Thick Earth

Grandmasters stood above the fray.

If the Flying Flower Sword Sect avoided trouble and kept Song Feiqiong from being distracted, they would be helping the Imperial Court while also earning her goodwill.

He pondered the situation at the time.

His words had stirred two emotionally charged elders, while the other elder and Lu Wan showed little emotional fluctuation.

They were certainly deep and calculating, but more importantly, they too saw the problem.

Yet at this moment, trying to change the entire sect's mindset and hold back the disciples eager to join the Imperial Court would make him an enemy of every Flying Flower Sword Sect disciple.

But if they couldn't reverse course, the Flying Flower Sword Sect would suffer for it.

Behind the bustling splendor of Jade Capital lay brutal competition. The martial masters who broke the law wouldn't care whether the Flying Flower Sword Sect had a Grandmaster.

Every expert in the Town Martial Division had a Grandmaster backing them.

If Flying Flower Sword Sect disciples entered the Town Martial Division, they'd be soft persimmons—who knew how many they'd lose.

Chu Zhiyuan set aside these utilitarian thoughts and asked, "Lord Gao, does the Thick Earth Sect fall under our Department of Martial Affairs?"

"Yes, it does," Gao Lingfeng said, his face darkening with a cold sneer. "These cults, relying on their many followers, are insufferably arrogant."

"Which other cults are there?"

"Right here in Jade Capital, there are the Eighteen Great Cults. The Thick Earth Sect is one of them, along with the Pure Heart Cult, the Profound Thought Cult, the Round Light Cult, the True One Cult, the Heavenly Diligence Cult, and so on. Not to mention the Carefree Cult and the Blissful Cult, which stretch across Great Jing. None of them are particularly obedient to the Imperial Court."

"They harbor resentment toward the Imperial Court?"

"Your subordinate believes they do."

"Why?"

"Hmph, they don't want the Imperial Court interfering, don't want it to govern too broadly... Hah, as if that's possible! If the Imperial Court left them alone, they'd turn our Great Jing into a mess!"

"Wanting more power is inevitable." Chu Zhiyuan nodded lightly.

Expansion was the fundamental nature of cults and organizations, and they preferred unchecked expansion above all.

"I think the Imperial Court has been too lenient, too indulgent with them!" Gao Lingfeng sneered. "If this continues, they'll grow too big to control!"

Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

Too strict a hand from the Imperial Court would indeed simplify matters, but it wouldn't benefit the realm's prosperity.

Binding the top sects to the same boat was the best approach—that was how they handled the Four Great Sects.

Of course, the Imperial Court must always remain strong. With the Four Great Grotto-Heavens and the Four Great Secret Lands under its control, no sect could shake it.

With that confidence, the Emperor could afford to be so lenient.

"What is the Flying Flower Sword Sect's actual strength?" Chu Zhiyuan asked. "How many Masters and how many Xiantian experts?"

"According to what your subordinate has investigated, they have three Masters total: the Sect Leader, Elder Lu, and one Supreme Elder. They have thirteen Xiantian experts, one of whom is a genius. The rest are mediocre and beyond redemption."

The Flying Flower Sword Sect had been fortunate; every generation produced a genius. The previous generation gave them the current Sect Leader and Song Feiqiong, the generation before that gave them Lu Wan, who was the next Sect Leader, and this generation also had a genius. This ensured the sect wouldn't completely decline.

Of course, if the Flying Flower Sword Sect hadn't been lucky, they wouldn't have produced Song Feiqiong as a Grandmaster. Truly, fortune favored them.

"Beyond redemption..." Chu Zhiyuan mused.

Gao Lingfeng said, "Your subordinate believes that even with the elixirs from the Heavenly Treasure Department, they won't be able to become Masters."

Becoming a Master was difficult. Talent alone wasn't enough; one also needed sufficient insight. Otherwise, no amount of hard training would matter.

The reason Jade Capital had so many Masters was that it gathered eighty to ninety percent of all Masters in Great Jing.

Almost every Master who aspired to become a Grandmaster came to Jade Capital.

Those Masters not in Jade Capital were either indifferent by nature, knowing they had no hope, or had completely despaired and left.

Gao Lingfeng continued, "The Flying Flower Sword Sect can only rise again in the next generation, by recruiting more geniuses. But catching up to the Four Great Sects? Your subordinate thinks that will likely never happen."

The strength of the Four Great Sects wasn't just in their talented disciples, but in their peerless cultivation techniques, rare in the world.

The Flying Flower Sword Sect was different.

Throughout its history, only Song Feiqiong had become a Grandmaster. It was clear she had encountered some extraordinary fortune, not that the sect's core techniques were powerful.

Every martial artist in Jade Capital was sharper than a monkey; they'd all seen through this, which was why they didn't flock to the sect.

Chu Zhiyuan shook his head with a smile. "You underestimate a Grandmaster."

He had read the martial notes of a Grandmaster and knew how profound and deep they were. If Song Feiqiong wished, after becoming a Grandmaster, she could elevate the Flying Flower Sword Sect's martial arts to the top tier.

"By the way, when we return, give me a file on the Thick Earth Sect, and one on the Flying Flower Sword Sect."

"Yes."

--

Department of Martial Affairs, Ministry of Rites

As an Assistant Director, Chu Zhiyuan had his own private room.

The bright morning sunlight streamed through the window, falling onto a red-lacquered, carved desk and illuminating two stacks of files.

One stack contained the archives of the Flying Flower Sword Sect and the Thick Earth Sect.

Chu Zhiyuan, clad in a crimson robe, picked up the documents and flipped through them at a glance.

The Department of Martial Affairs was tasked with harmonizing yin and yang, maintaining stability within the martial world.

If turmoil and chaos erupted in the martial world, it was the Department of Martial Affairs' dereliction of duty. Quelling such unrest, however, counted as a meritorious service, and one's rank would be assessed based on the scale of the achievement—typically above the ninth grade.

If the Town Martial Division was a blade, slaying demons and subduing monsters, playing the stern enforcer, then the Department of Martial Affairs played the conciliator.

The two divisions—one for suppression, one for pacification—worked together to uphold stability in the martial world.

The Town Martial Division was not subordinate to the Ministry of Rites but answered directly to the Emperor. The Department of Martial Affairs, however, fell under the Ministry of Rites, and its authority was thus greatly diminished.

Chu Zhiyuan found this arrangement quite ingenious.

The Town Martial Division used force to subdue demons, while the Department of Martial Affairs used influence to pressure people. The two were not under each other's command, which minimized the resistance and hostility of martial sects to the greatest extent.

Intelligence gathered by the Town Martial Division was transferred here.

The Department of Martial Affairs' duty was to analyze this intelligence, assess the movements and trends of various martial sects, and make timely adjustments to avoid unrest.

Having finished reviewing these files, Chu Zhiyuan shook his head.

The Thick Earth Sect was a sect founded after the establishment of the Great Jing Dynasty. Over the past thousand years, it had grown increasingly prosperous, and now boasted a membership of a thousand people.

These thousand were full-fledged disciples, not counting the ordinary believers.

The Thick Earth Sect's main headquarters was not in Jade Capital, but it had an Earthly Soil Hall in Jade Capital, with branch halls elsewhere.

The Thick Earth Sect's doctrine held that the earth was the mother of all things and the ultimate resting place of humanity. If one could merge with the earth, then after death, one could transform into mountains and rocks, forests, or rivers, no longer needing to be reborn as a human and endure the suffering of the world.

The Thick Earth Sect worshipped the Earth Venerable. Through arduous cultivation, one could establish a connection with the earth through the Earth Venerable and draw power from it.

As a member of the Thick Earth Sect, one could bear all the suffering of the world. All pain was soil, making one heavier and closer to the earth.

As Chu Zhiyuan flipped through the files, he recalled the scene with High Ritual Elder Zhu Yishan at the time.

It was a pity he hadn't touched Zhu Yishan then and hadn't been able to grasp his mental cultivation method.

He was extremely curious about how the Thick Earth Sect could mobilize the power of the earth. Perhaps it would greatly benefit his own Earthly Yuan Art.

After finishing two stacks of files, he left the government office and headed to the Tongtian Pavilion.

The night was like water.

Chu Zhiyuan sat quietly on the bed, his plain white wide robe slowly settling from its billowing state.

The Twelve-Layered Jade Tower had now been reduced to only nine layers. Breaking through the Third Layer meant reaching the Fourth Layer of the Innate Realm.

With each layer of the tower broken, his True Qi became deeper and purer by one degree.

His sword-like brows were tightly furrowed, with no hint of joy.

The Jade Lock Golden Pass Technique was indeed powerful, and with the support of the Earthly Yuan Art, breaking through the Jade Tower was like splitting bamboo—truly advancing a thousand miles in a single day.

This pace of progress was enough to crush any prodigy of the age.

But his realm was still too low. The Fourth Layer of the Innate Realm was still too weak. Only at the Master level could he protect himself without worry. He wished he could step into the Master realm in one go.

Unfortunately, that was a vain hope.

More importantly, he had discovered a problem.

His True Qi had become deeper and purer, but the strengthening of his Meridians lagged far behind the growth of his True Qi, causing increasing pressure on his Meridians.

Originally, he could condense twelve Dragon Binding Ropes, but now he could barely bear to condense ten.

And the further he went, the more solid and difficult to break the Jade Tower became.

The first two layers of the Jade Tower shattered with a single strike, but the Third Layer required over a dozen impacts to barely break through.

In the end, what was now bottlenecking his progress was his Meridians.

The Dragon Transformation Technique was already one of the world's top body-tempering methods, yet the pace of body tempering still couldn't keep up.

Should he rely on a Minor Marrow Cleansing Pill or some other Spiritual Medicine to accelerate his body-tempering progress?

Were there any other faster methods?

He decided to go to the Bright Martial Hall again to search.

There was also the Audit Department—their efficiency was too slow. He wondered what grade of merit these two contributions to the Town Martial Division would earn.

Pushing aside his helplessness, he picked up the gold-inlaid jade beside him and focused his mind on it until his spirit flagged, then fell asleep.

The next morning, he rose early.

First, he went to the Bright Martial Hall and trained with Chu Zhiting, Chu Zhichuan, and Chu Mingxuan for the entire morning. When the time came, he went to the Ministry of Rites to register his attendance. After registering, he reviewed the files on his desk and then headed to the Tongtian Pavilion.

That was the pattern of his daily life.

At noon, when he returned to the manor for lunch, he suddenly spotted an Earthly Soil Hall.

He had never noticed it before, but now that he was paying attention to the Thick Earth Sect, he was startled to realize that the Earthly Soil Hall was right there on the bustling main road.