Once Jiang Chen made up his mind, he immediately bent his mind to planning out moves on the map. Nothing should be decided without the utmost deliberation.
Every sacred land was critically important. The decision to choose one over another couldn’t be taken lightly.
After their collective brainstorming, they concluded that the three sacred lands that were most likely to have fallen under Lightford’s attack were Martial, Polylore, and Flora. They were closest to the Eternal Sacred Land.
The ones farthest away were Radiance and Sunrise.
Jiang Chen decided to pick those two as their destinations. They were in the northern part of Myriad Abyss. The others had no objections.
After deploying Starfate, Jiang Chen used part of his spirit stones to activate the accelerating formation on the airboat, increasing its speed by a good margin. As a result, they reached Radiance in less than a day.
Long Xiaoxuan was one step away from ascending to divinity. He couldn’t bear waiting in the airboat and volunteered to scout out the sacred land.
As Jiang Chen had expected, Lightford wasn’t in the Radiance Sacred Land, but the sacred land had been taken over.
There were two gods, a few demigods, and a group of deathsworn who had escaped from the Boundless Prison. They weren’t particularly powerful, but it’d be difficult to deal with them if they holed up within the sacred land.
Once he received the intelligence, Jiang Chen convened a meeting.
“The Radiance Sacred Land’s defenses can’t be underestimated. If they use the territory to their advantage, it’ll be difficult for us to take them down. Every minute counts. Wasting too much time here will undermine the next step of our plan.”
He was worried. Radiance wasn’t their only target as they had to reclaim Sunrise as well. And the more sacred lands they took back, the better.
Simply put, they were in a race with Lightford. Lightford and his people must be doing all they could as well. Perhaps he’d even anticipated Jiang Chen’s intervention. There was absolutely no time to waste.
“Young lord Chen, shouldn’t we be powerful enough to take them down head-on?” commented the Vermilion Bird with a laugh.
“If we do that and they bunker down in the sacred land, using its defenses to keep us out, it’ll take us too much time. Spending three to five days here is detrimental to our overall plan.”
“Well...” The bird’s eyes lit up. “I remember you often disguised yourself to infiltrate your enemy’s ranks back in the human domain. Why don’t you...”
Delighted inspiration struck Jiang Chen. “That’s right!”
Divine Kasyapa shook his head. “No matter how good your disguise is, it might fail. Who do you plan to disguise as?”
“Yuan Zijing and the cultivator with warts?” suggested Jiang Chen.
“That won’t do!” Divine Kasyapa disagreed. “Lightford is cautious. Once he takes over a sacred land, he’ll inform his men at the other sacred lands with a transmitting formation. If the divine cultivators here at Radiance received information from Lightford, they’ll be on their guard. Disguising yourself as Yuan Zijing and his companion may do you more harm than good. What are you going to do if they lure you into a trap?”
Days had passed. If Lightford had taken over a sacred land, he would’ve sent the information to his people. Their original plan really wouldn’t work then. It would take only a reminder from Lightford for the cultivators to look out for possible infiltration.
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“It seems that we’ll have to rely on brawn rather than brain.”
“Assuming others’ identity may work,” remarked Divine Kasyapa. “Just not Yuan Zijing and his companion.”
“Who else can we disguise as?” Jiang Chen asked curiously.
“Six cultivators have attacked you on Sandplain. Two were killed. Yuan Zijing and the cultivator with warts were another. The last two still haven’t shown up. Perhaps we can take on their identity.”
“Oh?” Jiang Chen perked up, but then questioned, “I’ve never seen them. I don’t know what they look like or what their names are. How are we going to assume their identities?”
“You don’t know them, but Yu Gong does.” Kasyapa chuckled and looked at the bald cultivator.
After yielding to Jiang Chen, Yu Gong could be nothing but Lightford’s enemy. He knew he didn’t have another choice. He nodded. “I know them. I just worry that they’ve gone back to Lightford. Then we’ll be exposed if we pose as them.”
“Haha, if they wanted to return to Lightford, they would’ve done that already. They wouldn’t have waited until now. I believe they’ve gone into hiding.”
Kasyapa had escaped from the Boundless Prison as well. He knew how the minds of his fellow inmates worked.
Those who had taken Lightford’s side had been forced into doing so. After suffering a defeat, it was only natural that they would be too intimidated to return.
“That’s decided then. We have to try no matter what. As long as we can lure the divine cultivators out, it’ll be easy for all of us to kill them.”
The two divine cultivators might be strong, but Jiang Chen and his companions were twice as powerful as they were. Caught off guard, the divine cultivators wouldn’t pose that big of a challenge.
“Alright, that’s the plan,” Jiang Chen said with a smile. “Divine Kasyapa, Yu Gong, allow me to disguise you.”
Time stopped for no one. Jiang Chen and the others started their preparations immediately.
After fifteen minutes, the disguise was complete. They used the identity of the two missing cultivators to request a meeting.
The Radiance Sacred Land was heavily guarded.
Although there weren’t a lot of Lightford’s people, they were able to keep the sacred land under tight control, leaving no openings.
The two divines occupying the place were both devoted to Lightford. They were Divine Yuxian and Divine Panyuan.
They weren’t the most powerful among Lightford’s men, but their loyalty to him wouldn’t waver.
A few days ago, they’d received a message from Lightford illustrating how difficult the situation currently was. They were to defend the sacred land as best as they could. If the ten sacred lands’ elites attacked, they were told to not engage and wait for Lightford to come.
Lightford also told them that some of their divine companions had been killed by the sacred lands. They had to exercise utmost caution.