Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Shaoyue Mountains, the gate of Tianxuan Sect.

Surrounded by mountains, ancient trees towering into the sky, and shrouded in clouds and mist, it appears and disappears.

In an inconspicuous valley, a ray of light fell and the figure of Elder Zhou appeared.

There is a small lake in the valley. There is a thatched cottage and a wooden pavilion by the lake, standing by the water. There are green willows and ancient locust trees planted beside it, which is quiet and peaceful.

Daoxuan sat in the wooden pavilion, gazing with lowered brows at the koi carps swimming around in the lake, his face kind and his eyes focused.

Elder Zhou slowed down his pace, came to Daoxuan's side, clasped his fists and bowed, and whispered, "Master Brother?"

Daoxuan turned around and said gently, "Junior Brother Zhou, if you are not in the cave studying the art of formation, how can you have time to come and visit me?"

Elder Zhou lifted his collar and sat down opposite Daoxuan, saying with a wry smile: "Brother, I am here today to ask for your help."

"Who can trouble you, Junior Brother?"

"Brother, have you ever heard of Bai Yanji from Qi?"

"But is it the head of Guiyuan Sect who saved my junior brother's life in the Demon Realm?"

Elder Zhou nodded and said, "Yes, three days ago, a Jindan cultivator from Guiyuan Sect came to ask for a meeting with Daoist Fellow Bai, holding a letter from him."

"In that letter, Fellow Daoist Bai begged our sect to stop Lingyun Sect from annexing Guiyuan Sect, and said that he was willing to offer tribute to our sect. From now on, he would be our vassal and would never betray us..."

Daoxuan frowned: "Junior brother agreed?"

Elder Zhou sighed, "I must repay the favor of saving my life. I owe a favor to Brother Bai. After leaving the Demon Realm, he was worried that Chen Yuan of the Lingyun Sect would retaliate against the Guiyuan Sect, so he asked me to mediate."

"But Chen Yuan and I have no friendship, so I asked Senior Brother Zhang to mediate and make this happen."

"Chen Yuan is quite trustworthy and has never taken action against Guiyuan Sect."

"But now the Lingyun Sect wants to annex the Guiyuan Sect, and Fellow Daoist Bai has come to us for help. I can't just stand by and watch."

Daoxuan pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "To be honest, Junior Brother, I already knew about this matter a long time ago. I wonder what Junior Brother's plan is?"

Elder Zhou breathed a sigh of relief: "Since Senior Brother also knows about this, it will be easy to handle."

"When Chen Yuan came to our sect to take away the thousand-year-old spiritual herb for tempering the body, he asked me about the ancient Taixuan Sect. I can barely say that he and I are familiar with each other."

"It's just that the head of Lingyun Sect is his master Jin Luoheng. I have no connection with him. And according to what Bai Daoyou said in the letter, Chen Yuan is not in the sect."

"Could you please give me a letter, and then let Senior Brother Zhang and I go to Lingyun Sect to make Jin Luoheng give up this idea."

"Our sect does not need Guiyuan Sect's small offerings. As long as Qi's immortal cultivation world can maintain the status quo, Jin Luoheng has just formed his infant, so he should not dare to offend our sect..."

Daoxuan shook his head: "Junior Brother Zhou, you don't know that this time Guiyuan Sect merged into Lingyun Sect, it was not forced or oppressed by Lingyun Sect, but was initiated by the cultivators in the sect."

"They have a very high voice, from top to bottom, including the Jindan elders, foundation building deacons, and Qi refining disciples. This master is unknown, so it is difficult for him to interfere."

Elder Zhou was stunned. "Is this true? Fellow Daoist Bai didn't mention it in his letter, but as the head of Guiyuan Sect, how could he be coerced by the elders and disciples of the sect?"

"As long as he suppresses those who harbor dissenting ideas, the matter will be over."

Daoxuan explained: "Bai Yanji did have this idea and did it. On the day of the incident, he did not hesitate to suppress it."

"But the timing of their attack was very clever. They chose the time when Zhuge Qi, the Grand Elder of Lingyun Sect, visited Bai Yanji, and he stopped them."

"Moreover, Zhuge Qi declared that the elders and disciples of Guiyuan Sect have the right to decide their own fate, and Bai Yanji must not persecute the sect's cultivators without reason."

"In order to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the Guiyuan Sect's cultivators in their pursuit of a brighter path to immortality, the Lingyun Sect will never ignore it. When necessary, we will take necessary measures to maintain the stability of Qi's immortal cultivation world."

Elder Zhou was stunned. "What kind of heresy is this? It sounds so weird and awkward."

"Fellow Daoist Bai is the head of Guiyuan Sect. All matters of the sect, big or small, are decided by him alone. What does this have to do with Lingyun Sect?"

"Those elders and disciples of Guiyuan Sect actually ignored the order of the Sect Master and wanted to merge into Lingyun Sect. This is a betrayal of the sect, a betrayal of the master and ancestors, and everyone has the right to kill them!"

Daoxuan sighed: "Junior brother is right. How can Lingyun Sect interfere in the affairs of Guiyuan Sect? Bai Yanji is also very dissatisfied with this."

"But those elders of Guiyuan Sect who proposed to merge into Lingyun Sect said that this was the voice of the majority of disciples of Guiyuan Sect."

"Although Bai Yanji is the head of Guiyuan Sect, Guiyuan Sect does not belong to Bai Yanji alone, but to all the cultivators of Guiyuan Sect. He cannot act arbitrarily."

"Whether or not to merge into Lingyun Sect, we need to hold a 'referendum'. All disciples in the sect will have one vote each to decide the future affiliation of Guiyuan Sect."

Elder Zhou's eyes widened. "This is ridiculous! It's ridiculous! Since ancient times, the world of immortal cultivation has always respected strength. Low-level disciples are just ants. How can they be compared with high-level cultivators!"

"If we act according to this logic, won't we, the Nascent Soul cultivators, be held hostage by the Qi Refining disciples in the sect?"

Daoxuan said: "Such absurd talk is naturally absurd, but those Guiyuan Sect elders and disciples have the support of Lingyun Sect behind them. Zhuge Qi is still a guest in Guiyuan Sect and is watching closely."

"As long as they can justify themselves, Bai Yanji will be helpless. Otherwise, the Lingyun Sect can intervene openly, under the pretext of 'respecting' the choice of the Guiyuan Sect monks, and directly annex the Guiyuan Sect." Upon hearing this, Elder Zhou became furious.

He didn't even know where this nameless anger came from.

In fact, his friendship with Bai Yanji was not very deep, but a group of low-level cultivators dared to force the Nascent Soul cultivator to abdicate.

He was furious when he heard about this from Daoxuan, and the little good impression he had towards Chen Yuan was gone.

Elder Zhou's thoughts turned, and he suddenly sneered: "Although I don't know what benefits Lingyun Sect promised to those Guiyuan Sect monks, but since they did this, our sect can also follow suit and promise more benefits to Guiyuan Sect monks and incorporate them into our sect."

"Although the Guiyuan Sect is weak, its array inheritance is quite unique, and it can also obtain an extra medium-sized spiritual vein, which will make the Lingyun Sect lose more than it gains."

Daoxuan shook his head slightly: "What Junior Brother said, Bai Yanji also thought of it. He once asked Zhuge Qi, since the Guiyuan Sect cultivators can use the form called 'referendum' to decide whether to merge into the Lingyun Sect, can they also vote on it and merge into our sect."

"But Zhuge Qi said that Guiyuan Sect is the sect of Qi State, and other sects are not allowed to interfere in the affairs of Qi State's immortal cultivation world, otherwise they will be attacked by Qi State cultivators."

Elder Zhou sneered and said, "What does a mortal country have to do with the world of immortal cultivation?"

"Lingyun Sect wants to annex Guiyuan Sect, so they said that the cultivators of Guiyuan Sect can hold a referendum to vote."

"If you don't want our sect to get involved, then you can't vote to join our sect. How can that be justified?"

"Since Lingyun Sect dares to suppress Fellow Daoist Bai, then our sect will suppress Lingyun Sect."

"Brother, your injuries have fully recovered. Lingyun Sect only has three Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivators. Even if... even if Chen Yuan is quite powerful, he is definitely not our sect's opponent."

His voice lowered a few notes, the scene of Chen Yuan killing monsters like killing chickens still lingered in his mind.

Daoxuan looked even more solemn, and shook his head slowly: "This is Lingyun Sect's conspiracy. Just as Junior Brother said, the mortal kingdom is meaningless to cultivators like us."

“But if our sect uses this as an excuse to interfere with Qi State and force Guiyuan Sect to merge into our sect through referendum, it will definitely cause panic among other medium-sized sects. The other three major Xuan Sects will definitely not sit idly by.”

"Although they are wary of Lingyun Sect, our sect has the deepest foundation and has been the leader of the righteous sect for many years. Compared with Lingyun Sect, we are more feared."

Elder Zhou frowned and said, "So, does that mean our sect is helpless?"

Daoxuan nodded slightly: "Besides this, there is one more thing that Junior Brother may not know yet. Chen Yuan has already broken through the bottleneck in the middle stage."

"Middle stage of Nascent Soul?" Elder Zhou's pupils shrank. "How could Chen Yuan break through the bottleneck of the middle stage after only a few decades of forming his Nascent Soul? Where did you get this information, Senior Brother?"

He couldn't help but be shocked. When the Nascent Souls of various sects went deep into the Demon Realm, Chen Yuan was only at the early stage of the Nascent Soul, and was even some distance away from the peak of the early stage.

In just over twenty years, he broke through the mid-term bottleneck. Such rapid progress was unprecedented in history.

Daoxuan said: "Junior brother usually stays at home and studies the art of formation in his cave, so he is not distracted and naturally does not know about this matter."

"In the past three years, Chen Yuan and Tang Jiu have gone deep into the Southern Wilderness to hunt down the transformed demon king and have reaped a lot of rewards."

"After Tang Jiu returned to the State of Cai, he talked about monster hunting with his friends while drinking. He said that he saw Chen Yuan kill a level nine Heaven-shaking Hound and a level nine Wood Dragon with his own eyes, and his cultivation also broke through the bottleneck of the middle stage."

Elder Zhou half believed and half doubted, "I heard that Tang Jiu and Chen Yuan have a close relationship. This person likes to drink spirit wine and behaves unrestrainedly. Maybe he just flatters Chen Yuan and makes him famous..."

Daoxuan shook his head: "This matter cannot be false. The White Crane Sect urgently needed the horn of the Sky-shaking Hound, so they rushed to the State of Cai and bought a level nine Sky-shaking Hound horn from Chen Yuan at a high price."

"I secretly asked Elder Wei of the Muli Sect, who is on good terms with our sect, to go to the State of Cai to have a discussion with Chen Yuan."

"Within five rounds, Elder Wei was defeated. Chen Yuan didn't even use the teleportation technique or the strange Zhuyan True Fire."

"Elder Wei also saw with his own eyes that Chen Yuan showed the cultivation level of the middle stage of the Nascent Soul."

Elder Zhou finally fell silent.

Before Chen Yuan broke through the bottleneck, he could compete with the Demon Lord. How strong will he be after breaking through the bottleneck?
A ninth-level demon king is much more difficult to deal with than unintelligent monsters, let alone the Zhentianhou and Mujiao with powerful bloodlines.

Elder Wei of the Muli Sect is also a long-time cultivator in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul. He was able to save his life by not entering the Demon Realm. However, in front of Chen Yuan, he could not even last five rounds, and Chen Yuan did not even use his trump card.

Chen Yuan was so unfathomable that no one knew why he could master the art of teleportation. No one dared to explore the origin of the "Zhu Yan True Fire" that was suspected to be related to Zhu Yan's true spirit.

If this kind of magical skill is in the hands of low-level cultivators, it would be a crime to possess a treasure.

But when it was wielded by Chen Yuan, no matter how much others coveted it, they did not dare to have even a little greed.

Daoxuan said solemnly: "Chen Yuan has mastered the art of teleportation and can drive the Zhuyan True Fire. After the fall of the Ziyang Sect, the Zixu Sword is likely to have fallen into his hands."

"Although physical cultivation focuses on the physical body, his improvement in cultivation should not have much impact on his strength."

"But it only took him more than 20 years to break through the bottleneck of the middle stage. His cultivation speed is so fast that it is really shocking."

"Chen Yuan is less than 300 years old, but he has already achieved this level of cultivation. He still has several hundred years to live. It is almost certain that he will become a great cultivator in the future. We must not provoke him lightly."

Elder Zhou remained silent for a long time before he sighed, "It seems that I can never repay the favor I owe to Fellow Daoist Bai..." (End of this chapter)