Chapter 820: Visiting Minglou

In a war zone on the outer domain battlefield.

This was a war zone similar to the Vanguard War, dominated by Fifth Grades, where two Fifth Grades held leading positions.

Zhong Minglou, who was the commander of the war zone, and Fan Lu, another Fifth Grade Shaman who was the leader of the Zhang Lu Small Team.

“Diviner, these are all the materials available now.” Fan Lu transmitted a large amount of organized data to Zhong Minglou through the ‘Alliance’.

Fan Lu was a Wu Yu, with a delicate and elegant appearance, and a tall, slender figure. From every angle, she was a beautiful woman. Moreover, from her capable and efficient demeanor, it seemed she handled these matters with ease, completely unlike someone in the 'Zhang Lu' position.

However, her attire was still the long skirt common to Wu Yu, with a slit up to her thigh, adding a touch of charm to her delicate appearance.

But all of this was useless, because Zhong Minglou was blind.

Zhong Minglou, with his eyes covered, saw nothing. However, having reached Fifth Grade, he could pretend to see and nodded slightly towards Fan Lu: “You’ve worked hard… It’s truly regrettable that you’ve toiled so much when Zhang Lu doesn’t require so much.”

“It’s nothing, it’s all for the sake of resisting Humanity. On the contrary, it’s my fortune to be able to follow Diviner,” Fan Lu smiled, not caring.

She truly thought so from the bottom of her heart, because working with Zhong Minglou was simply too easy.

Although she had to simultaneously serve as Zhang Lu and undertake some of the paperwork and data organization that a commander should handle, taking on these tasks allowed Zhong Minglou to exert a tremendous influence.

He almost achieved prescience in this war, anticipating every detail of the war and making arrangements in advance, achieving 'complete victory'.

That’s right, in the war zone controlled by Zhong Minglou, Shaman Dao’s record was a complete victory. The opponent’s Humanity General was utterly defeated and eventually had to retreat in disgrace, replaced by a seasoned general like a tortoise shell.

Calling him a tortoise shell, though a bit disrespectful, was indeed very fitting. In the current standoff, the opponent defended strictly, making it impossible for Zhong Minglou to deduce any flaws.

If Zhong Minglou couldn’t find a flaw, it meant that at the Fifth Grade, the opponent had indeed achieved flawless, perfect defense.

Therefore, this war zone could be said to be very peaceful, so peaceful that Mortals almost forgot they were at war. Except for daily border defense, normal production had almost resumed.

Actually, this was already very good. Being able to maintain this and delay a large number of Humanity armies here for defense was already sufficient.

Moreover, Fan Lu also knew that for Zhong Minglou, this situation seemed to be exactly what he wanted.

“Oh, by the way, there’s also some not-so-good news this time. Diviner should already know, right? With your ability, you might even have known earlier than me,” Fan Lu said.

“Yes, I already know. It’s a small matter, honestly, you didn’t need to specially bring it up,” Zhong Minglou smiled, as gentle as ever. Although his eyes were not visible, one could still imagine his gaze.

“A small matter? If it truly were a small matter, why would Diviner have known in advance?” Fan Lu retorted.

This left Zhong Minglou speechless for a moment, unsure what to say.

However, he merely shook his head: “Don’t worry, this matter will not interfere with the war.”

“I believe that, it’s just… never mind, Diviner has his own judgment, I won’t say more, farewell.” Fan Lu shook her head, then bid him farewell and left.

After all, she was the Zhang Lu Captain and had many, many external affairs to attend to. Although Zhong Minglou’s presence significantly reduced her workload, there was still work to be done.

As for the matter she just discussed with Zhong Minglou, it was already public knowledge, many people knew about it, which was why she specifically mentioned it to Zhong Minglou.

Speaking of which, it was just a small matter. Many years ago, Zhong Minglou had a lover, but… she was a civilian of Humanity.

That was a very long time ago. At that time, Zhong Minglou was still a student. He once studied in Chang’an, at the Imperial Academy. A Young Master named Li Qi, in order to take care of him, hired a Humanity civilian named “Lan Yanlong” to be Zhong Minglou’s caregiver.

This caregiver job lasted for quite some time, and later, the two of them even got together.

However, after the Human-Shaman War broke out, Zhong Minglou explicitly asked for her opinion, wanting to know if she was willing to leave Humanity and be with Zhong Minglou.

The answer he received was a refusal.

So Zhong Minglou left the Imperial Academy himself and returned to Shaman God Mountain. After that, they never contacted each other again. However, thousands of years later, perhaps by coincidence, Zhong Minglou met her again on this battlefield.

She appeared on the battlefield as a logistics nurse, responsible for caring for the wounded.

Of course, this meeting was in the form of a corpse. During a command operation, Zhong Minglou, with clear and decisive command and rapid and effective attacks, quickly destroyed Humanity’s fortress.

Zhong Minglou was the Young Master of Shaman God Mountain, now a Fifth Grade, serving as a war zone commander, with dozens of world clusters under his command, leading billions of worlds in a direct confrontation with Humanity’s general, and achieving a complete victory.

With such a brilliant and proud record, Humanity’s attempts to even evacuate completely failed, ultimately leading to their total annihilation.

While cleaning up the battlefield and organizing the corpses, Lan Yanlong was discovered.

Zhong Minglou watched his Zhang Lu Captain leave. Honestly, he was very grateful to her. If she hadn't voluntarily taken on so much of the paperwork that he found difficult to handle and gave him a headache just by looking at it, he wouldn't have been able to achieve the same results as he did now.

It’s just…

Zhong Minglou knew that there must have been a large number of casualties behind it. Now, it was just an acquaintance who had died, and an acquaintance from many years ago at that.

But this made him sigh involuntarily.

He seemed to have understood something from it.

He looked at the distant world. In truth, Lan Yanlong was not that important to him. It was a matter of his youth, and moreover, they had already parted ways due to differing Daos.

But when Lan Yanlong’s corpse was examined, a strange emotion still arose in his heart.

He clearly knew that for everyone involved in the war, facing death was inevitable. For those in high positions, it was easier to say. Although there weren’t no Fifth Grades who died, the casualty rate was actually not high.

But for the ordinary people participating in the war, war, no matter what, was an unbearable pain, a terrifying monster that could not be understood or controlled.

This monster would constantly devour life, constantly spew out death, and ultimately destroy everything before it would stop.

However, he was now a part of this monster; he couldn’t escape.

Zhong Minglou suddenly realized… his divination of danger was truly too naive.

Sometimes, true danger is never the obvious cliffs and precipices, nor the bottomless abysses, but rather something that looks beautiful from afar, with a faint, winding path beneath one's feet, leading to what seems like a mirage-like beautiful peak.

The prospect of victory in war was that ‘mirage’.

And the process of war was that seemingly harmless winding path.

Only when you truly step onto it will you know the danger.

When watching Shaman Dao win, war was like a thrilling novel, with blood and tears belonging to the enemy, and the thrill belonging to oneself. So-called war was just seeing one victory report after another when reading the newspaper, even skipping them because they became boring.

But when the fighting starts, you realize there’s no real difference between the two sides. Regardless of victory or defeat, the feelings on both sides are actually quite similar; no one feels no pain.

Zhong Minglou sighed. He actually didn’t have too many memories of Lan Yanlong. After all, those few decades of memories were truly insignificant compared to his thousands of years of life.

But this sudden act of personally killing an acquaintance still made him feel what the grassroots soldiers felt.

Actually, he never used to feel anything. Zhong Minglou had always been a very slow-witted person. He had an innate ability to predict, which was why he was chosen by the Grand Diviner to be a Disciple. This also caused him to have a barrier with ordinary people from a young age. His innate diviner-like personality, coupled with his blindness, made him incompatible with ordinary people.

Lan Yanlong was the first person to break this barrier, but later they separated due to the Dao dispute.

Now, this feeling came over him, prompting his recent changes.

Yes, Humanity’s tortoise shell now was actually arranged by him.

He had built himself into an ‘invincible’ persona, so that Humanity would not rashly start a war. At least in his own war zone, the intensity could be reduced.

All of this is actually the same principle as playing cards: a truly losing hand is never a completely bad hand; often, it’s a “seemingly” good hand.

As long as the opponent retreats in the face of difficulty, many unnecessary sacrifices can naturally be avoided.

This is Zhong Minglou’s goal at the current stage.

If it’s like the ‘Vanguard War’ that was used for early victory propaganda, then that’s not good.

The Vanguard War was fought by his friend Li Qi. The intensity of the battle reports from that war made Zhong Minglou frown. If it had been him, he would never have forced a breakthrough with a blood sacrifice like Li Qi did.

While thinking about these things, Zhong Minglou suddenly received a request in the ‘Alliance’.

Someone wanted to visit.

It was an old acquaintance he had just thought of.

Li Qi.

Speak of the devil.

He approved the request.

Then, the next moment, Li Qi appeared before him.

“Yo, Minglou,” Li Qi smiled, sitting next to Zhong Minglou.

“Li Qi, you seem to have won another battle recently, haven’t you? Amazing, you’ve already been in charge of two war zones,” Zhong Minglou showed no signs of unfamiliarity, instead treating Li Qi as he always would an old friend.

Indeed, they were old friends, maintaining communication and friendship since their youth, all the way until now.

“What’s so amazing about it? I lost miserably,” Li Qi shook his head.

“...Hmm, hearing you say that, you’ve also sensed the futility of this war, haven’t you?” Zhong Minglou keenly perceived the meaning in Li Qi’s words.

Li Qi shook his head, took out a few plates of pastries, and placed them on the table: “War is essentially just an extension of Dao Orthodoxy struggles. As long as the Dao dispute doesn’t end, the war won’t end either. You also know what a huge change a First Grade existence brings to the balance of power between the two sides. If Shaman Dao succeeds, Humanity’s endless expansion in the outer domain will likely stop.”

Zhong Minglou naturally picked up a pastry and took a bite: “That’s true, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking this war shouldn’t be fought. And you’re here for that reason too, aren’t you? This war is good for no one. You’ve commanded two wars, one of which was a battlefield of the Holy Emperor Relic Rank, and its intensity must have been far greater than ordinary outer domain war zones. If you say nothing heartbreaking happened to you, I wouldn’t believe it.”

Li Qi smiled bitterly: “As expected of Minglou, you’re still so perceptive. Then guess what happened to me?”

Zhong Minglou calculated with his fingers: “If I were to guess, it should be that a relative or friend was involved in an accident because of this? And not just an ordinary relative or friend, but a very close one. Your parents are not around, only your wife, daughter, and Master. Grand Shaman’s Divine Ability is vast, so it’s impossible for anything to happen to him. So the problem must be with your wife or daughter. Let me guess… your wife or daughter met an end you didn’t want to see?”

“But… interesting, I can’t deduce the situation, nor can I see the Karma lines on you. You shouldn’t have intentionally hidden them from me. So, is it a situation caused by the Dao Orthodoxy of the Nine Lands Under Heaven?”

“It’s the Demonic Dao. My daughter, Li Shiwei, has fallen into the Demonic Dao.” Li Qi saw that the other party had guessed almost correctly, so he didn’t beat around the bush and directly stated the matter.

Shaman not beating around the bush, that was quite rare.

Hearing this, Zhong Minglou was stunned. He froze, even the pastry he was chewing stopped moving.

After a long while, Zhong Minglou sighed to the sky: “Alas, this is war. Why bother, Li Qi? You stood firmly on the pro-war side in the past, fully promoting the war process. Did you want to see this day?”

Zhong Minglou lamented, he seemed to be able to clearly understand Li Qi’s feelings. Li Qi also had his daughter suffer in the war.

“Regarding past events, I can only say that if I had to do it again, I would still do the same,” Li Qi said.

“Indeed, with the firmness of your Dao Heart, there can be no regrets about the choice you made back then. By the way, these pastries of yours are actually from Chang’an. Have you been to Chang’an?” Zhong Minglou asked curiously.

At this moment, Li Qi took out a traditional Chang’an pastry. This was truly impressive.

“When I was confronting Humanity before, I went to Chang’an for a while. You know, I’ve always loved to eat, so I bought some to bring with me,” Li Qi said.

Zhong Minglou mused: “I see. Then why are you looking for me this time? You’re a Fourth Grade now, you can’t just be here to catch up, can you?”

“It’s also about my daughter. I want to ask you to introduce me so I can meet your Master… that Grand Diviner. I want to ask him to help me divine Shi Wei’s situation.”

“Minglou, this is my only request.” (End of Chapter)