By consolidating their forces into a single stronghold, the three families had effectively secured their survival. If the Maple Leaf Market coalition dared to split their troops now, they would lack the power to crack the Grand Formation. Even if they committed their entire army to the siege, the Lei family could hold out for days—long enough for Wang and Li reinforcements to flank the exhausted attackers.

War was a beast best kept in a neighbor’s yard, not one’s own. The destructive wake of such a conflict was immense, and by shifting the battlefield to the Lei family’s territory, Wang Hao had maneuvered the situation exactly where he wanted it.

On the other side of the border, the view was far less optimistic.

Ji Shuguang led a formidable host: eighteen Foundation Establishment experts and eight hundred Qi Refining cultivators drawn from the four invading families. They crossed the border like a tide of steel and spellfire, surging straight toward the Lei family’s domain.

Their original battle plan had been elegant—a three-pronged strike to crush the three families simultaneously. But reality had rendered that plan obsolete. They no longer possessed the overwhelming superiority required for a split assault.

Worse, the element of surprise had evaporated. The families of Green Bull Market were on high alert. Throughout the march, Ji Shuguang had spotted spirit beasts and avian scouts tracking their movements from the clouds. The defenders knew they were coming.

The invaders had their own eyes and ears, of course. Having learned from the Ye family’s previous blunders, their scouts operated with extreme caution. They had intercepted the intelligence regarding the Zhao and Cheng families abandoning their territories. While detouring to plunder those empty estates might yield some resources, it was strategically meaningless. The enemy had turtle-shelled up.

Ji Shuguang, acting as the envoy of the Burning Heaven Sect, cared little for the financial gains of the Maple Leaf families. His only mandate was to complete the Sect’s mission. He ordered the main force to ignore the empty lands and press forward, hammering the Lei family with everything they had.

To maintain morale, he framed the invasion as a righteous crusade to avenge the Gu and Si families.

Gu Lizhan, patriarch of the Gu family, was naturally eager for blood. The other families grumbled at the cost, but their dissent vanished when Gu Lizhan made a public vow: the Gu family sought only to reclaim their ancestral heirlooms. All other spoils of war—territory, resources, vaults—would be divided among the allies.

Meanwhile, the Qingyuan Sect remained frighteningly silent.

The Burning Heaven Sect’s offensive wasn’t limited to Green Bull Market; they were igniting fires across the entire region. Yet, the Qingyuan Sect’s passive defense had stripped its vassals of hope. Smaller families, realizing they were abandoning ships, had already begun a mass exodus. Some merged with stronger neighbors; others fled directly to the Qingyuan Market.

The Sect accepted these refugees with open arms, providing housing not out of charity, but necessity. War was coming, and they needed bodies. Every refugee was another sword arm or human shield.

The Wang family, however, had no intention of fleeing to the central market. At least, not yet. To run there was to shackle oneself to the Qingyuan Sect’s war chariot. Once those chains were on, their fate would no longer be their own.

The Sect hadn’t issued a mandatory conscription order yet, but they were hemorrhaging money to hire Rogue Cultivators. Despite knowing they were signing up to be cannon fodder, the loose cultivators flocked to the recruitment banners. The allure of heritage techniques and high-grade pills—resources usually hoarding by the great sects—was a temptation few could resist.

Days later, the siege began.

Ji Shuguang brought the Maple Leaf army to the foot of Thunder Roar Mountain. Under the direction of tactical specialists, the eight hundred Qi Refining cultivators were organized into eight phalanxes of one hundred men each. They synchronized their spiritual energy, bombarding the array nodes in waves. The eighteen Foundation Establishment experts hovered above, conserving their strength to counter Lei Liheng and the other high-level defenders.

Thunder Roar Mountain was a Second-Rank High-Grade spiritual mountain, protected by a Five Elements Four Images Array of the same tier.

The formation was a nasty piece of work involving nine interconnected nodes. Attacking a single point triggered a backlash from the other eight. There was no clever trick to unraveling it; the only solution was brute force—attacking multiple points simultaneously to overwhelm the energy distribution.

“Pour it on! Do not stop!” Ji Shuguang roared from the rear.

The eight hundred cultivators unleashed a torrent of spells and artifacts. Fireballs, ice lances, and flying swords crashed against the shimmering barrier in a deafening cacophony.

Even without the intervention of the Foundation Establishment experts, the sheer volume of attacks made the earth tremble. The shockwaves stripped the surrounding forests bare. Without the array’s suppression, the mountaintop would have been leveled into gravel within the hour.

Inside the barrier, Lei Liheng watched the bombardment with a stoic expression.

The enemy outnumbered his Foundation Establishment experts two-to-one, and their infantry advantage was three-to-one. Yet, panic was absent from his face. The Five Elements Four Images Array was robust, and they had prepared ample trump cards. As long as only the Qi Refining ants were attacking, there was no cause for alarm.

Outside, frustration mounted. Gu Lizhan and the other leaders saw their juniors’ attacks rippling harmlessly against the shield. They had no choice but to step in.

But the moment the enemy Foundation Establishment experts channeled their arts, Lei Liheng and his allies responded in kind, intercepting the heavy hits and neutralizing the pressure.

The defenders had a massive logistical advantage: a spiritual vein. The array drew power directly from the earth, while the attackers had to chug Spirit Pills to replenish their reserves. Even though supporting three families was taxing the Lei family’s vein, it was infinitely cheaper than the burn rate of the besieging army.

The stalemate dragged on for half a month.

Ye Jingshan and his peers exhausted every tactic in the book. They even detonated a precious Array Breaking Talisman, tearing a jagged hole in the barrier. But their triumph was short-lived; a secondary, smaller array lay nestled within the main one, stalling them just long enough for the breach to seal itself.

Fatigue set in. The Maple Leaf cultivators were visibly haggard. They had come to loot a treasury, not to burn their own inheritance in a war of attrition.

“Elder Ji, this cannot continue,” Ye Jingshan said, his face bitter. “When will the Sect strike? We need a timeline.”

The Ye family had contributed the bulk of the manpower, and their losses were staggering. Fifty years of accumulated wealth had evaporated in two weeks of siege warfare. If they walked away empty-handed, the Ye family wouldn’t be able to afford a single Foundation Establishment pill for the next generation.

Ji Shuguang was equally baffled. The Golden Core Old Ancestor had explicitly stated that the main offensive would launch simultaneously with their attack. Why was the horizon still clear of Burning Heaven warships?

He couldn’t admit his ignorance. “The Sect operates on a grander scale,” Ji Shuguang lied smoothly. “Your focus is here. Take Green Bull Market. Yes, the initial cost is high, but once you seize these mountains, you will recoup everything within a few years. Green Bull Market borders the wilderness; the trade flow from Rogue Cultivators alone is triple what Maple Leaf Market earns!”

Initially, the leaders had swallowed Ji Shuguang’s grand promises. But a painted cake couldn’t fill a starving belly. Green Bull Market was a goldmine, certainly—but only if they didn’t go bankrupt trying to open the door.

“Whatever the potential,” He Junyi grunted, “the reality is that Thunder Roar Mountain is a hard bone to chew. The three families are entrenched. The price of victory is becoming… unacceptable.”

Xu Minglang furrowed his brow. “Who could have predicted the Zhao and Cheng families would be so decisive? Abandoning their homes and mortals to turtle up here… it’s madness.”

“What use is hindsight?” Gu Lizhan snapped, his patience fraying. “Are you suggesting we retreat? Flush half a month of resources down the drain?”

Ye Jingshan’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Brother Gu, calm yourself. We must take Green Bull Market, that is not in dispute. But smashing our heads against a wall is foolish. We need a change in strategy.”

The group turned their eyes to Ji Shuguang. As the Sect Elder, his word was law.

Ji Shuguang felt the weight of his own failure. He couldn’t force these families into ruin without risking a mutiny. He adopted a conciliatory tone. “This seat is not unreasonable. If you have a better plan to break the deadlock, speak.”

The tension in the tent broke, and the floodgates of discussion opened.

Xu Minglang, the strategist of the group, hummed in thought. “Since the Lei family is an iron fortress, why are we fixated on them? Why not shift our blade to the Wang or Li families?”

The tent went silent as the cultivators processed the idea.

Xu Minglang chuckled, sensing he had struck gold. “Think about it. The Lei, Zhao, and Cheng families have been fighting for their lives for weeks. Where are their allies? The Wang and Li families haven’t sent a single reinforcement. This proves their alliance is fractured.”

He traced a finger across the map, pointing to the Wang family’s territory. “If we pivot and attack the Wang or Li families, do you think the turtles on Thunder Roar Mountain will come out to save them? Unlikely. And fighting one family is far easier than fighting three.”