The Taiyi Immortal Sect.
One of the Ten Immortal Sects.
A mighty sect boasting one hundred and eight true disciples.
The strength of most factions could generally be gauged from their number of true disciples.
This was because the quantity of true disciples often reflected the volume of resources a sect commanded.
And resource control essentially embodied the concrete might of any sect.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect in its entirety comprised nine lineages and six halls.
Among these nine lineages, the weakest was naturally the newly added Cangwu lineage.
Of course, so-called weakness was purely relative.
The Cangwu lineage alone possessed a full twenty-six Void Piercing Battle Immortals.
Some of the more formidable Void Piercing Battle Immortals had even carved out an alternative path: by attaining comprehension of void power comparable to the Void Refining realm, they engraved formations within their own chaos caverns. In this way, they made their inherently unstable chaos caverns even more volatile when necessary, releasing all their power in a single stroke to unleash a destructive strike comparable to the blow of a Void Shattering expert.
Although it was limited to a single strike and carried various drawbacks, if utilized properly, it could still threaten a Void Refining lineage master.
Presently, two members of the Cangwu lineage had achieved this: Xie Xiong, formerly of the Myriad Beasts Sect, and Gelin, formerly of the Wuji Astral Palace.
Back in the Cangwu era, both were figures hailed as Soul Formation Immortal Venerables.
In that era, there had been more than just two Soul Formation Immortal Venerables.
It was only through the sacrifices of countless predecessors who threw themselves into the fray that the Cangwu lineage managed to innovate along the path of Battle Immortals, demonstrating that the pupil could surpass the master and allowing the Cangwu lineage to truly become one of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's nine lineages.
Of course, despite being ranked alongside the other eight, cultivators from the sect's other lineages rarely held much respect for the Cangwu lineage's Void Piercing Battle Immortals or ordinary Battle Immortals, treating them entirely as Dao soldiers and cannon fodder.
Whenever the cannon fodder ran out, the Cangwu lineage would naturally be disbanded.
In recent years, however, quite a few things had taken place within the Cangwu lineage.
Setting aside the fact that Jiang Tianzun, whom they had nurtured with immense effort, had cultivated a supreme divine ability to perfection, caught the eye of Supreme Elder Yuhuang, and been accepted as his personal disciple, internal friction seemed to have surfaced.
When Jiang Tianzun visited their native Cangwu Great World, he had actually discovered that a cultivator named Yaoguang had destroyed his family's planet.
Yet to make matters worse...
Certain factions within the Cangwu lineage believed Yaoguang possessed remarkable talent and wished to preserve him.
They felt one should not put all their eggs in one basket.
To begin with, the Cangwu lineage was already the weakest of the nine lineages, regarded as cannon fodder by sect leadership and ordinary disciples alike. For them to experience internal discord and refuse to utilize their limited resources more efficiently not only made them a laughingstock, but naturally incited the displeasure of sect authorities as well.
Did they possess no political awareness at all?
Did they have no sense of the bigger picture?
Once that displeasure came crashing down, the Cangwu lineage quickly fell in line.
Wan Liugui and those who shared his sentiments were dispatched straight to the outer battlefields to suppress factions covertly backed by the Six Demonic Sects.
The Cangwu lineage once again stood unswervingly behind Jiang Tianzun.
They stood behind...
Jiang Tianzun, the personal disciple of Supreme Elder Yuhuang.
In fact, when Jiang Tianzun returned from his second trip to the Cangwu Great World and learned that people from the Nine Cauldrons Sect had quietly arrived on Beihai Star, members of the Cangwu lineage had spent all these years searching for every possible lead on the whereabouts of Li Hanqiu, Yaoguang, and the others.
And now...
Results had suddenly arrived.
***
"How is this possible?"
At this moment, Xie Xiong was staring at Jin Rui, the Void Piercing Battle Immortal responsible for intelligence gathering. "How could they be the same person?!"
"I can't believe it either."
Gelin set down the file in his hand. "Although Wan Liugui once told us that Yaoguang was indeed a genius, when he left the Cangwu Realm he was only at the Heavenly Fire realm! But what about the Yaoguang shown in this report? An Incandescent White Golden Core! Sixteen years—from the Heavenly Fire realm to an Incandescent White Golden Core..."
As he spoke, a thought struck him, and he added, "It might not even be sixteen years. According to this intelligence, he was already at the eighth tier of the Golden Core realm when he first joined the Heavenly Dao Sect, and he even repelled a ninth-rank grand monster, rivaling a ninth-tier Golden Core! Such a short timeframe is simply not enough for him to accomplish such a massive leap in cultivation! Nine times out of ten, it's a mistranslation."
"Our people have already slipped over and are investigating, but they have already visited the Heavenly Dao Sect. Through local connections, they sensed the spiritual imprint he left behind for record-keeping. Its resonance is... exceptionally similar to Yaoguang's."
Jin Rui spoke rather conservatively.
In truth, according to that intelligence operative, the two auras were identical.
"What about Jiang Tianzun? Supreme Elder Yuhuang assigned him an entourage covering suppression, protection, intelligence, support, and daily affairs. He must have received the news as well, right? What does he say?"
At this point, another Void Piercing Battle Immortal spoke up.
His name was Li An, another pinnacle powerhouse who had advanced the power of Battle Immortals to an even more refined realm. However, his records had not yet been filed with the sect, making him effectively a hidden asset of the Cangwu lineage.
"Jiang Tianzun has not yet contacted us," Jin Rui answered in a low voice.
Hearing this, Li An furrowed his brow.
Ever since Jiang Tianzun became Supreme Elder Yuhuang's personal disciple, he had spent his time running off to Yuhuang Heaven, rarely staying at Cangwu Peak. After the incident involving Wan Liugui occurred, he had shown his displeasure by ignoring the Cangwu lineage entirely for several years.
Only later, when Xie Xiong and Gelin conceded over Wan Liugui's move to cultivate a new genius for the Cangwu lineage, did Jiang Tianzun finally return to Cangwu Peak and reconcile with them.
And to demonstrate Cangwu Peak's unwavering support for him, the two had dispatched Wan Liugui and three Void Piercing Battle Immortals who shared his views outside Beihai Star—amounting to a disguised exile.
After that took place, Jiang Tianzun's attitude toward the Cangwu lineage had warmed once more.
Yet good times never lasted. Not long ago, Jiang Tianzun had shown an ambition to take full control of the Cangwu lineage, even setting his sights on the chaos cavern frequencies of several Void Piercing Battle Immortals.
One had to realize that grasping a Void Piercing Battle Immortal's chaos cavern frequency was practically equivalent to holding their life and death in one's hands.
Never mind that authority over the Cangwu lineage had not yet been handed to Jiang Tianzun; even if it were, neither of them would ever divulge a shred of their ultimate trump card.
After that conflict, Jiang Tianzun had left for Yuhuang Heaven again and had not returned for six months.
Many Void Piercing Battle Immortals knew this was a game of chess.
A contest between the Cangwu lineage's ruling elders and the rising Jiang Tianzun.
In Jiang Tianzun's view, since the Cangwu lineage intended to support him, they should spare no effort rather than harboring their own separate agendas.
Meanwhile, Xie Xiong, Gelin, Li An, and the others were clearly unwilling to surrender their authority prematurely.
Otherwise, without sufficient Dao Pills, whether they could even maintain their existing chaos caverns remained an open question.
"This True Disciple Jiang really gives us no peace of mind. Last time was one thing—Wan Liugui indeed overstepped—but this time... he actually wants to take over our Cangwu lineage! It's not that we refuse to hand it to him, but the key is that he must demonstrate sufficient strength first! I told him outright: once he attains the Void Refining realm, every single person in the Cangwu lineage will be at his beck and call. Yet he can't even wait that long."
A trace of dissatisfaction crept into Gelin's tone. "In my view, what Wan Liugui's faction said might not be entirely wrong. Cultivating another true disciple would at least introduce some competition."
"We've already invested millions, even tens of millions of Pure Yang Great Pills into Jiang Tianzun. The treasures we brought over from the Cangwu Realm have practically been depleted. We genuinely lack the means to nurture a second true disciple."
Xie Xiong shook his head.
The sunk cost was simply too great.
At the end of the day, the Cangwu lineage was just too poor to afford the price.
"Even if Jiang Tianzun hasn't replied, he's bound to take action once he receives this news. Perhaps the subordinates assigned to him by Supreme Elder Yuhuang have already made their move,"
Li An said thoughtfully. "Should we step in covertly, protect this Yaoguang, and use him to spur Jiang Tianzun? Once the people around him fail to deal with Yaoguang, he'll naturally realize who his true backers are."
"Ill-advised!"
Xie Xiong said with a solemn expression. "Have you considered: if this Yaoguang truly is the one from the Cangwu Great World, to have reached the Incandescent White Golden Core in such a short span..."
He paused, then continued, "He slew two Void Piercing Battle Immortals and two Deep Blue Golden Cores... What kind of strength is that?! Even compared to Jiang Tianzun, he is not the slightest bit inferior; he merely lacks comparable status. Perhaps we could place our bets on him instead..."
"Wait, the matter of slaying two Void Piercing Battle Immortals is extremely suspicious. He most likely obtained their chaos cavern frequencies through other channels; that is the consensus among many observers. Otherwise, there is simply no explaining how he could strike down two Void Piercing Battle Immortals so quickly,"
Gelin interjected.
He then added, "Moreover, that Deep Blue Golden Core cultivator from the Xi clan already had a notorious reputation. Yet Yaoguang specifically chose to collect a bounty from him, only to turn around and use that as a pretext to wipe out the Xi clan. No matter how you look at it, it seems like a premeditated operation."
Neither Xie Xiong nor Li An could refute his reasoning.
Yaoguang seeking out the disreputable Xi Hai to claim a bounty was indeed irregular. Judged through a conspiratorial lens, it truly looked like a calculated scheme.
However...
"Even if there was foul play in defeating two Void Piercing Battle Immortals, his strength in slaying two Deep Blue Golden Cores is beyond doubt. Coupled with the fact that he has cultivated for less than sixty years... this sort of talent is just as Wan Liugui said: not a shred inferior to Jiang Tianzun, perhaps even..."
Xie Xiong wanted to add the evaluation "surpassing him."
Yet considering they no longer possessed sufficient resources to sponsor another true disciple, he ultimately could not bring himself to voice it.
"In truth, we have no choice at all,"
Gelin sighed. "On one side is Yaoguang, someone with whom we have no closeness and even share past grievances. On the other side is the prodigy we nurtured with our own hands... above all, he is the personal disciple of a Void Shattering expert!"
Supreme elders at the Void Shattering realm devoted themselves entirely to comprehending the Great Dao in pursuit of becoming Dao Lords. Under ordinary circumstances, they rarely accepted disciples, let alone Golden Core disciples who had not even reached the Void Piercing realm and possessed lifespans under ten thousand years.
Yet Jiang Tianzun had been favored by Supreme Elder Yuhuang, accepted into his tutelage as an extraordinary exception.
One could say that before Jiang Tianzun became the personal disciple of a Void Shattering elder, the Cangwu lineage had actually subsidized several candidates, with Jiang Tianzun merely performing the best and receiving the greatest share of support.
Once he became the supreme elder's personal disciple, the Cangwu lineage had staked all their heaviest treasures on him.
"Things have reached this point; we can only continue betting on Jiang Tianzun," Gelin said.
"The problem is that this Jiang Tianzun we nurtured... his ambitions are far too grand. He already shows signs of leaning entirely toward Supreme Elder Yuhuang. I worry that when the time comes... he won't care about our lineage's survival in the slightest..." Xie Xiong remarked.
"Not necessarily. Don't forget the reason Supreme Elder Yuhuang took him as a disciple in the first place." Gelin shook his head.
Xie Xiong glanced at him, sorely tempted to suggest: what if that had been Supreme Elder Yuhuang's deliberate ploy all along, purely to put the Cangwu lineage at ease?
In the end, however, he refrained from pursuing the thought.
He merely sighed in resignation. "If only we had given a little consideration to Wan Liugui's suggestion back then..."
"Don't dwell on what has already passed; regrets come too late. Let us proceed as Li An proposed: use Yaoguang as Jiang Tianzun's whetstone to sharpen him. Once he suffers a setback, he will naturally understand who can truly be relied upon."
Gelin made his decision.
Neither Xie Xiong nor Li An voiced any further objection.
The three of them essentially represented the consensus of the dozens of Void Piercing Battle Immortals in the Cangwu lineage.
Replacing Jiang Tianzun with Yaoguang...
The sunk cost was simply too high.
The Cangwu lineage was far too impoverished, its foundation far too shallow.
It could not endure such turmoil.
Chapter 302