Chapter 110: Convergence

On Huoyun Mountain, several hundred miles south of the Jin Shan Market, over a dozen Foundation Establishment cultivators were sitting in a great hall. There was a look of fatigue in everyone's eyes, and a trace of worry on their faces.

A tall, burly man, naked from the waist up, spoke to an elderly cultivator of short stature in the seat of honor: "Elder Cao, now that the beasts are powerful and we have lost the defensive line of the Jin Shan Market, if the beasts head south again, I fear we will find it very difficult to hold this place. I wonder how much longer the Xiaoyao Sect reinforcements will take to arrive? Could you please send another sound transmission to ask?"

This old man is named Cao Wanjiang, a ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator and a Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Cao family in Pingyang County. He is already over one hundred and ninety years old and is the one with the highest prestige among the Foundation Establishment cultivators present.

Previously, in order to save people quickly and not be entangled by beasts outside, the Jin Shan Market cultivators mobilized most of the strength in the market. They did not expect that as soon as they left, the market would be attacked by a large number of beasts that had been lurking nearby. Although the cultivators remaining in the market fought hard to activate the second-tier top-quality great formation in the market, they were soon outnumbered and defeated.

When the returning cultivator army learned that the market had been breached by beasts, the Pingyang County cultivators all requested to fight to retake the Jin Shan Market from the beasts. It was precisely because he was experienced that he saw that those who breached the market this time were not ordinary second-tier beasts, and he decisively chose to let everyone retreat, which avoided the loss of more manpower.

Thinking of the white lion with fur like snow that suddenly flew out of the Jin Shan Market shortly after they retreated that day, everyone still feels a chill in their hearts even now.

They did not expect that the cultivators guarding the market would be so "lucky" this time as to run into a third-tier beast king, which had never been seen since the Jin Shan Market was established several hundred years ago.

A third-tier beast king has already opened its intelligence, and its strategy can match that of an adult human. It is no wonder they fell for the beasts' "luring the tiger away from the mountain" trick this time. Otherwise, if the main army had been in the Jin Shan Market, even if a third-tier beast king attacked, they could have relied on the market's mountain-protecting great formation to resist for a while and wait for the Xiaoyao Sect reinforcements.

Cao Wanjiang looked at the middle-aged Daoist sitting opposite him. Seeing that he was still lowering his head and not speaking, looking somewhat absent-minded, as if he had not heard what everyone had just said, he sighed and said to the expectant crowd with a calm face:

"Fellow Daoists, please rest assured. We already sent a request for help yesterday, and presumably, the reinforcements sent by the sect are already on the way. Furthermore, I just received news that the reinforcements from Qinghe and Liuyang counties are not far from us, and I estimate they will arrive later."

"We still have over a dozen Foundation Establishment fellow Daoists here, plus the reinforcements from the two counties. Even if the beasts head south now, it should not be a problem for us to hold this place for three to five days. We are only waiting for Senior Guo to arrive, and we will definitely retake the Jin Shan Market. Please, everyone, do not be impatient and wait patiently. Fellow Daoist Yuan, don't you agree?"

After Cao Wanjiang finished speaking, his eyes turned back to the middle-aged cultivator opposite him, and the dozen or so cultivators beside him also looked at this person.

The middle-aged Daoist is named Yuan Feng, the leading cultivator sent by the Xiaoyao Sect to assist in guarding the Jin Shan Market. This person has been cultivating in the Xiaoyao Sect for many years, has a relatively quiet personality, and rarely goes down the mountain. Although his cultivation has reached the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment, he has never had much of his own opinion in his actions. After arriving at the Jin Shan Market, Yuan Feng was basically a spectator every time he participated in discussions, and the size of affairs in the market was mainly based on the opinions of Cao Wanjiang, a local cultivator of Pingyang County.

Yuan Feng had never liked this noisy scene. He came to the Jin Shan Market because his master had some history with Pingyang County. Seeing Cao Wanjiang lead the conversation to himself, he could only sit up straight and say with a smile:

"Elder Cao is right. My master has already received news of the third-tier beast king attacking the Jin Shan Market. Presumably, it will not be long before the sect appoints an elder to come here. Please rest assured about this. The cultivators who died in the beast unrest will all receive a pension afterward, and the sect will not forget every hero who shed blood."

Hearing the comforting words of this Xiaoyao Sect cultivator, everyone felt a trace of relief. However, with reinforcements not yet arrived, whether they could hold the place or not, the dozen or so cultivators present, including Cao Wanjiang, had no bottom in their hearts.

Unexpectedly, just as Yuan Feng finished speaking, a cultivator came to report that the reinforcements from Qinghe County had arrived. Having heard all kinds of bad news for several consecutive days, everyone finally welcomed the first piece of good news.

The Pingyang County cultivators that Song Qingming and the others saw along the way mostly had a depressed look on their faces, looking like they had just suffered a major defeat. Seeing them, the reinforcements from outside, they at most nodded, without showing much of a smile.

Just as the group reached the top of the mountain, Cao Wanjiang led a group of hosts to welcome them personally, giving them plenty of face. Huang Shengxin hurriedly stepped forward and said to everyone with a smile:

"Fellow Daoist Cao, it has been many years since we last met. I did not expect you to be more spirited as you age. I am truly far inferior to you in this regard."

Cao Wanjiang nodded and said: "I have finally waited for you fellow Daoists. Now that the situation has changed, I could not go out of the mountain to welcome you from afar. I hope you can understand."

"We have just arrived and do not know the current situation on the battlefield. Could you please inform us a little?" After Huang Shengxin was polite, he hurriedly raised the biggest question in his heart after entering Pingyang County these past two days.

"That is fine! Please, fellow Daoists, come into the hall to talk."

After Cao Wanjiang finished speaking, he invited the three Foundation Establishment cultivators including Huang Shengxin into the discussion hall they had just been in, and told them what had happened in Pingyang County these past few days.

The situation in Pingyang County is now very bad. The strongest defensive line in the north, the Jin Shan Market, has been breached. The hundreds of cultivators and tens of thousands of mortals in the market have all fallen into the mouths of the beasts. Fortunately, when the beast unrest began, most of the mortals in the Jin Shan Market had already migrated to other places. Otherwise, these hundred thousand mortals would also have all become blood food for the beasts.

Not only that, after the beasts breached the Jin Shan Market, several surrounding Qi Refining families were also attacked. Two Qi Refining families were unlucky enough to have their mountain gates breached, instantly suffering a disaster, with only a small number of people escaping.

Now the beast army occupies the Jin Shan Market and is unlikely to leave this place in the short term. Moreover, there is a third-tier beast king driving these beasts behind them. Huoyun Mountain will also encounter beast attacks again before long.

Before they finished speaking, another piece of good news soon came: the Liuyang County cultivators, led by four Foundation Establishment cultivators, had also arrived here.

Like the Qinghe County cultivators, these leading Foundation Establishment cultivators did not know what the situation in Pingyang County was now. Cao Wanjiang hurriedly repeated it to them, and only then did everyone know what had happened here these past few days.

The three parties converged on the Cao family's Huoyun Mountain, which gave the cultivators who had retreated from the Jin Shan Market a bit of confidence. However, the sudden addition of over a thousand cultivators also made Huoyun Mountain, a second-tier spiritual vein, appear very crowded.

The spiritual energy supply on the mountain was already overwhelmed. Facing such a situation, Cao Wanjiang could only arrange to migrate some of the family cultivators with low strength and some mortals to other spiritual mountains controlled by the Cao family first.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 111 =====