Chapter 518: At All Costs

Inside Iron Immortal Fortress, Ma Fairy Qiudie, who had narrowly escaped back, looked at the elderly Foundation Establishment cultivator who had died miserably at Song Song Qingming's hands outside the formation, a trace of sorrow appearing in her eyes.

If this elder of the Ma family had not risked his life to appear outside the formation just now to hold Song Song Qingming back for a moment, she would likely have been in grave danger by now.

It was a pity that this person only had Foundation Establishment cultivation; although he successfully saved Ma Fairy Qiudie, he did not have the chance to escape back himself and paid the price with his life.

Conflicts between high-level cultivators in the cultivation world are often this cruel. Since the Ma family chose to betray the Carefree Sect, these people had to be prepared to bear such terrible consequences at any time.

After Song Song Qingming rushed back to the battlefield, he immediately joined Jin Wu Ziyuan's side and began to besiege Ma Ma Hongshan together with him.

Seeing that Ma Fairy Qiudie had successfully escaped, Ma Ma Hongshan also felt relieved. Even though the pressure on him increased significantly when facing the combined forces of Song Song Qingming and Jin Wu Ziyuan, Ma Ma Hongshan was a veteran Golden Core cultivator; his combat experience was far beyond that of Ma Fairy Qiudie, who had only recently formed her core. Although he was temporarily at a disadvantage, he could still manage for a short time.

But good times did not last long. Ma Fairy Qiudie had barely escaped back to Iron Immortal Fortress for less than half an incense stick of time when another person from the Nine Origin Sect was forced to withdraw from the battlefield.

A Golden Core elder of the Nine Origin Sect who was fighting Chen Chen Xuanxin had only third-level cultivation. His individual strength was far inferior to Chen Chen Xuanxin, who practiced the path of sword cultivation. After fighting for over a hundred rounds, this Nine Origin Sect elder gradually could not withstand Chen Chen Xuanxin and was caught in an opening, having half of his left arm severed by a single sword strike.

Having suffered heavy injuries and temporarily losing the ability to fight, this Nine Origin Sect elder hurriedly used an auxiliary spiritual talisman to turn around and retreat directly into the protective formation of Iron Immortal Fortress.

Seeing that many people on the battlefield had already fallen into a disadvantage, Yue Yue Wuji, the Sect Master of the Nine Origin Sect who was clashing with Bai Bai Yuxian, felt anxious. He hurriedly used secret voice transmission to tell the other Nine Origin Sect cultivators to gather together and retreat to the protective formation.

Although the Golden Core cultivators of the Nine Origin Sect were overall inferior in strength to those of the Carefree Sect and suffered some losses shortly after the battle began, they could still barely hold on with the cover of Iron Immortal Fortress's protective formation, dragging the Carefree Sect members outside the formation and not giving Song Song Qingming and the others many opportunities to attack the formation directly.

Just as both sides were deadlocked again, a sound of breaking through the air suddenly came from high above. A blue shield light suddenly flew from the distant sky, appearing in the middle of the battlefield after a few flashes, transforming into a middle-aged man with a smile on his face.

Although the Carefree Sect held the advantage on the battlefield and had already injured several of the opponent's Golden Core cultivators, they had only brought Golden Core cultivators to Iron Immortal Fortress this time and did not have many low-level cultivators accompanying them. Under the desperate containment of the opponent's multiple Golden Core cultivators, they could not do anything about the Iron Immortal Fortress protective formation for a time.

Before the Carefree Sect members could make a move, another green light flew over from not far away. Li Li Mufeng, who was half a step behind Wu Wu Jiuyuan, had also arrived on the battlefield.

After watching Li Li Mufeng leave with the Carefree Sect members, Wu Wu Jiuyuan put away the relaxed look on his face and asked the few people from the Nine Origin Sect beside him with a heavy expression: "Why are Wang Ziheng and Fairy Qiudie not here?"

"Li Li Mufeng, you must have fought happily today. How about going back to recover your magic power and fighting another battle tomorrow?"

Seeing Li Li Mufeng's figure, the slightly panicked hearts of Song Song Qingming and the others immediately calmed down.

"We just had a fight with Yao Yao Ganshu and the others. Two junior brother and sister were accidentally injured by people from the Carefree Sect." Seeing that Wu Wu Jiuyuan's expression seemed a bit unpleasant, Nine Origin Sect Sect Master Yue Yue Wuji carefully stepped forward to reply.

On the other side, the Carefree Sect members felt the powerful aura emanating from Wu Wu Jiuyuan and knew that a Nascent Soul cultivator had arrived. Their expressions changed one after another, and they hurriedly stopped their attacks.

"Haha! It's Uncle-Master Wu who has returned." Seeing Wu Wu Jiuyuan appear, the Nine Origin Sect members immediately showed great joy and hurriedly leaned toward him.

Hearing this, Wu Wu Jiuyuan frowned slightly. After a moment, he waved his hand at the crowd and said, "Everyone, go back first!"

Facing Wu Wu Jiuyuan's challenge, the cold-faced Li Li Mufeng ignored him. He looked at Yao Yao Ganshu and the others beside him, spat out the word "Go," and led everyone away from Iron Immortal Fortress.

The person who arrived was none other than the Nine Origin Sect's Nascent Soul Supreme Elder, Wu Wu Jiuyuan.

Inside Iron Immortal Fortress, as soon as Wu Wu Jiuyuan returned to the fortress, he personally went to check on the injured Ma Fairy Qiudie.

In this battle, although Ma Fairy Qiudie was forced into a very sorry state by Song Song Qingming, most of her injuries were merely superficial. Coupled with the excessive consumption of her spiritual power during the fight, she was not actually severely wounded and would basically be able to recover after one or two years of secluded healing.

Seeing that Ma Fairy Qiudie was fine, Wu Wu Jiuyuan generously bestowed two healing elixirs and smiled to comfort her for a long time before slowly leaving and coming to another cave dwelling where Wang Wang Ziheng was recuperating.

Compared to Ma Fairy Qiudie's injuries, Wang Wang Ziheng, who had lost half of his right arm, was more seriously injured. Although he could regenerate his severed limb through some high-level spiritual herbs, it would take about ten or twenty years to fully recover, and during this period, he could not rashly use magic power to fight others.

Although Wang Wang Ziheng's cultivation was not high, only at the third level of Golden Core, he was a cultivator who came from the Nine Origin Sect just like Wu Wu Jiuyuan and could be considered a core elder of the Nine Origin Sect.

Seeing Wang Wang Ziheng, who had followed him for so many years to carry forward the Nine Origin Sect, injured like this, a look of displeasure appeared on Wu Wu Jiuyuan's face.

"Didn't Ma Ma Hongshan say before that Yao Yao Ganshu was seriously injured and could not fight at will? Why did he come today? You have been in Weiguo for so long, why haven't you figured out such an important matter?"

"Uncle-Master, please calm your anger. It is true that Yao Yao Ganshu was injured. Today, Junior Brother Linghu fought him and saw some things. This person's injuries have not fully recovered; otherwise, with Junior Brother Linghu's cultivation, it would be impossible for him to tangle with him for so long and still retreat unscathed."

"A few years ago, we also heard some news that Yao Yao Ganshu was forced to take action at Zixing Workshop during the last monster beast chaos and even took a Deer Soul Pill. We also didn't expect his injuries to recover so quickly."

Just after Yue Yue Wuji finished speaking, Linghu Linghu Jie, who was standing beside him, echoed, "Senior Brother Sect Master is right. Last time I went to Wuguo to participate in the Star Convention, I also saw Yao Yao Ganshu. At that time, his injuries were indeed quite serious. Sigh, I don't know how that old guy recovered so quickly."

After Linghu Linghu Jie finished speaking, he glanced at Wu Wu Jiuyuan slightly. Seeing that he did not keep his eyes on him, he finally felt relieved.

Although Linghu Linghu Jie's cultivation had reached the late Golden Core stage and he ranked second among the many Golden Core elders of the Nine Origin Sect, he originally came from another small sect and only merged into the Nine Origin Sect after they unified the Yueguo cultivation world. His status in the sect was not higher than other elders.

When he went to Wuguo to participate in the Star Convention that day, he actually saw Yao Yao Ganshu take down a Fog Snow Ice Lotus on the last day, but he didn't guess that Yao Yao Ganshu's injuries would recover by more than half after obtaining this item, so he didn't specifically inform Wu Wu Jiuyuan and the others about this.

Although after a great battle with Yao Yao Ganshu, Linghu Linghu Jie had some guesses in his heart that Yao Yao Ganshu's recovery might be related to the Fog Snow Ice Lotus he obtained that day, at this moment, he could only pretend not to know and dared not say it directly.

Originally, he was not very trusted by Wu Wu Jiuyuan in the sect. If he came out to mention this matter at this time, Wu Wu Jiuyuan might push all the faults of today onto him in a fit of anger.

"I didn't reach an agreement with Li Li Mufeng today. This guy will definitely go all out after going back. Yue Wuji, go and discuss with Ma Ma Hongshan to see if they can withdraw in advance."

"Withdraw? Uncle-Master, didn't we promise Ma Ma Hongshan that we would at least strive for another year for them?"

Wu Wu Jiuyuan waved his hand and snorted, "Humph! You tell Ma Ma Hongshan not to be too greedy. It's come to this point, what is there to be reluctant about regarding these few belongings? We helped him snatch such a large amount of spiritual items at Mount Tuoyun Mountain last time; does he still think he hasn't earned enough?"

"Although the Carefree Sect has retreated today, we are already at a disadvantage after this battle. Iron Immortal Fortress is too far from the sect, and it is difficult for us to mobilize manpower. When the Carefree Sect's army arrives, we will definitely not be able to hold this place. We must make plans early."

Hearing Wu Wu Jiuyuan's angry rebuke, Yue Yue Wuji nodded hurriedly and walked out without saying anything more.

——

Three days later, in the main hall of Mount Guiyun Workshop.

Li Li Mufeng sat calmly in the head seat, while Yao Yao Ganshu and many other Golden Core elders of the Carefree Sect sat in order below.

In the battle of Iron Immortal Fortress, although the Carefree Sect side had a slight upper hand, they could not break the Iron Immortal Fortress protective formation with just a few Golden Core cultivators. They had to helplessly retreat to Mount Guiyun Workshop first, preparing to mobilize enough manpower before continuing to attack Iron Immortal Fortress.

During the monster beast chaos, the Carefree Sect did not send troops to support Iron Immortal Fortress at first. On one hand, it was because Yao Yao Ganshu was suddenly injured and the Carefree Sect itself was short of manpower. On the other hand, Li Li Mufeng also wanted to use this monster beast chaos to beat the Ma family and weaken their strength.

Li Li Mufeng clearly did not expect that Ma Ma Hongshan would choose to defect to Wu Wu Jiuyuan because of this, introducing the Nine Origin Sect's power into Weiguo.

A Golden Core family in his territory betraying the sect to defect to another force was something the Carefree Sect absolutely could not tolerate. Even if they were to have a full-scale war with the Nine Origin Sect next, Li Li Mufeng was already prepared to do so at all costs.

"Senior Uncle Li, I have already received a letter from Junior Brother Daoist Guangling yesterday. At most, it will take about ten days for the sect to prepare five flying boats and arrive at Mount Guiyun Workshop."

(End of chapter)