Chapter 887: Raising Dao Soldiers |
Back in the days when the Jiuqu League still existed, the extraterritorial Barbarian Clan had already occupied the Yuantu Great Prairie.
Despite the Jiuqu League's relentless efforts to suppress the extraterritorial Barbarian Clan and engaging in fierce wars with them several times, many cultivation forces still engaged in secret dealings with the Barbarian Clan.
As time went on, smuggling and trading with the extraterritorial Barbarian Clan became a major industry within the Jiuqu League.
Except for a few sects like the Jade Sword Sect that refused to participate, almost every other influential sect and family could get involved.
Many sects and families benefited greatly from these dealings, attracting more and more cultivators to join in.
This behavior was, in fact, tantamount to collaborating with the enemy, but few cared.
When the Jiuqu League eventually became the Jiuqu Province of the Dali Dynasty, the Dali Dynasty's official order prohibited any commercial dealings with the Extraterritorial Invaders.
Many Primordial Spirit sects and large families had other sources of income and gave up on this route.
The laws of the Dali Dynasty were strict, and everyone had heard about it. As newcomers, there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
Trading with these Extraterritorial Invaders was not an outright rebellion against the Dali Dynasty; it was just ordinary business, so there shouldn't be much of a problem.
Moreover, there's a saying that the law doesn't punish the masses. With so many cultivation forces involved, even if something were to go wrong, the Dali Dynasty might have reservations before taking action.
Some even proposed that those big merchant families from the Dali Dynasty's own territory weren't all that innocent either. They might have also committed taboo acts in secret.
After some discussion, everyone reached a consensus.
On one hand, the major sects and families within the small group should unite and cooperate closely.
In their daily interactions, they could share resources and increase trade among themselves to promote the flow of goods within the small group and form an internal market.
On the other hand, they would organize a covert merchant caravan to secretly trade with Cloudmist Great Lake and Yuantu Great Prairie.
At the beginning, the caravan could be relatively small in scale. If everything went smoothly and the profits were considerable, they could gradually expand the trading operations.
All transactions had to be kept strictly confidential and should never be easily leaked. The participants should ideally be trusted core members from various factions.
Within the small group, consensus was reached, but many details still needed careful communication and implementation.
Such matters could not be rushed; they needed to be taken step by step.Next, the various cultivation forces within the small group began to secretly take action.
Meng Zhang, engrossed in seclusion for cultivation, hadn't paid much attention to the progress of You Hongzhi True Monarch and the others.
Xu Mengying was very cautious and didn't mention this matter to Meng Zhang during their routine communications.
It wasn't that she intended to keep it a secret from Meng Zhang, but rather, for safety reasons, she decided to tell him about it in person instead of using indirect means.
However, Meng Zhang had been in seclusion all this time, and both of them were incredibly busy, so they didn't have a chance to communicate.
After careful preparation, the merchant caravan personally organized by You Hongzhi True Monarch secretly set off for Cloudmist Great Lake and Yuantu Great Prairie to begin the trade.
Despite some twists and turns and a few incidents along the way, the trade ultimately proceeded smoothly.
Both Yuantu Great Prairie and Cloudmist Great Lake showed great interest in various items from the Human Cultivation World.
The demon race was more accepting, as they also had a heritage of alchemy and artifact refining.
Although their methods were a bit crude, and there were some losses during the process, they could still address their needs.
The extraterritorial Barbarian Clan and Spirit Clan, however, lacked in these aspects.
Especially for the lower-ranking members of the demon, spirit, and barbarian races, they were in dire need of supplies like elixirs at this time.
The elixirs refined by humans primarily targeted humans. When taken by other races, they might not produce the best effects and could even lead to some negative side effects.
Nevertheless, having something was better than having nothing.
The supplies from the Human Clan Cultivators had significant effects on all three races.
The three major races were willing to pay high prices and work to keep this trade channel open.
After tasting the initial sweetness, the scale of the trade kept expanding, and the caravans heading to Yuantu Great Prairie and Cloudmist Great Lake became more frequent.
With the recovery of income through this trade with those two regions, these cultivation forces saw a substantial increase in their revenues.
Though far from their heyday, at least they could sustain themselves. The operation of sects and families returned to normal.
In the blink of an eye, the Jiuqu League had become the Jiuqu Province, and nearly thirty years had passed.
Meng Zhang, who had been in seclusion to break through the bottleneck from the early stage of Primordial Spirit to the mid-stage, didn't find his cultivation progress as smooth as he had hoped.
Since embarking on the path of cultivation, Meng Zhang, with his extraordinary talent and unyielding efforts, had never encountered any major challenges.Those so-called bottlenecks, those so-called checkpoints, couldn't trouble him at all.
As long as he exerted a little effort, he could smoothly break through.
However, after entering the Primordial Spirit stage of Cultivation Base, the effect of his excellent spiritual root quality became smaller and almost negligible.
To break through the bottleneck of the Primordial Spirit stage of Cultivation Base, it increasingly emphasized the cultivator's comprehension and accumulation.
Meng Zhang was still lacking a bit in this aspect.
Shortly after he began seclusion, he realized that although he had already cultivated to the early stage of the Primordial Spirit completion, his accumulation was insufficient, and the possibility of a successful breakthrough was not high.
Meng Zhang did not force it or become anxious.
He continued to solidify his foundation and strengthen his accumulation while also starting to do some other things.
Now that the situation around the Jiuqu Province is stable, there is currently no trend of a major war.
Meng Zhang now has more time and can boldly venture into the Nine Heavens.
Guided by his Spiritual Awareness, his gains have been quite good.
Nine Heavens Refined Essence, as well as many precious Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects, have all fallen into his hands.
Last time, when he destroyed the spatial passage in the void, he gained a lot of military merit.
After some contemplation, he exchanged some Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects with the official Dali Dynasty.
After multiple exchanges and years of collection, Meng Zhang finally managed to barely gather all the materials needed to raise a dao soldier in the Primordial Spirit stage.
Meng Zhang successively put these materials into the Yin Yang Spirit Gourd and carefully nurtured them, spending nearly twenty years before finally cultivating a dao soldier in the early stage of the Primordial Spirit.
For the current Taiyi Sect, they were not lacking in the combat power of the Gold Core stage, so raising a Gold Core stage dao soldier held little significance.
Only a dao soldier with the strength of the Primordial Spirit stage could greatly enhance the sect's top combat power.
Just raising this dao soldier with the strength of the early stage of the Primordial Spirit stage depleted Taiyi Sect's accumulation of many years and used up the military merit Meng Zhang had worked hard to earn.
Although he could continue to raise another dao soldier with the strength of the early stage of the Primordial Spirit stage, Meng Zhang couldn't obtain enough resources for it.
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