History's Number 1 Founder

After Lin Daohan heard Yan Mingyue ask about the Stone Flute and the Stone Steps, he did not try to conceal anything from her despite their divergent views and paths. He said quietly, "The Stone Flute and the Stone Steps are linked to the Realm beyond the Heavens."

"The Realm beyond the Heavens?!" Yan Mingyue’s normally calm face betrayed an expression of shock. "Legend has this is the realm above the Great Void Sect’s Nine Heavenly Palaces. However, wasn’t it sealed off since 10 000 years ago?"

Lin Daohan said calmly, "Correct, 10 000 years ago, thanks to one of our Great Void Sect predecessors, no one can ascend into the Realm beyond the Heavens anymore. However, our seniors and masters have been trying to re-open the path into the Realm beyond the Heavens. They made much progress."

"The Stone Flute and theStone Stepsare the results of their hard work."

Yan Mingyue arched her eyebrows and asked, "However, these items are currently in Lin Feng’s possession..."

"It’s alright," said Lin Daohan quietly. "Our masters and Kuang Heng once suspected that Lin Feng is related to the Realm beyond the Heavens. After a while, however, they concluded that the time is not yet ripe. Even if the items are in his possession, he cannot do much with them."

Yan Mingyue’s gaze swept over Shen Qifeng, the Heavenly Cloud Holy Man, of the Path of the Heaven-Born of the Samsara Sect and asked quietly, "What exactly is Shen Qifeng thinking? What is the Samsara Sect thinking?"

Lin Daohan shook his head slightly and said, "Sit tight and observe."

Up till this point, the spiritual conference had finally ended.

Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi, and the rest who were in charge of welcoming guests during the start of the conference were now in charge of sending their guests off.

Xu Yunsheng, Li Xingfei, Liu Xiafeng and the many other disciples under them busied themselves with their respective tasks.

As the other cultivators looked at Zhou Yuncong, Dao Yuting, Lin Tong, Huang Zhenting, Xu Yunsheng and company, many emotions surfaced in their hearts.

The Celestial Sect of Wonders of today was no longer the new sect that the Lin Feng and his few disciples started off with.

The new generation of disciples were beginning to show their skills. The Celestial Sect of Wonders was full of talented individuals, earning the admiration of many.

Currently, while their mastery was still low, they had already demonstrated astounding level of potential. Under the Celestial Sect of Wonders, they had bright futures ahead of them.

Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi and the other immediate disciples of Lin Feng grew stronger and stronger with each day. A new super-sect and a potential Holy Ground was in the making.

Many leaders of the other sects thought that Lin Feng would take advantage of this conference to arrogantly show off the powers of his many disciples and help them build a name for themselves.

However, he did not do so. Shi Yu and the other elders thought and came to the same conclusion. "The Master of the Celestial Sect is truly far-sighted."

Lin Feng’s thinking was simple. To him, the Nascent Soul stage and the Aurous Core stage meant nothing. He wanted to wait for his disciples to enter the Immortal Soul stage. Only then would he shake the world.

"The Master of the Celestial Sect is really confident. He believes that his disciples are all Immortal Soul stage calibre? The Immortal Soul stage is completely different from all the stages below it in terms of difficulty. Ascending into the Immortal Soul stage is infinitely more difficult than progression in all the other stages combined! How many talented individuals in history failed to make it?"

Some of them had doubts, but once they thought of the potential that Xiao Yan, Shi Tianhao, and the rest had exhibited, they realized suddenly that it was not... as far-fetched as it seemed.

However, thinking about it, the disciples of the other sects could only feel a huge pressure, as large as a mountain, upon them.

The Celestial Sect of Wonders at this point in time had already transformed into a large, unmoving animal.

To the Celestial Sect of Wonders, this spiritual conference ended on a good note. It could called a peaceful, successful spiritual conference that went smoothly.

Shen Qifeng brought the Path of the Heaven-Born of the Samsara Sect off Mount Yujing and left the Kunlun Mountains. They headed home.

On the way back, the entire group was quiet. After all, their visit to the Kunlun Mountains this time could not be seen as some glorious affair.

Before they even reached the place, their disciples scuffled with the disciples of the Celestial Sect of Wonders. Even their own Nascent Soul stage cultivator had his magic item confiscated by Zhu Yi. They lost a great amount of face even before the conference.

During the conference, one of the main disciples of their sect, Yang Likun, was crippled with Zhou Yuncong.

Shen Qifeng too lost in his bet against Lin Feng. He did not even get a chance to save his face and he lost a Spiritual Feather Vine in the process.

The Samsara Sect may not know about the significance of the Spiritual Feather Vine to Lin Feng, and they surely knew nothing about the Trāyastriṃśa Elixir of Creation. However, the Spiritual Feather Vine was still an extremely valuable herb that was extremely difficult to grow and extremely rare. It was extremely potent too and hence, it was used in the cultivation of many pills and medicines.

The entire Path of the Heaven-Born of the Samsara Sect was filled with anger. They believed that Shen Qifeng behaved too weakly in front of Lin Feng. However, not only was Shen Qifeng the leader of the delegation, he was an Immortal Soul stage cultivator too. Hence, there was nothing much they could do.

The Samsara Sect was plagued with internal strife. However, it was still one of the few, large entities in the Divine Lands and it normally took a hardliner stance on many issues. Faced with the Great Void Sect, the Mount Shu Sword Sect and the Great Zhou Empire, it had rarely been in a submissive position.

Shen Qifeng’s expression was neutral and emotionless. His supernatural awareness was able to pick out the unhappiness and resentment towards him. However, he chose to ignore them.

As the group of them returned to their abode, Shen Qifeng was immediately summoned by the leaders of his sect for questioning.

The subject was naturally about their visit to the Kunlun Mountains. Under Shen Qifeng’s leadership, the Samsara Sect Path of the Heaven-Born lost both the battle and had one of their disciples crippled.

Undoubtedly, Shen Qifeng’s action did not earn him any points with the other elders. Many thought that he was too soft and lost face for the Samsara Sect. Even though Shen Qifeng was the First Disciple and an immediate disciple of the sect, he too must be questioned for his actions.

"While our Samsara Sect is plagued with internal strife, we will still band together against any external threats. Hence, other powerful sects don’t dare to look down on us," said Shen Qifeng calmly. "However, the Celestial Sect of Wonders evidently received help from both the Path of Hell and the Path of Humanity. They were hoping that we would become sworn enemies with the Celestial Sect of Wonders, and then they would be able to ally with the Celestial Sect."

"This time, the situation was different compared to before. Our sect had already been divided. Becoming enemies with the Celestial Sect of Wonders is not beneficial to the Path of the Heaven-Born."

An Immortal Soul stage of the Path of the Heaven Born sneered coldly, "Shen Qifeng, don’t try to wriggle out this time. While the Celestial Sect of Wonders, and its master Lin Feng, are strong now, don’t they have any enemy too?"

"The Great Void Sect, the Mount Shu Sword Sect are no in way inferior to them. Even if the Celestial Sect of Wonders ally with the Great Qin Empire and the Great Zhou Empire, they may not be able to resist against them. Furthermore, the Celestial Sect of Wonders may not even be able to ally itself successfully with the Great Zhou Empire."

Shen Qifeng replied, "Uncle (Translator’s Note: In terms of cultivation, not relative) is right. However, the Master of the Celestial Sect has proven his power. In the Battle of Xiling City, the power that he had shown could be rivalled by only a rare few in the Divine Lands today. Without any magic treasure, he was able to resist the Mount Shu Sword Sect’s Celestial Sword."

"Furthermore, he was able to trigger the Alpha Destiny Tribulations with his own powers. While we do not know the limits of his power, this is more than enough to prove that his power was at least past that Tribulation."

The Immortal Soul stage elder’s expression did not change as he said, "You are right in saying that. I too respect the power of the Master of the Celestial Sect. But don’t forget, the Great Void Sect still has the Zheng Yi Holy Man, the Tai Yi Holy Man, the Qing Yi Holy Woman and the Xuan Yi Holy Man."

Shen Qifeng smiled slightly, "I know. However, the bulk of the Great Void Sect’s attention right now is still on the developments in the Barren Expanses. In their long history, there were only three times when their Supreme Heavenly Mirror was pointed at the Divine Lands."

"I notice from the interactions between Lin Daohan, Yan Mingyue and Lin Feng that the Great Void Sect has no intention of making enemies with the Celestial Sect of Wonders right now."

The elder shook his head and said, "You only know parts of it..."

A loud voice rang suddenly, "The discussion ends here."

Shen Qifeng bowed and said, "Yes, master." The other elders of the Path of the Heaven-Born quietened down too as they waited for instructions.

Shi Tianfang of the Path of the Heaven-Born of the Samsara Sect said, "Qifeng, while you have given thoughts to it, it is not enough. Your performance is lacklustre and hence, you shall go to the Heaven’s Canyon and reflect."

Shen Qifeng replied politely, "I understand." With that, he took his leave and headed as per instructed to the punitive place of the Path of the Heaven-Born.

After he entered the Heaven’s Canyon, he sat on the lowest level of the void and suffered the many tribulations there. Shen Qifeng’s expression was calm and he smiled and said, "It’s fine, I’ll be fine. All I need to do is to wait."

Unlike Shen Qifeng, who no longer cared about this anymore, another person was feeling very excited.

The Marquis of Jingheng looked at the monk before him, smiled and asked, "You finally decided to act?"

The middle-aged monk smiled slightly. He brimmed with intelligence and wisdom and he was without any trace of anger. "Act, not quite. However, with the re-appearance of the Three Mountains of the Ying Sea, I have a feeling that someone will finally claim them this time."

He smiled and looked at the Marquis of Jingheng, "You surely don’t wish to be left behind. Let me help you."

The Marquis of Jingheng laughed, shook his head and said, "Please don’t play games with me, I suppose that your real target is the disciples of the Master of the Celestial Sect. Helping me is only part of your plan, right?"

The middle-aged monk did not rebut him. Instead, he smiled and said, "Do you want my help?"

"Of course, of course I need your help," said the Marquis of Jingheng without any hesitation. "While I am not weak, the appearance of the Three Mountains of the Ying Sea is no small affair. Let’s not talk about other sects, the Great Zhou Empire view this as critical to its future, so how can I sit and do nothing?"

"With your help, I will be granted entrance, so how could I be only a bystander then?"

The middle-aged monk smiled and said, "If that’s the case, I’ll meet you at the Ying Sea."

The Marquis of Jingheng nodded his head. Suddenly, he looked straight at the monk and asked, "It’s good to be able to see you. However, I wonder if you would make a trip down personally."

The middle-aged monk smiled and said, "You will find out."

He looked to the sky and sighed, "The Master of the Celestial Sect wishes to go to the Ying Sea. I wonder what is his plan?"

The Marquis of Jingheng smiled and said, "This is for His Majesty and the Marquis of Xuanji to decide. According to what I know, the Great Zhou Empire has made many preparations to welcome anyone who ventures into the Ying Sea."

"If the Celestial Sect of Wonders and the Great Qin Empire cannot attract their attention, then I may need to do something."