Dao-Treasuring Peak, Path-Seeking Courtyard.
None of the Daoists objected to Xuanming's proposal.
Retreating into the mountains in prosperous times and emerging to save the world in troubled times had been the Daoist tradition's guiding principle for countless ages. Their only disagreement concerned who would go into battle.
Xuan Yang needed to repair the formation diagram and the Four-Images Spirit Artifacts damaged in the great battle. He also planned to lead his disciples in refining eight Eight Trigrams Mirror spirit artifacts and sixty-four Eight Trigrams Mirror dharma artifacts, strengthening the Eight Trigrams Four-Images Formation.
Xuan Kong intended to research spirit food that could rapidly replenish magic power and heal injuries, as well as fasting foods that could ease the hunger of the people below the mountain and resolve the authorities' grain shortage.
Xuan Void needed to oversee the overall situation, while Xuan Tong needed to soothe the anxious pilgrims and lead disciples in laying formations and traps. Xuan Lei would lead some of the disciples in drawing talismans. The talismans had played a major role in the previous battle, so preparations naturally had to be stepped up.
Although Chang'anzi had only recently become a True Person, he had overtaken those who came before him, his strength comparable to a Primordial Heaven True Person's. He would remain at Floating Cloud Mountain in Xuanming's stead.
That left only Xuan Yin, Xuan Su, and Changqingzi.
Xuan Yin cultivated the slaughter Dao. A sword cultivator belonged amid slaughter.
Xuan Yin and Changqingzi would certainly go, using the fighting to temper themselves while vanquishing demons and defending the Dao.
Xuan Su had originally been assigned responsibility for medicinal pills, but she refused. The Truth-Seeking Abbey's only female True Person rose, bowed, and offered a Daoist salute, speaking with remorse:
"Because of Chang Ning and me, the