Hunting Alliance

The Hunting Alliance—Dong Lin had seen a detailed introduction to it when he was studying the world's power structure in the sect's Scripture Repository.

The Hunting Alliance's predecessor was, in fact, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.

It had been founded by eight peak Golden Core experts among the rogue cultivators.

At first, it had merely been a mutual aid alliance for rogue cultivators, with its headquarters established in Great Stone State east of the Imperial Capital.

Initially, it only accepted rogue cultivators and used a registration system.

It earned commissions by accepting employment and posting missions, thereby maintaining the alliance's operations.

Later, it grew increasingly large, and those who registered came from all walks of life.

Many disciples from Aristocratic Clans and sects would also assume false identities and register with the Rogue Alliance while traveling outside for training.

Eventually, even some members of the imperial government concealed their identities and joined.

No longer worthy of the name Rogue Alliance, it was reorganized internally under the leadership of a rogue cultivator who had fortunately broken through to the Nascent Soul realm.

It was renamed the Hunting Alliance and opened registration to all human cultivators in the cultivation world.

Because the Hunting Alliance refused to register Demon Race cultivators, many people privately called it the Human Alliance.

As time passed, the Hunting Alliance continued to grow and flourish, its branches spreading throughout the empire.

Its top-level strength might not have been able to contend with the great immortal sects, Aristocratic Clans, and the empire.

But its vast number of cultivators provided it with an endless supply of vitality.

There had once been a top assassin organization known as Hidden Killers.

Under someone's orders, it had repeatedly carried out assassination attempts against the Hunting Alliance's upper ranks.

This directly enraged the Hunting Alliance, which issued its highest-level wanted order.

To some extent, the Hunting Alliance's wanted orders were even more terrifyingly influential than the empire's.

The enormous bounty rewards mobilized disciples from major sects and Aristocratic Clans who were training outside.

The immense rogue cultivator community also played an exceptionally important role in gathering intelligence.

The Hidden Killers organization, which had concealed itself beneath deep waters, was, in less than half a year,

Almost completely uprooted.

Other than several Golden Core grand cultivators among Hidden Killers' upper echelon, who had vanished without a trace,

Nearly all the remaining assassins were captured in one sweep.

From then on, the Hunting Alliance's prestige soared to unprecedented heights.

Forces across the land began to take this unignorable power of the Hunting Alliance seriously.

Even a semi-reclusive immortal sect like the Heaven Sect had a Hunting Alliance branch.

Yet after the mountain was sealed, that Hunting Alliance branch had not suspended its operations.

Gu Chen and the others first formed a squad, composed almost entirely of direct disciples from within the sect.

Dong Lin planned to tag along behind these big shots for now. After all, he had never participated in actual combat since beginning cultivation.

Cultivation was not merely about increasing one's cultivation level; prowess in magical combat was equally important.

When fighting enemies above one's realm, what often mattered was one's experience and mindset in magical combat.

After becoming familiar with most magical combat techniques, unexpected fighting styles could often achieve surprising victories and allow one to battle above one's realm.

"My movement techniques are still somewhat lacking. I should visit the Scripture Repository sometime and see whether I can exchange for a movement technique manual."

Dong Lin's defenses were not particularly strong to begin with. If he did not add some agility, he would be a stationary mage without any means of self-preservation.

That would make him far too easy to target in battle.

"One must be prepared for danger in times of peace!"

Ever since his soul had transmigrated into this world, Dong Lin had lived an exceedingly comfortable life.

The poor pursued scholarship, the wealthy pursued martial arts. Along his path of cultivation, Dong Lin had never lacked cultivation resources.

Or rather, his requirements for cultivation resources were not high for the time being, and he rarely needed expensive cultivation materials while cultivating.

On this supposedly arduous and dark path of cultivation, Dong Lin's journey had been smooth sailing.

As long as he cultivated step by step, his cultivation and strength would soar at rocket-like speed.

"This is too comfortable! I still need to make some preparations for the future.

I must make good use of these five years and grow quickly under the sect's protection."

In just half a day, Dong Lin received a message from Gu Chen.

Through the jade token, Gu Chen sent Dong Lin a string of code and told him to use it to collect an identity token from the Hunting Alliance's outer sect branch when he had time.

The squad's organizer, Gu Chen, would temporarily serve as captain, and the squad was named Star Eternity.

The squad had five members.

They were Gu Chen of the Dragon Splendor Sword Pavilion, Tao Yan of Blossoming Garden, Dong Lin of the Thunder Division,

Baili Tianming, the direct disciple of the Law Enforcement Hall's hall master, and Zhao Shuheng, the direct disciple of the Merit Affairs Hall's hall master.

Aside from the six elders of the Elders Hall, who could take direct disciples, the leaders of each department in the Heaven Sect could also accept direct disciples.

Their status within the sect was nearly identical, except that the direct disciples of the various departments did not live on Black Mountain and instead cultivated in their departments' respective cultivation grounds.

They might not compare to Black Mountain, but they had also been painstakingly built by Nascent Soul Cultivators, so there was no obvious gap.

Whether it was the sect's Law Enforcement Hall, Merit Affairs Hall, Scripture Repository, or Cavern Repository, each possessed its own deep foundation.

They had many exclusive resources that even the sect master's lineage and the Elders Hall coveted.

Among the five-person squad, only Dong Lin was a fifteen-year-old youth.

Of the other four, two were sixteen and two were seventeen. Aside from Tao Yan, who had recultivated, the remaining three were all at the Qi Refining Peak.

They were prodigies tempering themselves in preparation to forge their Dao Foundations.

For them, achieving Foundation Establishment before eighteen was almost effortless.

What these prodigies pursued was not ordinary Foundation Establishment. Before such true geniuses, the bottleneck of Foundation Establishment was practically nonexistent.

The vast majority of talented cultivators would remain at the Qi Refining Peak for a long time, nurturing their dantians with heavenly treasures and tempering themselves.

All in pursuit of a high-level Dao Foundation.

Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment—the construction of the initial foundation for the path of cultivation.

The Dao Foundation was the basis for a cultivator's future cultivation. Compared with innate Sacred Physiques and talent, forging a top-tier Dao Foundation was the only way many ordinary people could overtake prodigies despite their disadvantages and make up for their innate gap.

Yet this was almost impossible. With their uniquely blessed innate talents, geniuses could often stay one step ahead and remain superior by another step.

One step faster meant every step faster.

The stronger one's innate talent, the easier it was to construct a top-tier Dao Foundation during Foundation Establishment.

Breaking through to Foundation Establishment was, in essence, refining the dantian and constructing a Dao Foundation.

Transforming the dantian into a Dao Foundation.

From then on, the dantian was no longer a cultivator's weakness.

Once a Dao Foundation was forged, it could replace the dantian and transform spiritual energy into spiritual liquid of a higher concentration.

From then on, the power of one's spells would undergo a leap, becoming even more condensed.

Compared with an innate dantian, an acquired Dao Foundation could mobilize spiritual energy more swiftly, and the speed at which spiritual energy circulated would also increase.

Even if it suffered minor damage, it would not be as difficult to heal as a dantian, nor would it leave behind lingering troubles.

An ordinary Dao Foundation was formed through a Foundation Establishment method, continuously condensing the dantian and elevating oneself until one seized that fleeting opportunity to break through.

A special Dao Foundation, however, had to be nurtured by an Innate Spirit Treasure, allowing the dantian to acquire Attribute True Intent.

This allowed one to forge an Attribute Dao Foundation. Attribute Dao Foundations were also called Innate Dao Foundations. Once formed, the Dao Foundation could naturally connect with heaven and earth.

From then on, the path of cultivation would be smooth and open.

The degree to which the True Intent was condensed, as well as whether its attribute suited one's elemental affinity, determined just how great the benefits of the Dao Foundation would be for its cultivator.

Therefore, the strength of an Innate Dao Foundation was difficult to classify. Yet those able to forge one were without exception heaven-blessed geniuses and people of great fortune.

Innate Spirit Treasures were exceedingly rare. Aside from being extensively collected by major powers, only those blessed with fortuitous opportunities could obtain them from the natural world.

However, merely possessing an Innate Spirit Treasure could not guarantee the formation of an Innate Dao Foundation, for the cultivator also needed sufficient talent to refine the True Intent within it and successfully nurture a dantian that possessed True Intent.

As for someone like Dong Lin, who had successfully comprehended True Intent while still in the Qi Refining Stage, it was simply shocking. Throughout the ages, no such astonishing occurrence had ever appeared openly.

Above an Innate True Intent Dao Foundation, there was supposedly an Innate Law Dao Foundation, but it existed only in legend.

Laws were profound truths of the Great Dao that only top Nascent Soul Cultivators could grasp a trace of. There was no possibility of them appearing in a Qi Refining Stage cultivator. Even the most supreme Innate Sacred Physiques and Divine Physiques in this world had never touched upon laws in the slightest.