Hunting Alliance

When Dong Lin had studied the world's power structure in the sect's Scripture Repository, he had seen a detailed introduction to the Hunting Alliance.

The Hunting Alliance's predecessor had actually been the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.

It had been founded by eight powerful Rogue Cultivators at the Golden Core peak.

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 accepted only Rogue Cultivators and used a registration system.

It earned commissions by accepting employment and issuing missions, sustaining the alliance's operations that way.

Later, it grew larger and larger, and the registered members became a motley crowd of dragons and fish.

Many disciples from aristocratic families and sects would also disguise their identities and register with the Rogue Alliance when they went out to gain experience.

Eventually, even some members of the imperial government had 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 luckily broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

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

Since the Hunting Alliance refused registration to 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 families, and the empire.

But its vast numbers of cultivators provided it with an endless wellspring of vitality.

There had once been a top-tier assassin organization named Hidden Killers.

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

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

To a certain extent, the Hunting Alliance's wanted orders had an even more terrifying power to rally people than the empire's.

The enormous bounty rewards mobilized disciples from major sects and aristocratic families who were training abroad.

The huge population of Rogue Cultivators also played an immensely important role in gathering intelligence.

The Hidden Killers organization, which had lurked beneath deep waters,

had been almost entirely uprooted within just half a year.

Other than several Golden Core grand cultivators at Hidden Killers' highest level, who had vanished without a trace,

the remaining assassins had nearly all been swept up in one net.

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 half-reclusive Immortal Sects like the Heaven Sect had Hunting Alliance branches.

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

Gu Chen and the others first formed a small team, made up almost entirely of the sect's direct disciples.

Dong Lin thought he would first tag along behind these big shots. After all, he had never taken part in a real battle since he began cultivating.

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

When fighting enemies across realms, what often mattered was experience and thinking in spell battles.

After becoming familiar with most spell-battle routines, unexpected fighting methods could often achieve victory by surprise and allow one to battle across realms.

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

Dong Lin's own defenses were not strong, and if he did not add some agility, he would be a turret mage with no ability to protect himself.

He would be far too easily targeted in battle.

"Be prepared in times of peace for danger!"

Since his soul had crossed into this world, Dong Lin had lived an exceptionally comfortable life.

The poor pursued literature while the rich pursued martial arts, and Dong Lin had never lacked cultivation resources on his path.

Or rather, his demands for cultivation resources were not high for the time being. He rarely needed expensive cultivation materials when cultivating.

On this cultivation path said to be rugged and dark, Dong Lin had sailed smoothly along with favorable winds.

As long as he cultivated step by step, his cultivation and strength would surge forward as though riding a rocket.

"I've been far too comfortable! I still need to make preparations for the future.

I must seize these five years and grow quickly under the sect's protection."

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

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

The team's organizer, Gu Chen, temporarily served as captain, and the team was named Star Eternity.

The team consisted of 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.

Apart from the six elders of the Elder Hall, who could accept direct disciples, the heads of each division in the Heaven Sect could also accept direct disciples.

Their status within the sect was almost the same. The only difference was that the direct disciples of each division did not live on Black Mountain, instead cultivating at their divisions' own cultivation grounds.

They might not compare to Black Mountain, but they had also been painstakingly built by Nascent Soul Cultivators and were not noticeably inferior.

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

They possessed many exclusive resources that even the sect master's lineage and the Elder Hall elders coveted.

Among the five-person team, 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 other three were all at the Qi Refining Peak,

geniuses tempering themselves and preparing to forge their Dao Foundations.

For them, reaching Foundation Establishment before eighteen posed virtually no difficulty.

What these geniuses pursued was not ordinary Foundation Establishment. Before true geniuses, the Foundation Establishment bottleneck was as good as nonexistent.

The vast majority of talented cultivators would remain at the Qi Refining Peak for a long time, using heavenly treasures to nurture their Dantians and temper themselves.

All to seek a higher-grade Dao Foundation.

Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment—it meant laying the initial foundation of the path of cultivation.

A Dao Foundation was the basis for a cultivator's future path. Compared to inborn sacred physiques and talent, the only way many ordinary people could overtake others on the inside lane against the wind was to forge a top-tier Dao Foundation and make up for their innate gap with geniuses.

Yet this was almost impossible. With their uniquely blessed innate talents, geniuses could often stay one step ahead of others, better than others by one step.

One step faster meant every step faster.

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

Breaking through to Foundation Establishment was, in truth, refining the dantian and forging a Dao Foundation.

Transforming the dantian into a Dao Foundation.

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

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

From then on, the power of spells would leap forward, becoming even more condensed.

Compared with the Innate Realm dantian, a Postnatal Realm Dao Foundation could draw upon 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 the dantian, nor would it leave future troubles behind.

An ordinary Dao Foundation was formed through a Foundation Establishment technique, by continually condensing the dantian and sublimating oneself until one seized that sliver of opportunity for a breakthrough.

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

This would forge an Attribute Dao Foundation. Attribute Dao Foundations were also known as Innate Dao Foundations. Once formed, the Dao Foundation could naturally connect with heaven and earth.

From then on, the cultivation road would be smooth and unobstructed.

The degree to which the True Intent was condensed, and whether its attribute suited one's elemental affinity, both determined just how much benefit the Dao Foundation would bring its cultivator.

Thus, the strength of an Innate Dao Foundation was difficult to classify. But anyone capable of forging one was without exception a heaven-favored genius and a person of great fortune.

Innate Spirit Treasures were exceedingly rare. Apart from being extensively collected by great powers, only those blessed with fortuitous opportunities could obtain them amidst heaven and earth.

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

As for someone like Dong Lin, who had successfully comprehended True Intent while still in the Qi Refining Stage, it was simply appalling to hear of. Over the past thousand years, no such shocking event had ever appeared openly.

Above the Innate True Intent Dao Foundation, legend spoke of an Innate Law Dao Foundation, but it remained only a legend.

Laws were the ultimate principles 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 the edge of laws.