Deston Prefecture.
As the grand army marched west, a ten-thousand-strong army was also marching west.
However, they were not heading to the Wu tribe battlefield; instead, they were concealed within the Spiritual power of Void Refinement cultivators.
This was none other than Bi Shihu's three armies.
Back then, Bi Shihu's three armies had numerous soldiers.
But after encountering Li Yunbing, bizarre incidents occurred endlessly, causing the Spear Saint to put up his guard against him and the Wu tribe to hate Bi Shihu to the bone.
With his grand army reduced to only ten thousand men, he was forced to become Ba Siyu's running dog.
Ge Li possessed extraordinary abilities. Striking his long spear against the ground, the ten thousand men surprisingly became as silent as ghosts.
At this moment, Bi Shihu, Pagoda Ge Li, and Divine Archer Guan Mingxuan gazed at a giant crater on the ground, which held lingering, peaceful Spiritual power.
Guan Mingxuan said, "It is the trace left by the Li Clan's Golden Toad Divine Palace. They are not far away. With the Marshal and the Marshal's two friends here, we can catch the Li Clan completely off guard."
As he spoke, Guan Mingxuan glanced at the two Void Refinement experts within the grand army who were chatting merrily.
They were Fellow Daoists the Marshal had spent a massive price to invite over the past few decades.
One was an old man with a gourd hanging at his waist, and the other was a married woman, who was also the Marshal's junior sister from the same sect.
Guan Mingxuan wished he could immediately charge into the Golden Toad Divine Palace and slaughter that brat from the Li Clan who had mutilated himself in front of him back then, to vent the humiliation of being framed by the Li Clan and forced to flee in panic.
"Wait a bit longer."
Bi Shihu shook his head.
"We wait for Cai Yongzhen to return. Once they succeed in Highsun City and the Yun Clan's Old Ancestor arrives, that will be the most opportune moment to fight."
Before the words had even faded.
As Bi Shihu's voice fell, he abruptly turned his head. However, sensing Cai Yongzhen's returning aura, Bi Shihu showed no sign of joy.
He could already sense Cai Yongzhen's hurried pace and the absence of any Yun Clan members following him.
Sure enough, amidst the joyful gazes of the other subordinates, what Cai Yongzhen brought was bad news.
"The Yun Clan has been annihilated."
Recalling the scene of cruel slaughter by Li Xinnian's Blood Spirit Dharma Image that his Primal Soul had glimpsed at Silver Wolf Lake, Cai Yongzhen's face turned pale.
"The Yun Clan's Old Ancestor wasn't at Silver Wolf Lake at all.
Barely half a day after the grand army departed from Highsun City, when Ba Siyu could no longer sense the affairs of the city, the people of the Azure Cloud Li Clan had already made their move..."
Cai Yongzhen recounted everything he had seen in detail.
"Two unexpected Void Refinement experts?!!" Guan Mingxuan's expression looked awful.
"Absolutely impossible. I possess the Void Refinement Spiritual technique 'Spirit-Peering Bright Eyes.'
Over the years, the true foundation of the Li Clan members couldn't escape my eyes at all.
Li Changyao was at the peak of the Divinity Transformation realm, having only slightly touched the threshold of Void Refinement; she still had a long way to go.
Li Xinnian had only recently entered the peak of the Divinity Transformation realm.
Unless they had the assistance of a Mahayana expert or holy pills and divine medicines over these past few decades..."
"I saw it with my own eyes, why would I lie to you? If your 'Spirit-Peering Bright Eyes' could see through them, did you see Li Xinnian eating people?"
Cai Yongzhen interrupted Guan Mingxuan's words, leaving Guan Mingxuan stunned.
"He... eats people?"
"Eats people! And Li Changyao, her archery is no less impressive than yours.
Her Blue Phoenix Qi had swallowed two clusters of Heavenly Fire.
With a single arrow spanning thousands of miles, she burned the entirety of Silver Wolf Lake!"
Cai Yongzhen took a deep breath.
For some unknown reason, while fleeing madly all the way here, he always felt as if his life was being held in someone else's hands.
Upon returning to the army, he finally felt a sense of security.
Guan Mingxuan wanted to retort; clearly, he hadn't seen anything back then.
This was merely the change after the Li Clan members had hidden themselves for the past thirty-odd years.
But just as the words reached his throat, Bi Shihu had already interrupted him.
Surprisingly, there was not a trace of astonishment on Bi Shihu's face.
All he had was calmness in the face of this sudden change, and even a decisiveness born of a bit of relief.
"Since Yun Hongcai didn't come, there is no need for us to continue. Pass down the order: march on Highsun City!"
"Highsun City?"
Ge Li's expression changed. "Marshal, why march on Highsun City?"
Bi Shihu's face darkened. "Do we have any other way out now?"
"This..."
Ge Li's heart turned to dead ashes. Where else was there a way out?
That bastard Yun Hongcai had changed his mind and stolen the logistical supplies, which would definitely make Ba Siyu extremely suspicious and implicate them as well.
They were originally deserters from the Shadowfell Prefecture. Without the Half-step Body Integration Yun Hongcai, they were nothing; no matter where they went, it would be a dead end.
And at this moment, among the two Void Refinement experts who had remained silent the whole time, the old man with the gourd hanging at his waist, whose back of the hand revealed Wu tribe inscriptions, finally showed a smile.
"Marshal Bi, you have finally thought it through."
Bi Shihu stared coldly at this old man. "Venerable Elder Yuanliang, do I have a choice?"
"Venerable Elder?" The expressions of the three Void Refinement cultivators in the three armies all changed.
Even the greed-filled Ge Li looked at his own Marshal in disbelief.
"Marshal, this is the Fellow Daoist you invited over these years? A Wu tribesman? We are going to betray the dynasty?"
The Marshal, whom he had served his entire life loyally, was going to attack a city of the human race!
"Fellow Daoist, those words are incorrect."
The old man didn't look the least bit like a barbaric Wu tribesman.
He wore simple cloth garments, with a gourd hanging at his waist, and was barely a meter and a half tall. He looked more like a carefree, enlightened expert.
At this moment, he took off the gourd and took a deep gulp of the spiritual liquid inside, which wafted a clear, fragrant scent.
"Marshal Bi Shihu spent many years resisting us in the Western Border, amassing many merits. But look at what kind of treatment he received upon returning to Deston Prefecture?"
"The various factions of the dynasty distrust him, and Ba Siyu wants to keep the Marshal captive like a running dog.
For the Marshal, a man of such great talent, to be reduced to such a state—it is the dynasty that betrayed the Marshal, not the Marshal who betrayed the dynasty."
Venerable Elder Yuanliang said calmly,
"We Wu tribesmen have always treated our friends well. As long as you all take down Highsun City, you will cut off Ba Siyu's retreat.
Our Wu tribe members who charge into the Central Plains will use Highsun City as a base to surround and kill the cultivators of Deston Prefecture.
When that time comes, the Marshal and you all will have achieved an unparalleled merit for our Wu tribe.
The Rising Sun Sage Elder has already promised to join hands with the other Sage Elders to break open a Body Integration Dao path for the Marshal."
"The good days for everyone here have arrived."
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