Chapter 152: Going to War
In response to Sir Bloodsmelter’s praise, Master Seventh smiled faintly. He didn’t say anything, but he did clasp hands and bow again.
The patriarch, his face made up of countless streams of blood in midair, shifted his smiling gaze from Master Seventh to the capital city below. Given how high he was in the air, and the level of his cultivation base, it seemed like all the disciples in the sect were fixed in his mind. As he looked at them, he spoke in words that boomed like thunder.
“Based on the existing agreement, peaklords and elders are required to fight in this war. However, it is not so with Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation. I know that you have reached your state of cultivation due to your own hard work; though the sect may have provided some bit of help, it wasn’t much.
“Therefore, you will not be required to participate in this. But those of you who do wish to participate, you may choose missions that are appropriate to your own abilities and style. Therefore, disciples of Seven Blood Eyes, who is willing to fight?”
Throughout Seven Blood Eyes, all disciples in the fifth level of Qi Condensation and higher felt their identity medallions vibrate as information poured into them regarding the profits that were up for grabs.
Seeing all that, Xu Qing took out his identity medallion to check the information.
“Those who go to war will be compensated according to the level of their cultivation base. There is an initial payment of compensation for anyone who participates. Those in the fifth level of Qi Condensation will receive 500 spirit stones. That number will increase with each level to the great circle of Qi Condensation, which will be rewarded with 3,000 spirit stones. Foundation Establishment compensation starts at 100,000 spirit stones, and goes up to 500,000 for the great circle. Once you agree to go to war, you may not leave the fighting until the war is over. However, you’re free to accept whatever missions you want.”
When Xu Qing saw the initial payment just for joining the war effort, he felt excited. It meant he could instantly get his hands on 100,000 spirit stones, which was no small amount of wealth.
“During the war, missions will be handed down from the peaklords to the elders. The elders will then distribute the missions for any disciple from any peak to take. The rewards for the missions are incredible.
“Any valuables you acquire, whether during a mission, or not during a mission, are yours to keep, and you don’t need to report them!
“After the war is over, the sect will carry out a comprehensive analysis of the efforts of everyone who participated, and will distribute the final loot accordingly.
“Seazombie souls are particularly effective for our sect’s Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture. You’ll understand when you use them!
“So, who is willing to go to war?”
Considering the base pay for participating in the war, it was easy to imagine the astonishing possibilities with the missions.
Seeing the message, Xu Qing was shaken. After all, he was suffering from a severe lack of spirit stones. After buying all the magical devices and poisonous plants he needed, he only had enough spirit stones for daily expenses. He knew full well how important spirit stones were for cultivation. If he had 10,000,000 spirit stones, then he could post his own missions, and have hordes of sect cultivators go hunting for Foundation Establishment sea beasts to bring him. In fact, with enough spirit stones, he could hire elders to help him. In that case, opening 30 dharma apertures would be a lot easier.
And if he had an even larger amount of spirit stones, he could forget the elders and just upgrade his dharmaskiff to a dharmaship, and then as long as he avoided anything too dangerous, he could dominate entire swathes of the Forbidden Sea.
The rewards being offered during this war were extremely enticing. That was especially true considering how effective seazombie souls were. Xu Qing had already experienced that himself, and it only added to the temptation. After all, he was already the type of person who could slaughter enemies decisively. After thinking about it for a while, he made his decision.
As the cultivators saw the details, their eyes lit up with excitement and hope. Before long, voices began to ring out from within the capital city and the mountain peaks.
“I’ll go to war!”
“I’ll go to war!!”
As the cries echoed in the sect, figures flew out from both the city and the peaks and stopped to hover in midair. They included Foundation Establishment cultivators, and also Offpeak Qi Condensation disciples in the fifth level and higher who had flight talismans.
Of the roughly 1,000 Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Seven Peaks, about seventy percent chose to participate. Together, they formed a massive force whose energy fluctuations caused winds to scream in the area, and the sea to surge violently.
Of course, numerous elders appeared to stand next to the peaklords from their respective peaks. In the capital city, there were too many Qi Condensation cultivators to count. Some chose to go to war, others chose to simply see how things played out.
After all, disciples in the fifth level of Qi Condensation or higher were not people who just sat around idly.
“Activate the grand spell formation,” Sir Bloodsmelter said, “and connect the teleportation line to the Merfolk Isles!”
All of Seven Blood Eyes trembled as the seven huge eyes on the mountain peaks emitted bizarre light that covered the entire sect. The grand spell formation was activating.
Within the identity medallions of all the disciples, there was more than just mission information. There was also a general outline of the sect’s battle strategy. Apparently, the sect wasn’t worried about the details being leaked.
The Merfolk Isles were to be the frontline base of operations. Any Seven Blood Eyes cultivators who wished to join the war effort would simply affirm through their identity medallion that they were participating. The spell formation would then teleport them to the Merfolk Isles.
For one thing, this would ensure that the battlefield would be far from Seven Blood Eyes. Also, the Merfolk Isles occupied a strategic location, being halfway between the sect and the Seazombies.
During the Grand Competition, the sect concealed the fact that they were going to the Merfolk Isles. Then, by taking advantage of the patriarch’s breakthrough, they sowed chaos among the enemy and caught the Seazombies completely unaware. As a result, they easily took the islands. That was really the first part of the overall battle strategy. The second part was to quell any resistance from the Seazombies who remained in the Merfolk Isles. The first part of the strategy had been a clever scheme. The second part was not.
“Warriors, advance!” Sir Bloodsmelter collapsed into innumerable terrifying red streams of light that shot into the spell formation and disappeared.
The five peaklords followed.
Next came the elders, and finally, the seven hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators. Bristling with baleful aura, they disappeared into the teleportation.
Xu Qing was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but he wasn’t the first one to teleport away. He was watching the city. Although there were people staying behind to guard the capital, the place already looked a lot emptier than normal. Though the place was protected by the spell formation, it was still in a precarious state.
That said, his time in Seven Blood Eyes had left him the impression that every member of the sect was a profound schemer, so he doubted the patriarch and peaklords would be negligent when it came to the sect headquarters.
I bet Seven Blood Eyes has secret reserve powers that nobody knows about. In fact, I wonder if the city and the sect headquarters are actually being left vulnerable as a trap to lure in an unsuspecting enemy.
After some thought, he looked at the grand spell formation, eyes glittering. Raising his identity medallion, he thought, I’ll go to war!
Light from the spell formation shot down and surrounded him. Then he vanished. As similar beams of light shot down into the city, numerous disciples disappeared as they were teleported away. It seemed unlikely that such a large number of teleportation lights would appear again in the city anytime soon.
***
Out on the Forbidden Sea, a blanket of spell formation light also covered the Merfolk Isles.
The formation obviously had defensive properties, and it was linked to the formation in the sect headquarters. This was how the disciples were teleporting in. Fierce fighting was already underway in the air above all four islands. The sea was covered with surging waves and thick water vapor, which also emanated the sounds of fighting. It was possible to see some of the fighters. There were Merfolk cultivators fighting Seazombies!
After being crushed in the Grand Competition, the Merfolk had been forced to fully acknowledge allegiance to Seven Blood Eyes. And now they were serving as the first wave of fighters in the war. However, the fighting didn’t seem as intense as it could be.
The four islands that made up the Merfolk Isles all had unusual non-Merfolk structures on them. They were towers, all of them glittering as blue lightning crackled on them. That lightning connected to the other towers on the other islands, so that all four islands were linked. There were also huge magical devices that had been installed on the islands, which were capable of launching shocking magical techniques onto the battlefield.
There were also spell formations active on the islands. At regular intervals, magical symbols would appear in the air above them, then sink into the ground, stabilizing the spell formations.
There were simple residence structures that had been erected in various locations. On Nethervault Island, massive amounts of mutagen had been collected into the shape of a nine-headed snake, apparently to be used as a mount.
The volcanoes on Meegah Island had also been altered by Seven Blood Eyes, and their eruptions caused massive amounts of terrifying force to roll out in all directions.
On Emiche Island, a huge lake of swords had been carved out of the surface of the island, filled with swords that were currently gathering power. That was clearly the work of the First Peak, and when it was unleashed, the result would be astonishing.
The biggest changes were to Joine Island. The island now had a huge eye on it that took up about seventy percent of the island. Looking at it closely, it actually resembled the huge eyes on top of the mountain peaks back in the sect. As the eye blinked, it sent out information into the identity medallions of all the cultivators in the area.
When Xu Qing arrived, he was in the air over Meegah Island. Looking around, he saw the Merfolk Isles and all the dramatic changes to them. Shaken, he looked off into the distance, where Sir Bloodsmelter and the five peaklords could be seen above Joine Island.
Bowing in front of Sir Bloodsmelter were the other two peaklords who hadn’t been present in the sect. One of them was an old woman, standing atop a spell formation chart that seemed to contain tens of thousands of spell formations. The other was an old man with a grim facial expression. He didn’t seem imposing at all, as if there was a bitterness within him that could never be dispelled. He held a gourd of alcohol in one hand from which he occasionally sipped. These were the peaklords of the Fifth and Sixth Peak.
Now Xu Qing realized why these two hadn’t been present when the other peaklords gathered. They were the ones who had orchestrated all the dramatic changes to the four Merfolk islands!