Chapter 1655: Hongmeng Saint
"Lord Saint, I wouldn’t do that if I were you," Wan Yanmei calmly stated as she watched Maitreya’s Golden Buddha Form, who was extending her hands to annihilate the Time Boat Legion. "There are rules in war; please do not break them and needlessly escalate things."
"And what are you going to do if I escalate things?"
Wan Yanmei shook her head before summoning a metal orb. She injected a bit of her power, and the orb rapidly transformed into a metallic automaton more than three meters tall. Maitreya squinted because of the puppet’s aura.
’A Saint Tier Puppet,’ Maitreya thought.
"The rules are simple: soldiers fight soldiers, commanders fight commanders, and Saints fight Saints," Wan Yanmei calmly stated.
Maitreya snorted coldly. "You’re an invader, but you dare talk to me about the rules of war?" Her fighting spirit reached its highest level as she prepared to take on this puppet.
’Don’t do anything rash,’ Qiyuan suddenly transmitted.
’You don’t want me to fight her?’
’We need more information before you get involved.’
’You understand that they are currently at their weakest, and this puppet probably has some limitations?’ Maitreya strongly believed Wan Yanmei was bluffing.
’I’m aware, but I also know these people are competent and have more experience than we do,’ Qiyuan continued. ’You are our only Saint battleprowess. If something happens to you, even a minor injury, our morale will be instantly destroyed, which can lead to a disastrous situation since this war has just started.’
Maitreya was briefly silent. ’Don’t you think our approach is a little too safe?’
’Maybe it is, but this is the best approach,’ Qiyuan replied. ’I must remind you that our objective is not to prevent these people from invading. Their primary enemy is, and will always be, Grand Dao. Our mission is to ensure that we survive the initial chaos until the higher beings intervene.’
Maitreya exhaled deeply. ’I understand.’
’Do you know how strong the puppet is?’ Qiyuan asked.
’Not sure.’
’You can test it with one or two attacks, but be careful and do not enter that dimension.’
Their conversation was extremely quick, meaning no one noticed. Maitreya continued her attack, but her target was not the puppet, but the Time Boat Legions. The Metal Saint jabbed its finger to release a terrifying attack that blocked the golden palm. And as the attack clashed, the entire Eternal Ascension World turned dark for a few seconds before light returned. Then, space cracks spread to ten percent of the world.
A second palm manifested, but the result was the same. The cracks spread to twenty percent of the world, and Maitreya stared at the puppet with a frown. The results were unsatisfactory. She used half her strength in the first attack and 60% in the second, but this puppet used the same strength level as hers, which could be an indication of their level or the fact that they are hiding their true power.
’I should observe more,’ she thought. The Golden Buddha disappeared, clearing the sky of her holy light.
’She’s cautious and measured in her approach,’ Wan Yanmei contemplated. Due to the difficulty of the Transcendent Path in the non-Primordial Timelines, it’s very common for no Saint to exist. And when only one appears, it’s also common for them to grow arrogant since they stand at the pinnacle of their branch. This interaction has revealed to Wan Yanmei that Maitreya was not one of those people.
"Let’s set up the base," Wan Yanmei ordered the others, and they immediately sprang to action. The three commanders started casting a spell through an unknown incantation. Three black clouds manifested above their heads, then merged into a circle. The black cloud then spread to every corner of the dimension.
The people observing this war from the court were immediately terrified. Their detection methods indicated that they had lost control over that dimension. All the laws, rules, restrictions, or aspects related to the Primordial Timeline were rejected and replaced by something else: the rules of the Divine Timeline. From this moment on, that dimension no longer belonged to the Primordial Timeline or Grand Dao — it belonged to the Divine Timeline and the Highest Sovereign.
’A few minutes into this spell, the black clouds trembled before slowly transforming into numerous houses and buildings. Soon, the gate and the darkness disappeared, replaced by an entire city. However, before anyone could continue observing, all sights into the dimension were cut off. They even stopped sending more time boats.
"This was easier than I thought," Wan Yanmei commented.
"I agree," Cui Yi nodded. They expected many forms of resistance from the Saints of the first and second steps.
"Whatever the reason these people did not intervene, it will only benefit us," Wan Yanmei shrugged. "Instead of worrying about things we cannot control, let’s focus on the things we can control." The establishment of the base is a major accomplishment, but the real battle hasn’t begun. The next objective is to allow the Time Gate to allow a true Saint to descend into this world. Unfortunately, this process is lengthy, and the only way to accelerate it is by sacrificing blood, soul, and destiny to the gate.
Heavenly Court, War Room:
Wang Wei looked at the sky. "I thought at least Grand Dao would show up to stop them."
"It probably did," Qiyuan replied. "She’s probably fighting against the Grand Saint at a level beyond our understanding."
"I figured as much, but in general, she likes to show off every opportunity she gets."
"Not if she’s not confident to win."
"So, she’s afraid to reveal any signs of weakness? How vain," Wang Wei sneered as he finally looked away. "One mystery has been revealed, but what about the other? Why haven’t any other Saints even shown their presence? Especially the cardinals." The fact that the Chaos Universe just lost a piece of itself — no matter how small — is a huge deal. But everyone seems content to let one decent Primordial Saint and a bunch of Paragons deal with the issue.
"It’s not hard to deduce what these Old Saints are thinking," Qiyuan commented. "Before the taboo, their lives were too restrictive, so while they have more freedom and power now, it’s probably not guaranteed that things will remain as such in the upcoming Transcendent Age. And even if it does, who wouldn’t want more power and freedom?"
"You think they are using this opportunity to negotiate better terms for their future?"
"Yes, well, at least, that’s what I would have done."
"Same," Wang Wei nodded. "But if we look at things from our current perspective, we are the ones who will suffer." While these Old Saints are playing political games with Grand Dao, the Eternal Ascension World — which is at the center of this event — will be the first to bear the brunt, making everybody’s situation precarious.
"As the saying goes: when Gods fight, mortals are the ones who suffer," Qiyuan shrugged. His words hurt for many reasons, but primarily because they used to be the Gods, but now, the situation was reversed. The sad part is that they cannot complain because when they were gods, they didn’t care what happened to the ants, and now karma has come to reap what it had sown.
Wang Wei sighed before snapping his finger to erase the karma link associated with that conversation, thus erasing the memory of everybody — except for Ye Guang — who heard them speak. Qiyuan or Ye Guang did not comment on his actions and continued to oversee this war.
Terminus Haven, Cardinal Court:
All six cardinals stood side by side, looking at something outside of their sacred court. While most remained calm, a few had a furious expression, especially the Heaven Cardinal.
"You lots have grown a spine ever since your little stunt," the Heaven Cardinal said.
"A spine? If that were true, they would have revealed their faces," the Samsara Cardinal sneered.
"We know who you are, so why hide your identities?"
"Politics is about the theatrical, is it not?" A deep voice, obviously masked by a technique, replied. "If we show up in our real appearance, then the mask is off. It means things have escalated to the point of no return, but they haven’t, have they?"
"You dare stop us from executing Grand Dao’s orders, and you think things haven’t escalated?" Heaven Cardinal sneered.
"Escalating, yes, but not to the point of no return," someone else added.
"Don’t you people understand what is at stake? Once he descends into this timeline and becomes a Hongmeng Saint, there will be no resources left for you," the Time Cardinal tried to persuade.
"And what do you offer? A strict system in which you control every morsel of resources? If we follow him, we might be able to drain this Chaos Universe dry and get enough energy for our future ascension."
"Of course, we do not want to choose such a path," someone added. "But if you force us, this might be the only way."
"I can’t believe these cowards dare to threaten us now?" the Source Qi Cardinal muttered.
"Can I assume this chat is over?" Fate Cardinal asked. "Can we get to the fighting, please?"
"Yes, the time for talk is over," Heaven Cardinal sneered. He was the one who would suffer the most after losing a piece of a Chaos World, so he wanted nothing more than to kill all these bastards.