The mountain wind howled, and the distant sounds of slaughter echoed faintly in their ears. Thunder rumbled and lightning split the sky from time to time. Seven Foundation Establishment cultivators stood upon the Quicksand encampment, the air between them sharp as drawn blades, heavy with killing intent.
While Han Zheng demanded an answer, Luo Chen merely stood in silence. That silence caused the darkness on Han Zheng's face to deepen until it seemed to turn into an abyss. Behind him, his four senior brothers from the Falling Cloud Sect tensed up; spirit light pulsed faintly around them as they prepared to strike at the slightest sign of provocation.
Then, unexpectedly, Han Zheng smiled. "Very well. You've got guts. I'll remember this."
The others looked at him in disbelief as he waved a hand lightly. "We're leaving."
"Junior brother..." one began hesitantly.
"I said we're going!" Han Zheng barked.
With that, he turned and departed without another word. His four companions threw venomous glares at Luo Chen and Chu Kui before following close behind.
As they vanished into the distance, Chu Kui let out a long and heavy breath. The sound alone betrayed the tension he had been holding within. He had been prepared to fight beside Luo Chen, even if it meant facing five True Inheritors of the Falling Cloud Sect at once. Still catching his breath, he looked toward Luo Chen, who stood as calm as before.
"Where's that silver tongue of yours? You didn't say a single word, and they still backed off?" Chu Kui muttered.
Luo Chen gave him a faint glance. With a flick of spirit power, he summoned back the Mystic Flame Sword, which still held the corpse of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect's True Inheritor Lan impaled upon it.
While inspecting the corpse, Luo Chen replied, "Say what? Should I have said sorry? 'Please don't kill me'? Or maybe 'Take my merit points instead'?"
The sarcasm left Chu Kui speechless. He had a thousand things he wanted to say, but none could pass his throat. Truth be told, none of those lines suited Luo Chen's character at all. It was impossible to imagine him saying such things.
Still, he could not help blurting, "But... they were True Inheritors of the Falling Cloud Sect!"
Shhhk—
A flash of sword light gleamed and a headless body fell to the ground. Luo Chen stood holding the severed head in one hand and, in the other, a jade pendant and sect token. He cast Fireball, and the corpse below burst into flames, burning to ash within seconds.
Looting the dead and destroying the evidence, all in one seamless motion. The practiced ease of it made Chu Kui's eyelids twitch. Luo Chen was the head of a respectable organization, and yet he was doing this brutal handiwork with obviously practiced precision.
Without even examining the spoils, Luo Chen tossed them into his storage pouch. Only after patting off the ashes on his sleeves did he finally explain himself. "It's precisely because they were the Falling Cloud Sect disciples that I could act so calmly."
"Eh?" Chu Kui blinked, confused.
Luo Chen gave a light laugh. "The Luo Tian Society may have been conscripted, but officially, we're part of the Four-Sect Alliance. That makes us allies, no? In the chaos of war, I was simply doing my duty by killing enemy forces. Han Zheng had no proper grounds to make a move against me."
The logic struck Chu Kui like a slap to the face. He understood immediately; it was all true. However, he gave a wry smile. "Yeah, but I'd say you're the only one outside the alliance who'd have the guts to steal a meal from a tiger's jaws. If it were someone else—hell, even me, I doubt we could've walked away unscathed. At least, we would've had to offer something in return."
Luo Chen tugged at the corner of his lips but said no more. Yes, he had leaned on the fact that they were fellow members of the alliance. It was a calculated gamble, a maneuver of leverage cloaked in reason. Yet beneath that, he had the strength to back it up. Whether it was his reputation as Dan Chenzi or his position as a guest elder of the Ice Fortress, Luo Chen's status was no less than that of any major sect's True Inheritor. Even if they had made a move on him, so what?
Maybe he and Chu Kui couldn't win, but they could easily escape, and if word got out that the Falling Cloud Sect had attacked their allies, their reputation would plummet. The other three sects might turn a blind eye, but the rogue cultivators and small factions wouldn't take that lightly. They'd start thinking twice before risking their necks for a sect that turned on its own.
All of this had played through Luo Chen's mind in an instant, and with that certainty, he had full confidence to remain silent.
Han Zheng had been smart enough to lift his blade high and gently set it back down. Of course, only someone like him could do that. Had it been anyone else, even a late-stage initiate like Chu Kui would've had to bow his head.
Chu Kui chuckled, lifting seven or eight storage pouches. "Still feels a little shady though. They beat the guy half to death, and we got to clean up the spoils."
"He isn't my nephew. Why would I give him money?" Luo Chen snorted softly, but his eyes darted across the battlefield. "Let's go. It's not safe here. Let's find another spot. There is still time before dawn, so we might be able to pull off one more... job."
With that, he turned and walked off in a remote direction. Chu Kui followed close behind without arguing.
***
Under the cover of night, two figures moved like phantoms along the edges of the battlefield. Whenever they encountered a lone enemy, they struck without hesitation. If it was a small squad of routed survivors, they paused to assess the risk. If the odds seemed right, the two would unleash their most devastating moves to cripple the group's core fighters, then split up to hunt down the stragglers. Those who fled too quickly were left alone. If the enemy numbers were even slightly too large, they backed off without a second thought.
Their goal remained simple: secure as many merit points as possible without overextending. And they stayed true to that goal. At dawn, the two weary cultivators hid themselves in an underground cavern, tallying their earned merit points.
"Two late-stage Initiates, one thousand merit points," Chu Kui muttered, counting carefully. "Six mid-stage Initiates, another one thousand two hundred. Twelve early-stage Initiates, one thousand two hundred more. A total of three thousand four hundred merit points!"
His face lit up despite his exhaustion. If they included the late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators they'd slain along the way, the number might even reach three thousand five hundred. They were only six thousand five hundred away from redeeming the Upper Path of Core Formation secret art. It felt so tantalizingly close!
"Luo Chen, the war's still going," Chu Kui said, unable to hide the fire in his voice. "Should we keep going?"
Luo Chen's calm reply poured over him like ice water. "If you don't want to die on the battlefield, I suggest you take a proper rest."
Chu Kui froze mid-breath. He glanced at Luo Chen, who looked rather haggard and clearly worn, then looked down to see his own body covered in wounds both large and small. A chill ran through him. He had been too caught up in the bloodlust. Under the lure of merit points and endless killing, he had lost sight of himself. That recklessness was not his nature.
When Luo Chen saw that his companion had sobered up, he exhaled softly in relief. He lifted his head and his eyes narrowed as his spirit consciousness spread outward through the roiling sands and distant flames that still churned beyond the cavern.
"Don't worry, this war is far from over," Luo Chen said.
Chu Kui blinked. "But we're on the verge of taking the seventh mountain. Even Golden Core cultivators were fighting this morning. They kicked up sandstorms across hundreds of li."
The participation of Golden Core cultivators usually marked the battle's climax. Once they intervened, the conflict would soon come to an end, followed by a temporary period of peace.
Luo Chen snorted. "You only noticed that the seventh mountain is falling. You didn't see how the Four-Sect Alliance's number of cultivators was increasing by the day. Think about what that means."
In any war, the number of participants is bound to shrink as the fighting drags on. It made no sense for them to increase now that the battle had reached, as Chu Kui thought, the climax. The steady increase could only mean one thing—fresh troops were being sent in.
He recalled the many unfamiliar faces he had encountered that day. They were new arrivals, without question. Whether transferred from the fifth or sixth mountain, or drawn from the garrison on Golden Sand Floating Island, he could not yet tell.
The realization struck Chu Kui like thunder. "Wait... Don't tell me they're planning to reclaim the eighth mountain as well?"
Luo Chen's expression hardened. "That's exactly what they intend. Otherwise, figures like Adept Moonshade and Adept Linghu wouldn't be appearing on the front lines."
The presence of so many Golden Core cultivators meant this wasn't just about taking back one mountain. The war wasn't ending. It was just getting started.
Chu Kui's eyes gleamed, but a frown soon followed. "With all these reinforcements, won't it turn into too many monks and not enough porridge?[1] It's going to be harder to earn merit points later."
Luo Chen viewed the situation differently. "Most of the early casualties were cannon fodder. As for those two grand cultivators we killed, one had already been crippled and the other was seriously wounded when we found him. The true elites haven't even appeared yet. So stop thinking about merit points. Focus on restoring your spirit power and keeping yourself in condition. I'd rather not have you dragging me down."
As he finished speaking, his eyes closed. Several pills shimmered briefly in his palm before dissolving into his body in just a moment. He began refining them through quiet breathing, his body already drawing in spirit energy.
Chu Kui chuckled under his breath. "Relax. There is no way I'd ever hold you back."
***