"I never expected to become a voyeur." Tianyi idly commented as he looked at the Xiyi Talisman in his hand.
The Xiyi Talisman looked almost identical to all the Xiyi Talisman distributed to the people of the Huang Realm except for the gold-rimmed edge. It wasn't only the external appearance that was different. The formation inscribed within and materials used to create the Xiyi Talisman were of higher quality as well.
This was the master remote, the Xiyi Talisman created to oversee the Xiyi Talisman distributed to the people of Fan City, Xiyi Talisman DCR-M. DCR-M stood for Demon Cage Realm-Master. In turn, the Xiyi Talisman distributed were Xiyi Talisman DCR. The abbreviation didn't need to be explained.
Unlike the Xiyi Talisman Tianyi sold at the Buzhou Immortal Sect, Xiyi Talisman DCR were created from materials native to the Demon Cage Realm, but that wasn't why they were named differently. They were essentially degraded versions that had the same functions but less durability.
They would break after unleashing a certain number of Nascent Soul Realm attacks. Even Core Formation Realm attacks were not exempt, although they would only break after unleashing about a hundred of them. Still, Tianyi felt like he had handed modern handguns to cavemen from the Paleolithic Period. Okay, maybe that was exaggerated.
If the demons did not exist, the Xiyi Talisman would undoubtedly change the power equilibrium of the era. In fact, Tianyi wasn't sure if the residents of Fan City wouldn't go and conquer other humans years after he left.
Tianyi only had a single sentence for that situation. "Not my problem."
However, the most significant difference between the DCR series of Xiyi Talisman and the main line was the extra feature Tianyi placed in the DCR series. Tianyi was able to remotely control all other Xiyi Talisman DCRs with his DCR-M. Not only that, but everything seen or heard by the talisman would be transmitted to Xiyi Talisman DCR-M in Tianyi's hand.
He just never expected so many of them to be a bunch of horny bunnies!
"Well, I guess it makes sense. With the high death rates of people, it'd make more sense to have more children." Tiany said aloud, trying to find an excuse for all the sex that was happening. Tianyi didn't know what was worse, the sex or the fact that people actually used the video recording function... to make sex tapes.
Damn you. I hope all of you suffer for this. It's not like I'm jealous because I was a virgin in this and my last life!
Maybe I should get a girlfriend, but in this society, getting a girlfriend isn't really possible. You can court someone, but once you succeed, you're basically expected to become dao companions or marry. Ugh. So when I look for someone, I'd have to do it with the determination of being stuck together for a loooong time.
It wasn't like separation or divorce wasn't unheard of, but highly uncommon. Often, the woman was treated more harshly, but in the cultivation world, those that separated often never got into another relationship.
Hmmm, what are my options? Should I ask my mother? Tianyi recalled the one time Mengfei tried to pair him up with someone and instantly rejected the idea with the utmost vehemence.
Daoyi's beautiful appearance appeared in Tianyi's mind. Compared to when he first saw her, she only appeared a little older, unlike him. I must never ever ever let Daoyi know about this. She'll never let me hear the end of it.
Tianyi decided as he looked at the Xiyi Talisman DCR-M in his hand.
With that little episode over, Tianyi refocused on the upcoming battle. He sighed in relief when Xia Yushan returned and handed over all authority to the eldest senior brother of the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
Tianyi returned on focusing on converting Vast Heaven Islands into a mobile artifact like his Mountains and Seas Formation, but he was met with little success. At this rate, Tianyi found it hard to believe he would even be able to accomplish it before the Demon Slaying Expedition ended.
He had half a mind to leave Vast Heaven Island in the Demon Cage Realm and make it a safe haven for the human denizens of the realm. Unless inspiration struck Tianyi, or he had an epiphany, Vast Heaven Island would remain behind. Still, that didn’t mean he had no progress. In fact, he made a lot of progress, and he was beginning to feel like the Vast Heaven Islands was just another part of him like his inner cosmos.
In this manner, two months passed. Aside from researching on improving the Vast Heaven Islands, Tianyi attended several meetings with the elite disciples of all the sects. With Xia Yushan at the helm, everything became much more orderly and proper.
When Tianyi still led them, he had relied on Xi Ri for many things. Still, perhaps because of Xi Ri's own inexperience dealing with such a large amount and variety of disciples and Tianyi's general lack of leadership skills, they could not compare to Xia Yushan at all.
There's a reason Xia Yushan was chosen as the eldest senior brother, after all. If only strength were all that was needed, then the Buzhou Immortal Sect would have long perished under the leadership of powerful immortals with brawns for brains.
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The location was a mansion that Tianyi had arbitrarily constructed on the central mountain for the sole purpose of hosting meetings. The structure bore a remarkable resemblance to Jade Peak Palace as it was the grandest structure Tianyi knew of. Still, compared to the real thing, Tianyi felt something lacking, but that was beside the point.
To Tianyi's horror, the reason for the meeting was due to a certain seer, Duwa. Due to the effects of Tianyi's Vast Heaven Islands, Duwa did not suffer from the Heavenly Dao's punishment. She was able to divine without fearing the aftereffects. However, that also meant that her divination's accuracy dropped a great amount.
Tianyi kept getting goosebumps whenever Duwa divined as she was peaking at his body. Not at his naked body, but something more intimate as in his insides, organs, veins, and blood. Plus, Tianyi kept getting a feeling that the accumulated punishment by Duwa’s divining would strike him in the near future.
According to Duwa's latest divination, the demons would have a fifty percent chance of assaulting Vast Heaven Island within the next month. Upon hearing this, Tianyi had an urge to just stand up and leave as he imagined the number of Nascent Soul Realm level demons, but like before, he suppressed the fear that threatened to overtake him. Who knows, maybe he would finally overcome his trauma?
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Having been forewarned, even if it was only a fifty percent chance, all the disciples increased their surveillance on the surrounding area.
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"Elder, what should we do? The immortals seem to have discovered our traces. We can't proceed without revealing our presence." A demon from the Golden Crow Clan asked.
Ashflame Crow surveyed the Vast Heaven Islands. Against the flat terrain, the nine floating mountains circled by rings were especially conspicuous. He had already known that the mysterious area constructed by the cultivators was extremely queer, and the sense of queerness only deepened with the passage of time.
The demon's elder wanted to follow his brain and wait even more, looking for a chink in the armor, but his instincts told him that the demon's advantages would shrink even more if they continued to delay the assault. Finally, after intensely deliberating with his fellow elders, he gave the order.
Under his command, thousands upon thousands of demons began to reveal themselves. Among the demons, most of them were sea demons, followed by avian demons, and finally rabbit demons. Most of the sea demons and rabbit demons did not possess the ability to fly, so the crow demons became carriers that led these sea demons.
Among the demons, the Leviathan Clan and Jade Rabbit Clan did not deploy any demon elders. Only the Golden Crow Clan elders appeared. Under their command, the demons began to surround the Vast Heaven Islands.
From afar, each demon looked like specks or rocks, but with so many gathered, those specks formed a colossal black cloud, much like a swarm of locusts. They blotted the sky with their superior numbers, and the Vast Heavens Islands were shrouded under a massive shadow as the demons neared.
As they neared, there were no signs of movement from within the Vast Heaven Islands. Ashflame Crow frowned as he felt something amiss. Logically speaking, with so many demons that didn't bother to hide their auras, anyone with half a brain, even a foundation establishment disciple, should have been able to sense their approach.
Yet, there was no movement at all—only silence.
The quieter it was, the stranger the scene became. Not only the demon elders, but some of the Nascent Soul and Core Formation Realm level demons also felt something off. As a result, the encroachment of the demons slowed down. Still, the elders did not give the orders to stop, so the demons could only grit their teeth or beaks and soldier on.
There was no response when the demons flew over the rings formed from rock. There was no movement as they entered the invisible space between the ninth island and the rock rings. But the moment the demons touched the circle of which the ninth island orbited, an explosion resembling a ring engulfed the demons on the ninth orbit.
The demons nearest to the front immediately retreated in fear. The explosion was something only Nascent Soul Realm level demons could withstand. They were Core Formation Realm level demons sent out to scout the situation, so how could they withstand the explosion?
Luckily for the demons, only about one thousand of them died. However, after the explosion, the ninth island still continued to orbit the central mountain with no sign of the disciples.
Ashflame Crow and his fellow elders all frowned, well as frowning as well as an avian could. They couldn't help but suspect that the cultivators had fled, even though they kept watch and only saw cultivators entering and not leaving the Vast Heaven Islands.
The demons didn't discount that the cultivators had an unknown method to escape their detection, so they continued to send demons to scout ahead with increased wariness. This time, when the scouting forced past the orbit of the eighth island, nothing happened. It was only when they touched the orbital layer of the seventh island did something occur, but it wasn't an explosion.
The demons didn't enter the eighth layer even when the scouting force was unharmed. They stayed at the ninth layer when their scouting force touched the seventh island's orbit. Still, that didn't save them.
From afar, it appeared that the Vast Heaven Islands was two-dimensional with nine layers, from the central mountain to the ninth mountain, each orbit composing of a layer. In truth, it was three-dimensional; each layer was not a circle but a sphere.
If the Unity Realm level demon elders had entered the ninth layer, they would notice something amiss. Unfortunately, they didn't. Or maybe they were fortunate. If any of the Unity Realm level demons entered, Tianyi would have set his aim on them and collaborated with the other disciple to kill them as fast as possible.
Still, because they didn't, they lost over thirty percent of the demons present in an instant.
The space within the Vast Heaven Islands twisted and shattered as if the dimensional boundaries were being destroyed. There were even cracks leading to the Vast Void, whose suction forced even claimed the demons outside of Vast Heaven Island's domain.
When everything had settled down, there was not a hint of any demons within the Vast Heaven Islands, not even a speck of blood.
Ashflame Crow and the rest of the demons felt a chill creeping up their spine. Even though they were in the Unity Realm equivalent, being trapped in the Vast Void would spell certain doom to them. Perhaps only the ancestor of the three demon clans would be able to survive in the Vast Void with their powerful demonic bodies. Yet, none of them even attempted to leave the boundaries of the Demon Cage Realm, much to the demon elder's confusion.
All of the demons backed up several hundred kilometers from the Vast Heaven Islands in horror. They were fearful that they would succumb to the same fate as their fellow demons.
"Damn them!" One of the demon elders cursed. "The first explosion was a trap to lure us into a false sense of security. They made us think that they can only attack where the floating island moved and in a circular fashion!"
Ashflame Crow said nothing as he, too, concurred with his fellow elder's judgment. Even if they figured out the truth, what could they do? No matter what anyone said, Ashflame Crow didn't believe that the cultivators could only use such a trump card once. However, the question became how many times they could unleash it.
The easiest way would be to send their forces and engage in a siege, but that would bring an uncountable number of losses. It could be possible to minimize the casualties if they sent an elder to probe, but none of the elders wanted to be the canary sent out.
"Encircle them with a perimeter ten kilometers from the ring." Ashflame Crow ordered. He didn't believe that the cultivators could enlarge such a devastating technique to such a wide margin unless one of them reached the same level as their true demon ancestors. If the cultivators had someone in the Immortal Realm, no matter how many demon elders were present, the demons would lose.
Ashflame Crow pondered on what action to take before deciding to contact Golden Crow Ancestor and ask for his instructions.
Even though they already lost thirty percent of their forces, most of them were from the Leviathan Clan, so the Golden Crow Clan and Jade Rabbit Clan did not lose much. Still, it was a question of whether they would or would not succeed in their endeavor if they continued. Not to mention that they had not seen a hair nor hide of the cultivators. The operation's purpose was to kill as many of the invaders and take their treasures for themselves as much as possible.
Ashflame Crow had heard of their fellow demons, the Jade Rabbit Clan elder's, success, so he thought they would experience a similar result, but he was wrong. Damn the Leviathan Clan for being so slow and allowing the immortals to prepare.
Still, Ashflame Crow knew that he was wrongly accusing the Leviathan Clan. Before they attacked the cultivators in the Jade Rabbit Clan's territory, the Vast Heaven Islands already existed.
Ashflame Crow was broken out of his thoughts when he received Golden Crow Ancestor's reply. "Continue attacking. It doesn't matter if you have to sacrifice all the Leviathan Clan present."
Ashflame Crow was shocked at the order. He couldn't help but wonder if the relationship between the Leviathan Clan and Golden Crow Clan would sour because of this. What he didn't know was that Golden Crow Ancestor had merely relayed Leviathan Ancestor's will.
Still, even if he didn't know, Ashflame Crow opened his beak and ordered. "All demons, assault!"
No matter how unwilling the demons were, they still obeyed the demon elders' orders. This was the simple hierarchy among the demons. Those with the biggest fist rule those with smaller fists!