Even though there was not much discussion about the decision, Lin Feng along with the two emperors had a degree of chemistry and limited the power of the cultivators venturing into the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain at the third-level immortal soul stage.
The Celestial Sect of Wonders had no immortal soul stage cultivators. However, Zhu Yi managed to defeat Shao Qingcheng, who was a first-level immortal soul stage cultivator when he himself as only in the nascent soul advanced stage and nobody dared to underestimate him.
Of the people from the Great Qin Empire's camp, there was another second-level immortal soul stage cultivator aside from the Vivant Joy Holy Man. Shi Yu's younger cousin, Shi Lin, who was also Prince Jingfang. He was one of the important pillars of the Great Qin Empire's royal family, along with Prince Anliang Shi Zongyue.
Shi Lin leapt down from the Immortal Dragon City and joined the Vivant Joy Holy Man and the others into the ancient magic formation surrounding the Yingzhou Mountain.
Any could tell that the middle-aged monk radiating with Buddhist light from the Great Zhou Empire's party was not simply at a high level of cultivation and mastery; his understanding of the Buddhist teachings was deep and profound as well.
Once he showed up, complicated expressions came over everyone's faces. "Da Kong…"
The middle-aged monk smiled and said, "Greetings, everyone."
He wasted no more time as he placed his palms together and greeted the Tidal Sword Elder before he took his party, along with the cultivators from the Vast Sea Sword Sect, down into the mountain.
Even people who heard his name before gave the same complicated look.
Lin Feng glanced at the Da Kong Zen Master before his eyes returned to the Imperial Palace. He smiled faintly as he thought to himself, "Even this guy is here. Looks like the Great Zhou Empire is really out in full force."
The Da Kong Zen Master was in the same generation as the Virtuous Zen Master. He entered the sect later, but had a higher level of mastery than the Virtuous Zen Master, and was one of the more talented disciples in the younger generation of the Great Thunderclap Temple. He was taken in by one of the elders of the Great Thunderclap Temple when he was just a little nameless monk as his personal disciple.
After forming the Buddha Spell Body and attaining the second level of the Golden Form, he assumed leadership of the Garden of Enlightenment and officially entered the inner circle of the Great Thunderclap Temple.
After the War of Buddha Annihilation, the Da Kong Zen Master deserted the Great Thunderclap Temple and joined the Great Zhou Empire. This piece of news was rather obscure, and lower level cultivators were completely unaware. However, everybody above the immortal soul stage knew about this. The only thing was that the Da Kong Zen Master had been in reclusion ever since and was never seen in the outside world again after the War of Buddha Annihilation.
Lin Feng knew that this charming and friendly-looking monk was one of the key figures in the War of Buddha Annihilation.
The defeat of the Great Thunderclap Temples all those years ago was also partially due to the non-committal attitude of the Great Void Sect. Still, the use of the Formation-Bursting Drum to aid the Anti-Buddha Alliance to defeat the Vairocana Formation clearly displayed their intentions.
There was a special reason for this particular action. According to their original attitude and the way the Great Void Sect generally did things, this was not supposed to happen.
Based on what Lin Feng knew, the Da Kong Zen Master was not a spy that was implanted within the Great Thunderclap Temple. However, the fact that he was able to live 'happily ever after' after the war meant that it was not as simple as him switching sides during the war.
It was possible that this man discovered some of the hidden secrets of the Great Thunderclap Temple and blew the whistle to the Great Void Sect that changed their minds about the War of Buddha Annihilation.
Lin Feng observed the Da Kong Zen Master for a moment longer. He could feel that his soul was clear and carefree, and was completely without remorse for deserting his sect and joining the ranks of their enemies. It was as if this was completely justified back then during the war.
Since he was not a spy that had been implanted by the Great Void Sect or the Great Zhou Empire within the Great Thunderclap Temple, this meant that his journey in learning the teachings of Buddha were not mixed with other unnecessary thoughts and was pure at its core - and even then, he supported the War of Buddha Annihilation.
"Perhaps… To him, what he did was not to 'annihilate Buddha' itself but to annihilate the disciples that have gone down the wrong path?" Lin Feng continued to speculate in his head. "It's like the splitting of the Great Void Sect into the Conservative Party and the Radical Party - the Great Thunderclap Temple was not just one uniform slab. There were different factions with different interpretations of Buddhist teachings, and different branches would have formed naturally."
Lin Feng thought for a moment longer before he laughed and shook his head. The system alert rang incessantly in between his ears as he surveyed the Imperial Palace once more before he turned towards Zhu Yi and the others and sent a voice-projected message. "Zhu Yi - do help me monitor and watch out for the monk that's leading the Great Zhou Empire's party."
Zhu Yi's eyes sparkled as he listened to Lin Feng's explanation of the situation. "If we can capture this man, we may discover the true motive of the War of Buddha Annihilation all those years ago. However, he's a second-level immortal soul stage cultivator and I still can't do anything to him."
Lin Feng chuckled and said, "That's no matter. I have a rough idea of what happened during the War of Buddha Annihilation. You don't have to go rough with him - I just need you to pay attention because he might have a lot of relics in his possession."
"Oh?" Zhu Yi nodded his head. "I understand."
During their various journeys and expeditions over the years, Zhu Yi and his seniors and juniors had discovered miscellaneous relics here and there. However, it was not even ten percent of the total number.
According to Lin Feng's deductions, a great many relics probably ended up in the hands of the Great Zhou Empire after the devastation of the Great Thunderclap Temple.
The incessant beeping sounds from the system between his ears upon seeing the Da Kong Zen Master further proved this point. The Imperial Palace definitely had a quite a few relics in its possession - the fact that it was able to recover at such a steady pace such that it was only a hair's breadth away from its former glory was due to the injection of a myriad of resources by the Great Zhou Empire; the Hades' Dark Mantra and the various Buddhist relics were a few of the more substantial materials.
Even the Da Kong Zen Master himself had relics on his body.
"This monk is interesting. You call yourself a man on the true path of Buddhism, but you show no respect whatsoever for the olden relics of his predecessors. You're okay with the the Great Zhou Empire using these relics as materials to forge magic treasures, and even when you use it for yourself, you don't seem to be bothered by it."
Lin Feng had seen other Buddhist cultivators before who had no conscience about using their predecessor's relics for magic items and whatnot. However, both Monk Hui Ku and Monk Yuan Xiang still felt guilty about the whole thing.
Lin Feng smiled. "You call yourself Da Kong - have you truly seen through the world and detached yourself from all emotion? Even third-level Golden Form Buddhist cultivators may not be able to achieve that. Still, if that's the case, then you're not too far from the Virtual Golden Form of the Buddha."
The Vast Sea Sword Sect followed the Great Zhou Empire's party into the ancient magic formation while the Vivant Joy Holy Man and Shi Xingyun followed Prince Jingfang Shi Lin inside as well.
The Sun-Swallowing Grand Sage and the flock of Golden Roc demons along with the dragons under the command of the Red Dragon King knew the impossible difficulty of their task ahead and had already given up.
With the Immortal Dragon City, the Imperial Palace and Mount Yujing anchoring down the mountain above their heads, they would probably turn into dust in an instant if they blindingly headed down to the mountain with thoughts of claiming it for themselves.
Lin Feng, Shi Yu and Liang Pan would not hesitate to team up temporarily against the demons as it would benefit their cause in the war between the two worlds and reduce the number of competitors as well.
Against such a line-up, even the Golden Roc Grand Sage and the Purple Sea Dragon King would have to think twice about taking them on, let alone the Sun-Swallowing Grand Sage and the Red Dragon King.
The Red Dragon King stared at the Imperial Palace and the Immortal Dragon City with an expressionless face.
Both destiny-level magic treasures had caused the dragon race great pain and were both ancestral enemies of the dragons.
The Immemorial Celestial Dragons once reigned supreme across the entire world during the Primordial Age. There was nothing much to be said about the humans at that time, and even other demon races were subservient under the rule of the dragons.
The Demon Emperor during that era was Xuan Shang, the First Dragon and the tribe leader of the Immemorial Celestial Dragons and was also known as Emperor Jue. He bred with his wife, Cang Ning of the Ancestral Dragons, and gave birth to the entire race of Immemorial Celestial Dragons and became the cardinal ancestor of the entire dragon race.
The first human emperor, Emperor Shi, united the humans and started an uprising and revolution against the rule of the dragons. Since the very beginning, the demon races that were unhappy with the dragon's rule of law had been helping out the humans in secret. They were the ones that gave the humans a chance to expand and grow in strength and enabled them to survive the toughest of times.
During the bloody battle that ensued, Ancestral Dragon Cang Ning was isolated, besieged and eventually killed. Emperor Shi used her remains as material resources and reinjected its power and spiritual energy in the war. The concept of power involved was that of immortal strength and eternal protection, and her remains were eventually refined and gave birth to the Immortal Dragon City - this was the origin of the name.
Before he could complete the magic treasure, Emperor Shi was murdered by a furious Xuan Shang whose wrath was unstoppable. However, the uprising of the humans was unstoppable by then as increasing numbers of powerful human cultivators stepped forward to replace their fallen comrades like the heads of a hydra. This epic war lasted all the way till the last battle that separated the Grand Celestial World into the Divine Lands and the Barren Expanses - and so ended the Primordial Age.
As the world entered the Antiquity Age, the Great Void Holy Man channeled the Supreme Heavenly Mirror and Emperor Tai operated the Imperial Palace as they worked together to defeat and kill Xuan Shang and a great many dragons. The supreme rule of the dragons since the beginning of time was officially over.
Today, even though the dragons were still dominant in the Black Sea, which was one of the Grand Celestial Seven Seas, and they were still a relatively powerful demonic race, it was nothing compared to the age of dragons all those centuries ago. They roamed the skies and the entire world bowed before them - their superiority was undeniable.
The Red Dragon King closed his eyes as he was afraid he would be unable to control his emotions. Many dragons considered the Immortal Dragon City and the Imperial Palace to be the two greatest sources of humiliation and some were even desperate for vengeance.
As he watched the departure of the Red Dragon King, Lin Feng's eyes curled into a frown as he contemplated momentarily before he placed his Steel Tree Avatar in pursuit.
His original body was still focused on the Imperial Palace and the Immortal Dragon City before him.
Both Destiny-level and Mahayanlevel magic treasures were similar in the sense that they were able to independently channel their own unique powers. The only difference was the Destiny-level magic treasures had a stronger and more powerful Original Soul and possessed immense willpower. They were essentially a part of nature in the Grand Celestial World, and would not expose themselves to the outside world for no special reason and were dormant for the most part.
They even resembled an independent world that simply existed in the Grand Celestial World, and were not vivacious and full of life like other living beings.
With the permission of these destiny-level magic items, even lower level cultivators were able to wield their formidable powers. However, if the gap in the level of mastery was too great, there was a possibility that there would be toxic feedback from the magic treasure.
For instance, aurous core beginner stage cultivators were generally only able to channel their own pools of mana while aurous core intermediate stage cultivators were able to absorb the spiritual energy from their environment. Different levels of mastery also meant a different level of understanding of the great theories of Heaven and Earth.
The ascension of the Emperor of the Great Zhou Empire, Liang Pan, to the third-level immortal soul stage and juxtaposed against the fact that the Imperial Palace had almost fully recovered, meant that Shi Yu's Immortal Dragon City was no longer able to overcome the Imperial Palace. Still, if Liang Pan was only in the second-level immortal soul stage, while the Imperial Palace could still go head-to-head with the Immortal Dragon City, Liang Pan would not have been able to unleash as much pressure as he did.
"In that case…" By studying Liang Pan and the Imperial Palace, Lin Feng managed to obtain a deeper understanding of destiny-level magic treasures. He had already made up his mind.
"My plan doesn't need to be refined. We shall move forward according to the original plan for now."