Lady Evergreen continued to deride him by saying, "I don't care if you decieve yourself. But I can't stand it if you try to decieve others too. So I humbly ask you not to deceive others with your folly."
The two of them began to argue. Void Claw saw that he was unlikely to get anything out of them, so he bowed again and stepped out of the council hall.
The two patriarchs didn't pay any attention to him as he left. The array spirit saw this and shook its head, saying, "I can't wait for Sword Flash to return and get a handle on this situation. The sect is not safe with these two in charge."
The days flew by, and the war drew near. To some people, the days of waiting were a breeze, which they spent without worries. But for some other people, the days of waiting caused their anxiety to spike. These people lived in fear and saw each day as the possible day they would lose their home and sect.
Arthur didn't have much to worry about concerning the war. Even when the day to leave for it came, he still wasn't afraid. This was because to him, the war was a mission. As long as he did his job, everything would be fine for him.
Everyone participating in the war appeared before the teleportation hall of the inner sect. They didn't use the one in the outer sect because the channel between the inner sect and the outer sect has been sealed.
So there is no way to go to the outer sect currently. Everyone could only use the rarely used teleportation hall in the inner sect to reach the city outside the sect. Then they boarded flying boats that took them towards the Purple Flower sect.
At this point, flying ships were leaving every sect and going in the direction of the Purple Flower sect. And there were hundreds of flying ships leaving at a time. This kind of movement couldn't be hidden at all.
Even the mortals noticed the mass movement, so the people of the Red and Blue Fire sect also noticed it. But the Red and Blue Fire sect did nothing to stop the congregation of their enemies.
The refusal of the people of the Red and Blue Fire sect to attack the flying ships, blow them up, and reduce the power of their enemies ahead of their first clash wasn't because they were honorable or because they were ignorant of the fact that it was a good idea to eliminate their enemies when they are still scattered.
They didn't do this because they simply couldn't. Where golden core cultivators couldn't see, nascent soul cultivators stood guard in the sky along the route to the Purple Flower sect.
These figures of great power are just the avatars of the nascent soul patriarchs of the five sects. They guarded the flying ships and prevented any move to attack them en route to the Purple Flower sect.
The avatars of the patriarchs also stood guard above the Purple Flower sect. It is their presence there that prevented the people of the Red and Blue Fire sect from attacking the Purple Flower sect as soon as they arrived in the Five Veins region.
The second reason why fighting hasn't started yet is that the people of the Red and Blue Fire sect need to set up a base in the Five Veins region.
They needed a base of operations for resting, resupplying, and support. Without a base, they won't be able to stage attacks properly. So they spent time building their base.
The last reason that they didn't attack just yet was that they didn't have everyone in their sect yet. Not everyone had arrived because they left their sect in batches and even separated and took different routes to come to the Five Veins region. This was to prevent being ambushed and eliminated in one fell swoop.
The two sides were wary of each other and were just about to slit each other's throats. But before they do that, they spend some time sharpening the knives that they intend to use to slit throats.
For the allied forces, their main preparation was to build fortifications around the Purple Flower sect. These fortifications are physical structures combined with the power of formations.
Walls were built around the Purple Flower sect in concentric circles. Each wall was as thick as 50 meters and tall as 1,000 meters. Then the walls were enchanted and enhanced with formations that increased the durability of the walls, prevented flight around the walls, set up attack mechanisms for attacking enemies, and produced barrier shields.
The barrier shields were set up above the walls to protect them from aerial attacks. The barrier is not impenetrable, but it has the ability to transfer all the damage it absorbs to the wall at the back, which can be easily repaired or rebuilt.
This way, those who attack from far above the walls would be wasting most of their time. The only way to destroy the walls will be to attack from the ground level and bypass the barriers.
The walls also have to be destroyed from the front and the defenders pushed back, so that they won't be able to repair or rebuild the destroyed wall. But doing this will put the enemies under the effect of the no-flight formations and in range of the attacking formations and traps.
The goal of the defenders will be to man the walls and keep them standing. As long as the walls are standing, the Purple Flower sect won't fall.
On the other side, the goal of the invaders will be to destroy the walls. This will be difficult to do because the more walls there are that are reinforcing each other, the more difficult it will be to destroy a single wall.
But if they can overcome the initial difficulty, success will be within reach. It is just that the longer the delay before battle becomes, the more difficult it will be to take down the walls because the allied forces are constantly building more walls.