Daoist Wan examined it for a few moments. Zhang Yu's talisman scroll contained more than twenty demands in all. Though there were many conditions, most were minor matters. The four most important could be counted as follows.
First, Zhang Yu demanded a vast quantity of cultivation resources, various array implements, and all kinds of secret medicines and pills. He also required Origin Xia to grant multiple authorizations for calamity-evading rituals.
There was ample reason for this. If they wanted to divide Celestial Xia from within, then he naturally had to persuade the others. Fellow cultivators with close ties to him could be directly won over, but for those whose relations with him were somewhat more distant, he could hardly ask them to come over with mere empty words. He had to show sufficient strength and sincerity.
Those resources and authorizations would then serve their purpose. Without them, even if he could persuade others, it would take ages, and there was no telling when they might change their minds.
Daoist Wan considered it. Cultivation resources and array implements were surely not terribly important to the Origin Upper Hall. If they could dismantle Celestial Xia directly with such things, without the need for conquest, then the various Ministers of Deliberation in the Upper Hall would certainly be willing. The key was that it would also completely shut the Lower Hall out. As for the calamity-evading talisman authorizations, the same logic applied. If they could spare themselves trouble, it did not matter if they gave away a few more.
Zhang Yu's second condition, however, appeared to be a plan for his own benefit. He insisted that he did not need a calamity-evading ritual. Instead, he demanded that an upper-realm cultivator directly bestow a calamity-evading incantation upon him, allowing him to escape the great