Chapter 962: Intelligence |
If Taiyi Sect has a powerful backer in the heartland of the Dali Dynasty, it can greatly reduce the threats from the Great Trade Union and others.
Although Meng Zhang is not fond of engaging in these sycophantic activities, as the lord of a sect, there are many things he has to do even if he doesn't like them.
Furthermore, after Shang Jianqing was publicly defeated by Niu Dawei, his display of emotions showed that he harbors deep hatred towards Niu Dawei and, by extension, Taiyi Sect as well.
While Shang Jianqing himself is insignificant, his master, Sword Monarch Ouyang Jian, is famous and holds high prestige.
If such a figure causes trouble for Meng Zhang when he arrives in the heartland of the Dali Dynasty, he would face great difficulties.
In the Cultivation World, encountering stronger adversaries after dealing with weaker ones is quite common. Cultivators who are magnanimous and reasonable are rare.
The information Meng Zhang obtained about the heartland of the Dali Dynasty, such as from the communication stone tablet placed in the Grand Lion Ridge, is likely not complete.
Many of these pieces of information merely scratch the surface and consist of official public disclosures.
He had once offered generous gifts to seek advice from True Monarch Wen Dong, hoping to understand the entanglements among various forces.
Meng Zhang can only rely on the Heavenly Palace to obtain the intelligence he wants to know.
The second aspect of information he desires is about the specific confrontation between the Dali Dynasty and the Purple Yang Holy Sect.
One who plans for the future must also consider present concerns.
Although Jiuqu Province has been relatively stable, being far away from the struggles between the Dali Dynasty and the Purple Yang Holy Sect, Taiyi Sect has developed steadily under the protection of the Dali Dynasty for many years.
However, Meng Zhang remembers that the conflict between the Dali Dynasty and the Purple Yang Holy Sect has never ended.
For the sake of Taiyi Sect's future, it is best to understand the specific course of their struggles. Who is gaining the upper hand, and who will be the ultimate victor?
In the Heavenly Palace, there are also tea houses.
Not far from Taiyi Sect's small courtyard, there is a moderately-sized tea house.
Aside from providing a place for cultivators to enjoy tea and discuss matters, this tea house also sells relevant intelligence.
Meng Zhang doesn't know which power this tea house belongs to, but its business is thriving, with people coming and going, indicating that it must have some capabilities.
Meng Zhang walked into the tea house, and a waiter naturally came to greet him. In the Heavenly Palace, all the cultivators here were at least Primordial Spirit True Monarchs.
Primordial Spirit True Monarchs, even if they were not valuable and abundant, would not be used for such menial tasks. The welcoming waiter was clearly an automaton puppet.
This automaton puppet not only resembled a human in appearance but also possessed extremely high intelligence, surpassing that of many cultivators. In Meng Zhang's eyes, this automaton puppet was very similar to the intelligent robots from his previous life.
Although he had seen the Mechanical Creations technology in the Heavenly Palace before, every time he saw these puppets that were almost indistinguishable from living beings, he couldn't help but marvel at them.
If Taiyi Sect could master such Mechanical Creations technology, they would not fear the suppression from the Great Trade Union and others in commercial trade. Of course, Meng Zhang was just thinking about it.
Such technology was undoubtedly a closely guarded secret and not something Taiyi Sect could aspire to at the moment.
The waiter led Meng Zhang to a quiet private room, and he ordered tea and snacks. Before coming to the tea house, Meng Zhang had asked for some information from a cultivator named You Dazhi, who had rented a space to Taiyi Sect in the Heavenly Palace.
You Dazhi had been in the Heavenly Palace for many years and was very familiar with the surroundings. He also had a friendly attitude towards Meng Zhang and was willing to provide answers to some trivial questions.
Following You Dazhi's recommendations, Meng Zhang made a request to the waiter. After the waiter left, he reappeared in front of Meng Zhang after a while. Indeed, this tea house sold various pieces of information to customers.
Of course, if one was not a regular customer, there were many restrictions on purchasing information, and they could only buy some ordinary information. When Meng Zhang saw the price quoted by the waiter, he felt a pang of pain.
Although he had some savings and now had relatively stable income from Yang Xueyi's side, he was still reluctant to spend so many pure jade inspirations at once. In the end, Meng Zhang chose to buy the information.
He received a jade slip from the waiter and began using his Divine Sense to read the information inside.This tea house is truly vast in its collection of Divine Abilities. In such a short time, Meng Zhang obtained the information he needed.
The intelligence within the jade slip covered a lot, providing Meng Zhang with a comprehensive understanding of many aspects of the heartland of the Dali Dynasty. It included the distribution of internal forces, their entanglements and conflicts, their relationships with each other, and the affiliations of prominent cultivators in the Dali Dynasty.
Some of this information, especially the privacy of certain influential figures, would not be published in the official reports of the Dali Dynasty. But in the jade slip, there were detailed descriptions of these influential individuals.
Their reputations, rumors about them, their behavior and styles, their various beliefs, and even some of their clandestine activities were recorded within the jade slip.
With this information, Meng Zhang could return to his sect and, together with the elders, read and analyze it to formulate a basic set of guidelines for his actions.
He would know who were friends and who were enemies. When he arrived in the heartland of the Dali Dynasty, Meng Zhang could decide whom to be close to and whom to stay away from.
Of course, Meng Zhang would not blindly trust this information but would judge and discern based on actual circumstances.
The jade slip provided detailed information about the heartland of the Dali Dynasty, but the information about the conflict between the Dali Dynasty and the Purple Yang Holy Sect was only briefly mentioned without going into depth.
In general, the struggle between the Dali Dynasty and the Purple Yang Holy Sect had been going on for many years, and both sides had their victories and defeats, making it difficult to determine who had the upper hand.
If there were no other changes, this struggle would continue for many more years.
The Dali Dynasty was highly aggressive, expanding its territory and annihilating many cultivation forces in the early years. This not only made them many enemies but also alerted many other cultivation forces, especially those not too far from the Dali Dynasty.
The Purple Yang Holy Sect didn't need to directly take action; they could easily organize a siege against the Dali Dynasty. Many cultivation forces that used to fear the Dali Dynasty were emboldened to unite and resist them with the support of the Purple Yang Holy Sect.
So far, the Purple Yang Holy Sect had not directly attacked the Dali Dynasty as a sect. Instead, they used vassal forces or instigated the neighboring forces of the Dali Dynasty to participate in the encirclement.
The Purple Yang Holy Sect mainly provided support from behind or dispatched a few disciples for communication.
Of course, it was inevitable for some individual cultivators from the Purple Yang Holy Sect to engage in direct conflicts with the Dali Dynasty, but the sect itself had not launched a full-scale attack on the Dali Dynasty.
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