"The Northern Frontier has experts as thick as clouds and fortified cities to hold the line. How could it have fallen so quickly?"
When Fang Qianyuan and Elder Long learned the news, both were stunned, finding it hard to believe.
Yet the thoughts Elder Long inadvertently voiced made it clear that he had long expected Shangyang City to be unable to withstand the Central Province's assault. Otherwise, he would have asked how it could have fallen, rather than how it could have fallen so quickly.
"Elder Long, what will the sect do next?" Fang Qianyuan asked with a trace of hesitation.
Elder Long said, "There's no need to worry. Although Shangyang City has fallen, the Grand Elder planned wisely and withdrew the Allied Army's main force in advance. Our strength to resist the Central Province has not been lost."
"However, the sect's forces are now tied down on many fronts. We may begin calling up experts from the younger generation."
"Experts from the younger generation?" Fang Qianyuan mused to himself.
Elder Long explained, "Aside from you, your generation has quite a few capable people. They come from different training institutes and often roam the world to temper themselves, so you may not have dealt with them. But you should still remember Meng Du and Liu Yeye, shouldn't you?"
The younger-generation experts Elder Long spoke of were Fang Qianyuan's peers, who had made their debuts at the same time as him, or a few years earlier or later.
His senior brother Sun Zhuo, the Red-Scale Training Institute's prodigy Meng Du, and Luoqiu Academy's prodigy Liu Yeye were all among them.
"Of course I remember them. What about them?" Fang Qianyuan was somewhat taken aback. Thinking about it now, he really had not paid much attention to news of these people.
Ever