As Amon predicted, the situation spiralled into chaos the next day after Hai Xuang and Lan Mei eloped.

The reason it had devolved so fast was that Amon had Lin Li place a letter under the doorstep to Lan Mei’s room the night everyone left. The letter had Lan Mei’s handwriting, which explained her disappearance. The letter made it seem as if she was sorry for leaving him, but she could not deny her heart since she loved Hai Xuang more.

This letter was, of course, not written by Lan Mei. They intended for Lang Man to be in the dark. He would sooner or later discover the truth, considering everyone from the Devotion Faction also disappeared the same night, but the investigation would take some time. Amon preferred it to be sooner rather than later, hence the letter.

After reading the letter, Lang Man went into a fit of rage. He detained everyone who worked inside the Peace Estate and demanded that they tell him everything that had happened between Lan Mei and Hai Xuang. Not getting a clear answer, he executed them all. Their fates were sealed either way. Even if they had the information he asked for, he would still execute them for the sin of not preventing the adultery that happened between Lan Mei and Hai Xuang.

After he was done massacring the denizens of Peace Estate, he charged into the Devotion Domain. The barrier between the border had been re-erected following Hai Lao’s command, but it meant nothing to him. It couldn’t even slow him down. He went to the closest border town and rained hell on it. Within a day, he slew more than half its population and flattened most of its buildings to the ground.

Those who survived were the ones who ran out of town when the slaughter began, and a few whom he spared to deliver his words. His words were a demand for the Devotion Faction to hand back his wife, Lan Mei, and the sinner, Hai Xuang. Until this demand was met, the Commitment Domain would be at war with the Devotion Domain.

Hai Di had known about the situation from Hai Lao, but he was still furious when he received news about Lang Man ransacking one of his towns. He was angry at both Lang Man and Hai Xuang. He ordered his people to look for Hai Xuang’s whereabouts and to prepare for a full-out war.

---------------

The news of the war soon reached Yao Ai. At the same time as she received the report, she also received a message talisman from Amon.

"What does he say?" Diu Cay asked. He was in the process of reporting about the war when Yao Ai received Amon’s message.

"He told us to attack Bitter Ardour City," Yao Ai answered.

"Bitter Ardour City? It is located in the Southern part of the Commitment Domain and close to our border. It is indeed an ideal target for us, but why should we join the war? Let them fight each other. We will finish them once they exhaust their forces."

Yao Ai smiled. "Amon expected us to think like that. His message explained why we shouldn’t do that."

"Why?" Diu Cay asked.

Yao Ai looked again at the message talisman in her hand and read, "If we don’t attack, neither the Devotion nor the Commitment Factions will commit their full forces into this war, because they will always be wondering about the intention of our faction. The problem with a power balance between three sides is that each one serves as a deterrent to the other two. Any two sides that enter a conflict will always worry about what the third party will do. Thus, the parties at odds will fight reservedly.

"Things will be different if we make our intention clear. By assaulting the Commitment Domain, we will make it seem like we cooperate with the Devotion Faction. This will push our enemies to expend more effort in the conflict compared to if we stay idle by the side and watch. Of course, our involvement is only for show, and we should conserve our strength. With our interference, we should tip the scales in favor of the Devotion Faction. When their force is deep inside the Commitment Domain, we can turn around and strike the Devotion Domain with our full force from the rear.

"If we time it correctly, we should be able to defeat the Devotion Faction with this strategy. We will then only have the weakened Commitment Faction to deal with."

Yao Ai finished reading and put the message talisman aside.

"What do you think?" Yao Ai asked when Diu Cay did not comment.

Diu Cay didn’t speak because he agreed with the explanation, yet didn’t want to show that he approved of Amon’s strategy. He hesitantly said, "... I think we take too much of a risk by involving ourselves in this war."

Yao Ai chuckled. "I remember that you are very eager to get it on with the Commitment Domain after the last Lord’s meeting when Amon told us to chill out. The role of the two of you has reversed."

"I... simply thought that it is more prudent not to be hasty."

"You should know by now I am not the prudent type. Anyway, I agree with Amon’s strategy. We shouldn’t let his effort be in vain."

"His effort?" Diu Cay asked.

"Yes. In the beginning of his letter, he took credit for inciting this war between the Devotion and Commitment Factions."

"What rubbish. I might not get the full picture, but from what intel I had gathered, the two factions went into full conflict because one of Hai Di’s children committed adultery with one of Lang Man’s wives. The situation is triggered by a crime of passion. It’s not something resulting from anyone’s plan."

"Well, he did say he was working on something to break the status quo in the lower world. Who can say this is not a result of that effort?"

"I refuse to believe that! I think he was boasting when he made the promise. This incident coincidentally happened, and he took the chance to take the credit."

Yao chuckled. "Whether it is because of him or not, the status quo does break with this incident. We should capitalize on it. Prepare our army to make a move on Bitter Ardour City."

"As you wish," Diu Cay said.

---------------

When Amon sent Yao Ai the message, he was in the Southeast part of the Commitment Domain, near the misty border. According to the coordinates Mo Wang had given him, that direction was where Di Yu’s nest was located, and where he could find her offspring.

Mo Wang promised to inform him if the young noble dragon changed location. He never did, so Di Yu’s offspring should still be there. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He was now looking at the wall of mists ahead of him. This place was on the opposite side from the Northwest part of the lower world, where the Hyanid’s nest was hidden, but the mist wall looked exactly the same. Amon remembered that Mo Wang told him this entire realm was an artificial dimension and originally empty. He wondered who put this mist wall in place.

He didn’t waste much time pondering this question. He summoned a few battle puppets and had them enter ahead of him as scouts. He had one with the vocal module walking next to him. If the other battle puppets were ambushed, the one with the vocal module would warn him.

He waited a minute. Seeing that the battle puppet next to him didn’t issue any warning, he also stepped inside the mist wall. As before, he had limited visibility due to the mists. His cultivation sense was also severely dulled. He was confident with his danger sense, but the puppet scouts provided extra assurance. He even had battle puppets with flight modules scouting the air above him. The only direction he should be wary of was underground, but any ambush from the ground would cause noise and tremors. He could easily pick those up before the ambush arrived.

With this formation, he tread ahead.

Trouble didn’t stay away for long. The battle puppet beside him uttered, "Contact with puppet twelve and thirteen... Puppet twelve is neutralized. Puppet thirteen suffered heavy damage."

’Should be a Higher Mythical Beast,’ Amon thought. The battle puppets that scouted ahead were all mid-tier runic, which roughly had the base power of a Spirit or Malicious Stage cultivators. The time it took the spirit beast to defeat the battle puppets was too slow for a Primordial Beast and too fast for a Mid Mythical Beast.

Amon charged forward. He had assigned each of the scout puppets a number. He knew the position of puppet twelve and thirteen. He swiftly arrived just as puppet thirteen was destroyed. The spirit beast was a giant four-legged lizard with a long, sharp spear-like head.

The Broken Justice in his hand released a bright light, which caused the lizard beast to shut his eyes and utter a surprised cry. Its cry didn’t last long. Amon slashed the Broken Justice using White Slash. Flashes of light crisscrossed around the beast.

In an instant, the beast’s body split into small, cut pieces.