Rebuilding the Immortal Cultivator Clan

The following morning at dawn.

Li Zhirui personally appeared before the remaining disciples of the Spiritual Cloud Sect, announcing that from that day forward, the Spiritual Cloud Sect had become a vassal force of the Li family and would enjoy the Li family's protection!

The vast majority of cultivators had already been terrified by the previous fierce and brutal battle, and upon hearing Li Zhirui's words, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

With the protection of a Nascent Soul family, they believed that they would never have to endure such a dreadful situation again.

Li Zhirui observed everyone's reactions, the unwillingness and resolve of Liang Huan'an and others, and the anticipation and joy of the lower-ranked disciples.

Liang Huan'an and the others would not live more than two years, and even if they passed down all their Taoist traditions, they would pose no threat to the Li family in the short term, since even the most talented individual would need time to grow.

After settling the most fundamental issues, Li Zhirui discussed minor matters such as the Spiritual Cloud Sect's future tributes with Liang Huan'an and others in private.

"I've heard that the Spiritual Cloud Sect has control over two secret realms?" This was Li Zhirui's main goal.

After all, the treasury had been plundered by demon cultivators, and the Scripture Pavilion's inheritances had also been copied by Li Zhirui amid the chaos, leaving only those two second-order secret realms in the hands of the Spiritual Cloud Sect to catch his interest.

"Senior, these are the control tokens for those two secret realms." Xu Changle hesitated for a moment but eventually handed over the items.

"These are actually not made from Boundary Fixing Stones?" Li Zhirui said with some surprise.

Boundary Fixing Stones could be used to stabilize secret realms, thus allowing cultivators to control and actively enter and exit them, and the matching magic artifacts must also contain fragments of Boundary Fixing Stones to establish a connection.

"It seems, senior, you are unaware that to control a secret realm, it's not only the Boundary Fixing Stones that can achieve this." Liang Huan'an's eyebrows raised slightly, but thinking of the Li family's history, he instantly understood and began to explain.

"Boundary Fixing Stones are extremely rare and difficult to acquire; many forces are unable to operate in secret realms because they simply cannot obtain these stones."

"Later, to solve this issue, countless formation masters joined forces, using numerous precious materials, to collectively infer a method that could replace the Boundary Fixing Stones known as the Boundary Array."

"The key to the array lies in planting a Spirit Plant one grade higher within the secret realm to serve as the core of the formation, thereby controlling the entire secret realm..."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhirui's eyes lit up; this method was perfectly suited for controlling lower-order secret realms!

However, according to Liang Huan'an, if the secret realm's order was too high, such as a fifth-order secret realm, then a sixth-order Spirit Plant would be needed to arrange the formation.

But the value of a sixth-order Spirit Plant was no less than that of a Boundary Fixing Stone.

Of course, these were minor issues, and there was no need to worry about them for the time being.

"Does the Spiritual Cloud Sect have the Array Diagram for the Boundary Array?"

"Naturally, we do." As if they had been prepared for this all along, as soon as Li Zhirui asked, they immediately produced the item, presenting it to him at once.

Facing such completely respectful and accommodating behavior from the Spiritual Cloud Sect, Li Zhirui was not relieved but instead became even more vigilant.

Li Zhirui safely secured the Array Diagram; he was unable to discern its authenticity, so he decided to wait for Jiang Fengwu's return to carefully inquire further.

"Spirit Cloud Mountain has already been subdued, but there are undoubtedly still many demon cultivators lurking in this territory; hence, I intend to organize a large army to sweep through the area! To restore Spirit Cloud State to its former peace," Li Zhirui said with a smile, pushing down the caution in his heart.

Of course, this was just a pretext,

The main reason Li Zhirui said this was to prevent Shen Leishan to the north from occupying too much territory in Green Mountain State.

Even if it was impossible to halt their expansion, he wanted to direct them to spread westward, not southward.

Li Zhirui believed that Shen Leishan must have already taken action by now, as he had never thought that he could keep the situation from Shen Leishan; after all, such significant activity couldn't remain hidden.

"Senior's words are very true, as long as those Demon Cultivators are not eradicated, Green Mountain State won't know peace for a single day!"

"With the senior leading us, those insignificant Demon Cultivators will naturally be a piece of cake!"

The others responded in quick succession, barely able to contain their eagerness to tear those Demon Cultivators into a thousand pieces right then and there.

"Your spirit is commendable!" Li Zhirui chuckled lightly and said, "If so, then follow me."

With that said, he summoned a huge Spirit Boat and, with a flash, he appeared at the bow.

——

On the battlefield to the south of Green Mountain State.

A group of Demon Cultivators was fighting a bloody battle, holding back the Cultivators from entering.

Unfortunately, due to being outnumbered and lacking in powerful forces, the Demon Cultivators were finding it increasingly difficult to hold back, and it wouldn't be long before they were to be slaughtered by the Cultivators.

But there was nothing they could do!

Currently the Demon Cultivators were fighting on two fronts, facing immense pressure, and they simply couldn't spare any manpower to help.

And to make matters worse, there was a continuous stream of bad news!

"Damn it! How did Shen Leishan also get involved?!" The leading Demon Cultivator couldn't help but exclaim in shock upon seeing the new intelligence.

The already taut balance for the Demon Cultivators was completely broken due to Shen Leishan's sudden involvement in the conflict!

The Demon Cultivators began to rout on a large scale.

If it had been any other State Domain, the Demon Cultivators might have brought some trouble to the Cultivators by scattering and fleeing, like sacrificing a human village or slaughtering thousands of humans, for instance.

But this time was different. The four major forces had early on taken steps to protect the vastly reduced human population by gathering them all together promptly, leaving few humans outside.

After all, if the humans of Green Mountain State were to be massacred, it would be a troublesome matter for all the major forces, requiring time and effort to transfer humans from their own territories to replenish the population.

Simultaneously.

Li Zhirui also quickly became aware of this situation and felt much lighter. He remarked appreciatively, "Truly worthy of being the former foundation of the Green Mountain Sect, all four Nascent Soul forces are making their moves now!"

"It seems Shen Leishan is not slow to act at all! They have already established quite a few strongholds on the Wood Spirit Sect's territory."

Li Zhirui, leading a group of Cultivators, arrived at the border adjacent to the Wood Spirit Sect and saw a group of Cultivators using lightning to strike down Demon Cultivators, forcing them to flee in a miserable condition.

The situation kept tipping in favor of the Cultivators, and with the four great Nascent Soul forces purging the area, it wouldn't be long before all the Demon Cultivators within Green Mountain State were eradicated, restoring clarity and peace to the realm.

Under Li Zhirui's direction, the Li family's control over the territory in Green Mountain State had expanded just a bit more than the original Spiritual Cloud Sect, naturally northward.

As a result, if Shen Leishan wanted to expand, they could only head westward towards the still unclaimed lands.

But in truth, Wuya Mountain had long set its sights on this region; they just hadn't swept across it yet.

Without any surprises, the two forces would end up in a direct confrontation over this, and they might possibly even come to blows.

Thus, Li Zhirui succeeded in inciting conflict between Shen Leishan and Wuya Mountain.