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The battle among the Heavenly Palace cultivators drew to a close with the intervention of the Heavenly Palace cultivators from the Wuji Astral Palace. The Great Sun Sword Sect and Wuji Astral Palace broke through the interference and blockade of the Nine Cauldrons Sect's Heavenly Palace cultivators, sending their powerful divine mind sweeping down from the highest heavens to probe this area. Yet... Nothing. Nothing remained in this airspace. Zhenhai Courtyard was gone, and so was the Great Sun Sword Sect's sky-patrol warship. Had the tsunamis kicked up by the battle's shockwaves not continued to surge incessantly toward the surrounding islands, no one would have even believed a battle had taken place here. When word reached Chisongzi, it nearly made him think he was hallucinating. "Gone!?" The Deputy Hall Master of the War Hall shot to his feet, staring at Baishi, the Master of his sect's Heavenly Palace Hall who had brought the news, disbelief filling his eyes. "A sky-patrol warship of that size, carrying dozens of our Great Cultivators and three thousand high-ranking cultivators—and now you tell me it's gone!?" "Yes," Baishi said in a heavy voice. "I am bringing you this news precisely so that you can immediately dispatch the Vajra to search for it, and send the Shenfeng Courtyard to investigate the battle site and find out what on earth happened." "It will take the Vajra at least a day to get there. As for the Shenfeng Courtyard... I just sent them to reinforce the Shenhuo Courtyard..." Chisongzi trailed off, looking at Baishi with dissatisfaction. "Can your Heavenly Palace Hall really not provide a single shred of useful information?" "The battle against the Liusha Sect seventeen years ago made the Nine Cauldrons Sect realize how vital spirit cultivators are to a combat framework. Over these seventeen years, they have poured their efforts into cultivating their spirit cultivation system. We originally thought that given how notoriously difficult spirit cultivation is, the Nine Cauldrons Sect wouldn't achieve much within thirty-five years. Yet who could have foreseen that in such a short time, their spirit cultivators would advance so swiftly? It was so during the battle where they routed the Xuanming Sect, and now... it is so once again!" Baishi said with bitter reluctance. "Whether we admit it or not, the outcome of this battle proves they have already pulled ahead of us on the path of spirit cultivation." "Damn it!" Chisongzi's eyes burned with fury. How dared a sect founded less than a century ago provoke the Great Sun Sword Sect like this!? "The Vajra will set off for that sea region at once! Furthermore, mobilize the Shenmu Courtyard as well! Alive, I want people; dead, I want corpses! Turn the East Sea upside down, dig three feet into the seabed, or even push straight to the Nine Cauldrons Sect's home territory if needed—we must recover the Spring Rain!" Chisongzi barked his orders on the spot. "The Heavenly Palace Hall will do its best to provide you with a certain measure of intelligence support," Baishi said. As for just how much "a certain measure" amounted to, he no longer dared say out loud. *** Meanwhile, on the other side. When Li Qingshan received the news from Yaoguang, his mind was shaken, even though he was in the critical midst of engaging the Shenhuo Courtyard. "Captured a sky-patrol warship!? What do you mean, you captured a sky-patrol warship?" "Exactly what you think it means, Sect Master," Yaoguang replied, transmitting the image of the Spring Rain directly through the Virtual Spirit Realm. And upon seeing the genuine sky-patrol warship, even someone like Li Qingshan, who had weathered countless great storms, could not help sucking in a cold breath. "I will take this sky-patrol warship to the Third Sky-Patrol Research Institute right away. We will refit it as quickly as possible," Yaoguang said. "Refitting... probably won't accomplish much. The Great Sun Sword Sect will still recognize it as their Spring Rain," Li Qingshan replied. "Whether they know it is one thing; whether we admit it is another," Yaoguang said, then paused. "Of course, doing so might make the Great Sun Sword Sect unable to contain their fury and trigger an all-out war with us..." "They wouldn't dare!" Li Qingshan responded immediately. "Our Nine Cauldrons Sect has a Golden Core expert holding the line; the Great Sun Sword Sect lacks the courage. At most, they will encroach step by step across the East Sea, steadily compressing our living space and crippling our spirit stone production until we can no longer maintain Old Ancestor's Golden Core state." Yaoguang nodded. Li Hanqiu! This Golden Core expert was the Nine Cauldrons Sect's greatest safeguard! As long as this Golden Core cultivator could sustain his state, no sect would dare wage an all-out war against the Nine Cauldrons Sect recklessly. "If the Great Sun Sword Sect seizes the entire East Sea, it will severely hinder our development. The best course is to ensure the Great Sun Sword Sect cannot divert their full strength toward our East Sea Archipelago," Yaoguang said. "The Myriad Beasts Sect and the Great Sun Sword Sect have ongoing disputes in the Sea of Storms. Well before the Northern Alliance dissolved, the Great Sun Sword Sect had already thrown its lot in completely with the Wuji Astral Palace. There are irreconcilable contradictions between them. I will contact the Sect Master of the Myriad Beasts Sect next and see if we can get them to stir up some trouble in the Sea of Storms. When the Great Sun Sword Sect has to guard the Sea of Storms, they will have little strength left to commit to the East Sea Archipelago," Li Qingshan said at once. "Then that settles it," Yaoguang said with a smile. His mind turned to the formations aboard the vessel... "With this sky-patrol warship, we can study and reverse-engineer it to thoroughly understand the layout of a sky-patrol warship. Then we can manufacture our own second-generation warships... or even innovate and develop our third-generation sky-patrol warships, completely catching up to Cangwu's forefront." "Third-generation sky-patrol warships..." Li Qingshan felt a wave of yearning. Right then, Yaoguang seemed to sense something and spoke up: "The Great Sun Sword Sect is making new moves. They've redeployed another battle institute, and even the Vajra sky-patrol warship has been sent out. Furthermore, Shenhuo Courtyard's reinforcements, the Shenfeng Courtyard, are not far from you. To be safe, I'll assist you in routing and crippling the Shenhuo Courtyard so we don't give them a chance to establish overwhelming dominance." "Alright, I will contact Murong Hui to coordinate!" Li Qingshan nodded solemnly. "If necessary, I will leak word of the Origin Realm's existence." Yaoguang acknowledged. With the Nine Cauldrons Sect demonstrating overwhelming superiority in spirit cultivation time and again, the major factions would inevitably probe and pry; a secret bordering on the Dharma Idol realm could not stay hidden for long. After all, few who held high positions were fools. More often than not, they were simply accustomed to resolving problems with violence. Once violence stopped working, their wits would naturally return. Just as in many matters, silencing the person raising the issue was far easier than solving the issue itself. Only when a commotion grew too big to gloss over would anyone bother to address the problem itself. Soon, Murong Hui, Hall Master of the Heavenly Palace Hall, displayed his might once more as his immense divine mind swept across the battlefield where the Sword-Bearing Institute clashed with the Shenhuo Courtyard. On this battlefield, the Sword-Bearing Institute already held the upper hand, and the Shenhuo Courtyard could only struggle to hold out, waiting for the Spring Rain to turn the tide and come to their aid. As "Murong Hui's" colossal divine mind descended, severing the outside world's perception of this battlefield, the Sword-Bearing Institute under Li Qingshan's lead suddenly fought as though aided by the divine. Not only did they instantly suppress the Shenhuo Courtyard's momentum, but the striking precision of their sword cultivators rose to an entirely new level. In just a few clashes, over a dozen sword cultivators on the Shenhuo Courtyard's side were incapacitated. Their death toll, which had been merely three after more than ten minutes of fighting, surged to ten in a single minute. When two well-matched forces fought, an advantage would always snowball. If this continued, within ten minutes at most, the Shenhuo Courtyard would be in danger of being wiped out entirely. "Something is wrong! There is definitely something wrong!" The First Seat of the Shenhuo Courtyard keenly sensed the shift on the battlefield. Origin Spirit cultivators! The Origin Spirit cultivators on their side were being completely suppressed. What was more, this phenomenon seemed to have occurred out of nowhere, defying all reason. There were only two possible explanations for such a shift! One was that an expert had entered the battlefield in a manner they could neither understand nor detect. The other... "A spirit treasure!" The First Seat of the Shenhuo Courtyard looked toward the figure positioned in the rear. Nine Cauldrons Sect Master Li Qingshan! Although their intelligence claimed the Nine Cauldrons Sect possessed only eight spirit treasures... As heirs to the Artifact Sect lineage, who would believe they truly had only eight? Now that Li Qingshan was personally leading the Sword-Bearing Institute into battle—tantamount to an emperor going to war in person—unveiling a ninth spirit treasure beyond the known eight, especially one that amplified the combat power of Origin Spirit cultivators, was completely natural! Even with recent market shocks, a spirit treasure still cost over ten million spirit stones. In contrast, a superior third-generation Treasure Weapon-grade flying sword cost merely a hundred-odd thousand to manufacture. This alone showed the monumental weight such a treasure carried. Recalling how a spirit treasure could alter the course of a battle locally... The First Seat of the Shenhuo Courtyard immediately chose to cut his losses to survive: "Retreat! Fight as you withdraw! Rendezvous with the Shenfeng Courtyard!" Following his command, the spell cultivators and Origin Spirit cultivators beat a hasty retreat. The exceptionally nimble sword cultivators brought up the rear to hold off the enemy. Seeing how quickly the First Seat of the Shenhuo Courtyard reacted, Li Qingshan abandoned all plans of slow attrition. With an order from him, over a dozen sword cultivators surged from the ranks to pursue the retreating spell cultivators and Origin Spirit realm cultivators. Though the First Seat of the Great Sun Sword Sect's Shenhuo Courtyard tried desperately to block them, the life-bound flying swords of the remaining Sword-Bearing Institute sword cultivators were precise and agile to the extreme, leaving them no opportunity to mount a rescue. Not only that, their own situation quickly grew precarious, forcing them to form a defensive formation to protect themselves. Just as the entire Shenhuo Courtyard was on the verge of annihilation, Yaoguang's divine mind resonated in Li Qingshan's awareness: "It's time to pull back. The Great Sun Sword Sect's Shenfeng Courtyard has arrived, and the Shenmu Courtyard is closing in fast. Given the Sword-Bearing Institute's current state, if you get bogged down by the Shenfeng Courtyard, your people will eventually exhaust their strength. Once the Shenmu Courtyard arrives, the situation will become exceedingly perilous." Li Qingshan felt a pang of regret. If only each of them had carried precious pills to rapidly restore true essence... Or even if the Nine Cauldrons Sect had had just one more elite battle institute available right now to reinforce them and block the Shenfeng Courtyard, they would have been entirely capable of wiping out the Shenhuo Courtyard here and now. Instead, despite the Shenhuo Courtyard being left with barely any strength, they could not press the pursuit to achieve a total victory. "This victory is already enough. If we push further, the Great Sun Sword Sect might truly hit the roof..." Yaoguang remarked, sensing Li Qingshan's regret. "No," Li Qingshan said. "Hall Master Yaoguang, you don't know them. The Great Sun Sword Sect and other sects are not like our Nine Cauldrons Sect. For them, there is only one way to make them behave: beat them into absolute submission. Winning like this—a victory, yet not an absolute triumph—will only make them unwilling to accept defeat and provoke us again..." He trailed off there. Because there was no point dwelling on it. It was an undeniable fact that the Nine Cauldrons Sect could not mobilize another battle institute to stall the Shenfeng Courtyard. Otherwise, the situation would never have become so dire that he, the Sect Master, had to take the field leading the Sword-Bearing Institute himself. "Let us return. Everyone in the Sword-Bearing Institute did brilliantly. Now, let us go enjoy and digest the fruits of our victory."