With them rushing toward the group of demonic practitioners as fast as possible, they soon caught up. Earlier, whether it was Shen Lei and Luo Lin or the group from the Jian Chu Sect led by Elder Cai, they had only been able to tell that there was a group but not how many people there were or how strong exactly they were. At this time, they finally got an answer to those questions: In front of them were several dozen disciples, as well as a handful of people who likely had the status of Elders mixed in, and none of them were below the golden core stage.

Elder Cai gritted his teeth. This wasn’t good. They had disciples of a lower level and without the group from the other side arriving, they wouldn’t stand a chance. The start of the battle would be tough. Even though he knew this, he still waved at the disciples behind and rushed up himself, entangling one of the Elders of the demonic faction. Anyway, they had no other choice.

The older disciples also moved to confront the Elders and strongest disciples first. Just like Shen Lei, some of them were already in the nascent soul stage. While they might lag behind these Elders by a small realm or two and likely didn’t have as much experience as them either, they could at least keep them away from the younger disciples for a while. Basically, all they had to do was stall them until the group from the other direction arrived and the Elders from their righteous side could take over.

With the strongest disciples busy with the Elders, the weaker ones naturally had to confront disciples who were at least as strong as them if not stronger. They immediately found themselves at a disadvantage, especially as they didn’t have the numbers advantage either.

The situation was dire from the very start. It couldn’t be compared to the previous fights at all where the Teng Yong Sect and the other two were the big group who could overwhelm smaller groups easily and get an easy win with few injuries on their side. No, now, the situation had turned completely, putting them in the situation the demonic faction had been in before.

The disciples still gritted their teeth and fought valiantly. They knew they only had to hold on. What were a few injuries? As long as you didn’t die, there was hope. The Zhen Yan Sect was also on the other side of the building and could help patch them up right after. Thinking of this, they fought as hard as they could.

At the same time, the big group that had originally been stationed in the hall at the back rushed further to the front. They needed to get away from the place they had prepared and also had to hurry to support the Jian Chu Sect. Thankfully, the corridors of the underground palace were more straightforward than the winding, crisscrossing pathways of the headquarters, making it easy to approach the spot from where they could sense the fluctuations of spiritual energy. It only took a few minutes to reach the right place and join the fray.

The demonic practitioners who had had the upper hand by a large margin cursed slightly and had to change their formation. They were now sandwiched between the two groups and while one side was a much smaller group and the bigger group couldn’t utilize the space well due to there being too many people in this hallway, the fact remained that they were trapped in the middle and couldn’t easily move around.

Now, they were the ones at a disadvantage. The only way to turn the tide once again was to completely defeat the smaller group that had attacked first. Unfortunately, they were still holding on, despite many of them having been injured in the first few minutes of the fight.

The Elders narrowed their eyes and motioned for their strongest disciples to focus on that group while they teamed up to hold back the bigger group. Thankfully, in such a narrow hallway, more people weren’t necessarily an advantage. There could only be a limited number of people at the front, after all, where the fight was happening. As long as they held them back long enough, the group behind would soon be defeated. Anyway, each injury brought them closer to death.

The Elders of the righteous side naturally saw through their plan and gritted their teeth. The Jian Chu Sect had come to support them. How could they let them be defeated now while they were right here?

“Everyone, try to break through!” Elder Diao yelled toward his disciples and used his full strength as well.

Next to him, Zhi Guan glanced at the walls and then at the sword in his hand. In such a cramped space, while he could fight, he also felt very constrained. It’d be nice if there was a little more room to maneuver.

He glanced at the people to either side, then leaped forward into the middle of the group of demonic practitioners and actually sheathed his sword for once, gathering his spiritual energy instead.

Sensing a nascent soul stage cultivator’s attack at full force, the disciples of the other side hurriedly dashed back or even dove to the ground. The attack passed by them and hit the wall to the right with full force, making it crumble.

Zhi Guan smiled, leaped to the side, and pulled out his sword again. Finally, he could fight for real.

The Elders of the demonic faction cursed under their breath and hurriedly directed their disciples to dash to the side before the righteous faction could surround them from all sides. At the same time, one of them turned to the other side and followed Zhi Guan’s example, blasting a hole in the wall. Now, while the hallway still couldn’t be called spacious, there was indeed more room to maneuver but it was the case for everyone, changing the whole situation at once.