142: 58th in the standings

"Several years ago, when I had just advanced to the Nascent Soul stage, I chanced upon an old acquaintance from the Wuji Sect at the border."

Qiu Xuetong lowered her eyes, a hint of reminiscence surfacing in them. "He had a younger cousin named Li Hanchuan, who died at the hands of this 'Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator.' Unfortunately, my old acquaintance searched the area where the incident occurred for several years, but he didn't even catch a glimpse of the culprit's shadow."

"Could this old acquaintance of yours be Li Binghe?"

Nangong Yan's eyes narrowed sharply, and he asked with a tone of certainty.

"It is indeed him... Li Binghe, who is fifth on the Wuji Faction ranking list."

Qiu Xuetong raised her head, nodded slightly, and arched her brows as she added, "That Li Hanchuan was originally at the Peak Core Formation Stage, and the Body Refining Cultivation Technique he cultivated, the Blood Fiend Technique, was of a much higher grade than Black Rock's Black Obsidian Body. Yet, he still couldn't escape the hunt of the Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator. It is strange, however; for the ten years since then, this person has not appeared on any battlefield."

"He must have gone into seclusion!"

Nangong Yan and Jiang Wushe spoke almost simultaneously, their tones absolute.

"According to He Chen's description just now, that person's Cultivation Technique and methods are exactly the same as the Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator from back then. Advancing from the Early Core Formation Stage to the Middle Stage in ten years is not particularly strange."

Qiu Xuetong gently rubbed her cuffs with her fingertips, her tone carrying a hint of intrigue. "It is a pity that the Bitao Faction and the Wuji Faction do not border each other; otherwise, I could send a message to Li Binghe and let him come and investigate..."

"Hmph, why bother Li Binghe."

A sharp Sword Qi suddenly emanated from Jiang Wushe, his tone filled with disdain. "If this Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator dares to appear before me, I will surely make his Divine Soul completely perish!"

"It is naturally best if Fellow Daoist Jiang has such confidence."

Qiu Xuetong turned to look at him, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile that was not quite a smile. "However, I must remind you—if you do not want to capsize in the gutter, it would be best to purchase a Magic Treasure for suppressing souls to keep on your person."

Jiang Wushe let out a heavy cold snort and did not reply, but he was clear-headed in his heart.

Although a Sword Cultivator's Divine Soul is stronger than that of an ordinary Body Cultivator, that Azure Thunder Demonic Cultivator excels at Divine Soul attacks. If he were careless, he might really fall into the other party's hands.

Making preparations in advance was indeed not superfluous.

Just then, Qiu Xuetong changed the subject. Her gaze swept over the people present, and she bowed. "The unexpected turn of events in this resource point battle is largely due to flaws in my plan... I, Xuetong, have failed you, Fellow Daoists."

"Fellow Daoist Qiu, you are too hard on yourself. There is no such thing as a perfect plan in this world."

Nangong Yan reached out to support her with a gesture, his tone calm. "Bai Yifan and Yan Wushuang have both fallen, Ye Linfeng fled with serious injuries, and we have killed over two thousand Bitao Faction Cultivators in total... The overall battle results are already much better than before."

"It is a pity that Xiao Hanque severed his arm to survive, and I was unable to keep him."

Qiu Xuetong sighed slightly, her gaze finally fixing on the corpse of the Soul-Devouring Spider Mother in the black pool. She said solemnly, "For this battle, I will forgo the points... Let this corpse of the Soul-Devouring Demonic Spider serve as my war trophy, how about that?"

"Why not."

As the leader of the Qingming Sword Cultivators, Nangong Yan nodded immediately. "As long as Fellow Daoist Qiu does not feel at a disadvantage, that is fine."

"It is no disadvantage; the Demonic Core inside this Demonic Spider is of great use to me!"

Qiu Xuetong smiled and drove her poisonous flames to burn toward the Formation. "I still need to break the Formation here; I leave the rest of the matters to everyone."

"That goes without saying!"

Everyone nodded, exchanged glances, and set off to return to the surface.

To occupy this resource point, they needed to garrison it for a period of time to obtain the points.

Therefore, they had to immediately reorganize and repair the Formation nodes.

If the Bitao Faction reacted quickly and gathered a large army to attack, they would still have the Formation to rely on.

...One day later, Su Ling made his way back to the base city.

He immediately went to the central plaza and looked at the massive Formation light screen.

"Bai Yifan, Yan Wushuang, they actually both died!"

"Hm? How did Ye Linfeng's strength drop to the Peak Core Formation Stage?"

"I heard earlier that a great battle took place in the Wuwang Bone Forest. Could it be..."

"Your information is a bit late; the Wuwang Bone Forest resource point has already fallen."

A Cultivator who knew the inside story sighed. "In this battle, the other side dispatched a full six Nascent Soul Cultivators, as well as a Nascent Soul-level remnant soul... Our side's casualties exceeded two thousand!"

"Hiss... two thousand!"

The surrounding Cultivators gasped, finding it hard to believe.

"That's nothing. In the past week, almost all resource points bordering the Qingming Faction have been raided, and the total casualties have already approached ten thousand."

A Peak Core Formation Cultivator crossed his arms, his tone grave. "However, the losses were indeed the most severe here at the Wuwang Bone Forest."

"The Qingming Faction is trying to start an all-out war!"

"The actions are so coordinated; there must be an expert coordinating them from behind the scenes!"

"Unfortunately, our side has never been able to reach a consensus..."

"Shh, watch your tongue!"

"Let's go, let's go. There are more and more Nascent Soul Cultivators; how could we Core Formation Cultivators have any say in this?"

The surrounding Loose Cultivators shook their heads and sighed, leaving in twos and threes.

Su Ling looked at the ranking list and sighed slightly.

The names of Bai Yifan and Yan Wushuang had already disappeared.

Ye Linfeng's cultivation had fallen to the Peak Core Formation Stage; although he managed to escape, he must have paid a huge price.

Xiao Hanque's cultivation had not dropped, but facing that female Nascent Soul Cultivator who could control Nascent Soul remnant souls, his situation was likely no better.

In this battle, the Bitao Faction had indeed suffered heavy losses.

The only one to profit, he reckoned, was himself.

Killing Black Rock was only one hundred thousand points.

The real bulk came from those hundreds of Qingming Faction Core Formation Cultivators.

All in all, they added over one million points to his total.

At this stage of the National War, teams with over a thousand members basically all had Nascent Soul Cultivators accompanying them.

In large-scale group battles, points have to be split evenly with others.

For a lone Nascent Soul Cultivator to hunt so many points at once is extremely difficult.

The main reason Su Ling had such a large harvest was that the four Sword Cultivators and the female Nascent Soul Cultivator saw that the situation was decided and were confident enough to chase after Bai Yifan and the others.

Thousands of Core Formation Cultivators were in a chaotic battle, split into multiple battlefields within a hundred-mile radius.

This created an excellent opportunity for Su Ling.

Coupled with the powerful control of the Soul-Devouring Spider Mother within the ten thousand souls banner and the Power of Lost Souls filling the entire battlefield, Su Ling was able to cast the instant version of the Ghost Soul Arrow without hesitation, supplemented by the Azure Heaven Thunder Method, which has excellent attack and speed, to quickly harvest the battlefield.

Only then could he obtain so many points in such a short time.

It could be called a perfect alignment of favorable weather, favorable terrain, and favorable human conditions; not one could be missing.

The final result was: [Han Yu, Core Formation Mid-stage, 1.55 million points, ranked 58th.]

From over five thousandth place, he leaped into the top one hundred of the ranking list.

He was only a little over one hundred thousand points away from entering the top fifty.

The speed of his ascent had already attracted the attention of quite a few people.