The Bamboo Cult's Mess: Arrangements, Possession

Chapter 150 The Thousand Bamboo Cult: A Mess, Arrangements, Possession
The main altar of the Thousand Bamboo Sect is crowded with people and has the presence of the highly respected senior figure, the Great Evolution Divine Lord, making it clearly unsuitable for Nascent Soul formation.

Therefore, we must find another auspicious land with spiritual veins.

In the far west, in the Qianzhu Mountains of the westernmost region, the quality of the spiritual veins is acceptable, several times better than the spiritual veins of the Taiyue Mountains in the Yue Kingdom.

The mountains and forests are home to many sacred trees such as ironwood and fir.

Although the spiritual materials of thousand-year-old trees are harvested by visitors from all sides, there are still many trees that are six or seven hundred years old.

Moreover, the most famous thing about this place is not ironwood or fir wood, which can be used to refine Thousand Bamboo Sect puppets and various magical artifacts, but rather the many spiritual bamboos. Magical artifacts made from these spiritual bamboos often exist in pairs or even rows. Spiritual bamboos grow from the same root and have the same properties. When they are made into a set of magical artifacts, their power far surpasses that of a single magical artifact.

Of course, these spirit trees can also be used to set up formations, refine formation tools, and so on.

Thanks to the spiritual materials produced here, the Thousand Bamboo Sect can exchange for supplies worth no less than 500,000 spirit stones from the outside market every ten years.

"Huh? Why is there a sign hanging on the trunk of this spirit tree?"

As Han Li passed a mountain peak, he suddenly stopped his escape light and looked down at a tall ironwood tree standing on the mountain peak.

He came here to prepare to establish a secluded retreat deep in the mountains.

After all, the spiritual veins here are among the best in the far west.

This seclusion will reduce the consumption of spirit stones.

Originally, the journey had gone very smoothly, and he was in a great mood.

But as he passed through this area, many doubts gradually arose in his mind.

For example, why is there a magic artifact plaque hanging on the trunk of the ironwood tree directly below, which is over nine hundred years old?
The plaque for the ritual implement clearly reads "Owned by Tan Zhen of Tianji Sect".

It's like they're showing off their ownership to the outside world.

"Master, the spiritual veins here are excellent, nurturing many spiritual trees and herbs. However, my Thousand Bamboo Sect only takes less than half of the profits; the rest are divided up by the major righteous sects and high-level cultivators from various sects who come to travel in Tiannan."

The two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators in charge of this area truthfully stated.

Han Li thought he had misheard:

"What? The wealth I taught has already been distributed by cultivators from outside? We've worked ourselves to the bone, only to receive a pittance?"

"Master, this has always been the case."

"Yes, Master. I've heard that this has been an unspoken rule for three thousand years."

The two clearly saw that their new leader's expression was no longer as pleasant as before, but they dared not evade the question and had to bite the bullet and explain:

"Furthermore, we're not only responsible for the healthy growth of the spirit trees, but also for preventing them from being stolen by outsiders; otherwise, we'll have to compensate them at the original price..."

Upon hearing this, Han Li's eyes gradually narrowed.

Outsiders not only want to take their things, but also demand that they take good care of and safeguard the spiritual plants?

This archway is erected...

But he was even more of a robber than a robber.

At this moment, Han Li felt very uncomfortable.

If the proud and arrogant Great Yan Divine Lord knew that his disciples were being treated this way, I wonder what his expression would be like.

He vividly remembered that in the original timeline, the Great Evolution Divine Lord thought he had intimidated the major powers of Tiannan with his remaining power.

But now it seems.

Those powerful forces were not intimidated by the remaining influence, but rather "hired" the Thousand Bamboo Sect in a friendly manner to help them manage this area.

After all, it would be too troublesome and time-consuming to send disciples from the other side of the Hurricane Desert to take care of the spiritual herbs and trees. It would be better to adapt to local conditions and have the members of the Thousand Bamboo Sect do it for them.

It's our duty to take good care of them.

If the care is inadequate, then compensation should be provided for the losses.

"No wonder there are so many spiritual trees here, yet so few Foundation Establishment stage puppets from the Thousand Bamboo Sect. I see, I see..."

"Hmph! I'd like to see which factions have made this their backyard...?"

With a soft hum, Han Li expanded his divine sense, covering an area of ​​a hundred miles.

It covers a large part of the Qianzhu Mountain range.

"Tianji Gate, Haoran Pavilion, Taizhen Gate..."

Every major righteous sect has left their high-ranking cultivators here.

Besides the righteous path, there are also many sects from the demonic path, the Heavenly Dao Alliance, and the Nine Kingdoms Alliance that have left their mark in the far west.

He even saw phrases such as "Owned by Lei Wanhe of Huangfeng Valley" and "Owned by Huang Nie of Huangfeng Valley".

The two people chose two sacred trees that were over 800 years old.

If we go back two hundred years, the spirit trees that Lei Wanhe and Huang Nie chose were only six hundred years old. That would be fitting for their status.

However, this behavior was anything but friendly to the Thousand Bamboo Cult.

“Master, this is actually quite good. The foundation laid by our ancestors was not up to our standards, and we, their descendants, lacked the strength to protect it. The fact that we can maintain the continuity of our lineage is already a remarkable achievement.”

I just hope this cult leader won't be so foolish as to insist on competing with various powerful forces for interests.

This person is quite nice and generous. They don't want him to "disappear" and cause the major righteous forces to replace him with a stingy cult leader like Jin Bapi who exploits them.

Honestly, this newly appointed leader is quite good.

"Master, let the major sects of Tiannan divide up most of the resources in the far west first. We can eat our fill of the rest. The key is to eat in peace."

Eating enough and good food is enough.

They are hardworking and conscientious, and they don't ask for much.

From the perspective of the various factions: since most of the resources in the far west have already been divided up, what's left is just a pittance. It would be good for them to keep the Thousand Bamboo Sect around to help them manage this area, wouldn't it? They wouldn't need to arrange extra manpower or mobilize resources.

If, after the spiritual creature matures, the cultivators of the Thousand Bamboo Sect are sensible enough to proactively send it to their sect, that would be even better.

In this way, it can be said to have the best of everything.

"Besides this spiritual vein treasure land and rare natural treasures, don't tell me that most of the associated mineral veins in the far west have also been divided up by various major forces?"

When Han Li asked this question, he already had a guess in his mind.

In response, he received repeated nods from the two Thousand Bamboo Sect cultivators:

"There are over a hundred micro-sized veins, more than thirty small veins, and three medium-sized veins, which can produce more than two million low-grade spirit stones and more than eight thousand mid-grade spirit stones every year. My Thousand Bamboo Sect can take away seventeen or eighteen thousand of them."

"Master, the spirit mining industry is one of the seven pillar industries of our sect, even more important than the spirit materials and medicines business in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains."

After all, the Thousand Bamboo Sect has nearly 40,000 mouths to feed.

Even if each Qi Refining stage cultivator is paid only twelve spirit stones a year, the cost still exceeds four hundred thousand.

This demonstrates just how vital the mining industry is.

"The far west produces nearly three million spirit stones annually, yet our sect only receives one hundred and seventy to one hundred thousand?"

Han Li asked in a deep voice.

“This is already a lot, Master.”

The two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators spoke in unison.

Upon hearing this, Han Li briefly closed his eyes.

"Ah, no wonder the Thousand Bamboo Church was defeated..."

"No wonder the Thousand Bamboo Sect has managed to survive..."

It's contradictory, yet very realistic.

The far west has been exploited by the major powers of the south for three thousand years, paying over two million to nearly three million spirit stones annually. That's a total of tens of billions of spirit stones, isn't it?

"No wonder the far west hasn't produced a Nascent Soul cultivator for a very long time."

He had wondered before, how could the far west, which possessed the manpower and resources of two medium-sized countries, fail to cultivate a single Nascent Soul cultivator? Now he knew the reason.

It turns out that it's not that the conditions here are bad, but that this place has long been crippled by various external forces, and is being continuously drained of its lifeblood and marrow.

In such circumstances, for a Nascent Soul cultivator to emerge, it would require generations of self-sacrifice and continuous accumulation. Unless most of the far west unites as one, sacrificing the vast majority of generations to benefit a select few, it is utterly impossible.

"Perhaps the Lin family had this idea and even offered concessions to other Core Formation stage cultivators?"

Unfortunately, the Lin family failed.

The Jin family ended up getting the better deal.

Perhaps the Lin family's initial plan was good, but human nature is unpredictable?
Or perhaps, an unseen force has been silently suppressing the far west, preventing any more Nascent Soul cultivators from rising to prominence in this land?

Han Li seemed to be deep in thought at this moment.

"By the way, about Shi Jian, whom I mentioned briefly before, did he die because he made a grudge while traveling and ended up perishing with a formidable enemy? Or did he make a grudge over something so trivial and then perish with a great enemy after the original owner ascended to immortality?"

I didn't write the first draft, but in my memory, Shi Jian was an honest and steady person, not the kind of person who would cause trouble.

In other words, it was mostly the troubles and conflicts of the world that brought that kid into trouble.

The situation of the Thousand Bamboo Sect was likely a trigger.

When the original Shi Jian was still in the mortal realm, he could use his power to suppress others and ignore any dissent. However, if, after the original Shi Jian ascended, he continued to forcefully occupy the vast territory of the Far West, the major powers, including the righteous sects, might not tolerate it. Furthermore, unlike the Great Evolutionary Divine Lord, the original Shi Jian did not fight for the Far West's independence…

Once the conflict escalates...

Han Li shook his head while secretly making connections.

In short, the more he learned about the far west, the more vigilant he became.

The situation here is probably not as simple as he initially thought.

"In order to gain favor with the Great Yan Divine Lord, it feels like I almost fell into a huge pit?"

"No, we can't reach the Nascent Soul stage in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains! This place is too dangerous!"

"It's hard to guarantee that someone won't go and pass on messages to major sects like the Heavenly Pole Sect..." What if a Nascent Soul cultivator came along out of curiosity...

"We should be more cautious."

"We have to move to a different location."

Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the eventuality.

He doesn't want to be someone's sucker.

"However, as long as I successfully form my Nascent Soul, the predicament that has trapped the Thousand Bamboo Sect may be resolved, allowing it to soar to the heavens. This dead end for the entire Thousand Bamboo Sect can then be completely turned around."

The key to everything lies in the formation of the infant.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he still carved out a temporary cave dwelling in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains and set up a 30% complete Inverted Five Elements Array as a means of deception. However, his true self had no intention of staying there for long, but instead concealed his tracks and went to another spiritual vein land tens of thousands of miles away.

The quality of the spiritual veins there is not very good, and is far inferior to that of the Thousand Bamboo Mountains.

It's not very big, only about 60 or 70 li.

Directly below the spiritual vein, there is a small spirit stone mine, producing only two to three thousand spirit stones per year.

Normally, a cultivator in the pseudo-infant stage who has broken through the core and formed the nascent soul would never consider forming the nascent soul in a spiritual vein with insufficient strength.

The truth is, the supply of spiritual energy at crucial moments is far from sufficient. Not only does it not greatly help in the Nascent Soul stage, but it may even become a major drawback.

That's why, who would have thought he would come here specifically to form a nascent soul?
However, this flaw is insignificant to Han Li, who is wealthy.

He first had a level four dual-pupil rat locate the spiritual eye of this spiritual vein.

Subsequently, it took more than a month to set up a large number of spirit-binding arrays and a 70% complete inverted five elements array.

The protective effect of the Reversed Five Elements Formation is self-evident; it can buy some time for early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

Besides its powerful defensive effect, the Spirit Binding Array also has the ability to lock in the spiritual energy within the array, preventing it from leaking out.

With his current mastery of formations, he managed to set up the Qingyang Sect's Spirit Binding Formation quite well.

Then, he began to take out mid-grade spirit stones.

Not many, a few hundred thousand.

Using the array, he extracted the relatively pure spiritual energy from hundreds of thousands of mid-grade spirit stones, increasing the spiritual vein by tens or even hundreds of times in both quality and quantity.

Furthermore, due to the restrictions of the spirit-binding array, spiritual energy will not leak out.

Therefore, outsiders would not notice the unusual spiritual energy of this place.

"We still need to make some preparations..."

Han Li pondered for a moment after making a rough estimate.

As planned, he took out several level-seven demon cores and a number of high-level demon cores with relatively small medicinal value from his storage bag and threw them out.

He then tossed out several Golden Cores, the spoils of war from Core Formation cultivators.

Let these inner cores release their respective golden core energy or demon core essence to their fullest extent.

"not enough."

It's still lacking something.

It can't compare to the spiritual energy of the Biling Island spiritual vein, but it's comparable to the spiritual energy of the forty-plus layers of the Heavenly Star City Holy Mountain.

After thinking for a while, he transplanted a Spirit Eye Tree into this cave.

Then, in a corner of the cave area, which was several dozen feet in size, he threw about ten Spirit Eye Stones to purify and refine the spiritual energy.

Furthermore, under the Tree of Spiritual Eyes, at the meditation spot, a large stone, about ten feet long and wide, was placed.

This Spirit Eye Stone is much larger than the other dozen or so Spirit Eye Stones, which are about the size of a washbasin.

It was about ten feet long and wide, enough to be used as a bed. Over the years, he had indeed used this spiritual stone as a stone bed.

Even lying on it, one can spontaneously improve their cultivation level.

Furthermore, because these spiritual stones have been nourished by the spiritual energy extracted from Biling Island over the past few years, their quality has not diminished.

On the bed carved from the Spirit Eye Stone, a dozen Spirit Eye Pearls and hundreds of high-grade spirit stones were quietly piled up.

"The Pearl of the Spirit Eye, the Spring of the Spirit Eye, the Stone of the Spirit Eye (also known as the Jade of the Spirit Eye), and the Tree of the Spirit Eye! Originally, I had everything, but the Spring of the Spirit Eye on Azure Spirit Island cannot be touched!"

This also means that he only needs a Spirit Eye Spring to complete all the items he needs for the Spirit Eye.

"What a pity, what a pity..."

"Not perfect enough."

Han Li, who has a slight collecting obsession, felt a little regretful about this.

However, the most regrettable thing is that one cannot form a Nascent Soul in the excellent spiritual vein environment of Biling Island.

If the environment for a fake infant cultivator to form their nascent soul were changed to the Spirit Eye Lake on Biling Island, even without any preparation, the success rate would be at least 20%.

But that place must never be exposed.

We must not afford to make any mistakes.

"The environment here is barely adequate."

But it still lacked a bit of perfection.

As he spoke, he finally released the spiritual energy from the top-grade spiritual veins of Biling Island, which had been compressed multiple times within container-type magical treasures such as the Water and Fire Gourd.

Let pure spiritual energy fill the entire cave.

The newly transplanted, several-foot-tall Spirit Eye Tree was restored to its former glory and vitality.

The environment for the infancy process was well prepared.

He was in the south, where he could hardly find a better environment.

Unless Seven Spirits Island can purify the boundless sea's turbid spiritual energy layer.

"Then what happens next..."

It's time to take that step!

Han Li and Feng Hun sat facing each other in meditation.

Beside him were Qu Hun and Sha Hun.

The Wind Soul, the Melody Soul, and the Fiend Soul all contain a fragment of his primordial spirit within them.

"out."

As he made a hand seal, two green primordial spirit orbs, one large and one small, flew out from Qu Hun and Sha Hun's bodies.

After merging with the main body, the main body's primordial spirit was replenished and strengthened considerably.

At the same time, Qu Hun and Sha Hun both lowered their heads and remained motionless.

"Om..."

After merging the two externalized bodies' primordial spirits, the main body once again separated from the body, transforming into a ball of light that entered the body of the Wind Soul.

"Seize the body!"

He is temporarily abandoning his physical body and seizing the body of the Wind Soul in order to attempt the formation of his Nascent Soul for the first time.

Possession of another's body has many drawbacks.

For example, if the target of possession is different from the cultivation method of the original body, there is a risk of damaging one's vital energy and losing cultivation level.

For example, adapting to a new physical body and nurturing it to the point where it can inherit a higher level of cultivation requires a significant investment of time.

In addition, there is a risk of being devoured by another being possessed.

It's not that a cultivator with higher cultivation level can successfully possess someone with lower cultivation level. For example, the True Spirit Qilin's attempt to possess a Crystal Clan girl failed.

In short, possession has many drawbacks.

However, these drawbacks and risks do not exist for Han Li and Feng Hun at all.

This is because he did not bring much of his cultivation into Feng Hun's body.

He simply transferred his primordial spirit over there.

Therefore, there is no issue of spiritual energy conflict or cultivation loss.

Furthermore, since the Wind Soul is his external avatar, he had already begun to adapt to this body decades ago. And decades of integration had long since allowed the primordial spirit that had previously split off to control every inch of the Wind Soul's flesh, blood, spiritual power, essence, and so on.

His understanding of the Wind Soul's body is no less than his understanding of his own body.

Therefore, there is no need to spend decades adapting, adjusting, and nurturing.

After successfully possessing the body, he took perfect control of Feng Hun's body in just over half a month.

As for the risks and hidden dangers of being devoured by possession?

As I said before: Feng Hun is his external manifestation.

It was a high-level puppet controlled by his consciousness.

He possessed the Wind Soul without any resistance.

His only losses were the one and only chance for a cultivator in the human realm to possess another body, a Spirit-Stabilizing Pill, and the cost of this entire scheme!

That's it!

What are the benefits of doing this?

That's too much.

(End of this chapter)