Chapter 1126 - 386: Celestial Master Lei Battles State Preceptor Tang (Ten-Thousand-Word - )

Chapter 1126: Chapter 386: Celestial Master Lei Battles State Preceptor Tang (Ten-Thousand-Word Chapter)

"The true inheritance of the Ancient Talisman Sect..."

Yuan Mobai tilted his head back, gazing upward, sunk in thought and silent.

Lei Jun exchanged a glance with Wang Guiyuan.

Wang Guiyuan gently shook his head, indicating that his own knowledge of the matter was limited.

Through the news previously relayed by Senior Sister Xu Yuanzhen, the people of the Great Tang Celestial Master Mansion had already learned the general situation within Penglai.

Although Penglai was currently brimming with Spiritual Energy, it likely had suffered a great calamity in the past; those now in Penglai were not a lineage that had dwelled there for generations and multiplied to the present day.

Be it Huang Xuanpu or the others, all had entered Penglai from the outside world, each by their own path and chance.

Here there remained some Taoist Heritage from Ancient Times, and even rare treasures.

Huang Xuanpu and the others returned to their respective Mortal Worlds and founded Taoist Nations, each borrowing power from it over the past century.

But Penglai itself, at present, has no orthodox Ancient Talisman Sect inheritance and cultivators.

In the world of the Han people, the Dragon Tiger Mountain Celestial Master Mansion is, as far as is known, the first place where the Ancient Talisman Sect inheritance has survived to this day.

It is just that, for now, it cannot be fully confirmed whether the world of the Han people is connected with Penglai.

"According to what Yuan Zhen said, the Western White Emperor can already be confirmed as the Sect Leader of the Mount Shu lineage in the Great Ming Mortal World."

Yuan Mobai gathered his thoughts, his expression returning to its usual calm, a gentle smile on his face as he narrated: "Her name is Han Qingtao, a scion of the Great Ming Royal Family."

Lei Jun, Wang Guiyuan, and Chu Kun, the three brothers in Dao, nodded together, none of them particularly surprised.

Previously, they had more or less anticipated this.

After all, an Artifact Refining Sect Great Vehicle High Immortal at the fourth stage of the Ninth Heavenly Layer carries considerable weight.

The Great Ming Mortal World was a realm where Scholarly Cultivators held absolute dominance, suppressing Buddhism and the Taoist Sect—this suppression was even more pronounced than it had been in the Great Tang Mortal World.

Given this background, the Mount Shu Sect Leader of the Great Ming was more likely than the upper echelons of the Great Tang Mount Shu Sect to harbor certain divergent intentions.

Especially since Han Qingtao, the Mount Shu Sect Leader of the Great Ming, herself had a somewhat unusual family background.

It was said that the Great Ming imperial clan bore the surname Han, which sounded subtly ironic to Lei Jun’s ear.

He had heard Nie Fang mention that, in earlier years, before the Founding Emperor of Great Ming had firmly secured the realm, during his struggle against the foreign Qian Dynasty that ruled the previous era, he had styled himself the Bright King...

"According to Mr. Nie of the Mystery Observatory, in the Great Ming Mortal World, only the Sacred Land True Martial Taoist Temple of the Alchemical Sect has a somewhat better situation."

Chu Kun said, "It is said that this is because, at the founding of the Great Ming Dynasty, the Patriarch of True Martial Taoist Temple supported and protected the Bright King and rendered great merit. Later, during the struggle between the New Emperor and the Young Emperor for the throne, True Martial Taoist Temple again aided the New Emperor. Thus, in that Great Ming Mortal World, the Alchemical Sect’s lineage fares much better than the Talisman Sect and the Refinement Sect?"

Yuan Mobai said, "More or less. But relatively speaking, that realm is still fundamentally dominated by Confucian Rationalism; True Martial Taoist Temple’s situation is only somewhat better. The Refinement Sect Sacred Land, the Mount Shu Sect, is in a rather strained position, while our Talisman Sect’s lineage has nearly been cut off."

Han Qingtao is a noblewoman of the Ming Court’s imperial family. That she ultimately ascended to the seat of Sect Leader of the Great Ming Mount Shu Sect—aside from her own extraordinary talent and cultivation—it is hard to say how much her birth contributed.

Placed in the Great Tang Mortal World, someone like the late Mount Shu Elder Zhang Dongyuan would never have had the opportunity to vie for the position of Sect Leader; he himself did not harbor such expectations.

In those years, Mount Shu was torn by large-scale internal strife and split into separate branches, its Primordial Qi grievously wounded.

Zhang Dongyuan, as the last Great Sword Cultivator of the Eighth Heavenly Layer in Mount Shu after Chen Donglou’s departure and the defection of Wei Qiyue and Wang Dongchu, came to hold the supreme treasure, the Blue Abyss Sword.

Yet in the end, the new Sect Leader established by Mount Shu was the next-generation cultivator, Zhang Taigang.

However, the overall background and environment of the Great Ming Mortal World differs from that of the Great Tang.

"In that realm, because Scholarly Cultivators’ fate is bound to the national fortune of Great Ming, sharing the burden of the empire, they inevitably impose varying degrees of suppression upon other paths of cultivation."

Lei Jun said, "As a Daoist Artifact Refining Sect inheritance, the Mount Shu Sect is, in this regard, actually one of the lineages least constrained by that Taoist Heritage suppression."

The Refinement Sect is also called the External Alchemy School.

In a sense, it is an upright approach that openly seeks power from external objects.

In actual combat spellcasting, this makes it comparatively less affected by the ritual constraints of Neo-Confucianism.

Nie Fang’s cultivation of the Engineer Art branch of Taoist Laws is a similar case.

"Conversely, does that mean that the Daoist Artifact Refining Sect inheritance is also more likely to be regarded with suspicion by Confucian Rationalism?" Chu Kun conjectured.

In this light, the fact that Han Qingtao, a noblewoman of the Ming Court’s Royal Family, became Sect Leader of Mount Shu seems to carry even richer implications.

"But it is now very difficult for her to continue to establish herself in the Great Ming Mortal World."

Wang Guiyuan said, "Senior Sister has made her identity as the Western White Emperor and her secret efforts to establish a Taoist Nation in the Great Ming Mortal World known to all. The Ming Court’s imperial family has already proclaimed Han Qingtao an Imperial Convict.

Aside from those within the Ming Court, it is said that the person acclaimed as the foremost master of the Great Ming Daoist Sect, whose prowess surpasses even Han Qingtao’s—the Temple Master of True Martial Taoist Temple—has personally gone forth to assist the Ming Court in hunting down Han Qingtao and the members of the Taoist Nation of the Great Ming Mortal World."

Lei Jun said, "Just like Huang Xuanpu back then—pull one thread, and the whole body moves."

Wang Guiyuan said, "The Ming Court is also presently beset by turmoil on all sides. Still, that Mortal World boasts many experts and retains deep reserves."

Lei Jun gave a slight nod.

When he had previously communicated with Senior Sister Xu Yuanzhen, he had heard her briefly mention it.

The history of the Great Ming Mortal World is roughly two thousand four hundred years longer than that of the Great Tang Mortal World; the time when Global Spiritual Qi surged there was not as early as that, but still preceded that of the Great Tang Mortal World by several centuries.

It was shortly after the founding of the Great Ming Dynasty that Spiritual Energy in that Mortal World began to swell.

While benefiting the cultivation of its practitioners, this also allowed some locations within the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths to re-establish contact with the Great Ming Mortal World.

Thus there was the matter of the Young Emperor withdrawing into Guicang under the protection of his ministers, and thereafter changing Guicang into Heavenly Principle.

Although the Great Ming Mortal World has also weathered many storms, its accumulated years have left that realm with no shortage of experts.