Heavenly Jewel Change
chapter-242-3

Chapter 242 – Breaking Through (3)

The three returned to the wooden room and sat down before the yellow rosewood table inside of it. There were attendants who were dedicated to taking care of this valley, and they were all women of roughly forty years of age. Someone quickly came in to serve tea and snacks.

Fei Lun drank some tea, then said with a smile, “In the future, I’ll have to address you as ‘Consecrated’, sir. Let me introduce XuanTian Palace to you. I’ll start with our members. XuanTian Palace’s supreme leader is naturally his lordship the Palace Master. Below him are the four Grand Elders, who share the same level of status as our three ‘Consecrated’ God Tier Consolidating Equipment Masters. Both are given two sun emblems.”

Zhou Weiqing interrupted, “What cultivation level have these Grand Elders reached? Are they Heavenly Emperors?” Judging from how Fei Lun was a Heavenly King, it seemed likely that Grand Elders had to be on an even higher level than him.

Fei Lun nodded. “Our Grand Elders are all Heavenly Emperor powerhouses and they serve as our greatest combat assets. However, it has been many years since the four Grand Elders have been involved in worldly affairs. They rarely leave XuanTian Palace.”

Zhou Weiqing asked curiously, “Then what level has the Palace Master reached? Heavenly God?”

Fei Lun hesitated a moment, rather startled, then shook his head. “No one knows what level the Palace Master has reached. There are certain rules which all Palace Masters have been forced to follow – they must wear a mask, and they will be the ones to choose and secretly train their successors. Thus, no one knows what level the Palace Master has reached.”

Puzzled, Zhou Weiqing said, “If that’s the case, how does anyone know if the new Palace Master is strong enough for his position?”

Fei Lun said, “That’s not too difficult to explain. After each new Palace Master is chosen, he or she has to be secretly tested by all four Grand Elders. Only if he is viewed as sufficiently well-rounded and at a sufficient level of power would he be allowed to formally succeed in the role of Palace Master. We sometimes talk about this privately. Based on what we know, our Palace Master has to be at least at the Heavenly Emperor stage, if not the Heavenly God stage. Otherwise, how could he convince the Grand Elders to submit wholeheartedly?”

Zhou Weiqing smiled. “If the rank of Palace Master is one which is passed down from generation to generation, is the same true for the Grand Elders?”

Fei Lun shook his head. “No. Grand Elders are chosen according to their power. Anyone who can become a Heavenly Emperor is able to become a Grand Elder. This rule helps to motivate our other members to improve. Let me continue. Below the four Grand Elders are the many Elders, all of whom are also chosen in accordance with their power. All Elders have to be Heavenly Kings, and there are currently twelve of them.”

“These are the most powerful members of XuanTian Palace. Aside from them, we have various departments which are administered by different individuals. I won’t go into detail regarding those levels. All of them will obey your orders when they see you. All you need to know is that their specific ranks are shown by the number of ‘moons’ or ‘stars’ they have. The more they have, the higher-level they are.”

XuanTian Palace was an extremely stratified place, but it was done in an easily recognizable way. The emblems worn across the chest displayed a person’s rank.

Next, Fei Lun gave Zhou Weiqing a simple introduction to the current situation XuanTian Palace was in. Thanks to this introduction, Zhou Weiqing learned that XuanTian Palace’s headquarters was located within this mountain range. To outsiders, this mountain range was strictly off-limits. Not even XuanTian Palace’s members were permitted to enter unless they were at a high enough level.

XuanTian Palace normally didn’t get involved in the governance of the XuanTian Empire, but any of their members who were responsible for a certain area would have status higher than that of the highest local official. This was why Er Chun had completely surpassed W’Batu’s governor, Sang Tan, in power.

There was very little else that needed to be explained. XuanTian Palace had an extremely venerated status in the XuanTian Continent which no other power could compete against. Thus, they could essentially do as they pleased here. This was also the reason why XuanTian Palace only maintained loose oversight of their people.

“Elder, what do I need to do usually everyday?” Zhou Weiqing asked Fei Lun, who was still telling him more information about XuanTian Palace.

Fei Lun chuckled. “Consecrated, your status in XuanTian Palace is second only to that of our Palace Master’s. Aside from him, no one can force you to do anything. Even the Palace Master himself would first take your opinions into consideration. Normally, you can do whatever you wish. If there is anything you need, you can just ask for it. People will acquire it for you. Your freedom won’t be restricted at all, and you can go wherever you please. However, when our Palace is in grave danger, you have to intervene to help us. But of course, the chance of that happening is virtually zero.”

Zhou Weiqing beamed. The ‘Consecrated’ truly were treated excellently. It seemed as though his plan had been a success. Now that he had such a transcendent position within XuanTian Palace, it would be much easier for him to hunt down the Spatial Teleportation Gem.

Zhou Weiqing asked no further questions. He was a new member of XuanTian Palace; to immediately ask about the Spatial Teleportation Gem would just be too obvious, and extremely foolhardy. He had to handle things stably, step by step, and gain XuanTian Palace’s trust. Besides… given his current status, who knows he might even be granted direct access to the Gem!

After Fei Lun finished giving Zhou Weiqing a rundown of XuanTian Palace, he quickly departed. However, while doing so, he hinted that if Zhou Weiqing needed someone to carry out a mission, he would be willing and able to do it.

To Zhou Weiqing, his first step of joining XuanTian Palace had been a perfect success. Not only had he successfully joined, he had also been given an exalted position. This dramatically increased his chances of gaining access to the Spatial Teleportation Gem. Now that he had also proven his status as a God Tier Consolidating Equipment Master, he might be able to gain even more trust and ask for the chance to study the gem. If that was possible, it would be simply perfect.

After Fei Lun left, Zhou Weiqing didn’t immediately bring Shangguan Bing’er outside for a stroll. Instead, he continued to train within the wooden room to stabilize himself at his new level of cultivation.

Shangguan Bing’er told Zhou Weiqing about what she had felt cultivating next to him as he had been passed out. The two tried it out once more, only to discover that so long as she was cultivating within a meter of him, her own Saint Energy would resonate with his and be guided by it.

Now, Zhou Weiqing’s circulating Saint Energy and the way he absorbed atmospheric energies ensured that Shangguan Bing’er’s body was continuously improved as well, and the rate at which she improved was so fast that even she herself was astonished by it. It must be remembered that when she had re-encountered Zhou Weiqing, she had merely been at the six-Jeweled level. Now, she was already at the middle of the seventh-Jeweled level. It had only been a few short months! Although this rate of improvement couldn’t compare to what Zhou Weiqing experienced when he Devoured the energies of the Heavenly God-Tier Dragon, it was still absolutely shocking.

Zhou Weiqing came to a daring conclusion: when his Saint Energy was finally consolidated into a Saint Core Nucleus, perhaps he would finally be able to help the three Shangguan sisters in forming Saint Cores as well. Even though they lacked the Saint Attribute, their bodies were filled with Saint Energy!

Around dusk that same day, two ‘Executors’ who each had a crescent moon emblem came to invite him to a banquet. Only then did the two of them halt their cultivation.

This time, they didn’t ride a carriage. When they exited the gorge, the two Executors gave Zhou Weiqing a quick report before guiding him forwards. They didn’t move too fast; clearly, they were accommodating Zhou Weiqing, who only had the ‘five-Jeweled’ cultivation base.

This time, Zhou Weiqing finally had a chance to see the entire mountain range for himself. He wasn’t able to see much because the mountains blocked his vision, but his powerful senses still allowed him to discover just how vast these mountains were. He was able to get a rough sense for the local geographical layout, but he wasn’t able to actually sense past the borders of these mountains. The gorge he had been in was most likely located in one of the fairly outer regions of the mountains.

They advanced while following a bluestone road. Zhou Weiqing was intrigued by the verdant and lush vegetation here, some of which was similar to what could be seen in the Boundless Mainland but some which the two of them had never encountered.

Every so often a breeze would blow past, carrying with it the dense fragrance of plants and flowers. It was quite enjoyable. In addition, the deeper they advanced into the mountains the denser the atmospheric energies became. This was different from the gorge, where one had to actually summon the atmospheric energies.

Zhou Weiqing mused to himself, “No wonder XuanTian Palace is so powerful. The atmospheric energies here are so dense that it is probably on par with Heavenly Jewel Island! In addition, XuanTian Palace is different from Heaven’s Expanse Palace in that the former reigns absolutely supreme here. Not only are they are able to make full use of the entire continent’s resources, even the ocean’s vast resources are at their disposal. At the same time, they are also able to recruit talents from across the entire continent. If a single Great Saint Land from the Boundless Mainland had to compete against them, perhaps only Heavenly Snow Mountain might be able to stand against them, due to the thousands and thousands of powerful Heavenly Beasts the latter controlled. Not even Heaven’s Expanse Palace could match them.”

Although Heaven’s Expanse Palace was ranked above Heavenly Snow Mountain in the Boundless Mainland, this was because the ranking was purely based off of Heavenly Jewel Masters. It didn’t factor in the various Heavenly Beasts which Heavenly Snow Mountain controlled. Of course, the Heavenly Beasts wouldn’t leave the Ten Thousand Beast Heavens, as this would result in them being surrounded and assaulted by powerhouses of the entire mainland. Thus, Heavenly Snow Mountain’s total power should be considered a bit greater. After all, when Zhou Weiqing was there personally, he had seen more than one Heavenly Emperor-stage Heavenly Beast there, while the only Heavenly Emperor powerhouses in Heaven’s Expanse Palace were the two Shangguan brothers. Of course, the Heaven’s Expanse Palace had the advantage of many top human powerhouses, including dozens of Heavenly Kings. This was quite a bit more than what XuanTian Palace appeared to have thus far.

Thus, Zhou Weiqing came to the conclusion that Heavenly Snow Mountain’s total combat power was probably enough to give XuanTian Palace a good fight, but its chances of success were not extremely high. At least two of the five Great Saint Lands of the Boundless Mainland would have to join forces in order to stand a chance of beating XuanTian Palace… and that was before factoring in XuanTian Palace’s lower-ranked Heavenly Jewel Masters. Based on Zhou Weiqing’s estimations, the XuanTian Palace probably controlled far more Heavenly Jewel Masters than all five Great Saint Lands combined. Although their process of recruitment resulted in a mixture of good people and bad people, the five Great Saint Lands of the Boundless Mainland had the opposite problem of being too proud and stringent in their recruitment. They virtually never accepted new disciples from outside into their ranks…