“Your Highness, what should we do now?”

Behind the Ghost Gate Pass, within the Extreme Territory’s garrison camp, in the cold and empty great hall, the ghost generals of the ten great Ghost Clans hung their heads low. Few dared to lift their eyes to glance at Lord Taishan, whose expression was extremely ugly as he sat above. Only the ghost general from the Ghost King Clan, being the strongest among all ten Ghost Clan generals, stepped forward with a bow in this hall filled with deathly silence and asked this question.

“What should we do?”

Lord Taishan’s face actually appeared somewhat honest and simple, and because of his imposing stature and substantial presence, people often thought him simple-minded. Living alongside the childlike Lord Wu Guan day after day, he seemed to have no opinions of his own.

But that was merely surface appearance.

Sitting high in the hall, looking down at this group of ghost generals independent of the Eight Yama Halls, he couldn’t help but wear a cold smile as he repeated their question.

Clearly just three simple words, yet in that instant, they made everyone feel a bone-deep chill. Everyone immediately realized that Lord Taishan had become truly angry, so no one dared to respond.

Three consecutive battles without success.

Even though these three battles could at most be considered minor defeats, with losses that seemed insignificant compared to their overall strength, the blow to morale was devastating. Moreover, even now, they hadn’t figured out the two most crucial questions—

First, how did the cultivators from Jiushijiu Zhou pass through the Ghost Gate Pass to circle around and cause havoc behind them?

Second, what was their true objective?

In the first and second battles, everyone could still speculate that the enemy was using this method to numb them, making them lose vigilance against attacks from behind.

But who would have thought that in the third battle, the enemy’s attack still didn’t come.

They had spent enormous effort setting ambushes behind their lines, hoping to catch the enemy like fish in a barrel and completely crush their plans. Instead, they threw a punch that hit cotton—not only did they fail to catch a single enemy, but the enemy had anticipated their thoughts and set a trap in advance, causing them to fall into great confusion and suffer another defeat.

An ancient saying goes: “First strike with full vigor, second strike with diminished strength, third strike with exhaustion.”

Though the three battles hadn’t caused them any fatal damage, the blow to morale was truly terrifying. Now, because of these three mysterious raids with unclear objectives, everyone from ghost generals to ghost soldiers was filled with anxiety and unease.

What they feared most wasn’t a powerful enemy, nor was it being unable to predict a powerful enemy’s next move, but rather knowing that the enemy’s schemes must have some purpose while being unable to determine where they would strike next.

This was the predicament Lord Taishan currently faced.

The enemy was in darkness while he was in light, already placing the Extreme Territory in a passive position unable to resist. The enemy was highly intelligent while he, due to his passive position, couldn’t anticipate the enemy’s moves, leading to inferior strategies. Like a fierce beast trapped in fog, his great army was mired in a swamp, unable to move forward.

Generally speaking, when facing such a mysterious opponent hiding in the shadows who had set three consecutive plans to disturb military morale, ordinary people would only become furious after falling for the trap the second time, thus habitually assuming that even if there was a third attack, it would be nothing more than theatrics. Intelligent people could see through the pattern after the second trap, guessing that the opponent was using two rounds of theatrics to provide cover for the real attack to come, achieving the effect of striking unexpectedly.

Lord Taishan considered himself to be the latter.

But he hadn’t expected that his opponent was beyond even the latter category.

He had thought of “this,” but his opponent had predicted he would think of “this,” and thus designed “that” which he hadn’t anticipated.

And after “that,” the opponent’s true purpose became even more mysterious and elusive.

False and real intermingled, truth and deception indistinguishable!

“We cannot act rashly anymore.” Lord Taishan stood on high, raising his eyes to see the dark clouds hanging over the Extreme Territory’s wasteland, which made his mood grow heavy without reason. “The enemy has set up three consecutive schemes but has never revealed their true purpose. Though I don’t know what they’re really after, moving blindly before understanding the situation will surely give them an opportunity to exploit.”

“This…”

The ghost generals below never expected Lord Taishan to give such an answer. According to rumors in the Extreme Territory, this Yama King had an explosive temper. They had thought that after three consecutive defeats, he would surely want to save face.

Who would have thought…

He could actually “remain so calm.”

But to hold back troops and not act? This seemed… perhaps too calm.

Several ghost generals exchanged glances, clearly having their own thoughts, feeling that Lord Taishan’s current decision wasn’t quite appropriate.

The one who spoke up was still the ghost general from the Ghost King Clan.

He was a Convergence Dao stage ghost cultivator who had cultivated a ghost claw, equivalent to the Entering World stage of Jiushijiu Zhou.

He frowned and frankly expressed his doubts: “Your Highness, this approach seems inadvisable. Our Extreme Territory has suffered small losses in three consecutive battles, and morale is low. We should achieve a victory to boost morale. Moreover, holding back troops in a standoff with Jiushijiu Zhou gives the impression of weakness. Furthermore, judging from the fact that the enemy has played tricks three times without actually launching a real attack, the mysterious opponent Your Highness worries about may not be particularly powerful. If they had elite forces numbering in the hundreds or thousands, why wouldn’t they have caught us off guard early on, joining with Jiushijiu Zhou to attack from both sides, instead of using such methods to gain small victories by disrupting our military morale?”

Lord Taishan looked at him without speaking.

Seeing his indifference, the ghost general continued: “Your Highness, you are thoughtful and thorough, but perhaps what you’re thinking is exactly what the enemy wants. Such inaction, cowering inside, is precisely the result the enemy desires! Moreover, through days of combat, we have already determined the strength of Jiushijiu Zhou’s side—merely several thousand to nearly ten thousand cultivators! As long as we increase our forces and bring out the trump cards we’ve been holding back, why worry about not being able to achieve victory? There’s no need to drag this out too long. Just this one battle at Ghost Gate Pass could send them ‘home’!”

Everyone said that great cultivators could destroy heaven and earth with a gesture.

But from Jiushijiu Zhou to the Extreme Territory, how many great cultivators were there actually?

Moreover, not every great cultivator could truly have the so-called ability to “destroy heaven and earth.” The three realms of Void Return, Bounded Existence, and Heaven Reaching, though all called “great abilities,” had enormous differences between each realm.

On Jiushijiu Zhou’s side, counting on one’s fingers, those who could be called “great abilities” numbered no more than twenty.

The Extreme Territory had ghost cultivators appearing since ancient times, but even counting from the beginning, the ghost cultivator with the longest cultivation time hadn’t exceeded fifteen hundred years. The Eight Yama Halls were only established six hundred sixty years ago, and those who could be called “great abilities” numbered merely thirteen.

Besides the eight hall Yama Kings, Immortal Wuzhong of the Wrongful Death City counted as one, and among the ten great Ghost Clans, there were four more.

From any perspective, the numbers were far too scarce.

Since the ghost general from the Ghost King Clan dared to speak up and advise Lord Taishan, he had already calculated the strength of both sides in his heart.

Before the Void Return realm, the strength difference between each realm fluctuated between two to eight times, whether it was two or eight depended on the individual.

The strongest could kill across realms, while the weakest could be killed even by those in stronger realms.

But how many truly top-tier strong individuals were there? Therefore, even calculating by strong individuals, if purely measured by force, having four thousand Golden Core cultivators or five hundred Nascent Soul cultivators or sixty Spirit Severing cultivators simultaneously attacking a Void Return great ability would surely be able to match them!

The reason great cultivators could usually dominate invincibly was mostly because they rarely faced too many enemies. Fighting with a strength advantage of two to eight times was already terrifying enough. When they could kill many in sieges, it was certainly due to their overwhelmingly superior strength, but more often it was because the besieging cultivators didn’t coordinate well enough.

After all, achieving true “simultaneity” was too difficult!

But now they were on a battlefield, and it was a battlefield with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of cultivators! Nothing was impossible!

“When ants work together, they can kill an elephant, let alone wolves and tigers!”

This ghost general clearly had already formed the idea of simply wiping out all the Jiushijiu Zhou cultivators at Ghost Gate Pass in one fell swoop, and earnestly advised: “Jiushijiu Zhou’s attack on us has limited forces. They must preserve vital strength for Jiushijiu Zhou and don’t dare involve low-level cultivators in battle. Our Extreme Territory ghost cultivators all transformed from mortals on isolated islands in the human realm, with no concerns whatsoever, giving us an absolute advantage in numbers! Not to mention, now we have the power of the Watch Platform extracting earth force and yin essence covering us. Why fear this enemy’s petty schemes and tricks? We should break through forcefully and annihilate Jiushijiu Zhou directly!”

Petty schemes and tricks?

Lord Taishan rubbed his temples, which had begun to ache and tighten for some unknown reason. Looking at this ghost general from the Ghost King Clan who had analyzed the current situation so thoroughly, he inexplicably let out a mocking laugh, and countless complex emotions surged in his heart.

In the darkness, he had already seen through it all.

This wasn’t some conspiracy at all—it was an open scheme laid out plainly on the table!

First, use three brilliantly executed enemy disruption tactics to clearly tell you that the real show, the real follow-up move, hasn’t come yet.

But with the enemy in darkness and him in light, there was no way to defend against it.

And even if one could understand the current situation and see through the enemy’s tactics, there was no way to counter them. The disruption of military morale was a fact, and holding back troops indefinitely was certainly not a long-term solution.

At this moment, Lord Taishan was truly curious about who was behind all this.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the anger stirred by the ghost general from the Ghost King Clan had disappeared without a trace. Still completely ignoring the other party’s long string of suggestions, he issued an unquestionable order: “Hold back troops and do not act! Immediately dispatch sufficient personnel to search every inch of the dozens of li from Ghost Gate Pass to Wrongful Death City! Anyone who can’t find these people can come see me with their heads!”

“Your Highness!!!”

The ghost generals below heard this command and almost cried out in unison, completely unable to understand why he would be so wary of that opponent playing tricks behind their backs!

But Lord Taishan only gave them three words: “You may withdraw.”

Even if the ghost generals had still harbored hopes of persuading Lord Taishan before, hearing these words that were calm yet clearly carried an tone of finality, they already understood—

His mind was made up and could not be changed.

Though they all felt extremely frustrated, thinking there was no need to be reasonable with Jiushijiu Zhou, they were still intimidated by his authority as Yama King. Having opinions they could only swallow, they had no choice but to suppress their frustration and withdraw.

After everyone left, Lord Taishan stood alone in the great hall.

Motionless.

After a long while, as if he had finally sorted through all the thoughts in his mind, he raised his hand and pointed at the void. A whirlpool connecting to the Eight Directions City appeared in the hall.

Lord Qin Guang’s emotionless voice came from the whirlpool: “What matter does Lord Taishan have?”

Lord Taishan bowed respectfully toward the whirlpool and said: “I remember that hundreds of years ago, you had a very special judge under your command. Besides exceptional talent, he was also deeply versed in the art of formations. Even the array our Extreme Territory currently uses to extract earth force and yin essence from the Watch Platform came from his hand. I heard you allowed him to abandon his judge identity and return to the human realm islands to become emperor. Though the person is gone, I wonder if the Yama Hall still preserves the formation research he left behind?”

Lord Qin Guang seemed not to have expected him to bring up this person. The time was too distant, and he had almost forgotten. “There might be some. Does Lord Taishan wish to examine them?”

Lord Taishan honestly replied: “They might be of great use.”

In the following days, the Extreme Territory truly went into hiding, cowering within the pass, as if the Jiushijiu Zhou cultivators amassed before Ghost Gate Pass didn’t exist at all.

The Ghost Gate Pass battlefield became extremely calm and peaceful.

Naturally, the Jiushijiu Zhou side didn’t want to waste too much time here. They hoped to pursue their advantage from the previous three small victories, unwilling to give the enemy time to recover and regroup. But what was infuriating was that no matter how they harassed, the enemy simply would not act.

Lu Song, the hot-tempered and straightforward Pavilion Master of the Spirit Communication Pavilion, sat beside the rectangular jade table where Jiushijiu Zhou held their discussions, completely unable to understand: “This old man has already seen those ghost soldiers stationed at the front lines so angry their teeth are showing, yet they just stand there and refuse to come out for battle! Could it be that the Extreme Territory is actually afraid of us? They’re nothing but cowards hiding in their shells!”

The others thought more deeply, guessing that something had happened behind enemy lines that they had to resolve. But at this time, most people didn’t respond, instead directing their gazes toward Daoist Hengxu sitting in the upper left seat, or rather…

With some meaning, they looked toward Xie Buchen standing behind Daoist Hengxu.

In the current battle against the Extreme Territory, though they were still largely in the mutual probing stage and hadn’t reached the point of real combat, this pride of Kunwu Heaven had already displayed strategic planning, military tactics, and even exceptional grasp of the overall situation that impressed the seated high-ranking great abilities.

After all, Jiushijiu Zhou was mostly a place that honored individual strength, following the principle of “fierce beasts walk alone, cattle and sheep move in herds.” Since everyone had entered the cultivation path from a very young age, things like formations, military strategy, and alchemy were all considered side paths. Though Jiushijiu Zhou had those skilled in these areas, they had all invested enormous time and energy in research, thus delaying their own cultivation.

Those who could sit here were all great abilities.

This also meant that in these “side paths,” none of them could be considered top-tier experts.

Thus, Xie Buchen’s nearly “all-around” talent was particularly astonishing.

Moreover, during this process, Daoist Hengxu had begun gradually letting him handle various matters and act and speak on his behalf, clearly already cultivating him as Kunwu’s next sect leader.

Everyone acknowledged this young man’s abilities.

At this moment, Daoist Hengxu hadn’t expressed any of his own opinions on the matter, instead passing the conversation to Xie Buchen standing behind him, asking: “The enemy cowers and refuses to come out. What does Buchen think we should do in response?”

Xie Buchen had naturally noticed the anomaly Lu Song mentioned earlier than others, and the subsequent provocations, harassment, and probing had all been at his suggestion, aimed at determining the Extreme Territory’s bottom line.

Others might only think the enemy was resting and reorganizing due to losses from the three battles, preparing to replenish forces to contend with Jiushijiu Zhou. But in his view, the enemy’s cowering was entirely due to their wariness of the force behind those three rear harassment attacks.

Attacking cities was inferior; attacking hearts was superior.

Jian Chou had struck unexpectedly with this small tactic, yet achieved remarkable results in “attacking hearts.”

Though the Extreme Territory appeared inactive on the surface, they were surely preparing countermeasures behind the scenes. No matter what, they should catch and deal with those cultivators hiding behind Ghost Gate Pass playing tricks.

Xie Buchen believed that if the Extreme Territory was allowed to continue delaying while Jiushijiu Zhou ignored it, Jian Chou and Qu Zhengfeng’s group would suffer greatly and might even perish in the Extreme Territory.

After all, Lord Taishan wasn’t someone to be trifled with either.

The Extreme Territory’s ghost soldiers were terrifyingly numerous. If they really turned over every inch of ground searching, they would surely find traces of the intruders, and they would be unable to escape disaster.

And now, his words and suggestions had the power to influence Jiushijiu Zhou’s actions and the course of this battle.

In other words, he could simply ignore the situation.

This way, he could use the Extreme Territory’s hands to severely wound Jian Chou or even kill him, resolving both grudges and severing all ties.

It was just a pity…

The Lower Crescent Command Token to shut down the Watch Platform wasn’t in his hands.

His calm gaze swept over the carefree Fudao Shanren sitting in the upper right seat. With his expression unchanged, Xie Buchen stood tall behind Daoist Hengxu and replied: “The enemy cowers and refuses to come out—this is precisely the perfect opportunity for us to capture cities and territory. First, to break the siege of our allies behind Ghost Gate Pass; second, to prevent the enemy from resting, replenishing troops, or devising secret schemes. We should seize this opportunity for an all-out assault!”

“All-out assault?”

These four words sounded plain, but everyone who heard them was shocked.

Fairy Xuanyue frowned slightly, finding it somewhat difficult to understand. Wanting to confirm whether he knew what he was saying, she asked solemnly: “When Martial Nephew Xie says ‘all-out,’ do you mean what fraction of our forces?”

Xie Buchen naturally understood exactly what he was saying, and he also understood what opportunity Jian Chou was waiting for. He calmly gave his precise answer—

“All of them.”

All of them!

One hundred percent!

Everyone immediately gasped! Even Fudao Shanren raised his eyebrows, thinking to himself that this Kunwu brat really dared to speak boldly. He turned to look at him, his eyes revealing deeper meaning.