Favor-Granting Decree

The Pagoda Ancient Clan had indeed been dealt a devastating blow this time, but in Futu Yun's view, it was not necessarily a bad thing.

The clan had long been in decline, as the Xuan Branch and Mo Branch monopolized resources and allowed talented clansmen to drain away.

Futu Yun had originally supported the Qing Lineage in order to restrain those two branches,

but now the Qing Lineage was gradually showing signs of becoming the sole dominant force as well.

Although Futu Xuan could suppress Qing Yanjing, he could only restrain her from wiping them out completely or going too far;

as long as Grand Elder Futu Xuan did not personally intervene, Qing Yanjing could crush everyone in the Pagoda Ancient Clan with ease.

Now that the Xuan Branch and Mo Branch had suffered severe losses and Qing Yanjing had also been suppressed,

the Qing Lineage would next have to face the counterattack of the Xuan and Mo Branches.

A centipede did not stop wriggling even after death, much less these two branches, which had originally held the advantage in strength and were now the victims as well.

Their counterattack naturally held the advantages of both strength and righteousness.

And it was not just Qing Yanjing; the entire Qing Lineage had been charged with grave crimes.

To prevent Qing Yanjing from creating any further complications,

the moment Futu Yun received the news, he activated the restrictions in advance and caused Qing Yanjing, who was suppressed beneath the Ancestral Pagoda, to fall unconscious.

After all, this woman was no simple character in the original story.

Even while being suppressed by the Ancestral Pagoda, she had persuaded the remnant souls of the ancestors within it and ultimately gained control over the Ancestral Pagoda.

By then, she would no longer be controllable.

Afterward, Futu Yun handed the subsequent handling over to Futu Xuan.

After allowing the Xuan Branch and Mo Branch to suppress the Qing Lineage and demoting one of the three main branches into a criminal branch,

the Pagoda Ancient Clan officially began sweeping reforms: from then on, there would no longer be main branches or collateral branches, while the old branches would be divided apart once more.

Every Heavenly Sovereign would constitute a branch. Even if two Heavenly Sovereigns were father and son, they had to be separated.

The young clan chief, Futu Yun, stated bluntly, "The closeness of one's bloodline is not important."

"Even direct descendants of the ancestors will lose their status if no new Heavenly Sovereign rises among their descendants."

"Those bearing the clan surname and those without it are all members of the Pagoda Ancient Clan. There is no distinction of high or low, only merit."

In truth, Futu Xuan did not particularly value bloodlines either; he merely insisted on tradition.

Mu Feng did not possess the bloodline of the Pagoda Ancient Clan, but Maha Tian, whom Qing Yanjing had originally been meant to marry, was not of Pagoda Ancient Clan blood either!

Put plainly, he merely looked down on Mu Feng's cultivation.

Thus, he did not oppose Futu Yun's plan.

The Pagoda Ancient Clan's cultivation system had always been tied to bloodlines, favoring direct descendants even more,

but for that very reason, if they were surpassed by outsiders in the future, they would have no one else to blame.

The branch leaders of both the Xuan Branch and Mo Branch had already died in this incident. When they joined forces against the Qing Lineage, they could still unite as one,

but after the Qing Lineage was designated a criminal branch, the two branches fell into internal strife again. It was better to simply split them apart.

This was the otherworldly version of the "Favor-Granting Decree"!

It would also allow those Heavenly Sovereigns without the clan surname to integrate into the Pagoda Ancient Clan more quickly.

Combined with the effects of centralization,

although nearly ten Heavenly Sovereigns, including the two branch leaders, had been lost, the Pagoda Ancient Clan's overall strength rose rather than fell.

At this moment, he stood atop a massive stone platform within a lake of magma,

and before his eyes stretched an incomparably vast crimson magma lake.

Lights continuously flickered atop the stone platform as figures appeared one after another.

Looking toward the far end of the magma lake, that should have been the entrance leading deeper into the treasury.

Crimson lotuses floated across the magma lake,

flames burned within the lotuses, and inside those flames, thumb-sized crimson lotus seeds seemed to be quietly burning.

"Flame Spirit Lotuses?" A burst of shocked cries suddenly erupted around them, and intense greed immediately filled countless eyes.

Flame Spirit Lotuses were rather rare heavenly treasures.

Their lotus seeds were condensed from extremely pure fire spiritual energy between heaven and earth,

and possessed miraculous effects that tempered the sinews and bones and refined the blood essence, greatly benefiting cultivation.

They had encountered such a treasure the moment they entered the treasury. The Sovereign Spiritual Treasury truly lived up to its reputation.

Futu Yun also recalled the plot of the original story:

Flame Spirit Lotuses rarely grew in clusters, but once they did, there was a high chance that a Flame Immortal Lotus would be born.

This thing would help him break through to the Fusion Heaven Realm, even if it was merely icing on the cake.

With that thought, he directly reached his hand into the magma,

but a figure behind him suddenly charged toward the nearest Flame Spirit Lotus.

However, the magma below abruptly split apart, and a crimson shadow wrapped around the man's legs and dragged him into the magma.

His miserable screams rang out, quickly turning into a plume of green smoke that slowly rose.

"It's a Flame-Devouring Python!" someone cried out in alarm, recognizing the vicious creature hidden beneath the magma.

Flame-Devouring Pythons were spirit beasts born within magma.

They were naturally capable of controlling magma and were extremely difficult to deal with while hiding within it.

Just then, centered on the hand Futu Yun had extended into the magma,

the magma lake, which had been continuously churning, gradually turned from red to black. In the end, the magma actually solidified into black stone.

The blackness rapidly spread, and more and more magma stopped boiling, solidifying into gray-black rock.

In the end, aside from a few places that still gave off faint dark-red glows, the entire magma lake had completely solidified.

Futu Yun also found a multicolored lotus roughly ten feet wide.

Bands of seven-colored radiance, mixed with a strange fragrance, slowly spread out at that moment.

"It really is a Fire Spirit Immortal Lotus." Futu Yun nodded.

The fire spiritual energy here was so abundant, and so many Flame Spirit Lotuses had been born. One of them should naturally have successfully evolved,

but such a heavenly treasure would not float upon the surface of the magma lake. It would be hidden deep within the magma.

The magma was hot enough to melt gold and iron, and it was filled with fire poison. Even Heaven Transformation Realm experts would not dare venture deeply inside,

but who was Futu Yun?

The White Tiger belonged to metal, the Black Tortoise to water, and the Azure Dragon to wood.

Moreover, Futu Yun's own Divine Soul was the Dragon Soul Thunder Spirit, leaving him lacking fire and earth among the five elements.

He could use the power of the three Divine Seals to absorb the earthfire within the magma,

and drain the entire magma lake dry.

In truth, although the Fire Spirit Immortal Lotus was rare, it was not enough to make him this excited.

Still, a treasure found with his own hands always brought an extra measure of accomplishment.

And the Fire Spirit Immortal Lotus was only secondary.

Futu Yun's true target was the Flame-Devouring Python King guarding the Fire Spirit Immortal Lotus—or rather, the thing inside the Flame-Devouring Python King's belly.

It was a palm-sized silver plaque that looked as though it had been cast from silver.

A soaring white dragon was engraved upon it, flickering with strange light.

Judging from the white dragon engraved on the plaque, it should have been left behind by the White Dragon Sovereign.

However, why it was inside the Flame-Devouring Python King was unknown.

Futu Yun quickly found a stone statue.

The white dragon pattern on the silver plaque seemed to come alive and actually let out a deep dragon roar.

A beam of white light shot from the silver plaque and shone upon the ancient stone statue.

Under the illumination of that white light, the ancient stone statue rapidly shrank at an astonishing speed.

In just a few breaths, it shrank into a stone statue no larger than a palm.

Having read the original story, he knew that this kind of stone statue guardian was somewhat similar to a spiritual artifact,

except that the silver plaque in his hand could control—or rather, subdue—them.