Ch175 Ye Clan’s Discussion

Over 3,000 kilometers to the northeast of Lingshi City, further into the ring of the outer sect, there is a large mountain range.

It is closest to the Spirit Herb, Array Formation, and Ore Refinement Peaks.

Some mountains that hold pure spirit veins beneath them grow trees, grass, flowers, and bushes, but many of the veins in this region have turned to Spiritual Copper.

These metallic veins produce the majority of the spiritual copper for the Outer Sect, and the higher grade tier 2 mines even provide the Inner Sect with a large amount of valuable resources.

The Big Three Clans, Ye, Han, and Sun, all have control over the spiritual ore mines of the Outer Sect. The Han and Sun clans are far more prominent further north, controlling the Verdant Steel mines, while the Ye Clan is more concentrated in the Copper and Black Iron business.

The Azure Cloud Sect is the true rightful owner of all these mines, but they are too far from the Inner Sect to keep a close eye on. They are loaned out to these families, and often, smaller growing foundational clans gain fractional shares in each mine when they benefit the sect.

The Lin and Wei clans stay out of the mining business; they simply plant branch families in every major city that pops up nearby.

There are two prominent settlements in this portion of the Outer Sect border near the three main Azure Cloud Sect peaks.

One trading settlement named Baicao City is much closer to the outer sect’s Spirit Herb Peak, primarily controlled by the Sun Clan. It is connected to the main trade routes further north.

The more isolated of the two cities is further from the sect, known as Copper City.

A mountain range almost 500 kilometers long is filled with a dozen tier 2 spiritual copper veins and countless tier 1 fractured runoff veins.

Most of these fractured veins degrade back into pure tier 1 spiritual veins, as true spiritual copper only forms in foundational density environments.

Copper City is a massive trading hub in between five tier 2 mountains, all controlled by a major Ye Clan Branch Family.

Their clan is concentrated in the Hidden Mist, holding one branch clan here in Copper City and another far to the north in a shared city with the other Big Three Clans.

Their main bloodline has moved to Nine Rivers City, but their footing in the capital is not stable yet. They are relying on their two branch families to continue growing in influence.

Atop the highest peak behind Copper City, a man and woman stand alone on the top floor of a bright white palace with shimmering high grade tier 2 spiritual copper inscriptions all over the walls and ceiling.

The empty hall before them stretches almost half a kilometer, and the ceiling of this fortress rises hundreds of meters in the air.

An old man named Ye Wuhun listens to a communication talisman’s message over and over.

It reveals a small amount of information on the suspect he’s been searching for, a 7th level qi refiner from the Azure Cloud Sect with a spirit grade physique.

However, this information cost him three initial stage foundation establishment cultivators, two mid stage foundational cultivators, and three of the new generation’s assassins in training.

They were not official public-facing members of the family, so their prestige is not affected, but this is still a blow that hurts their hidden forces.

“An unregistered golden core artifact… so that’s really what we’re after…” he mutters, and his words echo through the hall.

He pulls out a red and black talisman made of high grade tier 2 black jade with the Blood Sword Sect insignia on its front side.

The character for Envoy is carved into its back, glowing white and twisting at the same rhythm as his soul.

The tall, pale-skinned Patriarch clicks it on, reporting this information to his superior who sent him off on this mission.

His eyes flicker with white illusory souls as he adds another line to his message, “I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure. You’ve asked me to track a Golden Core Artifact for you. It will take the lives of many more of my assassins to get the true identity. Retrieving the Artifact myself will attract far too much attention from the other clans nearby. You know I cannot leave Copper City.”

A few minutes later, a low, raspy voice echoes back, lighting up the jade with dark red and sharp white energy.

“Good work, Envoy. You’ve confirmed that the treasure is truly a golden core artifact for me too. All I require is a name. I will take care of the extraction myself. Your reward will be the next stage of the illusory demon manual, and I will send you another pseudo golden core talisman from my collection as a token of my personal thanks.”

The black jade envoy communication talisman clicks off, and Ye Wuhun’s dark eyebrows scrunch together as he paces back and forth.

“Another talisman? Just a name is worth that much? There is something strange about all of this…”

He whispers under his breath, trying to think things through.

“Ye Moran and Motao were not weak. They should have been able to infiltrate the Wang Clan with ease. Whoever holds the artifact is protecting them for some reason. He probably wouldn’t have shown himself otherwise. They must have intervened in the Jiang Clan incident too….”

Footsteps echo through the hall. A woman in a jet black dress matching her long hair watches her husband work.

Ning Shuang is a few decades younger than the Ye Patriarch.

She was taken from the ruins of her late stage Ning Foundational Clan that was destroyed over a century ago when she was a child. She was only taken in due to her 4th grade dual spiritual roots, otherwise, she would have been exterminated with everyone else opposing the Azure Cloud Sect in the Great War.

Raised from a young age to respect, honor, and serve the Ye Clan, she was married to this Branch Clan Leader as a loyal pillar to strengthen their bloodline.

She shows a thin smile with crossed arms as the older man comes up with his next plan of action.

“We can’t recklessly send any more initial and mid stage foundational cultivators to their deaths… but I can’t have our Sect Elder leave the Combat Peak at a time like this. I’ll just have to send out scouts to spy and not interact with anyone, only collect more information….”

He stops and shakes his head. “No… I’ll need to contact some of the members of the public-facing clan too, in order to get more eyes and ears in the Outer Sect. He’s most likely in one of the four outer peaks near Lingshi City.”

More murmurs fill the air, and the Matriarch finally speaks up, “Husband, you should also make sure to tail all of the oddities that were pointed out by both teams before they went dark. That Li Clan General Store is quite strange, there are reports of a perfect grade tier 1 wine of better quality than even what our brewers can create. Also, that woman Lan Xin. I’ve tracked her progress over the last few years ever since she made it into the top 10 of the beauty rankings. She should not be capable of killing the foundational cultivators from the Jiang Clan with her current strength. Also, the Lin Clan branch in that city has been getting far more shipments of raw material than usual… if they are involved…”

Ye Wuhun’s pacing halts.

“If the Lin Clan is involved, of course we will back out and cut our losses.”

He nods to himself and walks back to the lifted stage where his wife stands.

“Alright then, I’ll summon our full shadow guard and begin the search.”