Xu Qing was shocked by what he was seeing. Even in the short time he had been observing, he had seen many people die. Human cultivators lost their lives in a very gruish fashion. Despite being far from any enemies, they would suddenly be slashed to pieces by unseen blades. Then, after dying, they mutated into mindless mutant beasts. Hoarse shouts and bloodcurdling screams mixed with the sounds of self-detonations and the thrum of magical devices. Taking in the scene as a whole, it didn’t seem like the forces of Sea-Sealing County could possibly launch a counteroffensive. They could only mount a defense.

Sea-Sealing County originally had thirteen prefectures, but lost three at the very beginning. Injustice and Emperor-Receiving weren’t participating from the beginning. That means we had the power of eight prefectures. And I remember that, at the beginning of the conflict, we had eight battalions!

Suppressing his shock at what he was seeing, he quickly analyzed the situation.

There’s no specific strategy being forced on everyone. The forces from the different prefectures all have their own unique qualities, so it doesn’t make sense to shoehorn everything into one plan.

Therefore… the eight battalions are essentially autonomous, with their own supplies, magical devices, battle plans, and the like. 𝑟𝘢.𝘤𝘰𝑚

For example, those magical thorns are overseen by the Third Battalion. And the hundreds of Void Returning cultivators managing the taboo treasures from the various prefectures are actually selected from all of the different battalions. And they only represent a portion of the Void Returning forces. The Swordsage Palace is responsible for the war puppets, the Dao Bell, and The Emperor’s Swords!

Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing looked left and right and didn’t see anyone from Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. And the army forces here seemed lacking.

It made Xu Qing think back to the sandbox he’d seen in the command tent.

The front lines stretch for a long way, and are divided into multiple battle zones. Injustice Prefecture and Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, as well as the forces from two other prefectures, are being assigned to one of the more westerly areas. The part I’m in right now is the battle zone overseen by the Command Department!

Don’t tell me Palace Lord Kong has set himself up here to make himself bait? Is he trying to attract the attention of the Holytides…? Or maybe he has some other plan.

Without more detailed information, Xu Qing couldn’t be sure of the nuances of what he was seeing. That said, he was still getting much more familiar with the war situation. After wrapping his mind around the various battle zones, he decided to number the zones to make it easier to analyze them.

Sea-Sealing County is the West Zone, while the Holytides occupy the East Zone.

Zones West 1, West 3, West 4, and West 8 are closest to the golden net. The forces there are on standby as they wait to engage with the enemy forces from Zones East 5, East 7, and East 11. West 2, West 5 are using war puppets, while the other three zones are providing support. On the Holytide side, dozens of zones including Zones East 3, East 6, East 14, and East 17 have shifted to make Zone East 2 the most prominent…. No, hold on. The Holytide formation is changing into an arrow, with East 2 being the arrowhead!

After having made that determination, he looked over to where the golden net hovered above East 2.

With the Holytide’s formation shift complete, over ten thousand living severed hands suddenly appeared. Every single one of them held a huge chain as they surged forward. Simultaneously, intense rumbling sounds rang out as the vortex behind them opened up further. More black snow emerged, pouring like an avalanche onto the field of battle.

Xu Qing’s expression flickered as he noticed one of The Emperor’s Swords suddenly glitter with light, as if it had been waiting for this moment. Massive amounts of sword light erupted from it, turning into a sword sea that shot toward the vortex. It closed in and detonated, causing howls of anguish to emerge from the spinning vortex. The sword sea sent the avalanche of black snow spraying off in different directions.

Meanwhile, high above the Sea-Sealing County, the huge Dao Bell surrounded by the bronze coffins suddenly tolled. The sound was profoundly ancient, and seemed capable of shattering anything and everything. The bell tolled seven times, and each time, it sent ripples out over the battlefield. Countless Holytide cultivators simply exploded, while at the same time revealing figures that had previously been invisible.

The illusory figures were not Holytides. Instead, they looked like mantises, each of them dozens of meters tall and pulsing with a very unique mutagen that invaded everything around them. Xu Qing knew that these were the grim reapers created by the Nightshades’ diamond-shaped magical devices. Their unusual state of existence made them impossible to detect, and thus extremely difficult to deal with. Normally speaking, the golden net was needed to mark them. But right now, the Dao Bell was exerting crushing power that instantly revealed them.

That was the moment when the war puppets sprang into action. Over ten thousand gigantic puppets rushed onto the battlefield toward the grim reapers.

War was like a complicated game. Sometimes, a defensive maneuver could actually turn into a counteroffensive. And sometimes complicated situations were actually simple.

That said, war was always like a millstone that required great effort to be expended as it rotated. Whether one side was in the right or wrong didn’t matter. Blood had to be spilled. When the millstone rotated, lives were taken. Matters of victory and defeat were secondary.

Xu Qing stood by, silently studying the battlefield.

The sky above seemed to be that of perpetual dusk. It didn’t matter if it was day or night. The sky always looked like that.

Intense sounds. The reek of blood. Mutagen. Those were the main themes of the war. As for how long the brutal symphony would continue to play, no one knew. The slaughter went on and on, an endless cycle that brought untold pressure onto the combatants. Along with that pressure came a mounting despair.

Eventually, Xu Qing looked away. He had seen enough of the battlefield. The fighting continued, with both sides employing various tactics to keep the bloody millstone turning.

Death was commonplace. Survival was a miracle.

Yet, during the entire time he watched, Xu Qing didn’t see retreating troops.

Where would they retreat to?

From his position atop the pile of scrap puppets, he looked back at Sea-Sealing County. Even though he had experienced countless sufferings from his youth until now, there were still many things he worried about. It made sense for a well-rounded person to have worries.

Eventually, he looked away from Sea-Sealing County and up at the diamond-shaped magical device in the sky, and the rippling distortions that surrounded them.

I can sense a bit of the power of the red moon on those magical devices….

He had only picked up on that after observing them from a distance for a while. He got the same sense from the black snow. That said, he was so far away from both that the sensation wasn’t very strong.

After considering the matter, he left the scrap puppet pile and headed toward the battlefield.

As he was leaving, the old cripple called out in a voice hoarse from age, “Come back alive!”

Xu Qing stopped and turned in place to look at the old man. Xu Qing didn’t know him, and the two of them hadn’t exchanged any words up to this point. The old man didn’t say anything further. He just looked out at the battlefield, his expression one of sorrow. Xu Qing nodded to him, then became a streak of light that shot toward the golden net.

He wanted to get onto the actual battlefield to get a better sense of the power of the black snow and the diamond-shaped magical devices. If both of them were really backed by the power of the red moon, then maybe he could provide some help.

Given the speed he was capable of, he quickly passed through the golden net and onto the battlefield. The smell of blood and gore hit him like a wave. The air was humid and smelled disgusting. Even a hardened killer would feel nauseous upon smelling such an odor. It was because of how many had died, and how many had been filled with feelings of despair when they did.

Emotions were like contaminants. The eyes of humans would turn red, whether from fear or excitement. And when those two emotions mixed together, the results were even more dramatic.

Being on the battlefield was very different from observing it from afar. The sights, sounds, and smells were now much more intense.

He saw bitter faces, enraged expressions, and back-and-forth fighting. There was madness and confusion. It almost looked like a great hand had dropped from the sky to create a painting in front of Xu Qing. And then the painter had unwittingly added Xu Qing into the picture as well, like a tiny dot that could hardly measure up to the larger image.

Next to that tiny dot was a Holytide cultivator, his expression one of ferocity as he shot forth to take Xu Qing’s head. Black snow became a magical device shaped like a ghost claw. It burst with extraordinary might, yet the moment the vicious Holytide arrived, Xu Qing vanished.

A black dagger slashed through the Holytide’s neck. Blood sprayed and the head flew, allowing the Holytide cultivator to briefly see his own headless body.

Xu Qing licked the acerbic blood from his lips, all while the baleful aura seeped out of his bloodshot eyes. He didn’t waste any time. He burst into motion, sending taboo poison power all around him. Any Holytides who dare get close to him would shudder, then scream as their bodies melted within their armor.

As he proceeded along, he got closer to an area with black snow. When he arrived, he let the snow fall and looked closely for traces of the red moon. However, as he studied them, the snowflakes released faint fluctuations that caused them to collapse.

It does and doesn’t… he thought, looking around vigilantly. The black snowflakes did have the power of the red moon in them, but it was so weak as to be insignificant.

What was more noteworthy was that it had some type of chaotic power element. As a result, though Xu Qing could exert some tiny fraction of control, the slightest misstep would result in total failure. If he wanted to gain true control, he would need to do further observation and testing.

As for the poison in the snow, it didn’t count for much when compared to Xu Qing’s poisons. However, when the black snow turned into various magical techniques, they were very strong. And when they clumped together, they became incredibly astounding.

There’s more to them than meets the eye. There’s something vicious inside, plus there’s that unstable chaos power that guides the melting of the snowflakes….

After some thought, he tried to collect some of the snow, then turned to leave for another area.

New novel 𝙘hapters are published on 𝙡𝙞𝓫𝙧𝙚𝓪.𝒄𝒐𝓶