Zhao Yue approached, a mixture of awe and relief on her face. "Young Master Lin… you have done what we thought was impossible."
Lin Feng's expression remained gentle, unreadable.
"This is only the beginning. The Barbarian Sect will regroup. Tomorrow, we will guide them into the next phase. Patience, observation, and precision these are the true weapons, not sheer force."
As night fell over the valley, the Barbarian Sect's forces were scattered, their morale broken, their confidence shaken. Yet in the shadows, Jian Tian's dark eyes never left the valley.
He was ready for the moment when the apex of the Barbarian Sect, desperate and cornered, might attempt a final desperate maneuver.
The atmosphere in the Great Hall of the Wild Barbarian Sect was thick with the copper scent of dried blood and the suffocating pressure of a Body Integration expert's rage.
Outside, the twisted trees of the deep forest groaned under a gathering storm, as if the land itself sensed the coming slaughter.
On a throne carved from the skull of a peak void refinement level Earth-Bear, the Sect Leader, Man Tie , gripped the armrests so hard the bone began to spiderweb.
His eyes, glowing with a savage amber light, swept over the trembling survivors of the Northern Valley expedition.
"Useless! All of you are just a useless bunch of scum !" Man Tie's voice didn't just ring; it vibrated through the marrow of everyone present.
As a Body Integration Level 2 powerhouse, his very breath felt like a physical weight on the chests of the lesser cultivators.
The elders who had fled the Great Solaris Kingdom bowed so low their forehead touched the cold stone. Among them, the losses were staggering.
The proud Soul Transformation elders were mostly gone, and even the two Void Refinement protectors beings who should have been invincible in the Western Region had been snuffed out like candles in a gale.
"How the hell did they manage to strike us?" Man Tie demanded, his voice dropping to a low, predatory growl.
Elder Hu , a Soul Transformation Level 7 cultivator whose robes were tattered and stained, stammered,
"Umm... Sect Leader... it was a boy. He was only at the Nascent Soul Peak ..."
Man Tie's gaze snapped to him, sharp as a spirit-blade. "Nascent Soul? Nascent Soul Peak! Do you have no shame? To be slaughtered by an ant at the Nascent Soul level?"
"Sect Leader," the Great Elder, Wu Kuang, interrupted, his voice grave.
"I don't think we should take this carelessly. How could a mere Nascent Soul cultivator have the power to kill Void Refinement Level 2 beings? There was a cold, unnatural sharpness to his intent... he didn't just fight them; he erased them."
The hall fell into a tomb-like silence. The survivors remembered the flash of white cloth, the blur of a sword, and the way their comrades fell before they could even scream.
Man Tie leaned back, his fury cooling into a deadly, calculated frost. "Yes... if what you say is true, then the Great Solaris Kingdom has found a monster. To crush him, we need to deploy that force."
A ripple of fear went through the elders. One elder stepped forward, his voice trembling. "But Sect Leader... if we use the Ghost Bone Sanctuary , everyone will tag us as traitors. "
"1,000s of years years ago, during the Great Extraterrestrial War, they betrayed all of humanity to side with the Ghost Race. To summon them is to invite the curse of the ancestors!"
"So what?" Man Tie sneered, a cruel smile twisting his lips.
"If we need to fight, then we fight. Do you think the Goddess has time to watch our petty wars from the Heavens? By the time any higher powers notice, I will have cleared those reinforcements and ground that kingdom into dust. Then... hahahaha!"
He stood up, his massive frame casting a shadow that seemed to swallow the hall.
"Prepare for war tomorrow. I will show up myself to ambush that Nascent Soul brat. I want to see the look in his eyes when a Body Integration expert snaps his sword and his spine."
In the shadows behind the throne, a pale, sickly green mist began to swirl the scouts of the Ghost Bone Sanctuary.
Though they had fallen to an 8th-tier sect after their ancient betrayal and subsequent seclusion, their Master, Gui Shura , was also at Body Integration Level 2.
The alliance of the blood-thirsty Barbarians and the traitorous Ghosts was sealed. Tomorrow, the forest will bleed.
The morning sun struggled to pierce the thick, lingering mist of the Northern Valley, but inside the war tent of the Great Solaris Kingdom , the atmosphere was white-hot with tension.
At the center of the strategic table stood Lin Feng .
Though only fifteen, he carried an aura that made the air heavy. To his side stood King Zhao Feng , the Princess Zhao Yue , and the three Great Elders: Mu Kun , Han , and Bi .
Every eye was fixed on Lin Feng not just because of his 7th-tier Human Federation citizenship, but because he had single-handedly turned the valley floor into a graveyard for three Void Refinement powerhouses just hours prior.
"Yesterday's victory was a mere opening act," Lin Feng began, his voice calm yet carrying the weight of a mountain.
"The Wild Barbarian Sect isn't foolish. To attack our kingdom, they must have secured an alliance that gives them the confidence to face our total might."
"An alliance... but who?" Zhao Yue whispered, her hand tightening on her sword hilt.
Elder Han stepped forward, his brow furrowed.
"The question isn't just who, but where. They could strike from any corner of the deep forest. We are blind in this mist!"
Lin Feng's lips curled into a mysterious, confident smile. "There are only three paths left for them now."
"Three paths?" Great Elder Mu Kun asked, his voice full of confusion. "The border is thousands of miles long!"
Lin Feng tapped a finger on the map, right on their current location.
"First, understand this, the Northern Valley is safe. We annihilated their vanguard here. No matter how arrogant their leader is, he will not throw more lives into a meat grinder he already lost. He knows we are waiting."
The elders exchanged stunned looks. They had been terrified of a second wave, yet this boy had already dismissed it with chilling logic.
"Since they cannot return here," Lin Feng continued, his finger sliding across the parchment,
"and they cannot move their massive main army to a distant pass in a single day, they are left with the two closest strategic hubs."
King Zhao Feng leaned in, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Where, Young Master Lin? Tell us!"
"Option one : Dawn-Break City in the North-East," Lin Feng declared. "Option two : Blazing Flame Pass in the North-West. Both are within striking distance of a forced march."
The room fell silent. The tactical genius required to narrow down a continental invasion to two points in one night was staggering.
Elder Bi squinted at the map. "You said three ways, Young Master. What is the third?"
Lin Feng's eyes flashed with a sharp, predatory light.
"If I were the Barbarian Sect Leader, I would seek to shatter the enemy's spirit. The third path is a pincer. He will split his forces and strike both cities simultaneously to force us to divide our strength."
A collective chill ran down the spines of every General present. If the kingdom split its forces incorrectly, they would be slaughtered piece by piece.
"But how do we know which is the real threat?" the King started to ask.
THWACK !
Lin Feng slammed his hand down on the Blazing Flame Pass.
"The main battlefield will be here. Send the Soul Transformation elders and the secondary legions to Dawn-Break City as a deterrent. But our core strength? It must go to the Pass."
"How can you be so certain?" Zhao Yue asked, her breath catching.
"Proximity," Lin Feng replied simply. "The Barbarians crave blood and speed. Blazing Flame Pass is the shortest route to the heart of the kingdom. It is where their pride will lead them."
Just as the words left his lips, the tent flap burst open. A Spy clad in jet-black silk sprinted in, dropping to one knee before the King.
"Report!" the King barked.
"Your Highness! Secret intelligence from the border! A small detachment of enemy cultivators has been spotted heading toward Dawn-Break City!"
" But... the main force, including their highest-level elders and the heavy war-beasts, is moving with terrifying speed toward Blazing Flame Pass!"
The silence that followed was deafening. The Elders looked at Lin Feng as if they were looking at a god of war reborn. Every prediction down to the split of the forces was perfect.
"Order the march!" King Zhao Feng roared, his voice filled with a new, fierce hope. "Generals, to your posts! We head for the Blazing Flame Pass! Today, we don't just defend... we hunt!"
The camp erupted into a frenzy of steel and shouting. As the Great Solaris Kingdom's army began to move like a golden tide,
Lin Feng stood at the exit of the tent, looking toward the North-West. The real battle was coming, and he could already smell the scent of ghost-qi on the wind.
As the golden carriage of the Solaris royalty and the iron-clad legions marched toward the rugged northwest, Lin Feng did not waste a single heartbeat.
In a clearing near the temporary campsite, he began to practice his Willow Leaves Sword Intent . The air around him suddenly thickened with a vibrant, emerald-green spiritual energy.
As his Xuan-grade sword traced elegant arcs through the sky, thousands of ethereal willow leaves condensed from pure Qi, swirling around him in a mesmerizing emerald cyclone.
They didn't just fall; they danced, vibrating with the rhythmic hum of his blade, each leaf a razor-sharp shard of intent that mirrored the fluid, swaying grace of an ancient willow tree in a storm.
The scene was nothing short of divine, drawing the awestruck gazes of passing soldiers who felt a chill of both beauty and terror.
With a final, explosive rotation, Lin Feng lunged forward, his sword tip glowing with a concentrated jade light. As he sheathed his blade in one fluid motion, the thousands of dancing leaves surged toward the earth.
A deafening silence followed, replaced by a soft glow as the spiritual energy dissipated, leaving behind a massive, perfectly carved Willow Leaf Sign etched deep into the scorched earth.
The ground itself seemed to have been branded by his will, a testament to a level of sword mastery that defied his fifteen years of age.
That evening, standing upon a jagged ridge overlooking the stone battlements of Blazing Flame Pass , Lin Feng watched the horizon where the sun dipped into a sea of blood-red sand.
His white Eternal Sect uniform fluttered violently in the mountain gale, the bold character for "Sword" on his chest standing out like a challenge to the world.
At his waist, the core disciple token swayed, its rhythmic clinking against his belt sounding like haunting wind chimes amidst the silence of the coming war.
In his hand, his Xuan-grade sword thrummed with a low, predatory vibration, its edge glowing faintly as it hungered for the clash.
With his loose black hair dancing in the wind and a gaze as sharp as a celestial blade, Lin Feng waited. He didn't just look at the fortress; he looked through it, past the shadows of the forest, directly into the heart of the barbarian horde that would meet its end tomorrow.