Chapter 906: Not Accepting

On a river that was calm yet exceptionally wide, a Great Ship drifted leisurely amidst the waves.

Although the Great Ship had tall masts, it flew no sails or banners; while the hull was spacious, the decorations were exceptionally low-key, painted only with natural tung oil, appearing inferior even to ordinary merchant ships or pirate vessels.

On the deck, a young woman leaned against the gunwale, strands of fine hair at her temples fluttering in the wind, her gaze dazed as she stared blankly at the rising and falling waves of the river.

"Shengnyu..."

An old man with a burly build, draped in a cloak, stepped onto the deck and came to the young woman's side, calling out softly.

"High Priest Hutian." The Shengnyu bowed her head slightly in greeting, her expression still etched with an indelible sorrow; she did not exercise the slightest Restraint in showing this expression before the old man, as if she were deliberately putting it on display for him to see.

"Why, still unable to think it through?"

The Shengnyu sighed and said, "Should I be able to think it through? Actually, rationally, I have thought it through. I know why High Priest Haotian made such a decision, and I know that having a chance to unite with the Human World now is actually quite good; we are going there to beg for help. But emotionally, I cannot accept it. I am very sad."

Hutian nodded; he was not surprised that the Shengnyu would say such things. Joining forces with humans and then attempting to separate the two worlds was a top-level secret; only he and Haotian knew, and he would be the one to tell the high-level Sword Saint leadership over there personally. Even the Shengnyu did not know; she only knew that their party was going to negotiate peace and seek aid. In other words, to take the initiative to bow their heads.

Therefore, it was not just the Shengnyu; there were far too many people opposing it both inside and out, and even on this ship, there were many voices of opposition.

"Cannot accept it emotionally? I thought you were opposing it because you felt there was little hope rationally, and that you were willing to reconcile with humans emotionally. After all, you are still considered part of the faction that is close to humans."

The Shengnyu shook her head and said, "I truly do not dislike humans; I even admire their courage and wisdom, and I do not believe they are inherently inferior to us. I even wish that one day everyone could put aside their prejudices, sit down, and talk to build lasting peace. But what I have always imagined is us arriving at their city gates, them realizing that further desperate resistance is meaningless, and them putting aside their prejudices to come out and surrender. And I would do my best to mediate, to persuade those pro-war Dao priests and warriors to also lay down their weapons, engage in a peaceful dialogue with humans, and grant humans space to survive. Only then could everyone truly have peace. It is not like this, like this..."

"Like this, we are instead bowing our heads to beg for peace. This should not be."

"Sigh..."

Hutian sighed silently to himself. The Shengnyu was actually no different from most of the pro-war faction; her stance was no different, and her insight was no different. The reason she was willing to make peace was by no means out of rational judgment or foresight, but because of her gentle nature; she felt that conflict was bad and was willing to give humans a way out. This was also a form of looking down; the essence was that she looked down on humans.

Once she realized that their side was not enough to crush the other side, and was even begging for help from them, she, like the other young radicals, could not accept it.

This was the opposite of Hutian. Hutian was also seen as part of the pro-human faction, but his pro-human stance was entirely utilitarian. He believed that there were too many unresolved contradictions within their own side, that a long-term war was harmful and useless, and that human development was truly fierce. Rather than waiting for their own side to explode and be completely crushed by the opponent, it was better to make peace while they still had the advantage and the opponent could not see through their weakness, so they could retreat to settle internal affairs and plan for the future. Once they recovered in the future, they could decide whether to deal with external threats then.

If it were truly as the Shengnyu imagined, with the Lingjie army arriving at the city gates and the opponent coming out to surrender, then Hutian would not be a pro-human faction member at all, but rather the biggest hardliner, the first to support wiping out the humans completely.

What a pity; he was a true minority. Among the older generation, there might be one or two who were similar to him, but among the younger generation, there were truly none.

Not to mention the young people who stayed in Lingjie, the young Lingjie citizens who were able to go to the Human World to see for themselves were completely led astray by those traitors of the Holy Moon Sect, believing that most of the Human World were slaves who worshipped Lingjie, and that with a few stubborn holdouts, conquering that place would be easy.

Come to think of it, Hutian thought, that Holy Moon Sect was truly detestable. They appeared to be spies for the Human World, but in reality, they gathered the despicable scum of the Human World and severely distorted the young people's judgment of the Human World.

Hutian even felt that they might have been sent by the Human World as counter-intelligence, solely to fool Lingjie's senses, distort the cognition of Lingjie's living beings, and make their side paralyzed and careless so they could develop in silence.

Damn it, are they actually playing a big game?

Next time I see the scum of the Holy Moon Sect, I must kill them all to vent my anger.

The Shengnyu said in a low voice, "I won't say whether I can accept it, but can our trip succeed? How would they be willing to agree? If it were just to suffer a humiliation in vain, I would be willing to endure the shame, but many young people cannot accept it."

Hutian was just about to explain to her that their side was already prepared and had conditions the other party could not refuse, so the success rate was not small, when suddenly his heart stirred. He lowered his voice, but his tone was extremely stern as he said, "Shengnyu, what do you know? Are there some disobedient brats about to make a move?"

The Shengnyu trembled slightly and said, "Ah, no, actually..."

High Priest Hutian became even more certain, saying, "Do they want to intercept and kill me? If so, they have made the wrong calculation. These are just young people who do not know the immensity of heaven and earth. I did not need them in the first place; they were only placed in the delegation to bolster the momentum. If they are not going to behave, then they are not needed. I can complete the mission alone."

The Shengnyu said hurriedly, "No, how could that be? Even if they were to act, they wouldn't act against you. How could there be any reason for the cannon to turn against its own people?"

High Priest Hutian snorted, "So that means they intend to intercept and kill the human envoys coming to meet us, or even want to cause trouble after entering the other party's base camp? Good, this is even worse than intercepting me; at least I wouldn't kill them easily. If they get over there, what chance of victory do they have with their little bit of skill? If the other party catches them and wants to kill them, even I would find it hard to plead for them for the sake of the grand plan—"

Just then, with a "Bang!", a flash of light shot through the deck from the bottom of the ship toward Hutian with lightning speed!

By the time Hutian noticed, that flash had already passed through the deck, only a body's width away from him, almost impossible to dodge. Hutian forcibly held his breath, threw his body backward, and barely dodged this fatal attack, yet the soles of his feet were pierced by this stream of light, creating a hole.

Fresh blood covered the deck.

Hutian felt the pain, leaped up suddenly, and floated in the air, a huge transparent shield already erected around him, surrounding him airtight.

He glanced at the Shengnyu in the air, thinking: Didn't you say they wouldn't intercept me? Or is this all Alie to put my mind at ease, and even you stalling me is part of the plan?

But immediately after, he saw the Shengnyu's panicked appearance, and Hutian's heart calmed slightly: It seems this was likely not intentional on her part. Also, if it were intentional, wouldn't it have been better not to mention that someone was acting foolishly at all? Since she mentioned it, it was unintentional.

It seems the Shengnyu also did not know the truth.

Come to think of it, the Shengnyu's temperament was probably the least suitable for being an accomplice in a major plot; she was soft-hearted and hesitant, and anything requiring cruel combat should not involve her.

At this moment, the cabin door opened, and a group of young Heavenly Demons rushed out, all of them fully armored and armed, surrounding the deck tightly.

One of the young Heavenly Demons, wearing a headscarf and with an exceptionally fierce expression, stepped out from the crowd, pointed at High Priest Hutian, and said, "Old thief, prepare to die!"

Seeing this scene, High Priest Hutian felt more helplessness than anger; he was almost too lazy to argue with them. At this time, the Shengnyu shouted, "Langu Qishi, how could you do such a thing?"

It turned out that this Langu was one of the Shengnyu's guard knights and could be considered her trusted confidant, but unfortunately, it seemed now that he was not much of a confidant after all.

Langu Qishi's face flushed red, and he said, "Shengnyu, don't interfere with the matters here! I know you are unwilling; you are on our side. After we kill the old thief, you lead us to turn the ship around, counter-attack, and kill those traitors and spineless cowards who betrayed Lingjie. We will fight for the world together!"

The Shengnyu was furious and shouted, "Who is on your side? You doing such a thing is treason! Put down your weapons now; it is not too late to repent!"

Langu Qishi shook his head and said, "Shengnyu, you are not a thief, but you are too weak. Therefore, you are forced by them and dare not resist. Since that is the case, I will resist for your share as well. Execute the old thief—"

Hutian shouted, "Wait!"

Langu said, "It is too late to beg for mercy now!"

Hutian shook his head and said, "It is not begging for mercy; I just want to ask you all if there is any room to reconsider? You should have realized that the current situation is very difficult..."

That Langu shouted loudly, "Shut up! Isn't the terrible situation caused by you old things who give the orders? You let the situation deteriorate, and then use the deteriorated situation to threaten everyone, selling us all to the Earth Barbarians; it is simply outrageous! It is too late to beg for mercy now; although begging us for mercy is better than begging the Earth Barbarians, we will not forgive!"

Hutian sighed, "So there is no way to communicate, then? Since that is the case, you all go—"

Before he could finish the word "die", he suddenly felt a familiar power pressing over. His expression changed, he grabbed the Shengnyu, and his body flew into the air.

The next moment, as if a Luse bomb had been thrown at the bottom of the ship, countless Luse slurry exploded from under the water, spreading onto the gunwales. In the time it took for no one to even finish a single thought, the Luse had already covered the Great Ship and spread across the deck.

Most of the young people who remained on the deck had not reacted before they were already trapped in the Luse mire.

Once one stepped on that kind of mire, or even touched a bit of skin, it was like falling into quicksand a hundred times faster, unable to pull oneself out. In the blink of an eye, their whole bodies were wrapped in Luse mud, mixed together with those Luse mud clumps, and could no longer be separated.

Only a few strong ones like Langu Qishi reacted, jumping up and using various means to stay in the air, but if they stayed in the air even slightly too low, they would be splashed by the Luse juice and then their whole bodies would quickly turn Luse!

The large delegation ship turned into Luse food in the blink of an eye and ceased to exist.

As for the "subordinate overthrowing the superior" that had almost turned everything upside down, it naturally vanished into thin air along with it.

The Shengnyu, carried by Hutian, saw this scene from high in the air and was almost about to cry.

Hutian was also furious, his eyes splitting, staring at the Heavenly Demon attackers crawling out of the Luse mud, and roared, "Evil God—you are courting death!"