Chapter 65: The Battle Commences

Having found no success at the Lin Party’s camp, Li Zhen turned his attention to the Iron Sword Gang’s outpost.

The Iron Sword Gang’s quarters were relatively larger, consisting of a wooden building and a sizable training ground.

At that moment, few people could be found within or around the Iron Sword Gang’s base. In response to the betrayal of Jin Dao Band and the Lin Party, the Iron Sword Gang had dispatched all available cultivators who could participate in battle.

Despite the lack of guards, Li Zhen couldn’t risk entering unannounced. If he daringly forced his way in now, it might attract nearby Iron Sword Gang cultivators.

He walked past the entrance of the Iron Sword Gang’s base, carefully skirting alongside the wall to maximize his investigative range.

As he covered the better part of the Iron Sword Gang’s perimeter, he suddenly sensed the presence of a second-stage spirit artifact.

This discovery came as a great surprise. Throughout his journey, he hadn’t even encountered a single unclaimed spirit artifact with a sub-first-stage or higher aura. Yet here, unexpectedly, he sensed a second-stage spirit artifact.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he commanded the Dragon Heart Space to seize the second-stage spirit artifact.

His footsteps didn’t pause; he continued walking as if it were all a chance encounter.

After leaving the Iron Sword Gang’s base, Li Zhen’s heart raced with anticipation.

He suppressed the urge to immediately check the Dragon Heart Space, knowing time was of the essence—there were still other locations to explore.

Under normal circumstances, even with the Dragon Heart Space’s ability to forcibly assimilate spiritual objects, any hint of abnormal behavior would lead to immediate arrest and interrogation. Such suspicions could even result in execution without any hard evidence.

The situation was different now. With the major sects vying for control of the market, the loss of any spiritual objects was unlikely to arouse suspicions against ordinary cultivators. Such losses were more likely attributed to either internal traitors or interference from rival factions.

Li Zhen arrived at the Zhao Clan’s headquarters. As one of the three major forces in the market, Li Zhen still maintained some connections to the Zhao Clan; his initial meetings with Steward Zhao had been fruitful.

As he walked along the path leading up to the Zhao Clan’s headquarters, Li Zhen extended his perception to a ten-meter range. He detected the presence of numerous spiritual objects emanating from a location beneath their quarters.

He suppressed the temptation to smile, realizing he had finally identified a veritable treasure trove of spiritual artifacts.

The Lin Clan, harboring thoughts of rebellion, would have safeguarded their treasures and moved them long ago.

The Iron Sword Gang’s stronghold may have been beyond the ten-meter reach of Li Zhen’s perception, and his inability to enter their premises prevented a more thorough investigation.

It was sheer luck that brought him to the Zhao Clan’s headquarters, where he stumbled upon their hidden cache.

The Dragon Heart Space swiftly assimilated all the spiritual objects within Li Zhen’s perception range. After all, its internal capacity measured a vast ten cubic meters.

After departing from the Zhao Clan’s headquarters, Li Zhen’s first priority was to target the two market warehouses.

The warehouses were not far apart, and Li Zhen had even visited the larger one earlier in the day to take on missions.

It seemed the five Nascent Foundation cultivators floating in the sky couldn’t reach an agreement, as war unexpectedly erupted from the heavens.

The Iron Sword Gang Leader swept his blade through the air, unleashing a flash of sword light accompanied by thunderous roars. The radiant strike hurtled straight towards the patriarch of the Lin family.

A shield materialized before the Lin family patriarch, blocking the Iron Sword Gang Leader’s assault. The force of the blow still sent him staggering backward.

“Don’t let him get close! Fight him at range!” The Lin family patriarch waved his hand, sending two attack talismans hurtling towards the Iron Sword Gang Leader to disrupt his advance. At the same time, he shouted out a warning to his allies.

“No worries, I’ll hold him off. You focus on taking down Zhao Clan Master!” The Golden Blade Gang Leader raised his golden blade high into the air before bringing it crashing down with all his might.

The Golden Blade Gang and the Iron Sword Gang had nursed their grudges for years, and both sides were intimately familiar with each other’s tactics.

The Iron Sword Gang Leader’s swordsmanship was extraordinary, but the Golden Blade Gang Leader’s bladework was no less impressive. It was hard to say who would emerge victorious in this clash.

The Lin family patriarch, for his part, had no desire whatsoever to engage the Iron Sword Gang Leader directly. He gave a discreet hand signal to another Nascent Foundation cultivator, and together they surged forth to attack Zhao Clan Master. Their target: the man responsible for this massacre.

The battle in the air had coalesced into two distinct factions. Blasts of sword light, blade glares, magical incantations, and talisman sigils filled the sky. In this grand struggle, precision proved elusive; attacks continuously rained down upon the earth below.

Cultivators on the ground scattered in all directions as they fled. Just as they dispersed, a Fireball Spell struck a nearby shop.

The shop boasted a protective formation, but it was designed to fend off only the weak attacks of Qi Refining cultivators. It couldn’t hope to fully withstand the assaults of those in the Late Qi Refining Stage, let alone a half-step Foundation Establishment cultivator’s full-powered strike.

The shop’s defensive formation crumbled instantly, leaving the interior exposed to the elements.

Among the fleeing cultivators, many paused as their eyes locked onto the shop’s now-uncovered area—the storeroom. The room was a treasure trove of scattered spirits materials and magical devices, with chests lying open on the ground and spirit stones rolling out from within.

In their usual dogged pursuit of resources, cultivators would risk life and limb for even the slightest advantage. Now, faced with a veritable mountain of wealth laid bare before them, how could they possibly resist?

The cultivators lunged at the shop like a pack of ravenous wolves. More cultivators spotted the scene from afar and rushed towards the shop en masse.

“Haha, all mine now!” A rogue cultivator at the sixth level of Qi Refining snatched up a chest of spirit stones, cackling as he prepared to stash it away in his storage pouch.

Before he could stash the chest of spirit stones in his storage pouch, a flurry of attacks hurtled towards him.

While the most valuable item in the shop might not have been the spirit stones, the spiritual materials and magical artifacts in the warehouse were also quite pricey. However, these goods required careful planning to fence, whereas spirit stones were the universal currency of the cultivation world.

Moreover, if someone else got their hands on the loot, what would be left for him? The only way to secure those spirit stones was to eliminate his competitors.

Every cultivator harboring this mindset led to a convergence of a dozen or more attacks on a mere Qi Refining sixth-layer cultivator.

Though a Qi Refining sixth-layer cultivator was considered a force among rogue cultivators, such a barrage of attacks sent him flying, the chest of spirit stones slipping from his grasp and clattering to the ground.

Seeing the chest of spirit stones now ownerless, the rogue cultivators rushed in, fighting over the prize.

In an instant, the battle on the ground rivaled the ferocity of that in the sky, if not outstripping it.

Rogue cultivators fell in droves,yet still more poured in to take their place.

Initially, the fight centered around the broken defensive formation of this one shop, but it quickly escalated into a indiscriminate assault on all nearby shops.

Whenever a shop’s defensive barrier fell, rogue cultivators swarmed in, pillaging everything in their wake.

Li Zhen watched as the chaos unfolded in the market. No cultivators had yet turned their attention to the market’s main storehouse, but if the situation deteriorated further, all bets were off.

He quickened his pace. In any case, the rogue cultivators were in utter chaos—some wanted to join the looting, others sought only to save their lives and escape the tumultuous area.

Li Zhen’s movements went completely unnoticed as he approached the large warehouse.

“What kind of spirit objects are these? How is their aura so weak?” he wondered to himself, sensing the spiritual objects within the large warehouse.

In truth, the large warehouse held only spiritually infused construction materials; it was obvious they wouldn’t be of high quality.

He immediately changed his target, heading towards the small warehouse.

Two Qi Refining cultivators stood guard before the small warehouse, a flying sword and a spiritual shield hovering before them, on high alert. They were the warehouse’s protectors, and if anything went wrong, they would be held accountable no matter who was in power.

These weren’t cultivators from any particular family. To ensure all factions felt at ease with someone watching over such a crucial location, they had chosen loyal rogue cultivators for the task.

As Li Zhen approached, the two cultivators at the small warehouse, both in the Qi Refining stage, trained their eyes on him warily.

Li Zhen darted along the small warehouse’s outer wall as if desperately trying to find his bearings. Only after several anxious steps did he seem to notice the two guards and veer off in a different direction.

The two guards, now at ease with his departure, were practicing Qi Refining midway between the qualifying stage and cultivation.

As Li Zhen continued his flight, he couldn’t suppress his mounting excitement.

Ten cubic meters of space, half of it stuffed with spiritual treasures.

He resisted any further temptation; this haul was monumental, and there was no need to covet more.

The chaos in the bustling market district only intensified. Although the major powers vying for control of the market weren’t openly clashing, tensions remained high.

If we intervene now to halt the rogue cultivators’ looting, it’s likely we’d face a sneak attack from the other side.

With no one in charge, the number of pillaging rogue cultivators swelled. Even some influential figures joined the plunder, unable to resist such wealth flaunted before their eyes.

In this lawless climate, attacks among cultivators became increasingly common, leading to mounting casualties.

The riches left behind by the fallen only fueled further conflict, exacerbating the anarchy.