Wu Yong looked at Gu Ten Long as if he was dumb.

"What have I said you before?" He said with clear frustration on his face.

"We shouldn't pray to beings who call themselves 'Gods.'" Gu Ten Long replied plainly.

"And why we don't pray to Gods?" Wu Yong nodded solemnly.

Gu Ten Long rolled his eyes and didn't respond to his words.

Wu Yong coughed softly and then began to recite.

"Because for starters, deities are liars.

Deities don't exist, at most they're Cultivators at a high enough Realm where they're able to perform miraculous events.

Deities are not to be trusted, as we can never know their real intentions between their fabricated religions.

At best they may just be attempting to reap a few extra of resources with complete anonymity, at worst they're planning to use their religions to make the world burn.

They may be using their religious fanatics to create armies and even states, they may create seemingly innocuous actions that will result in the war between states and what not.

By following their arrangements the deities may be screwing us over, condemning our homes or continents to depravity or a thousand of hells.

They're also dangerous because their rituals of 'summoning', every time you pray to them you're actually summoning a small portion of the 'deity' towards yourself.

Anything you see, the deity will see.

If you have any treasure they fancy, the deity may snatch it, they can even steal your body, lifespan, luck and more!"

Since he was little, Wu Yong had always been taught to fear the 'Deities', for their methods were unfathomable, the deity may be a mere Void Cultivator or a peak godlike figure at the Divine Projection Realm, their abilities and identities were almost impossible to calculate.

However, Gu Ten Long remained unmoved he shrugged calmly.

"I know you have your reasons to fear them, but aren't you being too paranoid?

Think about it, if we truly had something so valuable to bring the attention of a deity, wouldn't we be able to escape by using it's might?

And are you arrogant enough to believe that you have a legendary quasi-divine Physique able to attract a deity?

Just admit it, at the eyes of gods we truly have nothing to bring to the table.

As for their big, grand schemes, well I couldn't care less about them.

What does it have to do with me if the whole continent goes to shit?

Can our life get any worse?

Hell, if the deity truly has set it's sights on the sect, I'd actually be glad.

Just think about it, a deity who's actively screwing over the sect leader, doesn't that sound wonderful?

Finally, my last argument is pretty simple.

Who would actually pray to a shitty deity who killed all it's believers?

No one."

After discussing for half an hour, Wu Yong finally said resigned.

"Okay, okay, let's say it's actually a good idea to talk to a deity, now what?"

"I offered him a sacrifice."

"YOU WHAT?"

Gu Ten Long waved his hands in dismissal.

"Is not a bad as it sounds, the deity merely wants me to hunt a few goat and deers."

Wu Yong squinted his eyes and said.

"We both know is not that easy to bring down a heavy creature, Gu Ten Long.

If you truly believed it was that easy you wouldn't have brought me here."

With a chuckle, Gu Ten Long replied.

"Hey, what if you consider that this is a form to pay back the favor I gave you by giving you the drop of blood of a Qi Gathering Cultivator."

"We both know what kind of blood you gave me.

But fine, have your way, we'll go to your stupid adventure." Finally, Wu Yong said, while inwardly thinking.

"Sometimes I wonder why we became friends."

The two took from their backpacks their weapons.

Gu Ten Long took a pair of rusty copper daggers and a mini-bow with a quiver.

Whilst Wu Yong took a chainmail armor, together with a fencing sword whose end was shining with a few magical enchantments.

Before they moved deeper into the forest, Gu Ten Long took a flask with a strange viscous liquid and poured a bit of it's essence on all his weapons.

It was a carefully prepared poison he had devised, made of leech guts, powder of herbs and other miscellaneous materials.

After doing this, he took a map and began to describe the route.

"We will move towards the hills at the west, there are many caves in that area, in this zone we'll be able to rest and..."

Meanwhile.

Inside the headquarters of the coalition anti-crimson-crown.

There were many figures of powerful Cultivators sitting in a round table.

Among them, there was an old man, with a gray hair that was floating mid-air, and with two purple star-like pupils.

Beneath his robes, he was wearing an exo-skeleton, composed of artificial muscles, bones and metal melded together into an 'armor.'

His body was tough and was filled with both old and new scars and burns scattered through his body.

Around his body there were two layers of an aura, the external layer was covered in a thin membrane of a dark-purple aura, where many particles of dust and debris constantly spinned and moved.

The smaller 'particles' orbited the bigger 'particles', who at the same time spin around his body, leaving behind a rainbow afterimage.

His internal aura, was pink and was an strange liquid.

It constantly entered through the pores of his skin just to burst through another pore, it was constantly going in and out of his body, at the same time the pink aura was constantly releasing sparkles of light.

It looked rather magnificent.

He was a real Void Cultivator and the leader of the group.

His name was Bing Tou Yang.

"Everyone.

We all know why we're present here."

He glanced at all the participants, some whispered to their peers, some nodded solemnly, most people in the room simply sighed.

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"If the message you sent to us is true, things may get a bit dire." A woman with pink robes and a green hair said.

"Well is not that strange if you think about it, even a pig would be able to reach the Void Realm if was given enough time." Another voice said.

"Is about time we get rid of that pest, he killed my grandfather a hundred and half centuries ago..." An older figure said.

"I say we strike him before it's too late!

How is possible that we have allowed him to live for so long?

For centuries he has rampaged, yet none of us has dared to attack him.

Isn't that too pathetic, what would our ancestors think, if we said that we're afraid of a demon who isn't even at the Void Realm?"

The patriarch of the Bing clan sighed.

"Calm down, calm down.

I know that the kidnapping of your nephew has affected you, but please remain rational.

Even if we were to strike at full force, he'd simply retreat as he always has, he has too many investigative methods to figure out our attempts of a raiding, in the meanwhile he can also ambush our forces and make us suffer greatly as happened in the battle of the 'Two Seas', and the 'Blood Forest' wars.

We need to prepare before we strike."

But Wu Zhan Hu simply kicked the table and said.

"No, we have waited far enough!

Just use your spy or whatever method you have to catch him."

Bing Tou Yang looked at a figure sitting at the opposite side of the room.

His whole body was covered in a mist, he was wearing a hood to hide his face.

"The 'inexorable', tell us what you have gathered so far."

Bing Tou Yang asked solemnly.

The figure covered by a hood said with a distorted voice, yet one could hear the excitement on his tone.

"Hehe, nothing much.

I merely managed to consolidate my religion inside his territory.

With my countless prayers, I figured some basic stuff.

A few of those things include about the condition of Zhen Yiyi, you see his body has already underwent a half sublimation towards the Void Realm, he's not too far of from the Void Realm.

Thankfully, most of this state is only possible by using both his crown and the power of a self-made macro Formation.

The usage of this Formation is to focus all the drops of Blood Qi from anything within the Formation towards his crown and hearts.

I also discovered his method of Void Ascension, he's trying to ascend by using the power of the 'Bone Marrow' and natural waste absorption, to create a seemingly endless loop of blood, being constantly absorbed and created.

In mere moments, his body produces liters and liters of blood.

In my opinion, at his current pace he will take two or three decades more to achieve the ascension completely.

Of course, someone as extreme as him wouldn't be satisfied so easily.

Based on what I know about that madman, he'll do another crazy gambit, he'll attempt to perform a massive human sacrifice to ascend in one fell swoop."

The hooded voice said with both admiration and a vague hint of fear in his tone.

Many people at the room were surprised.

"What?

He's actually stupid enough to allow the propagation of outsider's religions?" Someone exclaimed.

However the hooded figure shook his head.

"He's not stupid, you simply don't get how he thinks!

For starters, did I ever said that he wasn't aware of my little tricks?

Of course not!

He's already aware that I've been prying into his affairs."

Bing Tou Yang frowned lightly upon hearing those words.

"That doesn't give me much confidence about the veracity of your words.

For example, how do you know that your information is real?

Couldn't he have fabricated fake date just as a smokescreen to hide his real intentions?"

The hooded figure shrugged calmly.

"As I said, he's a very different mentality from you and I.

He's someone who never takes the easy path.

To put it bluntly, he's a crazy freak who never leaves himself a way out.

He will either succeed completely or die on the attempt.

By letting us know about his plan, he's giving himself the motivation to go beyond his limits, but also he's scheming against us.

Because we know he's not too far from ascension, he hopes that we will grow desperate, and in a reckless advance we will directly head to fight against him.

If we do that...

We will lose utterly and completely.

As I said before, he has prepared a macro Formation.

This Formation will allow him to reap a fraction of the power of our corpses.

As long as enough of our soldiers die and as long as he manages to acquire a few corpses, he'll perform his ascension even more quickly.

Thus, before we realize it, it will be US who are being hunted down.

Perhaps, even you, the leader of our coalition may be killed by him, and then he'll sooner or later get rid of our scattered sects and clans, allowing him to become an overlord of our current territories.

Of course, that is just my little guess, you may take my words seriously or not."

Everyone looked at him with astonishment and suspicion on their faces.

How could he know so much about the sect leader Zhen Yiyi?

Clearly, the two had an story.

Some of them even suspected that he was a double spy sent by Zhen Yiyi to mess up their plans.

"And what do you want in exchange?" Someone asked in an attempt to figure out the real intentions of the hooded figure.

"What else, but the crown that rests on his shoulders?" The inexorable shrugged.

Looking at the ugly expressions among the group, he tried to reassure them by saying.

"Don't worry, I know what you may be thinking.

But no, I'm not planning to go on a killing spree like him.

My plan is to use the crown to foresee my future Tribulations, you see, I have been quite busy harvesting a bit of Heavenly Energy, from a few natural disasters.

This angered the Heavens who now want me dead, I need the help of the crown to survive those disasters, that is all."

The hooded figure said 'innocently.'

Everyone at the room rolled their eyes upon hearing those words.

His explanation was too vague, there were too many holes in his explanation.

Clearly, he had deeper ambitions in all of this, but no one bothered to argue against him.

If the leader of the coalition had already accepted his help, then that it meant he was at least somewhat reliable.

Or at least they hoped so.

In the worst case scenario, they could get rid of him after they cleaned up that troublesome Zhen Yiyi.

Bing Tou Yang coughed softly, before saying.

"Alright then, is about time I begin to explain my plan.

People from the Wu Clan, I'm going to require your help for the first step of my plan.

You must head from your current position at the northwest, to the area between the mountains and the Twilight of the Blood Crown headquarters, there you'll meet our reinforcements from the Zhiyan Clan, whom already accepted my petition for help.

They'll bring around 400 Mystical Condensation warriors.

This quantity may seem low, but they'll all have a valuable power.

Advanced ocular techniques.

With their profound methods, they'll be able to locate any target even from thousands of kilometers of distance!

This will help us for our next step of the plan.

Wu Clan.

I know, about your 'True Light Beam' Technique.

A technique that allows a pseudo-Light technique to become as fast as real light.

The speed of your technique is such that is almost unavoidable, but unfortunately it's damage is too pitiful.

Of course, that is on short-range fights, right?

Hehehe, but what if we struck from thousands of kilometers of distance?

By using the natural mountains on the area, the ocular techniques of the Zhiyan Clan and your light techniques we will be able to snipe them safely, from a long distance.

Our opponents may not be heavily wounded at first, as I previously said the damage of your technique is too low.

But what if you kept up this for two or three weeks, of continuous attacks?

Our targets will either die, or be forced to hide in deep caves.

Through this method, we will be able to gather our troops with ease for our next step.

I requested the help of the 'Earth Veins' sect, they also agreed to send us a few thousand of their inner disciples.

For those who don't know, at this sect they specialize in manipulating the terrain, principally the ground.

Through them we will be able to create pseudo-mountains, valleys and 'natural' fortress.

By using those natural fortress, the people from the Wu Clan will be able to slowly get closer to the headquarters of the Twilight of the Blood Crown sect safely.

While also giving cover to our other forces, I'm not sure who to send yet, but I'll send other three or four forces for our next assault.

Our forces and the enemy sect will collide with each other in violent fights, of course we will have the advantage, by relying on the intel our friend, the inexorable will provide us, we will be able to constantly spy on the enemy's affairs and counterattack any of their schemes while preparing our own.

After two weeks of fighting, I'll send reinforcements to all battlefields.

This is where it gets exciting, among your forces, the members of my Bing Clan will be scattered.

Everyone knows about our Spiritual Flame Bloodline, right?

Hehehe, very well.

With our fire abilities, we will be able to burn all the forests, and hopefully we will kill many of the wild beasts hidden there.

Afterwards, we will get rid of their surrounding water supply by either evaporating their puddles, oasis, and pools of water or by poisoning it with the power of the 'Toxic Flame' elder of my Clan.

Slowly, by getting rid of their water and food supplies we will weaken and force them to retreat.

Driving them even deeper towards the edge of the continent.

This current strategy will last for a few years, but those years will not be wasted.

In this time we will be able to little by little cut the 'Formation' Zhen Yiyi has arranged, weakening him more and more.

When the sect leader finally decides to fight against our forces, and strike against one of our camps directly the next phase of our plan will begin.

The inexorable will send orders in masse to betray the sect, with promises of joining his godly kingdom for all the deserters.

With this, we will be able to cut his forces to a minimum, all while diminishing the sacrifices he gets.

Finally, after all of this we will find a chance to ambush him, use a Formation to trap him and then I'll personally go there to kill him."

His expression turned cold, filled with killing intent for a moment, giving a chill to anyone present.

He turned his head lightly towards them and said with a warm smile on his face.

"Of course, my plan is just at it's first steps, I'm not sure about many of it's details, so I'm willing to listen to any of the suggestions you may give.

At the same time, we will also have to begin our negotiations about the distribution of resources."