Chapter 497 - 355: Occupying Territory 2
It would be extremely troublesome for the Celestial Demon Sect to occupy their Earth Realm and convert it into a place suitable for Demons to cultivate. Even if the Celestial Cloud Sect were wiped out, the conversion process would still take a very long time.
In contrast, it would be much easier for them to occupy the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm and convert it into a place suitable for their own cultivation.
The reason lay with the Spirit Veins.
A place suitable for Demon cultivation needed both Demon Veins and Spirit Veins, and the Demon Veins had to be of a higher grade than the Spirit Veins. A place suitable for them, however, only required Spirit Veins.
Therefore, when they occupied a Demon’s territory, they could transform the cultivation environment by destroying the Demon Veins. But when Demons occupied their territory, they would have to create a Demon Vein where a Spirit Vein already existed.
Destruction was far, far easier than creation.
This was one of the reasons why they, despite being the weaker party in the Qionglin Domain, had not yet been extinguished.
When forces were evenly matched, cultivating orthodox Spiritual Power truly offered a significant advantage.
Half a month after Huang Mengyang went into seclusion for Core Formation.
The Celestial Cloud Sect convened a high-level meeting.
During this meeting, Fang Yun quickly proposed a small modification to their plan: to begin encroaching on the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm ahead of schedule.
As before, any proposal he made passed without issue.
After the proposal passed, it was time for preparations.
Slightly less than half a year passed.
Fang Yun stood at the entrance of his cave residence, flanked by two Elders.
One was the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Spirit Vein Master, Yu Chuanze; the other was the Sect’s Array Master, Zheng Chunyu.
Yu Chuanze now had a prospective apprentice. Once this apprentice became an Inner Sect Disciple, he could formally take him as his own disciple.
Not many years had passed since the Sect changed its recruitment strategy, but Fang Yun had already heard a lot of good news on this front.
In his opinion, the greatest news was that after Yu Chuanze, the Sect would always have a successor for the role of Spirit Vein Master.
The Array Master, Zheng Chunyu, was at the mid-Foundation Establishment Stage, and her skill in the Array Dao was already very close to her master’s.
According to what Fang Yun knew, there were also other Sect Disciples with decent talent in the Array Dao.
These disciples all had the potential to become the Sect’s future Array Elders.
But when it came to sheer talent in the Array Dao, Zheng Chunyu remained in a class of her own within the Sect.
"Elder Yu, Elder Zheng, are you ready?" Fang Yun asked, looking at the two with a smile.
Transforming a territory was impossible without an Array Master and a Spirit Vein Master.
Lacking either one would make the operation incredibly difficult.
"Supreme Elder Fang, I was ready a month ago," Zheng Chunyu immediately replied.
Fang Yun held a very high position in her heart, second only to her own master.
The fact that she, a cultivator with Four Spirit Roots, could cultivate so quickly and break through to the mid-Foundation Establishment Stage with ease was deeply connected to Fang Yun, as was her successful Foundation Establishment.
Now, she used about ten Upper Grade Spirit Ascension Pills every year for her cultivation—a luxury the Sect could never have afforded in the past.
Redeeming the pills needed for cultivation cost a significant amount of Contribution Points.
As the Sect’s Array Master, she could earn a large number of Contribution Points each year just by maintaining the Spirit Arrays.
If she successfully completed this mission with Supreme Elder Fang, she would be able to acquire all the supplementary cultivation pills she would need for the next five years.
Of course, there was no need to redeem all those Upper Grade Spirit Ascension Pills in advance. Although the Sect didn’t prohibit redeeming pills in bulk, everyone followed an unspoken rule: you only redeemed about a year’s supply at a time.
The Sect restocked its pills annually, and redeeming too many at once could have a negative impact.
This unspoken rule only really applied to a very small number of Elders; most didn’t need it.
They simply didn’t have that many Contribution Points.
Compared to his status in Zheng Chunyu’s heart, Fang Yun’s position in Yu Chuanze’s was not quite as high. After all, Yu Chuanze was already the Sect’s Spirit Vein Master before Fang Yun had even become an Elder.
Yu Chuanze understood Fang Yun’s contributions to the Sect, so among all the high-ranking members, he respected Fang Yun the most, second only to Sect Leader Duan Qingyun.
"Elder Zheng, have you had any thoughts about taking on an apprentice?" Fang Yun couldn’t help but ask.
"There are currently two disciples in the Sect with decent talent in the Array Dao. Whether they can become my apprentices will depend on their performance."
Fang Yun understood immediately. It seemed Zheng Chunyu had no immediate intention of taking an apprentice.
Or rather, these two Sect Disciples had not yet met her standards.
Given Zheng Chunyu’s own talent in the Array Dao, her standards for accepting an apprentice were naturally higher than her master’s.
"If their performance isn’t good enough, my master can also guide them a little when he’s free," Zheng Chunyu added, as if worried Fang Yun might reprimand her.
Fang Yun nodded. ’Thinking about how much Life Span her master, Deng Fusheng, has left, it’s unlikely he has the extra energy to take on another apprentice.’
’He can still manage to give them pointers from time to time, though.’
Many Elders had a personal standard for accepting apprentices: if they took one on, they had to at least train them until they could graduate. They wouldn’t take on an apprentice for a dozen years only to pass away themselves before the training was complete.
With Zheng Chunyu’s current skill in arrays, she had clearly graduated in Deng Fusheng’s eyes long ago.
"It’s about time to move out. I’ll wait for you in the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm."
"Yes, Supreme Elder Fang."
Fang Yun’s figure vanished on the spot.
Seeing this, the two quickly flew off toward their destination.
Fang Yun’s mission was to go to the site of the Original Stone Demon Sect, eliminate all the Demons there, and ensure that not a single shred of information got out.
Fang Yun was familiar with this kind of work.
The other Supreme Elders couldn’t perform to his level, so this task could only be entrusted to him.
As time went on, the distance between Fang Yun and the two Elders grew ever wider.
By the time he arrived and dealt with all the Demons at the Original Stone Demon Sect’s site, the two Elders would still need some time to get there.
...
「Celestial Demon Sect Earth Realm—Site of the Original Stone Demon Sect.」
This place was now the territory of the Demon Foundation Establishment Clan, the Hu Family.
They were one of the newly promoted Foundation Establishment Cultivation Clans in the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm. Their patriarch had only successfully reached Foundation Establishment a little over thirty years ago, after which the Celestial Demon Sect had granted them this piece of land.
A hundred years ago, a newly promoted Foundation Establishment Cultivation Clan like the Hu Family would have found it very difficult to acquire such a good territory within the Celestial Demon Sect’s domain.
The current situation was both good news and bad news for them.
For Patriarch Hu, one thing was rather fortunate.
’Thankfully, the mysterious Spirit Refiner nowadays isn’t very interested in newly promoted Foundation Establishment Influences like ours. The ones who have been silently annihilated in recent years have all been well-established Foundation Establishment Influences in the Celestial Demon Sect’s Earth Realm.’
The patriarch of the Demon Foundation Establishment Cultivation Clan, the Hu Family, left this world with that very thought.
Having arrived, Fang Yun surveyed the area and then made his move.
When he left this world, he at least felt not an ounce of pain.
’Done.’
A short while later, not a single living Demon remained.
There had been one early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon, and the rest were all Qi Refining Demons. There weren’t many of them, so Fang Yun dealt with them even more quickly.
Now, all that was left for Fang Yun was to wait for the two Elders to arrive.
A fledgling Foundation Establishment Demon influence like this was dirt poor. There was hardly anything in the clan’s treasury.
There were practically no Spiritual Materials useful to Fang Yun.
「Day turned to dusk.」
Only then did Fang Yun spot two figures flying toward him from a distance.
For those at the Foundation Establishment Stage, they were already moving at a very high speed.
"Have you been waiting long, Supreme Elder?"
Zheng Chunyu was the first to speak as she landed.
"For a while. The rest is up to you two now."
"Alright."
Zheng Chunyu nodded repeatedly, then turned to Yu Chuanze.
"Elder Yu, don’t start yet. Let me dismantle the Grand Array here first and see if there are any materials we can salvage."
With that, Zheng Chunyu quickly made her way to the core of the Grand Array.
She began to dismantle it.