476: Chapter 476 Defiance

A Lineage is extremely important for a Spirit Transformation Dao Lord; every Disciple within the Lineage who grasps a sliver of the Law and advances to the Nascent Soul Realm serves as both a validation and a supplement to the Dao Monarch's own Great Dao.

Furthermore, a Dao Monarch possesses absolute suppressive power over the Cultivators within their Lineage, making these Cultivators their most loyal subordinates.

Because their mana shares the same source, a Dao Monarch can easily use methods like Sect Formations to extract their power to bolster themselves, unleashing strength that transcends their own Realm.

Within a Spirit Transformation Dao Lord's Dao Field, the Dao Monarch's strength increases by at least one minor Realm, and they can even transfer the backlash from the Laws of Heaven and Earth onto the many Disciples within the field.

However, a Lineage is not necessarily better the larger it is; it must be linked to one's own cultivation Realm.

Once a Lineage becomes too bloated, there is not only the risk of backlash, but the large number of low-level Disciples can easily become weaknesses to be targeted.

Normally, a Dao Monarch's core Lineage is their Sect's Dao Field, while the vast territories encompassed by the Sect are left in a state of "free-range" management.

Small local Sects are essentially nourishment; it doesn't matter what Cultivation Techniques they practice. Only when a Dao Monarch's cultivation makes a great breakthrough and needs expansion will they recruit Genius Disciples on a large scale.

A newly ascended Dao Monarch like Daoist Lord Lihuo doesn't even have a Dao Field yet. His attack on the Endless Demon Court is to seize someone else's territory to then spread his Dao and Cultivate.

Expanding the Lineage doesn't require waiting for the war to be won; the two are not in conflict and can proceed simultaneously.

As the only Nascent Soul True Lord Disciple of Daoist Lord Lihuo, Li Xihe does not spend much time on the front lines; she spends more time scouting for geniuses for the Lihuo Lineage and cultivating them.

Ordinary geniuses are meaningless; at the very least, they must be top-tier geniuses with a sliver of a chance at Core Formation, otherwise it is a complete waste of resources.

Not only must they have high-grade Spiritual Roots, but they also need exceptional Comprehension Ability, and specifically, their insights must be in the fire attribute.

The conditions were so demanding that Li Xihe hadn't recruited many Disciples in several years, and even after finally gathering a group and training them for a while, nearly half were eliminated.

It couldn't be helped; there are almost no Loose Cultivators in this world, and those with good talent join Sects early on. Li Xihe couldn't exactly go and snatch people from other Sects, could she?

Furthermore, Daoist Lord Lihuo's current primary goal is to win the Pioneering War and take over the territory of the Endless Demon Court.

War requires funding, and for this, he even leveraged some of the future benefits of the Endless Demon Court. Otherwise, why would the Beast Taming Sect's Main Mountain and Lady Yaoguang of the Gentlemans Academy help him?

This directly led to a lack of funds for Li Xihe to recruit Disciples. Without visible benefits, geniuses from other Sects would naturally not betray their Sects and give up what they already had to gamble on potential future gains.

Managing a Lineage is a long-term endeavor; even if the war is won, a Nascent Soul True Lord for the Lihuo Lineage cannot be cultivated in a short time.

Li Xihe wasn't in a hurry at first, until she happened to learn about Liu Xuan's children in the Liu Clan School of the Peach Blossom Palace.

Basically all of Liu Xuan's children possess Spiritual Roots, and their overall Spiritual Root talent is extremely high, a rarity in the world.

High Spiritual Root talent was one thing, but their talent for comprehension was also extremely high. Liu Xuan's oldest children were only forty years old, yet there were already over a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators among them, which was simply ridiculous!

Succeeding in Foundation Establishment before the age of forty made them definite Golden Core seeds or even Nascent Soul seeds, each one a Genius on the level of a Nascent Soul Sect's Saint, and Liu Xuan had fathered over a dozen of them alone!

After a careful investigation of Liu Xuan and the Liu Family, Li Xihe was even more dumbfounded.

She had originally thought those dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators were Liu Xuan's most talented children, but the reality was that they had simply reached Foundation Establishment first due to their age advantage; the younger children had even higher talent, they were just too young.

A Heaven-Defying level reproductive spiritual body, also known as the 'Stud Horse Spiritual Body'—its value was no joke. Li Xihe was instantly moved.

Liu Xuan had over seven hundred offspring, and it was said the number was still increasing at a rapid pace.

With such a great resource of talent, why look anywhere else? Thus, Li Xihe paid this visit.

With his thoughts racing, Liu Xuan instantly guessed Li Xihe's purpose.

"Does the True Lord mean you want my Liu Clan to join the Li Huo Lineage?" Liu Xuan asked.

"Exactly!" Li Xihe nodded with satisfaction; speaking with intelligent people was simple.

Liu Xuan did not agree immediately but fell into deep thought. The Liu Clan did not lack a Legacy, so the "great Opportunity" Li Xihe spoke of meant nothing to him.

Joining a Dao Monarch's Lineage meant that one would only receive attention by making progress in the Li Huo path; switching to other paths was not allowed, and the upper limit of one's cultivation would be locked by the Dao Monarch's Realm, making it impossible to surpass them.

Liu Xuan looked down on Daoist Lord Lihuo's Lineage; it couldn't compare at all to the Hunyuan Great Dao he had created himself.

However, not all children could comprehend the Hunyuan Great Dao. Letting those children with talent in the fire and yang attributes join the Lihuo Lineage wasn't a bad idea.

Among the Five Elements, Liu Xuan's comprehension of the Fire Path was actually relatively weak; it was only through the Great Sun True Fire that he had made up for it.

If a portion of the children joined the Li Huo Lineage, the insights they gained would be fed back to him, which was equivalent to stealing from Daoist Lord Lihuo's Lineage.

Furthermore, in the future, these children wouldn't have their upper limits locked by Daoist Lord Lihuo. Their cultivation couldn't surpass Daoist Lord Lihuo, but Liu Xuan's could!

Li Huo could be considered a branch of the Five Elements' Fire attribute. In the future, when these children cultivated to the profound depths of the Lihuo Lineage, Liu Xuan would receive the accumulated insights and directly surpass Daoist Lord Lihuo in Realm. At that time, the master of this Lineage would have to step down.

"Thank you for your favor, True Lord. My Liu Clan is willing to join the Lihuo Lineage!"

Liu Xuan bowed with hands clasped, then instructed his sister Liu Miao and the nearby Lingxiu and Lingyun, "Go and call everyone in the Clan School who practices the Great Sun True Fire Method."

The System had not rewarded him with a fire-attribute technique. The Great Sun True Fire Method was something Liu Xuan had created himself based on his own Three Yang Body Gathering Method and the Great Sun True Fire. Because he had acquired the Great Sun True Fire relatively late, not many of his offspring practiced it.

Before Liu Xuan could finish, he was interrupted by Li Xihe, "I want your entire Liu Clan to enter my Lihuo Lineage. Call them all!"

Liu Miao, Lingxiu, and Ling Yun were intimidated by Li Xihe's Aura and looked at Liu Xuan nervously, unsure of what to do.

Liu Xuan gave them a reassuring look, then turned to Li Xihe with a darkened expression and said coldly, "Does True Lord Li mean for all of my children to switch to the Cultivation Techniques of the Lihuo Lineage?"

"So what?"

"Are you unwilling?"

A terrifying pressure enveloped the courtyard, and the originally gentle sunlight suddenly became scorching. Several small children hid behind Liu Xuan in fear, their foreheads breaking out in a fine sweat.

Liu Xuan flicked his sleeve, and a wheel of great solar light shone brilliantly above the Liu Manor. Gentle sunlight shone into the courtyard where Liu Xuan was, pressing back Li Xihe's Nascent Soul Aura, and everything returned to how it was before.

"True Lord Li, your request is excessive. I cannot comply!" Anger was suppressed in Liu Xuan's tone. If Li Xihe weren't Daoist Lord Lihuo's only Personal Disciple, he would have shown her why the flowers are so red right now.

"You dare to defy me?!!"

Li Xihe first felt disbelief, followed by a surge of rage.