Transformations II

"They escaped!?" Master Yuan stood up abruptly, his eyes wide.

"Only Xu Changyong Great Grandmaster left a letter, the gist of which was that they came to Worship God the gods and Western Sect in order to seek immortality, not to die in place of the Western Sect. Recently, Worship God Great Grandmaster have died in succession in the Western Sect, and they are all afraid."

The novice monk's words made Master Yuan's eyes darken, and he clenched his teeth, making a grinding sound.

"A bunch of scoundrels!!"

With a loud bang, he slammed his palm into the air, sending out a stream of air that crashed into the ground, creating a whirlwind that extinguished more than half of the incense and candles in the hall.

The novice monk dared not utter a sound.

These Great Grandmaster came easily; they were notorious criminals and thugs who had fled from various forces. Seeing that the Western Sect had lost several grandmasters and Great Grandmaster one after another, it was normal for them to run away quickly after weighing the pros and cons.

This is the biggest problem that forces that have expanded through external means will face.

It rose to prominence smoothly and grew rapidly.

However, once a slight disadvantage is observed, all the previous support vanishes and quickly dissipates. Some of it may even turn into resistance.

"The rest of them ran away, so let the last one take their place." Taking a deep breath, Master Yuan gave the order.

"We've lost too many men recently. We need to be careful. But we can't ignore the Taboo."

The Divine Decree has been issued and must be dealt with immediately, otherwise... But now that Spirit General Sang Lan is gone, it's clear that the Human Immortal Temple is a huge pitfall. Unless he personally intervenes, or Yuan Hong is sent, but the two of them are currently in charge of the situation and cannot easily move.

After the young novice left, a glint flashed in Master Yuan's eyes.

"It seems we have no choice but to follow the usual procedure."

The so-called convention is that the Great God Cult has been cultivating Minor God Cult, which are formed from Servant God Cult.

Sending these forces to probe and ascertain the depth of the opponent's intelligence, and then deciding how to respond based on the feedback—this has always been a common tactic.

This is also why large religions allow the existence of many smaller religions.

The Feather New Sect enshrined in True Buddha Temple is just like that, except that now that the Feather New Sect, Sang Lan, is gone, it is temporarily empty and will have to wait for a period of time to revive and regenerate.

Moreover, with the Spirit Thread permanently damaged, it's questionable whether Sang Lan can remain Spirit General.

This is also a huge loss for True Buddha Temple.

"The ones most anxious about this Taboo should be the major Noble in Great Capital. Perhaps we should wait a moment and let them go first." Master Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, his expression returning to ease.

*** Master Yuan's prediction was correct.

On the day the news of Sang Lan's death spread, the Statue of the Earth Mother Goddess enshrined in temples throughout the Great Capital issued Divine Decree.

Given the Taboo, the Noble dared not be negligent and immediately dispatched First Squad of people to investigate Wushan Prefecture in Shan Province.

At the same time, many other minor sects, urged by the Divine Decree, had no choice but to send their main forces to investigate the Human Immortal Temple.

Among these teams were even high-ranking Noble like Sang Lan, Feng Ling generals. The two of them moved together swiftly.

There are more than ten noble Noble in the Great Capital, and each family worships an Earth Mother Walker. These Earth Mother Walker are almost all ordinary Spirit General like Sang Lan.

They primarily studied Civilian Skill, and after barely reaching the Worship God, they entered the ranks of Spirit General, where they enjoyed wealth and honor from then on.

Because of Noble Spirit Person status and bloodline, the threshold for them to become Spirit General through Worship God is lower than that for ordinary people. They only need to be in the initial stage of Refining Spirit to successfully Worship God.

Upon learning of Sang Lan's death, this group of people immediately became tense.

Since the Human Immortal Temple is powerful enough to threaten Sang Lan, it can certainly threaten them as well.

Furthermore, with the Divine Decree issued, the Noble immediately became fearful and began to actively send their experts to the Shan Province.

Meanwhile, after Yue Dewen's army was defeated, it retreated.

While King Mu Li continued his advance, the Snow Rainbow Pavilion of the Great Dao Sect mobilized its Divine General army in an attempt to establish a new defensive line.

The two sides met again in Du Zhou Mountain, which was 200 miles away from Great Capital.

King Mu Li had snowballed to 900,000 men, and with logistics support, it numbered 1.5 million, sweeping across the land in a mighty, overwhelming force towards Great Capital.

The various allied forces formed by the Great Dao Sect consisted of 300,000 Great Capital Garrison and 450,000 temporary Garrison transferred from the surrounding areas, which combined to form 750,000 troops, confronting King Mu Li.

Both sides had a dense array of banners, an army as vast as the sea, and hundreds of generals as numerous as whales.

Separated by a vast Ink Pine Forest at the foot of Du Zhou Mountain, they were encamped and facing each other for hundreds of miles. A major battle was imminent.

At this moment, inside the command tent of the guard army's main commander.

The large basin of charcoal fire emitted warm heat, making the entire tent cozy and cozy.

Commander-in-Chief Yuchi Hongshan sat behind his desk, watching the group of generals seated on either side.

"I won't go into details about where everyone here comes from; you all know perfectly well."

Now that everyone has joined forces, regardless of what happens next, let's get through this difficult time first. Any methods or ideas you have, please share them here.

Yuchi Hongshan knew his own situation well.

The guards appeared to be of similar strength, but in reality, they were far inferior to the King Mu Li in actual combat.

The so-called Great Capital Garrison was basically made up of old soldiers who hadn't seen real combat in years. They were all cowards who were afraid of death. They were good at bullying innocent civilians, but when it came to those vicious Red Turban Thugs, they were just throwing their lives away and were only good for being used as human sacrifices.

The other Garrison urgently dispatched from the surrounding areas were disorganized, with most of them worried about their families and relatives back home.

If King Mu Li sweeps through the surrounding areas and causes unrest, this part of the Garrison is likely to cause a major disturbance.

The tent was silent; no one answered, and everyone avoided the commander's gaze.

I think everyone understands the current situation. Whether we can win or not isn't something that can be determined by just a few words.

"Yue Sect Leader, do you think there's any other way now?"

Seeing no hope for the others, Yuchi Hongshan's gaze fell on Yue Dewen.

Yue Dewen sat upright in the first seat on the left, his eyes slightly closed, his face pale. He was clearly still recovering from his previous injuries.

"Kexiwo is indeed very strong, and with Heavenly Artisan by his side, it's already a great achievement that I, the old Daoist, was able to hold my own for a short time." Yue Dewen shook his head slightly, also helpless.

"What if the True One Western Sect Heavenly Lock also makes a move?" Yuchi Hongshan asked.

"They still need to suppress the Red Turban Army in their own territory and cannot afford to be distracted," Yue Dewen replied.

In reality, Red Mountain knew that this was just an excuse. The other forces simply saw that Yue Dewen was weak and were unwilling to put in any more effort. That was all.

Everyone present knew this.

Yuchi Hongshan sighed, as if he wanted to say something more. Just then, he heard hurried footsteps approaching from outside.

"Report! There's unusual activity in the enemy's central army. Vanguard Chen Qizheng is approaching our vanguard!" A soldier entered the tent, knelt down, and loudly reported.

"This is a challenge. Chen Qizheng, a native of Hui County Jiang Province Ze Province, is a master of the Black Cloud Spear Technique, known for his unpredictable and elusive movements. Several years ago, he achieved a victory on the border using unconventional tactics, killing two rebel generals within three moves. Gentlemen, who is willing to accept the challenge?"

Yuchi Hongshan scanned the crowd present.

No one responded. Yue Dewen, seeing this, sighed inwardly, realizing that the situation was truly hopeless.

It seems hopeless to try and gain strength by relying on this bunch of useless soldiers.

He looked up at the sky outside the tent, a sky bluer than ever before, just like his heart at that moment—clear and calm.

'Never mind.'

Suddenly, he stood up and walked out of the tent.

"Yue Sect Leader? What's going on?" Yuchi Hongshan looked at him in confusion.

But there was no response.

Yue Dewen waved his hand, and with two young Daoist boys, calmly walked out of the tent and quickly disappeared among the many camps.

It's almost time.

*** Wushan Prefecture.

Dongfang Mu picked up a bowl of medicinal soup and swallowed it in large gulps.

His body was already wrapped in various bandages, and his originally rosy complexion was much paler than before.

Zhang Rongfang, Heavenly Maiden Tong Zhang, and Ran Xin Yue were all seated in the small hall.

This is inside an earthen fortress outside Wushan Prefecture.

This is also the ancestral home of Dongfang Mu, where he has always lived.

"Speaking of which, news just came in that our informants in the alliance have sent word that people from all over the Great Ling Realm are coming to investigate the matter of the Human Immortal Temple. Sang Lan's death has caused quite a stir."

"Next, the Abbot may need to be more careful. Knowing that Sang Lan, as Spirit General die here, these forces continue to send people, which shows they truly have immense confidence in their dispatched forces. Perhaps those Great Capital Noble might even send someone like the Earth Mother Walker worship them."

Dongfang Mu solemnly reminded him.

"The Earth Mother Walker?" Zhang Rongfang had never heard this name before.

"That's right. Everyone knows that the Divine General are the strongest, guarding the Great Ling for many years. But the Divine General are actually the top level among the Spirit General. And within the Spirit General, there are subtle divisions. The differences between them are enormous," Dongfang Mu explained.

"Please enlighten me, sir," Zhang Rongfang said solemnly. These were clearly things that even the Heavenly Maiden and the others could not access.

"That's easy. Actually, the Earth Mother Offering already falls under the purview of the Spirit Flight Teaching. In the mythological records of the Spirit Flight Teaching, there is a division between the Earth Mother and the Heavenly Gods. There are seventy-seven Earth Mother and ninety-nine Heavenly Gods. All the deities reside below the Supreme Spirit Flight Heaven," Dongfang Mu explained.

"So many?" Ran Xin Yue couldn't help but exclaim, "With so many gods, where do you get so many believers to divide them up?"

"Yes, that's why the Great Ling has been constantly waging wars everywhere, incorporating many heretical gods into its own system of heavenly gods Earth Mother, and at the same time gathering a massive number of believers. Only now has it basically gathered all the positions."

In reality, the deities of the Great Way, True One, and Buddhist School were all included in this system and became a nominal part of the Spirit Flight Teaching.

Secret Teaching, however, does not belong to this system. This is why they resist and rebel. Dongfang Mu nodded.

"Speaking of which, Heavenly Maiden, you contacted the higher-ups of your Reverse Time Society. Have you received a reply yet?"

"No. After receiving the message or intelligence, there has been no further contact," the Heavenly Maiden replied.

She's been getting increasingly withdrawn lately. Sometimes she'll sit motionless for a long time without saying a word, only occasionally blinking.

After witnessing Zhang Rongfang's victory over Sang Lan, a new thirst for power arose within her.

The Heavenly Demon Extreme Realm is one of unbridled freedom, where one can do as one pleases without any constraints. It allows one to unleash their current desires to the fullest extent.

For example, if you want to daydream, you must daydream to the extreme, and you can't get up even if your hemorrhoids flare up.

I will only do other things when I no longer want to daydream.

This state is similar to a return to instinct, but it's also different. Because even instinctive animality has memory.

The Heavenly Demon, however, only see the present moment; their past memories gradually fade over time. They satisfy their immediate desires to the extreme. Even if they might die the next second, they might still do it immediately.

This strange state was now gradually beginning to manifest in the Heavenly Maiden.

"Next, Abbot, have you thought about how to deal with this surging wave from the world?" Dongfang Mu asked Zhang Rongfang.