Chapter 1 Finally, the Innate Realm?

Before anyone could express surprise, Li Daoran, who had long suspected this, immediately looked serious, clearly convinced.

This speculation stemmed from the current state of the world.

The Demonic Dynasty and the Righteous Army had been fighting for decades. In the early stages, the Demonic Army used thunderous force to destroy many of the great sects under Heaven. Numerous martial arts families and sects were broken, and the demonic might was unparalleled, causing the world to be silent with fear.

After that, hundreds of families rose in rebellion, and various sects abandoned their past grudges, gathering the power of the world to fight against the Demonic Army, and they won a great victory all the way, pushing them back to the south, and even all the way to the Tian Pass of the Southern River, almost breaking through the Southern Capital.

However, relying on the mighty waters of the Southern River and the extremely advantageous naval forces, the Righteous Army of hundreds of families could not break through the pass and enter the city for a long time, and could only confront the Demonic Dynasty across the river. Although various craftsmen were trying their best to build various strange machines to cross this natural barrier, the Demonic Dynasty took advantage of this stalemate to send demonic soldiers to infiltrate and destroy various places, wantonly killing and creating all kinds of cruel and unspeakable tragedies.

Even if only a few demonic soldiers infiltrated, for ordinary people, the demonic soldiers with inner qi and the power of immortality were irresistible. Even if they injured the opponent with numerical superiority, they could not accumulate damage... Scattered villages were slaughtered, causing even the Righteous Army of hundreds of families to shrink their forces, trying to capture the demonic soldiers while protecting several core large states from destruction as much as possible.

Places like Liao and Hei provinces were ungovernable and indefensible.

Now, although the Demonic Dynasty could no longer run rampant, the Righteous Army could not eliminate the Demonic Dynasty either. The two sides had completely entered a stage of strategic stalemate. In this stage, the Righteous Army was at a disadvantage, because as time passed, the Demonic Dynasty, with the power of the Sacred Tree, was likely to use its resources and abundant time to cultivate an Innate Martial Saint in this world where the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy was gradually becoming active!

On the Demonic Dynasty side, the Demonic Emperor and the National Preceptor were two Grandmasters, while on the Righteous Army side, the leaders of the Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian families were also Grandmasters.

However, on the Righteous Army side, not only were the older generation who had deep hatred with the Demonic Dynasty already old and dying, but the new generation of living forces had mostly not yet grown up, and might even be seduced by the Demonic Dynasty with immortality to betray them.

The three Grandmasters were even older, while the Demonic Emperor and the National Preceptor were still in their prime.

In order to break this unbearable stalemate, the Righteous Army, based on the betrayal of Zhou Buyi's father, intended to forge the divine weapon, the Blade of Annihilation, in order to forcibly enter the Southern Capital with the power of the divine weapon, and kill the two chief culprits, the Demonic Emperor and the National Preceptor, on the battlefield.

And through the traitor on the Righteous Army's side, the Demonic Dynasty, while knowing the divine weapon plan, also began to shrink the main forces in confrontation, and sent demonic soldiers and generals to Taibai Volcano to intercept them.

"But this time, the Demonic Dynasty has shrunk its forces too much—they have abandoned several fortresses along the river, basically giving up the entire Northwest front. In this way, the Righteous Army, which has an advantage in mortal forces, can drive straight in, surround the Southern Capital from the side, and even break through it! In a sense, the Demonic Dynasty is giving up the balance themselves, actively seeking defeat!"

Carrying the injured Wei Zongshi and other severely injured members of the escort team back to the camp, Zhou Buyi explained to Su Zhou, who knew nothing about this, on behalf of his master: "But mobilizing a large army to gather in the northwest, and then resist the harassment of the other side across the Southern River, and then march hundreds of miles to surround the Southern Capital, this will take several months... What if, within these months, the Demonic Dynasty produces an Innate Martial Saint?"

"Then all the previous defeats will be reversed, unless you forge the divine weapon." Su Zhou narrowed his eyes and nodded knowingly: "Originally, their shrinking of forces was a quick defeat, and waiting for you to forge the divine weapon was a late defeat. It was difficult to choose between the two, so they could only try to intercept the divine weapon material and slow down your time."

"But now, someone is about to break through to the Innate Realm, and mortal force is no longer a problem, so they simply shrink their forces and transfer their strength here to erase the only cause of defeat, the 'divine weapon'!"

"Yes." Zhou Buyi's white hair fluttered under the agitation of inner strength. His face was serious, obviously his mood was a little unstable: "In this way, our hundreds of families were a step slow in making a decision. The spiritual pigeon's message said that the main force's reinforcements were a little late in setting off, and the Demonic Army has already begun to gather and will initially attack the mountain... The conflict has completely intensified, and this place will soon become the most important battlefield in this vast Divine Continent!"

—The Celestial Scale will send you to the center of this world's strife—

For some reason, Su Zhou recalled what Yala had said to him at the beginning of the crossing.

Now it seems that this is indeed correct.

"Innate Martial Saint... is that the same as the Transcendent Realm?"

Silently thinking about the definition of the 'Transcendent Stage', Su Zhou also felt anxious: "The Transcendent Stage is achieved after the Awakened completely masters their spiritual power and abilities, and their spirituality is further sublimated. A Transcendent who has achieved great success can even use his own spiritual power to induce the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and create 'celestial phenomena'. This kind of divine power is enough to flatten a block by one person, or even shake a mountain."

"With such power, the Innate Martial Saint is worthy of the name Martial Saint. In this ancient time, it is truly crushing. If there is no one of the same level, it is enough for one person and one sword to sweep through the Divine Continent and suppress a country... Even in modern times, it would be necessary to dispatch troops, conduct multi-faceted locking attacks, and use artillery fire for locked output to pose a threat."

"With such power, 'Transcendent' is no longer 'surpassing mortals', but 'surpassing the mortal world'—although the power is still not as good as modern weapons, this is personal power, which can hide its tracks, and does not require a system!"

If the Demonic Dynasty really produced a Martial Saint, then even if a Grandmaster held the Blade of Annihilation, it would not be a guaranteed victory, and it would still be a stalemate—and the result of continuing the stalemate would probably be the appearance of a second and third Martial Saint!

"We must stop these demonic soldiers, and start forging the divine weapon now, the sooner the better!"

After figuring this out, Su Zhou said in a deep voice, attracting the attention of Zhou Buyi and other Grandmasters, and then nodding repeatedly: "That's right—now we will hand over the Star Gang Sand to the Grand Craftsman and begin forging the divine weapon!"

That being said, when everyone returned to the fortress and announced that the demonic soldiers were about to attack the mountain, although the everyone in the fortress had the desire to fight, it was mostly tragic.

Demonic Generals bestowed with titles by the Demonic Emperor were already in the Grandmaster Realm. With the power of immortality, they could fight against many without being defeated. One was difficult enough to deal with.

And this time, the three great demonic generals, 'Hunter of Life', 'Beast Tamer' and 'Red Earth', and nearly five hundred demonic soldiers had come, while our side only had four Grandmasters, one of whom was seriously injured.

Even with the advantage of terrain, this combat power was too disproportionate. It could basically be said that they were doing their best to delay until the main force's reinforcements arrived to have a chance of survival.

"Brother Wei Lie's injury is serious, and it cannot be cured in a short time."

In the camp, after carefully examining Wei Zongshi's injury, Han Zongshi shook his head helplessly: "After all, he is over seventy years old, past his peak. Even a Grandmaster's physique will decline... With my medical skills, I can at most relieve his pain, and he can fight with one arm—in that case, he is at least a Houtian second-tier combat power, but Brother Wei Lie's good archery skills may not be able to be used."

Beside him, the swordsman Liu Xizhao was cleaning Wei Lie's wound and changing the water, and using a small knife to cut open the rotten flesh and release the stagnant blood.

She was Han Zongshi's junior niece, and was also good at medical skills. A series of movements were clean and neat, and then she turned her head and said: "The main reason is that Wei Zongshi used his inner strength when he was injured, so that the inner qi circulation is not smooth here. Otherwise, if it was just flesh and blood bones that were damaged, he could barely use his inner strength to connect them and exert his full strength for a moment."

Although he had known this result for a long time, Li Daoran still couldn't help sighing: "That Red Earth Demonic General was originally crazy and good at exchanging injuries for injuries. His fighting style was radical and crazy. Wei Lie was good at military tactics, but was weaker in one-on-one duels. If it weren't for the addition of little brother Su Zhou, this defense... Huh, Su Zongshi, what is this bottle of white 'lotus root powder' in your hand?"

"It's much thicker than lotus root powder, okay?"

After hearing Li Daoran's description, Su Zhou, holding a small bottle of jelly-like holy water, was strict about food, and 'corrected' him, not to argue: "At least it should be meat jelly!"

Then, Su Zhou said seriously: "This water is a healing elixir from the sacred mountain of Western Kunlun. Although it may not be so effective for injuries involving bones, it is miraculous for injuries to flesh, blood, and internal organs."

"A few days ago, I had a conflict with the escort team due to a misunderstanding, and accidentally 'accidentally' broke the cheekbone of the warrior monk Fang Hui. The reason why he was able to recover so quickly was all thanks to this medicine!"

"Then, thank you Su Zongshi for your generosity, we will definitely repay you later!" Han Zongshi and Li Daoran looked at each other, and then looked at the injured bald Wei Lie again. After seeing him nod, they took the holy water with gratitude and a trace of doubt.

"Eh?! What is this—pure and holy, vast and mighty, bright as the scorching sun!"

Han Zongshi scooped a little holy water jelly with a small spoon, and felt as if he had seen the sun when he sensed it with his inner qi. His eyes were full of blazing light. After pondering for a moment, he simply put down other complicated spiritual plants and medicinal ointments, washed the wound with clean water, picked out the blood scabs and rotten flesh with silver needles and tweezers, and then directly filled a spoonful of holy water jelly into it, and applied golden sore medicine.

"Wait." He said: "This medicine has a neutral and peaceful medicinal properties, but it repels foreign forces, just like sunlight covering starlight, so other spiritual plants and secret medicines cannot be used... Pure herbal ointments are fine."

Two minutes later, under the shocked gaze of the three Grandmasters and a dozen experts, the bald Wei Lie Zongshi also shook his left fist in shock, and moved his left shoulder—although it was still a bit difficult and painful, it was because the inner qi circulation was temporarily blocked, and the bone fracture was difficult to heal, but in a short time, he could fully exert the Grandmaster's combat power!

The flesh, blood, and meridians have been regenerated?!

"Kunlun secret medicine, so terrifying!"