214: Expansion of power

The second year.

During this time, you had been diligently cultivating the Slave Contract Secret Method in seclusion, but a message from Fragrant Lord Qiao interrupted your cultivation.

In recent months, several million refugees have successively poured into Longyang Town, all hoping to join Fengyun Pavilion to change their fate.

After all, as long as one possesses a Spiritual Root, they can join Fengyun Pavilion, which not only provides food and lodging but also cultivation resources, truly a step to heaven.

This led to the rapid expansion of Fengyun Pavilion, which swelled to tens of thousands of Disciples in a short time.

However, Low Grade and inferior Spiritual Roots accounted for the vast majority—for example, miscellaneous Spiritual Roots, pseudo Spiritual Roots, and so on, reaching as high as 90%.

And there were less than a hundred Disciples with Heavenly Spiritual Root.

As for supreme Different Spiritual Root and Immortal Spiritual Roots, there were only your four Personal Disciples.

Due to the excessive number of Disciples, it was inevitable that some would bully others.

Many Disciples came from humble backgrounds and had been oppressed by the powerful. Now, having just broken through to the Qi Refinement Stage, they brought their Senior Brothers to seek revenge.

Others were purely driven by a sudden surge of wealth, causing trouble in various Dynasties.

This led to the destruction of many Families, and Fengyun Pavilion's reputation on the Barren Continent plummeted, even being called a Demonic Path force by many.

You immediately had Fragrant Lord Qiao issue strict regulations:

"All Fengyun Pavilion Disciples are not allowed to leave the Immortal Mountain without permission, nor interfere with mortal affairs. Even when performing mortal tasks, they must not commit evil deeds. Violators will have their cultivation crippled for minor offenses and be executed for major ones."

"How should the Disciples who committed offenses before be dealt with?" Fragrant Lord Qiao asked for instructions.

"Kill one to warn a hundred!" You said indifferently.

"But there are thousands of Disciples who committed offenses!" Fragrant Lord Qiao's expression was solemn.

"If laws are not strict, orders will not be followed; if orders are not followed, chaos will arise." You said calmly, "Deal with all of them according to the rules."

After Fragrant Lord Qiao left with her orders, you began to worry—Fengyun Pavilion urgently needed someone skilled in management.

Among your four existing Personal Disciples, three were under ten years old—Xue Miaoyun was only seven, Song Yang and Song Yu were also under ten, and Cheng Rongrong was not good at management.

Moreover, these four had been cultivating in seclusion for a long time and had no time to deal with these trivial matters.

Your younger sister, Qin Yu, was even less suitable; she did things entirely based on her preferences, only seeking to satisfy her impulses.

After much thought, you remembered someone—Chen Yuanyuan.

She managed the huge Dream Realization Tower in an orderly manner, was good at employing people, and her character was trustworthy.

Once you made up your mind, you immediately acted.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, you arranged for yourself the identity of a Fengyun Pavilion Utility Disciple and headed to Tiangang City with Clumsy and Chu Tianqi.

However, Chu Tianqi did not know your true identity. His mission this time was personally arranged by the "Pavilion Master," who sent him to protect you.

After all, the Chu Dynasty was Chu Tianqi's territory, and having him there could save a lot of trouble.

Longyang Town and Tiangang City were over a hundred thousand kilometers apart. You took a void-breaking boat and arrived after a day.

You put away the void-breaking boat outside Tiangang City and walked discreetly with Chu Tianqi towards the Dream Realization Tower.

At this moment, the hall of the Dream Realization Tower was very lively, with many people sitting around, watching a man and a woman arguing in the center of the hall.

As soon as you entered the hall, you saw that dissolute Crown Prince—Chu Ming.

He was blocking Chen Yuanyuan, preventing her from leaving.

Ever since Chu Ming was tested and found to have no Spiritual Root, he returned to the Chu Dynasty in disappointment, continuing to be his dissolute Crown Prince.

He originally dreamed of joining Fengyun Pavilion to Cultivate Immortals, feeling that whoever wanted to be the Crown Prince of this Dynasty could be it.

Unfortunately, dreams and reality are often just a step apart.

As for using a spirit awakening pill to awaken a Spiritual Root, he was completely unwilling to consider it—if people knew that the dignified Crown Prince only awakened a useless Spiritual Root through a Medicinal Pill, wouldn't they laugh their heads off?

Moreover, Fengyun Pavilion simply did not accept people who awakened their Spiritual Roots using spirit awakening pills.

In that case, he could only be a Loose Cultivator, and it would be better to focus on martial arts.

After all, a martial artist who reaches the Grandmaster Realm is not inferior in strength to a Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage.

You couldn't really hate this fellow Chu Ming, even though he was incited by Cai Jie to send people to assassinate you during the ninth simulation.

But you always felt he was somewhat pitiful, though you couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

What's more, he was, after all, a descendant of Chu Tianqi.

However, it was precisely because Chu Ming always pestered Chen Yuanyuan one-sidedly that no one dared to marry Chen Yuanyuan.

At this moment, he was still pestering Chen Yuanyuan as usual.

"Chen Yuanyuan, you have no choice! Either marry me and become the Crown Princess, or live alone for the rest of your life." Chu Ming's tone was very displeased.

Chen Yuanyuan's attitude was firm: "I would rather never marry than marry someone like you."

"What's wrong with someone like me? What's wrong? At least I'm the Crown Prince of a Dynasty!" Chu Ming's face turned red with anger.

If Chen Yuanyuan weren't Marshal Chen's granddaughter, he would have used force long ago.

But then again, if Chen Yuanyuan wasn't Marshal Chen's granddaughter, he might not have wanted to marry her as his Crown Princess.

Hearing Chu Ming call himself the Crown Prince, Chu Tianqi beside you frowned slightly: "How could such a good-for-nothing be chosen as the Crown Prince? These descendants are getting more and more unruly."

You curiously asked Chu Tianqi: "You don't manage these affairs?"

Chu Tianqi shook his head: "Ever since I advanced to the Heavenly Human Realm, I have been pursuing higher Realms and have long since stopped caring about worldly affairs."

"Later, after joining Fengyun Pavilion, I focused on Cultivation, wanting to contribute to the future fight against the Liu Clan Immortal Family. I really don't understand the current state of the Dynasty."

You continued to ask: "You didn't let them know you are a Fengyun Pavilion Elder?"

Chu Tianqi shook his head: "None of my descendants are promising. They have been idle and dissolute for years. If they knew my current identity, wouldn't they become even more arrogant?"

"Besides, as long as the Liu Clan Immortal Family is not eliminated, I cannot rest easy for a day."

You asked again: "Does anyone else in the Chu Family possess a Spiritual Root?"

Chu Tianqi replied: "Only Chu Yang and I. But I also strictly require Chu Yang not to meddle in worldly affairs and to concentrate on Cultivation."

You smiled: "You, sometimes, are just too serious."

After speaking, you stepped towards Chen Yuanyuan and asked, "Are you Chen Yuanyuan?"

Chen Yuanyuan looked you over and nodded slightly: "And you are?"

Before you could answer, Chu Ming next to you widened his eyes and angrily said, "You, Qin Chen, how dare you come to my territory?"

You ignored Chu Ming and continued to smile at Chen Yuanyuan: "Are you interested in joining Fengyun Pavilion?"

Hearing this, Chen Yuanyuan shook her head with a serious expression.

Chu Ming immediately interjected angrily: "You scoundrel! You're already engaged to Cheng Rongrong, yet you dare to provoke Chen Yuanyuan. Isn't that going too far!"

You completely ignored Chu Ming's words, but were puzzled by Chen Yuanyuan's refusal: "Why refuse? Don't you want to Cultivate Immortals, don't you want eternal life?"

Before Chen Yuanyuan could answer, Chu Ming preemptively laughed: "What about Fengyun Pavilion? Their people burn, kill, and plunder everywhere, committing all sorts of evil. Such a Demonic Path force also wants Chen Yuanyuan to join, you really underestimate her."

You looked at Chen Yuanyuan's expression and realized that Chu Ming had hit the nail on the head.