Suddenly, battles raged everywhere in Shadowfell Prefecture, the flames of war stretching across the borders.
At the border between Deston Prefecture and Shadowfell Prefecture, spirit ships could be seen traveling back and forth, transporting troops, supplies, and weapons of war, as well as bringing back severely injured cultivators.
Massive puppets stepped on the ground, making booming sounds.
And at this busy border, a furious shout suddenly rang out.
The pressure of a Body Integration almighty expert descended, their divine soul sweeping over everyone present.
"Yun Hongcai, come out!"
A woman's hoarse and ear-piercing voice echoed in the cloudy sky. However, the cultivators coming and going were too busy; they merely looked up at the cloudy sky and saw streaks of flowing light.
Formidable cultivators probed slightly with their divine souls and were surprised to discover that over a hundred streaks of flowing light were emitting three identical auras, scattering in all directions.
It was clearly an extraordinary illusion Array Formation.
But they didn't dare to pay it any mind and continued busying themselves with their own affairs.
That was a matter between Body Integration and Void Refinement almighty experts.
If they truly targeted ordinary cultivators like them, unless there was someone taller to hold up the sky, they could only rely on their own luck to survive.
Among these cultivators who had resigned to their fate and were anxiously trying to protect their homeland, three bizarre figures appeared incongruously.
An old man with one foot in the grave, a burly and rugged man, and an alluring beauty—no matter how one looked at it, these three shouldn't have gathered together.
"We did it, we did it!"
Heavenly Venerable Jiande did not conceal the excitement on his face in the slightest, still maintaining the high of surviving a life-and-death situation.
"That was right in front of four Body Integration almighty experts, on the Dusheng Nunnery's home turf!"
Fairy Tinglan was equally excited, but much calmer than Heavenly Venerable Jiande.
Looking at the calm Yun Hongcai, she asked, "Boss, now that the Demoness Dairou is chasing the puppets tainted with our auras under my illusion technique, what should we do?"
"I need to break through."
Yun Hongcai said in a deep voice, "Since Nun Dairou cannot find us in Shadowfell Prefecture, given her temperament, she will definitely head to Deston Prefecture.
Meanwhile, the Shadowfell Prefecture battlefield is already in the midst of a great war; it is the best place to break through."
Hearing this, Fairy Tinglan froze for a moment. "Boss, how do you understand Bi Shihu and Nun Dairou so well?"
The three of them had been close friends for tens of thousands of years.
Back when they roamed the world, they had placed their lives in each other's hands. The bond between them ran deeper than bloodlines, and their mutual understanding had reached the absolute limit.
But coming here this time and cooperating as they had for tens of thousands of years, they couldn't help but feel that Yun Hongcai was hiding a secret.
Yun Hongcai hesitated for a moment, leading the two into a mountain before saying solemnly to his two good friends,
"During the hundreds of years of the great war between Shadowfell Prefecture and the Wu tribe, it was actually an opportunity for anyone from our Shadowfell Prefecture back then.
I also took advantage of this opportunity, attempting to seek the chance to break through to the Body Integration realm from the Wu tribe."
Fairy Tinglan and Heavenly Venerable Jiande nodded slightly. They had received Yun Hongcai's letter hundreds of years ago and were prepared to come help him.
Yun Hongcai's expression turned gloomy.
"For many years, I cultivated the Dao of Spirit Snatching. After failing to break through, I turned to seeking Daoist techniques to 'steal the heavens', allowing others' opportunities to enter my body and help me break open the Dao Gate.
Initially, I had the Yun Clan focus their attention on the Wu tribe."
"At that time, Bi Shihu commanded four incredible armies, and Shadowfell Prefecture relied on his military merits. He was still young and cultivated the Great Dao of the Undefeated.
He only needed to progress step by step to become a Half-Step Body Integration expert, and eventually reach true Body Integration. He was in no rush."
"Once the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems was destroyed, Holy Monk Yidian vanished without a trace.
Nun Dairou also began to re-cultivate the Buddhist Dao. The glory of the Buddhist sect was only a matter of time."
"At that time, we..."
Yun Hongcai sighed,
"The few of us were all working hard for the great war in Shadowfell Prefecture. We communicated frequently, discussing how to drive the Wu tribe back into the forest.
When we had free time, we would gather at the Dusheng Nunnery. We all knew that we would have a place in this world.
Originally, every one of us should have been revered by the people of the world. With our united wills forming a fortress, Shadowfell Prefecture was indestructible."
Fairy Tinglan's expression changed. "Then why..."
All three factions became deserters, causing the defeat of Shadowfell Prefecture.
Fairy Tinglan had occasionally cursed this fact inwardly, but with the person involved right in front of her, it was hard to speak of it.
"Ever since Sunreach Prefecture was breached and the Wu tribe drove straight into the Central Plains, everything changed."
Yun Hongcai narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Nun Dairou discovered that someone in the Dusheng Nunnery had been planted with a Dao seed. Bi Shihu and I also discovered this.
We further realized that Shadowfell Prefecture had fallen into a massive scheme. Someone in the shadows wanted our lives—wanted the lives of many people."
"The three of us no longer trusted each other. Until the Nirvana Sage Elder charged into Shadowfell Prefecture, we had agreed to block the Wu tribe, but Nun Dairou was the first to run.
Bi Shihu, who originally wanted to intercept the Wu tribe, could only watch helplessly as Li Tianyue's army was surrounded by them, in order to maintain his Great Dao of the Undefeated, ultimately fleeing in pain."
"As for me... my descendant, Yun Manlou, received the news three months prior and made his decision."
"We had long since gone from being an indestructible fortress to a scattered plate of loose sand; the defeat of Shadowfell Prefecture could not be changed.
At the same time, during those years, the three of us secretly began investigating each other. My target was set on Dharma Master Hongzhen, and I prepared for many years."
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