Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 140 The Lord has truly gone to great lengths.
"It's one thing that the name 'Red Serpent Holy Sect' can't be used, but what about the name 'Five Villages Temple'?"

The Venerable One and Chen Ye sat facing each other on the ruins, discussing the matter of establishing a sect.

Several days have passed since the Nirvana Sect's sacrifice. People from the five major sects have come and gone, and Chen Ye has always dodged with great precision, just as the Venerable Master had instructed.

In addition, the array that concealed its presence was truly remarkable; no one has discovered the underground palace to this day.

The Nirvana Sect's sacrifice of living beings was considered a thing of the past by cultivators.

Chen Ye would then naturally have to consider how to establish a sect here.

First, we need to decide on a name.

The Venerable One's opinion was that although the name "Red Serpent Holy Sect" couldn't be used, it should at least be related to it in some way. Chen Ye, on the other hand, felt that since there was a ginseng fruit here, calling it "Five Villages Temple" would be perfectly reasonable.

If he succeeds in his cultivation, he can even call himself Zhen Yuanzi, and might just gain a huge fortune.

Chen Ye explained, "I read it in ancient books. Ginseng fruit grows in Wuzhuang Temple, so this name is just right."

The Venerable Master retorted, "Suitable my foot! This Wuzhuang Temple can't even protect its own ginseng fruit. It's either all show and no substance or its disciples are unworthy. And they still use this name? Aren't they afraid of bad luck?"

Chen Ye thought there was some truth to what he said.

While Wuzhuang Temple cannot be said to be all show and no substance, the fact that its disciples are unworthy certainly has some merit.

"Then, Your Majesty, what name do you suggest we give him?"

After thinking for a moment, the Venerable Master said to Chen Ye, "Ultimately, we need to choose a more fitting name. The Qinghe Sword Sect is named after the sword, so naturally, its greatest strength is swordsmanship. Qinghe is also a place name. The Fenxiang Sect is named after its founder, who was originally a temple keeper who offered incense to people. He had a magical incense burner that suppressed the luck of the sect. The name of a sect always needs to have some meaning. I think your Ten Thousand Souls Banner is the signboard. Think about it yourself."

"Let's call it the Myriad Souls Sect."

"You chose this name because you're afraid people won't know you're a demon, right?"

"Human Emperor Sect!"

"Are you afraid that other cultivators won't come and tear down your sect?"

……

Chen Ye lay down on the ground, deciding to give up entirely.

This won't do, that won't do, is choosing a name really that complicated? In Chen Ye's view, the name of the sect isn't that important; what matters is the sect's rules. But this sect seems to be extremely important to the Venerable Master, to the point that he's nitpicking a bit.

Chen Ye simply let him choose for himself, since he was just an employee anyway.

“Your Excellency, please take your time to consider this. I think we should first decide on the location of our sect. Although the five righteous sects have already come here to inspect, the Northern Frontier is ultimately the territory of the barbarians. In the past few days, quite a few barbarians have appeared, either survivors or scouts sent by Chief Nabil. If we don’t claim our territory soon, we’ll have to take it from others.”

Upon hearing this, the Venerable One laughed and said, "Building a mountain-guarding formation requires the power of feng shui and earth veins. Do you know the art of finding dragon veins and observing their energy?"

Chen Ye asked doubtfully, "Shouldn't this be decided by you, Lord?"

But the Venerable One said, "I don't know either."

"How come you can't even do this?"

Chen Ye found it unbelievable. The Venerable Master seemed to be willing to pay any price to revive the Crimson Serpent Demon Sect, so how could he not even know the most basic skills of establishing a sect? Wasn't this all for nothing?

The Venerable One said, "The art of dragon vein observation is unorthodox and selective. People without talent simply cannot learn it. You yourself have studied divination, and feng shui and divination are closely related. Can you learn it?"

Chen Ye wanted to say, "How can that be the same?"

But upon closer examination, I realized that what the Venerable One said made sense. There are countless magical arts in the world, and many unorthodox ones can keep countless cultivators away just by learning the basics.

Fang Yuan, the monk, had reached the Void Returning Realm, but in terms of divination skills, he was inferior to Chen Ye, who had just begun.

Chen Ye asked, "Then what should I do? Should I go back to Hundred Seas Valley and find someone knowledgeable to help?"

The Venerable One replied, “No need for that. You’ve forgotten, this place was originally the territory of the Nirvana Sect many years ago. Although their main sect’s mountain gate wasn’t here at the time, they did build a temple here to protect this ginseng fruit.”

The Lord reached out and made a sweeping motion in the air, sending out dozens of golden rays that intertwined to form a massive array.

"This is the temple that the Nirvana Sect built back then. By working backward from this map, we should be able to find the key to the earth veins and build a mountain-guarding formation in the same way."

That's a novel suggestion, but it seems quite feasible.

It's too late to learn it on your own, but it shouldn't be too difficult to follow along. I just didn't expect that the Venerable Lord would even get his hands on something like this. He probably wasn't even born when the Nirvana Sect was destroyed.

Chen Ye stared at the blueprint, carefully studying and analyzing it, then flew into the air to compare it with the surrounding terrain. A thousand years had passed, and it would normally be difficult to find traces of the past, but because of the existence of the underground palace, it was as if there was a fixed location. As long as it overlapped with the underground palace on the blueprint, the location could be determined.

Before long, the snowfield in Chen Ye's eyes changed, and all kinds of spiritual energy channels became clear. How to set up the formation and how to sort it out became traceable.

Chen Ye muttered to himself, "Although the Nirvana Sect is ruthless, they are indeed quite capable. With such skillful manipulation of the earth's veins and feng shui, this mountain-guarding formation should be indestructible."

The Venerable One also flew into the air at some point and said behind Chen Ye, "Even the most powerful mountain-protecting formation could not stop Zhang Qi's sword. However, when the five righteous sects worked together and everyone risked their lives to protect Zhang Qi, he was able to unleash the sword that broke through the mountain gate without reservation. Otherwise, after breaking the formation, Zhang Qi would have died the moment he was exhausted."

Chen Ye was deeply moved and really wanted to meet the influential figures of that era.

However, of the five major sects that participated in the war, only Lu Xingzhou of the Incense Burning Sect and Zhang Qi of the Qinghe Sword Sect remain. The others have either reached the end of their lifespan or have already ascended to immortality.

Zhang Qi's days are numbered, and how long can Lu Xingzhou of the Burning Incense Sect hold out?
Once these two ascend to immortality, who among the five righteous sects will be able to hold their own?
Chen Ye thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask, "Lord, are you preparing for the resurgence of the demonic path? The reason you insist on urging me to establish a sect here is probably to seize the initiative. When Master Zhang ascends to immortality, the world will surely be in chaos. If this sect can persevere, it may become the next one of the five major sects."

The Venerable One laughed and said, "Everyone knows that Zhang Qi is going to ascend, and everyone is waiting for this day. I'm not the only one who's been preparing for it. However, my thoughts are different from most people's. Everyone thinks that Zhang Qi will ascend when he can't hold on any longer, but what if Zhang Qi doesn't want to?"

Chen Ye asked in confusion, "Why wouldn't you be willing? If it comes to the very end, is there any other choice besides ascension?"

Even if Zhang Qi truly didn't aim for immortality, he was already nearing the end of his lifespan. Forcing himself to stay here would only lead to death, so he might as well ascend to heaven.

Chen Ye couldn't think of any reason to refuse ascension.

"Who knows? Just like a thousand years ago, who knows why those eighteen demon lords suddenly turned on each other? Immortality was right in front of them, so why did they suddenly fight to the death? Kid, there are always many things in this world that don't make sense. We need to be prepared for all sorts of things. Everyone else is waiting for Zhang Qi to ascend, but we not only need to wait for him to ascend, but also for him to die a violent death. It's only safe if we're prepared for both possibilities."

Chen Ye sensed something was off. There was something more to what the Venerable One was saying. How could Zhang Qi have died a violent death?

Just as he was about to ask further questions, the Venerable One urged him, "Hurry up and get to work, let your spirits set up the mountain-protecting formation."

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Chen Ye pointed to the blueprint and said, “Your Excellency, look, although the Nirvana Sect’s mountain-protecting formation marks the key to the earth veins, their design is based on Buddhist techniques. You see, the core of the formation is their evil Buddha. If we copy it, we’ll have to place a Buddha here, otherwise we’ll have to redesign it.”

The Venerable One laughed and said, "Isn't that perfect?"

The phantom of the red serpent appeared behind him; it was a malevolent Buddha, even sharing the same origin as the Buddha of the Nirvana School.

Chen Ye was surprised and said, "Lord, if you leave this Crimson Serpent Buddha here, it will become the core of the mountain-protecting formation. If you want to use its power in the future, it may not be so convenient."

"It's alright. I condensed this Crimson Serpent Buddha for this very day. By the way, take this treasure; it's perfect for building a protective mountain array."

The Venerable One took out a gourd and handed it to Chen Ye.

Chen Ye quickly took it with both hands, only to find that the gourd weighed several thousand kilograms and almost crushed him from mid-air to the ground.

Black Whirlwind let out a loud croak, struggling to hold on.

The Venerable One quickly reminded him, "Refine this treasure first."

Chen Ye quickly infused his spiritual energy into the gourd, and countless runes appeared and disappeared on its exterior. Once Chen Ye's spiritual energy had fully illuminated the entire gourd, this magical treasure weighing several thousand pounds became light and could be picked up with one hand.

After refining it, Chen Ye understood the gourd's purpose.

This gourd contains five enormous spaces, each filled with items representing one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. It's not a magical artifact at all; it's clearly a building materials package, containing all the basic materials for setting up formations, collected over countless years.

Chen Ye channeled his spiritual energy and tilted the gourd downwards. Countless bricks and pieces of wood poured out of the gourd and, according to Chen Ye's will, were built into a high platform.

Once the platform had taken shape, Chen Ye blew on it with his gourd, and countless runes flew out and landed in their designated positions, stabilizing the newly built, loose platform as if it had been meticulously constructed over several years.

This treasure is really useful for building cities.

Chen Ye couldn't help but ask, "Master, how many years did it take you to refine this gourd?"

"It's nothing valuable, just enough to get by."

Although the lord spoke modestly, Chen Ye knew that this gourd was no ordinary gourd.

Although the materials inside are not particularly valuable, there is a large quantity of them, and the various functions of this gourd are specially designed to save Chen Ye a lot of tedious work.

This thing isn't difficult to make, and Chen Ye can figure out a way to make it, but it will take a long time, possibly a hundred or two hundred years.

The Lord really went to great lengths to build this sect.

Chen Ye dared not be negligent in the slightest. This was a substitute for the Crimson Serpent Demon Sect, but it was also Chen Ye's own sect. Perhaps one day, this sect could also become the leader of the righteous path.

(End of this chapter)