Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 367 The Age of Great Conflict
"Huangting Sect?"

In the inn room, Shang Lu looked happy after listening to Sanniang's story.

He really didn't expect that Sanniang's secret stay in the witch temple in Heifengdu this time would not only bring her some gains, but also such a big gain.

She even found out the other party's identity.

Shang Lu had heard of the Huangting School.

Ever since he suspected that the python was deliberately released by a powerful family in Guling County to eat people, Shang Lu had inquired about the situations of various families and factions in Guling County through multiple channels.

Guling County respects three surnames and four factions. These are the first-tier families and sects, and they firmly control several powerful departments in the officialdom of Guling County, as well as the most cultivation resources.

Below the three surnames and four factions, there are several second-tier families and sects.

Their power and resources are much less than those of the three surnames and four sects, but they are still looked up to by many smaller sects.

Speaking of which, the purpose of establishing the Witch Academy in the State of Ba was to prevent local aristocratic families and sects from becoming powerful and to seize power and resources from them.

However, hundreds of years later, the situation in which the aristocratic families and sects controlled the channels and resources for cultivation had not only not eased, but the Witch Academy had also been infiltrated and controlled by these aristocratic families and sects.

The current Witch Academy has become a good place to help the aristocratic families select talents and help them take advantage of the imperial court.

Those who entered the Witch Academy were either disciples of aristocratic families or had to rely on aristocratic families. Otherwise, they would be stuck with cultivation resources, and even if they were geniuses, they would only live a mediocre life.

Only with a great opportunity can one break free from the confinement.

If we want to change the situation where aristocratic families and sects control and monopolize the resources for cultivation, it will not work if we just rely on small-scale reforms.

There must be a major change, not a major purge.

But this will inevitably lead to internal strife, giving neighboring countries that are eyeing the country covetously the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to launch military operations.

In fact, Shang Lu felt that the arms race or even war launched by the State of Chu might be an opportunity.

It depends on what the imperial court thinks and what it will do.

Let’s talk about the Huangting Sect. It is a sect in the second tier and ranks relatively low in Guling County.

In fact, three hundred years ago, the Huangting Sect also had a master who was at the fourth level of the celestial realm.

At that time, the Huangting Sect, relying on the presence of a master in the Tianxiang Realm, once ranked first in the Guling County and enjoyed a large amount of power and resources.

Unfortunately, after the death of that master of the Celestial Realm, the Huangting Sect failed to introduce a new master of the Celestial Realm in the first place.

The Huangting sect, which lost its fourth-rank master, soon saw its power and resources divided up by other noble families and major sects, and its status and strength continued to decline.

By now, it has fallen to the end of the second gear.

In fact, not only the Huangting School, but many other families and major sects are also facing the same dilemma.

On the one hand, in order to maintain power and resources, one needs to have experts in place.

On the other hand, they are afraid that new masters will appear, which will make the resources for cultivation scarce.

This situation even affected the Witch Academy.

The current Witch Academy has very tight control over the elixirs and spiritual treasures needed for realm breakthroughs. Especially at higher realms, the control becomes stricter.

Even the sudden rise of war by the State of Chu was related to its cultivation resources.

The speed of the creation of new secret realms has been declining in the past few years, but people's cultivation needs to be improved and they need to break through...

What to do if there are no resources? Then we can only invade and plunder other countries to support ourselves.

The Huangting sect did not dare to start a war to seize other sects’ cultivation resources, so it could only find other ways.

Shang Lu guessed that most of the people in the Huangting Sect had obtained some special methods from the secret realm.

This method either involves raising monster beasts and refining monster pills to obtain cultivation resources, or it involves some kind of cannibalism method.

The Huangting sect used monsters to eat humans and conducted observation experiments in order to find a way to reduce the side effects as much as possible, so that they could both eat humans and practice cultivation without being cursed.

As long as the Huangting sect can cultivate a few top masters through this method, even if the matter is exposed, the imperial court can only turn a blind eye and dare not touch them easily.

As for the group of brokers, they were instructed by the Huangting Sect to help them embezzle at Heifeng Ferry. Shang Lu did not find it strange at all.

This kind of thing is really not new in Pakistan today.

Back in Luoshui County, didn't the chief clerk support the Black Wind Gang to make money for him and do some shady things?
Not to mention that government officials in various places were also using various means to exploit the people.

What Xi Feng and Lu Yun did at Heifeng Ferry was essentially the same as what the chief clerk in Luoshui County did back then. There was no difference. As for their means, they were not as good as that of the chief clerk.

Of course, this is also because the factions in Heifengdu are complicated, and their Huangting faction is just one of them, and it is a less powerful one. They cannot cover the sky with one hand and do whatever they want like the chief clerk in Luoshui County did in the past.

Based on what Shang Lu had seen and heard over the past year or so, the court of the State of Ba wanted to change these situations, so there were reforms in the civil service system and new performance evaluation rules.

Recently, I heard that the State of Ba wanted to revive the special institution of Weiwu, which would specifically supervise officials and wizards from various places.

Shang Lu is skeptical about whether this series of measures can ultimately achieve the desired effect.

Again, the general situation in which the power and resources in the state of Ba are controlled by the aristocratic families and major factions remains unchanged, and all kinds of reforms will only be used by the aristocratic families and become their weapons to combat dissidents.

The bigwigs in the court will have to deal with these matters.

For Shang Lu, what he has to do is to try every possible way to improve his cultivation.

Only when you become strong enough can you afford to break the old rules!

Shang Lu put away his distracting thoughts and said, "Knowing that the man-eating python is raised by the Huangting Sect, the report can be more targeted. When I leave Guling County, I will find a way to report this matter to the Five Counties and Wushan."

What Shang Lu is worried about now is how to report the Huangting Sect and get himself out of trouble at the same time.

The Huangting School is a spiritual practice sect that has been passed down for hundreds of years and has many disciples and old friends.

If these people knew that it was Shang Lu who reported the Huangting Sect and ruined their chances of breaking through in their cultivation, they would definitely come to seek revenge on him.

Shang Lu doesn't want to face sneak attacks every day and die in obscurity.

Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any good solution at the moment. He could only think about whether he could buy a suitable treasure in the ghost market to use for anonymous reporting.

"Speaking of treasures, we seized quite a few from Liu San's gang tonight... I wonder if there's anything we can use?"

Shang Lu asked Zhu Quan and others to divide the money seized tonight.

Various medicinal herbs and minerals were carried by Tu Xiong and his men to be taken back to the Witch Academy in exchange for contribution points.

Shang Lu only put a few witchcraft weapons and residual spirits into the bag he carried with him.

The reason why Sanniang was not allowed to swallow it was to guard against Xifeng and Lu Yun. They must not be allowed to find out that there was a way to hide the treasure, otherwise they would definitely become suspicious.

Before taking out the treasures from the sack, Shang Lu closed the box containing the "inaudible" bronze bell, went to the big bunk bed, and asked Zhu Quan to give him the spirit cage that trapped the shadow monster and the hair ghost.

After returning with the spirit cage, Shang Lu reopened the talisman box containing the "unhearable" bronze bell, and then took out several seized treasures from his saddle bag.

Just as he was about to study their uses and usages, he saw Sanniang walk up to a spirit cage, reach into the cage, take out the hairpin that was dripping with blood, and put it directly on his head.

What the hell!

Shang Lu was shocked, fearing that Sanniang would have an accident and be contaminated and corroded by this strange hairpin that was parasitic with a hair ghost.

However, after Sanniang put the hairpin on, not only did the blood stop dripping, but it also became as clear as jade, sparkling with pearly light.

"Sanniang, are you okay?" Shang Lu was still a little worried, and at the same time surprised: "Why did you think of wearing this hairpin on your head? It's a ghost thing."

(End of this chapter)