Shi Feiyang reflected that the Great Ming court had existed for more than three hundred years. As its political system naturally evolved, all sorts of flaws had emerged.
Over the years, he had transported water to create seas and fill deserts, raised temperatures to resist the Little Ice Age, and opened the Immortal Market to conduct overseas trade, extending Great Ming's national fortune by nearly a century.
Yet the country's internal problems had not been eradicated; instead, they had grown even worse. The various factional groups that had already banded together now possessed more capital and wielded greater influence. Even the Donglin Party had produced an Earth Immortal. Not only did they cultivate themselves, they also employed, supported, and funded large numbers of unaffiliated cultivators, and searched throughout the country for talents suited to cultivation.
Among them was a knight-errant renowned throughout the Three Xiang who made his living as a bodyguard. His name was Iron Whip Lian Shoujing, and he had a daughter named Lian Hongyao.
The then provincial administration commissioner of Hunan had encountered her while returning to his hometown. After cultivators tested her, her innate constitution and aptitude proved exceptional, so he recommended her to the Donglin Party's senior leaders, who took her as a goddaughter.
In the original novel, Lian Hongyao had first caught Xu Feiniang's eye, then been forcibly taken away by Yan Yingmu, and finally joined the Emei Sect. Though her innate constitution and aptitude fell short of the Three Heroes and Two Clouds, the gap was not great. She, too, had accumulated cultivation over successive lifetimes.
With the Donglin Party's abundant resources behind her, they hired numerous teachers for her and purchased all sorts of secret cultivation manuals. In the end, they had powered her all the way to becoming an Earth Immortal