After completing their mission of assassinating people behind enemy lines and sowing chaos, Ling Tian and the others changed their appearances and mingled with cultivators from the Earth and Yellow interfaces as they headed toward Thundercloud Gorge. Seeing the millions of cultivators around them, Lian Yue and the other women were deeply moved, but Ling Tian and the others took it in stride.
They followed the crowd to the outskirts of Thundercloud Gorge, then stopped hiding their faces. Under the countless cultivators' complex gazes—shock, anger, and finally relief—they returned to the gorge.
By then, there were tens of millions of cultivators outside Thundercloud Gorge. They packed together like a vast sea of people, surrounding the gorge on every side. Most knew there were countless traps inside, of course, and had no intention of sticking their necks out. So they only surrounded the gorge without attacking.
As if they had known all along that things would turn out this way, Old Man Ling and Ling Tian were unbothered. They even leisurely drank, trained, and went about their days as usual. Lian Yue, Xing Zhan, and the other battle-hungry types, however, were getting impatient, itching to charge out and fight them.
"Brother Tian, when are these people going to attack?" Lian Yue knew they all wanted to sit back and reap the benefits, but she was curious when they would finally make a move.
"Honestly, it's not so bad if they don't attack. We can train as usual. The longer this drags on, the more agitated they'll get, while we can calmly wait them out. That gives us a considerable advantage in morale." Ling Tian saw the curiosity on Lian Yue and the others' faces and continued, "None of them wants to stick their necks out, but they're unwilling to just withdraw