Chapter 40: Arrival

Shen Junan towered in the air, floating forwards atop a bed of clouds.

His expression was firm and resolute.

He had personally requested to take on this mission, and the Crown Prince had shown him favor by giving him this opportunity. It was only natural that he was determined to make the most of it.

He turned around and saw that his subordinates were still keeping up with him, so he said, “Everyone, let’s move a little faster. Our goal is to reach the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain before nightfall.”

“Are we going to attack them at night?” Lu Xiwen asked carefully.

Shen Junan said cockily, “Speed is of utmost importance in war.”

He had never really read many wartime strategy books before, so he didn’t really know why he needed to be speedy or why it was important. All he knew was that the faster they attacked, the better.

Lu Xiwen, on the other hand, was much more logical. However, it was apparent to him that Shen Junan was in no mood to listen, so he could only sigh and remain silent, following closely behind.

Even though the three countries were supposedly carrying out a joint operation, Long Sang were still the ones primarily responsible for advancing the front.

Jiang Jusheng was being watched by the Oceanids and couldn’t do as he pleased. Also, the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain wasn’t near Water Sheen, so all he dared to do was fan the flames a little. He had sent a few Origin Qi Scholars over in a display of solidarity, but these people were all clearly not from the imperial family.

Li Wuyi was doing even less. His job was to keep the Zhu Clan on a leash and to make sure that they wouldn’t send reinforcements to the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.

He had also sent a few Origin Qi Scholars over, but not a single one of them was at the Light Shaking Realm. The squad’s leader was merely a Yang Opening Realm cultivator. What did they count for?

The two other countries were obviously hoping just to watch the trouble that was about to ensue - there was no point in sending the armies of their respective countries out to deal with a Ten Thousand Swords Mountain that was relatively deserted. If any of the three countries were serious, they would be able to completely clean out the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.

This was why the other two countries hadn’t bothered to send out much of a force. Long Sang Country, however, was clearly investing big-time.

The leader, Shen Junan, was a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator.

Cultivators at the Thought Manifestation Realm were almost at the very top. After all, the number of Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators amongst the human race was easily countable. Apart from the twelve seemingly immortal Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators amongst the Gu Clan, the only other Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators were the various emperors of the countries.

The emperors would never personally appear on the battlefield, so it was basically true that Thought Manifestation Realm cultivators were able to run rampant.

A single one of them was equivalent in strength to an army with tens of thousands of soldiers.

Apart from Shen Junan, Long Sang had also sent twelve Spirit Burning Realm cultivators, fifty-six Light Shaking Realm cultivators, and nearly three thousand Imperial Guards. These were the Crown Prince’s personal soldiers. It was obvious that the Crown Prince was being extremely decisive.

Yes, even though Jiang Jusheng had been responsible for inciting this situation in the first place, Long Sang’s Crown Prince Lin Wenjun had provided the major backing for this expedition.

Su Chen had smacked Lin Wenjun’s face quite hard with the matter of the Heavenly Might Battalion, resulting in him being stripped of his position as the Vice Commander of the Ravager Extermination Army. Instead, he had been demoted to a mere general of the Flatwave Army.

However, Lin Wenjun was still the Crown Prince. In the end, Lin Mengze hadn’t taken that title away from him.

Even though many people believed that the Crown Prince spot was going to be stripped from him sooner or later, they were all wrong.

Because Lin Wenjun had turned his fortunes around!

Not only was Lin Wenjun able to stabilize his backslide, but he even managed to crawl his way out of the Flatwave Army and officially return to Long Coiling City. Now, he was even overseeing all of the soldiers in the entire country.

Truly, the rollercoaster of life was hard to predict.

Lin Wenjun had managed to rise to power again, and now his first priority was to teach Su Chen a lesson!

Attack Ten Thousand Swords Mountain!

He was going to repay Su Chen for everything that he had done.

Shen Junan was determined to carry out the Crown Prince’s will and bathe the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain in the blood of its disciples.

The army advanced quickly, eventually reaching the city before sundown.

Upon arriving, they realized that the formerly desolate mountainous region had transformed dramatically.

The largest, central peak had a palace built on top of it now, the top of which extended into the clouds. The continuous chain of buildings surrounding it gave it an imposing impression far greater than they had expected.

Shen Junan’s eyes glowed with a strange light. “How bold, to carry out such large-scale construction! Are they planning on starting a revolt?”

In this period of time, carrying out such large-scale construction did indeed have some connections with starting a rebellion. After all, one imperial family ruled the country, and if this palace was more beautiful and extravagant than the imperial family’s palace, Shen Junan’s utterance would not have been too excessive.

However, the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain was technically located at the intersection of the borders of three different countries, making it a no-man’s land. The Boundless Sect had nearly eighty thousand disciples, so it was only natural that they took up lots of space and had built lots of houses here. In addition, because they were so high up, it was difficult for them to avoid having their buildings carry a somewhat saintly aura to them. Put plainly, Shen Junan was basically looking for an excuse to attack.

He was very happy to have found such a logical one, and he yelled, “Everyone, do you see this? The Boundless Sect was supposed to be responsible for guarding the border, but they have taken advantage of the situation to enrich themselves and scheme against the imperial family. Their intention to create chaos is as plain as day. Everyone, it is our duty to wipe out these bandits and ruffians once and for all!”

Following Shen Junan’s command, war chariots began to descend from the sky - Lin Wenjun’s Imperial Guards.

As the Crown Prince’s personal troops, the Imperial Guards were treated quite well. They had been assigned a war chariot for every ten soldiers.

War chariots were even higher-quality flying Origin Tools than Cloud-Piercing Shuttles. Not only were their flight capabilities much greater, but their might in battle was far greater as well. Each war chariot could be supplied with an Origin Energy barrier that protected the soldiers inside, but wouldn’t prevent the soldiers from unleashing attacks through the barriers. In that sense, they were somewhat similar to Su Chen’s Raging Sun Shuttle.

And given how expensive the Raging Sun Shuttle was, it was easy to imagine just how costly these war chariots were.

Even so, the Imperial Guards had been outfitted with three hundred of these war chariots.

They gave no warning or advance notice. Once they arrived, the battle started.

Shen Junan’s military strategy reflected his personality - simple, direct, violent, and ruthless!

The three hundred war chariots descended like three hundred shooting stars, each of them unleashing dozens of fireballs downwards. All of a sudden, it appeared as if fire was raining down from the sky.

The Boundless Sect was obviously caught off-guard by this sudden attack and seemed to be defenseless. The fireballs slammed into the palace walls, which immediately caught fire. The sounds of panicked cries could be heard, but no one appeared to be ready to fight; instead, they were all calling to put out the fires.

Only a few figures flew into the sky. The person leading the way roared, “Who is it? Who dares to offend the Boundless Sect?”

It was Guo Wenchang.

“We’re here precisely to destroy the Boundless Sect!” Shen Junan laughed loudly as he jabbed out with his finger.

Following this finger jab, the skies seemed to darken as a powerful wave of killing intent washed over Guo Wenchang, causing his expression to shift. “Thought Manifestation Realm?”

At the Thought Manifestation Realm, cultivators had the power to bring illusory existences into reality. They could transform the Origin Energy around them into any object they could conceive of and use it in battle. Shen Junan’s seemingly casual finger strike was actually infused with an extraordinary amount of energy. It was as if a Demonic Beast had suddenly shown up on the scene, preparing to unleash a slaughter of epic proportions.

Even though Guo Wenchang was already a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator, he was still an entire cultivation realm below Shen Junan. There was no way Guo Wenchang would dare to fight head-on against Shen Junan, so he could only pull out an item.

The item was a small mirror that gradually began to grow. It perfectly blocked Shen Junan’s finger strike, which slammed into the mirror but couldn’t break through. Instead, the mirror glowed faintly, and Shen Junan found that his finger strike had actually been reflected back at him.

Shen Junan was taken aback. “Reflection Mirror?”

Any Origin Tool that could reflect the attack of a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator needed to be at least a Second Grade Origin Tool.

So Guo Wenchang, a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator, actually had a Grade Two Origin Tool.

Most importantly, he was able to use it extremely smoothly and without interruption, meaning that it was highly likely he had some other treasures on him that he could use as well.

He had heard for a long time that Su Chen had managed to store up quite a bit of wealth in the Boundless Sect in the past couple of years. Now, it appeared that that was indeed the truth.

Shen Junan’s eyes flickered with greed as he turned around and said, “What are you all standing around for? Finish them off, and leave this leader of theirs to me!”

As he spoke, he reached out to grab Guo Wenchang.

So what if he had a Grade Two Origin Tool?

The gap between a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator and a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator couldn’t be bridged with just a Grade Two Origin Tool.

Unexpectedly, when Guo Wenchang saw Shen Junan attack again, he immediately put away the Reflection Mirror. A cloud appeared immediately below his feet, whisking him away before Shen Junan was able to grab him.

Shen Junan had seen clearly that Guo Wenchang was only able to dodge his attack because of that cloud beneath his feet. That cloud was probably also a precious treasure that raised his speed.

But that was still not enough.

Shen Junan howled fiercely with laughter. “Good, good, good! The more treasures you have, the happier I’ll be!”

As he spoke, his figure flickered, and he shot after Guo Wenchang in hot pursuit.

Guo Wenchang made no attempt to stand his ground. He shot off into the distance by relying on the cloud beneath his feet, closely followed by Shen Junan. Shen Junan could tell that this person was probably the highest-status person that had remained in the Ten Thousands Sword Mountain, which also meant that his treasures were probably the most precious. If Shen Junan were able to capture him, all of his treasures would belong to him.

As such, he remained locked on to Guo Wenchang, unwilling to let him go.

Lu Xiwen followed closely behind. “Commander Shen, don’t chase after him any more! We still need your support to control the overall situation!”

“Get out of my way! What is there to support? Just rely on your own strength to kill them! These guys are a bunch of weaklings anyways,” Shen Junan said impatiently.

To Shen Junan, the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain was like a treasury waiting to be plundered. There was no need for him to extend his soldiers any special support. It was also worth mentioning that his focus had always been on his cultivation, not on military strategy, since he had relied on his own cultivation base to achieve his current standing.

This was why he appeared to not care in the slightest. His current priority was to capture Guo Wenchang and take all of his treasures. Then, he would return to the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain and plunder the rest.

It was with this in mind that Shen Junan chased after Guo Wenchang mercilessly. But even though Guo Wenchang appeared weak, he had quite a wide variety of protective treasures at his disposal. Upon seeing that Shen Junan was closing in on him yet again, he pulled out a fan and swung it behind him. A powerful wave of flames surged forth from the fan.

These flames were so fierce that even Shen Junan couldn’t ignore them. He was forced to strike out with his palm to extinguish the flames, and Guo Wenchang took the opportunity to flee once again.

Shen Wenjun wasn’t discouraged in the slightest. Instead, his excitement only grew as he continued to pursue Guo Wenchang.

Reflection Mirror, Sky Fleeing Cloud, Raging Flame Fan…… The more treasures Guo Wenchang brought out, the more delighted Shen Junan was, and the more intent he was on pursuing him. Slowly but surely, he had overextended himself without even realizing it.