Yan Baiyi felt the pressure. He was the second to enter the field. If the Sword Cultivator had been fighting blind, he knew his opponent's background. He could not lose again...
The Great Banner Sect of the Yan Kingdom sounded like a Body Cultivation side sect, but it was actually an orthodox Daoist sect, with a thoroughly Magic Cultivator lineage. In ancient times, a Daoist came from beyond the heavens; he planted a banner and opened the Northern Borderlands.
When spiritual energy first revived on the Jin Xiu Continent, humanity's territory had actually been very small, confined to the Southeast. Relying on their physical advantages and innate abilities, the Demon Race commanded the winds and rains across the continent and flourished mightily. The Northern Borderlands had been a wilderness then, only gradually developed by humanity afterward.
The Yan Sect's patriarch had contributed to this. Once his great banner was planted, he swept away demonic scourges for a hundred years with the banner as his center, giving rise to what later generations called the Great Banner Sect of the Yan Kingdom.
The Yan Sect was a spellcasting lineage, but its defining feature lay chiefly in its great banners. Just as a Sword Cultivator spent his life with a single sword, transforming all the world's complexities through it, the Great Banner Sect was the Sword Cultivator among Daoist spellcasting lineages. They cultivated only the banners they carried, glimpsing the Dao and the great void through them.
In battle, they resembled generals on an opera stage, treasured banners mounted on their backs, spells issuing with their banners. Their powerful Law Techniques were all sealed within those treasured banners. Once waved, they snapped in the wind, with heaven and earth, the five elements, and yin and yang all contained within.
Put plainly, they combined