Chapter Eighty-Four: Forming an Alliance Due to Circumstances

  Mo Jiao's Dragon Palace Inspection Envoy Zhang Chenglong, Yunqingmen Lin Fan, Nanzhou Leishan Lei Zhenzi, Tiangunmen female disciple Mengyuan, and Zixu Temple Liehuo Sect Xiefengzi, a total of five people will go to Qingping Gate to inquire about the matter of White Robe.

  Among them, Meng Wan's Tian Kun Sect belongs to the Quanzhen sect, a practitioner of self-cultivation and asceticism. Her white dress is elegant and moving, with a hint of an immortal's aura. Zhang Chenglong is the oldest and also has the strongest magical powers, so he becomes the leader of this trip. Lei Zhenzi may be straightforward in temperament, but he is actually a wise and cunning person. Xie Fengzi carries a large calabaza on his back, looking at the other four people who are traveling with him with a calm expression.

  All the way north, Xīn Lóng Gōng excels at reconnaissance intelligence. Zhang Chenglong is very familiar with the geography of the Twelve Continents. Except for Meng Yuanshuo's few words, Lin Fan, Lei Zhenzi and Zhang Chenglong get along quite harmoniously. And Xiāo Fēngzǐ doesn't say a word, rarely even looking at them straight in the eye, naturally revealing his arrogant demeanor. Apart from the three people mentioning Guī Mén.

  Tian Kun Men is a branch of Quanzhen, and they would not have joined the Righteous Devil Alliance. They did not want to get involved in worldly affairs, but Mo Jun and the leader of Tian Kun Men had some dealings with each other. In the end, Tian Kun Men joined the Righteous Devil Alliance, but they never cared about the alliance's affairs or the overall situation in the world, having a somewhat "sweeping the snow from their own doorstep" attitude, and were completely uninterested in the so-called return of the Ghost Gate.

  The reappearance of the Ghost Gate is not only bad news for the Orthodox Devil, but also for the Evil Sect. The people of the Ghost Gate do not distinguish between good and evil, with killing as their main goal. Ordinary ghost gate cultivators have shallow cultivation and are not to be feared, nor are they taken seriously by the evil sects. However, high-level ghost gate masters like to find Orthodox Devils and True Cultivators, whose souls are not only more powerful, but can also be used to refine Ghost Gate treasures, the Yin Soul Skull.

  Xie Fengzi also chimed in and asked, "As the rumor goes, the disciples of Gui Men are ordinary people, but the vengeful soul banner can absorb the master's vital energy. The more frequently the vengeful soul banner is driven, the faster one dies. How can there be any masters?"

  Zhang Chenglong said, "Indeed, if ordinary people use the Ghost Gate technique to refine a vengeful spirit banner, it's not worth worrying about. The so-called Ghost Gate expert refers to those who have achieved success in their cultivation and completed the foundation-building stage of their spiritual path. They can not only drive the vengeful spirit banner without being harmed by it but also won't be like low-level disciples who only know how to kill, without even distinguishing between strong and weak opponents. The Ghost Gate has two treasures, one is the vengeful spirit banner, which is already very formidable. There's also the Dark Soul Skull. According to records, when the Myriad Evil Sect invaded the Ghost Gate sect's headquarters, the sect leader of the Myriad Evil Sect single-handedly fought against the five Dark Soul Skulls of the Ghost Gate sect's guardian deity for a whole day. In the end, although they destroyed the Ghost Gate sect's guardian deity, the sect leader of the Myriad Evil Sect was also invaded by dark energy and ascended to heaven ten years later. Of course, the Ghost Gate sect's headquarters also had a protective array; if not, it should have been much easier."

  Xie Fengzi asked: "What are the characteristics of a master of Ghost Gate?"

  Zhang Chenglong said, "Unbeknownst to many, some righteous sects, demonic cults, and evil factions' disciples, due to their cultivation reaching a bottleneck, are unwilling to give up. If they coincidentally enter the Ghost Gate, practice the Vengeful Spirit Banner, their strength will greatly increase. Therefore, when refining the Yīn Soul Skull, they choose people with high moral integrity. The reason Wàn Xié Mén destroyed the Ghost Gate was because the Chief Inspector of Wàn Xié Mén was killed by four Ghost Gate disciples, who obtained his skull and refined it into a Yīn Soul Skull. Fortunately, it had not been fully refined when Wàn Xié Mén attacked the main altar; otherwise, the power of this Chief Inspector's Yīn Soul Skull would have been unimaginable." Also, because the Ghost Gate was destroyed just as it began to develop, everyone's impression is mostly stuck on the low-level disciples of the Ghost Gate, with very few noticing the extremely small number of elite disciples.

  "How to break the vengeful spirit banner?"

  Zhang Chenglong said, "There are many ways to deal with the vengeful spirits of low-end disciples, and I think that after the Ghost Gate reappears, each faction of the Righteous Devil Alliance will inform their disciples about how to deal with them. But if it's an elite disciple, it's hard to say, they're flexible and unpredictable, and they themselves have cultivated Dao techniques, making them difficult to deal with."

  "Can you see through them?" Slant Wind asked again. The teachings of the Blazing Fire Sect were not as complete and systematic as those of the Orthodox School.

  "Abilities." Zhang Chenglong said: "People of Ghost Gate, black air grows from their feet and wraps around their entire body, impossible to conceal."

  It's said that the Ghost Gate and the Orthodox Evil have no grudges, but because you have cultivation, they've taken notice of you. The disciples within the sect are safe, but those who venture out can't be guaranteed safety. Xie Fengzi thought to himself: No wonder the Myriad Evil Sect took the lead in annihilating the Ghost Gate, this Ghost Gate indeed makes all cultivators live in fear for their lives.

  Just like the invasion of the evil sect, the evil sect wants to compete for the Ling Mountain blessed land. Some evil sects use the Li people to refine the evil door treasures, while some evil sects occupy the mountain head, but ultimately they are not united enough. The orthodox devil had almost no dealings before, and there was little contact between the orthodox paths, but when disaster strikes, they will unite together. For example, if the Ghost Gate sits on a grand scale, this orthodox devil alliance may also include the evil sect.

  Xie Fengzi looked at Meng Wan, this Tian Kunmen is just sweeping the snow in front of their own door. Three hundred years ago during the Great War of Evil Dao, Tian Kunmen did not dispatch a single soldier. The evil sects also spread the news to various schools, telling them not to provoke the Quanzhen Sect for now. I don't know if Tian Kunmen has thought about it or not, once the righteous and evil are eliminated by the evil sects, how long can they still survive? You want to cultivate in peace, but you also need a place to cultivate that this world can accommodate.

  Looking at Lin Fan again, Xie Fengzi said quietly: This Yun Qing Men is still the same as before, not picking talents, not selecting materials, those who want to stay can stay, and those who want to leave can leave. However, its cohesion has become even stronger. Moreover, many outstanding talents have emerged from Yun Qing, and it's only a matter of time before they become the leader of the righteous path. As for the Nan Zhou Lei Shan Sect? It's probably the most difficult sect to deal with, and even the righteous path demonic sect doesn't understand their inner workings very well.

  ……

  Five people walked on the top of the cloud and entered Qingzhou. Qingzhou has a small land, a general population, a poor country but rich people, forming a strong contrast with Beizhou. The people live quite richly, the imperial court collects nine-tenths of taxes and returns them to the people, even the emperor only has three wives and four concubines, deeply loved by the people, so the people of Qingzhou are quite proud. A hundred years ago, a conflict occurred on the border between Beizhou and Qingzhou, five thousand wolf riders from Beizhou entered Qingzhou, but the border defense of Qingzhou was only a few hundred people. However, local tyrants and chivalrous scholars immediately gathered private armies to resist, scattered money all over the world, recruited thirty million brave warriors in the twelve continents, and repelled the wolf riders of Beizhou at the Linbei grassland. Although so, but the poor country and rich people of Qingzhou also made the military power of Qingzhou the weakest among the twelve continents. Local tyrants and chivalrous scholars repeatedly petitioned to the imperial court, ten years ago, the imperial court began to collect taxes on soldiers and horses, Qingzhou had no army, bought brave warriors from the twelve continents as soldiers, and formed a strong army of one million people to guard the border, not weaker than the wolf riders of Beizhou.

  However, Beizhou is a country with a strong military but weak people, with 400,000 elite soldiers and 100,000 Imperial Guards as the crème de la crème. It ranks first in the twelve continents in terms of military strength. If Beizhou launches a full-scale invasion, if Zhongzhou does not provide assistance, Qingzhou will be destroyed soon. The imperial court of Zhongzhou hopes to have Qingzhou as its neighbor rather than being accompanied by the evil neighbor Beizhou and will not sit idly by. This is also the reason why although there have been repeated conflicts on the border between Beizhou and Qingzhou for a hundred years, they are all minor incidents.

  Qingzhou values literature over martial arts, its inland areas are quite prosperous, and it is home to the most famous of the Twelve Provinces' scenic spots. Qingzhou has also given birth to countless talented scholars and poets. Its fine wines and delicacies are unmatched among the Twelve Provinces; even merchants from Dongzhou come to Qingzhou to buy wine to sell in Dongzhou, where the price doubles or triples yet still cannot meet demand.