Chapter 341: Scouting the Ground

The entrance to the Biukui Star Continent's protective array was guarded; cultivators entering Biukui Star Continent for the first time needed to obtain an identity token.

Ding Huan sighed inwardly—he had originally planned to make the Three Heavens Star Continent like this.

After the events in Jiuyuan City and hearing of Jia Baihe's ordeal, he lost all desire for such a thing.

In Ding Huan's heart, Lanxing was his home star.

To obtain an identity token on Biukui Star Continent, only a name was required; origins and appearance were never questioned.

After all, in the vast universe, which cultivator didn't have a few enemies?

So no one cared that Ding Huan wore a mask.

Ding Huan purchased a map of Biukui Star Continent's sects and silently resolved to study the Seventy-Two Illusion Arts given to him by Old Six when he had time.

Ding Huan knew the Seventy-Two Illusion Arts given by Old Six were riddled with flaws—he understood this wasn't intentional on Old Six's part, but because his memories were incomplete; remembering even this much was already impressive.

Probably because he had once shown interest in illusion arts on Earth, Old Six had recalled the flawed Seventy-Two Earthly Illusion Arts first.

Ding Huan didn't care—he had the Great Cosmos Art.

Even the authentic Seventy-Two Earthly Illusion Arts wouldn't necessarily suit him; when he used them, he would still alter some of their laws.

The Three Heavens Star Continent was large, but Biukui Star Continent was even larger—many times larger.

When Ding Huan's spiritual sense landed on the crystal map jade slip, he immediately saw the Wanjie Consortium.

No wonder the Wanjie Consortium was a giant—on Biukui Star Continent alone, it had over ten thousand branches.

Without exaggeration, wherever there were people on Biukui Star Continent, there was a Wanjie Consortium branch.

It wasn't accurate to say the Wanjie Consortium existed within Biukui Star Continent; rather, Biukui Star Continent existed within the Wanjie Consortium.

The first cultivation city on Biukui Star Continent was Wu Bian City—and Wu Bian City was the headquarters of the Wanjie Consortium.

Before even entering Biukui Star Continent, Ding Huan had learned of a piece of news.

The Wanjie Consortium held a small gathering every year.

At this gathering, all branch managers—even the managers of Void Flying Cities—would teleport back to Wu Bian City to attend.

The purpose was to report on their branch's performance, events of the past year, and outline goals for the next year.

Every three years, the Wanjie Consortium held a major gathering; not only did all branch managers attend, but also the city lords and managers of the Void Flying Cities.

Anyone at or above the Manager level was required to attend this major gathering.

The Wanjie Consortium's major gathering was truly the most bustling event on the entire Biukui Star Continent.

During each small gathering, over a hundred thousand Wanjie Consortium cultivators gathered in Wu Bian City.

During the major gathering, over a million Wanjie Consortium managers, elders, branch heads, Shopkeepers, and city lords would arrive in Wu Bian City.

Ding Huan sighed inwardly—no wonder the Wanjie Consortium had grown so large.

This system was nearly identical to the regional sales meetings he'd seen on Earth—it was clearly "the capable rise, the incompetent fall."

What disappointed Ding Huan was that the Wanjie Consortium's major gathering was still two years away, and the small gathering was still half a year off.

If he waited for the major gathering, he could eliminate all the top leaders of the Wanjie Consortium at once.

Was he really supposed to wait two years?

As Ding Huan entered Biukui Star Continent and piloted his ship toward Wu Bian City, he still wrestled with how to act—waiting two years was clearly unrealistic.

After flying for half a day, Ding Huan finally realized something.

On Biukui Star Continent, teleportation arrays were everywhere—so why was he flying himself?

He extended his spiritual sense and soon spotted a marketplace, just as the star continent sect map had shown.

The most prominent building in this small marketplace was the Wanjie Consortium Tower.

Ding Huan retracted his ship and landed outside the marketplace.

The marketplace's name was amusing: "Passing Market."

Standing at the entrance of Passing Market, Ding Huan suddenly realized the spiritual energy here seemed rather ordinary.

Perhaps slightly stronger than on the Three Heavens Star Continent, but not by much.

Based on his understanding of the Dao and his perception of cosmic laws, he was certain of one thing: Biukui Star Continent could not reach the Immortal-Fanqiao realm.

In other words, the Dao laws required for the Immortal-Fanqiao realm were also absent here.

If that was the case, he had even less to fear from the Wanjie Consortium.

The Wanjie Consortium might have a few Immortal-Fanqiao cultivators, but certainly not many.

These Immortal-Fanqiao cultivators likely hadn't advanced through normal means—just like Lou Xihe.

Passing Market was just an ordinary small marketplace; Ding Huan had no interest in exploring it and went straight to the Wanjie Consortium Tower.

"Friend, what would you like to purchase?" The tower attendant immediately approached with enthusiasm upon seeing Ding Huan enter.

Ding Huan waved his hand: "I'm not buying anything—I just need to use the teleportation array to Wu Bian City."

The attendant frowned: "Our Wanjie Consortium Tower's teleportation array is not open to outsiders."

Ding Huan spoke calmly: "It's just a matter of price—I have plenty of Spirit Stones. Tell me how much."

Although the teleportation arrays from Wanjie Consortium Towers to the headquarters in Wu Bian City were officially closed to outsiders, this was merely policy—in practice, anyone who paid enough Spirit Stones could use them.

"One hundred thousand top-grade Spirit Stones," the attendant said, seeing Ding Huan didn't seem short on funds, and named a high price.

Ding Huan pulled out a storage bag and tossed it onto the counter: "Here are one hundred thousand top-grade Spirit Stones. I have urgent business in Wu Bian City—don't delay me."

"Got it!" Seeing Ding Huan pay so readily, the attendant swiftly gathered the Spirit Stones and led him to the tower's teleportation array.

After a stick of incense had burned, Ding Huan stood inside the Wanjie Consortium's teleportation hall in Wu Bian City.

Stepping out of the array, he saw at least hundreds of teleportation arrays before him.

The arrays flickered continuously as people arrived nonstop.

Clearly, this hall was only for incoming teleportations—the departure hall was elsewhere.

Ding Huan grew even more impressed—the Wanjie Consortium truly knew how to do business.

This kind of teleportation method, though somewhat wasteful, gives one a better sense of experience.

For a single teleportation great hall to have so many teleportation arrays, probably only the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild could afford to set them up.

An ordinary commerce guild or sect could absolutely never afford to set up so many teleportation arrays.

Ding Huan walked out of the teleportation great hall, and no one asked him anything.

Clearly, it wasn't very important whether the person coming out of this teleportation great hall was a member of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild or not.

Walking out of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild's teleportation array cluster, Ding Huan immediately sensed a street even more bustling than the Triple Dao City.

On the broad street, there were people coming and going everywhere.

As for commerce towers, rest inns, shops, pill pavilions…

They were linked one after another, densely packed.

Sure enough, no matter where one was, the most densely crowded places were always the commercially flourishing ones.

Ding Huan guessed that most of these shops and the like belonged to the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild itself.

As for the words "Myriad Realms Commerce Guild," even if Ding Huan didn't want to look at them, he could easily see them.

Each of those characters was like a giant, falling from the sky, suspended in mid-air above a luxuriously magnificent building.

This was probably the headquarters of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild.

When Ding Huan's divine sense landed on those words "Myriad Realms Commerce Guild," he suddenly sensed a strong fluctuation of Dao laws.

This fluctuation wasn't far from the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild headquarters.

Was this someone attempting to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm?

Ding Huan sneered. Attempting to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm on Biankui Continent—he had two words for that: heh heh.

Attempting to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao in a place without Immortal-Fanqiao heaven and earth Dao laws—was this fellow crazy?

No, wait. This Dao resonance also contained the aura of a Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus.

How rich. Back then, for the sake of a single Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus, a pile of people died in the Myriad Realms Void Flying City. Here, one had casually stumbled upon a Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus.

Having a Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus—it should be someone from the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild, right?

Ding Huan's divine sense landed on the location of this Immortal-Fanqiao Realm breakthrough fluctuation—the Boundless City Lord's Manor?

"Fellow Daoist, I've just arrived in Boundless City. May I ask—is the City Lord's Manor a place of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild? The City Lord must be a powerful expert, right?" Ding Huan stopped a middle-aged man and asked.

The middle-aged man turned his head, swept a glance at Ding Huan, and said coldly: "Every single place in Boundless City belongs to our Myriad Realms Commerce Guild. City Lord Yi is even the Vice President of our Myriad Realms Commerce Guild, an existence who could step into the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm at any moment."

Ding Huan thought to himself, just as he expected.

Any random person he asked turned out to be from the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild.

As for the City Lord of Boundless City, he indeed hadn't guessed wrong—the man was indeed an existence of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild, and even the Vice President.

No wonder there was a Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus being used to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm.

Ding Huan was just thinking of first sizing up the situation in Boundless City, when he once again cast his gaze toward the sky above the City Lord's Manor.

This City Lord was the Vice President of the Myriad Realms Commerce Guild, and was currently still attempting to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm.

It could be affirmed that, if nothing unexpected happened, this fellow's attempt to break through to the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm would fail one hundred percent.

But he could create an "unexpected," couldn't he? He, Ding Huan, was the unexpected.

As long as he helped, this fellow had an extremely high chance of breaking through into the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm.

Of course, this Immortal-Fanqiao Realm was one whose Immortal-Fanqiao Dao resonance he had simulated.

Thinking of this, Ding Huan swiftly darted toward the edge of the City Lord's Manor, then found a quiet spot and began to circulate the Great Cosmos Art.

At the same time, he merged his comprehension of the Immortal-Fanqiao Dao resonance into the Great Cosmos Zhou Tian.

The moment the Great Cosmos Art Zhou Tian emerged, the surrounding heaven and earth rules instantly became clear.

Ding Huan hadn't stepped into the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm either, but he had studied the Nine-Colored Immortal-Mortal Lotus.

He had some concept of the heaven and earth rules of the Immortal-Fanqiao Realm, and could directly use the Great Cosmos Art Zhou Tian to construct the Immortal-Fanqiao Dao resonance rules of his own simulation.

Ding Huan snickered inwardly. Didn't that Wu Zhanxia simulate out the Immortal-Fanqiao Great Dao resonance?

The Immortal-Fanqiao Dao laws he had now simulated were far stronger than Wu Zhanxia's.