Bao Gu really wanted to keep the Boundary-Breaking Gate firmly in her own hands and use it to pull the cultivation world’s powers toward herself.
But she couldn’t ignore the strength of those elder statesmen guarding Immortal Stone Palace, nor the countless large and small sects scattered across the world.
If she went too far, those forces could easily unite. Even if they couldn’t fight their way into Qingzhou, they could at least wipe out every Kan Gang stronghold outside Qingzhou, one by one.
She wanted to build up strength and lend her master’s wife a helping hand, not set herself up as an enemy to the entire cultivation world.
Qu Yirou and Si Ruo could only offer a few suggestions and help with gathering information. This wasn’t something they could comment on too much.
Yu Mi saw Bao Gu fall silent, clearly unable to settle on a decision.
She remembered that Bao Gu had been gone for over five hundred years; she might not fully understand how things stood with Kan Gang now. So Yu Mi roughly outlined Kan Gang’s current structure for her.
Kan Gang had risen by opening its doors to everyone, absorbing cultivators from all sects across the land.
Kan Gang was not a single sect, but a conglomeration formed from disciples of thousands of sects, plus a sea of rogue cultivators.
Over the past few centuries, Kan Gang had founded Kan Gang Academy and raised a large number of direct-line disciples. But that still hadn’t changed the existing structure.
Its framework resembled a mortal imperial court. The power behind Kan Gang was the disciples who had descended the mountain from every sect to temper themselves and then joined Kan Gang.
If Bao Gu wanted to control the Boundary-Breaking Gate, there was no way she could bypass the various sect factions.
Bao Gu thought for a moment, got up, dispelled the formation warding the study, and took out a sound-transmission jade slip to contact Wang Ding. She ordered him to bring Kan Gang’s current personnel registry, along with a list of all forces entangled with Kan Gang.
Ever since Bao Gu’s return, Wang Ding had been staying in Shadow City, waiting for her summons.
He had originally wanted to help her settle those three hundred thousand cultivators, but those three hundred thousand had formed their own complete system, leaving him zero room to interfere.
All he could do was sit anxiously at home, staring at the door and waiting to be called.
Now that he received the Command Envoy’s transmission, Wang Ding immediately grabbed the requested items and rushed over at top speed.
Bao Gu took the registry from his hands and flipped through it carefully.
Kan Gang had four “Envoys”:
Order Envoy Yu Mi, young sect master of Xuantian Sect;
Left Envoy Wang Ding, rogue cultivator;
Right Envoy Mad Demon, rogue cultivator;
Finance Envoy Sun Dilong, a demon cultivator.
Below them were ten Halls, each with one Hall Master. Under every Hall Master were several Sub-Hall Masters, and under each Sub-Hall Master were the various branches.
Among the ten Hall Masters, five came from sect factions.
Among the Sub-Hall Masters, disciples backed by various powers made up at least half; the rest were rogue cultivators and Kan Gang’s direct-line disciples.
As for the Chief Branch Masters, Branch Masters, and Vice Branch Masters of each branch, half of them were of sect origin as well.
She didn’t even need to look far—just at the people connected to this very study.
She and Yu Mi, the two greatest power-holders in Kan Gang, both came from Xuantian Sect.
In Yue Kingdom, Si Ruo held no official post in Kan Gang, but many nobles and even imperial clan members of Yue Kingdom held important positions in Kan Gang.
Soul Chasing Pavilion needed no explanation; Jade Shura had already been Vice Hall Master of Nether Hall five hundred years ago. Now she commanded thirty thousand assassins, over half from Soul Chasing Pavilion, and the rest rogues she had personally recruited and trained.
As for those renowned experts from the various sects who had entered Immortal Stone Palace, they either held official positions in Kan Gang or were honorary guest elders, all under Kan Gang’s command.
Today’s Kan Gang was entangled with the sect forces of the entire cultivation world in a thousand threads that could not be cleanly severed.
Bao Gu stared at the registry, dumbfounded.
Was Kan Gang ruling the current cultivation world, or had the cultivation world’s sects thoroughly infiltrated Kan Gang?
Her head ached. She rubbed her forehead, tossed the registry onto the table, and instructed Wang Ding:
“Wang Ding, make arrangements. Three days from now, summon everyone at or above the level of Chief Branch Master in Kan Gang to the Envoy’s Residence. Tell them I’m recruiting manpower for constructing the Boundary-Breaking Gate.”
She waved him off.
“Go handle it.”
Wang Ding cupped his fists respectfully, saluted, and withdrew.
Bao Gu had made up her mind.
“As for building the Boundary-Breaking Gate,” she said, “we’ll recruit craftsmen through open selection and pay them generously. Any power that contributes to the construction will receive corresponding ‘Ascension Tokens’. Any force or any person holding an Ascension Token can use the Boundary-Breaking Gate for free, one token per person only.
“If they don’t have an Ascension Token but still want to use the Boundary-Breaking Gate, they’ll have to pay. Clear prices, fair to all, no cheating.
“We won’t relocate the Boundary-Breaking Gate. It’ll be built within Qingzhou. The energy supply will come from a Nine-Dragon Spirit-Gathering Grand Array and spirit stones.”
She turned to Yu Mi.
“Senior Sister, I’ll have to trouble you to run to Immortal Stone Palace. If you can come to terms with them, have the elder statesmen there continue to guard the Five-Element Immortal Stones to ensure nothing goes wrong. After that, I’ll send over the Five-Element Immortal Stones I brought back from the Wilderness Realm. The polishing of the stones and inscribing of runes can all be handled in Immortal Stone Palace.
“The Five-Element Immortal Stones in the Qingzhou grand array won’t be touched. The ones I brought this time are enough to build the Boundary-Breaking Gate. I’ll leave everything on the Immortal Stone Palace side to you.”
Yu Mi nodded in agreement.
Bao Gu then turned to the Demon Saint.
“Aunt Saint, I’ll need to trouble you with the formation and talisman side of the Boundary-Breaking Gate. I’d like you to sit in charge over everything involving the arrays and talismans. This matter is too important. I’ll only be at ease if you’re overseeing it.”
The Demon Saint laughed.
“With you putting it that way, how could I possibly refuse?”
She nodded her assent.
Bao Gu looked at Qu Yirou and Si Ruo.
“Would the two of you consider joining in? I’ll provide the Five-Element Immortal Stones and the site, but the materials needed to lay down a Nine-Dragon Spirit-Gathering Grand Array are enormous. With Kan Gang’s current finances, I’m afraid we can’t bear it.”
Si Ruo gave Bao Gu a sideways glance.
“And the person who forges warships out of Great Luo Red Gold is complaining about being poor?”
“I’m not short of Great Luo Red Gold,” Bao Gu replied. “I’m not short of any metal materials. But I’m very short of other formation materials. And once we start using the Boundary-Breaking Gate, it’ll be like pouring an ocean of spirit stones into it and still not being enough.
“After the gate is built, the cost of activating it even once will be astronomical. There’s no way I’m paying that in Ascension Tokens.
“And people capable of carving runes directly onto Five-Element Immortal Stones… there aren’t many such grand artisans in today’s cultivation world, right? Hiring them will be outrageously expensive. Honestly, I have no idea how much money this Boundary-Breaking Gate will swallow.”
Qu Yirou asked:
“When can you come up with a budget?”
“I can’t,” Bao Gu said. “Not right now.
“Leaving everything else aside, just that Nine-Dragon Spirit-Gathering Grand Array alone—it’s transforming the natural Nine-Dragon Ascension terrain into a man-made array. After I finish drafting the formation diagram, I’ll still have to ask my master’s wife to go over it with me.
“Even with the original Nine-Dragon Ascension configuration, building a Boundary-Breaking Gate is extremely difficult. Now I’m replacing the original geomantic layout with formations—this grand array will probably require sacred artifacts. As for the formation diagram…”
Si Ruo cut in:
“If Yue Kingdom covers the financial side, what will Yue Kingdom get in return?”
“If Yue Kingdom, Xuantian Sect, and Soul Chasing Pavilion are willing to join in,” Bao Gu said, “then Yue Kingdom, Xuantian Sect, Soul Chasing Pavilion, and Kan Gang will split all expenditures evenly between the four of us.
“Once the Boundary-Breaking Gate is completed, you can use it however you like, but the cost of activating it each time will be borne by the user.”
“And if other forces want to use the Boundary-Breaking Gate,” Si Ruo asked, “what will you charge them?”
“I haven’t decided,” Bao Gu said. “But it definitely won’t be cheap.”
Jade Shura stared at her and gave a heavy “Hmph?”
“Not decided? That’s not like you.”
Bao Gu shot her a helpless look.
“I can’t even calculate how much building the Boundary-Breaking Gate will cost yet. How am I supposed to set a price?
“In any case, I’m not going to take a loss. Sitting on such a monopoly, and you won’t let me make money off it?”
Jade Shura hissed between her teeth and turned to Qu Yirou.
“Master, I’d bet anything Bao Gu is going to set a price so high it’ll make people want to cough blood.”
Bao Gu said lightly:
“For the sake of becoming an immortal, any price is worth it.”
Everyone present immediately understood: Bao Gu fully intended to set the price in the stratosphere.
Si Ruo nodded.
“Fine. But we’re adding one clause. In the future, Yue Kingdom takes ten percent of the Boundary-Breaking Gate’s profits.”
At that, Jade Shura hurriedly chimed in:
“Soul Chasing Pavilion wants ten percent too.”
She saw Bao Gu’s cold gaze swing her way and rushed to add:
“This Boundary-Breaking Gate might be a bottomless pit. We might never recover our investment. For such a massive venture, you can’t expect us to accept just usage rights, can you?
“If, in the future, Soul Chasing Pavilion’s expenses for using the Boundary-Breaking Gate are covered by Kan Gang, then we’ll give up our ten percent. We’re shouldering a fair amount of risk here. Between Yue Kingdom and Soul Chasing Pavilion, we’re only taking twenty percent total. That’s not much.”
Bao Gu closed her eyes and thought for a long while, then nodded.
Si Ruo said:
“Then let’s draft the contract. And about how the Boundary-Breaking Gate will be activated—you can’t just let anyone walk up, shove in some spirit stones, and turn it on, can you?”
Bao Gu rubbed her forehead.
“You mean you want to add a few more ‘keys’ to the Boundary-Breaking Gate?”
Si Ruo smiled.
“I think that’s an excellent idea.”
Bao Gu thought it over and felt it was workable, so she nodded again.
After that, the group drafted the contract and settled the matter.
Zi Yunshu took Xuantian Sect’s copy of the contract and flew back to Xuantian Sect to show it to Zi Tianjun and have him affix the sect master’s seal.
On the way, she couldn’t help thinking—such a monumental undertaking, and her father, as sect master, was only responsible for stamping at the end.
But then again, if not for the fact that they were from Xuantian Sect, her father wouldn’t even have the right to know about this, let alone stamp it.
Yu Mi left for Immortal Stone Palace to negotiate with the elder statesmen there about building the Boundary-Breaking Gate.
Si Ruo and Qu Yirou stayed at the Envoy’s Residence until Zi Tianjun arrived with the contract.
After everyone dripped blood to bind it and stamped it with their great seals, the two each returned to their own factions to start gathering spirit stones and mobilizing resources.
Once Qu Yirou and Si Ruo had left, Zi Tianjun handed Bao Gu the key to Xuantian Sect’s treasury, along with a token authorizing her to call upon Xuantian Sect’s resources.
“You can take full charge of this,” he said. “Handle everything as you see fit.”
Xuantian Sect was “poor.” There was absolutely no way it could shoulder such a massive expenditure. So this “old man” shamelessly tossed the headache into Bao Gu’s lap, stuffed the blood contract into the sleeve-universe storage treasure inside his sleeve, and added:
“Yu Mi is the young sect master. If you need to use anything from Xuantian Sect for the Boundary-Breaking Gate, just speak to Yu Mi.”
Then he reminded Bao Gu to come back and live at Xuantian Sect once she was less busy, and not spend all day running around outside without a “home.”
After that, he flicked his robe sleeves with great flourish and strode off.
Watching her Grandmaster flee like a startled rabbit, Bao Gu couldn’t help feeling a bit baffled.
Xuantian Sect wasn’t poor, was it?
Leaving aside the offerings she had given Xuantian Sect in the past, just the rare treasures and precious herbs Zi Tianjun had fished out of the Xuantian Mountain Range were already a hefty sum.
On top of that, during the great purge of the cultivation world, Xuantian Sect had seized the accumulated wealth of several factions in one go. How could they be poor?
She turned to Zi Yunshu.
“Has Xuantian Sect’s foundation run dry?”
Had the sect, in the centuries she’d been gone without paying them offerings, failed to support its own expenses and emptied its coffers? How wasteful would they have to be to burn through such a deep foundation?
“No,” Zi Yunshu said. “My dad’s that stingy, like a pixiu that only takes in and never lets anything out. How could he possibly empty the treasury?”
Bao Gu froze for a moment, then realized—
Her Grandmaster was planning to not put in a single coin.
He’d given her the key, placing the entire sect treasury in her hands, and now it was up to her whether she had the heart to dig into her own “family’s” savings.
With this move, Bao Gu really couldn’t bring herself to raid Xuantian Sect’s coffers.
Even if she was poor, her first thought would be to earn money from outside, not stick her hand out toward her own people.
So she had to foot this massive bill herself?
Even with her wealth, the sheer scale of the expenditure made her feel faint.
Zi Yunshu patted Bao Gu’s shoulder in consolation.
“Didn’t you see? My dad practically gave you his daughter, his son-in-law, and his young sect master.”
She saw Bao Gu still looking dazed and rolled her eyes.
“Yu Mi is going to be sect master. Have her issue a decree in Xuantian Sect later. Do you think you’ll be short on free labor?
“With so many disciples in Xuantian Sect, they can at least move rocks and haul bricks.”
Bao Gu thought of those Xuantian Sect disciples.
For manual labor, she actually felt that Golden Core and Nascent Soul disciples were too weak.
But then she remembered that the most valuable things in Xuantian Sect—the Xuantian Sword and the entire Xuantian Mountain Range—were already in her hands, and she relaxed.
Her thoughts spun once, then she glanced up at the sky. It was still early.
“I’m making a quick trip back to Xuantian Sect,” she tossed to Zi Yunshu.
She activated her divine ability and sped toward the nearby Xuantian Sect.
She was going to go through the sect treasury.
Since Grandmaster had given her the key, if she didn’t move at least a little something out, wouldn’t that be letting down his “kind intentions”?
