Chapter 396: Reunion

"Here already? They seem impatient," Yaoguang remarked.

"Our Jiuzhou warships have begun delivery, the flying sword business is booming, and with the southern domain's reputation for safety and fairness, we've been drawing in cultivators and powers from all over the world in recent years. Last year alone brought in over 300,000,000 Pure Yang Grand Pills, more than the other three domains combined. Even counting back ten years, we've earned 2,400,000,000, yet the tribute we hand up is still only around 500,000,000." Li Hanqiu sighed. "So naturally, some people in the Heavenly Dao Sect have become envious."

"Oh? Our yearly revenue is past 300 million already?" Yaoguang was a little surprised.

"The people we brought from the Nine Cauldrons Sect were nearly all technical talents. Once they reached the southern domain, all of them received Pure Yang Grand Pills in bulk; their cultivation soared, and their ability to forge flying swords and warships rose with it. Output naturally followed. Warship production has gone from one a year twenty years ago to twenty a year now, and the increase is similar for the Purple Firmament Type 31 flying swords." Li Hanqiu smiled.

"Recently, the Jiuzhou warships have proven themselves in live combat. One sect used its warships to grind down and kill a Void-Piercing Realm battle immortal, and that single battle made the name of the Jiuzhou warships famous. We're averaging no fewer than fifty orders a year, with the queue stretching a century out."

"The output value has climbed that much?" Yaoguang was surprised.

"Twenty years ago, our refiners' average strength was below the Foundation Building Realm. But now..." Li Hanqiu grinned. "Having earned a large amount of pills, they're investing in themselves. These days, no refiner anywhere near the core production area is below the Core Formation Realm, and the most important figures like Dong Liushui have formed Radiant Sun Golden Cores."

He added, "The Pure Yang Grand Pill truly is a wonder. Without it, how could we have raised batch after batch of top experts in just a few decades?"

Yaoguang nodded. The Pure Yang Grand Pill was indeed extraordinary.

"The Radiant Sun Golden Core Realm, huh?"

That realm stirred no particular feeling in him. In his own few decades on the North Sea Star, he had climbed from the Heavenly Fire Realm all the way to the Void-Shattering Realm, while the others had only just reached the Radiant Sun Golden Core Realm; even the most advanced among them were still circling at the Blazing White Golden Core Realm, and not a single one had broken through to the Azure Golden Core Realm yet.

It was no wonder he did not feel anything about it. Nowadays, only a Void-Piercing cultivator would earn a second glance from him.

"With orders growing this fast and the waitlist being over a hundred years, if it weren't for the shortage of hands, Dong Liushui and the others would certainly be finding ways to add a few more warship production lines," Li Hanqiu said, smiling.

Yaoguang was not much surprised by the flood of orders. He was confident about the Jiuzhou warship's performance. After all, it had been personally designed by him, a top artifact-refinement master and array master.

"The orders are there, but keep an eye on the margins too," Yaoguang said.

"A warship is a super massive spirit artifact to begin with, priced a full grade above ordinary spirit artifacts. The Jiuzhou's performance rivals that of high-grade spirit treasure warships, yet our margin still runs at three million per ship, over sixty million a year. Add another production line and lift capacity a bit more, and we might approach a hundred million annually."

"Sixty-odd million in profit from the warship business alone... That's enough to match all of the northern domain, the poorest of the four." Yaoguang chuckled.

It was no wonder the Heavenly Dao Sect's people had come running so fast.

The entire Heavenly Dao Sect's income per decade was roughly five billion Pure Yang Grand Pills. Of that, the portion surrendered wholly to the sect—the income the sect could freely dispose of—sat at around three billion.

The remaining two billion was split among the four domains, managed and allocated by the four deputy sect masters.

It sounded like a lot, but in practice the industries demanding resources were many. Array maintenance alone was an enormous expense, and by the time what was left over was split between the supreme elders, there might be only one hundred million left for each. One supreme elder, one decade, a hundred-odd million Pure Yang Grand Pills.

The southern domain's warship industry earned sixty million a year, six hundred million a decade, plus flying swords, commercial taxes, and everything else... Who wouldn't be envious looking at that?

As for how much manpower and capital the southern domain had needed to get to that point, it was not their concern.

All they knew was that the southern domain had banked three hundred million this year! At this rate, a single domain would rival the income of the entire Heavenly Dao Sect. Of course they were envious.

"Go ahead and expand the production lines. As for the shortage of hands... I suspect we'll be receiving a batch of refining talent soon enough," Yaoguang said.

"From where?" Li Hanqiu blinked.

"The southern domain doesn't have them. The Heavenly Dao Sect does."

"The Heavenly Dao Sect?" Li Hanqiu didn't follow, but he had never hesitated to execute Yaoguang's decisions. "Then we expand?"

"Expand." Yaoguang turned to the main issue. "What level is this tribute delegation? Who leads it?"

"Just an ordinary team, headed by a Void-Piercing battle immortal..." Li Hanqiu said.

"They're still probing us, then. It's not even a proper threat." Yaoguang glanced upward. "Which tells me Sect Master Zong Wenxian hasn't returned. They don't yet have the nerve to blow this up."

"Will you see them, Deputy Sect Master?"

"A Void-Piercing battle immortal thinks he can come mooch off me?" Yaoguang waved a hand. "Just tell them that I am in seclusion. Any decision that changes the sect's taxes or tribute quotas must be debated and decided at a major meeting convened by the sect master, and then transmitted to me. Otherwise, I do not recognize it."

"Then that's exactly how I'll answer."

"Go ahead," Yaoguang said.

Li Hanqiu nodded and left. Once he was gone, Yaoguang turned his attention back to the Limitless Sword, which was still being refined and still missing one step to reach its final transformation.

Once they get my answer, someone in the Heavenly Dao Sect is bound to be unhappy. The profit is simply too much. Now we see who jumps out first to help set the stage. Yaoguang mused.

Slaying two Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators and the five Void-Refining cultivators had deterred the Yin Lunar Sect, even deterred the surrounding powers, but it hadn't intimidated the Heavenly Dao Sect.

Those kills had leaned on the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array's power. Additionally, if the sect wanted to move against him, it could easily seize the banner of righteousness and dictate terms from the moral high ground.

And perhaps one's own people were simply easier to bully. Whatever the reason, as the southern domain's profits swelled, he would have to bare his fangs toward the Heavenly Dao Sect.

By then, having gained real personal strength, and having proved he could bring enormous profits to the sect, as well as his realm at the Void-Shattering Realm, it would be time for Sect Master Zong Wenxian to leave his seat.

Suddenly, a clear voice sounded, "Who would have thought the young cultivator once hunted by a pack of Void-Piercing cultivators could grow this much in just a few decades."

Hearing that sudden voice, and the familiarity in it, Yaoguang's pupils constricted; his gaze snapped toward the Limitless Sword, where the Dao Artifact materials were still fusing.

There stood a barefoot woman, long hair loose down her back, appearing completely detached from everything and apparently examining the top-grade Dao Artifact embryo.

Everything about her, every motion and every word, seemed to exist in perfect accord with heaven, earth, and nature itself.

A Dao Lord!

"So it is the Penglai Dao Lord. A Dao Lord's presence graces my humble domain lord's residence in the Southern Capital," Yaoguang said.

The Penglai Dao Lord turned, her face cold and white as jade, as ever. She looked at Yaoguang as though finally taking his true measure. "Had I not come in person, I would never have imagined that beyond your remarkable talent for cultivation, you had walked this far down the path of artifact refinement as well. I cannot refine artifacts myself, but judging by my perception... this Dao Artifact of yours is not ordinary at all. You want to forge a high-grade Dao Artifact?"

Hearing that, Yaoguang settled the question in his mind: the Penglai Dao Lord really knew nothing of artifact refinement.

"I wanted to test my limits," he replied with a smile, offering nothing more precise.

"Impressive." The Penglai Dao Lord gave the compliment freely. "A pity you chose the Dao of void. Otherwise, I might not have resisted taking you as a disciple."

"The Dao of void has its fierce Dao Contest, but it's not so bad."

"The Dao Contest?" Seeing that Yaoguang had already thought that far ahead, the Penglai Dao Lord smiled. "It's not merely the Dao Contest. Many Dao Lords of the void are petty creatures. As long as you're not attempting Dao Integration, fine. But the moment you begin integrating, the narrow-minded among them will absolutely try to sabotage you. And against a fellow integrator of the Dao of void, it doesn't matter where you hide; those Dao Lords will find you. This tribulation cannot be dodged."

Yaoguang knew she spoke the truth. The instant a Void-Shattering cultivator began Dao Integration, every other Dao Lord of that Dao would sense it.

And since the Gate of the Immortal Realm admitted only one ascender per Great Dao, then to cull future competition, the Dao Lords of the void, and perhaps of other Great Dao, would locate him and strike to kill.

That was unless he hid himself somewhere secret and remote enough, and completed the process quickly enough to finish before those Dao Lords could reach him.

"How about a trade?" the Penglai Dao Lord said abruptly. "The next time the Gate of the Immortal Realm opens and I leave the Penglai Immortal Sect, you will step forward to shelter the sect's survival and growth. And in exchange..."

Confidence glittered in her eyes. "When you undergo Dao Integration, I will act as your protector. I will stop any Dao Lord who tries to lay a hand on you, every last one, and not let them harm a hair on your head."