Rainfield Prefecture was a long and thin prefecture. Its western border with Tidefall Prefecture formed the western front, and its northern border with Tranquility Prefecture formed its northern front. The climate was warm year-round. Because of that, the species in Rainfield Prefecture tended to be larger than those from other prefectures. For example, the Fullspirits that Qingqin had been such a fan of grew to an average height of about fifteen meters.

The prefecture was a very rainy place. There were mountains everywhere, with about one out of every ten being a volcano. That said, they didn’t erupt very frequently. Because of the war, Rainfield Prefecture ended up becoming a staging zone. If supplies weren’t delivered directly to the northern or western front, they would be stored in Rainfield Prefecture for a time.

To some extent, the prefecture was considered part of the war zone, and therefore, the Justice Palace was temporarily in control of it.

The vast majority of Holytides were in the armies being held off on the borders. But because the northern part of the county had lost three prefectures early on, not even the great net created by the combined forces of the county’s taboo treasures could prevent small squads of Holytides from slipping into the interior.

Holytides were very skilled at disguising themselves, and were also equipped with magical treasures that could prevent the taboo treasure net from targeting them. Therefore, unless a lot of effort was put into tracking them down, it would be almost impossible to wipe them out completely. In addition to all that, they had received special training for this operation. The majority of them were from the Black Guard, and most of them had split up to avoid detection. Their main goal was to either divert or destroy the supplies being sent to the front lines.

After all, not all supplies could simply be stuffed into a holding device or dimensional space. And not everything could be sent through teleportation portals. Much of it was transported manually.

At the moment, a few thousand Black Guard cultivators had gathered outside of a large-scale teleportation portal in Rainfield Prefecture, and were launching an unexpected attack. Each one had an extraordinary cultivation base and shocking battle prowess. After all, members of the Black Guard were similar to swordsages; they were all outstanding figures among their people. Although not every single one could fight an enemy from a higher cultivation level, most were considered elites among elites.

Their mission was to destroy this specific teleportation portal. The complex had a total area of about fifty kilometers. From high above, it looked very impressive, and whenever it was activated, it could move tens of thousands of cultivators at a time.

The sounds of fighting already echoed along the edges of the portal.

There were a lot of cultivators stationed around the portal to defend it. However, most were disciples from the Justice Palace who couldn’t even come close to being on the same level as the elite members of the Swordsage Palace. And compared to the Black Guard cultivators, they were just simply deficient.

The upside was that they had the advantage of numbers. Furthermore, there were also members of Rainfield Prefecture’s native species present, plus some swordsages as well.

The portal had been activated, but there were a few hundred Black Guard cultivators in the air using magical devices to interfere with the portal’s operation. As a result, the portal wasn’t working.

Some of the Black Guard cultivators even managed to break through the defensive barriers, reach the portal itself, and self-detonate, causing shock waves to spread out and further disrupt the portal’s operation.

That said, overall, the portal was still in good working order. Most of the assault was being held at bay by the borders.

Much of that was due to the person in charge of the overall defenses of the portal, Yao Yunhui. She was the director of the Justice Palace’s Division 3, and was also a Spirit Trove cultivator. As such, she had personally repelled the Black Guard cultivators multiple times already. She did not seem alluring and seductive like she had back at the county capital. Instead, she wore a suit of armor, and though she was clearly exhausted, she exuded a somber and desolate aura. Thanks to her leadership, the forces under her command had held strong against the Black Guard assault.

After the protracted fight, the Black Guard cultivators seemed like they were on the verge of withdrawing. The commander in charge of the Black Guard contingent looked coldly at the distant Yao Yunhui and weighed the options. He knew that they couldn’t stay in this location for too long, so finally, he decided to order the retreat.

However, even as the thousands of Black Guard cultivators prepared to leave, and as the human cultivators and their allies breathed sighs of relief… the ground started vibrating.

It happened so suddenly that both sides were shocked. Countless specks of dirt on the ground began to rise into the air, making it seem like some massive force was arriving from above.

Scattered buildings, rocks, corpses, and even blood on the ground started floating up. The sight of all that blood flowing up in rivulets was nothing short of appalling.

The Black Guard cultivators’ magical devices were no longer capable of interfering with the teleportation portal. In fact, they suffered such a severe backlash that they exploded.

All of the local cultivators present were shaken to the core. Their hair began to drift up around them, and in some cases their skin sank down. There were even some with very low cultivation bases who found their blood oozing out of their pores and coating them in crimson. Thankfully, no one died.

Everyone was absolutely shocked, but what was more shocking was what was causing this event. The astonishing development wasn’t coming from the sky, but the land. Specifically, it was the enormous, 50-kilometer-wide teleportation portal! The portal had been activated! The explosive power of the portal caused everyone to gasp for breath. A power of this shocking level hadn’t been seen since the big movement of troops in the beginning of the war. The only thing that could provoke something like this was a teleportation that pushed the limits of what the portal was capable of! And that meant that the group teleporting in had to reach into the hundreds of thousands!

“That’s not possible!”

“Our people and the humans are at a deadlock at the front lines. There’s no way the humans could send in backup forces right now. Don’t tell me we’re dealing with nonhumans?”

“If it’s a nonhuman force, it would be incredibly small. We’ve already sent notices to all nonhumans in Sea-Sealing County that we’ll maintain the status quo after we take over!”

“Given the circumstances, what nonhuman species could fully mobilize like this?”

The Black Guard cultivators who had just been on the verge of retreating were visibly shocked. All of them could see the brilliant light building up on the massive teleportation portal. The light was so dazzling that it turned a dark night into what seemed like daytime. Along with that light came a deafening rumbling sound that pulsed to a special cadence.

“It doesn’t matter what’s going on. We can’t let this teleportation happen!”

“All Black Guard cultivators, attack at once! Stop this teleportation!”

When the commander gave the orders, the thousands of Black Guard cultivators all rushed toward the portal.

“Hold nothing back!” Yao Yunhui ordered. “Kill anyone that gets even close to the portal!” Then she personally shot forth to block the path of the Black Guard commander. When a large-scale teleportation portal like this was activated, it emitted its own type of pressure that mixed with the pressure of the incoming teleportation. That ensured that the teleportation process couldn’t be interfered with.

As the Black Guard cultivators advanced, and the Justice Palace cultivators fought back, intense rumbling sounds echoed from the portal. At the same time, a group of over a hundred individuals appeared.

The Black Guard commander had been both right and wrong. He was right in that there was a group of hundreds of thousands of cultivators teleporting in. But he was also wrong, because the first wave consisted of all Void Returning experts!

The arrival of over a hundred such cultivators caused brightly colored light to flash in heaven and earth, and screaming winds to whip about. The air trembled, and the ground shook so hard it seemed like it might crack.

The cultivators from both the Black Guard and the Justice Palace, plus the allied nonhumans, were all staring in absolute astonishment.

“Th-that… that….”

“That’s not possible!”

“Human relief troops!”

The Black Guard cultivators felt like their scalps were about to explode. All were visibly stunned and began to scramble backward. In contrast, the cultivators from the Justice Palace were all extremely excited.

“Relief troops!”

“The backup troops are here!”

“Reinforcements have finally arrived!”

Though these cultivators had not been stationed on the front lines, the past month had been very difficult for them. They had been forced to continuously suppress their feelings of despair and just endure. In fact, right now, some even wept or let loose piercing cries. 𝘪𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝘤𝑜𝓂

Yao Yunhui was so moved she seemed dazed. She’d long assumed there would be no relief troops, and that the war was a lost cause.

In fact, everyone had thought that. It was easy to imagine how the front line troops would react when seeing backup arrive. Given how long they had been risking their lives on the battlefield, they would probably be ten times as excited as the cultivators here. Maybe even a hundred times.

The patriarchs from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture emerged and spread out in all directions. Some waved their hands, causing heaven and earth to explode. The thousands of Black Guard cultivators were as weak as wet paper, and they exploded into flowering clouds of blood.

The Void Returning cultivators checked the teleportation portal and the surrounding area for safety, and as the excited local cultivators looked on, began another teleportation.

Before long, an army of hundreds of thousands of cultivators appeared. Their combined aura spread out like a tempest, causing rumbling like thunder to fill the sky, and cracking the ground as if from an earthquake.

However, things weren’t over yet! After those hundreds of thousands of cultivators materialized, they made room for another teleportation, and another wave materialized. Heaven shook! The earth quaked! After the over 1,000,000-strong army from two prefectures arrived, including the Captain, the teleportation portal glittered again as one more person arrived.

As this person materialized, everyone was asked to leave the portal, including the Captain.

Updated from 𝑖𝑟𝘦𝒶.𝒸𝘰𝘮