The Mother of All Things Cult's missionaries had arrived in the Wu Dynasty thousands of years ago and left behind the traditions of the Four Lineages. Today, the Lamp-Burning Lineage was the strongest of them.
Its lineage master, Zhu Benzi, had condensed nine divine abilities. Even ten thousand years ago, he would have qualified as a Grand Divine Ability Practitioner.
In the present age, anyone who cultivated seven divine abilities was called a Grand Divine Ability Practitioner. The deterioration of the cultivation environment had merely inflated their worth.
Zhu Benzi raised his eyebrows as he looked at the approaching group.
There were four of them. Aside from the dog-headed man and the tiger-headed man, the other two were a man and a woman.
The man was powerfully built, with a thick beard beneath his chin like steel needles. He strode like a dragon or tiger, his imposing presence striking fear into others.
The woman had an ordinary face and wore plain clothes. She held prayer beads and had a shaven head: a Buddhist nun.
Most importantly, all four possessed powerful auras. They were all Divine Ability Practitioners.
"Brother Chi Liao, Brother Jin Lie, you have spared no effort in coming such a long way. My greetings to you."
Zhu Benzi smiled and offered a Daoist salute to the dog-headed Chi Liao and the tiger-headed Jin Lie.
The Wu Dynasty bordered the Western Barbarians, and disputes broke out from time to time. As the border region between the two countries, Jade Gate Circuit bore the brunt of these conflicts. Just over a decade ago, an invasion by the Western Barbarians had inflicted devastating casualties.
The Wu Dynasty had come off worse in that war and nearly lost Jade Gate Circuit altogether. In the end, Imperial Preceptor Venerable Pudu had intervened, single-handedly