Amidst the throng of cultivators, Ye Qin moved with a flash, his hand sweeping out to unleash five flying swords that sliced through the air with a swish, felling the nearest Rank Eight Demonic Eagle. The five swords immediately retracted.

He glanced around at the sky and the sea, however, and the sight of the densely packed tide of beasts surging forward, wave after wave, sent a chill down his spine. The strength of the Demon Cultivators and the beast tide was at least several times greater than their own; to fight their way through and break the encirclement seemed an almost impossible feat.

A single misstep, and he might well perish here.

Yet, the more perilous the situation became, the calmer his heart grew. When his spiritual power was full, he charged at the very front, annihilating demonic beasts with all his might. Once one or two tenths of his spiritual power was depleted, he would swiftly retreat into the ranks of the cultivators, draining spiritual wine to restore his energy.

Only by maintaining ample spiritual power could they survive this great battle.

Under the leadership of the Nascent Soul cultivators, the massive host of cultivators gradually broke westward.

The Nascent Soul cultivators took the lead, engaging in fierce combat with the Demon Cultivators attempting to block their breakout, striving with all their strength to tear open the siege laid by the Demon Cultivators and the beast tide.

There were simply too many enemy cultivators attacking—nearly a hundred in total, two to three times the number of their own Nascent Soul cultivators—encircling them from all four directions. Coupled with the colossal beast tide, their collective strength was something the cultivators could absolutely not withstand.

If they failed to blast open the western blockade in the shortest possible time, it was not out of the realm of possibility that the Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators of the Purple Sword Palace and the Allied Palace would be utterly annihilated, slain right here.

Palace Master Zhou and several other Palace Masters brought out the warships of their respective Immortal Palaces.

Warships were battle-grade artifacts, consuming an enormous amount of spirit stones with every activation, and thus rarely deployed. At least, Ye Qin had never witnessed a warship near Stone City before this moment.

However, even with the warships activated, the Golden Core cultivators could not hide inside to avoid battle.

After all, while warships were powerful, they were suited only for long-range bombardment, not for close combat. Once the demonic cultivators and beasts swarmed close to the hull, the warships’ inherent clumsiness and lack of maneuverability meant there were too many blind spots where the heavy cannons could not fire, rendering their tremendous offensive power completely ineffective. They would only be torn apart by the enemy forces, their protective barriers shattered, leading to destruction and death.

Therefore, apart from the few cultivators manning the warships, the rest of the Nascent Soul cultivators had to guard the flanks of the vessels, doing everything possible to prevent the Demon Cultivators from closing the distance and enduring the attacks from both the enemy cultivators and the beast tide against the ships. Only cultivators who sustained grave injuries would be allowed temporary refuge inside the warships.

The warships possessed teleportation arrays, but their utility at this moment was minimal; they could only facilitate the escape of a very small number of people. To expect hundreds of cultivators to escape via the arrays was simply impossible. While those who teleported away would survive, the reduced number of remaining fighters would only hasten their demise under the fierce onslaught of the demonic cultivators and the beast tide.

As for the hundreds of Golden Core cultivators, they clung tightly behind the warships, focusing their efforts on breaking through.

The Purple Sword Palace utilized one large warship as its main force, flanked by two medium-sized warships from other Immortal Palaces. The heavy cannons roared, projecting dozens of massive beams of light toward the western beast tide.

Wherever the light pillars passed, hundreds of demonic beasts along the line of fire were blasted into ashes, leaving not even residue behind.

Yet, virtually no Demon Cultivators were killed. They cleverly hid within the vast sea of beasts, and as soon as a warship was about to fire, they would immediately retreat, using the beast tide as cover to evade the weaponry.

At the very front, the Nascent Soul cultivators relied on the warships to engage in bloody close-quarters combat with the Demon Cultivators.

The sheer might emanating from the front lines was so overwhelming that the Golden Core cultivators dared not follow too closely behind the Nascent Soul experts, lest they be caught in the crossfire.

With the Nascent Soul cultivators fully occupied, the Golden Core cohort had to form their own grand array, simultaneously fleeing westward behind the warships and desperately striking out at the beast tide assailing them from all sides.

Fortunately, the Demon Cultivators were wholly focused on hunting down and surrounding the three main warships and the Nascent Soul cultivators, leaving them temporarily unconcerned with these Golden Core cultivators. The Demon Cultivators held little interest in the Golden Core rank. Moreover, once the Nascent Soul experts were eliminated, these Golden Core cultivators stood no chance of escape.

For the moment, the Golden Core cultivators were not in immediate mortal peril, but the surrounding beast tide relentlessly entangled them, preventing any rapid flight.

Under the frantic blockade of nearly a hundred Demon Cultivators from all directions and the impact of tens of thousands of demonic beasts, the sky and the sea flashed with the brilliant light of magic artifacts, descending into chaos.

“Brother Ye, the situation is dire! Do you have any strategy to break out of this beast tide quickly?”

Zhou Yi, the Young Palace Master of the Purple Sword Palace, stood a hundred feet from Ye Qin, his expression visibly anxious. He had finally cultivated to the Ninth Layer of the Golden Core realm and was on the verge of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage; he had no desire to die here. He and Ye Qin were the two strongest among the hundreds of Golden Core cultivators present, and if a breakthrough was to be achieved, he could only rely on joining forces with Ye Qin.

“Brother Zhou, in a battle like this, what method can there be…”

Ye Qin managed a wry smile.

He rapidly scanned the surrounding beast tide.

Ahead, dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators were locked in a death struggle with several dozen Demon Cultivators to the west.

The powerful forces of Demon Cultivators and beasts from the east, north, and south had not yet arrived to complete the encirclement. Once they did, the Demon Cultivators would possess an absolute numerical advantage, leaving no room for luck.

The beast tide to the west numbered only a few thousand heads, and there remained a weak point through which they could rush.

Ye Qin’s heart tensed.

This was the best and last opportunity to escape. He quickly said, “Brother Zhou, organize all the Golden Core cultivators and consolidate the great array.”

“Understood!”

Zhou Yi had no idea what Ye Qin intended to do, but he trusted Ye Qin’s judgment and immediately directed the Golden Core cultivators to secure their defenses.

Ye Qin swiftly retreated to the center of the great array formed by the hundreds of Golden Core cultivators. With a clap of his hand onto his storage pouch, a small, winged warship materialized out of thin air.

The surrounding Golden Core cultivators, who were engaged in combat with the beast tide, stared blankly when they saw this small warship equipped with an Earth-Shattering Cannon.

“A warship… My heavens, it’s a small warship!”

“How could Elder Ye possess a warship?!”

It wasn't just the ordinary Golden Core cultivators; even Zhou Yi was momentarily stunned, unable to comprehend.

Ye Qin ignored the astonishment of the other cultivators, shot into the winged warship, and commanded all the puppets controlling the vessel to activate its formations.

The sails and defensive shields all began to shimmer with light.

Soon, the ten Earth-Shattering Cannons glowed increasingly brightly.

“Boom, boom, boom—!”

A wave of nearly a hundred beasts to the side was pulverized, opening a small gap.

The winged warship rushed to the forefront, firing again, spending spirit stones lavishly to tear a passage through the beast tide.

The hundreds of Golden Core cultivators were overjoyed. They seized the opportunity for survival, charging forward and actually managing to breach the surrounding beast tide, scattering westward on their swords in a desperate flight.

The remaining beasts frantically pursued them.

The Demon Cultivators, who had been fiercely engaged with the Nascent Soul experts, were momentarily surprised to see the Golden Core cultivators blast a path through the thousands of beasts blocking their retreat. They immediately dispatched three Demon Cultivators to charge toward the fleeing group, intent on total annihilation.

The Golden Core cultivators panicked and scattered wildly.

In the presence of Demon Cultivators above the Tenth Order, sheer numbers offered little advantage to Golden Core cultivators; they would only be slaughtered. Fleeing separately offered a greater chance of survival for some.

Half a day later.

The winged warship appeared in an unknown stretch of sea.

Ye Qin stood at the bow, his expression somewhat grim.

The escape had been too hasty; he had no idea where they were.

Ye Qin looked left and right behind him. Currently, only a meager ten-odd Golden Core cultivators remained aboard the winged warship. Among them were Zhou Yi, Jin Zhongshan, Liao Xiaozhi, Pan Shuang, and several other late-stage Golden Core cultivators from the Purple Sword Palace and other Immortal Palaces who ranked within the top thousand on the Golden Core Slayer Rankings.

Those three infuriated Demon Cultivators had charged directly at the winged warship—only the most reckless dared to stick so close!

Although the winged warship managed to shake off the pursuit of the three Demon Cultivators due to its superior speed, the vast majority of the Golden Core cultivators had been scattered by the enemy cultivators and the beast tide.

Currently, only this small group of a dozen or so remained.

No one knew exactly how many cultivators had ultimately escaped.

Ye Qin was not optimistic.

“For these past four-plus years, we have been using Stone City to lure and kill Demon Cultivators and beasts, yielding considerable gains. No one foresaw that such a large contingent of Demon Cultivators would suddenly launch a fierce assault on Stone City, resulting in such heavy losses. I fear the Purple Sword Palace has little hope in this Sect Master succession struggle.”

Zhou Yi sighed.

Everyone fell silent, their spirits low. They were either cultivators from the Purple Sword Palace or the Allied Palace. This defeat meant every Immortal Palace had suffered substantial losses.

“Brother Ye, Brother Zhou, what do we do now? We can’t just fly aimlessly over the sea, can we?”

Liao Xiaozhi looked toward Ye and Zhou, asking calmly.

“The Blood Sea is extremely perilous right now; we could encounter Demon Cultivators and beast tides at any moment. Acting alone is too dangerous. Let’s first try to gather as many scattered cultivators as possible! Then, we head west to find the Immortal City constructed under the direction of Palace Master Jiang of the Treasure Radiance Palace. That is a true Immortal City, possessing extraordinarily powerful defenses. What do you think, Brother Ye?”

Zhou Yi pondered for a moment, seeing that Ye Qin had no better ideas, and nodded. “Agreed! The Palace Master had instructed us to rendezvous in the west beforehand as well.”

Ye Qin used his star compass and sea charts to determine the direction, and the winged warship slowly proceeded westward.

Over the course of several days on the journey, they managed to find quite a few Golden Core cultivators from the Purple Sword Palace and the Allied Palace who had survived the disastrous battle and become separated. The small group of just over ten quickly swelled to thirty or forty people. Finding so many survivors offered some small comfort.

However, they also received grim news.

The Nascent Soul cultivators of the Purple Sword Palace and other Immortal Palaces had successfully broken through; their main force had not been annihilated.

But the cost was immense: Grand Elder Zhou Hong and five other mid-to-late Nascent Soul cultivators had died while covering the main force’s escape.

Upon hearing the news of their own ancestor’s death, Zhou Yi and the direct disciples of the other Immortal Palaces burst into wrenching sobs, overwhelmed by grief.

Ye Qin, upon receiving this news, fell silent.

The loss of six mid-to-late Nascent Soul cultivators in one fell swoop was devastating. Although he had not witnessed the battle firsthand, it must have been horrific.

Ye Qin knew little about Grand Elder Zhou Hong. Grand Elder Zhou Hong had very little lifespan remaining, and before the battle even began, he had voluntarily taken on the city-building mission, already preparing for death. Now, for the sake of the Purple Sword Palace’s ambition to claim the Sect Master position, he had given up his final few decades of life.

With Zhou Hong gone, the Purple Sword Palace was left with only four Nascent Soul cultivators, a clear reduction in strength. The Purple Sword Palace’s bid for the Northern Sect Master seat had come at a tremendous price, and their path forward would now be significantly harder. But since they had chosen to contend for the Northern Sect Master position, choosing the path of war against the Demon Race, paying a price was inevitable. Ye Qin believed Grand Elder Zhou Hong and Palace Master Zhou Yu had long since made their peace with this and would not regret it.

There was no gain without paying a price.

Ye Qin reflected with a calm mind, feeling no profound grief, only a faint sadness and a touch of helplessness.

Having stepped onto the path of conflict in the cultivation world, from the Central Continent to the East Sea Cultivation Realm, he too had paid a price, yet he had to continue walking. What the Purple Sword Palace sought was the Sect Master position, staking their entire Immortal Palace on that gamble.

What he sought was far less ambitious: to ensure a better life for himself and Bing'er.

This road had no end.

Demons who obstruct shall be slain; Immortals who obstruct shall be slain!

A faint glimmer of killing intent flashed in Ye Qin’s eyes.