In Qianyun City.
As the crow flew back, it spat a mouthful of blood. The three gods of the city were so frightened that their souls nearly fled. “Who has wounded you?”
The crow retched blood, livid. “Those so-called righteous gods of Heaven and Earth! They ganged up with the Immortal Sect to ambush me. They’re plainly intent on making an example of us!”
The Shiliu god slammed the table and shot to his feet. “This is tyranny beyond all measure! They’ve hardly sat upon the throne of the world for any time at all, and already they mean to wipe us out. I say we ought to bring Water Spirit Lord to birth ahead of time, let him found his divine kingdom, and fight them head-on!”
Just then, a mass of immortal cloud rolled in from outside the city. The three gods’ faces tightened; knowing there was no path of retreat, they ground their teeth and said, “If that’s how it is, then let us strike first.”
Shiliu had been itching for this already. He transformed into a great fish and surged into the heavens. He was only a few dozen yards tall, and he appeared beyond Qianyun City to swallow more than a dozen temple gods in a single gulp.
That, at once, stirred up a hornets’ nest. A temple god had had his shrine smashed, then been thrashed outside the city. This caused him to lose both substance and face.
The Immortal Sect cultivators who had come merely to lend presence, pass by for a spectacle, and pick up some easy gains, were eaten as well. Matters instantly spiralled out of control.
The temple god raised his incense burner, summoning wind and rain, calling upon colleagues from other temples to help seize the rogue spirit.
The immortal disciples crushed their talismans, inviting their own masters and fellow disciples from their mountain gates to lend support.
The incense-fed evil spirits, fearing for themselves, also slipped in to help. In the blink of an eye, tiny Qianyun City found itself crammed with more than a hundred temples, great and small, and over a thousand cultivators.
These immortal disciples already bore a multitude of grudges amongst themselves. They’d killing each other, been killed in turn, then pinned the blame on the unfortunate Four Gods of Qianyun City.
The Four Gods’ resentment deepened. The temple god, for his part, was hardly easy to deal with either. He summoned a great flood in hopes of drowning the city, but the South Sea Dragon Palace remained shut and the sea had no master. His strength fell short: he could not submerge the whole city, though many mortals drowned.
The clamour grew so immense that even the South Temple Lord and the elders of the Immortal Sect were alarmed, sending forth their divine senses to investigate.
“What’s going on? How have so many righteous gods and cultivators become embroiled?”
“The Four Gods of Qianyun City have always played both sides and behaved themselves. How could they clash with the righteous gods? Has the Great Calamity begun? Have they been affected and now seek to attain an immortal fruit-rank?”
“Over a hundred temples across the South Sea, and more than a thousand cultivators from sects large and small, all entangled… Could it be that certain Golden Immortals above are orchestrating this, gathering merit for their disciples who’ve yet to ascend?”
“Hiss… very possible. Best not calculate further. Let’s observe for now.”
“With the Great Calamity underway, they’ve likely been swept up in it… mere ash of the tribulation. But the more of them that die, the safer those at the top will be.”
The South Lord was drinking tea at a friend’s house when his divine sense returned. With that, he formed his judgement: clearly some higher immortals were arranging matters for their own descendants, and so he chose not to intervene.
The Immortal Sects, in any case, have divergent lineages. Twelve years ago, a group of disciples left Wendao Palace, brought the teachings into the mortal world, and splintered into numerous schools.
Some of these schools held deep grudges, and seized this occasion to fight tooth and nail. More and more cultivators were dragged in. After all, since they were already present, they might as well join the fray.
The Four Gods gathered a great crowd of minor incense-fed deities to withstand the temple gods and cultivators. Each day, immortal clouds arrived and departed over the city; banners streamed; the bustle was endless.
Amid all this, the only ones truly bewildered were Xue Cuo and the others. As more and more people filled the skies and the battle grew ever grander, their confusion only deepened.
Xue Cuo, a grass stem between his teeth, said, “Why on earth is Qianyun City fighting the Daoist sect as well? And those land gods and mountain gods from other temples. Why are they at it too? Something’s very off.”
