It was two months after the disastrous banquet. The emperor had summoned all the Fu Dynasty's civil officials, generals, powerful cultivators, and external experts, who took up arms in response to his call to arms, into the imperial court. Daoyi and Ling Haitang also arrived, but they were currently sitting behind the emperor's throne as if they were bystanders in all of this.
Ling Haitang didn't plan on participating. She couldn't care less if the Fu Dynasty fell. All she wanted to do was watch Fu Xiuyi's expression of despair. As long as he despaired, so would her sister. That is not to say that she wanted the Skybrush Sect to win either. According to the Buzhou Immortal Sect's intelligence, the Skybrush Sect's power had been greatly enhanced by the aggressors that wanted to plunge the Heaven Continent into chaos.
Daoyi furrowed her brows as she felt something brush against her soul. Instinctually, Daoyi raised and fortified her soul defense. The probe was so light and ephemeral that she had almost thought that it was a hallucination. It took some effort, but she found the source of the probe.
Directing her gaze, Daoyi found herself staring eye to eye with a cultivator who appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He was slightly plain but had a self-assured aura that more than made up for his ordinary looks. After a brief shock, the man smiled for turning his gaze away as if their interlinked gaze was a mere coincidence.
A sense of suspicion arising within her, Daoyi's nascent soul opened its eyes inside her dantian. Her silver-white nascent soul began to vibrate and release fluctuations invisible to the eye and spiritual sense. Only another soul cultivator or someone with a powerful soul could detect it.
'I sense over a hundred grandmaster-level cultivators. At least fifty of them should belong to the Fu Dynasty. Peng Yun is the one who I sensed probing me earlier. According to the feedback, he should be at the mid Nascent Soul Realm and early Soul Nourishing Realm.' When Daoyi used earlier was an investigation method unique to soul cultivators.
The concept behind the technique worked similar to a bat's echolocation, only not really. Whatever the soul fluctuation interacted with, the user would receive feedback. Since the technique needed the user to consume soul essence to unleash, it could not be used as freely as qi-based techniques.
'Weird, really weird. That Peng Yun's soul is really weird. I'm half sure that the earlier soul probe was from him, but I can't find any signs that he is a soul cultivator. Among the same realm, I don't think anyone could hide the fact that they're a soul cultivator from me, and his soul is thrice as large as normal nascent soul grandmasters. Could he be someone sent by the mastermind?' Daoyi reflected. She glanced at the Fu Emperor.
'Before I interrogate him, I should get rid of all obstacles. If that Peng Yun really is a watcher, I should get rid of him first. The war between the Fu Dynasty and Skybrush Sect is a good chance.' Daoyi made her mind carefully observe Peng Yun's actions and dig out his background.
Daoyi took out a talisman that could send messages back to the sect. By using up some contribution points, she could have the sect's intelligence agency dig out the relevant information. However, it would take some time as the talisman was not instantaneous. 'Sometimes, I wish the Xiyi Talisman was more viable.'
However, Daoyi didn't place all her hopes in the sect. They might be powerful, but they wouldn't pay attention to a minor figure near the borders of the Heaven Continent unless said target possessed a certain level of strength or danger.
"Sister Ling, can you investigate that Peng Yun for me?" Daoyi asked.
Ling Haitang searched her memory and dug out the applicant of the war. Recalling the information, she frowned. "Sister Jiang, don't tell me you're interested in that fellow?"
Daoyi immediately knew what Ling Haitang was thinking and refuted her thoughts. "No, he seems a bit fishy to me. I tried to detect his secrets, but I couldn't discover anything."
"Even a soul cultivator like you can't detect anything. Perhaps you're overthinking?" Ling Haitang said. She had absolute faith in Daoyi's ability, not just because Daoyi was Xi Mengfei's disciple but also because her master had praised Daoyi's talent in soul cultivation.
"It's my intuition. If there really is nothing, just chalk it off as me being overly suspicious." Daoyi said.
Ling Haitang nodded. It was better to be safe than sorry. After the court meeting was over, Ling Haitang contacted her subordinate and ordered to gather all information concerning Peng Yun. Since she had planned to bring despair to Fu Xiuyi, Ling Haitang had carefully cultivated useful subordinates as spies. They were also the reason why the Fu Dynasty understood how powerful the Buzhou Immortal Sect was.
It didn't take long for Daoyi to receive a preliminary report on Peng Yun from Ling Haitang.
Peng Yun's information was surprisingly easy to investigate. The earliest sighting of Peng Yun was almost a hundred years ago, and the only reason he was noticed was that he had become a foundation establishment disciple at the outermost area of the Heaven Continent where qi gathering pupils were the strongest.
Since then, Peng Yun seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Heaven Continent until twenty years ago. It wasn't anything Peng Yun did. Instead, it was what someone else had done.
A world merging venerable had suddenly targeted Peng Yun, shocking everyone who witnessed the scene. Apparently, the venerable was after Peng Yun's wealth. Not only did the venerable pursue Peng Yun, but as time passed, more and more grandmaster-level experts chased after Peng Yun. In response, Peng Yun had slaughtered his way out. Not even the world merging venerable had been able to prevent his escape.
From then on, numerous cases of the world merging venerable chasing Peng Yun were documented as he fled southwest. Of note would be that Peng Yun originated from the northeast of the Heaven Continent, where the Anti-Heaven Alliance primarily dominated. It led to more credibility that Peng Yun was related to the mastermind behind the Xu Clan's massacre and the architect behind the current chaos on Heaven Continent. However, that was circumstantial at best.
Around three years ago, someone spotted Peng Yun, but there had been no sighting of the world merging venerable appearing from then on. There was no indication of Peng Yun killing the world merging venerable, but it was likely something had happened. Still, even if Peng Yun didn't defeat the world merging venerable, he proved his strength by fleeing for seventeen consecutive years.
As a footnote, Peng Yun had been seen interacting with a woman in the past few years. It might have been a footnote for others, but to Daoyi, she couldn't help but question the chances of such a coincidence.
Bai Weiwei.
'Should I find a chance to kill her?' Daoyi knew that some people had no bottom line when it came to revenge. Bai Weiwei didn't appear to have reached that point, but you never know.
'Forget. Outside of latching onto a person like the Dragon Emperor, Bai Weiwei will never be able to threaten Tianyi or the Buzhou Immortal Sect.' There was also another consideration Daoyi considered. When Bing Huoyuan shouldered the risk of being labeled as a traitor and spoke out for Bai Weiwei, Daoyi could tell that he held a considerable amount of feelings for the girl. If she were to go out of her way to kill Bai Weiwei and it reached his ears, it might become troublesome.
No secrets last forever.
Daoyi waited for a more in-depth report. However, before she could receive it, the first battle between the Fu Dynasty and the Skybrush Sect was about to occur, causing Daoyi and Ling Haitang to join the battlefield to spectate.
On the day of the battle, both sides were separated by an invisible wall, and the tension could be cut with a knife.
The Fu Dynasty fielded an army of over a hundred thousand soldiers, each in the Qi Gathering Realm. Each squad was led by a captain at the Foundation Establishment Realm or its equivalence; they were, in turn, part of a regiment at the level of a Core Formation or Acupoint Opening Realm. At the head of each legion consisting of ten thousand soldiers was a Nascent Soul or Soul Nourishing Realm general.
This still left over ninety nascent soul or soul nourishing grandmasters that weren't part of the army. Daoyi had to be a fool to not detect the disparity of the Fu Dynasty to another country of the same rank. "Sister Jiang, why is your Fu Dynasty so powerful?"
Ling Haitang also frowned. Among the remaining ninety grandmasters, only forty weren't part of the nation. This meant that the Fu Dynasty originally had over fifty grandmaster-level experts. Her spies never reported any of this. "I don't know."
Seeing Ling Haitang's gloomy mood, Daoyi didn't inquire any further.
Compared to the Fu Dynasty's soldiers, the members of the Skybrush Sect were only a little more than one-fifth of the numbers. Using her unique detection method, Daoyi could sense that fifteen hundred of the members were at the peak Foundation Establishment or Body Transformation Realm, while the other five thousand were in the Core Formation Realm. Not just that, they had fifty grandmaster-level experts, but Daoyi didn't detect any venerables.
Daoyi looked at the Fu Dynasty. Aside from the hundred or so core formation or acupoint opening masters in the army, nine hundred masters were standing at the side. Compared to the Skybrush Sect, the distribution of experts was lopsided.
Still, the Skybrush Sect's experts obviously exceeded the norm, just like the Fu Dynasty. Daoyi even had a thought that perhaps both sides were being influenced by some shadowy hands behind the scenes.
Both sides began dismissing the other side in sonorous shouts. As both forces were longtime enemies and had hatred as deep as a blood sea, their insults were quite creative. Even Daoyi, a reincarnator from Earth, had to raise an eyebrow at many of them.
Once the trash talking was over, both sides began to unleash their war formations. War formations were large-scale formations that primarily relied on cultivators instead of treasures or physical locations as anchors. They were designed to pool the qi of a number of weaker cultivators into a single unit that could compare to experts at a higher realm.
At once, the number of cultivators on drastically reduced. Instead, numerous colossals appeared.
On the Skybrush Sect's side, a variety of titans of hundreds of meters tall, ranging from a large humanoid with a gigantic brush in hand to a ball with eight hands, each holding a brush. The Fu Dynasty's side was much more homogenous. Titans clad in armor wielding a spear or sword in hand erupted and became like pillars of heaven.
Based on numbers alone, the Skybrush Sect had more than ten times the number of war formation units, but the aura each side gave off was equal. On the Skybrush Sect's side, only one war formation, the giant holding a brush, gave off the pressure near a unity venerable while the rest ranged from the early Nascent Soul Realm to the peak Nascent Soul Realm.
In contrast, all ten war formation warriors on the Fu Dynasty side exuded an air of an unity venerable. Each one stood in line and moved as a single unit like real mortal soldiers, increasing the pressure they exuded.
Ling Haitang's face darkened to the extreme. "How could the Fu Dynasty attain such a war formation. Sister Jiang, do you recognize the war formation?"
Daoyi shook her head. She estimated her chances of defeating one. It would take her a long time, and she would only be able to succeed by slowly influencing the souls of the cultivators inside. If she faced three or more, defeat was inevitable.
War Formations were unique in that they created an outer shell that dispersed the attack and spread the burden on the numerous cultivators within. Generally, unless the enemy could pierce the shell in one attack, war formations would win.
The war formations of both forces clashed in an epic battle. Each swing created hurricanes, and each step brought earthquakes to the surrounding land. If a core formation or acupoint master were to be struck, they would be fatally injured if not dead. Even grandmaster-level combatants had to be careful not to be struck.
As the battle raged, the Skybrush Sect tried to use their numerical advantage to overwhelm the Fu Dynasty, but the tight cooperation prevented the Skybrush Sect from getting any cheap shots. Eventually, the Fu Dynasty destroyed five of the Skybrush Sect's war formations, causing countless deaths.
This marked the end of the battle on the first day. The routine continued on the second day, third day, fourth day, and so on. This continued on until only about seventy formations were left on the Skybrush Sect's side.
Just as it seemed that the Fu Dynasty would keep increasing its advantages, a giant formation suddenly covered the battlefield. Caught off guard, two of the Fu Dynasty's war formations were broken and the soldiers inside slain. Had it not been for the intervention of a squad of grandmasters, even more war formations would have been destroyed.
From then on, the battle shifted from the focus between the war formations to the two competing to attacking and defending the battlefield-sized formation. The Fu Dynasty wanted to tear it down, as the longer it existed, the greater their disadvantage, while the Skybrush Sect, who set up the formation, wanted to keep it functioning.
Despite the numerical superiority, there was a noticeable quality difference between the grandmasters of the Fu Dynasty and Skybrush Sect. On average, a Skybrush Sect grandmaster was worth two Fu Dynasty grandmasters.
Fu Xiuyi had requested for Ling Haitang and Daoyi to intervene, but the two refused. A few sour words were exchanged between the Ling sisters, but Daoyi ignored it.
Left with no choice, it seemed that Ling Lihua would have to intervene before the situation became irrevocable. It was an action that Fu Xiuyi hadn't wanted to take as it would be the equivalent of giving the Skybrush Sect the reigns to control the initiative of the battle. Well, more than they already had, anyways. There was a greater underlying motive of not knowing the enemy's trump card.
However, just as Ling Lihua was about to take action, the battle to destroy the battlefield formation changed. One grandmaster was slaying the Skybrush Sect's grandmasters at a rapid pace, directly altering the tempo of the battle.
Who else could it be but Peng Yun?