Chapter 837: Fight for Your Own Dignity

Chapter 837: Chapter 837: Fight for Your Own Dignity

Although the shrines of top-tier Incense Gods were always located in the center of towns, these Incense Gods couldn’t actually reside within the shrines.

The Incense Gods of Northern Julu Continent were a product of compromise, but when it came down to it, it was the Incense Gods who had compromised more.

The Incense Path, as it currently stood, wasn’t actually a true immortal path.

It was merely a method to comfort the mountain spirits and demons of that era.

When the treaty was established back then, Incense Gods could build shrines, but couldn’t enter towns. Even if they truly wished to benefit the people under their rule, they couldn’t act directly.

The essence of this was that the immortals of that time intended to prevent demons from truly dominating and controlling the common people.

The treaty placed numerous restrictions on Incense Gods.

The treaty of that era seemed rather humiliating, but the situation was now completely different. The current treaty was actually the greatest protection for these Incense Gods.

Almost all Incense Gods established cave dwellings on their respective mountain peaks.

Those with prestige and cultivation could even open fiefs. Most demons without backgrounds, whose cultivation was temporarily insufficient to establish their own shrines, would generally submit temporarily under these top-tier Incense Gods.

Within the shrines, separate small halls would be established. The wish-power from these halls would belong to those smaller demons who couldn’t establish their own shrines.

In Northern Julu Continent, truly prestigious Incense Gods were never alone. Instead, they truly had numerous subordinates with considerable cultivation who could be commanded.

However, for the Evil Spirit Sect, what mattered most was that these Incense Gods had to establish cave dwellings deep in the mountains and forests.

After all, accidents were inevitable during attacks. If innocent mortals were affected and news leaked, the consequences would be immeasurable.

Currently, killing people in Northern Julu Continent — anyone with half a brain would know they’d be pursued by the Eighteen Immortal Sects back to their base.

But within these Incense Gods’ cave dwellings, there was truly room for maneuver.

The Evil Spirit Sect’s preparations before taking action were already extremely thorough. They had gathered intelligence, confirmed cultivation levels, and sent people who either had overwhelming cultivation or overwhelming numbers.

Many Integration realm core members also personally entered the fray.

The Incense Gods, who had been standing alone for thousands of years, fighting each other for wish-power, didn’t initially realize anything major was happening.

Perhaps some Incense Gods speculated that this newly emerged batch of Incense Gods had an impressive background, but they never expected it to be the Evil Spirit Sect’s handiwork.

Most of the selected Incense Gods didn’t realize something was wrong until the Evil Spirit Sect had already surrounded their entire cave dwelling.

These Incense Gods had reasonably good internal intelligence, but once outside Northern Julu Continent, they were essentially blind.

The information asymmetry, combined with the fact that the attackers were the Evil Spirit Sect — an evil cultivator organization with absolutely no bottom line —

The one-sided slaughter in the early stages was inevitable.

But the Evil Spirit Sect felt they had been discreet enough — at least they should be able to hold out for a while.

Yet Cui Hao took the opportunity to casually slip information to the blind side.

For Cui Hao, the Evil Spirit Sect’s overwhelming advantage would make the Incense Gods quickly lose their will to resist.

After all, as things currently stood, the Evil Spirit Sect didn’t intend to take over all of Northern Julu Continent. They didn’t have the strength for that.

These Incense Gods, frightened to the core by the killing, might collectively surrender.

The Incense Gods’ losses alone were still not enough to match Cui Hao’s original intentions.

Only when both sides showed their cards and truly fought with fury —

Only when the Incense Gods were pushed into a quagmire where they couldn’t win but had to fight —

Northern Julu Continent, Deep Water Valley, Shanfu Great King’s Cave Dwelling.

The various Nascent Soul Incense Gods, who were rarely seen together, had now mostly gathered here. Looking closely, if you recognized anyone, you could even see a few Incense Gods who hadn’t shown themselves for ages but whose cultivation had already reached the Spirit Transformation realm.

If the Incense Path was only used as an aid, without greed for rapid advancement, and if one was willing to cultivate bitterly, then the growth ceiling wouldn’t be too rigidly capped.

For example, Shanfu Great King — an extremely clever wild boar demon.

He had now reached the Integration realm. The Incense Path hadn’t left too many indelible marks on him.

Only such a great figure could now organize this grand gathering of Incense Gods.

Shanfu Great King sat in the main seat, his form also transformed into human shape — an amiable-looking elder, though his hair and beard had long since turned completely white, and his face bore the mottled marks of age.

The climbing path of mountain spirits and demons, without heaven-sent opportunities, perhaps reached its limit at someone like Shanfu Great King.

Shanfu Great King had a kindly face. He didn’t rely on much wish-power, and the limited wish-power he collected was all prepared for the subordinate gods under his command.

Over centuries, he had yielded many of his shrines to other Incense Gods.

Prestige, strength, benevolence — he lacked nothing.

"Everyone has arrived. You all know the news." Shanfu Great King swept his gaze over the dozen or more Nascent Soul and higher Incense Gods seated below. "That batch of Incense Gods from unknown origins earlier actually had backing. Now that they’ve been pushed to desperation, they’ve started killing ruthlessly."

"By our rough count, at least eight fief-holding Incense Gods have been wiped out, their connections severed."

"With not a single piece of information leaking out, the enemy must be at least Spirit Transformation level or above — their cultivation far exceeds our imagination."

Shanfu Great King spoke slowly, word by word.

But the Incense Gods below all looked humble, waiting quietly for Shanfu Great King to finish.

Shanfu Great King sighed softly:

"Perhaps earlier, if some of you had given face after taking the benefits, there might not be this current slaughter."

"But now it’s too late. Their methods are ruthless and desperate — I’m afraid they won’t easily let this go."

As his words fell, silence descended.

A beautiful fox Incense God waited for a moment, confirming that Shanfu Great King had finished his opening remarks. Then she spoke gently:

"I wonder if the Great King knows who has come? I observed earlier — those establishing shrines were merely Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining little demons, far from the level needed to establish shrines."

"I imagine demons from other continents wouldn’t be generous enough to let those little demons establish shrines. There must be human involvement in this."

"Combined with their current methods — are humans planning to break the balance of Northern Julu Continent?"

"I once studied human texts for a time, and there’s a saying that seems fitting now — ’Those not of our kind must have different hearts.’"

"Now that Chu Xingchen has answered the Great Tribulation and Celestial Demons run rampant — are they planning to purge us non-human outsiders?"

"If that’s the case and the great tide of fate is upon us, we have no choice but to either submit to execution or abandon these Incense Fires and find some uninhabited wilderness to survive."

"After all, at this point, our words no longer carry the weight they once did."

Shanfu Great King fell silent at these words, raising his eyes to look at the fox Incense God whose vision reached so far.

The fox Incense God wore plain robes, with a jade-green hairpin gathering her elegant hair. Her eyes held only worry and extreme composure.

As her words fell, many Incense Gods whose vision wasn’t as far-seeing revealed expressions of panic.

Some enemies, from the moment you learned of them, were already destined to be powerless against.

"That shouldn’t be the case." Shanfu Great King shook his head slightly. Even now, he couldn’t admit it here. His tone was gentle: "Northern Julu Continent has existed for thousands of years. The original alliance oath was witnessed by Heaven."

"But your concerns may not be without merit. Rather than hoping for mercy, it’s better to do everything within our power."

"For example... this aggressively advancing enemy."

The fox Incense God pondered for a moment, then asked:

"Does the Shanfu Great King wish to confront them head-on?"

Shanfu Great King nodded slightly, then stood up, revealing the Dao Rhyme of the Integration realm:

"The rights and wrongs of before no longer matter. Soft fruits are what everyone squeezes. If we don’t fight for our own dignity, then we’ll have to swallow even more grievance."