His eyes gleamed with enlightenment as he asked himself, saying, ’Or was he the Dao Lord of the Martial Body Sect? Does that mean that Dao Lords will be involved in this war?’
’Even if Dao Lords won’t be involved in this war, the fact that Shadow Clone was killed by someone from the Martial Body Sect before the war started, not after the war, indicates that there was some tension between the Martial Body Sect and us long before the war. So, has this war been brewing quietly without my knowledge until it exploded now?’
When he thought long and hard but couldn’t find answers to his questions, he exhaled heavily as he thought, ’Time will tell, anyway. In the meantime, I should start trying to figure out a way to maximize my benefits in this war.’
His eyes gleamed as he thought, ’If I can reach out to the rank 8 cultivators of the other sects without being noticed by the spirit of the sect or the Dao Lord, that would be great. If we communicate, we might be able to work together to benefit each other one way or another.’
He wanted to chuckle or rub the palms of his hands together and grin as he schemed. But he decided that it was a bad idea to show any suspicious reaction in these trying times of war.
It was difficult for him not to chuckle and laugh as he schemed, but he managed, through the force of will, not to indulge his emotions. Instead, he maintained a stern look on his face as he joined the sect elders’ meeting.
The objective of the meeting had become planning for the war after the war was announced. The sect spirit proposed policies, and the sect elders voted on these policies.
One of the policies that was discussed was troop arrangement. They had to discuss going on the defensive or going on the attack. Since they only had one rank 8 cultivator, they decided not to go on the attack.
Even with the Four Directions Sect on their side, the total number of rank 8 divine beings at their disposal was 6, while the total number of rank 8 divine beings on the opposite side was 8. So they outnumbered in top-level combat personnel.
This was why the decision to go on the defensive was unanimous. But then they had to decide how to defend and where to defend.
For now, the battlefield is limited to the first heaven and will only involve divine beings and rank 5 cultivators. For now, the goal of the war was to defend the heavenly city in the heavens.
Throughout the meeting, Monarch Truth and Eyes thought about a lot of things and felt different emotions at various times in the meeting, but one emotion he didn’t feel was fear.
He wasn’t afraid for two reasons. The obvious one is that he is confident in his strength. So he is confident in being able to keep himself alive during the war.
As long as a Dao Lord doesn’t intervene like earlier, he should be safe. And if a Dao Lord does intervene to kill him, he hopes that they will destroy the Nexus of Truth Sect while they are at it, so that he can reincarnate with freedom.
As for the more obscure reason why he is not afraid, it is because he doesn’t think there is any reason to be afraid of other rank 8 cultivators.
This second reason isn’t a matter of strength. Even if he were weak and had no confidence in his strength, he still wouldn’t fear for his life. This is because he knows that the rank 8 cultivators don’t have any motivation to do their best to kill each other.
At this point, rank 8 cultivators know that they are not fighting for themselves. They know that this war is for the sect. Since most of them have little or no love for their sects, there is no need for them to risk their lives fighting for the sect.
There is also the more important matter of a lack of reward and motivation for fighting in the war. There is literally only one thing that can motivate a rank 8 cultivator to go all out fighting, but the sect won’t give them this one thing.
The usual reward that the sect is quick to dole out to them is more divine merit points. This reward has always been useless to him for a while now. But if his recent experience has taught him anything, it is that this reward can be less than nothing.
Because of his experience with his sect, he will definitely not fight to the death for a reward that can be taken from him. And while he isn’t sure about the experience of other rank 8 cultivators, he is sure that they, too, won’t risk their lives for some divine merit points.
He was sure that only the rank 6 and rank 7 divine beings might be motivated to fight for the sect for divine merit points. So he was calm and without fear while the rank 6 and rank 7 cultivators in his sect were nervous and full of anticipation in equal proportions.
When the reward list was brought out by the spirit of the sect, and he saw divine merit points on it as the most valuable item, he knew that he was right. This brought a smile to his lips.
The people who saw the smile on his lips thought that he was cheered by the list of rewards. But only he knew that he was smiling because even without his active influence, the rank 8 cultivators would still put on a show of fighting in the war instead of fighting seriously.
As it turned out, he wasn’t the only rank 8 cultivator with this opinion. The Nexus of Truth Sect also wasn’t the only one preparing for war. The same situation was going on everywhere in the Blessed Heaven World.