Swordwave Garrison.
Before the Teleportation Array.
Dawn had barely broken.
Yet figures of Qi Refining Realm cultivators already stood waiting.
Among these cultivators, some were Heavenly Gate Sect cultivators dressed in red-and-black robes, while others were Heterodox Dao cultivators. They stood on opposite sides of the Teleportation Array, as clearly divided as two rivers.
But whether they belonged to the Heterodox Dao or the Heavenly Gate Sect, none looked particularly happy.
They were all cultivators the Heavenly Gate Sect had deliberately retained, each possessing a different sort of value.
Each had their own talents, but most were not skilled in combat.
Yet now, without exception, they had all received a message through the Heavenly Gate Duty Order.
It ordered them to proceed to the Eastern Saint Garrison and participate in the counterattack against the Incense Dao cultivators.
Although the wording of the Heavenly Gate Duty Order seemed to suggest that the Heavenly Gate Sect held the advantage.
None of them were fools. If even rear-line cultivators like them had to be sent to the front, they could roughly guess the Heavenly Gate Sect's actual situation.
Now, the Heterodox Dao cultivators were all growing restless.
Had their Divine Soul signatures not been recorded by the Spirit-Entrusting Tokens, making any escape an act of betrayal against the sect, some would probably have fled already.
Even among the Heavenly Gate Sect cultivators, some secretly harbored thoughts of their own.
But under the threat of the Spirit-Entrusting Tokens, none dared voice those thoughts.
Still, in their inadvertent exchanges of glances and awkward smiles, they could see one another's unease.
Bao Chao was among them as well.
As a Spirit Chef, an exceedingly rare profession in the cultivation world, he had some cultivators assigned to him despite the limited demand for Spirit Cuisine within the