<h4>Chapter 19: The Battle Begins (1)</h4>


    Nanyuan City.


    Nobody here was aware of what was going on at faraway Great Xia City.


    Inside the tall building near the school.


    The woman was nowhere to be seen. The middle-aged man was standing beside a white-haired old man. Both of them were looking at the Nanyuan Secondary School opposite the building.


    "Hallmaster Chen, I did not expect to see you here..." The middle-aged man had a fawning smile on his face.


    "Mhm." The old man was a man of few words. He looked at the school with a frown. After a while, he spoke, "Wu Hen, do you think this is a trap?"


    "Trap?" The middle-aged man paused slightly before saying, "I''m not sure. But there are only two Skysoar cultivators left in Nanyuan. As for the city guards, theirmander has yet to break through into the Skysoar Realm. I am sure of that."


    "Is that so?"


    The old man did notment on that. His frown remained. Something about this mission felt off. Firstly, they had caused too many disturbances. Secondly, Nanyuan was ready for them. In the past, such a situation would call for a cancetion of the mission. This time, that did not happen. The higher ups wanted them to proceed with the mission. No reinforcements would being from the capital. That was what the higher ups told them. The higher ups sounded very confident about it.


    Thirdly, they were actually very unfamiliar with Great Xia. The Myriad Race Cult had previously been focused somewhere else. Sure, they had some activities here, but they did not know enough about Great Xia. It was too risky to proceed with such a rash n. With how the higher ups had always acted, their Skysoar Realm experts would only be deployed for well-nned operations.


    "Wu Hen, you''ve been in Nanyuan for many years. Are there any Infinite Strength cultivators in Nanyuan capable of punching above their ss?"


    "I doubt so." The middle-aged man answered, "In any case, I''ve never heard of individuals like that. Someone so capable would have gone to the Allheaven Battlefield or the capital instead of staying here. They do have a couple of Great Strength cultivators capable of punching above their ss. That Su Long from the Devil Suppressing Army was one of them, but he can only face Infinite Strength cultivators."


    "Su Long?"


    "A veteran of the Devil Subduing Army. He has left for the Allheaven Battlefield."


    "Oh, the Devil Subduing Army? That''s the army Xia Longwu used to lead. It has grown rather popr at the Allheaven Battlefield in recent years. They even managed to get upgraded into a tier-1 army. They have quite a lot of experts among their ranks."


    The old man seemed familiar with the battlefield. After some thought, he said, "Are there a lot of retired veterans in the city?"


    "No. And most of them are quite old already. Very few of them are still in their prime. There won''t be more than three hundred of them spread across the entire city."


    "We need to take precautions against these people as well," said the old man. "These veterans that have survived the Allheaven Battlefield are all ruthless bastards. Have our people watch out for them."


    "Noted."


    The old man stopped talking and looked at the sky. A short whileter, a burst of me erupted outside the city. A hundred city guards rushed out as a response.


    The middle-aged man eximed in joy, "Yet another 100-man squad has left the city. There are now less than five hundred city guards in the city."


    The old man was still frowning. "Be careful."


    The city was aware that this was bait, but they still sent their guards away. Was that confidence or desperation?


    "There are less than half of the city guards remaining. Over three hundred of them are guarding the mayor''s manor. The rest are concentrated near the Nanyuan Secondary School. The streets are filled with the people from the Windcatcher Department..."


    The old man scanned his surroundings. In the school, there were about two hundred city guards, less than a hundred Windcatcher Department officers, and two hundred sixty instructors and school guards. The Martial Dragon Guards were still around as well. In total, they would face less than six hundred cultivators above the Great Strength Realm.


    He had directly ignored the students in his calction. There wouldn''t be any Great Strength cultivators among them. Of the forces they had to face, there were around fifteen cultivators between the Infinite Strength and Skysoar Realms. The rest of them were Great Strength cultivators.


    In fact, they only needed to face one Skysoar cultivator since the mayor would be in his manor. He would also require some time to reach the school. Of course, the old man had still taken the mayor into consideration since the manor wasn''t exactly that far away.


    "Is everyone here?"


    "Yes." The man hurriedly reported, "The hallmaster is there to gather our people. All of them are elites. We have thirty Infinite Strength cultivators while the rest of them are high-stage Great Strength cultivators. There are three hundred of us in total. The weaker members have all been assigned to continue creating chaos outside the city."


    Three hundred elites of seventh-stage Great Strength Realm and above, with thirty of them reaching the Infinite Strength Realm. After a short calction, the old man concluded that of the six cities the cult was going to attack today, Nanyuan had the lowest number of participants.


    In short, no less than two thousand seventh-stage Great Strength cultivators, two hundred Infinite Strength cultivators, and over twenty Skysoar cultivators would be participating in this operation that would begin concurrently in multiple cities. That was a force powerful enough to be organized into a proper army of ten thousand soldiers.


    "The Divine Skywing Sect is throwing everything they have on this operation."


    The old man was feeling more and more unsettled. The Myriad Race Cult was split into many different sects. The Divine Skywing Sect was one of the stronger ones. After all, the race they had submitted to was one of the divines. As powerful as they were, they had still utilized the entirety of their strength for this operation.


    Were the higher ups not afraid of destroying the sect in the event of failure? Those in charge of creating trouble outside the cities were only some weak sects sent to their deaths. They couldn’t care less if these sects were destroyed. But the ones they were using for these direct attacks were their own elites. Losing these elites was very different than losing some cannon fodder.


    "They''re giving out so many contribution points just to kill some students. Are these students even worth it? What are the higher ups thinking?"


    The old man frowned deeply. He did not feel like this was worth it. Unfortunately, his rank wasn''t high enough to be making major decisions like that.


    "Forget it. I can only hope that we canplete the mission smoothly before going back into hiding."


    Since there were over three hundred of them, they needed some time to gather. In a city as small as Nanyuan, they needed to move three hundred people in batches. This wasn''t a big city like the capital where a gathering of hundreds of people wouldn''t cause anyone to bat an eye.


    "We''ll move out in thirty minutes. Inform everyone to finish allbat within three minutes. I want everyone to be gone within five minutes. Split up immediately after leaving the city. Do you understand?"


    "Yes." The middle-aged man hurriedly answered. With a flicker, he vanished into thin air as he left to carry out his order.


    The old man continued gazing toward the Nanyuan Secondary School while muttering, "Is Great Xia...really incapable of sparing even a few Skysoar cultivators to send here?"


    ...


    "Yu!" At that moment, Chen Hao and Su Yu were crouched in front of the cafeteria while looking around. Chen Hao whispered, "What are we doing here? The instructors are calling all students to gather up. Are we not going?"


    "No." Su Yu had a saber in hand as he replied softly, "It''s safer to stay in a small group. It can get too dangerous in big groups."


    "What?" Chen Hao waspletely confused.


    Su Yu said, "Cut the crap. Something might happen today. The Myriad Race Cult might being. We''ll stay here since there won''t be many people in the area."


    "No, wait. Yu, the Myriad Race Cult ising? Shouldn''t we quickly meet the instructors then? We''re only Source Opening cultivators, not Great Strength cultivators..."


    Chen Hao grew nervous. However, he wasn''t actually scared. The school had performed drills for such situations before, teaching the students how to handle themselves in the event of a Myriad Race Cult attack or a deployment to the Allheaven Battlefield. ording to the drills, they should be gathering with the instructors now. The instructors would be in charge of protecting them.


    "We don''t have enough instructors. Most of them will be in activebat. Only a small number of them will be around to protect the students. Generally, between three to five instructors will be assigned to protect each ss. With the high number of students in each ss, the instructors won''t be able to protect everyone well. We can reduce the burden on them by staying away."


    "But...what if we encounter...Yu, we should return to the ssroom," Chen Hao was starting to get anxious.


    Su Yu smiled, "Don''t worry. We''re two random students at the Source Opening Realm. Those experts wouldn''t even care about us."


    "But we''ll die if we meet any Great Strength cultivators..."


    "That''s why we need to hide well. And if we really meet an enemy..." Su Yu looked up at Chen Hao. "Do you trust me?"


    "Yes."


    "Start scolding the enemy. Scold them as hard as you can and make them focus on killing you. We will be hiding opposite each other. When the enemy is going after you, he definitely won''t bother keeping his guard up against a little student like me..."


    Chen Hao nked out. What a bastard! This fellow was clearly trying to make sure Chen Hao would die before him! What a bastard!


    "And I''ll kill the enemy."


    "..."


    Chen Hao was aghast. What joke was that? This fellow was only a third-stage Source Opening cultivator. He probably couldn''t even break through the enemy''s defense, much less kill them. He must have gone crazy.


    "If you trust me, do as I say. At this time, we can''t go to the principal or the others. We''ll only bring them more trouble. We also can''t return to the ssroom as we will only add more burden to the instructors. We''re too weak. We''ll only serve asmbs for the ughter if we join up with the others."


    "The other students arembs as well. Let''s get them to hide with us as well..."


    "Are you stupid? How are we supposed to hide with more people? They will die if they rashly move out of the ssrooms. We might be able to survive if we stay here."


    Su Yu wasn''t too fearful of the attack. He had listened to a lot of his father''s exploits in the battlefield. The school had also been training them into bing soldiers that would face the enemies of humanity. There was nothing to fear about this.


    He was only feeling nervous. This was his first time encountering an enemy. He wasn''t sure if he would freeze from panic when the time came. What was he supposed to do if he found himself freezing up while the enemy was moving over to kill Chen Hao? What if they were to encounter two enemies instead? Or even three enemies?


    "This will be fine. The strong ones will be facing each other. Only the weaker cult members will be sent to search the school for students. After all, the students are too weak. They don''t even need to form groups to hunt the students.


    "It would be pointless to make several people perform a task one person could finish. I doubt they can send so many people into Nanyuan. The government shouldn’t be so worthless that the enemy could smuggle too many members into the city. Also, if they really have so many members in the city, even the instructor would be in trouble. I doubt this will be the case."


    After making his conclusion, Su Yu pulled Chen Hao into the cafeteria. Inside, he found a corner and whispered, "Hide here. Remember to tremble with fear while you''re crouching. If there is only one enemy, try to make some noise. If there are two...run! Run like you''ve never before!"


    A side door was nearby so Chen Hao would be able to quickly leave the cafeteria. He asked, "How about you?"


    Su Yu pointed at the other corner and said, "I''ll be hiding there. Remember to not look at me or you''ll kill me. Understand?"


    "Got it." Chen Hao nodded in understanding. However, his face still turned sullen as he asked, "Yu, why don''t we go look for my dad?"


    "What stupid question is that? If we leave without escort, we''ll die. I don''t know what the n is, but your dad has probably been assigned his own task today as well. Stop thinking about all that. It''s pointless. Just pray that I won''t freeze from fearter or you''re dead."


    "Yu, you''re going to kill someone?" Chen Hao was aghast. "You won''t be able to do it. Do you want me to be the one attacking instead?"


    "You?" Su Yu took a deep breath and said, "You won''t be able to even break their defense. Just let me do it. Also, ording to the policy, if we really managed to kill someone from the cult, you might really be able to enter a war academy."


    Chen Hao''s eyes instantly lit up. All his fear from before vanished. Yes, there was really one such policy. If one could kill a cult member and prove the kill, then one would be granted bonus marks for the entrance examination.


    Of course, it had been years since anyone had earned any bonus marks this way. After all, the students were all Source Opening cultivators. How were they supposed to kill any cult members? They would probably fail to make the kill even with poison.


    Of course, it wasn''t like nobody had ever done it before. However, only absolute geniuses had performed such a feat before. But would an absolute genius even care about the bonus marks?


    "Yu...did you make this n...for me?"


    Chen Hao was greatly moved! Su Yu was only taking such a huge risk to help him enter a war academy! That was too touching! Chen Hao felt like crying!


    Su Yu rolled his eyes. What was this fellow thinking? He only thought that it would be safer for the two of them to stay in the cafeteria. At this time, staying with a crowd would make them a bigger target. As for Chen Hao''s entry into a war academy, they could talk about it if they really managed to kill an enemy.


    Su Yu wouldn''t dare take the credit for the kill anyway. How was he supposed to exin a Source Opening cultivator killing a Great Strength cultivator?


    "But if we really get the chance to kill one, it won''t be a bad idea to arrange the scene into something eptable before taking the credit and help Hao get some bonus marks for the entrance exam."


    It was nearly impossible for Source Opening cultivators to kill Great Strength cultivators. Nearly being the keyword there. It wasn''t like Great Strength cultivators couldn''t die. If they were careless enough to let someone cut their head off, they would still die.


    As for why a Great Strength cultivator would be stupid enough to be killed by some students...well, the authorities would have to ask the dead cultivator that. How was Su Yu supposed to know the answer?


    "In that case, it will be better for me to not kill with the Rip ability. I need to perform the kill with the saber."


    Su Yu tightened his grip on his saber. After activating the ability, both his hands would be filled with strength. That would be enough for him to kill the enemy so long as the enemy did not choose to run from him. And would a Great Strength cultivator run from a Source Opening cultivator? Very unlikely.