She is Jianxiu

Chapter 1407 Clues of Zhang Sanjiu

Judging by the cultivation and strength of these three, Wei Yan was considered to be slightly superior, while Huang and Ju were roughly equal. However, once a Taoist cultivator reaches this level, his entire foundation has been incorporated into his cave heaven. Even if they were to fight each other, it would be difficult to determine life or death. As long as the cave heaven remains, the cultivator can recover to his peak condition.

Therefore, although Wei Yan's cultivation was superior to the other two, the outcome of a real fight was uncertain. These three were all seasoned practitioners with many years of experience; they knew that at this juncture, everything depended on individual destiny and the path to enlightenment. Who would attain the Great Vehicle of Tao, and who would acquire a powerful magical treasure, were all unpredictable. Thus, over the years, the three had maintained a balance of power and thus lived in harmony.

The balance here wasn't broken when Wan Chong became Ju Lingying's disciple, but rather from the moment he was chosen by the Heavenly Pillar, Wei Yan and the other two could no longer live together as before.

A cultivator at the Void Realm can devour the heavens and earth and create their own world. Among the millions of cultivators in the world, how many can reach such a realm? Wei Yan and the others all attained the Dao through fortuitous encounters, and they themselves know best the hardships and dangers they faced. Therefore, in their view, if their disciples do not have extraordinary encounters, they can only stop at the Divine Realm in this life.

But now that Wan Chong has emerged, even if his chances of reaching the Void Realm are only slightly slim, they are still far greater than others. If he successfully breaks through and becomes the fourth powerful cultivator in Dingxian City, he will firmly secure a place among those who rule this place. And if he can be recruited before that, then whichever of the three can cross that invisible barrier and truly rule this city.

As for who should play this role, it was irrelevant to Zhao Chun.

She ordered Wan Chong to provoke the Jiao clan so that one of Wei Yan, Huang Xin, or Ju Lingying could take this opportunity to recruit him into their family. Once they became master and disciple and became the target of everyone's attacks, the other two would naturally have to make other plans. Whether they attacked Wan Chong or secretly helped him, they would try to suppress Ju Lingying first, leaving the latter in a difficult situation.

Unless they find outside help, they can break this deadlock and defeat Wei Yan and Huang Xin.

Ju Ling should be able to see through Wan Chong's intentions. Now that she has come to him on her own initiative, she probably already has the ambition to rise to the top and no longer wants to share the land with others. Instead, she wants to take over the city for herself.

Wan Chong came to visit her today, and his demeanor was completely different from before. He was truly beaming with pride and high spirits. Even though he tried to suppress his joy in front of Zhao Chun, the pleasure of being freed from being manipulated by others could not be contained in his expression.

"My current success is all thanks to the guidance of Sword Master. I will repay such a great favor with all my heart." Wan Chong suppressed his pride and bowed to Zhao Chun. He knew very well that the other party was still planning to use Ju Lingying as a scapegoat. Even so, he would still benefit from it.

Seeing Wan Chong's expression, Zhao Chun knew that Wan Chong must have had a very pleasant month. So she smiled and said, "I would like to congratulate you on becoming a disciple. Although I did not attend the ceremony, I heard that it was a grand event with many guests. Once you enter the door, you will be the first disciple of my personal lineage."

"How dare I praise you before the Sword Master?" Wan Chong waved his hand, but his cheeks lifted slightly as he said, "Master Ju is kind and benevolent, and she treats us disciples very well. I am fortunate to have become her disciple, and I have no regrets in this life."

He thought about it later. Both Wei Yan and Huang Xin had more than one disciple who had reached the Divine Realm, but only Ju Lingying had a vacancy. If he joined her sect, he could immediately become her personal disciple. In this way, although he would not have senior brothers and sisters to help him, he would have his master's full support, which was much better than the other two grotto-heavens.

Ju Lingying was a free-spirited and easygoing person. Even though she could tell that he had someone behind him, she didn't care about the intricacies of the situation after gaining such a good disciple. She simply told Wan Chong to continue befriending Zhao Chun. The two of them were now master and disciple, sharing both honor and disgrace. If they had the opportunity to be together, it would only benefit them.

Wan Chong subtly conveyed this meaning, and Zhao Chun understood. She knew that Ju Ling should accept Wan Chong as her disciple and that it was only a matter of time before he joined Zhao Yan's faction. Therefore, there was no need to rush into this matter. Instead, she could devote some energy to the matter of the Heavenly Human Sect.

Zhao Chun understood that Wan Chong shouldn't make any further moves in the short term. Besides, he had been in seclusion for many years, and his understanding of this secret matter might not be as great as hers. It was best to leave the matter of the Heavenly Human Sect to her own people.

So he gave this order, and within half a day, Chi Zangfeng had already summoned him to come and see him.

He has now achieved great success in his cultivation, and before Zhao Chun left the sect and went south, he had already climbed straight up in the Dragon Tiger Tower. After the competition for the top spot ended, the top disciples of the Dragon Tiger Tower no longer needed to suppress their cultivation. Over the past hundred years, almost all of them have broken through to the Divine Realm. Therefore, the current generation of Dragon Tiger Tower disciples has been filled by new disciples. The current top disciple is Xing Juan from the Botuo Cave Heaven.

Unfortunately, there was only one Heavenly Pillar of Sword Dao in this generation, so after Xie Jing seized it, all other sword cultivation geniuses except her could only stop at the Heavenly Sea. The scene that day must have made all the sword cultivation disciples in the world sigh with regret, lamenting that they were born at the wrong time.

Today, Chi Zangfeng came to pay his respects, but there was no resentment in his expression. Instead, his aura was harmonious and his sharpness was restrained. He had gradually reached the state of returning to simplicity and authenticity. It can be seen that he has made great progress over the years and has not been affected much by the events of that year.

"Disciple greets Elder." Chi Zangfeng bowed and stepped forward. After bowing and sitting down, he followed the instructions previously conveyed by Zhao Chun, gathered his thoughts, and replied, "Recently, we have been investigating the city and discovered that many cultivators are preaching and spreading their teachings in the name of the Heavenly Human Sect. However, among them, less than one or two out of ten are truly related to the Heavenly Human Sect. Therefore, we believe that there must be a force in the city secretly manipulating this matter to confuse the public and allow the true Heavenly Human Sect to remain hidden."

"Therefore, we disciples began our investigation starting with the Jiao family. Although we haven't found anything suspicious on the surface, there is one thing we need to report to the elders." Zhao Chun nodded slightly and said, "Go ahead and speak."

Chi Zangfeng frowned slightly and said, "This matter is actually somewhat related to Jiao Jinxian..."

Dingxian City possesses three major Void Realms. Among the nine families and fourteen lineages, some have disciples within these realms, while others are connected by marriage. Regardless of kinship, all rely on one of these three realms to establish themselves within the city. The nine families pass their lineage through blood, while the other fourteen lineages, based on master-disciple relationships, also select disciples to fill their ranks. These disciples are mostly chosen from within the city, selecting those with exceptional aptitude. They are taught techniques and skills, and every ten days, elders from the same lineage explain the essentials and guide their disciples.

If a master of spiritual cultivation were to preach, the scions of noble families would go to listen. As a young genius, Jiao Jinxian's clan had already made arrangements for him. Whenever a master of spiritual cultivation was to preach, regardless of which grotto-heaven the person was from, he would always have a seat.

More than a decade ago, Huang Xin had a disciple named Shen Tong who held a grand gathering in the city to lecture on scriptures. He declared that he would select disciples from among them because his skills were pure and his lineage was profound. Even if one could not enter his school, one could still benefit from listening to his lectures. Therefore, most of the cultivators in the city flocked to him.

However, Jiao Jinxian was not among them.

Chi Zangfeng initially didn't think much of it, but after following the clues, he gradually discovered several anomalies. Not only was Jiao Jinxian absent, but two other families of young geniuses also missed the gathering. Coincidentally, one family was surnamed Shi, which was the wife's family of Wang Long, Wei Yan's eldest disciple, and the other family was surnamed Zhong, which was the kinship of Zhong Luohe, Huang Xin's eldest disciple.

The fact that the Shi and Jiao families didn't go could be explained by their differing stances and fear of conflict. However, Zhong Luohe and Shen Tong were from the same school and their cultivation methods were compatible. It would seem rather unreasonable for a disciple of the Zhong family not to go.

Therefore, when Chi Zangfeng and the others realized something was wrong, they started to investigate Shen Tong, which led to many other issues. One was that he never restricted his disciples' status when accepting them; if someone had talent, he would teach them everything he knew, even if they came from a noble family. Another was that he had a broad mind; ever since demons and evil spirits wreaked havoc on all sides, whenever Taiyuan issued a summons to exterminate evil, his disciples would always respond to his call without hesitation, unlike other cultivators who would shrink back in fear.

Judging from these statements alone, Shen Tong was renowned throughout the city, so why would Huang Xin's eldest disciple, Zhong Luohe, distance himself from him?
Since the matter involves a cultivator with supernatural powers, Chi Zangfeng and the others were unsure of what to do and could only try to find out indirectly from his disciples. However, they had not yet gained any information due to the short time they had been there.

After a moment's thought, Zhao Chun asked, "What is the character of this man's disciple?"

Reflecting on the past few days, Chi Zangfeng replied, "He was neither arrogant nor humble, and possessed an excellent temperament."

Zhao Chun sighed and said, "In that case, this is rather troublesome."

The Celestial Human Sect was founded by extraordinary individuals. If it were mixed in with other sects, the cultivators of the sect, including Zhaoyan's disciples, would inevitably be the first to be targeted for possession. Under such circumstances, she could not rest assured that she would continue to let her disciples go out to gather information.

At the same time, Zhao Chun did not want to delay the matter for too long. Now that there was a clue, she should not let it go. So she nodded and said, "You should not worry about this for now. I will go and meet with Shen Tong in a few days to see if he is just worrying unnecessarily or if there is a treacherous insect right under our noses."

She happened to have some suspicions about the supernatural beings in her mind, and she was just waiting to see if Shen Tong could confirm them.

Three days later, Zhao Chun indeed opened the gates of his cave and sent his disciple Qin Yuke to deliver an invitation to Shen Tong.

Since Shen Tong achieved the Divine Realm, he requested permission from Huang Xin to move away from the grotto-heaven and establish a lineage on Qinlian Mountain outside the city. To this day, the lineage has many disciples and grandchildren, and its foundation and strength are no less than those of the Nine Families.

Seeing that Qin Yuke had personally delivered the invitation, the disciples of this lineage knew the importance of it and dared not be negligent in the slightest. No sooner had Qin Yuke left than the invitation was presented to Shen Tong, which greatly surprised him. He asked, "Was this delivered by Zhao Chun? Is it only for my Qinlian Mountain, or..."

The disciples below had already found out the details and replied, "According to Qin Yuke, a total of six invitations were given this time."

Shen Tong thought for a moment and realized that if Wan Chong were included, there would be exactly six Divine Realm cultivators in the three great grotto heavens, corresponding to these six invitations.

In that case, you can go up there.