Three thousand li north of Blackstone Pass, beyond the Heavenly Chasm Wind Wall, lay a barren stretch known as Soulbreak Cliff.
Astral wind had long carved this place as though with knives and axes. Jagged rocks formed a deathly silent stone forest, and pale yellow "immortal-eroding astral qi" permeated the air. To ordinary Core Formation cultivators, this aura was deadly poison, capable of eating through their protective spiritual light. Even Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivators would feel stabbing pain in their divine souls if they lingered here.
Yet now, this land of death had become a hunting ground.
Within the wind wall, space subtly warped, and nine transparent figures, almost indistinguishable from the astral wind, slipped out soundlessly like phantoms. Their movements were swift as lightning, their footwork uncanny. They were the most elite "Shadowless Assassins" of the Shadow Wolf Tribe, one of the Twelve Mulan Tribes. Every one of them stood at the pinnacle of the Core Formation Late Stage, with particular mastery of concealment and lethal strikes.
Their objective was unmistakable-bypass the front-line defenses and plunge deep into the allied camp, straight toward the Wu-Character Granary, which held three months' provisions for a hundred thousand soldiers, along with the Three-Yang Soul-Warming Pills!
"Rustle, rustle..."
A faint scraping sounded among the scattered rocks at the foot of the wind wall. Three cultivators wearing standard Heavenly South Black Tortoise Battle Armor appeared to be resting casually in a sheltered hollow, but their spiritual senses already covered ten li in every direction.
"They're here. Three o'clock. Nine rats," the lookout whispered, quietly closing his fingers around an emergency Message Talisman.
Yet the nine Shadow Wolf assassins did not even glance at the trio. With a flicker, they ignored them outright, turning into nine phantom silhouettes that shot toward the granary! They