Chapter 465: Trivialities
By now, the Nine Cauldrons Sect, a faction that had originally come from the Great Cangwu World—or rather, the Great Nine Cauldrons World—had fully entrenched itself in the southern domain.
And since the southern domain had swallowed vast stretches of Yin Lunar Sect territory over the years with the help of the Void End Perfected Lord and other Void-Shattering cultivators, its total area now came to nearly two-thirds that of the entire Heavenly Dao Sect.
Even if it split off and chose independence, it could easily become another top-tier great sect.
Naturally, Yaoguang, as the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, would not undercut his own sect that way.
Even if he eventually made the Nine Cauldrons Sect the eleventh sect of the Immortal Dao, he would wait until the Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign was dead and the Yin Lunar Sect occupied, then raise a brand-new Nine Cauldrons Sect on Yin Lunar Sect ground.
For now, keeping things as they stood was hardly a bad thing.
Yaoguang's current status and accomplishments, whether as the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master, for the enormous transformation he had brought to the Nine Cauldrons Sect, as the one considered the North Sea Star's foremost genius—someone who had surpassed the Penglai Dao Lord—or as the second name on the Dao Lord Candidate Rankings... Any of those were enough to thrill everyone in the Nine Cauldrons Sect and the southern domain.
So when word came that he was returning to the Southern Capital, everyone—including every single member of the Nine Cauldrons Sect—rushed over from every corner of the southern domain.
At a glance, Yaoguang saw dozens of Void-Piercing experts, and several at the Void-Refining Realm. Most of them were leaders of local southern domain forces, though several Void-Piercing cultivators belonging to the Heavenly Dao Sect stood among them.
His gaze lingered mainly on the Void-Refining cultivators. Besides Wu Changfeng, Ling Ruogu and Mo Ye had also broken through to that realm.
"Sect Master." Sensing his attention, they stepped forward at once to greet him and bow.
"Well done. You two genuinely surprised me," Yaoguang said in praise.
"It's rather embarrassing to say," Ling Ruogu answered modestly. "If chance hadn't put a Spirit-Turning Dao Pill from a Yin Lunar Sect treasury in my hands, I might never have taken this step and broken through to the Void-Refining Realm. Peak Master Mo Ye is the one you should praise. Every gain in strength he's made was fought for and earned outright."
"That I've lived to see the Yin Lunar Sect all but wiped out is thanks to your patronage, Sect Master," Mo Ye said with a smile.
Yaoguang recalled the key points of southern domain intelligence that Su Yaoyu had occasionally reported to him.
Perfected Lord Mo Ye had often been mentioned. This Void-Piercing cultivator had always had a blood feud with the Yin Lunar Sect and had never stopped wanting them all dead.
In the years when the southern domain was weak, he could only defend the state he was in charge of, doing his best to preserve what he could. But as the southern domain rose in power and the counteroffensive began, he changed completely, throwing himself into the front lines without regard for his life.
Repeated brushes with death pushed him past his limits, and he reached the Void-Refining Realm.
It could only be said that once a man stops fearing death, nothing can stand in his way, as long as he survives.
"Cultivate well. If the day comes that we destroy the Yin Lunar Sect, I'll turn the territory around their headquarters into a domain of its own and put you in charge of it," Yaoguang promised.
Given how deeply Mo Ye hated the Yin Lunar Sect, no reward could be better.
"Thank you, Sect Master." A sharp light flashed in the man's eyes. "I won't disappoint you."
Yaoguang nodded, then met each of the Nine Cauldrons Sect's Void-Piercing cultivators in turn. Many were familiar faces.
Beside the Void-Piercing cultivators, many Golden Core cultivators also gathered for the meeting that followed, including Xu Qiexing, Liang Qiu, Wu Qingying, Qiangwei, Dong Liushui, and others.
None had broken through to the Void-Piercing realm yet, but they were not old either, only three or four centuries into cultivation.
They still had at least two hundred years before turning six hundred, the optimal age for breaking through to the Void-Piercing Realm, and some had three or four hundred left. With the Southern Capital's resources pouring in daily, they would certainly get their chance.
Whether they would succeed came down to each one's potential and fortune.
"It's hard to imagine our Nine Cauldrons Sect could ever see a scene like this on the North Sea Star. I still remember when we first arrived. Apart from me, one Void-Piercing battle immortal, and you, Sect Master Yaoguang, the whole sect couldn't put forward a cultivator worth mentioning even at the Heavenly Fire Realm. Many of us could only live inside the arrays and never touch the real heaven and earth of the North Sea Star," Li Hanqiu said, then looked down at the many talents of the Nine Cauldrons Sect gathered together below.
More than a handful of Void-Piercing cultivators were present, and Su Yaoxue was even at the Void-Refining Realm. A lineup like that, even setting Yaoguang and his position as the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master aside, made them a firmly established sect on the North Sea Star.
"As for the past, back in the Great Cangwu World, the Nine Cauldrons Sect ranked as no more than a somewhat large faction among many. And now every one of those other factions has been lost to the long river of time, and only the Nine Cauldrons Sect endures, higher in status than it has ever been," Yaoguang said.
Li Hanqiu nodded slightly, feeling the weight of it. "The rivals who competed with us back in the Cangwu World have all scattered like smoke."
Thirty years ago, Greene, Xie Xiong, Li An, and a whole line of battle immortals had passed away one after another, unable to keep their Primordial Voids stable.
The Cangwu lineage had produced four Azure Golden Core cultivators over that stretch of time, but the two disciples who cultivated to the peak of that realm both failed when they attempted their breakthroughs. The remaining two clearly could not carry the Cangwu lineage's name within the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
And though the Taiyi Immortal Sect had avoided dissolving the Cangwu lineage out of regard for Yaoguang, Wan Liugui and others like them, the lineage had never received many resources to begin with, and the arrival of large numbers of cultivators from the Great Cangwu World only added frost to the snow. Many had no choice but to seek cultivation resources on their own.
Once they left the Taiyi Immortal Sect's shelter, the Golden Core battle immortals of the Cangwu World immediately felt the malice the North Sea Star held for every outsider.
Word had it that of the group consisting of Feng Ao, Johan, Mi Le, and the rest, half died within ten short years. The survivors retreated into the Taiyi Immortal Sect and never dared set foot outside again.
Later, unable to secure enough resources to maintain their Golden Cores, some were forced back out to try their luck and vanished without a trace, while others had their Golden Cores collapse and died inside the sect.
"They saw us developing quickly on the North Sea Star and assumed they could do the same. What they never understood was that without relying on Sect Master Yaoguang, a genius who can't be measured by ordinary standards, we probably couldn't have made it out of the Yunchuan Mountains even now," Li Qingshan said, without a shred of mercy. "We gave them the choice back then, and they didn't value it. This end is one they brought on themselves."
"A group of Golden Core cultivators who never even reached the Void-Piercing Realm, and no more than battle immortals. There's no need to give them any thought," Yaoguang said calmly. "What's past is past. We should look ahead."
He glanced at Li Qingshan. "I'm confident that with you and Yaoxue working together, the Nine Cauldrons Sect can do better still."
Li Qingshan nodded heavily.
Just then, Chi Yu arrived with a group of juniors to pay respects, and Yaoguang spent a while talking with them.
This was the head of the Chi family, who had decided to support him very early and followed him to the southern domain to fight for a place, so of course he would not brush him off with a nod the way he had the other Void-Piercing cultivators.
Watching Yaoguang from the side, Li Qingshan sighed with genuine emotion. "How fortunate is the Nine Cauldrons Sect to have produced a supreme prodigy like Sect Master Yaoguang?"
Li Hanqiu smiled as well. "What I'm most grateful for these days is that when the Nine Heavens City was attacked all those years ago, I moved immediately to destroy the Infinite Star Palace's Sky Patrol Warship and saved the Purple Firmament Institute and the city with it!"
He finished with a heavy nod. "It was all worth it."
Li Qingshan seemed to picture the scene again and laughed along with him. "It was very worth it."
***
After receiving representatives from every major faction in the southern domain, Yaoguang shared a meal with Su Yaoyu, Su Yaoxue, Su Yaoshuang, and Su Yaoqin in the domain lord's residence. It was a family dinner, with no outsiders present.
At that dinner, Yaoguang treated Su Yaoyu, Su Yaoshuang, and Su Yaoqin, none of whom had reached the Void-Piercing Realm, exactly alike, with no special consideration for anyone.
Indeed, since Su Yaoshuang and Su Yaoqin were only ordinarily gifted and hadn't been selected among the newest batch of core talents, the cultivation resources they enjoyed couldn't compare with those of core members.
Still, Su Yaoyu, thanks to her position, could set aside some of her stipend and supplies for the two of them, which had carried them both to the Blazing White Golden Core Realm.
Su Yaoxue glanced at her eldest sister Su Yaoyu, smiling and content with the scene before her, then at the Dao Enlightenment Spirit Fruit, Boundless Water, and Blood Crystal Grass laid out for this family dinner.
Sell two Blazing White Golden Cores ten times over, a hundred times over, and the Pure Yang Grand Pills that fetched would not amount to a tenth of the ingredients on this one table.
***
Yaoguang stayed in the Southern Capital for several months. He even had Su Yaoyu set aside matters so he could find time to guide her cultivation.
His comprehension was now so high that even true Dao Lords couldn't serve as a comparison; at most, the Great Dao resonance he stirred while explaining was less pronounced than a Dao Lord's.
When you considered both aspects, he was probably not far behind a true Dao Lord in terms of teaching efficiency.
As time passed and the Central Heaven Dao Lord's return to the North Sea Star drew nearer, Yaoguang had to end his time in the southern domain and return to the Heavenly Dao Sect.
By the time he returned, Zhen Xuanyuan had arranged every detail of the reception ceremony, and none of the trivialities required further worry from him.
Wasting no time, Yaoguang boarded the warship serving as the ceremonial escort and waved his hand. "The Dao Lord reaches the starry sky in another two hours, and the other factions have already set out ahead of us. There's no time to lose. We depart now to welcome him back."
Zhen Xuanyuan nodded. "As you command, Sect Master."
The ceremonial warship rose at once, quickly clearing the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect-protecting grand array, leaving its range and rising further and further in the skies of the North Sea Star. Soon it would pass into the starry sky, reach the appointed position, and rendezvous with the Central Heaven Dao Lord's party, who were coming from the other direction.
At that moment, the void froze.
Space for more than fifty thousand kilometers in every direction turned into something like a piece of amber, plucked out of the normal void. And beside that amber, an indifferent figure holding a treasure pagoda revealed himself.
The Unchained Dao Lord had come.