The Final Month: The Art of the Human Wall
The deadline hung over the sect like a guillotine blade. Five months had passed since the Heavenly Sword Sect's "audit," and word had traveled through the cultivation world like wildfire. They didn't call us a sect anymore; the rumors referred to us as the "Mountain of Iron" or, less flatteringly, "The Swineherd's Fortress."
I stood on the training grounds, watching 10,000 disciples move as one. They were no longer the chaotic mess of farmers and peasants I'd recruited. In their azure-tinted resonance armor, they looked like a shimmering sea.
"Listen up!" I yelled, my voice bolstered by my growing cultivation. "The Righteous Alliance is coming. 50,000 cultivators. They have flying swords, they have ancient spells, and they have very clean robes. What do we have?"
"STUBBORNNESS!" 10,000 voices roared back.
"And?"
"PIG-HEADEDNESS!"
"Exactly," I grinned. "Today, we master the Ultimate Teamwork Technique: The Myriad Heart Pulse."
The Training of the 10,000
The concept was simple in theory but suicidal in practice. The System had hinted that if I could get 10,000 people to synchronize their breathing and Qi circulation perfectly, they wouldn't just be 10,000 individuals—they would become a single, living entity with the power of a God.
For the next thirty days, we didn't just train; we suffered.
Xuan Lu and the other four seniors acted as the "nodes." They stood at the five points of a star, their Guardian Beasts—now fully grown and terrifying—acting as elemental anchors. Burny the lizard was now a crimson dragon-kin the size of a carriage, breathing plumes of violet smoke that settled over the training field like a protective veil.
"Sync your pulses!" Xuan Lu commanded, his voice cracking from weeks of shouting. "If one of you misses a beat, the whole formation collapses! Do you want to be the one who kills 9,999 of your brothers because you got a leg cramp?"
The disciples sat in a massive, concentric circle. They weren't just meditating; they were connected by "Spirit Threads" I'd purchased from the System shop. Every time someone's mind wandered to lunch or their sore feet, a small jolt of electricity would zap them.
By the twenty-ninth day, the silence on the mountain was eerie. 10,000 people were breathing in such perfect unison that the entire mountain seemed to rise and fall with them. When they exhaled, the clouds above were blown away. When they inhaled, the trees leaned toward the sect.
[Ding! Formation Mastery: 99%. Warning: Enemy Army detected at the base of the mountain.]
"Well," I whispered, strapping on my own Sect Master robes. "Time to see if we're legends or bacon."
The Siege of the 50,000
The sky turned white. It wasn't the sun; it was the combined glow of 50,000 flying swords and the shimmering robes of the Righteous Alliance. Leading them was Elder Wei, looking even more arrogant now that he had four other Great Sects backing him up.
They landed at the base of our mountain, a literal forest of cultivators. Compared to them, my 10,000 looked like a small, blue dot.
"Sect Master of the Mountain of Iron!" Elder Wei's voice boomed. "Your reign of recruitment madness ends today. Surrender your disciples to be 're-educated' by the Righteous Alliance, or we will level this peak!"
I walked to the edge of the cliff, looking down. I felt a weird sense of calm. Maybe it was the System's influence, or maybe I'd just lost my mind months ago.
"Elder Wei," I called down. "You brought 50,000 people to fight 10,000 'pigs'? You're even more insecure than I thought. Why don't you come up here and see if you can handle a bit of 'farm work'?"
"Attack!" Wei screamed.
The 50,000 surged forward. It was like a tidal wave of gold and white. Spells rained down—fireballs, lightning strikes, and ice spears that turned the air freezing.
"Formation!" I commanded.
My 10,000 disciples didn't charge. They didn't even draw their weapons. They simply stood in their concentric circles and slammed their palms into the earth.
"MYRIAD HEART PULSE: THE TURTLE'S DEFIANCE!"
A dome of azure light erupted from the armor Resonance Array. It didn't just cover the disciples; it covered the entire mountain. The 50,000 spells hit the dome and... bounced.
Literally. A massive fireball hit the shield and reflected straight back into the Heavenly Sword Sect's front line. A lightning bolt hit the dome, traveled around its curve, and zapped an Elder from the Iron Fist Sect who was lurking in the back.
The Alliance froze. They attacked again, harder this time. The shield didn't even flicker. 10,000 hearts beat as one, and 10,000 foundations supported the weight of the assault.
"Now," I said, my eyes glowing with reflected blue light. "Xuan Lu, lead the charge. Let's show them what happens when the pigs leave the pen."
The Counter-Attack
The shield didn't drop; it moved.
My 10,000 disciples began to walk down the mountain. They walked in lockstep, their feet hitting the ground with a rhythmic THUMP... THUMP... THUMP. Every step sent a shockwave through the earth that tripped the advancing Alliance soldiers.
At the front, the five seniors rode their Guardian Beasts. Xuan Lu on Burny led the center, a literal spearhead of fire.
The 50,000 tried to surround them, but the Resonance Armor made it impossible. A sword strike against a single disciple was instantly shared and neutralized by the other 9,999. It was like trying to cut a single drop of water in the middle of an ocean.
"They aren't human!" an Alliance cultivator screamed as he was sent flying by a simple shoulder-check from a girl who had been a turnip farmer six months ago.
The battle wasn't a fight; it was a slow, inevitable steamroller. The 50,000 began to break. Discipline collapsed. Elders started arguing with each other while my disciples just kept walking, chanting the sect's mantra: "One Heart, One Mountain, One Sect!"
By noon, the Righteous Alliance—the pride of the continent—was in full retreat. They left behind broken swords, abandoned banners, and a very confused Elder Wei, who was currently being held by the scruff of his neck by Xuan Lu's dragon.
The Mass Ascension
As the last of the invaders disappeared over the horizon, a strange hush fell over the mountain. The adrenaline was fading, but the Qi... the Qi was higher than it had ever been.
The battle had done something. The stress of the shield, the synchronization of the pulse, and the victory had pushed my disciples to their absolute limit.
[Ding! Mission Requirement met: 10,000 Disciples have reached the threshold.]
[Initiating Reward Sequence: The Great Awakening.]
"Wait, everyone sit down!" I yelled, realizing what was about to happen. "Meditation posture, now!"
They obeyed instantly. The air began to swirl. The sky, which had been clear, turned a deep, bruised purple. Then, the lightning started. Not the angry, destructive lightning of an enemy, but the golden, transformative lightning of a Heavenly Tribulation.
But it wasn't one tribulation. It was 10,000.
"System, if they all get hit by lightning at once, the mountain will melt!" I panicked.
[Ding! Divine Grade Spiritual Vein reward applied. The mountain will absorb the excess energy.]
Suddenly, the ground beneath us vibrated with a frequency so deep it felt like the world was purring. A massive, translucent dragon of pure spiritual energy—the Divine Vein—spiraled out of the earth and wrapped itself around the peak.
Then, the golden bolts fell.
CRACK-BOOM!
10,000 pillars of golden light shot into the sky. The pressure was immense. I watched as my disciples' faces twisted in concentration. Their old skins seemed to shed like silk, their auras expanding, turning from the misty white of Foundation Establishment into the solid, swirling gold of the Core Formation Realm.
One by one, the "Golden Cores" formed within them. The sound of 10,000 cores crystallizing at once sounded like a trillion glass bells ringing in the wind.
The Aftermath: A New Era
When the light finally faded, the mountain had transformed. The grass was now spirit-grass, glowing with a soft inner light. The air was so thick with Qi that every breath felt like drinking a high-grade tonic.
And the disciples...
10,000 Core Formation experts stood up in perfect unison. In any other part of the world, a single Core Formation expert could rule a city. Five could rule a kingdom. I had 10,000.
I looked at the blue screen floating in front of me.
[Ding! Mission Successful!]
[Rewards:]
Host Cultivation Increase: Two Major Realms. (I felt my own power surge, bypassing Core Formation and Nascent Soul entirely, slamming straight into the Spirit Severing Realm.)
Divine Grade Spiritual Vein: Permanently Rooted.
New Title: Ancestor of the Myriad.
I stood there, feeling like I could pluck the stars from the sky if I reached high enough. My five seniors approached, their own auras now terrifyingly vast. They knelt. Then, the 10,000 behind them knelt.
"We thank the Sect Master for the Guidance!" The shout was so loud it literally shook the clouds apart.
I looked at them—my "pigs," my blacksmiths, my army. I thought about the Iron Fist Sect, the Heavenly Sword Sect, and the "Failure: Host Death" threat that had been hanging over my head.
I took a deep breath of the high-grade air and looked at Xuan Lu.
"Xuan Lu?"
"Yes, Great Ancestor?"
"Is there anyone left in the world who thinks we're just a pig farm?"
Xuan Lu glanced at the horizon, where the dust of the 50,000-man army was still settling. "I believe they are currently reconsidering their life choices, Master."
"Good," I said, sitting back on my throne, which was now made of solid spirit-jade thanks to the Divine Vein. "Then tell the kitchen to prepare a feast. And someone get me a map of the entire continent. I think it's time we expanded the 'recruitment' drive."
[Ding! New Mission: Unified the Continent.]
[Failure: None. (Let's be real, who's going to stop you?)]
[Reward: To be announced.]
I leaned back and laughed. The "Recruitment" was over. The legend had just begun.