Chapter 799: Depart (II)
Li Xuanfeng waited in the mountains for a moment, and the cultivators arrived as ordered. He glanced around and saw Li Qinghong and the others present as well. The white serpent was present, and the woman beside it was likely Lingu Lanying.
On the other side stood several cultivators from the Ning Family, two disciples from Moon Lake Peak, a few guest cultivators that the Azure Pond Sect had recalled from the Eastern and Southern Seas, and three representatives from the Golden Feather Sect. In total, there were sixteen Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.
Naturally, those in the Qi Cultivation Realm and Embryonic Breathing Realm had been drawn from the mountain’s own ranks. Their numbers were few, because they weren’t much use in battle. Moreover, the Azure Pond Sect refused to send out core sect disciples. After years of internal upheaval, it was difficult to mobilize many Qi or Embryonic Breathing Realm cultivators at all.
“Midnight approaches. Everyone, let us depart,” Li Xuanfeng commanded, and his own family members responded immediately. The guest cultivators from Azure Pond Sect and the Golden Feather Sect, mostly seasoned veterans, were respectfully deferent and came over at his word.
He drew a jade vessel from his sleeve. It was the Ning Family’s Everflowing Jade Cloudliner that belonged to Ning Wan. He tossed it lightly into the air and it instantly expanded into a massive boat. Everyone boarded one after another.
Ning Heyuan, slightly slower to move, took to the skies with him. He threw out a piece of gauze from his sleeve, which shrouded everyone’s figures, and then smiled, “Well then, everyone. Why don’t we talk a bit?”
Li Xuanfeng had already been observing for a while. The guest cultivators the Azure Pond Sect had sent were all assimilated cultivators from the Eastern Sea. Their strength was mediocre, but at least they had experience dealing with devil cultivators and were skilled in survival techniques. Though they wouldn’t do much in a direct fight, they could still stall a few devil cultivators.
Only the three from the Golden Feather Sect were of real interest. One carried a talisman sword on his back and claimed to be Zhuang Cheng, a cultivator from the Smoke Valley Desert. Another was a man over two hundred years old, also from Smoke Valley, who called himself Lin Shouye.
The last one was an old Daoist who looked like he was only there to make up the numbers. He seemed to have only just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, and had a visibly unsteady aura. He called himself Bai Yinzi of Smoke Valley and constantly wore a bitter expression.
The Golden Feather Sect differed from the Azure Pond Sect in several ways. It was looser in its control over techniques and Essence Gathering Pills, imposed less exploitation from above, and also had stricter checks on forced annexation. Many great families had continued for centuries under its rule, and they clearly had more cultivators in the Qi Cultivation Realm than the Azure Pond Sect.
Moreover, the families under the Azure Pond Sect still hadn’t recovered from the persecution and chaos under Chi Wei before his death. The former generation of prodigies had been wiped out, and the new generation was unwilling to be handed over to the Azure Pond Sect so easily. With such a shift in tides, even their Foundation Establishment Realm numbers now lagged far behind.