On the battlefield, Cidd had already managed to bring back all members of the sect safely with each group only suffering minor injuries under the protection of each leader.
However, Lancelot was still unconscious and showed no signs of regaining consciousness anytime soon. As for the war that was still raging on, both sides had pulled back for now.
It was a truce for the day on the surface, but an ambush in the middle of the night was totally possible for both sides, it's just whichever side that decides to make the move first and seize the upper hand without getting caught out.
"Elder Cidd, do you know what is happening?" Clarissa who was the last of the ten leaders to join back with the sect asked after settling her own group.
Sighing, Cidd could only reply, "I'm not sure about this ominous feeling either, but it's better for us to pull back for now and see what tricks the demon beasts have to pull for now."
After Cidd's vague reasoning, the other leaders excluding Lancelot who was still unconscious agreed with him as they found an inn to rest for the night.
At this point of time, Ace had already calmed his mind down. He felt more energetic than ever, both physically and mentally as the silhouettes were finishing their manifestation process.
In these few minutes, Ace studied the vortexes that were gathering shadow energy together and he realised one fact. He was up against four enemies this time and if he wasn't wrong, all of them would be in the late stage Martial Master realm.
Judging from the vague shape of their weapons, all of them were wielding a sword as well. A heavy sword, a longsword, a shortsword and a broadsword.
Even though each of them held different threats, Ace wasn't afraid of them in the slightest. Instead, he saw this as an opportunity to improve himself even further.
The state he was in just now, he felt as though he was dancing in a trance, but it's a precious experience that'll benefit him further down the path of cultivation.
It taught him one mentality that he should never neglect, even though pressure was important, the most critical factor was to maintain his calm and enjoy the battle, he had to believe in his sword and the power it can give him.
*Zwoop*
As the silhouettes appeared simultaneously one after the other, Ace unsheathed his sword and awaited their first attack which was coming in from all four directions.
Noticing that they were sealing off his escape paths, there was only one choice he had left to make.
"Imbalanced Harmony."
Unlike when he tried his utmost best to bring out its full strength, he was only doing it casually to the best of his abilities.
Yet, its power exceeded that of his past limit as he parried away the silhouette wielding a longsword while evading towards the right by diving down to pull some distance away from their merciless attacks.
Turning around quickly, he infused his slaughter law into his sword as he parried away the flurry of attacks from the silhouettes one after another in quick succession, making use of the small opening he created to slash down one of the silhouettes.
Even though Ace had only exchanged tens of moves with the silhouettes, his black robe was already drenched in sweat, even though it was uncomfortable having the robe stick to his skin, he still had to deal with it and focus on the battle.
Shaking his head to clear off those distracting thoughts, he took in a deep breath while adjusting his breathing pace to maintain his stamina.
Infusing his slaughter law into his sword again, Ace realised one factor he had never considered. Even though his mentality was making the infusion of laws a easy task, it was actually draining on his stamina since he wasn't able to utilise spirit energy yet.
I still have to do this the tough way though...Ace concluded as he charged towards the silhouette that was wielding a shortsword, if he can take care of it first, then the remaining battle would be a breeze as long as he exploits his speed advantage.
The silhouette with the shortsword got behind him after he exchanged a few moves with the other two silhouettes, but this was within Ace's expectations as he parried the attack of the two silhouettes in front of him, making use of the momentum to make a quick spin, easily collecting the shadow energy of the silhouette which ambushed him.
Even though he knew that the two silhouettes he was facing were life forms created by energy without their own consciousness, he couldn't help but face them seriously.
"Now then, it's time to end this." Ace mumbled to himself as his slaughter law was once again infused into his sword without holding back, once again, his mind entered the state of tranquilness.
The sword felt weightless in his hand, before he knew it, he had already seen through his past at this point of time against his own wishes.
"Shattered memories!"
It was a simple horizontal slash, yet the battle was over as he felt energy being drained away from his body.
Falling onto the ground, he used his sword to stand upright while eight vortexes started to manifest before him.
Judging from the speed and concentration of the vortexes, Ace concluded that it would take around a full day for eight silhouettes of the peak stage Martial Master realm to fully manifest.
Taking this time to find a resting position, Ace gradually controlled his breathing as energy returned to his body.
"It seems that I can't use it that easily even though the amount of strength it possessed was immense enough to end the battle swiftly." Ace mumbled to himself as he estimated that it would take around four hours to use the same sword move again.
Of course, it would be possible to use it infinitely without drawbacks one day when he manages to comprehend the meaning of the past and future to a deeper level. Now, all he could do was improve his strength in order to minimise the drawbacks of using this sword move.
Closing his eyes, Ace began to comprehend the slaughter law, it was a vague feeling, but the amount of energy his slaughter law possessed seemed to have increased.
In his mind, he envisioned a tower that had a thousand layers, he was currently at the top of the tower and his motive was to descend to the thousand layer of this tower,
In the first layer, he saw a blood pool about the size of just a bowl, it was about 1/10 filled with blood and without a doubt, it was the source of strength and energy for his slaughter law.
Since the blood pool was too small, all he could do was sit beside that blood pool and comprehend his slaughter law.
From just today alone, he understood one thing. Not only living things can be slaughtered, any form of life can be killed even if they do not have a conscious state of mind, anything can be killed as long as he attempts to.
*Back in the battleground*
When the human cultivators calculated their amount of casualties and the amount of demon beasts that were slain, the results proved to be in their favour.
But to those who knew about the usual demon beasts invasions, the statistics were a complete nightmare considering that the true leaders of the demon beasts have yet to make a move yet.
They were waiting, playing around with them by dragging out the duration of the war for their own amusement.
While the human cultivators lost about seven thousand cultivators with more than a thousand being too seriously injured to further participate in the war, the demon beasts only had about ten thousand deaths.
To the demon beasts which had triple the amount of manpower compared to the human cultivators, the first day was a complete win for them, the human cultivators had suffered utter defeat.
When Cidd got hold of the statistics, he knew that something had happened. Even though he wanted to just grab hold of someone and ask them what in the world exactly happened out there, his strength wasn't worth much here to have that authority.
After spending an hour or so trying to gather information on what happened, Cidd finally got hold of that information.
The demon beasts apparently had a hundred demon beasts of the Great Martial Master realm known as Earth Striders that were basically gigantic worms based on the information he obtained.
Figuring that it would be a great contribution their sect made if they manage to deal with these thousand Earth Striders, Cidd spent the rest of the night formulating a strategy to deal with them tomorrow even after everyone went to sleep.
As for Ace, the blood pool was already 2/10 filled when he opened his eyes again, but it was just way too slow considering that this way only the first and smallest blood pool to fill among the thousand blood pools.