After more than ten days of continuous flight covering over a hundred thousand li, the magical treasure flying boat arrived before Violet Glow Mountain.
Violet Glow Mountain was a fourth-tier spirit mountain stretching over three thousand li, with a mid-grade fourth-tier spirit vein beneath it. It had once been the seat of the Purple Glow Sect, a Nascent Soul sect.
After destroying the Purple Glow Sect, the Azure Cloud Sect had designated its former territory as the Central Southern Circuit of the Great Tang Dynasty. The Purple Glow Sect's former seat had thus become the Azure Cloud Sect's base in the Central Southern Circuit.
A circuit of the Great Tang Dynasty usually represented a Nascent Soul power that the Azure Cloud Sect had destroyed, while a prefecture usually represented a fallen Golden Core power. Far too many Nascent Soul and Golden Core powers had perished during the Azure Cloud Sect's rise.
It could be said that the Azure Cloud Sect had grown mighty by trampling over the ruins of these sects and powers. As for the secret behind its overwhelming success, one had to mention the system of sect governance it currently employed.
Compared with traditional sects, the Azure Cloud Sect's system offered many unparalleled advantages.
First, it prohibited the establishment of other sects within its territory, greatly reducing the threat of internal rivals. Though domineering, this was highly effective.
Second, it monopolized spiritual root testing for young children throughout its territory, forbidding its subordinate lineages from conducting their own tests. It brought all the most promising cultivation seedlings with dual spiritual roots or better into the sect for training, further curbing and controlling the growth of its subordinate lineages. Those gifted cultivators who entered the sect also strengthened the ties between their lineages and the sect.
Third, whenever a