In just a few days, news that Marshal Silver had defied the imperial edict spread throughout the Three Realms. Whether it was the rare immortals who supported him, or those who had always opposed him, all were left utterly speechless by this act.
Even the Jade Emperor could only sigh helplessly upon receiving the news.
"Is this fleeing judgment?"
Regardless of whether these immortals originally supported Marshal Silver, this was almost the only conclusion they could reach.
Defying the imperial edict and refusing to return to Heaven for trial—such a thing could be trivial or catastrophic.
If you downplayed it, it was just a matter of wartime necessity—handled this way, it would be nothing, and at worst, he could return to Heaven after the war and face the consequences then.
But if you exaggerated it, it was outright rebellion... and that was no simple matter of being stripped of rank. Mishandled, the lightest punishment would be banishment to the eighteenth layer of Hell for eternity; the worst, soul and spirit annihilated.
Normally, the odds might be fifty-fifty, but don’t forget—at this moment Marshal Silver is implicated in a shocking plague case.
Whatever the true motive behind his actions, reaching this point seemed to cement his guilt in the Southern Lands plague scandal. No matter how much his supporters believed in him, they could no longer defend him.
It’s said that the Military Affairs Office of Heaven has already bypassed protocol and ordered all divisions of the Heavenly Fleet to immediately withdraw and arrest Marshal Silver. Of course, the final result of this order was nothing but a stone cast into the sea—not even a ripple.
Things had developed to this point—even Monkey hadn’t expected it. As one of the few who knew the true originator of the plague scandal, he still couldn’t understand why Pigsy insisted on fighting Blossom Mountain to the bitter end. Wouldn’t it be easier to just follow others, retire comfortably as a celestial in Heaven?
Vaguely, he even regretted having sent General Skyler’s corpse back to Marshal Silver in a moment of impulsiveness.
"Did that incident enrage him? Logically, it shouldn’t have."
In any case, at this stage, Heaven’s direct control over the Heavenly Fleet had basically vanished. This force, now truly cornered, was like a starving tiger—throwing itself at Blossom Mountain without hesitation.
Fortunately, this tiger was no longer as mighty as it once was. At the very least, Heaven’s treasury had stopped all material support. Of course, things weren’t as dire as outsiders imagined. For ordinary troops, cutting off supplies was as good as starvation—but for the Heavenly Fleet, it wasn’t. Reliable sources said the Fleet itself held massive strategic reserves; they wouldn’t run out anytime soon.
Presumably, that was why Marshal Silver dared to make up his mind to fight Blossom Mountain to the end.
At this point, all minor schemes were useless. What remained was a death match between two armies—a question of who would fall first.
It seemed this could only end with one side’s utter destruction.
In just a few days, the left and right columns of the Heavenly Fleet had arrived in the region around Blossom Mountain, and Blossom Mountain was fully prepared to meet them.
But unexpectedly, the two armies did not combine their forces.