Chapter 945: The Western Desert: Since Ancient Times, It Has Been the Ancestral Land of Our Human Race

The three armies parted the clouds, rumbling as they advanced.

Hall after hall of radiant radiance, wheel after wheel of resplendent light wheels, cloud after cloud of anomalous sword clouds spread across the sky, flying unhurriedly through the heavens; from afar, it looked like immortal gods on patrol, scourging the sins of the mortal world.

Wherever they passed, demons and monsters vanished without a trace, while ghosts and fiends groveled low, not daring to stir up any trouble.

Before anyone realized it, amid the trembling of countless cultivators and demons, the Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting three armies had already been on the march for several years.

Jiang Ding sat with closed eyes cultivating at Liu Dao Sect, keeping a constant eye on all this.

Truth be told, it was unavoidable—whether it was immortal sects sailing through the domain, or the Master Tushan great army marching within the realm, both took an enormous amount of time.

It wasn't like two sects sitting right next door to each other, where you could just start fighting on a whim; one had to spend vast amounts of time on the road.

In a war of the Cultivation World, ninety-nine percent of the time was spent on traveling.

The route also had to be chosen carefully.

A handful of people would be one thing, but when marching over a million cultivators, they had to travel along spiritual veins, advancing and resting in turns, stopping to recuperate at regular intervals.

You couldn't just pick any path you pleased.

Only a cultivator who knew absolutely nothing of military affairs would think that way.

Violating this basic military principle of the Cultivation World wasn't impossible—but one had to bear the consequence of an astronomical drain on the spirit stones in the cultivators' storage bags.

One had to remember, this was over a million cultivators!

Even if you carried a mountain of spirit stones, over a million Foundation Establishment, Jin Dan, and Nascent Soul cultivators could burn through it all in a single day.

And this wasn't a matter of bringing a few mountains of spirit stones—it was a march lasting years, even decades!

How many spirit stones would you have to bring to keep an army of over a million cultivators at peak condition the entire time?

No matter how many you brought, it wouldn't be enough!

So short-range surprise attacks within a few months were fine, no big deal—cultivators were tougher than cockroaches, not so fragile; skipping cultivation for a short while didn't matter.

But if you were marching across domains within the realm, you absolutely had to travel along spiritual veins; this was the drawback of large-scale cultivator armies on the march.

Nearly all native factions chose to prioritize developing individual combat strength—and not without reason.

Still, despite so many drawbacks, the cultivator legions' outstanding ability to fight across ranks through sheer numbers still attracted many sects to throw resources into it one after another.

It was an organizational method whose strengths and weaknesses were both very obvious.

After years of marching, the Master Tushan three armies under Hei Hei Louxi's command finally crossed the Northern Plains and entered the Western Desert.

Looking out, the endless grasslands gradually thinned out not far ahead, revealing the shape of a gravel plain; yellow sand blew across the sky, as if all living things had vanished.

Yet every Northern Plains cultivator knew well—

Within this vast sea of yellow sand, oases large and small were scattered like stars along the spiritual veins, producing all manner of heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

In terms of wealth, the Western Desert was not a whit inferior to the Northern Plains; the barren image of flying yellow sand was only surface appearance.

According to historical records, several thousand years ago this place had been a land of flourishing sects, a hundred flowers blooming, and had produced many renowned experts.

Among them, the Western Desert's Thousand Mechanisms Sect of the Yellow Sand was especially famous—the automatic alchemy formations of Wangting Wangting Fudi were their handiwork—and all four seas bowed together before Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun in his prime.

However, such a period of glory did not last long.

Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun's own cultivation soon ran into problems; the Northern Plains families' power shrank back into the Northern Plains, and Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun himself fell into sealing.

The various sects of the Western Desert consequently became independent and prospered for a time.

Then, Bing Yuan Tian Jun appeared, awakening from Zi Wo Feng Yin.

She probed again and again, confirmed that Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun's cultivation had run into problems, and so established the Great Snow Mountain Sacred Ground in the Western Desert, recruited ten thousand demons to found a Demon Race Dynasty, and brazenly sent out troops to slaughter and exterminate the human sects, dominating the entire Western Desert.

In this process, several billion humans were slaughtered to the last, and the Western Desert became a paradise for the demon race.

To this day, the world only knows of the Western Desert Demon Race Dynasty, and nothing of the human sects of old.

And in the post-Master Shuoyang Canghai Tianjun era, after another several thousand years, to this very day, a full-strength cultivator army of the human race has once again appeared in the ancestral lands of the Western Desert.

"The Western Desert…"

"The ancestral lands of our human race…"

Hei Hei Louxi was somewhat stirred; she scooped up a handful of yellow sand from the ground, sniffed it with a near-obsessive fascination, and tucked it into her storage bag.

The surrounding Master Dinghai Zhenjun made similar gestures.

When internal strife was no longer the primary contradiction, even the most cold-blooded and ruthless Liuzhi Liuzhi Laomo and Tiangui Tiangui Laoguai still had feelings, still possessed a sense of belonging to the human race—they were not emotionless cultivation puppets who had severed all human ties.

"Kill!"

"Strike toward the Jin Chi Wang Zu's tribal lands—the fourth-grade top-quality spiritual vein, Jin Chi Oasis!"

Hei Hei Louxi shouted.

"Yes, Army Commander!"

The surrounding Master Dinghai Zhenjun and True Person responded with thunderous acclaim.

……

"My lord, in various places across the Northern Plains, a plague of gu insects has begun to appear."

In the Black Demon Palace, the avatar of Zheng Sect Sect's Sect Master Gong Gong Caiyu cupped her hands and reported.

She took out several dozen jade cases and opened them one by one.

Jiang Ding's gaze fell upon them.

There were insects of all bizarre shapes—resembling scorpions, spiders, toads, snakes, beetles, and so on—ranging from first-grade to third-grade; many, judging by their aura and bodily structure, were clearly unsuited to the grassland climate and looked more like insects born in dense forests.

"Gu insects…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured, realizing something.

"My lord, these

gu insects have appeared recently, specifically targeting the spiritual herb gardens and spiritual plant gardens across the Northern Plains, as well as low-level cultivators at Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining stages; spreading and breeding across the Northern Plains like a plague, and we cannot control them."

"Currently, based on statistics gathered so far alone, this year's agricultural sect output will decrease by more than thirty percent; if it is allowed to continue developing, a complete crop failure is entirely possible."

"The number of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators who have died from this has already exceeded ten thousand, while the wounded and those with dormant gu insects within their bodies number in the hundreds of thousands."

"As for the mortals, casualties have already reached one million and continue to rise."

Gong Gong Caiyu said anxiously.

This is a failure of the Zheng Sect; without a reasonable explanation, everyone in the Zheng Sect will be severely punished.

"What does Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun say about this?"

Jiang Ding asked.

Apart from the Sword Dao and Array Dao, he is not very proficient in other areas, so he often seeks out relevant professionals to listen to their opinions.

"Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun said that the Gu Dao level involved here far surpasses his own, and he cannot handle it within several decades."

"He said that the techniques used for these Gu insects bear similarities to the inheritance of the Ten Thousand Poison Sect in the Southern Border."

Gong Gong Caiyu replied.

"Just far surpasses?"

"Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun is indeed an outstanding hero."

Jiang Ding's gaze grew cold, recalling the unpleasant memories at the Tie Family in Guishan.

Even so, as long as Master Dinghai Master Dinghai Zhenjun has not broken the law, Jiang Ding will not do anything to him, no matter how strange he is; this is a matter of principle.

As for the Ten Thousand Poison Sect in the Southern Border, it is the strongest sect in the Southern Border, similar to the Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting in the Northern Plains; humans and demons live together within it, jointly revering Friend Friend Baizu as their Lord, specializing in poison and Gu, and their fearsome reputation in the Cultivation World makes people tremble at the mere mention of it.

"I will handle it."

Jiang Ding waved his hand to collect these dozens of Gu insects, saying calmly.

"Yes, Master."

Gong Gong Caiyu breathed a sigh of relief and bowed to take her leave.