Chapter 262: Truly a Bunch of Sword Seeds!

A great realm that possesses a fruit of position!

Before the Yun family patriarch could finish speaking, Lu Yang already understood the importance of the Jiangnan Ten Thousand People Pit; after all, a single great realm equaled a new Second Grade True Art!

"True Person Dangmo is the Third Elder of our Jiange. He reached the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment long ago, possessing the cultivation of a Great True Person, and has already begun plotting for a fruit of position. It is just that most Second Grade True Arts within the great realms under Jiange's rule cannot satisfy his requirements; only this newly appeared one suits him perfectly."

"Therefore, True Person Dangmo is leading this endeavor."

"Moreover, barring the unexpected, the Mo Sect over there should not yet have discovered the anomaly of the Ten Thousand People Pit, so True Person Dangmo intends to strike first to gain the advantage."

Under the Yun family patriarch's narration, Lu Yang quickly learned the secret of the Ten Thousand People Pit.

To speak of this matter, one must trace back to the predecessor of the Ten Thousand People Pit, namely that small realm seized by various True Persons from all sides to serve as a battlefield for seizing the Dao.

The origins of that small realm were far from simple.

Although it itself did not even possess Foundation Establishment cultivators, only qualifying as a battlefield for seizing the Dao among Qi Refining disciples, it was actually an附属 of another great realm.

Its name was 【Xuan Ling Realm】.

And the predecessor of the Jiangnan Ten Thousand People Pit was named 【Luo Fan Realm】; generally, once cultivators of 【Luo Fan Realm】 reached their peak, they would ascend into 【Xuan Ling Realm】.

However, because it was seized and transformed into a battlefield for seizing the Dao, 【Luo Fan Realm】 thus severed its connection with 【Xuan Ling Realm】. Perhaps nothing would happen in a day or two, but after ten or twenty years, the cultivators of 【Xuan Ling Realm】 also noticed something was amiss, so they dispatched cultivators to descend and investigate the situation.

As a result, upon arriving, they ran straight into the line of fire.

The cultivator from 【Xuan Ling Realm】 was not weak; their cultivation base was also at the Foundation Establishment level, except that in 【Xuan Ling Realm】, they did not call it Foundation Establishment, but rather Human Immortal.

Unfortunately, that Human Immortal's luck was not very good.

On that day, Jiange's True Person Dangmo happened to pass by; upon seeing the other party, he even attempted to search their soul, but was easily suppressed and captured by True Person Dangmo.

Thus, 【Xuan Ling Realm】 could no longer remain hidden.

"According to that captive's account, 【Xuan Ling Realm】 is a supreme great realm, a dwelling place for immortals and gods, surrounded by five ranks of immortals encircling the Heavenly Court, each performing their respective duties."

"The five ranks of immortals are: Heaven, Earth, Human, God, and Ghost."

"When lower realm cultivators ascend, their physical bodies shatter; only their souls receive baptism, making them 【Ghost Immortals】. Those granted fiefdoms to govern a region are called 【God Immortals】."

"Only when merit is complete, using incense and vow power to reshape a physical body and return to the Human Dao, are they called 【Human Immortals】."

"Traveling the three mountains, traversing the five peaks, residing in the world without governing it, they are called 【Earth Immortals】."

"With merit on the Dao and conduct on the earth, receiving the Heavenly Book to enter the Heavenly Court to govern the world and order heaven, they are called 【Heaven Immortals】."

As for what lies above 【Heaven Immortals】, that Human Immortal did not elaborate further, but without needing him to say, Lu Yang could roughly deduce the corresponding realm.

'It is most likely True Person!'

Lu Yang pondered in his heart; no wonder a mere Jiangnan Ten Thousand People Pit could stir up True Persons from both Jiange and Sheng Sect; the value of 【Xuan Ling Realm】 was evident from this alone.

After all, it was a great realm possessing a fruit of position; for a True Person, this counted as a feast. Even leaving a few scraps of soup would be enough to fill a Foundation Establishment True Person, but unfortunately, at that previous point in time, his cultivation base was too low; let alone participating, it was difficult even to learn specific news.

Thinking of this, Lu Yang's mind immediately became active.

"A great realm! If I could ride this wave to enter and plunder extensively, it would surely greatly accelerate the nurturing progress of my Immortal Spirit Body!"

But how to enter?

Lu Yang's eyes turned, and he quickly formed an idea:

'I am currently unable to show myself openly in Jiange, so entering through them is certainly impossible; however, if Jiange's path is blocked... I can take the Sheng Sect route!'

'As long as I reveal the secret of the Ten Thousand People Pit to Sheng Sect in advance and send it to Master Master Chongguang, once the Sheng Sect True Persons verify my information, I can establish contact with Sheng Sect. Then I will claim... that after reincarnating, I infiltrated Jiange as an unnamed Sheng Sect True Person!'

Although I am physically within Jiange, I have always been a person of Sheng Sect!

More importantly, Master Master Chongguang had already told Lu Yang in his previous life how to contact him; a specially made Flying Message Spirit Book guaranteed direct delivery into his hands.

Just this point alone should be sufficient to gain Master Master Chongguang's trust.

'That is the plan!'

With this thought, Lu Yang immediately took action, until he used magic power to ignite the prepared Flying Message Spirit Book, watching it transform into a streak of spiritual light flying into the vast sky.

Only then did he exhale a long breath.

At the same time, Yun Yun Miaozhen, who had been cultivating beneath the desk for a long time, wiped the corner of her mouth and crawled out, her Late Stage of Qi Refining cultivation showing obvious improvement.

Immediately after, Lu Yang's expression turned solemn.

Since he planned to share a portion of the spoils in the Ten Thousand People Pit incident, improving his strength could no longer be slow; he must find a way to accelerate the progress.

'At the very least, I must recover to the Mid Stage of Foundation Establishment before taking action!'

Thinking of this, Lu Yang immediately looked toward the Yun family patriarch, Yun Yun Miaozhen, and True Person Xiuxin: "Is there any way to obtain more Geng Metal spiritual items?"

The three looked at each other blankly.

Then True Person Xiuxin spoke in a low voice: "Replying to Master, this is actually not difficult... we only need to find a few more forces colluding with the Jiangbei Mo Sect."

"Can you find them?"

"I can arrange it."

The Yun family patriarch thought for a moment and said: "As long as I spread the word that we intend to thoroughly investigate the Mo Dao, the sects and forces in this vicinity will surely feel endangered."

"Using this pretext, each family should be able to be squeezed for quite a few spiritual items."

Lu Yang: "..."

"Wouldn't this be too conspicuous?" Lu Yang showed hesitation on his face; it was not that he was unwilling, but mainly he worried this action would attract Jiange's attention.

After all, extorting subordinate sects in such a manner did not seem very righteous.

However, the next second, the Yun family patriarch looked over with a surprised expression: "Master, what is conspicuous about this? It is merely a routine matter."

"Ah?"

Hearing this, Lu Yang was instantly stunned. Seeing this, the Yun family patriarch had to explain: "In Jiangnan, the fact that our Jiange did not block these forces from developing means they already owe our Jiange karmic ties. Settling this now is perfect; it can be considered fulfilling them, so what is there to make a fuss about?"

You call this settling karmic ties?

Lu Yang looked speechless; in Jiangbei, Sheng Sect True Persons called this kind of thing robbery, or more elegantly, 'beating the autumn wind'; he never expected it could be explained this way.

The Righteous Path truly was different.

With the Yun family patriarch's explanation, Lu Yang finally understood completely: in Jiangnan, for ordinary forces to develop, most had connections to Jiangbei.

As everyone knew, open trade made it easier to earn money.

These forces might not collude with Sheng Sect, but they certainly had to travel to and from Jiangbei, transporting goods, to accumulate the first pot of gold for their development.

However, according to Jiange's standards, this constituted colluding with the Mo Dao.

It was just that usually Jiange did not interfere much, pretending not to see, and only when necessary would they bring this up to settle some karmic ties.

This was actually Jiange's old trick: first deliberately allowing local forces to develop, and since development required contact with Jiangbei, contact meant colluding with the Mo Dao; they ignored it during ordinary times, waiting until the forces were fattened up before slaughtering and harvesting them, while Jiange itself remained pure as ice and jade, still the leader of the Righteous Path.

As for Jiange disciples, they only needed to focus on practicing the sword.

As for elixirs, magic treasures, talismans, and other external items, just like Cangjian Shanzhuang, Jiange handed them all over to subordinate sects, letting them mess around as they pleased.

Others stockpile grain; we stockpile spears; their homes are our granaries.

This point was even more exaggerated than Sheng Sect; after all, Sheng Sect True Persons only went down the mountain to rob when they ran out of money, whereas Jiange was directly sucking the blood of Jiangnan.

The key was that they did it beautifully.

Eliminating demons and protecting the Dao was a matter of great righteousness; no one could find fault with it.

After thoroughly understanding the operational mechanism of the entire Jiangnan region under Jiange's rule, Lu Yang could not help but exclaim: "Truly a bunch of sword seeds!"

It seems I must properly reform and develop Jiange, letting it return to the true Righteous Path!

(End of Chapter)