Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1532 Dan Ding Sect

"Today is the fifth session of this course, and the midterm exams are just around the corner. I believe you have all learned a lot in this class, because I just checked the attendance sheet and the attendance rate for this course is as high as 168%—everyone who should have come and everyone who shouldn't have come has come. Very good, very good indeed."

The guest lecturer, who called himself Zhang San, stood at the top. The course had been moved from the medium-sized classroom to a large classroom because there were too many people other than students, and there simply wasn't enough room in the large classroom.

Zhu Xianxi wasn't a first-timer; he attended every class. In every class, he sat with Shang Luo, in a seat towards the back. Since both of them had excellent eyesight, it didn't really matter where they sat.

For some reason, Shangluo always felt like he and Zhu Xianxi were classmates, even though they were actually 12 years apart in age.

Fahrenheit, on the other hand, had nowhere to sit. She had work to do; she had to be a teaching assistant. Normally, in the main classroom, Mr. Zhang San would occasionally call Shang Luo up to distribute materials or go to his office. But there were just too many people here, and he didn't want to take up Shang Luo's time.

Fortunately, there was a "teaching assistant" here who didn't need to keep secrets from her, and all the problems were solved.

Of course, Shangluo suspected there was a third possibility, and it was quite likely—some time ago, he had inadvertently seen a "spoiler" about Faetong: they had used the Beacon System to examine Faetong's characteristics and saw the title of [Commander-in-Chief], which seemed to be a position arranged for Faetong by the Dao Ancestor. This corresponded to Shangluo's World-Holding Envoy and Apollonia's Wisdom Envoy.

Literally, the term "调御" (tiaoyu) seems related to alchemy, perhaps indicating that the Dao Ancestor himself wanted to find a successor for the Dan Ding Sect. After all, Shangluo theoretically doesn't belong to the Dan Ding Sect, but rather to the Sword Immortal Sect. Therefore, after the position of Dao Alliance Leader is passed to Shangluo in the future, Shangluo will not inherit the Dan Ding Sect. Thus, the Dan Ding Sect still needs someone to inherit it.

Although Zhu Xianxi was the true disciple of Daozu who was personally taught the Dao of Alchemy, Zhu Xianxi was already the emperor and had his own mission.

To whom will the Dan Ding Sect ultimately be passed down? This question was originally a mystery, because no one knew what the Dao Ancestor was thinking. But Shang Luo's glimpse of this information allowed him to see these clues.

This person is most likely Phaethon.

The fact that Zhang San, the self-proclaimed Celestial Master Sanfeng, specifically selected Fa'e Tong to be his teaching assistant further confirms this speculation.

"There's something I don't understand," Zhu Xianxi muttered to Shang Luo, "Why her? Does she know alchemy?"

Shang Luo shook his head: "As far as I know, it's definitely not going to happen. Speaking of which, is this why you chose her as your teaching assistant, Senior Brother?"

"It was only after you told me that I started making preparations. I also asked the Imperial Ancestor, but he wouldn't say—but it's always good to be prepared. After all, this is indeed a very reasonable matter. I have no way of managing the Pill Refining Sect. Being the Emperor is already exhausting. Right now, I'm not in charge of the Pill Refining Sect. It's mainly managed by a few thousand-household commanders in the Pill Refining Room. I only go to inspect it occasionally."

But things will obviously be different later on. The reason they can manage things this way now is because the Dan Ding Sect only has a few dozen people, so a flat management structure is sufficient. In this process, Zhu Xianxi only needs to provide them with business guidance. This is simply an operational method that has emerged within the current system. In reality, it doesn't conform to the proper operational structure of the five sects of the Dao Alliance.

Ideally, the entire Imperial Palace should fall under the jurisdiction of the Dan Ding Sect, and the entire Imperial Palace should revolve around alchemy. The Embroidered Uniform Guard should primarily operate using alchemy techniques.

However, this is not actually possible. This is mainly because the scope of alchemy training previously couldn't fully cover the operations of the Embroidered Uniform Guard—not for political reasons, but simply because the Alchemy Training Sect wasn't effective enough. If it were truly effective, the Embroidered Uniform Guard wouldn't object to changing their methods of warfare.

In reality, the Embroidered Uniform Guards only carry a limited amount of pills during operations. Aside from these pills, they generally employ their own fighting styles, with lightning cultivation being the most prevalent. This is because, currently, compared to the Pill Cauldron Sect, the Divine Firmament Sect, which cultivates lightning cultivators, is better able to support an entire system.

But will it continue to be like this in the future? Obviously not, at least some signs have already emerged.

With the introduction of a series of complex elixirs, the workload in the alchemy room suddenly doubled. Moreover, the elixirs being refined now were not everyday items like "life potions" or "antidotes," but a series of truly useful [Golden Elixirs]. This included the Golden Elixir now known as the "Seven-Reversal Fire Elixir," which allows one to enter a state of silent cultivation after death to nurture their spiritual essence; both were part of this series of extraordinary elixirs.

The refining process for these pills is far more complex, and their medicinal properties truly demonstrate the strength that the Pill Refining Sect should possess. This makes the management of the Pill Refining Sect even more important, because now a few dozen people are no longer enough to handle the workload. Cultivators can't just sit there refining pills all day doing nothing; even manual labor couldn't maintain such a high-intensity work. Pill refining is a delicate craft, and the direct consequence of high-intensity pill refining might be the need to reinvent and invent new gunpowder formulas multiple times.
"So, senior brother, did it explode?"

"You should have heard it when it was about to explode—why do you seem so excited about our alchemy room exploding?"

"I just always felt that with the intensity of your work, an explosion was inevitable."

“What you said makes sense, but I’m prepared. I’ve already gone to Wudang Mountain to find outside help, and soon there will be several times more Taoists than the alchemy room coming to support us.”

"Speaking of which, it seems that Wudang Mountain has more Qi cultivators than the Imperial Palace?"

"Of course. Wudang Mountain is a sacred mountain. In fact, even the Qi cultivators in the Imperial Palace mostly inherit the Daoist tradition of Wudang Mountain. The Imperial Palace is just one career path for Wudang Mountain cultivators. We ourselves only train a small number of alchemists, thunder cultivators, and mystic cultivators. After all, the Dao Ancestor was from Hubei."

Theoretically, that is indeed the case. Although the Zhu family's ancestral home is indeed in Fengyang, the Daoist patriarch himself was born into a princely family in Hubei. They have a long tradition of venerating Daoism, which is also because Daoism is indeed very prosperous at the foot of Wudang Mountain.

Even the Dao Ancestor himself, in the early part of his life, did not really believe in alchemy. At that time, he mainly practiced and believed in the methods of prayer and supplication, that is, the orthodox fasting and ritual ceremonies to pray for good weather, peace and prosperity for the country. As for his shift to the Dao of alchemy and the eventual transformation of the Imperial Palace into the Alchemy Sect, that was something that happened in the second half of his life. It was also at that time that he accepted Lan Daoxing as his personal immortal cultivation consultant.

(End of this chapter)