Chapter 1197: The Human Race of the Nine Spirit Domain Has Already Been Exposed to a Vaster Realm

"Senior, if the Immortal Sect has need of me, I will naturally go."

Jiang Ding nodded, asked nothing further, and agreed at once.

The Immortal Sect's main battlefield cannot have its fleet drawn off, otherwise it would affect the primary front; though it might not necessarily end in defeat, such a risk would certainly increase, and it cannot be taken.

The Immortal Sect's main battlefield is a matter of the sect's very survival.

Once Marshal Yuan's fleet is defeated and its elites lost, everything the Immortal Sect possesses will be lost, all its bargaining chips gone, and whether it can even survive becomes a question.

Jiang Ding had to agree — this was a matter of principle.

Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun and the others were greatly relieved, and settled into postures of attentive listening.

"Senior, I have a few questions I wish to ask."

Jiang Ding looked toward Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun: "First, if beings of the Dao Merging stage or the peak of Void Refinement appear, what then? Does the Immortal Sect have a response?"

His tone was terrifyingly bold, aiming straight at the Dao Merging stage from the outset.

Still, setting aside the sword cultivator's usual arrogance, this was a very practical question.

Right now, among the two great realms, those who most want the Great Sun Sword Child dead are the great powers of the Baweixian Sect and that wounded, fleeing Jiao Jiao Mingyu.

The former fear his potential, dreading a fully grown Great Sun Sword Master.

The latter…

Dozens of imperial sons of the Horned Demon Imperial Clan died at the Great Sun Sword Child's hands.

Those imperial sons were so gifted, with great prospects of advancing to Void Refinement and Emperor, the very essence of a clan — and they were Jiao Jiao Mingyu's grandchildren and such kin, in whom he had invested familial affection.

The clan's future, the bloodline of an Emperor, and the bonds of kinship.

Both stacked together, all slaughtered by an ant at the Nascent Soul stage — a blood feud that can never be settled!

Beyond that, there are practical interests to consider: he is an unparalleled sword-path prodigy of the human race, and once grown will pose an extreme danger.

If the eight great sects' Void Refinement cultivators actively cooperated, the wounded Jiao Jiao Mingyu would surely be glad to strike personally and crush an ant.

This is a wounded Dao Merging cultivator.

Dao Merging!

A being like that need only glance at the Great Sun Sword Child, and the Great Sun Sword Child would die — no chance of survival.

"The eight peak Void Refinement cultivators will be pinned down by the Immortal Sect's Jiao Jiao Mingyu expeditionary army; there is a better than ninety percent chance none of them can leave the battlefield to act."

Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun said without the slightest hesitation.

The reason it is ninety percent is this: if one of the Baweixian Sect's great powers abandons the main battlefield, lets the other seven be beaten to death by the Immortal Sect, lets over half of them be slain, lets the Immortal Sect seize the entire Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie, and insists on killing the Great Sun Sword Child at any cost —

then indeed there is no way to stop it.

There is no remedy for that.

"As for the Dao Merging Jiao Jiao Mingyu, likewise —

he cannot reach you."

Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun said with great certainty.

"Jiao Jiao Mingyu has been worn down over so many years — he cannot simply flee whenever he wishes."

He said coldly, "The Jiudaxian Sect pursued him all the way, chasing him to the border of Jiao Jiao Mingyu, to the place indicated within the Ancient God Token. Jiao Jiao Mingyu fled Jiao Jiao Mingyu in disgrace aboard an Ancient God Painting Boat, and only thus escaped death."

"Jiao Jiao Mingyu is no longer in Jiao Jiao Mingyu."

"No longer in Jiao Jiao Mingyu?"

Jiang Ding's heart jolted.

He thought of the Ancient God Token, and of the Ancient God Dao Sect's mountain gate written upon it.

It was a far vaster realm, a terrifying sect that used the Horned Demon Imperial Clan and the Skeleton Blood Vine Demon Clan as Dao Soldiers — a fearsome existence that had mastered immortal techniques above Dao Merging.

Could it be that Jiao Jiao Mingyu and the Nine Spirit Domain have already been exposed to a more powerful realm's forces, and have lost their cover in the realm's dark forest?

This terrifying possibility made Jiang Ding and the surrounding Immortal Sect Tianjuns change color drastically, even fall into dread.

Against the Badaxian Sect, even an ascended Dao Merging-level Badaxian Sect, they were not afraid — for it was known; battle, slaughter, death, so be it, they feared nothing.

But the unknown…

In the realms, there are simply too many powerful existences.

It was entirely possible that the moment they made contact with a new immortal civilization, they would die, with no power to resist at all.

"This is precisely why the Jiudaxian Sect pursued Jiao Jiao Mingyu to the death."

"Alas, they still failed."

Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun said, "This is what I meant by the Immortal Sect's distant worry — we may well have been exposed to the gaze of an unfamiliar immortal civilization, and may face a great catastrophe in the future."

"This situation may be unavoidable."

"What we can do is seize every chance to grow stronger, grow stronger, and prepare a fallback, so that when the great catastrophe descends we have the strength to resist and the possibility of escape."

As for the mid-level worry, it is the political chaos that may erupt in the Immortal Sect after peace comes.

Such chaos is in turn necessary.

The Immortal Sect cannot directly rule over a hundred-odd Minor Thousand Worlds; its armies are not numerous enough, and it must arm the natives and foreign races — at least for a time.

This brings hidden dangers.

When you give a cultivator power but do not grant him the corresponding political standing, that is a calamity in the making.

"Jiang Ding, in the Immortal Sect's calculations, it is highly probable that peak Void Refinement cultivators and Jiao Jiao Mingyu have no ability to strike at you."

Zhenjun Shenji Canghai Tianjun concluded.

This is a conservative estimate; in the realms nothing is certain, and in an age of war every person must take risks — this is the citizen's fate.

"That is good, then."

"Then there is no great problem."

Jiang Ding set his mind at ease

Xin Lai said, "If we're going to arm the Immortal Gate's conscript army, I propose granting them the right to a share of the spoils, set at one-third of what an Immortal Gate citizen receives. How does that sound?"

"After all, we're asking them to risk their lives. Too little won't do."

"Fine, that's perfectly acceptable."

Divine Mechanism Canghai Tianjun agreed in one breath, then said somewhat curiously, "I thought you'd be fighting for political rights for them. The Immortal Gate Citizens' Assembly would probably agree temporarily, open up some cracks, given how dire the situation is now."

Judging by the style of Great Sun Canghai Tianjun's Great Sun Soul Transformation Strategy, this seemed more in line with common sense.

"What are you saying? Wouldn't that be threatening the Immortal Gate?"

"Threatening them precisely during a crisis, stabbing them in the back at a critical moment."

Jiang Ding rolled his eyes: "Any policy must convince the majority of Immortal Gate citizens to agree before it can be implemented. At any time, the interests of Immortal Gate citizens must be prioritized, because everything I do is for the long-term development of Immortal Gate citizens, nothing else."

"These conscripts are essentially mercenaries paid to risk their lives. I'll be a bit more lenient with them."

"It seems I underestimated you."

Divine Mechanism Canghai Tianjun felt a bit embarrassed.

Great Sun Canghai Tianjun's question was answered, and the matter of dispatching troops to suppress the rebellion was thus settled.

The Immortal Gate General Staff Headquarters quickly drew up plans for conscription, training, and supply replenishment.

The deployment date was set for ten years later.

By then, the troops conscripted from the Immortal Gate's twenty-six Minor Thousand Worlds would arrive one after another.

The number of these conscripts would reach around three million. They had basic warship and fighter craft operation training, and were fully prepared for anything in a thousand-year war, sparing no ounce of strength.

This was still while ensuring normal production capacity in the twenty-six Minor Thousand Worlds.

If a root-and-branch conscription were carried out, even more conscripts could be squeezed out.

Furthermore, the number of conscripts from these Minor Thousand Worlds would inevitably be insufficient to suppress the hundred or more Minor Thousand Worlds of Jiao Jiao Mingyu.

They were only the opening move. In the future, alien cultivators from Jiao Jiao Mingyu willing to surrender and submit would also be absorbed into the conscript system, with the goal of completing actual control within a hundred years.