When I become a demon king, I want to change my department to the Taoist sect.

Chapter 896 Exploitation
The Zhou family's house, a side hall.

"So, you think that girl hasn't realized you've discovered her identity and hasn't told anyone about her destiny?" Zhou Ou asked in a deep voice, sitting in the superior position.

Zhou Leng replied, "If she had already guessed that she had been exposed, how could she have dared to accept this mission? If it were me, I would rather accept punishment and digest most of this luck before going out."

"Moreover, Zhou Qingyun has always been a marginal figure on Yuejiang Island, so her trust in Jiang Huanyue's lineage is probably limited, and she is unlikely to reveal the matter of destiny."

Zhou Ou nodded slightly and said, "In that case, you need to be more careful on the way. It would be best if you could ease the tension with her, but if that's not possible, don't reveal your true intentions."

Zhou sneered, "Grandson understands. Make Zhou Qingyun think that my trip is still about her previous humiliation of the Zhou family. This will actually make her lower her guard."

"You are teachable." Zhou Ou's eyes showed satisfaction, and then he instructed, "Once you arrive at Yu Youyuan, someone will naturally meet you and we will proceed with the next step of the plan."

"No matter what, that girl is a true disciple of the sect. If something happens to her, the sect will definitely investigate thoroughly. So we must absolve ourselves of all responsibility at every step we take."

As he spoke, he gave Zhou Leng a meaningful look and slowly said, "If there are any grudges between fellow disciples, as long as it doesn't involve life or death, the sect will not interfere, and may even encourage you to compete with each other."

"But to deliberately plot to harm one's fellow disciples is a grave crime, one that even I cannot bear. Do you understand?"

“Grandson understands.” Zhou Leng’s lips twitched slightly, and he sneered, “I guarantee that even if the Enforcement Hall investigates, they will only find out about my personal grudges with her, and nothing else.”

Zhou Ou slowly walked down from the seat of honor, patted Zhou Leng on the shoulder, and said earnestly, "This matter concerns the future of my Zhou family, so I'm entrusting it to you!"

"Grandson, I will do my utmost and will certainly not let you down!"

……

Three Immortal Islands, Dongji Island.

Like Yuejiang Island, this island was built by Zhou Ju using the techniques of gathering soil to form land and moving mountains to fill seas after the sect gradually grew stronger.

The teleportation array for the Three Immortal Islands was built here.

Since the beginning of the Ling Shu era, the teleportation array, which had been abandoned since the Immortal Qin dynasty, has gradually been revived.

Based on major sects such as the Taiqing Sect of the Three Immortal Islands, the Daoist Alliance has built large arrays that connect to various states in the territories under its jurisdiction.

It should be understood that the Earthly Immortal Realm is vast and boundless; even a Nascent Soul True Immortal would find it futile to try to measure it with their own body. Not to mention the boundless illusory seas of various levels, even the Nine Provinces and Four Seas are ridiculously large.

Therefore, the resources consumed by such teleportation arrays that can cross continents and seas are astronomical.

Even with the [Tian Shu Academy] undertaking the construction, it was still quite a challenge. Therefore, the scale of the teleportation array is far from comparable to the "Chidao" of the ancient Xian Qin.

Yu Youyuan is located in a corner of the East Sea. This formation can only teleport him to the lower temple of the Three Immortal Islands in the East Sea at most. There are still several days' journey left, and he still needs to travel in his true form.

At the entrance of the teleportation array, Zhou Qingyun and her two companions met Zhou Leng again. Unlike the three who had traveled light, Zhou Leng and his group were making a big show of it, even to an exaggerated degree.

On the massive, magical ship, thousands of feet long, were hundreds of Taoist soldiers and hundreds of demonic servants. Banners fluttered and brocade clouds billowed, creating a magnificent spectacle, as majestic as a royal procession.

Zhou Leng, dressed in a black cloak, stood at the bow of the ship, looking exceptionally handsome. Even the sons of established noble families would have to praise him as a refined gentleman.

"Senior sister, do you really not need me to give you a ride?" Zhou Leng looked down at the three of them, appearing quite familiar with them.

"The three of us prefer peace and quiet, so we'd better not join in the fun," Zhou Qingyun said calmly. "We can contact each other again once we reach our destination."

After saying that, she pulled Shen Zhimei and Luo Zhi into the teleportation array. With a flash of light, the three of them disappeared from the spot.

In just a few breaths, the three appeared in the East Sea, hundreds of millions of miles away. Such a vast distance could only be covered by a few Dao Lords like the Old Ghost Candlelight in an instant. Even a master-level escape technique would require several movements.

But now, with just over a hundred Three Mountains Talismans, even ordinary people can travel to all the states and the four seas.

Moreover, since the [Ling Shu Dharma Realm] became widespread, there are no longer any purely mortal people in the Earthly Immortal Realm; almost everyone has some level of cultivation.

This is the tremendous change that the [Ling Shu Dharma Realm] and the Tian Shu Academy have brought to the Earthly Immortal Realm. Since the complete collapse of the Immortal Dynasty system and the isolation of all the heavens and myriad realms, the Earthly Immortal Realm has finally regained some of the prosperous cultivation scene of ancient times.

Because Zhou Qingyun and the other two were all disciples of the sect, they did not undergo much inspection and passed through smoothly. After leaving the teleportation hall, they did not linger in the lower courtyard and headed directly towards Yu Youyuan's direction.

Since Tang Yuan subdued the Dragon Clan, the lands of the four seas have gradually been eroded by the Daoist sect, especially the Merfolk tribe, which has been completely reduced to a vassal state of the Daoist sect.

Faced with a well-developed commercial system, sophisticated financial tools, and industrialized magical artifacts, the economic system of the Merfolk, which relied on rare and precious materials such as spirit shells and spirit pearls and primitive crops such as water-woven fabrics, was utterly vulnerable.

Countless precious pearl and shell farms have been "bought off at rock-bottom prices," and even the accumulation of tens of millions of years has been completely emptied.

The human race was like a giant water pump, sucking away the past and future of the merfolk completely.

Moreover, this kind of aggression is more silent and deadly than direct destruction. To this day, the merfolk have even lost the ability to survive independently of humans.

Not only do they rely on humans in every aspect of their cultivation, but their worship of humans has also become a widespread trend.

Whether noble or commoner, all considered it an honor to join the Taoist sect.

Countless merfolk would rather give up their entire fortune to send their descendants to the Dao Alliance's lower academy to study for Foundation Establishment, hoping that they would never return to the Abyss and would remain in the human race's sect.

However, after thousands of years of development, let alone alien races like merfolk, even humans find it extremely difficult to join a proper Taoist sect.

Although there are many sects, most of the spots are taken by the aristocratic families that breed within them, leaving only a small number of spots for the Dao Alliance's lower academy.

Only the most outstanding individuals are given this opportunity each year, and the vast majority of graduates from the Dao Alliance's lower academy end up becoming independent cultivators.

Of course, thanks to the existence of the [Spiritual Pivot Dharma Realm], the living conditions of independent cultivators are much better than before, but they still cannot compare with the resources that sect disciples can enjoy.

If this is true for human talents, then it goes without saying that for alien races like merfolk, those who can enter a proper Taoist sect are extremely rare.

It is extremely difficult to join a major sect like the Qing Sect on the Three Immortals Island. In addition to one's own talent, the sect must also offer countless rare and precious materials.

Once upon a time, a mermaid prince brought fifty top-quality shell farms as a gift to become a disciple of Shenxiao. In the end, he only entered the inner sect of Shenxiao and failed to become a true disciple.

Even so, the merfolk still flocked to them, and once they achieved some success in their cultivation, they often did not repay their tribe. If this continued, the entire merfolk race would face the crisis of gradual extinction.

Aside from siphoning the geniuses and resources of the merfolk, ordinary merfolk people are also targets of exploitation.

Since the influx of Taoist cultivation resources, the merfolk have had to work tirelessly for almost a year just to barely meet their own and their families' basic cultivation needs.

Moreover, even for this kind of job, merfolk have to compete with each other.

Fortunately, sects like Taiqing, Shangqing, and the Three Immortal Islands still exist, adhering to some degree of the principles of heaven and man, leaving the merfolk with ways to survive, such as water weaving, instead of exploiting them to the extreme.

If the Five Emperors were in power, given the beauty of the mermaids, aside from a few nobles and merchants, the ordinary mermaids would probably have become slaves and commodities, selling like hotcakes throughout the Nine Provinces.

The destination of Zhou Qingyun and the others was the Yu Youyuan Merfolk Tribe, which, due to its remote location, was considered one of the tribes that had been less assimilated by humans.

Even so, most of their tribe's shell fields had been taken away by the human race, which is why Zhou Leng mentioned checking his own property on the side.