Jiang Ding no longer took action all the time.
His flying trajectory wasn't a straight line, but twisted and turning, occasionally even doubling back.
This was to avoid the enemy determining his location through the trail of casualties, and then ambushing him on his inevitable path.
Yes, he might not necessarily be afraid,
but one only lives once, so there was no reason not to be careful.
After a while, he closed in within thirty kilometers of the Qiyu Sect's marker.
Nearby, a large number of Qiyu Sect disciples had gathered, along with disciples of Xuetu Hall, their Magic Glyphs shattering explosively as the two sides engaged in a brutal fight to the death.
"Kill! Annihilate all the traitors of Xuetu Hall!"
"Those who retreat, their entire families will be turned into walking corpses!"
A kilometer away, Jiang Ding silently stopped in his tracks to watch, making no move.
It wasn't that he was cold-hearted.
This wasn't the Xianmen Sect, where the abilities and virtues of temporary allies seemed unreliable. Betrayals and backstabbing were common occurrences, so he had to be responsible for his own safety first, gathering more intelligence about the battlefield.
This was a classic case of a small-scale team encounter.
There were over fifty Qiyu Sect disciples, led by a Cultivator at the Peak of Qi Practicing, whose appearance faintly resembled that of Master Jiucaobi, Li Mingda.
This ensured a strict hierarchical order.
The rest of the disciples weren't weak either, with six at the Late-stage Qi Practicing, over thirty at the Middle-stage of Qi Practicing, including Gong Caiyu, and more than twenty at the Early Qi Cultivation Stage.
Their opponents, the disciples of Xuetu Hall, also had a Cultivator at the Peak of Qi Practicing. However, the number of their cultivators at the later, middle, and early stages of Qi refining was significantly less than that of the Qiyu Sect.
It was almost as if it was two against one.
Theoretically, they should have the absolute upper hand, quickly crushing the opposition.
"Why are they at a disadvantage? What's the reason?"
Jiang Ding focused on the battlefield, rapidly analyzing the situation.
Over thirty hideous and ferocious black-haired Zombies roared, black mist swirling around them, emitting a foul stench, as they rapidly pounced toward the more than fifty Qiyu Sect disciples.
"Quicksand Technique!"
Li Sanyuan's reaction was commendable. He used a small number of disciples to cast magic to hinder the relatively clumsy group of black-haired Zombies.
The majority of the disciples exerted all their effort to employ group spells like Thunder Spear, Fireball, and Water Arrow, hurling them at the disciples of Xuetu Hall, aiming to crush them with overwhelming force or at least disrupt their formation.
As over forty varied spells were cast simultaneously by the Qiyu Sect's disciples, those from Xuetu Hall also made their move.
"Poison Cloud Technique!"
The cultivator at the Peak of Qi Practicing from Xuetu Hall was a hunched old crone. With a hoarse voice, she waved a dark brown lump of flesh.
"Poison Cloud Technique!"
The instant she made her move, over thirty disciples of Xuetu Hall also acted in unison, showing significant training in the same spell, casting it effectively one after the other.
Over thirty green clouds flew out, merging to some extent in the sky to form a massive toxic green cloud that significantly strengthened in potency.
The impressive array of spells from the Qiyu Sect disciples landed on the green toxic cloud, making corroding and shattering noises as Phoenixes, Mud Spears, and Water Balls all dissolved, losing any semblance of threat.
It seemed the toxic green cloud still had some substance left.
Li Sanyuan's heart sank as he once again cast spells with his fellow disciples, wielding magical tools to extinguish it.
Unfortunately, they could not sustain this effort.
Another wave of the green toxic cloud was followed shortly by a barrage of bone arrows and vast swathes of toxic green flames, quickly sending the Qiyu Sect disciples into disarray.
The black-haired Zombie group, initially held back by a few disciples, also broke free from their restraints and charged towards them.
Fear surfaced in Li Sanyuan's eyes as he grasped a Talisman, looking back.
"The magic and cultivation methods of the Xuetu Hall disciples are highly unified."
"The disciples show traces of having practiced simple formation methods, but of course, it's only the most basic coordination within a formation, far inferior to even an apprentice of an Array Master."
"Zombies have an advantage in close combat, a cruel hierarchical order; there should be restrictions."
Jiang Ding summarized several reasons for the opponent's victory despite being outnumbered.
By comparison, the Qiyu Sect was much inferior in these aspects.
The cultivation methods—gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and thunder—sound pleasing, but in reality they were fortuitously obtained by the Ancestor Master, scattered and unstructured. None of them synchronize with each other, and it's already good if their magics don't conflict.
When it comes to training formations, the disciples are completely free-range; even among Foundation-Building initiates, they only teach each other cultivation methods and magics, nothing else.
The last point, the order, isn't much different.
"Three thousand years, discounting those lost in battle, amounts to merely five generations of Golden Pill cultivators under orderly succession."
"For the organizational structure of an average sect, this seems far too brief; no significant changes have had the chance to occur."
Jiang Ding spoke to himself.
Cultivation methods, magics, and formation methods,
These three aspects seem simple, yet they are intricately connected; altering one means changing elixirs, cultivation environments, training of spiritual plants, and disciple cultivation.
It's equivalent to updating all the legacies within a sect.
Without the emergence of a peerless genius or an exceptionally efficient and well-suited organizational structure for the sect, three thousand years of accumulation are brief and considered insufficient foundation within the Cultivation World.
"Battlefield information collection complete."
Jiang Ding flicked his finger.
Eight or nine hundred meters away, the Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi fluctuated imperceptibly for a moment, and a light blue Sword Qi unabashedly emerged on the battlefield, ordinary to the extreme, without any threatening aura.
"The junior great-uncle-master has arrived!"
Li Sanyuan, who was on the verge of fleeing, was overjoyed and took the lead, turning back to charge fearlessly at the large group of Xuetu Hall disciples.
Gong Caiyu's small round face lit up with surprise as she looked around eagerly, searching for something.
"We pay respect to our junior great-uncle-master!"
It wasn't just the two of them; the morale of all the Qiyu Sect disciples soared.
No longer shrinking back, they channeled mana into their meridians recklessly; more powerful magics flew forth and actually managed to once again forcibly block the magics of Xuetu Hall.
"Junior great-uncle-master?"
The hunched old crone's expression changed.
In the Cultivation World, seniority is highly correlated with power.
This title is often reserved for Golden Pill Monks!
The old crone quickly regained her composure and scoffed, "The Nine Heavens Relics cannot be entered even by Foundation-building cultivators, let alone Old Monsters of Golden Core Stage. If you wish to intimidate us, you should not be so foolish!"
"Kill! Kill those diabolists!"
The disciples of the Qiyu Sect paid no heed to her words, their spirits amplified to the brink, spell after spell striking forth, regarding their opponents as piles of Spirit Stones, completely disregarding their own defenses.
For a while, they not only held their ground, but there was even a sense of magic retaliating.
"This is fine, you cannot escape."
The old crone's expression remained cold and detached, unaffected, still orderly commanding her Xuetu Hall disciples to cast spells one after another.
All it would take was for the Qiyu Sect disciples to weaken slightly in their mana, and she could easily slaughter large numbers of disciples; fleeing would no longer be possible.
At the same time, she noticed the light blue Sword Qi in the sky, giving it her utmost attention.
"Poison Spear Technique!"
The old crone's lips moved slightly, and a green-glowing Poison Spear, a fine Magic Tool, shot out, followed by the other Xuetu Hall disciples who still had some reserve strength.
At least sixteen or seventeen green bone spears with their eerie howls were fired towards the sky.
Everyone was confident, believing that even a cultivator at the Peak of Qi Practicing would be obliterated in one strike!
The light blue Sword Qi pierced through, its speed so incredible it defied belief. Only two green bone spears intercepted it, were penetrated, hesitated for a moment, and then dissipated.
In the blink of an eye, moving too fast for even Divine Sense to discern, it pierced through a bone shield and emerged inside the head of the old crone.