Chapter 1292: The Great Qi Looms Over Xuanhuang
Chapter 1292: The Great Qi Looms Over Xuanhuang
As the Grand Disciple of the Sage Dynasty, Sun Erlang was responsible for commanding all its affairs in the Saint Emperor’s absence. Naturally, no one would object to his pre-battle briefing and mobilization speech.
After several more days of traveling undetected through the white mist, a ray of light streaked through the sky and entered the Samantabhadra True Boat.
It was a message from an unknown source.
Sun Erlang squinted as he read it, his eyes sharpening. "We have confirmed intelligence. The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance will launch their campaign to retake Nine Mountains Prefecture tomorrow. To intimidate the Five Elders Council, they will also initiate small-scale harassment campaigns in several bordering prefectures..."
Upon hearing this, the eyes of the Sage Dynasty members present lit up. "The Alliance is making a bigger move than we anticipated!"
"Let them fight! The fiercer, the better!"
With a thought, Sun Erlang materialized a massive globe of light before them, displaying a map of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's territory.
"The moment the Alliance begins its campaign to retake Nine Mountains is the moment our Sage Dynasty army will march."
As Sun Erlang spoke, he coordinated with Ou Shangtian to activate the Samantabhadra True Boat’s internal lockdown formation.
"Before the final battle, I have one more top-secret matter to announce. The outcome of the war depends on it, and it must not be leaked. Therefore, the vessel will be sealed during this time. Entry is permitted, but none may leave, and all communications will be severed."
"I ask for your understanding," Sun Erlang stated calmly.
A flicker of surprise crossed everyone's faces, wondering what kind of secret warranted such extreme caution.
Sun Erlang closed his eyes and waited.
Amidst the grim atmosphere, an absolute silence descended upon the Samantabhadra True Boat.
An unknown amount of time passed before Sun Erlang's eyes snapped open.
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has made its move."
"Now, it's our turn."
Sun Erlang suddenly rose and bowed deeply toward an empty space before him. "I pay my respects to my Master!"
The others on the boat were startled. They followed his gaze and saw the Saint Emperor's figure materialize, cloaked in starlight.
"We welcome the Saint Emperor!" they all cried out in unison, bowing.
Even though it was only a phantom and not his true self, no one dared show the slightest disrespect.
The Saint Emperor wasted no time on empty platitudes, his voice resonating with power as he declared, "In this battle, the Sage Dynasty will surely be victorious."
With a grand wave of his hand, the Saint Emperor's phantom dissolved into countless motes of starlight that flew into the bodies of every cultivator present.
Boom!
Each person felt as if they had transformed into a planet, adrift in a vast, starry sea.
They revolved around a colossal central star, as brilliant as the midday sun.
More wondrous still, a tremendous stellar force seemed to reverberate through the cosmos, weaving a celestial web that connected them all.
Without words or spiritual sense, their thoughts flowed freely between them, allowing for effortless communication.
They soon discovered that the stars in this cosmic sea included not only those aboard the Samantabhadra True Boat but also a far greater number of the Sage Dynasty's grassroots commanders, already embedded deep within the Alliance's prefectures.
"I will now issue the following deployments," Sun Erlang's voice echoed through the starry expanse.
"Wang Xuanba, Senior Qiaogong, you will lead the First and Third Legions. You are responsible for besieging the one hundred and thirty prefectures in the Alliance's eastern territories."
"Ou Shangtian, Ou Daozi, you will lead the Second and Ninth Legions. You are responsible for the one hundred and twenty-six prefectures in the south."
"Su Yuqing, Senior Bai Hua, you will lead the Fifth Legion and the Ten Thousand Worlds Allied Forces. You will strike the one hundred and fifty-four prefectures in the west."
...
With each order Sun Erlang issued, Wang Xuanba and the others felt their positions within the cosmic sea shift rapidly. As they settled into their new stellar regions, they instantly formed connections with the other stars in their designated areas.
With a mere flicker of a thought, detailed information about the primary commanders of the legions under their command appeared in their minds.
"Your primary objective is to capture the Heavenly Cities in each prefecture. Any cultivator clans or factions that resist are to be swept aside. If they choose to remain neutral, you may ignore them for the time being."
"When the battle begins, all of the Alliance's Heavenly Profound Mirror channels and teleportation arrays will be paralyzed..."
"Here are the schematics for the defensive formations of the Alliance's Heavenly Cities. Follow the annotated instructions to breach them; their defenses will be like paper to us. Should they activate their backup arrays, I will immediately transmit the new vulnerabilities."
...
One piece of intelligence after another was relayed in an orderly fashion. The cultivators looked at the information in their hands, their excitement growing by the second.
They not only had a roster of the main defenders in each prefecture but also detailed notes on their cultivation realms, their strengths, and even the techniques they practiced.
The secrets of their opponents had been laid bare before them.
Meanwhile, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance knew next to nothing about them.
How could they possibly lose this war?
No wonder Sun Erlang had been so solemn. The information they held could only have been leaked by someone at the highest echelons of the Alliance.
But the shock Sun Erlang delivered was not yet over.
"This Star Sea Network you are now experiencing is a manifestation of the Saint Emperor's immense power. Beyond its basic communication functions, you can also draw upon his power to instantly teleport to one another's side."
"You must use this advantage to overwhelm your enemies with superior numbers and destroy them piece by piece."
The brilliant star at the center of the cosmos suddenly erupted with a dazzling light, bathing all the countless stars in its glow.
In an instant, a detailed understanding of the various ways to utilize the Saint Emperor's power flooded their minds.
They couldn't help but marvel once more at the Saint Emperor's greatness.
...
While the pre-battle council was still underway, in the Lingxu Realm.
"Are you sure this will work?" Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong asked, looking at the wheel-like pattern carved into the clearing before them.
"Rest assured, Seniors. With me, Cui Shaojiang, on the job, failure is not an option!" a young man in a round blue hat declared with a confident smile.
Cui Shaojiang drew a drop of his own essence blood and flicked it toward the clearing.
As the blood merged with the wheel on the ground, it erupted into a web of crimson threads that shot into the sky and vanished.
"Alas, in today's Imperial Beast Sect, I'm the only one left who knows this little trick," Cui Shaojiang explained, shaking his head with mock solemnity.
Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong, however, eyed the pattern on the ground with suspicion. They couldn't feel any restrictive or binding power emanating from it.
Sensing their distrust, Cui Shaojiang patiently continued, "The Imperial Beast Sect of today is not what it once was. After the great calamity, we migrated here. Over the following millennium, we gradually abandoned traditional beast-taming methods in favor of the 'Beast Spirit Union' technique."
As Cui Shaojiang spoke, the blue hat on his head suddenly seemed to come alive, sprouting two round, black eyes that peered at Qing and Hong.
Although they had some knowledge of the Imperial Beast Sect's current state, seeing it firsthand was still hard to believe.
In their senses, there were no separate auras of man and beast; from the very beginning, there had only been a single being standing before them.
"Not control by law, but fusion by spirit. This was the breakthrough our ancestors achieved after studying the Beast Controlling Wheel. Actually, Senior Xu Ke deserves some of the credit," he said, stroking his head. The blue hat returned to normal.
"But I digress. Let's return to the Beast Controlling Wheel. The replica Senior Xu Ke sent us is quite excellent. Combined with our sect's thousand years of accumulated knowledge, it's enough to unleash the power of the original Beast Controlling Wheel and summon Emperor Sanmo here..."
A glint of excitement flashed in Cui Shaojiang's eyes. "We are very much looking forward to meeting this legendary beast of wisdom. If we could achieve spiritual fusion with him..."
Cui Shaojiang's gaze drifted idly beyond the clearing, where the Imperial Beast Sect had already laid an inescapable trap.
The memory of this beast, who had abandoned the sect without a word, had not faded with time. If anything, it had become more deeply ingrained in their collective consciousness.
Thus, when Xiao Qing and Xiao Hong arrived with the replica of the Beast Controlling Wheel to persuade them, it was a match made in heaven.
On the ground, the red light writhed as if alive, brandishing claws and fangs. The wheel pattern itself trembled slightly, looking as if it might leap off the ground at any moment.
Cui Shaojiang narrowed his eyes. He could feel it. Emperor Sanmo had taken the bait.
...
Alliance Headquarters.
While waiting and pretending to tour the area, Xu Ke and Yin Shangren suddenly felt the Museum of Divine Treasures grow a fraction brighter.
A slight weight that had been pressing on their hearts suddenly lifted.
"Grandpa Sanmo has left," Xu Ke immediately concluded.
"So, we make our move now?" Yin Shangren asked, eager for action.
"Wait a little longer. Wait for the Saint Emperor's signal..."
"Even I'm surprised by the breakthroughs the Imperial Beast Sect has made these past years. Their decision to retreat and preserve their talent when the great calamity struck was truly a wise one," Xu Ke remarked.
"Fine, we'll wait. A few moments more won't matter. By the way, come look at this..."
Yin Shangren pulled Xu Ke over to one of the exhibits.
Xu Ke looked closely and saw a peculiar golden tree.
All its leaves were triangular, and its trunk was covered in carvings of small figures communicating in various poses.
"This isn't an ancient artifact from the Xuanhuang Realm, is it?" Xu Ke asked after a moment, his expression a bit strange.
"Of course not. This is from my homeworld."
"Or rather, the homeworld of my most complete remnant consciousness."
"I thought that place was blasted to dust, but to think the most important thing, the Golden Tree, would be preserved here in the Museum of Divine Treasures," Yin Shangren said, his tone distant.
"This tree... is there something special about it?" Xu Ke knew Yin Shangren wouldn't be reminiscing for no reason. A thought struck him, and he asked.
Yin Shangren chuckled. "In our world, there was no sun or moon. The light for the entire world came from this one Golden Tree. Even the genesis of all life took place beneath its boughs. As you can see, the patterns on the tree are the imprints of human interactions over countless years."
"Though the world was destroyed, as long as this tree exists, nearly a third of the world's original power is preserved within it."
Xu Ke was beginning to understand. "You have a way to detonate the energy inside this tree?" he asked, slightly taken aback.
Yin Shangren just scratched his head and smiled without a word.
"Are you willing to do that? That's your homeworld. If this tree remains intact, after the Saint Emperor conquers the Alliance headquarters, you could ask him to help. It might not be impossible to recreate that world," Xu Ke said.
Yin Shangren snorted. "Everyone's dead. So what if the world is recreated? Am I supposed to pretend to be them and put on a one-man show?"
"Let's just blow it up."
Xu Ke responded with a smile.
As they spoke, they suddenly felt the ground beneath them tremble gently. They exchanged a look and glanced outside the Museum of Divine Treasures. Though their vision couldn't penetrate the walls, they could sense that a great change had descended upon the Xuanhuang Realm.
Their senses did not deceive them.
At that moment, a strange spectacle was unfolding in the skies of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The once bright, clear sky suddenly dimmed, as if night had fallen prematurely.
The great sun had vanished.
Pinpricks of starlight began to illuminate the heavens from all directions.
Amidst the shimmering stars, a bright moon ascended.
But the cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm soon realized that this "moon" was even more brilliant than the sun it had replaced.
As the massive jade disc slowly drew closer, the Xuanhuang Realm was bathed in light once more, this time an ethereal, silvery glow.
The cultivators looked up and saw, to their astonishment, countless towering structures upon the moon's surface.
It was another world entirely!
After a moment of stunned silence, a thousand thoughts raced through the minds of the Xuanhuang cultivators.
"Could that be the legendary Mysterious Immortal Boat?"
"Is the Mysterious Immortal Boat attacking us?"
"I heard the Alliance and the Five Elders Council are at war. Is this a surprise attack from the Five Elders?"
"Be on your guard!"
...
Something so unusual could only mean trouble.
In the current state of high alert, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's reaction was swift.
Defensive formations around the Heavenly Cities in every prefecture activated instantly, their alarms piercing the sky.
Some cultivators transformed into streaks of white light, shooting straight towards the moon-world in the sky, hoping to investigate.
But though it seemed just within reach, the probing cultivators found they could never get any closer.
It was as if an impassable heavenly abyss separated them.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance stood ready for battle, but all they saw were several beams of bright light shining down from the moon.
The moonlight, sharp as blades, struck precisely at the borders of the Alliance's four central prefectures: Tianyu, Tianchen, Tianshu, and Tianquan.
The sky above these four prefectures instantly took on a silver sheen, becoming illusory and dreamlike.
But beyond that, nothing else seemed to happen.
After a long, cautious wait, the cultivators of the four central prefectures came to this conclusion.
Soon, however, they would learn how wrong they were.
"The teleportation arrays are down! We're sealed off!"
"Communication talismans are useless too!"
"We've lost contact with the other prefectures, but we can still reach headquarters."
"What are their orders? To act at our discretion? They're at our very doorstep! Damn it!"
The four prefectures descended into chaos.
A few hot-tempered cultivators flew straight to the silver-lit borders of their prefectures.
They intended to break through the blockade.
The white mist barrier, now bathed in silver light, seemed even more sacred and solemn.
One cultivator mustered his courage and plunged directly into the white mist.
He had been prepared to lose several years of his lifespan, but the scene that greeted him after entering the mist left him utterly dumbfounded.
The moment he crossed the border, the white mist that had filled his vision vanished.
In its place was an endless, starry sky.
He felt as if he were truly in the void outside the Xuanhuang Realm, surrounded by a cold, dark emptiness.
In the distance, he could faintly see countless brilliant stars, twinkling from time to time.
The cultivator stood stunned for a moment, then tried to turn back, only to find the path he had taken was gone.
Believing it to be an illusion, he unleashed a barrage of sword techniques and spells, but they caused not a single ripple in the starry expanse.
He tried teleportation and instant movement techniques again, but they all failed.
Worse, as his spiritual energy depleted, the cold, cosmic environment began to slowly erode his mind.
Helpless, the cultivator could only pick a direction and fly continuously.
He hoped to escape the confines of this starry sky.
But what he and the others didn't know was that the sea of stars was boundless. Without the right method, they could spend their entire lives flying and never find their way out.
Outside the formation, more and more cultivators stepped across the moonlit border.
But the formation was like a bottomless abyss, swallowing them all.
Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, and even Dao Integration. No matter their cultivation, once they entered, they never returned.
After a series of tests, the cultivators of the four Alliance prefectures were finally cowed.
Alliance headquarters at last issued an urgent command, forbidding any more of these suicidal attempts.
Several streaks of rainbow light traversed the prefectures, arriving at the moonlit border of Tianquan Prefecture.
One of them was the chief formation master of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, Lu Xichan.
"This formation..." Lu Xichan murmured, her eyes filled with shock as she studied the moonlight shining upon the white mist barrier.
A young man in white beside her frowned and asked, "When can you break it? Right now, we've lost all contact with the prefectures outside the barrier."
"It's not just the teleportation arrays that have failed. Even the Heavenly Profound Mirror channels have been blocked," the young man said, a hint of anxiety in his voice.
This young man was none other than Transmitter Ren, a member of the Alliance's true ruling core, the Dharma Transmitters.
Lu Xichan did not dare to be slow in her response. "This formation seems to draw upon the immense power of the Star Sea, then uses infinite spatio-temporal transformations to generate what appears to be a real cosmos..."
Transmitter Ren cut her off coldly. "How long until you can break it?"
Lu Xichan's words caught in her throat. After a long pause, she said, "The complexity of this formation is unlike anything I have ever seen. It should take at least fifteen days..."
"I'll give you ten days," Transmitter Ren said icily.
With a cold snort, he vanished.
Lu Xichan was left behind with several other formation masters from the Alliance's Array Strategy Hall.
She looked up at the great starlight formation blanketing the sky, and cold sweat slowly beaded on her forehead.
And the more skilled the formation masters present were, the more despair they felt in their eyes.
It was not that the formation masters of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance were incompetent.
It was that the formation the Saint Emperor had deployed was far, far beyond their current era.
It was built upon a foundation of array knowledge accumulated by Li Fan over a hundred lifetimes of relentless deduction with the Final Dissociation Disc—knowledge that surpassed the Xuanhuang Realm's by several generations. It was then infused with insights Li Fan, or rather the Dissociation Disc, had gained from several immortal-grade formations.
After being infused with the essence of this knowledge, the Saint Emperor had taken it a step further, using his own enlightenment in the Star Sea to refine the formation to an even deeper level.
At this moment, within the Great Qi Sage Dynasty—the moon that now occupied nearly half the sky above the four Alliance prefectures—countless citizens were gathered in the Hall of the Sacred Heart.
They knelt before the statue of the Saint Emperor, praying with devout piety.
And in the Sacred Capital, at the foot of the Saint Emperor's throne, tens of thousands of second-generation You Clan members, beings created by him, were chanting of his great and glorious deeds.
The purple-gold qi of the Sage Dynasty merged with the golden essence of source power.
It formed a faint, purple-gold starlight that flowed out from the Sage Dynasty's domain, sustaining the great formation that had trapped the four Alliance prefectures.
This ultimate containment array, named the "Moonlight Starlight Array" by the Saint Emperor, was infinitesimally close to a true immortal-grade formation. Li Ping was confident that even if a Dharma Transmitter came in person, it would take them some time to break it.
As for the people currently trapped within the four Alliance prefectures who wanted to break the formation...
They would first have to ask him, the Heavenly Mandate Sage Emperor, for his permission.
Li Ping sat upon the Saint Emperor's throne, his gaze crossing the boundary between two worlds to fall upon the lands of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance in the Xuanhuang Realm.
The Saint Emperor's throne, and indeed the entire Sacred Capital, had become incredibly quiet now that the war had begun.
The Cat Treasure was the same as ever, sleeping lazily on Li Ping's shoulder. It seemed that apart from the essence of source power, there was nothing in the world that could stir its interest.
Besides the Cat Treasure, a figure the size of an eight or nine-year-old child also stood by the Saint Emperor's side.
He stared intently down at the Xuanhuang Realm below.
It was Tianyang.
His puppet body, having absorbed vast amounts of source power essence and the combat memories of the immortal puppet "Ancestor," had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation. His appearance and body had reverted to how they were in life. He had even developed a true aura of life.
His power was unfathomably deep. He stared at the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, awaiting the arrival of his opponent.
And below the Saint Emperor's throne, Yi Jue of the Salvation Sect had brought out every single paper figure his sect possessed.
On the spot, the paper figures had reconstructed the mountain gate of the Salvation Sect as it once was.
At the center of the structure, a passage seemed to have opened, leading to some unknown destination.
Though Yi Jue himself did not enter, his eyes bulged out and stretched infinitely, peering deep into the passage.
"Rest assured, Saint Emperor. If there's so much as a breeze or a stir in the Xuanhuang Realm, this old Daoist will surely see it," Yi Jue said with a grin.
Li Ping paid Yi Jue no mind.
The majority of his focus and attention was, in fact, on the starry expanse outside the Xuanhuang Realm.
There, he had made layers upon layers of preparations.
He was waiting for the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Transmitters to arrive.
Beyond the four Alliance prefectures, outside the "Moonlight Starlight Array."
The instant the skies of the Xuanhuang Realm dimmed, the instant the Great Qi Sage Dynasty descended with its satellite small worlds like a constellation of stars, capturing the full attention of the Alliance cultivators...
A monumental upheaval was simultaneously taking place in the Heavenly City of every single Alliance prefecture.
When Sun Luyuan saw the moon appear in the sky, it was as if a switch had been flipped in his mind. Without a moment's thought, he issued the command to the sleeper agents he had been preparing for years.
These agents would sacrifice their lives to detonate the formation seals embedded within their bodies, targeting the teleportation arrays and Heavenly Profound Mirrors in each prefecture.
Sun Luyuan, who had been a Dao Integration cultivator and head of a major cultivator family for many years, found his mind going blank for a moment after giving the command.
His throat was dry, his hands and feet cold.
However, before the feeling of fear could set in, he noticed with some astonishment that in several prefectures, the Heavenly Profound Mirrors and teleportation arrays had already been destroyed before his agents even had a chance to act.
Sun Luyuan understood at once. "Such an important matter would, of course, not be entrusted to me alone."
Amidst the chaos, Sun Luyuan saw massive, golden flying boats appear abruptly, like divine soldiers descending from the heavens.
Before the Alliance cultivators could even react, the Heavenly Cities were already surrounded.
Strange puppets flew out from the vessels, shooting beams of black light.
The defensive formations of the Alliance's Heavenly Cities, famed for being impregnable, instantly became precarious.
It seemed they could be breached at any moment.
"It seems the rank of the traitor within the Alliance might be even higher than mine."
"Could it be that Chief Lu has also defected?"
Sun Luyuan watched with narrowed eyes, and a sense of calm and justification settled over him.
"The promising juniors of the family were already arranged to leave the four central prefectures ahead of time. As for the rest, I gave them prior warning. Hiding in their manors, they should be safe from the fallout."
"It's just a shame about Lu'er. I couldn't get him transferred out in time."
"Tianci seems to be in seclusion. His strength surpasses even my own, so I shouldn't have to worry about him."
As Sun Luyuan pondered, he saw the Alliance begin to organize its cultivators into squads to resist. He couldn't help but snort coldly. "Now is the time for me to render meritorious service."
With great caution, he changed his appearance and aura. Then, taking them by surprise, he launched an attack on the Alliance's defensive formation from within. Coordinating with the Sage Dynasty's soldiers outside the Heavenly City, he quickly secured victory.
As a talisman, personally inscribed by the Saint Emperor, was placed on the forehead of the Dharma Transmitter's statue in the Heavenly City...
It signified the complete fall of an Alliance Heavenly City.
The first Alliance Heavenly City had been conquered by the Sage Dynasty.
Nandu Prefecture.
Although the guardian of this prefecture was only at the Soul Transformation realm and its defenses were weak, the victory was still of great significance.
Soon, through the power of the Saint Emperor's Star Sea Network, every soldier of the Sage Dynasty learned of the news.
Immensely encouraged, the Sage Dynasty's soldiers redoubled their offensive.
The battle was going far better than they could have ever imagined.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had been at peace for a long time, and most of its combat strength had been redeployed to the borders.
With their most reliable countermeasure, the defensive formations, all rendered useless, the Alliance was almost completely on the back foot, taking a beating from the Sage Dynasty's fierce assault.
Sun Erlang watched the map of the Alliance's territory before him rapidly change color as reports of victory poured in, but there was not a trace of joy in his eyes.
He knew that the current results were only because the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had been caught completely off guard.
The real, difficult battle would begin once they recovered from the initial shock.
"A Dao Integration cultivator has appeared in Liuguang Prefecture! It's Blue Ice Immortal Venerable!"
"A Dao Integration enemy has also appeared in Yueyang Prefecture! We have no information on him! I repeat, the target's identity is unknown!"
...
As the battlefield reports flooded in, Sun Erlang sensed the black-gold puppets in his mind. After a moment of deliberation, he decided not to act rashly.
If they were just ordinary Dao Integration cultivators, the forces he had currently deployed would be sufficient to handle them.
He needed to wait for his true opponents to appear before he could make his move.
Besides...
Sun Erlang's gaze shifted to the area directly below the moon in the sky, where the four Alliance prefectures were located.
The battles on the periphery were merely an appetizer.
The place that would truly decide victory or defeat was still there.
The Dao Transformation Stone in his mind pulsed with blue light as Sun Erlang ran another deduction, striving to achieve victory on the outer battlefield with minimal casualties.
"Master, I will not disappoint you," Sun Erlang vowed silently.
The Great Qi Sage Dynasty won battle after battle, but its string of victories was soon brought to a halt by an unexpected event.
In Luoyan Prefecture, after Luoyan Heavenly City was captured, most of the Sage Dynasty's forces had moved on to other battlefields.
Only a small contingent was left behind to guard it.
But from the wilds of Luoyan Prefecture, a large group of cultivators suddenly appeared.
They did not try to retake Luoyan Heavenly City. They simply launched a surprise attack and then quickly withdrew.
(End of this chapter)
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