Fuli.
Or more accurately, Fuli Prefecture, the Floating Glass Immortal Province, territory belonging to the Mysterious Divine Path Sect.
As mentioned before, the Mysterious Divine Path Sect was unlike any other sect. It did not belong to any nation, but rather occupied an entire prefecture on its own, effectively functioning as an independent state.
The forty thousand Daoist disciples of the sect were supported by nearly ten million mortals living under their jurisdiction. In return, the sect offered these mortals protection.
Chen Kuang had first heard of the number "forty thousand disciples" back in the Liang Kingdom's Heavenly Prison, and at the time, he had no real concept of what that meant.
Only now did he begin to comprehend just how terrifying that number truly was.
Within the Central Domain of Cangyuan, any sect with more than a thousand disciples could already be considered a major power.
Take, for example, the Three Calamities Sect, the largest sect in the Zhou Kingdom. Even at full strength, its total disciples numbered under four thousand.
Heavenly Sound Pavilion had fewer than two thousand members, and the Martial Saint Pavilion had even fewer, barely three hundred.
However, the Martial Saint Pavilion was a special case. Its members were elites, valued for quality over quantity.
Most were already established cultivators, even founders of their own sects, such as Bai Fen of the Firebrand Sect and Cang Xing of the Plum Sect.
If you counted the disciples under their individual lineages, the number would easily exceed ten thousand.
The only two forces that could compete with the Mysterious Divine Path Sect in numbers were Liberty Mountain, whose disciples were scattered across the world, and the so-called "Buddhist Kingdom," the Wugou Pure Land.
Liberty Mountain had taught far more than forty thousand students under its Confucian Master, but most had long since left and were spread throughout Cangyuan.
Typically, only about a thousand people resided at Liberty Mountain at any given time, many of whom were ordinary folk with no cultivation.
In contrast, the monastics of Wugou Pure Land numbered a staggering one hundred thousand. Every temple in Cangyuan was constructed to face toward the Pure Land in reverent tribute.
Still, despite their numbers, the monks of the Pure Land were not known for battle. They avoided conflict, even to the point of letting themselves be killed rather than break the vow against taking life.
There were recorded instances where monks died at the hands of evildoers simply because they refused to fight back.
As a result, attitudes toward the Pure Land varied, some revered it, while others scoffed.
It wasn't until a public outrage erupted over such incidents that a group of Pure Land monks voluntarily broke their vows against killing in order to defend compassion outside the Buddhist Kingdom.
Otherwise, the Pure Land would be caught in a storm of internal and external crises.
Only the Mysterious Divine Path Sect combined massive numbers with overwhelming combat strength, and an infamous penchant for meddling.
They didn't just meddle, they enforced. Officially, they called it "persuasion," but if you didn't heed their advice and violated the sect's moral codes, they would simply beat you into submission.
Their dominance wasn't established through rhetoric but was earned through a blood-soaked history of action.
Of course, that bloody history belonged to those who had refused to listen.
That said, even the Mysterious Divine Path Sect wasn't invincible.
Over the course of thousands of years, the sect had endured many hardships, collapsing celestial mountains, fallen sect halls, changes in leadership. It had happened more than once.
But those turbulent times were overshadowed by their many periods of glory and thus existed only in the whispered pages of unofficial histories.
Their conflict with Bitian Prefecture was one such incident.
"So... I've landed in the battlefield between Bitian Prefecture and the Mysterious Divine Path Sect?"
Chen Kuang launched himself into the air, becoming a stream of flowing light as he concealed his presence and darted through the battlefield. While retreating, he carefully surveyed the terrain.
With the passive skill "You Can't See Me", as long as he didn't wish to be seen, slipping through such a chaotic battlefield unnoticed was trivial.
He narrowed his eyes, watching disciples of the Mysterious Divine Path Sect fight desperately to repel the invasion by Bitian Prefecture. It puzzled him.
"I thought the Mysterious Divine Path Sect had initiated the war against Bitian Prefecture... but the battlefield is in Fuli, and they're the ones getting pushed back?"
"Bitian Prefecture is actually this strong? What era is this?"
A sect capable of overwhelming the Mysterious Divine Path Sect, and then vanishing completely from history? The passage of time was truly merciless.
To obtain more intel, he needed to interact with someone on the battlefield.
The Ancient Battlefield of Meditation would automatically integrate his identity.
Chen Kuang guessed that he was now being treated as a disciple of the Mysterious Divine Path Sect. Pretending to be injured and falling back to seek out a current commanding officer would be the simplest way to gather intelligence.
Since the historical outcome had been a victory for the Mysterious Divine Path Sect, this battlefield might not pose serious danger to him.
As long as he avoided the core clashes, waited for the sect to win, he could move on to the next battlefield, or even leave the Ancient Battlefield of Meditation entirely.
But in his heart, an ominous feeling refused to go away.
Martial Saint Mu Zhao had spent an entire month in seclusion inside this battlefield.
Since he had left behind a Dao Domain, could his preparations really be limited to destroying the teleportation jade slips and trapping everyone inside?
Chen Kuang landed on the edge of the floating city. The sounds of slaughter still echoed unceasingly.
Looking up, he saw numerous cultivators locked in fierce battle in the skies above.
Boom!
A Daoist disciple was slammed against the city wall, strangled by the neck. Red-eyed and furious, he drove his longsword into his enemy's body.
His opponent, a Bitian Prefecture disciple, let out a distorted screech, then abruptly lowered his head and bit into the Daoist disciple's face.
"AHHH!!!"
With that bite, flesh and bone were torn away in one savage motion. The Daoist screamed in agony, then went limp, clearly dead.
The Bitian disciple, ecstatic, swallowed the torn flesh whole. Then he ripped the longsword from his chest.
In an instant, all his wounds healed.
Chen Kuang's pupils shrank.
He saw it clearly, after swallowing the human flesh, the Bitian disciple's meridians began to emit an eerie red glow.
Blood threads squirmed beneath his skin, crawling through protruding veins, healing even the wounds that had pierced his heart.
Simultaneously, the man's aura skyrocketed.
His cultivation surged, from the peak of the Sea-Cleaving Realm, all the way to the Moon-Embracing Realm!
Chen Kuang scanned the battlefield. Similar scenes were playing out everywhere.
Bitian Prefecture disciples were increasing their cultivation by eating people!
Chen Kuang drew a sharp breath. As far as he knew, only one kind of being could grow stronger this way, not humans, but the Night Barbarians!
Sealed beyond Mount Xunmi in the northern wilderness, Night Barbarians could absorb Spiritual Energy directly from humans, turning them into fuel to raise their own power.
In ancient times, the Night Barbarians were also known as: "Demons."
So these Bitian Prefecture "Demonic Path" disciples, were they imitating the Night Barbarians to gain similar powers?
Using war to fuel their advance?
"YAAAHHH!!"
The Bitian disciple who had just devoured flesh let out an inhuman roar, his body shrouded in blood-red demonic aura.
Boiling blood pulsed visibly through his swollen veins, muscles bulging grotesquely. His eyes locked onto his next target, Chen Kuang.
Whoosh!
He suddenly appeared in front of Chen Kuang, arms spread wide like a giant bat, blocking out the flames above.
His eyes blazed with murderous intent. Both fists clenched and smashed down toward Chen Kuang's head.
The force of the blow caused the city walls around them to collapse inward, forming a spiderweb-shaped crater. Stone bricks shattered and fell like hail.
If that hit landed, Chen Kuang's head would surely explode.
Just then, the Salt and plum Sword hanging at Chen Kuang's waist suddenly trembled violently.
He blinked, startled.
The next instant, he felt a sudden lightness at his waist. The Bitian disciple before him froze in mid-air, then exploded into a mist of blood.
The Saltplum Sword became a streak of light, shot upward, then descended behind Chen Kuang.
"Huh?" Chen Kuang blinked and turned.
There, atop the city walls, stood a white-haired swordsman. He caught the Saltplum Sword gently with one hand.
Jiang Yunqing hopped down and looked at Chen Kuang, nodding slightly.
"You were a bit far. It took me some time to find your position."
Chen Kuang understood.
Jiang Yunqing had deliberately left the sword with him as a beacon, so he could quickly locate Chen Kuang after entering the battlefield.
Now that he had found him, he had come immediately, and saved him just in time.
But Chen Kuang's expression remained grave. He didn't feel the slightest bit relieved, only a chill, like he had plunged into an icy abyss.
Normally, only one person would be assigned to each battlefield.
Chen Kuang had assumed that Mu Zhao's strategy was to trap each of them separately in a high-tier battlefield and eliminate them one by one.
But Jiang Yunqing was here.
Which meant, very likely, that everyone else was trapped in this same battlefield as well!