In April, when spring was in full bloom and orioles flitted through the lush grass, Qi Yun Mountain stretched for thousands of miles through the Black Water Empire. At its foot had once been fine spots for travelers seeking spring scenery and secluded beauty, and for lovers on trysts.
But now, people streamed back and forth. Martial artists streaked through the sky, traffic bustled below the mountain, and all manner of supplies poured in through every mountain pass, delivered to the entrances of the major peaks.
Eight years had passed since the great victory of the eastern campaign, and both Qi Yun Mountain and the Qi Yun Sect bore the air of seas turning to fields and fields turning to seas.
The Qi Yun Sect, which had initially stretched only a hundred miles, now sprawled across a thousand, having expanded more than tenfold.
The Qi Yun Sect had once possessed nine peaks standing tall, and those nine peaks represented the sect's strength.
But now, seventy-two peaks stood tall within the Qi Yun Sect. More precisely, there were eighty-one peaks. The original nine peaks had become the Inner Nine Peaks, accessible only to those who had become the true core of the Qi Yun Sect.
The newly built seventy-two peaks were collectively known as the Outer Peaks. Each governed more than ten thousand disciples. The Qi Yun Sect now had seven hundred and twenty thousand Outer Disciples alone, along with countless menial servants.
Moreover, things were no longer as they had been in the past. The Qi Yun Sect was now rolling in wealth, and the treatment of Outer Disciples had long caught up to that of Inner Disciples from Ye Zhen's time.
Thus, the Qi Yun Sect's Outer Disciples were now brimming with talent. As for Inner Disciples, one could