Mysterious mirror hanging high

“But if we weren’t such close relationships as master and disciple, or bloodline descendants, even if I were working under the God Transformation Heavenly Monarch, they wouldn’t have been able to squeeze out a spot for me to receive the Immortal Eye.”

Ye Jianghuai shook his head. "To be honest, Xuan Jing, you have now reached the Nine Apertures stage of your Nascent Soul Formation. If you practice according to the rules, it will not be difficult for you to achieve the Divine Transformation. However, even if you are absolutely sure of achieving the Ten Divine Transformations, the major forces in the Immortal Continent will only regard you as a future Nascent Soul Stage Great True Lord. Do you understand what I mean?"

Jing Yu said thoughtfully, "Xuan Jing understands what you mean, Senior. Are you trying to say that the major forces in the human world are not optimistic about my ability to become a god?"

"That's right." Ye Jianghuai sighed, "When you reach the late Nascent Soul stage, if you want to make further progress in your path and achieve the Divine Transformation Realm, it's not about your aptitude, foundation, and character... it's about connections."

"If you don't have any background, it doesn't matter... but if you want to become a god in this world, even if Penglai Tianjun Xiao Buyi reincarnates into the lower world, it's just a foolish dream."

"When you break through to the God Transformation stage, you must be immobilized for at least 49 days to refine the laws. During this time, the God Transformation Heavenly Lords who appear in the world are enough to kill you billions of times!"

Jing Yu was calm about this. He had the [Bitter Crossing Sutra] with him, and even if he worked hard, he could still become a spirit with refined body. At worst, he would have to burrow underground and eat soil to refine his body. Sooner or later, he would be able to ascend to heaven, but it would just take longer.

"Why do you think Penglai's Six Paths of Zhongzhou haven't produced a Transformation God Heavenly Sovereign in so many years? Besides the fact that the foundations of these sects are indeed far inferior to those of the [One Mountain, Two Temples, and Three Pavilions], there's another important reason: the Six Paths' founder's immortal eye was snatched away by another Transformation God Heavenly Sovereign. Without the immortal eye, the Six Paths naturally have no chance of advancing to the Transformation Godhood..."

Ye Jianghuai said: "Now the Six Paths of Zhongzhou only have the name of the Divine Transformation Sect, and its gradual decline is inevitable..."

Jing Yu asked again, "Senior Jiang Huai, do you know how many Divine Transformation Heavenly Sovereigns there are in the world today?"

Ye Jianghuai pondered for a moment and said slowly, "I don't know the exact number, but I can roughly calculate it."

"For example, in your Penglai Immortal Continent, if we only count the number of human Heavenly Sovereigns, there are two in the Penglai Holy Land, one in the Juntian Temple, one in the Liangyi Temple, one in the Xuanyin Pavilion, and one in the Songfeng Pavilion... There are six Heavenly Sovereigns of the Righteous Path, and two neutral Heavenly Sovereigns whose dojos are not located in the Zhongzhou region."

"There are five Demonic Heavenly Monarchs in the Southern Tian Territory... If we add that lunatic Qiu Dongxuan, there will be fourteen Human Divine Transformation Heavenly Monarchs in Penglai Xianzhou alone."

Jing Yu was surprised and said, "Although the Tiannan Territory is also a large territory, it only occupies a small southern corner of Penglai Immortal Continent. How could it have five Deified Demon Lords?"

Ye Jianghuai smiled and pointed to the sky: "To the God Transformation Heavenly Monarch, the power and territory of the world are no longer important. The most important immortal eye is above the Nine Heavens Gangfeng Layer... The territory they truly care about is in the sky."

Then he continued, "The Tianxiang Immortal Continent and the Juechen Immortal Continent are similar. The total number of Heavenly Sovereigns in these three continents is estimated to be no more than fifty."

"The Futu Immortal Continent, dominated by ancient Buddhists, is an exception. The lifespan of the ancient Buddhist deities and Buddhas is too short. In addition, the biggest bottleneck restricting the power of incense and vows is actually population. Even a huge immortal continent can only support less than ten deities and Buddhas."

"All I can say is that the Ancient Monk's [Path of Incense and Vows] and [Path of Foundation-Building Alchemy] each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The [Immortal Eye] limits the advancement of the [Path of Foundation-Building Alchemy] principles. While the Ancient Monk's Divine Transformation isn't subject to this restriction, he still has to gather believers everywhere to accumulate incense and vows. But there are only so many people in the world, so isn't the source of these believers another form of [Immortal Eye]?"

"Demon Heavenly Sovereigns can be found in all five seas and four continents, but they are fewer than human Heavenly Sovereigns. At most, there are only about twenty or thirty of them, and half of them are Dragon Heavenly Sovereigns."

"According to this calculation, there are no more than a hundred Divine Transformation cultivators in the entire Xianzhou world."

Ye Jianghuai stroked his beard and said, "In fact, it's just that I don't have much background. If I could reach the heavens and pass on the message to any Divine Transformation cultivator, I would just ask and they would know. After all, the [Immortal Eyes] in the sky are all taken. If you want to become a Divine Transformation cultivator, you have to occupy a spot... Which spot is vacant, and which spot is filled by a newcomer? The major Divine Transformation cultivators know this."

Jing Yu suddenly said, "Senior, if you didn't seek to attain divine enlightenment in this world, but instead chose to go to the cave to attain a pseudo-divination... wouldn't that extend your lifespan by another three thousand years?"

Ye Jianghuai's eyes flashed, and he said with a smile: "That's right, but [Pseudo-Godhood] is not that easy to prove... Among twenty or thirty late Nascent Soul cultivators, it would be great if one could succeed."

"Furthermore, the laws in secret realms and blessed lands are so incomplete that even a pseudo-god cannot be achieved. One must at least reach the first level of [Cave Heaven], and a large cave heaven, to have hope."

"But now, most of the known large caves are controlled by the Shending Imperial Clan and the Shending Aristocratic Family. How can ordinary Yuanying cultivators use large caves?"

"If there really is a large cave heaven, I can try to achieve the [Pseudo-Godhood]. After all, regardless of whether it is true or false, once it is achieved, it will instantly add 3,000 years of life to one's lifespan. How many cultivators who are about to die can resist such a temptation?"

"But even if it is a [Pseudo-God]"

So does the Ye family have a large cave?

After all, this matter was almost a clan secret. Jing Yu only thought about it in his heart, but never asked it out loud. However, he felt that if the Nascent Soul cultivators in the Immortal Continent were the most likely to possess a large cave heaven...

That person is undoubtedly [True Lord Fu Lu] Ye Xingyun!

After that, Jing Yu chatted with Ye Jianghuai and Ye Lingyue for a long time, discussed Taoism and abstruse things for several hours, and exchanged some experiences of cultivation in the Nascent Soul stage before preparing to get up and say goodbye.

"Lingyue, take Xuan Jing to the martial arts arena and take a look at the members of my Ye family who are of the right age to see if there are any promising talents who are fortunate enough to join Xuan Jing's sect." Ye Jianghuai said slowly.

Ye Lingyue received her father's order and brought Jing Yu to the Ye family's martial arts training ground. She gathered all the young and outstanding Qi-cultivating and foundation-building cultivators of the Ye family there, hundreds of them in total, waiting for Jing Yu to select them.

Thousands of ordinary Ye family members with ordinary qualifications gathered outside the martial arts arena, all looking at the hundreds of talented people present with envy, including the middle-aged [Ye Jinyuan].

Jing Yu casually glanced at the hundreds of Qi-training and foundation-building cultivators. Most of them were Qi-training, and there were also twenty or thirty foundation-building cultivators. Their aptitude and foundation were pretty good, but there was no one who was particularly outstanding.

Jing Yu thought to himself, "The core descendants of the Ye family who are truly at the Nascent Soul stage will naturally not be allowed to be chosen by me, but even these second-rate talents in front of me...are actually a bit mediocre."

In Jing Yu's opinion, if one compares the Hongchen Haifeng family horizontally, both of them are from the Nascent Soul Immortal Clan, excluding the genius Feng Lingye who has achieved the Golden Purple Dancheng stage, the talents and foundations of the ordinary talents on both sides are surprisingly similar...

But the problem is that the Feng family was just a small immortal clan with only one Nascent Soul cultivator in the early stage back then, but the Ye family now has three Nascent Soul cultivators in the clan, and even a late Nascent Soul Great True Lord like Ye Jianghuai as the mainstay, which is definitely a top-level Nascent Soul immortal clan.

This shows that the Ye family has lost its talent, and after Ye Xingyun, there is indeed no rising star who can take up the main responsibility.