Necropolis Immortal

“Very well!” Yu Jiang grit his teeth. “You can join my Immortal Sect if you wish, but it’s mine! You cannot plot against me or take my business. I’ve got a whole family to feed!”

“Sure,” Lu Yun grinned foolishly and put his great axes away. “What do I want your sect for? I just want fellow daoists to drink tea with, chat about the weather, and read the spirit paper with. Come on come on, let’s go take a look at your sect.”

He flung an arm around Yu Jiang, demonstrating a complete change from his earlier mood.

A shaking Yu Jiang led Lu Yun away. He hadn’t even had time to ask his newest junior brother’s name.

Chu Xingran and Xie Tianxun’s been chased by Yun Yi’s replica for several hundred years now. They can keep running for a few days more. Both of them carried Resurrection Talismans and could revive in a predetermined place, so Lu Yun really was in no hurry.

With the number of times that Chu Xingran had visited the Firmament Prison, it’d basically become home turf for him. If it wasn’t for Xie Tianxun dragging him down, Yun Yi’s replica might not have found him.

He hadn’t known how the Resurrection Talisman worked at first, so didn’t set his revival spot outside the prison. Even Lu Yun only discovered later that the talisman could be used this way. But Chu Xingran didn’t seem that afraid of Yun Yi. If he wanted to exit the Firmament Prison, he would’ve emerged a long time ago.

……

Huangpang wasn’t too far from the Firmament Prison. In fact, it was so affected by the prison that it was a remarkably destitute place despite being a major world. It didn’t have that many natural resources or connate products—not even an ancestral vein of heaven and earth had formed. Enigma stone veins were also in short supply.

Apart from a thirtieth level sequence cultivator ruling over some downtrodden cultivators, there were no other factions here. In Lu Yun’s eyes, the local powers were more like the gangs of ancient Earth.

The trio came to a little town called Crouching Cow. There was a mountain range in front of the town shaped like a crouching cow, which gave the town its name.

Ordinary people existed in the chief worlds, but they were incredibly strong and born with great dao. They were on par with a Void World King at birth and would naturally ascend to Nihil World Sovereign after a period of growth.

This was something completely unfathomable to the fourth realm.

In the chief worlds, even in a poor world such as Huangpang, Nihil World Sovereign counted as ordinary mundanes without cultivation. Accessing sequence was the true start of cultivation. The chief worlds were whole and complete, and supported by countless worlds. The level of one’s world determined how strong its denizens were.

If there came a day in which babies in the Land of Reincarnation were born as Void World King or even Nihil World Sovereign, that would be a sign that it was whole and complete again.

Mundanes lined the streets of Crouching Cow. Although they housed various great daos in their body, it wasn’t that easy to set foot into sequence.

Such was how equality was ensured in the world. The worlds of the outside realm were strong, so strong that its denizens were born into strength, but an equilibrium was struck with their existence all the same. Those not yet in sequence were just ordinary beings. They needed to eat and sleep, they would also grow old and get sick, they would die.

Yu Jiang’s Immortal Sect was located in the center of town. In this part of the world, he was a local tyrant.

At this time of the day, town inhabitants should be going about their business. There were only roughly hundred households in the town, but Lu Yun heard the drone of chanted scripture as soon as he set foot into it. A tiny ripple of immortal dao from these mundanes accompanied the chanting.

Tao Te Ching! The town’s inhabitants were reciting the Tao Te Ching penned by the Grand Pure One!

Viewed as a sacred text of immortal dao, Tao Te Ching didn’t contain any cultivation methods. Instead, everything written in its pages referenced the heavenly dao and was the essence of immortal dao.

It was required reading in the Dao Academy; Lu Yun hadn’t thought that Yu Jiang would get a copy of it and teach the town’s residents! He didn’t have them practice obscure cultivation methods or battle skills. He simply taught them the scripture so they could create a foundation for their own immortal dao.

Lu Yun abruptly revised his opinion of the man. So Yu Jiang wasn’t someone who sought quick success and easy gains. Perhaps this fellow who seemed a bit hypocritical and materialistic was actually a good teacher!

“The Tao Te Ching? Sublime. Would I have willingly changed to immortal dao if I hadn’t heard it first?” Hu Ruofei complimented when he heard the residents chanting.

“Ahem!” Yu Jiang coughed warningly. Hu Ruofei fell silent.

“It is indeed a good piece of scripture.” Lu Yun took a seat on a random stone stool and cast a sidelong glance at Yu Jiang. “These residents are all mundanes and need food and shelter. Instead of going about their business, you have them sit here and recite scripture. Do you want to starve them?”

After a quick glance, Lu Yun determined that apart from an exceedingly few who’d accessed one or two levels of sequence, everyone else was ordinary. Someone at eighteen levels like Yu Jiang was one of a kind.

“Reciting immortal scripture is only the first step of crafting one’s foundation. I don’t have them do this all day, just one hour a day,” Yu Jiang responded matter-of-factly. “How else am I supposed to earn enigma stones? Cultivation requires lots and lots of stones!”

Lu Yun rubbed his forehead, this guy seemed a bit too obsessed with enigma stones. But other than that, he seemed decent enough. Lu Yun had indeed thought too lowly of him before.

“Is this the Immortal Sect?” He looked at the building in the center of town. It looked to be a palace, one similar to the main palace of the Dao Academy. However, it bore only a superficial resemblance.

“It’s only temporarily the Immortal Sect, I haven’t decided on what to call it,” Yu Jiang mumbled. “Crouching Cow Dao Academy? This place isn’t worthy enough to be a Dao Academy.”

“I promise that if you dare call it something something Dao Academy, a supreme will come along the next day to stomp it flat,” Lu Yun snorted.

Yu Jiang shuddered.

“Just called it the Immortal Sect, it’s a nice name,” Lu Yun said after a bit of thought.

“I’m the boss here!” Yu Jiang glared. “We already agreed on that! And that’s an awful name, that can’t be the name.”

Thud!

Lu Yun threw over a bag of enigma stones. There were around five thousand pieces inside.

Yu Jiang pounced on it, almost drooling with greed.

“Immortal Sect’s a great name, that’s the name then!” He grinned from ear to ear.

“Can you have some principles, Yu Jiang?!?” Hu Ruofei ground his teeth. He wanted to choke this embarrassing excuse for a man!

“Principles are nothing in front of enigma stones!” Yu Jiang responded righteously. “Cultivation requires enigma stones! Do you have more of them?” He turned to Lu Yun. “Nameless daoist, if you have more… like ten thousand. No, eight thousand. I’ll let you be the sect leader. How about it?”

“Yu Jiang! I’m going to kill you!” Hu Ruofei squawked angrily and threw himself at Yu Jiang.

“Don’t do that, we can split these stones eight two, or nine one!” Yu Jiang hugged the bag of stones to himself and wouldn’t let go.

Lu Yun slapped his forehead. Enigma stones were indeed good items. They contained the power of heaven and earth and were applicable to practicing any great dao or cultivation method. They were also the currency of the chief worlds.

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to be the sect leader. I received a lot of gifts when I followed the supreme. There’s not that many immortals in the chief worlds, so we need to stick together!” Lu Yun threw out another bag of five thousand before the two men quieted down.

“My thoughts precisely!” Yu Jiang quickly agreed. “There was another immortal other than me on Huangpang, but Mo Fei beat him to death three years ago! He was sentenced to death when he didn’t have any enigma stones for the tithe.”

Mo Fei was the ruler of Huangpang, the thirtieth level sequence cultivator. Everyone had to pay him tithe. Those who didn’t were let off lightly with a beating, or death if not. He was the tyrant of this major world.

“But I paid a lot of tithe when I was in the Land of Reincarnation. Crouching Cow’s tithe is paid one hundred years in advance, so we don’t need to worry about this.” Yu Jiang felt that Lu Yun should also be afraid of Mo Fei. After all, that was a thirtieth level sequence expert!

Yu Jiang’s heart still spasmed painfully when he thought of his overlord. One hundred years of tithe was eight thousand enigma stones!

Hu Ruofei curled his lip and didn’t interject. While he wanted to switch to the immortal dao, he hadn’t officially done so yet.

I need to make Hu Ruofei one of ours first! Yu Jiang took out a piece of milky-white stone and gave it to the man.