Chapter 418: Water temperature rises

Five Aggregates Demonic Blood can seize a person's five aggregates.

When the five aggregates are lost, one loses all perception of the outside world, eventually sinking into their 'self'.

In the past, Li Qi tried every means to find a way to restrain the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood, and with Lingxiao Flower Goddess intervening as an outsider, unaffected, they barely managed to suppress this drop of Five Aggregates Demonic Blood.

But does Lu Mountain God have this ability?

Li Qi didn't know.

But it didn't matter.

Even if he did, it wouldn't be a quick thing.

Next, he just needed to preside over the sacrifice, and then confront the demon soldiers outside.

Without Lu Mountain God, the demon soldiers outside couldn't open the world barrier on their own, because Li Qi was still inside the world, maintaining the world barrier's self-repair through the sacrifice.

Holy Flame World was temporarily safe.

Then, what needed to be done was to wait for the other two battlefields.

The battlefield inside Holy Flame World, and Shen Shuibi's battlefield outside the heavens.

As for Shen Shuibi's side, Li Qi actually had no right to interfere, although he had some arrangements, none of them were for now; with both sides currently in a stalemate, the longer it dragged on, the better.

Always leave some leeway; don't talk about anything else until you force out the opponent's trump cards.

Li Qi didn't believe that Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord didn't have a few ultimate trump cards hidden away.

Just like Green Mountain God Jin Chi, if he hadn't seen it himself, who would have known that he could still summon a projection of Green Mountain from such a far distance?

If they really relied on Shen Shuibi's power to push through, they would definitely suffer a great loss if they ran into the Green Mountain projection.

Never underestimate others' trump cards; when you can't afford to lose, it's best to probe little by little, first test the waters, then act opportunistically.

Although testing the waters meant the stone thrown was that Holy Flame Clan Holy King, it was ultimately for Holy Flame World, wasn't it?

So, with the current stalemate, the opponent must be anxious; just wait for Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord to play his hand.

As for the civil war within Holy Flame World…

Hmm, there's no need to interfere there; a quick win there isn't necessarily a good thing.

After all, for Ga Ga, this war was to eliminate the remaining forces of the Immortal.

But for Li Qi, it was to have enough blood sacrifice offerings to provide energy for the continued existence of Holy Flame World.

It was frustrating, but there was no other way.

Li Qi now believed that to ensure 'righteousness' for individuals, one must prioritize preserving 'righteousness' for the collective.

If the skin does not exist, to what can the hair attach?

If Holy Flame World were gone, or occupied by Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord, or if those demon soldiers broke through the world barrier and rushed in, that would be truly tragic.

Therefore, when Li Qi made this decision, although he hesitated, he did not waver for too long.

Now, for him, he just needed to continue making preparations and observe the development of the war.

Let the opponent play their hand.

——————

Three months, the war lasted for a full three months.

Because of Lu Mountain God's personal appearance, those cultists' momentum greatly increased, and then they split into two factions, east and west, heading to eliminate the remaining one-third of the territory.

War erupted, and within just one month, several cities were successively pacified; wherever the divine kingdom's military might reached, all river basins and cities suffered greatly from the calamity of war.

The chaos of war had arrived, the people fought and bandits rose, goods were cheap and things were expensive, grain prices soared, starving corpses lay along the roads, and skeletons covered the hills; natural disasters and man-made calamities occurred simultaneously, making it impossible to survive day and night.

But at this time, the attacked areas were still engaged in civil war.

These people who were unwilling to accept the rule of the original Immortal faction were not united at all.

If they had worked together and resisted, perhaps things wouldn't have been so bad, but facing the annihilated city-states at this moment, many people's reaction was still: "Good riddance!"

Li Qi observed silently from the side, making no reaction; his more significant coordination was in assisting Shen Shuibi's side in the battle.

A month of continuous magical duels had just begun for a Fifth-Rank.

"Yu'er, everything's alright on your end, right?" Li Qi asked.

"Everything is stable; neither of us can do much right now. Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord is very strong, not much weaker than me, and his affinity even somewhat restrains me. This battle will probably be difficult to end quickly," the rabbit replied through the communication Formation.

"As long as it's stable, it's fine. If he doesn't bring out some trump cards, then let's drag it out like this. The longer it drags on, the more he loses," Li Qi said with a smile.

The rabbit nodded, then continued to focus on dealing with Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord.

Although the battle lasted a long time, its intensity was not low; any oversight could lead to fatal consequences. Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord was not a weak opponent and needed to be handled carefully.

However, thankfully there was Li Qi.

Through continuous Divine Qi support, plus the various Qi provided by Li Qi's frequent sacrifices, many wonderful uses could be found in battle, greatly reducing the pressure.

Especially the Divine Qi; every time it was used, Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord had to divert attention to deal with it, almost increasing the winning rate by ten percent.

The benefit of seeing through the opponent's true nature was fully revealed.

However, this only barely managed to equalize the battle.

The Divine Qi merely offset the opponent's ability of 'Heavenly Dog Devouring the Moon', so the outcome was still uncertain.

However, Shen Shuibi hasn't played a single card yet; she hasn't even used her cultivation method's abilities.

The cultivation method she practices is the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method; the many mysteries of the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method, including the power to manipulate the coordinate system that Li Qi felt from that Seventh-Rank disciple when he bravely stormed Mount Luofu, haven't been used at all.

Everything was progressing slowly, just as Li Qi said.

For this, Li Qi also put in great effort; he was constantly deducing with immense effort every day. Since the rabbit wasn't good at these things, he had to do it himself.

But his ability was limited, so the direct battlefield had to be left to the rabbit's own performance.

After finishing his conversation with the rabbit, Li Qi looked at another communication spell.

On that side was Ga Ga.

At this moment, Ga Ga had just finished a battle.

The soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield, while he stood on the periphery, holding his sword and aiming into the distance.

After aiming for a while, he gripped the blade of the sword, cut open a wound on his hand, and then threw it with a fierce thrust!

The longsword burst out with a sound of breaking air, whistling away.

Ga Ga didn't look, because he knew that the fleeing enemy general was already a dead man. His sword control technique, formed by Daoist spell, could kill people a hundred miles away; this sword would surely hit its target.

However, he didn't feel much joy in his heart.

Along the way, he had seen too much; this world seemed to have returned to several years ago.

Life had just gotten a little better, and now it was immediately plunged into war again.

How could the people of this era live such difficult lives…

Along the way, the old and weak were trapped in the wilderness, soldier corpses were like mountains, starving corpses filled the outskirts, dogs and pigs ate human flesh, birds of prey consumed human remains, the stench carried for a thousand miles, bones piled high as mountains, fat and blood covered the wild grass, and insects and rats grew plump.

In the desolate ruins, ghosts cried beneath the cold grass, the horizon was endless, thousands of miles without smoke, the remaining people were scattered, unable to survive from dawn to dusk, fathers abandoned young children, wives wailed for their deceased husbands.

So much loneliness and suffering, the famine was even worse.

The chaos had just begun, who knew life from death.

As long as this is done, it will end, right?

Ga Ga thought so.

The sensation of the longsword piercing flesh came, and after a while, a stream of light returned to his hand.

The enemy general had been beheaded.

Someone nearby cheered, shouting the general's name.

Ga Ga didn't say much, returning directly to his tent.

"You were looking for me just now, what's the matter?" After returning to his tent, he opened the spell, which allowed him to contact that always unfathomable 'Immortal'.

This Immortal gave Ga Ga a very strange impression.

He seemed cold and emotionless; he seemed to never care how many people would die from his decisions, and when giving orders, he was completely indifferent to Holy Flame World's own losses.

He would even casually make suggestions that would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

However, Ga Ga initially did not follow his 'suggestions', and this Immortal seemed not to force him.

But facts would always prove that his choice resulted in the fewest casualties.

Seemingly cold decisions led to the best outcomes.

Ga Ga tried several times to turn the tide, but all failed.

It seemed that only following what he did was the right thing to do.

Ga Ga couldn't figure out whether he was cold or benevolent. If he was cold, he would always remind himself before large-scale casualties, but if he was benevolent… sometimes he would even specify the number of casualties, making Ga Ga slaughter captives.

According to him, this was all 'for the greater good'.

Ga Ga couldn't accept this 'greater good' approach, but he was powerless; if he acted on his own, the casualties would be much, much greater.

For example, at first, it was because Ga Ga didn't accept the Immortal's suggestion to fortify and clear the fields, artificially creating a no-man's-land, which led to the fleeing of chaotic rogue soldiers, ultimately increasing casualties by more than several times.

That Immortal seemed to be able to foresee such things, but he never explained, as if he was too lazy to say too much to these 'Mortals'. He was busy every day, and besides the battlefield below, there seemed to be their battlefield in the sky, outside the world.

The only thing that reassured Ga Ga was that the demonic anomalies filling the sky had disappeared, and the signs of the world barrier being gnawed away gradually receded, indicating that the Immortals' battle should be gaining the upper hand, or at least a draw.

For now, there was no need to worry about external threats.

The spell stabilized, and the two established communication.

Li Qi immediately asked, "How is the situation recently? Can you still control it?"

"It's fine. I've already curbed one of the advancing forces. As long as there isn't a Holy… er, a Seventh-Rank making a move, the rest is no pressure for me and my soldiers," Ga Ga adjusted his tone, starting to speak in a way Immortals were accustomed to understanding.

"That's good. I saw it on my end; there's a Seventh-Rank among them already moving towards your side, seemingly intending to decapitate, but he used the crudest way to Break through to Seventh-Rank. You practice the cultivation method of this world, so you should be fine, but be careful of sneak attacks," Li Qi reminded.

"I understand," Ga Ga immediately understood.

This kind of thing had happened several times; the Immortal possessed some strange vision that allowed him to see things they couldn't.

"Hmm, the next battle should be against Ge Gu. He's also an Eighth-Rank, definitely no match for you. This time, you don't need to annihilate them completely; you can take some captives," Li Qi added.

Ga Ga breathed a sigh of relief.

At least this time… there was no demand to kill people in those special ways and call it 'blood sacrifice'.

But Li Qi's next sentence immediately made Ga Ga's voice freeze.

"Recently, besides your side, the situation is a mess, too many deaths; the amount for the blood sacrifice has long been exceeded. I will transmit the remaining power to you via the altar later; make good use of it."

Li Qi said this, making Ga Ga let out a bitter sound.

"The more people die… the stronger I become?" Ga Ga looked at his hands, his mind somewhat in a daze.

The more people died, the stronger he became, the more capable he was of turning the tide.

But if everyone was dead, for whom was he turning the tide?

Li Qi looked at Ga Ga behind the water screen, and he too had similar doubts in his heart.

How exactly should 'righteousness' be reflected in each person?

Those who pursue the Dao, whether actively or passively, are constantly surrounded by confusion.

However, it is precisely because of these confusions that there is an endless drive to move forward.

The two simply had a brief conversation, and Li Qi was about to hang up; he had other things to do.

However, at this moment, Ga Ga suddenly spoke.

"You mentioned the trolley problem to me last time as an example; I've been thinking about it recently," he said.

"Oh? You have a result?" Li Qi was a little surprised.

He had talked about this with Ga Ga before to explain his decision.

Sometimes, one has no choice but to make a decision, so he used this as an example. It seemed… Ga Ga had taken it to heart.

"No result, but I think no matter what you choose, it's wrong; the difference is just a necessary wrong. There are many things in the world that cannot be perfect," Ga Ga said to Li Qi.

Li Qi smiled: "It has always been so."

"Even you Immortals are the same?" Ga Ga asked again.

"Me? What am I? Even powerful beings like Buddhas, True Immortals, and Shaman Gods probably have things they can't do; they also have to make choices," Li Qi shook his head, saying with a wry smile.

Ga Ga didn't understand what Buddhas or Shaman Gods were, but it didn't prevent him from knowing that this Immortal, who seemed omnipotent to him, also had unreachable existences, and those existences also had their own helplessness.

Thinking of this, Ga Ga turned off the communication, not even greeting Li Qi.

Li Qi looked at the array that had been turned off.

Perhaps this Child of Destiny thought of something. It didn't matter; he should continue with his work.

However, at this moment, Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord was not as calm as Li Qi.

This Fifth-Rank great demon frowned tightly, anxious in his heart.

What's going on!

Why is there no news from Jin Chi's side?

But he could feel that he wasn't dead, and was even very healthy.

He was quite familiar with Jin Chi's ability; even if the opponent was a Fifth-Rank, Jin Chi wasn't without the ability to escape. Holding out for a quarter of an hour would be enough to send him a message.

And he had left a mark; if Jin Chi died directly there, he would immediately sense it.

But now, Jin Chi's condition was very normal; he wasn't dead, nor had he sent any news, yet Holy Flame World was completely unharmed, without any problems, and sacrifices were still being performed within it, continuously providing support that forcefully suppressed him, thanks to that dead rabbit.

What was Jin Chi stalling for?!