Chapter 244: Heavenly Spirit State Battle

Li Fan wondered about the specific war situation in the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven.

According to Li Fan's understanding, the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Association had not gone to war for about three hundred years. Friction between the two sides was occasional, and at most, it was limited to a single province. A full-scale, territory-wide preparation for war, as seen this time, was truly rare.

Li Fan continued to inquire with his friends, one by one, about the cause of the war's outbreak, hoping to confirm his own suspicions. Unfortunately, the conflict appeared to be highly classified, as all Li Fan's inquiries were met with the reply, "I'm not very clear."

The dark clouds of war hung over everyone's heads. The typically relaxed atmosphere of Myriad Immortals Island turned bleak and grim. Everyone's faces subtly revealed expressions of anxiety and unease.

As an array repairman in the Formation Strategy Hall, Li Fan also received his mission assignment: to follow members of the Martial Arts Hall, forming a small team to patrol along the border of the Cloud Sea. They were also tasked with setting up formations and constantly guarding against infiltration by Five Elders Association spies.

Li Fan's team was led by a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator named Shan Wu. The team also included several Foundation Establishment cultivators, such as Huan Sui, who had previously helped him slay the red-haired monstrous beast. There were far more patrol teams than just Li Fan's. Nearly all of Myriad Immortals Island's mobilizable grassroots forces had been deployed, underscoring the Myriad Immortals Alliance's official emphasis on this conflict.

Jiang Zhengji and Du Xingchang, it was said, were conscripted by headquarters and sent to the war front. "Together, Jiang and Du can unleash the ultimate technique, the Glazed World, a power comparable to that of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator," Li Fan thought. "And Formation Master Zhang Zhiliang also seemed to have been transferred to the front line. So, Nascent Soul cultivators are the main force in this war..."

Li Fan pondered silently. The scale of this war clearly exceeded his expectations. "Other concerns aside, I'm most worried about Ye Feipeng, the 'reincarnator.' What if he discovers that the current events deviate from his memories? Given his suspicious and cautious nature, he might just abandon his plan to kill Chiyan. Wouldn't all my plans for this lifetime then be for naught?"

With a shift in thought, the focus moved to the plump young man, Ye Feipeng. To Li Fan's slight relief, the Cloud Sea was vast enough. Because Ye Feipeng had always avoided the Myriad Immortals Alliance in his past actions, he was currently completely unaware of the major war unfolding in the cultivation world. "I hope the war can end soon, and not spread to the Cloud Sea." As the saying goes, divine powers cannot override fate. With such unforeseen variables, even Li Fan, despite his numerous rebirths, found himself helpless.

It must be said that the Myriad Immortals Alliance maintained extremely strong control over its grassroots forces. The war's secrecy measures had also been implemented to the extreme. On the surface, the Cloud Sea merely appeared to have a tense atmosphere, completely devoid of any scent of battle. Were it not for his steadily rising merit rank, a direct result of wartime conditions, constantly reminding him, Li Fan would have been utterly unaware that a world-shaking battle was unfolding in some distant, unknown region.

Time slowly passed. Several months passed, and Anchoring Year Sixteen was nearing its end. During this period, besides occasionally repelling a few small groups of trespassing Five Elders Association enemies, the conflict largely spared the Cloud Sea, as Li Fan had hoped. By continuously completing wartime merit tasks, Li Fan's authorization level also rose to Yan Eighteen.

On this day, the prompt from the Heavenly Profound Mirror finally arrived. The war concluded, and the state of combat readiness, which had lasted over eight months, was finally lifted. As for the result of the war, naturally, the Myriad Immortals Alliance achieved victory. With the intelligence declassified, and amidst the enthusiastic discussions and post-mortems of numerous cultivators, Li Fan finally gained a general understanding of the war's causes and consequences.

Nine months prior, a team of Myriad Immortals Alliance cultivators, tasked with developing a wood-attributed grotto-heaven, made a significant discovery during their research: unlike ordinary grotto-heavens where wood-attributed spiritual energy takes a considerable time to slowly regenerate after consumption, here, it seemed to flow endlessly from an unknown source, constantly replenishing itself. It was as if the energy would never be depleted; vast amounts of spiritual energy, consumed by newly planted spiritual flora, were instantly replenished naturally.

This discovery greatly delighted the cultivators. This spiritual energy was clearly not generated by the wood-attributed grotto-heaven itself, nor did it originate from the external Profound Yellow Realm. Following analysis, the cultivators concluded that this wood-attributed grotto-heaven was a rare composite type. The rapidly generated spiritual energy, they believed, was being replenished from other grotto-heavens. After a rather convoluted search, the Myriad Immortals Alliance team finally uncovered the complete whereabouts of the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven. This was an immense achievement!

Amidst their ecstasy, the exploration team couldn't help but feel a growing sense of worry. The Five Elements Grotto-Heaven's discovery location was rather inconvenient. Located in Lingyu Province, it bordered the territory of the Five Elders Association. Such a valuable treasure, situated on the frontline, caused considerable unease. So the exploration team sent a message to the Myriad Immortals Alliance headquarters. They explained the situation and requested headquarters to send support to relocate the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven back to the hinterlands, near Tianyu Province.

To their surprise, before headquarters' support could arrive, members of the Five Elders Association appeared. It was unclear how the news had leaked. The Five Elders Association's attack caught everyone off guard. The exploration team inside the wood-attributed grotto-heaven was completely wiped out. According to a message transmitted just before their demise, the Five Elders Association's assault force included three Hegemony-stage cultivators. With the combined efforts of the three Hegemony-stage cultivators, the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven was swiftly pulled towards the Five Elders Association's territory.

To be secretly infiltrated within their own territory was one thing, but to have numerous alliance members slaughtered and precious grotto-heaven resources plundered by the Five Elders Association in broad daylight was an outrage. It was an absolute humiliation!

The Myriad Immortals Alliance headquarters immediately declared Level B combat readiness, first mobilizing eight Hegemony-stage cultivators and several Spirit Transformation cultivators to pursue the Five Elders Association's transgressors. It was imperative to retrieve the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven. It then ordered all provinces to maintain strict vigilance, to prevent the Five Elders Association from executing a feint with other hidden objectives.

Migrating a grotto-heaven was not an easy task. Even for Hegemony-stage cultivators, it was arduous. As the eight Hegemony-stage cultivators and their forces caught up with the Five Elders Association's transgressors and were about to engage, they suddenly discovered that the opposing side had indeed been preparing for this for a long time. In addition to the three Hegemony-stage cultivators openly launching the surprise attack, there were unexpectedly five more Hegemony-stage cultivators lying in ambush. Eight Hegemony-stage cultivators against eight Hegemony-stage cultivators. A great battle immediately broke out.

The process and outcome of the battle were unknown. It was only known that after this battle, the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven remained in its original location. Both the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Association then, with remarkable tacit understanding, recalled their surviving Hegemony-stage cultivators. Subsequently, a war, primarily involving Spirit Transformation and lower-level cultivators, unfolded around the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven.

The war lasted for nearly eight months. Countless cultivators fell. Abnormal celestial phenomena persisted ceaselessly from dawn till dusk. Ultimately, when both sides had significantly expended their vital energies, the war, however, inexplicably came to an abrupt halt. The Myriad Immortals Alliance internally declared that it had won the war, because the Five Elements Grand Grotto-Heaven was indeed subsequently relocated back to the hinterland, Tianyu Province.