Battle and Retreat

[Li Family Year 1028]

Time flew by, but for the entire Southern Border, every second counted.

Single-Name Prefecture and Xilang Prefecture were filled with refugees. The common people were fleeing, while Blood Moon had completely occupied Heavenly Rampart Prefecture and reached the borders of Single-Name Prefecture.

The surface of the South Sea was packed with ships. At first, some unscrupulous cultivators demanded Spirit Stones before allowing people aboard Spirit Boats guarded by powerful cultivators—after all, the sea was fraught with danger. But as panic spread with the news, cultivators could no longer spare a thought for those dangers and began their flight.

On this day, within Single-Name Prefecture, Li Jianshu—who had broken through to Void Refinement with the spirit fluid Rain Elder had left behind in great quantities and the 'Void Soul Path-Swapping Mystic Spirit Art' bestowed by the Ancestor—arrived with many experts. Senior figures from numerous hidden families and Xilang Prefecture lay in wait in all directions, prepared for unknown trouble.

Li Jianshu's expression was dark.

Mortal World Immortal's immortal arts and demonic cultivation method had given the Southern Border hope. Yet there were always some who had fallen into despair, desperate people fleeing, along with others fishing in troubled waters, believing that in such an environment they could slaughter common folk without restraint and thereby enrich their own immortal arts.

In the years when he had served as family head, he would not have hesitated to summon Heavenly Thunder against such people.

But now, the lightning in his palm had yet to fall.

On the ground stood a great sect: the Drunken Dream Sect. It was a major sword sect, and most Swordsmen in Single-Name Prefecture came from the Drunken Dream Sect. The sect's cultivators always carried a gourd at their waists, every last one a drunkard, yet