Chapter 491: – Life 120, Age 108, Martial Sovereign 1 |
Li TianYu might have been unpleasant to work with, but his efficiency was impossible to deny. Only a few days after we finalized our agreement, the Li Clan granted us control over the Realm of the Flying Raptor Sovereign, including all four of its subordinate empires.
Taking official ownership of these empires required nothing more than a few brush strokes, but integrating them into the Amorphous Blade Sect’s territorial framework was far more complicated. Therefore, I convened a full meeting of our sect’s leadership to discuss this matter in full.
Keeping the contents of this meeting secret wouldn’t be possible, so instead of concealing them, I chose to use them to shape a new narrative. I wanted the various Saints and Ancestors to view my inner world as nothing but a mundane Small World, not a unique realm hidden within the depths of my soul.
To make this happen, I constructed a Grand Audience Hall on the Plane of Earth, then connected it to Black Eagle City through a series of five semi-permanent gateways. One of these gateways was reserved for the Sect Master, while another could only be used by the Council of Elders. The last three were public gateways that allowed regular citizens to travel to and from the Plane of Earth at their leisure.
Since my inner world couldn’t yet withstand the pressure of Spirits and Ancestors, I added safeguards to these gateways that would sever their connections if such powerful cultivators attempted to use them. Foreign Sovereigns, however, were allowed to enter freely. After all, if they wanted to place themselves under my near-complete control, who was I to stop them?
In any case, the Plane of Earth had only ever been inhabited by demon beasts, so there wasn’t much for spies to uncover.
The Grand Audience Hall itself was little more than a giant amphitheater carved into the plane’s bedrock. The sect would eventually need a venue worthy of its grandeur, but the responsibility for constructing such a place would fall to our sect’s earth cultivators, not me.
When my avatar materialized in the center of the hall, I found myself surrounded by a sea of Lords and Kings. These deacons and lesser elders were not here to take part in the meeting itself. Their role was simply to observe the proceedings so they could better enforce whatever directives emerged.
The true participants were limited to me, YuLong, Meng LuYao, and the sect’s highest echelon.
“The Nine Rivers Domain has granted us control of four additional empires,” he announced. “We must now determine how these territories can best be utilized to strengthen the foundations of our Amorphous Blade Sect.”
He turned and gave me a deep bow. "Ancestor, this junior requests your guidance regarding the path forward."
I acknowledged Kan with a small nod, then stepped forward and let my eyes drift across the gathered crowd. “We originally controlled only a single empire, but through careful governance and strategic population growth, we expanded one empire into two. The same can be done with these four new empires. We must grow them until they have a population of eight.”
I let out a slow breath before continuing. “In the meantime, those first two empires should be abandoned.”
The atmosphere within the amphitheater shifted immediately. Several elders looked openly displeased at the thought of abandoning territories they had spent most of their lives building.
“Have you not noticed?” I asked. “Those two empires generate less karmic energy with each passing year. The talents and affinities of children born within them have only grown worse. Further development would require twice the effort for half the reward.”
This was the result of nearly a century spent extracting unnaturally large amounts of karmic energy. We hadn't experienced this on the Nine Rivers Continent, since we had supplemented everyone’s growth with both essence and memory orbs. But on the Central Continent, where essence was unavailable and we had strictly limited access to memory orbs, the truth was undeniable:
Periods of Decline were not unique to Bloodlines. Cities and empires could experience them as well.
I turned to Kan. “One empire should be granted to the Su Clan. The other should be granted to the Shi Clan. They will be given the right to govern these territories in exchange for annual tribute payments. Should any city decline to the point that it can no longer provide the required tribute, the sect will reclaim it.”
Realization slowly spread across the faces of several elders.
“The Amorphous Blade Sect will concentrate its resources on our four new empires,” I continued. “Expand their populations aggressively. Develop infrastructure, increase trade routes, and encourage immigration. Then, divide these four empires into eight as soon as possible.”
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Seeing that I had finished speaking, Kan gave me a deep bow. “Of course, Ancestor.”
Then, he turned to the Council of Elders and began working through the specifics.
I had given the sect its direction and outlined the future I wished to see. My role in this matter was finished. Now it was up to the Sect Master and his elders to turn my ambitions into reality.
Working with the Council of Elders, Kan and JiuLi took my plan to the next level.
The Su and Shi Clans were granted administrative rights over our hundred oldest cities—the places where karmic energy was the most depleted and where few children were born with high-level affinities. These cities possessed enormous economic value, but their ability to produce powerful Rulers was limited.
After this initial distribution, the sect conducted yearly assessments of every city. The least prosperous city held by each clan was returned to the sect. In exchange, the clans each received one of the sect’s most prosperous cities.
As decades came and went, the territories controlled by the clans slowly shifted across the landscape like a creeping tide.
My inner world didn’t have access to karmic energy, so the elders who had been born and raised there didn’t fully understand our intentions. However, they knew enough to understand that we weren’t acting out of pure generosity.
They knew we had ulterior motives, but knowing didn’t change anything. For the first time in millennia, the clans were being given access to empires and Emperor-level karmic energy. They had little grounds for complaint.
Of course, the clan elders did eventually notice that children born in clan-controlled cities possessed noticeably worse affinities than those born in sect-controlled cities. But by then, it was already too late. The most influential members of the clans were the members of the sect and their descendants.
As the clan elders gradually retired or passed away, they were replaced by cultivators whose loyalty lay more with the Amorphous Blade Sect than with the Su Clan or the Shi Clan. After that, the clans naturally began placing the sect’s prosperity ahead of their own.
In this way, the sect continuously drained karmic potential from one city after another, while the clans slowly restored the lands we left behind. It was a cycle that could last for millennia.
The second member of our sect to ascend to Martial Sovereign was YuLong, who possessed authority over the Shi Clan’s Bloodline.
At first, the rate at which he and I were gaining Bloodline energy was relatively equal, allowing the Su Clan and the Shi Clan to advance in lockstep. If nothing changed, both clans would produce Sovereigns, Spirits, and Ancestors at roughly the same pace.
Unfortunately, if our two clans rose together, then they would eventually decline together as well, creating a dangerous period of weakness that would leave our entire sect vulnerable. While this danger still lay far in the future, it was not something we could afford to ignore.
After studying the methods used by the oldest sects in the Heroes Domain, Kan and JiuLi made a few adjustments to how our sect awarded lordships and Ascension Pills.
For every city, kingdom, empire, or pill given to the Shi Clan, five were given to the Su Clan. Not only did this allow me to advance toward Martial Spirit as quickly as possible, giving our sect another layer of protection, but it also brought the Su Clan’s Period of Decline forward while delaying that of the Shi Clan. Once the Su Clan entered its Decline, resources would be shifted to the Shi Clan. Then, hopefully, when the Shi Clan entered its decline, the Su Clan would be ready to rise again.
Of course, there was no guarantee that things would work out so cleanly. We might need to pull in one or two more clans to bridge the gap between the Shi Clan’s fall and the Su Clan’s resurgence. But for the moment, the system functioned. And with this new arrangement in place, the amount of karmic energy flowing into my body increased dramatically.
After I reached Peak Sovereign, my next step was to transfer karmic energy to Kan, allowing him to begin his own ascension. Before doing so, however, I spoke with him and JiuLi to discuss how breakthroughs to Martial Sovereign should be managed.
With the amount of Bloodline energy we were generating, we could raise a new Sovereign every fifty years, but this was far from meeting the needs of our sect. We already had dozens of Peak Emperors who were eager for any opportunity to advance.
Therefore, we decided that only members of the sect’s leadership would be allowed to apply for this slot, and to do so, they would have to relinquish their current position. The Revered Elders would then decide which candidate would join their ranks and ascend to Sovereign. Those not selected would either transition into quieter positions as Honored Elders or leave the sect entirely and go home to support their clans.
As a result, seeking ascension became a dangerous political gamble.
When Kan announced that he would step down as Sect Master and seek ascension, no one doubted he would be selected, so not a single elder challenged him. Instead, they focused their energies on selecting his replacement.
Eventually, they settled on Suba HaoRong.
Although HaoRong had repeatedly sought to replace Kan as Sect Master, he had done so through legitimate political maneuvering—according to the elders, at least. The specifics of what had happened during the war against the Nine Rivers Domain had long since been forgotten, and over the intervening years, he had gradually earned the elders’ respect.
HaoRong could have used his new authority to seek revenge against Kan’s branch of the Su Clan, but doing so would have destroyed any chance he had at ascending to Martial Sovereign. Therefore, he instead focused all his efforts on ensuring our sect was as prosperous as possible.
Two centuries later, the Su Clan finally produced a fifth Martial Sovereign, but as soon as it did, new threads of karmic energy began to manifest within my dantian.
This new energy accumulated slowly but steadily, growing denser with each passing year.
Finally, once I judged the amount sufficient, I guided the energy to the core at the center of my energy body. As always, once the accumulation of energy reached a sufficient level, my core burst apart, destroying both it and my energy body.
Unlike the energy body of an Emperor, the body of a Sovereign was infused with the karmic bonds of one's Bloodline. Thus, while the explosion of Spirit-level energy was far more intense than that of Sovereign-level energy, my body reformed with astonishing speed, marking my first true ascension to Martial Spirit.