On the right path, Commander Lei of the Thunderclap Mercenaries was a man who respected strength. He liked loud noises, big hammers and the smell of ozone.

  But the silence of the Sentry was unnerving him. He wasn’t quite sure if this thing was strong enough to be taking the lead. If the Sentry was weak or if it was destroyed, his own forces and the others here would bear the brunt of it.

  The right path was narrower. It was a winding canyon filled with stagnant water and fog. It was the perfect ambush terrain for stealth-type beasts.

  The Sentry moved ahead of them, feet barely touching the muddy water. It didn't carry a weapon.

  "Keep your eyes peeled," Lei growled and playfully was swinging his hammer. "This fog can somewhat block spiritual sense. They could be anywhere."

  Suddenly, the fog swirled. From the murky water, tentacles exploded upward. Swamp Octopi appeared. They were massive, mutated amphibious beasts. They lashed out and were aiming to drag the cultivators into the deep pools.

  "Ambush!" Matriarch Su screamed as she threw her bladed fan out at a beast. Before her weapon could reach the target, the Sentry had already stopped and it raised both hands.

  The air temperature in the canyon plummeted in a split second. The stagnant water didn't just freeze; it flash-froze into a blue ice that was diamond hard. The tentacles that were mid-lunge were arrested in motion, encased in crystal.

  The Sentry clenched its fist.

  Crack.

  The ice shattered. The tentacles shattered with it and broke into thousands of glittering shards. It was an amazingly beautiful sight and several of the cultivators couldn’t help but to stop and admire the beauty of it.

  "Ice manipulation at an incredible level," Matriarch Su whispered to herself as she was catching her fan as it returned to her. "He did it so quickly and so controlled. Only the beasts were affected while everyone was unaffected at all. That is much harder than just blasting the entire area. His level of control and power is something else."

  The main bodies of the Swamp Octopi surfaced and were screeching in pain. They churned the remaining water and were preparing to spew poison.

  The Sentry didn't look back. The blue glow in its eyes flared. Behind it, the air twisted and the darkness of the canyon seemed to coalesce.

  From the Sentry’s back, fifty Abyssal Javelins erupted. Unlike the main body’s brutal barrage, these moved with terrifying precision. They curved through the air, weaving around cultivators and rock formations.

  One javelin sought out the eye of a hiding Poison-Toad. Another drilled through the skull of a lurking Cave Bat.

  "It’s not just brute force," Commander Lei realized while watching a javelin perform a ninety-degree turn to kill a beast hiding behind a rock. "He’s controlling each javelin individually and they are even disappearing and reappearing through things and people. The mental processing speed... it’s inhuman. And this is his second body..."

  The Sentry raised a hand and a spear of pure water formed. It was spinning like a drill. With a flick of its wrist the water drill shot forward and pierced three armored crocodiles in a single line.

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  "Team Three, flank left!" Lei roared, realizing the enemies were stunned and greatly weakened if not already dead. "Team Four, take the right bank! Strike while they are frozen!"

  The cultivators leaped into action. The Violet Silk disciples moved like shadows, their daggers finding the weak points of the frozen beasts. The Thunderclap mercenaries smashed the ice sculptures with their heavy weapons, shattering the trapped monsters within.

  "Die!" A Thunderclap captain brought his axe down on a frozen serpent. The beast shattered like glass. "This is incredible! They can't even fight back!"

  "Look at the loot," a rogue cultivator laughed, prying a beast core out of a pile of ice shards. "Usually we fight with our lives on the line for these. I’ve picked up six in five minutes."

  "Keep moving!" Matriarch Su ordered, though her eyes remained fixed on the back of the Sentry. "Do not fall too far behind. Make sure to get everything you can but also stay with the group."

  An hour later, the two valleys widened and merged into a massive central cavern. It was like a natural amphitheater in the heart of the mountains.

  The two armies spilled out from their respective tunnels. They looked at each other and saw that everyone there was pretty much okay. They couldn’t see the entire teams since many were still a bit further back to gather materials.

  Li Yu stood in the middle of the cavern. The Sentry walked up to him and without a word dissolved into a stream of blue and black Qi that flowed back into Li Yu’s body. The cavern floor was a mess.

  To the left, where the Main Body had come from, the ground was unrecognizable. Rock formations had been pulverized into sand. Craters smoked where the staff had impacted. It looked like a meteor shower had hit the valley.

  To the right, where the Sentry had come from, the devastation was silent and artistic. Massive sculptures of frozen beasts stood in agony, pierced by the lingering remnants of void energy. Clean up was still happening on both sides as those that stayed behind to harvest were catching up.

  "Report," Li Yu said to the commanders as he paused for the harvesting teams to catch back up.

  Sect Master Zhou stepped forward to give him the news. His armor was splattered with blood but none of it his own. "Alliance Commander. The left flank is clear. Casualties... zero. Minor injuries only. Most were caused by mistakes the cultivator made themselves in battle."

  Commander Lei stepped up and was grinning like a maniac. "Right flank clear. We bagged enough cores for a good bounty and teams are finishing off the other materials from the beasts. Casualties are also zero."

  The army murmured. “Two thousand cultivators deep in the Jagged Peaks and not a single death? It was unheard of. Forget the Jagged Peaks, going into any warzone and not having a single death was unheard of.”

  "Good," Li Yu said. He looked up at the ceiling of the cavern where a shaft of light was trying to pierce the gloom. "We’re making good time as well. At this rate, we can be done with this place and start to secure the area from smaller invading forces if there are any."

  "Are we... are we finished?" a disciple asked hopefully to another but he was quite loud.

  Li Yu laughed slightly. It was a dry sound. He pointed his staff toward the far end of the cavern, where the darkness seemed to be physically pushing back against the light.

  "Finished? No."

  He gestured to the vast, unexplored network of tunnels stretching out beyond the amphitheater.

  "We just cleared the beginning. That," he nodded toward the deep dark, "is probably the place their strongest forces are. And I sense something very big sleeping within."

  Sect Master Zhou looked at the map in his mind. "We are only halfway to the central nests."

  "Correct," Li Yu said. "Take fifteen minutes to recover Qi and loot the bodies in this room. Then, we go again."

  The cultivators looked at the dark tunnels ahead. Fear should have been their dominant emotion. But as they looked at the casual figure of Li Yu eating some jerky while standing amidst a slaughter of his own making, fear was replaced by confidence. From what they had seen, as long as that person was here. As long as he didn’t abandon them, they would be fine. It was a strange feeling that they got, a feeling they didn’t even have when their leader was with them.

  "Yes, Commander!" Two thousand voices shouted in unison, the sound echoing off the cavern walls.

  Li Yu nodded as he took out foods and non-alcoholic drinks from his travels to share with everyone. "Don’t fight on an empty stomach. Take this time to eat up, we still have a long way to go."