Whether the monsters approached Li Qing, or Li Qing himself had noticed their intent, the result was the sa—
a secret alliance was ford.
The monsters gained a wisp of Heaven's aura and used it to lay the perfect trap.
While Wan Jie Demon Lord was lured to his doom, Li Qing used the opportunity to assault the Demonic Dao headquarters,
with the intent to seize their Primordial Dao Aspect.
All of this could have been avoided—
had Minghe Yama Zi not acted selfishly, making decisions that served his own interests.
Because Ghost Dao deliberately concealed vital information, everyone's judgnt had been skewed from the start.
None had even considered that Li Qing possessed enough strength to strike at the headquarters of an entire Dao lineage.
And Li Qing, knowing the monsters were preparing a trap for Wan Jie Demon Lord, simply waited for the weakest mont to act—
and succeeded flawlessly.
There had been signs—such as Li Qing's summoning of eight Yin Generals—
but lacking a key piece of information, no one could deduce Li Qing's true goal.
Ghost Dao's initial miscalculation might've been forgivable—
but the true blunder was this:
even after uncovering Li Qing's motives, they still failed to capture him.
Worse—he managed to annihilate the Demonic Dao in their entirety.
Now, aside from the Immortals themselves, any wandering cultivator risked being ambushed—
their Primordial Dao Aspect forcibly extracted from mory.
It was a complete and utter loss.
The six Immortals turned on Minghe Yama Zi, questioning him harshly.
He could only defend himself with the tired excuse:
"Put yourselves in my position—any of you would've done the sa."
In the end, they were all gathered under one banner for mutual gain.
Clashes of interest were bound to happen.
Perhaps sensing the danger looming ever closer, Minghe Yama Zi reminded them that they were now being watched by seven enemies:
the five ninth-tier monsters, Li Qing, and Xuanyuan Changlong.
If they turned on each other now, they would be doing nothing but handing victory to their foes.
In other words—Minghe Yama Zi had no intention of admitting fault.
And truthfully, he wasn't entirely wrong.
In a normal situation, everyone would have chosen to swallow their pride for the greater good,
at least until the Fengshen Ritual ended.
But this wasn't just about concealing information—
this was the spark that ignited the long-festering tensions between Minghe Yama Zi and the rest of the Immortals,
especially after rumors surfaced about the Demonic Dao colluding with otherworldly forces.
Now, Minghe Yama Zi had beco the classic thorn in the side:
a destabilizing factor, a turncoat, a traitor carrying a viper to strike his own kin.
No group—no matter how tolerant—would willingly tolerate such an elent.
Thus, to eradicate Minghe Yama Zi
was now proclaid to be for the sake of the greater good.
Just as Li Qing predicted and arranged
—
Temporarily setting aside the internal strife, the Immortals began to reexamine the peculiar aspects of the recent events—
and more importantly, what they should do moving forward.
First and foremost, the timing of the Heavenly Mandate War had been… suspicious.
It erupted exactly at the sa ti the five ninth-tier monsters ambushed Wan Jie Demon Lord,
and Li Qing struck the Demonic Dao headquarters.
It was almost as if the three parties were coordinating with one another.
This coincidence was far too convenient.
Hence, their next step must be to investigate the origins of this war,
and uncover why it happened at that specific ti.
Second, the five ninth-tier monsters had now tasted success through traps and sches—
there was no reason to believe they would stop.
Future traps were likely, especially those involving the Heavenly Seal.
And since that touched upon personal interests, it would be all too easy for soone to fall prey to greed.
Thus, moving forward, any news related to the Heavenly Seal must be treated as a trap—
either set by the monsters or by Li Qing.
Best not let anyone be blinded by desire.
If the Heavenly Seal were so easily found, it would have been discovered long ago during the hundred-thousand-year reign of the Immortals.
Next ca the issue of the three remaining Primordial Dao Aspects that Li Qing had yet to obtain—
those belonging to the Beast Dao, the True Treasure Dao Sect, and the Eternal Night Dao Sect.
From this point on, every cultivator who had ever seen those Aspects was to be gathered and kept under direct watch by the Avatars of the Immortals,
to prevent Li Qing from extracting the Aspects via mory or other ans.
All strategies using Primordial Aspects as bait were to be abandoned.
If sches could no longer outplay Li Qing,
then they would no longer play at all.
Instead, they would use the most direct and brutal thods to lock Li Qing's cultivation at the fifth tier,
cutting off any path to ascend beyond.
Once the eting adjourned, the Immortals once again split off to pursue individual duties.
Haoran Saint, charged with investigating the origins of the Heavenly Mandate War, headed toward the Northern Regions.
In doing so, he completely concealed his trail—
so that Li Qing's intelligence network would be unable to detect him.
With no trace, no karmic connection would arise.
And with no karma, there would be no information leak,
rendering Li Qing's Jade Talisman useless.
However, Li Qing had already predicted this exact counterasure.
In preparation, he had extracted and altered the mories of Sun Qiankun,
replacing them with a fully constructed false mory.
In this false recollection, the entire Heavenly Mandate War had been Sun Qiankun's own doing—
his own stratagems, his own spies, his own web of plans.
Everything aligned perfectly with reality—except for one thing:
Li Qing's presence was erased from every detail.
Even if Haoran Saint combed through the mories of every participant,
he would find no flaws,
no inconsistencies, and no trace of Li Qing's hand behind it all.
—
Rebellious Demon Sovereign and Peerless Buddha were holding a secret conversation.
The balance of the Eight Immortals had already been broken.
And those who stood to gain the most from this rupture were the three Immortals of the Daoist Sects,
as they had always been a private alliance hidden within the greater collective.
If Haoran Saint were to side with the Daoist trio,
then the non-Daoist Immortals would be forced into a weak position—
and very likely beco the next targets of eradication.
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