Frantic Expansion

Two Soul Formation Immortal Lords had vanished without a trace. It sounded like pure fantasy. Yet it had happened just that bizarrely. Ever since Heavenly Venerable Blue Feather fell, the two had fought every year at the Tiandu Martial Arena to settle ownership of the Tiandu Feathering Technique. So many years had passed, yet a victor had never emerged. Every duel drew countless cultivators to watch. It had practically become a regular fixture of Yuandao Province, and many cultivators even traveled from other provinces, hoping to catch a glimpse of the splendor of two Soul Formation Immortal Lords locked in battle. However, when the agreed day of battle arrived this year, not a single figure could be seen inside the Tiandu Martial Arena. The crowd waited for ages, yet neither Dugu Xi nor Dugu Shi ever appeared. Assuming the duel had merely been rescheduled, the spectators did not think much of it at the time. It was not until a few days later that shocking news broke. The friends, family, and subordinates of both men had exhausted every method, yet they could not reach either of them. They had even enlisted the Heavenly Secret Hall to perform deductions, but not a single trace could be found. It was as though the two had evaporated into thin air—no trace of them alive, no corpse to be found! The Blue Feather lineage was shaken most of all. With two of their peak combatants missing, panic spread through the lineage's ranks. Nerves frayed to the snapping point, and everyone began to look like a conspirator. Meanwhile, once the initial shock passed, the other factions slowly gathered their wits. The Blue Feather lineage had once been too big to fail. Yet that was in the past. First came years of internecine slaughter, which cost the Blue Feather lineage heavily in men and leaders. And now two Soul Formation Immortal Lords had vanished without explanation. Just how much strength did the Blue Feather lineage still have left? Greed sprouted in the hearts of many powers. A Burning Feather Alliance was quietly born. It began with small-scale skirmishes. Then, with the Tiandu Feathering Technique serving as the spark, large-scale slaughter erupted. Before Heavenly Venerable Blue Feather fell, he had divided this Dao Integration divine art into five parts, sealing them separately inside five encrypted jade slips. Four of the slips had been entrusted to four of his most loyal subordinates for safekeeping. The remaining one was given to the Protector Hall of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals—the most mysterious and detached from worldly disputes. Only by bringing all five jade slips together could the complete Tiandu Feathering Technique be restored. Once the Dugu brothers vanished under mysterious circumstances and drew the encircling pack of wolves, the Soul Formation Immortal Lord who appeared the most loyal, who had followed Heavenly Venerable Blue Feather the longest, and who held the greatest seniority in the Blue Feather lineage—Wei Xutuo—defected with his one-fifth of the Tiandu Feathering Technique. Using the pretext of discussing counter-strategies, he lured Wu Tongtian, another Soul Formation Immortal Lord holding a jade slip, straight into an ambush set by the Burning Feather Alliance. Wu Tongtian fell with deep grievance, and Wei Xutuo claimed two portions of the Tiandu Feathering Technique. The Burning Feather Alliance seized the opportunity to aggressively annex territory belonging to the Blue Feather lineage. When the news reached the Blue Feather lineage, shock struck first, followed by boundless fury. A centipede dies but never truly stiffens. A bloody counterattack began. The war was kindled, then swept across the entirety of Yuandao Province. Countless Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Soul Formation cultivators were caught in the fray. High in the sky, the phenomena marking the fall of mighty cultivators appeared in an unbroken chain, never ceasing for a moment. By contrast, the Qi Condensation cultivators—who were by far the most numerous—were too weak even to serve as cannon fodder, so they were hardly affected at all. *** Inside Mingyue Palace. “Just who is playing this grand game of chess…” Taking in every development across Yuandao Province, great and small, Li Fan’s eyes flickered. The stench of conspiracy behind it all was far too obvious. “Anyone with eyes can see the irregularities here.” “Unfortunately, once you’re caught in the game, you no longer have a choice.” “Qi Condensation cultivators are so weak they aren't even qualified to be chess pieces.” “No matter. If you look down on them, I won't turn them away.” Li Fan immediately gathered everyone in Mingyue Palace and issued orders for a massive strategic expansion. Though Su Xiaomei and the others did not quite understand the order, they executed it without hesitation. By the end of Anchor Year 43, the grand enterprise of ferrying the Dharma, which had been suspended for nearly half a year, was reignited. This time, the push was fiercer than before. Under Li Fan’s instructions, Mingyue Palace kept only thirty thousand contribution points in reserve. All the rest was lent out. News of Mingyue Palace resuming operations spread among the Qi Condensation cultivators in an instant. Having waited bitterly for half a year, they were overjoyed. They swarmed onto Mingyue Lake. The sheer numbers exceeded even Li Fan’s expectations. Even so, Li Fan did not release every opening for ferrying the Dharma at once. He continued to select one fated cultivator every three days, keeping everyone’s appetite thoroughly whetted. It took nearly a month to lend out all the planned contribution points. At this point, Mingyue Palace held nearly two hundred and twenty thousand contribution points in outstanding loans. It had thirty thousand contribution points in reserves. There were also three hundred and twenty thousand contribution points from Zhang Zhiliang’s Posthumous Bequest. That came to a total of five hundred and seventy thousand contribution points. Even a Soul Formation cultivator would drool with envy at such wealth. Yet the chaos and bloodshed gripping Yuandao Province provided Li Fan with the perfect breeding ground to lie low and develop. Through unbridled, savage growth, the terrifying power of compound interest finally revealed itself. By the end of Anchor Year 44, Mingyue Palace’s outstanding loans soared to three hundred and ten thousand points. By the end of 45, four hundred and fifty thousand points. By the end of 46, six hundred and thirty thousand points. …… By the middle of Anchor Year 50, Mingyue Palace’s outstanding loans had reached the astronomical figure of 2.2 million. Over the course of seven years, Mingyue Palace had successfully ferried over five hundred Qi Condensation cultivators into Foundation Establishment. For every cultivator ferried for a fee, the Mountain-Sitting Art fed back roughly six months’ worth of cultivation. Nearly two hundred and fifty years of accumulated cultivation feedback had long since propelled Li Fan to late Foundation Establishment. Under the surveillance of Formless Killing Intent, Li Fan had witnessed the process of establishing a Foundation over five hundred times with his own eyes. By now, his comprehension of building a Dao Foundation likely surpassed that of any Foundation Establishment cultivator in this world. Meanwhile, even the prodigy Su Xiaomei had only just broken through to mid Foundation Establishment, while Xiao Heng was still lingering in early Foundation Establishment. Such a terrifying pace of cultivation made Li Fan feel as though he were dreaming. Yet holding such a staggering amount of contribution points made him feel as though he were treading on thin ice. Rather than rejoicing in the meteoric rise of his cultivation realm, a faint unease mounted within him day by day. He ordered the members of Mingyue Palace to halt the Dharma-ferrying business and recover the outstanding points as quickly as possible. Taking precautions before the storm, Li Fan read about methods for breaking through to Golden Core in the Heavenly Mystery Realm while keeping his senses sharp, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. …… Somewhere in an unknown space within Yuandao Province. A black-robed cultivator had just awakened from secluded cultivation. Habitually, he pinched a hand seal. Before him, a golden ginkgo tree abruptly materialized. Holding a fly-whisk, the black-robed cultivator gave it a gentle wave. The ginkgo tree, upon which time had seemed frozen, suddenly began to change. Its trunk trembled, and five golden leaves drifted down. A look of delight appeared on the cultivator’s face. “Five Soul Formation cultivators died just while I was in seclusion?” His hand seal shifted. Beside the golden ginkgo, another identical tree appeared. Only this one radiated a soft silver light. He swept his fly-whisk. Twenty-three silver leaves drifted down. The black-robed cultivator was overjoyed. With a pinch of his fingers, he deduced the reason. “So internecine strife broke out. What an unexpected pleasant surprise.” “Strange. Whose handiwork is this? I can’t even calculate it?” “Hmph, never mind. The more who die, the better.” “Originally, I used Blue Feather’s death to play the clever trick of the blue box, which drastically slashed the number of cultivators.” “Now that this has happened, it seems I’ll overfulfill my quota this time.” Filled with pleasant surprise, the black-robed cultivator muttered to himself, “Yuandao Province has been at peace for far too long, and there are far too many cultivators. It should have been pruned hard long ago, yet that old fool Blue Feather kept shielding them…” “Hmph. Now that your life and your Dao are extinguished, you can no longer throw your weight around.” A blue ginkgo appeared, and this time even more leaves fluttered down. The black-robed cultivator beamed. “This task from the Heavenly Venerable is finally secure.” Next, out of habit, he summoned the final green ginkgo. To his astonishment, the green ginkgo swelled the moment it met the air. In the span of a breath, it had grown a full size larger than before. Vibrant with life, it swayed softly. The black-robed cultivator leapt to his feet in shock, blurting out, “How could this be?!” “The number of Foundation Establishment cultivators tripled in ten years?!” Cold sweat dripping from his forehead, he hurriedly pinched his fingers to divine the cause. “What a Dharma-Ferrying Mingyue Palace…” After a long while, the black-robed cultivator gritted his teeth in fury. “And a whole pack of imitators…” “All of you must die!” Boom! The golden, silver, blue, and green ginkgo trees before him instantly disintegrated into ash. Holding his fly-whisk, the black-robed cultivator took a step forward and vanished without a trace.