Several figures streaked through the air. In the blink of an eye, their flying swords clashed dozens of times with a ringing chorus of metal.
Suddenly, a white light accelerated and pierced an opponent's body.
The wounded cultivator cried out and fled in panic, only to be struck by lightning the moment he turned. Screaming, he plummeted toward the sea.
"Go!"
His companions' faces turned ashen, but there was nothing they could do. With cold snorts, they retreated together.
"Fellow Daoist Ye, they've fled."
Everyone turned toward a young cultivator. Tall and handsome, he wore white robes whose hems fluttered in the wind. He was Ye Zhen, a true disciple of the Incense Accumulation Sect.
Ye Zhen smiled and said with the calm composure unique to disciples of the Immortal Sects, "The usual rule: don't pursue a cornered enemy."
"Quite right. These flies are nothing to worry about."
"There are still plenty of demonic cultivators in the Weiying Sea. We need to be careful."
Everyone accepted his judgment and followed him to clear the battlefield and deal with the aftermath.
They had become thoroughly practiced at this sort of thing.
Ye Zhen kept watch overhead. Seeing the seasoned, efficient movements of his fellow disciples and the East Sea cultivators beside them, he could not help feeling a little reflective.
War made people grow. Although they were only young Foundation Establishment cultivators in their fifties and sixties, they were no longer comparable to the fledglings they had once been.
Before long, several Foundation Establishment cultivators followed Ye Zhen back to an island over a thousand li away to report to the righteous faction's leader stationed there: Shu Changsheng, the Plague Division's Phthisis-and-Leprosy True Lord.
After hearing Ye Zhen's report, Shu Changsheng mused, "Lately, the demonic faction has been sending plenty of