As the group climbed, they also headed north. From above the southeastern entrance, one could have seen a steady stream of orthodox disciples crawling up the mountain like ants, heading diagonally north.
After just two days, a bird's-eye view would have revealed a waistline thirty li below Kunlun Summit, stretching across the southeastern entrance and the eastern and western slopes. This was the battle line beyond which the orthodox disciples could not advance another step.
On both the eastern and western slopes, a hundred and fifty li north of the southeastern entrance, there was also a vertical front. These battle lines had formed as the orthodox disciples resisted reinforcements from the north, and they also meant that the Blood God Sect had kept the orthodox forces confined to the south all along, preventing them from encircling Kunlun Summit.
Seeing this, Jian Bingru, who commanded the main camp, immediately adjusted his plans. He reduced the number attacking the mountain, sending only a few Third Realm cultivators to lead Second Realm cultivators farther up. They were to conceal themselves and seek out the outer anchor points of the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array. Their goal was not to kill demonic cult disciples, but to slip inside the Blood God Sect and see what was happening there.
He also dispatched large numbers of Second Realm cultivators leading First Realm cultivators to continue pushing north.
Now the demonic cult could either contract its defenses, relying on the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array and guarding its anchor points to prevent the orthodox forces from probing inside, but doing so would inevitably mean abandoning the north. Once the orthodox forces completed their encirclement, however, they would have even more routes for stealthy ascents, forcing the demonic cult to contract its defenses further.
If they held fast in the north to