The Sims: I Open the Immortal Path for All Beings

Chapter 2023: Chapter 1968–1969: Bottom Fishing and the Alliance Situation (Part 2)

Therefore, despite the loud cries of the people, not many Taoist Monarchs are truly involved in the Emperor of Heaven succession affair, and many of the newly ascended Dao Lords avoid it altogether, not wanting to take part.

They don’t mind adding the finishing touch when one side is clearly winning, but they absolutely do not want to take the risk of helping in dire situations, to put it plainly, everyone wants to stand on the side of the winner.

Because the risk is too great, even though Taoist Monarch Xuantian supports the Human Race Five Emperors, he is prepared to sell his stake anytime, not necessarily sticking to the end.

Of course, huge risks also come with huge rewards, and now that the Heterodox Alliance is intervening and taking such a big risk, it must have unimaginable ambitions to gain more.

“This is understandable, as the Jade Emperor’s side inherently has conflicts with the Heterodox Alliance. Over the years, the Jade Emperor’s people have been continuously suppressing the Heterodox Alliance, and even though the Jade Emperor recently trapped Buddhism, it was based on Buddhism showing signs of decline. If the Heterodox Alliance hadn’t held on, they might have disappeared by now!” Xuan Lingzi understood the role of the Heterodox Alliance, with no dissatisfaction but rather comprehension.

His own master may not know the grievances between these two parties, but he is very clear about the enmity between the Jade Emperor and the Heterodox Alliance, understanding that the Heterodox Alliance had no choice.

The grievances between these two sides determine their stance, and even if there is a temporary union, it is bound to lead to disputes again.

Perhaps some people think they can cooperate together this time, but from the standpoint of the Heterodox Alliance, they are unable to obtain enough rewards by siding with the Jade Emperor, even if they win, they will be suppressed.

So, it’s better to take the great risk, to directly confront the Jade Emperor, not seeking their own advancement, just dragging the Jade Emperor down is equivalent to victory for the Heterodox Alliance.

If they didn’t see the opportunity before, now that there is a chance to win, with the operating style of the Heterodox Alliance, they likely don’t mind taking a huge risk at this time.

After all, even if they step back ten thousand paces and this affair fails, the sky falling means there are tall ones to bear it, whether it’s the Taoist School or the Human Race Five Emperors, they have to worry more about failure, and they also need to bear the cost together with the Heterodox Alliance.

Even from the perspective of the Heterodox Alliance, this affair itself is not aimed at winning, even if everyone is truly united in overthrowing the Six Imperials, facing the new redistribution of interests, the scale of the Heterodox Alliance cannot obtain too much, and this cooperation will fall apart.

On the contrary, if they ultimately lose, everyone will need to endure the suppression from Jade Emperor and Great Emperor Ziwei, among other Imperial Honors, and as the Heterodox Alliance, they can’t bear this result alone, with the support of Taoist School and the Human Race Five Emperors, even failure is not frightening, as it will bind them together.

“The situation has complicated.” True Monarch Xuanlingzi said with a distressed expression.

…

Time rewinds to a few years ago.

When several Vice Alliance Hierarchs of the Heterodox Alliance learned that Zhao Baiyang was in seclusion healing and could not quickly recover combat strength in the short term, they also frowned a bit.

It is important to know that this time, although they dealt with the offensive of Buddhism and achieved great victory, collecting rich gains, and obtaining the sixth-generation battleship, pushing the combat capability of the Heterodox Alliance to its peak.

But they understand more that now this rapid increase in combat power is entirely built on depleting the vast reserves of the sect, transforming those reserves into combat power to create the current situation.

However, they are aware that such combat power is only temporary, or one might say that such a scenario means they cannot sustain it for long, continuing to maintain this combat power requires huge consumption of resources.

For any power, generally, there are two states: one is the daily state, having certain strong combat effectiveness, but cannot handle large-scale wars, but with sufficient reserves stored for wartime.

The other state is like now for the Heterodox Alliance, going all out, pushing the entire sect’s combat power to a peak state, but such resource consumption requires constant replenishment to sustain, otherwise it won’t last long.

Take the most straightforward yet most important thing, the warships of various forces as an example, as daily maintenance and when activating various arrays requires resource support; what is required is more than double.

For any sect, once they enter a state of going all out like the Heterodox Alliance, it means they must quickly defeat opponents, even if they cannot defeat opponents in a short time, they need to continuously plunder resources to fill their resource gaps.

They can accept continuous fighting but cannot accept short-term peace, because such peace would mean many previous preparations lose effect, and restarting would also require substantial costs again.

For the fully mobilized Heterodox Alliance, they understand that the current situation of war is inevitable, and since they have entered the current state, they cannot return to the previous state, at least not until this chaos has completely calmed down.

If they choose to calm down now, indeed, they might save quite a bit of resource reserves, but if a great war arises just as things calm, the resources needed to activate the entire state again is not a small number.

If time is long, there is room for saving, but the fear is just stopping when wars erupt again, the cost between one increase and one decrease will be more than maintaining constantly.

“Should we pause now and wait for an opportunity, or continue to maintain the state and be ready?”

“Maintain constantly, if all parties delay without taking action, we will be exhausted to death sooner or later, there won’t be a chance to act by then.”

“But the current situation is tumultuous, if something happens just after stopping, isn’t it making things worse for ourselves?”

Internally within the Heterodox Alliance, opinions are somewhat inconsistent, with many strong individuals having entirely different views.

It should be known that even for many strong individuals of the Heterodox Alliance, different choices represent different meanings.

Maintaining this state means continuously enhancing the combat power of the Heterodox Alliance, which also means those resources initially used as strategic reserves need to be distributed completely to allow many disciples of the Heterodox Alliance to use, all aiming to enhance combat power at any cost.

If restored to before, it means strategic materials must be conserved, originally, some cultivators who could get resources in this opportunity will lose this opportunity.

No matter the choice, it represents different interests, and the choice is significant, missing a good opportunity leads to a series of chain reactions that even several Vice Alliance Hierarchs find hard to bear.

After all, this is not merely a matter of responsibility, but concerns the future of the Heterodox Alliance, their survival.

If it is only about who takes responsibility, Tie Qianshan and others are not timid to bear it, but they know clearly the development of the Heterodox Alliance has reached a crossroad.

Which road to choose is not only about failure but choosing wrong means the Heterodox Alliance will be buried in this vast era.

In other words, winning may not bring much gain, yet losing may result in the entire Heterodox Alliance and everyone in it perishing.

Such pressure is enormous, and no one dares to make decisions lightly.

Recently, the Heterodox Alliance thwarted the conspiracies of Buddhism, truly a magnificent victory, but at the same time, by exposing their strength, they have made many sects and religious sects regard the Heterodox Alliance as opponents and begin to take notice.

Previously, they could rely on low profile to be overlooked by various sides, now they have truly stood on the stage of All Heavens, and opponents from all sides are bound to target continuously.