The Long Journey to Immortality

Ultimately, how much spiritual stone benefit both the North and South can obtain from the unexplored mine will depend on magical artifacts and spells.

The two sides agreed to fight five matches, and the profits would be divided based on the outcome of these five matches.

For every win, the winning side receives an additional two points of benefit.

Those who are skilled in battle will naturally reap great rewards.

A crushing defeat in the ring will naturally lead to dire consequences.

As for which cultivation level cultivator to send to the arena for sparring and betting to divide the spoils?

The Zhengyi Sect hopes for five Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Xuan Yang Valley, on the other hand, suggested that Golden Core cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators should also participate in this big business deal.

After considering both sides, they eventually compromised.

Both sides will select one Foundation Establishment cultivator from each of the three stages to participate in the battle, while Golden Core cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators will also make an appearance.

One early-stage Golden Core cultivator and one early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator will fight two more rounds to determine the winner.

However, unlike the sparring between Foundation Establishment cultivators, the sparring between Golden Core cultivators and Nascent Soul cultivators is private and not open to the public, in order to maintain the mysterious aura of Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators.

The excavation of spirit stones is not an extremely urgent matter, but it is still important. Therefore, both parties are given only one month to select participants. At the same time, a series of preparatory work for the subsequent development of the mine will also be carried out simultaneously.

Chapter 738 Personnel Arrangements

Within a month, three people will be selected from among the disciples who are certain to win.

Which elder or grand elder should be assigned to take charge and work tirelessly for the benefit of the sect?

To direct which cultivators, skilled in various arts, to conduct research and experiments on the underwater spirit stone system mining.

Assign tasks and arrange personnel to go to the strongholds near the spiritual veins to prepare for the subsequent development and management of the spiritual veins.

These are all troublesome issues that urgently need to be addressed.

With the matters settled on paper, the two major sects and their respective machines slowly began to operate according to their plans and arrangements.

Those cultivators from the Central Plains who were uninvolved and unable to gain any benefit from the source water mine became bystanders, treating the matter as idle gossip.

Those with a bit more political acumen viewed this as a challenge from the Zhengyi Sect, the second-largest sect, to the leading Xuan Yang Valley.

Even some smaller sects were inspired by this incident and sent people to search for spirit stones in the rivers and mountains near their sects, hoping that they might also receive a windfall.

Han Lu was busy with the sect's disciple competition and did not have a long period of seclusion for cultivation.

Therefore, she was one of the elders in the Zhengyi Sect who heard about this matter relatively early and had been paying attention to it ever since.

When she learned that there was an opportunity for her to contribute to the sect, she did not hesitate at all. She volunteered and took the initiative to find Xuan Chengzi, saying that she wanted to represent the sect to fight for the rights in the Yuanshui Spirit Mine.

Xuan Chengzi did not immediately agree to arrange for Han Lu to fight, but he did not refuse Han Lu's offer to volunteer.

He stated that there was more than one elder who wanted to serve the sect, but also hinted that Han Lu was very likely to stand out in the end, gain the approval of the Supreme Elder, the support of several branch deans, and ultimately represent the Zhengyi Sect in the competition.

After all, Han Lu's numerous victories had already established a strong and fixed impression in the minds of the Zhengyi Sect elders.

Many elders even believed that Han Lu, even at the Foundation Establishment stage, could hold her own against ordinary Golden Core cultivators.

Now that she has advanced to the Golden Core realm, Han Lu hasn't shown off her muscles in the Central Plains for quite some time.

However, based on reasonable reasoning, the Golden Core cultivators of the Zhengyi Sect felt that it was perfectly reasonable for Han Lu, who possessed the True Spirit Bloodline, to be able to dominate in the early Golden Core stage.

However, the issue of democracy must not be forgotten.

Xuan Chengzi did not rule the Zhengyi Sect by himself.

Small matters are easy to handle, but this big matter, which involves millions of spirit stones, still needs to be discussed with the other elders.

Now that the Golden Core Realm contestants have been found, which Nascent Soul Elder should be involved in this matter?

At this time, the Zhengyi Sect has seven Nascent Soul Realm cultivators on the surface, four of whom are in the early Nascent Soul stage.

Choosing one of the four options isn't difficult.

But this is not something that Xuan Chengzi can decide.

Report it to the Supreme Elders, who will then discuss it internally and issue a notification once they have a response.

Furthermore, according to the agreement between the two factions, this battle between two Nascent Soul Realm experts was to be kept secret even from the sect leader and valley master.

In the end, all Xuan Chengzi could decide in this regard was which three Foundation Establishment disciples would fight for the sect.

With a month to spare and the grand competition in full swing, the matter was naturally quite simple.

Choose the disciples who performed well in the competition, ranked highly in the arena, and are willing to contribute to the sect.

What could be more convincing than a major comparison of results?

And what about worrying about mining?

Large gains are managed by the internal warehouse, while small gains are managed by the external warehouse.

The Yuanshui Spirit Mine contains millions of spirit stones, which are naturally managed by the inner treasury.

Furthermore, several Foundation Establishment disciples in the inner treasury who are in charge of this matter have already begun to study how to conduct large-scale underwater mining operations, and said they would come up with an effective plan within a few days.

The recruitment of cultivators for mining also follows the same approach as the outer treasury missions.

If given enough contribution points and spirit stones, a large number of outer sect cultivators with no future will be willing to sell their labor and go deep into the source water to work as miners for the sect.

After much deliberation, the sect leader had nothing to do, and Xuan Chengzi's organizational reform of the Zhengyi Sect can be considered a success.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

With the grand competition about to begin, Xuan Chengzi took the opportunity to organize a council of elders, on the one hand arranging the "duty" for the Grand Competition Secret Realm Department, and on the other hand bringing up the upcoming competition.

During each major competition, in order to maintain the secret realm and ensure the general safety of the disciples within, at least six or even seven Golden Core elders must secretly enter the secret realm.

There is no reward for this task; it is usually assigned to younger elders and is an obligation that Golden Core elders should fulfill.

Han Lu had skipped work once before to visit her family, so naturally her name was included in this case.

The first thing was the usual routine: simply assigning tasks, which was finalized in a short time.

When the second matter was brought up, the elders' reaction was far more positive than Xuan Chengzi had imagined.

This is a chain reaction following the streamlining of the organization.

The branch now has only four Golden Core elders who can hold important positions, one less than before.

To gain recognition and make contributions within the sect, one can only seek out such unexpected opportunities.

It was just a friendly sparring match; it wasn't fatal.

Not to mention, Xuan Chengzi also promised that even if they lost, as long as they didn't lose completely and be utterly defeated, they would still receive a substantial reward.

Even those who achieved the Golden Core stage, like Piaomiaozi, had a period of "overconfidence" for one or two decades. Other Golden Core elders also believed they had some skills and could be challenged.

Having been informed in advance, Han Lu was not as enthusiastic as others at the meeting.

He only spoke up when Xuan Chengzi was doing the statistics, to sign up for himself.

As soon as Han Lu spoke, the seven or eight Golden Core elders who had been eager to participate and were thinking of giving it their all immediately lost their previous excitement.

“How about this,” Xuan Chengzi said, presenting a plan he had come up with long ago. “Elder Zhenfeng fought for the sect against the Great Yu Dynasty when he was still a Foundation Establishment disciple and returned victorious. He must be quite powerful now.”

"Elders, we will use Elder Zhenfeng as the dividing line this time. If anyone thinks they can defeat Elder Zhenfeng, please come and state your name here."

"If you feel you can't win, then take a break and be a spectator."

"This way, we can avoid people fighting over a single spot and ruining the harmony."

Upon hearing this, Han Lu could only force a smile and endure the gazes of the elders.

The addition of this rule slightly dampened the previously heated atmosphere in the council chamber.

Many elders knew they were no match for Han Lu, so they didn't want to lose face and remained firmly in their seats, showing no intention of volunteering.

Xuan Chengzi looked around and finally, apart from Han Lu, there were three Golden Core elders, including Xianyu Ji, who believed they could compete with Han Lu and signed up to participate in the battle, hoping to bring glory to their sect.

"Very well, since that's the case, let's do it now..."

"Elder Xianyu, Elder Zhenfeng, Elder Tang, and Elder Qihua."

"The four of you will have a friendly spar in the Five Elements Mountain Academy today to determine who is better."

"Today, everyone is here to witness whichever elder emerges victorious, and whoever wins will represent the sect in a battle against the Xuan Yang Valley in the north." Xuan Chengzi looked at the assembled elders and made the arrangements.

Chapter 739 Four Fight for One

Sparring among Golden Core cultivators is a rare sight in the Central Plains.

Not to mention the Golden Core elders within a sect exchanging sparring techniques.

Although in private, the elders would discuss among themselves which of the fellow elders were good at fighting, which were good at cultivation, and which were good at both fighting and cultivation.

Piaomiaozi is categorized as someone who takes advantage of chaos. Although he has gained some positive reputation in recent years, no sect elder feels that they can rely on this Golden Core cultivator when it comes to taking action.

As for Han Lu, although she did not publicly spar with juniors even when she was in the Golden Core Realm, she was still classified as the third category based on her strength on paper and her past achievements.

However, these are all just opinions and not definitive conclusions. To determine a true ranking, we need a real battle to find out.

Now that such a rare opportunity is presented to them, and given that Han Lu has never used her Transformation True Spirit technique in a battle at the Zhengyi Sect before, and that among the four are young Golden Core elders like Tang Daoren and Xianyu Ji, the elders naturally responded enthusiastically, all expressing their commitment to working with the sect leader to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the exchange and to act as witnesses.

As for the four who volunteered to serve the sect, they naturally had no objection to this arrangement.

Xianyu Ji, in particular, was eager to try his luck and hoped to have a match with Han Lu to see what progress and gains he had made in his decades of hard work.

Xuan Chengzi issued a paper sword, and several Foundation Establishment disciples in the Five Elements Mountain Academy, upon receiving orders from their sect leader, hurriedly set up a battle arena specifically for Golden Core cultivators to fight.

Xuan Chengzi thought that with just a few words, Han Lu would receive a unanimous vote and represent the Zhengyi Sect in a battle against Xuan Yang Valley.

Now that things have changed, he naturally has to adapt to the new circumstances.

The elders chatted and drank tea in the reception room for a while. After receiving a reply that the arena for the duel was ready, Xuan Chengzi led the elders to the largest arena in the Five Elements Mountain Academy.

Since it was just a friendly sparring match between sect elders, and since they would later need to represent their sect in a fierce battle against Xuan Yang Valley, Xuan Chengzi, following custom, temporarily took a few rules for the competition and added a few stricter rules on top of them to prevent infighting and unnecessary internal strife.

There were only four participants, making the group draw very simple.

Holding three jade tablets, Xuan Chengzi recorded the Daoist names of the three contestants, shuffled the tablets briefly, and then invited Han Lu to randomly take one of them.

Of the three opponents she might encounter, Han Lu only knew about two of them.