With anyone else, when Bao Gu said ten days, ten days meant ten days. But when it came to Yu Mi, she held out only until Yu Mi walked out the door before erasing the three large words, “Xuantian Sect,” hovering over Yu Mi’s head.
She had already made her position clear and issued her orders regarding Xuantian Sect. If anyone from Xuantian Sect caused trouble again, the matter would be handled according to the Hack Gang’s rules. Bao Gu would not interfere.
The Elders’ Hall would help Yu Jianming handle Xuantian Sect’s affairs. Feeling it inappropriate to meddle, Bao Gu merely told Yu Mi:
“If Xuantian Sect ever needs the Hack Gang’s assistance, you have full authority to decide the matter as the Order Envoy.”
After that, she stopped asking about it.
Bao Gu left the Hack Gang’s day-to-day affairs to Wang Ding, while Sun Dilong managed its finances. Whenever a matter could not be resolved, they went to Yu Mi. The Hack Gang’s two-million-strong army was placed under Yu Mi’s command.
She did not even visit the front hall of the Envoy’s Manor, spending every day holed up in the rear courtyard. Apart from teaching Qing Ying and Bao Nianhui the Xuantian Art, she spent her time figuring out how to build a Realm-Breaking Portal.
Bao Nianhui’s aptitude was practically the worst in the cultivation world, even worse than Bao Gu’s. Bao Gu at least had richly endowed spiritual roots, and the Xuantian Sword had transformed her physique. Nianhui’s earth spiritual root amounted to only a tiny trace, so weak it could almost be ignored; her remaining spiritual roots were merely average, or below average. She could only rely on the Demon Saint’s precious elixirs, each worth more than ten thousand gold pieces, to continually cleanse and improve her constitution.
Such treatment was something other factions and cultivators would not even dare dream of. The total value of the ingredients needed to refine a single elixir could be measured in supreme-grade spirit stones, and Bao Gu herself did not possess many of them. The Demon Saint had personally gone to the Demon Realm to gather the rest. Yet a single elixir improved Nianhui’s spiritual roots by only the tiniest amount. If they kept pouring resources into her, she would become an even deeper bottomless pit than Bao Gu had once been.
Bao Gu did not begrudge what she spent on Nianhui. Poor natural aptitude could still be compensated for later; it only took some effort. But if a person’s character was rotten, even the highest talent would produce nothing but a menace.
Nianhui had been a little beggar from the moment she was born. She had endured every cold look and humiliation the world could offer, yet it had not made her timid, cowardly, gloomy, or spiteful. Later, Yu Mi picked her up and brought her into Xuantian Sect under her own name. Even after suddenly rising to wealth, Nianhui did not become smug or look down on others. Nor did she, after rising from the dust, turn around and bully others simply because she had once been bullied herself.
Though her elders doted on her, she did not become arrogant. Even when her fellow disciples looked down on her, she never answered them with cruel words or deeds, instead quietly burying her head in hard work. These were the qualities Bao Gu considered most precious, so she decided to groom Nianhui as the heir to her legacy.
Bao Gu was naturally not teaching Qing Ying the Xuantian Art to groom her as a successor. This disciple was more capable than her master and was the Heavenly Emperor’s daughter besides; Bao Gu was not qualified to make Qing Ying her heir. She only wanted Qing Ying to have a little more ability to protect herself after reaching the Upper Realm, because what awaited her there would undoubtedly be a path of nine deaths and one chance of survival.
Bao Gu gave Qing Ying the complete Xuantian Art.
Qing Ying studied the Xuantian Art from beginning to end twice. After pondering it for a while, she ran to Bao Gu and asked:
“Master, about this artifact-fusion technique… The process inflicts tremendous damage on the body. Has the War King Clan really never found a way to reduce the damage during fusion and promptly repair the resulting injuries?”
Bao Gu gave Qing Ying the prescription, along with all the rare spiritual medicines and treasures she possessed.
“I don’t have all the ingredients here. You’ll have to get the rest from my master’s wife.”
She paused.
“When my senior sister underwent artifact fusion, she used the Myriad Spirits Cauldron that belonged to my master’s wife. You might want to consider it.”
Qing Ying stared at the prescription for a long while without understanding it. Her little face wrinkled into a knot, and even her brows furrowed. After hesitating for ages, she finally decided to find Xue Qing. She held the prescription out in front of Xue Qing and said:
“Um, could you take a look and tell me whether I can use this?”
Xue Qing was convening all the Demon Realm’s officials in the main hall of the Demon Emperor’s Palace when an uninvited guest came swaggering in through the main gate at breakneck speed, startling her. She stared at Qing Ying in astonishment, accepted the prescription, and said:
“Your physique is far too powerful. This formula is useless to you.”
She paused, then asked:
“You want to fuse with an artifact? What are you fusing?”
Qing Ying pulled out her father’s cauldron, seized one of its legs, and thrust it toward Xue Qing.
“This one!”
“Fuse with the Heaven-Refining Cauldron?”
Xue Qing nearly choked. She looked Qing Ying over again and again, then asked:
“Are you sure? This is a Dao-Proven Imperial Artifact. Even though it had once been damaged, lost its artifact spirit, and fallen in rank, it still counts as a half-Imperial Artifact at the very least. You want to fuse with this? Do you have the strength of a half-step Emperor? Or have you already refined the Heaven-Refining Cauldron into your life-bound treasure?”
“I never said I was going to fuse with it right away.”
“Nobody has ever fused with a Dao-Proven Imperial Artifact before. I have no idea what will happen, so you’ll have to decide for yourself.”
“If this formula won’t work, what am I supposed to do if I suffer injuries during the fusion?”
Xue Qing gave her another long look.
Qing Ying was a Grand Luo Golden Immortal with the bloodline of a Heavenly Emperor. Even after death, her physical body had remained imperishable. By a twist of fate, she had been struck by heavenly lightning and gained a sliver of vitality. After cultivating for countless years and devouring so many living beings to replenish herself, she had transformed into a drought fiend, an existence long since beyond the Five Elements and Six Paths.
With a physique that powerful, if she could be injured badly enough to need outside energy for repairs, this realm would have to suffer another world-ending disaster just to provide enough for her recovery.
Qing Ying pouted unhappily.
“What is that look supposed to mean? If you have something to say, just say it!”
“You want to prove the Dao and become an Emperor?”
Qing Ying shot her a look of utter disbelief, as if Xue Qing had asked the most pointless question in the world.
Xue Qing rubbed her temple and said:
“With your constitution, you can withstand the damage from fusing with the Heaven-Refining Cauldron. But this is a Dao-Proven Imperial Artifact, and you have not yet proved the Dao and become an Emperor. The moment it merges with you, you will inevitably trigger the Great Heavenly Tribulation of Emperorhood. Do you want to become an Emperor in this realm and be crushed to death by the Heavenly Dao’s laws, or draw down heavenly retribution and be blasted to death by it?
“Immortals are not tolerated by this realm’s laws. Right now, you are neither human, immortal, ghost, fiend, monster, nor god. You are an anomaly outside the Six Paths, beyond the reach of the Heavenly Dao’s laws. The sliver of vitality within you was born from heavenly lightning, so in a sense this realm permits you to exist. That is why no heavenly tribulation descends and no heavenly retribution manifests.
“But once you fuse the Heaven-Refining Cauldron into your body, whether you succeed or fail, you will become an existence this realm cannot tolerate.”
“Then I’ll fuse it slowly. I’ll fuse half of it first, and finish the rest after I return to the Upper Realm!”
Qing Ying ran off carrying her Heaven-Refining Cauldron.
Xue Qing stared after her, speechless. Could artifact fusion really be done gradually?
Then she reconsidered. Cultivation arts were merely methods and experiences distilled by those who came before, and they were not necessarily suited to everyone. Qing Ying was probably only using the War King Clan’s art as a reference.
Bao Gu spent a long time weighing the idea of modifying the formation blueprint for the Realm-Breaking Portal, but every approach left her with reservations.
After years of continuous mining, this realm’s spirit-stone resources were nearly depleted. Newly discovered mines were becoming fewer and fewer, while mined-out sites grew more numerous, spreading across nearly the entire cultivation world. Within a few years, there would be no spirit-stone mines left to dig.
Bao Gu intended to use spirit-gathering arrays to draw spiritual energy from the heavens and earth, while using spirit-stone mines to supply the Realm-Breaking Portal’s enormous energy consumption. The expenditure was simply too great. Building such a portal would inevitably exhaust all the spiritual energy in this realm. Future cultivators would not merely be unable to ascend to immortality; even cultivation itself would become difficult. By doing this, she would be cutting off the cultivation path for all later generations.
Once the realm’s spiritual energy was exhausted and cultivation was no longer possible, even Upper Realm immortals fleeing disaster would not come here. Like the Mortal Realm among the Ten Realms, it would be abandoned by all the other realms. Yet this realm no longer had a Nine-Dragon Ascension Formation that could be used to build a Realm-Breaking Portal.
Bao Gu found herself in a dilemma. After several days of hesitation and deliberation, she still could not bring herself to alter the portal’s construction blueprint.
Taking a moment away from her busy schedule, Yu Mi returned to the Envoy’s Manor and found Bao Gu sitting in the courtyard, holding a cup of tea and staring blankly. She came over and asked:
“What’s wrong? What has you so absorbed?”
Bao Gu looked up at Yu Mi, placed the tea back on the table, then pulled Yu Mi down beside her.
“Senior Sister, if we use a spirit-gathering array and spirit stones as the energy source for the Realm-Breaking Portal, the expenditure will be far too great. After only a few uses, it would drain this realm of spiritual energy…”
“The world is so vast, and spiritual energy is inexhaustible. How could you drain it all?”
“The world may be vast, but the amount of spiritual energy it can generate and release each year is limited. If we draw too much, the balance of this realm will be destroyed…”
She paused.
“Need I mention how much the Heaven-Sealing Forbidden Domain affected this realm’s spiritual energy and cultivation when it was established?”
Yu Mi pursed her lips and glanced at Bao Gu. Then she picked up the tea Bao Gu had set on the table and took a leisurely sip.
“Um… that tea… I’ve already drunk from it.”
“I’ve drunk your saliva before.”
Yu Mi leaned close to Bao Gu’s ear and whispered something else.
Bao Gu’s face flushed bright red. She bit her lip and glared at Yu Mi with both embarrassment and fury, raising her fist as if to strike.
Yu Mi glanced at the small pink fist.
“I have a solution. Do you want to hear it?”
Bao Gu could not really hit Yu Mi, so she lowered her fist.
“Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
“If the Demon Realm can turn the Eight-Python Burial Ground into a Nine-Dragon Flying Immortal Formation, you can set up a Nine-Dragon Ascension Formation too.”
Yu Mi considered it for a moment, then continued:
“Would it be difficult for Qing Ying to use the Heaven-Refining Cauldron to move several mountain ranges with powerful dragon-vein momentum? The site is already available. The Ancient Wilderness Mountains were battered into ruins, and the area is still lying barren. Not a blade of grass grows there, and all life is gone. Moving a few major mountain ranges there would put that useless land to good use.
“When Qing Ying moves them, have her arrange them according to the layout of the Nine-Dragon Ascension Formation. Besides, there may have been another reason the Ascension Platform was originally built in the Ancient Wilderness Mountains. Could the boundary between realms be thinner there?”
“Mountain ranges with powerful dragon veins are all blessed lands, aren’t they? Most of them must already have owners. One or two might be manageable, but where are we going to find nine?”
“The Hack Gang controls such a vast territory. We can’t find nine mountains with powerful dragon veins?”
“Minor dragon veins are easy enough to find. Major ones are rare, and major dragon veins capable of forming a Nine-Dragon Ascension Formation are rarer still. Moving mountains isn’t difficult. A mountain range’s contours, course, and the way its geomantic force gathers are all innate. Even if we alter them afterward, we can only work with the existing terrain and redirect its advantages.
“If the range’s overall shape and momentum are wrong, making major changes is extremely difficult. The nine dragon veins in a Nine-Dragon Ascension Formation each have very exact requirements. I’ve examined all the mountains in Hack Gang territory these past few days and found only one that can barely be used.”
“Then we’ll take our time and keep looking. Once we find them, I’ll lead the army over and take them for you, then have Qing Ying move them.”
Yu Mi thought it over again.
“Actually, let’s just have Qing Ying move them. I’d like to see who dares stop her!”
Bao Gu was speechless.
“Choose them anywhere in the cultivation world. Surely no cultivator would mind having an Ascension Platform right outside their own door. Watching others ascend every day would fill them with enthusiasm for cultivation, and whenever the passage to the Upper Realm was opened, they could even piggyback on a little immortal aura!”
Bao Gu was speechless again.
“Is there a problem?”
“It seems… no problem.”
“I have a problem.”
“Hmm?”
“Xuantian Sect has already moved to Yun Province. The main peak has been chosen, and the main hall has already been built; all that’s missing is the peak-protecting array. Saint Aunt is busy working as your laborer…” Yu Mi winked at Bao Gu. “When will you have time to go and finish the peak-protecting array?”
“Then let’s go now.”
Yu Mi smiled, rose, washed the tea set on the jade table, and placed it in Bao Gu’s hands.
“The sect-founding ceremony is in five days, so the peak-protecting array is rather urgent. Just finish the array for the main peak. As for the other places, whoever lives there can deal with them.”
Five days?
Bao Gu had spent nearly ten days idle in the Envoy’s Manor. Yu Mi had not breathed a word about the array, being so busy that she contacted Bao Gu only through voice-transmission jade talismans each day. Now she had suddenly appeared and given Bao Gu five days to set up a peak-protecting array! If Bao Gu wanted a decent grand array, she did not even have enough time to design its blueprint.
Yu Mi ignored Bao Gu’s irritation, grabbed her hand, and ran toward the teleportation array.
“Don’t worry. The main peak is tiny.”
As she spoke, the two of them stepped onto the teleportation array and arrived at the summit of Xuantian Sect’s new main peak.
The main peak rose high, and everything above its midpoint was shrouded in clouds and mist. Yu Mi had said the main hall was finished, and she had not been exaggerating: a palace not much larger than their sleeping quarters, yet far shabbier, stood on the summit. Its plaque bore three large words in sweeping calligraphy: “Spirit Cloud Hall.”
In front of Spirit Cloud Hall lay a plaza paved with white jade, covering no more than five mu. Deep, primeval forest began immediately beside the hall and plaza. As soon as dusk fell, beasts and low-level demon beasts appeared among the trees. A small demon beast even darted to the edge of the plaza and craned its head to stare at them.
At that moment, the only people at Spirit Cloud Hall were the two of them.
If not for the words “Spirit Cloud Hall,” Bao Gu would almost have thought they had come to the wrong place.
“Where is everyone? Didn’t you say Xuantian Sect had already moved here? Is it only the two of us?”
“It’s already dark. They’ve all gone back to rest.”
Yu Mi led Bao Gu toward Spirit Cloud Hall. Pointing to the left, she said:
“We’ll build a bell tower here later, and a drum tower over there. Tomorrow I’ll have people clear that patch of ground and build an elders’ compound. Behind Spirit Cloud Hall, we’ll build the sect master’s hall. The sect master will be responsible for guarding the summit.”
Bao Gu stared blankly, feeling as though her brain had stopped working.
“Where are the disciples supposed to live? Where do they normally gather?”
“They’ll live scattered throughout the territory you designated. Depending on their individual cultivation paths, they’ll seek suitable locations and form villages to live together. They’ll raise their own funds and build their own teleportation arrays.
“This main peak is only for sect assemblies and grand ceremonies. The archives, treasury, and so on will be built at separate sites and secretly linked by teleportation arrays.”
“Then what about teaching disciples?”
“Masters teach their own disciples. Each master handles their own students. If they run into trouble, they can send out the sect’s emergency summons and call for help.”
Bao Gu remained stunned for a long while before asking:
“So Xuantian Sect has no mountain-protecting array. But if someone wanted to wipe out the sect, even turning Yun, Yan, and Jiang Provinces upside down might not be enough to find the Xuantian Sect’s disciples scattered throughout those three provinces?”
“Not having a mountain-protecting array is the most powerful mountain-protecting array of all!”
Bao Gu suddenly realized that Xuantian Sect had no mountain gate and no sect uniforms. Its disciples were scattered throughout Yun, Yan, and Jiang Provinces, and some even spent years traveling beyond them. The disciples also had both overt and covert ways of staying in contact.
Was the entire Xuantian Sect going to shift from the open into the shadows and become invisible from then on?
