Merit Golden Body – just one foot away.

In the northern part of the North Continent, at the site of the heaven-demon battle, Li Changshou quietly stood above mountains of demon beast corpses, feeling the sorrow of living beings flowing between heaven and earth.

At the horizon, there were still sporadic pursuit battles, while here the Celestial soldiers had begun rescuing the wounded and collecting the corpses of fallen comrades.

Those Ghost Officials from the Netherworld, having completed their task of blocking the demon clan’s ambush forces, now turned to their primary duties, collecting all the souls that hadn’t been destroyed in this area.

Sighing slightly, Li Changshou’s form descended from the sky, floating cross-legged before several Celestial soldiers’ corpses, his mouth chanting the Daoist scripture for guiding souls.

Streams of light flew out from these Celestial soldiers’ corpses, condensing into several faint phantoms that cupped their hands and bowed to Li Changshou, then flew of their own accord toward the nearby Ghost Officials.

Life and death are no small matters; when battle rises, flesh and blood congeal.

Li Changshou’s chanting continued uninterrupted, a water-blue banner appearing behind his back. Many scattered demon souls from the demon clan were also able to condense, then were chained by the Ghost Officials and dragged away to the distance.

The sound of scripture chanting gradually increased, as many Celestial soldiers and generals stood in various places, each reciting scriptures.

Outside Black Mountain, the witch clan crowd celebrating their harvest also quieted down, with four Great Witch Priests softly chanting ancient prayer texts.

Half an hour later, Li Changshou’s true body joined with Baize, cupped his hands to Baize, and the human and beast pair rode clouds away from this place, quickly disappearing into the depths of the North Sea.

Li Changshou ‘returned after leaving’ – naturally it was his avatar that came back – riding clouds high in the sky, making a Daoist bow to those four Holy Mother Palace maids who now had somewhat complex expressions.

“Greetings, Fairy Ladies.”

“Water God, please don’t humble us so.”

The four fairy ladies immediately bowed slightly in return, with the fox-eared fairy lady in the center softly saying:

“We often hear our sisters in the palace speak of how Water God plans strategies within the tent and is full of wisdom and schemes. Today seeing Water God break through enemy formations, you were unexpectedly so divinely brave.”

“Fairy Lady overpraises me,” Li Changshou sighed. “Today’s battle was won by the Celestial Court’s soldiers and generals fighting bravely to kill enemies. I merely did some troop deployment work, not worth mentioning.

I must still thank you fairy ladies for putting righteousness first and being willing to come persuade the demon clan.

Once the battle starts, living beings suffer. Fortunately, this place is the North Continent wilderness, and the witch clan was prepared early, so not too many living beings were affected.”

These four fairy ladies exchanged glances, each gaining more smiles.

One woman said: “Water God, you truly speak so well. We four sisters all came from ancient demon clan backgrounds. Coming here today also carried much personal interest – we don’t dare accept such praise from you, Water God.”

“Now that the battle here is over, we must return to Holy Mother Palace,” the lead fox woman said with a smile. “Water God, is there anything you need us to bring back to the palace?”

Is the Sage Lady asking for manuscript pages?

“Recently I’ve been busy dealing with North Continent matters,” Li Changshou said. “Once official business is properly handled, I must find an opportunity to visit Holy Mother Palace and pay respects to the Lady.”

“Very well.”

The four fairy ladies bowed slightly, mounted their cloud boat, and amid laughter headed toward the outside of heaven.

Li Changshou pondered briefly. From this fox fairy lady, he sensed an aura similar to Qingqiu Xiaolan’s.

Could it be that this was the ancestor of the Qingqiu clan who served the Holy Mother Lady in the Holy Maiden Palace?

Looking at her, she seemed even younger than Xiaolan, although her cultivation was indeed unfathomably deep.

Did the Sage Lady sending these four maids carry other deeper meaning?

Li Changshou stood in the air with hands behind his back, carefully considering.

Waves of dragon roars transmitted from the distance as the Dragon clan returned from pursuing the Primordial Fierce Beast group. At the cost of losing several dozen Azure Dragons, they had killed seven or eight fierce beasts…

Several Dragon clan elders all came forward together, cupping their fists and bowing to Li Changshou, saying in low voices:

“Reporting to Water God, the Dragon Palace warriors have completed the order to reinforce the North Continent battle situation! Please continue giving orders, Water God!”

“What were the losses?”

“Thanks for Water God’s concern,” a Dragon clan elder sighed. “Please forgive us, Water God. We could have detained more demon clan experts, but when we saw those enemies who had broken into our Dragon Eye, we somewhat lost our rationality…”

“This is understandable. Today if not for the Dragon Palace’s reinforcement, the Celestial Court’s main force still wouldn’t have had the strength to directly battle the demon clan.”

Li Changshou said slowly: “The dragon souls who died in battle today may nurture in the Celestial Court’s Merit Pool for ten years, then reincarnate and return to the Four Seas Dragon Palace’s ranks;

For those whose dragon souls are difficult to gather, monuments should be erected to commemorate them, and the injured must also be well cared for.”

“Thank you for Water God’s consideration!”

“Please report these matters to Duke Wood before leaving.”

Li Changshou reminded them thus, and the four Dragon clan elders unanimously agreed, leading many Dragon clan experts to wait in the air.

In this battle, the Celestial Court lost over thirty thousand soldiers, dozens of generals fell, and the witch clan had one thousand two hundred deaths, with over half severely wounded.

As they say, a cornered beast fights to the death. Those demon clan experts who couldn’t successfully escape finally fought madly in desperate struggles, causing not insignificant losses to the Celestial Court.

In a direct large-scale battle, the Celestial soldiers attacked and defended with measure, displaying the ‘beauty of distance’ to perfection, leaving the demon soldiers almost no power to strike back.

The large gap in the Celestial Court’s mid to high-end battle strength truly gave Li Changshou a headache.

Inexplicably, Li Changshou found himself looking forward to the Celestial Court after the Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods…

This avatar paper dao body was busy in North Continent, handling various post-battle matters;

Li Changshou’s true body had already concealed his form with Baize at the edge of heaven, making a large circle around the primordial world before rushing back to hide in the Degree Immortal Gate.

Later he would still need to remind Sect Leader Kong Xu to have the sect leader and several elders strictly keep secret the matter of Baize’s seclusion in Degree Immortal Gate.

Along the way, Baize and Li Changshou didn’t converse, until they reached Black Pool Peak, where Baize lay beside the pond, staring at the clear pond water, his whole beast form somewhat dejected.

“Sir Baize seems somewhat disappointed.”

Li Changshou asked gently: “Is it because Lu Ya ultimately still walked the path of opposing the Celestial Court?”

“Ah,” Baize slowly exhaled. “It’s not for this matter, I’ve long understood what his temperament is like.

It’s just feeling somewhat powerless.

What use is knowing more? It’s merely seeing the endings of some people, events, and things in advance, yet being powerless to change anything.

No matter how much I advised Lu Ya, he would only look at immediate benefits, always feeling it was heaven’s mandate. In the end, it all came down to the arrogance in his heart burying everything – his temperament is so similar to his father’s.”

Li Changshou thought for a moment, then said: “Now that the Western Teaching has again involved itself in demon clan matters, what does sir think the Celestial Court should do in response?”

“Water God is testing me again,” Baize raised his spirits slightly, pondered for a moment, maintaining his true form’s appearance, and said: “It can be completely ignored.”

“Oh? Why should it be ignored?”

Baize said: “The West’s moves this time were careful and clever, not participating in direct battle, but helping those demon clan experts escape with their lives.

This way they can gain the gratitude of these demon clan experts while not offending the Celestial Court too deeply.

Following the West’s line of thinking, even if the Celestial Court wanted to demand accountability, it would be somewhat difficult. Better to ignore it, first figure out what the West is scheming, then apply targeted remedies.

Regarding Sage forces, just crushing in advance the melons they want to pick already counts as winning this round.”

Li Changshou nodded slowly, carefully comparing in his heart Baize’s words with his thoughts, finding them in unexpected agreement.

Baize sighed again: “Just afraid that Lu Ya will later walk a dead-end path, completely defecting to the West.”

Li Changshou asked: “What would be wrong with Lu Ya defecting to the West?”

Baize said:

“There would be nothing wrong with him personally. Today he has already lost the Sage Lady’s protection – if he can gain the Western Sages’ protection, it could keep his life safe.

But if Lu Ya defects to the West, the demon clan’s destined fortunes will be drained dry by the West, and the demon clan high and low will become puppets of the West.

If this batch of the demon clan dies, this poor Dao would feel more at ease, but in the future, the newly transformed myriad beings between heaven and earth will all be classified as the demon clan by the West, then supplied for their exploitation and enslavement…

It would truly be unfortunate for all beings.”

“Sir’s words are indeed what I hadn’t considered before,” Li Changshou restored his original appearance and lowered his head in thought.

Baize smiled and said: “Water God values humans and takes the myriad beings lightly – this is understandable. But Water God can now influence various matters of the Celestial Court and influence His Majesty the Jade Emperor’s decisions, so you should be more impartial.”

Li Changshou nodded slowly, then looked at Baize with somewhat playful eyes and smiled: “Did Sir Baize come to my side early on to give such advice?”

“Water God, please don’t overthink,” Baize lay there somewhat dejectedly. “This poor Dao came to improve the Orthodox Teaching’s food.”

“I believe Sir Baize’s words,” Li Changshou cupped his hands. “Sir Baize should rest for a while. Once I’ve handled the North Continent’s aftermath, I’ll come to drink and chat freely with sir.”

Baize sighed dejectedly and continued lying there depressed.

…

In the northern North Continent, the Celestial soldiers and generals orderly rode clouds away, flying back to the high sky.

The Netherworld Ghost Office’s troops also withdrew in formation, riding yin winds back to the Netherworld.

East Wood Duke and Li Changshou together inspected various places, representing the Celestial Court in consoling the North Continent witch clan, delivering the Celestial Court’s cordial regards.

Ox-Head and Horse-Face led a group of Netherworld witch clan members who hadn’t had a chance to appear earlier and were now various kinds of resentful, hesitantly coming before Li Changshou and East Wood Duke, honestly cupping their fists and bowing.

“Water God sir, brothers didn’t get to enter the stage moo! You said you’d let us fight the hardest battle…”

Several black lines hung on Li Changshou’s forehead.

These guys, Wu Dalang drinking medicine and still asking Pan Jinlian for a refill – showing off bravado regardless of life?

“Those Primordial Fierce Beasts didn’t directly participate in battle – this was my previous miscalculation,” Li Changshou smiled and said. “But precisely because of everyone’s careful ambush, it gave the other side great deterrence and also made my heart more confident in dealing with today’s battle situation.

Although everyone didn’t directly participate in battle, the role you played was no less than front-line fighting – on the contrary, it had even more important significance.”

Ox-Head and Horse-Face looked at each other, at a loss.

Horse-Face said: “Water God sir, please don’t say that – this doesn’t match our witch clan’s concepts.”

Wood Duke beside them smiled and forcefully brushed up his presence, saying: “In today’s battle, all participants will be rewarded according to merit, and you all have achieved great merit.”

Ox-Head and Horse-Face blinked, the former muttering: “Duke Wood sir is also here.”

Horse-Face said seriously: “Duke Wood sir, please don’t do such things that insult our witch souls! We didn’t participate in battle – what merit could there be?”

Ox-Head kicked Horse-Face with a hoof, rubbed his big hands, and grinned at Li Changshou:

“Of course, if the Celestial Court insists on rewards, we can’t disobey heaven’s mandate, right?

Just a hundred witches’ worth of hundred-year seasonings will do. Please don’t give too much – if you give too much, we brothers… will just reluctantly accept it. After all, we can’t disobey heaven’s mandate.”

“Seasonings?” East Wood Duke shot Li Changshou a puzzled look, and the latter smilingly transmitted a message or two, making East Wood Duke laugh in comprehension.

Wood Duke smiled and said: “Since the witch clan enjoys food, this isn’t hard to do. Later I’ll have Water God bring the recipe, and I’ll order the Celestial Palace fairy ladies to rush production and send it to the Netherworld, how about that?”

Ox-Head quickly nodded, “Thanks Water God! Thanks Duke Wood!”

Horse-Face beside him was so angry his eyes rolled back, but he didn’t actively sabotage things.

After sending away Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Li Changshou and East Wood Duke led several dozen Celestial generals, riding clouds back to the Celestial Court.

The Celestial Court’s immortals and gods gathered at the North Heaven Gate, and after the two officials returned, there was another round of congratulations.

After bustling about like this for another half day, Li Changshou finally returned to his Water God Palace. Without time to rest, his divine consciousness continued monitoring the movements of various demon clans at the North Continent’s borders.

This time, the demon clan suffered great losses of troops and commanders in the northern North Continent, their vital energy greatly damaged.

When the demon clan was being badly defeated before the witch clan, the various demon clans guarding the southern border of North Continent made moves to mobilize troops, wanting to go provide support.

But first, the demon clan’s remaining elites would need to pass through thick circles of miasma, requiring at least seven to eight hours at a minimum;

Second, in the northern Central Divine Continent, immortal light surrounded many immortal sects above, and countless human cultivation practitioners seemed to have received some order, arranging battle formations above their sect gates.

The demon clan’s ‘headquarters’ immediately felt pressure and quickly made the decision to abandon the demon soldiers in the northern North Continent.

This was naturally also a small trump card that Li Changshou had arranged beforehand.

He had merely used his network of relationships to send cooperation invitations to a few immortal sects, having them make a show of pressuring the demon clan, and these immortal sects were happy to do this favor that went along with the flow.

Defeated in the North Continent, experts fleeing in sorry states, the dispatched demon soldiers annihilated eight or nine out of ten – the demon clan was naturally furious en masse.

But Li Changshou carefully listened for a while and found that very few in the demon clan cursed him as Water God. Most cursed the Dragon clan for currying favor with the Celestial Court, and many cursed the Celestial soldiers for ‘using dao soldiers as shields’ and not daring to fight while hiding behind dao soldiers.

And when mentioning the words ‘Water God’, most demons were somewhat emotional, and there were even many demons praising ‘Water God’s martial valor’, saying their ancestors were also related to the ‘Way of Water’…

The demon clan’s tribal culture truly made Shou unable to fathom.

Unfortunately, at this time he couldn’t find Lu Ya’s hiding place and didn’t know how Lu Ya’s injuries were.

If the Space-Time Ruler had badly injured Lu Ya, he could have arranged an ambush, taken advantage of his illness, and taken his life.

The demon clans at North Continent’s borders hadn’t continued mobilizing troops and showed no signs of mobilization, so Li Changshou was temporarily at ease.

Next, these demon clans should behave for several decades;

His and East Wood Duke’s work focus needed to be placed on expanding strength for the Celestial Court, waiting for His Majesty the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother to return to the Celestial Court – that would be the true time for eliminating demons.

Today’s battle was merely to make the demon clan behave a bit.

The Element-Severing Sword…

That silver-haired young woman…

In his heart, Li Changshou also felt somewhat powerless to criticize the Western Sages’ habitual going back on their word.

But when Sages play dirty, what could they as insects do? They could only endure it.

In Little Jade Peak’s mountain body secret chamber, Li Changshou placed the Space-Time Ruler and Xuanhuang Pagoda before Laozi’s portrait, bowed three times to Supreme Clarity Sage, and the Xuanhuang Pagoda and Space-Time Ruler disappeared from the table.

A familiar dao rhyme slowly spread in Li Changshou’s heart, condensing into two characters before dispersing into formlessness.

[Don’t Rush]

Li Changshou was stunned for a moment, then bowed again to the Sage Lord’s portrait before withdrawing from this secret chamber.

Returning to the pill room to meditate, Li Changshou began summarizing this North Continent battle, reflecting on insufficient points and areas where thinking wasn’t thorough enough, considering the development of subsequent matters.

If his cultivation could match or be close to Daoist Lu Ya’s, today he would have truly had a chance to kill him.

“Ah…”

Cultivation requires long-term accumulation – this couldn’t be rushed either.

After all, after achieving a long life, the speed of comprehending the Dao had slowed down. His original bold thoughts and wild ideas had all been consumed seven or eight out of ten, and cultivation matters had returned to accumulation and comprehension.

‘Later I’ll go to Doulu Palace and report this matter to the Grand Magus.’

Also, for this North Continent battle, Li Changshou had several Celestial generals use recording spheres to make all-around recordings. He could bring these to show the human race’s ancient magic soldiers, letting them see the Celestial Court’s current battle strength, and also let these old people be more at ease.

Thinking of this point, Li Changshou’s divine consciousness was about to shift to the Celestial Court’s Water God Palace, but his heart suddenly moved, and the immortal consciousness permeating various places in the sect gate converged toward the gate.

There, a graceful young master rode clouds coming, lightly opening a folding fan in his hand to reveal a character for ‘cloud’.

This ‘young master’ arrived before the sect gate, cupped his hands to several gate-guarding old grandpas, and said with a gentle voice while smiling: “This poor Dao is Xiao Yun, coming to visit a friend – I wonder if you could help call out for me.”

That old grandpa asked amiably: “Friend Dao’s friend’s Dao title?”

“Li Changshou on Little Jade Peak… No need to trouble yourselves, he has already come.”