reply to a single one... And now... now! I went to Yuezhou Island, only to be driven out!"
"This!"
Kong Guxi's breath caught sharply in his chest, leaving him at a total loss. Several breaths passed before he managed to recover, saying in disbelief:
"Didn't he ask the sect for cultivation resources just before the year's end?"
"He did..."
Kong Guxi understood everything now. He nearly collapsed. Earlier, when flesh and blood had been flying in battle, this man had not shed a single tear, yet now he burst into bitter weeping, choking out two sobs before swallowing them back down like a throttled fowl.
"Alas... this is the end... How are we to answer to Real Person Zhaojing?!"
He wiped away his tears. With his brother and Real Person Xuanyi proving unreliable, Kong Guxi feared above all that the Li family would decide to pull back—which would mean utter doom for his clan!
Nearby, Kong Qiuyan was equally terrified. She glanced at her sect master and asked in helpless resignation,
"Yet what else could we expect... He climbed ashore and refuses to touch a sinking ship..."
A heavy silence fell over them as they looked at one another. Kong Guxi's elder brother, his face a picture of tragedy, looked around and asked,
"Where are the others?"
Those two words struck the group like a heavy hammer. Seeing their expressions, the old man understood at once, going limp as if all his bones had been removed. He said:
"The Xuanmiao lineage is sitting on the sidelines, and Jingyi shuts its doors against us. Our clan is caught in extreme peril. Wouldn't it be better to abandon the sect early and find a place of refuge on the sea... There might still be a chance of survival!"
Kong Qiuyan closed her eyes in silence and answered:
"Who would go with you to such a godforsaken place? Sun Bai? Or which guest elder? If we just find some random island, how many Foundation Establishment cultivators could it support?"
Beside them, Fuyuezi fell to his knees with a thud and choked out:
"Wherever the Sect Master goes, Fuyue will follow, shrinking from neither death nor danger!"
Hearing this, Kong Guxi was horrified out of his wits. He shouted:
"Nonsense! We obey only the Real Person's arrangements! Where do any of you get the nerve to make decisions?!"
Leave the realm within the seas?
Setting aside how crucial Xuanyue's mountain gate was, or that an elder of their clan was currently breaking through within the mountain gate, even if the Xuanyue mountain gate were to fall, Kong Guxi would not dare harbor the slightest thought of leaving! Only a madman would do such a thing!
'What would that be? That would be slapping the Li family in the face... When that happens... vast as the world is, where could we ever find shelter?!'
The shuddering dread crawling up his spine jolted him straight out of his grief and fury. His face flushed beet-red as he snarled:
"Mark my words well! Even if my Kong clan must die, we will die in Jiangnan! Die fighting Duxian Dao! As long as the Real Person permits, even if Jiangnan has only a single patch of land left for us to set foot on—so long as we can look up and see the spiritual mountains to the north—we go nowhere else!"
"If you ever speak such words again, Brother, do not blame my sword for having no mercy!"
Chapter 730