In the early morning, clouds veiled the Snow Domain Heavenly Pond.
At Natural Abode, Lin Zhao slowly rose from the lotus pond's edge. It was finally complete. The twelve Great Desolation Ancient Swords gifted by Lin Wanhua had all been successfully refined. Now, the spiritual energy between Lin Zhao's breaths was even more abundant, imbued with a subtle sense of unity with heaven and earth. Within his spiritual void, five immortal swords and twelve Great Desolation Ancient Swords all hovered, each surrounded by flowing streams of sword dao destiny. His strength had finally reached its zenith. With his lifebound flying sword, Mingyue, the flying sword Haoran, plus the five immortal swords and twelve Great Desolation Ancient Swords, he had truly achieved the Great Completion of a Nascent Soul Sword Cultivator.
"Congratulations, Lord."
Beside him, Shuang Zhi smiled with dimples shallowly, "You have finally reached Nascent Soul Great Completion."
"Heh heh…"
Lin Zhao simply chuckled, looking at Shuang Zhi and asking, "Shuang Zhi, how is your cultivation progressing? When can you enter the twelfth realm?"
"I already can."
Shuang Zhi smiled slightly, "It's just that I feel this eleventh realm isn't complete enough, so I want to wait a little longer."
"Mmm."
Lin Zhao nodded. In fact, although Shuang Zhi was an eleventh-realm sword cultivator, her target was Lin Wanhua. The reason she had delayed breaking through was likely because she felt her eleventh realm was slightly inferior to Lin Wanhua's eleventh realm at the time. If she couldn't break through to the twelfth realm with a demeanor that surpassed Lin Wanhua, then her twelfth realm would be even harder to surpass Lin Wanhua's twelfth realm.
The people of the Snow Domain Heavenly Pond and the Great Chen Dynasty had high spirits; they were unwilling to admit defeat.
Lin Zhao said no more, simply sitting on a blue rock by the pond. He spread the boxing manual gifted by Long Dongjun on his lap. In the sword dao, as a player, this ninth-realm sword cultivator no longer had much room for improvement. Therefore, to become stronger in this ninth realm, he could only find another path. Thus, Lin Zhao decided to pick up the Farmer's Fist technique again, truly re-entering the martial path. After all, a martial artist's physical body was solid. If nothing unexpected happened, once he became a martial artist, his survivability would also greatly increase.
After reading the boxing manual for a while, Lin Zhao leaped up. As he landed, he had already assumed a boxing stance.
"Hmm?"
Shuang Zhi was slightly surprised, "Farmer's Three Fists?"
"No, now it's the Farmer's Nine Fists."
Lin Zhao smiled, "Shuang Zhi, I plan to re-enter the martial path. What do you think?"
"That's great!"
Shuang Zhi's beautiful eyes sparkled as she smiled, "Back then, you were a young martial artist with extraordinary talent. Now you are already a ninth-realm sword cultivator. If you can re-enter the martial path, that would naturally be the best outcome."
"That's good then."
Lin Zhao took a deep breath, maintaining his boxing stance meticulously, just like the young man from Tianchi Town in those days.
...
In the deer forest, in the eastern fertile plains.
A group of players with blood-red IDs stood in the forest, all clustering around a level 131 sword cultivator. It was Ding Chunqiu leading the "Quan Yuan E Ren" (All Villains) group. However, at this moment, the 20,000-strong shell of the Quan Yuan E Ren guild was already full. A large number of players were actually in a state of no guild, but each wore a blood-red badge on their chest, a symbol of becoming a ghost cultivator.
"Boss!"
A level 126 Starry Sky Mage's lips curved upwards, a proud smile on his face, "Since you launched the 'One Man's Coffin' operation yesterday until just now, we've surged from over 3,000 people to over 50,000 brothers. There are still many brothers willing to become ghost cultivators coming. If nothing unexpected happens, our total numbers will break one hundred thousand within a week."
"Awesome!"
A knight riding a battle horse with a red mane grinned and said, "With this scale, I'm afraid even Xinghe and Cang Long can only kneel. Tsk tsk, our Quan Yuan E Ren has truly made it. Now that we've enabled automatic joining of ghost cultivators and receiving guild contributions, our strength will only grow stronger."
"Naturally."
Ding Chunqiu appeared ambitious and smiled, "However, we must not get carried away. Su Xinghe, Yishi Cangliang, Xian Bai, and those groups still want to destroy us. If we get carried away, we might be close to falling. Moreover, as our numbers grow, management will become more difficult. I reiterate, we must be united and not scattered. If there is territorial division among us, it will be easy for others to divide us and devour us one by one."
"Right!"
A level 119 Sword Master, who was once the leader of a medium-sized guild, nodded, "Boss is right. The most important thing for us right now is unity. If we are not united, we will be defeated one by one."
"Do I need to say?"
Someone laughed, "Boss Ding Chunqiu is not only our boss but also the senior disciple of our sect. He is the leader of these fifty thousand people, and no one can shake that."
Immediately, many raised their weapons, expressing their loyalty.
Ding Chunqiu grinned, "Alright, alright, brothers. We have already made the sect and the deer forest our home, so there's nothing more to say. The next move is to fortify and clear the area."
Saying this, he pointed to the east, "See there? That is a camp set up by the Linlu Army of the Great Shang Dynasty's northern three prefectures in the deer forest. There are about 20,000+ troops. As the saying goes, how can one tolerate an intruder sleeping by their own pillow? If Li Chunyang, that old fox, is targeting us, then don't blame us for being impolite. Can we destroy this 20,000+ Linlu Army in half an hour?"
"No problem!"
"Let's go!"
Ding Chunqiu ascended into the sky on his flying sword, laughing heartily, "I have already activated the sect mission to attack the Linlu Army. It's at the very top of everyone's sect interface. Everyone, claim it, and then we depart. Everyone gets an S-class reward, so put in some effort!"
The next moment, countless Quan Yuan E Ren players rushed out of the deer forest, heading straight for the Linlu Army camp in the distance. In an instant, although the soldiers of the Linlu Army were prepared, they couldn't withstand the tide of players. Ding Chunqiu, Ju Moshi, and others waved their hands, and powerful zombies leaped out behind them, charging headlong into the human army's defenses. In a blink of an eye, the deer horn formations, archery formations, and spear formations set up by the Linlu Army were broken, followed by an absolute, overwhelming slaughter.
...
In the afternoon, fifty miles west of Copper Mirror Lake.
The sound of hooves echoed as a group of human cultivators from the south entered Wild Pheasant Valley. Each of them wore a badge of the Shan Hai Division, all members of the Great Shang Dynasty's Shan Hai Division. Their arrival in the north was to survey the land and understand the mountains and waterways of every region in the north, in preparation for the future enfeoffment of the northern mountains and waters.
However, just as these cultivators began to spread out to survey the mountainous and watery terrain of Wild Pheasant Valley, a large number of players suddenly emerged from the forest. It was the large group of ghost cultivators led by Ding Chunqiu. Among them, Ding Chunqiu's presence was the most imposing. He soared through the air on his sword and struck a human cultivator of the fourth realm heavily on the shoulder, sending him crashing to the ground. Instantly, two beams of light shot out from his sword lake. The first sword shattered all of the man's protective qi, and the second sword pierced directly through his heart, immediately incapacitating the fourth-realm cultivator.
"Brothers!"
Ding Chunqiu roared, "Within a thousand miles of the deer forest, leave no man or beast alive. These Shan Hai Division cultivators have cultivation levels, suitable for refining corpses. Start looting! Whoever kills one gets to keep it!"
"Hahahaha~~~"
A large group of people charged out of the jungle like madmen, over ten thousand players in total. They slaughtered all of the Great Shang Dynasty's Shan Hai Division's 200+ cultivators. Except for a few mid-fifth-realm cultivators who escaped by riding the wind, not a single one was spared.
...
In Yan Province, Lanxi City, within the Marshal's Residence of the Grand Executioner.
"Bang!"
Li Chunyang angrily slammed a palm onto the table, his eyes filled with intense killing intent, "How do you explain this now? These young cultivators from another world have become like possessed ghost cultivators, even uprooting our Linlu Army's camp near the Snow Domain Heavenly Pond. Just now, I received a flying fish dispatch from the Shan Hai Division. Over two hundred Shan Hai Division survey cultivators were ambushed in Wild Pheasant Valley and almost completely wiped out. It was those ghost cultivators, those bastards, have they eaten bear hearts and leopard guts?!"
"Grand Executioner!"
Yu Rang cupped his fist and said in a deep voice, "These ghost cultivators are growing stronger day by day in the deer forest area. According to our scouts, these ghost cultivators have now formed a force of over fifty thousand. Most of them have successfully refined corpses and become those legendary coffin bearers, possessing extremely strong power. Furthermore, their leader, the ancestor of the coffin bearer lineage, Tan Xin, has successfully broken through, now entering the eleventh realm. He has even refined a twelfth-realm wandering corpse. This wandering corpse's strength is terrifying, rumored to be comparable to more than half a Rebirth Realm martial artist!"
"What do you mean?"
Li Chunyang frowned, "Does Vice Marshal Yu mean I need to endure this?"
"Your subordinate has no such intention!"
Yu Rang hurriedly cupped his fist and bowed, his voice trembling slightly, "Your subordinate just feels that... the Linlu Army excels at battlefield combat. When it comes to mountain fighting, that is the domain of the Shan Hai Division and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Perhaps this matter should be left to the Prince of Jinan's Mansion. If they need our cooperation, we will send troops to cooperate. If not, we can simply observe the situation."
"Hmph!"
Li Chunyang's gaze was icy, "Select one hundred thousand Linlu cavalry, and I will lead the expedition in a few days!"
"Yes, Grand Executioner!"
...
At dusk, as the sun set.
A group of players, whose levels and combat power were top-tier in the national server, arrived at the north mountain of the Snow Domain Heavenly Pond. They were the alliance leaders Su Xinghe, Yishi Cangliang, Xian Bai, Shu Meijian Qingfeng, and Yan Yu Han. By the cliff edge of the north mountain, Shen Xingchen and Leng Yan, two beautiful women, were sitting, their jade legs dangling. Beside them stood Lin Zhao, practicing his stance and nurturing his fist intent.
"What is it?"
Lin Zhao looked surprised, seeing the sudden appearance of the group of players.
Yishi Cangliang frowned and said, "Lin Zhao, Ding Chunqiu is causing trouble in the south, and many national server players have suffered greatly at their hands. If we guilds don't step forward, we'll become a laughingstock in the Huaxia region. So many guilds united against them, yet we still can't extinguish Ding Chunqiu's arrogance. This won't do."
Shen Xingchen turned and glanced, "So, are we joining forces to go south?"
"Yes."
Su Xinghe nodded. His expression was somewhat dazed. It wasn't until he saw the emblem of the Scarlet Moon Knights on Shen Xingchen's shoulder that the daze quickly turned into bitterness.