Chapter 175 Biding For Time

Mary, the blonde Sky Plane cultivator sent to find Crux, stared into the soldier's eyes with a penetrating gaze. "What's that? I didn't hear an answer."

The soldier looked to the ground, finding himself hanging fifty feet above the ground, held by the woman's grip. "I-I was saying that we needed to use…."

A massive ice spear materialized twenty feet from the woman's face, pointing at her before turning upward.

"My technique." A cool voice replied from below, "It proves useful when we're overrun but it's also costly."

Mary looked at the spear, [crudely made] without refined edges, with a mocking smile. "I take it you're the person who will claim to have built this army?"

"Claim is a rather suggestive word, considering that's what I've done." Evalyn replied dryly, looking at the woman, still holding her soldier above the ground.

Lacking a further need for the soldier, the cultivator threw the man at the Ice General to test her reflexes. However, Brad jumped out from the side and caught the man effortlessly.

It was a strange exchange where the blonde didn't stop staring at the cultivator.

"You honestly claim you trained thousands of people with an earth-grade breathing technique scroll?" Mary asked sarcastically.

Evalyn smiled in amusement, pulled the leather satchel on her back to the front, opened the clip, and dumped out a thousand sheets of paper.

The woman's eyes widened in shock, looking at the sheets on the ground. "A-Are those all cultivation techniques?"

"Indeed they are." The Ice General smiled, "Thousands of them. The amount we can make in a day is practically unlimited; that's why I can give resources to every soldier to build their strength without issues. I pulled dozens of techniques off the internet."

Mary's cheek twitched, looking at the techniques lying on the ground unceremoniously.

In the Sky Plane, it could take years, decades, or even centuries to earn a technique from a faction. Yet the blonde somehow duplicated them thousands of times and dumped them out without concern. It was offensive!

"How did you do this?" The Cultivation Lord asked coldly, staring at the techniques with crazed eyes.

"We used a device known as a [printer]." Evalyn explained, "Its only purpose is to duplicate visual items like this."

"Teach me this technique immediately." Mary demanded.

"It's not a technique." The Ice General replied soberly, "We're using a machine."

The cultivator gazed down at the blonde with a strange expression. "Then give it to me, this printer."

"I'll gladly do that, but you'll also need electricity." Evalyn replied, pointing to the lights above the walls, illuminating the nighttime base, "It's the energy powering those lights."

Mary looked at the lights in perplexion. "Those aren't made of Soul Qi?"

"No, it's not." The Ice General replied, "Elemental Qi didn't exist a month ago. Everything you're seeing is made without cultivation."

The cultivator turned to her four subordinates, checking to see if they were as nonplussed as she was—they were. They couldn't believe their eyes or ears.

She looked around with narrowed eyes. "You mortals are—"

"Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU!"

Boom! BOOM! Boom, boom, Boom!

"Hold them back!"

A vein on Mary's forehead bulged when a new wave of insane humans charged the walls, leading to a melee. "I suppose they did say they needed support. Still, it's aggravating."

The cultivator flew a hundred feet in the air. Overlooking the area, she waved her hand twice.

A flurry of wind blades shot over the walls, making everyone's clothing ruffle. Not a moment later, trees began cracking and falling.

Everyone looked over the wall and saw the devastation she had caused. Hundreds of trees were shredded in each attack, ripped apart like the countless sick cut to ribbons.

It was an overwhelming display of force that leveled the entire area. Despite that—

Mary's eyes narrowed in confusion, looking at the soldiers and Immortals. The only two expressions they had were [relief] for getting a break or concern for the cultivators.

No one stared at the overwhelming devastation she wrought, finding it awe-inspiring. There was something very wrong with that!

"Thank you for helping us." Evalyn said abruptly, seeing the woman's rising suspicions, "Would you like to see the printer now?"

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The blonde internally prayed the woman would comply, preventing her from realizing the south mountainside wasn't cut in a logging operation.

At present, it was riddled with bodies, explosions, and debris and wasn't a significant sight in the chaos. However, if the woman looked closely, she'd have major questions.

Unfortunately, the woman was a Cultivation Lord in the Sky Plane. The idea that mortals wouldn't be appalled by her skills was unforgivable!

Whoooooooosh!

BOOM! Boom! Boom, boom, boom, BOOM! Boom!

Evalyn's eyes widened in shock when a wall of wind blades crashed down from the moonlit sky. The cultivator had attacked at a ghostly speed she only saw at the last second.

"Why are you attacking me!?" Evalyn cried with a beating heart, "I've meant you no harm and haven't offended you, have I!?"

The four cultivators on Mary's team got into position, preparing to massacre everyone as they awaited their orders. All the Immortals and soldiers became tense, trying not to move but preparing to aim their arrows if necessary.

"I was right about you." Mary said wickedly, "You're hiding your power.

While you look like a beginner Sky Realm cultivator with a breathing technique you shouldn't possess, you're actually quite skilled."

"And if I wasn't?" Evalyn asked, trying to bide for more time, preparing Crux for their counterattack.

They used a Spirit Qi communication technique to communicate.

Crux hadn't moved by request; if she came out, the cultivators would attack [seriously], and they'd die. Crux couldn't fight four Heaven Realm cultivators and the Cultivation Lord simultaneously.

"You would've died." Mary replied dryly, "If you couldn't dodge that lowly attack, it'd prove you were a simple puppet. I want the people with skill; everyone else is irrelevant."

"I'm still alive." Evalyn replied cautiously, "Is that enough?"

The cultivator laugh-scoffed, turning to the south side mountainside with an exasperated expression. "I confirmed you weren't a simple puppet—

—and that there is no way in hell you did that. Who did?"

"I'm not sure what his name is." The Ice General said, "However, I can say that he's provided me with resources to build this army for an unknown reason. He saved us from an attack earlier."

Mary locked eyes with the blonde. "I want [their] name. Don't make me repeat myself."

"They didn't speak English." Evalyn replied, her heart thumping, "He has been giving me direct transfers and techniques to print."

"So it's Crux." The cultivator smiled maliciously, "She's the only person sent here who didn't speak the mortal language they got assigned to."

"Sure, Crux." The Ice General replied dismissively, "Look, we're just trying to survive; we haven't asked for anything.

So can you please stop trying to kill us for things we don't understand?"

"Silence, mortal!" Mary snapped coldly, waving her hand and attacking the blonde with lethal intent.

Evalyn watched the attack in hyper-slow motion, triggered by [Minor Focus], a Spirit Qi technique Kaze gave her to improve mental processing temporarily. Combined with her preparedness, she dodged easily.

The cultivator turned to her subordinates arrogantly, not even checking if the blonde was dead. "Rammy, inspect that mountainside. See if the attack occured in one shot or if it—"

"Lord Emerson, behind you!" A man yelled.

Mary's eyes widened when she sensed ice blades behind her. She realized that she had underestimated the blonde's skill to an absurd degree.

Not only had she survived, she also summoned blades behind her back where the others couldn't see them and limited the dry-ice effect.

"Gah!" Mary coughed, feeling her body rattle unnaturally when a blade hit the back of her spinal cord, "You insolent insect!"

The surprise attack was weak, indicative of the lack of kinetic force in her attack. However, it was strong enough to leave the woman stunned for a fraction of a second while the other twenty blades slashed at her neck simultaneously.

It was a bewildering attack that shocked the Cultivation Lord to her core. Even at her level and with centuries of experience, she didn't have a Spirit Qi technique, let alone one that multiplied short-term concentration.

No one in question had one, not Crux, Rayton Blackfoot, or her team members. They were so rare that the thought didn't cross her mind.

That left her at a loss for words to explain how the weak mortal behind her was using dozens of blades to repeatedly cut the same points with greater speed and precision than she had! Her actions were nothing short of surgical.

It was a serious problem. After feeling a large blade shoot forward to attack a spot weakened with a dozen micro-slashes, she felt she might get seriously wounded or die. However—

BOOM!

"Gah!" Evalyn coughed, rolling on the ground. She was hyper-focused on the surprise attack and forgot about the other cultivators.

Everything happened in two seconds; it was incomprehensible, by normal perspectives.

Now free, Mary turned to Evalyn, recovering. The other four did the same, focusing on the blonde. However, they found the tables had turned when they felt immense Qi pressure coming from below.

The Heaven Realm cultivators looked down just in time to watch a thousand soldiers and Immortals, led by Sandra and Aaron, release Guided Arrows at them.