Chapter 86: Weekly Skirmish!

Damian opened the Exchange Storage again, and the difference was immediate.

Previously, the integrated space had always felt useful but cramped, especially after Damian started buying Shengyuan goods in quantities that would make ordinary merchants start sweating through their robes.

1 tonne sounded like a lot when one’s greatest logistical concern was groceries.

It sounded considerably less impressive when one was moving Spirit Rice by the sack, pills by the thousands, Formation Ink, talismans, materials, weapons, medicinal herbs and whatever other shiny supernatural intrigues caught Damian’s attention.

Damian extended his awareness through the Exchange Storage and simply... enjoyed the space for a moment.

"Hoh..."

Nice.

Very nice!

The System Storage had not transformed into some endless warehouse where he could lose a wagon for 3 years and rediscover it during spring cleaning, but compared to what he had been working with previously?

This was luxury!

The entire batch of Shengyuan purchases that had required Damian to carefully calculate what percentage could cross with him, what should remain behind and which products were worth prioritizing suddenly seemed much less irritating.

He could move proper commercial quantities now.

Spirit Rice? Bring it on!

Formation Ink? Bring it on!

Talismans? Eh, why not?

Pills, herbs, raw materials, Spirit Stones, crafted goods?

Come aboard!

Damian could already imagine how much easier his next Shengyuan supply transfer would become.

Even better, the System apparently was not finished.

The completed <Extensive Trade Network> quest vanished, only for another panel to immediately replace it.

[Progressive Side Quest Updated!]

[Quest Name: Extensive Trade Network (Round 2)

Objective: Sell cross-realm goods in either realm 1,000 times.

Current Progress: 924/1,000 Sales.

Reward: System Skill Upgrade — Logistics III.]

Damian’s eyebrows rose.

"Nine hundred and twenty-four already?"

Then again...

Between his initial Shengyuan transactions, Evergreen bulk deals, the Central Lane opening-day madness and the following days of ordinary retail sales, perhaps that number was not surprising.

Only 76 more transactions remained.

Frankly, he probably would not even need to think about it.

Another proper wave of stock through Central Lane should finish the requirement naturally, and if that somehow failed, Vivienne’s new reseller plan would probably smash through it tomorrow once merchants began purchasing commercial quantities.

Damian closed the panel.

"Good."

Logistics III could come to him.

He had other things to handle first.

............

Back at the Baines residence, Damian found Stella nearby and gave her the final instruction before leaving Valoria again.

"Lady Selene is sending several purchases from the Mages Association tonight. Receive everything personally and make sure nothing is misplaced." Damian instructed.

Stella’s posture immediately straightened.

"Yes, My Lord. I will have the delivery inspected, recorded and placed into secure storage myself!" Stella replied respectfully.

Damian nodded.

Much better.

It seemed the earlier lesson had landed harder than he expected.

He did not comment upon it, believing that Stella was not stupid.

If she had understood the problem, there was no need to rub her face in it afterward.

Damian entered his private room, closed the door and activated the Permanent Realm Passage.

Reality shifted and Valoria disappeared.

............

Within the Willowbank command tent, six people stood around the large war table.

Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi occupied opposite sides while Jian Rui, Bo Wen, Lin Meiyu and Shen Lian gathered around the remaining edges.

Their expressions were grim.

Wooden markers covered the rough terrain map, representing patrol routes, the Willowbank base camp, the expected enemy deployment and several routes through the surrounding terrain.

Then the air near the side of the tent warped.

No opening appeared, nor was there any visible portal.

One moment, empty space existed there.

The next, Damian stepped into the room as if passing through a veil.

Mu Qingyao’s entire body stiffened while Shen Xueyi reacted only slightly better.

Both women knew far more about high-level cultivation than the four Evergreen youngsters, which meant both immediately understood how absurd what they had just witnessed actually was.

A person had appeared from nothing!

There had been no Formation fluctuation, no visible spatial gate, no Dharma Artifact, nor any form of transportation talisman activating.

Space had simply been torn open to allow Damian Baines passage!

Mu Qingyao’s pupils constricted rapidly.

Spatial traversal on that level belonged to realms so distant from them that most cultivators in the Azure Water Sector could spend their entire lives without even seeing someone remotely capable of it.

Void Refining, the 8th cultivation realm!

The entire True Spirit Continent was dominated by the True Spirit Sect, whose Dao Integration Ancestor stood at the 7th Realm.

Even that person was already treated as a continental pillar whose existence could determine the fate of countless powers.

Yet Damian had just displayed something associated with an even higher Realm as casually as someone opening the door to their bedroom.

Shen Xueyi’s throat moved slightly.

Just...

What exactly was this man?

More importantly...

What kind of existence were the two of them planning to marry?!

The four youngsters possessed none of those terrifying associations.

Bo Wen merely glanced toward Damian with interest before returning his attention to the map.

Lin Meiyu apparently assumed it was one of his strange non-cultivator spells.

Shen Lian had already seen enough ridiculous things from Damian that apparently ’appearing from nowhere’ did not even break into his top 10 questions anymore.

Jian Rui, meanwhile, simply accepted that Lord Damian had returned.

Damian himself cared even less.

So what if people saw him arrive?

The Realm Passage could not be used by anyone except him.

They could not even perceive the passage itself.

The Dual-Realm Exchange System had made that clear from the beginning.

At this point, even Valoria’s Divine Spirits had already figured out that Damian could travel elsewhere, while the people in Shengyuan already knew his goods came from some mysterious non-cultivator civilization.

They simply did not realize said civilization existed in an entirely different world.

The secret had layers, so someone discovering layer 2 did not mean Damian needed to immediately hand them layers 3 through 10.

And he certainly was not going to explain himself just because Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi looked as though their brains were attempting to climb out through their ears.

Damian calmly walked toward the table and squeezed into the open space beside Jian Rui.

"So, what’s going on?" Damian asked.

That snapped everyone back into focus.

Jian Rui, as usual, adapted first.

"The weekly skirmish has arrived, Lord Damian. Scouts confirmed increased movement from the Nightmare Corpse Sect camp earlier this morning. Their forces are already preparing to leave, so ours must mobilize immediately as well." Jian Rui reported.

Ah right, the weekly clash thing.

Damian had heard about these shortly after taking command.

They were considerably smaller than the monthly large-scale battles, but ’smaller’ was relative when people still regularly went home missing limbs.

Or did not go home at all.

"What’s the plan?" Damian asked.

Jian Rui shifted several markers across the map.

"We follow the traditional deployment with slight adjustments. The main force advances through the central approach while Shen Lian’s archers and the disciples most suited to ranged attacks remain slightly behind the first line. Lin Meiyu will handle battlefield communication between groups, while Bo Wen keeps reserve supplies and emergency medicine moving wherever the pressure becomes greatest."

His finger shifted again.

"I will command the center. We cannot afford an aggressive pursuit even if they withdraw because the Nightmare Corpse Sect frequently uses retreating disciples to draw opponents into Corpse Qi traps. Our objective is to hold formation, inflict losses where possible and withdraw cleanly if the balance changes."

Damian nodded, feeling that this was reasonable.

Extremely reasonable, actually.

Mostly because Damian had absolutely no grand strategic insight to offer.

He was not secretly Napoleon reborn nor had working at a logistics company on Earth somehow taught him how to command hundreds of supernatural martial artists through a battlefield.

What exactly was he supposed to say?

Flank them from the left while the cavalry performs a hammer-and-anvil maneuver!

With what fucking cavalry?

No.

Jian Rui knew the local battlefield far better than Damian did, and the existing plan had apparently kept the base camp from collapsing despite months of terrible conditions.

Damian’s contribution had already been made.

He had healed the wounded, purged the Corpse Qi poisoning the camp, restored their manpower, supplied medicine, and improved organization.

He had even given them an actual method to recover from the Nightmare Corpse Sect’s greatest advantage.

Once the battle started, the soldiers still had to fight.

Even with Damian’s upgraded repertoire, he did not possess some convenient army-wide spell that would erase the fundamental advantage Corpse Qi provided against ordinary Evergreen Body Tempering disciples.

<Guidance>? Single target.

<Resistance>? Single target.

<Shield of Faith>? Again, single target.

And the durations were hardly enough for Damian to stand around blessing 255 people like some overworked priest at a mass wedding.

Could he help individual fighters? Absolutely!

Could he turn Willowbank’s entire army into glowing divine super-soldiers? Cough, not yet!

Besides...

Damian had another plan.

Battlefield rules?

Heh.

Those sounded suspiciously like somebody else’s problem.

He intended to participate personally.

"Proceed exactly as planned. You know this battlefield better than I do. I’ve already done what I can to make sure everyone enters this fight healthy and supplied. The rest depends on them." Damian ordered.

Jian Rui cupped his hands. "Understood."

Damian’s gaze drifted toward Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi. "And you two?"

"We will remain close enough to respond if the enemy’s Qi Condensation cultivators interfere," Mu Qingyao answered.

Shen Xueyi nodded.

"The Nightmare Corpse Sect has brought additional high-level forces recently. We cannot assume they will respect the usual boundaries if an opportunity appears." She added calmly.

Ning Ruomei and her folk suddenly participating in the fight?

Damian’s lips curved faintly.

Yeah, he was counting on that.

............

The Willowbank Front exploded into activity soon afterward as a rally drum thundered across the rebuilt camp.

Disciples poured from tents, training areas and watch positions while runners carried Jian Rui’s orders between squads.

Weapons came out, armor was tightened, and medicine was distributed.

Bo Wen moved between supply stations shouting at disciples who attempted to carry too little, then shouting at others who tried carrying so much that they looked like traveling pharmacies.

Lin Meiyu sprinted from formation to formation checking names and positions while Shen Lian inspected the archers with considerably less patience than usual.

"Your arrows are not decorations! Check the fletching now, because I am not listening to anyone complain when one curves into his friend’s ass later!" Shen Lian barked.

Damian almost laughed.

Leadership had suited the four youngsters far better than he expected.

The 255 disciples Damian restored formed up across the camp, and that sight alone felt dramatically different from his arrival.

Back then, barely over 100 could stand.

Now the same camp produced row after row of healthy Body Tempering cultivators wearing repaired equipment and carrying enough potions to make their earlier selves cry.

The mood, however, remained heavy, as no amount of healing erased memory.

These people knew what weekly skirmishes meant.

Some had lost friends during the last one while others probably expected to lose more today.

Damian mounted the Gale Beakrunner, and the beast gave a low chirp.

"Yeah, yeah. We’re going back out." Damian muttered.

Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi joined the movement nearby while the 4 youngsters took their assigned positions.

The gates opened, and the Evergreen Sect Army marched out.

............

The trip to the battlefield was short.

That was another unpleasant reminder of just how close the Nightmare Corpse Sect camp actually sat.

The farther they moved from the base camp, the more the land changed.

Greenflow Basin’s healthier vegetation gradually gave way to muddy stretches where reeds and black-rooted plants clustered around shallow water channels.

The battlefield itself occupied a broad open stretch between the edge of the basin and the Blackreed Wetlands, large enough for hundreds of cultivators to maneuver without immediately disappearing into trees or swamp.

Evidence of previous battles covered everything.

Broken spearheads sat half-buried in mud, sections of ground remained blackened from fire techniques, and several shallow craters had filled with rainwater, while dead trees along one side had been stripped of most of their branches by repeated explosions.

Old blood had long since disappeared into the soil, but some stains had not.

The Evergreen force entered from the eastern approach and began spreading into the formation Jian Rui organized earlier.

Damian rode slowly near the front, taking everything in.

Then he looked across the battlefield and saw that the Nightmare Corpse Sect had arrived as well.

And apparently...

They had come prepared.

Dark-robed cultivators spread across the opposite side in dense groups, carrying sabers, swords, spears, chains and the occasional weapon Damian could only describe as ’something designed by a serial killer who discovered blacksmithing’.

Many looked excited and some were even laughing openly.

Several also pointed toward the Evergreen formation with visible contempt.

"Grass Munchers!"

Damian heard the insult carry across the distance.

Heh.

The Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples had grown far too accustomed to the Evergreen Sect being easy prey.

To them, this battlefield was practically a resource node.

Come here, beat up some Evergreen disciples, harvest bodies, accumulate merit, go home, and farm again next week.

Their expressions carried confidence born from repetition.

The Evergreen side looked completely different.

Nobody laughed, nor did anybody shout insults back.

Rather, many hands tightened around their weapons while faces remained grim, and more than a few disciples looked across that muddy stretch as though wondering whether it might become the last place they ever saw.

Damian noticed this and sighed.

He would need to do something about morale eventually.

Today though, perhaps the Nightmare Corpse Sect could help.

His Divine Sense swept farther across the enemy line until Damian found the real problem.

Behind the main Nightmare Corpse Sect force stood a magnificent black-and-red palanquin.

The thing was absurdly extravagant for a muddy minor battlefield, decorated with dark silk, crimson tassels and carved panels that probably cost more than several Body Tempering disciples earned in their entire lives.

Four snakemen carried it, and every one of them stood at Peak Body Tempering.

Two cultivators guarded either side of the palanquin, both at Peak Qi Condensation.

And positioned ahead of them with the main force were 4 Body Tempering disciples whose auras were significantly stronger and cleaner than the cannon fodder surrounding them.

Damian’s expression slowly changed.

So she had come personally, huh?

The battle had not even begun, yet the trap he had spent days considering was now sitting across the field wrapped in expensive silk and practically waving at him.

Ning Ruomei.

Xie Mei.

Xie Man’s daughter.

The woman who had arrived searching specifically for somebody unusual from the Grass Munchers’ side.

Damian’s eyes narrowed.

Then a mean smile slowly spread across his face.

"Found you!"