Chapter 1394: The Difference Between the Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect and the Nine Spirit Domain Qingmuxian Sect

As the Zhong Senior Qian Shi Gao Jie Yin-Yang Void Realm slowly collapsed, streaks of light like meteors scattered in all directions; through special transmission methods, without anyone's interference, the Qingmuxian Sect Dao Sons each returned to their own sects.

Jiang Ding led the Ancient God Domain diplomatic mission back to the sect to report on his duties, with nine additional diplomatic alliance treaties in hand.

It wasn't any kind of alliance, simply the establishment of diplomatic relations and trade — the customary relationship between human sects; as long as there wasn't a blood feud to the death, most could communicate.

This diplomatic mission went fairly smoothly; whatever the Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect Dao Sons thought in their hearts, at least on the surface they maintained basic decorum.

In the Golden Imperial Palace.

Jiang Ding exchanged pleasantries for a while with Zhenjun Shenji Zhen-zun, Senior Wanji Zhen-zun, and others who had come to greet him, then handed over in meticulous detail his results and the monitoring data from the Six Paths Reincarnation Sword Art.

The sect's Zhen-zuns carefully read through the contents.

The monitoring data within was not only Jiang Ding's, but also included the monitoring imprints left by the sect's He Dao-grade grand formation, in order to conduct a detailed assessment of the Ancient God Domain Jiudaxian Sect.

"They look... seem not all that strong?"

"Somewhat similar to sects like the Sun Moon Sword Pavilion from several hundred thousand years ago — having just arrived in a Mo Sheng De Gao Jie, the various heaven materials and earthly treasures were completely unsuitable, requiring renewed research; adapting to the various studies of the local realm, their strength was entirely different from when they were in their homeland; many key materials for alchemy and artifact refining simply didn't exist, forcing them to innovate on their own."

After careful study, Senior Wanji Zhen-zun said with some uncertainty: "They seem only slightly stronger than same-realm cultivators of sects like the Sun Moon Sword Pavilion from several hundred thousand years ago; their development over these several hundred thousand years hasn't been great — one could even say they've been resting on their laurels, innovation insufficient, and their utilization rate of this realm's resources is also quite poor."

"Is this my misconception?"

"No matter how you put it, they're a sect that has long harbored He Dao-grade peak experts; their divine soul computing power is extremely strong, far surpassing Void Transformation cultivators; stacked over several hundred thousand years, they really shouldn't have made only this much progress..."

Senior Wanji Zhen-zun was greatly puzzled, looking around at the sect's Void Transformation Zhen-zuns, wanting to hear their thoughts.

In the past, the sect had always used Brother Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace, Qingmuxian Sect, and others as the standard, then strengthened further, to assess the Ancient God Domain Jiudaxian Sect — extremely vigilant — but the facts seemed not to match the speculation.

"Indeed, I have this thought as well."

"Judging solely from the contact between the Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect Dao Sons and our intelligence department with Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect cultivators, the development speed of their immortal Dao technology is extremely slow — it seems entirely propelled naturally by sect ancestors and a few intentional experts, changing bit by bit over time, with no regard for this endeavor as the sect's primary development goal; subjective initiative is severely lacking..."

"Additionally, they seem to have an almost superstitious worship toward 'Upper Realm Qingmuxian Sect inheritances.'"

"If not forced

against their will, they would under no circumstances be willing to alter the inheritances passed down from the Upper Realm Qingmuxian Sect; even if some inherited immortal Dao technique's efficiency was extremely low — only barely usable — they still would not be willing to change it.

They believed this contained truths they could not comprehend, that it was their own dullness, rather than suspecting that this low-efficiency immortal Dao technique might simply not suit the Ancient God Domain environment..."

"This 'Upper Realm Qingmuxian Sect Inheritance Authority Superstition' even appeared among the Dao Sons, and possibly among He Dao peak cultivators as well — truly incomprehensible..."

Zhenjun Shenji Zhen-zun, Yuan, Master Canghai Zhen-zun, and others discussed animatedly.

A certain stubbornness displayed by the Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect experts was hard to understand — the objective facts were plainly before their eyes, spiritual energy conversion and absorption efficiency was simply low, why not change?

"This kind of superstition, on rare occasions, does have its logic."

Yuan thought for a moment and said: "Scriptures inherited from Jiang Jiang Jinxian-grade experts must consider extremely distant places; just like our sect's Nine Scriptures, which now already consider the He Dao-grade connection, laying foundations even at the Jin Dan and Nascent Soul stages, even at Foundation Establishment."

"If a Jin Dan cultivator were to study our sect's Nine Scriptures, they might also be unable to understand why a certain obviously low-efficiency Gong Fa node exists."

"In fact, this obviously low-efficiency Gong Fa node exists precisely to lay the foundation for the Void Transformation level."

"Once someone ignorant of the reason rashly alters it, large-scale qi deviation is possible, self-detonation and death are all highly likely — extremely tragic."

"The Ancient God Domain Qingmuxian Sect may have occasionally discovered this phenomenon, and then magnified it, expanding it to an extremely broad scope, making their immortal Dao scientific research extremely conservative, to the point that the progress speed of immortal Dao science is extremely slow."

This too was a common phenomenon in immortal Dao scientific research.

Change brings risk, brings death — this is something that cannot be helped; exploring the unknown must inevitably pay a price, the price of life.

The sect's Gong Fa research looked light and effortless, but in reality, among the sages of past generations there were no few top-talented existences who died in Gong Fa research, paying too much to explore the unknown.

This kind of thing was also extremely common in sects like Brother Brother Xuanwu Heavenly Palace.

Under immense war pressure, under the ever-present possibility of sect annihilation and racial extinction, from the Qingmuxian Sect ancestors above to the Qingmuxian Sect outer disciples below, all without prior agreement overlooked the risks within, throwing themselves one after another into the research and development of immortal Dao technology, generation after generation, already continuing for several hundred thousand years.

In former years, the Wuxingtian Sect ancestor suffered severe injuries while deducing the sect's Gen Ben Gong Fa, nearly causing the sect's destruction, and ultimately had no choice but to form an alliance with the sect, supporting each other through a difficult stretch of years.

Many times, conservatism appeared to be an extremely correct, extremely wise decision.

"Currently it seems

that our Void Transformation and He Dao-grade Gong Fa's utilization rate of heaven and earth spiritual energy and rules exceeds the Ancient God Domain Jiudaxian Sect by a large margin — at least within the scope of this limited world cluster."

"This is our advantage."

Yuan made a judgment: "Our disadvantage seems to be that when we ascend above He Dao, we may face more risk? Because our path has deviated too far from the Upper Realm Qingmuxian Sect inheritance, possibly making the distance to Jiang Jiang Jinxian-grade even more remote; in the future we may have to pay a greater price."

"No, I don't agree."

"I think, if taking immortality as the goal, our distance is closing."

Jiang Ding gently stroked his sword hilt, thought for a long while, and said: "Knowing what it is, and knowing why it is — this is the difference between us and the Ancient God Domain Jiudaxian Sect."

"Even if the path we explore turns out to be wrong, it is still a path we ourselves explored."

"Even if wrong, can we not revise it in the future?"

"The Gong Fa we developed with our own hands — do we truly lack the ability to revise it? That's impossible; it's merely a matter of how much price must be paid."

"Repeated adjustment, repeated trial and error, constant exploration — this must be the more correct path to immortality, rather than ignorantly cultivating an outdated Gong Fa, following the rules, not daring to alter anything anywhere — this is absolutely not the path to immortality."