Unsheathed

Inside the Jia Shen Tent, Sword Cultivator Yu Si stepped inside, and apart from Li Zhen, the gazes of everyone else immediately focused on him.

”How did it go?” Mu Ji asked.

Yu Si smiled and replied, ”Not bad. I can confirm he’s a sword cultivator and not some Confucian disciple cultivating righteous aura or whatnot. However, his sword techniques are extremely profound and mystical.”

After saying this, Yu Si raised his arm, which radiated a faint aura of blood. ”Do you see this? My Dao robe isn’t damaged at all.”

Yu Si then rolled up his sleeves, and his arm that was initially wrapped in several sheets of golden paper had already become bloody and mangled. He chuckled in anger and revealed, ”I was fortunate to have some defensive treasures. Otherwise, I would have been severely wounded by this person’s elusive sword intent if I weren’t directly killed.”

”How did Liu Xianyang launch his sword attacks?” Mu Ji asked.

Yu Si shook his head and replied, ”I apologize, but I genuinely don’t know how he launched his sword strikes. It was silent and undetectable, and it struck me out of nowhere... If I had to make a comparison, it would be like getting goosebumps after being glanced at by some senior.”

Mu Ji furrowed his brows and asked, ”Is it because Liu Xianyang’s sword qi is too quick? So quick that it can pierce through the river of time without even causing the slightest of ripples? For example, Qi Shou has broken through recently, and his flying sword called Heartstring possesses a bonded mystical ability wherein it’s able to greatly minimize the natural obstruction that the river of time has on flying swords, allowing it to become incredibly quick. Or perhaps Liu Xianyang’s bonded flying sword is even more peculiar than this?”

”Great Sword Immortal Han Huaizi from the Northern Complete Reed Continent and Liu Jinglong, the newest sword immortal of the Great Emblem Sword Sect, also possess exceptionally strange and mystical flying swords,” the young woman said. ”Even though we don’t know the names of these flying swords, we know that they’re widely regarded as being close to Dao.”

Yu Si smiled and shook his head vigorously. He shook his wounded arm, and he felt slightly pained about the destruction of his golden talismans. ”His cultivation base likely isn’t very high, and he’s certainly not an Upper Five Tier sword immortal. It’s simply that his sword technique is far too strange.”

A messenger flying sword arrived at the Jia Shen Tent.

A smile spread across Mu Ji’s face after he read the secret letter. In fact, a slight smile appeared on the faces of everyone inside the Jia Shen Tent.

Mu Ji stood up and walked around the study desk, holding his index finger and middle finger together to draw a circle. A hovering scroll measuring approximately three meters long appeared inside the large military tent.

”The Gui Wei Tent has already delivered intelligence reports to all of the other military tents,” Mu Ji said in a solemn voice. ”This is an illustration of the Sword Qi Great Wall’s defensive distribution, and the letter records and marks out the rough responsibilities of each Upper Five Tier sword immortal, as well as some relatively permanent postings.

”In addition to this, there are also detailed records specifically relating to the Nascent Tier sword cultivators who are able to guard a section of the great wall by themselves, as well as relating to those Golden Core Tier sword cultivators who possess remarkable destructive power. There are also some individual notes related to those young and prodigious Dragon Gate Tier and Sea Observation Tier sword cultivators, such as Ning Yao and her companions.”

Mu Ji started to list out the names of the most important sword immortals and sword cultivators, as well as what sections of the great wall they were defending and what their specific responsibilities were. Each time he said a name, the young woman would write it down on the hovering scroll in extremely small characters. Fortunately, those in the Jia Shen Tent were all demon cultivators with extremely good eyesight. Even if their cultivation bases weren’t very high, they would be able to focus their gazes and clearly see the characters on the scroll, regardless of how tiny the characters were.

The names on the scroll were separated into three colors: gold, vermilion, and black. These colors corresponded respectively to Upper Five Tier sword immortals, Nascent Tier sword immortals, and all Middle Five Tier sword cultivators, including those at the Golden Core Tier.

”The names here represent the most important sword immortals and sword cultivators. This is true even for those seemingly unremarkable names written in black. In fact, the lower their cultivation base, the more we need to find an opportunity to kill them,” Mu Ji stressed.

”Then I’ll use the gold ink to circle those special names?” the young woman suggested.

Mu Ji nodded and said, ”Go ahead. For example, there’s Sword Immortal Guo Jia’s daughter, Guo Zhujiu. There’s also Gao Yehou’s younger sister, Gao Youqing.”

The top ten paramount cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall were all listed on the hovering scroll. In addition to them, there were also the many great sword immortals such as Great Sword Immortal Yue Qing, Clan Leader Yao Lianyun, the Northern Complete Reed Continent’s Han Huaizi, and Guest Elder Li Tuimi of the Yan Clan.

It wasn’t that the great demons of the Savage World hadn’t considered these fine details in the past when launching assaults on the Sword Qi Great Wall. Rather, it was the case that their plans could never keep up with the changes.

This time, the Savage World had sixty military tents, including the Jia Shen Tent, which represented close to five thousand demon cultivators. There were military tents like the Jia Shen Tent that were only responsible for their own sections of the battlefield, but more of the military tents needed to provide assistance and work together to achieve some greater goal.

The Jia Shen Tent was relatively special, given that it had a very large number of innate sword talents who had the potential to become sword immortals in the future. Because of this, there was no need for the Jia Shen Tent to divide its attention and focus on other matters. Inside the tent were Li Zhen from Holding Moon Mountain, Bei Qie, Tun Tan, Yu Si, and the young female sword cultivator, Liu Bai. There were only one hundred innate sword talents in the Savage World, and just the Jia Shen Tent alone was already housing five of them. It clearly couldn’t house any more than this.

The other military tents had additional tasks and responsibilities. For example, the Gui Wei Tent needed to keep an eye on the movements of the most powerful sword cultivators at the Sword Qi Great Wall. At the same time, they needed to record the sword strikes of each sword immortal on the great wall, as well as why these sword immortals had launched attacks, whom they had targeted with these attacks, how much power they had put into these attacks, what the destructive power of these attacks was like, and whether or not they had broken through to the next tier.

Most importantly, and most difficult of all, they needed to determine whether these sword immortals were purposely concealing their strength. If the answer was positive, they needed to pay extra attention to these sword immortals to see whether they remained so ”polite” when they launched attacks in the future.

If this were confirmed, it would verify the sword immortals’ sincerity, and in turn, the demon tribe would reduce the number of soldiers deployed to the relevant battlefields by the relevant military tents. They would slightly reduce the ferocity of the attacks, but definitely not to a degree that would be easily noticeable.

Otherwise, if the two opposing sides reached a tacit agreement, but this was discovered by the Sword Qi Great Wall, then Chen Qingdu’s temper was such that the offending sword immortals would definitely suffer terrible fates. Once Chen Qingdu executed a sword immortal to make an example, who else would dare to secretly assist the Savage World?

Elsewhere, the Xin Mao Tent was responsible for the specific deployments of all Upper Five Tier cultivators in the demon tribe’s army, assigning these cultivators to the various military tents and their corresponding battlefields.

The Geng Yin Tent was responsible for supply and replenishment, and the Yi Wei Tent was responsible for the replenishment and reinforcement of troops, directing them to the correct locations behind the battlefield to set up camps and provide reinforcements as required. At the same time, the Yi Wei Tent would also identify the most suitable battle fronts to advance along.

As for why most of the Savage World’s paramount great demons were missing apart from a select few, this was partially because there was temporarily no need for these powerful beings to help out on the battlefield, and partially because they were actually very busy as well.

Mobilizing half of the Savage World’s power to attack the Sword Qi Great Wall was something that the demon tribe had never done before in its history. Moreover, there were many unruly territorial forces behind the battlefield, and not all of them were willing to obediently listen to the commands of the paramount great demons.

Some extremely powerful great demons failed to observe and understand the situation, so the only option was to forcefully subdue them. There were also many demons that acted obediently on the surface, but actually concealed their strength in secret. Most troublesome of all were the clashes and internal conflicts that took place between fellow demons.

There was even a group of sword immortals that didn’t act like upstanding and righteous sword immortals, and they were completely unwilling to properly launch their sword strikes on the battlefield. Instead, they transformed themselves into sinister assassins, especially targeting the generals who were leading armies to the battlefield in the north, inhibiting the many demon armies marching to the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Things would become nightmarishly difficult when sword immortals were hellbent on leaving immediately after assassinating their targets. Defeating a sword immortal and killing a sword immortal were two completely different concepts — the gulf between them was like the gulf between heaven and earth.

Why did the Jia Shen Tent still want to kill Chen Ping’an even though they were keenly aware that he was acting as bait? This was because Chen Ping’an hadn’t just defeated Li Zhen, but he had actually managed to kill Li Zhen. He would become a huge thorn if he were allowed to live and mature, so it was worth the Jia Shen Tent taking a gamble and deploying an Upper Five Tier sword cultivator.

However, their intelligence had been lacking at the time, and they had failed to accurately assess the sword techniques and destructive ability of Sword Immortal Xie Songhua from the Pure White Continent. As a result, the Jia Shen Tent had failed to kill Chen Ping’an, and they had even paid a huge price for their attempt. Mu Ji resolutely took responsibility for this failure, even if doing so might cost him the opportunity to receive a bestowed surname from Holding Moon Mountain and record his name in the genealogical records. Mu Ji didn’t regret his decisions at all.

Death was inevitable in war. This was no game, and the number of deaths would only continue to climb until it reached eye-watering figures. However, things would be cast in a positive light if victory were achieved, and everything could be rectified and made up for in a casual manner. If defeat were handed down, in contrast, then it would be difficult to say who the owner of the Savage World would be in the future.

The Savage World was larger than the Majestic World by approximately two Northern Complete Reed Continents. Contrary to its large size, however, the Savage World could somewhat be viewed as an empty and desolate shell compared to the wealthy and flourishing Majestic World. The lands of the Savage World were barren and unable to produce many crops and materials.

Even though the Savage World indeed possessed some unique advantages, these were far inferior compared to those possessed by its neighbor. These differences were ginormous, but they were a result of comparing one large world to another large world.

In any case, the demon tribe was extremely quick at reproducing and expanding. In addition, cultivators from the demon tribe were almost free from the constraints of virtue and morality.

Of course, there were also some humongous empires that ruled over vast stretches of land, with some of this land so fertile that many other forces coveted it. There were also many treasured lands with abundant spiritual energy, and it was said that some of these treasured lands were no inferior to the blessed lands in the Majestic World and the Heavenly World.

Yu Si took a swig of low-quality wine before wiping his mouth and saying with a smile, ”I also stole a few glances at Chen Ping’an when I was on the battlefield, and just like Tun Tan said, he’s a very sly person. He’s a very difficult opponent to come up against.”

”He’s suffered a fall in his cultivation base, and he isn’t an innate sword talent either, so it’s naturally a big stretch for him to launch many attacks right now,” Li Zhen said. ”It was largely thanks to Liu Xianyang and Qi Shou’s help that he could defend his stretch of the great wall. Even so, he’s most skilled at analyzing the destructive power of his own flying swords, his enemies’ combat power, and the finer details on the battlefield. He’s also exceptionally skilled at fighting battles of attrition.”

”We need to have an overwhelming advantage if we want to target this person,” Liu Bai said.

”Then how about we try to surround him as a group?” Mu Ji suggested. ”Li Zhen will be our main offensive, Yu Si will bring up the rear and keep things under control, and Tun Tan will be responsible for identifying weak points and launching opportune attacks. As for whether or not this will work, we won’t know unless we try.”

”Let me take Li Zhen’s place,” Bei Qie suddenly said.

Li Zhen’s expression became dark.

”This is an instruction from my master,” Bei Qie added.

Only after hearing this did Li Zhen’s expression improve.

Casting one’s gaze over the paramount great demons of the Savage World, even renowned and domineering rulers such as Skeletal Great Demon Bai Ying and the owner of Elite Cavalry River would face large amounts of criticism.

Bei Qie’s master was one of the few mighty figures who were easier to see in person, and this was because he traveled around the world all year long, belonging to no sect and having no permanent residence. However, he faced very few criticisms, and at most, demons would accuse him of refusing to fight for the Savage World even though he possessed such paramount power.

The demons said that if he had been willing to participate in the wager of thirteen battles back then, there would have been no need for the two large-scale assaults on the Sword Qi Great Wall afterward.

However, Bei Qie’s master had bluntly refused to participate.

Two great demons had perished after breaking their vows, and some disciples of their sects had descended into insanity, shockingly seeking Bei Qie’s master out to exact revenge.

Bei Qie’s master didn’t even draw his blade, and it was said that he had casually killed the leading Unpolished Jade Tier demon with a single punch. Indeed, he had easily hammered the foolish demon to death with just a single punch.

Bei Qie had still been a young and bastard sword cultivator back then, and he had used his sword to kill the remaining demon cultivators one after another. Only a few measly ants were spared and allowed to flee back to their sects, delivering news of their overwhelming defeats. Afterward, they had rushed back over with some other cultivators to apologize to Bei Qie’s master. In the end, two Unpolished Jade Tier demons had served as subordinates to Bei Qie and his master for many years, often helping Bei Qie to train and spar.

The principles in the Savage World had always been very direct and simple: Might was right.

If the Savage World had its own official history books, then each and every page would most definitely be exuding strong auras of violence and bloodshed.

Many forces had worked hard to be on the verge of forming powerful nations and empires, yet a large number of them had been wantonly crushed and annihilated by powerful and eccentric great demons. Many capitals that reflected the blood, sweat, and tears of several generations of rulers were transformed into ruins overnight, with the palaces and streets transforming into seas of blood.

For example, the six trusted generals of Skeletal Great Demon Bai Ying all liked to reduce entire nations into mass graves, turning their populations into skeletal puppets. Afterward, they would raise these puppets and pit them against each other, watching their numbers dwindle until some usable talents were nurtured.

Only sword cultivators, regardless of their cultivation base, were fortunate enough to be spared from these mysterious calamities.

This was a rule established by Holding Moon Mountain.

Sword cultivators in the Savage World were similar to scholarly talents in the Majestic World, and one could even argue that the former were more protected and pampered than the latter.

This was actually very strange, since the common enemy of the Savage World was those sword cultivators from the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Regardless of how the Savage World attacked the great wall, and no matter how many times they suffered bruising defeats, they were still willing to feel a sense of sincere respect toward the sword immortals and sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

This didn’t stop them from being ruthless on the battlefield.

After leaving the battlefield, demon cultivators who had personally been involved in the brutal battles might feel unbridled resentment at the mention of sword immortals from the Sword Qi Great Wall, but they would never slander or abuse these enemy sword immortals.