“What do you think?”
“About that Golden Dragon fellow?”
“Yes.”
“He clearly just wants to toss his weight around, the bastard just became the son of the Azure Emperor, he can now do whatever he pleases, if it was me…”
“Hah, not everyone is an old bastard like you!”
Two core formation cultivators were arguing with each other while being on guard duty. They were sitting in a lookout tower that helped them look into the deep expanse of this region. Due to the world being so large even this border region was humongous.
A few days ago they had received a visitor at their main sect. His name was Zhang Dong but now he went by the name Long Dong. These two were from the Dragon Gate Sect and word had reached them that he had entered their main sect. The Patriarch had decided to welcome him and open the gates but neither of these two felt happy about that.
“But what could the Patriarch do? If this Zhang Dong calls for the Azure Emperor our sect would be eradicated.”
“This is true and we best not forget that they did manage to defeat the likes of Wang Long…”
The deaths of so many nascent soul masters didn’t go unnoticed. Wang Long revealed himself to be some kind of monster that was even able to make a behemoth like the Soaring Dragon Sect disappear. Then by proxy, the United Element Sect had to be stronger that anyone had originally anticipated.
“What do they truly want? There isn’t really anything that we can offer them that the Long Clan wouldn’t be able to give them, our secret texts should be of lower quality…”
The two cultivators were a bit confused about the entire situation. Why was someone that famous forcing himself into their sect. Was he really just trying to get back at them for the things that they did in the past. To their knowledge their sect was very lenient with them, they didn’t even take any of the Dark Palm Sect’s territory and left it to the other two sects.
“Maybe their pride was hurt that much? Do you think they will do anything brazen?”
“I hope not… my daughter is with child now and they are back at the main sect…”
The two men looked to be in their fifties but were somewhat older. They had a large chunk of their families in the main city, if someone like the Golden Dragon decided to kill anyone there no one would really be able to stop him. But while they were discussing this event they noticed something.
“Hey… did you notice?”
“Notice what?”
“The daily patrol… they should have returned by now…”
One of the elders squinted with his eyes while rising from his seat. He enhanced his eyes and other senses with spiritual energy while peeking into the distance. They were at the border region which had many other cultivators like them patrolling the area. Normally a small group of other sect brothers would have arrived by now and gave a report.
“Come to think of it, they should be here…”
The other man nodded, both of them had been stuck working here for years with no changes. The days tended to blend with each other and time just passed without anything interesting ever happening. Thus only now did they notice that there was something strange happening.
With haste, they pulled out their communication jades to try and call the patrol leader. Even when they tried there was no answer, it was as if there was no one there to receive their call.
“Was there an attack? Or did that idiot forget to take his communication jade with him?”
“Not very likely, should we report this to the main sect or wait?”
The two looked at each other before nodding, it was clear that something was off. Nothing like this had ever happened in the years that they spent here. While the patrols weren’t always punctual there were never this late. One of them quickly looked to his communication jade but before he could forward the information a strange sound entered his ear.
Before any one of the two could react a strange spear that looked like it was made from white bone whizzed past them. The speed was truly tremendous, it was an unexpected attack that embedded itself into one of the men’s shoulders.
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The cultivator cried out in pain as he was pulled with the spear towards the wall through which he was propelled outside. The other core formation expert was quick to react as he heard a second bone spear coming his way. But even when evading, the projectile managed to scrape his side while taking a chunk of his flesh with it.
“We are under attack!”
He screamed with all his might as he tried to alert the people that were here with them. At this spot, there weren’t any nascent soul masters, only a couple core formation experts with mostly formation establishment soldiers. They were mostly here as lookouts to call for help if they ever spotted a force that they could not handle.
It was quite rare to get unwelcome visitors, even rarer when they didn’t attempt to converse with them. The whole wall was now getting pelted with strange bone projectiles that just went through it like it was made from cardboard.
“Who are they? Who dares to attack the Dragon Gate Sect!?”
The people here called out in indignation at their fate. They couldn’t sense their attacker's spiritual energy even though they were getting attacked only when some strange shouts reached their ears were they able to finally spot the enemy.
A strange sound of a horn was heard before the attackers made themselves visible. Their bodies were larger than an average human’s and their teeth were quite elongated. At this point in time, there was a swarm of them charging in their direction while some others were chucking bone spears at them.
It was clear that it was some kind of enemy attack, the opponents looked like they were part of some demonic sect as their bodies were disfigured. The call for help was quickly forwarded to the other sect members at the borders but it was met with silence.
“Why is no one answering? It couldn’t be…”
The cultivator was clutching his side where the spear took out his flesh. He had quickly eaten a couple of restorative pills but they were working slowly. Normally he would have gotten a reply but now it seemed that the others were having troubles of their own. Either more of these creatures were attacking all the other towers at the border or they were blocking out the communication jades in some way.
Without knowing the situation there were two choices, either they stayed and fought or they evacuated. These opponents were strange as they lacked a steady spiritual energy signature. They had managed to surprise attack them but this didn’t mean that they were stronger.
“Defend the border, the elders will surely arrive soon, we just need to halt their advance!”
The injured man called out to the panicking sect members while pointing out with a large saber towards the approaching enemies. But his display of strength was met with resistance, and another bone spear confronted him. This time around he attempted to deflect it with his saber but as he clashed with the strange projectile his large weapon snapped the moment it collided with the white bone.
“Impossible…”
The man pivoted to the side as he managed to escape death yet again, this time the spear of bone penetrated his shoulder just like it did with his sect brother. He was tossed down from the tower along it. While flying through the air he could hear the lamentation of his sect members, they were getting slaughtered by the strange attackers.
When he landed on the ground he found himself in more pain. The spear had lodged itself into the hard ground along with his shoulder. He grasped it with his hand in hopes of pulling it out but his strength was leaving his body. There was some strange liquid on this projectile and it was somehow making his body unresponsive to his call.
“N-no it can’t end this way, someone please…”
The man lay struggling on the ground while watching many smaller bone-like arrows rain down from the sky. The hail of javelins was just a little taste as these smaller bolts blocked out the sun as if it was raining.
“Haha, I see that I arrived just in time!”
Before the white death could get close though a quick rise in temperature was noticed by this cultivator. The sky was going up in flames as a huge horned creature appeared between him and the swarm of bony projectiles.
He could hear the voice of a man that was laughing joyfully as this inferno intensified in scope. The arrows that were once there started evaporating in the blink of an eye as they collided with the massive thick red flames that looked like a second sun.
The monster that was radiating this heat seemed familiar. It quickly dawned on this core expert that this creature was a soul beast. It was clear that a nascent soul master had come to save them but there was no such soul beast in their Dragon Gate Sect. Yet he knew it finally, he recalled the name of the second strongest person in the United Element Sect.
“This Huo Qiang will be your opponent, don’t disappoint me now!”
The man’s voice echoed through the skies as the enemy ranged weapons were eradicated from sight. His soul beast remained in place with its hands crossed over one another. It was radiating massive amounts of heat that was focused to the outside of their borders. It was clearly protecting everyone here from the projectiles and doing a fine job.
Soon the core formation cultivator managed to dislodge the spear from his shoulder. The paralyzing effect faded away after a few minutes and he was able to free himself. Without thinking much about it he gritted his teeth and called forth his flying sword. With it, he headed back to the now mostly destroyed watchtower.
There as he emerged from behind the wall he saw a spectacle worthy of legend. A muscular man that was covered from head to toe by flames was mercilessly combating the invaders. His fists rained down on them like small meteors, with each hit another head exploded. It didn’t seem like these boney monsters were a match for him.
“T-this… Huo Qiang from the United Element Sect?”
As he called out the man also noticed that in the distance a flying ship appeared. It was not one of theirs and carried the insignia of the United Element’s Sect. He quickly snapped out of it, this was the middle of the battle and he was a warrior too.
“Brothers and sisters, the United Element Sect has come to aid us, let us fight together with them to protect our lands!”
The man shouted while picking up a new weapon for himself. The battle was not yet won, there were many enemies left for them to defeat and running away would be a blemish on their honor, it was time to show the invaders that they would not just lie down and die.