Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 424: Star-picking Scheme
After the big discussion, Kang Dabao went to find the noble lady of the Fei family. He did not mention anything that required the latter to pass on a message to the Fei family. It was just that he had been busy recently and had no time, so when he finally had some free time, he naturally wanted to come and comfort her.

They did not stay in this land of bliss for too long. It only took Master Kang ten days to pull himself out of those dissolute days.

After he picked up the calfshoe, he got down to business.

Without any explanation, he went to Xuanwei City alone. He still failed to meet Fei Nan'an and Mother-in-law Fei Liu, but this time he was not given any cold stares, and Fei Nan'an's wife Han Ningyue sent someone to greet him.

After Kang Dabao went in, this Taishui was not as arrogant as he was in the past. This time he did a good job in presenting the scene. After praising Master Kang for a while in a half-false way, he accepted the freshly-baked security deposit income.

Kang Dabao was of course very grateful, because strictly speaking, during the period when Fei Nan'ao, the head of Sheshan Hall, was not in charge of affairs, the person who should be truly in charge of the place should be Han Ningyue, the mistress of the house.

The noble lady of the Han family was no vulgar woman with shallow eyes. She knew what accepting this amount of spiritual stones meant. It meant that in the future, none of the rent, labor service and tax levies for the more than 400 households in the newly opened spiritual land of Chongming Sect would be paid, and the provincial governor Zhu Tong would not dare to make any comment.

This scholar who entered the government from Gyeonggi Province should know very well how to get along with the many prominent families in David's court.

The matter of "donating land and serving" is very common in the Immortal Dynasty. How can Zhu Tong control it?

Not to mention, there are many poor people in this world who have no backing and are easy to exploit. There is no reason for them to take meat from the plates where the chopsticks have already been placed, such as the Han and Fei families.

This may be very different from what Kuang Liuting, who is bent on curing his deep-seated illness, thinks, but before the latter can sit on that unspeakable position, no one dares to break this old shackle that affects all people in the world.

Kang Dabao's gift was not just to reduce the taxes levied on more than 400 cultivators in the spiritual land of Jackdaw Mountain.

The Yunwei Zheng family is a fellow townsman of Zhang Yuandao, the founder of the Chongming Sect. They also come from Fenlizhou and are under the jurisdiction of a branch of the Yukun Han family.

I think once the news of the meeting between Master Kang and Han Ningyue spreads, this poor little family that moved here from Gyeonggi Province will restrain their ugly eating habits.

Now the Chongming Sect can only focus on cultivating its inner strength diligently. It really has no energy to create any extraneous conflicts with the Zheng family. Otherwise, relying on the sick and life-or-death fake Dan in the Zheng family, it is not certain whether he is dead or alive, it is possible that he will be able to suppress the powerful Kang Dabao.

He went to Xuanwei City to pay a visit to Master Qi again. It seemed that Chu Yanran had invested a lot of resources in him in recent years. When Kang Dabao met Master Qi this time, he felt that the latter had already touched the level of the middle stage of foundation building.

This speed is not slow, but it is much faster than that of Master Kang and his fellow disciples. It makes people sigh that it is better to marry well than to be born well.

Chu Yanran took Kang Changyi to visit friends in Yezhou, but this time, Kang Dabao was not able to see him. However, judging from their relationship, Chu Yanran was definitely not indifferent to Kang Changyi, a registered disciple, but rather cared about him, which comforted Kang Dabao a little.

Kang Dabao was in no mood to chat for a long time with Qi Buxiu, the colorless old monk, and he left Qi's house in just a cup of tea.

It has been a long time since I last came to Xuanwei City. Master Kang was not in a hurry to return, but wandered around the city alone.

The Huang's old store, which he had always missed but never visited, was no longer as tempting as before. Standing under the archway, Master Kang could even smell a hint of fishy odor from the white smoke.

Miaoyunzhai's business was also lukewarm. After Qi Duola left and handed it over to Hanshan Sect to manage, the four independent brothers did not pay too much attention to this business.

Several men wearing green hats stretched lazily, allowing a group of ugly seductresses to lean on the building and flirt with them in broad daylight, but it was indeed difficult to attract Kang Dabao to stop for a moment.

He only cast his eyes on the shops with a constant flow of customers, and sighed that this big city was much more prosperous than when it was managed by the Dingnan Niu family in previous years.

Otherwise, the two shops that Mr. Ming promised to Emperor Chongming would be extremely valuable, and Ye Zhengwen would not be able to use these two shops to take to the provincial court in exchange for a few perfunctory words.

"I have too many debts in my heart, but I don't know when I can pay them back."

After sighing, Kang Dabao could only shake his head and randomly chose the most luxurious building on the main street and walked in.

When several pretty female Qi-cultivating cultivators saw that it was a Foundation Establishment Senior who entered, their entire bodies seemed to soften a little, and their voices became even sweeter: "Greetings, Senior. Is there anything you need?"

Kang Dabao looked around and asked, "Does your family have any rotten apricot coral or moonlit rock slabs for sale?"

The lion worm group has been over-manipulated in recent times and its size is far less than before. Rotten apricot coral can promote the reproduction of larvae in spirit worms, while the moon-shadow stone slab is a tonic medicine for the larvae to advance as quickly as possible.

Although the Chongming Market outside the Chongming Sect and its Chongming Caravan are also quite large, the clientele they serve is far from comparable to that of Xuanwei City, where the elite of Yunjiao Province is located. It is also difficult to gather many shops, so Kang Dabao thought of coming here to look for a while.

"Of course we have some. One liter of Rotten Apricot Coral requires six spirit stones, and a set of Moonlight Rock Slabs requires thirteen spirit stones. I wonder how much you want, senior?" A maid squeezed in, trying hard to twist her body into an alluring curve while speaking, but was ignored by Master Kang, who had already entered the sage moment.

The latter just counted the price with his fingers and thought: "The price of the former is five cents cheaper than that of Chongming Market, so the latter is also a good deal."

Then he nodded and said, "It's fair. Thank you for asking your family's boss to come out. I bought a little too much."

The maid was delighted when she heard this, and then her eyes lit up with surprise. She asked anxiously, "How much do you want to buy, senior?"

Kang Dabao did not answer, but urged: "Hurry up and ask your boss to come out. You can't take over this business, but you will get some benefits anyway."

If anyone holding a job here didn't have a bit of good sense, he would have been beaten to death in the street long ago.

After Kang Dabao spoke again, the maidservant obediently stopped talking. After a bow, she invited out the person in charge who was in the early stage of foundation building.

The chief was a middle-aged man with a beautiful beard, which was very eye-catching. When he first entered the hall, he was still somewhat unpretentious. But when he suddenly saw the head of the Kang family, he was surprised and bowed to them, saying:
"May I ask, is it Master Chongming Zongkang who is here in person?!"

Kang Dabao also felt that the middle-aged man looked familiar, and asked suspiciously, "Do you know Kang?"

"How could I not recognize him? When Sect Leader Kang fired three halberds in succession in front of Laoniu Mountain and killed Yue Fu of Liangyi Sect, I was in the battle formation. It is indeed hard to forget the demeanor of Sect Leader Kang who shocked the three armies and was unstoppable in courage." The middle-aged man smiled again.

"Oh, you are indeed too kind. May I ask your name and where your immortal hometown is? If I remember correctly, you were working under Governor Zhu at that time?"

The middle-aged man bowed solemnly again: "I am Shi Qin, the current head of the Yongxian Shi family. I am honored to meet Master Kang."

"Yongxian Shi family, isn't that right?" The head of Kangda looked strange.

"It was indeed the Yongxian Shi family under the command of the Jingnan Yuan family," Shi Qin stroked his long beard and smiled heartily, and then continued: "Master Kang wanted to kill me with a halberd at that time. Fortunately, Yue Fu came out and lured you away. Otherwise, I, Shi, would have no brains to talk to you now."

Kang Dabao was stunned, and almost choked by Shi Qin's words. It took him a long time to utter a few syllables: "This Taoist friend is a bit too kind."

Shi Qin's expression was normal, "Haha, Master Kang, you may not know that several heads of neighboring families heard that Shi was able to survive your halberd, so they no longer fight with my Shi family for the spiritual soil and minerals that they had fought with for many years. We really have to thank Master Kang for this!"

"Well, I'm glad I can help you." Kang Dabao coughed lightly, then pretended to be serious and said, "Shi Daoyou, I bought more of the Yingyue Stone Slab from Lanxinghu. I hope you can give me a little more money."

"How much does Sect Leader Kang need to buy?"

"One hundred sets of Yingyue Stone Slabs and six dou of Rotten Apricot Coral." "A total of one thousand six hundred and sixty spirit stones. I will take the one thousand six hundred spirit stones from Sect Leader Kang."

"Well, it's a bit expensive, please be more generous."

Upon hearing this, Shi Qin shook his head and laughed, "This shop is not owned by my family. This is because our ancestor Bu Wen saw our Shi family's loyalty and gave us a chance to eat."

"Is this the property of the Yuan family in Jingnan?" Kang Dabao was a little surprised. Yuan Buwen actually started to buy property in Xuanwei City?

Shi Qin nodded and added, "The Yue family of Hancheng and the Qin Dianjun of the state court both have stakes. I am just working for these big shots and I cannot make the final decision."

"Oh, fellow Daoist, don't blame me. We really can't make this deal." Master Kang thought he had come to the wrong place. After bowing to Shi Qin, he was about to walk out.

At this time, Shi Qin spoke again: "Please wait for a moment, Master Kang."

"Hmm?" Kang Dabao paused, but saw Shi Qin winking at him, and several maids in the hall started to get busy.

Not long after, more than a hundred sets of Yingyue Stone Slabs and Qidou Rotten Apricot Corals were placed in front of Sect Leader Kang, causing him to frown and ask doubtfully, "What does Fellow Daoist Shi mean by this?"

Shi Qin first took out a handful of medium-grade spirit stones and dropped them onto the counter, then he responded, "This is a gift from Shi to thank the teacher on behalf of the disciples of the clan."

"Thank you, Master?" Sect Leader Kang was slightly stunned, then he thought it through and said, "My family's property is not as good as your family's immortal seedlings."

"Your clan had it when they held the Ascension Ceremony this year."

Kang Dabao looked at Shi Qin carefully for a while before saying, "Friend Shi is indeed a wonderful person."

After collecting the spiritual objects and leaving the hall, Sect Master Kang sighed and said, "No wonder some big sects favor the children of their families. If all the families under my Chongming Sect were as sensible as the Shi family, how much more income would we get in a year? It deserves that the Yongxian Shi family is one of the oldest families in Jingnan Prefecture."

He would not easily think that Shi Qin had betrayed the control of the Yuan family. Betting on both sides was a common tactic used by immortal cultivation families. What's more, the Yuan family in Jingnan seemed to have hooked up with the Yue family in Hancheng and became part of the struggle between the natives and the Hakkas in the state court.

Therefore, Shi Qin's behavior could not be considered to have violated any taboos.

But the head of Kangda took advantage of the situation and acted like a spoiled brat:
"After three years, the rules of the Ascension Conference still need to be changed back. There are too many descendants of these families, which is not a good thing for our Chongming Sect. After returning to the sect, I should concentrate on cultivation and wait for the right time."

————Liangyi Sect, top of Black Sand Peak
The great elder of Liangyi Sect stood aside, unable to take his eyes off the blood-glowing Wanhun Banner in front of Taoist Peng.

The thick black flagpole was made from the spines of countless babies, and its surface was covered with bloody handprints of struggling people.

When the cold wind blew across the black banner, the mysterious characters embroidered with the umbilical cord blood of pregnant women seemed to come alive. Rows of densely packed vertical pupils opened at the same time on the cloth, and each pupil reflected a twisted soul.

The blood-dripping dragon pearl on the top of the banner was actually alive, and every time the soul-eating insects living in it moved, they would shake off countless translucent larvae. These insects that were difficult to distinguish with the naked eye could even be blown away by the wind, and in the blink of an eye, they could devour a fake Dan sect without leaving a single living person.

"This evil method is really powerful. It only uses some worthless mortals and Qi training as the main materials, adds some foundation building as embellishment, and finally captures three Jindan souls to suppress them. This way, the Ten Thousand Souls Banner is only one step away from becoming a fourth-level spiritual treasure that even Yuanying Zhenren would covet. Even if it takes a little longer now, only ten years away from three sixty years, it is really worth it!"

The Liangyi Sect's Great Elder couldn't tell whether he was envious or resentful at this moment. Only a trace of worry appeared in his cloudy old eyes, and at the same time he said in his heart:
"Now, if we talk about single combat, I am afraid I am no match for Taoist Peng. I also don't know whether it was right or wrong for me to invite him to the sect to open his meridians."

After a cigarette, Taoist Peng collected the magic weapon and put it close to his body. Then he turned around and bowed to the Liangyi Sect's great elder and said respectfully, "Junior brother, you are in the critical moment of nurturing the magic weapon. I am really sorry for waiting for you."

Normally, it was impossible to show it to outsiders at this time, but Taoist Peng was completely open with the Liangyi Sect's Grand Elder, which made the latter feel more assured. He suppressed all the distracting thoughts in his mind and continued, "Junior brother, you are too kind."

Taoist Peng knew that the Great Elder of Liangyi Sect disliked the smell of fish, so he took the latter on a auspicious cloud and landed at a place behind Black Sand Peak.

This is the elegant place that Taoist Peng specially left for the Grand Elder of the Liangyi Sect. There is an emerald gorge in the middle of the thousand-foot cliff. At the end, you can see the amazing sight of an upside-down waterfall - water flows backwards from the deep pool, splashes into the sky, and dotted with rainbow clouds in the sky.

"Brother, have you paid a visit to Xiang Tianxing, the head of the clan's general affairs?"

The Liangyi Sect's Great Elder felt much more comfortable in the changed situation. He took a sip of the fragrant tea and then sneered, "I see, you only heard some polite words, and there was no meaningful word."

Taoist Peng acted indignant and flew into a rage: "Senior Brother is also a senior in the Taoist sect, but Xiang Tianxing is so unruly?!"

"Nothing, after all, he is the person who has the greatest hope of having a baby in the past hundred years in Shannan Dao, so he should have some tone." The Great Elder of Liangyi Sect seemed not to care, and laughed again: "But from my point of view, I am afraid that the owner of Zhaixing Tower has not talked to him yet, so he can't say anything to me."

"The trend of the Yuanying forces outside connecting with each other has become increasingly obvious. It is hard to say when the Baokuang and Miewei factions will start a chaotic war. If the Shangzong is reluctant to make a decision, what should our Liangyi Sect do?!"

As soon as Taoist Peng finished speaking, the Grand Elder of Liangyi Sect looked at him seriously again, as if he wanted to figure out whether the anxiety on his face was real or fake.

After looking at it for a while, he found it hard to tell, so the Liangyi Sect's Great Elder withdrew his gaze, only looking at the amber tea in the teacup and whispered, "I have already told Xiang Tianxing everything that Junior Brother said, and he just said don't worry, the owner of the building understands everything."

"What if Kuang Liuting returns to Shannan Road from the outer sea and the Yunjiao State Court forces my family again? What should we do?"

"It doesn't matter. We can give him all the 160 counties in the Nine Provinces under the jurisdiction of Liangyi Sect. He can take as much as he wants!"

"Senior brother?"

"Now I need to trouble Junior Brother to find some old connections and pass on the news to several demon schools near the Jackdaw Mountains, and ask them to talk to the demon lieutenants. If necessary, Star Picking Tower Master may be able to inform the demon lieutenants of the array layout of the demon land barrier in the Jackdaw Mountains in the southern part of the mountain."

"Brother, why bother trying to fool those demon commanders? If this is accomplished, the entire Shannan Road will probably fall to the demon army. Even if it is recovered later, Shannan Road will never have peace like Liangxi and Haibei Roads! By then, won't their Zhaixing Tower become the target of public criticism of the entire David Immortal Dynasty?!"

Taoist Peng was immediately shocked, because this behavior was completely different from the minor fight he had imagined before.

The Liangyi Sect's Great Elder's eyes dimmed when he heard this, and he continued, "When I first heard this, I was as surprised as you, Junior Brother. But Xiang Tianxing told me that this was what the Star Picking Tower Master said in person, and I must not neglect it."

"Of course I dare not neglect it in the slightest," Taoist Peng said solemnly, and then added: "Junior brother will not leak any of this news either."

The old cultivator said quietly, "That's nothing. It's possible that before I mentioned this to my junior brother, the news had already been presented to the emperor's jade desk."

Taoist Peng frowned when he heard this, then he understood something and asked, "Brother, when do you think the sect will take action?"

"Huh, that's the business of those real people in heaven, you and I don't need to worry about it so much." The elder of Liangyi Sect drank the fragrant tea in front of him, stood up and gave another instruction:
"I have almost recovered all my blood and energy over the past two hundred years. We should be more restrained at this time. I don't know how many immortals have set up spies in Shannan Dao now, and there are many nosy old-fashioned people among them. If we make a wrong step, we may be annihilated."

Taoist Peng responded respectfully, and then said, "It's just that my junior brother is still a little short of the right temperature to refine the Chihuan Life-Sustaining Pill for me. I'm afraid it will take some time."

The Liangyi Sect's Great Elder was startled when he heard this. After thinking for a while, he said in a low voice, "This is also a major matter and cannot be delayed. If Junior Brother is not short of much, let's make up for it around Xiabo Mountain first."

(Lao Bai may be released from his post in the near future, and his focus will still be on finding a job. So if I am a little slack in updating later, please forgive me.)
(End of this chapter)