Am I the only one who didn't ascend?

Chapter 577

Wang Luo had long anticipated that Changshengjun had ill intentions.

This old man had no ill will towards him, or rather, among all the heads of state of the hundred nations in the Immortal Alliance, he was actually the one who was most friendly to him, even more so than the Dragon Master.

But precisely because of this, he is the most difficult to deal with. Whenever Wang Luo sees him, he always has to remain somewhat alert.

Because he was too sharp, so sharp that he didn't look like a Zhou Guo person at all. Those cloudy eyes seemed to be able to see through everything. And the old man was even better at wrapping this sharpness in a friendly gesture, which made it impossible to refuse.

Considering that Changshengjun had taken good care of Zhu Wang, and especially himself, during the long wars over the past few years... Wang Luo pondered for a long time before he was ready to speak for this question that hit the nail on the head.

But Changshengjun smiled at this time, turned his back and walked to the side, and brought another exquisite teacup from the coffee table, which contained a drink as light as water.

"Over the years, people only know that Huadu has glass flower tea, but they don't know that the truly rare local specialty is actually the glass flower dew. Unfortunately, this thing is also really rare. When glass flowers bloom, the petals are free of dust and no water is left. Only the water-phase true spirit that coexists with the glass flower in the spiritual spring can condense a drop of true dew at the pistil. This cup, on behalf of the people of Huadu, I truly thank Lord Wang Shan for his great kindness."

Wang Luo was stunned for a moment, until Changshengjun handed the teacup to him without saying anything, Wang Luo realized that the other party no longer needed him to answer any questions.

The silence and expression change just now were enough to satisfy the curiosity of the keen old man.

"Master Wang Shan, according to custom, the mayor of Huadu will hold a celebration banquet for you at the tree canopy. But I know you are always tired of this kind of socializing, so I have stopped it for you. From the mayor down, everyone should hurry up and write a self-criticism. Don't try to use your face to escape the blame for not preparing for the war. And during this period of time, if you are interested, you can walk around the city by yourself. Although Zhou Guo has many beautiful scenery, the one that best reflects the country's style is Huadu Licheng. When I abdicate and let the wise man take over, I will plan to spend the rest of my life here."

The old man kept chattering, with his back turned, and started busying himself at the tea table. Wang Luo took just one look and couldn't help laughing. After drinking the flower dew in one gulp, he bowed and said goodbye to the hunched figure, took a step forward, and unknowingly came outside with the crisp sound of "clacking".

The sunlight outside is made particularly fresh and pleasant by the treetops woven by tens of millions of giant trees in the Flower City, and the city under the sun is far more prosperous and beautiful than the Glass City in the scroll.

Generally speaking, the picture scroll world constructed based on reality is always more gorgeous than reality, and the original artists of the workshop always add some unrealistic but beautiful designs.

But now, the many scrolls distributed in Taixu are all degraded versions, based on reality, but even the basic scenery restoration is done carelessly. Especially the lush tree cover above the Flower City, not to mention the detailed restoration of each leaf, it is even a static picture with some swaying light effect spells added.

Fortunately, the main stage of the script and snack story is on that kilometer-long street, far away from the treetops above. Otherwise, if I raised my head a few more times, I would be awakened by the blatant sense of incongruity.

There is, of course, only one reason why the scrolls were made so crudely: because they are cheap.

In the context of a long-term war, the Taixu scroll, as a consumable item that was consumed by the Taichu Tianzun hundreds of times every day, could not withstand meticulous work. The main content design of the scroll was also very different from the beginning of the war.

Initially, the Immortal Alliance generally liked to design and create scrolls similar to the Demon Slayer, which had a complex combat system and encouraged practitioners to compete directly. Especially those ace designers who came from top workshops and had brilliant resumes, when they served as leaders in the logistics front, liked to devote all their efforts to design a set of profound and mysterious numerical systems, and then use this home advantage to trick the opponent in the scroll battlefield.

This is of course effective. In the early years of the war, several genius designers relied on ingenious system design to deceive Taichu Tianzun's eyes, causing him to fall into a trap in the scroll and end up in a miserable defeat. However, the memory of each of Taichu Tianzun's clones is synchronized with the original body, so any ingenious trap can only work on him once. During the War Madness period, Tianzun once created more than 400 clones in one day.

No talented designer can withstand such mental and physical exhaustion. After several great designers who had won Lifetime Achievement Awards died suddenly at their workplaces, the Immortal Alliance completely changed its tactical thinking.

In this world, is there any Taixu scroll that does not require too much effort to construct out of thin air, but can still allow the Immortal Alliance to have a home advantage?
The answer is simple: scrolls with realistic themes.

Reflecting the reality of the Immortal Alliance into the scroll is undoubtedly the biggest home advantage for the locals of the Immortal Alliance. No matter how good Taichu Tianzun is at observation and learning, it is impossible for him to understand the Immortal Alliance better than the locals of the Immortal Alliance all of a sudden.

Considering that the Immortal Alliance itself is a civilization that has been basically peaceful and comfortable for thousands of years, direct and fierce confrontation seems inappropriate, so instead, "single-person scrolls" such as snack stories are used. The scrolls themselves can only accommodate two people, and then both parties are placed in a parallel world and experience the same script story. These stories are often drawn from reality, with a very "meticulous" perspective. There is no grand narrative, only the mundane family affairs of the market.

And this is undoubtedly the most advantageous battlefield that the Immortal Alliance can find compared to Taichu Tianzun.

In fact, the real turning point of the long war came from the emergence of a large number of "snack stories". People were surprised to find that Taichu Tianzun had never suffered losses twice in other scrolls, but in these everyday stories, he might make the same mistake ten or a hundred times.

It was as if there was some mysterious force preventing him from walking on the right path.

Because according to the initial prediction of Taixu Mansion, even if the Immortal Alliance has an advantage in this kind of realistic battlefield, the advantage will surely weaken rapidly over time. No matter how "unworldly" Taichu Tianzun is, he is still a genius who was born as a mortal and traveled through the nine states before finally achieving enlightenment. He can open up the immortal path without a teacher, so is it really impossible for him to learn the mundane ways of mortals?
But the conclusion of a long-term war is precisely this: you really can’t learn it.

People naturally have different opinions on this, and countless experts and scholars are actively reviewing it, but for those who know the truth about Tianzun, the conclusion is actually very simple. The Tao that Taichu insists on has long been an inhuman Tao. Immortality after metaphysical concepts means that it is forever isolated from the mundane world. If Taichu really learned the mundane spirit of mortals, his Tao heart would be shattered on the spot.

In fact, this principle is also partially applicable to Taixu Tianzun... The reason why Tianzun is ruthless and heartless, in addition to the fact that his main body comes from the remains of the nether soil and is incomplete, an important reason is that the concept of Tianzun itself exists outside the mundane world. Once it is tainted by the mundane mind, it will slowly fall.

Therefore, the scrolls that were mass-produced like the snack stories were actually a killing plan designed by the mortals of the Immortal Alliance for the two Heavenly Lords.

Therefore, as these scrolls were thrown into the illusion by the thousands, not only did the Taichu Tianzun from Jingzhou become weakened repeatedly, sometimes even unable to defeat mortals. Even the guardian of the Immortal Alliance, Taixu Tianzun, gradually disappeared.

Perhaps, he has completely seen who the real enemy is.

But all these are no longer important. Now that the long war has entered its third year, the situation is approaching the critical point. Once it is crossed, even if the two sides' Heavenly Masters struggle at the same time, they will find it difficult to escape the outcome of defeat.

So, when Changsheng Jun asked him how Taixu Tianzun was doing now, Wang Luo answered that he didn't know. Because he didn't think he needed to know... Maybe someone like Lu Youyou, who was very methodical, would read the reports submitted by various places in the Immortal Alliance from beginning to end every day, but Wang Luo no longer paid attention to these details.

He has been fighting on the front line of the illusion for many years. He can defeat the Taichu incarnation alone without Taixu Tianzun's help. So why should he care about how weak Taixu is?

But the question after Changshengjun was really a thorn in my heart. Lu Zhiyao had not appeared for a long time.

When the war just broke out, she actually appeared in public many times, relying on the unparalleled appeal of the Lord to further rally the hearts of the Immortal Alliance, but as the war intensified, her appearance frequency became less and less. When the batch of scrolls appeared and the war took a turn, she simply disappeared and ignored everyone.

Considering that Lu Zhiyao had been a hands-off boss for hundreds of years, and her successor Lu Youyou was also very diligent, the world had long been accustomed to the absence of the Lord. Now that she immediately retired after the war, it seemed that she was not greedy for fame and had a noble character.

But only those who are close to her can vaguely sense that she is not retiring out of her own will. Because compared to being noble and modest, Lu Zhiyao is definitely more inclined to be ambitious, or at least likes to join in the fun. In the past few hundred years, if she had not been "replaced" by the Lord of the Heavenly Court of the Left of Heaven, and if she had not been under pressure from the Heavenly Lord, she would probably not have considered abdicating and must stay in the position of the number one person in the world until her time was up.

But now, Tianzhizuo was about to collapse completely, and Taixu Tianzun was obviously not a concern. Why did she still need to avoid everyone?

Wang Luo didn't know why Changshengjun thought of this question. Perhaps it was because he had been bathed in the majesty of the Lord since he was a child and admired Lu Zhiyao deeply. Or maybe it was because he, as the ruler of a country, had to plan ahead. When considering the distribution of interests after the war, the situation would be very different if Zhu Wang had Lu Zhiyao's support... Or maybe he just asked casually out of curiosity as an old man.

Just as Wang Luo fell into deep thought, the talisman on his waist suddenly lit up and released a burst of heat.

There was no need for Wang Luo to distract himself and give instructions. The talisman suddenly turned into a stream of light, penetrated into Wang Luo's forehead, and left a brief but important message in his consciousness.

"Rongcheng Workshop was attacked and needs support urgently!"

Wang Luo was startled, and then immediately turned around and went back to the tree house where he had been sitting in Lishen not long ago, and found Changshengjun who was still taking a break from his busy schedule to drink tea.

When the two met again, Chang Shengjun's face was full of surprise: "Master Wang Shan has returned, but..."

Wang Luo repeated the information in the talisman concisely, which immediately froze Changshengjun's surprised expression on his face.

This means that the old man was really surprised.

"Rongcheng Workshop, could it be... the workshop that is closely related to you, Master Wang Shan?"

Wang Luo was silent for a moment. "Most likely. Although there are many scroll painting workshops in and outside Rong City, the only one that deserves the warning from this talisman should be the newly built workshop next to the Shijie Meat Factory. It not only has an important scroll painting production line, but also has many old friends of mine. But my contact with Zhu Wang has been interrupted, so I cannot verify it for now."

"Contact interrupted..." Changsheng Jun took a breath of cold air.

When the Great Illusion Realm was first shattered, all the remote communication techniques of the Immortal Alliance were affected and repeatedly failed. Even the communication arrays that were not built on the Great Illusion often became inexplicably silent. However, the war has been relatively stable in the past year. The Immortal Alliance led the countries to urgently complete the implementation of a variety of substitute arrays, which has allowed the voices of the countries to be connected again... Although the communication dialogue is not as convenient as the Great Illusion Realm, it is definitely not "disconnected".

The situation was so confusing and bizarre that Changsheng Jun did not speculate for a moment. He only said, "There are three teleportation formations in Licheng that lead directly to Zhuwang, and there is also my shuttle [Mingxue]. Lord Wangshan, you..."

Wang Luo made a prompt decision: "Please lend me the shuttle."

"Okay, since the communication has been cut off, the cross-border formation that can travel thousands of miles in an instant is probably not safe. The shuttle is still the safest..." Changsheng Jun said, taking off a ring from his right thumb and handing it to Wang Luo, "Use this token to command the shuttle to use its full strength. It should be able to reach Rong City from Li City in half an hour. However, its momentum is fierce, so I will ask my men to contact Zhuwang Border in advance to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."

After saying this, the old man disappeared and hurriedly left the tree house without even waiting for Wang Luo to thank him.

-

Not long after, Wang Luo drove Mingxue across the border of Zhuwang like a burning meteor, causing a period of panic on the border.

But Wang Luo couldn't care less.

The situation in Rongcheng must be extremely urgent and strange. Otherwise, according to common sense, even if the workshop was attacked in a horrible way, with the manpower and material resources of Rongcheng at that time, there was absolutely no reason to ask Wang Luo, who was thousands of kilometers away, for help. If there was a problem that the hundreds of thousands of Dinghuang troops stationed around Rongcheng could not solve, then Wang Luo would be helpless.

unless……

Just when Wang Luo had vaguely guessed the answer in his heart, there was a sudden tapping sound beside him, followed by a staggering sound of unstable footsteps.

Wang Luo turned around and saw Han Xingyan kneeling on the ground in a somewhat embarrassed manner. The back of his head hit the wall of the shuttle cockpit due to inertia, and blood was oozing out of his seven orifices.

Han Xingyan used the art of teleportation to move onto a speeding shuttle, and it was obvious that he was fighting for his life.

The result of fighting desperately was just to allow Wang Luo to obtain detailed information from the front line as soon as possible.

"The Great Demon Lord Taichu has been dormant for a long time and has developed a magical power to transform the virtual into the real. He suddenly attacked and eroded the Rongcheng workshop. Now the workshop has been pulled into the illusion and many people are trapped in it."

The information contained in these words was too dense to be clear, but Wang Luo nodded calmly.

"I understand... It's just a dying struggle. No need to worry."

(End of this chapter)