The battle came very quickly.

The Boundless Sect arrived in merely a day.

This was not very surprising.

Upon receiving news from Ye Fenghan, and finding out that the Astrals “ultimate technique” had landed in Ye Fenghan’s hands, Su Chen wasn’t willing to wait any longer. He gave the command to advance, and the Boundless Sect began to advance relentlessly.

Unfortunately for Yanto, this meant that he was only able to spend a day inside the library. Ye Fenghan comforted him by saying that, after the Astrals were destroyed, the library here would belong to the Boundless Sect, meaning that he could come and read whenever he pleased.

Even though he had already become a human slave, Yanto was still a little put off by this phrasing......

After crossing through the sea of flowers, the Boundless Sect arrived at the Astrals’ cemetery.

The Astrals had already gathered their army of 150,000.

However, a hundred thousand of these soldiers were actually subservient races, primarily composed of the Trigenders and the Kobalos, and forty thousand were consciousness enslaved puppets. There were only around ten thousand Astrals.

This was the first time that the Astrals had actually formed into an army to fight against their invaders head-on.

The ten thousand Astrals would have been capable of wreaking havoc on any other country. This kind of force was probably only seen once every thousand years.

Even so, they were obviously the weaker party when matched up against the Boundless Sect.

The Boundless Sect’s strength was quite apparent.

And to the Boundless Sect, ten thousand Astrals was far too few.

“Only ten thousand Astrals? So they aren’t planning on putting it all on the line here. In other words, there are probably more powerful traps waiting for us past Specter’s Garden,” Su Chen said as he gazed down at the arrayed Astrals from the floating palace.

Gu Qingluo, who was standing beside him, laughed. “They have been around for tens of thousands of years, after all. They most likely still have concealed skills in droves.”

Zhu Xianyao laughed. “Doesn’t that make things interesting? It would be boring if we just steamrolled our way through.”

Su Chen sighed. “I would rather it be boring and simply resolve all of these problems. Isn’t that much better?”

Li Chongshan said, “The Astrals would complain if they heard you talking like this. If we’re not steamrolling them now, what would you call steamrolling? They wouldn’t be the Astrals if they didn’t put up a fight.”

Shi Kaihuang said, “The problem is that they’re not only trying to put up a fight; they’re trying to turn the tables on us. Right, have you heard back from Fenghan?”

Su Chen shook his head. “Those Astral elders seem to have suddenly learned how to delegate and are only going to inform him of the plan at the very last moment. As such, we will need to put some pressure on them first if we want to know what they’re hiding from us.”

“So what are we waiting for?” Lin Shaoxuan asked.

Su Chen chuckled. “What are we waiting for? Start the offensive.”

Following Su Chen’s command, the war bugles were blown, signalling the beginning of the attack.

Cloud-Piercing Shuttles flew through the sky, heading straight for the Astral armies. Even though Light Shaking Realm cultivators could fly, using the Cloud-Piercing Shuttles allowed them to conserve some Origin Energy and for those under the Light Shaking Realm to participate in the battle. Most importantly, it allowed them to move as one.

The first wave of Cloud-Piercing Shuttles came to a stop ten thousand feet away from the opposing army. Then, the soldiers inside all raised their hands. Flying swords shot into the sky before whistling towards the enemy formation.

“What is this? How can they attack us from so far away?” the Astrals, who had never seen the Boundless Sect’s flying sword technique before, asked in astonishment.

Human Origin Skills were always inferior to Arcana Techniques when it came to range. As such, humans were always the ones charging while the Astrals kept their distance and played defensive whenever they fought.

This was the first time they had seen their opponents demonstrate an effective range even greater than theirs.

Their intelligence reports hadn’t mentioned anything like this.

Yes, because the Boundless Sect’s disciples truly didn’t possess a skill like that.

The Boundless Sect’s flying sword “technique” was not only due to what they cultivated but, more importantly, the fact that they were all using Soul Armaments.

Soul Armaments relied on a strong consciousness link between a cultivator and their Origin Tool, greatly raising their control over it. However, the Boundless Sect had kept it a secret this entire time.

Now, they were using this against the Astrals to fully demonstrate just how different cultivators were from Origin Qi Scholars.

The flying swords could not only strike from extremely far away, but they were also incredibly powerful. Some of the more advanced cultivators could even control dozens of swords at once. Swords were basically raining down from the sky in a torrential downpour upon the Astrals.

The first ones to be struck were the Trigenders and the Kobalos. These two races were not exactly weaklings. The Trigenders could merge three individuals into one and fight, and they were able to use all kinds of strange and mysterious skills. The Kobalos were cowardly, but they also possessed a wild side. If the Astrals stimulated their bloodthirst, they were more than capable of overcoming this cowardice and attacking with abandon.

However, none of these were of any use when the opponent was too far away. The Astrals, who had always adopted defensive tactics, had never expected that their opponents would actually have a greater range than they.

And these flying swords were not Arcana Techniques. Arcana Techniques would need to be recasted after being unleashed, but Soul Armaments were connected to their owner’s consciousness and could attack constantly. One of the flying swords appeared in front of a Kobalo and beheaded it before moving on to find another target. There was no need for them to “rest”.

These flying swords danced all across the battlefield, mercilessly reaping the lives of their enemies.

Lin Shaoxuan smiled slightly when he saw this. “Only a thousand men, yet we are able to scatter our enemies before us. They are truly too weak.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry. They’re not totally helpless,” Su Chen said.

Indeed, a white shroud of light suddenly emerged from the Astral camp. The Astrals in the back lines had simultaneously activated a magic barrier.

The swords collided with the barrier, sending sparks flying wildly.

At the same time, fireballs began to sail through the air, hurtling towards this battalion of the Boundless Sect.

However, this gap of ten thousand feet was still quite difficult to handle. Most Arcana Techniques were incapable of traveling that far, which was why the Astrals had elected to use simple fireballs. Their power, however...... well, it was not even worth mentioning.

“Exterminate!”

The leader of this thousand-man battalion was Lin Xiao. A group of a hundred cultivators attacked simultaneously, unleashing a wave of frost that completely extinguished the fireballs before they even got close.

The fireballs, which had been unleashed by at least three thousand Astrals, was completely wiped out by a group of a hundred soldiers. The advantage at being to strike from such long range was quite obvious.

At that moment, however, a formless consciousness ripple boomed through the entire battlefield, jolting the Boundless Sect disciples’ hearts and causing their movements to slow significantly.

Su Chen knew that an Astral elder had just made his move, using these powerful consciousness fluctuations to disrupt their attacks.

Gu Qingluo’s eyebrow jumped, and she prepared to make her move.

Su Chen, however, restrained her. “It’s far from time for you to do anything yet. But the fact that a thousand-man battalion was able to force one of their in-office elders to intervene is very good.”

Su Chen smiled slightly, then gestured with his finger.

Lin Shaoxuan understood what he meant and passed it on. Two more battalions took flight.

The three thousand Boundless Sect disciples gathered and unleashed a violent roar.

This roar was not any kind of consciousness technique, but it was filled with bloodthirst and vigor, as well as a steely combat intent.

The in-office elder’s consciousness technique was actually forcibly repelled by this roar. For just a moment, a low groan of pain could be faintly heard right next to the disciples’ ears.

At the same time, two thousand more swords flew forth, renewing their siege against the barrier.

The swords hacked and slashed against the barrier of light relentlessly.

The barrier formed by these ten thousand Astrals was not weak, and even the three thousand disciples were unable to break through.

But just because their strength was comparable didn’t mean that their rate of expenditure was equal.

The defensive barrier consumed Origin Energy much more rapidly than controlling the flying swords did, and because the Boundless Sect’s disciples were controlling the Soul Armaments via their consciousness, their Origin Energy expenditure was much lower.

The side with a larger force was actually expending energy at a more rapid rate.

The Astrals obviously also recognized that the deadlock could not be allowed to continue. They only had two choices.

Either they attacked and closed the distance, or they retreated and increased the distance.

Attacking was impossible.

The Astrals’ surprises were prepared defensively. If they attacked, those surprises would be rendered useless.

As such, they could only retreat.

All of the Astrals simultaneously sensed the command to retreat.

At the same time, a fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere, enveloping the armies.

The Astrals were going to use an illusion formation and turtle up.

Even though the Boundless Sect was more than capable of smashing through this battle strategy, the Astrals didn’t really have anything better that they could do.

They had done this for tens of thousands of years, and it had always been effective.

So even if they had run into their kryptonite, they had no other choice.

The fog caused the swords to lose track of their targets. After flying around for a bit, they returned to their owners’ hands.

“They’re pulling back already? Is this real?” Lin Shaoxuan was a bit surprised.

To Lin Shaoxuan, who was a seasoned veteran, they had merely been testing the waters.

Conventionally speaking, most battles would start small before both sides began to add on manpower, change up battle strategies, and layer on additional offensives before total war broke out.

This thought process conformed with traditional military theory.

But what were the Astrals doing?

They were retreating immediately?

Su Chen chuckled. “I’m not surprised. We are fighting the Astrals, after all. They’re not used to fighting like that; they’re likely fine with it occasionally, but they would much rather resort to something they’re familiar with.”

Lin Shaoxuan harrumphed as he gazed at the white fog. “Ghosts will be ghosts. All they can do is lurk in the shadows and scheme anyways.”

“But shadows will never be able to withstand the light, and craftiness will always lose to strength,” Li Chongshan said.

“That’s right. Since they want to retreat, we’ll blast them out into the open.” Su Chen turned to glance at Gu Qingluo. “This time, it’ll be up to you.”

Gu Qingluo smiled proudly. “So you’re finally going to let me do something?”

Su Chen said sincerely, “Yes. Use your boundless sun, my dear, and sweep away all the darkness and shadows. Bring those old sewer rats into the light.”

Gu Qingluo smiled and flew into the air.

Sky Armor activated, and a blazing light filled the sky!