Decline of National Luck

"What? You actually used the Great Destiny Technique?" Qu Heng was completely dumbfounded and incredulous upon hearing Qu Liang's report.

"Is there a problem?" Qu Liang blinked. "I won quickly, and I won beautifully!"

Qu Heng remained silent.

To be honest, he really didn't know if there was a problem.

While the Great Destiny Technique is powerful, it is a double-edged sword.

When used in combat, it consumes Divine Ability Power, the Golden Core Method, which is formed by the fusion of one's own luck and Law Power.

So, if a sect collectively uses Great Destiny Technique, what is consumed?

However, upon closer reflection, Qu Heng felt that the problem shouldn't be too serious.

After all, although Northern Plains and Western Splendor are large, they are actually comprised of a dozen or even twenty separate factions.

Individual forces are insignificant; even if they possess fortune, they are unlikely to amount to much. I, Taiheng, will use my fortune to counter and kill you as easily as killing an ant on the roadside. What losses could I possibly incur?

He had a gut feeling that something was wrong, but upon closer reflection, he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

On the contrary, because of the return of Eastern Victory, Northern Plains and Western Splendor to Taiheng, the fortune of the Taiheng Sect has actually increased.

He felt that his cultivation speed had increased recently.

He could see Taiheng's fortune, but this thing was as boundless as a sea of clouds, and a person in a sea of clouds couldn't feel whether there were more or less clouds.

The main reason is that Taiheng, who is almost invincible, has used this method too few times. There are no samples to refer to, so it is really impossible to judge whether doing so is good or bad.

Faced with the two areas that had been cleansed by the rebel army, Qu Heng quickly forgot about the issue of destiny and began to busy himself with the distribution of benefits.

It's still a top-down distribution of benefits. The elite Aristocratic Clan are high above, doing nothing, yet getting the biggest slice of the pie.

The Ninth-Rank Noble Families worked the hardest, contributing manpower and effort while suffering heavy casualties, yet they could only get scraps.

Actually, these Aristocratic Clan had always lived this way before, but back then there was no Nine-Rank System!

With this system in place, the disparity between the Aristocratic Clan and the exploitation of lower-ranking Aristocratic Clan by higher-ranking Aristocratic Clan were exposed to the Ninth-Rank Noble Families scions for the first time in a blatant manner.

Anger is building up, not only from the Ninth-Rank Noble Families towards the higher-rank Aristocratic Clan, but also from within the Ninth-Rank Noble Families themselves.

Those who are sent to the battlefield are mostly the neglected illegitimate sons and branch families of the Lineage.

These people toiled and died on the battlefield, but the only benefits they received were taken away by the main faction.

Moreover, Tian Dao Yi system, it granted them extremely high treatment, but this treatment disappeared after the war.

After several months of dedicated cultivation, the sudden loss of Spirit Stone is a truly disheartening experience.

During private gatherings and chats, some disciples from a branch lineage jokingly complained that they had killed too many people too quickly before.

If they had just coasted along and taken their time, they would still be happily cultivating on the front lines, collecting Spirit Stone!

Although one could die in battle, what difference is there between being alive and being dead when one returns to their Lineage and is treated like this?

Moreover, on the battlefield, if they have sufficient resources to cultivate, their cultivation level could potentially surpass that of the main lineage.

On one hand, there's the possibility of death, but the possibility of reversing fate.

On one hand, there's the option of barely surviving, living like a dog.

Some people will choose option two, but there will definitely be people who choose option one!

"The fortunes of Taiheng have begun to decline!" Yang Ning sighed, sensing the change in the hearts of the people within the Taiheng Sect.

When Southern Forest was destroyed, Taiheng's fortune remained unchanged.

When the Eastern Victory, Western Splendor, and Northern Plains Aristocratic Clan were destroyed, Taiheng's fortune remained unchanged.

Even when Qu Heng suffered a defeat and the 300 million Tai Heng Army were routed, Taiheng's fortunes remained stable.

However, after Qu Liang's two clashes of fortune, the fortune of the Taiheng Sect actually began to decline!

Admittedly, Yang Ning has created a pitfall in the fortunes of Xihua Beiyuan.

These two forces may seem like a dozen or so small forces, but in reality, they are two major forces whose fates are intertwined. Although they are weaker than the Great Xia, they are not much weaker.

Moreover, the nation's National Luck is connected by the Great Supreme Art, making it extremely resilient.

The clash between the Great Destiny Technique and the fortune of ordinary forces, and the clash between the Grand Fortune Technique and the National Luck formed by the Great Destiny Technique, is like the difference between hitting tofu and hitting a nail; the Grand Fortune Technique will definitely suffer losses.

But Taiheng's fortune isn't a balloon; it won't start leaking air just because it's pricked by a nail.

The decline was caused by the loss of some of the family's fortune, which led to unrest in people's hearts.

If Qu Heng can adjust policies in time and win back public support, the current losses can be recovered in no time.

After all, Taiheng has an incredibly deep foundation.

Qu Heng not only failed to win back the hearts of the people, but also added fuel to the fire.

In April of the 16th year of the Great Xia Dynasty, Qu Heng, having finally finished distributing the spoils, turned around and discovered that Tian Dao Yi was still in the sect, and that the mountain gates were wide open, with disciples coming and going in an endless stream, mostly members of the Tai Heng Army.

Their reason for seeking out Tian Dao Yi was quite simple: they were having a bad time and wanted to complain to the commander-in-chief.

Not only were they ostracized by the main lineage, but as time went on, their lives in the branch lineages also became increasingly difficult.

As for the reason, their three million men won the battle, but there were still two hundred and ninety-seven million who lost!

The sight of them reminds these people of their own defeats.

In order to avoid being looked down upon by these victors, the only option is to isolate them first.

These three million people were isolated. Qu Liang disappeared after returning to the sect, and they had no one to confide in. They could only band together in private or seek Tian Dao Yi.

Besides being invincible among his peers, Tian Dao Yi's persona also includes his care and protection of the sect's disciples.

After all, he's the eldest brother; an elder brother is like a father!

Faced with this situation, his best option would have been to close the door to visitors and refuse to see outsiders, but that would have gone against his public image. So he had no choice but to open the door wide and comfort each visitor.

Qu Heng was immediately displeased. "I'm doing a good job as the sect leader, what do you mean by this? Are you in a hurry to take over?"

So Qu Heng pulled out all the stops and used his best skills.

Mingyuan's term as a garrison member has expired, and the sect is currently short-handed. Tian Dao Yi, why don't you go and check on Mingyuan?

As a result, Tian Dao Yi ran into trouble.

This matter was not arranged by Qu Heng, nor was it done by Yang Ning.

Yang Ning had the idea to take action, but before he could do so, he discovered that the leader of the Sun Sect was personally leading a team to ambush and kill Tian Dao Yi.

It's nothing more than Senior Brother Taiheng!

He not only possessed the Supreme Dao Arts of the Taiheng Sect, but this identity also held immense political significance.

If we could persuade him to join the Sun Sect, or even if he didn't need to agree and we simply trained him into a puppet to show his face, it would still deal a significant blow to the reputation of the Taiheng Sect.

Tian Dao Yi refused to be recruited and resisted the siege. He broke through to the Spiritual Law Realm on the spot, and killed more than a dozen people, including three Spiritual Law Realm!

Ultimately, he was outnumbered and outmatched, and with the more powerful Sun Sect leader on the fringes, Tian Dao Yi, not wanting his inheritance to be leaked or to be turned into a puppet, chose to self-destruct.

Unsurprisingly, the news of Tian Dao Yi's death topped the Deep Blue trending searches, ranking number one!

Instantly, the sky fell from the hearts of the three million Tai Heng Army!

While reminiscing about Tian Dao Yi, they naturally don't miss any news, videos, praises, or online arguments about him on the internet.

Besides the widespread mourning for Tian Dao Yi, conspiracy theories naturally also emerged online.

Some people suspected that Qu Heng sent Tian Dao Yi the Underworld to eliminate his rivals. Since they didn't know who the real culprit was, they suspected that Qu Heng either did it himself or sent someone else to do it.

There are two reasons.

First: This task is usually taken by cultivators at the fifth level of the Supernatural Power Realm. No matter how much the Taiheng Sect is short of people, it would never be Tian Dao Yi's turn.

Second: Qu Heng has done this before: assigning tasks to people whose cultivation level is not up to par. Last time, Yang Ning, a Qi Refining First Level cultivator, died on the way to the Underworld Abyss.

He has a criminal record!

That time and that moment, just like this moment, are so similar!

His thinking was clear and his logic was sound, to the point that even Qu Heng himself doubted whether he had killed Tian Dao Yi.

Qu Heng quickly stepped forward, stating that he absolutely did not assassinate Tian Dao Yi. He explained that he had sent Tian Dao Yi to the Tian Dao Yi because the disciples stationed there had indicated that the amount of Death Qi gushing from the Underworld was unusual and showing signs of increasing, requiring the dispatch of disciples with higher cultivation levels to investigate the cause.

He also posted the chat logs as evidence.

The Northern Myriad Saints Alliance and other sects surrounding the Netherworld also indicated that the amount of Death Qi spewed from the Netherworld was indeed increasing, but this was a normal phenomenon. The Netherworld spewing Death Qi was a cyclical event, and the Taiheng Sect, which had been passed down for 300,000 years, certainly had accurate records of it.

This is such a trivial matter that it's not worth Taiheng Sect sending their own senior disciple to investigate!

The implication is that you, Qu Heng, secretly harmed your own senior brother!

The true culprit, the Sun Sect, also emerged, stating that some disciples had seen someone dressed in the Taiheng Sect attire secretly following Tian Dao Yi with the intention of committing treason.

This is a frame-up. How brain-dead must a disciple of the Taiheng Sect be to commit violence while wearing their own sect's robes?

However, such opportunities to kick the number one sect in the world when it's down don't come around all the time, especially since it also allows them to shift the blame, so why not take advantage of it?

Before the problem of Tian Dao Yi could be resolved, another incident broke out within Taiheng.

A disciple of Taiheng who had gone out to fight returned to find that his wife had given birth to a son.

This is very strange, because he was away on a business trip fighting a war for six months, and his wife gave birth four and a half months after he returned.

If you do the math, this baby is only nine and a half months along!

His wife said the baby was premature.

Although he didn't know why cultivators could give birth to premature babies, he didn't think much of it since the bloodline test showed they were his biological children.

But after a few months, the child grew up and then the disciple realized that since both his wife and he had single eyelids, how come they had a child with double eyelids?

I've read popular science articles; single eyelids are clearly a recessive gene, so it's impossible for a child to have double eyelids!

Moreover, he, his wife, and their ancestors all had normal teeth, but this child was born with a pair of canine teeth!

Is this normal?

He sensed something was wrong and secretly took the child to another senior for testing, but it was still confirmed that the child was his biological son.

Until one accident, the Longevity Jade on the child's chest shattered, and when he had a follow-up test, he was shocked to find that the test results had changed from biological to non-biological!

This jade pendant can actually alter the results of bloodline identification!