One Year Later, Upheaval in the Jade Whale Sect

A year flew by. In the blink of an eye, it was July of Qiyuan Era 186.

The war between Wanxuan and the Jade Whale Sect had raged for nearly two hundred years and spanned sixteen chiefs. At last, victory was in sight.

Over the past year, Jade Whale Sect disciples had kept escaping. Some "miraculously" broke through the blockade, while others surrendered the moment they encountered a Wanxuan patrol.

Some even brought warships over to Wanxuan as pledges of allegiance. The Jade Whale Sect's leadership reacted quickly. After winter began last year, the peak masters personally took charge of the front lines, setting up dedicated checkpoints and sentry posts and executing captured deserters. Even so, people continued to risk everything to flee.

The Jade Whale Sect was finished. Everyone knew it.

The Jade Whale Sect lay northeast of the East Sea Province archipelago. It occupied the finest islands in the Central Sea, and its main island alone was twice the size of East Tide Province—large enough to count as a small landmass.

From the main island's highest peak, the view had once been an unbroken sweep of green where sea met sky. The climate was mild, and its interwoven Earth Veins were stable. It deserved to be called a land of immortals, a place countless people had longed to visit.

Now a towering wall built by Earth Vein cultivators ringed the main island. Across its lowlands and valleys, more than a dozen Rune Towers ceaselessly drew spiritual energy from the land and its Earth Veins to power the surrounding defensive formations.

The pavilions and halls that had once stood at its center had become workshops for forging equipment and weapons. In preparation for the coming island assault, advisers from the New Continent had ordered countless underground passages and fortresses