Molting the Mortal Coil

Sage’s voice boomed over the fortress. Zhang Tu was truly cautious, having built himself a castle atop a large rock formation. A few hundred foot tall rock in the center of a wide open grassland. Most of Flying Wind Province had similar terrain, large open plains interspersed with large rocks, plateaus, and cliffs. The wind also never seemed to stop blowing, ranging from gentle breezes to gale winds, the grasses were constantly swaying. Upon standing on those tall and isolated rocks, one would feel as if they were flying in the wind. Those two features were what gave Swaying Grass County and Flying Wind Province their names.

Zhang Tu’s Fortress had walls over forty feet thick at the base that stood eighty feet tall. Such walls were equivalent to those around large cities, and a great deterrent to Demonic Beasts and powerful cultivators. On the other hand, it was also an exorbitant expenditure of resources. Unless one expected to be targeted by an expert or was building in an area populated by strong beasts, there usually wasn’t such a need for defenses this powerful to protect such a small location. Cities usually protected millions, and most of those were ordinary mortals, they would be helpless if a pack of Demonic Beasts were in the area. The walls were necessary to protect them. This Fortress on the other hand, had only a dozen acres or so of space within it. It seemed much like something a very rich mortal would build if they wanted to escape from the cities and live out in the wilderness.

After calling out Zhang Tu, Sage watched the response of the Fortress. Before they had even started their encirclement, they’d already counted a few hundred guards manning the walls. Surprisingly, they all wore matching uniforms with an unusual coloring. The left halves of their robes were black, while the right halves were white. It felt somewhat familiar, but Sage couldn’t quite place which group they were from. Other than in 10,000 Wave Province and Bronze Tiger Province, the Information Network only had a presence in the capital cities of each province. The Black Dog Company also didn’t keep detailed records of uniforms. They only registered membership badges to each individual and to which group those individuals were affiliated.

Sage had a feeling the group he was up against was quite famous in other parts of the Kingdom, but were practically unknown in 10,000 Wave Province. Such an eye catching clothing pattern was certainly memorable. The many guards on the walls withstood Sage’s provocation, without moving from their positions or even looking scared in the least. They were a bit impressed by the scale of the siege, it was almost like they were merely excited at a coming show.

Seems this group must be quite powerful.

While he was deciding on whether or not to start insulting the defenders to goad them out, the front gates of the Fortress creaked. They were twenty feet tall and ten feet wide, constructed of solid Spirit Steel and likely worth a small fortune. Even as large and heavy as they were, a single hand pushed them open. Along with that push a small group of four walked out from the Fortress. Two of them garbed completely in black, while the other two were fully in white. Of the black pair, one was a man and the other a woman. The pair in white were similarly divided. All four looked quite elegant and refined, though they were of different ages. The man in black and the woman in white looked to be in their thirties, while the woman in black and the man in white looked to be in their twenties. Of course, they were cultivators, so it was hard to tell their actual ages.

After walking outside, they held their heads up high arrogantly, looking down their noses at the encirclement of ten thousand airborne Dragoons. At the front gates of the fortress they walked forward a dozen yards, standing at the head of the trail. It switched back and forth in front of the Fortress, the only smooth path up from the plains being vulnerable to attack from the defenders on the walls the whole way up. Standing at the edge of the huge rock beneath the fortress they looked quite imposing standing up to that huge army. Sage was actually impressed by their calmness when faced with such a calamity.

They seem quite confident. I suppose the encirclement of ten thousand rank threes doesn’t scare them all that much.

From the aura they were leaking, Sage could feel the four of them were only a few levels beneath his own. Unless a higher rank cultivator purposely made themselves known, those of lower rank couldn’t accurately gauge their strength. They couldn’t know how strong Dian Huifang was, nor could Sage tell if they had a similar powerhouse on their side. Sage himself was only a few levels higher, and with only Songji at his side, they weren’t feeling any pressure. If the ten thousand Dragoons fought together, they could defeat a lone rank 5, but not without sustaining casualties. If they had to fight two at the same time, they would likely end up victorious, but only after terrifying losses and that was only if their foe fought to the end. It was quite likely with two of them, they could weaken the encirclement enough for at least one of them to run away. Without Sage and Songji, the four in black and white could likely destroy the whole army of Dragoons without even suffering serious injury. Even with hundreds of thousands of Dragoons, victory wouldn’t be assured.

Once a cultivator formed their Inner Core, they could endlessly replenish their Qi. They could expend most of their energy and their strength could fall to only a fraction of their peak, but completely exhausting a Core Formation Cultivator would take days, weeks, or even months to accomplish. Sage’s choice of path was definitely skewed towards mass combat. Quantity had a hard time beating quality, but anything taken to the extreme was terrifying.

“Is this where you’re getting your courage, Zhang Tu? Scurry on out here, there’s no need for these others to squander their lives for you.”

Sage continued to insult and belittle Zhang Tu. Not only was it refreshing to get a little payback for all he’d suffered, he also aimed to anger Zhang Tu. Losing control over one’s emotions was the quickest path to clouded judgement. He still wasn’t sure just how powerful the defenses were and the more enemies he could lure out, the better.

There was no further response from the Fortress, but the four outside the gates were quite annoyed at being ignored. The younger pair, the man in white and girl in black, stepped forward, “Let us handle this.”

The older pair behind them nodded their heads, “Fine, but be careful. If you sense anything at all amiss, or we call you back, flee immediately. You must maintain balance.”

The younger two cupped their fists at the man in black and woman in white and then shot into motion. They shot off like a streak of black and white, leaping from rock to rock, ignoring the road and reaching the flat grassland in less than a second. They darted towards Sage’s position with a violent level of speed.

They aren’t flying, that means no wind laws.

Sage was standing a dozen yards inside the perimeter of Dragoons while Songji was standing just outside next to Dian Huifang. The two women didn’t look to be involved in the battle, but Sage didn’t count on the enemies to believe that. Especially since Songji had come along as an extra assurance for him. The enemy had no idea that Sage actually had Songji standing next to Dian Huifang as a backup against her. There was no telling if Huifang might suddenly take offense to something and go against him. Even if Songji wasn’t a match for her, at least she could hold Huifang back long enough to keep Sage from being backstabbed.

The man in white started to glow, a halo of bright light even forming above his head. Meanwhile the woman in black strayed behind him, following behind him like a shadow. Her smaller frame was hidden quite well, especially as the halo of light got brighter and brighter, starting to affect the eyes of all those who looked towards him. The army of Dragoons already started to shield their eyes from the conflict.

Ahh, so it’s Light then. Then that means the ones in black…