Chapter 944: New Guest Elder, Splitting the Spiritual Veins

Hearing that, Lu Changsheng knew Bai Zhaozhao still hadn’t given up on inviting him to stand against the demonic catastrophe.

But he truly had no interest in that kind of thing.

As for where he could help?

Most of what he dealt with were fiddly chores; there was very little the other side could actually help with.

The greatest help might be having a few children with top-tier divination talent and Baize bloodline.

“My friend Bai, the demonic catastrophe is a tide of the era. It’s not something one person can affect,” Lu Changsheng said with a shake of his head.

“If you’re willing to help with divination and calculation, I’m already very grateful. If anything comes up in the future, you can come find me in the Jiang Kingdom.”

Lu Changsheng smiled. He had a rather good impression of the girl before him.

If she ran into trouble and asked him for shelter, he wouldn’t refuse.

It was just that, given her identity, background and strength, she probably wouldn’t need his protection.

“True Lord, you cherish the righteous path. Can you really bear to watch the common people suffer?”

Because of the White Snake bloodline matter, Bai Zhaozhao firmly believed the Yangming True Lord before her was a benevolent man of the righteous path who’d save the world.

Looking at the slightly tired girl whose face was set and eyes held a trace of compassion, Lu Changsheng’s cheek twitched.

To have cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage and still be this earnest, making the salvation of all beings her mission…

He found it a little naïve, but he still respected that kind of person.

He sighed under his breath. “The world is a sea of suffering. I can barely ferry myself across. I can’t look after everyone else.”

Bai Zhaozhao instinctively wanted to say that with the True Lord’s strength, aside from great True Lords and a few late-stage Nascent Soul experts, what could threaten him?

But then she remembered they hadn’t known each other long.

And by rumor, he was a reincarnated grand cultivator with a mysterious background, likely dogged by trouble and danger.

She pressed her lips together, then said solemnly, “I sincerely want to help the True Lord. I ask for no reward. I only hope that one day, when the True Lord faces the world, he can lend a hand.”

After their fates had intertwined twice, she was sure Lu Changsheng was the anomaly recorded in her sect.

She planned to reside long-term in the Jiang Kingdom, build goodwill with Lu Changsheng, and convince him—if possible—to stand against the catastrophe.

At the same time, she wanted to use this chance to see for herself how extraordinary a rumored anomaly was.

Why he was so valued by the Patriarch and the sect!

Lu Changsheng frowned slightly at her words.

What was this?

Was his kingly aura conquering people again?

He was more than happy to accept Bai Zhaozhao’s help for free.

He’d even pay a generous salary to invite her as a guest elder-offering.

But asking for nothing in return and only hoping he’d one day contribute to all living beings—that honestly left him at a loss.

“May I ask why you value me so highly, my friend Bai?” Lu Changsheng asked.

Granted, the strength he’d shown was worthy of a major power paying a high price to recruit.

But her behavior still felt a little baffling.

Bai Zhaozhao said softly, “True Lord, you know I’m from the Tianyan Sect. Our cultivation art, the Tianyan Art, can faintly sense a person’s fortune and fate.”

“What I sensed from you far exceeds anyone else I’ve met. If other cultivators are brilliant stars, then you are the sun and moon overhead.”

“According to our records, only someone like you can influence the course of a catastrophe, or even the rise and fall of an era.”

“Anomaly” was the term her Tianyan Sect used, but it wasn’t convenient to explain in detail.

So she used simpler words to explain why she thought so highly of Lu Changsheng.

“You sensed my fortune and fate?”

Lu Changsheng was surprised.

He hadn’t expected the Tianyan Sect to have such means.

But with the Heavenly Yuan Lotus, the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror, and the Lu Family Record shielding him, others shouldn’t be able to sense his fate at all.

In the next instant, he realized what had happened.

He’d asked Bai Zhaozhao to divine for him, which let her glimpse his fortune and fate.

Understanding dawned in his heart.

He now knew why she valued him so much.

“Other cultivators are stars, and I’m the sun and moon… tsk, tsk.”

Lu Changsheng had always known he far surpassed other cultivators.

But hearing her say it still felt pretty satisfying.

After all, when the sun and moon cross the sky, their light eclipses every star.

“Gold shines wherever it is. No matter how I cover it up, my majestic bearing and grand designs are bound to be noticed sooner or later.”

He sighed inwardly. He felt he’d already done his best to hide his edge.

But his light was too bright. One careless moment and someone saw through it.

“You truly are a top disciple of the Tianyan Sect, to have such means.”

Lu Changsheng smiled faintly. “But fortune and fate are ever-shifting. Aren’t you afraid you’re misreading me?”

As a diviner himself, he knew how important fortune was to a cultivator.

But fortune wasn’t absolute.

Take Xu Ruoyin, for example.

A reincarnated grand cultivator with the Beast Taming Ancient Rune and a protector in Hong Lian—she was the very picture of a Child of Fortune.

Yet someone still stole her opportunities and she fell hard.

“I believe in the True Lord,” Bai Zhaozhao said, delicate face earnest, the single horn at her brow gleaming.

Lu Changsheng thought, she’s not worried at all that I might be a bad man.

But then he remembered she was from the Tianyan Sect, bore the Baize bloodline, and excelled at divination, and he let it go.

“As for the catastrophe, I can’t give you a definitive answer.”

“But if you’re willing to help, I can invite you to serve as a guest elder-offering.”

Lu Changsheng had already witnessed Bai Zhaozhao’s divination skill.

With her help, he’d successfully divined Qingluan True Lord and her daughter Mu Que’s situation.

With her at his side, dealing with Ro Fuzish and the Star King later would be half the effort, twice the result.

Not to mention the sense of security and convenience that came with having a top diviner holding the fort.

“All right,” Bai Zhaozhao said after a brief moment of thought, agreeing.

And so, Bai Zhaozhao became a guest elder-offering of the Immortal City of Damengze.

As for benefits, she was casual about it. She wasn’t short on resources; it was mostly for Lu Changsheng’s sake.

Even so, Lu Changsheng still gave her a package fitting a Nascent Soul-level offering.

Once they headed for Yangming Mountain, he’d open a fourth-rank cave estate for her.

“At the moment the Immortal City has no fourth-rank spiritual vein, so I’ll have to wrong you for a short while.”

Lu Changsheng said to Bai Zhaozhao, “Before long I’ll head to Yangming Mountain and set you up with a fourth-rank cave estate.”

Bai Zhaozhao suspected there was a small pocket dimension in the Immortal City.

Lu Changsheng usually cultivated inside it.

But she came from the Tianyan Sect and knew such pocket realms were every faction’s core secret. She didn’t ask. She only nodded. “I’ll follow the True Lord’s arrangements.”

With nothing else pressing in the Immortal City, Lu Changsheng started moving house. He took Hong Lian to Yangming Mountain to break through to Nascent Soul.

“A’Gui, deliver these to Zhenhai, then bring the Zhenhai Seven Sects’ formation masters and artificers here.”

Lu Changsheng handed some refining materials and Ro Fuzish’s robes and soft armor to the Turtle Immortal Patriarch, telling him to pass them to the Zhenhai Patriarch to refine a spirit treasure for him.

“Ling Whale, you go too.”

Considering the time it would take to build the Chengtian Platform,

Lu Changsheng handed the 【Cheng Lu Pan】 to Lu Lingjing and sent her to the depths of Da Mengze to collect heaven’s dew.

“Got it, Master!” Seeing the Cheng Lu Pan, Lu Lingjing’s face lit with delight. She couldn’t wait to head to the Sea Eye to scoop up dew to drink.

Next, Lu Changsheng gave instructions to Ling Zixiao, Xu Ruoyin and Lu Chensha.

He told Xu Ruoyin that once the divine silkworm was fully revived, she should help it complete its bloodline metamorphosis and ascend to a True Spirit if possible.

As for Qian Zhuyan, Lu Changsheng didn’t plan to bring him to Yangming Mountain.

Immortal City still needed a fourth-rank combatant to guard it.

And since Qian Zhuyan didn’t need a spiritual vein and was obsessed with puppets, he was a perfect fit.

“If anything comes up, you can contact me anytime.”

After settling everything, he took Hong Lian and Bai Zhaozhao and headed for the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Seeing the Golden-Winged Roc that had been brutally hostile to him in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range now behaving as a tame spirit pet and mount, Bai Zhaozhao couldn’t help her surprise.

She had no idea how Lu Changsheng had subdued this ferocious descendant of the Golden-Winged Great Roc so thoroughly.

“True Lord, have the elders of the White Snake line replied?”

Bai Zhaozhao asked, not forgetting about paying respects to the White Snake bloodline.

“She won’t be available for a while.”

Although Bai Zhaozhao had become his guest elder-offering,

the White Snake bloodline matter had already led to a misunderstanding, and Lu Changsheng didn’t plan to tell her the truth for now.

Otherwise explaining his daughter Lu Baixi’s bloodline would be a headache.

“All right.” Bai Zhaozhao had been anxious before, wanting to meet a senior of the White Snake line as soon as possible.

Since she’d decided to stay in the Jiang Kingdom by the Yangming True Lord’s side, she had time to wait.

With the Golden-Winged Roc as their ride, they reached the Heavenly Sword Sect in just a single day.

The spiritual land that had once been the Jiang Kingdom’s overlord looked completely different now.

Not only had many formation components of the Mountain Gate Grand Array been dismantled, which greatly weakened it and dimmed its aura,

the Mountain Gate stone stele, the pavilions and towers on several peaks, and even the heaven-and-earth spiritual plants had been moved away with great magic.

It wasn’t that the Heavenly Sword Sect was being stingy.

They’d discussed it with Lu Changsheng before the move.

He planned to reweave the earth veins, set a new Mountain Gate Grand Array, build a Chengtian Platform, and turn this place into his base camp.

So rather than demolish the old buildings and formations and waste them, it was better to let the Heavenly Sword Sect take them along.

Screech!

As the Golden-Winged Roc unfurled its wings and descended, the cultivators at the Heavenly Sword Sect all jolted, their magic quivering under the suffocating pressure.

“Greetings, True Lord!”

“Greetings to the Yangming True Lord and the True Lord Golden Roc!”

They looked up with respectful faces at the massive bird of gleaming gold, as if cast from molten metal, and bowed.

The Yangming True Lord’s name had long spread across the Northern Region.

His signature spirit pet and mount—the fourth-rank Golden-Winged Roc—was practically known to all.

Elsewhere, people might not recognize it at first glance.

But in the Jiang, Yue, Liang and Jin regions, anyone who saw a golden roc would immediately think of the Yangming True Lord—the True Lord Golden Roc!

Lu Changsheng dropped from the roc’s back with Hong Lian and Bai Zhaozhao, then nodded to the cultivators gathered below.

He went to the main hall atop the Heavenly Sword Sect’s main peak, summoned his son Lu Lingxiao, and asked how things were going and if there were any problems.

“Father, the Heavenly Sword Sect’s move is basically complete. Next we need to rebuild the Mountain Gate Grand Array and divide and assign the peaks,” Lu Lingxiao reported.

They had brought plenty of formation masters from the Liang Kingdom.

But laying a fourth-rank grand array was never simple.

Besides formation masters, they had to refine the array components and link them up.

And the Mountain Gate Grand Array was the top priority. They needed Lu Changsheng’s nod and a general blueprint before they could start.

Lu Changsheng nodded lightly, saying there was no rush. Then he asked about True Lord Youyue and True Lord Incinerating Wither.

“True Lord Youyue is leading Beast God Mountain’s cultivators at the Beast Spirit Sect, and True Lord Incinerating Wither is at the Luoxia Sect.”

Of the four great sects in the Jiang Kingdom, the Azure Cloud Sect hadn’t started moving yet, but the Luoxia Sect and Beast Spirit Sect had relocated with the Heavenly Sword Sect to the Liang Kingdom.

Naturally, Lu Changsheng took over their spiritual lands and handed them to Beast God Mountain and the Asura Sect respectively.

But once things stabilized, he planned to send True Lord Incinerating Wither and the Asura Sect to the Jin Kingdom.

First, the Jiang Kingdom couldn’t hold, nor did it need, so many Nascent Soul cultivators.

Second, they’d accepted too many demonic cultivators from Liang. Keeping them in Jiang would eventually cause trouble and hidden dangers, so it was better to send some to Jin.

Third, he’d be needing Ah Youduo for a lot of things soon.

If she was constantly going back and forth between Jiang and Jin, it’d be a hassle and might leave Jin short on high-end combat power.

True Lord Incinerating Wither might be useless by standards of the useless, but he was still a Nascent Soul cultivator.

He could sit in Jin and keep the Heavenly Corpse Sect in check.

Besides, leaving the Yin Ghost Sect’s fourth-rank spiritual land idle would be a waste.

After getting up to speed, Lu Changsheng took Hong Lian to survey the spiritual veins.

“This place suits Nine-Leaf.”

The Heavenly Sword Sect’s fourth-rank vein leaned toward the metal attribute.

That didn’t mesh perfectly with Hong Lian, but it matched the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass. If it took root here and drew on the vein, it would get the nourishment it needed to grow.

“Hong Lian, how about it? If it won’t do, I’ll take you to the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range to find a superior land.”

Lu Changsheng took her breakthrough seriously.

“It’s enough. But when I charge into Nascent Soul, I’ll impact this vein. If it’s you, Nine-Leaf and Miss Bai cultivating here too, it might not be enough for everyone,” Hong Lian said.

In her view, the sect’s fourth-rank vein could support the daily cultivation of three early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators.

If she attacked the Nascent Soul realm and shook the earth veins, then afterward it could support at most two and a half Nascent Soul cultivators for a while.

Even with a heavy investment of resources, it would take years or even decades to recover.

“Don’t worry about that.”

Lu Changsheng smiled. He’d already made arrangements.

Dragon-seekers could survey spiritual veins and extract their essence to nurture others.

His Dragon-Seeking Technique was only second-rank, so he couldn’t extract a fourth-rank vein.

But with his current status, why would he do it himself?

Besides, spiritual veins were birthed by heaven and earth. Destroying, carving, or damaging them would sap one’s fortune.

A fourth-rank vein in particular gathered the fortune of a region.

If you damaged too many, the backlash of the veins’ fortune would be inevitable.

Even if he could carve them out, he wouldn’t do it.

“After you break through, I’ll take the dragon-seekers from Liang and from the Five Poisons Sect and Heavenly Corpse Sect into the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range to split a few micro fourth-rank veins and use them to nurture this one.”

Lu Changsheng smiled.

Splitting veins was a method only third-rank dragon-seekers could handle.

It meant dividing a vein into several smaller ones with as little damage as possible.

That way the loss of fortune would be relatively light.

Once the work was done, he, a Nascent Soul True Lord, could use immense magical power to move those small veins—each holding fourth-rank essence—from the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range to the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Through the whole process, he’d just be the porter.

Even if fortune was lost, it wouldn’t land on him.

The only hard part would be finding the veins in the mountain range, splitting them and moving them out.

But with his strength, that was only a bit of trouble—not a real problem.