As the combination of Da Hai and the East Ocean's forces swept across the ocean, they began reconnecting with numerous other sectors of the ocean. No matter if they were already in ruins, or still suffering a similarly obscene siege, powerful experts from the capital were able to relieve them. Even if they could not do so immediately, it was at least a start.

However, it could not be denied that the rest of the world had fallen into total chaos. Even as large amounts of innate creature tribes, and forces from the dragons and avians made their way back from the West Continent, some of their destinations had already fallen.

It would be a time where despite the fighting, young heroes will also rise to combat the growing devil threat. At the same time, deep resentment towards the West Continent only kept growing.

Across the world, Yi Fei'e led a strong force through the decimated lands of the west. Much of the spiritual lands that were originally suited for cultivation had been decimated. Mountains with rich spiritual veins had been utterly crushed. As a result, the area was becoming noticeably more barren.

None of this was on the mind of Yi Fei'e however. What mattered above all was bringing back her second senior brother Yinglong whose status was yet unknown. Riding atop Cinnabar Phoenix, she was followed by a combination of sea cultivators she was familiar with, but also many avians who decided to come along.

She had followed the information Yuanshi had provided her with. Thus she penetrated rather deeply into devil territory. Along the way, she'd also encountered three smaller forces of ghost devils which she dealt with.

"General" a dragon soldier called out to her. "Scouts ahead felt shockwaves of fighting."

Yi Fei'e turned her head. Focusing at the direction the dragon indicated towards, she also felt small shockwaves. It should be splinter anti-devil alliance members who had not successfully completed the retreat.

A wisp of energy flew towards her several minutes later in the form of a sparrow. One of her scouts was a resident of the South Continent had posses unique spells relating to communications far surpassing any dragon she knew.

"Living devils?" She muttered after reading.

"General, if they are living. It is possible to capture them for information."

Yi Fei'e nodded, ghost devils instantly dispelled for whatever reason. While living devils could commit suicide, it was very possible to capture them for information.

Soon enough, she blazed across the sky atop Cinnabar Phoenix. Behind her, powerful dragons used their clouds to ferry her army through. Many avians were also chipping in with their large bodies.

As she got closer to the fighting, she could openly feel the familiar signatures of devils. All devils on some basis, had the same aura. Just like how all dragons, natural born or cultivated had discernibly dragonic auras.

Behind her, two balls of solar fire moved in tandem. Di Jun and his brother Taiyi were the only innate gods to travel with Yi Fei'e. In fact, they were also the two strongest people behind her. Di Jun's Dao had improved over the course of the war. Very quickly, his understanding of the sun as the guiding force of the world reached the state of Primal Origin.

"General," Di Jun said. "I suggest we encircle these devils quickly. My brother's Chaos Bell can accelerate time for us to do so."

"Can he handle the strain?" Yi Fei'e asked.

She understood that manipulation of time on others, especially for those of such profound levels of power already will be extremely difficult.

"I can do it," Taiyi said confidently. He manifested the bell between his hands and indicated his readiness.

A bit further in the distance, a besiegement was occurring between two forces. Specifically a single individual battling against the assault of a hundred devils. The weakest of them were in the Golden Immortal realm while the stronger one leading the charge were three Great Principle Chaos Immortal.

It was utterly unfair no matter how one looked at it. These devils were pulling their strengths together under the protection of their commanders. They formed a war formation that from a distance, resembled a circular ring around an individual in the centre of a crater.

"Nowhere to run!" The Chaos Immortal devil leading the assault said gleefully. "Tell me where your leader is hiding else and peacefully accept the Devilish Dao."

His speech was regurgitated by all his followers. Every single one of them were not wholly interested in killing the person defending himself. Rather they wanted him to change his cultivation towards that of the Seven Emotion Six Desires lineage.

"Ah I can't do that. How can you possibly expect me to accept your twisted perception of cultivation."

The person they were attacking shined a brilliant golden light. He clasped his hands and stood upright appearing as stiff as a tree. He possessed sixteen arms, each spread out with defensive spells. In conjunction with his clasped palms, he had eighteen arms in total.

The numerous devil's combined attacks produced a mesmerizing scene within their ring formation. Just by being near it, one could feel tremendous amounts of Dao concept accumulated since the dawn of the Primitive World's history.

Scenes of people enjoying themselves, reveling in excessive indulgence entered the upright man's mind. Fragments of supreme knowledge that could enlighten a person into the Dao flashed across his mind. Guarantees of a road filled with success manifested in his face.

"We need not be enemies you know. In fact, I applaud you and your leader for lending shelter to our mortal citizens for so long. Please abandon the heretical path, let us recruit some of those youngins and help us in repelling the greater threat."

"Hai," the upright man sighed. "It would be alot more convincing if you were not attacking me so. Would please consider letting this poor fellow go?"

The eighteen armed man was the innate god Zhunti. He stood a kilometre tall with golden skin, a brown cassock, and displayed an aggrieved expression. Above his clasped hand though, one could see a miniature piece of land.

Inside the land was what looked to be settlement. Inside of which lay thousands of mortals. None of them seemed to be aware of what was going on, merely going about their stressful lives. None of them had cultivation that reached into the True Immortal realm.

"Just let me leave. Nether these people nor I wish to join your sect," Zhunti said.

"Assets like them cannot be left behind. Times are desperate comrade," the leading devil said with a smile. "Don't you see how much we're all suffering from these invaders? As fellow residents of the West Continent we must al do our part."

Zhunti did not move from his position aside from shifting one of his arms to grab an oncoming attack. In the middle of the clash, Zhunti played defensive and did not exhibit any aggression. But inside his mind, he couldn't help but agree with the devil.

The mortals arrested into his protection was not a unique case. It was just one of many, this being the first time he was caught by devils. However, he did agree with this devil that the anti-devil alliance currently destroying the West Continent was unjust. Yet that did not mean he would ally with the Devilish Dao either.

"Just return those citizens to us comrade. Things don't need to escalate further."

The true intentions of these devils wasn't anything malicious like turning these people into food or pills. Rather, it was to recruit them and send them further west to safe academies where they could be cultivated into immortals quickly. The revived ghost devils was helping to alleviate the pressure, but this did not mean the various devils sects would stop trying to replenish their numbers.

Zhunti displayed a helpless expression. He was also a Great Principle realm expert, one who ascended after painstaking effort. This tribulation was as much of a disaster as it was an opportunity for him and his faction to weaken the Devilish Dao's control over the west.

As things got more desperate, Zhunti saw a brilliant solar light approaching in his peripheral vision. The golden giant has never seen Di Jun nor Taiyi before, but he did recognize power. He could also feel the distinct lack of the Devilish Dao within them.

'That means they're the foreigners.' In truth, Zhunti was uneasy about them. During the beginning stages of the war, he and his senior brother had been on the sidelines hiding. As none devils in a devil filled world, they were branded heretics. But their substantial potential made them both targets for conversion.

Luckily for them, they had been able to avoid the major powers up till now. Now as Chaos Immortals, they found themselves caught in the middle of the war. Zhunti gazed into the plot of land in his possession contemplatively.

As Yi Fei'e, Di Jun, Taiyi, and their troops approached. The formation of devils around Zhunti grew panicked. They were forced to give up their position and retreat as they already knew of these people's reputation.

"What are you doing here? I thought they retreated when our ancestors attacked!"

Zhunti sighed in relief when the pressure around him lessened considerably. Those devils knew they were not the approaching immortals' opponents. Hence they packed up to run. Zhunti saw his chance and tried to move away as well.

"Hold it!" Yi Fei'e will have none of it. She held out her hand to manifest a swirling orb filled with stars. She threw it towards them all to capture them

Taiyi was already extremely pale, but he and Di Jun acted together to create chains of walls starlight. Alongside that, auspicious clouds from dragons, and songs from various avians manifested as powerful mystical abilities.

The formation of devils was shattered. Golden Immortal experts were even burnt to death by Di Jun.

"Capture those three!" Yi Fei'e pointed at the three Chaos Immortal devils. She did not consider anyone below that realm to be important. As such, her subordinate were gleeful to end their lives.

Zhunti turned around expressionlessly. His bare feet carried his massive golden body away from the assault. Each step he took, faint lotus shaped light projections appeared on the ground. They gave off peaceful feelings of stillness and asceticism. It was completely antithetical to the mantras cultivated by the Devilish Dao.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Zhunti had unleashed his own protective spells to drive away lingering devil magics in his way. At the same time, he tried to cross vast distances to flee.

"Hm? Where are you going?" Yi Fei'e called towards Zhunti. She had never seen Zhunti before and assumed he was a fellow comrade as he was not a devil. It wasn't as if she'd seen every single individual out of the entire alliance anyhow. But the fact that his first instinct was the run in the opposite direction from her side made her suspicious.

Despite not being initially aggressive, the dragons and avians who shared the same thought as her started to see him as a foe.

"Ah benefactors," Zhunti immediately said. He was forced to stop as a line of fire crossed his feet. Zhunti could tell Di Jun's pyromantic abilities not enough to puncture his cultivated golden skin. But ignoring and fleeing will make him a target for attacks. He did not favour his chances of getting away now either.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue. I just wanted to clear some space between myself and these foul devils," Zhunti said.

"How dare you!" The devils being captured said. They felt betrayed by Zhunti's open contempt for them. Were they not fellow brothers born in the west? Were they not united in their agreement to protect the west?

Zhunti felt somewhat helpless. He retained his giant form and made no further movements as two dragons hovered around him. They hid their true forms in layers of auspicious clouds, clouds that also carried many cultivators watching.

Soon, Yi Fei'e had the three Chaos Immortal devils in her grasp. Their attempts at explosive suicides were suppressed after half a day. After which, their interrogation could begin.

Zhunti listened from the sidelines while Yi Fei'e asked her questions. His eyes remained closed and his facial expressions remained peaceful. The plot of land he protected had long been enveloped by golden light filled with enchanting peaceful hymns. It was completely obscured as he further clasped it in his palm while covering it with his other palm.

Even as he chanted his spells, the dragons and cultivators from the seas did not notice. Not even the powerful avian experts.

"What's that?" One of the avian cultivators at the Chaos Immortal stage asked as he neared. It was Cinnabar Phoenix who contributed to dismantling the three devil's self deletion measures. Afterwards, Yi Fei'e had no need of his assistance anymore so he flew off.

But being an immortal who has cultivated for eons, he felt lots of compatibility with the golden light Zhunti gave off. All that peace and tranquility, the product of perfect harmony to achieve a nirvanic state. It resonated with the Phoenix's cultivation mantras.

When Zufeng completed her Dao and became a Primal Zenith Chaos Immortal, she harmonized all five virtues to a state of perfection. Her song was very effective against members of the Devilish Dao who made use of indulging in their emotions and desires to excessive extremes. This newcomer was much the same.

But that compatibility also made Zhunti's attempt at concealment ineffective against phoenixes. Unlike Zulong who passed down the Dragonic Dao wantonly, Zufeng only passed down her cultivation manual to a select few. Thats why the number of true phoenixes was vastly below that of true dragons.

Unfortunately for Zhunti, Cinnabar was one of those rare few. Furthermore, his cultivation base was higher than that if Zhunti's. So while avians who practiced their own inheritances did not notice, Cinnabar did.

"Is that devilish qi I sense?" Cinnabar muttered in alarm.

Zhunti was alarmed. The grip of his fingers tightened as he thought about what to do. "Ah benefactors must be joking, all devils in the area has been destroyed," he said.

"I don't believe you," the phoenix said suspiciously. Cinnabar did not believe his senses could be wrong, especially when he was in such close proximity. The dragons wreathed in auspicious clouds turned their gazes towards Zhunti. Taiyi who was resting in Di Jun's care, alongside many avians turned their gazes towards the awkward Zhunti.

"I trust the bird. If the bird says he smelled devils, you're hiding devils," a scarred red dragon snapped as the clouds covering him flushed away. His body radiated bloodlust as he said, "All devils deserves to die. I don't care if you're part of our grand alliance or not. If you're sheltering devils then you are an enemy."

A crane immortal nodded in agreement, so did a sparrow. Another green coloured dragon, and a blind dragon also showed anger. What's more, these were only some of the Chaos Immortals Yi Fei'e brought with her. Zhunti had to carefully asses his position else he be ganged up on by a bunch of fanatically angry immortals.

Di Jun stepped in to approach Zhunti. "Hey comrade…uh."

"This poor monk is called Zhunti."

"Comrade Zhunti then. You are acting quite suspicious with that spell you're holding. What's there to hide? You are not a devil, that much I'm sure of. So would you like to clear up the misunderstanding?" Di Jun gestured for Zhunti to surrender.

The avian experts, even many dragons and seafolk nodded along with Di Jun. Many of them already had a favorable impression of the Golden Crow. He was charismatic when he led troops and easily got along with them. As such, aside from the scared dragon and similar cultivators, most were in agreement with Di Jun.

"Benefactors, there's no need to be aggressive," Zhunti said without a single blemish on his statuesque golden face. He opted to release the concealment spells he'd been using to reveal the plot of land as well as the mortals within. "These are mortals who had not truly stepped into the Devilish Dao. They may have practiced some mantras, but they have yet to become true devils."

"They may've stepped onto a sinful path, but they are still innocent mortals who can still be redeemed. I may detest the Devilish Dao, but I am also a resident of the west. As an innate god born of the western heaven and earth, I am compassionate by nature. How can I sit by as powerless creatures are harmed by you fighting?"

"So you are housing devils?" The scared dragon growled. His crimson body twirled menacingly in the air and his sharp teeth showed.

Zhunti's eyes hardened as he stared him down. Infact, Zhunti was feeling quite angry. The whole reason he and his senior brother stopped hiding away was because they noticed the brutal devastation wrought onto the West Continent wantonly.

This anti-devil alliance had no care where or how they fought. The shockwaves of their titanic clashes had already decimated the mortal population. The rate of which horrified Zhunti. Even if the mortal population practiced devil arts with hopes of joining the Devilish Dao. In his opinion, none of their anger for the Devilish Dao justified it.

"The Devilish Dao is just the mainstream cultivation style. You cannot fault innocent mortals who had not done anything wrong," Zhunti argued.

"Stand down fellow daoist Ao Suifan," Di Jun chastised the scared dragon. "Comrade Zhunti, was this all? We don't go out of our way to harm mortal creatures. Our targets is, and has always been the Devilish Dao and all its branching sects. Not some civilians who're starting their practice."

"How can I believe that when so much of the countryside's been devastated?" Zhunti said. "In the short time since I've emerged from seclusion, I've seen the aftershocks of your battles. Someone had to make sure these western residents are taken care of."

Di Jun paused to consider Zhunti's words. He supposed he could understand Zhunti's perspective to protect creatures born in the West Continent and were yet fully converted to the Devilish Dao. But more importantly, eliminating the Devilish Dao was top priority.

While they had their standoff, Yi Fei'e was in her own world. She trusted Cinnabar enough to not care how he dealt with the situation. Instead she focused on the devils she tortured for answers. In her hands, silk made of starlight enveloped the three Great Principle experts making them powerless.

"Last warning, tell me everything you know of a winged dragon fighting Hundun here recently. Else your Dao fruit is forfeit."

"You heretic, of course you'll say something so sacrilegious," the head devil snarled. He couldn't bear to see the Dao he cultivated for so long be destroyed.

Yi Fei'e had no care for the devil's thoughts. She continued pressing for information regarding Yinglong. She was somewhat sure Yinglong had yet to fall as these devils would've be gloating if that were the case.

Yet Zhunti overheard her questioning. Though his steady body appeared as still as a statue, one of his eyebrows raised. "Winged dragon? Yellow scales, long body, birdlike wings?"

Yi Fei'e perked up. Just as well, the cultivators surrounding him were also startled. "You've seen his highness the Dragon King?" The scared dragon from earlier asked.

"Very recently," Zhunti admitted, though he sounded unsure. "My senior brother and I encountered an injured dragon fitting that description while out rescuing living beings. I left soon after to move these remaining villagers away."

The first of the moth fairies had already teleported over. The devils in her grasp had their forms torn apart by radiant starlight. She approached Zhunti to confirm the information. She gave no care as to her stance on Zhunti's thoughts about their war. It was as if she didn't care at all.

Seeing no way to object, Zhunti relented to her request. His eighteen armed golden form shrunk until a man of average height emerged. His skin was more on the darker side and he had dark hair tied to a bun. His ears were longer than average, hanging loosely on the side of his face. From his facial expression, one would conclude this man as being very benevolent and kind hearted.

"Alright then benefactors, please follow me," Zhunti said.