Realms In The Firmament

For the next couple of months, the entire Qing-Yun Realm had become a messy pot of sticky rice gruel.

First, everything about the Demon Soul Dao was revealed to the world, so the union of all sects in Qing-Yun Realm started the war against the demonic forces. After that, in a long time, the nine bases of the Demon Soul Dao were destroyed.

When the union army was destroying the nine bases of the Demon Soul Dao, they found out that three of the nine great clans in the Qing-Yun Realm were supplying all kinds of resources to the Demon Soul Dao. Therefore—the Gao Clan, the Li Clan, and the Wang Clan, which were known as the three most influential clans in the great clans fell into the storm of war.

Jun Yinglian and Xue Danru, who were the two most meticulous and experienced women went to the three clans and confirmed what they did. In several days after that, the three clans were removed from the Qing-Yun Realm for good!

When a carrot was pulled out from the dirt, there was mud coming along. They found out some other sects that were related to the Demon Soul Dao as well. This time, the Misty Cloud Palace took a move to wipe these sects out.

The war against the demonic forces was started in the center of the Qing-Yun Realm with a great battle, and then it spread out. In the end, the battles all started to move back to the center.

It was just like a huge net being hauled in bit by bit.

At the moment, it had come to the last scene of the big play. The real intention would be revealed in the end.

The Demon Soul Dao only had two places now. They were the East Hall and the West Hall!

“This is smooth! This is too easy, isn’t it? It shouldn’t be! There must be something wrong! It can’t be this easy!” For the third time, Ye Xiao said these words with a sigh!

When they successfully destroyed the nine bases in a row, Ye Xiao started to feel something wrong. He was full of doubts. The nine bases were almost all the Demon Soul Dao achieved to rise in the world. Why were they so easy to destroy? In the fight against the Demon Soul Dao bases, the union of all sects in Qing-Yun Realm was barely damaged. The number of people who got injured was lower than one would imagine. This was going too well!

After wiping out the nine bases—things about the Gao Clan, Li Clan, and Wang Clan happened. Some information pointed out that these three great clans were helping the Demon Soul Dao. It was a big deal, so it had to be done soon. Jun Yinglian and Xue Danru went for it together. After a few days, the two ladies confirmed it, so they directly siphoned out these three great clans as well!

It was a great victory again to wipe out the three great clans that had been supporting the Demon Soul Dao. However, Ye Xiao was worried. Before he got over all the signs about how weird it was, some other forces that were related to the Demon Soul Dao got revealed…

Once again, they did a great job in wiping out some more people who were supporting the Demon Soul Dao. This time, Ye Xiao was sure that something must be wrong… What was happening was impossible to happen.

Things should never be going this well!

The Demon Soul Dao, a huge scale super evil organization had been hiding in the world for many years. However, when the war began, they didn’t even show any reasonable defensive forces. They were actually destroyed step by step just like that. Millions of their people were killed out there. When first—a few of the nine bases were defeated; maybe they were just not ready for a fight like that, and maybe they were caught unprepared. But what about the failures afterward? The rest of the nine bases, the three great clans, and the other sects that were related to the Demon Soul Dao… When these forces were destroyed, nobody showed up to support. They got no backups.

“Brother Ye is right. I have the same strange feeling…” Xue Danru frowned and said, “It is like… Somebody has spent centuries to finally build an empire, but it feels like this empire is waiting for its destruction! It has been waiting for being seized or destroyed since it was built!

“It was like… Being seized or destroyed is the only reason why it exists.

“This is the only reason I can think of to explain why this is happening. The Demon Soul Dao has been hiding and growing in the world for so many years, yet their outer forces actually got destroyed one by one so easily. None of them got any support from anybody. In fact, they were abandoned. Whatever happened, the leaders of the Demon Soul Dao wanted it to happen. Maybe this is what they want after all.”

Xue Danru frowned and said, “However, this is… This is unbelievable!”

After what Xue Danru said, everybody else nodded to agree.

These people were all experienced cultivators in the martial world. Before everything began, they had prepared for a long-lasting war because they were sure it wouldn’t be easy. They thought that the war wouldn’t favor them, and they would have to face the Demon Soul Dao’s counterattacks all the time. They were even ready to sacrifice themselves in battle.

Although the fight wasn’t started yet, they were ready to face the failure of which was possible to have. At this moment, they were happy to defeat the enemies again and again, but also worried about the weirdness. If the Demon Soul Dao was planning all these, it must be a great plan since they could sacrifice this many people for it. It was getting too strange now.

If the battles lasted three years, five years, eight years, or even ten years, nobody would feel weird about it. However, within six months, they had already destroyed almost all the outer forces of the Demon Soul Dao. It was incomprehensible.

If the Demon Soul Dao didn’t care about their outer forces, why would they bother building them? Why would they hide them for tens of thousands of years? They had spent so much to build those up, so they wouldn’t just easily leave it to be, wouldn’t they?

It was incomprehensible to Ye Xiao’s people, no matter how hard they tried to figure it out.

If things were abnormal; there must be intrigue behind all the scenes. Now that things were this abnormal, what was the intrigue? Where was the sign of the intrigue?

Everybody knew that something was wrong, but nobody knew what exactly it was. Nobody knew what they should do at all!

Normally, when they were having a meeting, Xuan Bing would just quietly sit behind Ye Xiao. After all, she was Bing’er, Ye Xiao’s concubine. It was inappropriate for her to talk in a meeting like that. Even though Master Bai and his two maids; Wan and Xiu had set an example that gave her the right to talk, she still didn’t want to—because she didn’t want everybody to dislike Ye Xiao!

After all, people who were present at the meeting were elders or prime masters from all the influential sects. Besides, Li Wuliang, Han Bingxue, and other independent cultivators that were famous like them had attended the meeting. If these people were mad at Ye Xiao, Xuan Bing wouldn’t forgive herself.

In fact, there was one more reason, which seemed to be the most important one. She didn’t want to stand out, because the prime master and the elders of the Misty Cloud Palace were present as well.

If she kept staying low as a concubine, nobody would think of her as anybody else. However, if she stood out and talked, it would be more possible that she got recognized by her own people!

She didn’t want to expose herself. She never did.

As she had said, she just wanted to be Bing’er… She just wanted to be a little woman who stayed in peace and happiness under her man’s protection.

She didn’t care about who she should be.

She didn’t care about fame and honor.

She just wanted the simple happiness of a woman.

That was enough for her.

Xuan Bing was the representation of the Misty Cloud Palace—which meant she could never live as a man’s concubine. It was non-negotiable. There were things that only Bing’er could do, and Xuan Bing couldn’t!

However, because everybody else was cudgeling the brain to think, Xuan Bing couldn’t stand it anymore. Hiding behind Ye Xiao, she whispered to Ye Xiao and said, “According to what happened before, is it possible that they need dead people? Maybe the more dead people they get, the better the outcome they will have. Maybe they just want death, not only of their enemies but also of their own people!”

Ye Xiao was shaken up.

Suddenly, it reminded him what Yue Changtian said when he was still alive.

“Each of the nine altars needed; the heads, the soul, blood, and flesh from over thirty million cultivators beyond Dream Origin Stage. It is horrible.”

“To fully complete an altar, it needs a lot more souls and blood of higher level cultivators.”

“Only one altar is completed. The second one is nearly done, and seventy percent completed…”

“It took the souls and blood of more than thirty million cultivators who were beyond Dream Origin Stage to build the basic form of an altar! And it took the souls and blood of thirty million more cultivators who were at even higher levels to finish building the completed altar!”

“That meant it took the lives of at least sixty million cultivators beyond Dream Origin Stage to fully build an altar like that.”

“They could take as long as they needed to build the foundation of the nine altars because time didn’t matter back then. But when one altar was completed, the rest of the altars have to be completed in a certain time!”

“Once the process is stopped, they will be wrecked…”

“That is why they are hasty…”

Ye Xiao’s eyes lit up with enlightenment. He clapped and said, “I get it!”

Everybody else turned to look at him.

These people had been thinking about it for a long time but couldn’t get a clue. Just because of some words of the concubine, Xiao Monarch figured everything out!

Wasn’t the concubine some high-level counselor?

Well, it was not the point. They should focus on discussing the war situation first…

“As I know, there are nine altars that the Demon Soul Dao is building. They could take as long as they needed before any of the nine altars was finished. However, when the first altar was completed, the rest of the nine altars have to be finished in a short time. That is the only way to make sure the altars work perfectly.”

“The Demon Soul Dao has been working on the nine altars. What they really want is the power from the nine perfect altars. Before they get it, everything and everybody could be sacrificed… What happened recently didn’t make sense, but there are reasons.”

“To finish their altars, they need human lives and souls. They have to fill the altars with human souls.”

“Now, killing their enemies doesn’t bring them the souls as fast as they need, so they have to wield their sword to their own people. After all, they have raised a great amount of good cultivators in the recent tens of thousands of years. However, killing one’s own people won’t be easy. That is why they let us do it. The reason is obvious… When we killed their people, because of the special controlling method of the Demon Soul Dao, their people’s souls would go to their altars directly.”

According to what we have now, I am sure the leader of the Demon Soul Dao has given up conquering the world. What he really wants now is to finish all the altars. Therefore, the Demon Soul Dao doesn’t care how many of their people we will kill.

“Instead, they want us to kill as many as we can. It is good for their altars construction.”

“After all, the people we are killing are all their outer forces, not the core of the organization! These people are disposable to them!”

“That is why what happened recently seems to be so unbelievable to us…”

“Next, they will very likely leak some information to us that leads us to kill more of their people.”

“I have been wondering why it was so easy to collect the important information earlier. All the information we got turned out to be correct… The Demon Soul Dao was giving it to us on purpose. They wanted us to kill their people…”

“They wouldn’t mind if we kill all their people outside… As long as the nine altars are finished, the demon wins!”

Ye Xiao looked sullen when he came to the conclusion.

“This is a tough decision for us to make. Those people are demonic creatures and members of the organization. We have to kill them all.”

Xue Danru frowned and said, “If we don’t, more people will become their members. But if we kill them, we are helping the Demon Soul Dao on their altars… No matter what we do, we won’t do it right. How do we succeed this time?”

The others all sighed.

They couldn’t believe there was such a problem to face. They should kill the enemies and yet killing them would be wrong too!

It was typically a problematic situation.

“Maybe we shouldn’t think too much about this. It is pointless. We should have destroyed almost all their outer forces now. We did what we had to do, and there is no need for regret. The rest of them shouldn’t be able to stir up any trouble.” Ye Xiao took a deep breath and said, “Since we are already at this far, I think we should just go straight up to their head!”

“Straight up to their head? Should we go for the West Hall? Or should we go for the East Hall?” Lei Dadi spoke with his white beards fluttering in the air.

“We should go for the East Hall first.” Ye Xiao said, “Since they are going to abandon their own people, I think they will give us the East Hall as well. If we don’t remove the East Hall, it will become a great threat to us sooner or later. I think we should take the chance to remove it now. At least we will lower the chance of losing our own men in the battle. After that, we can face the Demon Soul Dao and its Honor Demon with our strongest power!

“As we know, it is good to destroy the East Hall, but we can’t let the Demon Soul Dao get more souls from the dead. Before we destroy the East Hall and kill their people, we should set up the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation. The shield of the formation would lock up the entire East Hall. When we fight against the East Hall, we destroy it entirely. I believe the divine power of the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation will make sure our enemies’ souls vanish inside. I don’t think the demon’s altars will still collect the energy from souls under the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation…

“However, after the battle in the East Hall, we should go on with the strongest point of the enemy, the West Hall! As far as I am concerned, the battle in the West Hall will be the most difficult and fierce fight we have ever been through in our lives. The battle in the East Hall will definitely alert the enemy. Since they know we will stop them from taking the energy from the dead, they won’t give us the chance to freely kill their people anymore. In fact… They will do their best to fight back. Remember, our death will also feed their altars. Therefore, the battle in the West Hall will be the most difficult fight for us. We must get ready for it. We have to fight, and we have to win; for our people, for ourselves, for the Qing-Yun Realm, and for our lives!”

Ye Xiao sounded sullen.

“Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation…”

Everybody else was taking a cold breath.

They all knew that it was the extremely vicious array formation in the world. As recorded in the history, once the array formation was set up, all living things and energy flows will be locked inside!

The array formation was named after Heavenly Cycle because it would make use of the great energy from the three hundred and sixty-five stars under the guidance of the Heavenly Dao. All the energy will gather and lock the certain area up.

Under the encirclement of the divine power of the Heavenly Dao, nothing could ever get out!

Frankly speaking, nothing inside the locked area would get a chance to live any longer!

That certain area would become a complete dead zone!

It was the most vicious array formation in the Qing-Yun Realm.

The most terrible.

The array formation went too much against the law of nature, so it was barely used in history. Maybe it was barely used not only because it was against nature, but also because it was too difficult to meet its requirements.

To successfully set up this array formation, at least thirty-six level nine Dao Origin Stage cultivators had to gather around with their full power. Other than that, it needed some materials that were all rarely-seen treasures in the world to be set up around the targeted area.

Unlike the Life Cage, these cultivators didn’t have to die while setting the array formation up. However, it was much more difficult than the Life Cage!

“If we set up a Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation in the East Hall, nothing will live inside that area in ten thousand years. Do we really have to do this?” Lei Dadi’s beards fluttered, and he murmured.

“We have to compromise on this. If we don’t go extreme on this, then perhaps, the entire Qing-Yun Realm will become a dead zone. Nothing will be able to live in this world again, perchance. Can we take the risk?” Ye Xiao peacefully asked.

The others all felt chilled in the hearts.

It was terrible, but it was true.

If the Demon Soul Dao’s altars were completed, the entire Qing-Yun Realm would become lifeless.

Before the demon’s altars were completed, it had already taken so many people’s souls. If they were completed, their energy should be incomparable. The Qing-Yun Realm would become the land of the demons if those altars were done. All in all, it was necessary to set up the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation this time!

Everybody understood the truth, but they were all silent.

“The decision is made!”

Ye Xiao concludingly made the decision and said, “We set off in the morning. Gather all the materials we need. Send every man that is available. Please, do not even think of hiding any piece of the spiritual crystal. We are about to fight the last war in the world. I don’t want any mistakes. Listen up! We need ten Pure Lotus Seeds from the Qiong-Hua Palace. As for the Regeneration Lotus… I have a hundred of it. Other than that…”

Ye Xiao listed all the materials that it needed, and those who were told to offer their collections all felt unwilling.

“In three days, we should make it to the front hill of the East Hall. Five days after today, before the sun sets, we have to set up the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation. When the first ray of light lits up the sky of the sixth day, we attack!”

Ye Xiao’s face was showing the vibe of murderous intent. He said, “When we win this fight, we break an arm of the Demon Soul Dao!

“If things go well and if we don’t lose many men, we should go to the West Hall as soon as we can to start the final battle!”

The plan was set. Ye Xiao stopped talking. He closed his eyes and focused on adjusting his inner spiritual qi, preparing for the big fight to come.

The others all left to prepare the materials they were told to prepare for the Heavenly Cycle Locking Formation.

An elder of the Misty Cloud Palace glanced at Bing’er with confusion in her eyes. She was shocked. Xuan Bing didn’t look at the elder and just kept her eyelids low, pretending not to see the elder. Nobody talked.

The elder eventually left.