The Situation

Once convinced that Yaoguang was "one of their own," Dao Lord Changqing dared not conceal too much from him. At the very least, so long as it did not infringe on the core interests of the Changsheng Group, he held nothing back regarding the general situation. After all, to an immortal spirit from the Hunyuan Realm, everything in this mortal world could be abandoned at any moment. Their so-called foundations and achievements existed solely to complete the missions issued by Master Yuanxi and thereby elevate their authority. From that perspective, serving as sect master of the Yongsheng Sect was considered a fine occupation. His only true grievance was simply having been ousted from the post of sect master. Yet considering that the other party was a director-level figure from one of the Nine Great Groups, while the highest Changqing could ever hope to climb upon reaching the Immortal Realm was the rank of vice president... For such a personage to dispose of a petty sect master of the Yongsheng Sect... Changqing truly had nowhere to plead his case. Circumstances were stronger than men. Dao Lord Changqing spoke at once: "The latest news I have comes from Yuan Kong. He is also an immortal spirit of Tier 17. The group plans to groom him as a vice president overseeing the Daos of the Five Elements, Heavenly Deduction, and Phantasm. He has lived up to expectations as well, cultivating into a Dao Lord in merely a thousand years after joining the Yongsheng Sect. He is only waiting for the Gate of the Immortal Realm to open before he enters the Immortal Realm to serve the Changsheng Group. The information he brought has a latency of only a thousand years..." Becoming a Dao Lord in a thousand years. That put him on the same level as Dao Lord Penglai. However... Dao Lord Penglai had not enjoyed the backing of a behemoth like the Yongsheng Sect. The resources and treatment she could access were substantially inferior to Yuan Kong's. Evidently, in terms of sheer talent, Dao Lord Penglai surpassed him. "At present, although the Immortal Realm's most vital Grand Dao of Fate and Grand Dao of Karma remain untouched, the great supreme intelligence, Master Yuanxi, has already computed a feasible method through continuous simulation and deduction of the Immortal Realm's Three Thousand Grand Daos," Dao Lord Changqing said gravely. "The Three Thousand Grand Daos fundamentally constitute a single unified whole. If orthodox methods cannot breach the Grand Dao of Fate and the Grand Dao of Karma, then one must begin through unorthodox side paths. And the core of those unorthodox side paths lies in artifacts, formations, alchemy, and beasts. "As an Immortal King who once controlled over a thousand shares, Your Highness should understand this principle as well." "By leveraging the characteristic that the Three Thousand Grand Daos are fundamentally one entity, unorthodox paths can be used to stir the power of the Grand Dao of Fate and Grand Dao of Karma, thereby shaking the Gate of Fate and the Gate of Karma." Yaoguang nodded. "Precisely. What is needed most right now is talent in these fields. The standing of the Artifact Crafting Department, Alchemy Department, Formation Department, and Innate Department once surpassed departments like the Five Elements Department and Heavenly Deduction Department... After all, the Grand Daos belonging to those departments have already been conquered by the Nine Great Groups. It is merely that the Nine Great Groups each hold certain shares, creating a balance of mutual restraint. Fate and Karma, however, represent entirely new frontiers—and indeed the most vital frontiers of all." Dao Lord Changqing glanced at Yaoguang. "Because the Nine Great Groups keep each other in check, the progress of encroaching upon the Ancient Immortal Realm has slowed markedly during this period. The great supreme intelligence has significantly increased the point rewards for missions related to Fate and Karma. For other Grand Daos, one must command a thousand shares to raise their authority to Tier 18. Yet for these two Grand Daos... no matter the method, so long as one can mobilize power equivalent to a hundred shares and weaken the might of those two Grand Dao Gates by a single percent, they will be granted Tier 18 authority." At this point, his tone carried encouragement. "This is a completely virgin market! Mobilizing just one percent of their might creates a Tier 18 authority holder. If Your Highness can stir ten percent of their power, you can elevate your clearance to Tier 19! With Tier 19 clearance backing you, storming back into the upper echelons of the Creation Group would be effortless. If you can further secure the backing of other directors, claiming the seat of chairman would not be an unattainable dream." Clearance. Yaoguang understood very well what this meant to the beings of the Hunyuan Realm. To the life-forms of the Hunyuan Realm, a cultivator's innate spirituality merely represented personal capability. The clearance bestowed by Master Yuanxi was equivalent to administrative rank. President, director, and chairman represented a person's status and official post. Meanwhile, attaining the realm of Immortal Venerable or Immortal King represented their ultimate payout tier and earned share weight. Among the four, personal capability was the least important. Rank was the foundation of everything. No matter how extraordinary your capability, if your rank could not rise and those above kept you down, you would remain stuck doing low-level labor, possessing neither prominent status nor substantial returns. Conversely, once your rank was elevated, even if your capability was lackluster, you could still be assigned to prime posts. By abusing the power of those positions for personal gain, your ultimate returns would never be low. Yuan Kong and Dao Lord Penglai were prime examples. Both were Tier 17 immortal spirits holding high ranks. Upon entering the Immortal Realm, both were groomed as vice presidents. In contrast, lower-tier immortal spirits had to start as ordinary clerks, clawing their way step by step through supervisors, managers, and directors before finally reaching the seat of president. Such was the disparity in treatment brought by different tiers of immortal spirits. And if Yaoguang truly elevated his authority to Tier 19, his rank would rival that of the chairmen of the Nine Great Groups. Even if he only exercised the duties of a director or president, he would still pose an immense threat to a chairman. With a single misstep from the opponent, the group would see a change in top leadership. "Aside from the Nine Great Groups, there are quite a few smaller conglomerates, aren't there?" Yaoguang inquired. "There are hundreds of companies and groups of varying sizes, but none amount to much," Dao Lord Changqing replied. "The highest rank among them is merely Tier 18. At crucial moments when fighting over shares, if a Tier 18 authority holder requests assistance from Master Yuanxi's power while a Tier 19 authority holder does the same, the only one whose request succeeds will be the latter. Consequently, their resource-acquisition efficiencies are simply not on the same tier." When mentioning those minor companies and groups, Dao Lord Changqing's face quickly took on the arrogance inherent to a member of a major conglomerate. "Unless those small companies and groups get lucky, find a specialized niche, and tap into an entirely new market, it is impossible for them to shake the standing of the Nine Great Groups. The absence of Tier 19 authority holders has permanently welded shut the ceiling of their development." "What about the native cultivators of the Ancient Immortal Realm?" Yaoguang asked. "Native cultivators? Those are treasures!" Dao Lord Changqing smiled. "Although millions of shares across the Three Thousand Grand Daos remain in the hands of native cultivators, they have essentially no living space left. The moment they expose themselves, they are immediately subjected to joint hunts by groups large and small..." He paused briefly. "Naturally, in the course of these hunts, mutual sabotage among the various groups is unavoidable. Were it not for that, how could native cultivators still have any room to survive? How else would Grand Dao shares circulate between parties?" Hearing this, Yaoguang sighed inwardly. It was just as he had surmised. It was fine if lower-realm Dao Lords chose not to ascend, but the moment they ascended to the Immortal Realm, they would turn into the most delectable prey, drawing joint encirclement and slaughter from every faction. They survived entirely in the narrow crevices formed by the overt struggles and covert feuds between conglomerates. Yet this also matched the distribution of Grand Dao shares he had learned about. The Nine Great Groups controlled nearly seventy percent. Minor groups and native cultivators held the remaining thirty percent. *It's a good thing I didn't rush to ascend. Otherwise, I would have been forced into hiding. No, with a body of power as immense as mine, hiding would be impossible. The moment I ascended, I would be targeted. But now...* Yaoguang shifted his thought. A peculiar aura had already settled over Shaohua on Beihai Star. "I've got an account now," he murmured with a faint smile. The aura of an immortal spirit. Unfortunately... While he now possessed an account, he belonged to none of the Nine Great Groups, meaning he could likely only take up a post in a small company. Alternatively, he could strike out on his own. With Tier 16 authority—soon to be elevated to Tier 17—he could seize a sizable number of shares even as a solo actor. Once he built sufficient strength, he could jump ship to one of the Nine Great Groups and find ways to acquire intelligence on their apex figures... Particularly intelligence on the group harboring the Void Immortal King. When the time was ripe, he would seek an opportunity to slay the Void Immortal King, laying the groundwork to contest the Nine Great Groups. Of course, uniting the native cultivators was another viable path. The shares held by native cultivators amounted to ten or twenty percent after all; taken together, they outweighed any single member of the Nine Great Groups. However... The moment native cultivators showed themselves, they would inevitably draw a united assault from the Nine Great Groups. Therefore, if he truly wished to rally the native cultivators, he first had to plunge the Nine Great Groups into internal chaos. *I wonder what the true state of that Immortal King Yuxiao is. If possible, I could use his identity to enter the Creation Group, contend for the chairman's seat, and then plunge the Creation Group into war against the other eight... With two avatars, one can infiltrate the Nine Great Groups to sow internal strife while the other amasses strength in secret...* At present, competition among the Nine Great Groups was already exceptionally fierce. After all, the pie was only so large. Everyone wanted to seize the opportunity to elevate their rank to Tier 17, Tier 18, or even Tier 19. Were it not for the rules enforced by Master Yuanxi, open warfare between the Nine Great Groups would have erupted long ago. While Shaohua familiarized himself with the power of an immortal spirit, Yaoguang also obtained concrete details from Dao Lord Changqing regarding the Nine Great Groups and the Hunyuan Realm. Strictly speaking, the Hunyuan Realm's total volume of power was not necessarily far superior to that of the Ancient Immortal Realm. However... The development of a supreme intelligence like Master Yuanxi in the Hunyuan Realm was almost equivalent to providing a primitive era with the concept of a Heavenly Dao—and a diligent, entirely selfless, development-driven Heavenly Dao at that. On one hand, it bound all forces into a single rope, driving aggressively forward under Master Yuanxi's direction. On the other hand... The Three Thousand Grand Daos remained interdependent, each fulfilling its designated function. How could anyone fight such a force? If a heroic figure had stepped forward at the very start of the war to unify the Ancient Immortal Realm, a decisive contest might still have been possible. Yet now... The shares held by the Ancient Immortal Realm's own cultivators were down to a mere ten or twenty percent. This was akin to a war between two nations where one had already lost eighty to ninety percent of its territory, leaving no margin for a miraculous turnaround. Consequently, the only glimmer of hope lay in causing the Hunyuan Realm to tear itself apart from within, while he bided his time on the periphery to strike when the moment arrived.