After marveling at the power of Dragon Tiger Mountain, the Witch God Sect Leader roughly introduced Pei Xuanjing to the rest of the top sects of the Righteous Path.
Like Xuan Du Guan, such top powerhouses only had two of the Strongest Realm's existence. Even though the number of disciples was scarce, they were outstanding talents, recognized for their firm determination. They had also taken up a seat in the Sky Wasteland.
Then there was the Sword Sect, with three of the Strongest Realm's existences plus a divine sword, the disciples of the sect wholeheartedly cultivate the path of the sword. They were decisive and fearless, regarded as the most stubborn amongst many top powerhouses. They were viewed by Xuantian Sect as potential challengers. They were also a significant part of the battle between the human and Demon Races. During each clash, countless demons fell at the hands of Sword Sect disciples.
There were also the Taisu Sect, Golden Mountain Temple… and many other top Righteous Path and Buddhism School forces…
Strangely, these top forces seemed to exist in the form of sects, unlike the many ancient dynasties present in first-tier organizations.
In response to Pei Xuanjing's inquiry, the Witch God Sect Leader gave him a peculiar look, then said, "It's not that there are no imperial courts in top-tier organizations, but any kingdom that reaches this level either tries to rise to the Divine Dynasty in an age without a God Dynasty, or it gets destroyed and its fortune plundered by the Divine Dynasty. As for the present Sky Wasteland, it's because the birth of a God Dynasty is not allowed."
It's quite simple. Throughout the thousands that came, the Divine Dynasty is always the strongest, and they can suppress top forces at their peak. Even if top forces gang up, they can't pose any threat, so any Empire that reaches this level will surely seek to advance if they live in an era without a Divine Dynasty.
If a Divine Dynasty existed, they would either join forces with other top-tier parties to overthrow the Divine Dynasty and become the new Divine Dynasty, or they would be destroyed by the Divine Dynasty, and all their creations would be stolen.
You could say that at this point, it's a do-or-die situation. Either find success or face failure; no other options. This was the real reason why no imperial courts were seen among the top forces.
After the Tang Dynasty, when they descended on Sky Wasteland and after many top forces cooperatively called for no further advancements to a God Dynasty, no permission was given for any imperial court to ascend.
Even if some powerful ancient countries were already very strong, facing many top organizations joining forces, they could only remain patient, waiting for the opportune time to seize the opportunity to advance.
But no one expected that the defense of the Sky Wasteland would succeed, the Ancestral Land, unnoticed, emerged from the loophole. As a result, the Great Ming Divine Dynasty ascended successfully, allowing the Divine Dynasty to reappear between Heaven and Earth.
Moreover, facing the Great Ming Divine Dynasty under Pei Xuanjing's protection and his shown prowess, many authorities, although dissatisfied with the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, still feared Pei Xuanjing. They did not take action.
Because they knew that if they didn't join forces, they would pay a huge price while facing Pei Xuanjing.
"Got it," Pei Xuanjing suddenly understood these organizations' fear. After all, he was powerful enough to pull a few down with him if he needed. No organization was willing to accept such a result, especially in this forthcoming era.
Listening to the Witch God Sect Leader telling him many details about top organizations and some rumors, undoubtedly Pei Xuanjing learned quite a bit. It was news, after all, he could not get from others.
Even if he had guessed that these top forces wouldn't have a harmonious atmosphere. Every party had its dirty tricks, both conniving and conflicted. This was all common, but a regular cultivator couldn't really get in touch with it, perhaps only a powerhouse like the Witch God Sect Leader could discover it.
After understanding these things, Pei Xuanjing was even more sure that these top forces would find it even harder to stay united. Considering the interests they have seen so far, the conflicts between them were even bigger than versus Pei Xuanjing.
After the conversation, Pei Xuanjing saw the Witch God Sect Leader in a new light. He originally thought as being born in an old force like Witch Deity Teaching would make him creepy and rigid. However, after a round of conversations, he realized this guy wasn't creepy or rigid. He was just as into rumors; otherwise, he wouldn't know all the secrets of the disputes among the top organizations.
While thinking about it, Pei Xuanjing suddenly asked a question, "I am still somewhat curious about how many of the Strongest Realm exist within the Witch Deity Teaching? And where does it rank amid Heaven and Earth?"
Witch God Sect Leader had told him a lot, but intentionally or unintentionally, he left out some information about Witch God Sect, which aroused Pei Xuanjing's curiosity.
After all, Witch God Sect is a heritage from ancient times with a profound background. Since the first force in the world, Xuantian Sect, is holding back, does this heritage from ancient times, Witch God Sect, also have hidden strength it hasn't revealed?
Pei Xuanjing was curious, but he was sure the Witch God Sect Leader wouldn't tell him. After all, he would never disclose a secret concerning their survival strategy.
"Haha! There are no secrets in the Witch Deity Teaching. What National Master sees is what the Witch Deity Teaching shows. There's nothing hidden," said the Witch God Sect Leader.
In the eyes of most powerhouses, apart from the leader who can rule over other beings of the Strongest Realm, there is an older relic and a newly-promoted being of the Strongest Realm in the Witch God Sect.
Pei Xuanjing received some rumors that the relic who's older than the Witch God Sect Leader seems to have reached the end of its lifespan and probably won't live much longer.
But Pei Xuanjing didn't think so. If there really was a problem with that relic, the Witch God Sect Leader wouldn't still be advocating strongly for cooperation with the Great Ming Divine Dynasty. He should be considering how to stabilize the situation in the Witch God Sect.
After all, Pei Xuanjing had received their specific conditions for cooperation with the Great Ming Divine Dynasty. It was to help Zhu Houji provide the cultivation method of the ancient Ruler, which would elevate him to a level comparable to the Strongest Realm.
This would enhance Zhu Houji's ability, but the condition for reconciling with Wu Shijiu was to help Wu Shijiu break through to the Strongest Realm of the Nine Realms of Spirit.
Things just didn't add up. If the rumor was true, the Witch God Sect would not have done this.
In Pei Xuanjing's view, all living beings in this world inherently have a nature of self-protection, and no sentient being can avoid it.
If the Witch Deity Teaching is as legendary as the rumours, then the old artifact suppressing the Witch Deity Teaching is twilighting, and so the first thing that the Witch Deity Teaching needs to do right now is maintain their status and not let themselves decline. Given they grasped the means to improve the odds of a cultivator of the Spirit Realm Eightfold to ascend to the strongest Nine Realms of Spirit, it would just be their instinct to let the cultivators within the Witch Deity Teaching ascend. Why would they help Wu Shijiu?
It must be known that Wu Shijiu was indeed born into the Witch Deity Teaching, but he left on hostile terms, holding a quite significant grudge against the Witch Deity Teaching. Their cooperation right now is due to mutual benefit and coercion by circumstances. However, it can't be guessed whether the same would be the case if Wu Shijiu really ascended to the Strongest Realm.
After all, once Wu Shijiu has ascended and Zhu Houji has learned the ancient co-ruler's methods to become similar to the strongest, it would mean two strongest-level battle forces. If the old artifact of the Witch Deity Teaching were to fall, the two sides would form a standoff. At that point, many affairs of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty would be out of their reach.
In such a scenario, the Witch God Sect Leader would absolutely never have imagined it, or it could be said that even if he had not thought of it, there would have been others to remind him. Therefore, Pei Xuanjing is of the opinion that the Witch Deity Teaching must be confident; otherwise, it would not act as it has.
"Hehe, the Sect Leader is too modest." Pei Xuanjing looked at the calm-faced Witch God Sect Leader who seemed to have everything under control and said with a smile.
Although he believed that he had seen through the other's thoughts, if the Witch God Sect Leader did not wish to speak, Pei Xuanjing would not continue poking holes in his argument.
Anyway, as for him, agreeing to the Witch Deity Teaching's condition to enter the Great Ming Divine Dynasty was already quite sufficient. Whether the Great Ming Divine Dynasty and the Witch Deity Teaching would then earnestly collaborate, going all out, or whether they would scheme against each other, in actuality, none of it had much to do with Pei Xuanjing.
The Witch God Sect Leader chuckled and did not say anything more, turning his gaze back to the law mirror projected by the Taixu Mirror.
Pei Xuanjing also ceased his conversation with him, watching everything that was happening on the law mirror while simultaneously silently studying the actions of the many strongest individuals in the palace at this moment.
If it was said that Pei Xuanjing did not understand these strongest individuals at all before, only knowing their names and where they came from. But now after hearing what the Witch God Sect Leader had to say, his knowledge of these individuals naturally increased, and he understood a lot more about them.
Although these people were all individually seated, their expressions all hidden behind a veil of mist, if Pei Xuanjing combined this with what he just found out and looked carefully, he would find that these people were not as indifferent as they seemed.
These people appeared to be sitting there calmly, talking and laughing, but the strongest individuals from those forces pointed out by the Witch God Sect Leader were, in fact, maintaining intense vigilance against each other. Even their words contained a bit of subtext.
Like when the Master of Mystiq Sky spoke. There were a few forces with him that expressed agreement and affirmation through their words. However, the strongest individuals from the Sword Sect held them in contempt. When they encountered anything that was against their wishes, they directly retorted, disregarding all forms of face-saving.
The strongest individuals from the Buddha Way and the six major sects of the Demonic Way were also at odds with each other, their words sharp. Were it not for the fact that this was Pei Xuanjing's territory, it would have been completely unsurprising if they started exchanging blows.
The Ancestor Celestial Master from Dragon Tiger Mountain sat alone in one corner. Despite void of any followers, he was still treated with respect by everyone, none daring to disturb him frivolously.
Of course, while Pei Xuanjing was observing others, naturally, there were also many others silently paying attention to Pei Xuanjing.
As the initiator of this Dao Debating Conference, as the host of this place, and as one of the few beings in the world who can suppress the strongest Nine Realms of Spirit, even if he has not yet ascended to the Nine Realms of Spirit, he already stands at the Apex Realm, much like the Ancestor Celestial Master who has suppressed the strongest Nine Realms of Spirit.
Thus, even if Pei Xuanjing has not yet made a move or spoken, he has already attracted the attention of countless people.
He and the Witch God Sect Leader were sitting adjacent to each other, and their conversation was all through voice transmission. However, for these Apex creatures with extremely strong senses, how could they ignore it? Although they did not know what Pei Xuanjing and the Witch God Sect Leader were talking about, they could still roughly guess.
The Master of Mystiq Sky, while chatting with his Taoist Friend next to him, was silently sizing up Pei Xuanjing, this rising talent, or rather, fresh peer.
As a dominant force in Sky Wasteland, or rather, among the top forces in the world, the thing the Master of Mystiq Sky disliked the most was emerging forces. That was indicative of the rise of new forces which could disrupt the existing order, thereby bringing about a disadvantage to the Mystiq Sky Sect rather than a benefit.
The Taixu Sect was like that back then, and so is Pei Xuanjing today.
However, even though the Taixu Venerable broke through back then, even if he had a top-tier Divine weapon treasure like the Taixu Mirror in his hands, he could only barely make the Taixu Sect hold its ground among many top forces. The Taixu Sect had no capacity to stir up any commotion, so the Master of Mystiq Sky was still more or less able to accept it.
However, today's Pei Xuanjing is undoubtedly better than the Taixu Venerable back then, or one could even say that the Taixu Venerable is not even worthy of being compared with Pei Xuanjing.
As the leader of a top-tier force like the Mystiq Sky Sect, the Master of Mystiq Sky would not care about trivial matters. Even the revival of the Ancestral Land didn't seem to him like there was anything or anyone worthy of his attention.
However, at this moment, the name Pei Xuanjing entered into his field of vision. From the time Pei Xuanjing started pushing for the Great Ming Divine Dynasty's promotion, the Master of Mystiq Sky remembered this at the time in his eyes, extremely weak cultivator.
Even so, he did not pay much extra attention. He did not think the other could do much. The fact that he could have Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm's power in the world before its complete revival, suppressing the aliens who returned to Sky Wasteland, was beyond expectations.
But what happened later, even with the Master of Mystiq Sky's strength, it set off storms in his normally calm mind.
He didn't care about Pei Xuanjing suppressing cultivators of the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm. He only glanced briefly at his suppressing of the Third Supreme Elder of Canglang Palace. He was slightly surprised at his ability to fight with the incarnation of the Taixu Venerable. He was caught by surprise when he learned that an incarnation had made a move, thinking that it deserved his attention.
However, by the time Pei Xuanjing truly displayed his full strength and suppressed the Taixu Venerable, leaving the Master of Mystiq Sky extremely shocked, it was already too late, too late for anything.
Because at this moment, Pei Xuanjing was already an existence that he or the Mystiq Sky Sect could not easily control.
For the possibility of their ancestor's homeland Spiritual Mechanisms reviving, allowing them who had been away to come back, top powers like Xuantian Sect had long been prepared. Or it could be said that they had begun preparations from the moment they left.
As the homeland revives, and the prime time for cultivation comes again, numerous powerful beings will appear. Many prodigies will rise to the occasion, leading the era and rising to power.
But even with mental preparation, upon seeing Pei Xuanjing's rise to power, the Master of Mystiq Sky still felt a profound sense of surreal disbelief.
Despite what he believed or the reality he perceived, the situation had reached this point. Pei Xuanjing had already grown up, and already stood among the strongest in the Heavens and Earth. Nobody could suppress him without being ready to pay a heavy price.
However, in such a prosperous era, nobody is willing to pave the way for others through their own sacrifice. Therefore, Pei Xua$njing's position has become unshakeable and nobody could obstruct him.
This feeling of being beyond control was very frustrating for the Master of Mystiq Sky. But being unable to change it, he could only hope that Pei would not be hard-headed and uncooperative. Hopefully, they could keep him stable and recruit him into their existing camp, turning him from a potential troublemaker into a maintainer.
Unfortunately, before the Master of Mystiq Sky could make a move on this thought, Pei Xuanjing's next words made him think his idea was somewhat ridiculous.
"Friends!"
Pei Xuanjing's voice echoed throughout the palace. Although not loud, it clearly reached everyone's ears.
All present were cultivators who were always watching Pei Xuanjing keenly, wanting to see what he would do today. Now that Pei Xuanjing had spoken, they naturally turned their attention to him.
In an instant, the once lively and bustling palace was immediately silent. Not a single sound could be heard, as if the previous noise never existed.
Face placid in the face of these focused eyes, Pei Xuanjing remained calm in his seat of honour, and slowly began:
"I'm grateful to all of you taoist friends who have honoured me with your presence to discuss Tao on Shenxiao Mountain today. My heartfelt gratitude to you all," he began.
"The honour is ours!"
"We're fortunate to have a new friend. Another companion on the Immortal Dao Path. This is a happy occasion indeed!"
…
The powerful beings each spoke their minds.
Unless they were mortal enemies, most at the Nine Realms of Spirit were actually somewhat happy whenever another cultivator advanced.
These Nine Realms of Spirit's most powerful beings did not harbor hostility towards newer entrants as regular cultivators imagined. After all, companions were hard to find on the solitary Immortal Path. Even if the newcomer became a future rival, he would still be a taoist friend to discuss the Tao with.
Along these lines, the views and understanding of these powerful beings were somewhat similar to Pei Xuanjing's. They all stood at the peak of cultivation, without any guidance for the path forward, and simply pursued the Tao based on their beliefs.
Thus, the appearance of another powerful being would bring mutual teachings, validation of Taoist skills, and possibly even sentient and profound insight. All of which, would be of great help.
Pei Xuanjing went on, "In addition to inviting all of you today to discuss Tao and share Daoist wisdom, I have another matter that I would like to discuss with everyone."
He paused briefly and continued, "I have noticed that cultivation encourages aggression. Little regard is given to the law. People start fighting when in disagreement, causing massive casualties and destruction. What's worse, innocent people have been victimized. Therefore, I have been thinking about how to resolve this problem. I believe that it would be appropriate to place some restraints on the cultivators. Only by reigning in the lawlessness of these cultivators can we mitigate the harm caused by them."
Pei Xuanjing was forthright about his thoughts. He didn't sugarcoat anything or beat around the bush. Without any preamble, he articulated his viewpoint.
Silence!
In the palace, there was an abrupt silence. The mighty beings present didn't immediately respond and fell silent.
While they were aware of Pei Xuanjing's thoughts, nobody expected him to express them outright before the debate.
Such abruptness caught the powerful individuals off guard, leading to a prolonged silence in the palace.
Apart from the mightiest beings from various top powers, there were also powerful individuals from first-class powers and ancient sects, independent practitioners above the Eighth Level of the Spiritual Realm, second-tier sects, and even independent practitioners above the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm.
Those whose skills were below the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm were simply not qualified to be present. Not because Pei Xuanjing was unwilling, but because they dared not to approach due to powerful beings such as these. Even if Pei Xuanjing didn't mind, the others might.
In the presence of so many powerful beings, the area inside the grand hall was filled with immense pressure. Even if they didn't lift a finger but only released a fraction of their energy, cultivators below the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm would not be able to withstand it.
Regarding the proposal from Pei Xuanjing, before the strongest beings from various top-tier powers spoke their mind, the rest of them, whether they were in favor or against it, could only suppress their feelings as they just were not qualified to do so.
"Mr. Wu, do you think they will agree with Master Pei's idea?" Zhu Houji asked Wu Shijiu via telepathy.
As the emperor of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, Zhu Houji shouldn't miss this grand event. However, for his own safety, he only sent a clone accompanied by Wu Shijiu and Prince of Xiang, Zhu Yousong. Due to Zhu Yousong's cultivation not reaching the Sixth Level of the Realm, he could only stay in another hall. Only he and Wu Shijiu were present here.
"Your Majesty, it's not up to us to decide this. Or, our attitude doesn't matter at all. Only these most powerful beings can decide." Wu Shijiu shook his head slightly as he responded solemnly, unlike his usual relaxed demeanor.