Delayed by the Body Cultivator Demon Child, and with the great formation already so far north that it lay close to demon cultivator territory, they could not afford to linger.
So, to be safe, Yang Lingshu escorted Xuan Zhou and the others all the way back to the righteous forces' line after the two Demon Children withdrew.
By then, the order to retreat had reached the front. Yang Lingshu and the others began covering the main force as it fell back.
Three days later, every Northwest cultivator unit had withdrawn from the combat zone.
According to the tally, the Northwest had lost nearly forty percent of the conventional troops it had sent into this first major battle against the demon cultivators.
Of its twelve elite squads, not one returned at full strength.
Fifty-eight veteran Northwest cultivators of the Spiritual Connection realm had died at the hands of the Demon Children, including Mu Lei, the Daoyuan Mountain ancestor of the Tiger Chasing Dynasty; Cao Xiang, master of the Myriad Transformation Sect; and Du Yuan, lord of Wanghai City.
The Demonic Path side had wiped out three elite squads entirely. Every survivor in the other nine squads that managed to retreat was wounded.
Before the battle, the senior cultivators of the Northwest's various factions had estimated their likely casualties.
But while they were still discussing war on paper, they had underestimated its dangers. The actual casualties were roughly fifty percent higher than they had expected.
Every Demon Child possessed strange arts and was cunning and treacherous. The earlier battle reports alone could not give an accurate measure of their strength.
That was a major reason three elite squads had perished in the first battle and the others had suffered such heavy losses.
Still, the battle had not brought only distressing, heartbreaking news.