When the Celestial Army made their entrance, playing background music was a playful joke, but Li Changshou had given it careful thought.

He wasn’t simply trying to create momentum for the Heavenly Court. If that were the case, having East Wood Lord bring his orchestra would have been more suitable.

The sound of the suona horn and drums was both a jest and a clear message to the East Sea Dragon King and the dragon clan’s core leadership—

He, the South Sea God, was one of the Heavenly Court’s people.

Li Changshou laid the groundwork at this moment, providing clear hints to the dragon clan. This would ensure that the dragon clan wouldn’t try any tricks when the Jade Emperor’s decree arrived at the South Sea God Temple later.

Observe:

At the dragon palace wedding, chaos erupts;

The Celestial Army descends, displaying imperial might.

As tens of thousands of elite celestial soldiers rapidly plunged into the seawater, a commotion of voices arose within the dragon palace’s main hall.

“These are… people of the Heavenly Court?”

“The Heavenly Court has this many soldiers now? Not bad at all! Didn’t they say before that the Heavenly Court was dirt poor, just a backyard for the Dao sects!”

“The Heavenly Court comes to eliminate demons and suppress evil? Such beautiful words.”

Li Changshou paid little attention to these discussions. Currently, most cultivators look down on the Heavenly Court.

Of course, the majority didn’t pay any attention to the Heavenly Court.

Li Changshou secretly observed the reactions of the nine Heavenly Court members in the hall. He found them all eager to rush out and join the Celestial Army’s elite forces…

The Jade Emperor’s acting skills were quite impressive. This avatar fully embodied the role of a ‘celestial general,’ his eyes filled with the glory of defending the Heavenly Court’s dignity.

In the blink of an eye, the Celestial Army was about to reach Crystal Palace!

This group of soldiers represented the true elite forces within the current Heavenly Court.

As elite forces, following orders strictly was just the basic requirement. These soldiers were all skilled in battle formation transformations and coordinated attack techniques.

Moreover, their celestial armor was particularly noteworthy!

The forty thousand sets of celestial armor formed a complete magical treasure set that could be arranged into various grand formations. When three to five soldiers gathered together, their armor would link spiritual power, allowing them to borrow each other’s strength and provide timely support.

Li Changshou wished he could obtain several hundred sets of such complete armor sets to enrich his paper puppet tactical system.

However, for now, he could only dream about it…

These armor sets were quite expensive. Currently, Li Changshou is still worried about the Small Qiong Peak wandering plan. These flashy items would have to wait…

As the forty thousand celestial soldiers charged toward Crystal Palace, they completed their deployment and assembly, gathering twenty thousand troops each on the east and south sides of Crystal Palace.

Li Changshou strongly suspected these soldiers had been carefully selected. Scanning them with his divine sense, he found each one had an upright posture, handsome features, and good aptitude…

It seemed the Jade Emperor placed great importance on this ‘debut’ of the Heavenly Court.

The Dragon Palace immediately sent experts to negotiate. The Heavenly Court’s side also had celestial generals step forward, stating they had been ordered to come assist the dragon clan.

Before the dragon palace expert could return to report, the East Sea Dragon King’s order had already been issued to all areas—

[The Celestial Army is an allied force for the dragon clan. All dragon forces should provide mutual support with the celestial soldiers and cover each other while killing enemies.]

Thus, the forty thousand celestial soldiers smoothly joined the battle, flanking the tens of thousands of enemy elite troops that had already charged to the front of the dragon palace.

Just as they were about to engage in close combat, all the celestial soldiers moved in perfect unison, chanting incantations and forming hand seals, each throwing out…

Three beans.

A series of crackling sounds rang out in the seawater, with continuous popping noises.

Above and below each celestial soldier appeared three… ahem, three ‘strange celestial soldiers.’

Above each celestial soldier’s head appeared a shapely archer and a burly warrior.

[Bean Soldier: Ice Archer]

[Bean Soldier: Divine Shield Bearer]

Forty thousand ice archers simultaneously drew their bows and shot arrows, releasing tens of thousands of ice arrows formed from celestial power. The seawater within a hundred-li radius became bone-chillingly cold.

The forty thousand warriors that appeared simultaneously raised their large shields and charged ahead of the celestial soldiers, advancing in a magnificent and unstoppable formation!

The celestial beans equipped and used by the soldiers were all of standardized form.

Not counting potential errors in the celestial soldiers’ spellcasting, the Heavenly Court’s forces had now gained forty thousand ice archers, forty thousand shield warriors, and forty thousand…

Peashooters!

The assembled dragons of the dragon clan and the immortal guests were truly stunned.

On the battlefield, forty thousand peashooters swayed back and forth.

They stepped to a joyful rhythm, spewing out fist-sized peas of flowing rainbow light from their mouths, following their archer sisters and contributing their celestial power…

Among all the old dragons and senior experts present who had lived for so many years, what hadn’t they seen before?

These peashooters—they truly had never seen anything like them!

Just as someone was about to make a few mocking comments, ice energy exploded outside the dragon palace. Forty thousand ice arrows unleashed the full power of forty thousand Yuan Immortal realm cultivators in a single strike!

The sea instantly gained a large expanse of connected seafood ice sculptures!

Closely following, those fist-sized peas of flowing rainbow light flew into the pile of ice sculptures and exploded simultaneously!

The Five Elements rotated, and Wood and Fire gave birth to each other!

Usually, even if there were several times more Yuan Immortals launching a combined attack, the experts seated within the dragon palace wouldn’t feel particularly shocked.

It would be a minor display.

But now, watching the pillars of fire exploding in the seawater and the ice sculptures shattering afterward…

The dragon clan and their guests were more or less astonished.

What surprised people wasn’t the power of the peas shot by these peashooters.

Rather, it was how these strange-looking, seemingly unserious magical soldiers, with only power equivalent to Yuan Immortal realm soldiers, could unleash ‘destructive power’ comparable to True Immortal realm soldiers!

“Marvelous!”

“The Heavenly Court has such wondrous techniques!”

Just as praise began to rise from various places, the peashooters had already launched their second volley.

Afterward, the forty thousand cheerful peashooters began to wither rapidly. In just the blink of an eye, they turned to piles of ashes in the seawater.

The celestial power that formed them only allowed for two volleys—this was the price of increasing single-attack killing power.

However, the effect was quite impressive.

Hidden in a corner of the dragon palace, a certain father of Primordial Bean Hybridization showed a gratified smile…

After the peashooters’ two volleys, under the cover of tens of thousands of armored soldiers and ice archers, forty thousand Heavenly Court elite troops charged into the battle formation that had already been mostly cleared, unleashing merciless slaughter on the remaining enemy forces…

Afterward, these forty thousand celestial soldiers and eighty thousand bean immortal soldiers immediately turned direction, fiercely charging toward the outer battle situation.

At this point, each of the forty thousand celestial soldiers still had two ‘peashooters.’

After this battle, in future Celestial Army campaigns, the enemy would not only need to count the number of celestial soldiers;

They would also need to calculate how many beans these soldiers might be hiding…

…

The Celestial Army’s entrance, combined with the modified Bean-to-Soldier technique and his carefully cultivated celestial beans…

The overall effect far exceeded Li Changshou’s expectations.

Li Changshou hesitated slightly before deciding to keep his paper puppet army, hidden in various places, concealed for now.

Too much of a good thing can be bad; no need to gild the lily…

Well, it wasn’t because he felt distressed about losing so many paper puppets and the various poison pills that had consumed large amounts of precious materials and years of careful refinement.

The paper puppet army was prepared to coordinate with the Celestial Army’s actions, to guide the celestial soldiers in breaking through when they reached a stalemate.

—Now with the Heavenly Court so short on troops, if Li Changshou let too many celestial soldiers fall here, it would truly be difficult to answer to the Jade Emperor, and would incidentally implicate Wood Lord.

By this point, most of the objectives of this strategy had been successfully achieved.

What remained was how to repel the enemy and withdraw troops, letting the Heavenly Court’s show of force conclude perfectly.

“Changshou?”

The Grand Magus’s call suddenly came from beside his ear. Li Changshou immediately gathered his thoughts and stood up, saying: “Grand Magus, disciple is here.”

Xuandu Grand Magus asked with a smile: “Is this the divine ability I gave you?”

“Yes,” Li Changshou said, “Disciple slightly modified some ways of implementing the divine ability and improved those beans.”

As he spoke, he had already taken out the latest version of the modified Bean-to-Soldier technique, as well as the highest quality celestial beans and poison celestial beans he had cultivated, and offered them to the Grand Magus.

The Grand Magus merely picked up one bean and examined it carefully before sighing with emotion.

“Just how many clever ideas are packed into that head of yours?”

The Grand Magus laughed and scolded: “Put these away. The Heavenly Court can make use of them in the future.

Today you have helped the Celestial Army in this way. If my little junior uncle happens to skimp on your rewards later, you may come to Doushuai Palace to seek Lord Laozi’s justice.”

Li Changshou’s heart stirred.

Was this… a discounted invitation to Doushuai Palace?

He hurriedly nodded in agreement.

By this point in the dragon palace expedition, he had already gained considerably, receiving spirit pills bestowed by the Grand Magus and now this ‘conditional’ invitation.

In the future, he would only need to find an excuse to naturally and properly visit Doushuai Palace to pay respects to Lord Laozi!

These twelve years truly hadn’t been spent in vain!

Li Changshou made a Daoist salute and put the divine ability and celestial beans into his storage treasure. He then asked: “Grand Magus, how is Senior Zhao doing?”

Xuandu’s expression immediately became strange. He pointed at the crystal mirror and laughed: “I truly admire this Junior Brother Zhao.”

Only to see…

Zhao Gongming was currently lying on a cloud spitting blood profusely.

The six old Daoists before him had extremely gloomy expressions. They were all gritting their teeth, each at the edge of erupting, yet forcibly suppressing their anger.

Then Zhao Gongming said weakly:

“Alas, how tragic, truly tragic, that I, a disciple of theSevering Sect, should be bullied so by your Western School.

I fought one against six, and you injured me like this…

Alas, today my fellow Daoists, you must come with me to Biyou Palace.”

“I—!”

An old Daoist grabbed his jade ruler, about to attack.

However, Zhao Gongming’s eyes suddenly widened, becoming somewhat energetic, with four ‘twin image-capturing spheres’ appearing around him.

His expression clearly said…

Come on, hit me! I have everything recorded here!

The old Daoist holding the ruler stamped his foot hard and cursed: “Shameless! Utterly shameless!”

“Puh—”

Elder Zhao spat out another mouthful of blood and smiled tragically: “I’m already injured this badly, yet you still use hidden force to harm me!”

“You’re talking nonsense, I didn’t use even a bit of magical power!”

“Fellow Daoist,” the hunchbacked old Daoist stepped forward and cupped his hands to Zhao Gongming, “Today indeed is not the time to play around with Fellow Daoist. If Fellow Daoist is interested, we will certainly accompany you later.

Currently, the Dragon Palace is in crisis, and our teacher ordered us to go provide aid. Please do not obstruct us.”

Hearing this, Zhao Gongming was immediately amused.

He suddenly understood those words his Sea God little brother had said earlier—so this was the act the Western School was putting on!

First having people launch sneak attacks, then jumping out to protect the dragon clan. Using both hidden and open schemes, they directly wanted to crush the dragon clan while treating others as fools.

“Speaking of shamelessness, I, Zhao Gongming, dare not compare to you all.”

Elder Zhao said weakly, looking up at the sky and sighing softly: “There’s a saying in the mortal world of humanity: once is chance, twice is familiarity. We can all be considered acquaintances now.

Come, make a choice—follow me to Biyou Palace, or shall we do this the usual way?”

“Fellow Daoist! Do not push things too far!”

“Still talking about the usual way. You damage your Founding Father’s face like this, are you truly not afraid your Founding Father will destroy your cultivation?”

However, Zhao Gongming was unconcerned, lying there of his own accord, using the Ocean Stabilizing Zhenzhus to seal the surrounding heaven and earth.

His teacher was in seclusion year-round. If his teacher learned of this matter, based on his teacher’s temperament, he would probably…

Give guidance on the force to use when spitting blood, and the expression to have when lying down, then go find other Founding Fathers to test the effect.

At this moment, Zhao Gongming’s calmness, that kind of easy-going attitude, that confidence of having ‘you all’ in the palm of his hand…

Without rich industry experience, one absolutely could not achieve such naturalness!

Li Changshou shook his head at the crystal mirror and sighed: “Though the method of pretending injury came from the disciple’s hands, a disciple is far inferior to Senior Gongming in this art.”

Beside him, Xuandu laughed so hard he slapped his thigh, continuously exclaiming “Wonderful” and “Perfect.”

As the big and small law masters were enjoying the show, suddenly dragon roars transmitted from outside the dragon palace, growing closer and closer.

The Grand Magus smiled and said: “The reinforcements from the North Sea Dragon Palace have arrived. Those hidden blades concealed by the Western School are beginning to withdraw.

As for the South Sea Dragon Palace, it seems the West Sea Dragon Palace went to provide support.”

Li Changshou’s heart finally relaxed. He hurriedly said: “Grand Magus, please notify Senior Gongming to withdraw. No need to continue the pretense.”

“Very well.”

Xuandu Grand Magus closed his eyes in concentration. A Taiji diagram virtual image slowly rotated in his palm, and a trace of Dao rhythm flew into the crystal mirror.

In the mirror:

Zhao Gongming blinked, suddenly slowly getting up from the ground.

The expressions of the six Western School experts changed, each vigilantly watching Zhao Gongming.

However, Elder Zhao’s demeanor completely changed from before, becoming serious and solemn. He made a Daoist salute to the six people and sighed slowly:

“Fellow Daoists still cannot figure out how to break through. I feel quite regretful in my heart.

Enough, there is no meaning in playing around with you like this. I suddenly feel dispirited, so I shall take my leave.”

After speaking, Zhao Gongming raised his hand and called forth twenty-four Ocean Stabilizing Zhenzhus that shot over from various places, revolving around him.

Zhao Gongming vigilantly looked at the six people, retreated two steps, and the twenty-four Ocean Stabilizing Zhenzhus trembled slightly before disappearing without a trace.

An old Daoist shouted angrily: “Fellow Daoist, please stay!”

“Forget it, let him go! We have important matters at hand!”

Now without the Ocean Stabilizing Zhenzhus’ containment, the six old Daoists immediately searched the East Sea with full force and saw the current situation at the East Sea Dragon Palace.

Wenjing Daoist and others had just withdrawn, and the dragon palace army coordinating with the celestial soldiers had forced the rebellious sea tribe and deep sea demon armies into a retreating route…

“Zhao Gongming! You have ruined our sect’s great endeavor!”

An old Daoist gnashed his teeth in anger, suddenly lowered his head, and spat out fresh blood—his anger had destabilized his Dao state, causing minor injury.