Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

To avoid provoking the wrath of the major powers within the Great Qi Empire, the demon race of the Myriad Spirits Domain did not break the tacit rules they had agreed upon.

Apart from the ambush of the Apocalypse warship when the three demon saints acted simultaneously, no demon saint directly intervened on the battlefield in subsequent wars.

The only Apocalypse warship on the battlefield at the level of a terrestrial deity was also severely damaged in the ambush and lost its ability to continue fighting.

September of the 20th year of the Tianshun reign.

The Daqi army that invaded the Wanling Domain withdrew one after another, with the main force returning to Daqi territory and setting up defenses on the Daqi border.

After seven years, the demon race of the Myriad Spirits Domain has reclaimed its territory, with its army pressing on the border, facing off against the main force of the Great Qi.

November of the 20th year of the Tianshun reign.

Emperor Jun Cheng'an of the Great Qi Dynasty and Qing Yu, the Demon Emperor of the Myriad Spirits Domain, began negotiations outside the Eastern Pole Pass, with neither side acknowledging defeat.

The Wanling Domain demands that Daqi hand over all the perpetrators involved in the trafficking of demons, pay war reparations of 3 billion taels of silver, and return the three states.

The Great Qi side demanded that the demon race withdraw all its troops, submit to the Great Qi, pay annual tribute, and deliver supplies worth one billion taels of silver in one lump sum.

The two sides argued fiercely, and the negotiations failed.

Small-scale wars continue to break out.

March of the 21st year of the Tianshun reign.

Lingxiao Sanren was found dead in the Mu family dungeon. When he died, he had been cut into more than nine thousand pieces, and it was impossible to piece together a complete corpse.

Mu An ordered that his bones be crushed and scattered to the ground on the western mountain as a sacrifice to the people who were killed by Lingxiao Sanren and Xueyijiao.

September of the 21st year of the Tianshun reign.

After thousands of small-scale battles, the human and demon races resumed negotiations.

The Wanling Domain changed its terms, demanding that Daqi hand over the culprits who trafficked demon children, completely eradicate demon trafficking within Daqi's territory, and pay 1 billion taels in war reparations.

The Great Qi Empire no longer demands that the demon race submit, while all other conditions remain unchanged.

Negotiations failed again, and the fighting continued to escalate.

In the twenty-first year of the Tianshun era, due to the long-term war, the burden on various parts of Daqi was increasing day by day, and the ever-increasing taxes made life unbearable for the people of Daqi.

Led by the nine major vassal states, the larger vassal states closed their city gates and refused to pay taxes to the court for various reasons.

The vacant quotas were naturally added to other regions.

Furthermore, due to varying local conditions, official corruption can range from minor to severe. In regions where corrupt officials are rampant, the heavy taxes are unimaginable to ordinary people.

In just one year, thousands of rebellions of varying scales broke out throughout the Great Qi Dynasty. The number of refugees continued to grow, countless people were unable to bear the heavy taxes, farmland was seized by trickery and coercion, and people were forced to leave their homes with their families and embark on a path of begging for a living.

The Shanqishan Dao faction alone took in nearly two million refugees in that year.

Including the refugees taken in in previous years, the total number of refugees who have fled to Qishan Road since the war with the demon race began has reached as many as six million.

The massive influx of refugees caused a sharp increase in the population of Qishan Road. As news of Qishan Road's widespread acceptance of refugees spread throughout the surrounding major states, countless people set their sights on Qishan Road and embarked on their journeys of exile.

The ever-increasing number of migrants has put immense strain on Qishan Road, which was developing rapidly.

Even though Mu An intervened and changed the climate of Qishan Road, bringing a once-in-a-century bumper harvest, the burden remained heavy. Other plans had to be postponed and expenses reduced to barely allow the refugees to settle down.

Throughout the Great Qi Dynasty, the people were filled with resentment, and anti-war sentiment continued to rise.

The attitude in the court was thus unified. The faction of the prime minister, led by Meng Minzhou, no longer supported the emperor but instead supported a ceasefire. They sent several communications, earnestly requesting Jun Cheng'an to cease hostilities and withdraw his troops.

The court and its officials reached a rare consensus.

The war has not been lost, but the whole country has lost the will to fight. A ceasefire must be reached, and the emperor should issue an edict of self-reproach to appease the people.

The Great Qi has no murderer as claimed by the demons, nor has it ever organized the trafficking of demon children. It is absolutely impossible for it to cede territory. War reparations shall not exceed one hundred million taels of silver. The general who caused the war can be handed over to the demons for disposal, and his family shall be unrelated to this matter. His son shall inherit his father's official position.

When the news reached Dongji Pass, Jun Cheng'an flew into a rage, smashed the table on the spot, and angrily denounced the ministers for their lack of virtue and for being unworthy of being subjects.

The frontline generals were furious but dared not speak out, each one wishing they could personally kill those powerful court officials vying for power.

By now, the entire Daqi army has suffered over three million casualties, with countless men under each general having perished, and their initial ideas long since forgotten.

Rather than fighting for power and profit, all they could think about now was killing more demons to avenge their fallen comrades.

They didn't care about logistics or the internal situation of the Great Qi; all they knew was that their trusted confidants had died on the battlefield, at the hands of the demon race.

January of the 22nd year of the Tianshun reign.

Zhang Ming'an, the master of Taiwei Palace, said that he had been away from the mountain for many years and missed his sect. He asked the emperor to let him go. Jun Cheng'an tried to persuade him to stay many times, but to no avail. Zhang Ming'an returned to Sixiang Mountain, and Daqi lost another terrestrial immortal level of deterrence.

The following month, upon learning the news, the demon race of the Myriad Spirits Domain divided into five groups and launched an attack on Dafa.

Due to the smooth progress of the war over the years, the demon race was in high spirits and conquered thirty-six cities in succession. For each city they conquered, they massacred the inhabitants for three days, killing more than four million soldiers and civilians of the Great Qi.

The heads of the thirty-six city garrison commanders were hung outside Dongji Pass. The Demon Emperor of the Demon Clan personally appeared, and his voice resounded throughout the entire Dongji Pass.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... The Great Qi slaughtered the twelve demon kingdoms of my Myriad Spirits Domain, and now we slaughter thirty-six cities of the Great Qi to comfort the spirits of my people in heaven."

When the news reached Daqi, all the forces there were shocked.