Chapter 127 – Yuntian Immortal City
Yuntian Immortal City.
Any cultivator worth their salt had at least heard the name. As the only immortal city in the entire cultivation realm, it was steeped in countless legends.
For instance, several hundred years ago, a Condensed Nascent Pill had been auctioned off in Yuntian Immortal City. The Nascent Soul Patriarch of the Lingxiao Sect—a powerful sect in the Nascent Soul realm—had seized that very pill back then and successfully advanced to the Nascent Soul stage.
Beyond pills, Yuntian Immortal City also had a history of selling spirit artifacts. These were treasures of a tier above magical artifacts—items that had already developed sentience.
A spirit artifact that had gained sentience could no longer be regarded as a mere tool; it had evolved into something on a completely different level. While its power might not always surpass that of top-grade magical artifacts, its potential was boundless.
Moreover, spirit artifacts with sentience could execute basic autonomous attacks and protect their masters without instruction. If their sentience was developed further, they could even draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to refine themselves.
Just like cultivators, spirit artifacts could also grow and improve on their own. As such, they were essentially magical tools that could grow alongside their wielders.
The value of a spirit artifact that could progress in step with its master went without saying.
Whether it was a Condensed Nascent Pill or a spirit artifact, the mere appearance of such legendary treasures in Yuntian Immortal City was enough to solidify its renowned status. Of course, the fact that the city could confidently put such priceless items up for public auction was a testament to its formidable strength.
If any weaker faction tried to auction off treasures of this caliber, they'd undoubtedly be targeted by those willing to risk everything to steal them.
"Whew… finally here!"
Gu Mo let out a long breath as he looked at the massive city in front of him. After months of travel, he had at last reached his destination. However, the towering city ahead wasn't the actual Yuntian Immortal City—it was one of its subsidiary cities. There were four such satellite cities in total, positioned at the cardinal directions.
The one before Gu Mo now was the southern city. And if even a satellite city was this massive, it was hard to imagine what the main city must look like.
As Gu Mo drew nearer, the number of cultivators around him began to swell. Yuntian Immortal City was like a super-metropolis, drawing in countless cultivators chasing after their fortunes.
Opportunities didn't just lie hidden in ancient ruins—places like Yuntian Immortal City offered their own fortunes. Chief among these was the famed Yuntian Tower.
In the main city stood a towering spire filled with trials. Cultivators in the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining realms could enter and challenge the tower's trials. With each floor they cleared, they would earn a reward from the tower.
It was no exaggeration to say that this opportunity alone drew thousands of rogue cultivators every year. Even elite disciples from major sects came to challenge the tower in hopes of making a name for themselves.
To Gu Mo, however, the Yuntian Tower seemed more like a marketing gimmick. The immortal city was, in essence, the ultimate marketplace. And like all marketplaces, foot traffic was critical.
To draw that traffic, they couldn't rely solely on treasures like Condensed Nascent Pills and spirit artifacts—those only attracted top-tier cultivators. But an immortal city couldn't rely solely on the business of the powerful. The trade from mid- and lower-level cultivators was just as valuable.
To attract this demographic, showcasing rare treasures wasn't enough. Many rogue cultivators were dirt poor, with little spending power.
But poor cultivators still held value—they brought traffic. Drawing them in boosted the city's popularity metrics, and popularity was crucial for a place like Yuntian Immortal City.
Thus, the Yuntian Tower was likely a lure meant to attract these rogue cultivators. Didn't have any spirit stones to spend? No problem—come try your luck in the tower's free trials. If you cleared a few floors, you'd earn rewards.
And once you had rewards, you'd have spending power. Eventually, those spirit stones would circle right back into the city's economy. It had to be said—whoever was running the immortal city truly knew their stuff.
As Gu Mo entered the southern city, he couldn't help but sigh several times in admiration. Yuntian Immortal City's marketing strategies were on par with anything Earth had to offer.
Who said cultivators only knew how to cultivate?
"This should be the place," Gu Mo muttered, holding a map of the southern city he had purchased for five spirit stones. He had arrived in front of a small building—one that specialized in selling information.
His first order of business upon arriving in Yuntian Immortal City was intelligence gathering—especially information on the Qinglu Sect. Only by understanding the sect's current situation could he formulate a response strategy.
"Sir, what kind of information are you looking for?"
Gu Mo stepped into a small room, where a Foundation Establishment cultivator sat across from him. This alone said a lot about the organization's strength. After all, no weaklings could afford to run a shop here—the rent alone would crush them.
And this intelligence agency didn't just rent a shop—they owned an entire building in the most bustling part of the southern city. That level of clout required real power.
"Information on the Qinglu Sect," Gu Mo said.
"Top-tier intel is 1,000 spirit stones. Mid-tier is 500. Low-tier is 100." The Foundation Establishment cultivator replied without hesitation.
That was far cheaper than Gu Mo had expected. The Qinglu Sect was a Nascent Soul-level powerhouse—intel on such a faction usually came at a steep price.
"There's been a high demand for information on the Qinglu Sect lately. The more a piece of intel is sold, the cheaper it becomes," the cultivator explained, seeming to sense Gu Mo's surprise.
Gu Mo nodded in understanding. Indeed, the more people knew something, the less valuable it became. "I'll take the top-tier intel."
He handed over ten mid-grade spirit stones, and the other cultivator passed him a jade slip. This was a one-time-use slip that would shatter after reading—an effective method to prevent information leaks.
Of course, it was impossible to stop leaks entirely. What intelligence agencies could do was extract the maximum value from a piece of intel before it became common knowledge.
Taking the jade slip, Gu Mo exited the building and soon rented a Tier-2 cave dwelling as a temporary base. It had to be said—caves with natural spiritual veins far surpassed even top-grade Spirit Gathering Arrays in terms of both concentration and sustainability of spiritual energy.
What a pity—Gu Mo didn't actually need any of these things for his cultivation. He possessed the Sun's Essence, but under his current identity as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his actions had to fully align with what would be expected of someone at that stage.
Fortunately, Gu Mo had considerable wealth at his disposal. Renting a second-tier cave dwelling was no burden for him.
After activating the cave's protective array, Gu Mo sat on the meditation cushion and retrieved the intelligence jade slip. The moment his divine sense entered it, a flood of information surged forth.
He quickly skimmed over the profiles of key members of the Qinglu Sect—he knew far more than what was written there anyway.
"Fenghua Sect!"
He soon found the intelligence he was looking for—the enemy responsible for the attack on the Qinglu Sect. The Fenghua Sect was not a local sect within this cultivation realm, but rather an overseas force.
For an overseas sect to come in and wipe out a local Nascent Soul-level sect was a massive shock to the region's native Nascent Soul powers. Reportedly, several major Nascent Soul sects had recently joined forces to pressure the Fenghua Sect and try to drive them away.
As for whether the Qinglu Sect's fourth-tier spiritual land would be returned once the Fenghua Sect left—that was uncertain. After all, those who drove out the enemy would naturally expect some form of compensation. Renting the land for a few centuries, for instance, seemed only fair.
And the Fenghua Sect wasn't the only one eyeing the Qinglu Sect's spiritual land. The local Nascent Soul sects had long coveted it, but unspoken rules had kept them from making a move. Now that an external force had broken those rules, the local powers no longer felt bound by them.
Even so, despite their aggressive posturing, the native Nascent Soul sects' joint pressure ended with more noise than results. The reason for that was detailed in the intelligence—this was the most valuable part of the entire report.
The Fenghua Sect had two Nascent Soul elders. That alone was enough to explain why the local sects backed off. A sect with two Nascent Soul cultivators stood at the top tier among Nascent Soul sects.
In contrast, each of the local major sects only had one Nascent Soul cultivator at best. Even if they united, should the Fenghua Sect target any one of them, that sect could very well end up like the Qinglu Sect.
No one wanted to become the next Qinglu Sect. And so, the local Nascent Soul sects ultimately acquiesced to the Fenghua Sect's occupation.
To its credit, the Fenghua Sect didn't press too hard. Even a powerful outsider must respect the local powers to some extent. They made concessions to pacify the local Nascent Soul sects. With their foundation in disarray and needing time to rebuild, the Fenghua Sect wasn't looking to start a war just yet.
In the end, the Fenghua Sect took over the fourth-tier spiritual land. The other Nascent Soul sects gained their own benefits. Only the Qinglu Sect was left powerless and without recourse.
Upon learning this outcome, the surviving Golden Core elders of the Qinglu Sect went into deep hiding. They had once hoped that the local Nascent Soul sects would help, but it was now clear: if they were to rebuild the sect, they would have to rely entirely on themselves.
When the Qinglu Sect elders fled, they brought with them the sect's legacy treasures—resources once meant to help a Golden Core cultivator at peak stage break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
But without the fourth-tier spiritual land, forming a Nascent Soul would be incredibly difficult.
Sigh…
Watching the jade slip crumble into ashes in his hand, Gu Mo couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Still, some seeds of the Qinglu Sect had survived. There was still hope for its eventual revival.
So long as the legacy endured, hope remained.
Autumn Leaf Sect.
An obscure sect on the fringes of the cultivation world, its strongest member was merely a false core cultivator. No one knew that the Autumn Leaf Sect was actually a hidden backup left behind by the Qinglu Sect.
Now that backup had been activated. The scattered Golden Core elders were gathering here, using the Autumn Leaf Sect as a cover to begin rebuilding the Qinglu Sect.
At this stage, however, the reborn Qinglu Sect could only be considered a Golden Core-level sect—it was no longer a Nascent Soul powerhouse.
Autumn Leaf Sect's side hall.
Yuan Niya rushed forward anxiously when she saw Elder Liu, known for her healing arts. "Elder Liu, how is my master?"
"We've managed to temporarily suppress the Heartflame," Liu Jinfeng said with a heavy sigh. "But unless we can cleanse it completely, Sister Zhuo won't regain consciousness."
To stop Zhuo Suzhu's soul from being consumed, Liu Jinfeng had joined forces with several other Golden Core elders to suppress both the Heartflame and Zhuo Suzhu's soul.
The Heartflame's corrosion was far too severe. They couldn't isolate and remove it, so they had to suppress it together with her soul.
This meant Zhuo Suzhu would remain in a coma, but at least her condition was stable—giving them a chance to search for a cure.
Zhuo Suzhu was now critically important to the Qinglu Sect's revival. She was their only remaining Golden Core cultivator at peak stage.
The other elders were mostly in the early or mid stages of the Golden Core realm. With their current states, it would be extremely difficult for any of them to advance further. One elder had reached the late stage, but she had sacrificed her life to cover the sect's retreat.
In this situation, helping Zhuo Suzhu eliminate the Heartflame and reach the Nascent Soul stage was the fastest path to reviving the sect.
If she succeeded, even the Fenghua Sect's two Nascent Soul elders would not be unassailable.
Of course, it wouldn't be easy. The sect had been seeking a solution to her Heartflame problem for a long time—even before this disaster. They had always planned for her to break through, but the Heartflame had proven too difficult to resolve.
In the end, they could only call upon Sect Leader Gao Yunrui.
Besides Zhuo Suzhu, the Qinglu Sect had one other potential path: to cultivate a new disciple to Golden Core peak and have them attempt the Nascent Soul breakthrough.
That disciple was, without question, Yuan Niya. In the previous trial for core disciples, many elites had fallen to a Fenghua Sect ambush. And now, after He Shaogang's betrayal, Yuan Niya was the only one left with a real chance of reaching Golden Core peak.
As for the other core disciples and inner sect members who escaped, few had the potential to reach the Golden Core stage at all—let alone break through to peak and attempt the Nascent Soul realm.
"Niya, don't worry about your master. The few of us can suppress it for now. What you need to do is focus on your cultivation," Liu Jinfeng said gently.
"Okay," Yuan Niya nodded. Everyone had placed their hopes on her. She felt tremendous pressure—but she knew it was her responsibility.
"Niya, how's Elder Zhuo doing?" Chu Feifei asked as she saw Yuan Niya return.
"She's stable for now," Yuan Niya said, forcing a small smile. Then she added, "I wonder how Junior Brother Gu Mo is doing."
"Don't worry," Chu Feifei said with quiet confidence. "He's far stronger than we imagined. I'm sure he's fine."
Still, worry lingered in her heart. After all, their enemy this time was a Nascent Soul sect from overseas.
Neither Yuan Niya nor Chu Feifei dared to contact Gu Mo. If his identity were exposed, it would spell certain doom.
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