hotmtlnovel Chapter 302 Sharpening the Knife
Chapter 302 Sharpening the Knife
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Taiyi Immortal Sect.
One of the Ten Great Immortal Paths.
A powerful Sect with a total of one hundred and eight True Disciples.
The strength of most powers can generally be seen from the number of their True Disciples.
Becauses the number of True Disciples often represents the amount of resources a Sect controls.
The amount of resources controlled can generally reflect the specific strength of a Sect.
The entire Taiyi Immortal Sect has Nine Veins and Six Halls.
Among these Nine Veins, the weakest one is naturally the newly-added Cangwu Vein.
Of course, the so-called weakness is only relative.
The entire Cangwu Vein alone has twenty-six Hollow Void War Immortals.
Some powerful Hollow Void War Immortals have even started to forge their own path by comprehending Void Force comparable to the Void Refinement Realm, and at the same time inscribing Formations in their own Chaos Voids, making their already unstable Chaos Voids even more so at critical moments, releasing all their power in one go and unleashing destructive moves comparable to a blow from the Shattered Void Realm.
Although it's just one strike and there exist various drawbacks, when used properly, it can still pose a threat to the Vein Masters of the Void Refinement Realm.
So far, Cangwu Vein has successfully had two members: Xie Xiong from the Myriad Beasts Sect and Gelin from the Limitless Star Palace.
During the Cangwu Era, both were figures reputed to have reached the Divinity Transformation Immortal Venerable Level.
In that era, there were more than two Divinity Transformation Immortal Venerables.
Countless people sacrificed themselves, one after another, which finally allowed the Cangwu Vein to innovate and demonstrate its potential to surpass its predecessor, becoming a true one of the Nine Veins of the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
Of course, even though they're listed among the Nine Veins, the cultivators of the other veins in the Taiyi Immortal Sect didn't hold the Hollow Void War Immortals and ordinary War Immortals of the Cangwu Vein in high esteem, treating them plainly as expendable fighting forces and fodder.
When the fodder is used up, the Cangwu Vein would naturally be cancelled.
However, in recent years, quite a few things have happened within the Cangwu Vein.
Let alone the incident where Jiang Heavenly Venerable, whom they had greatly fostered, attained Perfection in his Supreme Divine Power and caught the eye of the Jade Emperor Supreme, becoming his Direct Disciple, it seems that some minor conflicts broke out within their ranks.
When Jiang Heavenly Venerable went back to the Cangwu Great World where they originated from, he unexpectedly found that a cultivator named "Alkaid" had destroyed the planetary home of the Jiang family.
And yet...
Some within the Cangwu Vein felt that "Alkaid" had a decent talent and wanted to protect him.
They believed that one should not put all eggs in one basket.
The Cangwu Vein, already the weakest among the Nine Veins and treated as fodder by the higher-ups of the Sect... Even some disciples couldn't agree internally and weren't willing to use the limited resources more efficiently, which, while becoming a laughingstock, naturally also caused dissatisfaction among the high-ranking members of the Sect.
Don't they have any sense of enlightenment anymore?
Don't they have any sense of the bigger picture anymore?
After this attitude of dissatisfaction was pressed down, the Cangwu Vein quickly fell into line.
Wan Liugui, as well as those who shared his view, were directly assigned to peripheral battlefields to suppress the forces secretly supported by the Six Sect of the Demonic Dao.
The Cangwu Vein also became unwavering in its support of Jiang Heavenly Venerable again.
Standing behind...
Standing behind Jiang Heavenly Venerable, who was taken as a Direct Disciple by the Jade Emperor Supreme.
Even when Jiang Heavenly Venerable went to the Cangwu Great World for the second time and returned again, upon learning that the people from the Nine Cauldrons Sect had quietly arrived at the Northern Sea Star, the people of the Cangwu Vein had been trying all these years to find the whereabouts of Li Hanqiu, Alkaid, and others.
Right now...
they suddenly had a result.
"Although Jiang Heavenly Venerable didn't respond, receiving this news will surely prompt him to take action; maybe the subordinates arranged by the Jade Emperor Supreme have already made their moves."
Li An suggested carefully, "How about we secretly interfere, preserve this Alkaid, and use Alkaid to provoke him? Once his people can't deal with Alkaid, he will naturally realize who his real support is."
"That's not proper!"
Xie Xiong said gravely, "Have any of you considered that if this Alkaid really is that individual from the Cangwu Great World and has cultivated a Blazing White Golden Core in such a short time..."
Pausing, he continued, "To have slain two Hollow Void War Immortals, two Deep Blue Golden Cores... What kind of strength is that!? Even when compared with Jiang Heavenly Venerable, it's not the slightest bit inferior. The difference is only in status. Perhaps, we can also place our bets on him..."
"Wait a moment, there's something very suspicious about the act of slaying two Hollow Void War Immortals. It's likely that he obtained the Chaos Void frequencies of the two War Immortals from some other means. This is the consensus of many people; otherwise, there's no explanation for how he could kill two Hollow Void War Immortals so swiftly."
Gelin spoke up.
After speaking, he added, "Moreover, that Deep Blue Golden Core from the Xi Family already had a bad reputation. He chose to take the reward from him, and then used this as a reason to obliterate the Xi Family later. Any way you look at it, it seems like a long-planned action."
Neither Xie Xiong nor Li An could refute his words.
It was indeed abnormal for Alkaid to seek a reward from the notorious Xi Hai; according to conspiracy theories, it indeed seemed like a long-premeditated action.
But...
"Even if there's something fishy about defeating two Hollow Void War Immortals, his prowess in slaying two Deep Blue Golden Cores is beyond doubt. And considering his age is not even sixty... with such talent, he truly seems like what Wan Liugui described... not inferior to Jiang Heavenly Venerable, perhaps even..."
Xie Xiong wanted to say "perhaps even superior" but considering they no longer had sufficient resources to support another True Disciple, he could not bring himself to say it.
"The truth is we have no choice."
Gelin sighed, "On one hand, there's Alkaid, whom we hardly know and even have differences with; on the other, there's a prodigy we personally nurtured... especially since... he is a Shattered Void Direct Disciple!"
Shattered Void Supreme Elders, engrossed in comprehending the Power of the Great Dao and striving for the Dao Lordship, rarely accept disciples, let alone Golden Core Realm cultivators who haven't reached the Hollow Void or lived for over ten thousand years.
Yet, Jiang Heavenly Venerable was favored by the Jade Emperor Supreme and became an exception to become his disciple.
Indeed, before Jiang Heavenly Venerable became a Shattered Void Direct Disciple, the Cangwu lineage had actually supported several individuals; it was just that Jiang Heavenly Venerable was the most outstanding and received the most support.
When Jiang Heavenly Venerable became a Supreme Direct Disciple, all of the Cangwu lineage's treasures were bet on him.
"Now that things have come this far, we can only continue to bet on Jiang Heavenly Venerable,"
Gelin stated.
"The problem is the Jiang Heavenly Venerable we cultivated... is too ambitious. He now seems to fully lean towards the Jade Emperor Supreme, and I'm afraid that in the end... he won't care about the life or death of our lineage..."
Xie Xiong said.
"That won't be the case, don't forget the reason why the Jade Emperor Supreme took him as a disciple."
Gelin shook his head.
Xie Xiong gave him a look, wanting to say that if this is the intent of the Jade Emperor Supreme, to put the Cangwu lineage at ease.
But he ultimately didn't continue.
Instead, he expressed his helplessness, "If only we had considered Wan Liugui's suggestion back then..."
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"Let's not speak of the past; it's too late for regrets. Let's do as Li An suggested; use Alkaid as Jiang Heavenly Venerable's whetstone. Hone him a bit, and once he has faced setbacks, he will understand who truly deserves his reliance."
Gelin made the decision.
Xie Xiong and Li An offered no further objections.
The three of them could basically represent the attitudes of the several dozen Hollow Void War Immortals of the Cangwu lineage.
Switching from Jiang Heavenly Venerable to Alkaid...
The sunk cost was too high.
And the Cangwu lineage, too poor, with too shallow a foundation.
Could not withstand the turmoil.