The three cities of Deston Prefecture were chaotic places where dragons and fish intermingled, crowded with cultivators.
Following the great battle within Highsun City, commoners and low-level cultivators could be seen wearing mourning white for the dead.
A group of nuns appeared in Highsun City after the turmoil, chanting sutras in the city for the deceased, intending to deliver all living beings to reincarnation.
As cultivators used Spiritual power to rebuild Highsun City, Li Changsheng silently watched these nuns enter the crudely, newly-built Li Clan's Chamber of Commerce to perform rites and deliver the souls of the dead.
Before long, waves of Buddhist chants could be heard.
Upon inquiry, it was the true Buddhist mantra of the "Great Merciful and Compassionate, the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva."
"These nuns came from a small temple."
Li Changyao, the spy chief of the Heavenly Principle Hall, immediately obtained intelligence on the nuns and had even gone to test them.
"After the Shadowfell Prefecture fell, temples and nunneries sprang up all over Deston Prefecture.
Statues of the Great Merciful and Compassionate, the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva, are everywhere. Over the past fifty years, thousands of Buddhist temples have been built."
"Following the path of the Wu tribe's invasion, the Buddhist temples spread all the way from Deston Prefecture to the Central Plains."
"The power of faith from all living beings is truly highly sought after."
Li Changyao's brows furrowed slightly.
Back in the Azure Cloud Prefecture, there was a Great Ming King Temple.
Master Yuming of that Buddhist temple had even been beaten by her a few times.
The old monk was an insidious, fat monk who had silently gathered faith from suffering families in the Azure Cloud Prefecture for hundreds of years.
The incense burned, and the worship offered by the common people were the source of his Spiritual power; he had likely secretly cultivated his way up to the Void Refinement realm.
Now, whenever the old monk had nothing better to do, he loved to manifest his presence on Buddha statues.
Clearly, having recently broken through to Void Refinement, he was showing off.
Things like this were something any Void Refinement realm expert could do—it simply required leaving a trace of the Spiritual power of laws on an object.
Li Changsheng said calmly,
"The common people are suffering, powerless to free themselves from their predicaments, and in their despair, there are no noble benefactors to help them.
At times like these, when a Buddha statue is erected before them, and a monk tells them that these Buddhas sit high above and are omnipotent, do you think they will believe it or not?
This is the very last life-saving straw that a desperate person can grasp.
If simply believing can grant them protection, they would rather believe it exists than risk it not existing."
"What Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva? It's clearly the Dharma Image of the Shadowfell Prefecture deserter, Abbess Dairou!"
Li Changyao curled her lips in disdain.
"The people of the Lotus Ferry Nunnery are a bunch of rats and snakes, hiding for decades without daring to show their faces.
Yet, these Buddhist temples and nunneries have been built all across Deston Prefecture.
Ask these nuns and the monks who worship that demonic hag, and you'll find they are all refugees who survived the disasters.
They practically fabricated all the lore about the Bodhisattva they worship themselves."
"They even spouted nonsense to me about how the Great Merciful and Compassionate the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva has existed since the dawn of the world, and that she only manifested from the Paradise because she saw the suffering of the world.
So fucking merciful and compassionate—why didn't she stop the war?
She might as well have just exterminated the Wu tribe! And guess what they said? They brought up Karma and Cause and Effect with me."
"When I drag out the demonic hags behind this, I'll show them what Karma really means!"
Hearing this, Li Changsheng's expression remained calm.
The matter of the Bodhisattva gathering the power of faith had already begun decades ago.
With endless wars in Deston Prefecture, few people cared about such a trivial matter.
The clan hadn't stopped it either. The identity of the person behind the rise of these temples was practically calling out its own name.
In the end, it was merely a Dao path that Abbess Dairou was using to seek a breakthrough.
Taking a glance inside the Golden Toad Divine Palace, Li Changsheng let out a long breath.
"They are at the Body Integration realm. Our cultivation time has been short, and we only have a half-baked understanding of Dao paths.
We just need to keep an eye on them; as for how to deal with them, the elders will naturally take action."
"Mm." Li Changyao nodded obediently.
Having hurriedly broken through to Void Refinement over these thirty-two years using pills and the False-Void Refinement space refined by the clan, let alone understanding Dao paths, she hadn't even fully grasped the spatial laws within her own Void Refinement Space yet.
.......
Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The clan elders had been campaigning in Deston Prefecture.
Decades had passed, and the clan's domain had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Today, the Azure Cloud Prefecture, combined with the former lands of the Duravia Trade Prefecture, and after hundreds of years of planning and subdivision, has become a territory of twenty-one Regions and one hundred and thirty-six districts.
Azure Cloud Prefecture, after that heavy snow that lasted for a hundred years, enjoyed a period of peaceful and tranquil days.
The officials of the Azure Cloud Prefecture began to divide the land of the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
Those with Spiritual Roots entered sects to cultivate the Dao, spending half the year cultivating and the other half planting spiritual plants.
These cultivators simply brought their small families and entire villages to plant spiritual plants.
Ordinary cultivators who could never break through to Foundation Establishment or Golden Core in their lifetimes would return to their hometowns in their old age to train cultivators for their hometowns and send them to sects.
If they possessed the qualifications for the Golden Core, that would truly bring honor to their ancestors.
The officials of the Azure Cloud Prefecture would personally sponsor them to establish a sect or found a clan.
In just a few short decades, the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture presented a scene of flourishing Immortal Dao.