Sword Sect Outer Sect

Chapter 298 Martial Immortal
Dozens of miles outside the pass.

cliff.

Song Yan stood on the cliff, looking towards Daming Pass in the distance.

"..."

Looking at the howling winds in the distance, and the countless tiny tornadoes among the thunderclouds.

Deep within the clouds, a dark flash of lightning.

He frowned deeply, silently cursing in his heart.

Are they really going to let these six Foundation Establishment cultivators take over such a crucial pass?
Even if they were to actually get into the pass, it would be difficult for the Yan Kingdom to take it down in a short time, provided they sent reinforcements on top of their existing three Foundation Establishment level generals.

The six people behind him looked at the great pass, also feeling uncertain.

Wu Caidie spoke first: "Fellow Daoist Song."

"This Wind and Thunder Formation is truly terrifying. Is the ten breaths that Vice General Luo mentioned enough?"

The fierce gale was enough to shatter bones and destroy souls. With the strength of these Foundation Establishment cultivators, if they were to be touched by the arc of heavenly lightning, they would probably not escape the fate of death and annihilation.

In fact, faced with such a dangerous mission, everyone had considered another way out.

That is, they would find a random place to hide, stay there for three to five days, and then return to the army and say that the attack had failed.

However, doing so is extremely risky. If Luo Zheng finds out, he can easily kill them all on the grounds of passive resistance and avoidance of battle.

After much deliberation, I decided to come here with Song Yan.

Song Yan glanced at her, thinking that the woman was talking nonsense, so he didn't stand on ceremony.

"Is that enough? Surely we can't just not enter the pass?"

"Be more polite when you speak to my older sister!"

Wu Yun was somewhat annoyed and was about to take a step forward when Wu Caidie stopped him.

Song Yan ignored him and pondered in her heart.

If Daming Pass is truly that important, the Yan Kingdom will surely send reinforcements.

The Sui Dynasty might also join the fray.

Simply attacking and defending by brute force is very difficult, not because of a difference in combat strength, but because there are too many factors to consider.

If we really have to launch a direct attack...

It seems that only the southeast corner has a slightly gentler terrain, with some gaps in the flow of wind and thunder, making it one of the weak points of the formation, which is still quite suitable.

Suddenly, Song Yan's expression froze, and then he looked in another direction.

"Ok?"

The other five people also turned their heads, looking wary.

Almost simultaneously, several figures appeared on the opposite cliff.

Four men and two women, six figures, all unarmored, dressed in Taoist robes and plain clothes.

"Cultivator?"

Both sides were taken aback when they saw what the other side looked like.

Having been in this ruin for half a year, this was the first time they had encountered foreign cultivators other than their own.

However, the only foreign cultivators in the army were themselves, and so far, they had never seen these people.

Then the other party's identity becomes obvious.

Song Yan looked at Sheng Nian on the opposite cliff, amidst the crowd, and a thought struck her.

It turns out that Gou Sheng was incorporated into the Sui army...

He and Sheng Nian were deep in thought, while the other cultivators were wary of each other.

The current situation is quite complicated.

Under normal circumstances, these people would just be cultivators who didn't know each other and were exploring the ruins of the ancient battlefield together.

And with this change in the ruins, they have all become outsiders.

Unfortunately, they ended up in the opposing military camp and met again here by chance.

How to do?
The best approach would be for both sides to set aside their positions and discuss together how to leave the site.

After all, that's the most important thing.

Among the six Sui soldiers, a red-robed cultivator slowly stepped forward and said a few words: "Fellow Daoists..."

He was about to speak, wanting to talk.

But out of the corner of his eye, he heard a burst of sword energy erupt.

"kill!"

A low shout broke the silence.

Without warning, the prime of life moved, and the flashing blades pointed directly at Song Yan!

The flashing blades surged and swept across the land as the Song Dynasty banquet began.

"you--!"

The red-robed cultivator was both shocked and furious, never expecting that Sheng Nian would launch the first attack in such a dangerous place.

Song Yan remained calm and summoned his natal flying sword. Sword energy gathered in the mansion, and with a single strike, he severed the tide and erased the sword light of the prime-year.

Li Yan was both shocked and furious, and roared, "Kill them!"

Seeing this, the remaining cultivators from both sides, though unaware of why the two had met and were fighting to the death, had no other choice but to immediately summon their magical artifacts and activate their spiritual power.

A chaotic battle ensued.

Sheng Nian suddenly made his move without warning, instantly breaking the stalemate and dragging everyone into the battle.

In an instant, ice spikes, fireballs, earth spikes, and golden light—countless spells and magical artifacts—clashed and attacked fiercely.

"Attack!" the red-robed cultivator roared.

He cursed this young idiot in his heart, unable to understand what was going on in this person's head, but in this life-or-death situation, he had no time to think and could only grit his teeth and go for it.

In an instant, spells collided, spiritual light radiated, and the small mountain area was transformed into a chaotic battlefield.

However, Song Yan and Sheng Nian, the two who made the first move, seemed to have "gotten really angry."

One man's sword gleamed like a dragon, shrouded in spiritual energy; the other's blade wielded fierce energy, cleaving through the clouds.

However, the young man seemed to be unstable and quickly turned to defense, even showing a tendency to flee.

However, Song Yan pressed forward relentlessly, and the battlefield between the two shifted rapidly.

In just a few breaths, the two figures disappeared from the spot.

Amidst the chaos of battle, only Wu Caidie gazed thoughtfully in the direction where the two had disappeared.

She felt that something was not quite right.

If she remembered correctly, the two of them had come together at the Yinxian Water Pavilion.

Do the two have some personal grudge and want to take this opportunity to get rid of each other?

still is……

"In the prime of life!"

On the Sui army's side, a female cultivator wielding a flying sword noticed that Sheng Nian seemed to have been "forced" to leave the main battlefield and was trying to escape, and she roared angrily.

"Mind your own business!" A thick earthen wall blocked her way in time.

The booming sound of surging spiritual energy immediately drowned out her words.

In the chaotic and fierce battle, the two sides of cultivators were locked in a stalemate, and neither side could easily break away to deal with the two "ranged combatants".

At this moment, Song Yan and Sheng Nian had completely escaped everyone's sight and had gone deep into the shadows of the dense forest.

In a split second, the two who had just been fighting fiercely stopped almost simultaneously.

Song Yan put the Unmoored Boat into the Endless Treasury and casually asked, "Where's A-Yuan?"

Sheng Nian gave him a strange look, seemingly surprised that after half a year apart, his first question was about A Yuan.

Rustling.

The tall figure of the corpse puppet A Yuan slowly emerged from the shadows of the dense forest. He forced a smile onto his stiff face and respectfully bowed to Song Yan.

"Thank you for your concern, Young Master Song. A Yuan is fine."

Sheng Nian sat down by a big tree and said, "A Yuan seems to be different from us. When we entered this place, he wasn't in any army."

"He came looking for me."

Song Yan looked the corpse puppet up and down and nodded.

Then he finally asked, "What exactly happened here? How did it become like this?"

Sheng Nian stroked his chin dramatically and said slowly, "Actually, I don't know either. But I do have some guesses, I don't know if they're right."

"Spit it out if you have something to say, stop with the nonsense."

"Tsk."

Sheng Nian expressed his dissatisfaction with Song Yan's rudeness, but still honestly stated his guess.

"Based on my previous understanding of this place, and the information I have gathered over the past few days, this place was originally one of the battlegrounds between the Qin and Yan dynasties."

"At that time, the Qin and Yan states were engaged in a massive war, and this place was just one corner of the battle."

"The Sui Dynasty must have joined later."

Song Yan listened quietly, but had many questions in her mind.

"However, the war between the Immortal Dynasties did not last until either side was completely destroyed before it stopped."

"The battle on this battlefield has only just begun, and the emperors of Qin, Yan, and Sui, for reasons unknown, have actually made peace."

"Peace?"

Song Yan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, and later the three kingdoms joined forces to seal the entire battlefield, along with some of the troops and generals who participated in the battle, within this place."

"To put it bluntly, all the soldiers and troops on this battlefield, including the generals of the Three Kingdoms, are expendable pawns of the Immortal Dynasty."

Song Yan found it hard to understand and frowned deeply: "Since a peace agreement has been reached, then the troops should sound the retreat and cease fighting on both sides."

"Why go to such great lengths to sink the entire battlefield here?"

He paused, thinking of the soldiers in the army: "Not to mention the generals at the Core Formation stage, these generals who command the army are probably already equivalent to cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage."

"To simply hand over such a force and seal it off forever would be to weaken our own nation."

This is Song Yan's biggest dilemma.

The struggle for supremacy among celestial dynasties ultimately boils down to a contest for resources, fortune, or, in other words, the power to influence the narrative.

Elite troops and great generals are precisely the foundation of all this.

Each side sealing away such a fighting force of their own is, from any perspective, like cutting off their own arm, utterly foolish.

"Old Song, if you ask me, we're still too narrow-minded..."

Sheng Nian patted Song Yan on the shoulder, his gesture carrying a deeper meaning.

"The three generals buried here along with these soldiers were probably more than just Nascent Soul cultivators..."

Song Yan was startled: "The Nascent Soul Realm?"

The Nascent Soul realm was the highest realm he knew on his path of cultivation.

At the next level, he couldn't even remember the names anymore.

Sheng Nian nodded slowly.

"The Celestial Dynasty has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages."

"Just like the secular world, the power struggles of emperors, and the disputes in the court."

"What ordinary people see is soldiers and generals shedding blood on the battlefield, expanding territory, and protecting the immortal dynasty."

"In some people's eyes, however, his fame was too great and his achievements were too great to behold."

"When military power is too strong, it can rival the power of the monarch, and even make the emperor feel that he cannot sleep peacefully with his bedside next to him."

Song Yan frowned slightly and sighed softly.

That's such a boring and tedious reason.

He already disliked such power struggles and intrigues, and now he despises them even more.

The intense conflict and enormous losses between the immortal dynasties provided the three emperors with an excellent way out.

With the emperor's tacit approval, countless people could use the pretext of peace talks to jointly push through this unprecedented execution.

Sheng Nian added, "Of these three generals, some offended the emperor due to slanderous words from petty people and were directly executed here."

"Some, due to the emperor's suspicion, prepared to flee to other countries, but were held back by the other two sides and ultimately perished together."

"In short, they are all hidden dangers and malignant tumors in the emperor's heart. If they can be wiped out here quietly, the morale of the army will not be lost."

“But… according to you, these three generals are at the Nascent Soul stage.”

Song Yan asked, "Could it be that he is a Nascent Soul True Monarch, and the emperor of this Immortal Dynasty can kill him at will?"

For him, the path of cultivating immortality was ultimately about achieving freedom.

He found the idea of ​​a ruler ordering his subject to die, leaving the subject with no choice but to die, incredibly suffocating.

A True Lord with the power of a Nascent Soul cultivator, surely he can't betray his country and flee this place?

As I just mentioned, one of these three generals is disloyal.

"This brings us to the unique characteristics of the Zhenwu lineage of the Ancient Immortal Dynasty."

Sheng Nian said, "I don't know how much you know about this."

"Although the paths may differ, there are actually many ways to pursue the path to immortality in the human cultivation world."

"Besides the Qi Refining lineage and the Buddhist cultivation lineage, there are also lineages such as the Gu Immortal lineage and the Ghost Witch lineage, each with very different cultivation methods and realm classifications."

"The True Martial Path of the Ancient Immortal Dynasty was one of them, and it was once extremely prosperous."

"Within the Zhenwu lineage, there are also different methods for breaking through realms, but the most common one is the Martial Immortal."

"The Zhenwu lineage cultivates three paths: True Essence, Battle Intent, and Willpower."

"Ordinary martial artists focus on cultivating their true essence and fighting spirit, while martial immortals focus on the power of incense and vows."

"The earliest way to become a martial immortal was actually through the path of mountain spirits and monsters to become immortals and gods, by doing good deeds, receiving incense offerings from the local people, and accumulating the power of their vows."

"Later, this method was learned by the Immortal Dynasty. With the incense offerings and prayers of the people of the Immortal Dynasty, the conditions for cultivation were naturally exceptionally favorable, and the cultivation speed of the Immortal Dynasty's Zhenwu was also incredibly fast."

"But this path has its advantages and disadvantages. To put it bluntly, you have achieved your current status only because of the incense offerings from the people of this Celestial Dynasty. If I, as the emperor, do not wish you to remain the Grand General, it would be very easy for me to replace you."

At this point, Song Yan suddenly realized.

"Simply attach a crime to you and announce it to the world, and the incense and prayers on your body will soon become water without a source, or even collapse and dissipate."

"It's just that such a large-scale war could easily cause panic and destabilize the army. In the eyes of the emperor of the Immortal Dynasty, it's not worth it."

"That's why there's talk of being forced to commit suicide."

"When an emperor strips someone of their official position, it is as if he has stripped them of the incense and vows of a martial immortal, and their primordial spirit will perish."

"So even the situation on this battlefield is already considered a way out given by those 'emperors'."

Song Yan let out a deep breath.

Is this the Celestial Dynasty...?

Even for Nascent Soul cultivators and True Lords of the Transformation Realm, their lives and fortunes are decided by a single word from the emperor.

"Later, for some unknown reason, apart from the Tang Dynasty in the Central Region, all the Immortal Dynasties were destroyed, and many body-refining techniques and methods were lost."

"The path to becoming a martial immortal is becoming increasingly difficult. Many people with martial arts talent no longer consider the True Martial lineage. As a result, there is a lack of successors, and body cultivation is gradually declining."

"These are all real things; what I'm about to say is my speculation about this place."

In his prime, he suddenly changed the subject.

"The changes at this battlefield ruins are probably due to the collapse of the great formation that sealed the battlefield. However, the souls of the three generals still had regrets, so they used their martial immortal bodies to awaken the soldiers buried here."

"We must determine who is superior before consciousness truly dissipates."

(End of this chapter)