Taoist Master Xuanhuang

"Come and take a look, everyone."

The intelligence agencies belonging to the Confucian school received a report from the alien city protected by the Confucian school.

"Is this the third one?"

After taking a look at the intelligence, the colleagues said...

"Strictly speaking, this is the fourth one. There's another one here, although it's not very clear, but it's also a report on abnormalities in the boundary. Take a look."

Another monk brought out the newly received intelligence as well.

It was a very brief report; everyone understood the general meaning after reading it.

"How so?" the leading cultivator asked, seeking everyone's advice.

"Mountain Lord, according to intelligence, this is not an isolated incident; we should take it seriously."

"That's right, this is just the beginning. There will likely be more to come, so we need to pay attention."

"..."

A group of intelligence personnel began to offer suggestions, but in reality, it was better not to say anything at all.

This needs to be taken seriously?
Do you even need to tell me? What the mountain lord wants to know is, what should we do?
This illustrates the predicament of Confucianism: the headquarters is split, and despite the many arrangements made in conjunction with the Confucian Temple, there is no going back.

Once the breakdown begins, the previous environment can never be restored.

In the past, people would have eagerly offered constructive suggestions instead of merely saying they wanted to take it seriously without offering any solutions.

"Yes!" The mountain lord nodded.

As the master of a mountain in a province, he has also changed.

In the past, he would have already reprimanded his subordinates for their insensitive suggestions, but now he doesn't even know what to say.

It seems that my subordinates are changing, and I am changing too. In the past, when politics were more transparent, my power came from headquarters, and as long as headquarters supported me, there was nothing I couldn't do.

But now, can headquarters still provide such support?
Putting aside everything else, even though the intelligence agencies here seem stable, the people here are already divided into several factions. The reason they haven't separated is because of the special nature of the intelligence agencies.

If it weren't for special circumstances, they would have split into several factions long ago.

Even if others don't say it, I am one of the people who split off from the original branch.

"Let's ask the other three companies about their situation first."

The main path of the Confucian school.

Without real power, he couldn't do whatever he wanted and could only take roundabout approaches.

"Yes!"

Soon after, intelligence from the other three sources was relayed over.

What is the current area of ​​each province?
It's hard to say for sure because it's too big. According to the measurements of previous civilized societies, it would definitely be an area exceeding one light-year.

This is still the most conservative estimate; in reality, it would be much larger, to the point that it would be difficult to measure.

This is outrageous. This is just one province within the Xia Kingdom. You can imagine how vast the Earth must be right now.

In previous civilizations, this would have been impossible; there would never have been a planet that big, it would have shattered long ago.

But in reality, this is the current size of Earth, and it is still growing.

Within the Xia Kingdom, things are alright. Because cultivators took control early on, the division of provinces and cities has been preserved, and the previous names for provinces and cities are still in use, only the area has become much larger.

Outside of the Xia Kingdom, everything had already changed drastically.

The changes over the past century, without the cohesion of civilization, divine guidance, and various other reasons, have long since resulted in a world that is no longer what it used to be and has become unsystematic.

Abroad, the nation-state has long since disappeared, replaced by various territories governing different areas.

A powerful realm will rule over a larger area, while a weak realm will rule over a smaller area.

Large realms also control medium-sized realms, medium-sized realms govern small realms, and small realms control micro-realms.

Above all of this lies the control of the highest realm.

The nation no longer exists; in its place are boundaries.

The structure of spiritual masters abroad is similar. They rule over places without boundaries and generally keep to themselves.

If you can't beat beings from other realms, can't you at least beat ordinary people?
Many spiritual masters changed their identities and established their own ruling forces and dynasties.

Due to the outflow of true cultivation energy, spiritual masters abroad, although not as abnormal as those within Xia Kingdom, have still made considerable progress. At the very least, cultivating spiritual masters has become easier.

The various elixirs and miraculous medicines that came from the Xia Kingdom became treasures that they fought over.

The law of the strong getting stronger applies; many powerful spiritual masters abroad have reached the third tier.

Once they reach the third tier, they become difficult to eliminate and can begin cultivating their own power.

Over time, this accumulation of power, spanning a century, resulted in a considerable force.

Before the divine beings were born, they were local tyrants, even more powerful than the divine beings.

However, they are also clever, knowing that those below the fourth rank are no match for the divine, so they do not provoke the realms, and may even unite or try to please them.

The purpose was to prevent the divine from being attacked after its complete emergence into the world.

The effect is not bad.

To reiterate, there are currently no fundamental conflicts of interest among the parties involved.

The reason is that Earth is too big. It is so big that even if it develops for another thousand years, there will be no conflicts of interest. There is an endless vast area to be explored, so there is no time to fight to the death with others.

If this place doesn't want me, there are plenty of other places that will. If I can't make it here, I'll just go to some desolate place without boundaries or spirit masters. Anyway, there are plenty of such wastelands.

It's not worth fighting to the death.

The reason lies in the vast area of ​​Earth.

Chaos is the only dominant phenomenon on Earth outside of Xia Kingdom. Here, human life is treated like dirt; it's a naked display of the law of the jungle.

While pure-blooded humans from other planets are beginning to be protected and valued, they lack the systematic regulations and standards found within the Xuanhuang system.

The population has increased over time, but it is still incomparable to the number of living beings that have integrated into it.

The Blue Star people within the Xia Kingdom currently make up less than one percent of the total population, which is already quite outrageous.

The pure blue planet humans outside of Xia have disappeared, numbering less than one ten-thousandth of them.

The difference is obvious; it's enormous.

In hindsight, foreign deities and spiritual masters discovered the superiority of humans from the pure blue planet, which far surpasses the superiority of beings from smaller worlds in every aspect.

Their talent, aptitude, fortune, and even physical attributes far surpass those of the creatures in the small world.

They did discover the advantages, but it was too late. In addition, they lacked the ability to integrate the overall system, there was no all-encompassing entity like Xuanhuang, and there were no rules that everyone agreed upon.

If you have a lot of purebred humans, I'll ambush you, I'll rob you, I'll kill you and take it.

If I can't take it, I'll destroy it; if I can't have it, neither can you.

Because of this chaos, the number of pure-blooded humans from Earth has not only failed to increase, but has actually decreased, and they are powerless to stop it.

Some even started thinking this way.

It's not that pure-blooded humans can't die out; keeping them alive is a threat to us.

Because of their higher fundamental nature, they have the highest probability of becoming spiritual masters, meaning that each pure human is a potential future rival.

Why keep your future potential rivals around?

Extremists have started thinking about these issues; it would be better if pure-blooded humans died, so that no one could challenge their authority.

How wonderful it is to be a being from another world! You can rule however you want without any moral pressure, even though they themselves have no morals.

Even before the bizarre resurgence, there were acts like those of LL Island. Don't treat them as human beings; they are an uncivilized, barbaric civilization. Now, they are even more unrestrained, doing whatever they want.

For various reasons, they can obtain overflowing energy from true practitioners, making their cultivation easier.

However, there are no true cultivators practicing the profound Dao within their territory, and even the Lesser Heavenly Dao will not reach them; they have absolutely no enemies.

Only a few magic weapon cultivators, whose systems have been phased out within the Xuanhuang system, still maintain a certain presence.

However, as Spirit Masters entered the third tier, the magic weapon cultivator system collapsed.

They are no match for a third-tier spirit master.

Its demise is only a matter of time.

It's a miracle that the Xia Kingdom was able to maintain its previous divisions, even from the perspective of foreigners.

Because each province is so large, even true cultivators might not be able to keep up if it weren't for the rapid development of teleportation arrays.

Fortunately, the growth of the blue planet is synchronized with the growth of the cultivators, and the cultivators are also getting stronger, so there is no place that cannot be reached.

Every province has its own powerful forces, including the four super-powers and eight middle-level agencies, and the intelligence departments are no exception.

Soon, the other three companies relayed the message.

"Lord of the Mountain, the situation is similar; they have also received reports from below."

Each of the four superpowers has its own otherworldly power. For example, Flying Flower City is an otherworldly city protected by the Martial Arts Alliance.

Nine out of ten, nine sects, nine dynasties—to put it simply, they are all entities protected and supported by the four super powers.

Some resentful beings from other worlds were unaware that the powerful forces they acknowledged were also subordinate to the Four Superpowers.

The benefits of such propaganda are far less than those of openly admitting that the Nine Sects and Nine Cities are developed independently and that they are the pride of this other world.

"Hmm, it seems we need to report this to the Evil Suppression Department," said the Confucian sect leader.

In the past...

Sigh, I'm not going to say anything more. The past was great, but unfortunately, we can't go back.

Let the officials in the Evil Suppression Department handle this.

"Let's arrange for the other three families to go to the Department of Suppressing Evil together to report this."

The mountain lord then spoke.

Coincidentally, the other three are in the same situation, unable to resolve their own problems. Their headquarters are in turmoil, and the intelligence agencies in their respective provinces are already in a state of chaos.

The next day, the four families arrived together at the provincial branch of the evil-repelling department.

"What wind has blown the four of you here? The four of you coming together must be something important. Come, take a seat."

A deputy head of the Guangxi Provincial Anti-Evil Department received them.

The head of the Department of Suppressing Evil is called the Minister, the provincial level is called the Hall Master, the city level is called the Helmsman, and the county, city, township, etc. are called the Executive Officers. It's all very casual.

Gui Sheng's deputy hall master is surnamed Wu, a second-tier spiritual master.

Because spiritual masters cultivate quickly, and with the current availability of various safeguards, even those overseas can obtain a trace of the overflowing energy of true cultivators, not to mention the Evil Suppression Department.

Progress is rapid; as long as there are suitable strange occurrences, the path to becoming a third-tier spiritual master is safe and secure.

Of course, you need to have enough talent; otherwise, it won't work.

The problem nowadays is a lack of supernatural entities. Because of this lack, spiritual masters cannot find supernatural entities to fuse with, not because the supernatural entities are too strong for them to fuse with.

The reason why there is an outflow of energy from abroad is because this is under the jurisdiction of the Suppression Department. They can prevent the energy of the Xia Kingdom from overflowing.

The reason they didn't do it was to exchange some insignificant things for something strange from abroad.

The Department of Suppressing Evil also has its own ghost-catching team, which spends a lot of time catching ghosts abroad and engaging in exchange missions.

"Greetings, Hall Master Wu. We have intelligence to report."

The mountain lord, who was the leader of the Confucian school, said.

The strength of the Demon Suppression Department is incomparable. Although the Spirit Masters look down on them, their cultivation speed is really fast, which is something that makes them both envious and jealous.

He, a dignified mountain lord of a province in the Four Superpowers, is only at the peak of the first rank, while the deputy hall master is already a second-rank spiritual master.

Leaving aside the second-tier cultivators at the Four Super Headquarters, among the second-tier cultivators assigned to each province, only the head of a province has a second-tier cultivation level.

Although intelligence agencies are special, they still have superiors. Each province in the four superpowers has a master-level expert to suppress them.

Intelligence agencies are unique in that they are directly under the jurisdiction of headquarters, but they also obey the orders of the head of the first branch in each province.

"Oh?" Hall Master Wu took the information from them.

They watched carefully; the arrival of the intelligence chiefs of the four superpowers was definitely not a small matter.

He took a closer look and realized it was no small matter.

In short, they discovered an anomaly in the realm; there shouldn't be so much evil and holy energy there, and this change was worth investigating.

After reading it, he pondered for a moment.

"What do you think?" asked Deputy Hall Master Wu.

This is not something I can decide on my own; I need to report to the head of the hall and then to headquarters.

If what Si Chao said is true, it would definitely be a big deal.

"We don't understand, so we've come to report." The four mountain lords were all at a loss, one asking a question and the other saying they didn't know.

"You must have received this information from the otherworldly forces you're protecting. All they want is your protection. How could you not understand that?"

Who are you taking advantage of because they're not smart enough?

The deputy hall master was furious. Did he really think he was some old spiritual practitioner? The era when all spiritual practitioners with bad brains were mentally ill is long gone.

The current spiritual master's one-stop service has a very complete system.

We're all normal people now; it's not the era of mental illness anymore.

It's impossible to push your own problems onto the Evil Suppression Department without taking responsibility yourself.

"Ah, we really don't understand this. We just discovered a crisis and came to report it. As you know, Master Wu, we martial artists are like this, not very bright."

Realizing he had been discovered, the leader of the Martial Arts Alliance started acting recklessly, insisting that he was a rude and uncouth martial artist with a bad head.

"Haha... That's as if you think someone's brain is super sharp. I'm not only not smart, I'm mentally ill. I am a Spirit Master!"

Without a deputy hall master, they directly unleashed their ultimate attack.

The four mountain lords: ? ? ? ?

Damn it, I've met my match. You say you're not thinking straight? Well, coincidentally, all of us Spirit Masters are mentally ill. Come on, let's hurt each other. Who's afraid of who?

That's invincible.

Especially the leader of the Martial Arts Alliance, he has met his match.

"Ahem, Vice Hall Master Wu is joking. This is indeed our responsibility, but as you know, we are currently unable to make decisions and do not have the ability to resolve this crisis."

The Confucian sect leader quickly explained, "It seems that acting recklessly won't work; let's try something more practical."

"Wouldn't it have been better to say this earlier? It's our responsibility as the Demon Suppression Department, we'll do it without you having to tell us. But don't try to shirk your responsibilities either. You can't enjoy the offerings from the other world and then say you can't help when they're in danger. You can't be so shameless."

It's rare to have a chance to criticize Si Chao, so Vice Hall Master Wu must take revenge.

……

P.S.: I keep getting blocked, it's unbearable. Even my perfect attendance bonus from last month was blocked. I guess I'll just stick to writing safer content. My apologies to all my readers. (End of Chapter)