Journey to the head

In the quiet room, the heads of the three families, Yunshan, Lingshou and Qinglian, gathered again to share the intelligence they had gained during this period and exchanged their views.

The focus is of course the discussion on the mysterious killing of the Xuanwei Sect's Nascent Soul seeds.

Previously, the Xuanwei Sect was led by the "Yehu Zen" to investigate, but the turmoil continued to escalate and the situation gradually got out of control. The original investigation turned into a power struggle between factions. The huge number of middle and lower-level monks of the "Yehu Zen" with uneven qualities regarded the investigation as an opportunity to settle personal grudges and enrich themselves.

Eventually the conflict turned into a bloody clash, and Miaomiao Xuanjun had to step down. He severely punished the culprit of the riot and stopped "Yehu Zen" from its investigation rights.

Then he selected key members of the three factions, "House-born Son", "Wild Fox Zen" and "Hermit", to form an investigation team. He personally supervised the investigation and only then was he able to suppress the chaotic situation.

Of course, the lower-level monks of the "Wild Fox Zen" who had just tasted the sweetness of power were not very satisfied. The "Houseborn" and "Hermit" factions, which had suffered losses in the chaos, frequently petitioned for severe punishment of the "Wild Fox Zen" monks who had taken advantage of the situation.

The clueless unsolved cases and the fiercely conflicting factions made Miaomiao Xuanjun very overwhelmed. His disciples often saw him getting furious and giving 80 lashes to those who complained to him or those who caused conflict with him.

After a month of investigation, all clues were lost, and even Miaomiao Xuanjun had to admit that the investigation of this case had failed.

How did this mysterious murderer kill two Nascent Soul seeds without anyone noticing? And how did he do so without any news coming from them? One of them even died in his own cave.

No one can explain the reason, there is only mutual suspicion and attacks between factions.

But the chaotic situation in Xuanwei Sect must not continue, so Miaomiao Xuanjun could only forcibly announce the suspension of the investigation into the case and classify the murder as an invasion by external forces, and definitely not something done by the Xuanwei Sect itself.

No one is allowed to discuss the case anymore, and no one is allowed to point suspicion at their fellow disciples anymore.

After such a tough and one-size-fits-all approach, the escalating turmoil was finally put to an end, but everyone could see that there were undercurrents beneath the surface.

The conflicts among the three factions became increasingly intense, and a small matter could lead to fierce arguments or even fights.

In response to this situation, the leaders of the three factions have expressed a certain degree of concern about the peaceful and stable development of Cangzhou.

Originally, the three hundred years of "no conquest" was a good opportunity to develop with all efforts and catch up, but the Xuanwei Sect was in chaos from within, which would undoubtedly affect the speed of development.

Of course, they were relatively calm. After all, with Miaomiao Xuanjun around, although the internal conflicts of Xuanwei Sect were fierce, they would not cause a major chaos. For the time being, the impact on other sects in Cangzhou was still within the controllable range.

In addition to this topic, another key point of the trilateral talks was to further strengthen cooperation and blockade and suppress the Sikong family in terms of trade, diplomacy and resources.

The Sikong family has made great progress in military strength in recent years, adding a Yuanying and several Jindan, and there are still Jindan who have reached Mangmang and are planning to overcome the tribulation.

However, in other aspects, they were suppressed by the three sects led by the Spirit Beast Sect, and their peripheral interests had shrunk a lot. The Sikong family was weak in direct competition and had made many small moves in recent years, but in the end, the combined strength of the three sects was stronger, and the Sikong family was stretched thin and could not resist.

These warriors are finally going to take action.

“Five days ago, a Jindan from my sect suddenly caused trouble in the border market and escaped, damaging twenty-one shops and causing a loss of hundreds of thousands of spirit stones.” Lord Lianyi’s face did not look good.

"Also, I sent a Jindan Zhenren out of the country to carry out a mission. Now a month has passed and there is no news of him at all. We suspect that he has been assassinated."

"Three days ago, a breeding ground for spirit beast cubs in our sect was raided by Jindan bandits. Some of the rare cubs were taken away, and the rest were killed." Lord Youde said, "It is not in line with the true looting style to waste time killing worthless targets."

Although there is no definite evidence pointing out the identity of the attacker, there has not yet been any independent cultivator looters born in Cangzhou who dare to target the Qinglian True Sect and the Lingshou Sect.

Only the Sikong family, who lacked martial ethics, would do such a thing. Unable to defeat the opponent through normal business wars and vicious competition, they began to use force to attack the opponent.

Geographically speaking, the Sikong family is located in the southeast of Cangzhou, the Qinglian Zhenzong is located in the northeast, and the Lingshou Sect is located in the southwest. Therefore, the Lingshou Sect and the Qinglian Zhenzong are close to the Sikong family, while the Yunshan Sect is located in the northwest, separated from the Sikong family by a huge Xuanwei Sect, and is the farthest away.

Currently, the attack by the Sikong family has just begun and has not yet affected the Yunshan Sect.

"The Sikong family broke the rules first and threw aside the Xuanwei Sect's order to stop fighting. The subsequent competition will be even more dangerous." Youde Lingjun concluded.

Lianyi Lingjun said in a deep voice: "After all, there was no large-scale fighting. This kind of surprise attack and conspiracy by Jindan and above is extremely difficult to guard against. It is also extremely difficult to verify if they strike and run away. Even if we report it to Xuanwei Sect, we have no evidence. Besides, they picked a good time. Miaomiao Xuanjun is exhausted by the chaos in the sect, so he has no time to care about these things."

Yuanxu Lingjun's face showed no emotion. "If it was just an attack of this scale, it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm just worried that old man Sikong Sheng and the group of martial arts lunatics in the Sikong family will go crazy and overturn the table, and we'll all be in trouble together."

Lu Qian listened for a long time, and finally spoke: "Originally, I was thinking that the Sikong family has only damaged some peripheral interests, and has not suffered any serious damage. In fact, it is not yet to the point of using force."

"After all, you do the first day, and I do the fifteenth. What your Sikong family does, we can naturally do as well."

"Although the Sikong family has many experts, they are no match for the three of us combined. Even if we start a high-end battle, we still have the upper hand. Kaixuan Lingjun is brave but not reckless, and he will not fail to observe."

"Now that I think about it, maybe this is a way of retreating by advancing. On the one hand, I took decisive action to escape the dilemma of being slowly killed by a soft knife."

"On the one hand, we can escalate the situation. If we still fail in the bloody battle, we can just start a war and poke a hole in the sky to attract the Xuanwei faction to take action and enforce the ceasefire order. Maybe we can even let Miaomiao Xuanjun make the decision and let us return some of the benefits we have gained."

Yuanxu Lingjun nodded and said approvingly: "This is the consistent style of the Sikong family. Master Lu should have a good idea. Next, we need to weigh it carefully, control the situation while retaliating."

The negotiation lasted for most of the day. The three factions made various deductions and analyses on how to deal with the threat from the Sikong family and formulated a detailed counterattack plan.

After all, the Yunshan Sect cannot stay out of the matter. In the future, it will send elite forces to secretly participate in the counterattack. Even Lu Qian has to take action because the Yunshan Sect still has few golden elixirs.

At this time, Lu Qian also remembered a certain Jindan Yuanman who was still lingering in the territory with great interest and was unwilling to leave.

"No problem, and I happen to have a candidate here. If we let him take action, he will definitely not be caught." Lu Qian fully agreed with the counterattack plan.

Finally, the three sects reached a package agreement on strengthening further trade cooperation. In the dark night, Lu Qian stayed at the Spirit Beast Sect and received a high-level hospitality.

At the dinner, Lord Youde Ling introduced to Lu Qian the various Jindan masters from the Lingshou Sect who were currently at the mountain gate. There were a total of sixteen Jindan masters, plus their spirit beasts, there were a total of thirty-two Jindan forces!

However, I didn't see Taoist Xichan. I heard that he was in seclusion and sleeping again.

Looking at the Spirit Beast Sect, which is full of talented people and has an orderly succession, and then thinking about the obvious gap and huge disparity in the level of its own sect, I can only sigh that if the Yunshan Sect wants to catch up with the old-fashioned Nascent Soul Sect, it still has a long way to go. The road is long and arduous, and it is difficult to catch up.

The next morning, the Yunshan Sect's Lingxu Zhenyuan divine ship slowly rose into the air and was about to return to Mianlong Mountain.

The Spirit Beast Sect sent out four Jindan to lead the team. Twenty of the Spirit Beast Sect's military wind-controlling beasts, the "Sword-Feathered War Eagles", were divided into two columns to escort the Yunshan Sect's envoys out of the country.

The Spirit Beast Sect owns a huge spirit beast breeding and sales industry, as well as a wind-controlling beast transportation business that has a monopoly in several states. It has a large business and abundant capital.

However, in the past, Lu Qian had come into contact more with the Spirit Beast Sect's civilian-use wind-controlling beasts, such as the "Sky Ray", "Star-Winged Sky Ray", "Dangle-Winged Falcon", "Wind-Winged Golden Eagle", and so on.

As the cooperation between the two sides has continued to deepen over the years, the military field of the Spirit Beast Sect has also unveiled its mysterious veil.

Just like the "Sword-Feathered War Eagle" in front of us, it has a majestic body and a ferocious appearance, with long and sharp feathers pointing to the sky like a sword, and the sharp power of gold and yuan lingering on the feathers.

Its wingspan is over a hundred feet, so it can easily carry hundreds of people. The most important thing is that its escape speed is comparable to that of a golden elixir, reaching two thousand miles per hour.

In other words, in addition to the combat power of the war eagle itself, each war eagle can deliver hundreds of monks at the speed of Jindan. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the Spirit Beast Sect's long-distance delivery ability!
At any time, strategic delivery capability is the key factor that can determine the victory of a battle. Being able to quickly deploy large troops over long distances is simply an advantage.

Therefore, if the Spirit Beast Sect and the Sikong Family really engage in an all-out war in the end, the Sikong Family will have little chance of winning.

At least before the Sikong family completely shrinks the front line and switches to full defense, they will definitely suffer when the two sides attack each other.

By comparison, the Yunshan Sect's current military transportation relies only on the veteran Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou, which can only travel 400 miles per hour, with a full load of 80 passengers and an overload of up to 200 passengers, but the speed will be greatly affected.

Even though we are now on good terms with the Spirit Beast Sect and have a very close relationship, we can try to rent a batch of military wind-controlling beasts from them, but this is not a long-term solution.

No matter how good something is, it is useless if it is not yours.

Earlier, at the 65th anniversary conference of the Xinbao Refining Center, Lu Qian made an important speech on strengthening original capabilities, accelerating the quality upgrade of the refining industry, and getting rid of the path dependence of "Baoqi Zhenjian" as soon as possible, pointing out:
"We advocate self-reliance. We hope to have foreign aid, but we cannot rely on it. We rely on our own efforts and everyone's creativity."

And put forward the requirement to creatively design and manufacture a new airship based on Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou.

Specifically, Lu Qian hopes that this airship will have a speed of at least one thousand miles per hour and be able to carry more than three hundred monks.

Even if the overall manufacturing requirements are very high and the cost is high, it doesn’t matter; even if the power system is immature and will directly consume spirit crystals, and it doesn’t matter if it costs a huge amount of money every time it starts.

As I said, for the Yunshan School, any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem.

We can build the airship first, and then gradually improve it.

However, even with the Tao brothers leading the charge, the Yunshan Sect's weapon refining center was already well established and quite powerful, but designing and manufacturing airships that could meet the Yunshan Sect's military needs was still a difficult task.

After so many years of development in the world of cultivation, the shape of ordinary airships has basically been optimized to the extreme. The Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou was originally a precious blueprint passed down by Jichuan Xuanjun and left to the Ao family. It was then provided to Chaoshengmen by Mo Yunzhenren and finally fell into the hands of Lu Qian.

It is not easy to design a powerful ship that can surpass Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou.

Progress is slow now and I don’t know how long it will take.

Lu Qian was not in a hurry, as a big war could not break out in Cangzhou right now.

On the ground, Youde Lingjun politely saw Lu Qian off all the way out of the mountain gate, and watched him board the Lingxu Zhenyuan Divine Boat.

Looking at Lu Qian's back, Youde suddenly waved the folding fan in his hand, and Bai Ze jumped out from the fan.

"Mingzhuang, you are now at a high enough level. Take a look at Lu Qian's destiny. I want to know what will happen to him in the future. Is it worth it for me to make friends with him?"

Bai Ze Mingzhuang nodded. In the past, it was only at the Jindan level. Firstly, it was not yet proficient in using its talent of knowing destiny. Secondly, when it came into contact with Lu Qian, Lu Qian had already reached the Jindan level, and as a fellow Jindan, it was difficult for him to see through it.

But now, Bai Zeming has been promoted to the Nascent Soul stage and has amazing talent. Although he cannot yet "know ten thousand years in the past and a thousand years in the future", his pair of divine eyes can already glimpse into the future, and ordinary golden elixirs can hardly escape its surveillance.

At that moment, it opened its long and wide eyes, and colorful light flowed in them, spreading around like a rainbow.

It looked towards Lu Qian's back.

Lord Youde Ling showed anticipation on his face, as he had formulated most of the plans to make friends with the Yunshan Sect and Lu Qian, originally intending to train a loyal subordinate to help fight against the Sikong Family.

But now, the growth rate of Yunshan Sect has far exceeded expectations. If Lu Qian or Wu Yan become infants in the future, they will be completely out of control, and Qinglian Zhenzong will completely turn to their side.

Take this opportunity to take a look and see how far you can go.

The eye of destiny, open!

All of a sudden, a scream was heard!
Bai Ze's eyes instantly became bloodshot, and then burst!
Thick blood mist flew in the air, its divine eye of destiny was broken! (End of this chapter)