Published: March 2, 2025
Chapter 153: Enemy Traces
What he did not know was that at the edge of the black marsh, a cultivator was silently observing the situation at the spiritual herb garden.
This cultivator was dressed in black and wearing a black hat, blending seamlessly into the night, with no aura leaking from his body, clearly possessing specialized secret techniques.
Since he was outside the range of spiritual consciousness inspection and emitted no aura, Liu Yu did not notice his presence.
His eyes shone with a blazing red light, appearing like two festive red lanterns from afar in the darkness. This characteristic was distinctly different from the manifestation of the heavenly eye technique, indicating he was using a far superior spiritual vision technique.
At this moment, the cultivator was fixated on the location of the spiritual herb garden, seemingly able to see through the illusions covering the black water extreme wind formation to perceive the true essence within.
“Lu Steward, after my investigation, the Yuan Yang Sect's Bing Character No. 6 Herb Garden should be right here,”
After an hour, behind a small hill dozens of miles away, the black-clad man under the hat reported to a steward of the Heavenly Harmony Sect named Lu.
This Lu Steward was small in stature, with a few strands of white hair, dressed in a dark green long robe, and sporting a patchy beard on his chin.
“In that case, prepare to act immediately!”
Lu Steward said with a slightly cold expression, his voice hoarse.
“Understood!”
The people standing or sitting around, realizing a tough battle was imminent, adjusted their attitudes and responded in unison.
Seeing this, Lu Steward's murderous intent surged, and he was the first to sneak toward the spiritual herb garden.
Their group consisted of ten foundation establishment stage cultivators—one in the late stage, three in the mid stage, and six in the early stage. Not all of them were cultivators of the Heavenly Harmony Sect; only Lu Steward and two mid-stage cultivators were from the sect, while the other seven foundation establishment stage cultivators were dispatched from various affiliated forces of the Heavenly Harmony Sect, with the significant decision-making power still held by the sect's cultivators.
In addition, there were twenty to thirty qi refinement stage cultivators, all at least in the mid qi refinement stage. This formation could be considered a small squad from the Heavenly Harmony Sect.
As the war over the spiritual stone mine reached a standstill with the three major factions unable to gain the upper hand, the situation gradually leaned towards a prolonged battle, waiting to see who would falter first.
The fierce battles among the three factions had ceased to be limited to the front lines, with each secretly sending cultivators to infiltrate the rear of other factions, waiting to ambush enemy resource points to apply pressure and force the opponent to withdraw from the competition over the spiritual stone mine, thus aiming for final victory.
Due to the high risks involved in infiltrating enemy territory to sabotage resource points, where one could easily fall into encirclement if not careful, the Heavenly Harmony Sect offered substantial rewards, even providing spiritual objects that assisted in forming the Golden Core as incentives.
Lu Steward accepted the task under such circumstances. At one hundred seventy years old, he was nearing the peak of the late foundation establishment stage, but he had only collected two types of items with minimal effects that assisted in forming the Golden Core. Therefore, to advance further, he decided to take a gamble.
In the dark of night, the ten foundation establishment stage cultivators from the Heavenly Harmony Sect, accompanied by about twenty qi refinement stage cultivators, hurried toward the spiritual herb garden. To avoid early detection, they did not use magical artifacts to fly, clearly determined to launch a surprise attack.
A dark cloud obscured the bright moon, making the night not brightly lit, as if foreshadowing that something was about to happen.