Chapter 1965 Red Cloud Expedition I: Systematic Rebuild

"You never reverse the Qi Path's fate."

"That's absurd."

"Is it?" Wu Hong asked, gently sipping her wine. "The moment Emperor Sui sanctified before you, the Qi Path had lost. The trend of Heaven and Earth was set, and the Emperor Path prospered. The history of this world might be missing, so people thought you guys had the advantage, but we know that's not true. Even after you sanctified, your two holy lands barely held on under Emperor Sui's pressure."

Three Virtue did not say anything. He might lie to others, but not to Wu Hong. "Things eventually corrected themselves."

Wu Hong shook his head. "I really can't tell if you're purposely being obtuse."

"Didn't they? Emperor Sui eventually left, and our dominance began."

"And you thought this was because of you? There is no way you're that naive."

Three Virtue was once again quiet.

"The moment you accepted Gu Chang'an's deal, you became a pawn; you became a fish that was swept away by the waves, unable to control your destiny. Why did the Qi Path prosper? It wasn't because of you.

"Grand Dao was mostly annihilated, and the River of Fate was gone, which meant there was no one establishing the trend of Heaven and Earth; that's the only reason the Qi Path eventually reached its current status. And even then, that wasn't the whole story.

"Gu Chang'an wanted to weaken the world, and the dominance of the Qi Path contributed to that. And without Heaven and Earth's trend, without the River of Fate, without the Emperor Path's support, without the other Grand Constructs, the small remnants of Grand Dao could not muster a comeback. In the end, it had to compromise in the form of the Destiny Hope Array and choose a Destiny Child who also practiced the Qi Path.

"From the very beginning, you were not in charge of your destiny; you were nothing but a pawn. The only credit I can give you is that you prevented the Qi Path from collapsing by introducing a perfect cultivation system. But that was it."

The Three Virtue Saint savored his wine. Unfortunately, despite its wonderful taste, he could only taste bitterness. Did he now realize these things? Of course, he did. However, he refused to admit that all his efforts, all the sufferings, all the trials and tribulations were for nothing.

"My story is not over yet," Three Virtue stated. "There is still time — still a chance to overturn things. As long as Emperor Gu can be eliminated, there is still hope."

Wu Hong squinted. These words sounded positive, but she could read the underlying meaning. "Are you here to remove me as an obstacle?"

"No. You might be the key to defeating him. I would be stupid to attack you."

"Then?"

"This world does not need two leaders. So, I've come for a wager. We will fight, and the loser will follow the winner's lead for the upcoming expedition."

WU Hong immediately sneered. The Heavenly Court already controlled the world, while the True Qi Path Holy Land controlled only one world. With such a massive advantage, who would truly benefit from such a deal?

"I can agree, but I have two conditions."

"Please."

"If I win, I want direct control of your sect's resources." The Heavenly Court still had room for improvement, and with more Saint materials, Wu Hong was confident she could give it a few more rounds of strengthening.

"That's fine by me." Three Virtue didn't care too much about that since he had already used most of it for his revival.

"Second, the battle can only be a simulation. I don't want to get injured right as the expedition is about to deploy."

"No issue." If she didn't suggest this, Three Virtue would have.

"Then, please."

The Saint waved his hand, creating a semi-real, semi-illusory reality that would allow them to perfectly recreate their strengths and abilities. Then, the two closed their eyes, only opening them a few hours later.

Three Virtue lost control of his aura for a moment, causing a tsunami of Qi. However, he quickly regained control, and everything returned to normal. "You can send someone to take the resources." Without saying anything else, he disappeared.

Wu Hong calmly looked at the spot where he'd disappeared and thought. "He won't be an issue until Gu Chang'an is defeated, but as soon as that's done, this man will turn on everybody."

Wu Hong returned to the court to facilitate the True Qi Path Holy Land joining the expedition. Many people objected to this arrangement, but ultimately, they needed as much help as possible. As such, after agreeing to keep their guard up against the Holy Land, everyone eventually followed their orders.

Three years later, the expedition began. From the start, people knew this battle would be different from previous expeditions. The court not only brought out the Golden Legion, the Silver Legion, the Slave Legion, the Puppet Legion, and the Time Boats — they also brought out the floating cities. Years ago, Chen Chen created a work of wonders during his Heaven Will Battle against Wang Wei: a city designed to boost all his power and containing countless mechanical weapons.

Wang Wei eventually improved on the design, and the city was adopted for a new state of warfare when the Divine Timeline invaded. Wu Hong further modified and updated them to fit this timeline before deploying them for the expedition.

Along with all these legions, the court itself appeared on the Borderworld, directly leading the expedition. Wu Hong —still sitting on her throne — ordered: "Deploy the Destruction Seal."

"Yes, sister, I mean, Your Majesty."

She looked at Nie Rouxin and sighed to herself. No matter how much she insisted that the little girl call her master, she refused. In the end, Wu Hong relented and let her do as she pleased. Anyway, she wasn't the kind of person who was too strict about rules and etiquette.

As soon as the court appeared in the Red Cloud's territory, the response was swift. Legion after legion of Destructo Beasts began to attack, acting as if they were highly territorial. However, the court ignored them and began systematically annihilating everything that came close. And when the Destruction Seal was deployed, everything changed.

A terrifying devouring force began to attract the red cloud in the environment. Everyone noticed, and at first, no one cared — that is, until they realized the dissipating red clouds were gone for good. The soldiers and everyone unaware of this plan quickly realized the environment was rapidly returning to its original state—a habitable state.

"Deploy the Heaven Engine," Wu Hong ordered.

All the Heaven Will—innate and artificial—suddenly resonated and combined to provide a boost to Grand Dao, who immediately began to repair Primordial Chaos. The Red Cloud's presence had been feeding on the hidden rules, but with their disappearance, Grand Dao accelerated the repair.

"Deploy the Creation Squad."

A group of Emperors who had all cultivated a restricted version of Creation Dao through the [Book of Creation] rushed out of the court. They connected to the Grand Dao to borrow its power and then, one by one, began building Chaos Worlds at an alarming rate. Creating a world is only a thought for the best Emperors, but even Paragons would need countless yuan epochs to build a world on the scale of a Chaos World. However, the Creation Squads only needed minutes.

"Send in the Samsara Messengers and Source Qi Workers," Wu Hong followed up while monitoring the situation. Another group rushed out, heading for these newly created worlds. They linked them to the rebuilt Six Paths Samsara and immediately began creating new life to repopulate these worlds.

Then, the Source Qi Workers linked these worlds to the Source Qi World to create a cultivation environment. They also built or activated Spiritual Qi Veins to ensure an abundance of resources and a variety of energy for cultivators to use.

"Send in the Fate Weavers," Wu Hong ordered, and the last group mobilized. They created branches of the River of Fate in each of these worlds to establish a ruling order and also empower the main river, which had lost most of its power after the previous destruction. More importantly, with the River of Fate, the trend of Heaven and Earth that supports the Emperor Path can be rebuilt, which will make it harder —maybe even impossible — for Three Virtue to continue his plan once this war ends.

Wu Hong looked at the result and frowned. "It's still missing something."

"Without a good enough foundation, we can't rebuild the River of Time in such a short period," Nie Rouxin said. "Sister, how about we use that Time Origin crystal we found in the True Qi Path Holy Land?"

"My disciple, you're smart enough: do you think it's a coincidence we found such a rare item when we desperately need it?"

"No, but if we don't do anything, it might take more than a thousand yuan epochs in true time before we can rebuild the true River of Time. We might have no choice but to risk it."

"Not necessarily."