Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 254 Aftermath of War
Half a month has passed since that earth-shattering battle.

The grand gathering at Rift Mountain ended, and in the end, the demons failed to gain any advantage, only killing a few rogue cultivators while suffering considerable losses themselves.

The only achievement that could be considered a victory was that the two sect leaders of Yunlu Immortal Sect and Tianxin Island were injured, but it was nothing serious.

If that were all, it could be considered a great victory for the righteous path, repelling the first attack from the demonic sect.

However, the destruction of the Incense Burning Sect and the mutual destruction of Demon Lord Wujiu, Zhang Qi, and Lu Xingzhou were the greatest blows to the righteous path.

The Demon Lord Wujiu was sealed for a thousand years. Once he was freed, he took Zhang Qi and Lu Xingzhou with him. No matter how you look at it, he lost out.

Even worse was the Burning Incense Sect, whose entire sect was destroyed, and the eight-hundred-mile-long Green Coffin Mountain was shattered, turning what was once a blessed land into a desolate wasteland.

Not only did the spiritual energy dissipate, but the rotting of the Demon Lord Wujiu's enormous corpse would also produce a deadly plague, extinguishing life within a radius of hundreds of miles.

However, the Incense Burning Sect is currently too busy to deal with this, because Lu Xingzhou has left, and the sect has lost most of its three mountains and five halls. What will become of the remaining disciples? Just electing a new sect leader is not a simple matter.

Although the other sects sent a lot of supplies, it was still far from enough to make up for the losses of the Incense Burning Sect. It seems that this former one of the five major sects will never recover.

Besides the Incense Burning Sect, the Qinghe Sword Sect has also attracted much attention.

After all, the sect's reputation was entirely built by Zhang Qi alone.

Now that the number one swordsman in the world is truly gone, can the Qinghe Sword Sect still hold on?

Not only the righteous sects are worried, but the demonic sects are as well.

Therefore, after the grand gathering at Rift Sky Mountain ended, many traces of demons appeared along the banks of the Qinghe River. However, the Qinghe Sword Sect did not panic at all. The great and small sword immortals cleared the banks of the Qinghe River and killed all the demonic cultivators who dared to show their faces.

Even though Zhang Qi is gone, the swords of the Qinghe Sword Sect remain sharp, and anyone who dares to provoke them will pay a bloody price.

Chen Ye originally intended to visit the Qinghe Sword Sect to offer his condolences, after all, Zhang Qi had shown him great kindness and the two had even sat down to discuss the Dao together. It was only right and proper for Chen Ye to come and pay his respects.

However, the Qinghe Sword Sect did not hold a ceremony for Zhang Qi.

When Su Chunyi mentioned this matter in her letter, she said that Zhang Qisheng had made arrangements before his death, and that the Qinghe Sword Sect would not hold any memorial ceremony after his passing.

Because death is like a lamp going out, Zhang Qi did not ascend to heaven, but truly ran out of energy and his spirit could not even remain, so there was no point in worshipping him.

The Qinghe Sword Sect only needs to abide by the rules left by Zhang Qi and continue to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path.

Chen Ye will be invited to the succession ceremony of the new leader of the Qinghe Sword Sect, but that's not something that will happen anytime soon; it will have to wait until at least next year.

Because the new sect leader is still in seclusion and will not emerge until at least next year.

Although it was a bit of a pity, Chen Ye took this opportunity to handle the various affairs of the Yellow Springs Sect.

In the battle at the Incense Burning Sect, Chen Ye emerged unscathed and even brought back many treasures.

Putting aside everything else, he emptied out the entire library of the Incense Burning Sect.

The elder guarding the library initially genuinely believed Chen Ye was a disciple of the Seven Stars Hall. Seeing the Incense Burning Sect facing a great calamity, he even helped Chen Ye move the books.

As a result, Chen Ye moved all the books to the Yellow Springs Sect, and only then did the elder realize that he had been tricked.

Just as they were preparing to fight Chen Ye to the death to protect the secret techniques of the Incense Burning Sect from being passed on, Pang Duoduo arrived.

With Lu Xingzhou gone, the head of the Three Mountains and Five Halls is the highest-ranking person in the Incense Burning Sect. Pang Duoduo simply waved her hand and told Chen Ye to go ahead and copy whatever he wanted, as long as he returned the original.

If this gets out, people will think that Pang Duoduo colluded with outsiders to betray the Burning Incense Sect.
As it turned out, Pang Duoduo was prepared. She produced Lu Xingzhou's will, proving that the Huangquan Sect had helped the Fenxiang Sect during this great calamity. If it weren't for the Huangquan Sect's intervention, Wujiu Demon Lord might have truly been resurrected, and the entire Fenxiang Sect would have died.

Not only that, Chen Ye also helped kill traitors of the Incense Burning Sect and saved the lives of many disciples of the sect.

Even those who couldn't be saved were taken into the Myriad Souls Banner, which was considered to leave them with a glimmer of hope.

How can the Incense Burning Sect repay such a debt of gratitude?

Therefore, Chen Ye can copy all the books in the Fenxiang Sect's collection. He can also retain some of the resources that he previously "rescued" from the Fenxiang Sect as a gift from the Fenxiang Sect to the Huangquan Sect.

Lu Xingzhou's will was genuine, and Pang Duoduo's words could withstand scrutiny and investigation. The surviving disciples of the Burning Incense Sect could not refute it and could only accept this "gift of gratitude."

Chen Ye never expected that he would actually be able to empty all the books in the Burning Incense Sect's collection.

Apart from a small number of books that had been borrowed and not yet returned, Chen Ye brought back a total of more than 47,000 books from the Incense Burning Sect, of which more than 300 were the legendary Heavenly Books and Secret Techniques.

It was no easy task just to copy the contents of these books. Chen Ye mobilized all the literate people and ghosts in Fengdu City to copy them day and night for more than half a month before they could barely finish. Then he sent the books, along with a large number of magical treasures and resources, back to Fengdu City.

Next, the Huangquan Sect will likely spend several years categorizing and carefully studying these books. These collections will precisely fill the gaps in the Huangquan Sect's most lacking foundation.

The Incense Burning Sect's teachings are the most diverse among the five orthodox sects, encompassing medicine, divination, astrology, and various crafts—virtually everything. From now on, no matter what disciples the Yellow Springs Sect accepts, they will never lack cultivation methods to practice.

Li Fan, in particular, who was valued by Chen Ye, found many secret techniques related to cultivating spiritual plants while copying these books. These techniques were related to the Blood Bodhi cultivation method he was researching, so he immersed himself in the sea of ​​books and was expected to benefit from them soon.

The decline of the Incense Burning Sect has allowed the Yellow Springs Sect to eat its fill, and now the Yellow Springs Sect only lacks disciples.

As for the lack of disciples, Qu Heng kept urging Chen Ye to go to the Burning Incense Sect to "snatch" people.

“They are now like rootless duckweed. We have done a great service to the Incense Burning Sect and have also received its inheritance. If they don’t join our Yellow Springs Sect, who else can they join? We can’t possibly rebuild the Incense Burning Sect on that Green Coffin Mountain where the earth’s veins are severed!”

Chen Ye had heard Qu Heng say this so many times he was sick of it, but he did not listen to Qu Heng and recruit disciples.

Chen Ye believed that the Incense Burning Sect's current predicament was largely due to their reckless expansion.

Among the surviving disciples of the Incense Burning Sect, Chen Ye didn't think much of a few.

It wasn't that Chen Ye disliked their cultivation level; those selected by Lu Xingzhou to stay in Lietian Mountain were definitely elites with extremely high cultivation talent. Chen Ye simply disliked their character.

For example, Qin Wanjun.

This person has high cultivation and strong skills. In other sects, he would be more than qualified to be an elder, but Chen Ye dislikes Qin Wanjun's willful and reckless personality.

Previously, the Incense Burning Sect expanded too quickly, which led to its disciples becoming arrogant and causing a decline in the sect's discipline, as well as instances of infighting and scheming against each other.

Although the Yellow Springs Sect has few members now, each one was personally selected by Chen Ye, so he knows them well and manages them easily.

If all the people from the Incense Burning Sect were recruited at once, the Yellow Springs Sect would appear to have grown stronger on the surface. However, these Incense Burning Sect disciples would inevitably band together for mutual support, which might lead to another round of power struggles and ultimately deplete the Yellow Springs Sect's vitality.

Chen Ye was so annoyed by Qu Heng that he told him what Qu Heng had said. Qu Heng replied, "You're so hesitant and indecisive. Our Yellow Springs Sect's rules are right here. We treat everyone equally. Anyone who dares to violate them will be sent to the underworld for torture. Are you worried they won't obey? If we don't have enough disciples, how will we fight against those restless demonic cultivators?"

Chen Ye was too lazy to argue with Qu Heng. It wasn't a matter of who was right or wrong, but rather that the old devil's habits were incompatible with Chen Ye's.

In Qu Heng's eyes, sect disciples are resources, consumables, and should be used however they are needed.

Chen Ye, however, hoped that the Yellow Springs Sect could become the next Qinghe Sword Sect, with every disciple in the sect being a capable and outstanding individual.

To become such a sect, one must carefully cultivate each disciple, rather than throwing them out as cannon fodder.

There was no right or wrong in this debate of ideas, so Chen Ye had no choice but to assert his authority as the sect leader and force Qu Heng to back down.

Although Chen Ye had already acknowledged Qu Heng as his grandmaster, this old devil was also very principled. Major sect affairs were always decided by the sect leader, and he, as the supreme elder, could only offer suggestions. Since Chen Ye was unwilling, Qu Heng had no choice but to give up.

However, Chen Ye wasn't truly unwilling to accept disciples; the Yellow Springs Sect had developed to a point where it was time to recruit more disciples.

Chen Ye then said to Qu Heng, "Grandmaster, the 14th of July is approaching. The founding ceremony of our Huangquan Sect is of utmost importance. It will be proper for us to formally accept disciples after the 14th of July."

Qu Heng nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right, that's right, this is indeed a big deal. I'll resend the invitations."

"Why resend the invitations?" Chen Ye asked, puzzled.

Although many major events have occurred during this period, the invitation to establish a new sect has already been sent out. Isn't it strange to resend it?

Qu Heng sneered, “The world has changed, my good grand-disciple. Before, when we were establishing our sect, the five major sects had to come and pay their respects. They were testing us, so the rules were different. But now, my Yellow Spring Sect will sooner or later become the leader of the righteous path, and the five major sects are no longer qualified to test us. Of course, this invitation needs to be sent out again because the process is completely different.”

Chen Ye smiled wryly; Qu Heng really does hold grudges.

No one knows what this grandmaster has been through, but he always values ​​the sect's reputation highly and is very particular about all sorts of details.

Perhaps for Qu Heng, the Yellow Spring Sect truly is a heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

A cultivator needs to reduce and seek emptiness. Only when Huangquan Sect truly becomes the leader of the righteous path can he unload this heavy burden and easily step into the realm of Dao integration.

Chen Ye wouldn't refuse Qu Heng's request for such a trivial matter, so he let him make the arrangements.

Qu Heng excitedly ran off to rewrite the invitations and then found Fu Lu Shou and the other two, wanting to completely renovate the Huangquan Sect, both inside and out. The mechanical puppets they had made before were really not presentable, and since they had obtained a lot of secret techniques and materials from the Fenxiang Sect, they should now refine a new batch of everyday magical artifacts so that they could have face when they founded the sect.

Since Qu Heng was willing to handle these trivial matters, Chen Ye also had some free time and brought half of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts to the Ginseng Fruit Palace. Chen Ye deeply felt his cultivation was insufficient, truly like an ant before the Demon Lord Wujiu.

For practitioners, the most important thing is still cultivation. It's time to calm down and start cultivating again.

Looking at the books in front of him, Chen Ye murmured to himself, "The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts, the Ksitigarbha Sutra... I feel like I'm about to touch the truth of this world."

(End of this chapter)