Cha Ming's awareness returned to his surroundings after briefly cultivating. He retrieved a set of freshly painted talismans from his desk before heading out to the Alabaster Group courtyard. It was dark out. The first rays of sunshine had yet to illuminate the night sky. In the courtyard, several figures sat cross-legged in meditation, improving their conditions one last time before the upcoming battle. They all wore white, making the entire group seem like a funeral gathering.

I suppose it is a funeral gathering, Cha Ming thought. Many of those who would accept the mission have lost family members and friends to devils. These people accept missions every day to defend the helpless and destroy those who persecute the innocent.

After further reflection, he changed his clothes to the same alabaster white. He had lost acquaintances as well. The deaths of Han Jinlong, Bei Ling, and those many people near Fairweather were reason enough.

"You're finally here," a familiar voice called out to Cha Ming. It was Luo Xuehua. Her silver hair and permanently closed eyes did not take away from her smile.

"How many people are participating?" Cha Ming asked.

"Forty foundation-establishment cultivators, including us," Xuehua replied. "And six half-step foundation-establishment cultivators, as well as seven core-formation protectors."

Cha Ming raised an eyebrow.

Xuehua chuckled. "Surely you don't expect the Obsidian Syndicate to remain honest, do you? These core-formation cultivators are there both as insurance and to cash in on this chance to clash with the Obsidian Syndicate. It's not beneath them to kill a few foundation-establishment juniors if we are outnumbered, but this is also considered a tempering exercise to us juniors."

"Fair enough," Cha Ming said while surveying the blanket of cultivators. "Who is in charge?"

"As Lu Tianhao's apprentice, yours truly fills that role," Luo Xuehua replied. Now that Cha Ming looked around, he noticed many looks of admiration directed toward her.

Cha Ming faintly heard something in the distance. It was the sound of the wind. Xuehua clearly heard it as well. A white shadow flashed and landed before Xuehua, briefly bowing before reporting.

"I've been keeping watch on the Obsidian Syndicate," he said, panting. "However, everything was strangely quiet. To be certain, I checked the city gates, and sure enough, a large group of them left the city a few hours ago."

Xuehua's look hardened. "They want to play such tricks." Then, amplifying her voice, she spoke to everyone present. "The Obsidian Syndicate has already departed. We are leaving now." All white-clothed figures present stood in attention, while several people flew out of their residences. Then, turning to Cha Ming, she asked, "Did you learn the Wind Walk Formation?"

"Only to lesser grade," Cha Ming replied. "But I can do you one better. If I consume high-grade spirit stones to keep up the energy, that is."

Xuehua tossed him a few dozen high-grade spirit stones, which Cha Ming shamelessly accepted. He was far too broke to afford the steep transit cost.

Cha Ming breathed deeply before floating up above the courtyard. He threw out eighteen Dao sigils, nine purple crystals, and nine azure stones. He poured his personal qi into the gray sigils, transforming half into lightning sigils and half into wind sigils. Then he took out the Clear Sky Brush. It glowed light purple as he painted large connecting lines with the lightning essence he had recently prepared. Just like the five-element evanescence, wind and lightning evanescence could also be mixed in with liquified elemental essence. Unfortunately, it was much rarer and could only be harvested in the high mountains. The price was exorbitant.

The purple brush quickly changed color, and azure lines floated into place just above the ground, meshing with the complementary combat-formation lines. Azure and purple alternated until he finally threw out ten high-grade spirit stones, bringing the formation to life.

The formation was called Stormwalker Formation. The Stormchaser Steps he used was a simplified derivative of this large one. He discovered by accident that, while he couldn't improve his success rate by using wind and lightning essence when painting formations, he could increase their stability. As a result, he could increase the scope of the formation. This naturally applied to all formations he knew, increasing his formation abilities by a half step.

Purple lightning and azure winds billowed in the hundred-foot range of the formation. His Stormchaser Boots disappeared and became dark clouds that integrated with the formation.

"I need ten high-grade spirit stones per hour to maintain this formation," Cha Ming said. "But it increases the speed of our group by several times."

Xuehua nodded. "Everyone, step into the range of the formation. We're moving out!"

They left the city like the wind, and the guards didn't dare inspect them. When the Alabaster Group was out for blood, no one could prevent it.

***

Wang Jun sat at the peak of the mountain brewing tea. He very much enjoyed watching the jade platform there. It was very mysterious, to the extent that he couldn't read its story, though judging from the runes on it, it was surely a formation plate.

I need to get Cha Ming to look at this, he thought. According to Huxian, there's a plate on each of the nine mountains.

A yawn suddenly came from the cave. Huxian, who had just finished recovering from his wounds, walked out. The mouse, Lei Jiang, quickly darted to the peak of the mountain.

"Now that we're fully recovered, let's storm those humans remaining at the base of the mountain," Huxian said. "Over two-thirds of the humans left with that prime minister of yours, so we should be able to defeat them easily."

"About that," Wang Jun said with an awkward look on his face. "Some company arrived. I'm afraid it's not us who will be attacking, but the other way around."

Huxian's eyes narrowed as he looked at the previously tiny camp. It had grown to over double its previous size. In addition, he sensed a dozen terrifying auras.

Core-formation cultivators, he thought.

"Will the monarch help us if they meddle?" Wang Jun asked softly.

Huxian shook his head. "Although he will.. I don't think he can handle those twelve on his own."

"Then let's hope they're here just to enjoy the show," Wang Jun said. "Cha Ming and the Alabaster Group are coming soon, but we need to hold out for a few hours."

Huxian nodded. "Geomantic boa!" he yelled. The mountain quaked before the gigantic snake poked out.

"I would appreciate it if you used my new title," she said arrogantly.

Huxian rolled his eyes. "Geomantic Sovereign, would you be so kind as to do something for me before I beat the venom out of you and have you begging to this father for mercy?" The giant snake's throat shivered. "I need you to lay down as many traps as possible to delay those cultivators down there."

"This.." Geomantic Sovereign looked at him awkwardly.

"What's the matter? Can't do it?" Huxian yelled aggressively.

"It's not that I can't do it.." Geomantic Sovereign said, frightened.

"Let me summarize," Wang Jun said, walking between them. "She thinks you're stupid and have no strategic sense, but she's too afraid to disobey your direct orders."

"How dare you!" Huxian said, looking wounded. He's right, intelligence really isn't my strong suit, Huxian thought. I'll have to use all available resources. "Fine. You and she can plan, just keep me posted."

"Thank you, Sovereign Two Tails," Wang Jun said mockingly. "For the sake of education, I'll summarize. During the last few battles, the traps you set were effective because all forces were evenly matched. The weak forces that couldn't help but fight near the ground were hampered by these weak walls of earth, spikes, etc. It was very effective.

"This situation is different entirely," he continued. "Their high-end forces outnumber ours four to one, but our low-level forces outnumber theirs. Therefore they will only use their lower-level forces to distract ours. What we really need to delay is them rushing in to slaughter our leaders. The previous formations won't be effective against top-tier forces, as they can just shatter these walls and traps at will.

"That's why the Geomantic Sovereign and I will collaborate to build illusory and concealment formations. She will set the base using terrain features as natural formation eyes, while I will supplement them with the power of shadow. The only downside is that we won't be able to fight in this battle. I will be the strategist, and the Geomantic Sovereign and I will constantly change and manipulate the formations to our greatest advantage."

"Is there anything I can do?" Huxian asked.

"Sure," Wang Jun said. "When the battle starts, look for their tactician and try to kill him. We will try to find him as well. Zhou Li will not participate in this battle because it will break the terms of the treaty, which will weaken the crown prince's grip on the throne.

"I speculate that he used his fate powers to manipulate karma, which is why he was able to hire these forces in the first place. He would have had to first do business through a variety of intermediaries using ambiguous promises. Then he would have needed to burn any remaining karmic threads using fire and fate. Fortunately, he must stay out of a direct confrontation, or the karma will be reestablished.

"Does this mean they don't have a strategist?" Huxian asked.

"I refuse to believe that Zhou Li won't find a replacement for himself," Wang Jun said. "There will be a tactician. The second priority target is Guo Jia. He will be well defended, as he is the key to dismantling our defensive formations. They won't be able to advance without breaking them, so your beasts will need to distract him as much as possible. In turn, I'll be able to use their movements to potentially determine the location of their strategist."

Huxian sighed. "Do you think we can hold out for three hours?"

"It will be one hour before both sides are ready," Wang Jun said. "Holding out for two hours against this lineup, however? We can only try."

***

Zhou Li walked toward a skinny, black-robed cultivator. He was one of the twelve core-formation cultivators that had just arrived. The ones he hadn't ordered. "I don't suppose you're here just for sightseeing?" he asked.

"We're here as insurance," the man said in a relaxed manner. "For an extra 200,000, we will participate in the battle. I'll note that our spies indicate that the Alabaster Group will be here in less than three hours. This information is free of charge."

Zhou Li gritted his teeth. "You're basically taking out all the profits from this operation."

"That's only because you've been so stingy," the man retorted coldly. "We do fair business. If you had paid us earlier, we could have helped you conquer the mountain range before the treaty took place. I'll note that we are the ones who provided you the information on the treaty in the first place.

"Now I'll kindly warn you that if you that if you hire us now, we can end this battle quickly before they arrive. Ten of us will hold off the monarch while the others reap lives on the battlefield with impunity. What say you?"

Zhou Li hesitated. "What are your calculated odds of success?"

"Eighty percent," another man said. His realm was far below core formation. In fact, Zhou Li wouldn't be surprised if his cultivation was lower than early foundation establishment. "But only based on the information provided. External factors that you have not reported may significantly affect the odds."

"And who is this?" Zhou Li asked the core-formation expert.

"His name is Zhong Fa," he replied. "This is the master tactician you paid for. He's the best we have, and I will never question his judgment."

Zhou Li held his chin and pondered for a while before shaking his head. "I'll take eighty-percent odds for now. You and your men can enjoy the show."

***

Black-robed armies flooded the battlefield in unison.

"Kill!" they shouted, spreading their baleful aura toward the opposing beasts. Now that the Song Kingdom's forces had retreated, many of them revealed their true forms. A full half of them were devils with fighting prowess above their realms.

They advanced slowly up the mountain with Guo Jia at their center. According to Wang Jun, their directions were impaired and required formation eyes to be broken as they advanced. The concealment formations made it difficult for Guo Jia to break the formation eyes and prevented the humans from detecting the beasts in the first place.

The invaders halted. They stood by at attention as Guo Jia spread out sigils and flags. Huxian saw several formation eyes erupt one after another before their group packed up and advanced another hundred feet in their direction. It was impossible to replenish the broken formation eyes. The Geomantic Sovereign and Wang Jun could only divert their energies to prevent him breaking them in the first place.

One more stop, Wang Jun sent to Huxian mentally. Huxian had half the upper echelons of the beast forces with him. The lower-tier forces and the other half were on the opposite side, awaiting their signals. Guo Jia broke yet another few formation eyes and stopped again a hundred feet later. Just as they moved once more, Huxian signaled his beast forces to attack. They caught the human forces by surprise.

The beasts had activated their abilities before charging in, taking full advantage of the concealment formation. The first layer of humans fell to their attacks, but the upper-level human forces immediately adjusted and countered their battle formations.

Retreat, Wang Jun's voice sounded.

Huxian relayed the command, pulling everyone back. He glared hatefully at the ochre figures and the ochre mist spread across the black-robed group.

Did you find their tactician? Huxian asked.

Negative, Wang Jun replied. None of their movements revealed any such weakness. However, we did obtain some information. They've slowly been edging toward Silverwing's mountain. If I'm not mistaken, they are heading toward the ore deposit. They will likely try to excavate it, which means they likely have a hidden geomancer in their midst. They are planning on excavating everything quickly, so they won't need to fight us under these circumstances. They want to force the issue, so we must face them at a disadvantage.

What can we do? Huxian asked.

We can only delay as much as possible and chip away as many of their forces as we can, Wang Jun said. That way we can study the opponent and weaken them before the final confrontation. If they were just wandering aimlessly, we would have the terrain advantage. They clearly have the intent of eliminating that advantage and forcing us to respond. What a great tactician. It's open intrigue at its finest.

Suddenly, Huxian heard a voice transmission. Huxian, we're getting closer, a voice said. How are things looking on your end?

Cha Ming! Huxian replied. You're in range. Things aren't looking good. Wang Jun said you'll be here in one and a half hours, but by then they'll already have won.

Pass this information along to Wang Jun, Cha Ming instructed. We intentionally delayed as we exited the city in case spies took note of us. We have kept this hidden for half the trip: We're speeding up now. We'll be there in a half hour.

Huxian quickly passed on the information, and after a short while he heard Wang Jun's reply. We'll begin a large-scale battle in a quarter hour. They shouldn't expect it, and by then it will be too late to adjust their plans.

Huxian martialed his troops and brought the various sovereigns, kings, and lords into position.

***

We need to change plans, Zhou Li heard via voice transmission. I just heard from our spies that the Alabaster Group is only a half hour away. I suspect a surprise attack from the beasts soon to take advantage of oncoming reinforcements. I now put our odds at fifty percent at best.

How exactly were we informed so late of their impending arrival? Zhou Li asked.

It was deception, the voice replied. They must have intentionally traveled slowly. Fortunately, we have spies in the Alabaster Group itself. I suggest that we hire the core-formation experts to try taking out priority targets in advance. But if and only if they attack us.

They're bleeding me dry, Zhou Li thought. His heart ached. His precious war funds were falling through his fingers. Very well. I authorize it, but if and only if we get attacked. Also, I want a fifty-percent discount.

A moment of silence ensued, followed by a response. Thirty percent.

Fine, Zhou Li said.

Pleasure doing business with you, the voice answered.