"The Fiendgods in the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh are clever, at least. They know the key to this war is us Celestial Immortals. If they take us out, they'll have won half the battle!" Ancestor Tianyang sneered.
"But unfortunately for them, these native Fiendgods have spent their entire lives in the Great Xia World. They have no idea how vast the Three Realms are, nor how deep the Human Race's foundations run!"
"What do you mean, Ancestor?" Ju Hua asked.
"This Illusion Demon Realm is indeed the first one I've ever seen in the Great Xia World. If nothing unexpected happened, the one here in the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh should be the only Illusion Demon Realm in the Great Xia World!" Ancestor Tianyang continued.
"These Fiendgods assumed we didn't know the Illusion Demon Realm's properties, so they set this trap. But even if our Human Race's Celestial Immortals have never encountered one before, they've read about them in the Human Race's records. How could they fall for such a crude scheme?"
"I see!"
Ju Hua nodded, feeling a little moved.
The Human Race, spread throughout the Three Realms, truly had far deeper foundations than the native Fiendgods of the Great Xia World. A tiny gap in knowledge about the Illusion Demon Realm had led the Fiendgods to painstakingly devise a plan—and even sacrifice countless Primordial Spirit Fiendgods to carry it out—only for it to come to nothing.
No wonder the Human Race had been able to sweep aside so many native Fiendgods after arriving in the Three Realms from the shattered world of antiquity, and quickly become its true masters!
The Fiendgods born of the Three Realms weren't much of a threat at all. The only ones who could truly wage war against the Human Race in the Three Realms were probably the Human Race itself, weren't they?
"Thank you for clearing things up for me, Ancestor!" Ju Hua bowed again.
In truth, given Ancestor Tianyang's status, he could easily have said nothing. Ju Hua was certain that among the commanders of the various clans, no more than three knew the truth about the Illusion Demon Realm. It was even possible that Ancestor Tianyang was the only one who did.
Ancestor Tianyang had come all this way just to answer his questions. There was no doubt that the man thought highly of him.
"Although the Illusion Demon Realm is dangerous, in other Great Worlds it's also an excellent place to temper one's Dao Heart!" As he spoke, Ancestor Tianyang took out a jade slip and handed it to Ju Hua.
"What's this?" Ju Hua sent his Immortal Awareness into it, and in an instant, he received a wealth of information about the Illusion Demon Realm.
"I see. It can actually be used to temper one's Dao Heart?" A look of sudden understanding appeared on Ju Hua's face.
"Once the war is over, I'll personally get you a Mirror Stone. Then you can enter and temper yourself using the method I told you about," Ancestor Tianyang said with a smile.
"But how can I trouble you with something like this, Ancestor?" Ju Hua said, taken aback.
"Haha, it'll be no trouble at all. Don't refuse," Ancestor Tianyang said dismissively.
Seeing that Ancestor Tianyang was so insistent, Ju Hua had no further qualms. He cupped his hands. "Thank you, Ancestor."
"Haha, that's for after the war! For now, be careful out there!" Ancestor Tianyang said with a laugh. His figure gradually blurred, and soon he had left the Shuixuan Warship.
"..."
Ju Hua gazed at the spot where Ancestor Tianyang had disappeared, feeling a little anticipation stir within him. He'd been polite in his reply, but in truth, he was eager to visit the Illusion Demon Realm.
The importance of the Dao Heart on the path of cultivation went without saying. Take the final trial of the tribulation, the Heart Demon Tribulation: it had made countless people blanch with fear.
No matter how powerful your divine abilities, arts, treasures, or secret techniques were, if your Dao Heart wasn't strong enough, you still wouldn't pass the Heart Demon Tribulation!
Ju Hua wanted to overcome the Celestial God Tribulation. He didn't need to worry too much about the first three trials. With his extraordinary talent, he could raise his cultivation realm high enough before facing the tribulation. A higher realm meant greater strength, and with enough strength, he was confident he could withstand the first three trials even without powerful divine abilities.
But the Heart Demon Tribulation relied solely on the Dao Heart. Ju Hua had cultivated for less than three hundred years, so naturally his Dao Heart couldn't compare to those who had cultivated for countless years. That was why he yearned to enter a place where he could temper it.
Of course, the war wasn't over yet, so Ju Hua had to push that desire to the back of his mind for now.
After the incident with the Illusion Demon Realm, the Fiendgods had probably realized that scheming against the Human Race was pointless. From then on, as the Human Race's armies swept through the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh, their days grew far less easy.
Fiendgods seemed to pour endlessly out of the depths of the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh. Taking advantage of the terrain and the dangerous areas along the way, they repeatedly ambushed the Human Race's forces.
Two or three battles a day was considered light. At times, the Humans and Fiendgods even fought dozens of large-scale battles in a single day. Yet in all this constant fighting, the Void-Return Fiendgods made only a handful of appearances.
The reason was simple. Although Void-Return Fiendgods were said to rival Celestial Immortals, they could only match the most ordinary Celestial Immortals. The Celestial Immortals sent to the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh by the various clans were nothing like ordinary Celestial Immortals; even the weakest among them was stronger.
There were a few powerful Void-Return Fiendgods in the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh, but four fists were more than a match for two. If any of them dared to show themselves, the Ancestors of the various clans would surely be more than happy to join forces against them.
At this level of fighting, both the Human Race and the Fiendgods were dying in droves. Every so often, Ju Hua absorbed a few more specks of light, each no bigger than a grain of rice. Bit by bit, he could feel his talent improving noticeably.
With his talent growing ever more extraordinary and the battles coming one after another, Ju Hua's understanding of the Dao of the Sword advanced by leaps and bounds. In the third year of the war, he learned the sixth stance of the Great Sorrow Sword Art. In terms of his insight into the Dao of the Sword alone, he had reached the level of a Loose Immortal with a million years of cultivation.
That same year, Ju Hua accumulated enough divine power for the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens to reach the fourteenth layer.
The thirteenth through fifteenth layers of the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens required nothing but an accumulation of divine power, so Ju Hua's breakthrough came naturally. It wasn't a major breakthrough.
Two years later, the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth—which Ju Hua had spent comparatively little effort cultivating—made a major advance. It reached the Dao Domain Realm.
After the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth reached the Dao Domain Realm, Ju Hua naturally grasped Minor Teleportation. His ability to protect himself instantly improved by a great deal.
No matter how you looked at it, Minor Teleportation used by a cultivator was far more powerful than a Minor Teleportation Dao Talisman.
In just five years since entering the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh, Ju Hua had made unprecedented progress. At the same time, the Zhuanshui Clan's army had dwindled severely.
Even with a commander as powerful as Ju Hua, the Zhuanshui Clan's forces had lost nearly three-tenths of their numbers in five years of the Fiendgods' frenzied attacks.
Immortal Fuyun, a top Loose Immortal, was ambushed by Fiendgods during an exploration mission and was killed on the spot, body and soul destroyed! Zhuanshui Pingqiu, on the other hand, had been lucky enough to survive one crisis after another...