The large, fat man, noticing Zhou Yao's evident annoyance with Ye Qin, looked at her curiously, then glanced at Ye Qin. He strongly suspected something had transpired between the two before he arrived.

"It's none of your business, let's go!"

Zhou Yao’s lovely face flushed with anger as she abruptly flew away on her sword.

The large, fat man scratched his head, feeling somewhat inexplicably bothered, then suddenly shot Ye Qin a fierce glare, as if issuing a warning. What exactly he was warning about, even the fat man himself wasn't entirely sure.

Then, the large, fat man quickly pursued Zhou Yao.

Liao Xiaozhi regarded Ye Qin and Zhou Yao with a complicated look, then followed with the cultivators from Guangyu Palace.

Ye Qin, however, remained as if nothing had happened, his expression calm, flying leisurely on his sword with a wave of his sleeve.

Zhou Yao’s decision to fight the burly giant was her own affair, unrelated to others.

He had merely used the situation slightly. He did indeed harbor a thought of letting Zhou Yao and the burly giant both suffer losses; forcing Zhou Yao to deploy the Grand Five Elements Sword Array at full power to heavily wound the giant, while simultaneously using the giant’s azure halberd to strike and break her Sword Array, thus weakening a portion of her strength, lest she use the Grand Five Elements Sword Array against him later to contend for spiritual treasures.

He only needed to expend a little effort to achieve these two objectives, so he was naturally happy to proceed.

Unfortunately, the large, fat man arrived too early with his men, startling the burly giant into fleeing into the sea, leaving both goals just shy of completion.

Ye Qin didn't take this failure too much to heart.

If it had succeeded, it would have been excellent; if not, it caused him no hindrance. Zhou Yao already looked upon him unfavorably; now, that feeling had simply become "more" intense.

Zhou Yao led the cultivators of Purple Sword Palace away in a huff. After flying a short distance and glancing around, she suddenly realized they were utterly lost amidst this vast expanse of the Lanqian Archipelago. While chasing down the retreating Earth Clan strongmen earlier, she hadn't paid attention to direction and, in her anger, had chased them far, having no idea where they currently were.

"Where is this place?"

She suddenly registered the extremely low-level mistake she had made, and her face stiffened, the pink tips of her ears growing hot. This was an error a Golden Core cultivator should never commit... All of it was due to Ye Qin's earlier actions that had muddled her thoughts in anger.

Previously, she had only been a bit overly eager, slightly ahead of the other Immortal Palaces. But now, the cultivators of Purple Sword Palace, Treasure Gathering Palace, and Guangyu Palace had lost contact with the other seventeen Immortal Palaces of the Heavenly Dao Alliance, truly becoming isolated forces.

"This... Sister Yao, I don't know either. As long as we are within the Blue Mist Island Cluster, that's fine. This cluster is only a few thousand miles across; we can fly around everywhere and surely find our way."

The large, fat man assumed Zhou Yao was asking him for directions. He immediately looked around, his eyes meeting only a vast expanse of blue mist. He scratched his head, speaking somewhat vaguely, then offered a suggestion he thought was quite good.

"Brother Ye, did you happen to notice what location this is?"

Liao Xiaozhi showed a flicker of anxiety. She suddenly thought of Ye Qin, who had remained so calm, and turned to ask him.

"We should be two or three hundred miles deep into the Blue Mist Archipelago. As for the exact location, I can't pinpoint it either. Although this island cluster spans only a few thousand miles, the arrangement of the islands seems to form a natural formation, making it difficult to discern direction within."

Ye Qin shook his head. When pursuing the fleeing Earth Clan strongmen, he had paid some attention to the terrain, but the blue mist here was too thick; after ten miles, direction became impossible to distinguish, so he had no idea where they were.

"Who is skilled in formations? Look and see what kind of formation this entire island cluster constitutes?"

Ye Qin asked the assembled cultivators. The Foundation Establishment cultivators from the three palaces glanced at each other, looking baffled; no one had specifically studied formations.

"I refuse to believe we can't find cultivators from the other Immortal Palaces!"

Zhou Yao simply dismissed further deliberation. She led the sixty-odd cultivators from the three major Immortal Palaces, flying through the air on their artifacts, speeding within the Blue Mist Archipelago. Now they could only resort to the crude method the fat man suggested: pick a direction and fly until they reached the end. They would either run into cultivators from other Immortal Palaces or break out of the Blue Mist Archipelago entirely.

However, after flying for nearly half a day, their group of cultivators had seen no trace of anyone, nor managed to leave the Blue Mist Archipelago, leading to discouragement.

Ye Qin sensed something was amiss; the water currents and the blue mist seemed to be flowing and drifting along a specific curved path. They flew straight ahead on their swords, feeling as if they were moving in a direct line, but in reality, they were influenced by the drifting mist, traveling along an arc, causing the group of cultivators to circle within the island cluster.

Ye Qin considered this, then sent a secret telepathic message to Liao Xiaozhi.

Liao Xiaozhi blinked at him in surprise, then flew to Zhou Yao's side and whispered a few words.

Zhou Yao thought carefully, then guided the cultivators to fly along a curve.

"Boom!"

After a moment, a faint sound of magical artifacts clashing finally drifted from ahead. Clearly, some cultivators were fighting the Earth Clan.

The cultivators were instantly overjoyed and hastened their speed toward the sound. They saw a small group of cultivators from one of the Heavenly Dao Alliance Immortal Palaces in the distance, fiercely battling a group of two to three hundred Sea Plunderer tribal strongmen on the sea. Hundreds of iron bird spirit spears shot across the sky, and the Sea Cavalry strongmen were pushing the Immortal Palace cultivators back so severely they barely had the strength to retaliate.

"Kill!"

Zhou Yao, still simmering with frustration from having previously fled from a group of Sea Cavalry strongmen, let out a sharp, cold cry. She immediately released her flying sword and led the cultivators to charge forward in a swarm. No formation was needed; their numbers were enough to suppress the Sea Cavalry strongmen.

Seeing a large group of cultivators rushing toward them from afar, the Sea Cavalry strongmen realized the situation was unfavorable and instantly dove into the sea to flee wildly. Apart from a few strongmen who couldn't escape in time, the Sea Cavalry contingent vanished.

"Thank you, Junior Sister Zhou, for your timely assistance. Ninghua Palace will remember this kindness!"

A young, handsome Golden Core cultivator flew over, delighted, and politely thanked Zhou Zhou Yao. In his heart, however, he felt bitter; ambushed by the Sea Cavalry, nearly half of Ninghua Palace’s Foundation Establishment cultivators had perished, and the remaining dozen or so were still shaken. This was a major disadvantage for the battles ahead.

"Senior Brother Pan, you are too kind. We are all members of the Heavenly Dao Alliance; helping each other is what we should do. Unlike some people, who deliberately make things difficult for others."

Zhou Yao gave a faint smile, then, without sparing a glance, moved past Ye Qin with light, graceful movements, leaving behind a faint, refreshing fragrance. She called to Liao Xiaozhi and the large, fat man, and they continued flying on their swords.

Ye Qin touched his nose with a hint of a wry smile; Zhou Yao truly never missed an opportunity to mock him.

Pan Lin was momentarily stunned by Zhou Yao's sudden smile before coming to his senses, hurrying to catch up.

The contingent of nearly a hundred cultivators proceeded onward in grand fashion.

Along the way, surprisingly, they managed to reunite with five or six more Immortal Palace cultivators from the Heavenly Dao Alliance, forming a rather strong group that flew together through the Blue Mist Islands.

After an unknown period, a massive, yellowish-brown island finally appeared before the assembled cultivators.

Ye Qin gazed at this island with a sense of awe. The island held a mountain peak, and halfway up the mountain, a colossal rock city spanning dozens of miles had been built, adhering to the mountain’s contours, exuding an extremely solid and imposing aura. Surrounding the rock city, towering stone pagodas jutted abruptly toward the sky, densely arrayed to guard the sky above the earth-built city. And atop the mountain peak, a vast expanse of blue mist, covering several miles, rose up and spread across the sea and sky for thousands of miles.

He then realized that all the strange blue mist scattered throughout the entire Blue Mist Archipelago was actually emanating from this mountain pass. It was somewhat unbelievable.

Of course, the cultivators were more focused on the Earth Clan’s rock city. After all, they had come to conquer the Earth Clan; as for why this mountain pass emitted the strange blue mist, that was another matter entirely.

"This is a city built by the Earth Clan!?"

"It seems the Earth Clan's cities are no less impressive than ours in the cultivation world! It’s just that there are too many stone pagodas; they look a bit eerie, like a Thorn Demon Beast fully geared for defense."

"This must be the old lair of the Jing Clan, part of the Sea Plunderer Tribe. This Jing Clan seems quite substantial."

The cultivators murmured in astonishment. The vast majority of them had never seen such a magnificent Earth Clan city. Judging by the scale of this earthen city, it must have taken many years to build. How much effort was expended to construct it was hard to say—Earth Clan strongmen build cities very quickly. Building a massive stone city in a year was possible.

Ye Qin coldly observed the enormous Earth Clan city, estimating how many Earth Clan members might reside there. Given the city's size, there could easily be over a hundred thousand. The number of high-tier strongmen inside was likely not small.

This time, Zhou Yao did not rashly charge forward. Instead, she chose to observe from several miles away. Based solely on the scale of this earthen city, it was clear their force of five or six Immortal Palaces could not take it easily. It would be best to wait until the cultivators from all twenty Immortal Palaces of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the twenty Immortal Palaces of the Heavenly Demon Alliance had gathered, and then attack the city together for greater safety.

After waiting for about half a day, Yan Hao from the Heavenly Demon Alliance, Yu Weifeng from the Heavenly Dao Alliance, and cultivators from other Immortal Palaces gradually passed through the blue mist and arrived at this island. The Golden Core cultivators from the Immortal Palaces gathered together, beginning to strategize how to conquer the earthen city.

On the city walls and stone pagodas stood rows of strongmen clad in black armor. Most of them had icy expressions, holding bone war bows crafted from demon beast skeletons, with heavy quiver bags on their backs, containing at least dozens of bone arrows emitting a chilling aura.

At the highest point of the earthen city wall stood a single, tall, young Earth Clan strongman. He carried a massive demon (Jiao/Flood Dragon) bone bow that shimmered with silver-white light; a sharp glint flashed in the sunlight. Almost all the bone-bow strongmen in the earthen city seemed to revolve around him as their core.

Inside the earthen city, at some high platform, a small group of Earth Clan leaders stood, almost all of them high-tier Earth Clan strongmen, observing the gathering cultivators in the distance. The burly giant Jing Bo, who wielded the azure halberd, was among them, his face grim; he still hadn't managed to vent the shame from his earlier defeat.

This place had barely known peace for a few years before another fierce battle loomed. "Great Shaman, there are so many Immortals here this time. Could it be that the Immortals have discovered our activities here and specifically come to stop us?"

A young woman among them, slender and graceful, with a face carrying a hint of sanctity, knitted her brows as she gazed at the clusters of Immortals in the distant sky, a worried expression on her face.

"Saintess, I don't think so. These are all only Golden Core Immortals. They probably just came to seize this island cluster and establish a foothold; they haven't discovered the secret here. If they truly had discovered our secret, the Nascent Soul Immortals would likely have come themselves."

Standing to the left of this young woman was an aged elder in blue robes, holding a black wooden staff. His demeanor was utterly cold, as if viewing the distant Immortals as already dead.

"For the sake of safety, we must annihilate them all, leave no one alive!"

The blue-robed elder narrowed his eyes and uttered a chilling sentence that caused the hearts of several high-tier leaders nearby to skip a beat.

"Great Shaman, killing so many Immortals might provoke a frenzied retaliation from the Immortals. Our Earth Clan cannot withstand their retribution."

The young woman was visibly startled.

"It must be done. We absolutely cannot allow the Immortals to discover the secret of this place. Everything hinges on cultivating our clan's first Holy Warrior! If we can just hold on for another year, once successful, we can withdraw from this location. Within this year, no news can leak out. They must all perish!"

The blue-robed elder's tone was unyieldingly firm, and the black wooden staff in his hand pointed toward the group of Immortals in the distance.

The young woman fell silent. The expressions of the high-tier leaders, however, flushed, and they gripped their weapons, filled with excitement and delight.

The expeditionary force of cultivators from the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Alliance had no idea that inside this stone city, Earth Clan strongmen were arrogantly declaring their intent to wipe them all out. The cultivators, observing the earthen city and the bone archers on its walls, showed confusion.

"Why are there so many bone bow wielders on this earthen city wall? These do not look like the strongmen of the Sea Plunderer Tribe at all," Ye Qin muttered in confusion.

"Brother Ye, if my guess is right, they should be strongmen of the Bone Bow Tribe," Liao Xiaozhi replied with a smile.

"The Bone Bow Tribe, one of the Ten Great Tribes of the Earth Clan you mentioned? But isn't this the territory of the Sea Plunderer Tribe's islands? The two Earth Clan groups rarely interact; why would Bone Bow Tribe strongmen appear here?" Ye Qin was slightly startled. He had heard Bai Xiuer mention the affairs of the Ten Great Earth Clan Tribes in passing once, paying attention only to the Sea Plunderers, who were most ferocious at sea, but neglecting the rather mysterious Bone Bow Tribe. He hadn't expected to encounter the Bone Bow Tribe here.

"That I am not clear on. Regardless of whether the city belongs to the Sea Plunderers or the Bone Bow Tribe, we should still be able to take it," Liao Xiaozhi knew little more.

While Ye Qin and Liao Xiaozhi were casually chatting, Yan Hao and Yu Weifeng assembled the forty Golden Core captains and deputy captains in one place. After discussing the deployment, they made the decision to forcibly attack the city.