Fairy Lin's POV
Little Spring and I flew back toward the field in front of the sect. We lagged behind the elders who were already rushing into battle.
I sent a quick ssage to Pearlescent Rose and her band, informing her of the plan.
“We’re going into that ss?” She sounded shocked. “Wouldn’t it be better to let the two factions fight it out, then pick off whoever is left?”
Again? This sect’s disciples were so unimaginative with their tactics.
::Why do that when we have to make those orthodox sects indebted to us!::
”Now that sounds like a good ti. We’ll be there soon.”
Little Spring caught up to on his flying sword and tugged on my sleeve. ”Wait! Elder Linlin, can you stop sowhere and give Xiao Bai to ?”
I grimaced. “Do you have sowhere to put him where he’ll be safe?”
He opened his mouth, then frowned. ::The space is still locked, and I don’t have a real spatial tool for holding pets.::
Right, we decided against picking a real one up because they were too expensive and the kid’s space was superior.
I used my divine sense to scan the puppy. He was fine, rely drugged and asleep. “Just leave him. Nowhere is safe with those monsters fighting above us, and he’s not bothering .”
He frowned. ”I don’t think you even noticed he was there when you were in the eting.”
Shit. He was right. “I had other things to pay attention to.“
”The elders behind you were giving your back... looks.”
”What looks?!” I frowned.
A stray spear flew past . The loud crash as it plunged into the ground nearly blasted my eardrums out. Debris rained down on us.
Holy shit! With the addition of those Nascent Soul assholes, fighting in this war just beca incredibly dangerous.
Little Spring used a cleaning technique before I could. ”Never mind. It doesn’t matter. What I need to know is if I should bring my tagging team over to help?”
”No. We’re not kidnapping anyone, and they aren’t built for defense. Keep them out of this.”
“Then what about your protection unit or the puppeteers?”
”We’re going up against Nascent Soul and Golden Core stage cultivators. Having them support us is the sa as asking them to throw their lives away. I’m not doing it.”
He frowned. ”Then what can I do?”
“Stay in the back, away from the battle?” I glanced at the kid, hopeful he’d take the out I was giving him. Shit was about to get really dangerous.
He gestured with one hand to the powerhouses fighting above us. When a Nascent Soul cultivator threw another into the side of a nearby mountain, causing a massive amount of detritus to burst out, both his eyebrows raised for emphasis.
Ugh! He basically attacked with what I’d said about Xiao Bai, just without using words. It was very effective.
“Fine. Then hop on behind ! You’ll be my very important lucky charm.”
He scowled adorably. ”I can be more useful than that!”
I smiled evilly. “Of course you can, as long as you watch my back and stay alive!”
He jumped onto my flying sword, which I had expanded to accommodate him. He grabbed my shoulder. Our twin armors recognized our intentions and created a steadying force. The kid brought out his weapon with a flourish and stuck several defensive talismans on .
Dread Lotus’ voice sounded next to my ear. ”Band leader, Lotus and Thunder are in place and ready to go!”
Excellent! Muahahaha!
It looked like everyone had gathered behind the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect’s army. They were already on their flying swords. Our Golden Core seniors arrived just before us and took their places.
There were only three musicians who hadn’t joined up. Either they’d been too injured or too scared to co. Fortunately, we had enough players for what I planned to do.
We didn’t have a lot of ti, but I also couldn’t bring these students out there without letting them know how important this was. I sent a telepathic ssage to all of my band mbers. ::What we’re doing here is more than making those orthodox sects owe us. We’re fighting demonic cult bastards and their enslaved minions!
::For every one of them we help take down, that’s a million lives saved, and thousands avenged, including all the lives of your martial brothers and sisters who died to them in the past!::
::I’m not going to say that we’ll all make it out of this alive. With the seniors fighting above us, a stray attack could take us all out in an instant. It’s dangerous. But if we don’t do anything, they could obliterate us anyway!
::I’d rather help with what I can than hide in the back, hoping our seniors settle things for us. We’re better than that. And unlike others at our realm, we have the skills to do sothing!
::That’s also why I need you at your best. Better than you’ve ever played before.::
“For the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect!” Dread Lotus called.
“Roar!” Their voices echoed with a determination I’d never seen from them before.
This was revenge on multiple fronts. What cultivator couldn’t get behind that?
::We’ll start off with Counting Sheep. Rember that we’re playing the version that includes spaces for our Golden Core seniors. Our first objective is to take down the enslaved Nascent Souls. Our new Poison Sage can cure them when he’s free!::
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“What about the actual demonic cultivators?” Pearlesscent Rose asked.
I grinned. “If they’re in the way, take them down. Muahahaha!”
A few of my band mbers shared strange looks.
Whatever. “Let’s move out!”
I split my mind into four. One part focused on the formation while directing those who needed it, another on playing the song, a third on calculating oncoming attacks, and the last on dodging.
As soon as I lowered into place at the life gate, we started up the second version of Counting Sheep. Our energy stirred and concentrated like a tornado. While our previous battle formation was desinged to fight off large numbers of opponents, this was designed to take out one powerful enemy at a ti.
With our seniors joining us, our power had amplified along with our volu. Everyone’s voices sounded clear and in sync. My musicians put their shared experiences of surviving a battle into their performance, causing the warlike elents to increase.
I grinned. My little Dao of Rock students had improved. I was so proud of them!
While I guided us toward the fighting, their swords flew in the correct battle formation. Almost everyone was in the right spot!
I nudged the Directionally Challenged node back into position by sending a telepathic ssage to that damn Burning Wind.
Overhead, those higher than Golden Core fought. I had hoped that with Nascent Souls there it would have stopped the lower stages from participating, but the demonic cult had heavily infiltrated the two orthodox sects. They were here to collect life energy, even if they had to harvest it themselves.
From my observations, about ten percent of the low-realm orthodox cultivators wielded demonic powers. A few more percentages were probably in hiding and hadn’t revealed themselves yet. While there weren’t too many cult mbers in theory, the fact that they’d attacked in secret ant that their first strike took out around fifteen percent of their forces, leaving the remaining sect mbers confused and wary of each other.
I split my mind further just to monitor the ground enemies.
Fuck. There was too much to focus on!
The traditional instrunts from Pearlescent Rose’s band added a mystical sound to our lody, changing it beautifully. The energy the Golden Cores brought to it also decreased the ti it took to build up to a real illusion.
This flying band was built to succeed.
I aid for the closest Nascent Soul elder. He was fighting against Vengeful Siren and his MiaMia. His black and red robes showed his affiliation to the Leashed Claws sect, but he wasn’t using any of his beasts to fight. Instead, he sent out an illusory eagle to attack, along with a myriad of single-use spiritual weapons.
This one barrage would have cost their sect a small fortune if I hadn’t intervened with that Chi Qi Tan nonsense!
The energy of our music finished building, and a massive, real illusion of a single hyper-muscular lamb, wearing sunglasses, jumped into being above us. It darted onto the head of the enslaved elder, then stomped on it while turning in circles.
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The man slumped, then began to plumt. Just like we arranged after eting the elders, Vengeful Siren caught him and stuffed a poison pill into his mouth that would keep him asleep for hours.
MiaMia quickly flung the unconscious guy toward one of Doll Monarch’s puppets. She would bring him to a safe location. There, a volunteer poison master would confine him until Noxious was ready.
Actually, this sounded a lot like kidnapping. But I was absolutely not becoming a habitual kidnapper, so that ant it wasn’t.
“They did it! They actually took down a Nascent Soul!” Little Spring slapped his mouth as if shocked that he had said that out loud.
::Wait... did you think we couldn’t do it?!::
::... Of course not! You’re Fairy Lin! How could I, your martial brother, doubt that you could take out a Nascent Soul expert so swiftly?::
Fucking brat. ::Don’t sound so surprised. We’re just getting started!::
Our muscular lamb jumped toward our next enemy, a demonic cultivator dressed in green and gold. The man raised his hand while focused on a Harmonious Sound Sect Elder, who bent over and coughed up a disturbing amount of blood.
Thousands of evil swords ford in front of the cult mber. Light warped around them like a pink and black mirage.
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Pressure from this technique even reached us. Several of our weaker musicians dropped to their knees. Their fellow node mbers helped them stay in formation.
The Harmonious Sound Sect elder wiped the blood off his lips and glared.
The demonic cultist smirked and started to send his hand forward. That was when our muscular lamb hopped onto his head and danced in a circle.
His eyes rolled back, and he dropped. His evil swords vanished.
The elder he was fighting against realized that this was his chance. He sent a powerful sound Qi technique at him in the form of a shreiking arrow. It shot through his dantian and tore his soul apart, killing the fucker. When his extra souls tried to escape, the elder shot them as well.
He nodded to us and Vengeful Siren before we all moved on.
::Sister Lin! That was incredible! You’re making taking down Nascent Souls look easy!::
::... You did not just say that!::
::What? Why are you angry?::
I needed to have a conversation about raising flags with this brat.
::Nevermind. If you want to help, then focus on those ground attacks. I’ve been avoiding them but…::
::On it!::
Our lamb was about to reach another enslaved Nascent Soul’s head when Icy Lotus Flower sent a powerful barrage of zither sounds towards it. Each note thundered into our real illusion, countering our song. The sheep let out a silent baa before dramatically exploding into golden dust.
Damn. I thought she was attacking Resentful Shadow Snake with her boyfriend.
She glared down at us with a mocking sneer as if daring us to do to her what we’d already done to several other Nascent Soul cultivators.
::Senior Vengeful Siren, this would be a good ti to step in.::
“I’ll get to you when I can!” He and his MiaMia were fending off attacks from the Peak Nascent Soul elder we’d been aiming at.
Shit. He had been expecting us to knock that guy out. Now he was stuck fighting him all by himself.
::Brother Wrathful Waterspout, my band needs backup!::
No response. Either he’d been taken down, or he was too preoccupied with his own fight.
The other elders I reached out to were the sa.
Fuck. This was bad. From her one attack, I knew that Icy Lotus Flower was the absolute worst enemy we could go up against. Not only was she powerful, but she was good enough to counter our song!
If we couldn’t get help, then we’d have to take care of her ourselves! And we needed to be quick about it.
::Everyone, play The Angry Song of Sleep, now!::
With our Golden Core seniors empowering us, we created a massive, real illusion of a pocket watch. It lood above Icy Lotus Flower before it began to fall on top of her.
Instead of trying to escape, she plucked the strings of her zither, playing notes that exactly contradicted our own. It was like we were simultaneously playing the call and response of a song. Unfortunately, her response was way the fuck stronger.
The clock turned into harmless smoke before it reached her.
When it cleared, we stared at each other.
Goddamn it! I had been worried about a genius who would counter a song after hearing it once. She was that damn genius!
I didn’t have much hope, but we couldn’t stop at this point. At the very least, I had to buy ti for Vengeful Siren to finish up and help us.
::Next song!::
We started playing Enter Sleep, but before the real illusion of a sandstorm even appeared, she played the reverse of it, stopping our attack.
That was it. We were out of songs. And we were in the middle of the battlefield as a huge fucking target.
As if mocking us for being weak, she plucked her zither and sent sound Qi arrows down at us. I used my control of the band to dodge, but Burning Wind from Directionally Challenged wasn’t where he was supposed to be. A sound arrow hit him, causing his body to vanish from the node.
Red Fire Screaming Vigor had been nearby. I didn’t know if he’d been grazed or killed outright, but he also dropped from the formation.
No! Damn it. I’d spent every day for the past two weeks working with these guys. I saw how they improved. How they looked forward to learning more about the Dao of Rock. And now they were just gone.
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