I Shall Be Everlasting In the World of Immortals

Chapter 421: Three Paths Fourth Rank, Beast Kingʼs Counterattack

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Three years later.

Lan Changʼan had reached the age of 419 and had returned to Great Qing for seven years now.

Due to geographical separation, the vast majority of cultivators in the Righteous Dao Alliance were unaware that a Nascent Soul elder of the Thousand Mechanisms Sect had perished.

Whether it was the Righteous Dao Alliance or Beast King Valley, neither held much interest in the extreme eastern wastelands where the two sects resided, thus paying little attention.

The two sects were opposing factions with numerous forces, and wars between cultivators were frequent. In every era, Nascent Soul True Monarchs would fall. Even if other regions heard about it, they paid little mind, or simply speculated that some powerful cultivator with a water-based technique had been involved.

...

That day, at the Evergreen Peak Dao Ground.

Inside a secluded chamber, Lan Changʼan finished his daily cultivation of the Evergreen Technique.

“Compared to the rapid advancement of the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art, the Evergreen Technique lacks a follow-up cultivation method and its efficiency is just too low,” Lan Changʼan slowly withdrew his energy and sighed inwardly.
Back in Great Yuan at the Yunxia Sect, he had the assistance of Fairy Purple Mist, who was at the Nascent Soul stage, which could somewhat compensate for the shortcomings.

The low efficiency of cultivation took up a large portion of his time every day, leaving little leisure to further hone skills like puppet refining and talisman drawing.

And that was with Lan Changʼan’s physical cultivation stuck at the quasi-fourth rank, unable to break through the bottleneck and shackles, otherwise, he’d be even more occupied.

Though Lan Changʼan had a long lifespan, and pure inefficiency wasn’t the end of the world, the real issue was that he couldn’t advance to mid-stage Nascent Soul in the future.

Fortunately, reaching the peak of early-stage Nascent Soul was still far off, and he had ample time to seek out the subsequent cultivation technique.

Over the past three years, the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art had progressed rapidly.

His previous puppet inheritance and puppet controlling secret techniques came mainly from the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, all belonging to the same lineage.

Thus, the switch in the early stages went smoothly, seamlessly transitioning and cultivating up to the fourth layer of the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art, corresponding to the Core Formation stage.

Even so, Lan Changʼan’s progress exceeded common sense, far surpassing even Puppet Master Wei, who was considered a puppet crafting genius.

And Puppet Master Wei was already faster than Elder Teng.

In terms of innate talent for puppet refining alone, Lan Changʼan might not match Puppet Master Wei, but his divine soul talent was far superior.

In terms of puppet refining qualifications, Lan Changʼan also held two major advantages:

First, he obtained experience and insights directly from Elder Teng’s memories, avoiding many detours.

Second, thanks to the past life descent, his divine soul was stronger, enhancing the cultivation effect of the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art and extending the duration of practice.

Soul arts always inflicted significant mental fatigue after each session, and recovery was much slower than with mana.

But with his past-life descent, Lan Changʼan could break this limitation, significantly improving both the effect and duration of cultivation.

Even second-life descent still had beneficial effects, perhaps due to some kind of reincarnation attribute involved.

After cultivating to the fourth layer, Lan Changʼan’s spiritual sense had already increased by nearly five percent.

It didn’t sound like much, but compared to the divine soul foundation of a Nascent Soul cultivator, this was already a significant improvement.

Beyond the fourth layer, most of the early foundations had already been converted, so the cultivation speed wasn’t as exaggerated. Even so, it was still enough to make the elders of the Thousand Mechanisms Sect envious.

The greatest challenge lay in the seventh layer and beyond, which corresponded to the Nascent Soul stage. Elder Teng had been stuck there for nearly a hundred years.

Lan Changʼan speculated that breaking through the bottleneck might be easier for him.

Not only did he possess outstanding soul talent, but after the descent of his fourth life, Lan Changʼan’s soul strength was comparable to the peak of mid-stage Nascent Soul, strong enough to throw bricks like boulders, making breakthroughs more achievable.

Moreover, when he cultivated to the peak of the sixth layer, his spiritual sense would have a small margin for improvement.

...

After finishing his daily cultivation, Lan Changʼan took out a message jade pendant glowing with spiritual patterns and received news sent by Zhang Tianfeng.

Without delay, he headed to the Sky Maple Mountain.

In the main hall, the two sat across from each other, though the topic wasn’t about the Righteous Dao Alliance.

”The demonic war in the Seven Kingdoms Alliance has broken out again. I’m not surprised,” Lan Changʼan said, gazing thoughtfully toward the direction of the Seven Kingdoms Alliance. “But for the Nether Spring Sect, the leader of the Six Demonic Sects, to provide solid support it shows just how determined they are to take down this tough bone.”

Several years ago, he had just returned from the territory of the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.

The spatial array node of the Tinghai Pavilion was also within the territory of the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.

“If the Seven Kingdoms Alliance is completely conquered, even if Beast King Valley doesn’t act, the Righteous Dao Alliance will probably fall into panic, and morale will plummet.”

There was a hint of worry in Zhang Tianfeng’s eyes.

If the Nether Spring Sect could support the Blood Spirit Sect and Illusion Demon Palace, then, theoretically, they could also assist Beast King Valley. The difference was that Beast King Valley had already achieved its strategic goals and secured control of the situation.

Once the Seven Kingdoms Alliance was taken, the Righteous Dao Alliance would be squeezed into a narrow living space. At that point, the Blood Spirit Sect and Illusion Demon Palace would be free to move, exerting massive pressure on the Righteous Dao Alliance from the flanks.

“The latest intel suggests that the Six Demonic Sects have already settled the division of interests over their rear territory in the Eastern Region, and their reorganization is mostly complete.”

Zhang Tianfeng’s expression grew grim as he paused:

“Fortunately, the Nether Spring Sect controls a vast territory and can’t fully free up its hands. The current open support to the Seven Kingdoms Alliance includes two Nascent Soul True Monarchs, over a dozen Core Formation masters, and some high-level specialized experts.”

“Let’s hope the Seven Kingdoms Alliance can hold the line, or at least not collapse.”

Lan Changʼan’s gaze grew distant as he murmured.

In fact, the Seven Kingdoms Alliance had already been struggling a hundred years ago.

They were lucky.

The sudden emergence of True Monarch Cyanwood had abruptly arrived in the Seven Kingdoms Alliance, killing off Demonic Daoʼs Nascent Soul cultivators and turning the regional tide.

Otherwise, the Seven Kingdoms Alliance might have lost large swathes of land and wouldnʼt have had these years to recuperate and catch their breath.

“By the way, True Monarch Lan. The materials for the quasi-fourth rank puppet we discussed a few years ago have been secretly gathered.”

Zhang Tianfeng handed over a storage pouch.

“Good.”

Lan Changʼan checked the materials and confirmed their authenticity.

Previously, Zhang Tianfeng had helped refine and modify a magical treasure. Lan Changʼan owed him some materials and used this puppet-making quota as repayment.

Zhang Tianfeng instructed that the creation of this puppet should be kept secret.

The future situation in Great Qing’s Eastern Region was uncertain. A quasi-fourth-rank puppet could enhance the sect’s foundation and strategic reserves. It might be able to respond to crises at critical moments and mitigate many losses.

...

A few months later.

Lan Changʼan successfully crafted a quasi-fourth-rank puppet that met Zhang Tianfeng’s specifications.

This time, Lan Changʼan completed the crafting entirely on his own, Puppet Master Wei did not participate or provide guidance at any stage.

Perhaps due to cultivating the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art, Lan Changʼan felt everything was smooth and natural. The puppet he crafted turned out to be of higher quality than expected.

“Fellow Daoist Lan Changʼan’s puppet-crafting skills have basically stepped into the fourth rank,”

Puppet Master Wei commented objectively.

Even as a fourth-rank puppet master, he could find no obvious flaws in the final product.

To further temper his puppet-crafting abilities, Lan Changʼan used the rare materials he had acquired in the past few years to upgrade the Exotic Spirit Peacock Puppet, filling the remaining gap in his puppet army formation.

The puppet army formation was now almost complete.

If it hadn’t been for slaying the two Nascent Soul old monsters, Old Evil Shen and Elder Teng, progress would not have been so swift.

In truth, puppets were a kind of consumable.

If one were to lose a battle, puppets often ended up severely damaged, their quality degrading a tier, or even being scrapped on the spot.

For example, Elder Teng had self-destructed eight puppets earlier. In the battle demon-sealing battle, Lan Changʼan had narrowly secured victory, but half of his puppet army formation was destroyed.

In evenly matched and intense battles, puppets inevitably took damage and required materials to repair.

Unless one could maintain a very high win rate and ensure the loot gained exceeded the costs, puppet strength would stagnate.

However, a single crushing defeat or a major calamity could result in all previous efforts being for naught.

Therefore, even in the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, it was impossible to endlessly stockpile or inherit large numbers of fourth-rank puppets.

For the time being, Lan Changʼan did not possess enough fourth-rank materials to craft an entirely new fourth-rank puppet.

Upgrading the Exotic Spirit Peacock to the fourth rank, as well as the enhancements made to Barbed Arrows and Black Heaven Wings, had already consumed a vast amount of his rare materials.

Moreover, too many puppets would exceed Lan Changʼan’s control limits.

In battles, both puppets and magical treasures occupy a cultivator’s spiritual sense, more is not necessarily better.

Puppet Master Wei, as a puppet spirit controlling the fourth-rank puppet was a special case, he could help Lan Changʼan reduce part of the spiritual sense load.

But for the puppet army formation and the Exotic Spirit Peacock, some spiritual sense burden was unavoidable.

At present, his puppet configuration was approaching the limit, adding more would hinder performance.

Lan Changʼan’s path going forward was to enhance the quality of his puppets rather than pursuing quantity.

...

Aside from puppet-crafting, Lan Changʼan had another fourth-rank skill that was about to reach full mastery.

In the decades since advancing to Nascent Soul, Lan Changʼan had accumulated quite a few materials for crafting talisman embryos for fourth-rank spirit talismans.

Some were harvested from demonic beasts and monsters, others from fourth-rank spiritual woods. Some were spoils of battle, others traded for but the former made up the majority.

These were opportunities for hands-on practice that other talisman masters could only dream of.

Under the descent of the fourth life, Lan Changʼan’s spiritual sense was powerful, and in recent years, the quality and success rate of the fourth-rank spirit talismans he drew had just barely reached the standard of a fourth-rank talisman master.

Once the Thousand Machines Divine Transformation Art advanced another two layers, his spiritual sense control would become more refined, and his talisman-crafting skills would be able to fully stabilize at the fourth rank.

Regrettably, Lan Changʼan had not acquired any talisman inheritances above the fourth rank.

However, spirit talismans and treasure talismans shared some fundamental similarities despite being different paths.

Fourth-rank spirit talismans using spiritual wood as embryos could also be nurtured to enhance their spirituality using the Evergreen Technique, but their quality and power would increase very slowly.

They could be nurtured into high-quality items of the same grade, but upgrading their grade was extremely difficult.

Unless the spiritual wood the talisman embryo was made from was originally mid-grade fourth-rank to lower the difficulty of crafting a low-grade fourth-rank talisman.

Lan Changʼan speculated that from the fourth-rank level and upward, spirit talisman and treasure talisman techniques began to increasingly overlap, gradually forming a unified system.

Due to the rarity of fourth-rank spirit talismans, each one was equivalent to an heirloom treasure, sharing properties with treasure talismans.

Even from the Nascent Soul old monsters he had slain, Lan Changʼan had harvested very few.

...

Half a year later.

Using mid-grade fourth-rank Heavenly Fir Wood as the talisman embryo, Lan Changʼan successfully crafted a few low-grade fourth-rank spirit talismans, which he planned to slowly nurture over time.

At this point, he could be considered to possess three fourth-rank-level skills.

Even among Nascent Soul True Monarchs, this was an astonishing feat, something that even Nascent Soul Great Cultivators found difficult to achieve.

Due to the low cultivation efficiency of the Evergreen Technique, Lan Changʼan did not have much time to consolidate or refine his techniques.

Both his puppet-crafting and talisman-crafting skills had just barely reached the fourth rank.

Especially the talisman-crafting art, it gave Lan Changʼan a sense of having barely broken through, as if he were approaching the limit, with nowhere further to go.

“The time is right, Fairy Xia should be almost ready.”

Recently, Lan Changʼan had been planning a trip to the Feng Kingdom.

In his hands, he held a complete Nascent Soul opportunity, and keeping it to himself would be of little use.

After hundreds of years of cultivation, most of his old friends and junior acquaintances with whom he had deep ties had either passed away, or had lost the potential to progress further due to limitations in talent or lifespan.

Except for Xia Wenyue, Lan Changʼan had no better candidate.

From a public standpoint, if the Righteous Dao Alliance could gain one more Nascent Soul cultivator, it would be greatly beneficial for the overall situation.

...

On the eve of Lan Changʼan’s planned departure, shocking bad news arrived from the Feng Kingdom.

It was bad news. A piece of bad news that was definitely disadvantageous to Lan Changʼan.

“Chu Tianfeng’s personal disciple, Situ Lan, was assassinated and killed while on the way to attend an auction.”

“According to unofficial sources, Situ Lan had already resolved his inner demons and had been secretly preparing to form his Nascent Soul in recent years. However, his route was leaked by an internal traitor.”

“After Situ Lan’s death, the demonic sect Unseen Gate declared themselves responsible for the assassination.”

“Beast King Valley declared that this was a counterattack and retaliation against True Monarch Evergreen for violating the peaceful trade agreement by destroying the physical body of True Monarch Black Feather and refusing to hand over the Black Heaven Wings.”

Upon receiving this intelligence, Lan Changʼan furrowed his brows and remained silent for a long time.

Years ago, during negotiations, Beast King Valley had threatened to take “countermeasures.”

At the time, Lan Changʼan had subconsciously dismissed it, assuming it might just be empty talk.

As a fourth-rank divination grandmaster, his movements were unpredictable, he had no Dao companion or descendants, and thus wasn’t worried about Beast King Valley taking revenge.

Even regarding his close junior within the sect, Zhao Tan’er, Lan Changʼan had used face-reading and divination but hadn’t detected any signs of impending doom.

He never imagined that the countermeasure Beast King Valley had been brewing for years would ultimately strike at the disciple of Alliance Leader Chu.

On the surface, this had nothing to do with Lan Changʼan personally but in truth, the implications were far-reaching.

“As expected of the Demonic faction, their countermeasures were swift and decisive. This move by Beast King Valley… hits three birds with one stone.”

Lan Changʼan sighed inwardly, fully aware of the negative consequences this matter would bring.

First, Situ Lan’s death cut off a potential Nascent Soul candidate from the Righteous Dao Alliance, once again dashing Endless Palace’s hope of producing three Nascent Soul cultivators in one generation.

Second, assassinating Alliance Leader Chu’s personal disciple was a direct blow to the prestige of both the alliance leader and the war faction.

Didn’t Chu Tianfeng reward and publicly support Lan Changʼan after he destroyed True Monarch Black Feather’s body?

Beast King Valley directly slapped Chu Tianfeng in the face, killing his personal disciple in retaliation, causing pain and humiliation.

Third, it was a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between Lan Changʼan and the Righteous Dao Alliance.

By framing the retaliation around this incident, the peace faction within the alliance might begin to harbor resentment toward Lan Changʼan.

If only Lan Changʼan had been more compromising at the time and surrendered the Black Heaven Wings, perhaps relations between the two factions could have eased.

With Situ Lan assassinated and Lan Changʼan involved in the cause, many cultivators of Endless Palace would inevitably develop resentment toward him.

Who could say for certain whether this event would cause Chu Tianfeng to have second thoughts or feelings of regret?

After all, Situ Lan was a highly valued personal disciple, and the bond between master and disciple had been strong.

If a rift formed between Chu Tianfeng and Lan Changʼan, then Beast King Valley’s counterattack would be a complete success.

If Chu Tianfeng was the Righteous Dao Alliance’s number one cultivator, then Lan Changʼan who possessed a fourth-rank spirit beast was the second strongest combatant in the alliance.

“Ah Brother Situ... the true cause and effect of this matter has little to do with me.”

“You can only blame yourself for being careless during your outing, and your sect for being infiltrated and leaking information. If you lack the ability to defend yourself against Nascent Soul cultivators, why leave the safety of the sect at all?”

Lan Changʼan shook his head. After performing calculations, he reached some conclusions.

The key factor was the leak during his preparation for forming his Nascent Soul.

Lan Changʼan’s prior actions just happened to give Beast King Valley a legitimate excuse for revenge.

In fact, Situ Lan was older than Xia Wenyue and already past the prime age for forming his Nascent Soul. Of course, he wasn’t elderly or hopeless, just no longer at his peak.

Had he not heard the news from Xiao Niyue, Lan Changʼan wouldn’t have known that Situ Lan had possibly resolved the knot in his heart and was still firmly working toward forming a Nascent Soul.

Chu Tianfeng also seemed willing to give his disciple a chance.

...

Not long after, Zhang Tianfeng visited Evergreen Peak to discuss a strategy with Lan Changʼan.

Zhang Tianfeng said solemnly, “Endless Palace has suffered a tragic incident, and there’s some connection to our sect. It would be best for True Monarch Lan to make a trip to the Feng Kingdom, representing Jin Yun Valley to pay respects to the deceased and manage relations with Endless Palace and Alliance Leader Chu.”

“Mm, I was just planning to visit the Feng Kingdom anyway.”

Lan Changʼan nodded and agreed to this matter, departing Jin Yun Valley that very day.