Immortal Alliance

Chen Xuan was extremely surprised. He had never imagined he would hear intelligence like this.

There was no emperor anymore?

"Then who rules this place?"

"Who else could it be? Those cultivators whose eyes are practically raised to the sky, of course." Old Gu gave a derisive snort. "You've probably seen those jade-like coins, right? They made those too. They're hardly more useful than copper coins—they just wanted to show how different they were."

Cultivators ruled the land... but there was no emperor. Didn't that mean the ruler wasn't a single person? Was the ruler a sect?

"Oh, so you're not completely ignorant about our situation after all." The other man stroked his beard. "But the reality is far more complicated than you imagine. To avoid internal strife, those cultivators cobbled together an alliance for 'discussing major affairs together,' much like a martial arts assembly. They called it the Immortal Alliance."

The Immortal Alliance—only after hearing the two men's explanation did Chen Xuan finally understand what had happened to the land that should have been ruled by the Ming Dynasty.

People who could instinctively gain the ability to sense qi had existed since ancient times. They groped their way forward, summarized the rules, and formed families or groups, which eventually evolved into sects. By the Tang era, this evolution had fully taken shape. There were more than a hundred active cultivation sects throughout the Central Plains, and the larger sects could have tens of thousands of disciples.

Thus, a historic turning point emerged. When the Tang Empire declined and collapsed, those sects replaced the former warlords. They mercilessly eliminated every opposing force and became the true rulers of the dynasty. They no longer used a dynastic title for the kingdom. Instead, they established the Immortal Alliance to coordinate conflicts between