Xiao Ying gave a few dry chuckles and flattered him. "You jest, Patriarch! With your cultivation and strength, how many Great Adepts could possibly do anything to you?"
"Plenty. You simply don't know about them! Never mind those far away. That girl Nianlan-the Blue Sky Empress-the Mysterious Heaven Great Emperor, the Fate Immortal Emperor, the Blood Sea Patriarch, and others all have plenty of ways to deal with me if they truly wish to. My true body cannot move or evade attacks, so I can only endure them head-on. And that madman, the Disaster Demon Emperor, hardly bears mentioning. Even without my true body holding me back, I would be no match for him!"
The Dragon Mulberry Patriarch showed no arrogance; instead, he offered this reminder with considerable self-awareness. Then he continued, "So don't rely too heavily on me when you found your nation. I really cannot help much. You must chiefly depend on your own forces and plans. Of course, with Nianlan and me here, Great Adepts at my level or above will not act against you. You can rest assured of that! In truth, the cultivation world places even greater importance on distinctions of rank. The strong bullying the weak is the greatest taboo, because every Great Adept has descendants and disciples. Thus, they tacitly agree not to act recklessly. But you cultivate the Imperial Dao and the shaman's Dao, relying chiefly on the strength of your forces rather than your own cultivation and strength. That makes these distinctions less pronounced in your case, and the boundaries between ranks rather blurred!"
"Isn't that unfair?" Xiao Ying muttered, curling his lip.
"Unfair? With your actual strength, never mind an Immortal Emperor-an Immortal King could kill you with a flip of the hand. Yet in reality, never mind an Immortal