After hearing Venerable Haoran's words, Su Fan had already made up his mind to join the Guangfa Dao Sect, but he still threw in an additional condition.
"I don't care about the others, but the current manager of the marketplace, Cai Songlin, and his disciple Xie Feng must come under my command from now on..."
Su Fan knew all too well how those sects operated.
Once the cultivators in the marketplace joined the Guangfa Dao Sect, nine times out of ten they would be pushed to the front lines as cannon fodder to fill the holes.
Places like the valley's forward base could absolutely be considered impregnable safe zones during wartime.
Venerable Haoran recruiting large numbers of cultivators from the marketplace to fill the base's vacancies was merely a stopgap measure.
It would not be long before all the cushy positions in the base were seized by the scions of the various sects' Aristocratic Clans.
As for the cultivators recruited from the marketplace, they would eventually be sent to the front lines in batches as cannon fodder.
Su Fan could not control the life or death of the others, but he had to protect Old Cai and his disciple. He absolutely could not let them go to the front lines to die.
Venerable Haoran agreed without even thinking. It was only two people, and to him, that was hardly worth mentioning.
The next morning, Venerable Haoran led Su Fan into the valley where the Starry Sky Gate stood.
By then, the Starry Sky Gate had already been set up. It was a gigantic stone platform over a thousand zhang in diameter, its surface carved with densely packed Runes. It drew on the energy of the underground Spirit Vein to activate the formation patterns.
Compared with the Starry Sky Gates created