Chapter 616: I Will End This War

“Senior Brother Ke, guard the treasury well. You just need to wait for the True Monarch to arrive and hand over the key… As for contacting those above, I’ll come up with a plan.”

“That would be for the best. I shall await good news from you, Junior Brother Hong, so I can escape this Sea of Suffering sooner.”

The gaunt Elder Daoist nodded slightly, his expression sincere.

The two of them spoke for a while longer about other potential allies they could win over and how to avoid the notice of Qu Yang.

When the time was up, they left the house one after the other. Soon, two Spirit Horses were led in, turning the place into a stable.

The gaunt Elder Daoist returned to his Spirit Land and walked over to his Talisman-Making Platform. He picked up his Talisman Brush, dipped it in specially prepared Vermilion, and began to draw on a freshly picked thousand-year-old leaf.

He attempted to draw three in a row. The first time, the force of his brush pierced straight through the leaf, ruining the Talisman Paper.

The second time, his brush faltered, and he failed to complete the Talisman’s outline. Another failure.

Finally, on the third try, he succeeded in one smooth motion. A Flower Bird Talisman with an indecipherable meaning was drawn on the leaf. With a flash of Spirit Light, it became a complete Talisman.

As one of the five remaining Core Formation True Men in the Holy Lotus Sect, each of them had been assigned several duties. In the past, everyone would have been thrilled by this.

But now, with the Sect on the brink of annihilation, no one took it seriously.

The gaunt Elder Daoist found a simple excuse to approach the Mountain Protection Array. He reached out and placed a hand on the light barrier. With a WHOOSH, the Spirit Leaf Talisman in his sleeve flew out.

It shot high into the air, flying off in a specific direction like a kingfisher.

‘Go, report this to them… What is Sect legacy? What is irreconcilable hatred? In the face of a full set of Nascent Soul resources, it’s all meaningless. My chance at the Longevity Path is now or never!’

The gaunt Elder Daoist’s heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled. He stared intently at the scene outside the array, imagining the wonderful life he would lead after leaving Qii Mountain.

In his view, Elder Hong’s ideas were just self-deception. It was laughable to cling to the banner of legacy and tradition when the Holy Lotus Sect was about to be destroyed.

It was better to be pragmatic, assess his own value, and sell himself for a good price.

…

「Five hundred miles from Qii Mountain Peak.」

Three Floating Battleships, arranged in a Three Talents formation, hovered silently in midair. Hundreds, if not thousands, of small, dark figures moved up and down the warships.

For warships of the Floating Battleship’s caliber, the post-battle maintenance process involved over a hundred steps, from repairing and replacing the Divine Thunder Pagodas, adjusting their attack angles and frequencies, to inspecting the Grand Array on the warship and refilling it with new Spirit Stones.

As for the countless Forbidden seals, they all had to be inspected one by one by Array Masters to ensure they would function in the next battle.

One-third of the Celestial Principle Sect’s disciples had already been sent to the newly conquered Spirit Vein to develop the mountain range.

Coupled with the years of war between the two sects, the number of disciples the Celestial Principle Sect had lost was not small.

Therefore, they often preferred to use more external resources to reduce the casualties among their disciples.

For instance, each additional volley from the Divine Thunder Pagodas meant a massive amount of Spirit Stones flowing away like water.

Every additional Mighty Divine General summoned meant another ancestral treasure was consumed.

In the center of the three Floating Battleships hung a scroll. Its mere presence was enough to envelop the entire camp in a milky-white Spirit Light.

The light was righteous and vast, warm and nourishing. All disciples could rapidly recover their True Essence under it, and it also prevented the invasion of Outer Demons.

This scroll had been infused with the entire life Essence of the most accomplished ancestor in the history of the Celestial Principle Sect before he passed away.

He was a Great True Monarch at Nascent Soul Perfection, just one final step away from Divinity Transformation, who had ultimately failed before the Great Dao.

When activated by a Nascent Soul cultivator from the same lineage of the Celestial Principle Sect, the scroll, containing such a figure’s lifetime of Essence, could instantly unleash power comparable to a Heaven-Reaching Spiritual Treasure.

Seeing this scene, Bai Zichen knew it would be difficult to sneak in. He could only stir a sword hum.

Although no sound was made, a layer of Formless Sword Qi seemed to spread out in all directions.

No Array Restriction could intercept it, and even the Scroll of the Ancestors did not react.

This was because the Sword Qi itself had no killing power; it was purely to announce his presence, indicating the arrival of a Nascent Soul Sword Cultivator.

Anyone below the Nascent Soul Realm who had yet to refine their Primordial Spirit would only feel a slight ringing in their ears.

An incense stick’s time later, a figure rose from the Celestial Principle Sect’s main camp. After giving a few instructions to the others, he flew directly toward Bai Zichen’s hiding place.

“It’s been a long time, True Monarch Bai…”

“Yes, it has been a very long time.”

Shi Chengdong still had the same distinguished look as before, with sharp brows and bright eyes, but he had clearly aged.

Back then, when he had just arrived in Liang Country, his sect’s Mountain Gate and Spirit Vein had been seized by the Five Phoenix Sword Sect, forcing him to leave his home.

Along the way, Po Jun Star Monarch had allied with the Hundred Puppet Sect to set an ambush, destroying two of his Floating Battleships and leaving him heavily injured.

But at least then he had been full of ambition, not having completely given up on Black Mountain and still thinking about that Ancient Secret Realm.

At the same time, he felt that coming to the Northern Domain was only temporary and that sooner or later, they would fight their way back to the Central Domain, the place that truly belonged to the Celestial Principle Sect.

But after wasting so many years, let alone fighting back to the Central Domain, they had never even set foot in the Black Mountain Range.

They had only recently secured a Tier Four Spirit Vein and had been locked in a stalemate with the Holy Lotus Sect, unable to land a decisive blow.

Year after year, Shi Chengdong’s ambition had been worn away. He now only thought of establishing a firm foothold for the Celestial Principle Sect in the Northern Domain, with a Tier Four Spirit Vein to ensure the Sect’s legacy could continue.

Perhaps it was a good thing that they hadn’t returned to the Central Domain.

Considering the current state of the war between the two races, even if the Celestial Principle Sect had managed to squeeze its way back into the Central Domain, most of its elites would have been conscripted in the first round of mobilization.

Given the death rates reported some time ago, he didn’t think the Sect’s disciples would be any better off than they were now.

It was only upon seeing this impossibly young Nascent Soul cultivator before him that ripples were stirred in Shi Chengdong’s heart, which had been as hard as a rock.

Back then, when Bai Zichen had defied the odds to slay a Nascent Soul cultivator while at the Core Formation Realm, Shi Chengdong had been at the Mid-Stage Nascent Soul Realm.

After so many years, he was still stuck at the Great True Monarch bottleneck, yet the other man had already successfully formed his Nascent Soul and stood at the pinnacle of this world.

Even more shockingly, Shi Chengdong discovered that the young cultivator’s cultivation was identical to his own—Mid-Stage Nascent Soul.

Mid-Stage Nascent Soul!

Shi Chengdong’s heart pounded, and a bitter taste filled his mouth. He opened his mouth to say something, but ultimately closed it, his words turning into a silent sigh.

How long had it been since he formed his Nascent Soul? To have already passed the first hurdle… even if he were the Saint Heir of a Super Major Sect in the Central Domain, such a promotion speed would be enough to make the Sect’s elders cheer with joy.

It would mean they had not gambled on the wrong successor and that the Sect’s glory could continue.

For the first time, he understood so profoundly what it meant to have the potential for Divinity Transformation.

“I have just returned from my travels in the Central Domain. I heard that your esteemed Sect is still locked in battle with the Holy Lotus Sect, and since the war is not yet over, I have come to lend a hand.”

Bai Zichen was also sizing up Shi Chengdong. The Sect Leader of the Celestial Principle Sect, who had once put immense pressure on him and his Senior Brother Ge Cang, had indeed grown old.

During his time in the Central Domain, even Great True Monarchs and Tier Four Top-Grade Great Demons had fallen at his hands.

He spent his days worrying about figures like the Dragon Monarch and the Divinity Transformation Elder Dragon, or about developments in the great war between the Human-Demon Races. Looking back at this war between the Celestial Principle Sect and the Holy Lotus Sect, it now seemed rather trivial.

He no longer needed to be as cautious and meticulous as in the past; he could now directly express his thoughts.

“You… The Holy Lotus Sect is a spent force. My Sect can take them down without any outside help.”

Faced with such a blatant attempt to swoop in and reap the rewards, Shi Chengdong was about to erupt in fury, but when he remembered the other man’s current cultivation, the words on the tip of his tongue changed.

He had personally witnessed Bai Zichen slay a Nascent Soul cultivator from a lower realm and had never doubted his combat strength.

Now that Bai Zichen was at Mid-Stage Nascent Soul, his power had surely risen with his realm. Even with the Floating Battleships behind him and an inherited Spiritual Treasure in his possession, Shi Chengdong felt no confidence at all.

Not long after Bai Zichen went to the Central Domain, news of his great exploits had made its way back to the Northern Domain. But then the news stopped, and no one had any way of finding out more.

That was how the rumors slowly started, fanned, of course, by other sects who helped spread them.

Legally speaking, as a native sect of Liang Country, the Qingfeng Sect had a greater right to launch an attack on the Holy Lotus Sect than the Celestial Principle Sect did.

Because of this, Shi Chengdong couldn’t really act tough.

“This war is approaching the century mark, isn’t it? Even in the entire Cultivation Realm, that would be considered a protracted conflict.”

Bai Zichen spoke as if he hadn’t noticed Shi Chengdong’s dark expression.

“The two of you have turned the entire Central Province into a wasteland. Over ten thousand innocent cultivators have been caught up and killed or injured, and the number of affected mortals is incalculable. The Celestial Principle Sect started this war but is powerless to deal with Qu Yang. In that case, I will be the one to end it.”