Beastmaster of the Ages

"Swordsage, I want to clarify something. According to our initial agreement, we won't touch the saplings, but the three billion divine herbs from the Supracloud Sanctuary is for our three factions to evenly split, right?" Wu Lingcang asked.

"That's right. However, the legacy and everything about the Supracloud Sanctuary is ours. Don't worry, I'm an upright person and would never cut your share short," the Northdipper Swordsage said. It seemed like he was getting a good deal. If he hadn't insisted on such terms, he probably could have forged the alliance even sooner. However, that still depended on the value of the saplings, which was still unknown. It was a gamble.

"Naturally, we trust your word, Swordsage, but there's a small issue here," Mu Qingqu from Lazuli Pavilion said.

"What is it?"

"Before our alliance arrived, the Supracloud Sanctuary betrayed Li Wushuang and cut ties with her. You might not know this, but the only reason your assault on Li Wushuang and her forces was so successful was due to the Supracloud Sanctuary activating their formation and preventing them from retreating. In fact, some of the Supracloud Sanctuary's characters even left their formation and tried to claim credit from us," One-eyed Wang Hong said in a mocking tone.

"I'm aware of that. The Supracloud Sanctuary only changed their tune because they fear our alliance. That doesn't change the fact that they're already considered to have sided with the celestial orderians. Don't worry. We just have to keep attacking," the swordsage said.

"Since you already said that, we can do as we please without worry."

"That's right. There's no way a dog can switch sides just because it bit its owner."

"A dog's still a dog at the end of the day."

"The three of you are correct," the Northdipper Swordsage said with 'righteous fury'. "Let's lead our troops to them right away."

"Yeah!"

The four went to make arrangements for the next battle right after the previous one had ended.

……

On the way, the Wind Swordlord asked, "Swordsage, based on my understanding of Yun Tianque, the fact that he has turned against Li Wushuang and stopped her troops from entering shows that he's completely cut off relations with the celestial orderians and learned his lesson. Wouldn't an attack on them now be bad for our reputation and be criticized?" He had deliberated this for a long time before bringing it up.

"Why overthink it? We have numbers on our side, so we'll just have to quickly end it. History's written by the victors. All we have to do is to defeat them and label them as traitors. It isn't like Yun Tianque has any significant standing among the Myriad Solar Sects anyway."

"I see…." The Wind Swordlord looked into the distance and sighed. "At the end of the day, did Yun Tianque change course because he wanted the three billion divine herbs for himself?"

"Old friend, the key to feeling better is to not overthink things," the swordsage said, the seven bright holes on his face turned toward the Wind Swordlord.

"Understood."

……

Apart from those that remained to clear up the battlefield or guard the saplings, the other six hundred thousand elites pushed onward with their beasts toward the floating island in the sky and completely encircled it. Roars of great beasts shook the air. Many of these elites were solarians and each of them was on par with the stronger elites of the Supracloud Sanctuary. More of them would also come in time.

"Traitors and dogs of the celestial orderians, deactivate your formation and come out to face judgment!"

"You've embarrassed your ancestors! You aren't fit to be part of the Myriad Solar Sects!"

"Skyclouds, voidstags, lowly races like you can never be treated as our equals!"

"Come out to beg for forgiveness now and accept your punishment! Otherwise, we'll exterminate all of you to make an example once we break into your formation!"

Hundreds of thousands of people self-righteously cried out at them even though they knew that the Supracloud Sanctuary's actions had heavily benefited their side by cutting off a route of retreat for Li Wushuang's troops. They didn't think the act would absolve the Supracloud Sanctuary of their mistakes, however.

"We'll give you another ten breaths of time! If you stay cooped up, we'll attack! Don't force us to sentence you to an even harsher punishment!" The Northdipper Swordsage wanted to cripple the elite fighters of the Supracloud Sanctuary, softening them up for the Azuresoul Palace to eventually take over. If that went as planned, the skyclouds and voidstags would fall, marking the start of the slow death of their sect. It wasn't dissimilar to what had been done to the Xuanyuan Dragon Sect—a slow but sure genocide, justified in their minds by the horrid deeds of those they sought to wipe out. They didn't fear baseless karmic retaliation, only that their own righteous wills would notice the fundamental inconsistency in their actions and affect their future cultivation. After all, there were tens of millions of skyclouds and voidstags in the sect, and the decision to wipe them out wasn't one to be flippantly made.

"Come out!"

The Northdipper Swordsage, Wind Swordlord, Wu Lingcang, Wang Hong, Mu Qingqu, and the rest stood in front of the army of six hundred thousand, coldly watching the situation. All of that was within Tianming's expectations. It was the natural conclusion of Li Wushuang's defeat and retreat. The Supracloud Sanctuary had been the alliance's main target to begin with, as wiping them out would allow the Azuresoul Palace to take over the continent as a puppet of the swordsage. Eventually, the Gujian clan and House of Dongye would be driven out of the sect until it was nothing more than a true branch of the Empyrean Sword Sect, fully controlled by the stonesword race. The ambition of the swordsage had to be curbed no matter what; Tianming wanted the Azurecloud Continent to be his main base.

Yun Tianque and a hundred thousand cultivators appeared within the formation before the huge army. They tossed out the corpses of wargodeans for them to see. Then, all of them spoke in unison, "We of the Supracloud Sanctuary speak on behalf of the people of the Azurecloud Continent. We thank the alliance for sending aid and saving us from our plight!"

Those words came as a shock to those listening. "Yun Tianque, stop playing games. We're here to help the continent, not your sect. You betrayed us for the celestial orderians, serving outsiders and dishonoring the Myriad Solar Sects. We've come to exterminate you as an example. You have to pay the price for going against everything your ancestors and comrades stood for," said Wu Lingcang of the Divinemight Empire.

The crowd cheered when they heard his words, shaking the entire sect with their sheer volume. However, Yun Tianque didn't change his tune at all. "You claimed that we were killing those on our own side, so I expect you to give specific instances of when we did such a thing. Was it when the grade-eight divine herb appeared? Or was it when the Rain Swordlord died?"

Wu Lingcang was speechless, having no words to refute them. The entire time, nobody from the Supracloud Sanctuary had actually joined the fights.

"It's true that you weren't directly involved in the fights, but you are doubtlessly accountable for bringing the celestial orderians and the traitors that have joined them to the continent and thereby endangering it," Mu Qingqu said.

"Bringing them in? That's funny. The Supracloud Sanctuary isn't powerful enough to resist the pressures the wargodeans and Blueblood Starocean applied to us. Not to mention, nobody else came to our aid when they were forcing us to invite them in. Those two first-rate sects wanted the divine herbs of our continent for themselves. How can a second-rate sect like mine be expected to resist? We've been oppressed and used from the very beginning!

"You can't imagine the joy we felt when we heard that the alliance of the Myriad Solar Sects was finally here to save us. We even activated our formation to cut off the enemy's retreat, thereby aiding the alliance's army. We also killed many wargodeans, as you see here. We were so happy and just about to welcome your side with gratitude, yet you sent troops to our doorstep and threatened to annihilate us the moment you arrived. Such a heartless, cruel display has truly chilled us. Did we drive away a wolf only for a tiger to come? Are you after the divine herbs that we and my descendants have rightful claim to as compensation just like those outsiders and traitors?"

Yun Tianque's impassioned speech resonated with the countless members of his sect. Many of them even teared up. The key point was that his arguments were airtight and indisputable. There was nothing the alliance's army could say to refute his reasonable explanation. Not to mention, the goal they had in mind when all of them marched to the sect was far too blatant. The Northdipper Swordsage had been too reductive in his analysis—while it was true that victors wrote the history books, the true account of history would always remain, especially with so many witnesses to this event. That was exactly what Yun Tianque had been aiming for.

A commotion broke out on both sides. Even some from the alliance's army began to question whether their motivations were really no different from that of opportunistic bandits. The decision of the Supracloud Sanctuary to betray the celestial orderians had been the correct move to make. Otherwise, the alliance's army wouldn't even bother coming up with justifications and would have engaged in combat the moment they arrived.

Everyone turned to the swordsage, the light from the seven holes in his face illuminating Yun Tianque. "Yun Tianque, you claim that you were forced to cooperate under duress, but is there proof of that? As far as I know, you took the initiative to approach the Tumulus Pill God and Lan Sha at the Voidsky Realm, as many witnesses can attest to. You can't fool us. All you did here was change your mind when things got out of hand. Nobody believes that you were genuinely planning to cut ties with the celestial orderians."

"That's right!" the crowd shouted, glaring hatefully at Yun Tianque.

Unperturbed, Yun Tianque said, "Swordsage, I don't have any hard proof, but I do have witnesses who can show that we've stood with the Myriad Solar Sects from the very beginning!" They had been planning this from the very beginning. There was no way they would let anyone take away their divine herbs!