A Way Out

The original gathering of Daoist priests numbered in the tens of thousands, though many of them were not qualified. Most were still in the early stages of developing their spiritual roots, and it was considered quite good if they could use magical artifacts with their limited spiritual power.

So when the three Giant Snake crushed through, a group of Daoists died. If the Correctors hadn't stopped the three Giant Snake in time, even more people would have died. Ninety-nine percent of the people who have survived the apocalypse have one important attribute: selfishness, and one hundred percent of them have one skill: running away.

So even though the Snake People had the upper hand, half of the survivors ran away. That's unbelievable! This was only the beginning of the battle! They hadn't even really fought much, and half of them had already fled. It seems that modern humans have absolutely no concept of morale or anything like that.

Even in a favorable situation, many soldiers desert, let alone in an unfavorable one. It would be good if even half of them came to support.

In any case, with the addition of the Daoists, the Correctors finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although these Daoists were not very strong, they were able to break through the snake patterns on the Giant Serpent chariot. Without the protection of these snake patterns, the Correctors could easily grind the chariot Snake People soldiers inside into mincemeat with a single swing of their twisting power.

The battle was evenly matched, and the Correctors did not have the will to fight to the death. Mainly, they did not have the power to make a decisive move, nor did they want to pay with their lives. So, the humans quickly retreated while fighting, and eventually reached the third line of defense.

The Snake People, with their captives, occupied the second line of defense. The humans, along with many Snake People captives and corpses, entered the third line of defense. The Daoists inside, as if they had never fled, rushed up to demand trade for Snake People supplies.

After the Correctors secretly killed a few particularly troublesome individuals, they dropped the matter of the escape, since some of the escapees were Correctors themselves, making it difficult for them to bring up the Daoist priests.

Driven by self-interest, the war eventually became less one-sided. Although the third line of defense was lost in the third war, the Correctors Alliance declared that they had many more lines of defense and that these few lines would serve as training exercises.

War always drives rapid technological advancement, because not advancing means certain death. Among Daoists, there are quite a few at the Foundation Establishment stage, and through continuous training, the control abilities of the Correctors seem to have reached a higher level.

Although the Snake People continued to spread, their speed had slowed considerably compared to their initial unstoppable advance. The filth among humans also began to fester, and the Correctors felt it was time to restrict and suppress the Daoists.

The specific reason is that although the strength of Correctors is far superior to that of Daoists, the number of Correctors is far less than that of Daoists, while the number of Daoists has been increasing and can now be called full-time cultivators.

Correctors can only be born from Twisted Artifacts, but while Twisted Artifacts used to appear periodically, it's now virtually impossible to find wild ones. As a result, Twisted Artifacts are in short supply, and new Correctors are rarely seen.

In the war Correctors humans and snakes, Correctors continue to die, making them even scarcer. In some places, Correctors have even begun to secretly cultivate Zombie to fight against Daoists.

The Correctors were panicking. They had previously been able to maintain their superior status thanks to their strength, but gradually the Daoists also gained the ability to overwhelm the Correctors with sheer numbers, which made the Correctors even more anxious.

It seems too late to restrict the development of Daoists now. The basic Daoist Spirit Forging Art, has already been passed on, and the basic principles of various spells are gradually circulating. Some talented Daoists are already able to create their own spells and even cultivation techniques.

The types of spiritual roots have gradually increased from the initial two, fire and lightning. It can only be said that these Daoists are truly insane. For example, one Daoist, in order to obtain a water-attribute spiritual root, had an in-depth conversation with a rotting Zombie had mutated while soaking in water, and finally captured a trace of water element, thus obtaining a water-attribute spiritual root.

"Restrict the dissemination of higher-level cultivation knowledge, confiscate all inherited items, and investigate the mastermind behind the Daoists." This was the consensus among the Correctors. Under the pretext of capturing Snake People spies, they militarized the alliance, but in reality, they suppressed the trading atmosphere of cultivation knowledge and began to restrict the transmission and exchange of knowledge.

In the ensuing war, they gradually held back, or deliberately injured Daoist priests by mistake, and began to kill Daoist priests by using Snake People. They also sent Daoist priests under their control to rob and kill, and steal the inherited items.

As for the search for the mastermind behind the Daoist priests, the Correctors had been working on it, but they hadn't found anything until one of the earliest Daoist priests was secretly captured. Only then did they gradually learn some information, discovering that several Daoist priests were exceptionally powerful and had hidden a lot of things, perhaps including information about a mastermind. Thus, a new round of captures began.

Han Mo has not only lost ten centimeters in height, but his face has also become square. His aura is now only at the ninth level of Qi Refining. Because so many people are cultivating, Daoists are now gradually divided into levels, currently divided into three phases and twenty-seven levels. The three phases are Spirit Forging Phase, Qi Refining Phase, and Foundation Establishment Phase, and each phase is divided into nine levels.

Of course, this is just one way to classify the state of spiritual roots. There are other percentage-based classifications, such as 90% for the Qi Refining stage.

In reality, with the help of his extremely strong fire-attribute spiritual root and the secret assistance of a certain Zombie woman, Han Mo's strength had already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, and his strength and spells had all reached their current peak.

The reason he is dressed like this is naturally because he has noticed something is wrong. He has seen the suppression of Daoists by the Correctors during this period. In the presence of Snake People, they still want to maintain peace on the surface, but in secret they are using all sorts of methods.

For safety's sake, Han Mo disguised himself extensively, and finally casually walked into a room where several people were already waiting for him. If one looked closely, one could see that these Daoist priests were from the first one or two groups, including Fang Hao, Eight Trigrams, and a few others, some of whom had even bought his straw sandals.

"Uncle, you're here. What's the situation outside?" Eight Trigrams raised his hand and cast a detection spell. At the same time, they worked together to set up a concealment array, and the group finally began to talk.

"Can't get in touch with him, probably arrested." Han Mo didn't care much about the title of "Imperial Uncle." After others learned that he started out selling straw sandals, this title stuck with him.

"They're never going to stop!" Fang Hao said, somewhat annoyed. He then calmed down and continued, "The reason for all this is that our strength is still insufficient. Once we find the path to the next stage, with the sheer number of cultivators, we can absolutely crush them."

"Let's work together to deduce more ideas and help that person complete the next stage of the technique as soon as possible!" Eight Trigrams said from the side.

Han Mo nodded, but in his heart he felt that things were not so simple.