A few days later, the time for the decisive battle had arrived.

“Shou Ancestor, they are in position.”

“Good. Tell the others to begin.”

The Shou Clan Ancestor and the Yincha Sect Leader were standing side by side. The gentleman activated a magic tool and at his command a large group of Demonic Beasts rushed out of the Shou Clan compound. These beasts were of various sizes and shapes, though all of them carried Cultivators. Most of them had saddles with a single rider, but there were also many larger beasts with platforms or small buildings on their backs, as well as smaller ones that were pulling chariots or coaches. The Artful Life Alliance was not known for their wealth or beast taming abilities so there was no way the mounts they were using were uniform. This was compounded further by the fact that the Artful Life Alliance was made up of many smaller groups. A few of the alliance members had a single type of beast that they raised for transportation, but dozens of the same beast among the thousands was barely noticeable.

This force was quite sizable and the civilians in the city hurriedly shut themselves into their houses. They all knew something important was going on in the last few weeks from the way that the Shou Clan had been acting, so with this big movement they all rushed indoors to try and avoid whatever event was going down. Thousands of cultivators rushed out from the Shou Clan, which was many times more than they should have had. At their lead were three powerful figures: the Shou Clan Leader, Lady Diyin, and the Sound Sword Sect Master. Hundreds of Core Formation Cultivators followed behind them, leading troops of Foundation Building sergeants and Sea Forming soldiers.

This small army rushed directly out of the city and towards the forest. They didn’t have any detailed information upon their enemy, but they knew that Lang Sheng’s forces had encircled the city to stop anyone from leaving. So, all they had to do was try to leave the city and they would undoubtedly run into their enemy. As soon as they left the city proper, the three Nascent Soul leaders lined up at the side of the road, ordering their subordinates to advance and spread out. Cultivator armies rarely liked to move as a single tight unit like the Jade Horde. There was always the danger of running into an extremely powerful Cultivator or Demonic Beast, so most commanders chose to spread their forces out. They were afraid of having their whole force killed instantly by a single wide area attack. There were also plenty of cowardly leaders that had no qualms with using the weakest cultivators as decoys and expendable scouts. In this case it also happened to align with the Artful Life Alliance’s goal of tracking down Lang Sheng.

After a few minutes a flare shot into the air and a few screams came from that direction. The nearby squads of Cultivators rapidly converged and the three Nascent Souls received a report.

“Maam, the 62nd squad has been completely wiped out. By the time we arrived there was only a patch of purple miasma over the corpses of the 62nd. A youngster foolishly rushed in to check on them, but he started coughing and then fell over, just as dead as the others.”

“Avoid the miasma. Send tracking teams after the enemy.”

“Yes, Maam.”

Then a flare shot into the air in the northwest, in a very different position from the flare that had been fired off nearly due west. There were more screams and the movement of other squads. A different voice came from Lady Diyan’s communicator, “Maam, that was the 44th squad. Half of their number were killed instantly, but the other half was saved by their neighboring squad. Three enemies were seen, all of them wearing black cloaks.”

She gave a similar order as she gave to the first team and the other two Nascent Souls next to her had an odd look on their faces. She relayed the change in the situation to the Shou Clan Ancestor, even as a third flare shot up further to the north. Did Lang Sheng really only have a few helpers? They were causing massive losses to their forces in only an instant, and then retreating before the Alliance could strike back.

Three more flares were shot into the air before the Alliance forces finally formed a perimeter around their city. The tracking teams followed the trails cautiously, finding them to converge a few miles from the city.

“He’s trying to lead us into a trap. Send in the expendable squad as a vanguard, have the others follow at a great distance.”

Just as they had thought, the trails converged and led to the face of a rocky cliff. When the expendable squad approached, the black cloaked figures appeared on the top of the cliff armed with large crossbows. They turned the expendable squad into pincushions, or at least they thought they did. After a few moments they realized that while the bolts were sticking into their targets, they were being stopped by a strange suit of armor. One of the black cloaked figures signalled the others and then larger bolts appeared on their crossbows. They fired again and upon being struck a purple miasma spread from the bolt heads, poisoning the expendable squad.

The poison was too much for their armor to withstand and the name of their squad suddenly became apparent. Array symbols inlaid upon their armor suddenly came to life, inverting the flow of power that had been protecting them.

Boom!

The armor that the expendable squad members wore simultaneously detonated. At the same instant of their detonation, a defensive array burst into life around the top of the cliff, protecting the black cloaked figures from the violent explosion. After the initial detonation, there were actually many smaller follow up explosions. The torso armor of the expendable squad exploded first, flinging the limb armor into the distance before those pieces also detonated. The follow up explosions were smaller, but they covered a wide area.

Upon the cliff, the defensive array was holding, but the glowing barrier was flickering. It was a sign of being on the verge of destruction and after the last of the secondary explosions went off the defensive array finally sputtered out. The black cloaked figures immediately ran, fleeing the top of the cliff just as the ground started to shift. There was a loud rumbling and then the cliff collapsed. The single large explosion formed a huge crater at the base of the cliff and the smaller follow up explosions pushed it past the point of no return. The ridgeline tumbled down and after a few minutes the cliff became a rocky hill.

A few miles away the main force of the Alliance was waiting patiently for the dust to clear. Lady Diyin turned to an old man standing behind her, “How is it?”

In front of the old man, there was a large tortoise shell with symbols carved into it. This was not the thickly armored shell from the back, but the flat portion that covered the belly or ventral area of the tortoise. The plastron was already carved with symbols and then smeared with the blood of Demonic Beasts. At this moment a flame disappeared from the old man’s hand, one which he had been using to burn small holes that were drilled into the plastron. With the heat, cracks suddenly formed at the edges of these holes which the old man studied carefully.

“The expendable squad should have removed all the formations. The signs show there are no more waiting for us.”

Lady Diyin nodded, this old man wasn’t nearly as useful as a real Astrologer, but his divination skills had still been proven to be somewhat effective in the past.

“Begin the attack!”