NOVPUB
Chapter 1019: 978 Chapter: Family_2
After fighting the Golden-Bearded Dragon-Tail Shrimp in person, they all recognized its combat power!
The Golden-Bearded Shrimp clan not only possess powerful and astounding lethality with their twin pincers, but their own defenses are not far behind. Most importantly, due to the blessing of the Dragon bloodline, they are also adept at various water-related Divine Powers.
Their tactics are very variable. When engaged in close combat, they might suddenly use Divine Powers for a sneak attack; and when battling with Divine Powers, they would charge in close with the swiftness of thunder, forcing one to respond cautiously and not dare to be even slightly negligent.
Therefore, although Xiaoqing and Cang both partook in several battles, they hardly gained much advantage over the Golden-Bearded Shrimp Devils of the same rank, let alone slay them.
This outcome made Cang particularly frustrated. After all, his purpose in coming to the Golden Sand Sea Domain was for the Dragon Blood within them. Now, if they couldn’t even kill the Shrimp Devils, where would the Dragon Blood come from?
"However, those Sword Mountain Cultivators are truly formidable. With just a Three-feet Qingfeng sword, they managed to make the Golden-Bearded Shrimp retreat in disarray."
Xiaoqing suddenly had a whimsical thought: "I wonder who is more powerful, them or Jiu."
"That’s definitely Jiu!"
Cang spoke without hesitation: "Jiu has the support of Cave Heaven, Mana comparable to Nascent Soul Completion. With such vast Mana support, how could he not beat those Sword Cultivators?"
"But speaking of which, we haven’t really seen Jiu unleash his full strength."
After all, Li Zhirui’s switch to a different Cultivation Technique was not that long ago, and he hasn’t encountered any particularly tough opponents.
How could he possibly reveal his full strength when a great battle between two major factions erupted, especially since the Cave Abyss Sect was so stingy?
So much so that even those close to him, like Xiaoqing and Cang, do not have a concrete understanding of Li Zhirui’s current strength.
They only heard him say that his strength was several times stronger than before he switched Cultivation Techniques!
——
Now we turn to Mount Wanxian, located within the Thousandfold Mountains, which was facing a crisis brought on by the redeployment of a sizable portion of its high-end combat power.
This wasn’t the first time!
The news of the great war between the East Continent Immortal Tao and the Sea Clan spread throughout the entire Primal Spirit Realm within a month of its outbreak. The Mountain Monster Race, being one of the most powerful forces in this realm—even though just a branch—received the news.
Given that the war between the two factions would certainly not end in the short term, this provided an opportunity for the scattered Devil Races across the East Continent to expand their territories.
Of course, it wasn’t just the Devil Race that had this thought; the Demonic Tao in the Western Domain felt the same way.
However, unlike the Demonic Tao, the Devil Race was too dispersed in the East Continent to form a united front. They could only fight independently against the nearby Cultivators.
Meanwhile, the Demonic Tao directly dispatched a large number of Demon Cultivators, forming a formidable army with the intent to take a sizable bite out of the Immortal Dao during this chaos.
But before the battle with the Sea Clan, the Immortal Tao had already prepared their response.
On the battlefield of the Western Domain, the Demon Cultivators did not achieve any notable success to boast of, for the Immortal Tao had long laid various traps, waiting for the Demonic Tao to strike head-on.
But the losses caused by the Devil Race within the territory of the East Continent were somewhat severe!
Some forces were already limited in strength, and after deploying part of their Cultivators, their power dropped significantly, naturally becoming targets for the nearby Devil Race.
Moreover, because the Devil Race were widely distributed and unable to organize a large force for a concentrated extermination, it resulted in not insignificant losses.
But let’s get back on track!
Of course, the Mountain Monster Race would not miss the opportunity to drive those Immortal Dao forces out of the Thousandfold Mountains. So, after probing the strength of various factions and getting a firm grasp of their capabilities, a vast beast tide erupted!
Mount Wanxian of the Li family, located on the outer rim of the mountains, didn’t need to face the beast tide head-on thanks to numerous forces in front, but they needed to dispatch Cultivators to support the battlefield!
Faced with the beast tide, and being part of the mountain forces, the Li family could not just stand by and watch.
Although the relationships between the different forces were not close enough to be described as "when the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold," if too many forces were breached by the Devil Beasts, could the Li family escape unscathed?
By then, the Li family would be isolated without any support, and without the help of other forces, they would have no choice but to abandon their ancestral lands and flee in the face of disaster apart from the threat of family ruin and loss of life!
However, neither of these choices was acceptable to the Li family.
Therefore, the only option was to dispatch family members to help and alleviate the pressure when the beast tide bore down upon them.
The battlefield in the Thousandfold Mountains might not be as high-end as the one on the East Sea, but the degree of brutality was equally difficult to measure; countless Devil Beasts and Cultivators were thrown into this massive meat grinder. The luckier ones might leave behind a whole corpse; the less fortunate turned directly into a pile of flesh and blood!
Since all the major families had transferred away many of their Cultivators, including some of their most elite, most forces were simply not powerful enough to face this beast tide.
Similarly, the Li family suffered heavy losses, with many clan members falling every day.
In the hall where the family placed their Life Tokens, the number of members falling on the battlefield of both the sea domain and the mountain domain was initially about the same, but later on, only the Life Tokens from the mountain battlefield continued to break.
Li Hongshi, as the head of the clan, was now facing immense pressure. Fighting on two fronts was just too draining for the Li family, and despite years of preparation, there was still a dire shortage of Spiritual Objects.
Especially since front-line family members were sent back in urgency, reporting that the situation on the battlefield was extremely unfavorable and pleading for more Cultivators to be sent from the family to reinforce their numbers.
After hearing the report, Li Hongshi struggled to hold back the rage in his heart, criticizing the idea of sending more Cultivators. Did they really think their family was some millennium-old power?!
Even counting the time in the Profound Origin Realm, the Li family had barely a history of one to two thousand years, and only a few hundred years in the Primal Spirit Realm.
There were indeed many Cultivators on Mount Wanxian, but either their Cultivation was too low, or they were too old.
The most suitable Cultivators numbered only a thousand or two, but these were essential members who must stay on Mount Wanxian to guard the clan territory and could absolutely not be dispatched!
In such a situation, was it expected for Li Hongshi to send the old and the children into battle?
"Has the Zhang Family not shown even the slightest intention? Do they truly plan to abandon the Thousandfold Mountains and hand them over completely to the Devil Race?" Li Hongshi couldn’t believe the intelligence reports collected by the Intelligence Elder.
Although the Zhang Family didn’t have direct control over the Thousandfold Mountains, these mountains were part of the Shanyuan State, a territory of the Immortal Tao, and the reigning power of the Shanyuan State was the Zhang Family!
Their own territory was under attack from the Devil Race, and yet the Zhang Family showed no response; it was indeed too strange!
"About the frontline request for reinforcements..."
The Elder hadn’t finished speaking when Li Hongshi interrupted directly, saying, "There’s no more support to send! At most, we can send more Spiritual Objects for them to take care of their lives on the battlefield!"
They certainly couldn’t send children and the elderly to war, right? If they really did that, it would openly signal to everyone that the Li family was in a state of weakened cultivation!
So even if it was unfair to those family members who were fighting and even if it put them in danger, Li Hongshi still made that decision.
Li Hongshi let out a heavy sigh and said, "Prepare some more Spiritual Objects to be sent over."
Fortunately, after over half a month of dark clouds hanging over the Li family, they finally received some good news from the East Sea.
The sea domain where they were located had ceased hostilities, and the number of casualties was not too large.
Of course, what was most important was the collection of Spiritual Objects that were taken away from the clan.
Especially the Qinggang Stone needed to create Mining Puppets!
"A large quantity of Qinggang Stones?" Li Hongshi furrowed his brow and asked in confusion, "May I ask the Dragon Carp Spirit Ancestor, what is this low-ranking Spiritual Object being used for? And why such a vast amount?"
Fortunately, this low-ranking Spiritual Object was quite common; there was even a vein within the territory controlled by the Li family, so there was no need to seek purchases from other forces with Spirit Stones.
"I am not sure either, but this was personally instructed by Qingxuan, saying it was an order from Jiu, and the amount of Qinggang Stone can only be more, not less!" explained the Dragon Carp Spirit Ancestor with a shake of his head, unaware of the secret hidden within.
Upon hearing this, Li Hongshi stopped his frantic thoughts; since it was a personal order from Ancestor Rui, it must have significant use!
Moreover, its importance was such that even the Dragon Carp Spirit Ancestor at the Void Refinement Realm was not privy to it.
