428: The development of Xuanhuang Chamber of Commerce

Time flew by; in the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed.

A hundred years is a lifetime for Mortals, but in the eyes of Cultivators, it is merely a flick of a finger.

However, the Xu Family underwent significant changes during these hundred years.

With the help of the Family's secret time domain, the Xu Family's overall strength surged exponentially every day.

A hundred years ago, there were only over three hundred Dao Lords in the Family, but now the number of Dao Lords has exceeded a thousand.

The number of Heavenly Seat Elders remained thirty-six, but all thirty-six of them were at the Half-step Dao Lord Realm.

The Earth Seat Elders increased by over a hundred, now reaching two hundred and sixty-nine. Among them, forty-eight were at Dao Lord Perfection, one hundred and twenty-four were at Dao Lord Peak, and ninety-seven were at Dao Lord Late Stage.

Although many Earth Seat Elders were strong enough to be promoted to Heavenly Seat Elder, after discussions among Xu Ming and others, the number of Heavenly Seat Elders was not further increased.

Heavenly Seat Elders are considered high-ranking members of the Family and can participate in major Family affairs as members of the Family's Elder Council. Therefore, their number should not be too large. Furthermore, to become a Heavenly Seat Elder, one must accomplish a great deed and receive the joint support of ten or more Heavenly Seat Elders.

Consequently, none of the Earth Seat Elders who had reached Dao Lord Perfection had yet become Heavenly Seat Elders.

There were eight hundred and thirty-two Human Seat Elders, all at the Dao Lord Early Stage and Middle Stage.

Those Family members who wished to advance were all assigned to the External Affairs Hall.

The number of Dao Severing Cultivators exceeded three thousand.

The numbers of Martial Artists mentioned above, excluding Qin Huan and a few others, were all members of the Xu Family, and this did not even include their affiliated forces.

These affiliations came from the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild and the forces established by some Xu Family members after spreading their roots in various Dao Domains.

Since Xu Qing re-adjusted the arrangements for various territories before entering seclusion, the focus of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild shifted from the Myriad Race Territory to the Human Territory.

The headquarters of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild was not in the Nine Heavens Dao Domain but elsewhere.

In the central eastern part of the Human Territory, there is a Dao Domain called Mystic Yellow Dao Territory, which ranks at the bottom among the three hundred and sixty Dao Domains of the Human Race. Its overall strength is even inferior to the Canglan Dao Domain, ranking three hundred and fifty-six among the three hundred and sixty Dao Domains.

The Mystic Yellow Dao Territory only has ten Supreme Powers, and these ten Supreme Powers only have fourteen Dao Lords. The strongest is barely at the Dao Lord Middle Stage, originating from the strongest power in the Dao Domain, the Mystic Yellow Dao Sect.

Speaking of the Mystic Yellow Dao Sect, it once had its glory. The Ancestral Master who founded the Dao Sect was once a Dao Ancestor. Originally, such an Immortal Power, even if its founding Ancestral Master fell, should have been able to stand firm like the Yin and Yang Dao Sect. However, the Mystic Yellow Dao Sect had bad luck.

Its founding Ancestral Master experienced the great war in the Primordial Era and perished together with a Dao Ancestor of the Yao Race.

Originally, the Ancestral Master's death would not have led to decline, as there were still many legacies within the Sect, and it was protected by the Sacred Hall due to its glorious military achievements.

However, during the subsequent Darkness Upheaval, the Mystic Yellow Dao Sect suffered heavy losses among its strong Cultivators, and seven or eight parts of its Legacy were used up. Immediately after the war, it experienced an internal strife, and a group of strong Cultivators left the Dao Sect to establish their own powers.

After these setbacks, the Mystic Yellow Dao Sect completely declined. If not for the care of the Sacred Hall, it probably would not have been able to Cultivate a Dao Lord Middle Stage strong Cultivator, nor would it have been able to govern the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory.

And the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory, due to its Legacy not being as good as other Dao Domains, has always been at the bottom, belonging to a type of Dao Domain not valued by Human Race powers.

However, a hundred years ago, a young Prodigy calling himself Xuanhuang Xu Qing emerged, not only annihilating the Eternal Night Dao Domain but also clashing with Immortal Overlords.

After this Prodigy appeared, the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory immediately attracted the attention of various powerful races. Consequently, a large number of strong Cultivators poured into this inconspicuous Dao Domain, making the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory a hot topic at the time.

But after a search, those powers returned disappointed.

What they did not know was that during that period, the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild took root in the first realm of the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory—the Ancient Xuanhuang Realm.

In just a hundred years, the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild, with its immense financial resources and powerful methods, bloomed everywhere in the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory.

The expansion of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild was naturally not smooth sailing. Because the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild touched upon the interests of many local powers, its expansion was often accompanied by bloody slaughter.

It even angered the Blazing Sun Dao Sect, one of the ten Supreme Powers.

The Blazing Sun Dao Sect is a Sect centered on the Fire Dao. Its Disciples are proficient in Fire Dao spells and Artifact Refining. It can be said that the Dao weapons refined by the Blazing Sun Dao Sect are highly favored by various Sects.

However, the emergence of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild caused the Blazing Sun Dao Sect to suffer losses. After all, relying on the Heavenly Weapon Hall as an advantage, the King-grade Dao weapons produced by the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild were of good quality and low price, and they had a large output.

This was also one of the most important commodities for the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild to open up the trade routes of the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory.

But this also touched the interests of the Blazing Sun Dao Sect. In just a few decades, the Blazing Sun Dao Sect's revenue from King-grade Dao weapons sharply decreased by 50%, and Dao Spirit Treasures were also affected, losing 10% of the market.

Thus, forty-seven years ago, the Blazing Sun Dao Sect declared war on the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild.

That battle also became the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild's famous battle.

On Blazing Sun Mountain, Xu Song defeated Blazing Sun Dao Lord in ten moves, shaking the entire Mystic Yellow Dao Territory.

After this battle, the Blazing Sun Dao Sect became a partner of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild, and Blazing Sun Dao Lord also became the honorary president of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild's first-level branch in the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory.

The reason for this was that the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild was there to make money, not to invade, which would not cause resentment from other Supreme Powers.

In the future, when entering other Dao Domains, the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild would also follow this rule.

This move also led to another Dao Sect—the Azure Wood Dao Sect—reaching a cooperation with the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild.

The Azure Wood Dao Sect, like the Blazing Sun Dao Sect, had great prestige in the Mystic Yellow Dao Territory because this Sect was famous for Alchemy. It had four Supreme Dao Alchemists, and Azure Wood Dao Lord was even a top-tier Supreme Dao Alchemist.

Now that the Xu Family had the Heavenly Weapon Hall, as long as there were Materials, even chaotic spiritual treasures could be refined. Therefore, in terms of Dao weapon sales, the Blazing Sun Dao Sect's involvement was not essential.

However, when it came to Medicinal Pills, there were no Dao Alchemists with high attainments. The strongest Alchemist in the Family was only an Advanced Supreme Dao Alchemist, Xu Qian. Besides him, there was not a single Supreme Dao Alchemist in the Family.

Xu Qian was the strongest Alchemy Genius in the Family, currently Cultivating at the Cangwu Dao Academy. The Family did not intend for him to give up Cultivation to refine Medicinal Pills for the Family.

Therefore, whenever Medicinal Pills with high demand were involved, the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild was somewhat stretched and could only purchase them externally.

The proactive cooperation of the Azure Wood Dao Sect filled this shortcoming of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild.

The joining of the two great Dao Sects also allowed the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild to expand rapidly in the following decades.

Currently, in the three thousand realms of the Dao Domain, there is a second-level Xuanhuang branch for every hundred realms, totaling thirty second-level branches. The cultivation of each branch president is at least Dao Lord Peak.

Of course, these people were all strong Cultivators recruited from various Heavenly Realms and even various great Dao Domains.

Loyalty might require time to test, but it did manage to support the second-level branches.

Below the second-level branches, there were also third-level branches. One third-level branch was established in each Heavenly Realm, with the branch president having a cultivation of Dao Lord Middle Stage or above. Currently, over two thousand one hundred have been established.

Those who could become branch presidents were talents with business acumen. Such talents generally came from Family powers. Using such people as branch presidents indirectly brought their underlying powers under control.

As for the Dao Provinces, no more branches were established. Some Dao Provinces were too barren, and there was no need to establish branches. At most, a Profound Yellow Pavilion could be set up for collecting intelligence and Heaven And Earth Treasure.

After all, the main business of the Xuanhuang Merchant Guild was still auctions, and Heaven And Earth Treasure were indispensable.