Beastmaster of the Ages

After Shi Yan left, Tianming, Long Wanying, and the rest gathered to talk about the army.

Long Wanying said, "The news has reached her. That means the army will soon arrive on the continent. This time around, the Northdipper Swordsage has kept everything so secret that not even I received word about it through my sources. In other words, Li Wushuang's side probably doesn't understand the extent of the retaliation that's coming either."

"No doubt, they expect some more reinforcements from the Empyrean Sword Sect, so they did have more wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean reinforcements come. The former sent close to eighty thousand while the latter sent a hundred and fifty thousand troops. While that number may increase, it's highly unlikely that they'll send a full million. There's no way a simple fight over the fruits of the divine tree merits so many troops," Tianming said.

"In that case, they should have no trouble defeating the two outside factions and chasing Li Wushuang away. Though, with how many factions the army is made up of, when the time comes to split up the harvest, the Azuresoul Palace will get the short end of the stick. There'll barely be any left," Long Wanying said, furrowing her brows.

"The smaller the harvest, the more chaos there'll be. That might be a chance for us to get more fruits. After all, the Sky Palace's rules are still in place. The army isn't here to help with the harvest. Instead, they're here to deal payback to the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean, so their claim over the divine fruits will be weak at best," Gujian Qingshuang said, having a clear view of the situation.

"No worries. We'll take as much as we can. The harvest rightfully belongs to us, after all. That aside, there's something even more important," Long Wanying said.

They all knew what she was going to say.

"Yun Tianque will have to cut off their ties with the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean before the fighting starts so the Supracloud Sanctuary won't get attacked by the Empyrean Sword Sect's alliance," Tianming said.

According to the Empyrean Sword Sect's plans, not only did they want to exterminate the two outsider sects, they also wanted to wipe out the Supracloud Sanctuary to gain full control of the continent. That was the final goal of the Northdipper Swordsaint. Naturally, he was smart enough to only send three hundred thousand troops and use the alliance for the rest.

But the problem was that the Supracloud Sanctuary had become a traitor by siding with the celestial orderians, so no other sects would sympathize with them even if they were eradicated by the alliance. If the Empyrean Sword Sect managed to conquer the Azurecloud Continent, they would gain its resources and significantly grow in power, perhaps even surpassing the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect. That was why Tianming found it hard to deny what Shi Yan had said. They were the ones who understood the ambitions of the swordsage the most. The man was incredibly sneaky, and wouldn't risk losing anything unless there was a huge reward to be gained. Surely, he wouldn't send such a huge army here just for revenge. No doubt, he already saw the potential rewards.

"Tianming, how's Yun Tianque?" Long Wanying asked.

"Things are still fine. So far, the harvest is coming to a close on their end. The Supracloud Sanctuary is holding three billion divine herbs for now." The people who held the divine herbs were crucial. Storing them in spatial rings was far from ideal to conserve the freshness of the herbs, so they had to have proper storage facilities. The divine herbs harvested on Tianming's side were stored with the Azuresoul Palace as well, and would only be divided after the harvest was complete.

"What about the movements of the others?"

"For now, Li Wushuang's subordinates and the reinforcements from the two outsider sects are gathered near the sapling sites. There's only a few people from the Supracloud Sanctuary among them. Once I give the notice, Yun Tianque can immediately get the key figures to retreat to the sect and activate their formation." With Yin Chen's ability, they had a full grasp of the situation down to the smallest detail.

"We'll react as required. The moment the alliance army reaches the continent, get Yun Tianque to immediately cut ties," Long Wanying said.

"No problem."

The storm was almost upon them. Tianming took a deep breath in anticipation of the upcoming battle that loomed over the continent like a gigantic beast, causing all living things on it to shudder in fear.

"Azurecloud…." The fate of the continent depended on the outcome of the battle.

……

Li Wushuang stood on top of a branch of the divine tree at Aix Lake, looking at the two hundred and fifty thousand plus reinforcements that had arrived. They had countless elites at their disposal.

"Have a hundred thousand of them guard the sapling sites. For the remaining hundred and fifty thousand, have them come with me to kill everyone from the Empyrean Sword Sect within the territory of the Azuresoul Palace," she said.

"Understood." The Tumulus Pill God nodded, then asked, "Lady Wushuang, fifty thousand wargodeans and ten thousand cultivators from the Blueblood Starocean will come in the coming days. Will we wait for them before we take action?"

"No. If we keep waiting, the Empyrean Sword Sect's reinforcements will arrive." She smiled and turned back toward the eighteen top elites that guarded her. "Not to mention, we don't need you to do the leading. My people will take care of it."

"Understood!"

The top elites of the celestial orderians wore relaxed smiles. To them, this was nothing more than a field trip. What they didn't know was how many chips the Empyrean Sword Sect were going to bet. As they contemplated that question, a transmission stone came flying toward them. Li Wushuang gave the message a look and her expression changed. "The Myriad Sword Sect formed an alliance… and sent an army of one million? They'll arrive tomorrow?"

"What?" The Tumulus Pill God was stumped. "What's the point? It's just divine herbs. Would anyone send a million swordpupil-grade troops over it? Does the Empyrean Sword Sect even have that many? Did they leave their home base unguarded?"

He didn't get it. This wasn't something that had just happened for no good reason. Not to mention, the resources on this continent couldn't possibly be worth it, unless the Northdipper Swordsage's aim was to conquer it long term!

"The Empyrean Sword Sect only sent an additional two hundred thousand troops. The other eight hundred thousand are from other factions, three of which are first rate," Li Wushuang said.

"What? Is this some kind of riot?" the Tumulus Pill God secretly lamented, knowing it would come to that. Li Wushuang's identity was far too sensitive, but her actions had gone overboard. This was the territory of the Myriad Solar Sects, after all. The Dreamless Celestial Nation and Voidword Shrine didn't really react to it, but the Empyrean Sword Sect stood up instead.

Everyone turned to Li Wushuang, the main cause of this trouble. However, she didn't look the slightest bit fearful. "Don't worry. Since they're going all out, the Deluge Emperor and Warlord won't just sit and watch. Just send more people here to force a stalemate with them. A fight might not even break out. The only concern now is that our numbers are much smaller than theirs, so we need to buy time for more reinforcements to arrive. Let's retreat to the Supracloud Sanctuary for now and build a base of operations behind their defensive formation.

"I suppose that's all that we can do. Let's give up on the sapling sites. We should be able to hold on behind the formation for quite some time," the Tumulus Pill God said.

"Who said I was going to give up on the sites?" Li Wushuang said, glaring at him.

"Then what do we do?"

"We'll have the Supracloud Sanctuary send out a hundred thousand of their elites and a few million normal troops to hold the sites. They want to join the ranks of the celestial orderians, so a sacrifice will be necessary," she said, rolling her eyes. To them, only first-grade swordpupil equivalents and above—that is, those above the ninth level of the Constellation stage—could count as elites. The rest would only be considered normal troops.

The Tumulus Pill God was utterly horrified by the cruelty, but no words left his mouth. "I'll notify Yun Tianque immediately."

……

At the Supracloud Sanctuary, Yun Tianque contemplatively looked at the billions of divine herbs. Yin Chen had told him everything, and he'd also just received a transmission stone from the Tumulus Pill God. "Hahahaha…." He laughed so hard that tears formed. "You motherfuckers want to hide in my house and kick my people out to die for you? Fuck off, Li Wushuang! Fuck all your ancestors!"

That outburst made him feel much better. He took a deep breath and announced to hundreds of thousands of people, "Heed my orders! Activate the Myriadfold Skycloud Formation. Entry or exit to our sect is forbidden, no exceptions! Additionally, I want to make it clear that the Supracloud Sanctuary is officially cutting ties with the celestial orderians, wargodeans, and the Blueblood Starocean!"