Gu Lizhan stood at the rear of the Maple Leaf Market formation, his expression an unreadable mask. Yet, deep down, a cold satisfaction simmered.

The Gu family had not avenged their dead today, true. But Maple Leaf Market had bled—heavily. For Gu Lizhan, this disaster was the spark of hope his family needed to rise from the ashes.

Had the coalition remained intact and powerful, the Gu family would have been nothing more than a puppet. Even if they rebuilt their clan under the Burning Heaven Sect’s orders, the other families would have picked their bones clean, devouring every resource and benefit until nothing remained.

But the playing field had leveled.

Every family here had suffered, none more so than the arrogant Ye family. They had lost two Foundation Establishment elders in quick succession and half their Qi Refining disciples. Their strength had been slashed by more than half.

In contrast, the Gu family still possessed two Foundation Establishment cultivators. Gu Lizhan himself was in the late stage, ranking him among the top apex predators of the market. With him holding the line, he could protect what remained of his family’s interests. Their Qi Refining numbers were low, yes, but their mortal base was intact. Give them a few centuries of peace, and the Gu bloodline would flourish once more.

In the world of cultivation, interests reigned supreme. To ensure his clan’s future, Gu Lizhan could bury his hatred for now.

He stepped forward, his voice projecting calm authority. “This disaster was caused by Elder Ji’s willful arrogance. It is not our burden to bear. If we continue this blood feud, we risk being flanked by the Lei, Zhao, and Cheng families. If that happens, we face total annihilation, and the Sect’s containment mission will fail completely. However, if we withdraw now and preserve our strength, the Green Bull Market forces will not dare to recklessly support the Qingyuan Sect. I am certain the Sect will understand this strategic necessity.”

The other late-stage Foundation Establishment elder nodded in agreement. With the leadership united, the rest of the cultivators felt a wave of relief. No one wanted to die here. They were mercenaries of fortune, not martyrs.

Consensus reached, the Maple Leaf Market army began a slow, organized retreat.

Wang Hao watched them go, offering no pursuit. This was the optimal outcome. The Wang and Li families were exhausted; chasing a desperate enemy into the dark would only invite unnecessary casualties.

In truth, Maple Leaf Market had lost this war before it began. Their preparations were rushed, and their strength had already been chipped away by Wang Hao’s surprise raids on the Gu and Si families. Launching a full-scale invasion in such a state was an act of hubris that invited ruin.

The battlefield fell silent, leaving both sides to lick their wounds.

Though the Wang family stood victorious, the cost was steep. The war had been fought on their doorstep. The spiritual energy of Wang Family Ridge was turbulent, and the physical damage was extensive. At the foot of the mountain, dozens of acres of Spirit Fields had been trampled into mud—reclaiming that land would cost five thousand Spirit Stones and years of labor.

Worse, because Wang Hao had stripped the flank defenses to reinforce the main trap, opportunistic looters from the enemy side had slipped through. These greedy rats had ravaged the medicinal gardens, destroying tens of thousands of Spirit Stones’ worth of herbs.

Add to that the structural damage from the formation’s tremors, and the bill for repairs would be astronomical.

“At least they didn’t breach the summit,” Wang Hao mused, surveying the smoking crater where the enemy had broken through. The core infrastructure—the Ancestral Hall, the Clan Treasury, and the Scripture Pavilion—remained untouched. It was a fortune amidst misfortune.

Wang Hao reactivated the defensive formation and ordered his clansmen to begin the grim task of clearing the corpses. A heavy sigh escaped him. The cultivation world was brutal. It was a far cry from his ideal life of quiet farming and steady progression.

The Li family remained at Wang Family Ridge for three days. Only after scouts confirmed the Maple Leaf army had fully withdrawn did they bid farewell.

The Li clan had gambled heavily on this alliance. They had brought a hundred elite cultivators, but that was a fraction of their total population. Their mountain was home to thousands of mortals, spouses, servants, and dependents.

Li Yaozu had been wise. He hadn’t brought the non-combatants, knowing they would only slow the march and drain the Wang family’s spiritual air. Instead, he had scattered them—mortals to the cities, low-level cultivators into the wilderness. It was a classic preservation tactic: leave the bloodline behind. If the main force fell, the family would not go extinct.

Gathering them back would be a logistical headache, and the wilderness was never truly safe, but compared to the other families of Green Bull Market, the Li family had emerged relatively unscathed.

The Zhao and Cheng families weren’t so lucky. Upon returning home, they found their spiritual mountains looted. Fortunately, the invaders had planned to occupy the land rather than raze it, so the infrastructure was intact, but their treasuries were empty.

Across the border, the mood in Maple Leaf Market was funereal.

The month-long campaign had been a meat grinder. Their stockpiles of pills and talismans were depleted, and their manpower was devastated.

The Ye family was effectively crippled. Of their two surviving Foundation Establishment experts, one was senile and the other a hothead unfit for leadership. Their decline was inevitable. The Xu and Cui families were in even worse shape; barring a miracle, they would not recover for a century.

Ironically, the He family emerged as the biggest winner. They had lost only one expert and kept their main force intact. In the vacuum left by the Ye family’s collapse, the He clan was poised to become the new overlord of Maple Leaf Market.

As for the Gu family, Gu Lizhan was now the strongest individual cultivator in the market, but as a “bare pole commander” with no army, he couldn’t challenge the He family directly. Conversely, the He family wouldn’t dare push him too far—a rogue late-stage expert with nothing to lose was a nightmare no one wanted to wake up to.

Back at Green Bull Market, the news sent shockwaves through the Lei, Zhao, and Cheng families.

They had barely managed to hold their lines, yet the Wang and Li alliance had not just repelled but shattered the enemy army in a single day. The distinction was crucial. It wasn’t a stalemate; it was a rout. This realization cemented their desire to formalize the alliance.

However, the local victory was a small bright spot in a grim picture.

The broader war for the Qingyuan Sect was going poorly. Within six months, aside from two major market towns that had held firm, the rest of the peripheral territories had either fallen or were locked in a losing stalemate.

It was only a matter of time before a new, larger coalition came for Green Bull Market.

Wang Hao knew this. He was ready to cut and run at a moment’s notice.

As long as I’m alive and I have the Farm, the family can be rebuilt anywhere, he reminded himself.

To prepare for a protracted war, Wang Hao had overhauled his magical farm. He uprooted all non-essential decorative plants and filled the plots with war resources: Spirit Talisman Grass for crafting paper and herbs for healing and Qi recovery pills.

However, the “Holy Grail” crops remained untouched. The perennial trees—Gold Essence Fruit, Soul-Nourishing Fruit, Void Mulberry Divine Tree, Jasper Moon Fruit, Mystic Wonder Fruit, and Hundred-Fragrance Fruit—were too valuable to destroy.

Wang Hao opened his system interface to check their progress.

The Gold Essence Fruit Tree was planted in the Gold Soil three years ago. With the soil’s 80x Time Dilation effect, the tree had experienced 240 years of growth.

[Status: Gold Essence Fruit Tree]

Stage: Seedling

Progress: 01 Year, 05 Months, 12 Days until Small Leaf Stage.

Note: Fertilization available!

The tree required a millennium to flower and another three hundred years to bear fruit. Wang Hao did the mental math: with the 80x boost, he would need to wait roughly thirteen more years in the real world to harvest the fruit.

He shifted his gaze to the second plot of Gold Soil.

[Status: Soul-Nourishing Fruit Tree]

Stage: Flowering

Progress: 01 Year, 01 Month, 03 Days until Fruiting Stage.

He had already harvested this tree once. While he didn’t urgently need the fruits for himself, they fetched an astronomical price on the market. It was a reliable cash cow.

Finally, he looked at the third plot, home to his most long-term investment.

[Status: Void Mulberry Divine Tree]

Stage: Sprouting

Progress: 03 Years, 12 Months, 25 Days until Seedling Stage.

The Void Mulberry was a project for the distant future. It needed a thousand years just to become usable—and even then, the wood would only be good for low-grade Storage Bags. To craft high-grade spatial Magic Treasures, the tree would need to grow for several thousand, perhaps even ten thousand years.

But Wang Hao had time. Or at least, he hoped he did.