My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

"This is the land of China! This is my home turf!"

"This place is supported by the beliefs of hundreds of millions of ordinary people, and blessed by the humanitarian spirit accumulated by sages throughout history!"

"On our own territory, with the help of the heaven-defying secret techniques of the 'Immortal Forging Dynasty', I was able to barely unleash a terrifying combat power comparable to that of a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator and repel that divine consciousness projection."

At this point, Li Shimin changed the subject.

His tone turned incredibly cold again.

"But once we cross the boundary barrier..."

"Once the army sets foot on the territory of Little Thunder Temple."

"The imperial fortune of the Tang Dynasty simply cannot penetrate the vast and distant starry sky to protect you!"

"In that otherworld shrouded in endless Buddhist teachings, you are like rootless duckweed!"

"Without the home advantage of being based in the country."

"With just a few Golden Core cultivators like you? With just a hundred thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators?"

Li Shimin's questions were like heavy hammer blows, striking everyone's hearts.

"Once war breaks out, that's not an expedition!"

"That's called going to your death! It's being slaughtered unilaterally!"

"Do you want the resources that the Tang Dynasty has painstakingly accumulated to be crushed into a pile of mud on someone else's home turf?!"

Inside the Taiji Hall.

A deathly silence.

Everyone's breathing became heavy.

His feverish mind finally calmed down completely after Li Shimin's scathing rebuke, which was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head.

Yes.

The recent series of victories crippled the Blood Fiend Sect and destroyed the Heavenly Wolf Valley.

They've become too arrogant.

They even forgot that the Tang Dynasty had only been involved in the cultivation world for a little over a year.

Compared to those great cosmic religions that have been passed down for tens of thousands of years.

The Tang Dynasty was just an innocent child who had just learned to walk.

Rushing in now would be suicidal; there's absolutely no chance of winning.

Li Chen listened quietly to what Old Li had to say.

Countless complex emotions flashed in his deep black eyes.

The purple-gold lightning in his eyes flickered violently a few times.

finally.

He slowly exhaled a long, stale breath.

"Whoosh."

The longsword flipped and precisely inserted into the scabbard at his waist.

The sound of swords clashing completely faded away.

"Father is right."

Li Chen raised his head, and his young face showed less of his previous arrogance and more of the composure befitting a person in a superior position.

"It was my impulsiveness."

"Playing on someone else's home turf is like a tiger with its teeth pulled. This deal is definitely not worth it."

In Li Chen's mind, the nine large characters that the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who founded the dynasty, once regarded as the guiding principle, appeared in his history books from his previous life.

He murmured to himself.

"Build high walls, store up plenty of grain, and delay declaring yourself king."

"Since we can't beat them now, we'll just have to endure it."

A cold smile curled up at the corner of Li Chen's mouth once again.

"What the Tang Dynasty has in abundance is time and potential."

"We can't take on the Western Buddhist kingdoms right now, but aren't there other easy targets in this vast cosmos that we can exploit?"

A shrewd and greedy glint rekindled in Li Chen's eyes.

He turned his head and looked at Li Tai, the Prince of Wei, who had been hiding in the corner without saying a word.

"Second Brother."

Li Chen raised an eyebrow at Li Tai.

"Didn't your Ministry of Works recently seize a large batch of blueprints for star formations and compasses?"

"Could you think of a way to create a magical artifact?"

"Is it specifically designed to search for the coordinates of unclaimed or weaker small worlds surrounding the Tang Dynasty?"

Upon hearing this, Li Tai's small eyes, which had been squeezed into slits by his fat, suddenly lit up.

His obese body shuddered, and he instantly understood what Li Chen meant.

"Sixteenth brother, you mean...?"

Li Tai rubbed his hands together excitedly, "We're not going to attack the Buddhist Kingdom, we're going to attack other small worlds?!"

"That's right."

Li Chen crossed his arms, his tone exuding a bandit-like domineering air.

"The Buddhist sect is a level 100 ultimate boss, and we're only level 30 now, so it's normal that we can't beat them."

"But we have cheat codes!"

"Since we can't beat the big monster, let's go grind the smaller monsters for experience!"

"Swallow all the surrounding small worlds! Incorporate their spiritual energy, resources, and population into the territory of the Tang Dynasty!"

Li Chen turned around and faced the assembled civil and military officials.

"The fate of the Tang Dynasty was enhanced by the vastness of its territory and the number of its people."

"As long as we devour enough worlds, the golden dragon of the Tang Dynasty's destiny will grow infinitely!"

"Wait until one day."

Li Chen clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking, his voice revealing an ambition that stirred the blood.

"The imperial fortune of the Tang Dynasty is so vast that it can cover the entire Great Thousand Starfield!"

"At that time, all the heavens and myriad realms will be the absolute home ground of our Great Tang!"

"Let's take another 100,000 troops to Little Thunderclap Temple, and beat the dog inside!"

This is a grand, ambitious plan to plunder space.

The blood of the court officials, which had just cooled down, began to boil wildly again!

Instead of fighting the big boss, let's bully the low-level characters!

What's this called?

This is called a strategic shift! This is called a dimensional reduction attack!

Li Shimin was overjoyed, and the gloom in his heart was swept away.

He patted Li Chen on the shoulder heavily.

"What a wise saying: 'Build high walls and store up grain!'"

"Issue my decree!"

Li Shimin turned and walked back to the dragon throne. With a wave of his hand, his majestic voice resounded throughout the hall.

"Suspend all military operations against the Western Buddhist Kingdom! The entire army will enter a period of rest and reorganization!"

"The Ministry of Works has allocated all its resources to fully develop a space exploration array!"

"Once the target is locked, the Xuanjia Army will immediately set out!"

"Target—The surrounding worlds!"

The war machine of the Tang Dynasty.

At that moment, the direction of the crushing subtly changed.

Faced with an invincible foe, they chose the wisest course of action: forbearance.

This forbearance is for a future, more intense and brutal outburst.

……

Time passed, and seven days later.

Outside Chang'an City, inside the top-secret testing ground of the Imperial Ministry of Works.

King Li Tai of Wei had huge dark circles under his eyes and his hair was a mess, like a bird's nest.

But the expression on his face was one of frenzied excitement, like that of a madman.

He stood before a massive Bagua array plate, ten zhang tall, and pressed his chubby, mud-covered hand hard against the activation hub in the center of the array plate.

"Buzz—!"

An invisible, profound ripple spread wildly from the Tang Dynasty towards the depths of the vast starry sky.

On the giant crystal ball floating above the array plate.

Immediately, countless green lights, like twinkling stars, lit up.

"It's a success! Sixteenth brother, Father! The star probe is a success!"

Li Tai was so excited that he danced around and shouted, pointing at the green dots.

"These are all the coordinates of the nearby small worlds!"

Li Shimin and Li Chen, who had come to inspect the area, exchanged a glance, both showing delight.

however.

Before anyone could even celebrate this historic moment...

The crystal ball, suspended in mid-air, suddenly trembled violently.

The light on the crystal ball instantly changed from a soft green to a dazzling, viscous blood red!

"Beep beep beep beep—!!!"

The extremely piercing alarm of the array, like a death knell, instantly resounded throughout the entire top-secret testing ground.

The ecstasy on Li Tai's face suddenly froze.

He stared intently at the crystal ball.

In the center of those densely packed green dots of light, all you could see was...

Without warning, a crimson ball of light, incredibly close to the coordinates of the Great Tang Dynasty and of a ridiculously large size, appeared!

The size of this ball of light was several times larger than that of the Tang Dynasty itself!

"What...what the hell is this?!"

Li Tai swallowed hard, his voice filled with undisguised fear.

He turned his head and looked at Li Shimin and Li Chen.

"Father, sixteenth brother..."

Li Tai pointed at the purplish-red ball of light, and cold sweat poured down his face.

"It seems there's a mysterious world even larger than the Tang Dynasty..."

"It's advancing at a terrifying speed towards the borders of our Great Tang Dynasty..."

"It's crashing into us!!!"