Under the concerted efforts of Wan Liugui, Ling Ruogu, Chi Yu, Qi Sha, and the others, Nandu was restored to its original order in just a single month.
The city defense formation that had shrouded the city for over ten days was deactivated.
The state of high tension within the city was lifted.
Great numbers of shuttered shops reopened for business.
Countless merchants and clans from across the Southern Domain traveled freely in and out of Nandu once more, bringing an influx of people, commerce, and cargo.
This metropolis of thirty million cultivators, home to nearly one-fifteenth of the entire Southern Domain's population, gradually began to display its rightful prosperity, continuously generating abundant tax revenue for the Domain Lord's Estate.
Yet compared to Nandu's steady return to order, what truly brought Yaoguang joy was the arrival of the Nine Cauldrons Sect contingent led by Li Hanqiu.
...
At the private skyport outside the Domain Lord's Estate.
As a Void Disc touched down, figures emerged from it one after another.
Yaoguang, Wan Liugui, and the others had already been waiting there.
Seeing Li Hanqiu, Li Qingshan, Huang Tianhao, Lou Yuyu, Shen Qinglian, Tang Fenghua, and the rest step off the Void Disc, Yaoguang, despite his exalted status at the Void Refining realm, personally went up to greet them. "Welcome to the Southern Domain! From this day forth, this will be the true foundation where the Nine Cauldrons Sect can settle down and build a future!"
"Splendid! Splendid! Splendid!"
Piloting the Void Disc all the way here, Li Hanqiu had already witnessed Nandu's bustling magnificence.
A great city of thirty million cultivators was something virtually unimaginable back in the impoverished, backward lands of Yunzhou.
What was even more remarkable was that the vast majority of these thirty million cultivators were at the Core Formation realm; those in the Unity Realm or Foundation Establishment realm were exceedingly rare.
To think that the Nine Cauldrons Sect could develop in such a thriving place—the breadth of their future prospects was easy to imagine.
"Forces coming from beyond Beihai Star rack their brains trying to secure a foothold to establish themselves, but the entire Beihai Star was carved up by the various Dao Lords' lineages long ago. The core regions are utterly inaccessible, while the peripheral areas are not only barren of resources, but also rife with exploitation, slaughter, and chaos. Just surviving from dawn to dusk there is precarious enough—who would have the time and energy to cultivate and grow?"
Li Qingshan sighed with emotion. "Under those circumstances, the elites of all incoming factions eventually get broken apart by the greater powers and absorbed into them, while ordinary cultivators... fade into obscurity or perish silently in some forgotten corner. With time, the factions they belonged to simply vanish like smoke."
He looked at Yaoguang, his eyes shining brightly. "Yet since our Nine Cauldrons Sect arrived on Beihai Star, aside from some bloodshed and conflict at the very beginning, we have managed to stay peaceful in our own corner. What's more, before the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty could even move against us, you, Grand Elder Yaoguang, rose at terrifying speed, leaving Great Shang not daring to overstep their bounds against us. And now, you have brought us here to the Heavenly Dao Sect's Southern Domain..."
"The Nine Cauldrons Sect has truly seen bitter times give way to sweet, and weathered the storm at last," Huang Tianhao chimed in with deep emotion.
"Haha, with Grand Elder Yaoguang looking out for us, what hardship did we ever truly suffer? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say our journey has been smooth sailing all the way," Lou Yuyu said with a hearty laugh. "Following Grand Elder Yaoguang to Beihai Star was truly the best decision of our lives. Otherwise, how could any of us in the Nine Cauldrons Sect have achieved what we have today?"
Shen Qinglian, Tang Fenghua, and the others nodded in deep agreement.
Among their group now, even the weakest had formed a Radiant Sun Golden Core.
The most outstanding among them, propped up by a mountain of resources, had reached the level of an Incandescent White Golden Core.
If resources continued to be poured in, within a few more decades, they might even reach the realm of the Azure Blue Golden Core.
Yet from the time they departed the Cangwu Great World to Beihai Star until now, all told, barely thirty years had passed.
Thirty years, leaping across four or five realms from the Core Formation realm—or even the Unity Realm—to form a Radiant Sun Golden Core...
All of this was thanks to Yaoguang.
"Now that you are here, my staffing shortage will be greatly relieved," Yaoguang said, casting a glance at Li Qingshan. "Especially you, Sect Master Li. For the Southern Domain to develop going forward, a new round of policies and incentives must be formulated. These matters are not my forte, so I will need Sect Master Li to step forward and draft a charter for me."
"Development policies... On Beihai Star, policies aren't actually very effective. The slightest mishap can render an elaborately planned scheme completely useless. And unfortunately... in an environment like Beihai Star, unexpected mishaps arrive in every imaginable way," Li Qingshan said with a wry smile.
Yaoguang understood what he meant.
Beihai Star was a place governed not by rules, but purely by strength.
The rules of the world had always trickled down from the top.
And those standing at the absolute apex were undoubtedly the Dao Lords. What did the Dao Lords care about?
They had come to Beihai Star for the Gate to the Immortal Realm—for immortality.
Whatever got in the way of their ascension would be crushed without exception.
They were fierce dragons crossing the river—and the kind who planned to snatch what they could and leave.
It was precisely because there were too many figures like this that Beihai Star's order was shattered into pieces.
Even in the mortal realm, train stations where crowds came and went were notorious breeding grounds for chaos, to say nothing of the cultivation world where individuals wielded immense, godlike power.
Yet Yaoguang...
"Let us establish order first. What others do is none of my concern, but on my turf, things must follow the rules," Yaoguang said.
Li Hanqiu was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, only speaking after a long pause. "That... might prove very difficult, won't it?"
"We will give it a try. If it succeeds, wonderful; if not, we only lose some time and effort," Yaoguang replied with a smile.
Hearing this, Li Qingshan nodded solemnly. "Rest assured, Grand Elder Yaoguang. I will formulate a workable set of rules suited to the Southern Domain's circumstances."
Yaoguang nodded.
Order, to a certain degree, represented safety.
Safety...
That was the most precious commodity on Beihai Star.
Consider the Biyou Immortal Market. The reason their immortal cave rental business was so extraordinarily lucrative was that, backed by Dao Lord Penglai—faintly regarded as the foremost powerhouse of Beihai Star—they were effectively selling the priceless resource of "security."
If the Southern Domain could likewise ensure that those living in this territory could dwell and work in peace...
Even without the upcoming succession of Dao artifact auctions, the Southern Domain would still, over the coming decades and centuries, become the most prosperous place in human territory as word of mouth spread, attracting countless people to invest and settle down.
...
With the arrival of Li Qingshan and the others filling various executive posts, Nandu's development rapidly shifted into high gear.
Throughout this process, the Tianshang Battle Hall led by Qi Sha provided protection, deterring all petty troublemakers. The Hall Master of the Tianshang Battle Hall was himself a practitioner of the Grand Dao of Destruction.
Now that he had made a new breakthrough in the Great Annihilation Sword Qi Dao art, his combat prowess ranked among the absolute strongest of any Void Piercing cultivator.
Three or five ordinary Void Piercing cultivators joining forces might not even overcome him.
Against Void Piercing cultivators of mediocre strength, he might even turn the tables and slay them on the spot with the power of his Great Annihilation Sword Qi.
Furthermore...
If any faction dared mobilize a Void Piercing cultivator, it would inevitably end in a fight to the death.
Yaoguang, as a Void Refining expert, was no pushover. If he took action, he would root out that Void Piercing cultivator along with the clan and faction behind them, eradicating them completely.
Of course, such incidents were rare after all.
Knowing certain death awaited them, very few Void Piercing factions dared truly provoke the authority of Yaoguang, the Domain Lord.
Thus, while Nandu and the Southern Domain developed rapidly, Yaoguang still had ample time to attend to his own pursuits.
...
Inside the Domain Lord's Estate.
Atop the newly erected Artifact Refining Peak.
Yaoguang gazed at the sword-shaped Dao artifact before him, which merged almost entirely into the void and seemed to contain the power of an entire world. A contemplative furrow touched his brow.
"Would refining a top-tier Dao artifact be a bit too high-profile?"
Even among cultivators at the Void Refining realm, only about half possessed a Dao artifact at all.
Only those at the Void Shattering realm could typically produce one or two Dao artifacts.
A wealthier one might bring out three or four.
Figures like Heavenly Dao Sect Master Zong Wenxian and Chief Grand Elder Zhen Xuanyuan might possess high-grade Dao artifacts.
Yes, high-grade Dao artifacts.
As for top-tier Dao artifacts?
Those were items reserved strictly for Dao Lords.
For him to attempt refining a top-tier Dao artifact in a single leap right now...
It truly demanded quite an expenditure of time and energy.
However...
"I will have time in the days ahead, and as for financial resources... I have plenty. So spending a bit more time and energy to try refining a top-tier Dao artifact does no harm. If I can successfully refine this top-tier Dao artifact, even though I am merely a 'modest' Void Refining cultivator, I will likely possess the power to kill Void Shattering cultivators."
Looking upon the Wuji Sword, which was still in the early stages of refinement, Yaoguang steeled his resolve.
If he was going to refine an artifact, he would aim straight for the pinnacle.
Shifting his gaze from the Wuji Sword, he turned his eyes once more toward the Swimming Dragon Sword, Boundary-Crossing Ruler, and Heaven-Sealing Stele.
Under the Spirit Nourishing Technique, top-tier Dao artifact materials were being rapidly refined and assimilated by these three Dao artifacts.
This process...
Hardly required any energy from him.
For a proper Dao artifact, wasn't cultivating and growing on its own standard practice?
What truly demanded his time and effort were three other treasures instead:
A void-type Dao artifact, the Void Sword;
An Annihilation Sword;
And a Dao artifact-grade battleship he had named the Jiuding.
The Void Sword went without saying—a void-type Dao artifact.
The Grand Dao of the Void boasted the greatest number of practitioners, so if put up for sale, more than half of the Void Piercing and Void Refining cultivators across Beihai would find its "Dao seed" affinity a perfect match.
The Annihilation Sword was a Dao artifact Yaoguang tailored specifically for Qi Sha, built upon the foundation of the Great Annihilation Sword Qi.
He was naturally not stingy toward loyal followers who served him with dedicated diligence.
As for the final piece, the Jiuding...
Unlike the Void Disc or the Longxiang Flying Boat, this was a genuine Dao artifact-grade battleship.
Given his current status as deputy sect master, a Dao artifact-grade battleship was the finest symbol of his stature and prestige.
Moreover, with this Dao artifact-grade battleship and the Annihilation Sword, the Tianshang Battle Hall led by Qi Sha would undoubtedly be able to sweep across the entire Southern Domain.
Even the two Void Refining cultivators Jing Zhengyang and Wu Changfeng would find such a lineup a headache to confront.
"Even with my Spirit Nourishing Technique and Treasure Refining Technique, refining three pieces simultaneously... while preparing a top-tier Dao artifact pushes me to the limit... After all, every single Dao artifact material must pass through my hands to be nourished with spirit before these artifact-spirit-bearing treasures can assimilate them one by one. With a project of this scale, even my cultivation has been affected," Yaoguang murmured.
Refining three Dao artifacts at once filled his schedule entirely too full.
Fortunately...
It was only temporary.
Going forward, he would reduce the frequency of his artifact refining.
Or perhaps...
"Raise my artifact refining rank again? Up to rank sixteen?"
A rank-fifteen artifact refiner could already forge top-tier Dao artifacts.
What would a rank-sixteen refiner forge?
Immortal artifacts?
After a moment, Yaoguang set that thought aside.
On Beihai Star, order was chaotic and strength was supreme.
Although sharpening the axe did not delay the woodcutter, raising his artifact refining rank to sixteen might well increase his personal overhead and labor cost. Therefore, his best course was still to raise his cultivation strength first and push his realm to [Dao Integration] as quickly as possible.
Chapter 358