“Celestial Fox, are the resources Wenxin Sect left behind enough to train a thousand disciples to the Mahayana stage?”
“Wuwuwu, Sect Master, it’s really ga, you’re back alive?”
From afar he saw Lu Xiuyuan, fresh, hot, in white clothes that somehow hadn’t been stained red with blood. The Celestial Fox flew over at once and threw himself on Lu Xiuyuan’s neck. The wail he had been brewing for so long had not yet poured out when he was frightened by what Lu Xiuyuan said.
A thousand?! Mahayana stage?! Did the Sect Master think the Mahayana stage was some stray cat or dog you could see anywhere by the roadside?!
Even in its most flourishing period, a second- or third-rate great sect might not produce even one Mahayana.
If there had been a thousand Mahayanas, the war between the Immortal Way and the heavenly demons from beyond the realm wouldn’t have been so tragic.
Something the entire Blue Star hadn’t managed ten thousand years ago, could a Wenxin Sect that was 99.99999% on low health do it?
“Sect Master? Do you still remember what technique you cultivate?” The paper fox carefully glanced up at Lu Xiuyuan’s expression, as if looking for evidence and flaws showing he was a demon in disguise.
Lu Xiuyuan was not angry at the paper fox’s probing, and instead curled his lips in a smile.
“A thousand Mahayanas could solve the crisis of the heavenly demons’ invasion from beyond the realm, but we can’t train that many Mahayanas. Are we to watch with our own eyes as Blue Star repeats the tragedy of ten thousand years ago?”
“But, but…” Resources were limited. Being able to train even one Mahayana would be revitalizing the sect and buying time for Blue Star’s destruction.
“The responsibility we carry is not ‘buying time,'” Lu Xiuyuan said, looking down at him, as if sighing. “I want to save Blue Star and wipe out the heavenly demons from beyond the realm completely.”
His words were soft, but like a drop of water thrown into a boiling oil pan, they blew the paper fox’s dazed mind upside down.
The paper fox shook all over, and memories of rivers of blood and devastation surged across his mind, scene by scene.
One second, a carefree young fox was rolling around with him in the spirit-herb garden; the next, the young fox was bitten in two by a demon and lay in a pool of blood.
One second, an elder was holding him by the scruff of his neck warning him not to be naughty; the next, the elder was standing in front of him, dragging a demon into self-detonation.
Revenge! That’s right, it was for revenge that he had refined his own soul and fused it with Wenxin Sect!
The paper fox spat it out almost through gritted teeth: “Not only kill them all, but wipe them out completely!”
A mere thousand Mahayanas—
A hand with distinct knuckles lightly stroked the paper fox’s head. The paper fox was thin and didn’t feel warm to the touch at all, but it was warm.
The hatred churning in his chest gradually dispersed. The paper fox rubbed against Lu Xiuyuan’s hand, his tearful voice sounding extremely aggrieved: “Sect Master…”
The paper fox looked at Lu Xiuyuan with eager eyes. The Sect Master, a mere Qi Refining stage, could kill a Spirit Transformation demon in reverse, so a mere thousand Mahayanas, probably, maybe, possibly could be done too!
Sure enough, under the Celestial Fox’s hopeful gaze, Lu Xiuyuan slowly spoke:
“As for where to find the resources to train a thousand Mahayana disciples, I have no way yet either. But we can first train a million Nascent Soul disciples, ten million Golden Core disciples, a hundred million Foundation Establishment disciples, and a billion Qi Refining disciples. That way a thousand Mahayanas won’t be an unreachable dream.”
“I knew the Sect Master was the most amazi—”
Wait, was something off?
The Celestial Fox’s tears of emotion stopped. His little head thought for a long time, and when he looked up at Lu Xiuyuan again, his face was full of resolve: “Sect Master, I’ll steal!” As long as he stole enough, he could surely gather enough resources to train a thousand Mahayanas!
Never mind a million Nascent Soul disciples, a billion Qi Refining disciples alone would scare a fox to death.
In Wenxin Sect’s most flourishing time, adding up all the cultivators, demon beasts, demon cultivators, spirit cultivators, and tool spirits in the sect didn’t even make ten thousand!
Ten thousand years ago the numbers of cultivators and demon beasts were large too, but a city gathering a hundred thousand was already an amazing super-city! A billion? All of them over thirty thousand years combined wouldn’t make that!
“Be good. Leave this matter to me to think about.”
A billion Qi Refining cultivators. That number was not something Lu Xiuyuan said to brush off the Celestial Fox. He had seriously thought it through and found it feasible.
The Heavenly Dao had awakened, spiritual qi was reviving, and the Dao lineage inheritances were appearing in the world. This world looked set to develop in a better direction, but their enemy was the heavenly demons from beyond the realm, who had not stopped invading over tens of thousands of years and fed war with war.
The barrier laid ten thousand years ago by the great Immortal Way figures using their bodies as a formation could only hold ten more years. After ten years, the heavenly demons from beyond the realm would return in force.
Setting aside feelings for Blue Star, from personal interest alone, Lu Xiuyuan did not want to be “the last remaining hope of the entire Blue Star.” Such a “tragic” description did not suit him.
Even less did Lu Xiuyuan want his cultivation career to be cut short at any moment in a devastated world.
He, with such terrible spiritual root and talent, had finally managed to cultivate toward immortality. He absolutely would not allow it to end so soon!
Taking disciples = obtaining immortal fate, immortal fate = cultivation, disciples = hope for saving Blue Star.
He needed more disciples, and Blue Star needed more hope.
“To save the world, the traditional sect development strategy of small-class private schools certainly won’t do.”
The Xia Kingdom already had high awareness of “cultivation” culture, so there was no need to eliminate illiteracy. He only needed to let everyone know cultivation really existed in the world, provide basic techniques, and let people start cultivating, and the great majority could become Qi Refining cultivators.
But after that? How to screen for righteous, orthodox people who wouldn’t cause major damage to the world and society?
How to guide them to use their power to destroy the heavenly demons from beyond the realm rather than kill each other?
After much thought, there was only one way—
“Let’s open a university!”
As for how one person could open a university—
“Celestial Fox!” Lu Xiuyuan called the Celestial Fox over. “Can immortal fate be used to increase my ‘luck’?”
After getting an affirmative answer, Lu Xiuyuan chose metaphysics, leave it to the card draw to decide!
Spirit Stone X100
Foundation Establishment Pill X100
Basic Spirit Boat X3
Green Spirit Sword X35
Star Fall Blade X1
…
Stars-Shifting Talisman X100
Divine Dream Nail X1
…
Realm-Breaking Talisman X100
Ten Towers of Soul Refining X1
Returning-Origin Ghost Claw X1
…
Lu Xiuyuan wasn’t a lucky whale, but not too much of a loser either. Three or four tries got five SSRs, and he obtained quite a few good things, but Lu Xiuyuan’s brows did not relax.
“My intuition tells me that the thing I have affinity with will definitely appear today.”
The “affinity” of those who walk the Dao was very special. Lu Xiuyuan stopped feeling sorry and directly exchanged immortal fate for a ten-pull.
“Hum—”
Nine white lights, and one, a faint white light.
Was this the paper fox’s mistake?
The paper fox lifted his head from that white light and said in a panic: “Sect Master, this one won’t do, this isn’t right, don’t use this one!”
He scrambled to push this white light into the vortex, but a hand was faster than his movement.
“This item has an affinity with me.”
The instant he saw it, Lu Xiuyuan was sure, what he wanted was this.
“No no no—” The paper fox shook his head like a rattle drum. “The Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart is bad; it will replace the Sect Master!”
“The name sounds rather high-grade.” Lu Xiuyuan grew even more interested. He soothed him by pinching the paper fox’s ear. “I won’t use it carelessly. Let me hear you out first.”
The paper fox, afraid Lu Xiuyuan didn’t know how dangerous this thing was, explained the main points.
The items in the warehouse were a reward pool of resources allocated according to Lu Xiuyuan’s current cultivation and the sect’s overall strength. Apart from techniques, things he couldn’t use at his current cultivation weren’t put in the “reward pool.” An SSR was called an SSR, but it was only a resource of “excellent quality for the Qi Refining stage.”
The Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart, however, was an accident. It was an Immortal-grade resource, yet Lu Xiuyuan could use it, so it had been brought out by the paper fox as a bug.
The Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart was, as Lu Xiuyuan had guessed, an extraordinary Immortal-grade resource, and could even be called the supreme treasure of the incense Dao.
Planted in the dantian and nourished with spiritual power and incense, it could become a second dantian.
For a cultivator, it meant not only an extra blue bar, but also the ability to rapidly increase cultivation with incense, faster even than the cultivation speed of evil cultivators!
But the problem was here too, an incense Dao cultivator could rise quickly thanks to incense, but would in the end be assimilated by incense.
“Incense Dao cultivators all eventually head toward ‘merging with the Dao.'” But the personality, thoughts, and behavior of a cultivator who “merged with the Dao” would become unlike their own, and might even change drastically in character because of incense faith.
It wasn’t possession, but it was more chilling than possession.
“One, two, three…” Such an Immortal-grade supreme treasure, and in Wenxin Sect’s warehouse there were as many as ten.
“Sect Master, I beg you, don’t use this one…” The paper fox grabbed Lu Xiuyuan with all four paws and looked at him pitifully, trying to dissuade him from his interest in the Seven-Treasure Lotus Heart. “How about I go steal an even more powerful magic treasure for you?”