Faced with such a chaotic situation, Ding Yun did not dare to act rashly. Instead, she spent several months specifically investigating. Five avatars were dispatched simultaneously to the east, west, south, north, and central regions to survey the terrain, the distribution of local powers, and the internal situations of various factions.
Often, the outward appearance of a faction did not align with its internal reality or true intentions, so one could not just look at the surface.
Whether it was sowing discord or forming alliances,
a deep understanding of the relevant factions was necessary
to hit the nail on the head and achieve one's goals.
With the investigation concluded, Ding Yun undoubtedly gained a more profound understanding of the current situation in the Immortal Realm.
For instance, the Divine Beast clan, while still cooperating with the native immortal clans, had secretly accumulated considerable dissatisfaction. They were even discreetly dispatching personnel to contact some ascenders,
hoping to negotiate for an antidote.
This was because their losses were too great this time.
Before cooperating with the native immortal clans to deal with the ascenders, they had lived in seclusion and faced minimal danger. Whether it was ascenders or native immortals, they mostly hunted demonic beasts and rarely harmed divine beasts, regardless of whether they were pure or mixed-blood. The loss of a few demonic beasts was not a significant issue for them.
But after cooperating with the native immortal clans?
They heard plenty of empty promises, like agreeing to cede one-third of the territory after success, but they received virtually no actual benefits. Instead, they helped the native immortal clans kill three Ascended Immortal Venerables and suffered unprecedented, frenzied retaliation. The number of mixed-blood divine beasts that died due to bloodline conflicts far exceeded the total number of deaths over the past thirty million years.
Not to mention other losses.
As of now, although they also hated the ascenders who attacked them, they actually hated the native immortal clans even more. If the native immortal clans hadn't gone and incited them to cooperate, they would never have clashed with those ascenders, and thus would not have encountered these troubles.
Most crucially, they had no immediate solution to their bloodline conflict problem. Moreover, as the virus continued to mutate, some demonic beasts with divine beast bloodlines had also begun to experience bloodline conflicts. Although the numbers were small currently, once a sign appeared, it could spiral out of control with a little development.
These practical issues were evident. The native immortal clans were also too preoccupied to offer much help, constantly making empty promises that were utterly useless.
If they didn't seek to negotiate for an antidote,
what else could they do?
They couldn't simply let the virus run rampant, nor could they seal all non-pure-blooded demonic beasts with time divine techniques, but that would only be a temporary fix.
Who knew when.
They would be able to research an antidote on their own?
Then there were the native immortal clans. Their outward behavior was a vow for revenge, to fight the ascenders to the death, but this was actually the sentiment of the Immortal Emperors and Immortal Venerables whose descendants had mostly perished.
They were powerful and had influence. Despite their small numbers, they still dominated the actions of the native immortal clans. However, in reality, other Immortal Lords who had suffered no significant losses, and those of even lower cultivation like Golden Immortals and Profound Immortals, while resentful of the ascenders for creating the Heavenly Man Decline, were mostly not yet at the age where they would suffer from it, and thus were not in a hurry.
They did not need to worry about dying from it in the short term.
But war did cause deaths. Carelessness could easily lead to being killed. War also hindered their cultivation. Should they be injured and their origin damaged,
it would affect their future breakthroughs.
No matter how they weighed the pros and cons, the ordinary native immortal clans at the lower levels were generally unwilling to continue the fierce conflict with the ascenders. It was just that they had no voice and lacked the ability to change the minds of the Immortal Emperors and Immortal Venerables above them.
So, at most, they could slack off during conflicts.
Some had even reached a tacit understanding with the ascenders, engaging in mock battles and pretending to fight.
They would never go all out.
After all, the outcome of the war did not depend on Golden Immortals and Profound Immortals like them; it depended on those above.
As for the remaining ascenders and the demon race.
They were quite honest. Their outward behavior was their true situation. For example, the ascenders had many internal conflicts and fought independently. If not for the current encirclement and siege by divine beasts, native immortal clans, and demons, they would likely have fought among themselves first.
Especially Ding Yun's peers, they not only had conflicts with other ascenders but also within their own ranks.
Some even felt that the Immortal Realm was too chaotic, making it difficult to fish in troubled waters, and had shifted their primary focus to invading nearby mortal planes to increase their income.
As for the demon race, they were truly harmonious.
And they truly trusted Ding Yun.
Through this in-depth investigation, Ding Yun unexpectedly discovered that her information blockade was not entirely thorough. Some related information had indeed leaked from the Demon Realm and reached the ears of the nine Demon Lords through various channels.
Although the intelligence transmission was not comprehensive, the core points had been conveyed: Ding Yun, the Seven Emotions Demon Lord, was attempting to unify the Demon Realm.
However, the other Demon Lords did not believe it.
They all thought that Ding Yun couldn't possibly be so foolish, unless she had gone mad. But how could a Demon Lord go mad?
Therefore, it was absolutely impossible.
Furthermore, at this moment, they had charged ahead with hardly any defeats, a time of great spirit and even hope of conquering a large part of the Immortal Realm.
Thus, not only did they not believe the transmitted intelligence,
but they also thought that the messengers were likely bribed by the immortals of the Immortal Realm, or that they were spies sent by the Immortal Realm to the Demon Realm, spreading false news.
The purpose was also simple: to make them believe that the Demon Realm's backyard was on fire, and to force them to retreat.
Upon careful consideration, their logic made sense.
Therefore, their final response was to directly eliminate the messengers. They still had no worries about their backyard being on fire, and they even sent a message to Ding Yun, asking her to prepare more logistical supplies and send them over.
They hoped Ding Yun would handle the logistics well.
They trusted her completely.
Some things in this world are just that absurd.
It had to be said that the trust of the nine Demon Lords made Ding Yun feel inexplicably a little guilty, as if she had let them down. Although they believed Ding Yun lacked the ability rather than truly trusted her, they had indeed acted very trustingly.
Of course.
This guilt lasted for less than two seconds.
In the third second, she began to stir up trouble, such as publicizing the Divine Beast clan's attempt to negotiate with the ascenders, or using the concept-level River God and River God Technique to create an Immortal Venerable-level avatar for herself.
One with the bloodline of the native immortal clans.
Then, using that native Immortal Venerable avatar, she openly declared her intention to protect the native immortal clans who did not want war.
This was to sow discord among the native immortal clans.
Another example was to expand the rule of Heavenly Man Decline in the Immortal Realm to encompass all ascenders, thereby exacerbating the internal conflicts among the ascenders.
The Heavenly Man Decline was first used by Ding Yun.
Making a few adjustments was effortless.
And she did all this, of course, to enable the nine Demon Lords to continue their triumphant push through the Immortal Realm and become complacent. After all, only if the three major powers of the Immortal Realm remained in discord could the Demon Realm maintain an absolute advantage. If they allied with each other or even reached a peace treaty, the nine Demon Lords of the Demon Realm would likely not be able to withstand it.
If they couldn't resist, they would have to retreat, and would have to return.
Ding Yun was not yet ready.
So, she naturally had to let them continue to win.
However, after completing these actions, Ding Yun quickly began new plans. If the nine Demon Lords achieved great success in a short period, she would have to reconsider how to make the three major powers shake hands and reconcile.
To jointly confront the nine Demon Lords.
In short, to successfully take over the Demon Realm,
Ding Yun had truly gone to great lengths.