It took almost an hour for the attacker's side to land, and form up. An hour accompanied by shouts, shrieks, and the sound of wood being crushed or splintered. And how it could not be? Except for the first few boats that managed to retreat, as well a dozen or so that were sank in time, over 120 ten-man boats had filled the small gorge leading towards the beach, between the over a hundred feet cliffs. But as if that was enough, for the last half on an hour, with a tremendous force, a cargo ship, at least 200 feet long and half in width had gone over all the central area. Crushing boats, sending wood splinters to every side and only stopping after crashing into the sandbank just a few dozens of feet from the water's edge.

In any case, the occupants of most boats, as well as the cultivators inside the ship had landed and formed up, making the defenders aware of their numbers, and irradiating confidence in crushing the latter. Indeed, why would they not? There were almost 700 people on the attacker side, while the defenders, forced to retreat as to not be surrounded, hardly numbered over 200.

***

Wang Ling looked at his so-called troops. He did see a real chance to overwhelm the opponent right now, but Wang Ling decided to go with the plan he had worked so hard to get approved by his watchdog. He himself would never admit it, but Wang Ling was doubtful of his decision to return to the fold of the Eagle Kingdom's Wang clan. Granted, they were family, but these last 87 years had been pretty good for the local Wangs.

And now, he could either stick with one side until he was eventually killed or disposed of by his so-called allies... Or he could fake his worry for the possible reinforcements and move towards, taking one of the clan's towns as hostages.

If the Kingdom plan, at least the one revealed to him by General Ou, was successful, well... He could always stick to what he said, engaging in negotiations and stalling the defenders while trying to win some kind of guarantee. And if it was not, how hard would it be to convince the Snakes in his power to plead for him?

***

Standing on an elevation, Wu Guang had a clear view of both his forces and the opponent ones. Being cloaked and with his identity concealed, almost as to be alike to the enemy commander, he maintained a straight posture that irradiated confidence.

And however ashamed he may be, he wasn't so confident as he would like to appear. Oh, he had no doubt about his own survival, but... He realized that if he wanted the people he called his friends to survive, most probably he would need to reveal everything he could, and what he could not as well.

Ignoring the 3 to 1 disadvantage in Spirit realm cultivators, now that all the enemy forces were present and close to him, Wu Guang could say that they were far from being equal in Soul realm cultivators as well. Taking everyone into account, including Lord Wei, Wu Guang's side counted with only 15 Soul realm cultivators. And ignoring that three had spent at least half of their reserves, and one was wounded enough as to prevent him from fighting at full... They were still not enough against the opposing side revealed 21. Wu Guang himself could deal with the only one that surpassed everyone's cultivation, Wang Ling, and maybe even take a pair of others, but! Now that the three fully concealed people were close and their treasures did not prevent him from sensing their real strength... He wasn't sure if he even would be able to deal with Wang Ling.

No one had yet noticed, simply because of the lack of mindpower to see through the concealment, but there were two more peak Soul realm cultivators, as well as a... 2nd level Sage realm.

He reported his findings to Senior Rui, only to receive no glyph in response. And so, Wu Guang was forced to keep this information hidden. It wasn't as if he wanted to conceal anything from the people that would die under his, nominal command, but he simply could not allow the already wavering morale to fall.

The only silver lining in this situation was that the three people he was worried about most were seemingly not intending to take part in the combat.

"And let's hope they don't" Wu Guang muttered.

________________________________________________________________________

There were no grand speeches nor any of the almost customary duels between champions from the sides. Almost in silence, with only the occasional swearing, curse, or "KILL!" shouting, the two sides engaged. Or it would be better to say that the attacking side rushed towards bracing defenders and... was met with a wall of spears.

***

Even if Lord Xiao considered that the Boundary Hill City guards in their overall were inferior to his, he had to acknowledge that the ones chosen by Tian Ning for this part were not so bad. Granted, their equipment was cheaper, and even their techniques were not so well-honed, but they maintained the line as good as his own men. Not that this changed the fact that they were forced to concede foot after foot. They inflicted at least two casualties in exchange for every one of theirs, but...

"Feng'er! Take your men and prevent them from overtaking on the left!" Not allowing himself to be lost in thought, Lord Xiao commanded one of the teams, the one that his son was leading, to break from the second line and reinforce the wing, which however bravely fighting it was, could simply not react in time against the twenty or so attackers circling to try and hit their rear.

At this moment, his eyes caught the commander's paired flares. One was red, to call for Lord Wei's forces to join in, while the other was golden. The first one was welcome, but the second one... A golden flare meant that the commander of the enemy forces, as well as their Soul realm cultivators, were entering the fray.

"Lin, you are in command! Golden Flare" Lord Xiao did not bother to explain more before passing command to his most trusted Spirit realm lieutenant and after motioning to the two elites that were nearby quickly retreated behind both lines of the soldiers. Not before launching a blade of qi with his saber at the nearby enemies. They were avoiding him, but when did it say that he had to do the same?

***

"The Soul realm cultivators from the opposing side moved to stand behind the disposable mass they are throwing at us. I managed to identify four groups. The one to the right is led by the commander, Wang Ling, and has 9 men, so I will move out with my group to intercept. The two in the center are made up of 7 1st and 2nd level Soul realm cultivators led by two 3rd level ones, I leave them to you, Lord Xiao. Take everyone except Ren Ah, Liang Chin, and Lan Yanzhi. The three of them will take care of the leftmost group of 5. All of the latter are between the 1st and 2nd level, so I trust you will manage. Xiao Kang will remain here in charge, and provide help to any of your two groups if possible. He is also responsible for handling the timing of the reserve if needed" Dropping his mysterious, and nominal commander role, Wu Guang threw a quick barrage of commands. He did not care what Lord Xiao would think, or how will he react. If he wanted to complain, well, he could be his guest later. If anyone was alive to do so at least.

And before commanding the dispersal, he quickly sent a qi transmission to Lan Yanzhi

"Do you still have the statuette I gave you before?"

"Yes"

"Good, I trust you will not need it right now, but if you do use it. Still, in the case you don't, make sure to land it on the enemy lines and activate it"

"Behind?"

"No, in the middle of them"

"Understood" Lan Yanzhi initially had doubted Wu Guang's words about the statuette being a very potent weapon. But after finding out how many means and abilities the latter had concealed from everyone, she understood that whatever he considered potent would be indeed so.

"Try to survive, everyone. GO!" Wu Guang did not wait more before signaling the eight men behind him and rushing towards the spot where Wang Ling should enter the fray...

***

Wang Ling thought that he had organized the movements perfectly. He organized his elites to slowly approach the fighting trash and made sure that everyone knew their roles. He himself was cloaked alike to the three Kingdom officers and never identified himself as a commander, which would help him avoid being singled out by the Wildlands side commander... So how the heavens his plan was seen through so easily? Not only was a golden signal, the meaning of which he understood right away thrown as soon as he commanded the start of his plan, but the mysterious, still unknown strength commander abandoned his flag and was rushing to intercept him!

"Full Speed! Ignore the fighting!" In an attempt to avoid being pinned out and lose time, Wang Ling decided to ignore the part of the plan that included helping the trash out, and rush towards their destination, the town of the Sapphire Snakes directly. "If the commander abandons the fight, it will mean that he ran. And no commander that set up his flag would do so, would he?" With such a logical thought, Wang Ling infused all the qi possible into his legs and accompanied by the remaining eight of his family elites, amongst which his other niece, Wang Qiu could be seen, began running.

***

"Hmm? That direction..." Wu Guang slowed down a bit after seeing that Wang Ling and his group began to move away from the battle.

"The Snake Clan?! So that's his plan!" It took a moment for Wu Guang to locate the only place to the northwest, the direction that Wang Ling assumed at full speed.

No one could hold against him the fact that he did not suspect that Wang Ling did not plan to fight them squarely, and would in turn act like this. Attacking an undefended town! Well, at least he thought it would be undefended. The truth was that the Snake clan, albeit part of the Major clans and one of the actors behind the alliance, as well the allowance of refugees into the Wildlands, had not sent even one of their cultivators out until now... This meant that their wait-and-see attitude, one despised by Lang Mu, would be a very unexpected surprise to Wang Lng. After all, not only the Clan's head was a peak Soul realm cultivator, but he also had his entire clan fighting forces with him inside the town!

"You!" Wu Guang singled out the only 2nd level Soul realm cultivator in his group.

"Yes?!"

"Follow them from a safe distance. If they attempt to engage, break off. If they don't, continue watching them and notify me of any course change"

"Commander?" The woman, actually Xiao Kang's second in command, and previously a disciple of the 'Three Hills Sect' did not understand, and so questioned.

"They are going towards the Snake clan. As we are here and the rest is at the pass they think that the clan's town is undefended"

"Oh! Right away!" The woman saluted and activated a movement technique.

"The rest, we are turning around and slashing towards the center. KILL!" With such a gift from Wang Ling, Wu Guang could not allow himself to lose even a single moment. As for the Clan's town... Well, they asked for it, did not they?

***

With all the Soul real cultivators now fighting between themselves, and no one to give actual commands, the defending guards could not do anything except retreat further, avoiding being overrun by the lines of attackers. It did not change anything how many enemies each guard managed to kill, wound, or push away... They still fell one after another, now barely numbering over half of the initial number.

The attackers were losing more people, but with the sheer advantage in numbers, they kept advancing.

The situation was different on the left wing, the reason for this being that the enemy commander, a cloaked man that had left his 'Chen' flag just a few breaths before suddenly turned around and now accompanied by several elites was wreaking havoc on there.

***

Albeit Wu Guang could rush to help Lord Xiao and the other Soul realm cultivators, he decided to even the odds at least somewhat. And so, while keeping an eye on the three concealed cultivators that had yet to move from their position on the Ship's deck, he commanded his eight men to turn around and hit the attackers from the side, evening the odds for the surviving guards.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" With every shout, Wu Guang and the five 1st Soul realm cultivators accompanying him released techniques and claimed the lives of the far weaker, now turned prey, attackers.

Even though the latter tried to fight back, what could an intermediate Spirit realm cultivator, and one that was pretty tired, threaten a fresh, trained, and extremely angered Soul realm one?

And so, in what could be called just a moment, the left side of the attackers, the right side of the defenders, suddenly changed. From the almost 150 attackers fighting a group of 35 guards, who could not even continue to maintain their initial line, it suddenly turned into a massacre scene.

***

As Wu Guang, who did not enjoy it but still considered it something to be done massacred the enemies that could not even resist, he only hoped that the situation will allow him to continue as such.

With Wang Ling out, and all the Soul realms being blocked by his own side equivalents, the enemy would break as soon as Lord Wei arrived. The only game-changer would be if Lord Xiao's or Lan Yanzhi group were defeated, or if the mysterious trio of concealed cultivators moved out.

"What that idiot is waiting for?!" Wu Guang roared while slashing and cutting through both blade and body of a cultivator brave or dumb enough to try and attack him.