Chapter Seventy-Two: Sweeping Before Departure

The year of Ji-You, with a leap second month, making a total of 384 days.

In the sixth month, the fire descended, passing over Dongyang’s sky.

The literal "falling fire," also called the White Rainbow, was almost streaking across all of Dongyang’s skies on this day, driven by the immortal Lan Yi. The White Rainbow Fleet of Xinghan, powered by the combined efforts of martial artists and consecrated Daoists, sank many ironclad ships before majestically sailing into Edo Bay, standing at the gates of the city.

Historians would later call this event the Bingjiao Oceanic Disturbance, but most history enthusiasts preferred another name: the White Ship Incident. It marked the prodigal Dongyang’s return to the bosom of Xinghan, and from then on, they were one harmonious family.

When you are strong enough, even if you once beat the Easterners with your shoes, they would say it was their own fault for getting their faces in the way of your noble footwear.

Edo was burning.

Temples and shrines were burning.

Mountains, rivers, the very sky of Dongyang was aflame.

To the people of Dongyang, the soldiers advancing from the west seemed to wield boundless Buddhist might, suppressing demons and evil spirits. The hellish fiends gathered by monsters were utterly powerless before the celestial warriors, scattered and blasted apart with ease, while mighty Vajra guardians bathed in gunfire performed their acts of salvation and punishment.

Who were the demons?

The demons were already kneeling at the feet of Lan Yi, staring in agony at the burning Dongyang from the torii gate of the Snow Mountain Shrine he built.

“Lan-kun, I’ll be waiting for you in hell…”

The main world Dongyang cultivator, already labeled a demon, had his head neatly severed by Lan Yi’s [Azure Splendor].

“This is nothing more than the pains of a prodigal’s return to the river of civilization. Compared to the borderlands and the apocalypse, this isn’t truly hell.”

“And of all things, you chose to play at being a cultist and a traitor.”

“Don’t you know that one shot makes my name known under heaven, two shots and the traitor is struck down by divine wrath?”

Lan Yi spoke softly to the corpse of the one who would have become the chief cultist of Dongyang in the main world, while [Azure Splendor] deftly invaded the brain through the severed neck, releasing faint psychic energy to carefully trim and cut away the already budding Fate Cluster, and then stored it in his war-space for preservation.

Fate Cluster: [Fanaticism].

Location: Brain. Function: Able to control people’s minds through brainwaves, but if the target’s will is strong enough, they can resist.

This Fate Cluster wasn’t particularly formidable.

With even a bit of cultivation or martial training, most could resist its influence.

But it had an extraordinarily exaggerated group effect:

It could control minds effortlessly. Ordinary people without cultivation would obey completely once controlled. If enough people were affected, it would gradually form a psychic network. When this mental network reached the scale of millions, even psychic cultivators would fall prey to it.

Dongyang, due to its wretched environment, was a hotbed for global cults.

[Fanaticism] could snowball with terrifying speed.

In his previous life, Lan Yi had clashed with this cult leader in the Artificial Divine Realm. Lan Yi had almost succeeded in infiltrating the Snow Mountain Shrine, but failed at the last moment due to the outrageous power of [Fanaticism].

Upon returning to the main world, during times of upheaval and pain, this populist cult leader spiraled out of control, orchestrating numerous indiscriminate terrorist attacks across nations.

Though eventually crushed in a righteous onslaught by psychic cultivators from every country, the chaos he wrought sickened daily life for many, including Lan Yi, who was then forced to hide and scurry about.

Enduring water and power rationing, frequent outages, strict checks and round-the-clock curfews, a miserable Lan Yi bitterly wondered why he hadn’t tried harder to kill this troublemaker back in the Artificial Divine Realm!

If he had, at least his resting environment in the main world wouldn’t have been reduced to a cesspit.

Now, he had done it.

Carrying the cult leader’s head, Lan Yi stood atop the snowy peak and did what he had always wanted. He took a deep breath and let out a triumphant roar. The immortal master’s cry proclaimed that the last hope of Dongyang’s traitors had been destroyed. Open your doors! Accept the martial way!

“Yahhh!”

With the cult leader’s death, the mental network collapsed instantly.

Thus, Dongyang’s last forcibly assembled and stubbornly resisting force crumbled in a flash. The mindless frenzy vanished without a trace, replaced by utter confusion and terror. Samurai swords and rifles were hurled to the ground, and crowds knelt in reverence before the snowy mountain.

Freed from the grip of [Fanaticism], those left with a gaping void in their hearts wandered like the living dead for a long time.

Even explosions from hastily made Western special munitions nearby failed to elicit a reaction.

The situation forced Xinghan’s martial artists to risk their lives rescuing innocent civilians.

...

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With no depth to its defenses, Dongyang was overrun by martial assaults and surrendered in just three days.

Same culture, same civilization.

Faced with the spread of martial ways, Dongyang’s capitulation was astonishingly swift.

The martial artists sent to discipline these prodigals were somewhat unprepared for the sudden change—one moment locked in deadly combat, the next their foes had abandoned resistance to fawn and submit unconditionally.

On this, the consecrated Daoist Mo Qianchen remarked: They fear power, not virtue; observe small rites, but lack great righteousness. Dongyang had only grasped the superficial trappings of the culture.

It would require patient correction and improvement from the martial fathers, including the optimization of the population itself.

It was a day worth celebrating.

By rights, Immortal Master Lan Yi ought to have joined the people in jubilation, and perhaps declared his enthronement as the Divine Emperor of Xinghan—some had even prepared the yellow robes in anticipation. But on this day, Lan Yi revealed to his close followers an even more shocking piece of news.

“In three days, I will leave this world.”

The company was stunned!

The immortal master was leaving?

Mo Wuchen, the quickest among them, immediately spoke up.

“Immortal Master! You cannot go—what will we do once you’re gone?”

His words startled the martial artists and Daoists into realizing the gravity of the situation, and they all hastened to plead for him to stay.

They truly did not want Lan Yi to leave.

Xinghan had finally been unified and grown strong. Though Lan Yi had said the world’s spiritual energy would return and there was no need to worry about psychic matters, they still feared that without him presiding, the ambitions of martial artists and Daoists might tear Xinghan apart again.

“My leaving does not mean I will not return.”

These words brought some comfort.

“But I cannot say when I will return.”

And with that, their hearts tightened once more.

“Say no more. This is the law of the Upper Realm. I arrived when the country was at its most perilous, and now that the worst has passed, do you not have the confidence to stand strong on your own?” Lan Yi interrupted his confidants directly.

“Master Huo and Xiao Hong, you stay.”

“The rest of you, attend to your duties.”

The group exchanged glances and, with no choice but to accept reality, each voiced their assent.

“As the Immortal Master commands.”