As the ruler safeguarding one region, no one could defy the will of Pei Xuanjing. In fact, many aspired to curry favor with him, hoping to serve under his command.
Yet in the past, although Pei Xuanjing preserved the region, he was indifferent to worldly desires, leaving those cultivators who wished to establish relationships with him helpless.
However, this time when the demons ran rampant, Pei Xuanjing, as the protector, ordered the tracing of the demon's whereabouts. This naturally received unanimous support—it was a win-win situation for them. After all, except for fulfilling Pei Xuanjing's requirements, capturing and clearing out the demons were their due responsibilities.
When these cultivators took action, they quickly obtained traces of the demons. Pei Xuanjing, having received this information, immediately set out. According to his previous life simulation experience, the power of this demon should not be underestimated—after all, it even gravely injured his simulated self. In his absence, none would be a match for this demon.
Once Pei Xuanjing made his move, the outcome was naturally assured. After all, with his current strength, apart from a few top-notch experts from various Immortal Sects that he had to be wary of, no other cultivators or beings would be able to hinder him.
These demons might become even more powerful in dozens of years, but for now, they could not resist Pei Xuanjing.
After suppressing this demon, Pei Xuanjing rewarded those who participated and then left with the demon, choosing to research it.
At the age of 42: Whether a mortal or an Immortal Sect Disciple, everyone in this world harbored intense animosity towards demons. Therefore, everyone opted to either imprison the captured demons within the Demon Suppression Tower or immediately execute them.
Utilizing the power of this region, Pei Xuanjing built a Demon Suppression Tower and imprisoned the captured demon inside it, personally guarding it.
Publicly, Pei Xuanjing claimed he was refining the demon, but in reality, he was studying the demons behind closed doors.
Maybe it was because the demon's level was quite low, or that there were too few demons or he lacked enough samples, Pei Xuanjing spent a year's time but achieved little from his research on the demons.
However, Pei Xuanjing did have one finding—his cultivation skill, 'Enthroning Gods,' had a significant restraining effect on the demons.
To verify this guess, Pei Xuanjing began actively searching for and capturing demons.
At the age of 53: Over a decade, Pei Xuanjing continuously captured demons, filling the Demon Suppression Tower with his research samples.
In this decade, Pei Xuanjing's reputation skyrocketed within the Immortal Sect due to his constant capturing of demons. He was praised by countless people and hailed as a standout figure of the younger generation.
However, none of this interested Pei Xuanjing. He wasn't doing this for fame—for him, such prestige held no meaning. He captured these demons to fill the Demon Suppression Tower to further his research and his cultivation.
After ten years, he consistently used these demons for his research. In terms of their power, he was beginning to get a grasp of things. He found that the general cultivation of these demons was not very different from Immortal Sect Disciples. But within these demons lay a strange power in their spiritual energy, this power circulated within the demons, affecting their consciousness and causing them to lose their rationality, making them cruel, bloodthirsty, and unstable.
Pei Xuanjing had attempted to extract or expel this strange power from the demons, but unfortunately, this power seemed to have thoroughly fused with the demons and could not be forcibly separated. Once forcibly separated, the demons would completely lose control and eventually die.
For Pei Xuanjing, dealing with this strange force was quite challenging for his current realm. He had tried refining this power, but he couldn't refine or control it.
However, Pei Xuanjing also confirmed from this that the root cause of the demons' uncontrollable attacks stemmed from this strange power.
Although he did not fully eradicate the demon problem, his continuous suppression of the demons greatly enhanced his 'Enthroning Gods' skill. He had completely cultivated the fragments he held.
But that was all. Over the years, Pei Xuanjing found out that the remaining fragments of 'Enthroning Gods' were in other immortals sects. But, he also had no way of acquiring them at the moment.
At the age of 55: Pei Xuanjing completed his guard duty and returned to the Immortal Sect. His position as an Inner Disciple could have been further promoted. Unexpectedly, he announced his breakthrough in realm and chose to abandon his Inner Disciple status, advancing to become an elder of the Immortal Sect.
It took him more than 20 years to break through, from an Inner Disciple to becoming an Elder. His cultivation speed was unprecedented within the sect, making him the most prominent contender for the position of the next Sect Master.
After his promotion to Elder, Pei Xuanjing's authority within the Immortal Sect grew higher. He guarded the Cultivation Methods Pavilion, continuing to explore and research the methods within, uncovering the secrets of this world. At the same time, he was looking for a way to obtain the remaining fragments of 'Enthroning Gods' privately.
At the age of 57: After Pei Xuanjing became an Elder, more and more people gathered around him, which was also a good thing for him. It made things more convenient for him to accomplish what he wanted to do.
In these years, not only has Pei Xuanjing perused all the methods of his Immortal Sect, but he also obtained some methods from other Immortal Sects. These methods all vary, and each of them brought Pei Xuanjing different inspirations, benefiting him immensely.
In addition, he even collected several fragments of 'Enthroning Gods.' With these nearly complete, all he needed were the final two essential sections.
However, nothing stays hidden forever. Pei Xuanjing's subtle collection of 'Enthroning Gods' inadvertently drew the attention of many, with some of the oldest seniors in the Immortal Sect casually inquiring about Pei Xuanjing's intentions.
Pei Xuanjing brushed it off, saying he enjoyed collecting different methods. Throughout the years, he actually did collect a variety of methods, so the elders didn't delve deeper. They merely warned Pei Xuanjing not to gather or attempt to cultivate 'Enthroning Gods' as it was taboo in the Immortal Sect.
At the age of fifty-nine: After receiving a warning from the senior members of the Immortal Sect, Pei Xuanjing became more certain about his initial suspicions. However, he was curious as to why the Emperor's Enthroning Gods technique, which belonged to forbidden skills, was still kept in the Cultivation Methods Pavilion, and allowed for public viewing.
However, Pei Xuanjing quickly realized the reason himself. If his speculation was correct, this object was used as bait to lure people, it was the bait of the powerful individuals within the Immortal Sect.
Moreover, Pei Xuanjing discovered that even after heeding the advice from the seniors in the Immortal Sect and temporarily stopped collecting the Emperor's Enthroning Gods technique, there were people who were covertly observing him, which made him more certain that he was still under suspicion.
At the age of sixty-one: In order not to attract too much attention, Pei Xuanjing temporarily stopped collecting the Emperor's Enthroning Gods technique. He even made his Cultivation of this technique more secretive to avoid arousing too much suspicion.
He compiled clues obtained from various Immortal Sects and individuals, and finally obtained a definite answer. The world is not as the Immortal Sect claims it to be – that it was managed by the immortals ever since the birth of Heaven and Earth. Before the Immortal Sect began administering Heaven and Earth, there was a real dynasty in existence.
For this piece of news, Pei Xuanjing temporarily suppressed it and did not publicize it.
At this time, Pei Xuanjing received news that an increasing number of demons had appeared in various areas ruled by the Immortal Sect. They endangered the common mortals blessed by the Immortal Sect and even attacked the disciples of the Immortal Sect. Hence, the Immortal Sect was preparing to form teams to exterminate the demons and restore peace to Heaven and Earth.
As an outstanding rising star within the Immortal Sect, Pei Xuanjing was naturally chosen by many people. Especially those who were very optimistic about Pei Xuanjing, they believed that as long as Pei Xuanjing accumulated sufficient merits, he could gradually ascend to the position of Sect leader's successor and compete for the highest throne in the Immortal Sect.
For this proposal, Pei Xuanjing did not refuse. He agreed to it.
At the age of sixty-four: Pei Xuanjing led many disciples of the Immortal Sect out of the mountain gate and began searching and suppressing demons within the territory controlled by his sect, continuously suppressing the mischievous demons.
With Pei Xuanjing's continuous rise in the Immortal Sect, it naturally boosted the fortunes of his home kingdom. Blessed by him, as an elder of the Immortal Sect, the kingdom continuously absorbed several neighbouring kingdoms and expanded its territory several times over.
Such expansion of the kingdom would ordinarily be restrained by the Immortal Sect, but due to the presence of the thriving Pei Xuanjing, many cultivators in the Immortal Sect in charge of this matter chose to turn a blind eye.
While Pei Xuanjing led his men to capture the demons, this kingdom also constructed a new Demon Suppression Tower within the kingdom according to his requirements to detain the demons Pei Xuanjing had captured.
At the age of sixty-seven: The number of demons between Heaven and Earth was on the rise. Even the cultivators of the Immortal Sect suffered frequent attacks from these demons. The number of personnel in the teams formed by various major Immortal Sects to suppress and capture the demons continued to decline. However, what shocked everyone the most was that the team led by Pei Xuanjing had the lowest casualty rate among many teams of the Immortal Sect.
With such a situation, many people realized that Pei Xuanjing's strength was certainly far beyond what he had shown. This attracted countless people who wanted to join his team and become a member of his force.
At the age of seventy-one: Pei Xuanjing led his subordinates and captured countless demons. In the kingdom where he resided, numerous demons were suppressed continuously.
However, given the countless demons in Heaven and Earth, even with the power of Pei Xuanjing alone, it was unable to affect the overall situation. The demons he captured were merely a drop in the ocean compared to the rampaging demons everywhere in Heaven and Earth, not even one-thousandth.
Under the overall situation, the demons continuously eroded the power range of the Immortal Sect, leading to the continuous death of disciples of the Immortal Sect and human race.
During this period, Pei Xuanjing, who had continuously made great contributions, had his status within the Immortal Sect continually enhanced. He had gathered a powerful force behind him. The strength was enough to sway many decisions of the Immortal Sect.
At the age of seventy-three: In the ten-odd years of constant battles between the Immortal Sect and the demons, the demons scattered everywhere in Heaven and Earth were not suppressed and cleaned up. Instead, they continuously appeared and the demons that appeared became more and more powerful.
In contrast, the Immortal Sect lost countless cultivators and suffered heavy injuries in the process of suppressing the demons. If such a situation continued, the demons would grow stronger, and the Immortal Sect would become weaker. This is something that many Immortal Sects were unwilling to accept.
Facing such an increasingly deteriorating situation, conflicts emerged among the understandings and approaches of various Immortal Sects. Some wanted to compromise, and some wanted to fight to the end.
Even though Pei Xuanjing had a high position within the Immortal Sect, in the face of such a situation, what he and his force could influence was only the decision of his own Immortal Sect. As for the decisions of other Immortal Sects, he had absolutely no influence.
There was temporarily no solution for this. He began leading people out of the sect to continue suppressing the demons.
At the age of seventy-eight: These demons were becoming more and more powerful, and the power of the Immortal Sect was increasingly weaker, and the tendency for compromise was getting stronger.
During the hesitation of Pei Xuanjing's own sect, Pei Xuanjing proposed a suggestion. He told the many powerful individuals of the Immortal Sect that he had a way to enhance the common mortals, to increase their power to resist the demons.
Thus, Martial Arts, a unique Cultivation system in Daming World, emerged in this world. After all, though the Cultivation of Martial Arts requires talent, it is not as demanding as the Spiritual Root in this world.
The Cultivation of Martial Arts in the Mortal Realm concentrates on strengthening one's bones and muscles externally, while internally focusing on conditioning one's internal organs and marrow, and transforming one's body and blood. Even without the affinity for spiritual energy in the Heaven and Earth like a Spiritual Root, one can still enhance oneself through resources.
Mortals who achieved success in cultivating Martial Arts might be powerless against those strong demons but against the ordinary demons, they now had a certain ability to fight back.
For these Immortal Sects, although the powerful demons are terrifying, they are not impossible to defeat. Instead, the ordinary demons, even though they are not powerful, when they come in large numbers, even the top powers of the Immortal Sect would be terrified.
The method proposed by Pei Xuanjing at this moment, named Martial Arts Cultivation, seemed to be the most suitable for these Immortal Sects. They could use common mortals to deal with ordinary demons, thereby significantly reducing their burden.
Naturally, there were people who objected.
The reason why the Immortal Sects were superior was that they monopolized Cultivation, possessed great power, and were transcendent.
If ordinary people obtained power, would they threaten them?
The emergence of martial arts can indeed empower these mortals, helping them assist the immortal sects in their fight against demons.
However, if the promotion of martial arts empowers mortals with greater strengths, whether it will impact the status of cultivators is also important. Many cultivators even consider this threat to be greater than that from demons.
In response to this concern, Pei Xuanjing claimed that the ultimate level of martial arts cultivation is merely equivalent to a low-ranking cultivator – equivalent to the threshold it takes an Outer Disciple to become an Inner Disciple, and is therefore negligible for the immortal sects.
This is why, despite Pei Xuanjing grasping even more profound methods of martial arts, he initially only revealed cultivation practices for the Mortal Realm.
Even if he wanted to implement martial arts in this world, he must do it step by step, boiling the frog slowly. If he alarmed the powerful cultivators of the immortal sects right away, he wouldn't be able to succeed at all.
At 79: This world is abundant in spiritual energy, and ordinary people naturally have robust physiques. They simply haven't capitalized on these advantages.
When the martial arts were introduced, it was like they found the key to their own treasure. Many people, who lack cultivation spiritual roots but inherently have strong bodies and tend to be enlightening in martial arts, had made rapid progress.
At 81: Perhaps it was because of accumulated benefits and years of nourishment by spiritual energy. Ordinary people who got the methods of cultivation progressed rapidly. Just after three short years, some talented individuals surprisingly managed to reach the Blood Transformation Realm. It was beyond imagination.
Pei Xuanjing, as the propagator of the "Martial Scripture" throughout the world, received reverence from countless mortals—it was no exaggeration to say that everyone knew him.
The emergence of these martial artists drastically reduced the pressure the immortal sect disciples faced from the vast amounts of ordinary demons, allowing them more energy to encircle and suppress the more potent demons.
Martial artists formed teams, joining forces with multiple cities and villages, which could defend their areas. Even when attacked by demons, as long as these demons weren't overly strong, they could resist, gaining enough time for help to arrive, even if they were disadvantaged.
The more human martial artists there were, the stronger the resistance against demons became. As the dynamic shifted, the threat of demons doesn't seem as terrifying as anticipated.
At 89: Over a decade passed, the volume of martial artists surged like bamboo shoots after the rain. Ordinary demons were gradually killed by human martial artists and the threat of demons had appeared to wane.
But as the threat of demons seemed to pass, wise members of many immortal sects noticed that their situation did not improve, and it seemed they were facing a new challenge.
The number of martial artists was increasing, and these martial artists who had reached the top level of cultivation posed a considerable force. In close combat, even some medium-level cultivators were caught off guard.
Over the years, in addition to the battles with demons, these mortals—who were previously seen as ants in their eyes—began to pose a threat to ordinary immortal sect disciples after gaining power.
Especially because of certain incidents that led to conflicts between disciples of the immortal sects and secular martial artists, the martial artists eventually realized that they were no longer lowly ants, they now had the strength to challenge the disciples of the immortal sects.
Once a lowly ant acquires potent forces, it will naturally refuse to be slaughtered. Initially, they couldn't resist the oppression of the disciples of the immortal sect, they were powerless and could only numbly accept reality.
But this moment—after attaining strength—they were not willing to bow easily and began to awaken.
This situation left the wise people of the immortal sects terrified—they almost foresaw the future. If one day these martial artists became even stronger, the immortal sects would lose everything they currently possess, and they would no longer be able to manipulate the mortals as they currently do.
At this time, many powerful cultivators from various immortal sects gathered and headed for the immortal sect, looking for the initiator of it all, Pei Xuanjing—the founder of martial arts in this world.
The arrival of these people was within Pei Xuanjing's expectations. He knew there wouldn't be fools in these immortal sects. Once martial arts was spread, and martial artists started appearing, people in the immortal sects would inevitably realize the consequences.
That is why, even though Pei Xuanjing initially mastered even more cultivation methods, the techniques he provided were only up to the peak of the Mortal Realm—powerless against real immortal sect disciples. Hence, these powerful cultivators had permitted the spread of martial arts.
However, even Pei Xuanjing, the promoter, didn't anticipate the rapid development of martial arts in this world. Incredibly, some martial artists, relying on their talents, had broken through the shackles of the Spirit Realm, which would have been impossible had they not sparred with middle-level disciples of the immortal sects.
Because of this, these people came looking for Pei Xuanjing. However, it was already too late.
Martial arts had been propagated. Initially, in order to deal with demons, many immortal sects had jointly promoted it. The will of many immortal sects was unbreachable; they had spread throughout the human race, used by all humans for cultivation.
Now, even if many immortal sects united to stop the propagation of martial arts, it was impossible.
To truly put a halt to the practice of martial arts, all practicing martial artists would have to be killed. But such actions would be equivalent to eradicating humanity, which no immortal sect dares to suggest.
At 91: Since the spread of martial arts is inevitable, there's no point in questioning Pei Xuanjing. After all, even if Pei Xuanjing had proposed it in the first place, many immortal sects approved it in the end. Now that the circumstances have come to this, even if some believe Pei Xuanjing's initial intentions were ill, without proof, they have no right to accuse him, and they can't even discuss it.
At 93: As the founder of martial arts, the kingdom Pei Xuanjing originated from was the place where martial arts had the greatest effect, since he often demonstrated and lectured there. It was the place with the most martial artists, the most skilled martial artists, and the kingdom had almost become the Holy Land for the practice of martial arts around the Heaven and Earth, with people constantly coming to study and cultivate.
Of course, besides these, the most important thing was the Power of Incense Fire.
For many years, Pei Xuanjing had kept promoting martial arts so any practitioner in the world who practiced martial arts would be grateful to him. As the pioneer of martial arts in this world, he naturally accumulated numerous amounts of the Power of Incense Fire.