Chapter 69: Willowbank Front

The True Spirit Continent was enormous.

Damian had understood that intellectually from the maps and conversations he had encountered since arriving in Shengyuan, but understanding that a continent was large and spending hours flying across one tiny corner of it were entirely different things.

As the Evergreen Sect’s Spirit Boat cut through the clouds toward the frontlines, Damian finally had enough uninterrupted time to organize the geography in his head.

The True Spirit Continent was broadly divided into five great regions.

At the far north lay the Northern Frostlands, a vast frozen territory of glacial mountain ranges, snowbound plains and ancient ice fields where winter never truly ended. Spiritual veins there overwhelmingly favored cold, Water and Ice-aligned cultivation, while entire mortal kingdoms could exist for generations without ever seeing soil that remained unfrozen throughout the year.

The Western Meadows were almost the opposite.

Rolling grasslands stretched across immense distances, broken by forests, rivers and fertile basins. It was famous for agriculture, Spirit Beast herding and enormous migrating beast populations that crossed territories large enough to swallow entire kingdoms.

To the east lay the Eastern Marsh, an endless network of wetlands, poisonous swamps, great rivers and mist-covered lakes. Waterways mattered more than roads there, and its abundant spiritual ecosystem produced everything from rare aquatic herbs to Demon Beasts that could apparently swallow boats whole.

Then there was the Southern Desolate, where Damian currently lived.

The name made it sound like one enormous desert, but that was misleading.

The Southern Desolate contained mountains, forests, rivers, valleys and even fertile plains. What made it "desolate" was the relatively sparse distribution of high-grade Spiritual Veins compared to the richer portions of the continent. Vast stretches between major cultivation territories were dangerous wilderness controlled more by Demon Beasts and scattered clans than any single human authority.

Finally, at the heart of everything stood the Central Paradise.

The wealthiest land, with the densest Spiritual Energy and the greatest concentration of ancient inheritances, powerful bloodlines, enormous cities and high-ranking cultivators.

It was also home to the True Spirit Sect.

The Dao Integration-tier colossus did not directly manage every village and mountain across the True Spirit Continent, because doing so would have been absurd. Instead, authority descended through layers.

The great regions were dominated by Divine Transformation-tier powers recognized beneath the True Spirit Sect.

Beneath those regional hegemons existed Nascent Soul sects controlling major territories.

Those territories were divided again into sectors administered by Golden Core powers, minor sects, cultivation families and affiliated organizations.

It was essentially feudalism with flying swords.

Damian found the structure surprisingly easy to understand once he stopped thinking about immortal cultivators and started thinking about governments, franchises and subsidiaries.

The Azure Water Sector belonged to that lower layer.

Its superior power was the Golden Core-tier Five Elements Sect, which controlled a large region of the Southern Desolate through numerous subordinate sects and affiliated territories.

The Water Vein of the Five Elements Sect had received formal authority over this particular sector first and dispatched the ancestors of the Azure Water Sect to develop this frontier.

This water element sub-sect itself lay in the northeast, surrounded by several great lakes and waterways from which the sect drew both its name and much of its heritage.

The Evergreen Sect came later, its ancestors also receiving the right to migrate here, dispatched by the Wood Vein of the Five Elements Sect.

They had migrated into the western portion of the Azure Water Sector generations ago and established themselves around Evergreen Immortal City and the rich forests and mountain valleys surrounding it.

Despite the present rivalry and occasional friction between the two sects, their relationship ran deeper than mere convenience.

Both ultimately originated from the Five Elements Sect.

The Azure Water Sect inherited a predominantly Water-aligned branch of its traditions, while the Evergreen Sect developed from a broader Five Elements lineage with a strong Wood influence.

In that sense, they were distant branches growing from the same old tree.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect was something entirely different.

It had not been assigned territory, nor had anyone above formally recognized its right to establish a sect within the Azure Water Sector.

It had simply appeared in the south several decades ago, initially as a collection of rogue demonic cultivators occupying isolated valleys and burial grounds.

Then it grew fast, far too fast.

By the time the Azure Water Sect and Evergreen Sect began taking the threat seriously, the Nightmare Corpse Sect already possessed a Foundation Establishment Ancestor, several Qi Condensation Elders and enough lower-ranked disciples to control a meaningful territory.

That was one reason the Nightmare Corpse Sect had become increasingly aggressive.

Time was not necessarily on its side.

Sooner or later, an envoy from the Five Elements Sect or even a higher authority would descend to inspect the region.

An unsanctioned demonic sect expanding through murder, corpse refinement and territorial seizure would then have a very uncomfortable conversation with people several cultivation realms above them.

Unless, of course, the Nightmare Corpse Sect became sufficiently entrenched before that happened.

As such, they sought to capture more territory, grow more disciples, acquire more resources, and destroy or absorb the recognized powers already controlling the sector.

They needed to create enough facts on the ground that removing them became more troublesome than acknowledging them.

Damian leaned against the railing of the Spirit Boat.

"So they’re basically speedrunning legitimacy."

Jian Rui blinked. "Lord Damian?"

"Nothing."

The broad political map was only half the matter.

The actual Azure Water Sector had geography of its own.

The northeast was dominated by the Azure Mirror Lakes, an enormous chain of interconnected lakes and river systems surrounding the Azure Water Sect’s core territory.

To the west rose the Evergreen Ridge, whose forested mountains protected Evergreen Immortal City and contained many of the Evergreen Sect’s medicinal gardens, mines and satellite settlements.

Between them lay the Greenflow Basin, fertile lowlands crossed by several tributaries that made the center of the sector economically important despite possessing fewer major Spiritual Veins.

The south changed dramatically.

The land became rougher around the Gravewind Hills, a series of broken ridges, old battlefields and naturally yin-heavy valleys where the Nightmare Corpse Sect had first established itself.

Farther southeast stretched the Blackreed Wetlands, where Azure Water Sect forces had spent years preventing demonic cultivators from using the swamp channels to bypass conventional defensive lines.

The main battlefield currently existed along the Three Rivers Line, where three waterways descending from the Greenflow Basin converged before entering Nightmare Corpse Sect territory.

That front mattered because whoever controlled those crossings controlled the most convenient north-south routes through the center of the sector.

Most of the strongest cultivators were concentrated there, including Late Qi Condensation Elders, sect elites, large formations and Spirit Boats.

Even Foundation Establishment cultivators occasionally appeared when one side attempted something sufficiently important.

Several secondary fronts existed elsewhere.

The eastern battlefield protected the trade roads and water routes connecting the Azure Water Sect to its subordinate families.

The western front defended the passes leading toward Evergreen Ridge.

Smaller clashes erupted around Spirit Stone mines, medicinal valleys, villages, river crossings and logistics roads whose importance would seem laughably minor on a continental map but mattered greatly to the people actually living there.

Damian examined the map mounted near the Spirit Boat’s control formation, then pointed.

"We’re going there."

Jian Rui followed his finger, and his expression became strange.

Bo Wen leaned closer, then looked at Damian.

"Lord Damian... the Willowbank Front?"

"Yes."

The four youngsters exchanged glances.

The Willowbank Front was barely a warfront at all compared to the Three Rivers Line.

It protected a minor crossing along one of the western tributaries feeding into the Greenflow Basin, along with several nearby villages and a low-grade medicinal valley.

Both sides mostly stationed Body Tempering disciples there, while the commanding cultivators were only early Qi Condensation.

Lin Meiyu hesitated. "We thought Lord Damian intended to enter one of the major battlefields."

Damian looked at her. "Why?"

The question seemed to confuse all four of them.

Shen Lian answered cautiously. "Because... Lord Damian is powerful."

Damian nodded seriously. "Correct."

Bo Wen’s face twitched. "And because the enemies on the major fronts are stronger."

"Also correct!"

Damian waited.

They waited.

Then he spread his hands.

"So why would I go there?"

Four blank expressions met him.

Damian sighed.

These cultivation people had been poisoned by genre convention.

"Why would I deliberately fly toward peak Qi Condensation cultivators when there is an entire battlefield full of people around my own supposed level or below?"

Jian Rui opened his mouth, then closed it.

Damian continued.

"I’m not some hot-blooded warrior looking for the strongest opponent available because fighting somebody weaker offends my warrior pride. If the goal is to kill enemies, test equipment and come back alive, then choosing the weakest battlefield is called common sense."

The four youngsters slowly relaxed.

That...

Actually sounded excellent!

Much better than their previous assumption that Lord Damian intended to fly directly into the largest war zone, point at the strongest Nightmare Corpse Sect Elder available and demand single combat.

Damian smiled. "And it’s not like I’m bullying them that badly. I’m only early Qi Condensation."

Technically true.

Naturally, this statement completely ignored <Perfect Combat Instinct>, <Battle God>, <Demonic Plundering Dao Body>, <Myriad Beast Slayer>, <All Element Heavenly Body>, his Mage spells, enchanted equipment, Spell Scrolls, potions, <Truesight>, <Divine Sense> and the pile of other nonsense attached to his existence.

But who cared about such minor details?

Are you a nerd?

Damian was sure the Nightmare Corpse Sect would understand his ’difficulties’ in being so ’weak’ and ’helpless’ that he would ’farm’ their Body Tempering disciples.

Probably.

......

The closer they came to the Willowbank Front, the uglier the landscape became.

Signs of conflict appeared gradually, from burned fields and abandoned farmhouses to broken carts, crude defensive trenches, and trees scarred by blades and blackened by strange energies.

Eventually, Jian Rui pointed toward a cluster of tents beside a low hill.

"There!"

Damian expected a military camp, but what he saw looked more like several dozen tents had been thrown onto a field during an emergency and everyone agreed to call the resulting mess a defensive position.

Wooden barricades surrounded part of the camp, several watch platforms leaned at uncomfortable angles, and wounded disciples moved between tents while exhausted figures sat beneath trees, wrapped in bandages or staring blankly toward the south.

The atmosphere was bleak.

No heroic banners snapped dramatically in the wind, and nobody laughed while drinking wine and boasting about how many demonic cultivators they would kill tomorrow.

These were mostly Body Tempering disciples, young cultivators who had discovered that war was considerably less romantic once blades entered flesh.

At this level, the Nightmare Corpse Sect had fewer supernatural advantages than its stronger members.

Body Tempering disciples lacked Refined Qi, which meant they could not actively spread great clouds of Corpse Qi through Daoist Arts.

They also lacked Spirit Sense, preventing most from controlling corpse puppets remotely and turning every battle into a convenient two-against-one engagement.

Unfortunately, they still possessed one extremely unpleasant advantage.

Corpse Qi could be attached to weapons.

Blades, needles and other instruments could be deliberately saturated with the foul energy before battle, so one cut was enough to doom any person to a painful death.

For a Qi Condensation cultivator, infection was dangerous but manageable.

They could mobilize Refined Qi through their meridians and actively resist the invading Corpse Qi, slowing or even expelling smaller quantities before serious damage occurred.

Body Tempering cultivators possessed no such defense.

Once Corpse Qi entered through a wound, it began spreading through flesh and blood while the victim could do little beyond rely upon pills, talismans or outside assistance.

If the infection became serious, the battle was effectively over.

The disciple either died there...

Or survived long enough to be transported back to the sect during one of the regular casualty evacuations.

That explained the current state of the camp... and the terrible smell.

Damian’s expression changed as the Spirit Boat descended.

A dark haze hung over the Willowbank Front, perhaps not as concentrated as the cloud inside the Evergreen Sect infirmary in terms of individual density, but enormously greater in total volume.

This miasma had accumulated from dozens upon dozens of wounded disciples.

Some slept inside tents while Corpse Qi leaked slowly from infected wounds, while others sat outside beneath suppression talismans.

A few looked barely conscious.

The infirmary back at the sect suddenly seemed like the juvenile version of this terrible scene.

News had clearly not reached this place yet, as nobody here possessed Damian’s medicines nor did anyone even appear to know Basic Holy Water existed.

The Spirit Boat attracted attention as it descended.

Disciples looked upward, and several guards immediately straightened when they recognized the Evergreen Sect markings.

Then Damian stepped toward the edge of the vessel and frowned.

The Corpse Qi hanging above the camp irritated him.

More importantly, his recent experience had already taught him exactly how badly it reacted to one particular spell.

He raised his hand toward the sky.

"Arde!"

Flame roared upward.

The spell erupted at an angle above the camp rather than toward the people below, spreading into the hanging miasma like an enormous burning fan.

For one moment, the dark cloud resisted before catching fire, sending shrieks exploding across the battlefield camp.

Every injured disciple looked upward to see the ever-present black mist twisting violently as distorted faces briefly emerged inside it, only to be engulfed by orange flame.

The fire raced through the Corpse Qi with horrifying enthusiasm, spreading from one section to another and then another.

Within seconds, the great haze that had sat above Willowbank Front for days became a ceiling of fire.

The twisted spiritual remnants hidden within screamed as they burned, while the flames followed those that attempted to flee outward and others compressed together as the heat intensified.

Damian watched silently until the final black strand disappeared, and then pure, bright afternoon sunlight poured down.

For several seconds, nobody in the camp moved.

A wounded disciple slowly lifted his face toward the sky, another removed the cloth covering his mouth, and several exhausted cultivators simply stared at the unfamiliar blue above them.

The oppressive coldness produced by the accumulated Corpse Qi vanished so abruptly that the entire camp seemed to breathe for the first time in weeks.

Then heads turned toward the descending Spirit Boat and the young man standing at its front as whispers spread.

"Who is that?"

"An Elder?"

"That flame burned Corpse Qi..."

"Did reinforcements arrive?"

The four youngsters stood behind Damian as the Spirit Boat touched the earth.

Jian Rui glanced across the stunned camp, then toward Damian.

Only an hour earlier, Lord Damian had casually explained that they were coming to the smallest battlefield because he had no interest in fighting strong enemies unnecessarily.

Now he had arrived and erased the miasma tormenting the entire camp with one spell.

Bo Wen swallowed.

Perhaps ’sniping weaklings’ meant something rather different when Lord Damian Baines was the one doing it.

Across Willowbank Front, disciples began rising.

Whatever this newcomer truly was, everyone understood one thing.

A powerhouse had arrived!