I have Immortality In The Cultivation World

Chapter 185: Chapter 182: Establishing a Sect

Several days later.

Li the Eccentric died suddenly and inexplicably.

The Earth Fire Palace had plundered the Starry Sky Sect and then emerged victorious.

...

In Da Qian.

Seven hundred li southeast of the capital city, there was a stretch of continuous peaks.

In the midst of these mountains stood a peak hundreds of zhang tall, surrounded by clouds at its waist, known as White Cloud Peak.

On this day.

The peak's summit flickered with spiritual light, and over a thousand figures burst forth from the ground, led by none other than Zhou Yi.

More than three thousand disciples of the Earth Fire Palace, many with families or nostalgic for their ancestral land, were unwilling to relocate to the Nine Continents; the sect did not force them, instead leaving behind some spiritual objects for their cultivation.

"The grand calamity has come, testing the hearts of us cultivators all the more. Meet others with warmth and confront challenges with openness!"

Zhou Yi didn't just preach by word but lead by example, and that was the true way to pacify his followers.

Yuan Qi sensed that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was much richer than that of the Eastern Sea and asked, "Elder, shall we establish and build our sect on this mountain?"

"No!"

Zhou Yi pointed to the ground, "Three hundred zhang below the surface, we will carve out our sect's stronghold. On the surface, we will only build a minor Taoist temple to leave a true person posing as a loose cultivator."

Yuan Qi silently put away the grand founding ceremony plans, puzzled: "Why three hundred zhang? Digging so deep might affect the concentration of spiritual energy."

Zhou Yi explained, "This elder once consulted the texts, a Nascent Soul ancestor with a casual strike can penetrate two hundred zhang of the earth's veins. Three hundred zhang combined with the Sect Protection Array is enough to repel any external enemies, providing ample time for escape!"

"As you command."

Yuan Qi turned to instruct the disciples to enter the earth according to the sect's blueprints.

The disciples were also surprised upon receiving the order; they had only heard of sect establishments being celebrated with grand feasts and inviting friends from all directions, but never of excavating a sect underground.

And they got to work.

The cultivators dug rapidly with their spells, and in just over ten days, they had formed the embryonic shape of the sect, with structures identical to those in the Eastern Sea as if the Earth Fire Palace had been moved underground.

After the construction of the Earth Fire Palace was completed, the grand founding ceremony invited no outsiders.

In front of the main hall's plaza.

Over a hundred large round tables were set up, laden with spiritual wine and dishes, and a few spirit fruits.

Zhou Yi and eight Foundation Establishment true persons shared a table, filled their cups with spiritual wine, and he toasted aloud.

"This poor Daoist has cultivated for two hundred years and fortuitously condensed the Golden Core. I too once dreamed of breaking through to the Nascent Soul and achieving the status of an ageless ancestor. Alas, I encountered this drastic change in heaven and earth, the path of cultivation cut off. Now, I must dwell underground and quietly await the end of my life."

"If you all wish to follow the sect and traveled across the vast ocean to the Nine Continents, then I make you a promise."

Zhou Yi sighed, "In the future, I shall see each of you off one by one until only I am left in the sect. Before departing, I will burn incense and paper offerings in front of everyone's grave!"

The new Earth Fire Palace had specially opened a cemetery, where over a thousand stone steles stood, each disciple carving their own epitaph.

When their lifespan was exhausted, someone would bury them there.

Zhou Yi finished his spiritual wine in one gulp and said, "My friends, let us drink heartily!"

"Drink heartily!"

Over a thousand disciples roared their agreement, their reverence for Zhou Yi now comparable to that for a founding ancestor.

With a sip of Soul Soothing Intoxication, it warmed their divine souls and stirred their melancholic thoughts. Some younger disciples couldn't help but weep softly.

Zhou Yi sighed and did not stop them; the drastic changes in heaven and earth were hardest on the young and talented cultivators.

The older cultivators would survive until the end of their lifespans, having already had no chance of ascension, only that life would be tougher in the future. The talented cultivators had just stepped on the path of immortality, to witness their path cut off before their eyes!

Suddenly, a disciple shouted out loud, "Elder Tang, when I die, can you pour me a jug of spiritual wine?"

"Of course."

Zhou Yi poured himself a full cup with a smile, raised it, and said, "First, drink with me. I'll seal this jug with a restriction, and in the future, at your grave, we will share the drink: you inside and me outside."

The disciple was taken aback, never expecting to receive such a promise from the elder, and nodded vigorously.

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"Thank you, Elder!"

Another disciple mustered the courage to call out, "I want to burn more paper money so that when I enter the underworld, I can be better off."

Zhou Yi raised his glass and said, "Is ten thousand pieces of spirit money enough?"

"Enough, enough, let's seal the deal."

"Seal the deal!"

"Meticulously!"

"Hahaha..."

The disciples found talking with Zhou Yi amusing, which instantly dissipated any gloom.

After three to five cups of Spiritual Wine, their spirits were slightly tipsy, and the atmosphere heated up again.

This past month, the sect had tightened all expenses; the supply of Spiritual Wine and exquisite spirit dishes had long been cut off, leaving them to fill their bellies with Spirit Rice.

Today's banquet celebrating the founding of the sect meant an unlimited supply of Spiritual Wine, a luxury they wouldn't have for dozens of years to come—they had to savor it to the fullest!

"Senior Brother, why do we call it Earth Fire Palace, yet now it's become an 'earth palace'?"

"Looking at this stone hall, the night pearls... I suddenly get a rather eerie feeling."

"I've heard that all kinds of demons are running rampant in the Nine Continents these days. With the heavy yin energy here underground, we won't start attracting ghosts and goblins, will we?"

"It would be great if ghosts did show up! Free Soul Beads for us. If we run out of Spiritual Objects in the future, we can use them to cultivate Ghost Path methods."

"Makes sense. Should we set up a Gathering Yin Formation?"

"..."

The banquet lasted for a day and a night. After digesting the Spiritual Wine, the disciples began setting up the Sect Protection Array.

The Supreme Elder emphasized repeatedly that the Nine Continents, unlike the barren Eastern Sea, couldn't rely solely on a Golden Elixir True Monarch to safeguard the sect. Therefore, the Sect Protection Array needed to prioritize defense and concealment.

On a regular day, not a wisp of aura leaked out, so no one knew there was a Golden Core Sect near Divine Capital. Even if a Nascent Soul elder attacked, they would have to hold out for a while, giving the disciples time to scatter and flee.

Meanwhile.

A small Taoist temple was established on the peak of White Cloud Mountain, named White Cloud Temple, with True Man Zhai in charge.

There were more than a dozen disciples in the temple, both old and young, ranging from the early to the late stages of Qi Refinement, truly the spitting image of a Loose Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment.

This was the Earth Fire Palace's overt and covert intelligence network, responsible for making connections with cultivators near Divine Capital and gathering intelligence from the Cultivation World.

True Man Zhai, with over a hundred years under his belt and only a decade or two left to live, coupled with his mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation being neither high nor low, was someone no one would deliberately guard against, a dying old Taoist priest.

He also followed Zhou Yi's advice to use high-grade Magic Artifacts in his daily life, deliberately worn and ragged to appear penniless.

Inside his storage bag, he hid a complete set of top-quality protective and offensive Magic Artifacts, as well as a Earth Fire Bead and Spirit Talismans bestowed by Zhou Yi, so that even if he encountered a fake pill cultivator, he could put up a fight.

...

Hall of Spiritual Fire.

Zhou Yi took out a storage bag to inventory the relics left by Old Monster Li.

"Over a million Spirit Stones; how many Loose Cultivators did this old fellow kill to loot such a hefty fortune?"

"Hundreds of legacy jade slips; truly, crime does pay."

"Starry Secret Record; harnessing the power of the stars, refining it into special mana. Once the technique is fully mastered, one can condense a Star Body!"

A Body is a unique Divine Skill of the Golden Core Stage, much like how Foundation Establishment can condense Divine Sense, but it's not something that every True Monarch can achieve.

The most famous Body in the Nine Continents is the Blood God Body; once refined, one's body transforms into a Blood God Child, nearly illusory and completely under the caster's control. In a fray, merely by merging with the opponent one can devour them clean, and during escape, even a tiny droplet of blood can reform the entire body.

"Starry Secret Record can condense a Body, a top-tier Cultivation Technique of the Golden Core Realm, far surpassing the Pure Yang Scripture. I will gradually transition my mana to it over time!"

Zhou Yi carefully memorized the Starry Secret Record and continued to examine the other jade slips.

"Earth Fiend Refining Manual—there are even comments by True Lord Wan Bao. Did Old Monster Li also partake in the siege of Red Cloud Island?"

After their ancestral lineage broke, Red Cloud Island was in an even sorrier state than Loose Cultivators; without the protection of a Golden Elixir True Monarch and after inheriting part of the Five Spirits Sect's legacy, they were like a juicy morsel among the Eastern Sea's sects.

Zhou Yi studied the manual intently and found that the method of Earth Fiend Refining Manual differed from the current Cultivation World's approach. Unlike the usual method of refining magic artifacts by following blueprints that fuse various Spiritual Objects with enchantments, it sought a core Spiritual Object and inscribed Earth Fiend enchantments onto it.

"Depending on the material, a Spiritual Object can hold a varying number of Earth Fiend enchantments; engraving eighty-one inscriptions perfects the artifact."

"The jade slip contains over one hundred and eighty different Earth Fiend enchantments, each representing different functions, capable of being combined and refined into protective, offensive, and other types of artifacts."

Zhou Yi immediately realized where Wan Bao got his multitude of artifacts. He did not need to search for various artifact blueprints; just finding top-tier Spiritual Objects was enough.

"I will study this further in the future. With a flick of my wrists, detonating more than a dozen artifacts, even Nascent Soul elders would have to stay clear!"