Chapter 745

With the deaths of the Two Kings, the resistance of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace at the southern boundary base also neared its end.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of Brother Xuanwu military array cultivators were reduced to ash, and under indiscriminate naval cannon bombardment, surrendering was nearly impossible.

After mopping up the battlefield, only about fifty to sixty thousand prisoners were taken, the vast majority being Foundation Establishment, with very few Jin Dan.

Every time a Jin Dan cultivator of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace tried to surrender, the moment they opened their mouth, their head swelled like a balloon, exploding into a spray of blood and shattered bone—without exception.

The remaining hundred or so Jin Dan cultivators survived only because they were deliberately protected within the Immortal Sect military array's coverage.

Silver-white coffins were dropped from the warships, each one containing one of the remaining hundred Jin Dan cultivators of the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, sealed shut.

The warships retrieved the silver-white coffins and stored them away.

"This is…"

Jiang Ding, seeing this, frowned.

He knew extreme factions existed within the Immortal Sect.

Their ideology held the Immortal Sect as the absolute center; all other beings, regardless of whether they were human, were mere ants, raw materials.

But he had not expected them to be this extreme.

"It's not human experimentation—relax."

"The Immortal Sect still has its limits… though many have indeed proposed this."

Teacher Ouyang Hui explained: "These Jin Dan cultivators will be sent to the starfleet beyond the boundary, where elders will remove the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace's restrictions, then they'll be promoted as models of submission and widely publicized to weaken the resistance of Brother Xuanwu's Jin Dan cultivators and increase the chance of recruiting intelligence agents."

"If nothing goes wrong, some of these hundred Jin Dan cultivators will earn Xiu Shi Li Gong, establish sects in the Di Ci Gao Jie, become founding ancestors, and coexist with the Immortal Sect."

"Most of the small-boundary sects you saw during your social practice came about this way."

"Is that so? That's quite good."

Jiang Ding's expression softened.

Racial extremism never ends well.

Limiting all potential to a single tiny planet is far too restrictive.

A force that cannot absorb the world's heroes has no chance of dominating the Zhu Zai Gao Jie.

Even bloodthirsty forces like the Great Sun Sword Pavilion, which often slaughtered friend and foe alike in sword polishing, or cold-blooded devourers like the Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, all absorbed fresh blood from the small boundaries—they never stagnated, never grew narrow-minded or arrogant.

In this regard, the Immortal Sect has serious flaws.

"Everyone, quickly erect the Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie array base."

Jiang Ding did not voice his thoughts.

The Immortal Sect's resources are too scarce.

Many must wait desperately until their death without ever gaining an opportunity.

Pushing this policy now would provoke opposition so immense it's unimaginable; one misstep could capsize everything and trigger internal chaos.

It's beyond his current ability to handle.

He'd have to wait until Soul Transformation at the earliest.

"Yes, Commander!"

Teacher Ouyang Hui saluted and turned to attend to her duties.

The warship hovered in the sky as Jin Dan and Foundation Establishment cultivators flew out, repeatedly scanning the region's earth veins and qi tides using the legion's spirit-substance radar.

Then, a rapid theater-wide array special meeting was convened to discuss difficulties in calculation, construction, and refinement; Jiang Ding participated.

Whenever an unsolvable problem arose, they immediately contacted the higher-level aerospace forces, who provided specific solutions.

Several days later, the meeting ended.

Boom!

Boom boom!

The fleet fired again—not indiscriminate bombardment, but occasional shots aimed at specific points on the ground, shattering peaks designated as unnecessary in the Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie array and leveling them, then compacting and smoothing the earth with cultivation techniques.

Sometimes, where the array calculation had originally called for a mountain, there now stood a glassy cannon crater.

In such cases, directional explosions were used to forcibly create a Tushan from the very spot, and thousands of Immortal Sect cultivators descended from the warships, jointly casting earth-element techniques to reinforce it.

Or artificial lakes were formed, with combined water-element techniques gathering heavenly and earthly qi to conjure lakes tens of kilometers wide…

And so on—after over a month of labor, the thousand-scarred ten-thousand-li land was fully restored, no trace of the battlefield remaining.

Looking out, grass and trees remained evergreen, lush as spring; the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—perfectly aligned with the requirements of the Immortal Sect's Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie array.

Finally, Teacher Ouyang Hui led a group of Jin Dan and Foundation Establishment cultivators to extract pre-forged Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie array bases from the legion's storage pouches, driving them deep into the earth veins, murmuring incantations, constantly forming hand seals, occasionally discovering omissions and immediately forging new array devices on the spot.

The Immortal Sect legion commanders were all array specialists—this was routine.

Gradually, amid the roar of earth splitting, heavenly and earthly qi gathered, winds rose and clouds surged, starlight poured in countless beams, and a pillar of boundary-defining heaven pierced the ground, reaching up to the stars and connecting to the earth's dragon veins, shining brilliantly.

The second Xing Chen Ding Gao Jie pillar only emerged a tip, like a bamboo shoot slowly breaking through the soil.

This process would last over a month, until all thirty-six pillars emerged one by one, protected by the earth veins—no matter how powerful external forces were, they could not damage them.

This time was not wasted.

"The bandit suppression campaign has entered its second phase…"

Chief of Staff An Siyan reported.

Jiang Ding had long cultivated at a grade-three supreme spiritual vein; now he opened his eyes and turned his attention to the report.

Around him, fleets occasionally vanished in flashes of teleportation, carrying vast numbers of tanks and aerospace fighters to designated locations hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, as mapped by the theater staff.

Usually, these were Jin Dan-level sects, Nascent Soul-level sects, large immortal imperial dynasties, or powerful clans.

First, diplomacy: they asked if the target would surrender.

If they surrendered, their highest-cultivation member had to open their soul and accept a restriction.

If they refused, the fleet bombarded them, shattered their sect gates, killed resisting Jin Dan cultivators, and reduced their resistance to the bare minimum.

Then came the ground invasion forces.

Once everything is finished, the Great Formation of the Mountain Gate will be rebuilt, summoning first- and second-tier powers from all directions to convene an alliance and establish a new order of Immortal Gate rule.

Those who refuse,

will have an entire tank division sent to obliterate their mountain gate.

Those who comply will serve as the Immortal Gate's vassal armies, launching attacks against the incense temples, Taoist temples, and illicit shrines of the Brother Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace scattered across various locations, felling mountains and destroying temples, smashing statues, annihilating every Mao Shen in each region, and submitting proof of loyalty.

Thus, a vast area in the southern Di Ci Gao Jie quickly fell under the Immortal Gate's control, with actual dominion over every corner, no longer merely nominal.

"Very good..."

Jiang Ding glanced at the ground forces on all sides, saw they had performed well, and immediately nodded.

After surveying the overall ground situation, he shifted his gaze to a specific locale.

At a hill, the tank army rumbled forward, raising dust into the sky.

Over a hundred kilometers ahead of the army, a short, plump black-and-white ball concealed its form, accompanied by several Foundation Establishment sword cultivators who had similarly comprehended Sword Intent.

They crept stealthily to the vicinity of Jingcheng, the capital of the Chen Wang True Dynasty, chanting incantations, reporting coordinates one by one, detailing the Chen Dynasty's troop deployments, defensive situations, formation nodes, and so on.

Immediately, before the enemy could detect anything, hundreds of thousands of tank cannons fired simultaneously, drowning this Jin Dan power and blasting it into the sky.

(End of this chapter)