Although there were conflicts between the three major races previously, they were only local skirmishes. These local conflicts had always existed, with limited casualties and scope. However, a full-scale war was a completely different matter.
The entire world quickly plunged into chaos.
The Heavenly Tribulation Qi surged rapidly.
Before long, the scope of the war was no longer limited to the tripartite allied forces gathered to besiege the four ferocious beasts. Instead, it spread at an incredibly terrifying speed, encompassing most of the world and dragging all their subordinate races into this horrific war.
And during this time, the demon race certainly wouldn't remain idle.
They were primarily busy with two things: first, continuing to actively stir up trouble and escalate the situation, helping races with insufficient hatred points to gain more. They aimed to ensure that most subordinate races outside the main three also suffered heavy casualties, deepening their grudges and achieving an irreconcilable state.
This was their primary plan.
Naturally, it could not be delayed.
The second task was much simpler: stealing corpses, pilfering origins, and scavenging during the chaos. Corpses could be refined into demon puppets or used for possession by demons to infiltrate various races amidst the turmoil. Origins could be devoured and absorbed by some demons to enhance their own origins. Although this would lead to a杂乱 (záluan - messy/disordered) origin, ordinary demons had no path to enlightenment anyway, so as long as their cultivation improved, that was sufficient.
Let their origins be messy.
As for scavenging, that was even more extensive. Scattered or damaged acquired spiritual treasures, innate spiritual treasures, certain beings' collections, and even the treasuries of some races were all targets for the demons to exploit.
If not for Ding Yun having already swept up a considerable portion, with over eighty percent of the world's good items in her possession, she might have been tempted to participate and get a share.
However, even though Ding Yun disdained these items, it didn't mean other Daoists, gods, and demons did. The Destroying God-Demons and the demon race soon discovered that someone was encroaching on their business.
But it was difficult to fall out over such matters.
It was even more difficult to bring it into the open.
Especially those Daoists and innate gods and demons who were profiting from the chaos were still concerned about their reputation. Therefore, in the end, they tacitly acknowledged each other's activities and tried to avoid interfering.
...
To avoid being affected by the war between the three major races.
After the large-scale war broke out, the Spirit Lord, along with most of the Spirit Race, retreated into the blessed lands and the middle-thousand worlds he controlled and had evolved.
He had no intention of participating in the war between the three races or vying for world destiny. This was because he was pursuing the path of enlightenment through worlds he created himself. While destiny could provide some assistance, it could not directly help him achieve enlightenment. The core of his enlightenment lay in the evolution of his middle-thousand world into a great-thousand world. Therefore, he only needed a small amount of racial destiny to aid his cultivation and did not need to fight for too much.
Moreover, he was not confident in directly confronting the three major races.
If he couldn't afford to offend them, he could only hide.
Once he achieved enlightenment, he would have plenty of ways to regain his honor.
Thus, during one multi-epoch period of the tripartite war, the entire Spirit Race suffered virtually no losses, and the Spirit Lord had, in a unique way, fulfilled his promise to protect the Spirit Race.
However, this was something that some of the more discerning elders of the three races,
And the Destroying God-Demons did not wish to see.
To drag the Spirit Race into the fray, lest this seemingly not-so-powerful but independent fourth major force benefit from the conflict, some elders from the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin races quickly began searching for the whereabouts of the Spirit Race.
Initially, it would not have been easy for them to find the Spirit Race, but were there not many demons hidden among the Spirit Race?
Those demons relayed information to the Destroying God-Demons, who then found ways to pass the information to the elders of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin races. Through this indirect channel, the elders of the three races quickly located the blessed lands where the Spirit Race resided. They then fabricated a reason – accusing the Spirit Race of disrespecting the three major races and allowing the four ferocious beasts to run rampant – and began their attack.
The so-called allowing the four ferocious beasts to run rampant
Primarily referred to the fact that the Spirit Race did not participate in the siege of the four ferocious beasts.
However, it was easy to frame someone when one desired to. It was merely a pretext they casually conjured.
Fearing that the Spirit Lord's strength might be considerable and that ordinary individuals would not be his match, leading to future troubles if he were to escape after being offended, the three races, despite having already fallen out, joined forces once more.
The Dragon race specifically invited Candle Dragon, the Phoenix race invited Ancestral Phoenix, and the Qilin race invited Ancestral Qilin.
The two ancestors of the Dragon race were Ancestral Dragon and Candle Dragon.
The two ancestors of the Phoenix race were Ancestral Phoenix and Ancestral Huang.
And the Qilin race naturally had Ancestral Qilin and Ancestral Lin.
The Dragon race had only one origin, Ancestral Dragon. Candle Dragon, in essence, could not be considered a true dragon. He was nurtured by the Time God-Demon using his own origin and a small segment of the river of time. He had died once, and later reborn, voluntarily joining the Dragon race and becoming a part of it. This was acknowledged by Ancestral Dragon, and he enjoyed the destiny of the Dragon race.
Although the Phoenix and Qilin races each had two origins, it was precisely because their origins had differentiated that their fundamental power was inferior to the Dragon race. The difference in inherent talent between nurturing one life from an origin versus nurturing two lives was vast. Therefore, the Dragon race held the highest status not merely due to their numbers but because Ancestral Dragon was indeed the strongest.
With the leaders of the three races in seclusion,
The strongest forces they could muster were these three: Candle Dragon, Ancestral Phoenix, and Ancestral Lin. This demonstrated their regard for the Spirit Race and their resolve to directly annihilate them, ensuring that the ultimate victor would emerge from within their own three races – likely a tacit understanding between them.
If all three were to suffer mutual destruction and the Spirit Race were to snatch the spoils,
They would likely be furious.
To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, it was naturally best to eliminate the Spirit Race first, allowing them to continue their war with complete peace of mind.
These three were by no means weak. Furthermore, although the blessed lands had a certain separation from the Eternal World, they were ultimately anchored to it. Once their precise location was found, the blessed lands where the Spirit Race resided were quickly exposed, forcing the Spirit Lord to reveal himself.
Initially, the Spirit Lord intended to say a few words.
He wanted to express his unwillingness to participate in the struggle for destiny. However, before he could utter a sound, Candle Dragon's charged attack struck, followed closely by the assaults of Ancestral Phoenix and Ancestral Qilin. None of them held back, and none were willing to listen to his pronouncements. Their intent to kill was resolute.
Under these circumstances, the Spirit Lord could no longer argue or profess his pursuit of peace and could only be forced to fight back.
However, to prevent the blessed lands behind him from being destroyed and all the Spirits within from perishing, he did not choose to evade. Instead, he gritted his teeth and endured the brunt of these three attacks.
At the same time, he took the opportunity to absorb all the Spirits within the blessed lands into his own dantian, which was his middle-thousand world. Then, while spitting blood, he channeled the power of the middle-thousand world to heal his body, which had developed cracks.
And began to counterattack.