Read Novel Full Chapter 1310: Chapter 1304: Azure Cloud Ancient Clan
Chapter 1310: Chapter 1304: Azure Cloud Ancient Clan
[Year 1010]
[Your family cultivated diligently for five years.
Your descendant Li Dalong has become an Underworld King; Li Yaoqing coexists with an immortal; Li Kuanghua cultivates Buddhist Dharma; Li Yaowen cultivates reincarnation methods to shelter the family; Li Yunbing has transformed into a demonic body; and Li Zhiheng possesses a half-immortal physique.
The family possesses the Spirit Treasure, the Golden Chapter of Enlightenment, has imprisoned an Immortal Infant, and is cultivating the techniques passed down by the Red Dust Immortal.]
[The Ancient Tree of Delusion Breaking has birthed new fruits one after another.
The family possesses ancient bloodlines such as the ‘Blue Phoenix’ and ‘Golden Ape King’.]
[Amidst monstrous immortal qi and demonic qi, your family is gradually receiving the protection of heaven and earth.
Immortals and demons shelter your family; this is the most primordial power in the world.
Coupled with the threat of the Blood Moon, they have unconsciously caused your family to undergo a transformation.]
[Your family has acquired the group trait — Azure Cloud Ancient Clan]
[The family is protected by immortals and demons.
Clan members’ karmic luck increases by 5%. Traits are more easily born under the shelter of immortals, demons, and ancient bloodlines.
Their physiques will grow over time, their Spiritual power and immortal power will also be enhanced, their spiritual roots will increase by 2-5 points, and their chances of breakthrough will increase by 1-1.5%.]
Beneath the old tree.
Li Kuanghua waited for the old tree to bear a new ‘Primordial Blood Fruit’.
Still holding her wooden fish and mallet, she quietly chanted scriptures beneath the old tree.
The old tree’s canopy grew increasingly lush and took on a reddish hue, as a crystal-clear red fruit was currently forming.
Clatter, clatter…
She tugged on the rope. The other end of the Heaven-Imprisoning Chain bound Nun Dairou.
As she chanted the scriptures, Li Kuanghua felt a hint of pity.
The old tree was about to bear fruit, and it was also time for Nun Dairou to reach her conclusion.
Over the past few centuries, she had already learned everything there was to learn from Nun Dairou.
This person possessed two Daos. Having spent day and night together, Li Kuanghua thought about how, after killing her, there would no longer be a nun following by her side.
After pondering it over, she decided she had no choice but to refine Nun Dairou into the [Buddha-Demon Lotus Platform].
“Among the ancient methods left by the Red Dust Immortal, there is one that cultivates two bodies in one entity—one immortal and one demon.
I will cultivate one demon and one Buddha, transforming Dairou into the Buddha body.”
Li Kuanghua muttered to herself.
Back when she fought the immortal, she had brought Dairou along.
With merely a Void Refinement realm cultivation, they were actually able to battle an immortal. Her Bodhisattva body could even inflict damage upon it.
Later, after returning and asking around, she learned that the Buddha was originally cultivated from the Dao, but the method of devouring faith was also learned from the immortals.
Therefore, the Buddhas bewitched the mortal world by taking a shortcut.
However, because they took a shortcut, their foundation in cultivation realms was lacking, and their true strength fell short.
Over these several centuries, Li Kuanghua had pondered bitterly.
The bewitching power of the Buddhist Dao was its true essence; it could corrupt the soul even more effectively than illusions.
A demonic body was robust, possessing extraordinary means for frenzied combat against enemies.
With the augmentation of both one demon and one Buddha, it would be even more formidable than an immortal.
She immediately sat in meditation.
In Li Kuanghua’s eyes, a vast world became visible.
Within the Void Refinement realm her Spirit Soul peered into, there was a Buddhist mountain.
Beneath the two jade Bodhisattva statues, monks came and went, burning incense beneath the statues.
These monks sometimes passed right through each other, seemingly oblivious to one another’s existence as they arrived before the Buddha statues to pray.
In reality, these monks were in various temples of the Martial Dao Bodhisattva Body spread across the world.
The incense they offered was ‘faith’. This faith would cause the Bodhisattva statues on the jade mountain to grow stronger—strong enough to push open the Dao Gate.
Once enough faith was accumulated, with just a single thought, she could devour her believers.
However, Li Kuanghua did not do so.
She faintly sensed that the reason the Lotus Ferry Nunnery and the past generations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the world had died so miserably was precisely because of that ‘single thought’ to devour.
Believers came one after another.
Li Kuanghua gradually came to understand the amusement the Old Ancestor felt when he manifested his presence back in the day.
She would also manifest her presence from time to time, while simultaneously… gathering intelligence.
With her Bodhisattva body, she observed the world, peering through the boundary of the Blood Moon to watch the common people of the Central Plains, the Northern Frontier, and the Imperial Capital.
…
“Brother, why don’t you walk on your own?”
Li Changyao was pushing a wheelchair, with Li Changsheng sitting in it.
Sporting a ponytail and wearing a light, refreshing summer outfit, Li Changyao didn’t even know how many times she had asked this question, venting her dissatisfaction.
At home, she was the apple of everyone’s eye, but in front of her brother, she was just a wheelchair-pushing maidservant.
Over the years, her brother had been managing the family’s affairs.
When she followed him outside, she had been mistaken for a maidservant countless times by outsiders, being ordered around to do this and that.
Li Changsheng stroked the Mid-Grade Dharma Treasure wheelchair beneath him and said earnestly,
“You don’t understand. I’ve sat in a wheelchair for far too long.
Now, all the experts in the entire Southern Frontier know that our Li family has a ‘Young Master Changsheng’ who sits in a wheelchair, and they all know I’m faking it.
After all, no mortal could live to such an old age.”
“Don’t they already know then?” Li Changyao frowned.
“Exactly. Think about it: everyone knows I’m faking it. If, after faking it for so many years, I suddenly stand up, wouldn’t they be terrified?
The world is already chaotic enough. If I stand up now, it will only become more chaotic.”
Li Changsheng waved his hand dismissively.
“Ah, Changyao, it seems my destiny in this life is to have a perfectly healthy body, yet willingly paralyze myself in a wheelchair.”
“…” Li Changyao blinked.
Her brother was definitely just trying to fool her into continuing to push the wheelchair, but his words did make a strange kind of sense.
Soon, the siblings arrived beneath the old tree.
Seeing her aunt meditating, Li Changyao was about to step forward, but Li Changsheng made a gesture for her to be quiet.
Time slowly passed, and Li Changsheng continuously flicked his fingers lightly against the armrest of the wheelchair.
Since the battle at Grandhaven Prefecture a few years ago, the elders had all been cultivating.
Some had become immortals, some had become demons, and the elders were all dealing with their own troublesome affairs.
Consequently, with a single command from the family elders, the true overarching control of the family had been handed over to him, even though nominally, the younger kids Qiu Ming and Chuxiu were managing the family businesses.
In truth, there wasn’t much of a family business left to manage right now.
The Blood Moon was approaching, and everyone was preparing for war.
Many in the world had already begun devouring mortals.
Currently, on the roads from Grandhaven Prefecture to Clearpeak Prefecture and all the way to Azure Cloud Prefecture, an unknown number of refugees were fleeing.
But how massive was a single prefecture?
Forget about escaping a prefecture—just not starving, dying of exhaustion, or succumbing to disease on the road was already a massive stroke of luck.
Li Changsheng didn’t dare interfere with these matters. Every time he witnessed the suffering of the mortal realm, the Human Emperor’s Eye on his body would start acting up.
All he could do was properly manage Azure Cloud Prefecture, forging array formations and setting up layer upon layer of traps.
The Blood Moon had severed the connection between the Southern Frontier and the Imperial Dynasty.
Even the Dark Crows couldn’t fly through the Blood Moon.
Sea routes were still an option, but only Golden Core cultivators could travel by sea, taking a massive detour just to gather intelligence.
By the time such intelligence returned, it was already outdated.
Under such circumstances, Li Changsheng could only rely on his aunt’s connection with her Buddhist Dao followers to obtain the latest intelligence and establish contact with the outside world.
Suddenly, Buddhist light emanated from beneath the old tree.
Li Changsheng saw his aunt, Li Kuanghua, turn around.
Having cultivated Buddhist Dharma, his aunt—who already looked younger than him—now bore an increasingly compassionate and merciful countenance.
“The situation is bad.”
Li Kuanghua exhaled a long breath.
“It’s as if the outside world is completely unaware of the immortals emerging.
There are no rumors of immortals appearing anywhere in the world, and the Imperial Dynasty doesn’t even know what has happened in the Western Frontier and Southern Frontier.
The people from the Skyveil Hall and the major factions who transmitted our messages throughout the world… they are all dead.”
“The borders leading into the Central Plains are heavily guarded by the Imperial Protector’s Guard. The borders were evacuated long ago.
The public only knows that the Imperial Dynasty achieved a sweeping victory in the Western Frontier, annihilating three totems of the Wu Tribe.”
“The Imperial Preceptor and the Grand Tutor of the Northern Frontier are in a standoff.
The Imperial Preceptor suppressed the Northern Frontier army and ordered them to exterminate demons.
By eradicating demons across a massive region, he accumulated boundless merit.”
“Our people went to the Sword Pavilion and the Heavenly Monarch Dao Sanctuary.
Both factions have encountered trouble. Or rather, while the nation celebrates, the reclusive factions are all facing their own crises.
Either they knew of the immortals’ existence long ago, or they began allying with immortals the moment they initiated their restoration.”
“However, as for the Cultivation Alliance Nations…”
Li Kuanghua’s expression turned strange.
Li Changsheng was taken aback.
The two other human nations isolated within the Endless Forest also possessed civilizations similar to the Imperial Dynasty.
They were also part of the Human Race, but unfortunately, due to the passage of long ages and the barrier of the Endless Forest, they had lost contact with the Imperial Dynasty.
Only Void Refinement realm cultivators dared to attempt contact with the Imperial Dynasty without a safe route.
There was only one Human Emperor in the world, so they were naturally weaker than the Imperial Dynasty, and rumor had it their Emperor Realm experts were hidden as recluses among the populace.
Although they were weaker than the Imperial Dynasty in overall strength, lacking the protection of the Imperial Dynasty’s karmic luck, they were incredibly fierce as a whole.
The two nations were either fighting each other or on their way to a fight.
Their populations were constantly being depleted, new generations were born, and then they continued fighting, neither yielding to the other.
Back when Yaoqing and Kuangren were fleeing with the ‘caged bird’ to the Auric Empire, they had benefited from the two nations beating the life out of each other, allowing them to accumulate quite a bit of capital.
Even the Wu Tribe and Demon Race didn’t dare provoke these two nations.
The two nations might fight among themselves, but if outsiders dared to intervene, they would unapologetically declare a temporary truce and band together to fight off the threat.
This extreme, yet strangely restrained, madness was exactly how they had managed to survive until now.
But now that the immortals had appeared, the two nations had actually stopped fighting.
Li Kuanghua said in confusion,
“Now that immortals have emerged, and the Wu Tribe and Demon Race are too busy saving themselves, these two nations have no external enemies.
They should have continued fighting to the death, yet they have ceased hostilities.
There hasn’t been any news of immortals appearing within their borders either. However, one day, ink-black light surged into the sky, and three chimes of a bell echoed in the night.
On that day, many people saw the sky bathed in blood-red light beneath the moon.”
“How high up in the sky must it have been beneath the moon? Yet the massive battle was noticed even by mortals. Clearly, a behemoth had died.
That night, an eerie rain of blood fell. When it touched the ground, all things grew vibrantly.
Some commoners accidentally ingested it and exploded to death, but if applied externally rather than swallowed, it could strengthen the body and extend one’s lifespan.
Cultivators called it a supreme treasure and fought madly over it.”
Li Changsheng and Li Changyao exchanged a glance.
They said in unison, “An immortal!”
“That’s what I thought as well. Immortals must have appeared within their borders too, and they are silently slaughtering them,” Li Kuanghua nodded slightly.
With a grave expression, Li Changsheng waved his hand, and a map materialized in the air.
“The Blood Moon has severed the connection between our Southern Frontier and the Central Plains, and it has also encroached into the Endless Forest, but the route from Azure Cloud Prefecture to the two nations still exists.”
Pointing at the map, Li Changsheng said,
“We took the sea route to reach the Imperial Dynasty, but clearly the Imperial Dynasty is under Wenren Xianyi’s control.
Over these years, our attempts to seek help from the Imperial Dynasty have failed, but we must continue trying.”
“Next, I will send people to Duskwild Prefecture to contact Fourth Prince Yu.”
“The Divine Bird Totem and Moon Dragon Totem have been cut off by the Blood Moon; we will take the Nirvana Sage Elder’s token to contact them.”
“As for those two great nations, I want to give it a try.”
Li Changsheng looked at Changyao and grinned.
“Changyao, do you remember the days when the Wu Tribe attacked, and you carried me on your back everywhere to seek help?”
Li Changyao furrowed her delicate brows tightly. “You can fly on your own now; there is no way I’m carrying you.”
—
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