Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

The tank steel torrent advanced through the mountains.

Nothing could stop the high mountains and cliffs.

After traveling more than a thousand kilometers, the view suddenly opened up, entering a vast plain.

Looking around, there were fields of good farmland, fertile lands stretching for thousands of miles, with small rivers winding through them occasionally.

Upon the earth, villages and cities stood tall, their inhabitants watching in terror as these steel behemoths suddenly appeared, along with the thunderous roar that accompanied them.

Figures clad in ancient attire sat cross-legged atop these monsters.

"Supreme Commander!"

An Siyan reported, "Our forces have now entered the South Central Plain region. The South Central Plain spans more than two thousand kilometers, with a population of several hundred million. There's a mortal regime called the Great Li Dynasty that was established by Xianmen Sect years ago. Xuanwu Heavenly Palace took over without a change of name but forced the implementation of the Belief in Incense and Maitreya sect."

"The armored units crossing this plain will inevitably destroy a large amount of crops. If we eventually win the battle, we will return here to compensate and resettle the affected victims."

What if we can't win?

Then all we can do is offer our best wishes, having the intention but not the power to help.

"Belief?"

When it came to the conduct of military affairs, Jiang Ding rarely paid attention to anything outside of setting battle objectives, but now a word had caught his attention.

"Yes, Xuanwu Heavenly Palace has conducted in-depth research on the Belief in Incense. The pinnacle of their technological achievements in incense belief is the 365 divine generals guarding the Heavenly Palace, known as the Star Lords."

An Siyan consulted some information and said, "The Treasure Tripod Maitreya is also one of their embodiments. The Belief in Incense should be able to enhance His power, especially within His Incense Fire Divine Court, where His strength could greatly fluctuate."

"The West Desert also has its share of believers."

"Our forces stationed in the West Desert are currently working with iron-blooded efficiency to eradicate the Belief in Incense and Maitreya in the West Desert. It is estimated that all temples openly worshipping it can be eliminated within a month at most."

The tank army rumbled past the villages, flattening crops and even leveling streams and small hills in their path.

Many farmers watched in agony, not daring to interfere, while many others thought they were seeing the ghostly soldiers of the underworld and began kowtowing in prayer.

Jiang Ding tapped his foot and descended from the sky, landing in the most conspicuous building in the village, a Maitreya Temple.

The temple occupied a vast area covered in rare stone slabs tightly fitted without any gap.

The center of the temple was built with brick walls and painted pure white, with a triple-layered tile roof in green.

Inside the temple, amidst the swirling incense smoke,

a mud-sculpted golden body radiated dignity, with a bun on its head, ears drooping to the cheeks, hands clasped together, and six arms in the back, each holding pairs of Zen sticks, Treasure Tripods, and Golden Wheels, all looking incredibly lifelike, no different from a real person.

The thick incense smoke enveloped the golden body, containing the emotions and stray thoughts of countless sentient beings—a terrifying pollutant for Cultivators' Treasures and Divine Souls.

"I, Buddha Treasure Tripod Maitreya, Indestructible Vajra, nothing can withstand my strength..."

Even as the tank steel torrent passed by outside, a chief monk with large ears and a broad face led four or five novice monks in reciting scriptures from the Maitreya sect, unaffected by distractions.

The Divine Sense detected sincerity, not deception or pretense.

"The construction of this temple would have taken all the hard-earned wealth of tens of thousands of people from more than a dozen nearby villages over ten years to accumulate."

Jiang Ding said indifferently.

In the feudal society of the village, the efficiency of production was low; it was difficult enough to feed one's own family. Selling children in years of disaster was quite common.

Now they also had to support such a large Buddha and a host of monks and novices; one could imagine how they lived.

The third-stage Spirit Particle Sonar scanned within a hundred miles.

Indeed, every commoner was gaunt with sallow faces. In the households of some women, despite having less than half a month's worth of food, they still had to give up half of it as an offering to the Buddha.

Within a hundred miles of various temples,

there were quite a few devout abbots, roughly one or two out of ten, while the rest engaged more in meat and wine, openly keeping a large number of female servants and maids in the temple's backyards.

But looking at the surrounding commoners, when it came to devoutness, they seemed to be no worse off, all meeting the standards.

The lives of the commoners were all the same, filled with extreme hardship, selling their sons and daughters and offering them to Maitreya, their devoutness something the abbots had in a slightly better measure, but only slightly.

"The Belief in Incense Fire, if one wants to maintain devoutness, there are two approaches,"

An Siyan introduced.

"The first one is to have the believers all receive excellent Buddhist education, to enrich their spirits and material wealth, and then guide them onto the path of Buddha, willingly recognizing the path of Buddha, tirelessly seeking His teachings, and actively devoting themselves to the Buddha's path, willingly making sacrifices."

"That must be hard, right?"

Jiang Ding guessed.

"Indeed, it is very hard."

"Humans naturally have a rebellious streak. When they are poor, a piece of bread, one tael of silver, can make them profusely grateful, and they would be willing to give you their hearts and livers."

"But once they have been comfortable for a while, give them one tael of silver and ask for their hearts and livers, and they will greet you with spit and a beating."

"It is the same with Buddha. Rich spiritual and material wealth does not necessarily bring devout belief. After gaining knowledge, most people would think 'Maitreya Buddha can be replaced', and even if guided, devoutness is rare and hard to come by."

"How can this be called rebellious?"

Jiang Ding exclaimed with admiration, "This speaks to the endless joy of man's fights with heaven and other men, the relentless ambition of humans never to be satisfied, and with this infinite desire, to conquer all worlds and achieve the status of their supreme lord."

"You're right,"

An Siyan rolled her eyes, "Anyway, the first approach consumes a lot of resources, yields little Belief in Incense, and has unclear returns, which is not the choice for most Incense Fire Gods."

"They prefer the second approach, which is to keep the believers in widespread poverty and challenging living conditions, maintaining the very basic survival, and cutting off their channels of education and knowledge.

The last bit of spiritual hope and solace can only be found in temples, thus garnering a large and continuous flow of Incense Fire."

"I see."

Jiang Ding soared into the sky, sitting cross-legged on a super Air-Space Warplane, concealed his form, and flew ahead of the army, with the level three Spirit Particle Sonar deployed to scout the path ahead for the troops.

"Deal with these devout or non-devout Maitreya Sect abbots, will you?"

"Maitreya Buddha is the sinner of the Desolate Bronze Small World, the prime culprit behind the poverty and ignorance of hundreds of millions. The young monks who are not sinful may be spared, but these abbots, as accomplices, the more devout, the more deserving they are of death."

"If the common people obstruct, resist the actions to destroy the temples and put an end to faith, treat them the same, no need for mercy. No one is innocent after engaging in acts of war."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this even colder command, An Siyan briskly noted it down and disseminated it to each division.

The Iron Tide of troops marched in a straight line across the entire South Central Plain, coincidentally passing by the capital city of the Great Li Dynasty.

The famous Imperial Guards of the Great Li, clad in thick armor and holding fine weapons, shivered atop the wide and tall city walls.

Many princes and nobles, including the disguised emperor of the Great Li Dynasty, hid among the soldiers, watching in horror as the tank divisions rumbled by outside the city walls, not daring to breathe loudly.

Luckily, from beginning to end,

nobody paid them any attention, as tanks continuously passed by in front of them, flattening everything that stood in their way and marching towards the distance.