Li Yu and Cyra stood before the sheer rock face, the silent, invisible barrier of a grand formation humming in the air before them. The power radiating from it was very small, well hidden, a testament to the skill and resources of its creators. A direct assault would be foolish, announcing their presence to everyone within.
"This formation is powerful," Li Yu said, his voice a low whisper. "It's designed to conceal, but it will almost certainly have detection arrays woven into it that we cannot see. I don't have much experience with formations or how to deal with them besides brute force. Do you have any ideas Cyra?"
"My mirage arts can bend light and spiritual sense," Cyra replied. As she spoke, six beautiful, semi-translucent illusionary hands manifested from her back, shimmering like a heat haze. Her real hands remained at her sides as her six illusionary hands began to weave intricate patterns in the air before them. "If I weave a cloak of illusion around us, we should appear as nothing more than a natural ripple in the air's spiritual energy. It might be enough to fool their arrays but there's no guarantee."
"It's our best chance," Li Yu agreed, watching her spectral hands dance through the air. The complexity of the technique was breathtaking, a testament to her unique and ancient lineage.
The illusionary hands moved faster, a blur of graceful motion. The air around Li Yu and Cyra began to shimmer and distort. The illusion deepened, folding the light and their own spiritual presence inward until they seemed to simply fade from existence, becoming a small, mobile patch of empty space. With a shared nod, they moved forward, stepping directly into the humming barrier.
They felt a strange, tingling sensation as they passed through the formation, a feeling like stepping through a cold, invisible curtain. For a terrifying moment, Li Yu felt a sharp probe of spiritual sense sweep over them, but it passed by without stopping, seemingly unable to perceive their cloaked forms. No alarms blared, no defensive measures activated. It would seem like her technique had worked.
They found themselves in a long, dark, and winding tunnel that sloped steadily downwards, deep into the heart of the mountain. Their pace was slow and cautious, their senses extended as they moved through the oppressive darkness. After a few minutes of silent travel, the only sound was the faint, distant dripping of water, they saw a pale light ahead.
They emerged from the tunnel onto a high ledge overlooking a scene of pure, industrial-scale horror. The mountain range was hollow, a vast, cavernous valley excavated from the rock, stretching for miles in every direction. The entire valley floor was a massive encampment, a sprawling city of black tents and grim, iron structures that seemed to absorb the pale light cast by glowing crystals embedded in the cavern ceiling.
There must have been a formation set up here to hide any sensing from spiritual sense. He didn't sense anything strange with this mountain range from the outside. Li Yu made a mental note to be more careful, his spiritual sense couldn't detect everything. He could have been right on top of this mountain range, none the wiser it was actually hollow inside.
The encampment was filled with prisoners. Cages upon cages, constructed from a dark, metallic alloy, were stacked high in immense, warehouse-like structures that were open to the air. They were filled with the desperate, hollow-eyed faces of the people who had been stolen from their homes.
There were tens of thousands of them, perhaps hundreds of thousands, a sea of humanity stretching as far as the eye could see. The air was thick with the stench of fear, sweat, and despair, a miasma that was physically nauseating.
In one cage, an old man held the hand of a young girl, likely his granddaughter, whispering words of comfort that were lost in the low, sorrowful din of the masses. In another, a young mother clutched her infant to her chest, trying to shield the child from the horrifying reality of their prison.
They watched in grim silence as a squad of guards, clad in black armor, opened a massive cage. They roughly herded out a group of a hundred prisoners, their movements efficient and devoid of any emotion.
The prisoners, weak and terrified, were chained together and led towards a massive, fortress-like structure at the far end of the valley, from which a faint, sickly red light pulsed, throbbing like a diseased heart. Some time later, the same squad of guards returned, their chains now empty.
Li Yu's fists clenched, his knuckles white. The implication was clear and horrifying. This was a processing plant for human lives, a place where people were consumed for some dark purpose. He was furious from the sight he saw, so much suffering, he needed to act. He needed to stop this nightmare. But as he scanned the camp, he knew it wouldn't be simple.
The guards were numerous and disciplined, most of them at the Foundation Establishment level which wouldn't be a problem. But deeper in the camp, near the central fortress, he could sense several hidden, powerful auras, all of them well into the Core Formation realm. What if there were people here they couldn't handle, like soul formation experts or maybe even higher?
The scale of this operation was massive, they have poured in a lot of resources and labor into this mission of theirs. There would be no way it would be protected by only weak forces.
He was stuck in a state of agonizing indecision. If he attacked now, he might save some of the people who were about to be sacrificed, but a premature assault could get him and Cyra killed, dooming everyone else anyways. If he waited, he might learn more about the enemy's leadership and strength, but more innocent people would die with every passing minute. The sight of another group of prisoners being led to their doom was a physical blow, a weight of responsibility settling on his shoulders.
He decided that he had to act, feeling that he could escape if the situation turned dire. Those lives should be protected if he could do it and he was in such a position to do so.
Just as he gathered his energy, the world exploded.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rocked the entire cavern. High above, the very concealment formation that had hidden the valley from the world shattered like a pane of glass, brilliant cracks of golden light spreading across the cavern's ceiling before it dissolved entirely, revealing the dark, moonlit sky above.
Through the newly opened hole, several massive, flying warships descended, their hulls painted a brilliant, forest green. A loud, booming voice, amplified by spiritual energy until it shook the very foundations of the mountain, roared down from the lead ship.
"YOU VILE SCUM, WE'VE FINALLY FOUND YOU! THE FOREST OF THE RADIANT DAWN IS HERE TO PURGE YOUR KIND FROM THIS WORLD! THOSE OF THE MIDNIGHT INFERNAL HEGEMONY AND YOUR SUPPORTERS WILL BE CLEANSED FROM THIS WORLD!"
From the decks of the warships, thousands of cultivators descended like a righteous rain. They wore robes of vibrant green, and on their backs was the emblem of a brilliant yellow sun with a sword pointed downwards in front of it. They ranged in power from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation, and their faces were filled with a cold, righteous fury.
The camp of the Midnight Infernal Hegemony, thrown into chaos by the surprise attack, began to rally. Guards swarmed out of their barracks, their own dark, sinister auras flaring to life. The battle was joined in an instant.
The people trapped in the caves all looked upward, with renewed hope in their eyes. Someone had come to save them, please hurry and save us, they all thought as well.
Li Yu, who had been poised to strike, paused by the entrance that the new group had made. Cyra placed a calming hand on his arm. "Wait," she whispered. "We should stay hidden and observe first. Let's see who these people are."
Li Yu nodded, settling back into the shadows of the ledge. They now had names. The group who were taking human lives were the Midnight Infernal Hegemony. The group that came in declaring they wanted to wipe out the Hegemony and save the people here were the Forest of the Radiant Dawn.
The battle began in earnest among the lowest-ranked cultivators. A young Foundation Establishment disciple from the Forest of the Radiant Dawn roared, and the image of a great, golden lion appeared behind him which was his martial spirit. He threw a punch, and the lion spirit roared in unison, imbuing his fist with a brilliant, sun-like light that sent a Hegemony member flying.
His opponent, a lithe woman with a cruel sneer, recovered quickly. A shadowy, twin-headed serpent, her own martial spirit, coiled around her arm. She lashed out with her chain-whip, and the serpent spirit merged with it, transforming the inert metal into a living weapon that hissed and struck with venomous fangs, forcing the lion disciple onto the defensive.
Elsewhere, two Radiant Dawn swordswomen, whose martial spirits were elegant, long-necked herons, fought in perfect sync. Their spirits danced in the air around them, mimicking their sword movements and firing sharp blasts of wind energy, pinning down a hulking Hegemony brute.
The brute's martial spirit was a massive, plate-armored boar. He wasn't fast, but every time he slammed his massive club into the ground, the boar spirit stomped in unison, sending a shockwave of dark energy rippling through the earth, forcing the graceful swordswomen to constantly reposition.
The fighting was a chaotic, brilliant, and brutal tapestry of flashing techniques and clashing martial spirits. The Radiant Dawn cultivators fought with a bright, explosive energy, their techniques shining with golden and green light. The Hegemony cultivators fought with a darker, more insidious power, their attacks wreathed in shadows and blood-red energy. The valley, which had been a silent prison of despair moments before, was now a raging battlefield.