After a few days, a shocking news came from Four Elements City.
The powerful and overbearing Sha Sect was wiped out from existence as the disciples of the sect fleed. None of them had the courage to honour the agreement and fight.
Furthermore, even their powerful sect head, who was a Wu Zong, had disappeared. It was unknown how he had died, and the powerful and influential organisations in Four Elements City started to worry and show their support for Han Family to redeem themselves for their indecisiveness to pledge their loyalty.
However, this shocking news was nothing compared to the disbanding of the Mystic Jade Sect, which was one of the 3 powerful sects in Leaf Lake.
According to Mystic Jade Sect, a few days ago, a mysterious highly-skilled person had visited the sect. The elders of the Mystic Jade Sect, under the leadership of the sect head, we no match for the mysterious martial artist. Therefore, they were all forced to swear that they would disband the sect and would never use the name of Mystic Jade Sect ever again.
In truth, the Han Family knew that it was a cover-up by the sect after discovering that the sect head was killed.
Without a Wu Zong in the Meridian Opening Realm to lead them, considering the resources that Mystic Jade Sect owned, they would attract a lot of attention which would in turn cause trouble to all the disciples of the sect.
Elder Han was an experienced person. He knew that he should not ride on the situation to make things difficult for the Mystic Jade Sect. Instead, he had become even more low-profile as he started to let go of control in Four Elements City, beginning his plan to move into seclusion.
After all, trouble times ensued. If he were to attract too much attention, the family could get into trouble.
If he were to move the family into seclusion, even if the soldiers were to wreak havoc in the city, the Han Family would still stay safe and live on for generations. Of course, these were all ifs.
Just as the powers in Four Elements City were changing, Fang Yuan had already left Leaf Region.
As he journeyed, he started to investigate the jade which he had just obtained from his Master's family.
"Master has already taught me everything that he could. In this piece of jade left in his own family, he has not only recorded the 8 Gates Sword Array but also some secret information regarding the Imperial Court and the Hidden Dragon Guards as well... He thought that these pieces of information would be useless to me but useful to the family. However, he never thought that it would be extremely hard for dream masters to continue existing..."
Fang Yuan sighed. "However, after this, there might be some changes."
He taught Han Ling'er the Meditative Tea Ceremony and even left some Heart Questioning Tea for her.
Considering the amount of tea that he had given her, if the family was fortunate enough, one of them might walk on the path of becoming a dream master! Even if that was not possible, they might still become spiritual knights.
This was the opportunity for their family to rise once again.
To Fang Yuan, since the people of the Han Family were not the immediate family members of Master Heartless, they were already fortunate enough to have obtained these.
Moving on, Fang Yuan had to put down his worries and plan for his own path.
"I have a few months remaining of the 6 months. In this period of time, I can increase my cultivation once more through dream-traversing..."
Although he had attained the True Divine to be qualified to fight in the war, Fang Yuan wanted to have more confidence to be able to go against a group of powerful beings including Sages so as to benefit from them.
Therefore, he was still lacking such an ability.
His path of martial arts had come to an end. After all, other than the few imperial advisors who were strengthened by the heavenly energy of Da Qian, there were no other newly promoted True Divines.
Fang Yuan knew that he was no match against all of them. Therefore, he had shifted his attention to other aspects of his cultivation.
With this, dream-traversing to increase his power as a dream master became a priority.
"The coordinates of those realms rich in source energy are with the highly-skilled people of the influential organisations. I have no way of getting it from them... the only exception is the Ancient Realm!"
Fang Yuan felt a tinge of regret.
He had tried before in his realm and was disappointed.
Although the realm did not discriminate against him, the entire realm seemed to have fallen into a mysterious turmoil, as though it was undergoing a certain change.
The feeling that time was not consistent in the Ancient Realm led Fang Yuan to suspect that if he were to enter it once more, it might be possible that a day in the Ancient Realm would result in a year to pass in Da Qian! By then, he would have lost the opportunity to cultivate in both Da Qian and the Ancient Realm.
"However, as a 7th Leaf Cultivator, my level of rights is rather high. I should deserve some special treatment, right?"
With that, Fang Yuan had come to a conclusion. Within a few moments, he had entered the Dream Realm and sourced for a suitable realm from the Data Treasury of the Realm Alliance.
Middle Region, Yingchou City.
This city was the North entrance to Middle Region. Leveraging on the geographical features of the Yingchou valley, the 20,000 rebels of Shi Longtu were kept at bay outside of the region.
At this point in time, the entire city had become a fort, ready to engage in war. The city walls were glittering with spiritual light. The runes sparkled and spiritual cannons and spiritual bows were all ready to fire.
"Leader!"
Two leaders from the Hidden Dragon Guards sat in a building as their strong spiritual will covered the entire city continuously.
With that, a few Hidden Dragon Guards entered the building and paid their respects. "According to leader's tip-off, we have discovered the hiding spot of a group of rebels during today's patrol! They were from the Divine Lotus Cult and we have killed all of them."
"Mmmm..."
The powerful being who seemed as though he was in the 7th Tier of the Illusionary Divine stage nodded his head before looking around the room. These are only the small soldiers. What is most important in killing the rebels are your combat powers!"
"Hmph, Shi Longtu was favoured by the king and was once a soldier under the king. Who would've thought that he would rebel!"
As soon as a Hidden Dragon Guard heard the leader, he gritted his teeth and remarked.
Shi Longtu was originally the region governor of Tall Region. He had a distinct look when he was younger and was famous in his village. As he matured, he was assisted by the local minister and was enlisted into the military. With his successes in war, he was favoured by the king and his career was smooth sailing.
As the next king, King Zhao Ming, took over, Shi Longtu was further promoted to the appointment of region governor. No one would think that this person would rebel against the Imperial Court.
"There was no other outcome... we have traced his family to 3 generations ago and understood more about the Shi Family... They were originally the spies of the Divine Lotus Cult. Shi Longtu was the incarnation of an elder from the Divine Lotus Cult. He had sealed his own memories and therefore, he was undetectable. It is only now that he is taking action..."
These spies could only do so much and therefore, there was not many of them. However, if any of them could climb up to a high appointment, they could cause destruction.
"Zhang Jin from the South and Wu Yue from Yong Region are nothing to be feared. However, Shi Longtu is indeed troubling. After all, his subordinates are all officers in the military!"
One of the leaders sighed.
Since the ancient times, the farmers would be at the frontline of a volunteer corps. However, they had insufficient food and weapons and were not sufficiently trained.
Facing such a volunteer corps, the government could use 1,000 soldiers to fight against 10,000 of them! Or even 100,000!
Only the armies with resources, military discipline and training would be able to pose a threat to the Imperial Court.
In the Da Qian Empire, such a difference in the quality of soldiers would be magnified.
How many normal civilians would have the chance to become Wu Zongs, spiritual knights or even dream masters?
Therefore, those in power would be much more powerful and those lowly civilians would have no hope if they rebel.
If there were natural disasters or threats from rebels, a district leader with a high level of cultivation would be able to gain positive control over the district regardless of the number of rebels from the volunteer corps.
Although there seemed to be a lot of rebellion going on in Da Qian, if the Hidden Dragon Guards were to strike, most of them would be wiped out and they could restore peace within a month!
Even if they were up against 20,00 soldiers who were properly trained, it would only take 2 Hidden Dragon Guards to clean up everyone.
Unfortunately, the rebels were also protected by dream masters. That would be the greatest cause for concern.
The leaders of both sides already had an unspoken agreement to not get involved in the conflict and would solely depend on their army to get their intended outcome.
Considering the current situation of Da Qian, this was their desperate attempt to keep the entire Empire under control.
"Within Yingchou City, we only have 50,000 soldiers. It should be no problem to guard the city for half a year!"
The other leader replied. "Head has already instructed that we would be given credit as long as we can defend this place for half a year!"
"After Yingchou city, it is a vast piece of grassy plains. If we fail to defend the city, the rebels will be able to smoothly make their way to the Jade Capital..."
The other leader started to shake his head. "Does Head intend to delay things for half a year to change the situation? Difficult! Difficult! Difficult, I say!!!"
"The 5 Grand Organisations have already cast the 6 Extremes Earth Shattering Array to disrupt the breath of the earth. The power of Da Qian will slowly be weakened. However, that is not how fate should be, and things might change!"
The two leaders exchanged glances and their eyes glistened.
Jade Capital City.
Within the city, powerful beings were in total control. The buildings were grand and the Dragon Meridian here was under control. It was the strongest looking city in the world.
"Cough cough...."
In a particular corner of the city, an old daoist was coughing, staining his handkerchief with blood. "The enemy has the support of many dream future masters and they have disrupted the fate of the world. I cannot do anything but push against fate, making it jumbled out. If I do so, we will not be able to predict anything, but our enemies will also be helpless..."
This war at such a scale had already begun long ago.
Both sides were disrupting each other's fate, resulting in the fate of the realm to be jumbled up. Even a powerful dream future master would not be able to obtain a definite prediction and would predict many outcomes wrongly.
Otherwise, the outcome of Fang Yuan obtaining Sage Changli's inheritance and even become a True Divine would have been predicted countless times which would reveal Fang Yuan's true intentions.
"Very well, this is enough. Thank you for your efforts. Leave everything to me!"
Beside the old daoist, it was the Head of Hidden Dragon Guards speaking with a deep voice.
"Cough cough... I don't have long to live and I have no cure... Needless to say, you will feel less pressured with one new helper..."
Old Daoist Shang Hou smiled and examined his surroundings.
He was in something which resembled an altar. It was ancient looking and was constructed with colourful bricks. Standing at 30 yards tall, it was a grand structure and offerings were already prepared on the altar.
"Hmmm, alright then...."
The Head of Hidden Dragon Guards lit the offerings ablaze and threw a jade rock and a spiritual tortoise's shell into the flames as well. Green smoke started to fill the air, covering the skies.
"The earth dragon is only manipulated by the rebels because it lies underground... The 6 Extremes Earth Shattering Array is completed. We cannot stop it from forming anymore. The only thing we can do is to build an equally strong array to go against it. The opponents are using an Earth Array, so we shall form a Heavenly Array!"
The will of heaven was invisible and intangible. Therefore the array created would have no tangible weakness.
Previously, it would be absurd for even the Head of Hidden Dragon Guards to cast a Heavenly Array.
Now, everything was different!
Shang Hou could sense that the will of the Da Qian world was supporting them!
That would form the foundation of the Heavenly Array!