Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 533 Unexpected News
After returning to the mountain gate, Song Xian devoted himself to cultivating his supernatural powers every day. In the blink of an eye, two months had passed.

That night, after a day of cultivation, he returned to his residence. As soon as the light from his escape ended, a disciple came forward, bowed to him, and said that Huang Ye was requesting an audience and had been waiting for quite some time. So he went to the waiting room.

"Master, the intelligence team sent us a message today: we have a lead on Wei Fan, whom you previously asked us to keep an eye on," Huang Ye said after rising and bowing.

Wei Fan? A hint of doubt flashed through Song Xian's mind, but he quickly remembered that it was before he had formed his core that Cheng Zongyuan came to the mountain gate and told him about Wei Fan's possession, and wanted to cooperate with him to get rid of Wei Fan.

Therefore, he ordered close monitoring of this person and distributed Wei Fan's portrait to the disciples in charge of the intelligence team, instructing them to report to him immediately whenever Wei Fan appeared in Bianxi City.

Over the years, he had almost forgotten about it.

"Could this person have already arrived in Bianxi City?"

"No, not at all. But recently a Golden Core evil cultivator wearing a robe and a helmet has appeared in the East China Sea District. He likes to devour people's hearts and livers, and many cultivators have already fallen victim to him, including the disciple of the Longquan Sect elder in the East China Sea District. The Longquan Sect elder, Gu La, is therefore hunting down this person. During the fight, Gu La saw his true appearance, so he issued wanted posters all over the East China Sea District."

Huang Ye flipped his hand and took out a piece of black paper. On it was an image of a disheveled and ugly man, with some text next to it saying that anyone who could provide information about this person would be richly rewarded. Below it was the seal of the Longquan School.

Song Xian took the wanted poster. If Huang Ye hadn't told him beforehand, he wouldn't have recognized the person as Wei Fan at first glance.

At this moment, Wei Fan's demeanor and temperament were completely different from the Wei Fan he remembered. Although his appearance had not changed much, he was disheveled and had a ferocious face. He exuded a wild and violent aura, like a beast in human skin.

"Order the intelligence team to keep a close eye on this person and inform me immediately if there is any news. Also, send a few more capable disciples to the East China Sea District to find out the specific situation. I need to know what Wei Fan has done, including the identities and backgrounds of the people he killed."

"Yes." Huang Ye responded and left.

Song Xian stared at the black wanted poster in his hand, lost in thought.

Without a doubt, Wei Fan has now been possessed by the mysterious monster in the secret realm, as can be seen from the mad, bloodthirsty, and emotionless eyes in the portrait.

The question is, why did they go on a killing spree in the East China Sea region, devouring human hearts and livers?

What is the purpose of doing this? Is it a crazy act of completely losing one's mind, or is there another hidden reason?
Cheng Zongyuan had previously mentioned that Wei Fan had appeared in the Donghai District.

So many years have passed, yet he still lingers in the East China Sea District. Could he be looking for something?
Moreover, according to Cheng Zongyuan's account at the time, Wei Fan had disguised himself and was very cunning, but now he looks like a ghost, which means something must have happened.

Where did he break through to the Golden Core realm?

These questions flashed through his mind like lightning.

He's now conflicted about whether he should join forces with Cheng Zongyuan to take the initiative.

Perhaps because he felt guilty, he always felt that Wei Fan would come knocking on his door sooner or later to take back the green gourd that could only fuse Yin and Yang energies.

But he didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble and become an enemy of a mysterious figure whose background he didn't know.

If the other party doesn't know that he took the gourd, and he comes to his door on his own, wouldn't that be like protesting too much?

He has a family and a business; if he were to be targeted by a free-spirited, lawless Golden Core cultivator, he would definitely be in serious trouble.

Just as he was hesitating, a disciple came outside and reported to him.

"Sect Leader, Senior Xu Yaoming of the Beast Taming Sect has arrived. He says he has important matters to discuss and is currently waiting in the council hall."

Song Xian regained his composure, got up and left the hall, and went to the council chamber, where Xiao Ling, who was on duty, was chatting with Xu Yaoming.

"Sect Leader Song, I apologize for disturbing your meditation." Seeing him enter from outside, Xu Yaoming stood up and bowed with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist Xu, please don't stand on ceremony, please sit down." After Song Xian took his seat in the main seat, he waved his hand, gesturing for him to sit down as well. "I don't come here without a reason. I'm here today because of the battle in Ningye County. The Xuan Yuan Sect has already issued an order to recruit another half of our forces to participate in the battle and recapture Ningye County. In other words, our Bianxi City needs to recruit another five hundred people."

Xu Yaoming paused here, glanced at Song Xian's expression, and then continued.

"For this recruitment, I hope your sect can shoulder the main responsibility, because the other forces have almost exhausted their resources after recruiting a thousand cultivators from this city last time. I propose that your sect contribute half of the manpower, and recruit the other half from other forces in Bianxi City. I wonder what Sect Leader Song thinks?"

Instead of answering, Song Xian asked, "Our sect is located in a remote area, and news travels slowly. I heard that Elder Yin Ningxuan of the Xuan Yuan Sect has already personally gone to the front line, and with the troops we recruited earlier, there are at least forty or fifty thousand cultivators. How come we still haven't been able to recapture Ningye County? Is the fighting strength of the rebel army in Nanhan County really that strong?"

"The rebels in Nanhan County are not a concern. The key issue is that they have the support of the Chu Kingdom. It is said that in order to take advantage of the split in the Qianqing Sect to annex the resources of the Qin Kingdom, the Chu Kingdom has recruited 200,000 cultivators to be stationed in Nanhan County. Most of them have already entered Xianyang County, and another five columns of troops were previously stationed on the border with this county. Due to the betrayal of the Yuntian Chamber of Commerce, these five columns of troops have now entered Ningye County. It will be no easy task to drive them out."

"The rebels from Nanhan Commandery have already invaded Xianyang and Xishu, while Dongchuan and Bei'an Commanderies have remained inactive. Could the rumors be true, and that they have reached a secret agreement with the rebels from Nanhan Commandery?"

Xu Yaoming had no idea what he was trying to achieve by rambling on and on, so he could only smile and reply, "That's beyond my knowledge. I'm just a minor official, and if we're talking about how well I know things, I'm probably not as good as Headmaster Song."

Song Xian didn't actually mean anything by it; he was just casually asking a few more questions since the topic had come up. Of course, he knew that given Xu Yaoming's status, it would be difficult to get any valuable information from him.

He had already made some speculations about the internal divisions within the Qianqing Sect and the intervention of the Chu Kingdom after his trip to the spatial secret realm.

In the jade slip left behind by Master Tiantong, he learned about the secrets of Nascent Soul cultivators, which were unknown to the world.

All Nascent Soul cultivators in the world abide by one rule: they do not personally participate in the struggles between sects.

This is because for Nascent Soul cultivators, there is only one thing to do: find a spatial node to ascend to the Immortal Realm.

Cultivation resources are no longer important to them. Seizing other people's resources and territories will not help their own cultivation at all. On the contrary, it is easy to cause wars among Nascent Soul cultivators. This is a losing proposition.

Therefore, all Nascent Soul cultivators in each region abide by this agreement.

In the era of Master Tiantong, the five major overlord sects that split from the original Great Zhou Dynasty each had a Nascent Soul cultivator in charge.

This is why the five states of Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, and Zhao were able to coexist peacefully for a long time without large-scale wars.

The Qianqing Sect of Qin, the Tianxuan Sect of Chu, the Taixu Sect of Qi, the Zhengyang Sect of Yan, and the Xuanxian Sect of Zhao were known as the Five Hegemons.

Most people only know the name of the Five Hegemons, but do not know why they are listed as the Five Hegemons. The reason is that each of these five sects has a Nascent Soul cultivator, which creates an equal deterrent between them. Even if there are small-scale conflicts, they can be resolved through negotiations by their subordinates because they are afraid of the other party's Nascent Soul cultivator, and they will not escalate into a large war.

Correspondingly, the states of Han and Wei, which are also part of the Seven Kingdoms region, experience frequent wars because they lack Nascent Soul cultivators to oversee them.

Therefore, the reason why the Qianqing Sect experienced internal strife, and why the Chu Kingdom dared to support the Southern Han Commandery and send a large number of troops to invade the Qin Kingdom, must be because something happened to the Nascent Soul cultivator who was in charge of the Qianqing Sect.

They either passed away peacefully, or they have already ascended to heaven.

In either case, for the Qin state or Emperor Qianqing, the pillar of stability is gone. This means that in the future, the Qin state may very well become like the states of Han and Wei, a training ground for other major powers to compete against each other.

"Reporting to the Sect Leader, a Golden Core cultivator dressed in the robes of the Xuan Yuan Sect has arrived outside the mountain gate. He claims to be a friend of yours and says he has something to ask of you." At this moment, a disciple quickly entered the hall and bowed to him.

Cheng Zongyuan, he's here. Song Xian pondered. He had just received Huang Ye's report on Wei Fan and was still considering whether to take the initiative when this man arrived.

What perfect timing!
“Fellow Daoist Xu, I have other important matters to attend to, so I will not keep you company any longer. As for the conscription matters in this city, I intend to proceed according to the previous rules. If it is inconvenient for you to appear, then our sect will handle it. Junior Sister Xiao, please take good care of Fellow Daoist Xu.” After saying this, Song Xian got up and left.

Xu Yaoming opened his mouth, but faced with Song Xian's resolute words, he ultimately remained silent.

(End of this chapter)