260: Is the Spirit King merely cannon fodder? Two Spirit Saints suppress the Far East battlefield!

The wind came to a standstill halfway up Daozi Peak.

The spirit mist solidified; the surroundings were so quiet that only the heartbeats of the two men could be heard.

The hostility in Lu Sheng's eyes did not diminish because of Li Xiaoyao's silence; instead, it grew sharper as time passed. He wanted an answer, a reason that could convince him not to flip the chessboard over.

Li Xiaoyao was in no hurry to defend himself.

The Old Man walked to the edge of the cliff, his back to Lu Sheng, and cast his gaze toward the churning sea of clouds below.

"Lu Sheng, this account is actually quite easy to settle."

Li Xiaoyao's voice was very soft, scattered by the high-altitude wind as soon as it left his lips, but its content was as heavy as lead.

"The lives of billions of people in exchange for the possibility of a civilization's survival. If you were sitting in that position, what would you choose?"

Lu Sheng remained silent.

He walked to the spirit spring, bent down to scoop up a handful of water, and watched the crystalline liquid slip through his fingers.

In the Apocalypse, there is no right or wrong, only results.

If those old fogies hadn't gone to plug the gap back then, there probably wouldn't even be bacteria left on Blue Star now.

"The trade wasn't a loss."

Lu Sheng shook the water droplets from his hands, his tone as flat as if he were discussing today's weather. "Though it sounds fucked up, if it was to preserve the spark, the deaths of those billions were worth it."

This was his logic.

Absolute rationality, absolute supremacy of interests.

Li Xiaoyao turned around, a flicker of surprise crossing his cloudy old eyes. He had prepared a bellyful of grand principles and was even ready for this young man to point at his nose and curse his ancestors for eighteen generations. He never expected Lu Sheng to accept it so quickly, so... cold-bloodedly.

"Since you guys plugged the hole in the sky back then."

Lu Sheng ignored the Old Man's gaze and walked a few steps to the edge of the cliff. His gaze seemed to penetrate the layers of mist, stabbing straight down into the seabed. "Then where is the main force of the Abyss now?"

He tapped the ground with his toe.

"On my way here, aside from those brainless Floating Corpses and Mutated Sea Beasts, I haven't seen any decent regular army. If the Abyss truly had the power to end the world, the current True Sea shouldn't be this peaceful."

"Peaceful?"

Li Xiaoyao laughed.

That smile carried an indescribable irony and exhaustion.

"That's because someone is bleeding themselves dry for you in a place you can't see."

The Old Man waved his wide sleeve.

Hum!

The Void Realm trembled as countless spirit lights converged, instantly sketching a massive, three-dimensional holographic sea map before them.

The center of the map was the area where Dengxian Island was located, marked in blue, representing relative safety.

Li Xiaoyao's finger swiped eastward.

Following his movement, the color of the sea map began to turn murky and black. Until the Far East at the very edge, the entire sea region took on a sickening dark red, like a festering scar.

It was shrouded in a blood-colored mist so thick it wouldn't dissipate.

Within the mist, countless light points representing spirit source reactions flickered frantically like fireworks before being extinguished.

Every second, hundreds or thousands of light points vanished.

Every light point represented a high-level expert.

"This is the real True Sea."

Li Xiaoyao pointed at that sore-like area, his voice carrying the scent of gunpowder.

"The Abyss has never retreated. Although the spatial rift was plugged with our Physical Bodies, the barrier there is as thin as paper. The Abyssal army infiltrates incessantly, trying to tear open a second hole."

"Over eighty percent of the True Sea's combat power, all the Grotto-Heaven Lords, and all the ruthless Loose Cultivators are stuffed into this meat grinder."

The Old Man looked back at Lu Sheng, his tone grim.

"There, Level 9s are just infantry barely qualified to hold a weapon. Level 10 experts... are just slightly stronger centurions."

"As for a Spirit King like me..."

Li Xiaoyao extended a withered finger and made a slicing motion across his neck.

"If you're unlucky and run into a charge from abyssal royal clan, you're just a slightly larger piece of cannon fodder, not even leaving a whole corpse behind."

Lu Sheng's hand tightened in his pocket.

Spirit King, cannon fodder?

On Dengxian Island, a Spirit King was an exalted Elder, an overlord who could decide life and death with a single word.

But on that battlefield, they were actually just consumables?

This pool was even deeper than he had imagined.

"Then who is holding the line?" Lu Sheng asked the key question. "If even Spirit Kings are just cannon fodder, how can the main force of the Abyss be blocked?"

If even Spirit Kings couldn't stand their ground, this defensive line should have collapsed long ago.

"Good question."

Li Xiaoyao straightened his somewhat hunched back, a light akin to a pilgrimage erupting in his eyes.

"Above Spirit King, controlling the rules and manifesting the Dharma Idol, is the—Spirit Emperor!"

"Above Spirit Emperor, creating and destroying with a thought, turning a Domain into a world, is the—Spirit Venerable!"

"And the ones truly steadying that sky, preventing the Abyssal army from crossing the line even by an inch..."

Li Xiaoyao's voice suddenly rose, shaking the spirit mist on Daozi Peak until it churned.

"Are two existences who have transcended the mortal level of life, their Physical Bodies as eternal as heaven and earth—Spirit Saints!!"

Boom!

The moment those two words crashed down, the Dragon God Sequence inside Lu Sheng's body gave a sudden throb.

It wasn't fear.

It was a kind of excitement from encountering a peer, or even a 'prey'.

Spirit Saint.

So this was the true ceiling of this world revealed so far.

Lu Sheng licked his somewhat dry lips, the shock in his eyes quickly swallowed by an even more burning ambition.

"Interesting."

He stared at the two light points on the sea map that were as dazzling as suns.

One in the south and one in the north, like two sea-calming pillars, they were nailed firmly to the edge of the blood-colored battlefield, remaining motionless no matter how the black Abyssal Tide crashed against them.

"Are these two also our people?" Lu Sheng asked.

"Sort of, but not entirely."

Li Xiaoyao withdrew his fervor, his tone becoming complex.

"They come from the only two 'Holy Lands' in the True Sea—Kunlun and Penglai."

"Those are behemoths passed down from the previous era, or even older times. Compared to them, our Dengxian Island is just a slightly larger hill."

"This Abyssal Tide is a catastrophe for us, but for those two Holy Lands, it's an opportunity to reshuffle the deck."

Li Xiaoyao gave a cold laugh, revealing the helplessness of dealing with the vested interests of those above.

"They guard the battlefield to protect humanity, but also to harvest Luck. The legacies of experts fallen on the battlefield, the crystal cores of Abyssal Demon Gods, the fragments of broken spatial Laws... in the end, most of it flows into the pockets of these two families."

Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

This was quite logical.

There are no eternal duties, only eternal interests.

These two Holy Lands were the true house in this True Sea.

"So?"

Lu Sheng looked at Li Xiaoyao with a playful gaze. "You telling me all this isn't just so I can admire the grace of some big shots, right?"

If it was just for general knowledge, there was no need to bring him here just to look at a map.

"Of course not."

Li Xiaoyao's expression turned solemn as he finally revealed his true purpose.

"The Abyss's offensive is getting fiercer, and those two Spirit Saints are nearly at their limit. Therefore, the two Holy Lands have decided to join forces and launch an unprecedented 'Holy Land Grand Competition'."

"They want to select the top 'Sons of Salvation' from the entire True Sea at any cost."

"Once selected, you will directly enter the core of a Holy Land."

Li Xiaoyao leaned in closer to Lu Sheng and lowered his voice, danging the bait that would drive anyone mad.

"That is a place truly close to 'God'."

"There, you'll find complete paths to godhood, 'Godhead' fragments left over from the previous era, and even..."

The Old Man paused, emphasizing each word.

"The Dragon Transformation Pool, which can allow a True Dragon like you to Breakthrough to Spirit King and even strike for higher Realms in the shortest time!"

Dragon Transformation Pool!

Lu Sheng's breathing missed a beat.

Although his current physical strength was freakish, the resources required for further evolution were astronomical.

If he relied on saving up slowly, even picking Dengxian Island clean wouldn't be enough.

But if it was the two Holy Lands... "When does this competition start?" Lu Sheng asked.

"Three months from now."

Li Xiaoyao held up three fingers. "In these three months, I will use all the foundations of Dengxian Island to arm you to the teeth. You have only one task."

"In the competition, crush everyone."

"Whether it's the Daozi of Kunlun or the Saintess of Penglai, if they're in your way, trample them all to death."

A gambler-like red light flickered in Li Xiaoyao's eyes.

"As long as you can make it into the top three, our Dengxian Island can rise with you and get a share of the scraps from the Holy Lands."

Lu Sheng was amused.

So this Old Man was waiting for this.

This wasn't nurturing a Disciple; this was training a thug to go and snatch meat from the Holy Lands' banquet table.

However, this suited him perfectly.