Riot

The Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm opened, and before the Earth Temple, the families began entering the secret realm in order.

Black Thorn Lin, Medicine Dust Zhang, Diamond Sand Shi, Cloud Water Lu, Ling Ye Talisman Ye, then the Wang Family of Little Wang Village, and last came the few members of the Liang Family led by Liang Zhaohuang.

Passing through the spirit-light-shimmering doorway of the Earth Temple, all Liang Zhaohuang saw before his eyes was dazzling radiance, flashing and dying without the slightest pattern. Even his Spiritual Sense could not extend outward.

In the next instant, Heaven and Earth shifted. What Liang Zhaohuang saw had changed from the county city and the Earth Temple into a high platform. All around were mountains, rivers, and wild land, while behind him stood a palace almost identical to the Earth Temple.

The palace's doors were wide open at this moment, but it was likewise a gate of gathered spirit light, its interior impossible to see clearly. Liang Zhaohuang and the others had emerged through this light gate and entered this secret realm.

At this moment, on the high platform, aside from the few Liang Family members led by Liang Zhaohuang, there were only the Wang Family people led by Wang Chengen. As for the people of the other five county magnate families, not a trace of them could be seen.

"Haha... Fellow Daoist Liang, no need to look." Wang Chengen seemed to know what he was thinking and said with a smile, "Those five families are old familiar guests in this secret realm. They established family strongholds here long ago. The moment they entered the secret realm, they each set off for their own strongholds."

"Only our two families are newcomers. We still haven't gained those five families' recognition. It won't be easy to blend in with them."

Liang Zhaohuang had noticed this as well. Earlier, when they had gathered before the Earth Temple, before Little Central Upright Guo Zhenren arrived, the county magnate families had all exchanged words with one another, yet only the Liang Family and the Wang Family had been excluded by the five county magnate families. Not a single family had interacted with them.

Clearly, their two families had not yet gained the recognition of those five county magnates.

"Fellow Daoist Wang, do you Wang Family have any plans for this secret realm operation?"

Liang Zhaohuang looked at him and could not help asking.

"Heh, it hardly counts as a plan. We're merely doing our best to complete the mission for promotion to Ninth-Rank County Magnate." As Wang Chengen spoke, he did not wait for Liang Zhaohuang to reply before continuing, "The secret realm will close in one month. Time is tight, so I won't delay Fellow Daoist Liang any further. I'll be taking my leave first."

With that, he had already led the ten Wang Family members away first.

"Uh, safe travels." Liang Zhaohuang was slightly stunned and could only call out from behind. At the same time, he was faintly surprised inwardly. In such a hurry—could they really have some action plan?

Watching Wang Chengen lead his people down from the high platform and into the distance, Liang Zhaohuang came back to himself and turned to look at the Liang Family disciples behind him.

This time, ten Liang Family disciples had followed him into the secret realm, all of them late-stage Qi Refining cultivators. Among them, five were of the same Zhao generation as him: his second elder sister Liang Zhaoyu, fourth elder brother Liang Zhaokun, eighth elder brother Liang Zhaosong, ninth elder brother Liang Zhaobai, and eleventh elder sister Liang Zhaoyuan.

Before this, the five of them had either been traveling outside or had followed the Crimson Cauldron Wang Family in fighting at the border, seeking opportunities for a Foundation Establishment inheritance for the family.

Over these three years, they had slowly been recalled and had switched to cultivating the Five Qi Lotus Scripture.

It could be said that they were the true elites of the family. They were basically all at the ninth level of Qi Refining and had abundant combat experience.

As long as the family restored the Five-Colored Lotus Flower in the Lotus Pond, these people would be able to visualize and cultivate, nurture enough spirit, and basically all have great hope of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment.

They could be called the Liang Family's Foundation Establishment seeds.

This trip to the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, this clan evaluation, concerned the Liang Family's promotion to a ninth-rank clan and its entry into the system of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty. It was of the utmost importance!

That was why the clan had sent all five of them here to follow Liang Zhaohuang into the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, ensuring that the family could complete the clan evaluation for Ninth-Rank County Magnate and smoothly join the ruling class of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

Beside them were five members of the Rui generation: the eldest Liang Ruizhao, fifth Liang Ruiqin, ninth Liang Ruixin, sixteenth Liang Ruijie, and twenty-first Liang Ruijian.

These five were also among the Rui generation's best in talent, opportunity, perseverance, self-control, diligence, and all other conditions. They were fourth-generation disciples the family was focusing on cultivating.

Letting them enter the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm this time was both cultivation and inheritance.

"Seventeenth Brother, how do we act next?"

His second elder sister Liang Zhaoyu looked at Liang Zhaohuang and asked directly.

"According to the original plan. First, we search for the Sun Family's stronghold in this Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm," Liang Zhaohuang said in a deep voice.

Over the past month, Liang Zhaohuang had opened all the Storage Bags seized from the Sun Family and sorted through the gains inside. In the end, he had finally found the Sun Family's records concerning the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm.

From them, Liang Zhaohuang had learned quite a bit of information and secrets regarding the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm.

For example, according to the Sun Family's records, the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm had been formed by the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty using the power of the Human Way to suppress and cleanse the violent spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.

But this suppression was not without backlash. It was said that every two sixty-year cycles, roughly every one hundred and twenty years, the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm would experience a major earth movement. At that time, the Spirit Demons would become extremely violent and full of attacking power.

Whenever that happened, the county magnate families in the county city had to enter the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm and forcefully suppress it, slaying these riotous Spirit Demons.

Otherwise, once the Spirit Demons rioted and dealt too great an impact to the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, or even damaged the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, it would affect the suppression and cleansing of Heaven and Earth's spiritual energy in that county's territory, and in turn affect the power of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty's Human Way in suppressing the world.

It was like cracks in a dam, like ant holes. Though thin, though small, with long accumulation and with the little piling into much, they would eventually erupt completely and destroy the entire dam.

The Great Jin Immortal Dynasty was the same. Across the nineteen provinces under heaven, the one hundred and seventy-one commanderies, and the one thousand one hundred and nine counties, every county, every commandery, every province had a Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm suppressing it. If one place had a problem, that was one breach, affecting one region. When these breaches continued increasing, they would ultimately destroy the entire Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

It could be said that the clans and great families did not merely enjoy the many benefits and resources of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty. They also bore important responsibilities: maintaining the stability of the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, maintaining local stability, maintaining the Human Way, and maintaining the stability of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

Every time the Spirit Demons in the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm rioted and the clan families entered to suppress them, it was a life-and-death battle. Deaths and injuries were inevitable. There were even clan families that suffered too heavily in the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm and thus declined, then vanished.

And in ordinary times, the clan evaluations conducted almost every ten years already carried a heavy flavor of "cutting the grass."

Through each clan evaluation operation, the county magnate families would cut away more than half the number of Spirit Demons in the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, ensuring that when the "earth movement" came, the number of rioting Spirit Demons would be as small as possible, allowing them to be suppressed smoothly.

When Liang Zhaohuang saw these information records, two questions almost immediately sprang to mind.

One was that Ludong County seemed to suffer some turmoil almost every hundred-plus years, such as the previously known Demon Uprising, devil chaos, Commoner Rebellion, and so on. Each time, some Humble Gate families would be wiped out because of it.

Counting the time, it almost matched the once-every-two-sixty-year-cycles earth movement and riot in the Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm!

Was this truly an accident? Or was there some connection within?

And also, when would the next secret realm earth movement and Spirit Demon riot be?