Chapter 302: The Script Is Wrong

Knowing that the situation was beyond remedy, the Duke of the State took his leave of Lin Bai and hurried back to the Capital to report the situation. A moment later, he returned to Zhen City, bringing with him many Dharma Treasures and medicinal pills, all issued from the national treasury of the Taiyi Kingdom.

Only after losing something does one learn to cherish it; as Lin Bai was about to leave, the monarch and officials of the Taiyi Kingdom suddenly realized Lin Bai's importance.

In an instant, all negative voices directed at the Justice Alliance and Lin Bai vanished without a trace.

The Taiyi Kingdom and Lin Bai had long been bound together; they had no choice but to spend heavily to restore their image in Lin Bai's heart, with Lin Bai's personal safety being the top priority.

Therefore, the Dharma Treasures they gifted were mostly of the defensive type.

Among them, the most useful was a defensive Dharma Treasure called the Cloud Light Mirror, as well as a storage bag.

The Cloud Light Mirror was a defensive Dharma Treasure forged by the combined efforts of all the weapon refiners in the Taiyi Kingdom. During battle, once the Cloud Light Mirror is activated, as long as the Spirit Stones inside the mirror are not depleted, it can defend against all external attacks; in the absence of Spirit Stones, inputting Spiritual Power can also provide defense for the mirror.

Its principle is similar to the defense array of a city, with the difference being that it is very convenient to carry.

Moreover, the range of coverage can be adjusted at will; the smaller the range, the longer it can be sustained, making it an ultimate protective Dharma Treasure.

As for storage-type Dharma Treasures, they are extremely rare even when looking at the whole world.

The storage bag gifted to Lin Bai by the Taiyi Kingdom can hold nearly ten cubic meters of supplies, which can already be considered the top tier of storage-type Dharma Treasures.

Life-saving medicinal pills were even more countless...

Similar Dharma Treasures and medicinal pills are actually possessed by every sect.

But Lin Bai's Blacksmith Six-Piece Set, with its means to break any Dharma Treasure, is too insidious. When fighting Lin Bai, protective Dharma Treasures are almost useless, and no one would dare carry storage-type Dharma Treasures.

After all, if struck by Lin Bai's Hammer, no matter how many good things are hidden in the storage bag, they will vanish into thin air along with the shattering of space; no one can afford such a loss. This is also the reason why Lin Bai has subdued more than a dozen Great Vehicle Realm cultivators without gaining a single storage-type Dharma Treasure...

Lin Bai did not take the Cloud Light Mirror to heart.

He has Wen Ba of Tianmo Mountain, who excels at recovery, plus ten times the recovery rate, as well as high-agility Flash; it is basically impossible for Great Vehicle Realm cultivators of the same level to hurt him.

However, the unexpectedly acquired storage bag filled him with joy. Some items provided by the system can be retrieved into the system, but the thousands of Binding Immortal ropes he forged are not convenient to carry. Once lost or damaged, his combat power would be greatly discounted. With the storage bag, although it is only ten cubic meters, it is enough to solve the issue of carrying strategic supplies.

The Pupil of Residual Sight can see the flaws in the storage bag.

However.

Even the great weapon refiner Zuo Lan cannot increase the space of the storage bag. He is not proficient in the Space Dao, and most importantly, there are no space-type materials.

Lin Bai is even less worth mentioning; his intermediate-level Dharma Treasure theory is insufficient to support his understanding of the arrays on the storage bag.

The Blacksmith Six-Piece Set can indeed increase the grade of a Dharma Treasure, but a storage bag is not a kitchen knife; it requires high-level materials to upgrade, and one cannot simply expand its space by smashing it with a couple of hammer blows.

Even for a top-tier Dharma Treasure like the Cloud Water Mirror, he is not qualified to take a hammer to it...

Lin Bai excels at Lightning War and does not want to leave the players with too much time to think about how to deal with him.

That very day.

He set off in a grand procession with the high-level members of the Justice Alliance, heading all the way toward the Taihao Kingdom via the Magpie Bridge.

The Taihao Kingdom is to the west of the Taiyi Kingdom and is controlled by the Demonic Five Sects.

Since Ancestor Chilian and Song Yaoqing are protected by their respective sects, Lin Bai, in establishing his prestige, naturally has to drag these two fellows out.

Upon learning of Lin Bai's movements.

The cultivators of the Seven Righteous Sects breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

Although the players spoke lightly of it, Lin Bai had forged many Binding Immortal ropes before setting out; who knows what he was planning?

No one was willing to face Lin Bai directly at this time.

It was not that they were afraid they couldn't beat him, but the key was that the Dao of Love and Puppet techniques were too disgusting and impossible to guard against. No one wanted to be inexplicably linked in marriage by Lin Bai or turned into a Puppet. The higher-ups were even less willing, and as for the Void Refinement Realm cultivators below the Great Vehicle Realm, letting them intercept Lin Bai would just be sending food to the Justice Alliance.

Meanwhile, the Demonic Five Sects started cursing. Some Great Vehicle Realm cultivators even privately complained that the Poison Sect and the Blood Sect were shielding Ancestor Chilian and the other, wondering why they hadn't just handed them over earlier instead of bringing Lin Bai, that demon, upon them.

Just like the Heavenly Dao Sect.

Several sects of the Demonic Five Sects also had subordinate sects stationed at the border of the Taihao Kingdom, ready at all times to deal with the Justice Alliance.

The moment Lin Bai set off.

The Holy Master of the Shengji Sect, Ye Luo of the Poison Sect, Qu Chaoan of the Blood Sect, Lu Wei of Wanhun Valley, and the Demon Lord of Tianmo Mountain contacted each other through the players and immediately set off, gathering at a sect called the Heavenly Fiend Hall to discuss countermeasures.

They could also communicate with each other through the Heavenly Descended, but when it came to dealing with Lin Bai, it gave them more confidence to meet in person.

Moreover, discussing face-to-face allowed one to better gauge the true intentions of the others.

The Demonic Five Sects hold the Holy Master of the Shengji Hall in highest regard, while the sect masters of the four sects below are of equal strength.

They are not like the Seven Righteous Sects, which have three sects—the Danling Sect, the Moon Spirit Sect, and the Weapon Refinement Sect—that do not excel at combat.

The Demonic Path sects each have their own characteristics, which is the reason they have been able to contend with the Seven Righteous Sects for so many years.

The five sect masters were present.

【Mountain-Suppressing Tiger】 of the Xinlong Group, 【Sun at High Noon】 of the Jingke Group, 【Chengfeng】 of the Fengda Group, and 【Courage of a High Expert】, who had changed his alias, also participated in this meeting.

The few players appeared calm on the surface, but they opened a private chat right under the noses of the sect masters, unscrupulously exchanging information.

【Eagle of Foresight】 asked: "High Expert, you have followed Lin Bai the longest; what do you think his ultimate goal is this time?"

【Courage of a High Expert】 said: "You might not believe it if I say it, but based on my understanding of Lin Bai, he won't stop until he takes down at least one or two of the Demonic Five Sects."

【Sun at High Noon】 said: "Lin Bai wouldn't be that reckless, would he? He only has eight Great Vehicle Realm subordinates, and any one of the sects has at least fifty Great Vehicle Realm experts. If fifty Great Vehicle Realm experts don't clash with him head-on and are determined to circle around him, they might not be able to beat Lin Bai, but the members of the Justice Alliance from the Taiyi Kingdom could easily be wiped out."

【Courage of a High Expert】 said: "President Sun, you all always think Lin Bai cares about his Justice Alliance, but what if he doesn't care at all? I don't deny that the consortium's strategy during this period has been effective, but you pushed him too hard. A madman pushed to the edge can do anything."

【Chengfeng】 asked: "If he doesn't care, why did he go to such trouble to establish the Justice Alliance? Just for fun?"

【Courage of a High Expert】 said: "God knows. Lin Bai is an unfathomable person. Although he keeps saying he has a heart of innocence, not a single word out of his mouth is true. Lin Bai has always promoted that players are a catastrophe, yet the things he does are always targeting the natives, and he does so regardless of the consequences—he's more like a player than we are."

【Chengfeng】 pondered for a moment and said: "If we consider Lin Bai from the perspective of a player, he might indeed, as Courage of a High Expert said, challenge a sect regardless of the cost, because this would give him more prestige and achievements..."

【Mountain-Suppressing Tiger】 said: "How should we respond..."

"Lin Bai is coming with ill intent this time; how should we respond?" the Holy Master suddenly spoke, his voice almost overlapping with the private chat of 【Zhenshan Zhihu】.

He looked like a middle-aged man in his forties, tall and sturdy, with a square face and a wide mouth; sitting in his chair, he was nearly half a head taller than the others, possessing an imposing air without even needing to be angry.

"Why not just fight the bastard!" said Ye Luo of the Poison Sect. "We can't just hand over Chilian and Song Yaoqing; if we can't even protect our own people, who will still risk their lives for the sect?"

"The strategies of the Heavenly Descended are useless; they only delayed things for a few days, and in the end, we still have to face Lin Bai directly. He is clearly trying to give us a hard time." Qu Chaoan of the Blood Sect glanced at the consortium leaders present. "Why not follow the methods we previously agreed upon? While he has left the protection of the town, we can wipe out the Puppets beside him in one go. Even if it costs us some losses, we can beat him back to his original form and be done with it once and for all. I have a premonition that if we keep dragging this out, one day Lin Bai will pick us off one by one."

The Demon Master of Tianmo Mountain said gloomily, "The old fogies of the Seven Orthodox Sects are quite lucky; Lin Bai doesn't go looking for trouble with them, but instead comes straight for us."

"Everyone, what is your opinion?" the Holy Master looked at 【Zhenshan Zhihu】 and asked.

"Holy Master, I stand by my judgment," 【Zhenshan Zhihu】 said. "Before the Magpie Bridge is completed, Lin Bai is unwilling to have a large-scale conflict."

"What if he demands Ancestor Chilian from us?" Ye Luo asked.

"Stall," 【Ruri Zhongtian】 said. "In any case, we cannot be the first to strike. Once we strike first, the situation we worked so hard to build will instantly fall apart. The Demonic Five Sects could indeed eradicate the foundation of the Justice Alliance, but if Lin Bai escapes, the Demonic Five Sects will never have peace again, and everything will return to the period of the Orthodox-Demonic Kill Order, which benefits no one."

"The Heavenly Descended are brave and fearless of death; we should have been the main force to deal with Lin Bai, but there is too little time left for us, and we simply cannot grow strong enough," 【Chengfeng】 said. "Currently, there are over a hundred thousand Heavenly Descended in the Taihao Kingdom. These hundred thousand people don't need everyone to be like a dragon; if we have five thousand in the Void Refinement Realm, it would be enough to suppress Lin Bai so he can't even lift his head."

The goal of the consortiums has always been the same: to have a place of their own in the game world.

"Five thousand in the Void Refinement Realm?" the Demon Master sneered. "Even if you are Baimaicutong, do you know how many resources it would consume to raise your cultivation to the Void Refinement Realm in such a short time? Which sect can afford that?"

Several players looked at each other and exchanged opinions.

【Zhenshan Zhihu】 said: "This is the best advice we can give..."

"Are you certain Lin Bai will not initiate a war?" the Holy Master suddenly interrupted him and asked.

"We cannot guarantee it," 【Zhenshan Zhihu】 recalled the deduction of 【Yigaoren Dan Da】 and shook his head. "It is only a possibility. If we deliver a portion of the previous war reparations to the Justice Alliance, the probability of Lin Bai not starting a war will increase to seventy percent. If we hand over Ancestor Chilian and Song Yaoqing, all the pressure will shift to the Seven Orthodox Sects..."

"If we do this, the Demonic Five Sects will likely never be able to hold their heads up in front of the Seven Orthodox Sects again," Lu Wei said with dissatisfaction.

"Killing Lin Bai's Puppets and clipping the wings of the Justice Alliance—none of these methods are aimed at Lin Bai himself," 【Chengfeng】 said. "Sect Masters, although you are unwilling to admit it, you truly have no way to deal with his laws. If you want to deal with Lin Bai steadily, the only way is to use money to buy time, use money to buy peace, and when necessary, trade space for time..."

"What is trading space for time?" Qu Chaoan asked.

"Gradually withdraw from the control of the Taihao Kingdom, let Lin Bai's Justice Alliance expand, and use more affairs to tie up Lin Bai's energy," 【Chengfeng】 said.

"The more you talk, the more cowardly you sound," Lu Wei said angrily. "According to your logic, we might as well just pack up and give the sect to Lin Bai. Holy Master, let's just fight. At worst, we start a new round of the Great War of Gods and Demons. Dragging it out like this is truly infuriating; our massive sect is being pushed into a corner by a tiny Lin Bai..."

Suddenly, 【Zhenshan Zhihu】 froze. He looked at the Blood Sect Master, Qu Chaoan, with a strange expression and said helplessly: "Sect Master Ye, there is no need to discuss further; everyone can fight. Just now, the latest news released by the *Justice Weekly* says that some Heavenly Descended saw Song Yaoqing at the Blood Sect. Lin Bai was furious, believing the Blood Sect is harboring a war criminal, deceiving the Justice Alliance, and acting in bad faith. He abandoned the Taihao Kingdom generals who were there to welcome him at You Men Guan, built a Magpie Bridge, and headed straight for the Blood Sect headquarters to capture Song Yaoqing..."

Everyone present was stunned.

"Preposterous! Even if you put wings on Song Yaoqing, he couldn't fly back to the Blood Sect in these few days!" Qu Chaoan was furious, glared at 【Zhenshan Zhihu】, and shouted, "Why do you Heavenly Descended spread such rumors?"

【Zhenshan Zhihu】 looked at Qu Chaoan as if he were an idiot, shook his head, and sighed: "There is no need for the Heavenly Descended to tip him off at all. Lin Bai doesn't need Song Yaoqing to actually be at the Blood Sect; even if he said Ancestor Chilian was at the Blood Sect, he could still attack."

At the same time, he privately messaged 【Yigaoren Dan Da】: "You were right. Lin Bai never intended to develop steadily; he came here to stir up trouble. He probably really intends to take down one or two sects in one go."

【Yigaoren Dan Da】 frowned: "Lin Bai never does anything he isn't sure of. If he is going directly to attack the Blood Sect, he must have a new method to take it down. Given Lin Bai's personality, as long as he can take the Blood Sect, he will immediately sweep across the world."

Several players were stunned, simultaneously realizing the severity of the situation. The script seemed wrong—how was it following the rhythm of Lin Bai unifying the world!

If Lin Bai really unified the world in three or four months.

Then what the hell are they playing for!

What is the point of the Game Company going to such great lengths and investing so many players?

No city wars, no national wars—three or four hundred thousand people, just to watch Lin Bai perform alone?

"That brat, he goes too far." Qu Chaoan suddenly understood the crux of the matter, the veins on his forehead bulging. "Holy Master, let's fight! Lin Bai is a troublemaker; if we don't kill him, there will never be peace. All this talk of Heavenly Descended and strategies is all wrong..."

"We can't catch up," the Holy Master was stunned for a moment and shook his head.

"..." Qu Chaoan froze, his face turning extremely ugly in an instant.

"How many Great Vehicle Realm experts does the Blood Sect have now?" the Holy Master continued to ask.

"Before the ceasefire with Lin Bai, more than thirty Great Vehicle Realm experts returned to the Blood Sect. Including those who stayed behind, there are over forty. There are eight Tribulation Transcendence Stage ancestors and over two thousand disciples in the Void Refinement Realm." As he spoke, Qu Chaoan's expression suddenly relaxed. He snorted and said disdainfully, "They think they can attack my Blood Sect with eight Great Vehicle Realm experts? Keep dreaming. We don't need to worry. If we enrage the Tribulation Transcendence Stage ancestors and drag him into a shared lightning tribulation, ten Lin Bais wouldn't survive."

(End of chapter)