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Chapter 382: Chapter 379: Rest and Recuperate
North.
Central State Imperial City!
True Immortal Palace!
Sanqing Hall!
All are located north of Tianhe.
However, most of the time when people refer to the North, they are referring to that area symbolizing the core of Qiantian’s power.
Just as when people mention the Holy Land, they often think of the splendid civilization established by the Heavenly Masters, rather than the Twelve Domains.
Gu Luochen looked towards the north, clearly considering whether his Patriarch had any plans to head north in the future.
"Our next goals will mainly focus on recovery and breeding, and this will be the case for the next two or three years!"
Gu Jinlai slightly intensified his tone.
"To... recover and breed?"
Cheng Lixue was somewhat astonished.
Lingxiao Palace had reclaimed Mu State and defeated the Three Thousand Marshes, and was now at its peak.
Once news of this spreads, the names of Lingxiao Palace and Gu Jinlai will surely resonate throughout Qiantian.
Everyone would cheer for his splendid victory.
Yet, despite having such high prestige, Lingxiao Palace had no intention of taking advantage of the situation to move north; instead, they had chosen to focus on recovery?
"Patriarch, at the end of the Divine Sword Conference, the True Immortal Palace ambushed you, and now that we have some leisure, we might have to settle accounts with them."
Gu Qingmei said.
Settling accounts was just one of the reasons.
More importantly, Gu Jinlai could use settling accounts as an excuse to lead his forces into Cheng Province and Green State Province.
Even...
Further taking over Yan State.
Gu Jinlai glanced at the two.
They had not participated in the repairs of the Cheng Ying Mecha and were unaware of how severe the situation was when Gu Jinlai killed the three Great Demon Queens.
Gu Jinlai also had no intention of publicizing this matter.
Apart from core members like Zhang Lihuo and Zhou Yi, even Xin Tianqi and Lu Zhanxian were not informed about the condition of the Cheng Ying Mecha at that time.
But he himself knew that, compared to the Daqian Dynasty, True Immortal Palace, and Sanqing Hall, Lingxiao Palace still fell short in terms of foundation.
He might be able to rely on his strongest Killing Moves to eliminate Emperor Master Tai Yuan, Blood Demon Emperor Luo, and one of the Saints from Sanqing Hall, but during the time when the Cheng Ying Mecha was not repaired, the Devas behind those powers could uproot Lingxiao Palace with overwhelming force.
Reliance on Gaia, who he controlled, and Hong Ye, who had just been promoted to Deva, was simply inadequate to withstand any one of the three major powers.
"This time we obtained a large amount of Demon Blood Essence, and after refining it with the prepared Demon God Guards, we can cultivate one hundred thousand official Demon God Guards. However, the refining of Demon Blood Essence by the Demon God Guards requires either me or Zhang Lihuo to cleanse the spiritual fluctuations. Therefore, we will be busy with this matter for a long time to come,"
said Gu Jinlai, "Furthermore, places like Star State, Blue State, Yellow State, Red State, and Jiangzhou State have been waging wars year after year. The soldiers are already tired and weary of battles; it is really inappropriate to start another war. Therefore, in the time to come, Lingxiao Palace needs to consolidate its strength and focus on defense."
As he said this, he slightly paused in his tone, "As for the next directions for development, there are three... One is to continue to the south to figure out how many demons are entrenched in the Three Thousand Marshes and how their war with the Cangshan Mountain Holy Domain is progressing. Another... is to reclaim Yan State and bring order to the chaotic Yan State as quickly as possible."
Zhou Yi glanced at Gu Jinlai.
Gu Jinlai’s reclaiming of Yan State and bringing it back to order was probably also in furtherance of "proving Dao" to unify his knowledge and action.
He was somewhat expectant that after Yan State was cleared, this Palace Master with endless potential, Heavenly Monarch Gu, might advance further on the Path of Heavenly Master.
He dared not hope for the Creator, but a Great Sky Lord with Perfection in True Spirit, Spiritual Sense, and Soul Secret Techniques...
could be anticipated.
"The last direction is the Eastern Sea."
Gu Jinlai looked in the direction of Jiangzhou State, "As early as a decade ago, Tianyuan Dao had already been devastated by demons. Although to this day those demons have not yet crossed the sea to attack, once they launch an assault, Lizhou State and Jiangzhou State will be the first to bear the brunt, and we must be prepared." 𝑛𝘰𝑣𝘱𝑢𝑏.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"The Eastern Sea."
Gu Qingmei, Gu Luochen, Cheng Lixue, and others shuddered at the thought.
Although the threat from the Eastern Sea had not yet manifested, it was not nonexistent.
Just like the Three Thousand Marshes.
No one knew when the demons that occupied it would surge forth and completely overwhelm Qiantian.
"Our Qiantian is not Tianyuan Dao."
Gu Luochen said solemnly, seemingly to encourage himself.
Gu Jinlai said nothing more.
At this moment, he was contemplating a problem within himself.
He was perhaps too reliant on external objects.
Like a month ago, when he used the transmission characteristic to accumulate energy from the Eternal Furnace in the Panwu Spear and released it in one burst to kill the three Great Demon Queens and twelve Demon Kings, he had almost destroyed the Cheng Ying Mecha in the process.
Without the Cheng Ying Mecha, he was even inferior to a single Demon King.
Even...
Even if he had a spare Cheng Ying Mecha, it would not suffice.
Why had he, piloting the Cheng Ying Mecha, only slain three Demon Kings?
Why did he claim publicly that those Great Demons didn’t even qualify to make him draw his sword?
It wasn’t because he wanted to leave these Great Demons to the Demon God Guards for practice, but rather...
Eternal Furnace!
Performing "Undying Eternity" required the Eternal Furnace to enter a Super Boost State, and after releasing it, sufficient time was also needed for the Eternal Furnace to regain stability.
However, as he brought the Eternal Furnace to Perfection, its power greatly increased, but his control could not keep up. Not only did the cooldown period for "Undying Eternity" significantly extend, but his utilization of the Eternal Furnace was also impacted before it fully stabilized.
Had it not been for the Cheng Ying Mecha taking over half a month to repair, allowing the state of the Eternal Furnace to recover slightly during this period, he couldn’t have even started the Cheng Ying Mecha.
"So, stripping away all external objects, essentially I am just a Demon God Warrior whose physique has yet to reach the level of a Demon King,"
Gu Jinlai thought to himself.
Even if his physique had reached the level of a Demon King, he was still somewhat inferior compared with a true Demon King.
Let alone Devas from the cultivator system.
"Without external objects, Devas and Demon Kings could pose a lethal threat to me, unless I could, like the creator, change my life form to become a Spirit Realm Life," he reflected.
While Spirit Realm Lives didn’t possess an Undying Body, their understanding of "Spirit" allowed them to "see" all the impending crises around them and prepare accordingly.
Either to fight or to hide.
Of course, historically, there were instances of creators falling at the hands of True Immortals, even Earthly True Immortals.
Earthly True Immortals could withstand the creator’s Soul Secret Technique.
And as long as one could withstand the Soul Secret Technique and exhaust some of the creator’s trump cards like the giant divine weapon, Dharma Protecting Dragons, Forbidden Ruined Beasts, Divine Weapons, any Deva, even a Primordial Spirit True Monarch could take a creator’s life.
Historically, there had been creators killed by Primordial Spirit True Monarchs.
"The path of the creator obviously has its flaws; next, I will focus on Demon God Warriors. At least, I should first refine my physique to the Demon King level,"
Gu Jinlai made a decision in his heart.
Of course, this wouldn’t prevent him from having the Military Workshop produce more Sword Heavy Cannons and Mystic Bird Fighting Machines.
...
Meanwhile, within Three Thousand Marshes, only about three hundred miles from Mu State, a Demon that had barely stepped into the Demon King domain watched from afar in the direction of Mu State.
"Qiantian..."
It gazed at that region filled with human Qi, its eyes carrying a hint of reluctance.
"Lord Daoli Spirit Venerable, even though the assistance from Impermanence Spirit Venerable swiftly evolved you into a Demon King level after arrival, it still hesitates to lead us back into Qiantian, a challenge too great for just you alone to confront that human Heavenly Monarch..."
Behind it stood Demon King Yafan, who had survived the battle at Mu State.
"War Spiritual Artifact..."
Daoli Spirit Venerable remembered the scene of when half of its body disintegrated.
After that half of its spirit body was destroyed, it thunderously raged, impatiently descending through a rift in Three Thousand Marshes.
It had thought that evolving into a Demon Demon Emperor level would make that human pay the price, yet upon reaching the battlefield at the border of Mu State, it found out...
That even Great Mill Spirit Venerable, who had long been evolving on the path of Demon Emperor, was killed by that human relying on the might of the War Spiritual Artifact.
This shock, like a bucket of cold water, quickly cooled its anger.
"What will you do next, Lord? Will you continue to manage the city given to you by Impermanence Spirit Venerable, or will you carve out a new battlefield?" asked Yafan.
Daoli Spirit Venerable was a powerful Middle-level Spirit Venerable.
Even though half of its body was destroyed, the remaining half still maintained a potential of Spirit Venerable level, and it was only a matter of time before it grew into Demon Emperor level.
Thus, even Catastrophic-level Demon Spirit Yafan was still willing to follow it.
"I plan to go to Chen Domain,"
Daoli Spirit Venerable’s spiritual fluctuations carried a heavy emotion: "To learn more exquisite techniques there."
Its fierce eyes glittered with a wisdom-like radiance: "Humans, being All Things Spiritual Leaders, have overly active spirits. This activity means their thoughts, ideas, and concepts are much more complex than other beings. This complexity and the resulting desires will ultimately destroy them, so, to deal with some humans, we shouldn’t rely entirely on brute force..."
"Humans do indeed have a strong tendency toward self-destruction," Yafan nodded deeply.
"Like this time, if I had chosen to cooperate in advance with that human force called True Immortal Palace in a pincer attack, Lingxiao Palace might have been directly destroyed by the humans of True Immortal Palace themselves, and I, the main body, would only have to take advantage at the back. By the time I have evolved into a Demon Emperor, even a Demon Monarch, through devouring a great amount of Spirit..."
Daoli Spirit Venerable paused there.
It had learned its lesson.
"So, I’m going to Chen Domain. The Spirit Venerables there deeply understand how to manipulate human nature, which is why each of them has at least grown into Demon Emperor level, and some who were originally lesser than me in the Spirit Venerable ranks have even evolved into Emperors..."
As Daoli Spirit Venerable spoke, it turned to Yafan, "Are you willing to come with me?"
"I am willing to serve you, Lord."
Yafan bowed his head.
The two Demon Kings conversed briefly, then quickly turned and disappeared from the border of Mu State.
Just like those who completely withdrew, temporarily giving up the invasion into Mu State from Three Thousand Marshes.
Thus, the battle of Mu State and the invasion of Three Thousand Marshes by the demons came to a complete end.
