After the council in the hall that day, all of Heavenly One City mobilized. Within just two or three days, every sect and cultivator knew that a life-or-death battle against the sorcerers would begin in a few days.
Amid fear, excitement, worry, and all manner of other emotions, the cultivators in the city packed everything they had prepared, assembled into armies according to their assigned units, and set out one after another for the encampment at the border.
This time, everyone knew that the coming battle would decide the fate of the entire Heavenly South. Victory would drive the Mulan People back to the grasslands; defeat would place all of the Heavenly South in the sorcerers' hands, and countless sects would lose their legacies forever.
Thus, the cultivator armies' morale soared without any need for encouragement, and they moved swiftly and in good order. In just two days, they finished assembling in the border camp, facing the sorcerers from twenty or thirty li away.
On the morning of the seventh day, the sorcerers' camp made the first move. First came the thunderous booming of drums that shook the heavens. Then, amid flashes of radiant light, ranks of sorcerers flew out of the camp aboard magic tools of every color, advancing toward the ground between the two armies.
The cultivators of the Heavenly South, already prepared, immediately noticed the movements opposite them and swiftly passed down a series of orders.
At once, long, resonant peals of bells rang through the cultivators' camp. The units that had spent so long resting and gathering their strength streamed out, filling the sky as they flew toward the ground between the two camps.
For a time, spiritual lights of every color illuminated the entire sky. Whistling and shrill cries rose one after another as the