Chapter 412: Intelligence
"Naturally, they won't let it go. When the time comes, each side will rely on its own methods." Yet there was a peculiar confidence in Zhen Xuanyuan's voice. "Still, just as fiendish cultivators excel at saving their own skins but falter in open battle, the divine race's cultivation system has its own flaws. Their power comes from their believers. The closer they are to their believers, the stronger they are. And the Dao Lord's death place clearly lies deep in the starry sky, far from the earthly divine kingdoms those gods have carved out. The advantage lies with our sect."
Yaoguang gave a slight nod of agreement. The great cultivation systems each differed before Dao Integration. Fiendish cultivators were formless and signless, tremendously hard to kill.
The divine race depended on believers; assaulting the earthly divine kingdom, where a divine sovereign gathered his faithful, was like attacking a Void-Shattering cultivator presiding over a level 13 or even higher-level array.
The demon race relied on their physical bodies, ferocious beyond measure in head-on slaughter but short on versatility.
And the Buddhist cultivators of the Six Buddhist Temples specialized in beguiling the psychic mind, attacking the mind, heart, and soul.
Through his high-dimensional cognition, Yaoguang had come into contact with the concepts of ghost immortal, human immortal, earth immortal, psyche immortal, and heavenly immortal.
The directions these cultivation systems ultimately pointed toward already sketched the outlines of the five great classes of immortals.
But how those roads were actually to be walked, the present Yaoguang could not yet see. Most likely, only upon reaching a level of comprehension corresponding to the Immortal Realm would he have any hope of glimpsing the five classes in full.
"Since this matter involves stakes in the tens of billions or even hundreds of billions, then as a member of the Heavenly Dao Sect, I'll contribute my share when the time comes," Yaoguang said. "If the Heavenly Dao Sect really goes to war with the Light Divine Race, send word. I'll come to your support at once."
Zhen Xuanyuan and Chi Yun both froze.
This Dao Lord's place of death was Zong Wenxian's discovery. Even if Yaoguang helped crush the Light Divine Race, Zong Wenxian would hardly be willing to share much of the profit, and when contributions were tallied afterward, Zong Wenxian, as the one presiding, would certainly take the lion's share.
However hard Yaoguang worked, he would likely be doing work for someone else. Then again, considering Yaoguang's strength... Where matters would actually end up, no one could say.
Zhen Xuanyuan nodded quickly. "With your assistance, the Light Divine Race will be nothing to fear at all."
"A Dao Lord takes a long time to return from the starry sky after receiving news, and few would abandon their own travels for another Dao Lord's death place. Even so, the Gate of the Immortal Realm's opening is no longer far off. To keep the Light Divine Race's Dao Lord from returning early over this, Sect Master Zong had best hurry his search for those spatial nodes." Yaoguang smiled. "If it's not going well, I can help with that too."
Zhen Xuanyuan squeezed out a smile of his own. "I'm sure Zong Wenxian will be deeply moved when he learns of your enthusiasm."
That, of course, was mere talk. Unless he had no other option, Zong Wenxian would never let Yaoguang anywhere near the matter.
Yaoguang turned, smiling, to another subject. "Speaking of which, Sect Master Zong certainly knows how to sell empty promises."
Had he known from the start that this hundred-billion project was nothing but vapor, he would have argued against delaying his promotion. But there was no point now.
The Golden Book Venerable plainly cared nothing for power struggles inside the Heavenly Dao Sect. His attitude was simple: As long as you don't fight, settle everything among yourselves and leave me in peace.
Zhen Xuanyuan was overcome with embarrassment, and he could find nothing to say. A life spent in a high position had visibly dulled his gift for rhetoric.
It was Supreme Elder Chi Yun who thought of something and offered a reminder. "As I recall, Perfected Lord Bu Zhou has returned? Best be careful of that one."
At that, Zhen Xuanyuan became serious as well. "Perfected Lord Bu Zhou isn't too much of a concern. The real concern is Perfected Lord Jinghong down in the stellar core."
Something seemed to occur to him. "Supreme Elder Gu Li has already left the Heavenly Dao Sect, no doubt to join up with Perfected Lord Bu Zhou. Once Bu Zhou learns about your true strength, then to leave nothing to chance, he'll surely go to the stellar core and fetch Perfected Lord Jinghong. If that perfected lord chooses to stand behind Bu Zhou and Gu Li..."
"I'll deal with the problem when it comes." Yaoguang was unruffled. "I've long heard Perfected Lord Jinghong's combat strength ranks in the top ten of the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings. I'd like to know whether he lives up to the stories."
Zhen Xuanyuan weighed Yaoguang's strength against everything he knew of Perfected Lord Jinghong. The two of them might indeed be qualified to measure each other.
"Well then. My Void-Shattering Realm advancement ceremony is nearly upon us. If you two supreme elders have time to spare, lend a hand with the arrangements." Yaoguang waved a hand.
"Your advancement to the Void-Shattering Realm is a joy our sect hasn't seen in a thousand years. Of course we'll help arrange it, to display the majesty of the Heavenly Dao Sect and your own all the more." Zhen Xuanyuan and Chi Yun both spoke through smiles, and felt that breathing had become easier as well.
By the look of it, with the Jing family destroyed, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang doesn't intend to keep shaking the tree.
"One more thing. Get me detailed files on the Light Divine Race and on the Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Shattering and Void-Refining cultivators." Something else occurred to Yaoguang, and he added, "In fact, bring me all information we have on every Void-Shattering and Void-Refining cultivator on the North Sea Star, and the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings list as well. You keep such records, I assume."
"Of course." The two supreme elders nodded. "We'll have them sent over at once."
The Heavenly Dao Sect's intelligence apparatus belonged, in essence, to Sect Master Zong Wenxian, but every supreme elder maintained a private network of their own. Such networks might pay little attention to figures below the Void-Piercing Realm, but on every Void-Piercing, Void-Refining, and Void-Shattering cultivator, their files were exhaustive.
After talking for a bit longer, the two supreme elders took their leave, and soon the materials Yaoguang wanted were delivered. He read through them one by one, focusing above all on the powers he might soon have to face: the Yin Lunar Sect and the Light Divine Race.
"How many Void-Shattering cultivators a sect really holds is always an absolute secret. Aside from the supreme elders who are part of the sect's inner circle, even the deputy sect masters may not know the full count, and outsiders trying to pin down a number fare no better."
Yaoguang studied the files. The Yin Lunar Sect openly displayed ten Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators, with two more confirmed in the stellar core, twelve confirmed in all. Zhen Xuanyuan's network guessed the true number at fifteen; Chi Yun's guessed fourteen.
Fourteen to fifteen. That can't be far off. Sixteen at most. Yaoguang mused.
Fiendish cultivators advanced faster than orthodox ones and fielded somewhat more experts, but the fact that the Immortal Dao had ten great sects plus the Four Great Immortal Dynasties said it plainly: a fiendish cultivator's odds of becoming a Dao Lord fell far below a normal cultivator's.
The divine race, by contrast, was fiercely exclusionary. The Light Divine Race ranked among the strongest of the ten divine races, surpassed decisively only by the Void Divine Race, and even so it possessed exactly twelve divine sovereigns.
The number was precise, because the divine race's dependence on believers forced them to establish earthly divine kingdoms that could not possibly be hidden. Unless they kept branches in the starry sky, those twelve divine sovereigns were the whole of the Light Divine Race's strength.
As for forces in the starry sky beyond, they generally fell within expected parameters anyway: the starry sky was vast, and returning to the North Sea Star from their depths took a month or two at best, or years at worst.
In a real war, help from beyond would never arrive in time. Besides, the Heavenly Dao Sect had such external forces as well; Perfected Lord Ni Chang, cultivating at the Central Heaven Dao Lord's side, was a prime example.
As I recall, the Light Divine Race has already committed eight divine sovereigns to intercepting Zong Wenxian's expedition? For the whole race, that's practically emptying the nest. Yaoguang ran the numbers in his mind.
Then again, the divine race's combat strength waned once they were away from their earthly divine kingdoms, so fielding extra forces was only prudent.
Factoring in the divine kingdom's amplification of a divine sovereign's power, four divine sovereigns garrisoning the Light Divine Race were no worse than eight Void-Shattering cultivators defending it; their homeland was quite secure.
"Eight divine sovereigns, plus the Yin Lunar Sect... which holds fourteen to sixteen Void-Shattering fiend lords. Slaying and refining seven of them is hardly excessive..."
Seven Void-Shattering fiend lords and eight Void-Shattering divine sovereigns, fifteen in total.
Still, they varied in strength, and there was no guarantee fifteen would be enough to complete the groundwork he needed before reaching the Dao Lord Realm.
If they were all peak Void-Shattering cultivators like Zhen Xuanyuan, then there would be no problem; if they were only as strong as the Eight Desolations and the Dark Fiend Lords, the amount of experience would likely come up short.
After some thought, Yaoguang decided to take one more from the Yin Lunar Sect. "Eight divine sovereigns slain from the Light Divine Race but only seven fiend lords from the Yin Lunar Sect? That would seem unfair. Better add one more and round it to eight fiend lords and make both sides equal."
Of course, eight Void-Shattering divine sovereigns and eight Void-Shattering fiend lords were only his ideal figures. He might not manage to take down every one of these fiends and gods.
But if he ended up still lacking something, the demon race could make up the difference. As long as he was willing to strike into demon territory and didn't push too deep, the Penglai Dao Lord would hardly mind escorting him.
However much experience he ended up missing, the demon race would make up for it.
With that, he turned to the files on the Void-Shattering cultivators of the divine race, the Fiendish Dao, and the demon race, or more precisely, to the files on the top Void-Shattering cultivators of the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings.
Ordinary Void-Shattering cultivators could no longer threaten him, but the ones on that list were another matter. If he meant to accumulate the experience needed to efficiently break through to the Dao Lord Realm, he would best steer clear of them.
Of course, if they were foolish enough to deliver themselves to his door, Yaoguang would not mind finding out who was stronger.