Everything Has an End, Everything Has a Beginning (Part Twelve)...
Sometimes, earth-shattering events happen without our knowledge or awareness.
Immortals live far from mortals and are not sensitive to the water temperature in the mortal world. When a friend first mentioned something that happened in the mortal kingdom, he didn't take it seriously at all.
In the mortal world, there are countless partings and reunions, battles and conflicts, and countless years have passed. While they have fought and died for generations, the immortals may have simply gone into seclusion for a period of time.
With such a huge gap, who would care about mortals? Even if they heard that cultivators were involved, they couldn't help but laugh and shake their heads, thinking, "How can there be such boring people?"
The immortal's life was always peaceful and undisturbed by worldly affairs, until his old friend got caught up in a storm he had taken for granted, and he was shocked to realize that the storm he thought was far away was actually right next to him.
It's not easy for an immortal to have a friend. Upon receiving the bad news, he immediately emerged from seclusion to avenge his old friend.
Enraged, he arrived in the skies above the Kingdom of Qingmu and roared, "Who harmed my friend! If you don't come out, I will make the entire city pay with its life!"
Those below involuntarily prostrated themselves on the ground. Ordinary people have no ability to resist this kind of pressure. Unexpectedly, the people below only felt some pain and did not panic and flee.
The immortal who came to hold him accountable was a bit oblivious; he didn't notice anything amiss and was only looking for the enemy who killed his old friend.
He was furious and waited for his enemy to appear, but instead of his enemy, he saw a gigantic hand that grabbed him and snapped the battle shut.
The immortal fell softly from the sky, his eyes wide open in death, seemingly unaware of what had happened.
Upon seeing this, the onlookers got up from the ground and slowly gathered around the corpse.
Actually, your friend died in the same way last time.
After the village laws of Qingmu Village were expanded, the villagers became more willing to help others, assisting the patrol soldiers in dragging the corpses to the formation research department.
The formation research department is planning to set up a city-protecting formation so that every time a cultivator above a certain level comes, the enemy is forced to lie on the ground. Although they won't die, it's still quite annoying.
Upon seeing the immortal's corpse, the research department staff took the opportunity to dispose of it.
The power of immortals has a portion that can be mobilized from the outside world and a portion that is solidified into their bodies. When put into the transformation array, the enormous power can be completely absorbed without any waste.
Aoki Village has a lot of experience in recycling waste, and they collect all kinds of corpses in different categories. It has been a long time since anyone has dared to provoke Aoki Country so rashly. I wonder what they are thinking this time.
Reason cannot be understood without war, but since it is a righteous war, reason must be upheld. Ye Xiqing, in the name of a sage, established the rules for a righteous war.
Mortals can only fight mortals, the new generation can only fight the new generation, and elders can only fight elders. Different ranks have different opponents, but it doesn't matter how you fight someone of the same rank.
If someone wants to fight across ranks, she will unlock her free state.
At first, everyone completely ignored her. Who are you? Who are you to tell us how to do things?
The elders of the Jiexian Sect returned severely injured and brought Ye Xiqing's words back to the sect. None of them wanted to abide by them and immediately brought more people to seek revenge.
Even with so many people coming, it's still different. Ye Xiqing stepped out of the house for the first time.
As she slowly treads the earth and gazes up at the sky, her lofty posture should have made her appear insignificant, yet her relaxed demeanor makes her seem more at ease than any immortal with drawn swords.
Her wide robe billowed, obscuring her features. As the robe flowed downwards, all that remained was emptiness. Ye Xiqing raised her head, her smile radiant and forgiving.
"Sometimes, luck is more important than ability."
"I'll only leave behind three bodies; I wonder who'll be so lucky."
Since then, no one has dared to treat Ye Xiqing's rules of righteous warfare as mere empty talk.
Even among cultivators, there are limits to their strength. They know there are always people stronger than them and heavens beyond heavens, but to calmly take three lives amidst a siege is truly terrifying!
Besides the oppressive force of absolute power, what's even more terrifying is that no one knows where this person came from, so many lives have been lost, and we haven't even seen their true face.
Such overwhelming power made everyone afraid to even call her a demoness, and they only dared to affectionately call her a fellow Daoist, trying to persuade her with words.
Fellow Daoist, with your strength, why bother competing with mortals!
Ye Xiqing chuckled: What's it to you?
Unable to reason with or argue with physics, the only option was to conduct a limited righteous war in accordance with the rules set forth by the "great sages of the mortal world."
There was no other way; the most powerful immortal in the cultivation world before was the ancestor of the Yaoli Sect, an old monster who had lived for over three thousand years.
As the achievements of the "Great Sage of the Mortal Realm" continued to be broken, no one below the level of the Old Ancestor Yao Li dared to speak loudly in front of her, and the Old Ancestor Yao Li was still in seclusion.
The longer a cultivator lives, the more they cherish life; not many people want to die.
Even if everyone unites, there is hope of eliminating Ye Xiqing, but who would want to be one of the three corpses left behind?
No one was willing to take the lead in opposing Ye Xiqing for matters of the mortal realm, so no one dared to offend her. Even those who were hostile to her would respectfully address her as "Great Sage." They wondered which remote mountain village deity was so blind.
However, the idea of everyone cultivating immortality is too outrageous. The cultivation world would never allow it. Since they dare not openly provoke the great sages of the mortal realm, they would naturally help other countries fight against the Qingmu Kingdom.
Ye Xiqing, of course, didn't care about such things. Regardless of her status, she was no different from a common soldier and would personally go and fight.
This is also why she wanted to establish the rules for righteous wars.
In fact, if there were a wise commander in the cultivation world, he would realize that the fundamental purpose of this rule of righteous war is not to intimidate others, but to help her to play to her strengths and avoid her weaknesses.
The principle is the same as Tian Ji's horse race. At this time, there are three horses on the field: a superior horse, a medium horse, and a inferior horse.
The quality of a horse can be simply judged by its speed, but this is not the case in war.
Her predicament was not that her third-class horses were not good enough for the other side, but that, apart from the lowest-class horses, there were very few of them.
Then the merits and demerits of her three horses need to be redefined.
Ordinary people who have the absolute support of the people may have little power, but they are the most reliable and superior horses to win.
She was locked in a stalemate with the top forces in the cultivation world; they couldn't kill her, and she couldn't wipe them out—she was a mid-tier power.
As for that guy who's all brawn and no brains, and who acts domineeringly whenever he's unhappy, yes, he's a low-class horse.
They could neither gain an advantage in strength nor in numbers.
Now that this rule has been introduced, it seems to restrict her strongest force, but in fact it has held back all the superior forces on the other side that would pose an absolute threat to their inferior forces, thus securing a draw in advance.
She already has two games that she can be sure of winning and one that she can be sure of drawing, so as long as the weaker horse puts in a little more effort and drags the game to a draw, she can still win.
As for why she is so strong and doesn't compete in her own arena, it's because she is all alone.
The disadvantage of inferior horses is precisely her disadvantage, even more so, as it is clear that the elder-level personnel cannot be replenished quickly.
Rules are all purposeful, and rules that you make yourself will naturally favor yourself.
Purpose and reality are intertwined; the closer one gets to the core of the rules, the more likely the truth is to be hidden.
Unfortunately, the elite cultivators of the cultivation world were completely stunned by her ruthless attack and actually began to abide by her rules.
If the immortals disregard everything and simply assemble an army of cultivators to bombard everyone they see, even with her unparalleled power, she wouldn't be able to handle multiple fires simultaneously.
But now they have to contend with her under her rules, so they'd better pray for the best.
She has the final right to interpret these rules, haha.
In an instant, the war of the gods began. Unfortunately, the immortals who only cultivated martial prowess and not their minds were unaware of this. In their minds, it seemed that only when they led a barrage of demonic soldiers like the protagonist could it be called war. Now, they believed there was still room for maneuver.
At first, the immortals had the upper hand.
Although the military and civilians of Qingmu Kingdom are incredibly united and cohesive under the national cultivation of immortality and the advanced distribution system.
However, the inferior horses on the Qingmu Kingdom's side were too poor. Even though Qingye was exceptionally talented, he was only one person. On the other side, however, was a top-tier sect that had existed for an unknown period of time. Even though top-tier forces were prohibited from participating in the battle, they still had a continuous supply of provisions.
After losing yet another city, Aono's companions came to him with remorse to apologize: "We're sorry, we lost again..."
Aono stopped them: "No need to apologize. You weren't originally majoring in combat anyway. I wish I could win more."
"Settle the people of the defeated city. We can lose land, but we cannot lose our people."
"Just hang up the truce sign and don't fight."
Her words made her friends feel even more guilty.
However, not everyone has the aptitude for cultivating immortality, and not everyone can successfully comprehend the Dao. Choosing the path of universal cultivation inevitably means accepting the reality that the aptitude for cultivation varies greatly.
Moreover, cultivating immortality is a time-consuming process, often lasting up to a hundred years. In such a short time, even with the aptitude, it's difficult to achieve anything significant.
It was only then that Aono realized that he might have been too hasty...
Once a person starts working, they grow rapidly. Qingye squatted on the high steps of the palace, looked up at the moon, and was so melancholy that his hair was about to fall out.
Sigh, she chose the agent herself, so she has to manage her no matter what. Ye Xiqing walked over and kicked her to the ground.
Caught off guard by the sneak attack, Aono screamed and performed a difficult maneuver of a triple somersault in mid-air to land firmly on the bottom of the steps.
After being kicked to the ground, Qingye pondered life for a moment before looking up at Ye Xiqing at the head of the table, utterly bewildered, and asked, "Master, what are you doing?"
Ye Xiqing took the book down from her eyes, looked at Qingye on the ground, then at her own feet, and said in great surprise, "So you were here! I was so focused on my book that I didn't see you. Are you alright?"
Aono:……
Do you think I can't tell the difference between an accidental bump and someone sticking their foot out from behind?
But this wasn't the time to worry about such trivial matters. Qingye pounced like a tiger, grabbing Ye Xiqing's leg and crying out, "Master! What should we do? I really can't think of anything!"
Ye Xiqing chuckled, stretched out a scroll, and slapped it on her head: "If you can't think of a solution, go stretch your muscles. There's a powerful tiger spirit causing trouble in the mountains. Ordinary people can't handle it. Go and subdue it."
Aoya looked up at her master, wondering why she was being asked to deal with the tiger spirit at such a critical moment, but she dared not disobey her master's orders.
Aono awkwardly walked down the steps, then suddenly realized something and turned around sharply.
Ye Xiqing was still dressed in the same black robe as when they first met, seemingly trying to blend into the moonlight.
If our own resources aren't enough, then we'll hire outside help.
Everyone was overjoyed to have defeated Aoki Country to the point of having to sign a truce.
The mortal king was happy to reclaim the lost territory, but the immortals were truly afraid of this master and disciple duo. Finally, through a complete offensive and defensive strategy, they managed to pry open a crack in the defense.
The great sage of the mortal realm said before that as long as the rules are not broken, any way of fighting is acceptable. Now that he has lost, he can't go back on his word!
Ye Xiqing, of course, kept his word and did not make a move.
However, when the second battle began, the inferior horses of the Aoki Kingdom went into battle, and before they even saw anyone, they heard a tiger's roar that shook the heavens and the earth.
Upon closer inspection, Aono and a tiger demon who hadn't fully transformed into human form and still had tiger heads and claws emerged—
"Let me introduce you all, this is my junior sister, Qing'ao."
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Author's Note: Qing Ao: Ao—
(Translation: Sorry, I haven't learned human language yet, so I'll greet everyone in tiger language.)
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