Factions

Having delivered the message, Chaoyang, the personal disciple of True Monarch Taiyuan, departed immediately without lingering for a single moment. Jiang Tianzun's already grim expression darkened further. He clenched his teeth, flames of fury seeming to blaze in his eyes. "You..." He wanted to say something. Yet in the end... He dared not vent his resentment against the sect master's personal disciple. He could only comfort himself in his mind. *My breakthrough went awry, and as a Void Piercing Battle Immortal, I am neither an elder nor a junior sect master. Staying on True Disciple Peak is indeed improper. The sect rules are as they are; Senior Brother Chaoyang had no choice...* Before his rationalizations could finish, another crisp voice drifted over. "Jiang Tianzun." Bailing's figure materialized, a trace of regret on her face. "Over the past years, you have abused Master's name—acting insolently and overbearingly, purging dissenters, and doing whatever you pleased. Master is deeply disappointed. In light of your failure to live up to expectations, Master has decreed your expulsion from his tutelage. From now on, you may no longer style yourself as a disciple of Supreme Elder Yuhuang." "Expelled from his tutelage?!" Jiang Tianzun froze upon hearing Bailing's words. Immediately after, he finally realized the true gravity of the situation. He was not afraid of the Cangwu lineage abandoning him. It had always been the Cangwu lineage begging him for favor, not the other way around. Moreover, he remained confident that once he achieved great things in the future, the Cangwu lineage would shamelessly return and grovel before him once more. Even when Senior Brother Chaoyang told him he could no longer live on True Disciple Peak... Though it utterly disgraced him and left him uncertain how he would ever face the other true disciples he had once laughed and conversed with, he... He had still endured it. In the end, it was merely a residence. But now... Senior Sister Bailing was actually claiming Master wanted to expel him from his lineage?! "S-Senior Sister, could there be some mistake? Master... how could he..." Jiang Tianzun panicked. "The blame may not rest entirely on your shoulders, but... everyone must ultimately bear the karma of their own actions. You... look out for yourself." With that, Bailing turned to leave. "Senior Sister, Senior Sister! I must see Master! I need to ask him in person, why..." Jiang Tianzun scrambled to catch up. "Master will not see you. He has already shown you all the benevolence and duty humanly possible," Bailing said. "No! Just because I failed to break through to the Void Piercing realm? Senior Sister, please tell Master that I have confidence in myself! Even though I had no choice but to convert into a Void Piercing Battle Immortal this time, I am still confident I can master the Nine Refinements of the Star Ring within three hundred years and become a true Void Piercing cultivator! I will never disappoint Master again!" Jiang Tianzun spoke in a frantic rush. A Void Shattering supreme elder! In any top sect, such a figure stood at the absolute pinnacle of existence. To him, such an expert was virtually the lifelong target of his aspirations. Although he possessed immense confidence in himself, he could not guarantee with one hundred percent certainty that he would match Supreme Elder Yuhuang's achievements in the future. After all, back when this supreme elder was a true disciple, he had shone even brighter than Jiang Tianzun and had taken even less time to reach the Void Piercing realm. It was precisely because Jiang Tianzun believed himself to be the personal disciple of a Void Shattering supreme elder that he had felt little concern when the Cangwu lineage cast him aside. Even when his true disciple peak was stripped away, humiliated though he was, he had harbored thoughts of slapping everyone in the face several centuries later by returning as a true Void Piercing elder in a magnificent display of a powerhouse's comeback. Yet now... He was being expelled from his tutelage?! Without the status of Supreme Elder Yuhuang's personal disciple, as a mere Void Piercing Battle Immortal, whether he could even keep his primal cavern stable for three hundred years was a serious question. "Do you truly not know the reason?" Bailing paused and cast a strange look at Jiang Tianzun. "I..." Meeting Bailing's gaze, bewilderment gradually welled up in Jiang Tianzun's eyes. "Yao... Yaoguang?" "Good, you realize it," Bailing said. "B-but... no matter how remarkable that Yaoguang is, he is merely a deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect! He is a deputy sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect—how could his reach extend into our Taiyi Immortal Sect and influence Master's attitude?!" Jiang Tianzun protested in bitter indignation. "It seems you truly are unaware." Bailing sighed. "A mere Heavenly Dao Sect deputy sect master could naturally never sway Master's attitude. But... what if this deputy sect master has an Artifact Saint backing him? What if, by relying on a level-thirteen formation, he slaughtered two Void Shattering demon cultivators and five Void Refining demon cultivators? What if his combat strength is suspected of rivaling the Void Shattering realm, and he possesses every likelihood of eclipsing the current sect master, Zong Wenxian, to become the next master of the Heavenly Dao Sect... would he carry enough weight then for Master to reconsider how to treat him?" Jiang Tianzun's mind went completely blank. "Slaughtered two Void Shattering demon cultivators and five Void Refining demon cultivators?!" The newly converted Void Piercing Battle Immortal stared blankly at Bailing. "Him? Su Yaoguang?!" "You may inquire about it yourself." Leaving those words behind, Bailing turned and walked away. Jiang Tianzun was left alone on the spot, unable to come to his senses for a long time. After a while, a gust of cold wind blew past, causing this Cangwu prodigy—who had clearly achieved the realm of a Void Piercing Battle Immortal—to shudder violently and snap awake. "Impossible... That's impossible... Yaoguang... How long has it been since he broke through to the Void Refining realm? How could he possibly possess such power..." He frantically retrieved his message jade talisman and began sending inquiries to friends, acquaintances, and family clans. Although many people had already stopped replying to him, the events in the Southern Domain had shaken the entire Northern Sea, and far too many people had received word of it. Even minor factions had caught wind of the news. Unaware of what had just transpired within the Taiyi Immortal Sect, these small forces dared not slight Jiang Tianzun's inquiry and promptly replied. Every response, with the unassailable facts written between the lines, struck Jiang Tianzun's heart like a heavy sledgehammer. Each incoming reply delivered another crushing blow. Under this relentless barrage, the pride dwelling deep within this once fiercely confident Cangwu prodigy was shattered to pieces, bit by bit! "No! No! No!" Clutching the message jade talisman tightly, he collapsed to his knees in total despair, pounding the ground with both fists as he wailed toward the heavens. "Yaoguang! Su Yaoguang!" *** "Hahaha! Sect Master Yaoguang, allow me to toast to you!" "Sect Master Yaoguang has accomplished such an illustrious feat for our Heavenly Dao Sect, slaying seven demon cultivators—an unprecedented triumph unseen in decades! Today, we must drink until we drop!" "Sect Master Yaoguang, all our heartfelt regards are in this cup! From this day forth, my Shu family will follow Sect Master Yaoguang's command without question!" Within Nandu, countless figures at the Void Piercing and Void Refining realms crowded around Yaoguang, exchanging toasts in high spirits and warm celebration. Yaoguang returned their toasts one by one with a smile on his face. The Void Refining cultivators maintained a degree of composure, but many of the Void Piercing cultivators were overwhelmed with excitement upon receiving a toast from Yaoguang, brimming with honor. Everyone knew that Yaoguang's future was destined to soar into the heavens. This toast from him might well be the closest they would ever come to Sect Master Yaoguang in their lifetimes. This celebratory banquet lasted for ten days. At the banquet venue, Yaoguang also auctioned off the Dao artifacts that the Shadow Moon Sect demon cultivators had delivered into his hands. Though many of the Dao artifacts were battered and damaged, selling five of them still recovered materials worth four billion Pure Yang Great Pills for Yaoguang. With these materials converted into Dao artifact refinement resources, Yaoguang now had everything he needed, whether to nourish the Wuji Sword or upgrade the Swimming Dragon Sword, the Boundary-Crossing Ruler, and the Sky-Sealing Stele into high-grade Dao artifacts. In fact, if he so desired, the surplus materials would even allow him to equip all the Void Piercing and Void Refining cultivators around him with their own sets of Dao artifacts. *** Several more days passed. External Void Refining and Void Piercing cultivators such as King Zhenhai, Pan Yuan, and Qin Zhengfa gradually took their leave. Many elders from the Heavenly Dao Sect who had come to express goodwill also departed early. However, Supreme Elder Chiyun remained behind for the time being. Furthermore, Jiang Guike, the deputy sect master overseeing the Northern Domain, and Shen Junyan, the deputy sect master overseeing the Eastern Domain, also arrived quietly at his Domain Lord Estate. At this moment, the group—including Wu Changfeng, who had already gained Yaoguang's trust—sat together in the main hall, discussing the matter of the "teleportation array malfunction." "Presumably, Sect Master Yaoguang is already well aware of what truly lay behind this so-called 'teleportation array malfunction,'" Supreme Elder Chiyun remarked. "I wonder what Sect Master Yaoguang intends to do next?" "Nothing in particular," Yaoguang said with a faint smile. "Relying on this alone isn't enough to bring down that supreme elder, let alone affect Sect Master Zong Wenxian." "Then... does Sect Master Yaoguang have any requests for me to raise in the Supreme Elder Council?" Chiyun inquired. Yaoguang pondered briefly, then asked instead, "Just how many supreme elders are there in the Supreme Elder Council? How many stand on Zong Wenxian's side, and how many are dissatisfied with him or remain neutral?" "The number of supreme elders..." Chiyun hesitated for a second before continuing, "In any sect, this is classified as top secret. However, Sect Master Yaoguang has already reached the level of deputy sect master and will soon be a formidable contender for sect master. Naturally, I can share this with you." He gave a casual wave of his hand, and luminous projections of cultivators imbued with divine sense auras materialized before him. Looking at the number of projections... Yaoguang was slightly startled. "Thirteen? That many?" "On the surface, eight are relatively active. Of the remaining five, two are in secluded cultivation, while the other three are stationed deep within the planetary core monitoring movements around the Gate of the Immortal Realm. Should there be any sign of the Gate of the Immortal Realm opening, they will swiftly return and have the sect master or the chief supreme elder send a message to our Dao Lord, requesting his return from deep space." Supreme Elder Chiyun explained, gesturing toward the figures. "The two supreme elders in seclusion are advanced in age and are essentially in death-seclusion; they rarely interfere in sect affairs. Among the three in the depths of the planetary core, only one requires your attention: True Monarch Jinghong. This true monarch is not only a personal disciple of the Dao Lord, representing his will, but also the foremost expert in our Heavenly Dao Sect beneath the Dao Lord. Ranked among the top ten on the Dao Lord Candidate List, he is a peak Void Shattering powerhouse—calling his cultivation earth-shattering would not be an exaggeration in the slightest." At this point, he added, "The Void Shattering realm can be considered the boundary where conventional cultivation advances no further. The difference in strength lies entirely in one's Dao artifacts and Dao arts! Setting Dao artifacts aside, a person's attainment in Dao arts and the number of Dao arts they have comprehended can essentially reflect their likelihood of becoming a Dao Lord." Yaoguang nodded. Having already pushed his Void Shattering progress to one hundred percent, he naturally understood this. Theoretically, mastering a single Dao art to perfection satisfied the condition for Dao Integration. However, during the process of Dao Integration, nearly all Void Shattering cultivators inevitably fell victim to Dao assimilation. Under such circumstances, only by cultivating multiple Dao arts—and even mastering diverse principles by analogy, utilizing other categories of the Great Dao to pull oneself out from the process of Dao assimilation—could one reach the end of Dao Integration and achieve the realm of a Dao Lord. Consequently, every Void Shattering cultivator typically mastered two or three Dao arts, while the stronger ones could reach four or five, or even six or seven. "This true monarch commands tremendous prestige among the supreme elders. If he had not gone beneath the earth, the chief supreme elder would not be Zhen Xuanyuan," Supreme Elder Chiyun said with a smile. "And what of the eight supreme elders on the surface?" Yaoguang asked. "Chief Supreme Elder Zhen Xuanyuan, True Monarch Liaochen, and I can be counted as opposing Zong Wenxian. Two supreme elders maintain neutrality. Meanwhile, Jing Yuntian, Gu Li, and Buzhou support Zong Wenxian." "Then the two sides are fairly evenly matched," Yaoguang remarked with a smile. "Not quite," Supreme Elder Chiyun sighed. "Zhen Xuanyuan, True Monarch Liaochen, and I do not necessarily share a single mind; we each have our own interests and pursuits. Among the three supreme elders backing Zong Wenxian, True Monarch Buzhou holds an extremely delicate identity. He alone... can influence the attitudes of many people, including True Monarch Jinghong." "Delicate? True Monarch Jinghong?" A thought struck Yaoguang. "You mean?" Supreme Elder Chiyun nodded. "He is Dao Lord Juntian's personal disciple and True Monarch Jinghong's junior brother. At the same time, he is Zong Wenxian's most steadfast supporter, because..." He paused for a moment. "Zong Wenxian has saved his life on two separate occasions."