Chapter 289
The Power of Qingxiao
Chapter 289 The Power of Qingxiao
During the Spring Festival, the Taikun Mountain area was bustling with activity.
Li Qingqiu stood on the cliff, drinking wine while overlooking the beautiful scenery of the mountains. The heavy snow could not conceal the figures of his disciples, spirit boats, and birds coming and going.
Li Dongyue stood beside him from behind.
"I've noticed you're increasingly enjoying standing here alone and admiring the scenery. Are you enjoying the feeling of being at the top and feeling lonely?"
Looking at the scenery below the mountain, Li Dongyue asked with a soft laugh.
Li Qingqiu smiled and said, "Of course not. It's just that from here, you can clearly see the evolution of the sect. Every time I come up here, I can see the changes. Only these real changes can make me feel that the sect is moving forward."
Although he had the Daoist panel, Li Qingqiu still preferred to observe with his own eyes. Only his feelings could let him know that everything was real, that he wasn't playing a management game, but living a real life.
"The sect's development has been fast enough, I even think it's too fast," Li Dongyue remarked.
She is now at the eighth level of the Nourishing Yuan Realm. She is quite diligent in her cultivation, spending all her time on cultivation except for the affairs of the Spirit Wealth Hall. However, she still cannot keep up with the top tier of the sect.
Even within the Lingcai Hall, her cultivation level couldn't rank in the top three.
She would occasionally lament that without her senior brother, it would have been very difficult for them to manage the Qingxiao Sect well.
“It’s not that fast, you don’t need to be too anxious. As long as I’m here, no one can threaten you,” Li Qingqiu said softly.
The larger the sect, the greater the pressure Li Dongyue will face.
The arrogant genius and the powerful aristocratic family always brought various opinions to her ears, making her hesitate when making every decision, afraid of being unfair to others or offending others.
It wasn't just Li Dongyue; the other hall masters were the same.
In Li Qingqiu's view, the reason they felt pressured was because they weren't greedy enough and were too soft-hearted. Of course, this was also a good thing, at least for the development of the sect.
Li Dongyue asked, "Many people want to climb up, but there are only so many positions for the hall master. Have you considered it?"
Li Qingqiu looked into the distance and said, "That's precisely why Qingxiao Sect needs to develop even faster. The current deputy hall master already has more power than the hall master did ten years ago, doesn't he?"
Li Dongyue thought it made sense and nodded in agreement.
"You should just focus on your own affairs. Thinking too much won't do you any good, and you can't control everything anyway. What, do you want to usurp the position of sect leader?" Li Qingqiu teased.
Li Dongyue couldn't help but chuckle, and she added with a smile, "Speaking of which, some aristocratic families have already started placing bets, guessing which of your disciples will succeed you as sect leader."
Li Qingqiu's disciples are now all treated like stars around the moon. Even the youngest, Hu Yan, is sought after by many powerful and influential people, which frightens him so much that he dares not show his face in public.
"We are a cultivation sect, and our lives will be very long. The position of sect leader will not change for hundreds of years, unless I die," Li Qingqiu snorted.
No matter how strong he is, he cannot stop his ambition from growing.
“That’s true. Then I’ll have to pass on your words to prevent anyone with ulterior motives from causing trouble,” Li Dongyue nodded.
Li Qingqiu did not stop him. He looked at the Taikun Mountain Range, his eyes filled with his fantasies about the future.
The Qingxiao Sect is now powerful, but it is far from enough.
……
As the new year arrived, Li Qingqiu convened a meeting at the Xuanxin Hall, gathering over a hundred members of the sect who were at the elder level or above.
They discussed the plans for the coming year together. The leaders of Qingxiao Sect felt both pressure and excitement about the goals set by Li Qingqiu.
After the meeting, the Imperial Spirit Hall posted notices on each peak and main courtyard, displaying the current number of disciples of Qingxiao Sect at all levels.
The number of registered disciples has exceeded 40,000, with more than 20,000 outer disciples reaching the first level of the Nourishing Yuan Realm and more than 1,000 true disciples reaching the fifth level of the Nourishing Yuan Realm.
These figures invigorated the entire sect, and the news spread throughout the land.
By now, the martial arts world has a good understanding of the strength of the Qingxiao Sect disciples. A fifth-level Yangyuan Realm cultivator can absolutely sweep across the martial arts world, and can even withstand thousands of troops single-handedly. There are thousands of such people in the Qingxiao Sect. Such strength is enough to make not only martial arts sects tremble with fear, but also the kings and generals of the Xuan Dynasty.
Li Qingqiu only revealed the sect's strength up to the level of its true disciples in order to intimidate the entire Nine Provinces. He kept the number of those at higher levels a secret, in order to guard against enemies from outside the Nine Provinces.
What he values most right now is combat strength at the Spiritual Awareness Realm.
Therefore, he issued a generous reward among his true disciples, with the top one hundred disciples at the Spiritual Consciousness Realm receiving huge amounts of cultivation resources and even a promotion in status.
The fighting spirit of the true disciples has been ignited. They realize that in Qingxiao Sect, the faster one cultivates, the greater the gap will become between them and others, which is a gap in resources and treatment.
In February, Qingxiao Sect announced that Yun Cai had been promoted to a disciple with supernatural powers. She was the second disciple to master supernatural powers after Zhao Zhen, and her fame was unparalleled.
In springtime, the world is full of life.
After noon, Li Qingqiu arrived at the Heavenly Craft Hall. He sat in Zhu Yan's chair, while Zhu Yan and Wei Tianxiong stood at the table, studying the Heaven-Mending Array together.
The Heaven-Mending Array was a secret manual that Chu Jing obtained more than a hundred years ago. He wanted to enclose the imperial city within the array to enhance the spiritual energy within the city and thus elevate his martial arts to a higher level.
In fact, the Heaven-Mending Array is an immortal cultivation array, incredibly ingenious. Li Qingqiu has had it for so many years but has never been able to conquer it. Fortunately, Wei Tianxiong's arrival gave him hope.
Wei Tianxiong frowned and said, "I have studied this formation for a long time and finally figured it out. In the end, the Heaven-Mending Formation is actually a high-level spirit-gathering formation. It should have been left by the Taijue Sect. To cover the entire Taikun Mountain Range, a special spirit stone is needed, called the Earth-Attracting Spirit Stone. Currently, the sect does not have such a spirit stone."
After hearing this, Li Qingqiu said, "Could you draw a picture of the Earth-Guiding Spirit Stone and mark its characteristics? I will mobilize the sect's resources to search for it. The Nine Provinces are so vast, perhaps there are some."
Wei Tianxiong nodded. In his opinion, Earth-attracting Spirit Stones were not high-level rare materials, and it was very likely that the Nine Provinces might actually contain Earth-attracting Spirit Stones.
The land of Kyushu is called a wasteland, but that's in comparison to the Heavenly Nether Sea and the Azure Dragon Domain.
Heaven and earth have their own way of creating. After the Taijue Sect exhausts the high-level resources of the Nine Provinces, heaven and earth will continue to generate various resources until the land reaches its peak.
"In addition to the Heaven-Mending Array, we also need to set up a Mountain-Protecting Array. We should study both arrays together. If you need any resources, just ask."
Li Qingqiu gave instructions, and Zhu Yan and Wei Tianxiong both accepted the order.
After leaving Tiangong Hall, Li Qingqiu frowned.
The Qingxiao Sect's demand for spirit stones is increasing, and its largest reserves are spirit copper, but spirit copper is not a spirit stone and can only be used for refining weapons.
Mining spirit ore has become the top priority for the development of Qingxiao Sect.
On that day, Li Qingqiu had Xiao Wuqing summon Zhang Yuchun, Chu Jing, and Xue Jin. The first task was to find the Earth-Guiding Spirit Stone, and the second was to mobilize the disciples to search for spirit mines. Both matters were urgent.
After Qingxiao Sect mobilized its sect's resources, the results were remarkable.
Just three months later, a spirit stone was delivered to Li Qingqiu.
Li Qingqiu summoned Wei Tianxiong, who confirmed that it was indeed an Earth-Attracting Spirit Stone. However, the number of Earth-Attracting Spirit Stones required for the Heaven-Mending Array was enormous. Li Qingqiu was not in a hurry, as finding one stone meant finding more.
In early June, news about the spirit mine also reached Li Qingqiu's ears.
……
Zhongtianzhou is located deep in the mountains.
Mist filled the forest, and sunlight pierced through it, revealing beams of light that made a Taoist temple appear and disappear in the shadows.
Above the main gate of the Taoist temple hangs a plaque with three large characters engraved on it.
Wenxian Temple.
Inside a grand hall, Bai Ning'er stood with her hands behind her back, examining the statue in front of her. It was a deity with three heads and six arms, sitting cross-legged, bare-chested, with her hands clasped in a gesture in front of her chest, and her other four arms outstretched, each holding a weapon. Her hair was flowing wildly, like burning flames, and her eyebrows and eyes were wide open, like the glaring eyes of a Vajra.
"What kind of deity does the Wenxian Temple worship? It looks very fierce."
Bai Ning'er asked curiously. Standing to his right was a man in a Taoist robe with delicate features and even some feminine appearance. He looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old.
The man in the Taoist robe was the abbot of Wenxian Temple, named Shi Yixian.
Shi Yixian smiled, a smile that was almost breathtakingly beautiful. He replied, "This is a compassionate immortal who saves the world, with a Vajra face and a compassionate heart."
"Oh? What's your basis for that? Why haven't I heard of it?"
Despite Bai Ning'er's confusion, Shi Yixian still wore a smile.
"The Compassionate Immortal was an ancient deity who was later wiped out by the Dayan Dynasty, so you naturally haven't heard of him. I discovered his deeds in an ancient cave. Legend has it that the Compassionate Immortal was the crown prince of the dynasty. At that time, the dynasty was plagued by disasters, and the people were suffering terribly, even resorting to cannibalism. After learning about this, he was heartbroken. So he offered a sacrifice to the heavens, cutting off his own flesh in front of the people. He cut off a total of 999 pieces and distributed them to the people. He himself died suddenly as a result. Heaven did not tolerate this and granted him merit, causing his bones to turn into a golden body. Later, he became the Compassionate Immortal."
"Whenever a great disaster strikes the human world, the compassionate savior will transform into a mortal and walk the earth, using his own will to influence the heavens, bringing peace to the world and praying for wind and rain."
After speaking, Shi Yixian clasped his hands together and bowed respectfully to the statue of the compassionate and merciful deity.
For some reason, this scene made Bai Ning'er feel very awkward.
He looked again at the statue of the merciful and compassionate deity. Sunlight streamed through the holes in the eaves, and even though he was bathed in the light, the statue still made him feel uncomfortable.
He changed the subject and asked, "I see that you don't have many disciples in your temple. If you want to cultivate immortality, why don't you go to Qingxiao Sect?"
Shi Yixian looked at Bai Ning'er and asked with a smile, "If there is only one path to immortality in the world, don't you think that's not a good thing? Today, Sect Master Li Qingqiu is benevolent and kind, and cares about all living beings. If the next sect master is as cruel as Zhao Zhi of Dali, with the power of Qingxiao Sect, what kind of darkness will this world fall into?"
(End of this chapter)