Chapter 83: Cultivation Turmoil in the Eastern Domain

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Cultivation Turmoil in the Eastern Domain

As for the Five Qi Chaoyuan, he had likely only grasped the concepts of the heart housing the spirit, the spleen housing intent, and the kidneys housing essence. He still had no idea what it meant for the liver to house the ethereal soul or the lungs to house the corporeal soul.

Therefore, achieving the full state of Three Flowers Gathering at the Top and Five Qi Chaoyuan at the Nascent Soul Realm was simply out of the question.

It could only be described as the beginning of Transcendence. Only after stepping into the Nascent Soul Realm did the long and arduous journey of Cultivation truly begin.

After truly reaching the realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Top and Five Qi Chaoyuan, one could ascend to godhood by passing the Celestial Tribulation. If one failed the tribulation but survived, they would become an Earth Immortal, able to live another eight hundred years to await the next Celestial Tribulation.

An Earth Immortal had nine chances to pass the Celestial Tribulation. If they failed all nine times, death was certain. Of course, death was a possibility with every single attempt.

After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, a Cultivator’s goals became clear, and they finally knew what path to direct their efforts toward.

In other words, before the Nascent Soul Realm, one still needed a master’s guidance and instruction. But after reaching it, Cultivation depended solely on one’s own efforts.

With these thoughts clear in his mind, Chu Fan truly began his breakthrough. The True Qi Liquid circulated through his meridians, cleansing his body as it continuously surged forth to carve open new pathways.

In his Dantian, atop the lotus seedpod within the lotus flower, the Golden Core at the very center began to crack. A tiny figure, looking like an infinitesimally smaller version of Chu Fan as an infant, sat cross-legged within the cracking shell. As pieces of the "shell" flaked off, the small figure, its eyes closed, picked up the fallen fragments, tossed them into its mouth, and chewed with a CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

When the entire shell had flaked away and the tiny figure had eaten every last fragment, it stood up on the lotus seedpod, stretched lazily, and then sat down cross-legged once more.

When it opened its eyes, two beams of brilliant light shot from its pupils. They intertwined with the golden light radiating from the Juntian Mirror, bathing the entire Dantian in a dazzling, otherworldly glow.

At that moment, Yun Xi, who was standing guard nearby, saw the ethereal images of three flowers appear above Chu Fan’s head. Across his chest, five clouds of different colored qi swirled in a circle, connected head to tail.

However, the vision vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. She then felt Chu Fan’s aura surge, reaching an entirely new level.

"So this is the Nascent Soul Realm?" Chu Fan opened his eyes, clenching his fists as he savored the feeling of his newfound power.

Only at this moment did he truly feel like he had been "reborn." ’Ever since my Chaos Body was activated and I began practicing the Miaolian Celestial Stabilization Technique, it’s all felt so unreal, like a dream.’

But now, his Realm had surpassed what it was before he was crippled. ’This,’ he thought, ’is power that truly belongs to me—power I can completely control.’

Yun Xi was, of course, overjoyed. Seeing the man she loved constantly improving and breaking through his limits, she felt his happiness as if it were her own.

Chu Fan stood up and walked out of the treehouse to survey their surroundings. Although the structure was a bit crude, he could tell Yun Xi had put a great deal of care into building it.

’I’ve made it through the period of weakness after the Earth Spirit Pill wore off, my Cultivation has broken through, and the second seal on the Juntian Mirror is undone. It’s time to clear up the questions that have been weighing on Yun Xi’s mind all this time.’

Chu Fan’s story began with his trip to the Cloud Horse Jade Mine with his master and senior brother. As he recounted the events, however, he deliberately downplayed the dangers, glossing over several life-threatening crises as if they were nothing.

He mentioned the Juntian Mirror, but didn’t go into detail about its specific functions—after all, he didn’t know much himself. He only explained that he had learned the Lion Seal Divine Technique from it.

The Dream-Breaking Meteor Sword and the Yifeng Sword Technique, he explained, came from the rings of the cultivator predecessors at Dingfeng Slope, while the Python Shadow Four Swords were found in the Python Cave within the Divine Hall.

He also took out the Scroll he had obtained from the Divine Statue, explained its purpose, and they both examined it together.

He didn’t even hide how he had come to know Yan Ying.

One could say that Chu Fan had practically no secrets from Yun Xi.

Strictly speaking, however, he had "forgotten" to mention the Miaolian Celestial Stabilization Technique, the lotus in his Dantian, and the fact that he had thirteen Golden Cores.

He also didn’t mention encountering the Xiezhi’s Spiritual Body within the Juntian Mirror, nor the desolate world he had seen there.

But even with his omissions, Yun Xi still gripped Chu Fan’s hand tightly countless times in fits of anxiety and was moved to tears on several occasions.

...

During the nearly one month that Chu Fan and Yun Xi spent on Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, the Eastern Domain Cultivation Realm was thrown into turmoil.

The few Divine Separation Realm experts standing guard outside Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, the heavily injured Nascent Soul Realm cultivators recovering from their wounds, and even the disciples who had been training on the mountain—all of them received urgent messages from their respective Sects ordering an immediate return.

And so, by the seventh day of Chu Fan’s coma, not a single person remained standing guard outside Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.

Sixty-three items had been sold at the Nanling County auction.

On average, each of the Six Sects and Eight Gates had secured three items. Yet just those three items had cost each Sect nearly half of the wealth they had accumulated over hundreds of years.

Of the remaining twenty or so items, Red Blood Mansion had snagged six. The rest were claimed by various second-tier Sects. As for the minor Sects, they had to practically bankrupt themselves to afford even a single item—and it was usually a less important one that had slipped through the cracks of the Six Sects and Eight Gates.

The Treasure Swords and Cultivation Techniques from the auction all ended up in the hands of either Red Blood Mansion or the Six Sects and Eight Gates.

After the auction, several Sects were ambushed. Some fought to the death and still failed to protect their newly acquired items, unable to even identify the faction that had attacked them.

At Zi Wu Gate, for instance, two Elders were severely injured and three Stewards were killed in the fight to protect their auction winnings. Yet when they unmasked the assailants they had managed to kill, they couldn’t identify which Sect they belonged to.

The ambushed Sects grew suspicious of all the Sects that had emerged unscathed.

Red Blood Mansion, in particular, became the prime suspect for every Sect, but with no proof, no one could make an accusation.

Once everyone had returned to their respective Sects, news began to spread: the disaster at the Celestial Derivation Sect’s wedding banquet, Red Blood Mansion’s surprise attack on the Lingyun Sect, and the destruction of the Celestial Derivation Sect’s Medicine Valley. The entire Eastern Domain Cultivation Realm was thrown into a turbulent uproar.

This was shaping up to be the most chaotic year the Eastern Domain Cultivation Realm had seen in three millennia. And it was only the beginning of the turmoil.

The Sects that had suffered no losses were naturally feeling rather smug. Not only were they unharmed, but they had also acquired several precious items that would increase their Sect’s power.

Meanwhile, Sects like Lingyun Sect and Celestial Derivation Sect, along with the four others that had been robbed, had suffered enormous losses.

The Celestial Derivation Sect had truly suffered a double loss this time, but they couldn’t demand compensation from the Lingyun Sect. After all, people from all of the Six Sects and Eight Gates had witnessed the wedding being crashed; they could only blame their own incompetence.

As for the destruction of their Medicine Valley, the Celestial Derivation Sect knew Red Blood Mansion was responsible. But with several of their Elders dead and Shui Zebo and a few others gravely injured, how could they possibly challenge them?

And what of the Lingyun Sect? They had thought an alliance by marriage with the Celestial Derivation Sect would allow them to resist Red Blood Mansion together. Well, so much for that. The alliance was off, and while they hadn’t become mortal enemies with the Celestial Derivation Sect, a deep rift had formed. They would likely never associate with each other again.

Furthermore, the Lingyun Sect’s losses were by no means any smaller than those of the Celestial Derivation Sect.

It was from this moment that the Six Sects and Eight Gates of the Eastern Domain, once considered united as branches of the same tree, began to fracture. Rifts of suspicion formed between them, and they all became wary of one another. Several Sects even began dredging up old history to settle old scores.

After all, the Six Sects and Eight Gates had coexisted for millennia. Over such a long time, there were bound to be some points of friction.

The more this continued, the deeper the rifts between the Six Sects and Eight Gates grew.

Thus began an era of division for the Sects of the Eastern Domain Cultivation Realm, as each began to wall itself off, focus on independent development, and secretly build up its strength.

What they didn’t know, however, was that this was precisely the outcome that Red Blood Mansion, the shit-stirrer, had wanted all along...