Yu Jianming looked utterly miserable. By contrast, everyone else from the Xuantian Sect wore the most sincere smiles imaginable—thank goodness, the hot potato had finally been passed on!
No one dared accept the Sect Master position. They genuinely did not dare.
Zi Tianjun was their Grandmaster—an undeniable, indelible fact. Whatever else they might say, they were all his granddisciples. They could not simply announce that they were breaking away to establish a sect of their own. Even with Bao Gu’s status as the Grandmaster’s direct disciple behind them, the move would still be somewhat lacking in legitimacy. Even if they brought in the Grandmaster’s wife to vouch for them, confirm that they belonged to his direct line, and establish that founding a separate sect was perfectly proper, breaking with their own Grandmaster to do it would still earn them the label of being unfilial disciples. Whoever became Sect Master would be the first to bear that condemnation.
And that was only the lesser problem!
At other sects, taking the position of Sect Master meant inheriting an established foundation. What did they have now? Even the land on which they could put down roots had been parceled out to them by Bao Gu from the Axe Gang. For now, all they had was a tract of territory—not even a single mountain.
Where could they put the twenty-six peaks being moved out of the Canglong Mountain Range? Every inch of land, above and below ground, was teeming with living creatures and plants. Could they simply set down twenty-six mountains without a thought and seize the land? How many innocent lives would be crushed beneath them? What a monstrous karmic sin that would create!
Of those twenty-six peaks, they could dismantle only the rare spiritual treasures and medicinal herbs, the demon beasts they had raised, and the palace buildings, using them to construct new palaces. Everything else could only be placed in Qingying’s Heaven-Refining Cauldron and given to Qingying.
Now that they were leaving to found a sect, manpower was the only thing they had ready-made; everything else had to start from scratch. Even those thirty thousand-plus people were a heavy burden, and whoever became Sect Master would have to consider what would become of every one of them.
If they had come from a small, rootless faction whose members only needed to muddle through, that would be one thing. But they had thirty or forty thousand people, nearly twenty Void Tearing experts, and another dozen or so whose cultivation was at least in the late Deity Transformation stage. Add the former glory of the Xuantian Grandmaster and Bao Gu’s precedent of laying the Axe Gang’s foundation, and they could not merely aim to build a sect ranked among the top ten great powers. At the very least, they had to ensure that it could be passed down for a thousand years, even ten thousand. If, after a few decades, the fellow disciples who had left their old sect together ended up scattered, drifting across the world and fending for themselves, they would truly be sinners.
The burden was simply too heavy. No one dared shoulder it.
If they themselves did not dare, what fool would jump into the pit? Hence the draw: whoever drew the lot marked “Sect Master” was doomed and had to take the fall.
Among them, Bao Gu was both the most suitable person to serve as Sect Master and the least suitable.
She had enough talent and status, but she had spent too long in a position of authority and was far too forceful. These people had been fiercely competitive ever since entering Xuantian Sect; whenever someone threw their weight around, they wanted to chop that person’s head clean off. There was no way they could tolerate Bao Gu’s domineering nature.
In private, they loved roughhousing and fooling around and never acted proper. Bao Gu, on the other hand, was solemn and exceptionally serious. Without even meaning to, she could make people feel as though they were nothing but air. She was elusive and impossible to fathom, and simply standing near her made their hearts go weak with dread. They simply could not gather around her and have fun.
If Bao Gu became Sect Master, all they could do was obey her and put her on a pedestal. Then why leave the sect at all? Dealing with the Grandmaster and disciplining that bunch of the Sect Master’s disciples would be far easier than dealing with Bao Gu!
Yu Jianming drawing the Sect Master lot was truly a cause for universal celebration.
Feng Menglong came over and hooked an arm around Yu Jianming’s neck. Yu Jianming’s face was as bitter as if he had swallowed coptis, and Feng punched him in the chest.
“Do a good job. With so many Martial Aunts backing you, what are you afraid of?”
Hua Sheng quickly added her encouragement.
“Exactly. You’re our martial nephew. If you make a mistake, we can correct you without holding back, and you won’t have to worry about going astray.”
Back then, Bao Gu had entered seclusion in the Yunhai Forest and refused to come out, while Yu Mi traveled everywhere outside, searching for talented children to bring into the sect. Yu Jianming, the only direct-line disciple of Lingyun Peak, had been like a child with no one to look after him. Hadn’t all of them raised him together, each pitching in?
Seeing that Yu Jianming still looked miserable, Hua Sheng arched a brow.
“Besides, you have your master’s own Martial Aunt right here. What are you afraid of?”
Wen Zixuan came up to Yu Jianming with a broad smile.
“All right! Stop making that miserable face. You’ve been exhausted for days. Come on—Wen Martial Aunt will buy you drinks. Drink as much as you want!”
“Come on, come on! Drinks!”
The group cheerfully bade Bao Gu farewell and headed outside, shouting and laughing as though the most important matter had been settled and everything else was already in order.
Bao Gu’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. They were going drinking already? The Axe Gang’s inns in the city were almost packed with disciples from the various peaks who were staying there temporarily. Weren’t they going to take everyone to Yunzhou and get them settled before running off for drinks? When would the Sect Master’s installation ceremony be held? When would the sect-founding ceremony take place? Were they choosing a new sect name or keeping the original Xuantian Sect? They had chosen a Sect Master by drawing lots and then… that was it?
She stared blankly at Yu Mi.
“You’re going drinking before any of this has been settled?”
Yu Mi smiled.
“It won’t delay things by more than a few hours. Besides, we can discuss business over drinks! Such a huge burden has landed on Jianming’s shoulders, so let him take a breather and have a drink to steady himself. Can’t you see he’s practically scared witless?”
Watching the group leave, Yu Mi could not bring herself to admit that she wanted to go drinking too. She knew Bao Gu disliked lively gatherings, so she could hardly abandon Bao Gu and run off drinking alone.
It was rare for so many of their fellow disciples to gather in one place. How happy they would be to sit together, trade stories about what they had seen and experienced, and discuss their vision for the sect’s future and how to build it! Their bond as fellow disciples had been forged over several hundred years of sharing life, weathering storms, and helping one another through every hardship. They were like brothers and sisters, already a family. Compared with building an illustrious, powerful sect, they wanted a “home” where they could relax to their hearts’ content and find shelter from wind and rain.
Bao Gu naturally understood the look in Yu Mi’s eyes. She arched a brow and eyed her.
“Senior Sister, you’re practically the host here in Shadow City. Aren’t you going to accompany them and treat them to the drinks?”
Yu Mi smiled sweetly. After a brief hesitation, she lightly flicked Bao Gu on the nose.
“Then I’ll go. Take good care of Her Majesty the Empress and Pavilion Master Qu!”
She gave a cupped-fist salute to Si Si, Qu Yirou, and the others in apology, then turned to Zi Yunshu.
“Little Martial Aunt, are you coming?”
Zi Yunshu waved a hand.
“No! Why would I go listen to you all badmouth my father?”
Yu Mi gave a soft cough.
“I’ll talk to them about it.”
Zi Yunshu nodded, then ordered a whole assortment of dishes for Yu Mi to pack up and bring back.
Yu Mi promised to do so, bowed to everyone, and took her leave. Although she seemed to be walking at an unhurried pace, she had already used the Shrinking-Earth-to-an-Inch technique. After a few steps, she vanished from sight.
Si Ruo and Qu Yirou were still reeling from the shock that the Xuantian Sect had chosen its Sect Master by drawing lots.
Qu Yirou asked dazedly,
“If the lot had gone to someone other than Yu Jianming—to Hua Sheng, Feng Menglong, or any of the others—would you have accepted that person too?”
Bao Gu answered calmly,
“None of them is weak. Even the weakest has reached the Deity Transformation stage. If you think their cultivation realm is a little low, have Qingying bring over a few bowls of Earth Immortal meat. I guarantee we can forcibly raise them to the Void Tearing stage. At five or six hundred years old, with Void Tearing cultivation, who wouldn’t praise them as young talents with limitless prospects? They would be more than enough to hold up the sect’s image!
“As for all the sect’s affairs, great and small, the Council of Elders can manage and deliberate over them collectively. As long as the chosen Sect Master has everyone’s approval and consults everyone whenever something comes up, there won’t be any trouble.”
Although this Sect Master had been chosen by drawing lots, it was not as if just anyone could take part in the draw. They simply happened to have more candidates than usual.
Si Ruo considered this.
“That sounds like setting up a puppet.”
Qu Yirou nodded emphatically.
Jade Shura said,
“I think it sounds more like drawing lots to pick a workhorse. Whoever is unlucky enough to draw that lot has to serve as the workhorse. Master, you’ve never drunk with them, so you don’t know what they’re like in private. Just look at Yu Mi and you’ll know they’re all her own close martial siblings. Every single one of them…”
Zi Yunshu gave a forceful cough.
Jade Shura hurriedly swallowed the rest of her words.
Si Ruo and Qu Yirou understood at once. Yet they were still shocked! A Sect Master—of a sect with tens of thousands of members and an inheritance from the Upper Realm—had actually been chosen by lot! This was nothing short of an unprecedented “feat” in the cultivation world!
Jade Shura turned to her master.
“Master, you keep busy. I’m going for a drink too!”
Leaving her master behind, she hurried after Yu Mi.
Qu Yirou pressed a hand to her forehead. She suddenly felt deeply worried about Jade Shura, who spent every day hanging around Yu Mi and the others. Jade Shura had already been rather undisciplined much of the time; now she had fallen in with an even more unruly group, people who could decide something as important as appointing a Sect Master by drawing lots.
She remembered the way they had just flipped their jade tokens like gamblers at a gaming table. Then she imagined her own A-Guai slamming her token onto the table, planting her hands on her hips, throwing her head back, and roaring:
“Hahahahaha!”
The image sent a chill through her, and she shuddered.
“I still have something to do. I’ll leave first.”
She rose and left. A-Guai, it was time to return to closed-door cultivation.
Si Ruo suddenly found herself deeply curious about the sect founded by this group, who could casually decide even its Sect Master by drawing lots. She told Bao Gu,
“You must notify me when the sect-founding ceremony is held!”
Bao Gu nodded.
“Certainly!”
The Demon Saint and Zi Yunshu were already enjoying some affectionate time together, so Bao Gu naturally did not want to stay and disturb them. She left the side hall and went to find Qingying.
Qingying was sitting in a pavilion not far from the Horned Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree. The Heaven-Refining Cauldron sat on the jade table before her. Qingying was staring intently at it and fussing over it, but there was no telling what she was doing.
Bao Gu sat down opposite her.
“What’s wrong?”
The instant she spoke, Qingying’s eyes flickered, and Bao Gu knew at once that it could only mean trouble.
Under Bao Gu’s gaze, Qingying felt guilty. She pressed her lips into a smile, took hold of the cauldron, and flipped it over. Bao Nianhui sprang out.
Bao Nianhui looked around blankly.
“How did I end up here again?”
Then she spotted Bao Gu and happily rushed to her side.
“Master, look! I’ve advanced!”
At the Foundation Establishment stage, one bowl of Earth Immortal meat had only advanced Bao Nianhui by three minor stages, leaving Bao Gu speechless at her progress. Bao Gu herself had cultivated slowly—not only because she possessed five spiritual roots, but also because the Xuantian Sword inside her body siphoned away a huge amount of spiritual energy. Bao Nianhui’s slow advancement, on the other hand, truly was a matter of physique.
To Bao Gu, the quality of one’s cultivation physique was not important; what mattered was one’s character. If a person’s character was poor and they committed evil, the stronger they became, the greater the evil they would do!
With her current cultivation, Bao Nianhui was also nearing the formation of her Golden Core.
“Nianhui, don’t rush to form your Golden Core yet.”
“Why? Once I form it, people won’t keep laughing at me and making you lose face.”
“Your cultivation is your own affair; it has nothing to do with anyone else. Taking longer is nothing to be ashamed of. Other people advance quickly because they only need to cultivate one spiritual root, or two or three. You are slow because you have to cultivate all five spiritual roots—and temper your body as well. When I was cultivating, I was even slower than you. People mocked and sneered at me, and even your Martial Uncle was ridiculed along with me. So what? If you care only about rapid advancement in the early stages and leave your foundation unstable, you’ll be ruined in the later stages! It’s like building a house: if the foundation is unstable and weak, can the house possibly be strong and secure? You’re only at the late Foundation Establishment stage now. You can form your core, but you haven’t reached Great Perfection, so don’t rush to force a breakthrough into the next realm. What’s more, your body refinement still isn’t sufficient for that breakthrough. Body refinement and qi cultivation complement each other.”
“Yes! I’ll listen to you, Master.”
Bao Gu then looked over at Qingying, who was sitting to one side with her lips pursed in a pout.
“Qingying, come with me to the Demon Realm.”
Qingying eyed her warily.
“To the Demon Realm to find that nasty little fox? No! I’m not going! She bullied me!”
Bao Gu said,
“I want to formally transmit the Xuantian cultivation method to you. Your Grandmaster is gone, so you need to go pay your respects to your Grandmaster’s wife.”
Bao Nianhui’s eyes lit up. She looked at Bao Gu and asked nervously,
“Master, may I go too?”
She was a direct disciple as well, and she wanted to meet the legendary firstborn princess of the Demon Emperor from the Upper Realm.
Bao Gu felt that she truly could not show favoritism. Since Bao Nianhui was also the one who would inherit her legacy, it would be good to take her along to meet the Grandmaster’s wife. She nodded at once.
“Of course!”
She rose.
“Let’s go!”
With a sweep of her sleeve, Bao Gu gathered Bao Nianhui up and stepped upon the Dao’s flowing resonance. A few steps carried her to the teleportation gate. Once Qingying caught up, the three of them set off together for the Sacred City of the Demon Realm.
