"Have those insects thinned out?"
The voluntary withdrawal of Materialized Heaven's forces soon drew the Immortal Alliance's attention. Across the various positions, everyone quickly noticed that far fewer Insect Soldiers were attacking them.
The fighting that had raged day and night finally let up, becoming sporadic.
Although small bands of Insect Soldiers still launched occasional sneak attacks, assigning Foundation Establishment disciples to guard each area was enough to keep it secure. The pressure on the Cloudthunder Sect had undoubtedly eased considerably.
Even so, they dared not relax immediately. The history of warfare offered no shortage of Puppet Masters who had used similar strategies to manipulate morale. Once taut heartstrings slackened, tightening them again would not be so easy.
For that reason, the various factions waited nearly half a month before confirming that the Insect Soldiers truly had diminished in number.
Opinions on this development differed widely within Cloud Province, however, and the Cloudthunder Sect's senior leadership hurriedly summoned the leaders of the various factions to discuss it.
"Everyone, what do you make of recent events?"
"Materialized Heaven's insect swarm must have suffered too much attrition to sustain its previous attacks."
"Exactly. Those Insect Soldiers may be numerous, but they're nothing more than insignificant rabble. We cultivators can turn them to ash with a flip of our palms. I refuse to believe they can keep attacking forever."
"That may be so, but the insect swarm we detected earlier can't simply vanish into thin air. It must be hiding somewhere. We mustn't let our guard down."
"Ultimately, we still need to find the Insect Hive and wipe it out completely!"
Inside the great hall, the executive elder of the Cloudthunder Sect's Elders' Council watched the gathering with a slight frown.
He vaguely sensed a trick behind all this, but he understood that