Immortal of the Nine Realms

"Fang Da, flying is illegal here. We'll have to travel on foot from here," said Xia Ji.

Fang Chen nodded. The sword light whizzed down and they landed right outside the outer city.

"Is your Profound Void Temple located in the outer or inner city?" asked Fang Chen casually.

Xia Ji smiled. "It's in the outer city, on Profound Void Mountain. The outer city of the imperial capital consists of eighteen districts. Thirteen of them are mostly inhabited by commoners, predominantly martial artists. The remaining five districts house numerous cultivation sects and families, including Profound Void Temple."

"What about the inner city?"

"The inner city is led by the imperial family, with support from the Fang and Jue Family, who have arranged the Heaven and Earth Spirit Gathering Formation. The inner city is rich in spiritual energy, and without sufficient background and strength, one cannot stay there for long." Xia Ji continued, "In addition to the Fang and Jue Family, there are four other sects in the inner city, each with a Golden Core Realm ancestor."

"The Grand Qian Empire has quite a few Golden Core Realm cultivators. I assume there’s at least twenty of them?" said Fang Chen.

Xia Ji replied, "Twenty? That’s at the very least. From what I know, there are at least ten well-known Golden Core Realm ancestors in the capital alone.”

The two were currently standing at presumably one of the five districts Xia Ji mentioned because cultivators were everywhere; however, cultivators above the twelfth stage of the Qi Refining Realm were a rare sight. There were shops along the road selling spiritual herbs, similar to the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. There were also many cultivators who had set up stalls to sell spiritual materials and pills.

Suddenly, a group of young men and women approached the two. One of them had apparently noticed and recognized Xia Ji, judging by how astonished he seemed.

He was whispering something to the people with him, and soon after, a slender young man walked over, smiled, and bowed to Xia Ji.

"Brother Xia, it's been a while since we’ve last met. Were you not at the Profound Void Temple recently?"

Glancing at him, Xia Ji faintly smiled and said, "Brother Lin, I had some matters to attend to outside the empire. Did you come to look for me at Profound Void Temple recently?"

"I went there a few days ago, but only stayed there for a little while,” he said, then his eyes drifted toward Fan Chen. “Who’s this friend with you?”

"This is my newly acquainted friend, Daoist Fang," replied Xia Ji.

Lin’s expression changed. "Oh, so you're Daoist Fang. Are you from the Fang Family in the inner city?"

The expressions of those around him changed too, perplexed, with their brow furrowed. How could Xia Ji know someone from the Fang Family?

Before Xia Ji could respond, Fang Chen smiled and said, "I'm just surnamed Fang, that's all."

"Oh, I see." Brother Lin's face eased, and he nodded with a smile. He turned his attention back to Xia Ji again. "Xia Ji, I’ve heard that Brother Jue has been looking for you. I heard you've been telling people that your senior brother and sister fell victim to his hands?" Brother Lin's face darkened. "You can eat whatever you want, but you can’t say whatever comes to your mind. Big Brother Jue is a sincere person and cares deeply for us juniors. Have you forgotten that when you first came to Grand Qian, he was the one to stand up for you when you were bullied? Will you bite the hand that fed you by spreading rumors to malign him?”

"Yeah, that was very ungrateful of you!"

"How about this, let's go see Brother Jue right now so you can apologize to him. With his temperament, he will probably just brush it off with a smile and won't hold it against you.”

The group of young men and women all chimed in.

"Lin Yu, this has nothing to do with you. I'll take responsibility for what I said. If you don't know the truth, then don't meddle in this," said Xia Ji with a faint smile, then led Fang Chen away from the crowd.

Lin Yu furrowed his brow and watched the two walk away coldly.

"Lin Yu, shall we go to the inner city and inform Brother Jue? Xia Ji spreading rumors about him like this isn't good. If he becomes unhappy about it, we might be implicated."

The others nodded in agreement.

They were all from various cultivation families in the outer city, and the Profound Void Temple was also located there. In the eyes of many people in the inner city, they were seen as a collective entity. If Xia Ji's actions caused trouble, it wouldn't be good for any of them. After all, every cultivator in the outer city was striving to enter the inner city and enjoy the benefits of the Heaven and Earth Spirit Gathering Formation.

"We don't need to bother him about everything. Sometimes, we should deal with some matters ourselves and let him see the results," said Lin Yu lightly.

The group exchanged glances and began to eagerly anticipate what was to come.

***

"Who was that?" asked Fang Chen casually.

"He is a disciple from the Lin Family in the Eighteenth District, Lin Yu,” said Xia Ji. “Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen: these five districts have many cultivation families, about seventy to eighty families. The Lin family dominates the Eighteenth District, the other cultivation families have to consider their opinions because one of their elders is married to someone from the Jue family.”

"They seemed eager to speak up for Jue Wudi.” Fang Chen chuckled. “They might come looking for trouble later.”

Xia Ji smirked, glancing at Fang Chen. "Do you have something in mind? Do we kill them? Or do we let them keep their heads?"

Fang Chen nodded. “I’ll let them live."

Alright, this is for the better. This is the imperial capital, after all. Those from the inner city may not care about the mortals, but they won’t turn a blind eye to the wanton killing of cultivators,” said Xia Ji sarcastically.

Fang Chen nodded with a smile. "Fair enough."

Profound Void Mountain is located at the end of the Eighteenth District, and from there, one can oversee the entire district. However, what puzzled Fang Chen was the state in which the mountain was in: there were many dilapidated buildings along the path up the mountain, and it was littered with overgrown weeds, seemingly abandoned and uncared for.

"Why is it like this?" asked Fang Chen.

Xia Ji's gaze swept over the ruins and broken walls and he sighed softly. "Back then, the Profound Void Temple had eighteen grand halls, and experts were a common sight. There were not only three Golden Core masters, but also numerous Foundation Building and Qi Refining Realm cultivators. Additionally, there were three thousand temple guardians, all at the peak of the fourth level of Heavenly Profound Stage.

"You should know that once a martial artist enters the Fatal Qi realm in the Heavenly Profound Stage, they would be able to harm cultivators. The subsequent realms after that, which are the Profound Qi, Royal Qi and Imperial Qi, are, to some extent, equivalent to spiritual energy. From that point on, cultivators can only have the upper hand when they use techniques and mysterious methods.

"Imperial Qi martial artists are also known as Martial Emperors, which imply that they’re emperors amongst martial artists. If a cultivator at the twelfth stage of the Qi Refining and a Martial Emperor clash, the cultivator might just die.

"Just those three thousand temple guardians in the imperial capital were enough to make people wary. No one would underestimate the Profound Void Temple back then. That was the peak of Profound Void Temple."

Fang Chen nodded thoughtfully. He knew more about martial artists than Xia Ji did. If martial artists continued advancing into the higher stages, they might not be any weaker than cultivators. However, it was probably not easy for them to advance into higher stages, especially for those in the Heavenly Profound Stage, which would require a lot of effort and resources.

The fact that the Profound Void Temple could have three thousand temple guardians at the peak of the Heavenly Profound Stage at that time spoke volumes about its status back then!

"So what happened? What enemy did your temple encounter?" asked Fang Chen curiously.

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