Chapter 741: Chapter 75: Steeling One’s Heart
Before this war, the Demon Cult had also besieged Penglai and Shushan in succession.
The siege of Penglai had made everyone genuinely rich. A large amount of elixirs, talisman scripts, magic artifacts, and other cultivation resources that hadn’t been transported away in time were still enough to leave the five sects completely sated even after being divided among them.
As for the siege of Shushan, it was a complete surprise. In order to prevent the Myriad Avatar Absolute Immortal Sword from falling into Shushan’s hands, the Six Paths united to exert pressure on Shushan.
Overall, it was a loss-making endeavor. Although Shushan lost many Sword Immortals in battle, the Demon Cult had far more casualties, and the key point was that they gained no benefits whatsoever.
The only consolation was that the Intercepting Cult Immortal Sword was confirmed not to have been leaked.
From that moment on, everyone had a pretty good idea:
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By combining the forces of the five paths, they could basically overwhelm Penglai and stand on equal footing with Shushan. Further speculation suggested that they would still be quite lacking when facing Kunlun.
Therefore, although this collective siege on Kunlun was assembled in the face of enormous benefits, deep down, they weren’t necessarily convinced they could come out ahead…
But because it was beyond expectations, that’s why it could be considered a pleasant surprise.
When the first batch of loot was laid out for everyone to see in the Main Hall of Mount Wutai’s Mortal Life Path, everyone fell into a strangely silent and awkward state.
They had originally thought that the Nether Ghost Path would take away the biggest share of the spoils, given that these resources in the Guanzhong Area could mostly only be operated and exploited long-term by the geographically closest Nether Ghost Path. Yet, they didn’t expect that just the early destructive excavation would yield so many resources.
Sect Leader Fu Xie was also somewhat regretful. If he had known that the initial harvest would be so rich, he wouldn’t have agreed to so many conditions beforehand.
After all, the others only agreed to send troops to join the alliance by using the pretext of “Guanzhong falling into the hands of the Nether Ghost Path,” which required a substantial payment of resources from the Nether Ghost Path.
Fortunately, those resources had not yet been paid. Could he possibly find an excuse to renege on the deal later?
This Sect Leader was entertaining these impractical thoughts when suddenly, he heard Mo Gu True Person say:
“Alliance Leader Wei, it was because you said that Kunlun was going to launch a surprise attack on Mount Beimang that we deployed heavy troops near our sect to lay an ambush instead of immediately sending more manpower to plunder. Otherwise, we could have obtained much more.”
“For the loss caused by this misjudgment, could the Mortal Life Path please provide some compensation?”
This was an utterly unreasonable demand since if they truly were to reward contributions, the achievements directed personally by Wei Dongliu would only be greater; there was definitely no precedent for the Mortal Life Path receiving less because of this.
However, upon observing the representatives of the Heavenly Demon Path, Eastern Emperor Path, and Asura Path, each of them was feigning ignorance and none came forward to speak on behalf of the Mortal Life Path.
The reason was not hard to guess: they were worried that Wei Dongliu would use their contributions to the strategic deployment as a reason to allocate the majority of the spoils to the Mortal Life Path, therefore they were happy to see the Nether Ghost Path scrambling for excuses to press down on the Alliance Leader.
Jiang Lian watched Mo Gu True Person with cold eyes, thinking if you don’t understand how to behave, perhaps I should eat your father and teach you a lesson in his stead?
Wei Dongliu did not get angry, as he didn’t expect to be embraced and revered by the other sects just because he had recently become the Alliance Leader. So, he simply replied with a light smile:
“It’s still too early to determine whether Kunlun will launch a surprise attack. The Nether Ghost Path believes that if it’s a misjudgment, the Mortal Life Path should compensate; but if Kunlun indeed launches an attack later, as the price for reminding you to be on guard, should the Nether Ghost Path not in turn offer a token of thanks?”
Hearing him attribute the matter to “the Nether Ghost Path believes so and so,” rather than Mo Gu True Person’s personal opinion, Sect Leader Fu Xie understood that the issue could not be further obfuscated.
He had to either admit to a bet with the Mortal Life Path: if Kunlun didn’t launch an attack, the Mortal Life Path would pay “missed work fees”; if Kunlun did attack, then the Nether Ghost Path would pay a “thank-you gift.”
Or he had to act as if nothing happened and push the blame onto Mo Gu True Person being naive, proceeding with the distribution as planned.
With Wei Dongliu so confident, was he truly certain, or was it merely a bluff?
Carefully considering it, if he were merely bluffing, why would he do so?
It’s just toying with the Nether Ghost Path, and being laughed at for a misjudgment; there’s no point in that at all!
This person is cunning and strategic, surely not the kind to do meaningless things!
“Cough cough.” Sect Leader Fu Xie coughed a few times, then glared at Mo Gu True Person forcefully, and said with an embarrassed smile, “My foolish son has been rash, I apologize for any offense to Sect Master Wei.”
“Mo Gu! If you dare to spout nonsense again, get out! This is not the place for your madness!”
Mo Gu True Person closed his mouth in annoyance, feeling extremely helpless inside.
Since the leader of the Nether Ghost Path had backed down, Wei Dongliu did not press too hard and simply continued to discuss the distribution plan with everyone.
An equal division was definitely not feasible, some sects had contributed more with both manpower and effort, while others were merely there to make up the numbers; an equal distribution would only dampen the enthusiasm of all the allies.
However, some sects had bigger appetites, and some had lower expectations, so distributing benefits purely based on contribution wasn’t appropriate either.
Fortunately, with Wei Dongliu’s abundant experience and Jiang Lian’s eloquent negotiation skills, the two of them handled the discussions with other sects without ever being at a disadvantage.
After concluding the Six Paths meeting, Wei Dongliu then called out Ah Jing, asking her to load Qiu Changtian’s file to check on the situation.
Leaving aside Shushan, Penglai, and the Eastern Emperor Realm for now, the pressing matter was to resolve the great war between Kunlun and the Demonic Path!
[Location One: Kunlun Taiqing Sect, Golden Ridge.]
[Identity: Qiu Changtian.]
[Mirror Flower Water Moon Template overlaid, time-space travel in progress.]
Upon arriving at Kunlun, Qiu Changtian continued to assign tasks.
Now that Kunlun was at a slight disadvantage, many resources had been occupied by the Demon Cult, and they needed to be reclaimed one by one.
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Qiu Changtian scrutinized the map of the Guanzhong terrain, planning for a strong and swift recovery of all areas guarded by the Nether Ghost Path;
As for other resource points, they were to be deployed according to their importance. It wasn’t the case that they wouldn’t touch the mines occupied by the Mortal Life Path Cultivators—doing so would be too intentional and obvious, and others would pick up on it.
Upon further thought, even without my presence, as long as Kunlun remains a major force in the Cultivation Realm, a battle with the Demon Cult would be inevitable sooner or later.
Where there’s war, there are bound to be sacrifices. As long as Qiu Changtian dedicates himself wholly to Kunlun and Wei Dongliu serves the Demon Cult wholeheartedly, without intentionally sending people to the front lines as fodder, some casualties are unavoidable anyway.
With this in mind, Qiu Changtian also hardened his heart and included the mines occupied by the Mortal Life Path Cultivators into the list of targets Kunlun planned to reclaim.
After making all the arrangements, he took the plan he had devised to the Kunlun Main Hall for his master to review.
But as soon as he reached the entrance of the Main Hall, he saw clusters of elders already gathered there, looking both serious and troubled.
In the distant sky, more streaks of light were approaching rapidly, clearly indicating that many were hurrying to the Jade Void Palace.
Qiu Changtian inquired briefly, and indeed he received the news he had anticipated:
The force that had launched a surprise attack on Mount Beimang had suffered a great defeat, with barely three out of ten remaining.