Through the time he had spent with Su Liuyun, Li Yan knew that Su Hong's Lineage was a formidable force within "Returning Home."
Merchant houses and sects differed greatly. Merchant houses were mostly tied together by clan-like factions, while sects primarily relied on the bonds of seniority and juniorhood passed down through master-disciple lineages. This was also one of the most common forms.
To protect Su Hong this time, they had mobilized so many experts at once. Even within any great power, the number of Body Fusion cultivators was exceedingly limited. Cultivators of that caliber did not emerge easily.
Li Yan had also witnessed Jin Thirty-One and the others in action. Once those people threw their lives on the line, the strength they could unleash could reach the early Body Fusion stage.
Such combat could not last long, but there were so many people here that even if the two Body Fusion Old Devils from the "Rouge Sea" appeared again, they would find it difficult to gain much advantage here.
The foundations of "Returning Home" were truly terrifying. But that was also a reflection of their wealth. Merchant houses did not need to cultivate every cultivator themselves.
They liked to recruit worthy talents from outside, and employment arrangements often made up a large portion of their forces. No matter how powerful cultivators were, they still needed to cultivate, and what they valued most were cultivation resources.
Moreover, merchant houses dealt in cultivation resources. With careful investment, they could specifically select people with superior cultivation aptitude and produce quite a few people like Jin Thirty-One. But that required immense wealth to support it.
There were actually even stronger auras nearby, but they were not within this ring of encirclement, so Li Yan did not pay them any mind.
This was such