The Undying Immortal System Chapter 463 – Life 119, Age 27, Martial Grandmaster 5

Not long after we were tasked with eliminating Blackblade Hall, the Bureau dispatched ssengers to every sect in the region, informing them of the Hall’s betrayal. This gave the Hall’s vassals an opening to formally sever ties and defect. Those who did were recognized as fully independent organizations. Those who didn’t were added to the list of enemy combatants.

Our primary mission was to seize the Hall’s stronghold on Pale Mist Mountain. However, marching there directly would have taken us deep into enemy territory and put us at risk of being surrounded with no ans of escape. I could have sidestepped this issue by using a temporary reset point as our path of retreat, but that would have only taught our people bad habits. Therefore, we instead started our campaign by targeting the Hall’s loyal vassals, opening up a safe path into the heart of the Hall's territory.

First on the list was the Hidden Saber Sect, a small Eight-Star force that was nestled in a secluded valley only a few dozen kiloters from our stronghold. After we destroyed the Silent Saber Sect, the Hidden Saber Sect beca the Hall’s eyes and ears for the territories around Whistling Arrow City. They had been watching us far too closely in recent years, so removing them was our highest priority.

Since the strongest cultivators in the Hidden Saber Sect weren’t even Peak Masters, this attack allowed us to give our youths their first taste of battle in a risk-free environnt. So, as we approached, our older mbers fell back, while our newer mbers moved to the front.

The Hidden Saber Sect’s valley was a narrow cut in the mountains, its steeply-sloped walls banded with old training terraces. Each gust of wind was filled with the sharp scent of steel mixed with the pungent odor of an outhouse. At the bottom of the valley, a cluster of crude canvas tents sat within the decaying remains of a wooden palisade.

The valley had two entrances, one at either end. YuLong proposed splitting our forces to seal both exits and trap everyone inside, but I vetoed this idea. Even a rabbit will bite when desperate, so it was better to leave our opponent a ans of escape. Besides, we didn’t need to eradicate the entire sect. We just needed to remove them as a potential threat.

HaoRong had chosen Suba LengMu, a Peak Disciple, to lead our vanguard of twenty warriors. Upon seeing the state of the sect’s encampnt, LengMu ordered an imdiate charge, driving his troops straight into the illusion formation at the valley’s entrance.

The mont all twenty of these youths were immobilized, mbers of the Hidden Saber Sect appeared from nearby outcropping and began pelting them with stones and arrows. Our people’s refined robes kept these projectiles from breaking skin, but the formations on these robes only redirected force away from the wearer’s head. Their bodies still had to absorb the impact of every blow.

When LengMu’s group began to falter, two other squads rushed forward to save them, but they only ended up getting themselves trapped in a second layer of illusion formations.

Less than five minutes into the battle, forty of our people were already incapacitated.

Thankfully, the Master that Kan had put in command of our main force wasn’t quite so reckless. He brought forward a team of crafters and ordered them to scan the battlefield with qi vision, searching for the source of the illusions. Then, he unleashed a volley of long-range attacks and shattered the formation nodes from a safe distance.

This might have worked, but our crafters were too young. Their qi vision still needed ti to develop. They were able to detect active formations, but their sight wasn’t sharp enough to pick out dormant nodes. As a result, several more troops blundered into newly activated illusions before the crafters realized what was happening.

Still, the commander’s slow, steady approach kept additional losses to a minimum. And, as the rain of attacks destroyed one formation node after the next, everyone was soon able to rejoin the fight.

When it beca clear the ambush was a failure, the hidden attackers made their exit, rushing deeper into the valley before our forces had a chance to chase after them.

As the final illusion fell away, our view of the valley shifted, and the truth revealed itself. The landscape remained largely unchanged, but the sect’s encampnt stretched outward, becoming large enough to accommodate more than a hundred people. Instead of being ringed by a simple wooden palisade, it was now surrounded by a thick stone wall.

Chastened by his earlier blunder, Suba LengMu didn’t rush to et this new threat. He eased his vanguard forward step by step, careful not to trigger another trap.

Nearing the stone wall, LengMu confird the presence of a robust Rank 2 defensive formation. Given enough ti, we could have ground this barrier down through brute force, but that would have drained our people and left us open to a counterattack.

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LengMu instead signaled for his troops to withdraw. Then, he produced a Barrier Breaking Talisman from his storage bag, injected it with a thread of qi, and flung it at the formation.

Seconds later, the Rank 3 talisman detonated, concentrating the full force of a Peak Grandmaster’s attack on an area the size of a pin. This instantly overloaded the formation nodes, causing them to shatter into shards of flying stone.

As the barrier dissipated, the Hidden Saber Sect poured out of its encampnt like a hive of angry bees. None showed any trace of restraint, only a desire to slaughter those who had trespassed upon their sanctuary.

We could have used our own formations to suppress these people. We could have taken them prisoner and sent them back to Whistling Arrow City for trial. But to what end?

The mbers of the Hidden Saber Sect were clearly suffering from cultivation madness, but were supposed to nurture and rehabilitate everyone who wanted to attack us? We only had two months to take down Blackblade Hall. How much of that were we supposed to spend carting prisoners back and forth to the Bureau? No, whether mad or not, these people were traitors, and there was only one end for such people.

At the commander’s signal, our main force surged forward, and guandaos scythed through the crowd, harvesting lives with every sweep.

Even as their comrades fell by the dozen, not a single mber of the Hidden Saber Sect showed any sign of surrender. Watching their closest friends get cut down only sent them into a frenzy. They threw themselves at us with even greater force, driven onward by whatever madness the sect had instilled in them.

As the rank and file of the Hidden Saber Sect t their end, I noticed that not a single mber of the sect’s leadership was among them. There were a few Martial Masters, but none wore the robes of an elder. There weren’t even any deacons. It quickly beca apparent that the sect’s strongest mbers had already fled. These were only the dregs that had been left behind to slow us down.

This put what we were doing into context—for , and for everyone in our sect sharp enough to notice it. However, it didn’t change what had to be done.

Once our opponents were dealt with, I used a cheap spirit fire that I had purchased from the Bureau to reduce their bodies to pure energy, cleaning up the site of the battle as efficiently as possible.

Our sect’s disciples had taken their share of hard hits, but JiuLi’s robes had kept them alive. They wouldn’t have been so fortunate had our opponents been carrying higher-grade weaponry, but that was why we had attacked in the first place. It gave our people a chance to learn the dangers of war without needing to suffer its consequences.

While I dealt with the Hidden Saber Sect’s remains, YuLong had our people begin installing formation stones throughout the encampnt.

These weren’t defensive formations. They were a series of crude illusions that ng LuYao had designed to make the valley uninhabitable. They amplified every odor, then shifted the mixture every few minutes, preventing noses from adapting to the foul stench. They made shadows shift in the corner of every eye, giving the impression that hidden predators were lurking behind every turn. This ensured that no one would want to spend much ti in this valley, removing it as a potential threat.

Once everything was in place, we regrouped and moved on to the next sect.

Our second target was the Whirling Blades Syndicate, which occupied a valley similar to the Hidden Saber Sect’s forr refuge. However, instead of protecting their valley with illusions, the Whirling Blades Syndicate had chosen to line the approach with layers of attack formations. Stepping into range of these formations ant being cut apart by an endless stream of saber qi.

When a few of our brasher mbers realized that these formations couldn’t cut through our refined robes, they charged forward recklessly, intent on crushing the Syndicate with one swift blow.

This earned them a severe tongue-lashing from YuLong. After all, while the first layer of formations was harmless, there was no telling what the next might bring. And, even if none of the Syndicate’s formations were powerful enough to harm us, charging through attack formations was the kind of habit that eventually got people killed.

That said, the Syndicate went down quickly, and we were soon off to face our next target: Shadowstring Lodge, which specialized in bow techniques.

The Lodge’s formations turned out to be purely defensive in nature. Instead of attacking us directly, they were designed to hold us in place while the Lodge’s archers brought us down from afar. Sadly for them, no one on our side made any overt blunders this ti, and their formations weren’t able to withstand the power of our Barrier Breaking Talismans.

Over the following month, we marched from one sect to the next. So of these sects had hundreds of mbers, while others had only a handful. However, no matter how powerful the opponent, we didn’t overwhelm them with our numbers or cultivation bases. Kan and YuLong sent in only as many troops as necessary, treating each engagent as an important training exercise.

With each sect we took down, our people grew more confident and competent. They learned to accurately assess each situation before diving in, and they stopped trying to prove themselves through reckless stunts.

The only concerning bit was that the sa pattern repeated itself wherever we went: none of the sect’s leaders were ever present, and the disciples that had been left behind always ended up rushing at us in an unthinking rage.

By the ti we arrived at Pale Mist Mountain, I fully understood why YuLong had been so frustrated when dealing with the Li Clan. We had taken out hundreds of enemy cultivators, but not one of them had been of any importance. The real targets had all slipped away before we had even arrived.

When Pale Mist Mountain finally ca into view, though, I smiled. We were done chasing phantoms.

The mountain was ringed with rows of temporary encampnts, and it bristled with all the spears and sabers that had eluded us over the past month. The ssage was clear: Blackblade Hall didn’t intend to relinquish their spirit stone mine without a fight.