Chapter 785

"Senior!"

"You have returned."

Su Fan returned to Qingjian Island. Zhou Shan and the others had already returned from Tianzhen Island, leaving behind a portion of their people to rearrange the defenses on Tianzhen Island.

However, because there were almost no cultivators left among the original guards of Tianzhen Island, Zhou Shan still had to leave behind a portion of his troops.

This also resulted in the guards on Qingjian Island becoming somewhat insufficient.

While Su Fan had not yet returned, the group was very worried; after all, without Su Fan presiding over the situation, they truly did not have much confidence.

The strongest among them was only at the mid-stage of Nascent Soul; if a late-stage Nascent Soul expert were to arrive, they would not be able to stop them.

Now that Su Fan had returned, their backbone had finally returned as well.

"In these days, has anything happened on Qingjian Island and Tianzhen Island?"

"Thanks to your blessing, Senior, everything is fine on Qingjian Island and Tianzhen Island. I do not know how things are over at Huofeng Island?"

Zhou Shan could not help but ask, and the others also turned their gazes toward Su Fan. They also knew that Huofeng Island had been very dangerous before, as it was the main force of the Demon Race.

"The danger over there has already been resolved."

Su Fan naturally knew what these people were worried about. The Vermilion Bird position and its nine major islands were the core; once one of the islands, like Tianzhen Island, was broken, the array foundation would be in chaos.

Then the entire Vermilion Bird position would be in danger, not to mention the islands they were guarding.

Therefore, the nine major islands were the most critical and must not be allowed to face any danger.

"That is good!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and their expressions recovered.

"Regarding Tianzhen Island, I have also taken control of Huofeng Island. In a few days, some warships will be arranged to go over there."

"That is great."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt happy once again.

On Tianzhen Island, the array foundation had not been completely destroyed. Zhou Shan had arranged for quite a few formation masters to repair the array there and had also arranged for the restoration of order among the mortals.

There were also hundreds of thousands of cultivators guarding Tianzhen Island.

But to be honest, that amount of strength was simply insufficient to protect Tianzhen Island, and Qingjian Island really could not spare much strength to guard it either.

If not for Su Fan, these people here would be struggling just to guard Qingjian Island.

Dividing their forces to guard Tianzhen Island would only allow the Demon Race to defeat them one by one. If the Demon Race really sent a large army again, both Qingjian Island and Tianzhen Island would be in danger.

However, they had to arrange for personnel to defend Tianzhen Island.

If they really watched Tianzhen Island remain wide open, wouldn't that be giving the Demon Race an opportunity? Once the Demon Race attacked, Tianzhen Island would become their temporary base.

Once they had this base, the Demon Race could continuously mobilize troops and generals with Tianzhen Island as the center.

This would be very dangerous for the Vermilion Bird position.

Without territory, the Demon army was just like duckweed, but with an island possessing a fifth-tier spirit vein as a temporary site, the Demon Race could arrange for a larger army.

This was a situation the Immortal Alliance was unwilling to see.

In the past, islands broken by the Demon Race had become temporary bases for them. For this reason, the Immortal Alliance had paid a great price to destroy them, along with the islands themselves.

Therefore, unless it was a last resort, forces everywhere were fundamentally unwilling to see any island captured by the Demon Race.

This was why, even though Zhou Shan knew their strength on Qingjian Island was insufficient, he still left behind hundreds of thousands of cultivators.

But now it was fine; with people sent from Huofeng Island, they only needed a few Nascent Soul stage experts, and Tianzhen Island would be safe.

Moreover, Tianzhen Island was not far from their Qingjian Island; once the Demon Race really attacked again, they could quickly provide support.

With a powerhouse like Su Fan present, they felt much more at ease.

After dismissing Zhou Shan and the others, only the high-level members of the Zixiao Sect remained in the main hall.

"You don't need to worry about Huofeng Island for the time being. The Demon Race lost fifty Nascent Soul experts this time. Without investigating the specific strength of the Vermilion Bird position clearly, they won't dare to easily send people over again."

"Dozens of them?"

After hearing this, Lu Qingshan and the others had their mouths wide open, unable to close them for a long time.

"I suppose you are curious about my strength and have also made some guesses?"

"I didn't tell you before because I didn't want you to rely on me too much. After all, the future of the Zixiao Sect still depends on you."

"The help I can give you will also become less and less."

"Great Elder, are you at the Primordial Spirit stage?"

Lu Qingshan could not help it and finally blurted out what was in his heart.

"Correct! I am indeed at the Primordial Spirit stage."

"Hiss!"

Upon hearing this, everyone except Su Wanjun gasped, but then everyone became excited.

Primordial Spirit stage!

Their Zixiao Sect actually had an Ancestor at the Primordial Spirit stage presiding over it. Then, in the future, the Zixiao Sect would be a top-tier major sect in the Southern Wilderness Continent, or even among the thirty-six continents of the Southern Domain.

Among the thirty-six continents of the Southern Domain, the Yuanding Sect could not even be considered very strong.

At its peak, it could not even rank in the top ten.

Although the Southern Domain could not compare to the sixteen continents of the Eastern Domain, it was still one of the four domains.

The Southern Wilderness Continent was just a lower-ranked one among the thirty-six continents, ranking at the bottom in terms of strength.

At its peak, the Yuanding Sect's influence in the Southern Domain was at most in the top twenty or thirty, and now it might not even rank in the top fifty.

Among the thirty-six continents of the Southern Domain, there were several major continents where any first-class sect was much more powerful than the Yuanding Sect.

Even the top ten forces of the Southern Domain, if placed in the Zhongzhou, the core of the Yuanyang Realm, could be ranked as first-class.

A first-class force in the Zhongzhou was not simple; just the number of Nascent Soul stage experts had to be at least twenty, which was not comparable to a first-class force in the East Sea cultivation world.

Moreover, there had to be at least three late-stage Nascent Soul experts, one of whom must be at the ninth layer of Nascent Soul.

As for the top-tier forces in the Zhongzhou, they must have a Primordial Spirit stage expert.

The comprehensive strength of the Zixiao Sect certainly could not reach the first-class level, but with a Primordial Spirit stage cultivator presiding over it,

even the top-tier forces of the Zhongzhou would not provoke them.

After all, the combat power of one Primordial Spirit stage cultivator could not be stopped even by ten ninth-layer Nascent Soul cultivators.

One Primordial Spirit stage cultivator could create a first-class sect.

If the Zixiao Sect spread the news that they had a Primordial Spirit stage cultivator presiding over it, then it would not be long before they could become a first-class force.

After all, at that time, many loose cultivators would inevitably choose to join the Zixiao Sect. With a Primordial Spirit stage expert presiding, if he could come out to give guidance on cultivation, it would be very attractive even to late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

Once cultivation reached the Nascent Soul stage, wanting to make progress was truly too difficult. Sometimes, a bottleneck could trap one for a thousand years.

Most loose cultivators could never break through the early stage of Nascent Soul in their entire lives.

Without cultivation experience and insights, relying entirely on one's own exploration, one could imagine the difficulty.

This was also the gap between sects and loose cultivators.

Sects had cultivation insights left behind by their predecessors, which they could use as reference, while loose cultivators could only rely on themselves.