Immortal Father
Chapter 757 - 757 264 Thousands of Merit_2

757: Chapter 264: Thousands of Merit_2 757: Chapter 264: Thousands of Merit_2 Li Ping’an savored the information and indeed understood how the Western Sect had been inefficiently exploiting the power of incense merit.

[Step one, occupy a realm, bringing in a group of mortals, allowing them to multiply and thrive.]

[Step two, after several thousand or ten thousand years, when the realm’s population of mortals reaches a certain number—at a minimum, tens of millions—allow malevolent demons to wreak havoc, devour a batch of mortals, and use the mortal souls to replenish the demons’ strength, while also entangling the demons in karma, thus being abandoned by the Heavenly Dao.]

This second step also kills several birds with one stone.

It not only keeps the malevolent demons from escaping the control of the Western Sect, who must rely on the protection of the twelve-grade golden lotus, but it also firmly sets them against the Human Race;

It can also instill genuine fear in the mortals.

Then comes the third step.

[Step three, fabricate a wild deity out of thin air, have the demons impersonate this deity, and create the illusion that they fought and expelled the malevolent demons, thus making the populace willingly worship this new deity.]

[Step four, establish this wild deity’s temple and idols, gathering the power of incense, allowing mortals to continue living peacefully and multiply, providing a constant stream of souls for the demons to cultivate, while maintaining a facade of peace and tranquility.]

After that is how to utilize these incense merits.

The Western Sect might not know the specific rules of the Heavenly Dao.

But they discovered that by fabricating a plausible set of scriptures and cultivating a group of followers for this wild deity, making them repeatedly chant the scriptures, they could draw the power of incense merit to strengthen themselves.

Then came the most reprehensible action from the Western Sect.

[Step five, use mortals with the capacity to cultivate as a basis, infuse them with the power of incense merit, and in a hundred years, a batch of puppet Dao Soldiers could be cultivated.]

From what Li Ping’an saw in these idol visions…

In just the last three thousand years, the Misty Realm has cultivated twenty batches of puppet Dao Soldiers.

These puppet Dao Soldiers possessed patchy spiritual power nearly equivalent to Qi Cultivators in the Merge True realm, and were almost completely controlled by spells, lacking any real autonomous will.

If we operate on the assumption that the Misty Realm has functioned this way for thirty thousand years, that would amount to two hundred batches of puppet Dao Soldiers, ranging from hundreds to thousands per batch, taking an average number…

At the very least, they’d have a hundred thousand Dao Soldiers!

And that is just the Misty Realm alone.

With three thousand worlds beyond, if there are more than two hundred such places where the Western Sect has been farming like the Misty Realm…

The strength of these forces is indeed terrifying.

Moreover, the Misty Realm’s Sky Amber Monastery holds a ‘Thousand Immortals Assembly’ once every thousand years, attracting Loose Cultivators from various small worlds beyond, then killing those with weak powers and converting those with strong powers.

Thus, the Dao Soldiers have a backbone for their mid-tier combat force!

Of course, in order for the ‘Thousand Immortals Assembly’ to keep going, Li Ping’an deduced that those converted Loose Cultivators would also pretend to continue living normally in their respective worlds for a while, praising how good the Sky Amber Monastery’s Thousand Immortals Assembly was, and saying only after a few thousand years that they had gone on to roam further.

One Thousand Immortals Assembly influences dozens of small worlds;

Could there be similar traps like the Thousand Immortals Assembly elsewhere?

What disturbed Li Ping’an even more was that the worlds beyond were not just made up of Human Race-dominated small worlds; there were also a large number of worlds that bred demon soldiers.

The remnants of the old Demon Race from the prime world had fiercely counterattacked because they brought back a million demon soldiers from beyond.

If the Western Sect were to fully reveal its hand to the Human Race, could the main world’s Human Race really withstand such an impact?

Li Ping’an sat on his throne, lost in thought.

He suddenly understood why the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan was so urgently pushing to establish the Human Race’s Heavenly Court, so eager to exterminate the primeval behemoths of the main world.

The ultimate goal of the Western Sect’s plot was likely not to annihilate the Human Race.

What was the ultimate endgame of the Great Sects’ Hierarchs plotting?

Rise of the West?

Dignity?

Face?

It seemed someone had once given him the answer…

The reins of the Heavenly Dao…

Yes, the Queen Mother was willing to lower herself before a poor boy like him, despite her status as a Great Power from antiquity, essentially aiming for the reins of the Heavenly Dao.

Li Ping’an now had experienced the numerous subtle uses of the authority of the Heavenly Dao.

On reflection, when the ancient war ended, Hongjun shattered the Creation Jade Disc and refused to merge, which also resulted in the loss of the Zixiao Palace’s teachings, no distributing of Hongmeng Purple Qi based on one’s seat, and with no Hongmeng Purple Qi, the strongest in the current world were the Six Great Masters, not Six Saints of the Heavenly Dao.

A chance for sainthood?

Were the Hierarchs of the Western Sect trying to control the Human Race and then turn around to control the Heavenly Dao, all in search of their own opportunity for sainthood?

Li Ping’an sat on his throne in silence for a long time.

What about the other four Hierarchs?

Did they also have their own schemes?

The Three Pure Ones operated with principles, and the Holy Mother had no need for tricks, which made the Hierarchs of the Western Sect stand out all the more glaringly.

“Sigh.”

Li Ping’an sighed, lifted a finger, and with a gesture, the myriad images burst into spiritual light, sinking back into the forehead of the great deity Tian Hu.

Indeed, the great deity Tian Hu had been scared witless by the malevolent demons, timid as a mouse, hardly destined for greatness.

But since he was the main deity of this small world, with more nurturing, perhaps he could still be of some use.

“Tian Hu?”

“Heavenly Emperor, my lord!” Tian Hu bellowed, “Please spare my life!

I truly haven’t harmed anyone!

I know my wrongs!”

Li Ping’an said coldly, “As a deity of incense, you should naturally protect the mortals of this place.

Your sins cannot be atoned for even by death.”

The once-kneeling great deity Tian Hu slumped to the ground, his eyes rapidly losing their light.

Li Ping’an:…

Deities are much easier to bamboozle than people.

His voice softened, “However.”

Tian Hu cried out, “I am willing!

I am willing to do anything!”

Li Ping’an said, “In that case, I shall spare your life for now.

Hand over the incense merit, then.”

“Yes!

Of course!

Not to speak of incense merit, but…

Heavenly Emperor, my lord,” Tian Hu asked, bewildered, “how do I hand over the incense merit?”