Nong Guofu was far too crafty, so of course I had recorded our conversation. When I played it back, the old men were all stunned. The Maoshan Daoists had sided with the authorities. There was no point in going back now, and worse still, their master, Zu Yun, had become a ghost immortal. That snuffed out their last hope entirely. It was easy to imagine how miserable they felt.
"If the official Arcane Sect controls the Daoist sects, it will inevitably entangle them in worldly affairs. A great war is about to break out. You are all accomplished seniors, and surely cultivating in peace is your first priority? When Zu Yun sent you to kill me, I didn't kill any of you in retaliation even after gaining the upper hand, did I? After all, there's no irreconcilable feud between us. I won't force you to surrender. Now that I've founded the Tianyi Daoist Sect, Senior Zhu Yiguang of the Xuandan Sect, Senior Guan Zhengyang of the Qingwei Sect, and others have joined us. Senior Zhu Yiguang is also preparing to begin refining Enlightenment Dao Pills. You're all sensible people. Why not join my Tianyi Daoist Sect and cultivate toward immortality deep in the mountains? Surely that's much better than fighting for supremacy alongside the authorities?" I laid out recent developments, appealing to both their reason and their feelings.
That speech did indeed move the old men and women. They had been on hunger strike for quite a while and were nothing but skin and bones. Compared with Liang Fei, they were worlds apart.
"My senior brothers and sisters, just think how enormous Sect Leader Xia's Tianyi City has become! Think how bright the Tianyi Daoist Sect's future is! They're even about to start refining Enlightenment Dao Pills, which only immortal