A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Chapter 645: Emerald Cove’s Ultimate Defensive Measure

Shuan stared at the lifeless, limbless body for a moment, then clicked his tongue.

“This baldy sure likes to talk,” he muttered while scrunching his nose in mild annoyance. “Even with his last breaths… he still had so much to say. Quite a set of lungs he had.”

He stabbed his saber into Heebyuk’s chest several times, punching holes through the dead man’s heart and lungs—just to be sure as per Aksai’s teachings.

Then he looked toward the distant coastline, where smoke from the destroyed ships still rose into the sky.

“But if what he said is true…” he murmured to himself while lost in his thoughts.

In the end, he sighed. “…we might be in deep trouble.”

Shuan was still staring at the distant smoke when someone suddenly appeared behind him without a sound.

A hand tapped his shoulder.

Shuan jolted so hard that he almost swung his saber again.

“What are you sighing about like an old man for, little Shuan?” Violet’s calm voice came from behind him.

Shuan spun around, wide-eyed and tense. Violet stood there with her eyebrows raised, completely relaxed. Her clothes were clean and neat, but the sword in her hand was dripping with fresh blood.

Clearly, she had just finished dealing with her own set of intruders somewhere else on the island. Apparently there was more than one team that was assigned with carrying out the sneak attack.

She did not spare even a glance at the limbless corpse lying near Shuan’s feet.

“You… you almost scared me, Aunt Violet,” Shuan said, letting out a breath through his nose with a mix of anger and embarrassment. He sheathed his saber and stored it away.

Violet only grinned. “If you get startled so easily, maybe you really are becoming an old man.”

Shuan ignored the jab and grew serious. “Where are the others? I need to tell them something important.”

The weight in his voice made Violet stop smiling immediately. She studied his expression and noticed the tension, the way his eyes kept drifting toward the sea as if expecting more trouble.

“Hmm? So you learned something dangerous,” she said quietly before finally looking at Heebyuk’s corpse that was clearly gone through some form of torture before his death.

Shuan nodded. “Very.”

Violet didn’t waste time. “They’re all busy with the intruders scattered across the island. Wait—I’ll contact them.”

She took out her Emerald Cove identity token. Unlike a normal token, hers carried extra authority and could send messages across the island. She placed her fingers on its surface and infused it with her Spirit Sense.

A faint green glow flashed.

[ We will convene at the main hall in an hour. ]

The message spread through the token network instantly.

Violet slipped the token back into her storage pouch.

“Let’s go,” she said as she stepped onto her flying sword.

In the next moment, her figure rose into the air and shot forward through the forest canopy.

Shuan followed right behind her, stepping onto his own flying sword.

Leaves rustled under the sudden gust as both cultivators shot toward the central region of the island, leaving behind the quiet battlefield and the corpse of the man who had given them a warning neither of them wanted to think about.

***

Two hours later.

Emerald Cove central region.

The round table meeting had been going on for a while, and the mood was light at first.

Everyone had returned safely, and the tension of the missions had faded enough for them to talk.

Violet went first. She stood with her hands behind her back, calm as always.

“Our attack went as planned,” she said. “We hit them before they even understood what was going on. A few of our people were hurt, and two didn’t make it, but the rest are fine. The enemy force was wiped out completely.”

Ruan nodded in approval, and Ivy gave a small smile.

Zara leaned forward next, unable to hide her excitement.

“Mine went even better. We crushed their battle formation in the first strike using the Sentient Fiends and protective formation. Some of my men were injured and one died… but considering the numbers we were facing, it went well. They didn’t even get the chance to send a message.”

Ivy took her turn after them. She looked tired but proud.

“Our side also managed to finish the job,” she said. “We surrounded them in the forest and cut off all paths. A few minor accidents happened, but nothing too serious. My team did great for their first operation. We… we managed to kill four Experts at the same time using the traps arranged by Island Lord Aksai.”

Everyone nodded along, each one giving a passing comment, bragging a little or praising their own group in a humble way. It was normal after a clean victory.

But Shuan had been quiet the whole time.

He sat with his arms crossed, eyes on the table. When the room fell silent, he finally lifted his gaze.

“My side of the mission is done as well,” he said. “I killed all of them even without getting my subordinates involved.”

His voice was flat, but something in it made the others look at him more carefully.

Zara raised a brow. “Then what are you worried about? You killed your targets, didn’t you? And you did that while hogging all the glory to yourself. You should brag about your deeds a little bit, Shuan. Why do you look so stressed?”

Shuan didn’t answer right away. He took a slow breath.

“Because… one of them… before he died… he talked.”

The room stilled. Even Violet’s calm expression tightened a little.

“What did he say?” Ivy asked softly.

Shuan looked around the table, meeting each of their eyes one by one.

“He told me that they weren’t acting solely on the aspirations of the demonic sects. We thought that the Kalingoot had the three major demonic sects behind its creation. We also thought that there are some fringe elements from the Big Five Sects involved in its midst as well.

“While that might not be wrong, Kalingoot seems to be much more than that. Even its allies don’t seem to know who the real people pulling the strings from behind are.

“That bald man… he said someone higher was pulling their string. Someone with enough power to control multiple groups at once. Probably a small team of powerful cultivators.”

Ruan leaned forward. “Did he say who?”

“No,” Shuan said. His jaw clenched. “But he said that there are….”

Shuan took a brief pause and looked at everyone before continuing.

“That there are three Core Formation Lords who are the reason behind Kalongoot’s creation.”

A cold silence spread through the room.

Zara’s earlier smile faded. Violet’s fingers tightened around the arm of her chair. Ivy lowered her eyes, her mind already racing through possibilities.

It was clear from their faces that they understood what this meant.

The Core Formation Realm!

It was the ultimate trump card of the Big Five Sects as well as the Major Demonic Sects. It was simply impossible for the Emerald Cove to resist the might of a Core Formation Lord with its current capabilities.

The air in the room grew heavy as lead, and no one spoke for a long time. Only the quiet hum of the lamps filled the space, as if the whole grand hall was holding its breath.

Ruan slowly leaned back in his chair, his face grim. When he finally spoke, his voice held no room for false hope.

“If the news is true,” he said, “we might have to abandon Emerald Cove and take shelter in the Duya Forest, just like Master Aksai told us to. He had created this way out while keeping the possibility of Core Formation Lords Big Five Sects joining hands with Kalingoot in his mind. But it can be used in this situation as well.

Our planning and preparations are complete, and today proved they work well. But let’s be honest. No matter what we do, we can’t survive a single Core Formation Lord’s casual swing, let alone face all three together.”

His fingers tightened on the table’s edge.

“Master Aksai’s arranged evacuation route has safe places for us deep inside the Duya Forest. We… we should retreat and wait for Master Aksai to return from his close-door cultivation.”

The weight of his words settled on everyone. One by one, they nodded—Violet, Zara, Ivy… even Shuan, who looked torn but accepted the truth.

Ruan’s reasoning was solid. Their enemy was too strong. Staying meant risking everyone’s lives.

But then, Jasmine leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. She didn’t nod. She didn’t show fear. Instead, she smirked.

“No,” she said simply.

All eyes turned to her.

Zara frowned. “No? What do you mean no?”

Jasmine tapped her fingers on the table before speaking further.

“I… I think I know Master Aksai better than all of you,” she said. “I was with him back when he was still just a rental Spirit Farmer. And I know this—our enemy isn’t the only one who can hide their tails.”

The others stared at her, confused.

She went on, her smirk growing as a memory of her recent conversation flashed across her mind.

“Let’s not take the escape route first. Let’s defend the island with everything we have. Use the full might of the protective array formation. Hold Emerald Cove until Master Aksai comes out of his closed-door cultivation.”

Shuan raised his eyebrows high. “This… Jasmine, do you know something about Master’s cultivation that we don’t?”

Jasmine met his gaze and nodded slowly.

“Let’s just say the Island Lord entered closed-door cultivation this time with a very specific goal in mind.”

She leaned forward, lowering her voice though her smile didn’t fade.

“If he succeeds… the ones who’ll be running won’t be us.”

She paused for a moment, letting the weight of her words sink in.

“It’ll be the whole of Kalingoot.”

***

A few hours later.

Late evening.

From high above the clouds, Emerald Cove no longer looked like a peaceful island. It looked like something out of a nightmare.

The entire island was wrapped under a massive dome made of thick, twisting vines. From the sky, the shape of the dome made it seem as if a giant Devil’s Den had swallowed the land whole.

The vines were not normal vines either—they pulsed faintly with life, as if they were breathing. They rose from the ground and hooked into one another, forming a giant net that covered everything.

At the very center of the island stood the Demon Tree.

It towered above every other structure. Its bark was a deep blackish-brown, and faint green lines ran through it like glowing veins. The branches stretched out like the arms of a massive creature, reaching toward the dome and connecting with the outer vines to keep the shield stable.

This Demon Tree was the heart of the entire formation, the Central Eye that controlled the flow of spirit essence needed to sustain the formation. Every pulse of the tree sent a ripple across the vine dome, strengthening it layer by layer.

But the vines alone were not what made the formation look so strange.

Between the spaces of the vines, a gray fog drifted slowly like living smoke. It didn’t stay still. It curled, stretched, and faded, only to form again in another spot. The fog filled every gap in the dome, making it impossible to see inside or outside clearly. It was like the island had been wrapped in a layer of moving shadows.

This fog was cold, dense, and unsettling. Any flying beast or human that came too close would feel their senses falter, as if the world itself was tilting.

From a distance, the whole thing looked eerie and ominous—like a giant beast sleeping on the sea, wrapped in vines and smog.

This was Emerald Cove’s full defensive might.

Source: .com, updated by novlove.com