Chapter 30: The New Problems And New Opportunities For The Metal Sect

Eastern Continent

Metal Sect

The people of the Metal Sect declared that they would stand their ground and politely refused the first rate Sects that made their offers.

“the Metal Sect have decided to refuse your offers sir Envoy. The Metal Sect has stood this long without the help of outsiders and we would like to face our enemies with our own strength” said the Sect head

“are you sure? Several third rate Sects have already fallen to the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, even with their shaky unity our forces are still recuperating from the last war making them a credible threat to even the first rate sects”

“we appreciate the offer sir Envoy but we would rather stand our ground”

The Envoy only shook his head and left the Metal Sect after his persuasions failed. At this point the entirety of the Metal Sect has been preparing for war and have recalled all of their forces from all over the Eastern Continent.

Due to the extreme size of the Eastern Continent the Sect Head also sent them a message to regroup at one of their secret hideouts since returning from a long journey could make them susceptible to ambush.

There is a small amount of wealth for the left out Metal Sect disciples to live a modest life if they appropriate the funds wisely.

The Metal Sect was a small Sect to begin with even for third rate standards but their cultivation methods allowed them to be more sturdier than most body cultivating sects. If it wasn’t for their cultivation methods need to incorporate heavenly metals in their body the Metal Sect could easily fight for a middle class second rate Sect.

Unfortunately the Metals Sect’s consumption of heavenly metals made them poor that their Sect could barely even support ten thousand disciples. And because of this limitations that the Sect Head and several trusted Elders decided to fight on their own since their future won’t be much any different if they surrendered their heavenly metal mines to first rate Sects.

The following days are filled with tension as every disciple ran around doing their duties to fortify their own territory. Even if the higher ranking Cultivators did not need to eat started preparing for an elongated siege battle and has started storing grains and preserved meat to help them restore and maintain their strength without using too much spiritual energies.

This event has been happening all over the Eastern Continent the rogue Cultivators have smelt blood in the waters and have preyed on the weak. Even not all rogue Cultivators are inherently evil some of them could only capitalize on the current situation.

Since the grand majority of rogue Cultivators are from poor commoner backgrounds making their road to cultivation extremely rough. Aside from being persistent most rogue Cultivators does not have anything going for them.

Now that the Sect Alliance returned battered, very few could enforce the laws in their own lands making it a free for all for those with the strength to do what they will.

And the first and second rate Sects are not too keen to send their exhausted and meager forces to help the third rate Sects without any profitable return. And here lies the current situation of the Metal Sect one of the many third rate Sects currently in danger of being pillaged by the rogue cultivators who have created a shaky alliance.

If the disciples are not constantly busy at work creating fortifications and magical formations they would be a nervous wreck constantly jumping at shadows their bodies high strung and ready to pounce at their enemies should they enter their sights.

It has been almost a week since the rogue cultivator alliance started pillaging small cultivator families and slowly worked their way up towards the third rate Sects. The rogue cultivator alliance are completely confident that the first and second rate sects would not risk their own territories since they have more wealth and they would rather watch strangers die instead of helping them.

It wasn’t until on the second week of the Metal Sect’s frantic preparation that black smokes started emerging from the distance of 10 kilometers and faint sounds of explosions could be heard by the hour. This made the already nervous disciples even more high strung, this could only mean that battles have begun in their region and is only a matter of time before it arrives at their own doorsteps.

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The Sec Elder then said “Calm yourselves! The enemies have yet to come and all of you are already looking like dead people!”

To some, the Elder’s words helped them calm down but to most, it was just a temporary ease on their nerves.

To the first and second rate Sects, Clans, Kingdoms and Empires they are also caught unprepared in the lightning fast formation of the rogue cultivator alliance. According to intelligence the rogue cultivators have long been unsatisfied that some of the most talented cultivators coming from the commoners have been suppressed by the wealthy.

But despite their grievances, they could only bite down their lips and swallow their anger since these big factions are too powerful to oppose. It was not until the end of the Blood Harvest and their race to save their individual Dragon Veins that these big factions returned home with a bloody nose. It was at this time that the rogue cultivators planned a secret alliance to get back at them and settle some old scores while making themselves rich afterwards.

Daybreak

some time later

Somebody shouted “ENEMY ATTACK!” followed by magical explosions and shouts.everybody knew they were going to be attack but when the actual attack came still caught the younger disciples off guard.

Most of these disciples have yet to spill the blood or took the lives of their enemies making their bodies shiver in fear and legs like jelly.

Lucky for them that the Veterans and Elders of the Metal Sect are more than prepared for this fight and have made ample preparations in advance for multiple grim scenarios.

The Sect Head despite being an old man even for being a Nascent Soul Cultivator is still actually quite powerful, he took the front lines not only to maintain morale but also to join in the heaviest of battles.

It was very fortunate for them that there was no Spirit Severing rogue cultivator that participated in this battle.

The younger disciples of the Metal Sect manipulated their weapons to fly and attack their enemies controlling them ling puppets, there were also some who controlled a thick and heavy armour to the front lines.

While the Sect Head jumped straight at the leaders of the rogue cultivators in hope to make them retreat as soon as possible, followed by the Sect Elders and Veterans the enemy offensive has been blunted.

Despite being just a third rate Sect the Metal Sect still is a proper Sect that has several thousand years of foundation that has weathered dozens of potentially Sect destroying hardships throughout the centuries.

The younger Sect disciples that can’t take to the battlefield powered up the formations their Elders have set up in advance with the help of spirit stone, back on the Continental Isle these spirit stones would be known as mana stones with the only difference is that mana stones from the Continental Isle has elemental affinities while spirit stones are completely neutral in element.

Needles to say each and everyone is participating in this battle one way or another, such as constantly rotating the younger disciples in magical formations to maintain the shields, but since most of them could not contain that amount of energies for too long in their bodies they eventually get injured and replaced.

Such a sight is happening throughout the entire Sect, the defenders and the invaders each had a very distinct advantage.

The people of the Metal Sect have all managed to learn how to fight properly while having the appropriate magical tool or magic spell depending of the battle.

On the other hand despite the rogue cultivators being poor and seemingly always struggling in their cultivation are more experienced in fighting, killing and hardships making their offensive particularly devastating.

Even the Sect Elders and Veterans could only fight so much for so long. Eventually the Sect walls and shields broke faster than they could have ever expected 1 day in fact. Too quick that the Metal Sect have been broken through.

But this only made the Disciples fight even more desperate, they were afraid of being captured and abused. This was even more true to the female disciples as after they were surrounded and cut off from reinforcements they could commit suicide and self detonate after releasing an aggrieved shout.

“AAAHHHH!!”

This inspire many disciples into following suit of self detonations in their minds “since I’m dying anyway I might as well take out as many enemies as I could”

“for the Sect”

“For the Metal Sect!”

Those who self Detonated transformed their entire body into a human shaped metal grenade before exploding causing maximum damage to their immediate proximity as shrapnels of metal shredded the invaders.

Even though they are not really willing to die for the Metal Sect but since they are surrounded and have no chance of escape they just also decided to end their lives with a BANG! “might as well look cool if I’m going to die in this place!!” some thought

The continuous individual self detonations cleared dozens of the invading rogue cultivators, inspiring morale for the Metal Sect while shattering the morale of the invaders. After all this rogue cultivator alliance was only made in the pretense of shared profit.

None of them were really going to fight to the death for this shaky and shallow alliance. And with that the low level cultivators from Core Formation and below retreated from the battlefield leaving only the Nascent Souls to duke it out.

It was safe to assume that even if the low level cultivators lost that side of the battlefield as long as their Nascent Souls were still combat effective then this war would still be at full swing despite the casualties incurred.

The Nascent Souls of the rogue cultivators are more powerful than they seem, this is a testament that even from commoner families could produce high quality cultivators. The invading rogue cultivators have slowly but steadily pushed the elders of the Metal Sect.

Despite the Metal Sect being slightly on the back foot throughout the battle, they could still fight in a prolong attrition so that even in victory the rogue cultivators would not have much strength to chase down fleeing disciples if worst comes to worst.

When the rogue cultivators saw what the Metal Sect was planning they called on their soldiers at the back watching the duel and to rejoin the offensive!

“shameless!!” said one of the Sect Elders

“HMP! This isn’t an honor duel but a war! ATTACK!” coming from the rogue cultivators side

That reignited the bloody battle on the ground once again. And this time the Metals Sect are being pushed back further and further.

The battle raged on from daybreak to sunset and as the setting sun slowly vanished from the horizon so too are the disciples of the Metal Sect, from ten thousand disciples to under two thousand disciples remaining.

The battle… hopeless, while on the other hand the invading rogue cultivators pushed on the establishments and started pillaging valuables.

The first targets were the Sect Library where the Metal Sect’s unique skills and cultivation methods are stored and the second target is the Sect Vault where the real valuables and treasures are being kept under high security.

Seeing this happen before their very eyes made them feel conflicted, on one hand injured people of the Metal Sect were left alone as the rogue cultivators took anything of value and ignored the one that are not blocking them.

On the other hand they could only watch in horror as their Sect Elders die and fall down from the sky one by one. To see their emotional and spiritual pillars of support fall down in front of them was a devastating blow to their morale.

Everyone could feel that the entire place grew darker as is the moonlight itself is being covered in unspeakable evil. The Sect Head dishevelled and bleeding as the fight goes on.

Unable to hold it any further one of the Sect disciples shout for help, even though she knew no one would lend them any at their current situation.

“help! Somebody help us SAVE US!!” the little girl shouted

And as the shadows grew darker a female voice coming from a thick Armour could be heard as she suddenly appeared from the dark sky.

“SUP!” Sera Hawke said while inside Ashura