Chapter 551: This Indirect Little Heavenly Way

This Western Sect... it seems a bit fragile.

Incense Fire Divine Kingdoms fell one after another to the fierce attacks launched by the Immortal Alliance, being "reclaimed" in quick succession.

In just three years, the Immortal Alliance's momentum surged, with the Western Sect losing about one-tenth of its territory in the Three Thousand Worlds. Two-tenths of their Immortal Path experts were killed or fled.

Had the Western Sect not used so many methods to control the minds of living beings when they built their Incense Fire Divine Kingdoms, most of the Immortal Path experts under their control might have turned into puppets, and their morale could have completely collapsed.

It's worth noting that Li Changsheng chose to stage most of the battles in the voids of various great thousand worlds and small thousand worlds, minimizing the impact on living beings.

However, this situation was eventually reversed to some extent when Ling Shan secretly mobilized dozens of veteran Daoists and deployed some hidden Honghuang Fierce Beasts.

In the most recent clashes, the Immortal Alliance's experts suffered heavy losses.

After pondering through half the night, Li Changsheng decided to have the Immortal Alliance pull back its offensives and switch to a defensive stance.

Tying down a portion of the Western Sect's forces in the Three Thousand Worlds was, in fact, a major victory for the overall situation in Honghuang.

Over these past three-plus years, Elder Wan Linjun has been exceptionally active, making the name "Poison Immortal of Crossing Immortals" renowned across the seas. Though he is only at the Golden Immortal realm and has recently entered it, his poison pills are incredibly sharp.

—In truth, aside from the initial poison pills, which Elder Wan refined himself, the rest were supplied by Li Changsheng arranging for Lv Yue to support him.

In terms of poison pill expertise, Elder Wan can only be called a "junior Lv Yue," still falling short of the original leader of the Plague Department from the Fengshen Great Calamity.

Yet, with a paper figure hidden in his sleeve and guided by Li Changsheng's meticulously devised tactics, Elder Wan's combat effectiveness is truly impressive.

He strikes like a ghost, impossible to guard against—always opting for ambushes over direct assaults, and fleeing instantly if discovered.

Even when the Western Sect sent out large groups of experts to pursue and intercept him, with Li Changsheng orchestrating from the shadows, Elder Wan faced no real danger or excitement. He simply followed Li Changsheng's instructions, adjusting his escape routes a few times to complete the counter-encirclement by luring the enemy in deep.

But what concerns Li Changsheng is that after three years of killing, Elder Wan's Daoist heart has become somewhat unstable.

The old anger in Elder Wan Linjun's heart has mostly been vented, and now that the Western Sect has begun to counterattack, Li Changsheng, playing it safe, advised Elder Wan Linjun to temporarily return to the Tianya Secret Realm and stay with Lv Yue.

That place is one even Honghuang Fierce Beasts dare not easily enter, for Lv Yue's poison pills have transcended from affecting living beings' bodies to targeting the Great Dao itself.

With the Western Sect and Immortal Alliance swapping offense and defense, Li Changsheng is not particularly anxious.

First, he arranged for Holy Mother Jin Ling, who had come to the Three Thousand Worlds out of guilt to join the fight, to team up with Zhao Gongming and ambush several enemy waves, taking down over a dozen Honghuang Fierce Beasts.

Then, during Daoist Wen Jing's reinforcements to the Incense Fire Divine Kingdoms, he orchestrated a few major retreats, allowing Daoist Wen Jing to eliminate some unscrupulous members of the Immortal Alliance who already carried heavy karmic burdens.

This way, he could delay the outbreak of internal conflicts within the Immortal Alliance while boosting Daoist Wen Jing's military merits.

After all this back and forth, the Western Sect's long-accumulated shadow forces have been halved in damage, and their usable Honghuang Fierce Beasts are now few and far between.

The eastern region of the Three Thousand Worlds, which had been lively for three years, has once again fallen into a stalemate, giving the Western Sect a chance to catch its breath.

Over these three years, they were thoroughly harassed by the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals in the Five Divisions of Honghuang.

The disciples of the saints had to completely conceal their tracks when venturing out, not daring to reveal themselves as Qi refiners of Ling Shan.

In the Three Thousand Worlds, their accumulated foundations over tens of thousands of years were damaged by about two-tenths, and although they could "convert" some scattered cultivators to fill this gap in strength, it was still a blow to their core.

What frightened them most was not knowing how long the retribution from Taibai Jinxing of Heaven would continue.

To be fair, they had only orchestrated a covert attack through some unfamiliar senior brother, killing one Golden Immortal, over a dozen Heavenly Immortals, hundreds of True Immortals and Primal Immortals, and even some unascended disciples of Crossing Immortals Gate...

Why did Maitreya have to provoke this guy for no reason?!

For roughly three and a half years, Li Changsheng's true body remained in the Taibai Palace in Heaven.

During this time...

The process of teaming up with Elder Wan to scheme against others was quite enjoyable, evoking a bit of his youthful days of creatively using poisons—definitely a thumbs-up.

Coordinating among the various deputy alliance leaders of the Immortal Alliance and the Heavenly Court Marshal Group was a tad tedious, but it was a necessary step, so it's a middling review.

The only downside—Zhao Daye still kept his distance from Holy Mother Jin Ling in public.

And this was at Holy Mother Jin Ling's own request. Zhao Daye would seek out Li Changsheng's paper figure every few days to pour out his heart, seriously doubting himself...

"Changgeng, is it because I'm no good that Jin Ling doesn't want to make our relationship public?"

To this, Li Changsheng could only respond with an awkward smile, stuffing Zhao Daye with some leftover paintings from back when he used them for Jiu Wu, and urging Zhao Daye to go hunt some highly tonic yet poisonous creatures.

Back to the old trade.

But the biggest achievement of these three years wasn't in the Three Thousand Worlds—it was on Xiao Qiong Peak.

Li Changsheng further integrated the arrays on Xiao Qiong Peak, filling in the details he had previously overlooked and enhancing the arrays' "independence," reducing their reliance on manual control.

If Sect Leader Ji Wuyou had faced his tribulation with Ling E able to unleash even one-tenth of Xiao Qiong Peak's strength, those dozen or so Golden Immortals wouldn't have been so arrogant.

Of course, that's on Li Changsheng's account and has nothing to do with Ling E.

Back then, his junior sister had already tried her best and made decisions in a few instants, which was truly commendable.

Just to keep her from getting too proud, Li Changsheng took a reverse approach, making her self-reflect for months, and over these three years, she's been fully studying the correct usage of Xiao Qiong Peak's composite array system.

Additionally, half a year ago, Xiao Jin and Xiao Yin delivered a treasure pouch containing the item Li Changsheng had requested last time.

The Xiong War Armor!

This is a set of purplish-gold chainmail. Its defensive capabilities are merely average, but as a product from Laojun, it's no ordinary item—especially since it was made with many ancient treasures and primordial spiritual materials.

Its primary solution is to address Xiong Lingli's mobility issues.

Once Xiong Lingli puts on this armor, with a mere thought, her body slowly floats up, allowing her to walk freely in the air, moving forward, backward, left, or right as she wishes.

And over these three years, under Li Changsheng's mix of coercion and incentives, Xiong Lingli has wholeheartedly and diligently practiced her transformation techniques, managing to barely enlarge or shrink herself temporarily.

Still, at this level, Li Changsheng won't let her leave Xiao Qiong Peak.

Otherwise, while walking, chatting, and laughing, she might suddenly turn into a mountain, causing all sorts of accidents.

When Xiao Jin and Xiao Yin delivered the armor, they mentioned that Laojun would next craft a weapon for Xiong Lingli, asking if she preferred a blade, spear, sword, halberd, or axe and hammer.

Xiong Lingli decisively chose a pair of extra-large copper hammers.

Those little hammers that can smash a dragon's spine or a phoenix's chest in one blow—that's the romance of a witch!

Whatever Yang Jian or the Monkey, when they storm Heaven, they'll have to face a wave of "getting their chests hammered by someone's little hammers" from a thousand-zhang mountain giant!

Just imagining that scene gets Li Changsheng excited!

Of course, not everything goes smoothly.

The matter of upgrading his paper figures has shown little progress over these three years.

The advantages of paper figures are that they're cheap, giving him countless avatars, and they can somewhat ignore the barriers of space and time, allowing real-time transfer of his mind.

But the downsides are obvious: they're too fragile, and once their immortal energy is depleted, they can't be replenished.

Moreover, Maitreya has already mastered ways to counter them.

This has forced Li Changsheng to be extra cautious these past three years, preparing multiple contingency plans for every action in case he loses contact.

He had thought of improvement methods three years ago, but implementing them has been one challenge after another.

There's no way around it—he's already upgraded them too many times, and even with the "external golden elixir" boosting him, there's not much room for enhancement left. He has to explore new paths and develop other avenues.

"Ah, avatars are such a headache."

Li Changsheng rubbed his brow, lying under a tree on Xiao Qiong Peak, gazing at the distant Taibai Hall, which appeared grandly majestic due to the distortion of the Mustard Seed Universe Array, as his mind gradually emptied.

Suddenly, he felt a disturbance in his mind.

Li Changsheng immediately closed his eyes to trace the source of the disturbance.

Among the paper figures he had scattered outside, a few had a faint thread of his mind attached, and they were now subconsciously sensing something he cared about.

In an instant, with his eyes still closed, Li Changsheng raised an eyebrow and pinpointed the disturbance.

That black leopard spirit had suddenly emerged from seclusion!

His mind shifted to the border of Nanbuzhou, Zhongshenzhou, and Dongshengshenzhou, where Li Changsheng's paper figure opened its eyes. All he saw was a patch of shrubbery, and his form silently merged into the surrounding earth.

Almost instinctively, he activated the Wind Whisper Spell and cautiously extended his immortal sense, immediately hearing the black leopard murmuring in front of his cave.

"Are you okay?"

He was probably thinking of that water spirit.

Speaking of the water spirit, Li Changsheng felt a bit sentimental.

Originally, the black leopard's cultivation was inferior to the water spirit's, and the water spirit was utterly devoted to him, constantly encouraging him.

But when the black leopard recovered his past-life memories, realized he was a Jie Jiao immortal, and insisted on visiting Jin'ao Island, the water spirit chose to leave without a word.

Then he heard the black leopard murmur again: "Senior Lu Ya."

Li Changsheng: ...

Was he thinking about that fake Lu Ya from back then?

Oh well, don't sweat the small stuff.

Li Changsheng calculated the time: from now until the Shang Kingdom's Tang becomes the new human emperor in Nanbuzhou, there's roughly two hundred years left.

In the original Fengshen story, Shen Gongbao brought his skills to study under a master and entered Yuxu Palace with Jiang Ziya.

Now that the Fengshen List is in Heaven's hands, will Shen Gongbao and Jiang Ziya end up studying under him, Taibai Jinxing?

That would be a total mess.

Li Changsheng pondered deeply but couldn't fathom what fate awaited Shen Gongbao, the ideal partner in calamities.

He'd just have to keep a close eye on him.

The black leopard stretched lazily, restrained his demonic aura, and released a wisp of pure energy, secretly cultivating Jie Jiao techniques to barely alter his demonic roots.

He had now touched the threshold of the Heavenly Immortal realm, and his cultivation speed was genuinely not slow.

As soon as the black leopard moved, Li Changsheng sensed that the Heavenly Dao was up to something—either accelerating the black leopard's cultivation or using him for some purpose.

The black leopard rode the clouds into the sky, hesitated in the air for a while, then flew southeast, seemingly heading for Jin'ao Island.

Li Changsheng thought for a moment and didn't have the paper figure follow too closely. Instead, he activated the network of paper figures he had buried under the East Sea, keeping the black leopard's every move under surveillance.

The blue sky stretched on, white clouds drifted lazily, and the black leopard seemed to have shaken off the gloom of being abandoned, maintaining the appearance of a middle-aged Daoist as he flew leisurely through the air.

In fact, as he flew, he even started humming a little tune.

Li Changsheng: ...

Was he worrying too much?

This black leopard was clearly a true child of great calamities, a favorite son of the Heavenly Dao. Before the Fengshen Great Calamity fully erupted, the Heavenly Dao wouldn't let him come to harm, so why was he watching him?

Oh well, better to be safe.

Though he wouldn't claim to have complete control over the black leopard, he was about 98 percent—cough, 90 percent sure he could make the black leopard work for him at critical moments.

Show some respect to the Dao Ancestor.

But the events that followed began to exceed Li Changsheng's expectations.

The black leopard flew southeast for a while, indeed toward Jin'ao Island.

But when he reached roughly the southeast corner of Nanbuzhou, he frowned, suddenly turned, and flew southwest. There, on the shores of the South Sea, he encountered a middle-aged Daoist flying north.

Li Changsheng sighed inwardly—the traces of the Heavenly Dao's manipulation were too obvious.

Not at all natural.

There were countless Qi refiners in Honghuang, and though it was a time of great calamity with few venturing out, it was completely unremarkable for someone to come from the South Sea and pass by the east side of Nanbuzhou en route to Dongshengshenzhou.

Yet, as the black leopard and this middle-aged Daoist crossed paths, the black leopard furrowed his brow, hesitated, and said:

"Daoist friend, please stay."

The middle-aged Daoist frowned, turned, and looked at the black leopard.

Li Changsheng was also slightly surprised, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the middle-aged Daoist.

Upon closer inspection...

Li Changsheng realized at a glance that this middle-aged Daoist was not human!

The middle-aged Daoist turned, cupped his hands toward the black leopard, and smiled. "Daoist friend, greetings. Why did you suddenly ask me to stay? It seems we don't know each other."

The black leopard's eyes showed some confusion as he stared at the middle-aged Daoist for a while, then gave an awkward smile: "I thought you were an old acquaintance, but I must have mistaken you.

Please don't take offense, Daoist friend."

"Very well."

The middle-aged Daoist replied with a smile, his expression as warm as a spring breeze, yet for some reason, the black leopard felt that this person seemed... fake, unreal.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong.

And even why he had suddenly flown here, the black leopard didn't know.

The two exchanged Daoist salutes and went their separate ways, though the middle-aged Daoist remained vigilant, locking his immortal sense on the black leopard.

Once the black leopard was out of his immortal sense's range, the man let out a light sigh of relief.

'That was close, almost exposed.'

'I am Du Shuren, not a human, nor a creature of Honghuang. I am a special existence known in the Honghuang world as an extraterrestrial heavenly demon.'

Du Shuren was, of course, a false name he had taken after occupying this body.

Coming to the Honghuang world wasn't due to luck or effort—it was all part of the natural flow.

From the moment of his birth, he had been raised as a human.

Although called an extraterrestrial heavenly demon, in reality, they were also forms of life born from true spirits resonating with the Great Dao, essentially the same as Honghuang's creatures.

They were born in the relatively stable corners of the Chaos Sea, naturally differing in appearance from Honghuang's creatures because the Dao principles were different, leading to different definitions of the "innate Dao body."

Environment determines whether you're a misshapen fruit or a split date.

The arrogant creatures of Honghuang had never truly looked at them, unaware that they mainly divide into seven major categories and three forms.

To describe it in Honghuang terms, the three forms are "heart demons," "simulacra," and "spirit-like bodies."

Of course, this classification was something Du Shuren had summarized himself.

The heart demon form is probably the one Honghuang creatures are most familiar with, while the spirit-like body form is the most common outside Xuandu City.

Since they live in the Chaos Sea surrounding the Honghuang world and are greatly influenced by Honghuang's Dao principles, they share many similarities with Honghuang's creatures.

Well... they're completely different from those ugly, truly bizarre Chaos Sea beings.

Du Shuren was in the heart demon form.

In fact, Du Shuren preferred to drop the "extraterrestrial" and just call himself a heavenly demon.

He once had a physical body, but as he cultivated and evolved, he completely shed it, becoming a pure spiritual existence.

How to tempt Qi refiners, how to amplify the cracks in their Daoist hearts, how to slip in and devour their primordial spirits to nourish himself—these are essential lessons for heavenly demons.

But Du Shuren was different from ordinary heavenly demons.

He had exceptional talent and came from an elite background, raised from a young age to act like a Qi refiner so that, once he infiltrated and took control of a Qi refiner's body and mind, he could live like a normal one.

Those lower heavenly demons only knew killing and destruction, which Du Shuren found embarrassingly crude.

A refined heavenly demon should read books, listen to music, engage in some cultural pursuits, and dabble in art.

Otherwise, why come to the Honghuang world? Just to die?

However, Du Shuren didn't know what his purpose was in coming to Honghuang after being raised for so long.

He had entered the Honghuang world two years ago.

Before leaving, his "mother," who had split him from her body, took him to their clan's holy ground to pay respects to a massive, shadowy figure that was impossible to perceive or clearly see.

Du Shuren felt his own insignificance and humility then, shrinking into a ball of black mist and trembling like a mouse.

Afterward, the holy ground's master exchanged words with his mother, and Du Shuren accidentally caught a snippet of their conversation with his heavenly demon ability.

"Master, will he do?"

"He will. Implant the plan into its spirit, and let it gradually learn what to do next."

"Yes, master. Would you... like a meal?"

His mother asked excitedly, eager to split off individuals from her massive body...

The shadowy figure devoured the "siblings" his mother had split off.

"Alright, I've regained my energy. I need to remain dormant for now. Send him on his way to the previously selected Qi refiner's body."

The shadowy figure instructed, and his mother sighed with unfulfilled desire, leading him away from the holy ground.

What followed was the tedious process of finding a gap, descending, tempting, seizing, and disguising.

The first step of his plan was to head from the edge of a great thousand world to the core of the Honghuang world, the Five Divisions.

Once there, Du Shuren waited half a year before the second step of the plan emerged in his mind:

Go to Dongshengshenzhou and attach himself to a Heavenly Immortal realm Qi refiner.

So, he simply flew from a market town in the South Sea toward Dongshengshenzhou.

The journey had been uneventful until, just now, at the border of Nanbuzhou, he suddenly encountered an old Daoist who called out, "Daoist friend, please stay."

Du Shuren had thought he was exposed, but the other mistook him for someone else, and his own performance was nearly flawless.

Infiltrating Honghuang wasn't that diffi—

"Daoist friend?"

A voice suddenly called out, seeming right beside his ear.

Du Shuren was slightly puzzled and turned his head, immediately seeing a smiling young Daoist.

The young Daoist smiled, gently shaking the jade flute in his hand.

"Would you be interested in climbing a mountain together?"