Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

For the past fifty years, besides his necessary daily cultivation, he had been constantly modifying the *Martial Scripture* to perfectly suit his current stone body.

He had practiced the Martial Dao in the past, but his cultivation Realm was low back then, so he could get by without any modifications.

But now, as his Realm continued to grow, this matter had become increasingly crucial.

Fortunately, after all these years of observing the Martial Dao cultivation of the Divine Shadow Guard, Li Chang’an had made excellent progress.

He had personally established nine Realms for Martial Dao cultivation: Entering the Dao, Mastery, Minor Achievement, Great Success, Perfection, Ultimate Perfection, Grandmaster, Grandmaster, and Divinity Transformation.

He had now modified and perfected the *Martial Scripture* enough to allow him to cultivate to the Perfection Realm.

From the perspective of his long life, this rate of modification was already quite impressive.

However, considering the current situation, it seemed he still needed to speed things up.

The scale of the conflict between the Fusang Tribe and the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe was constantly growing.

Ever since Man Yu reclaimed the hundred-li territory that the Fusang Tribe had lost, the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe had been furious, trying time and again to take it back.

After all, the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe was inherently stronger than the Fusang Tribe. They should have been the ones to benefit from this conflict.

But the reality was that the only piece of land the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe had gained in the conflict had been snatched back by the Fusang Tribe.

This naturally made the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe feel deeply humiliated.

The two sides engaged in decades of conflict and disputes over that hundred-li territory.

Under normal circumstances, the Fusang Tribe would have stood no chance against the much stronger Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe. However, the Fusang Tribe’s current leader was Man Yu, and her talent for warfare was exceptional.

Under Man Yu’s command, through decades of war, the Fusang Tribe had managed to withstand the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe’s attacks, not yielding even an inch of land.

But this was the very limit of what Man Yu could achieve.

After all, while tactics could mitigate a disadvantage in war, the fundamental balance of power between the two sides wouldn’t be so easily altered.

The Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe’s population was double that of the Fusang Tribe, and their territory was more than twice as large.

Furthermore, they had the even more powerful Sunlight Tribe as their backer, putting them in an inherently unbeatable position.

「One day.」 The Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe and the Fusang Tribe launched another large-scale battle. Furious and exasperated, the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe finally lost their patience and directly deployed three Guardian Gods.

This sudden tipping of the scales caused the Fusang Tribe to suffer a major defeat.

Fortunately, Man Yu remained calm and commanded them effectively. The Fusang Tribe’s soldiers retreated dozens of li, barely managing to escape the slaughter.

The Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe was a medium-sized tribe, and a prominent one at that. They had vassal tribes—more than one, in fact.

Now, the Guardian God of the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe, wary of Li Chang’an’s strange power, did not act directly. Instead, they brought over the Guardian Gods of their vassal tribes, clearly intending to test Li Chang’an’s attitude.

The Fusang Tribe also had a vassal tribe: the Barbarian Snake Tribe, whose courage had been shattered by Li Chang’an in a previous war.

However, a single barbarian snake was clearly not enough to solve the problem in a war of this scale.

By proactively deploying Guardian Gods—even if they were from vassal tribes—the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe was signaling their intention to escalate the war.

If the Fusang Tribe couldn’t suppress this notion quickly, then before long, the one to act would likely be the true Guardian God of the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe.

「When this news reached the Fusang Tribe.」

The mood inside the Fusang Tribe was clearly tense.

In the past, although the Fusang Tribe had faced many enemies, aside from the despair-inducing Sunlight Tribe, the others had been mostly pushovers.

This was completely different from the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe they now faced.

The Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe was a leader among medium-sized tribes. Minor skirmishes within mutually acceptable limits were one thing, but if a full-scale war were to break out, the Fusang Tribe would clearly suffer a great loss.

The upper echelons of the Fusang Tribe gathered to discuss countermeasures.

However, as the leader, Man Yu had no interest in joining their pointless chatter.

She pushed open the doors of the Temple, found Li Chang’an, and got straight to the point. “Lord Guardian God, the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe seems to want an all-out war with us. They’ve already sent the Guardian Gods of their vassal tribes to attack our borders. What should I do next?!”

The meaning behind her words was simple.

If Li Chang’an did not want a full-scale war, then what she needed to do now was offer an apology and reparations as soon as possible.

The Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe’s stance was actually very clear.

They held a grudge against the Fusang Tribe because of the defeat they suffered over the hundred-li territory. Ceding that land during negotiations would be enough.

At least, it would satisfy their appetite for the time being.

If Li Chang’an agreed to an all-out war, what Man Yu needed to do would be even simpler: just organize the army, gather supplies, and prepare to face the enemy.

Man Yu had absolute faith in her Guardian God. If her Guardian God was willing to fight, she unconditionally believed he could handle the attacks from the enemy’s Guardian God.

But whether they fought or not, there was one prerequisite: Man Yu had to understand Li Chang’an’s attitude. Only then could she decide on her next move.

Li Chang’an was, of course, aware of what had happened outside.

Normally, he was still in the middle of modifying his Martial Dao and theoretically shouldn’t get into conflicts with the outside world. But in reality, Li Chang’an didn’t think that way at all.

Because they were neighbors, there was fundamentally no possibility of reconciliation in the war between the Fusang Tribe and the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe.

After all, the Fusang Tribe needed to develop, and so did the Nine-Tower Mountain Tribe. Unless one side was completely wiped out, conflict between them was inevitable sooner or later.

…