Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 594: The Operation at the South
While the Eastern Abyssal Domain continued its operations with the various Anchors and Towers, the Southern Wilderness also became busy.
With the plan to create a quarantine zone around the stabilized Anchor, the Arachnid and Wasp Branches of the Poison Demon Cult advanced into the area to deploy their lethal containment.
Aurelia stood on a high, rocky overlook with her traveler’s cloak whipping in the hot, dry wind. Beside her, Monk Huiyin leaned on his staff, observing the spectacle below.
At the moment, the wilderness in the area had turned into a massive construction site.
Hundreds of Poison Demon Cultists, from Poison-Bearers to high-ranking Priests, clad in their moss-green robes, were like ants as they moved with coordination.
The Poison-Bearers, the grunts of the cult, who were comparable to body cultivators with their physiques forcefully baptized inside a cauldron of boiling poison, were tasked with digging trenches.
Acolytes were tasked to use spells that could enhance the Poison-Bearers’ poison-enhanced bodies. They also distributed store products like [Stamina Gums] that came in different flavors, beverages like [Heavenly Dew Soda], and meals to keep the laborers moving without rest. It was quite a supply line that ensured they’d be able to quickly finish what they set out to do.
Huge, bloated Venom-Toads, acting as living siege engines, were brought in at regular intervals along the dug trenches. Upon command from their handlers, they would regurgitate thick, bubbling streams of dark purple sludge directly into the earth. It was the ’Withersward’ toxin Venom Master Xun had boasted about.
Once they settled, they would create the line that would isolate the area around the stabilized Anchor.
Then, stationed up ahead were Priests and Ironbone Clan barbarians. The Priests were standing guard, taking down waves of insectoids that were being attracted by the noise and their spiritual signatures. Meanwhile, the barbarians patrol the immediate vicinity, ensuring that they wouldn’t be ambushed by the insectoids.
Various human-sized spiders and giant wasps from both branches were also deployed there.
Whenever a large insectoid would appear, high-ranking Priests and Ironbone warriors with strength ranging from peak Foundation Establishment to Core Formation would come out to deal with them.
With the surrounding terrain being jagged, treacherous, and stripped of almost all natural vegetation by the encroaching swarm, creating a seamless perimeter posed a difficulty akin to a nightmare.
Yet, the cultists, along with the inhabitants of the Southern Wilderness, defended the area as they moved with a unified purpose.
Hours into it, there were already a few hills of insectoid remains, yet their numbers remained endless.
"This is madness," Aurelia muttered to herself as he couldn’t bear to continue watching the cult destroy the land with their poison.
While it was true that she came here to see if the insectoids were truly the same creatures that she had already faced back in the Supreme Sun Church’s territory, she was still a Sun-Blessed Paladin who had never fought alongside an unorthodox sect, let alone a cult renowned for death and decay.
To her, the earth was a sacred vessel to be nurtured by the light. What the Poison Demon Cult was doing, injecting concentrated, necrotic toxins deep into the ley lines to create a dead zone, was a desecration. It was anathema to the core teachings she believed in.
"Is a land saved by poison truly saved, Master Huiyin?" She asked without hiding her indignation. "They are burning the village to kill the rats. When this is over, nothing will grow here for a long time. The soil will be dead. Do you think the store will have something to cleanse it?"
Monk Huiyin did not turn his gaze from the valley below. He simply adjusted his grip on his wooden staff.
"A profound question, Benefactor Lia. It is the eternal struggle of the righteous. To keep one’s hands clean while the world burns, or to plunge them into the muck to douse the flames?" The monk sighed as if he carried the weight of countless forgotten battles. "The Supreme Sun illuminates, yes. But the sun also scorches the earth to ash if it is unyielding. The Shopkeeper... he does not deal in absolutes of light and dark. You have seen his wares. The Convenience Saint will definitely have an answer to this corruption."
"If the swarm breaks out, the Southern Wilderness is lost. Millions of mortals, tens of thousands of cultivators, all consumed to feed a foreign hive. The land would not be dead; it would be rewritten into a nightmare. He must’ve seen that sacrificing a few miles of arid rock to contain an apocalyptic threat was a profitable trade. It is ugly and foul. Yet at the current state of the foreign infestation, it is... efficient."
Aurelia sighed. She still couldn’t decide whether she could agree to this solution or not. "Efficiency devoid of morality is tyranny."
"Is it?" Huiyin chuckled dryly. "Look closely at the line, Benefactor."
Aurelia focused her gaze, spreading her spiritual senses to enhance her vision.
Down below, the situation was turning precarious. The ’Withersward’ was not yet complete. A gap remained in the eastern side, and the hive mind of the swarm had sensed it.
Like a black river bursting a dam, a specialized caste of insectoids surged forward. They were massive, easily the size of small houses, resembling heavily armored rhinoceros beetles with mandibles that sparked with foreign energy that seemed to burn the inherent spiritual energy in the air.
"Hold! Do not let them breach the gap! Throw your axes!" An Ironbone Clan Elder roared as his body expanded from activating a [Spirit Embodiment Sticker Seal] depicting a mountain tortoise.
The barbarian warriors, battered and exhausted, rallied behind him. But they were facing a living avalanche. The mass of the siege-beetles threatened to crush their formation instantly.
In the West, Aurelia knew a line like that would break. The paladins would pray for strength, fight valiantly, and die as martyrs, overwhelmed by the unending stamina of the Outer Realm horrors.
But here, a different doctrine was seemingly at play.
"Acolytes, engage!" A high-pitched voice echoed across the battlefield, amplified by a formation array.
It was a young Priest of the Poison Demon Cult, standing safely atop a rocky outcrop behind the lines.
Suddenly, a dozen six-legged mechanical constructs that looked like improvised catapults snapped into action.
They fired wooden crates that arced through the air.
They didn’t aim at the insectoids. They smashed into the ground just behind the struggling Ironbone defenders. They splintered open, revealing hundreds of brightly colored, plastic-wrapped packages.
"Oh! Convenience Resupply!" The Ironbone Elder bellowed. "Pick them up. Chew what you can chew. Drink what you can drink. And activate those talismans! If you lack the spiritual energy, pass it to someone else."
The exhausted barbarians didn’t hesitate. Without breaking their defensive stance, they reached back, snatching the small, rectangular packets. They tore them open with their teeth, popping the [Stamina Gums], [Fruity Healing Tablets] and [Energy Replenishing Candies] into their mouths.
Aurelia watched in stunned disbelief.
The effect was instantaneous and absurd. Warriors who moments ago were visibly trembling from muscle fatigue suddenly let out guttural roars, their eyes widening with a manic, minty-fresh energy.
The cooling sensation of the gum acted as a hard reset for their nervous systems, forcefully flooding their depleted bodies with artificial stamina.
One Ironbone warrior, previously brought to his knees by a blow from a beetle’s head, chewed furiously. He grabbed his massive bone club, the veins on his arms bulging, and swung it upward with renewed force, shattering the beast’s mandible.
The siege-beetles crashed against the line. Yet, the line, fueled by chewing gum and fruit-flavored pills, refused to break. They held just long enough for the massive Venom-Toads to waddle into position and vomit a rain of the purple ’Withersward’ sludge, opening a window for the frontlines to retreat behind the completed trenches.
The screeching of the melting insectoids filled the air, which sounded like a horrific symphony of containment.
Simultaneously, Poison Demon Cultists wielding the few [Stardust Repeaters] that had been supplied to the branch store were unleashing volleys to suppress the smaller, flying stingers attempting to bypass the shield wall.
Aurelia slowly let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Then, she couldn’t help but mutter, "Is this the answer I am looking for? To deal with that Anchor back home, poison can be an alternative..."
"Benefactor, you can interpret this differently. It is not poison. It is the Dao of Convenience that enabled this sight." Monk Huiyin said, giving her another perspective.
Aurelia remained silent, her mind racing. The Supreme Sun Church had always taught that purity of spirit and absolute devotion were the only weapons against the encroaching darkness. They fought with glorious light, burning their life force to smite their enemies. Not like this...
She then turned around as she sensed the presence of someone approaching them.
It was Venom Master Xun.
"So, is it enlightening, guest from afar? This is that man’s ’convenience’. He sent you here as experts to assist us, yet you’re here debating the morality of our methods. How laughable."
