NOVPUB
Chapter 311: Chapter 308: Three Roads
Due to Lei Jie’s surrender, Lizhou fell after a single battle.
Meanwhile, the many remaining islands were also crushed one by one by masters from the Cold Moon Sect, Purgatory Sect, and Netherworld Sect.
Even though the islands, belonging to different seas, received news of the main forces being crushed, they still couldn’t come together.
There was no foundation of trust amongst them.
The Mob essentially describes the Eastern Sea Twelve Islands.
This is why, despite having twelve Primordial Spirit Monarchs, they couldn’t even trouble Dragon Sparrow Manor.
Following the personal killing of the Primordial Spirit Monarch of Bibo Island by Lu Zhanxian, the remaining three islands not part of the Eastern Sea Alliance personally rushed to Lizhou to express their subjugation to Gu Jinlai, drawing the curtain over the extensive, half-month-long siege.
...
Lizhou.
State Lord Mansion’s main hall.
Gu Xiliu, Gu Yunxin, and Gu Chifeng were all reporting the situation of the Eastern Sea battles.
"Thanks to the air support from Patriarch, only twelve of us were injured in the battle at Black Shark Island, but we annihilated eleven thousand enemies and captured eighteen thousand. This is the inventory list of the materials seized at Black Shark Island."
"The resistance on Coiling Dragon Island also collapsed quickly with the arrival of the Mystic Bird Fighting Machines, incurring nineteen casualties, annihilating sixteen thousand people, and capturing nine thousand..."
"On Bibo Island, under the siege led by Lu Zhanxian, Venerable Daoist Lu, and Patriarch, there was hardly any decent resistance, and none of our Demon God Guards died, and furthermore, that Primordial Spirit Monarch of Bibo Island came across some fine items, please Patriarch take a look."
Several people reported in turn.
Gu Jinlai did not stand idly by during the siege of nine of the Eastern Sea Twelve Islands.
After all...
The people of the Eastern Sea acted no differently from pirates.
The rate of Red Names among them was too high.
Even though Primordial Spirit Monarchs such as Lu Zhanxian, Liu Jingtiao, Fang Linghai, and Leng Ningshuang lent their efforts in good faith helping him massacre many Divinity Transformation and Refining God Cultivators, sweeping through Lizhou and the Eastern Sea Twelve Islands, the number of Qingguang he currently possessed still reached an unprecedented two hundred and forty-four strands.
This number was two to three times more than when he swept through Star State, Jiangzhou State, and Yellow State.
This was even after he used quite a few Qingguang strands to recover from the consumption of True Spirit Possession and spent about twenty Qingguang strands to suppress his own karma.
Controlling eight Mystic Bird Fighting Machines in True Spirit Possession naturally caused significant Spiritual Sense consumption.
And as for karma...
Almost no one in the Overseas Alliance was a good person, but their status ensured that it was difficult for them to become big Red Names, generally being Yellow or Light Red Names.
In the sea battle half a month ago, thousands of warships he controlled were destroyed by the Mystic Bird Fighting Machines, and although these people carried insignificant amounts of karma, the indirect deaths due to drowning resulted in tens of thousands of casualties, which accrued substantially, and his karma had reached an inky black level at one point.
To prevent any mishap, he had to suppress his karma with Qingguang again.
Moreover, considering Lingxiao City should focus on recovery and convalescence for the next period and it was not wise to start any war lightly, he directly cleared his karma value.
He now belonged to the "White Name" category.
Gu Jinlai speculated that Lei Jie being able to surrender at the first opportunity, offering treasures like the Sky Mirage Pearl, and his subsequent smooth operations in the Eastern Sea, encountered no mishaps, were somewhat influenced by his "White Name" level of reduced karma.
At this moment, he was listening to reports from Gu Xiliu and others while reviewing the war spoils they had gathered.
However, after just a brief look, he sighed, "The islands overseas are somewhat poor."
"Quite,"
Gu Xiliu and Gu Yunxin fervently nodded in agreement, "We encountered quite a few Divinity Transformation Cultivators, and it turns out... nearly half of these Cultivators did not even possess Spiritual Flying Swords and had to engage in close combat like Refining God Immortals."
As Gu Xiliu spoke, he laughed, "In this siege, I personally killed two Divinity Transformation Cultivators."
Gu Jinlai thought of those Monarchs he had sniped with the Mystic Bird Fighting Machines...
Their equipment was equally poor.
Although they were equipped with Spiritual Artifacts, they were primarily top-grade Spirit Artifacts.
Supreme Grade Spirit Artifacts?
None.
No wonder they took the risk to attack the Sword Heavy Cannon escorted by Gu Chifeng then.
One Sword Heavy Cannon was worth three portions of Immortal Essence Gold; even at cost, it equaled three Spirit Artifacts, which to the poverty-stricken overseas forces, was too hard to resist.
"Nevertheless, both Lizhou and the Eastern Sea Islands possess immense value. Some specialties from the Eastern Sea, if sold inland, would see their value increase manyfold. Additionally, there are numerous medicinal herbs in the Eastern Sea that greatly benefit cultivation. If these are well planned and industrialized, then sold to Jiangzhou, Yellow State, and Star State, the time it would take for the citizens of these three states to embark on the path of cultivation would surely be significantly reduced,"
said Gu Jinlai.
The path of cultivation for commoners is akin to hellish difficulty; many persist for ten to eight years just to attain minor achievements in Body Refining.
And for an ordinary family to support a young adult, especially one who consumes a large amount of meat daily, the cost is astronomically high.
Body Refining is already so challenging, not to mention the injury-prone stages of refining the organs and blood exchange.
These realms must be supplemented with medicinal herbs for nurturing; otherwise, the body would only deteriorate with training.
Unfortunately, such medications are controlled by major powers and large families who have driven the prices high, so high that commoners simply cannot afford them.
Therefore, in most cases, the limit for commoners is Body Refining.
After governing Jin Lai within the Star State, Jiangzhou State, and Yellow State, he indeed intended to address an issue and suppressed the price of the organ-refining and blood-exchange medicines.
However, several years down the line, he had to admit one issue: the medicinal resources for cultivation were limited.
The resources of Star State, Yellow State, and Jiangzhou State couldn’t support the martial training of all citizens.
In such circumstances, importing abundant resources from the Eastern Sea became extremely important.
"Cultivation..."
Gu Xiliu thought over his words before asking, "Patriarch, should we still primarily promote the Cultivator System? Wouldn’t it be better to take the route of Demon God Warriors?"
"Not only do we need to promote the Cultivator System, we need to strongly advocate for it," he said.
Jin Lai declared, "Although the lineage of Demon God Warriors possesses unmatched advantages in terms of quick success, their system can’t achieve what Hugging Pill Realm cultivators can with complete roundness and the unification of essence, qi, and spirit. Without achieving this, they can’t cultivate divine thoughts, nor can they transform spiritual sense."
He looked at the Gu family disciples who vaguely felt superior as Demon God Warriors. "As time progresses and eras develop, the role of Demon God Warriors will only serve to maintain the base level of martial prowess. The real ceiling, however, depends on those who first master Qi Refining, then convert to the Heavenly Master path after Hugging Pill."
"Heavenly Master..."
"Even relying solely on Heavenly Master is not enough."
Jin Lai stated, "Compared to the Cultivator System, although Heavenly Masters are powerful, they possess a fatal flaw, which is their lifespan."
The words of Jin Lai made Gu Xiliu, Gu Yunxin, and Gu Chifeng solemn.
Lifespan!
This issue wasn’t only faced by the path of Heavenly Masters; Demon God Warriors similarly couldn’t avoid it.
Even during the most glorious era of the Heavenly Master Civilization a thousand years ago, they couldn’t completely solve it.
As powerful as the creator could be, at most they, through all sorts of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures like Creation Immortal Fruits, could prolong life and live up to two hundred years or so, which was still far less than the historically longest-lived saint, who lived five hundred and twenty-two years.
Not to mention, above the saint was the Earthly True Immortal, and above the Earthly True Immortal, there were the legendary True Immortals.
Those were beings of great existence who could remain in the world for a thousand years.
The most brilliant period of the Heavenly Master Civilization could never lead to the extinction of the Cultivator System because of the presence of True Immortals.
No one could resist the temptation of living for a thousand years.
Even Jin Lai was no exception.
However, his approach was different.
He believed that sharpening the axe would not delay the work of cutting firewood.
For now, the paths of Heavenly Master and Demon God Warriors were clearly more suitable for him.
In the future, when he climbed to the pinnacle of the world using the advantages brought by the path of Heavenly Master, gathering the world’s opportunities and lucky qi in one body, and converted to a cultivator, he would undoubtedly break through all obstacles swiftly, advancing easily to become Devas, Saints, Earthly True Immortals, and eventually...
Contending for the realm of True Immortals!
Of course, this was still just a future plan.
If he could find the method for longevity through the path of Heavenly Master or Demon God Warriors, avoiding the tedious path of cultivation, it would, of course, be ideal.
"From now on, the citizens under the jurisdiction of Lingxiao City can freely choose one of the three paths. Those of average talent may follow the path of Demon God Warriors and seek a life of brilliance, those with exceptional talent should first complete the Hugging Pill, then convert to the Heavenly Master path to change the world with the wisdom of a Heavenly Master, while those with extraordinary talent in the path of cultivation... gather various resources to desperately cultivate, enter Refining God, Divinity Transformation, Primordial Spirit, and ascend to Devas, Saints, Earthly True Immortals, reaching the peak."
Jin Lai revealed his plan.
The three listened and composed themselves, no longer daring to underestimate the cultivators.
"Lizhou State, hanging alone overseas, won’t lack a master to stand guard, and this master cannot be Lei Jie. To ensure the stability of Lizhou, I will keep Lei Jie close for a while, and will transfer Xin Tianqi to Lizhou. Gu Xiliu, you then lead three thousand Demon God Guards to stay here and cooperate with Star Lord Xin."
Jin Lai instructed, "While you’re here, there’s an important task for you, that is to quickly build the Radiant Platform. Once the Radiant Platform is constructed, even if we are in Star State, we can be informed of every development in Lizhou as soon as they happen. Then, even if there indeed arises a problem in Lizhou, I can come to assist at the fastest speed."
"I will obey the Patriarch’s command," replied Gu Xiliu, bowing.
Jin Lai nodded.
The Lizhou State Governor’s Mansion is two thousand six hundred miles from Jiangzhou.
It’s four thousand miles from Star State.
With the speed of the Mystic Bird Fighter, four thousand miles takes less than twenty minutes.
Unless it’s a major army attack, he didn’t believe that Xin Tianqi and three thousand Demon God Guards couldn’t hold on for twenty minutes.
The reason he chose the Co-spirit Mystic Bird Fighter over the stronger Cheng Ying Mecha when the Tianhe Demon Realm Rift opened was because of the absolute advantage in speed offered by the Mystic Bird Fighter.
A flying speed of three to four miles per second allowed him, even with a large territory like Lingxiao City, to respond immediately and strike from the air. 𝚗ov𝚙𝚞𝚋.c𝚘m
After Gu Xiliu and the others left, Jin Lai turned his gaze back to the Qing Lian in his spiritual world.
At that moment, Qing Lian was surrounded by two hundred and forty-four beams of light, dazzling and splendid.
Jin Lai ignored the other skill-representing spheres and focused his attention on his lifebound cultivation technique, "Eternal Furnace."
"Two hundred and forty-four beams, plus the energy previously invested in this technique... It should be enough," he said.
With that, his mind moved.
The next moment, all the beams of light were absorbed into the golden sphere representing the "Eternal Furnace."
