After years of waiting, the long-anticipated war had finally begun, and every demon on Blossom Mountain was on edge.
Everyone believed this would be a drawn-out war, with its opening as fierce as a storm. Whether they could withstand the first wave would be the key to victory or defeat.
Once all resources were mobilized and every demon was bracing themselves, even preparing for the worst, they suddenly realized—the Heavenly Fleet was crawling along the road like a turtle...
It was a scene both laughable and absurd.
Judging by the pace of the Heavenly Fleet’s advance, it would take them two months to reach Blossom Mountain.
At first, no one on Blossom Mountain believed this "two months" estimate—not even Monkey, their commander. To them, the Heavenly Fleet had no reason to waste two months on the road for nothing.
When this intelligence was announced at the war council, Monkey repeatedly warned that the Heavenly Fleet might be hiding some secret move, so the real battle wouldn’t wait two months—they had to be ready for a sudden attack like last time at any moment.
So the soldiers remained on high alert. Scouts roamed a two-thousand-li radius around Blossom Mountain every day, and even the skies were patrolled without pause.
Yet after a month, nothing had happened at all...
"Could it be that the Heavenly Fleet isn’t confident they can defeat me? Then what’s all this fuss about?"
Now...
These days were too hard to bear. Monkey even found himself hoping the Heavenly Fleet would hurry up and arrive.
"This move is really hard to read. Are they deliberately waiting for us to drop our guard?" he wondered aloud, shaking his head with a sigh.
After learning from the last surprise Blaze Bomb raid by the Heavenly Fleet, this time Blossom Mountain used nothing but stone.
Of course, it was impossible—and pointless—to build a massive stone complex in such a short time. When we say 'used stone,' what it really means is that the mountain itself was hollowed out.
After all, the mountain was made of rock—what was dug out became the perfect material for building the walls.
Most of the demons who used to live in the underground city had been relocated, freeing up space for storing resources and stationing troops. With newly excavated chambers and a web of interconnected tunnels, the entire underground of Blossom Mountain had become a sprawling underworld city—a spiderweb structure. At each node, barrier formations were set up, so that even if the Heavenly Fleet forced their way into an entrance, they couldn't just pour Blaze Bombs straight into the depths.
With defenses like these, fire attacks from the Heavenly Fleet were no longer a concern. But what about other threats? No matter how much you reinforce it, it's still an underground structure—if it collapses, there's nowhere to run.
That was actually the main reason Monkey had insisted on moving people up to the surface. After all, they're not moles—even moles have to relocate before an earthquake.
But as it turned out, he was overthinking things.
According to what Anna Yang had revealed, Heaven has its own rules. While the Heavenly Court possesses countless powers—even control over reincarnation—not every ability can be used in war.
As an institution that governs the laws of Heaven and Earth, they are bound by all sorts of regulations.
For example, hurricanes and earthquakes are generally forbidden in war.
Think about it—if the hurricane is strong enough, even the largest fleet would be doomed. But a storm powerful enough to destroy the entire armada would also cause unimaginable devastation. Likewise, to collapse an underground city that's been reinforced again and again, the earthquake would have to cover an enormous area. How many innocents would be caught up in that?
Not even Marshal Silver—let alone the Jade Emperor—would dare take responsibility for that.
Of course, there's another question: at what point does a hurricane or earthquake become Heaven's responsibility?
There's never been a clear standard for this—it's all just immortal elders arguing back and forth in the High Sky Throne Hall. The Heavenly Fleet may not have the power to unleash massive hurricanes or earthquakes, but you can never be too careful.
So, while stationing troops underground, Monkey also had the demon soldiers assigned to the warships live directly aboard, with plenty of supplies. That way, even if the underground network was destroyed, the fleet could still operate.
But this arrangement meant the fleet, which could have carried eighty thousand demon soldiers, was now maxed out at fifty thousand. Flying... actually took quite a bit of effort.
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