Receiving the worldly reward lifted everyone’s spirits. Not only was it much more heftier than what was described in the texts, they would be receiving Heaven Merits for their effort as well.

This battle alone had pushed the trio much further along their cultivation and saved them several years of hard work.

Although Wei Yuan had not benefited directly from the worldly reward, Qingming was further nurtured, and Jia Wood Nurtures Life was a tad better than before. The Great Realm had also received some feedback—specifically, the shoots growing on top of his jade hill were a little taller than before. A second leaf was growing as well.

Wei Yuan was keenly feeling the shortage of ordinary cultivators in his ranks. He had started out with seven hundred cultivators. In less than three days, the fighting had whittled their number down to just over a hundred. Thinking of this made Wei Yuan thought of Xun Wenwu, and he suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen the guy in a while. Where did he go?

At this very moment, Xu Wenwu was furiously writing away in his room. The small house was basically an independent realm of its own—he had no idea that a major battle where a Great Warlock had fallen had just taken place outside his walls.

In the western part of Ning Province, a flying boat bearing the emblem of the Palace of Absolute Beginning was slowly flying through the air. Suddenly, several cultivators appeared in front of the vessel and stopped it in its tracks.

A middle-aged cultivator walked up to the deck and clasped his hands together in salute. “This is the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s flying boat. May I know why you have blocked our way, Dao friends?”

The old cultivator opposite him returned the salute. “We hail from the Qin Sword Sect. We have come to inform you that our mountain gate is up ahead, and we have closed it for reasons. Please go around or head back immediately.”

The middle-aged cultivator frowned. “We fly this route once a month—not once have we heard that the mountain gate is closed. I’m on an urgent mission right now, so I would urge you to move out of the way immediately. If I am forced to report this to my superiors, I am afraid that a tiny sect like yours won’t be able to handle the consequences!”

“Very well. If the Palace of Absolute Beginning won’t listen to sound advice, then so be it.” The opposite cultivators exchanged subtle looks with each other before moving out of the way.

The flying boat resumed its journey once more, but for some reason, the middle-aged man was only feeling increasingly uneasy. Before he could make sense of it, two flying boats bearing no emblem burst out of the sea of clouds above their heads and charged straight toward them!

Caught flat-footed, the middle-aged cultivator immediately sounded the alarm. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The two flying boats boasted incredible speed and easily caught up to the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s flying boat. Then, they unleashed hails of mystic artifact-grade arrows and bolts at it.

Despite doing their utmost to resist, their flying boat was a slow-moving cargo boat, and they weren’t prepared for a raid. They fell into disadvantage in just the blink of an eye and were boarded in almost no time.

Knowing that the fight was lost, the middle-aged cultivator signalled a surrender.

Moments later, three flying boats left the scene. The middle-aged cultivators and his crew—tens of them in total—were all abandoned in the wilderness: physically bound, energetically sealed, and mentally restricted.

For obvious reasons, the middle-aged cultivator felt angry and humiliated. His original mission was a routine supply run to the properties of the Palace of Absolute Beginning throughout Ningxi. But prior to departure, he had received a last-minute shipment of supplies intended for a base west of Hanyang Pass. He had never expected such an accident to occur along the way.

The only good thing about this was that the raiders weren’t planning on harming anyone’s lives. Otherwise, they would all be dead.

Meanwhile, Hanyang Pass was a lot more crowded than normal. This was especially true for the western gate. There were so many guards that they formed long, long lines on the walls. Everyone leaving the city was questioned closely, and most caravans weren’t allowed to venture west and forced to turn back.

At the garrison headquarters, a burly general was sitting at the head of the table. To his right sat a row of generals and military officers. The leader of the row was a general exuding a menacing aura and brimming with bloodthirst. He was, in fact, an accomplished Avatar.

To his left sat just two Daoist; a man and a woman to be exact. They were none other than Trueman Fen Hai and Trueman Lan Hua.

The leading general slapped his hand on the table and growled, “You persistent bastards! Do you two have no regard for the garrison headquarters?”

Trueman Fen Hai did not even bother to lift his eyelids. “Nope, we don’t. What are you gonna do about it?”

Enraged, the general shot to his feet and yelled, “You think yourselves superior just because your Dao arts are strong? I am not afraid of you!”

Trueman Lan Hua sneered. “Like I care if you’re afraid of me or not. Either way, you can’t beat me.”

The general looked ashen with rage. “You won that time only because you caught me at a careless moment!”

“You would’ve lost even if you weren’t careless. You will lose even if we fight a couple more times. If you truly have no sense of shame, then I don’t mind beating that lesson into your head on behalf of your Master.”

Finally, the general seated at the head of the table lifted his eyelids. Divine light instantly burst out of his eyesockets like sabers and axes!

He gave Trueman Lan Hua a long look before withdrawing the unnatural light, saying, “You’ve been harping on this for over a day now. This general-in-chief has long made it clear that no major sect’s cargo is permitted to pass through the western borders, and this order cannot be changed. So why do you still persist?”

Fen Hai replied, “Because this old Daoist feels that this order is wrong and must be settled through discussion. Your reputation precedes you, General-in-chief Xu. Personally, I don’t believe I would be able to defeat you. However, it would be hard for me to lose as well. Therefore, let us continue this discussion until we reach a conclusion.”

A shadow loomed over General-in-chief Xu’s face as he said slowly, “I’m sure we can spar after our two lords in the sky have arrived at a decision. For now, there is no point.”

Fen Hai nodded in agreement. “My sentiments exactly. If we can avoid a fight, then we should do our best to avoid it. Isn’t it just fine for us to debate like this every day? But of course, I’m more than willing to oblige if General-in-chief Xu insists on testing this old Daoist’s mettle.”

General-in-chief Xu was feeling a pounding headache to put it mildly.

It had been two full days since they were locked in a stalemate. The day before, Fen Hai and Lan Hua had tried to leave the pass and head west only to be stopped by the border guards. The two of them ended up causing a commotion at the general-in-chief’s residence and injured dozens of gate guards in the process.

General-in-chief Xu Zhongxing had become an Avatar two hundred years ago and had spent years leading troops in battle against the Shamans. As a result, both his cultivation and combat prowess were top-rate, so much so that even Fen Hai was slightly inferior to him. The moment he heard the news, he knew that something was amiss—how could a pair of Avatars ever be stopped by mere border guards?

Naturally, the two sides clashed immediately upon meeting. They ended up engaging each other in a short, covert, and remote exchange of blows.

As expected, Xu Zhongxing ended up getting the better of Fen Hai. However, he wasn’t absolutely sure he could defeat the old Daoist either. Fen Hai’s heavenly fire was an insidious thing that could erode Dao energy. If the battle dragged on for too long, he would even lose his Dao energy permanently. It wasn’t a big amount, but it was still infuriating to say the least. Thus, after testing the waters, Xu Zhongxing confirmed that he didn’t want to fight Fen Hai again unless absolutely necessary.

Fen Hai himself had changed his tactic after seeing that he couldn’t beat Xu Zhongxing. Instead, he sat the general-in-chief down at the meeting table and engaged him in a pointless and never-ending debate.

The leading general sitting at the left side of the table was named Fan Donghe. He had only become an Avatar for less than five decades, and he was no match for Lan Hua.

With two Avatars on each side, the situation had reached a stalemate. On the first day, both sides bickered until well past midnight before finally parting ways. During that time, they had clashed twice with neither side gaining the upper hand.

Today, while Xu Zhongxing and Fan Donghe were still sleeping and before the rooster had even crowed, Fen Hai and Lan Hua had knocked on their doorsteps once again. If Xu Zhongxing refused to show up, then the two old Daoists would act with utter arrogance and tyranny and beat up anyone whose response even slightly dissatisfied them. As a result, another dozen soldiers serving in the general-in-chief residence were injured.

Fan Donghe was the first one to show up. As soon as he arrived, Fen Hai had fabricated a couple charges against the general and attacked him. Trueman Lan Hua stepped in to break up the fight, making sure to get in Fan Donghe’s way only. If Xu Zhongxing hadn’t shown up in time, the general would be lying in bed and covered in bandages already.

At this point, Xu Zhongxing finally figured out that Fen Hai and Lan Hua were picking a quarrel with him on purpose. Left with no choice, he stepped in and oversaw the situation personally. And so the two sides bickered before the rooster had crowed all the way until evening. A full day had passed, and Xu Zhongxing had not had the chance to handle even a single document.

While the two Daoists were present at the general-in-chief’s residence—also the garrison headquarters—the entire place had come to a standstill. The documents rapidly piled up on Xu Zhongnian’s table in the blink of an eye, yet he couldn’t read a single one because Fen Hai would “spar” with him as soon as he tried.

How could an ordinary document hope to withstand a spar between two powerful Truemen? He gave up after the first few documents disintegrated to dust.

Since the garrison headquarters was paralyzed, the troops within a thousand li of Hanyang Pass were paralyzed as well. Everything else was running several steps behind schedule as well. This place originally ran like a well-oiled machine under the Xu Clan’s management, but now, gaps and delays were appearing everywhere.

There was nothing Xu Zhongxing could do about it. If he sent Fan Donghe away to handle the work on his behalf, Fen Hai and Lan Hua would absolutely seize the opportunity to gang up on him. If he slipped up, he could be seriously injured. He could try chasing the duo away, but that was only possible if they had one more Avatar. Right now, the Xu Clan was short-handed, and every Avatar was occupied by important duties. There was simply no one who could lend him a hand.

After much deliberation, Xu Zhongxing concluded that the only solution was to find someone to take his place and wear down the two old Daoists on his behalf. But since there was no suitable candidate at the moment, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure it.

He silently vowed to himself: We’ll see how long you can keep this up!

Venting aside, he knew full well that he was the one who couldn’t afford the battle of attrition. The two Daoists were free people—or to put it bluntly, ne'er-do-wells with more time than they could count. On the other hand, he was in charge of the military affairs of the frontier and the one currently responsible for coordinating the blockade and interception spanning the entire Shattered Realm.

With such a heavy burden on his shoulders, how could he afford to waste his time with two idlers? However, Fen Hai was no ordinary opponent. Who else could keep him in check besides a powerful and skilled cultivator like himself?

Xu Zhongxing pondered the matter for two whole days, but could not come up with a good solution in the end.