Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 250: Chapter 149: Immortal Slayer

The Liyang Empire and the Immortal Palace were locked in a bitter war.

In terms of overall combat strength, the Liyang Empire, having only developed for a few thousand years, was no match for the Immortal Palace. The latter boasted a long and storied history, with countless smaller worlds serving as a source of resources.

However, the Li Yang Continent possessed a rather strong World Consciousness that automatically resisted invaders from other worlds who tried to enter its domain.

It wasn’t so easy for Cultivators to forcibly break through the world barrier and descend to the Lower Realm. First, they had to construct and open an Immortal Sect Gate on the Li Yang Continent.

Second, layer upon layer of barriers separated the two worlds.

These barriers involved both time and space. During the initial opening phase, both would be unstable, and the slightest fluctuation could be fatal.

On top of these issues, even the Immortal Palace lacked the mature technology to rapidly generate and stabilize an Immortal Sect Gate.

Thus, even after constructing an Immortal Sect Gate, the Immortal Palace had to wait for the spatiotemporal fluctuations to stabilize before they could dispatch their forces.

Before then, High-tier Cultivators couldn’t cross at all; the potential losses were simply too great.

It was this very restriction that bought the Li Yang Continent a great deal of time.

The Cultivators conquered many areas in the Lower Realm and tried to build more Immortal Sect Gates across the Li Yang Continent, but Li Chang’an and his legions of Martial Artists beat them back time and time again.

Both sides paid a heavy price in blood and bodies.

The very earth near the Immortal Sect Gates was scoured clean by the fighting.

Overall, when the Cultivators first began sending their disciples down in large numbers, the Martial Artists were at a significant disadvantage.

It would be no exaggeration to say they were in constant retreat.

The Cultivators suddenly produced various Magical Treasures that could counter modern firearms, forcing the Martial Artists into close-quarters combat.

In that period, hundreds of thousands died in frontline clashes alone.

The entire world of the Li Yang Martial Dao was filled with wails of grief. In many frontline cities, nearly every household hung white silk in mourning.

If not for Li Chang’an personally leading the charge and repelling the Cultivators’ attacks time and again, the entire Li Yang Continent would have collapsed long ago.

But the Li Yang Continent was the Martial Artists’ home turf. After the first fifty years of struggling to adapt, the tide of the war began to shift.

The Martial Artists of the Liyang Empire slowly figured out many ways to counter the Cultivators.

For instance, due to the world’s natural restrictions, Cultivators couldn’t absorb Spiritual Power in the Lower Realm. This meant the Martial Artists could slowly wear them down through a war of attrition.

Another example: Cultivators were not skilled in close-quarters combat, so Martial Artists could leverage their formidable physical prowess to engage them head-on!

Or they could even turn a Cultivator’s own Magical Treasure against them for a surprise attack, catching them completely off guard…

These small tactics were all learned through long years of war, paid for with the blood and lives of countless Martial Artists.

「At the same time.」

Under the shadow of the Immortal Palace—a veritable Sword of Damocles threatening annihilation at any moment—the combat prowess of the Liyang Empire’s Martial Artists surged as if they were on fire.

A few short decades of development in the Martial Dao equaled that of the past several centuries!

This just went to show that war was truly one of the most effective catalysts for explosive technological and tactical advancement.

…

For the Cultivators, particularly those from the Immortal Palace’s Law Enforcement Hall, this was far from their first time suppressing a rebellious Lower Realm.

But many of them had never before witnessed a rebellion on such a massive scale or with such ferocious resistance as that of the Liyang Empire.

As the fighting dragged on, the Cultivators were shocked to find that the native Martial Artists’ eyes glowed with a feral light whenever they looked at them.

—It was the look of raw, undisguised fury and hatred.

A look that could only be answered with blood.

In truth, with the war having reached this stage, many of the lower-level Cultivators in the Lower Realm were beginning to feel regret and fear.

After all, their own lives were precious. They weren’t like this pack of ferocious natives from the Liyang Empire who had nowhere else to go, who had nothing to do but desperately defend this worthless, garbage patch of a world.

They, on the other hand, controlled far too many worlds and had far too many options.

The Li Yang Continent had originally been just one insignificant territory among thousands, and one of the least valuable at that.

And yet, here they were, waging war against a bunch of natives on this barren rock.

And paying an enormous price for it.

Even if they did eventually manage to conquer this world, so what?

The investment was completely disproportionate to the return. It was a losing bargain through and through.

But with the war having reached this point, it was no longer just about profit. The Immortal Palace needed to crush the Liyang Empire to demonstrate its overwhelming power to all its watching enemies.

As for the Liyang Empire’s stance on the war, that was even simpler.

If the Cultivators were defeated, they still had a way to retreat. But if the Martial Artists of Li Yang lost, there would be no other outcome for them but the utter destruction of their nation and their people.

Furthermore, Li Chang’an not only controlled the narrative of the war, but had also united a great number of courageous, capable, and iron-willed individuals.

Anyone else, even if they had other ideas, was swept up in the tide and dared not voice dissent. They could only grit their teeth and prepare to fight to the death.

…

「In the year 2337 of the Emperor Calendar.」

Li Chang’an was now over three thousand years old, his temples streaked with silver.

He wasn’t old, but he was no longer young. The constant fighting had left him with numerous old injuries, yet the killing intent radiating from him could still strike terror into the hearts of Cultivators from a great distance.