Five Dragons Child's cave abode.
Xu Wusu and the other members of the Five Dragons Society were all present.
"Society Head, what should we do about the current situation?"
Fang Qing was among them as well, asking along with the other members.
"Why has the Great White Zhong Family suddenly attacked our Azure Sea Sect? Our sect should be slightly stronger than the Zhong Family... Could there have been some disturbance in the Heavenly Heart Chain Islands?"
"The Heavenly Heart Chain Islands are merely an alliance of Foundation Establishment islands. They only invited a Core Formation Rogue Cultivator to serve as their alliance leader, and they have always remained neutral..."
The crowd discussed the matter in a flurry, then turned their gazes toward Five Dragons Child.
Five Dragons Child looked like a young man. An ebony hairpin was tucked into his hair, and five dragon patterns were embroidered upon his cuffs. Hearing this, he merely smiled. "Our sect and the Zhong Family have never been on good terms. Previously, over the island containing that spirit stone mine, we destroyed the Wu Family of White Profound Island... The Wu Family was a branch related by marriage to the Zhong Family. It is hardly surprising that they now seek revenge."
"The Wu Family of White Profound Island?"
Fang Qing suddenly recalled the Wu Family cultivation method preserved in the Heavenly Books Pavilion—the White Water Formula. Though it was a water-element cultivation method, its spiritual power carried an innate chill. It most likely originated from the Zhong Family.
"In a sect war, even Foundation Establishment Great Cultivators may fall. We Qi Refinement cultivators are merely cannon fodder... Senior Brother, do you have any good plan?"
Xu Wusu spoke up to ask.
"The sect is now under unified management. War assignments will likely be issued very soon. For Qi Refinement disciples like us, there are only three places to go..."
Five Dragons Child spoke eloquently. "First, guarding the sect mountain, where one would be responsible for supplying resources such as pills, talismans, and magical artifacts. That is considered the safest place, but competition is fierce. Without a Foundation Establishment elder to vouch for you, I fear it will be difficult to obtain..."
"Second, guarding fisheries, medicine gardens, and the like throughout the various regions... If it is on Jade Island itself, that is fine. The more remote the location, the greater the danger. However, the Zhong Family's attackers probably will not be highly cultivated either, so there is still a chance of surviving."
"Third, being directly assigned to the sect army, drilling battle formations, and entering the main battlefield... Normally, with formations protecting us, even Foundation Establishment cultivators would find it difficult to break through. But if one side collapses, the casualties will certainly be the most severe."
"Where does Senior Brother Five Dragons Child plan to go?" Fang Qing asked.
"Me? Naturally, to the front lines to earn contributions!" Five Dragons Child said confidently. "Of the three wartime assignments, the front lines offer the most contributions."
"Senior Brother is truly bold and spirited."
Fang Qing immediately heaped praise upon him.
"Are you fellow junior brothers willing to go with me? So long as you are members of the society, I will do my utmost to arrange it..."
Five Dragons Child looked somewhat expectant. Xu Wusu was the first to respond. "I will follow Senior Brother."
Most disciples who could join the Five Dragons Society lacked much of a background. At this moment, nearly half immediately agreed.
Fang Qing waited a while longer. Seeing several disciples choose guarding assignments, he immediately followed the crowd.
"I would like a guarding assignment, preferably on Jade Island..."
Once he left the sect, regardless of whether the battlefield won or lost, the vast heavens and broad earth would be open to him. There would be nowhere he could not go.
If he truly encountered danger, he could simply hide in Ancient Shu.
It was instead within the sect that he found himself constrained at every turn.
Besides, even if he wanted an assignment within the sect, he certainly did not have the background for it.
Three days later.
Red-Scale Fishery.
A streak of azure light descended, revealing Fang Qing's figure.
A layer of murky gray mist dispersed above the fishery, revealing an immortal cultivator whose cultivation had already reached Late Qi Refinement.
More importantly, Fang Qing found this person's appearance somewhat familiar. "So it is Senior Brother Zeng Shu? Weren't you on duty at the Heavenly Books Pavilion?"
This person was none other than Zeng Shu, who had explained cultivation methods to him years ago.
"Sigh... Being on duty at the Heavenly Books Pavilion did not offer much profit to begin with; it was merely leisurely. But when this war came, a Foundation Establishment cultivator's son took over my position."
Zeng Shu shook his head, then looked somewhat surprised. "Junior Brother, you have advanced with such courage and diligence. You are already at the Sixth Layer of Qi Refinement?"
Fang Qing was accustomed to concealing his strength. Moreover, in a war among immortal cultivators like this, keeping a card up one's sleeve gave one a better chance of survival. He had naturally used the Dao-Born Pearl long ago to conceal his cultivation, setting it at roughly the level of someone who had just entered the Sixth Layer of Qi Refinement.
"Just luck..."
"Mm. According to sect rules, we must first verify your disciple token... As it happens, another junior brother has also been assigned here to stand guard today."
After verifying Fang Qing's disciple token, Zeng Shu led him on an inspection of the fishery. "This Red-Scale Fishery has a First-Order spirit vein. The spiritual energy at its core can even barely reach Second-Order standards. Back then, the sect dispersed it, drew in water veins, and created this lake precisely to raise Red-Scale Treasure Fish... These Red-Scale Treasure Fish can only be considered Half-Demons. But should they become Red-Scale Spirit Fish, their value would soar a hundredfold. Consuming them not only benefits cultivation, but also greatly replenishes one's vitality and blood... Their scales are also the primary material for refining several magical artifacts."
"This is the fish-farming area. We cultivators may choose any location to build a cave abode... I suggest choosing somewhere closer to the core, so you can benefit from that Quasi-Second-Order spiritual energy."
Zeng Shu brought Fang Qing to a cave abode. "This is the cave abode chosen by that newly arrived junior brother... Junior Brother Li?"
When Fang Qing saw someone emerge from the cave abode, he was immediately startled. "Li Yusu?"
Li Yusu had lost an arm. His complexion was still pale, clearly showing that his severe injuries had not healed. How had he been sent out here as well?
"Senior Brother Fang..."
Li Yusu reluctantly bowed, his face ashen as death, as if his heart had already turned to rotten wood.
"Could it be... that he was implicated and banished?"
Fang Qing's heart stirred, but he would certainly not rip open someone's wound and slap him in the face before everyone.
"So you two know each other. That is even better... The formation used at this fishery mainly serves as a warning. If we truly encounter a powerful enemy, it is actually of little use. We must primarily rely on our daily patrols. Let us first assign the time periods..."
Zeng Shu could tell that Li Yusu had a story, but he could not be bothered to hear it.
Being assigned to the Red-Scale Fishery was already the result of all his painstaking planning. After all, the fishery was on Jade Island. If genuine danger arose, he could still flee back to the sect, so it could barely be considered safe.
Fang Qing naturally had no objections. However, he deliberately chose a cave abode far from the other cultivators, in a relatively quiet place.
When night fell, fishing lamps flickered and drifted unsteadily across the great lake.
He nodded and entered his cave abode, pasting up several talismans.
With a flash of light, clear and turbid qi formed a doorway, and Fang Qing's figure had already vanished...
Land of Ancient Shu.
Fang Qing touched the jade bottle containing "Great Sun Violet Qi" in his robes, took a deep breath, and first performed his habitual divination.
Rumble!
The moment he entered the state, his expression suddenly changed.
Within his Spiritual Sense, the Heavenly Secrets of Ancient Shu were no longer a tangled mess—they were a cesspit! A cesspit!
"Urgh!"
His head felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer, and two streams of blood flowed from his nose. "This is... a backlash from the Heavenly Secrets?"
Only now did Fang Qing finally understand why Ancient Shu possessed divination arts, yet they were as tasteless as chicken ribs!
"The Heavenly Secrets... are too damn chaotic! I did not feel it before in the Azure Sea Sect, but compared to this place... I feel that even if one possessed Spiritual Sense in the Land of Ancient Shu, one might not be able to even begin the Plum Blossom Divination..."
If the Heavenly Secrets of the Azure Sea Sect were like the clear skies before a war in his previous life, without the slightest pollution from radio waves—
Then Ancient Shu was like the modern age of his previous life, with every kind of electromagnetic pollution spreading everywhere.
"Here, I cannot even calculate my own fortune and misfortune... The Heavenly Secrets are a muddled chaos."
"A cesspit! A cesspit! With Heavenly Secrets this chaotic, I fear only after forging a Dao Foundation—and one specialized in divination at that—could one possess a little ability to calculate. Even then, the result would be as it had been when I was in Qi Refinement, only broad indications of fortune and misfortune... Anything slightly more advanced could not be divined, and it would be easy for others to tamper with and deceive the results..."
Fang Qing shook his head with a bitter smile, knowing that the Plum Blossom Divination he had painstakingly mastered had been crippled by more than half in this place.
"The only hope... is that the cheat will come through and perhaps grant some enhancement?"
"But as I am now, I simply do not know what to do..."
The Dao-Born Pearl's "As If in the Calculation" was a passive ability. Fang Qing had no idea how to actively use it to improve his own divination abilities.
"Forget it. At least there is still some hope."
"It is just that relying on divination to safely use or trade away this batch of Spirit Assets is no longer possible."
Fang Qing shook his head. In the end, it all came down to one sentence.
Everyone in Ancient Shu was too ruthlessly competitive. As a result, only Purple Mansion cultivators could barely calculate Causality.
Meanwhile, the Azure Sea Sect was a vast blue ocean. Even a minor cultivator like him, who had only just begun, could calculate quite a bit of fortune and misfortune.
"Mm... I previously calculated my fortunes. At the Red-Scale Fishery, I have minor good fortune... It seems that I will not encounter any attacks during my guard duty."
"But the Heavenly Secrets here are chaotic. Even if I can calculate fortune and misfortune, I must still be careful—or rather... I must be even more careful."
Fang Qing let out a long breath and silently considered his plans.
"Great Sun Cultivation Methods are difficult to find. Must I sell this batch of 'Great Sun Violet Qi'?"
"That is actually nothing. It is a renewable resource anyway. It would be the perfect stone thrown to ask for directions, letting me see the reaction of this immortal cultivation world when the Great Sun Cultivation Method reappears..."
"In that case, I need to find the right force."
Almost instantly, Fang Qing thought of a suitable guinea pig—the Heavenly Water Luo Family!
After all, they had a grudge against him!
Good things would never be their turn, but bad things would certainly have a share for them!
"Jade Heaven Market... Nine Rivers Water Pavilion... Perhaps they are forces under the Luo Family?"
"Once the Luo Family obtains the Great Sun Violet Qi, even if outsiders do not know, I will certainly leak the news."
"Mm, this matter is extremely dangerous. Even the identity of Fang Shui cannot touch it... It would be best to use the Dao-Born Pearl to disguise myself as another person."
With this thought, Fang Qing entered a mortal city.
Compared to Ba Commandery several years ago, where war and plague had spread everywhere, this mortal city finally had some signs of human life.
He found an inn. Just as he was preparing to satisfy his appetite, he saw a rider on a swift horse delivering news at the city gates. The whole city erupted in cheers. "General Li has captured another city and now occupies more than half of Ba Commandery!"
"Sigh, General Li is truly a living bodhisattva who saves the suffering and delivers the distressed..."
"Ever since General Li arrived, we have had good days."
The citizens throughout the city were discussing it animatedly.
Fang Qing's hand holding the wine cup paused. "This Li Rulong's fortune truly surged beyond all restraint. Even merely occupying mortal territory is no easy feat... In terms of cultivation, he is probably already at Late Qi Ingestion, or perhaps even at perfection?"
Before you continue