Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

”Shut up!”

Immortal Li Hai suddenly flew into a rage, interrupting him, ”You are merely a minor realm Golden Pill, with limited experience. How could you possibly understand the affairs of the Immortal Sects!”

”The Immortal Sects embrace all rivers, their magnanimity making them majestic and lofty. They have never lacked great talents who originated from minor realms!”

”Is there any falsehood in this matter?”

”Do not speak such nonsense again!”

”Do not forget where the Blood Life Pills come from, and the dire consequences of the Eastern Devil School learning of this!”

Three transparent and hazy figures said no more, gazing coldly at him.

...

Air-Space Warplanes were soaring across the sky.

The Sky overlords patrolled a radius of tens of thousands of miles, never descending.

On the ground,

Three countries, three different directions.

The Tianhai Sect, the Ancient Wood Sect, and the Black Stone Sect each formed a team consisting of one Foundation-building cultivator and fifty to sixty Qi Practitioners, totaling a hundred teams equipped with surveillance magic tools and detection magic tools, sweeping over every city and town in Li Country.

The three sects, which equated to three hundred teams, each took flight on a boat-shaped magic tool, leaving no stone unturned in any populated place within Li Country.

Orderly and well-trained.

If they discovered Qi Practicing Phase demon cultivators, they were to be exterminated on the spot, and seizing any potential Merciful Guanyin statues would earn them an immediate Yellow-level Xiao Gong.

If they encountered Foundation Establishment Stage demon cultivators, they would gather disciples from the same sect, with several Foundation-building teams converging to strike.

If they found more, the surprise was even greater; they only needed to summon an Immortal envoy from the sky to destroy them.

City after city was swept clean; within a mere two months, a vast swath of Li Country’s land was cleared, with a large number of demon cultivators killed and the demonic disasters caused by the spread of Demonic Path cultivation methods were quickly quelled.

Beyond military achievements, restoring civilian life, key areas for disaster management such as floods and droughts, and construction of water conservancy projects also garnered merit.

Among these various tasks, the most coveted with the most merits was the eradication of folk sects.

It was also straightforward: mobilize the mortal warriors and armies to hunt down the cultists and root out the faith of the Merciful Guanyin Sect among the populace, handing over any Guanyin statues encountered.

The cultivators of the three Immortal Sects earned quite a bit of merit, from top to bottom.

The key was the low risk involved.

Except for a few Foundation-building cultivators who were slightly worried, everyone else was beaming with joy.

Another month passed.

Within Li Country, every folk sect and demon cultivator, except for a handful hiding in deep forests and mountains, had been eradicated, their faith disintegrated, and civilian life orderly restored.

The confiscated cult Guanyin statues were piled up like a little mountain, each a faith node capable of direct incense-fueled connection to the evil deities’ realm.

”Incense data collection progress is one hundred percent.”

”First Temporary Sky Celestial Group requests Array Spirit of the Canghai Steel Floating Island Base to calculate the position of the evil deities’ realm.”

Above the sky, Jin Lingfeng announced with excitement.

”Request granted.”

Came the voice of the Array Spirit.

”Please wait, your calculation is in progress; estimated time required, seventy-two hours, three minutes, and fifty seconds. Please wait...”

Three days flashed by in an instant.

”The evil deities’ realm, codenamed ’Merciful Guanyin,’ is located at coordinates (...).”

A series of coordinates appeared on the military channel.

”Lijing City!”

Jiang Ding glanced over them and immediately correlated them with the location on the military map:”This place, combed through multiple times by the sect’s Taoist Soldiers, has shown no signs of deliberate neglect in the surveillance videos... it’s underground.”

Air-Space Warplanes flew by overhead, taking less than a day to reach the skies above Lijing City.

The third-rank Army Formation formed Spirit sonar meticulously scanned the ground.

”Indeed, it’s underground.”

After a while, An Siyan concluded, ”There exists a subterranean cavern hundreds of meters below Lijing City. Layers of thick soil and rock have shielded it from the Divine Sense scans, making it quite normal for the sects’ Foundation-builders to not have noticed. Even our third-rank Army Formations would overlook this spot if we didn’t pay close attention.”

”A cavern hundreds of meters deep underground, and extraordinarily spacious...”

Many of his colleagues frowned.

This was the very terrain that the Xianmen Sect’s Air-Space Warplane struggled to deal with.

Immortal Li Hai was indeed an old hand in combat outside the realms, experienced in all manner of response.

In such situations, it was usually the Taoist Soldiers who were sent to probe deep into the unknown.

However, the outcome was seldom good, for even Golden Pill Taoist Soldiers couldn’t compare in the realm or strength to the Golden Pill Monks of the Immortal Sects.

Occurrences of crushing superiority and slaughter due to the disparity in realm were not uncommon.

...

”The lives of scouting soldiers are also lives...”

Jiang Ding was too exhausted to retort.

Amidst the expectant gazes of his classmates, he flew above Lijing City’s sky, his Divine Sense and Sword Intent sweeping continuously to reveal many entrances concealed by thick layers of soil and huge stones.

He chose not to enter through these openings.

Finding a rooftop, he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

The Taiqing Flying Sword, with its concealed form, arrived at a thick layer of rock and dirt. Its slender body pierced into the soil and vanished from sight.

It encountered almost no resistance, neither the soil nor the hundred-plus-metre-thick rock layer slowed down the Taiqing Flying Sword by even a trace of mana, its speed steady and unhurried.

Taiqing Spirit Iron and Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold naturally possessed strong Concealment abilities.

Even the detection spells set up by Liyun Demon Cultivators in the nearby caves could not sense it at all.

After travelling through several hundred meters of earth, the view suddenly opened up.

This was a cavernous space over a hundred meters wide and tens of meters high, with multiple openings extending in different directions.

”A perfect place for tunnel warfare.”

Jiang Ding, with his Divine Sense attached to the Taiqing Flying Sword, murmured his admiration.

With the sword concealed, he picked an opening at random and flew close to the ceiling of the cavern, without causing even a tiny disturbance in the air flow.

After more than ten minutes.

Having explored all areas within four or five kilometers of the caverns, he found nothing.

The Taiqing Flying Sword pierced upward through the soil layer, returning to the surface.

Jiang Ding chose another location to continue his probing with the Taiqing Flying Sword.

After six or seven such attempts, Jiang Ding sat cross-legged on the rooftop of Taihe Palace in the Li Country’s royal palace. The Taiqing Flying Sword slipped beneath the ground from a gap between the stone tiles and disappeared.

”Found it!”

Jiang Ding’s spirit lifted.

The Taiqing Flying Sword, with its form concealed, flew cautiously at the top of the cavern.

Faint ripples of Divine Sense came through.

”That mortal said he wanted sunlight, to bathe, to eat vegetables...”

Two Foundation-building Liyun Demon Cultivators using the Earth Escape Technique to hide within the cavern’s rocky walls, sneered through transmitted voice, ”So many brothers have already died, and our fate remains uncertain; who has time to do these things for him?”

”This mortal is useless, of no value.”

The other one sighed, ”We thought we had an Immortal envoy, claiming to come from some so-called Equality Association. We even thought they held great influence and could pull some strings for us... But it’s all useless. We should just kill him and be done with it.”

The Taiqing Flying Sword did nothing to them, passing by not too far away and moving deeper inside.

Passing through layers of protective formations and detection spells, laughter and merry voices came through.

”Immortal envoy, come and play...”

”I’m right here, right here...”

Drawing a bit closer, the Taiqing Flying Sword paused for a moment.

A rather average-looking young man, blindfolded, was being passed around by a group of cheerful Qi Practicing Realm beauties, enveloped in fragrance and laughter, sipping wine at intervals and laughing heartily without end.

He was blissfully unaware of the scorn and disgust easily discernible in the eyes of the women around him.

Nearby, Foundation-building cultivators of the Liyun Sect watched indifferently, occasional flashes of raging killing intent passing through their eyes.

”So this is the Equality Faction...”

”Equality for those above my station in the path of cultivation, clarity of hierarchy for those below.”

Jiang Ding’s Divine Sense whispered from within the Taiqing Flying Sword, ignoring them and continuing deeper into the cavern.