A short while later, in the reception hall, Yaoguang met Wu Changfeng, a man who by all means should have been one of Zong Wenxian's most faithful subordinates.
"Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, please take a look."
Without the slightest hesitation, the Void-Refining Realm powerhouse held out a jade talisman. Though Yaoguang didn't understand what this was about, he accepted it and probed it with his psychic thought. One glance was enough to bring him to his feet, his brows rising in considerable surprise.
"This is..." Yaoguang said.
"The complete layout of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, as well as details on the internal flow of energy," Wu Changfeng said, then paused, his tone shifting. "The Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array is the Heavenly Dao Sect's core array in the Southern Capital. In the past, the array's most critical secrets were held only by the sect master and by the deputy sect master who served as lord of the southern domain. But eight hundred years ago, when Deputy Sect Master Song rebelled, the sect master leaked the array's key information to several supreme elders in order to put the rebellion down as quickly as possible. Afterward, he handed the southern domain to me to administer, and likewise disclosed the layout and flow of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array to me."
Hearing this, Yaoguang couldn't help frowning. So many people knew the secrets of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array?
After a moment, something occurred to him. "Among the three supreme elders charged with putting down the rebellion was Supreme Elder Jing Yuntian, wasn't he?"
"Correct." Wu Changfeng nodded. "Otherwise the Jing family could never have taken Carefree Valley, the largest prize in the southern domain, and pocket tens of millions of Pure Yang Grand Pills each decade."
Listening to Wu Changfeng, Yaoguang finally understood why Jing Zhengyang had been so certain he could disrupt the smooth activation of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array. The entire array had practically become a weak point.
Still, there was no helping it. The man set on dealing with him was Zong Wenxian, the sect master of the Heavenly Dao Sect. If this hidden threat from the Jing family didn't come to light now, it would do so once Zong Wenxian made a move directly. The sooner it was exposed, the sooner it could be resolved.
"Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, please look at these few positions. They are all key nodes of the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array. As long as someone works in concert from inside and out to sabotage them, it's easy to disrupt the array's operation," Wu Changfeng explained with diligence and care.
Yaoguang, however, could barely hide how surprised he was. He looked at the Void-Refining cultivator. "Why would you tell me all this?"
Wu Changfeng smiled at the question. "The truth is, I'm not someone good at putting my real thoughts into words. What a man is and where he stands are better shown through action, I think. Once our two sides have spent a few decades, or even a few centuries, working together, I imagine you'll come to know exactly what kind of man I am, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang."
"I'd like to know right now." Yaoguang looked at him. "What is the meaning of what you're doing, and what is your aim?"
"My aim..." Wu Changfeng pondered for a moment. "Since you wish to hear it, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, I'll tell you."
Yaoguang was in no rush to leave. The southern domain was vast, and with Crimson Malevolence's speed, even if he delayed half a day, he could still catch up before the fiendish cultivator left the southern domain. And he was only delaying an hour or two.
"6,800 years ago, I was born in a small city in the Sen state. The city had no top-tier experts, but thanks to its position within the Heavenly Dao Sect, my childhood was fairly peaceful. I thought that was simply how the world was. But after I left my city and came into contact with the real world, I truly grasped its cruel truth."
There was no great fluctuation in Wu Changfeng's eyes as he spoke. "On the North Sea Star, nearly every place is full of chaos, slaughter, death, and ruin. I met danger after danger along the way... Yet, I was fortunate, because every time I really ended up in a life-and-death situation, I would randomly encounter one good person, or several, and make it through with their help."
He smiled. "My talent was nothing remarkable. It took me a hundred and eighty years to form a Radiant Sun Golden Core, and eight hundred years to advance to the Void-Piercing Realm. And from the Void-Piercing Realm to Void-Refining Realm, I spent five thousand years..."
"At least you advanced to the Void-Piercing Realm smoothly," Yaoguang remarked.
To reach the Void-Piercing Realm at all was itself an ability, an achievement, and a stroke of fortune. Without sufficient luck, a man could prepare as thoroughly as he wanted and yet never take that step.
Just like the people on this generation's Void-Piercing Realm Candidate Rankings, even the one ranked first wouldn't dare claim he was certain to break through to the Void-Piercing Realm.
"Indeed, my luck has always been good," Wu Changfeng said. "Though I've endured countless storms and witnessed countless rises and falls, and was even swept up in Deputy Sect Master Song's rebellion and its suppression, I survived all the same. As I said just now, every time I met danger, a benefactor would appear and pull me out of the fire. On the North Sea Star, that counts as a miracle."
The Void-Refining cultivator lifted his head and looked at Yaoguang. "So I felt I ought to give something back to this world. And so, while Deputy Sect Master Song was biding his time and gathering his strength, waiting for his moment, I reported his movements to the sect master."
These words made Yaoguang's eyes narrow. Song Youque's rebellion had originally been carried out in secret, yet one day his ambitions had abruptly come to light.
Zong Wenxian had sent person after person to investigate, and each inquiry had struck at the heart of the matter, forcing Song Youque to silence those people by killing them.
In the end, that provocation had given Zong Wenxian his opening. The sect's army, personally led by him, had marched out and swept away Song Youque's faction.
"This is my homeland, and what I've wanted to do has always been very simple. To give back to this place, to give back to this land, sincerely wishing that its people could live better lives, and be spared the suffering of war, separation, bloodshed, and slaughter. Song Youque's rebellion could never have succeeded. Had I let him keep growing, the rebellion's effects would surely have engulfed the entire southern domain. To keep the whole southern domain from being drawn into the flames of war, I did something many would consider shameful," Wu Changfeng said calmly. "But I saved the southern domain, and spared countless people from being caught in a war that would otherwise have swept across it."
Yaoguang watched Wu Changfeng. He would verify whether what the man said was true. But if it was true, then this Void-Refining cultivator was an idealist, the kind of person who was extremely rare on the North Sea Star. Of course, from Song Youque's standpoint, he was a traitor through and through.
"Whether under Song Youque's rule or under Zong Wenxian's, I have always done my work conscientiously, without complaint, and even without asking for reward." Wu Changfeng smiled. "So Song Youque trusted me deeply. He believed I would give up my own interests for his sake, that I was reliable, and he confided in me! And likewise Zong Wenxian trusts me, because over these eight hundred years I have done every task all but perfectly, fully safeguarding their interests, and since I want nothing for myself, they have come to value me as well."
He lowered his head slightly. "But in truth, everything I've done is merely what I ought to do. I have only been doing my duty."
Doing his duty. Yaoguang weighed those words. Two words, ordinary beyond ordinary. To do one's duty!
Yet, on the North Sea Star, where self-interest reigned supreme, such conduct was nothing short of aberrant. And in the eyes of those who needed slaves, this was a conscientious, dependable animal that could be entrusted with heavy responsibility.
So Song Youque and Zong Wenxian alike had fully trusted him. The one thing they had gotten wrong was this: the one he served faithfully was neither Song Youque nor Zong Wenxian, but the land beneath his feet, the southern domain itself, and the multitude of living beings who dwelled within it.
"So if anyone at all became lord of the southern domain, you'd act the same way?" Yaoguang asked, curious.
"There would be some difference," Wu Changfeng said. "If the ability you displayed, Deputy Sect Master Yaoguang, were thoroughly unremarkable, I would help the sect master suppress you as swiftly as possible, to avert any potential mishap. But you are not the same as Deputy Sect Master Song, or the other deputy sect masters. Perhaps, compared to Sect Master Zong, you could bring this land a better future..."
"Are you not afraid that I'll be subjugated by Zong Wenxian in the end? That the southern domain itself might be dragged into it?" Yaoguang asked, still curious.
"I won't deny the possibility. But for now, if you hold the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array, you'll have the means to stand against Sect Master Zong. And besides..." Wu Changfeng paused. "Compared with Sect Master Zong, who only ever exploited this land, you have brought development. From the perspective of the living beings who stand upon it, life under your rule would be better than under the sect master's."
Yaoguang understood what Wu Changfeng meant. When both sides held the strength to stand against each other, he would help whoever could bring the southern domain a better future. Such a stance...
Yaoguang reflected for a moment, then glanced at Wu Changfeng. "You're still alive, and it really is because you met benefactor after benefactor."
"It must be the favor of fortune. At the crucial moments, I always managed to make the right choice," Wu Changfeng said.
"Your character has made you special as well. The highest act of benevolence is to be like water, which benefits all things without contending," Yaoguang said.
"You flatter me." Wu Changfeng gave a slight bow.
Yaoguang looked at him. He didn't fully believe what the man had said. Yet Wu Changfeng's stance was truly strange, and had been so for years.
Adding in the material he had gathered concerning this Void-Refining cultivator, it was just possible that Wu Changfeng was just like this: Someone who had become unyielding by wanting nothing at all.
Only, how could that be?! Such people were exceedingly rare even in the Great Cangwu World and the Yaoguang World, let alone on the North Sea Star, which was fiercely competitive and riddled with peril. He would have to keep observing.
Just as Wu Changfeng had said at the start, the man was good at doing, not at speaking. From his words and deeds, his true character would naturally reveal itself.
At that thought, Yaoguang spoke. "Li Hanqiu and Wan Liugui have taken over the southern domain, but there's much they're not yet used to without someone to assist them. Why don't you go and assist the two of them next?"
He added, "Of course, they're only Void-Piercing Realm battle immortals, while you are a venerable Void-Refining cultivator..."
"It doesn't matter. As long as it benefits the southern domain, who presides over it is unimportant," Wu Changfeng said with a smile.
Yaoguang nodded. Wu Changfeng went over several more nodes that could cause the array to fail before taking his leave first.
Watching him go, Yaoguang still couldn't read him. Was the man a deep schemer, or had the North Sea Star really produced someone that strange?
Enough, no need to dwell on it. As long as I grow fast enough and become strong enough, even an honest man who's only pretending will turn into a genuinely honest one, and stay honest for the rest of his life. Unable to reach a conclusion, Yaoguang simply stopped worrying over it.
The Two-Realm Ruler flared to life, his figure flickered, and he shot straight toward the Xuan state.
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