The next day, Xu Miaoran went to the Cloud City.
Ten-some days passed without news, which left Tang Jie rather nervous.
Then, Xu Miaoran finally returned, and with good news: Guang Yuan had agreed to invite the Rosecloud Domain to assist them in the war.
Tang Jie now had his righteous cause to rally behind.
It was now time for the invasion to begin.
For this, Tang Jie went back to the Rosecloud Domain.
By now, the Rosecloud Domain had been transformed.
Under Yun Tianlan’s strong management, the cultivators of the Rosecloud Domain had become an integrated body led by the Basking Moon Sect.
After many years of preparation, they were ready to go to war.
Jeweled chariots, giant ships, and flying palaces covered the skies, as did various mounts like cranes, bulls, snakes, and elephants. Lofty cultivators flew here and there, riding swords, whisks, or gourds.
On Starsnatch Peak at the center of the Zephyr Mountains, various flags snapped in the wind, glowing with mystical auras.
Countless high-tier cultivators had gathered here. More than a hundred Violet Palace True Lords had assembled in front of the Hall of Divine Conference, with the Earth Immortals seated at the very front.
Within the Hall of Divine Conference, Yun Tianlan was seated on the highest seat as he lectured on the Dao.
A Supreme True Immortal was personally lecturing on the Dao! It was no wonder so many esteemed cultivators had rushed here.
With the cultivator war nigh, Yun Tianlan had decided to make an exception and offer lessons so that everyone could grow stronger.
War was a matter where the life of the nation was on the line.
Cultivator wars were even more so. Even though the Rosecloud Domain had the clear upper hand over the Blood River Domain, Yun Tianlan didn’t dare to be careless. Far too many had made a mess of things because of their own arrogance, and while it was said that absolute strength could sweep through everything, who could say which side truly possessed that absolute strength? Ṟ𝐀𐌽օ𐌱È𝐒
If this couldn’t be done, it was better to be cautious.
The experienced Yun Tianlan was all too aware of this fact.
“…Thus, the way to achieve the union of heaven and man lies with the clear heart. To abide by one’s will and comply with the laws is to comprehend the heavens and earth, and only then can one attain the Dao…” Yun Tianlan’s voice resounded in the minds of all listeners, leading them out of the darkness and to the light.
As he spoke, flowers bloomed in the sky and clouds billowed, the entire world responding to Yun Tianlan’s words. At this moment, his words were the Great Dao.
Everyone was enchanted by his words.
But at this moment, another voice rang out.
“One who seeks the Dao will find it in their own heart, so how can the Dao seeker follow the Heavenly Dao’s path?” this voice retorted.
Everyone looked to that voice in alarm.
A person was striding through the air, lotuses blossoming at his feet. It was an elegant and graceful figure that couldn’t compare to the majesty of Yun Tianlan, but he exuded a sense of latent sharpness. It was like a mountain hidden within the clouds, invisible to the eye yet exerting its pressure all the same. Of course, it was Tang Jie.
Everyone fell to their knees. “All hail the Freedom Celestial Sovereign!”
Yun Tianlan smiled upon seeing him. “One follows the Dao of the Heavens because all is within the bounds of Karma and Fate and the principles of the heavens have been made manifest. Thus, it is the utmost honor of the sage to follow it.”
Tang Jie immediately replied, “One follows the Dao of humanity because all are immersed in the sea of suffering, so we must let go of our obsessions and cultivate the truth.”
Yun Tianlan clapped his hands and laughed. “An excellent argument full of daring and courage, going one’s own way rather than following the will of the heavens!”
This discussion of the Dao didn’t have a winner or loser, someone who was right and someone who was wrong, simply different expressions of intention. The old and wise Yun Tianlan sought to act according to the will of the heavens while Tang Jie was more straightforward. He neither defied the heavens, nor always did as the heavens wished. For him, freedom to do as one wished was the Great Dao.
Yun Tianlan rose and asked, “Tang’er, since you’ve returned, have you finished investigating Blood River?”
Tang Jie replied, “Martial Ancestor, I have fulfilled my mission, gathering information on the powers of the Blood River and making a pact with the alliance of humans there, such that they have invited us to help them in their fight against the fiends and demons.”
While saying this, he used his Divine Will to tell Yun Tianlan that he had yet to find the trump cards of the fiends and demons. After all, such things could not be said openly.
“Wonderful!” Yun Tianlan laughed.
He was anxious to take the Blood River, and he did not mind that there were still some unknowns.
In the end, cultivator wars depended on strength. While it was necessary to do some planning before the invasion, to be stymied by a lack of information was to be paralyzed by planning instead.
Yun Tianlan naturally wouldn’t make this kind of mistake. The invasion of the Rosecloud Domain could not be stopped, regardless of the quantity and quality of Tang Jie’s information.
Seizing upon Tang Jie’s words, Yun Tianlan announced, “The moment has come, and the golden age of my Rosecloud Domain begins now! Soldiers, prepare yourselves! Three days from now, we will activate the formation and invade Blood River!”
“Invade Blood River!” the cultivators roared, their cries resounding through the Rosecloud Domain.
Three days later, the invasion finally began.
A million cultivators were gathered above the Zephyr Mountains.
They were well-organized despite their numbers. There were ten men to a squad, a hundred men to a company, five hundred men to a battalion, three thousand men to a division, ten thousand men to an army, and one hundred thousand to a legion. Each legion had one commander and two vice commanders, the commander being a Soul Projection cultivator and the vice commanders being at Deification. Every army had one high general and two deputy generals, both posts being filled by Infant Tending cultivators. Each division was led by a Soul Transformation cultivator, with battalions being led by Heart Demon and companies led by Spirit Ring cultivators. Mortal Shedding cultivators served as ordinary soldiers, trained in combat formations and equipped with Godhead Armor. While their cultivation level was low, they could use their numbers through formations, and if they were commanded properly, their might was not to be underestimated. As for Spirit Platform cultivators, their cultivation level was too low for them to take part.
Other than the million-cultivator army, there were also countless fiends serving as the vanguard, with all kinds of birds, beasts, insects, and fish taking part, as well as innumerable puppet soldiers. Scattered about the army were also various flying pavilions and palaces.
This majestic army arrayed in the heavens exuded a somber and intimidating aura.
Yun Tianlan was in the very center of the army, seated in a majestic palace.
This palace was a huge edifice, ten thousand feet tall.
In the center of the palace was a large drum called the Xie Bull Drum. This drum was made from the hide of a beast from High Antiquity known as the Xie Bull, and the mallet used to beat it was made from the leg bone of a Oceancoil Giant, which Yun Tianlan had personally killed during his travels in his early years. While not a Dao armament, it had the wondrous effect of increasing the power of a cultivator’s spell arts by thirty percent for all who heard it.
At this moment, Yun Tianlan grabbed the mallet and struck the drum!
Boom!
A massive sound wave reverberated outward, traveling to the ears of every cultivator and stirring up their will to fight.
“Activate the formation!” Yun Tianlan roared.
This roar was transmitted through the Lunar Wheel to every corner of the Rosecloud Domain, upon which the cultivators stationed at various locations activated the parts of the formation they were in charge of.
Points of starlight lit up across Rosecloud, extending into rays of intersecting light, creating a web of starlight across the entire domain.
From above, one could see that this web of light connected almost every part of the Rosecloud Domain. It had its roots deep in the earth, where it gathered energy from the spirit veins, and then it gathered all this energy in the sky, even pulling at the Domain Astral Winds.
That barrier in the sky disappeared, the power meant to protect the domain converted into offensive might!
The formation stimulated the energy even further, ultimately manifesting a golden, one-horned behemoth.
This beast was the Ning (“Fierce”), the legendary Domain Beast of Remote Antiquity. It was said to have the power to devour worlds, consuming thousands of kilometers a day and leaving only void in its wake. Later on, the Titans of the past worked to exterminate this beast to protect civilization. When the Ning died, countless worlds burst out of its body, and thus the Great Stellar Chiliocosm came to be.
The Ning Beast was no more, but cultivators had the means of creating Ning phantoms, with these domain-devouring beasts of yore symbolizing the power of the formation.
The Ning phantom let out an earth-shaking roar and then opened its mouth to bite down on the domain barrier before it. The domain barrier was a formless membrane that sealed off space and isolated the myriad domains from each other. It didn’t stop anyone from going through, but it stabilized the world. Now, the Ning had bitten a large hole in it.
The drum was struck once more, and the million cultivators roared in unison.
The thousands of points of starlight once more activated, creating a giant millstone in the air that moved behind the Ning Beast.
The Ning Beast represented the offensive might of the formation, and this millstone of starlight represented the burden on its back, which was the Rosecloud Domain.
Yun Tianlan swung the mallet down. “Forward!”
“Forward!” The trained cultivators shouted in unison and pushed at the millstone.
The millstone began to spin, and with each rotation, the Rosecloud Domain rumbled. The Ning Beast advanced with the Rosecloud Domain on its back and once more bit at space.
The tear in the domain barrier widened a little more.
Of course, “a little more” here meant expanding by tens of millions of feet, and with each additional bite, more and more of the endless void beyond the Rosecloud Domain revealed itself to the massed cultivators.
At the same time, the full form of the Rosecloud Domain became apparent. It was a half-sphere, like someone had taken a ball and chopped it in half.
“Awoooo!” The Ning Beast howled, and so did the cultivators.
The drum thundered, the millstone turned, and the Ning Beast charged out of the domain barrier, dragging behind it a long chain of starlight that was deeply planted into the earth, towing this enormous chunk of land into the void.
And down below, a world akin to a sea of blood was waiting for them.