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Of course, Li Fan wasn't saying Zhou Chengxue was incompetent. To call a Xuanmen True Person incompetent would be an overstatement. He could only say that Zhou Chengxue certainly did his best. But by carefully studying the various rankings at the entrance and referring to the lineage of the direct descendants of the three Penglai Mountains, Li Fan could discern many intricacies.

If he wasn't mistaken, the Supreme God True Palace lineage had invested too many resources in 'Layman Xianyi,' but a group of old men were all stuck at the Divine Transformation. They hadn't even acquired one of the Three Immortal Mountains, resulting in a deficit. Therefore, they essentially gave up on the later batch of 'Successors of the Nascent Soul Realm eased slightly. Even Zhou Chengxue, the disciples of the Divine Palace were basically among the bottom three. This was evident from the tasks they performed; most were menial tasks like collecting rent in Zhenhai, guiding people, farming, mining, building bridges and roads—they didn't even get a chance to go on spring outings to fight the Divine Sect...

In comparison, the disciples of the Zhizhen, Lingzhen, and Xuanzhen Palaces, who have produced three Dao Lords and occupy three immortal mountains, are much more powerful. Especially in alchemy and weapon crafting, which are the two lists that consume the most resources of the force, it is clear that the sect has given them preferential treatment and investment in resources.

Let's take a specific example from the alchemy rankings. Xu Chengyang of the Xuanzhen Palace has been at the top of the list for many years. Recently, he produced 217 Nine Revolutions Donghua Changchun Divine Pill in one batch. Xia Chengming of the Zhenzhen Palace is second on the list, having produced 170 Donghua Changchun Pill. Zhang Chengxu of the Lingzhen Palace is third on the list, having produced 121 Nine-Turn Pills.

The top three will not only receive commendation and rewards from the sect, as well as rewards of Spirit Coins, magic treasures, and Cultivation Method from their respective True Palace lineages, but will also contribute the remaining amount to their lineages after submitting the required 100 coins to the sect. Of course, although it is said to be for the use of the Dao Palace, it is actually passed on by the Palace Master and bestowed upon the elites for their own use.

As for the fourth place winner, those twelve Seven-Turn Divine Pills, with two Golden Core cultivators fighting tooth and nail for them, were just there to practice their alchemy skills...

Isn't that exaggerated? Actually, it's not exaggerated at all. Just look at the beginning and you'll see. After all, who has that much time, resources, and ability to collect so many pill materials? From the fourth one onwards, people usually collect the materials themselves or help other disciples refine pills. But the first three are actually relying on the sect's cultivation, each presiding over the pill furnaces of three immortal mountains, using the sect's resources to practice.

Do you think Zhou Chengxue can't take charge? Everyone here is a product of the college entrance exam, so anyone can do it. But there's only one opportunity, so of course it's for the sect's Wudao Daojun, the one who guards the mountain, to mentor the younger generation. Over time, the difference in skill between those who occasionally refine a couple of batches of pills and those who monopolize the sect's alchemy department year after year will become apparent.

This might seem a bit unfair, as if it doesn't give anyone else a chance, but striving for perfection is a characteristic of the Xuanmen sect, and it's not fair to say that they don't give anyone any chance at all. Although Zhou Chengxue didn't say it explicitly, Li Fan could roughly figure out a cultivation schedule for the Inner Sect disciples of Penglai by looking at various lists, generational names, and the teaching plan that Xuantian had arranged for him before.

For example, the next exam will be for the "Da" generation, while the most recent batch of Nascent Soul Stage cultivators who entered the Inner Sect are from the "De" generation. The curriculum for this group is also quite obvious; they are all learning arithmetic. Judging from the arithmetic score rankings, the gap between the Nine Truth Sect is actually not that big. There are no particularly outstanding individuals. No, it should be said that everyone is exceptionally outstanding.

The competition gradually became apparent when it came to the "Zong" generation. This group of people appeared most frequently. They were engaged in alchemy, crafting, talisman drawing, array formation, problem-solving, monster hunting, and resource gathering. They were clearly trying their best to rack up points and contributions. They would also occasionally engage in sword fights with each other, obviously trying to find the seeds for the Inner Sect.

Thus, starting with the "Cheng" generation, the Dao Seed supported by each Daoist palace were basically determined. Only at this time would cultivation resources begin to be extremely tilted towards the elite at the top. Roughly speaking, the "Cheng" generation focused on alchemy, the "Yong" generation on weapon crafting, and the "Si" generation on preparing for breakthrough opportunities. For example, recently, a group of disciples in the "Si" generation who were on the verge of breaking through went to the battlefield to fight the Demonic Sect, befriend the elites of the Xuanmen, and incidentally seek opportunities for breakthroughs while undergoing tribulations.

Someone like Zhou Chengxue, who would probably have been a soaring genius in the "Great" era and a diligent scholar in the "Virtue" era, unfortunately failed to stand out from the crowd of prodigies in the "Sect" era due to various unforeseen circumstances and coincidences. Furthermore, with arrangements made by the sect, he can only accept his fate now, becoming the ninth-ranked official in charge of recruitment in Zhenhai...

Huh? Why have the rankings changed?

The next day, Li Fan wore a divine general suit and frowned as he looked at the general list with the word "Cheng" in front of the mountain.

He had scheduled a patrol and reconnaissance trip to the port to retrieve the drone and gather intelligence, but a casual glance revealed that Zhou Chengxue's overall ranking had risen from ninth to eighth.

Of course, as mentioned before, he was far too far behind to catch up. It's not like he could gain so many points and surpass those ahead of him just by recruiting a guest elder for the sect and taking in a group of female relatives from the Xiao Family.

It's simply because the person at the front of the line died.

Yes, he's dead, and the one who died was actually Zhang Chengxu from the Supreme Lingzhen Palace, who was ranked third on the list.

Not only Li Fan, but many disciples and attendants from the Outer Sect, as well Human Race and Spirit Race, were all greatly surprised. They gathered around in small groups to watch, buzzing with discussion about whether the rankings had been updated incorrectly.

It was indeed a mistake. Soon, more children came to change their names; it wasn't just one who died, but six! The second-ranked member of the 'Yong' generation from the Lingzhen Palace also died! And four members of the 'Zong' generation died at once!

The crowd erupted in chaos! What was going on?! The Supreme Lingzhen Palace was a veteran powerhouse of the Nine Truth Sect, traditionally ranked among the top two. It was only recently, with the rise of the Xuanzhen Palace lineage, that one of them was lost. Who would have thought that the Dao Seed of the three generations, 'Eternal,' 'Inheritance,' and 'Sect,' would perish one after another? Doesn't this mean the lineage has been severed?!

However, Li Fan understood immediately. It seemed the Penglai Sect members he encountered in Xun Kingdom were from the Supreme Lingzhen Palace lineage. He wondered if the one riding the crane he killed was 'Yong' or 'Cheng'? But they were both highly cultivated Dao Seed, so they were probably similar. But why did news of their deaths only arrive now after so long? Had the Lingzhen Palace been suppressing the news? And the reason for revealing it now was...

"I heard that last month, the hiding place of the demonic sect cultivators who were secretly stirring up trouble in the kingdoms of Xun and Zhen was discovered. Since the masters of the 'Si' and 'Yong' generations were all in the Central Plains, the three 'Cheng' generation True Immortals from Zhenzhen Palace, Tianzhen Palace, and Taizhen Palace completely eradicated the remnants of the demonic sect. Now, the criminals' families have been escorted from Yingzhou to Penglai."

"Huh? Why are they sending it to Yingzhou first? Where exactly is the main mountain? This is so disrespectful!"

"Because Xu Chengyang of the Xuanzhen Palace was the first to calculate the location of the Devil Seed, he probably wants to continue investigating the clues about the Demonic Sect."

"But truly, aren't the Lingzhen Palace? How could they possibly obey the orders of Xu Chengyang, who comes from the Lower Palace? Are they planning to switch sides? Lingzhen still has a Dao Lord in charge, and they've only lost a few True Person Realm cultivators. It can't be this bad..."

"You wouldn't know this, would you? This time, many of the Divine Lord Elders of the Lingzhen Palace suffered heavy losses in the Demonic Sect's Ten Ultimate Formation, and their lineage was on the verge of being severed. Even the Dao Lord couldn't sit still and personally went to select talents from the 'De' generation of disciples. He had no time to care about anything else."

"How could this be! The sect leader's lineage is now down to a single heir, and there are no outstanding talents on the Shenzhen side either. The Xuanzhen Palace lineage on Yingzhou is really going to grow bigger! Not only did they produce a Dao Lord, but they also unearthed Dao Seed like Xu Chengyang. They've truly struck gold and turned their luck around!"

"This time, the rankings of the nine are really going to change..."

"Hmph, who knows? Who knows if it'll be the same as the previous two times..."

"Shh! Shut up!"

Probably because the gossipy Spirit Race children noticed that he was eavesdropping, Li Fan could only purse his lips and return to his residence with the drone.

It seems the struggle among the Nine True Ones is quite fierce. The Xuanzhen Palace took a month to hand over the 'remnants of the Demonic Cult' to Penglai, probably because they investigated it first. The Lingzhen Palace likely got involved in the world's conflicts to gain merit and advance further, but unfortunately, they overreached and nearly perished. However, this also reveals the Xuanmen's strength; even if Lingzhen is destroyed, there are still the Eight True Ones!

And that Xuanzhen Palace is truly flourishing! Xu Chengyang, Dao Seed excelling in the Five Arts... I wonder if he's of the same kind...

However, the internal strife within the Nine Truth Sect is none of Li Fan's business. The Huan family members are probably all in Penglai now, so he might as well take advantage of the Xuanmen's ranking competition to find a way to rescue these people and leave a seed for the Huan family.

So Li Fan put on his helmet and began to examine the information collected by the drone. This drone was indeed excellent for reconnaissance, capable of both photography and video recording, but it also had its flaws. As the system mentioned, the Divine Sense of cultivators could cause strong signal interference. While Nascent Soul Realm cultivators on Jinlin Isle could still observe and record, the Divine Transformation cultivators on Penglai Immortal Island would cause regional signal interference, and there were frequent instances of information fragment loss and device restarts, probably because they had been scanned by the Divine Sense of Dao Lords.

Um... Anyway, let's delete the unimportant bathing and changing scenes first. Now is not the time to watch porn. Let's wait until it's late at night and we're feeling lonely... cough cough

Getting back to the main point, based on Li Fan's memories from his visit to the sect yesterday, as well as the terrain he scanned with his Divine Sense and the map obtained by the drone, we can analyze the island's defense distribution and terrain by comparing and contrasting them.

Although Li Fan possessed a photographic memory, the Xuanmen Mountain was riddled with countless restrictions and illusion arrays. He didn't know whether those pavilions in the air were real or just background features. Moreover, the palaces that Li Fan's Divine Sense couldn't penetrate were likely inhabited by cultivators from the Nine Truth Sect or were heavily guarded forbidden areas.

Combining this with the real physical terrain recorded by the drone scans, Li Fan quickly narrowed down the possibilities and roughly deduced several heavily guarded forbidden areas of Penglai. He then ruled out Daoist sect headquarters like Shenzhen Palace, cultivation grounds with abundant spiritual energy, and places that were likely alchemy furnaces, workshops, or warehouses. Finally, he marked the possible targets...

They narrowed down the possibilities to about twenty Daoist palaces, which could potentially be prisons used to hold and guard prisoners. Penglai Immortal Island is too vast; they'll have to investigate them one by one.

So Li Fan reset the drone's route, making it avoid the Divine Transformation stage and investigate a few people. He also selected a few targets in the area where the drone's signal was lost, and tried to disguise himself as a lost newcomer and sneak past them one by one. Once he found the specific target, he would then become Li Kun and infiltrate.

Surprisingly, things seemed to be going quite well this time. The first Dao Palace that Li Fan chose looked like a prison, so it seemed like he made the right choice.

This place was not only sealed by multiple barriers, but also guarded by many immortal soldiers of the Spirit Race. They looked similar to Li Fan in appearance and were all protectors of the Penglai Immortal Path. They were likely responsible for imprisoning the demonic cultists. Li Fan only approached to take a look when he was stopped and questioned by a spirit general with horns on his head, who could not tell whether it was a dragon, a qilin, or a deer.

"I am Li Tang, an elder of the outer sect of Shenzhen Palace! I'm short on money lately and looking for a part-time job. You look like a security guard, so I'm wondering how the pay is here, how many days you work and how many days you rest, whether there are opportunities for raises and promotions, and whether you're hiring?"

The spirit general frowned as he examined Li Fan's waist token, glared at him for a while, then tossed the token back, saying suspiciously, "This is the Demon-Suppressing Tower. Unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering. If you want to find an official, go register with your palace attendant... What a country bumpkin..."

The Demon-Suppressing Tower... well, that's probably not it...

Li Fan wasn't in a hurry to leave. He asked curiously, "Demon-Suppressing Tower? Why keep demons locked up? Why not just kill and eat them? Do you think demons can reform themselves? Haha?"

Upon hearing this, the spirit general stared at him with wide eyes, "You dare to provoke my Spirit Race to my face?"

Li Fan stared wide-eyed at the spirit general. "Oh, I offended you with just one sentence? What, so what if I mocked you to your face! Are you going to hit me? I'm so scared! Bah! You monster!"

As Li Fan spoke, he slapped the spirit general, sending him tumbling.

He immediately sensed Divine Sense locking onto him, but they were all guardian generals of the Spirit Race. There were no law enforcement officials from the Discipline Institute or similar institutions. It seemed no divine lords or Dao Lords had noticed. He wondered how far the conflict among his disciples had progressed before a warning from a powerful figure would be issued. Perhaps he could test the waters...

The antler spirit was completely bewildered. After getting up and standing there stunned for a while, it shouted, "What do you mean! Are you looking for trouble!"

"Hey~~ You're right! I haven't exercised in a long time, my bones are light. Come on, I see you're a tough monster, let's have some fun."

As Li Fan spoke, he used the Dou Department Cultivation Method he had just learned yesterday. His figure blurred, and he flashed in front of the spirit general. With a bang, he threw a punch straight at the spirit general's face, knocking him backward and leaving a bruise around his eye.

"Who came from here?!" "What's going on?!" "That redhead is the troublemaker!"

At that moment, three more spirit generals jumped out, helping the deer with antlers up while surrounding Li Fan from both sides.

"Haha! Come on! Let's get started!"

Seeing the three men's posture—unarmed and without weapons— Li Fan's suspicions were confirmed.

He had been wandering around Penglai these past two days, and from watching the drone footage, he discovered that the Human Race and Demon Race on the island were clearly separated, each sticking to their own groups and never mixing together. Even though they were both from the Shenzhen Sect, the children there didn't even give Li Fan a second glance, and they even nodded to Zhou Chengxue as if they were acquaintances, barely acknowledging him.

The Xuanmen sect is also quite obvious. All the disciples of a certain True Palace on the rankings are Human Race, admitted through examinations. There isn't a single Inner Sect disciple from the Spirit Race; they can only serve as attendants, protectors, or fairy maidens. After all, demons have already done enough by developing intelligence, being able to write, read, and speak. To expect them to take postgraduate entrance exams is simply too much...

Moreover, the disciples of the Dao Seed Sect have already received far too many resources. There's very little left to share and unite the ordinary Inner Sect disciples, so where would they find so much more to distribute to these Demon Race?

Ultimately, it's just that Dao Lords and Divine Lords want to make things easier for themselves. They've given their mounts and spirit pets intelligence so they can stay in the sect for decades or even centuries to help manage the sect and serve as servants. Perhaps the big shots are more fond of their own pets, but they might not be so fond of other people's.

Therefore, in essence, the Nine Great Xuan Sects still look down on demons to the core, and the distinction between disciples and attendants is very clear, leaving no room for compromise.

Of course, the Demon Race wouldn't accept this either. Zhou Chengxue had specifically warned Li Fan not to provoke the Spirit Race, and the spirit race had indeed sent word that some disciples would indeed provoke them, and these Demon Race wouldn't tolerate it; they would retaliate and fight back.

So Li Fan also went all out, fighting against the four spirit generals and testing the combat skills of the Dou Department.

Believe it or not, the ancient combat techniques of the Dou Department are similar to the Body Domination Technique. They are methods of body refinement, but as a Cultivation Method for cultivating the Martial God Body to the Divine Transformation stage, it can just happen to stimulate the potential of the human body and fully exert the power of the physical body.

In this way, Li Fan's Tai Su Dao Body can indeed be brought into play from time to time during punches and kicks. Although it doesn't have as much of an effect as the Ghost Hand's claw, with more refinement, he might be able to achieve stable output and even develop a complete set of combat and body-refining methods suitable for the Tai Su Dao Body.

Moreover, even this slight display of power was seen as 'terrifying strength' by his opponents. Besides, the four spirit generals were clearly trained in weaponry and not skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Their strength and technique were no match for Li Fan's. Li Fan was also better at dealing with being ganged up on, and within ten moves, he was beaten black and blue and knocked to the ground by the four of them. Luckily, these demons were sturdy and wearing armor, or their heads would have been twisted off.

"What, you're giving up already? Too weak, aren't you?" Li Fan kicked the antler spirit general lying on the ground pretending to be dead. "Aren't you going to transform or something? Don't you have a second stage?"

Okay, no, the East Sea Spirit Race is only about 80% stronger than the South Sea Spirit Race. They've practiced some body-refining techniques from ancient Immortal Palace and generals, but they're just small fry. Penglai hasn't specifically trained them. If that's all they're capable of, they could be instantly killed.

The antlers grimaced in pain, "You bastard... why did you have to cause trouble for no reason!"

At this moment, Li Fan suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end, knowing that a powerful demon at the Divine Transformation had probably arrived nearby and was wary of him killing them. He also knew that it was acceptable to compete for superiority, but killing fellow disciples was the bottom line.

The probing of their strength had to be temporarily halted. Feeling a bit disheartened, he patted its cheek and said, "Because you smell so good, it makes my mouth water."

So I reached out and broke off one of its antlers, then gnawed on it like sugarcane and left. Hmm, it really was deer antler...