Chapter 1319: Lord of the Mire Demon City

Jiang Ding's divine sense took over the entire Mire Demon City, quickly gaining a general understanding of the situation here.

"Permanent population: three million four hundred and seventy thousand, at least all are Qi Condensation cultivators."

"Direct military forces consist of two groups: the Mire City Guard Army of one hundred thousand, containing over fifty Soul Transformation cultivators, over ten thousand Nascent Soul cultivators, with the rest being Jin Dan cultivators, responsible for guarding the Mire Demon City."

"The other group is named the Mire Shadow Guard, composed of dozens of Soul Transformation cultivators and thousands of Nascent Soul cultivators, responsible for spying, executing personal private matters from the Mire True Venerable, or eliminating certain people, or collecting living souls to refine Yin-Yang Tadpoles, or harvesting blood food to feed the Green Toad... most importantly, naturally, collecting sixth-grade heavenly treasures."

"Relying on the Mire Demon City's vast commercial channels, one or two sixth-grade heavenly treasures could appear within a few centuries, but unlike the two Great True Sects which have fixed production, it relies entirely on luck."

Jiang Ding frowned secretly as he looked at the many places where demonic cultivators gathered in the city.

Many of these demonic cultivators were actually the Mire Demon City's Shadow Guards; the whole place was a den of iniquity where robbing, killing for treasures, and refining human living souls and flesh frequently occurred; chaos was interwoven within the order, and the name of this Demon City was no empty boast.

Viewing the whole situation from above, these matters were even deeper and more displeasing to Jiang Ding than when he had wandered alone through the Mire Demon City.

He had the ability to remain unaffected by these filthy matters, but many cultivators and many living beings did not have such freedom.

"Order,"

"Corpse Demon Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, Food Ten Thousand Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, Soul Devouring Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun... and the other twenty-seven, commit suicide immediately."

Jiang Ding's tone was cold as he issued the order to the Mire Shadow Guards.

These people were all Liuzhi Liuzhi Laomo who used human cultivators as raw materials; their strength was extremely high among Soul Transformation cultivators, and they had always been relied upon by the Mire True Venerable.

Now, however, they were suddenly ordered to commit suicide.

The reason?

There was no reason.

The Mire True Venerable was a demonic cultivator; if he wanted to kill someone, he killed them, even if he was just in a bad mood; it was perfectly reasonable, and such things had happened frequently over the past ten thousand years, nothing surprising.

"Yes,"

"Venerable Master!"

Outside the palace, a tall and glamorous woman with bat wings on her back bowed to receive the order; she had no thought of asking for reasons, and left with a team of Soul Transformation cultivators radiating sinister demonic qi.

This was the Shadow Master of the Mire Shadow Guards, the peak Soul Transformation cultivator Night Bat Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, possessing the Demon Bat bloodline, extremely powerful, and famous throughout the Mire Demon City.

She was utterly loyal to the Mire True Venerable... on the surface.

In fact, this half-demon had always harbored malice toward the Mire True Venerable, eyeing the throne of the Mire Demon City's ruler, possessing a greedy ambition to advance to Void Refinement.

The Mire True Venerable found

this very interesting.

He secretly set a restriction within this woman's soul and spirit, then promoted her to Shadow Master of the Mire Shadow Guards, because cultivators with such strong ambitions were truly reliable in their actions, highly efficient, and very useful.

The Shadow Master's efficiency was high; only a few minutes passed before she returned, holding a pile of heads that refused to close their eyes, neatly arranged before the Mire True Venerable.

"Venerable Master,"

"They felt grateful for your grace and harbored guilt, thus they committed suicide."

The Shadow Master said respectfully.

"You have done very well."

Jiang Ding nodded slightly and bestowed a scroll of Buddhist scripture named the Great Brightness Golden Peng Sutra, a fine spell containing philosophical teachings that encourage people to be good.

"This Lord wishes to be kind to others."

"You must be a good person, a kind person from now on; otherwise, I will beat you to death, understand?"

"Thank you, Venerable Master, for the bestowal!"

The Shadow Master bowed respectfully and received the scripture with both hands: "Your subordinate will surely study it carefully, not failing your expectations, learning from the legendary Buddha, and becoming a good person."

"Excellent, excellent."

"Hahaha!"

Jiang Ding laughed loudly.

This manic state made the hearts of the many Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun around him grow even colder; they bowed again and then Xu Xu retreated backwards, daring not to stay long in the palace.

"Now is not the time for the Master Tushan order to cover this..."

Jiang Ding looked around with slight regret.

What he could do was only execute some cultivators who were excessively heinous; he was powerless against the very soil of this entire region.

Radical reform must wait until his safety is completely secure before execution; otherwise, it would bring more suffering to the living beings on this land.

If the plan goes smoothly, in a few centuries he will flee; if there are truly fellow daoists who sincerely support him, how could he abandon them then?

Thus, it is better to temporarily set it aside.

A momentary retreat is not a compromise, but only for the long-term stability of the Fallen Immortal Realm in the future.

"Order,"

"Collect many materials, including large quantities of mortal materials, mortal-grade plants and animals, first-grade, second-grade, third-grade, fourth-grade, and other heavenly treasures, specimens... I need everything."

"What is most needed are many sword-refining materials; collect them in large quantities."

"Also, many cultivatable Gong Fa, secret techniques, spells, alchemy, artifact forging, spiritual farming, and spiritual beast lineages that can be collected; have everything available, no duplicates, and record a copy of all of them."

Jiang Ding sent the order to the Mire Demon City's inner cabinet to execute it, and set relatively generous rewards.

This is the benefit of having a faction; once an order is issued, the various materials and specimens needed by the Immortal Gate can be obtained without expending much effort.

These materials unique to the Upper Realm will surely greatly promote the progress of Immortal Gate material smelting, alchemy, artifact forging, and other Immortal Dao sciences.

The many lineages of the Upper Realm are the same; even if their grade is not high, they still hold much value.

Moreover, being within the same racial system and the same Immortal Dao system, the human lineages can be smoothly digested and absorbed by the Immortal Gate, with difficulty far less than that of alien lineages.

Just these alone, accumulating small amounts into a large sum, would be equivalent to obtaining several Dao-Integration level lineages for the Immortal Gate.

Many classic spells and Gong Fa, do not look at their low grade; in fact, they have been passed down for millions or even tens of millions of years, refined and perfected by generations of cultivators, reaching an extremely perfect state; their value for factions without relevant lineages is immeasurable, simply the brilliant crystallization of millions of years of cultivators' wisdom.

"These are low-grade."

"The rest is to order the Void Refinement-grade sword-refining materials I need from the Sky Work Tower, which has an Immortal Artifact Sect background, using materials mixed with many life rules and space rules as a cover."

Jiang Ding took out a token inscribed with the two celestial talisman characters "Heavenly Craft," poured his divine sense into it, and left a message within.

The sudden wealth of the True Venerable of the Mud Swamp had a ready-made explanation: he had encountered a heavily injured outsider at the Void Refinement stage, and after venturing out once, had gained much; that was all.

The Heavenly Craft Tower was not a government office; they were only responsible for selling goods and collecting taxes, and cared little for the identity of those who could provide profit.

Moreover, the True Venerable of the Mud Swamp had not even received an imperial edict granting him the title of "True Sect"; to the Heavenly Craft Tower, he was merely a wild faction that could rise at any moment and be destroyed at any moment, and his life or death was none of their concern.