Chapter 800: Declaring War!
One hundred and fifty kilometers southeast of Flaming Sun Island, there was a single gourd-shaped island with a couple of wooden towers built on it.
A hundred or so colorfully dressed martial practitioners with deep frowns were gathered together on the island.
Song Tingyu, Xie Jingxuan and dozens of Blood Spear martial practitioners were discussing something on the island right now.
Xie Jingxuan was staring at these people coldly and with an unfriendly look on her face.
"I'm really sorry, but we cannot fulfill our promise." The leader of the group, Ge Rongguang said helplessly.
Ge Rongguang was formerly the sect master of Sky Flame. He was at the early stage of the Fragmentation Realm, and he enjoyed a little bit of reputation in this particular area.
Sky Flame used to be Illusory Demon Sect's number one Copper rank force.
Unfortunately for them, the invasion of the Blue Ghoul Race had started with Sky Flame. Huge losses were incurred, and many of their experts were killed in a very short period of time.
At the time, Yu Lingwei happened to be fighting the three ghoul races at Prism Continent, and Wen Bin and the Illusory Demon Sect's didn't react as quickly as they should. When they finally noticed that the situation was urgent and sent their experts over to reinforce Sky Flame, they had already lost a large majority of its experts.
The number one Copper rank force Sky Flame swiftly declined and was disbanded due to the Blue Ghoul Race's attack.
The Sky Flame martial practitioners who got lucky and survived ran away and became scattered at all kinds of places.
Ge Rongguang was one of them.
On this and some other nearby islands, there were almost three hundred martial practitioners who had escaped their homes after they've been invaded by the Blue Ghoul Race.
There were a lot of Fulfillment and Fragmentation Realm martial practitioners in this group, and even more Netherpassage and Manifestation Realm martial practitioners. They would've been the core strength of a sect if they were put on Scarlet Tide Continent.
Right now, Flaming Sun Island had wealth, resources, and a bright future ahead of them. However, manpower was the one thing they lacked.
Earlier, Song Tingyu had sought them out and tried to persuade them into joining Flaming Sun Island as a vassal force with the lure of great benefits.
Originally, the negotiations went nowhere at the beginning.
It wasn't until Qin Lie had returned and told her that he had built a teleportation formation that connected Flaming Sun Island to the Ruined Lands, that she finally managed to persuade Ge Rongguang and achieve a breakthrough.
The outcasts led by Ge Rongguang had promised a few days earlier to break off from Illusory Demon Sect officially and even invite some of their old friends to join Flaming Sun Island too.
Both parties were supposed to have come to a mutual understanding.
However, when the Illusory Demon Sect experts led by Wen Bin suddenly arrived at the Setting Sun Islands and gave them the three-day deadline, when Ge Rongguang and his people saw the sharp turn of tides, they decided to hold off their secret agreement with Flaming Sun Island temporarily.
"Please understand where we're coming from, Miss Song." Ge Rongguang smiled bitterly and explained in a gloomy tone, "It's not that I don't want to fulfill our promise. We just… don't want to get involved and get killed offhandedly later by Illusory Demon Sect."
"There is no way Blood Fiend Sect and the Setting Sun Islands are a match for Illusory Demon Sect. After you and Illusory Demon Sect had become enemies, we… were put in a very difficult spot."
"Elder Wen is a vengeful person. Just the day before yesterday, his disciples came to us and warned us not to interact with you. If we do, we will all be treated as traitors and killed."
"Right now, Elder Wen holds absolute power in Illusory Demon Sect. We really don't dare provoke his ire."
"Although we really wish to leave Illusory Demon Sect, the prerequisite to that objective is of course… our safety."
"Right now you cannot even protect yourselves."
Song Tingyu frowned and pondered for a moment. She nodded slightly. "I can understand your concerns, Senior Gu."
"If you can prove that you aren't afraid of Illusory Demon Sect and that you can guarantee our safety, I can swear an oath right now that I will join Flaming Sun Island without a second thought!" Ge Rongguang's expression straightened as he said seriously, "We have all witnessed your sincerity and your efforts. We admit that Gray Island's artificers and their ability to refine the Blazing Profound Bombs, high grade spirit armors, and spirit artifacts are very attractive to us too."
"On the other hand, Illusory Demon Sect failed to send their Soul Altar experts to aid us on first notice when the Blue Ghoul Race had invaded Sky Flame. Their internal strife caused our comrades to be killed in action and devoured by the evil races!"
"We have no love for Illusory Demon Sect at all!"
"But they are a Silver rank force after all. We cannot fight them, so we can only bear with their existence."
"All we want is to keep on living and not die for no particular reason after we escaped this place."
"Please understand where we're coming from, Miss Song."
Ge Rongguang looked sincere, bitter and helpless all at the same time. He bowed slightly and begged for Song Tingyu's understanding.
"It's okay, we understand your difficulties, senior. We shall take care of our problems with Illusory Demon Sect first." Song Tingyu smiled and said in an easygoing tone, "Two days later, when a victor is decided, Tingyu shall come over again and visit you all."
"We will definitely wait for you to come, Miss Song!" Ge Rongguang said.
He really did admire Song Tingyu from the bottom of his heart.
Song Tingyu had rushed to their aid almost immediately after they escaped from the Heavenly Slaughter Continent. She also helped raising money to build the wooden towers, sent over a lot of food and the most basic cultivation materials.
She kept explaining to them the benefits of staying in Flaming Sun Island and the great skills of Gray Island's artificers. She told them that Gray Island could forge them spirit artifacts and spirit armors if they were willing to join Flaming Sun Island's banner.
Song Tingyu's attitude was impeccable, and the conditions she offered were incredibly attractive.
A few days ago, when she told them that Flaming Sun Island now had a teleportation channel that connected to the Ruined Lands, which enables anyone to reach the Terminator Sect straight away, Ge Rongguang's group finally agreed to join her.
If Wen Bin hadn't suddenly shown up, they would have made preparations to move to Flaming Sun Island already.
"Then we shall take our leave."
Song Tingyu shot Xie Jingxuan a meaningful glance, and they both got up a crystalline war chariot.
They were just about to leave when a bone chain on a Blood Spear martial practitioner's wrist started ringing in an odd note.
The person took off the bone chain and gripped it tightly, sensing its contents with closed eyes.
A while later, his eyes gleamed bloodily, and his body trembled.
He abruptly walked towards Song Tingyu and lowered his head, whispering a little something to her.
Song Tingyu's eyes lit up bit by bit.
"Do you have time, Senior Ge?" She suddenly looked up and asked.
"Do you mean now?" Ge Rongguang looked surprised.
"Yes, I mean now."
"Of course I do."
"If you don't mind, would you like to get up on our Flowing Gold Fire Phoenix and visit the Pan Family's territory?" Song Tingyu invited him.
"The Pan Family's territory?" Ge Rongguang looked moved, "The Illusory Demon Sect's people are gathered there. Are you… trying to negotiate for peace?"
Before Song Tingyu could answer, Ge Rongguang nodded and spoke to himself, "Enemies are easily made, but not easily reconciled. For now, asking for peace is the wisest choice. As long as the Gray Island is willing to sell Illusory Demon Sect the Blazing Profound Bombs, and as long as the Blood Fiend Sect is willing to back down a little, Illusory Demon Sect will take a step back too and stop pushing you to leave the Setting Sun Islands. If Flaming Sun Island can come to good terms with the Illusory Demon Sect, we, the guys whom they abandoned, probably won't be hated for joining Flaming Sun Island."
"Negotiate for peace?" Song Tingyu smiled and shook her head. A bright gleam burst out of her eyes as she said, "We aren't going there to negotiate. We are heading there… to declare war!"
"Declare war?!" Ge Rongguang looked shocked.
……
At a giant island that used to belong to the Pan Family.
Seven large flying spirit artifacts could be found parked at the island's shore. Nearly three thousand Illusory Demon Sect experts were either cultivating inside the flying spirit artifacts or moving around on the island.
Four days ago, the island still belonged to the Blood Fiend Sect. The ore veins on this island were all excavated by their martial practitioners.
When Wen Bin showed up, he immediately seized control of the island and chased away all Blood Fiend Sect martial practitioners.
At the highest mountain peak of the island.
Wen Bin, Wen He, Chu Miaodan, Shi Xiuling, Ju Ruijie and a dozen or so Nirvana Realm martial practitioners were discussing important matters with frowns on their faces.
"Have Terminator Sect and Heavenly Sword Mountain said what their stance is?" Sitting with his legs spread, Wen Bin asked with a gloomy expression and sinisterly gleaming eyes.
Despite having decided to chase away Blood Fiend Sect and Flaming Sun Island from the Setting Sun Islands since three days ago, Wen Bin was still being very cautious.
The reason he gave Blood Fiend Sect and Flaming Sun Island three days to make their decision was because he wasn't sure if Terminator Sect and Heavenly Sword Mountain would interfere with the matter.
He knew just how well loved Qin Lie was by the Forefather Terminator and Li Mu.
He also knew that Forefather Terminator almost never played by the rules and scorned many of the unwritten rules of the Land of Chaos. Most of the time, he did whatever he wanted.
He was afraid that the Forefather Terminator would tear apart the rules that existed between the Silver rank forces.
He was also afraid that Li Mu might persuade Duan Qianjie to interfere with the battle that was soon to befall the Setting Sun Islands.
"Forefather Terminator was injured during the battle against the three ghoul races, and he is now recuperating in seclusion. He won't have the time to care about a small matter like this." Chu Miaodan snorted coldly. "Although Shen Kui, Xu Ran, and Lei Yan are also scary, they have always obeyed the unspoken rules between the Silver rank forces of the Land of Chaos. They will not forcefully interfere with such conflicts without any reason or excuse."
"Last time, Sect Master Yu told me that the reason Duan Qianjie rushed over to help Qin Lie was purely because he owed him a favor. The two of them are not actually close to each other," Shi Xiuling said softly.
"Terminator Sect and Heavenly Sword Mountain have chosen to stay neutral then. In that case, I'm really looking forward to see how Blood Fiend Sect and Flaming Sun Island choose to deal with our attack!" Wen Bin sneered.
"Gold Sun Island must stay where they are!" Killing intent appeared in Chu Miaodan's eyes.
"Qin Lie is the disciple Forefather Terminator had admitted himself. He… must be kept alive," Shi Xiuling reminded them.
"Does that mean we can kill anyone else on the Setting Sun Islands but him?" Chu Miaodan asked.
Shi Xiuling didn't say anything this time.
"The artificers of Gray Island must be kept alive too. They are all precious wealth, and no harm can befall them." Wen Bin said.
"Of course." Chu Miaodan nodded.
They had made up their minds since a long time ago to deal with Flaming Sun Island and Blood Fiend Sect harshly if they weren't willing to submit to Illusory Demon Sect.
The reason they gave them three days' time to prepare was only because they wanted to see if Terminator Sect and Heavenly Sword Mountain would interfere.
Since neither Heavenly Sword Mountain nor Terminator Sect had reacted excessively to their actions, their worries were soon replaced by burning greed and bloodthirst.