Scourge Messenger

Chapter 471 Either beheaded or become a dog

north.

The Seventh Reincarnation Great Secret Realm, the Longevity Heaven Base Camp, the Great Snow Mountain.

Unlike the Imperial Court, the Great Snow Mountain Secret Realm has a smaller population. As its name suggests, the realm is primarily composed of mountains, and unless the mountain itself is hollowed out, the area available for construction is extremely limited. As the sacred ground for millions of messengers from the Northern Territory, the Great Snow Mountain Secret Realm has eight halls and four pavilions. The eight halls are Merit Hall, Taoist Canon Hall, Divine Fire Hall, Medicine Hall, Discipline Hall, Ten Directions Hall, Seeking the Mysterious Hall, and Heavenly Pivot Hall, governing all directions of the Northern Territory. The four pavilions are Dawn Hall, Sunrise Hall, Dusk Hall, and Dusk Hall, which cultivate talented messengers.

Leaving aside the four halls for now, the eight halls are further divided into 'one supreme, three superiors, and four subordinates'. The Divine Fire Hall manufactures artifacts, the Medicine Master Hall refines elixirs, the Ten Directions Hall handles miscellaneous affairs, and the Merit Hall records merits and approves rewards; all of these are subordinate halls.

The Discipline Hall is in charge of punishments and discipline. From the messengers of the Great Snow Mountain to dozens of forces in the Northern Territory, all are under the jurisdiction of the Discipline Hall. If the Discipline Hall says you are guilty, there is no place for you in the Northern Territory. It can be said that a word can determine life and death, and a word can distinguish between good and evil!
The Daoist Canon Hall is ostensibly responsible for collecting scriptures and classics, but in reality, it is the intelligence center of the Eternal Heaven. It has offices in the East Sea and the Western Xia, secretly instigating rebellions and guiding conflict. The vast majority of the Northern Border's messengers are located in the Daoist Canon Hall, weaving conspiracies day and night and sowing the seeds of disaster.

The Xunyou Hall gathers most of the powerful, experienced, and dedicated cultivators who specialize in conquering secret realms. They are responsible for optimizing secret realm strategies and exploring unfamiliar secret realms. It is the most noble and dangerous hall in the Great Snow Mountain. When the Xunyou Hall moves, the other seven halls must fully cooperate with them!

These three halls are the upper halls. The master of the Discipline Hall, the Red Immortal Lord, the master of the Daoist Treasury Hall, the Deep Blue Immortal Lord, and the master of the Seeking the Secluded Hall, the Forgotten White Immortal Lord, are also the three great immortal lords of the Eternal Heaven. If there are no unforeseen circumstances, the next mountain lord of the Eternal Heaven will be chosen from among these three.

The final Heavenly Pivot Hall oversees all affairs of the Great Snow Mountain, holds key positions, and is the most revered.

The Lord of Tian Shu Palace is none other than the current Lord of the Great Snow Mountain, the Grand Chancellor of the Eternal Heaven, and the Mountain Lord Danqing Immortal Lord!
"Deep Blue!—"

A streak of blue lightning ripped open the window of the Heavenly Pivot Palace and shot out. The Mountain Lord ran to the window and roared, "You damn well better get out of here and go down to the secret realm! The Great Snow Mountain doesn't need you!"

"Don't be so stingy, old man. It's just a few bottles of your wine." Deep Blue Immortal's laughter drifted from afar. "I'm off!"

"Little bunny..."

The mountain lord sat down and brewed a pot of tea. He followed the steps of the tea ceremony: warming the cups, adding the tea leaves, shaking to release the aroma, gently steeping, skimming the foam, refining the leaves, pouring the tea like a dragon emerging from its cage, pouring the first drop with three fingers, gathering the earth's spirit like a mountain collapsing, lining up like soldiers in battle array, Han Xin commanding his troops, washing the cups with a rolling ball, pouring the second drop like a plum blossom, welcoming guests like a phoenix, pouring the tea like a needle returning to its source, displaying the breadth of the teapot, and appreciating the color of the leaves like a concubine emerging from her bath… After this elaborate tea ceremony, the mountain lord finally calmed down. He slowly took a sip, his expression changing slightly. He took another sip, squinted at the tea leaves, and couldn't help but curse.

"You took my tea leaves, fine, but you even put in inferior tea leaves?! You beast!"

The jade talisman on the desk emitted a bluish light. The mountain lord picked it up with a huff: "Hey? Hey? Damn it! Is that Shen Lan, you beast?!"

"It's me," came the voice of Immortal Lord Wangbai from the jade talisman.

"Oh, I'm telling you, that brat Deep Blue is at it again—"

"Have you received Jiang Shi's invitation to join the rebellion?" Immortal Lord Wangbai decisively interrupted his complaint.

"No," the mountain lord said. "Not only me, but all the Immortal Lords and True Immortals in the secret realm didn't receive it. Only the Foundation Establishment cultivators outside the secret realm received it... What, you accepted it?"

"Jiang Shi is the Treasure Fairy, a fourth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator," Immortal Lord Wangbai said succinctly. "Immortal Lord Jinwu and I both accepted the summons and just now, together with Jiang Shi, we conquered the fourth-stage extreme realm, the Blissful Immortal Palace, in the East Sea. As long as we accepted her summons, we couldn't harm each other in the secret realm and received the protection of the [Unbreakable Alliance]. As long as we weren't all wiped out, anyone would at most fall to the ground near death, not die. Moreover, after leaving the secret realm, I returned to my original position. Jiang Shi is a successor of the Heavenly Calamity, and we successfully cleared the secret realm on our first attempt. The Blissful Immortal Palace should probably be destroyed by now."

The mountain lord remained silent for a long time; the only sound from the jade talisman was the light tapping of his fingers on the table.

After a while, he asked, "The tomb raiding warrant?"

“They’re different,” Immortal Lord Wangbai affirmed. “The Tomb Raider Token is only used when we enter the secret realm, while Jiang Shi’s summons directly pulls us into the secret realm, ignoring distance. Moreover, the protection of the [Unbreakable Alliance] is far stronger than the [Unpredictable] power of the Tomb Raider Token.”

"The Tomb Raiding Order has a limited number of uses, and her [Recruitment] is probably the same."

"Before this, let alone seeing it, we had never even heard of [Summoning], not even in ancient texts," Immortal Lord Wangbai said calmly. "Even if Jiang Shi needs to consume an item similar to a tomb raiding token to activate [Summoning], then only Jiang Shi can use that item. Otherwise, it's inexplicable why similar events have never occurred before. Perhaps the Changsheng Heaven's warehouse already contains many [Summoning Items], but to us, they are all just unusable 'unknown wonders'." The Mountain Lord took a deep breath. He completely understood Immortal Lord Wangbai's subtext.

If only Jiang Shi can use the [Recruitment Item], then for Jiang Shi, the number of times this item can be used is unlimited, because all the forces in the world are willing to provide her with the [Recruitment Item] in exchange for her assistance.

To put it in the most extreme case, if the [Recruitment Item] has ten uses, then even if Jiang Shi is only willing to give it up once, everyone has no choice but to accept it, because if they don't accept it, they won't get any of it. These items will be useless in their hands and will be worthless.

Of course, judging from Jiang Shibang's performance in selling materials, she probably wouldn't be that extreme, but it wouldn't be much better. As a monopolist, she wouldn't let go of the profits she was entitled to, and would probably take 70% and leave 30% for them.

But even 30% is enough for all the major powers to wholeheartedly protect her.

Even without personally participating in Jiang Shi's conscription, just hearing about it from Immortal Lord Wang Bai was enough for the Mountain Lord to realize the terrifying nature of the [Conscription Item].

With a recruitment range covering the entire world, even if you can't find a suitable teammate, you can find one on the spot! After the battle, you can return to your original location, which means that everyone doesn't have to waste time traveling. This is especially friendly to immortal lords.

Within the secret realm, there's absolutely no need to worry about friendly fire, and as long as the entire party isn't wiped out, they won't die. If Immortal Lord Wangbai hadn't said it himself, the Mountain Lord would never have believed such a heaven-defying item existed in this world—'immortality' not only means safety, but also allows messengers to attempt some highly difficult solutions when tackling the secret realm. Secret realms they couldn't normally conquer might, under the protection of the [Unbreakable Alliance], be able to find a unique solution through sheer margin for error!
You can clear the extreme realm in one go, but what about the desperate realm?
With enough [recruitment items], Jiang Shi could even assemble a perfect team, find the perfect solution to a desperate situation, and reliably acquire gold!
She alone can build a super power from scratch!

As for Jiang Shi being a descendant of the Heavenly Calamity, and wanting to destroy the secret realm to seize its karmic power, this trivial matter is utterly insignificant compared to her unique abilities. Putting aside everything else, if Jiang Shi were willing to recruit everyone to conquer the perilous realm and acquire the Golden Essence together in the future, all the Sixth-Rank Golden Immortals in the world would be willing to cheer for her and voluntarily hand over the secret realm for her to destroy!
"What do you think we should do?" the mountain lord asked.

"Besides Jiang Shi and her four followers, there are also Golden Crow Immortal Lord and a female rogue cultivator in the group. The news will definitely spread, and Jiang Shi may soon begin the next conscription." Wangbai Immortal Lord said, "If we kill her, we must do it quickly and without any regard for appearances. Send an Immortal Lord to strike with lightning speed. If we don't kill her, we should treat her with the respect due to a Golden Core Tribulation Master and not show her the slightest disrespect."

"Either beheaded or become a dog." The mountain lord sighed, "This world has changed too fast. Before, we were still calm and at ease, but now we are suddenly in a hurry and scrambling. The mighty Changsheng Heaven actually has to consider pleasing a girl who has just reached the fourth stage of Foundation Establishment."

He paused: "Is there really no way to control her? Hints, soul transfer, bewitching... There are quite a few methods we can use against a mere fourth-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator."

“If she were just the ‘Treasure Fairy,’ that would be fine,” said Immortal Lord Wangbai. “But if you want to use her ‘Summoning,’ it will be difficult. As long as she has the ability to choose who to summon, there is a risk that she will escape control. The price of offending her is so heavy that even the Eternal Heaven may not be able to bear it.”

"Moreover," he paused, "the Golden Crow Immortal Lord will certainly not sit idly by."

"Sigh." The mountain lord also scratched his head: "He and Gai Qingyun, one white and one black, are really difficult to deal with. The twelve clans of the Dragon Poetry have been in decline for so long, how come these two oddballs appear out of nowhere?"

"It's best to make a decision within three days, don't dawdle," said Immortal Lord Wangbai. "Otherwise, you'll have to wait in line to curry favor with Jiang Shi, you know that Immortal Lord Jinwu never puts on airs."

“Come back. This isn’t enough to explain things in detail,” the mountain lord said. “This is a matter of great importance, and I need to report to the Emperor.”

Seeing the jade talisman's light dimming, the mountain lord sighed deeply.

Having traversed over a thousand years in the mortal realm, experienced inter-realm wars, survived the Seventy-Nine Heavenly Tribulations, and weathered countless storms, the Mountain Lord now felt utterly bewildered. Jiang Shi's rise to power had been far too rapid, and she held far too many cards in her hand. Killing her was certainly an option, but the immense benefits she represented were something no messenger could easily relinquish.

If Jiang Shi had acted even slightly more cautiously or warily, the Mountain Lord might have dared to send someone to test him, and at worst, cut ties afterward. Caution implies the ability to threaten, and wariness implies the ability to compromise. But Jiang Shi was far too arrogant, too flamboyant, too overbearing, and too reckless. The Mountain Lord had to consider the most serious consequences: they had offended Jiang Shi, and then Jiang Shi would completely sever ties with the Eternal Heaven, making them sworn enemies.

Any normal person would not dare to fight to the death with a sect that has a Golden Core Tribulation Master. But would a normal person dare to use their power to monopolize the Treasure Pavilion to demand money from the four major powers? Would a normal person dare to activate the [Recruitment Item] at the fourth level and recklessly recruit all the Immortal Lords in the world to be at their beck and call?
The mountain lord spread out a sheet of white paper, ground ink, and picked up a brush, pondering how to report to the emperor. He held the brush in mid-air, unable to put pen to paper for a long time.

Finally, he wrote the first sentence:

"Jiang Shi, the Treasure-Gathering Fairy, is not human."

(End of this chapter)