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Chapter 851: Chapter 857: The Idea
Indeed, some clansmen were injured due to carelessness, falling prey to sneak attacks by devil beasts.
But with Li Chengsheng’s care, no clansmen fell; instead, the devil beasts met their demise faster and faster.
After half an hour, only the last four Great Devils were still stubbornly resisting.
However, once Li Chengsheng entered the fray personally, they ultimately succumbed with reluctant eyes, collapsing upon the cold ground.
"Those who aren’t injured, quickly clean up the battlefield and return to the base!"
Upon hearing the command, everyone moved swiftly to clean up the battlefield and returned to the base aboard the Cloud Whale Spirit Ship.
"Second squadron, head west and deal with those devil beasts."
The reason for heading west first was because there were fewer devil beasts and their strength wasn’t as formidable.
The small squadron was led by Li Chenghuo and included his battle power of two Spirit Beasts, Li Mingkui, as well as Li Mingyao and his Spirit Beast.
The final squadron’s captain was Li Chengshuo, which also included two Spirit Beasts, Li Xianxun, plus Li Mingquan and his Spirit Beast.
If we were to simply count the number of Nascent Soul cultivators, the first squadron had the least—only Li Chengsheng and his three Spirit Beasts, while Li Minghong, a Sword Cultivator, had no Contracted Spirit Beast.
Yet, their combat power was the strongest because, apart from Li Chengsheng, Yang was a Fourth Order Late Stage, and both Li and Huo were at the Fourth Order Middle Stage.
For a long time to come, the people were busy with the task of clearing devil beasts.
Fortunately, with three squads taking turns going out and with sufficiently long intervals, nobody had to stay in the midst of slaughter for extended periods.
Yet even so, thick Evil Qi could be seen in many a clansman’s base, and some Qi Cultivators had become slightly unhinged due to the corruption of Evil Qi.
Thankfully, before their departure, Li Zhirui had anticipated such situations and had already prepared three Purifying White Lotuses.
When Li Chengsheng sensed something amiss, he immediately activated a white lotus. The dense aura of purification meandered through the base; its refreshing fragrance relieved and comforted everyone’s spirit.
The Evil Qi that had blanketed the base was scattered by the purifying aura in an instant, leaving some residue behind, yet it could no longer affect the clansmen.
"We can’t go on like this!"
At an assembly of Nascent Soul Cultivators, Li Chenghuo frowned and said, "Although we have Uncle Shiling’s white lotus to disperse the murderous aura, the killing intent remains in the clansmen’s hearts. The Foundation Establishment clansmen won’t last much longer!"
If the Evil Qi invaded their Spiritual Souls, they would turn into creatures knowing only slaughter!
It wasn’t just the Foundation Establishment clansmen who were beginning to be affected; next would be the Golden Core cultivators.
Li Chengsheng and others could resist not because of their cultivation levels, but because they had fewer instances of killing devil beasts, after all, Fourth Order Great Devils were a minority. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
It wasn’t that the Purification Principle couldn’t eliminate the murderous aura; it would require Li Zhirui to act personally. To expect a Third Order white lotus to disperse most of the Evil Qi was already commendable.
Others hadn’t failed to notice the problem but were clueless about a solution. It’s not like they could simply abandon the operation and stop reclaiming the land, right?
They had been in the Secret Realm for nearly half a month, and most of the devil beasts in the surrounding hundreds of miles were almost completely dealt with!
Whether it was bad luck or that the Spiritual Objects had all been consumed by the devil beasts, they hadn’t obtained any precious Spiritual Objects as of yet.
But it wasn’t without gain; at least they had harvested a few Fourth Order Spirit Plants, as well as several immature Fourth Order Spiritual Medicines.
There weren’t many low-rank Spiritual Objects; even if there were, like the Fourth Order Spiritual Medicine, they were not yet mature.
"Have the family rearrange a batch of Foundation Establishment Cultivators to come in while the others return to the family and cleanse the killing intent in their hearts. As for the Golden Core cultivators..." Li Chengsheng frowned, unable to think of a solution.
After all, the Li family was not short of Foundation Establishment Cultivators; rotating several batches wouldn’t be an issue, but the Li family only had a little over a hundred Golden Cores, and eighty percent of them had already entered the Secret Realm!
The remaining twenty percent of Golden Core cultivators were either training in the outside world, in closed-door cultivation for breakthrough, were Elders, or were of advanced age with drastically diminished strength, looking to enjoy their later years in peace.
"Can’t we just severely injure those devil beasts without killing them and then take them out of the Secret Realm?" Li Chengshuo suggested.
This method could only delay the accumulation of killing intent slightly, for killing intent doesn’t arise solely from the act of killing.
Seeing no better option, the others agreed to go along with this plan.
So, when it was the first squadron’s turn again, Li Chengsheng gathered all clansmen and announced the rotation of the Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Meanwhile, the reclamation efforts would be halted temporarily before this task was complete, allowing everyone to rest for a few days.
The clansmen cheered; they were either fighting or preparing to fight these past days and were understandably weary.
"Big brother, you seemed preoccupied just now. What were you thinking about?" Back in the meeting room, Li Chengshuo asked quietly.
Li Chengsheng hesitated for a moment before replying, "I was considering perhaps it would be better to lure all the devil beasts here, use the terrain, and our family’s support outside the Secret Realm to win in one decisive battle and significantly reduce the Devil Race’s power."
Furthermore, it could solve the problem of Golden Core cultivators being affected by murderous intent over time.
Hearing this, everyone’s faces stiffened; no one expected Li Chengsheng to have such a bold idea.
But upon closer examination, Li Chengsheng’s idea wasn’t without merit!
Launching a decisive battle indeed seemed better than their current mode of endlessly venturing out to trap and kill devil beasts.
Moreover, by luring the devil beasts in and waiting at ease, plus leveraging formations and terrain advantages, they had more than a small possibility of victory.
Even if they couldn’t withstand them like the last time, they could still leave the Secret Realm through the portal and return after a few days.
Over the past half month or so, they had found several suitable landing spots.
"I think it’s a good idea!"
Li Chenghuo added, "Moreover, for so many days, we’ve neglected one thing; even with our best message suppression, the Devil Race likely isn’t completely unaware of so many devil beasts dying!"
A chill went through those present. Indeed! They hadn’t let any devil beast escape, but there must be some connection among them. Now that the link had disappeared, wouldn’t other devil beasts be aware?
In fact, Li Chengsheng and his team’s assumptions were correct.
With time, more and more devil beasts fell at the hands of Li family Cultivators.
Each time they took action, they started with a Confinement Formation to minimize the chance of information leakage as much as possible.
But the disappearance of so many devil beasts now drew the attention of the larger groups.
After all, many of the smaller groups had to offer tribute to these larger ones, seeking protection in return.
However, when it came time to pay tribute, no devil beasts came, not just one or two. Naturally, they realized something was amiss.
