CHAPTER 728: 603 IMMORTALS GATHER TOGETHER

Shi Feiyang sat in the Capital without going anywhere, and in just half a month, he had completely annihilated the evil cult organizations across the Central Earth Continent.

This time, he not only eradicated these cults but also took his first step as the "Mysterious Sect Leader." The seven orthodox sects of Mysterious Sect all heeded his command and acknowledged his leadership.

After these people returned to the Capital to report, Shi Feiyang didn’t let them leave.

The captured cult leaders were handed over to the government for trial, the most wickedly evil were tortured to death at the vegetable market, while those less evil were beheaded.

These fellows all wielded spells, mixing Daoist Techniques, Buddhist Law, and Magic, with various abilities; some could control swords and cast thunder, while others could bewitch people’s hearts.

Shi Feiyang had each of the seven sects send five disciples to supervise the executions. He also sent out the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon, hiding in the sky, quietly waiting.

Some could enchant the executioners. Once their eyes met, the executioner, captivated, would falter with his blade, and the orthodox disciples would seal his eyes with Spirit Talismans.

Others could escape by using the blood energy on the ground, whether they fled through the earth or the sky, the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon would catch them back like catching chickens.

One fellow, using the murderous energy of the execution ground, summoned over a thousand wronged souls and fierce ghosts, causing the vegetable market to be shrouded in rolling gloomy winds and dark mists, with spirits howling wildly.

The orthodox disciples were about to release the Taiyin Divine Thunder when the Nine Child Mother Sky Demon saw them and cheered with glee. The mother and child demons opened their mouths and swallowed these evil spirits.

The frightened people below suddenly saw nine beautiful fairies and nine cute children flying chaotically in the sky, capturing and eating the ghosts, all cheering loudly.

Someone said, "It must be Master Yuan Yang sent to protect us! I’ve read about it in ’Master Yuan Yang’s Book of Salvation!’"

Thus, everyone roared like a tidal wave, shouting Master Yuan Yang’s name loudly, shaking the heavens and the earth.

The remaining matters were handed over to the court, local officials, and disciples from the lower courts of the various sects.

Shi Feiyang gathered the people from the seven sects again within the Capital. They practiced in the various halls of Yuan Yang Palace. Still feeling short-handed, he summoned his disciples and some Loose Cultivators.

More and more Sword Immortals came to the Capital, some low-key, silently arriving at the gates of Yuan Yang Palace to register, while others came ostentatiously with a large group of disciples, riding on multicolored auspicious clouds.

The citizens of the Capital, seeing immortals enter Yuan Yang Palace daily, went crazy with excitement, and the streets and alleys buzzed with rumors about Master Yuan Yang holding a grand assembly of immortals.

This time, Shi Feiyang truly gathered everyone he could. He wanted to see how many people he could call upon in the cultivation circles.

He not only contacted those he knew, including those with indirect relationships but even sent for those he had never met, whose names he had only heard of.

He invited so many people to deal with the Earth Tribulation on Copper Coconut Island.

According to the original Emei Sect’s choice, they opted for Yi Xiu and Tian Chi to duel, piercing the Ancient Lung Bubbles in the Earth’s lung in advance, releasing Ancient Poison Flames into space to dissipate the energy.

However, Shi Feiyang felt that it was too wasteful, a dire pity!

He wanted to collect this Ancient Poison Flames for his own use, but doing so would be exponentially more difficult than simply releasing it into space, and any misstep could cause disaster.

Therefore, he had to be thoroughly prepared beforehand.

Fortunately, the world’s group of immortals gave him face; even those with some Dao Level could predict that the upcoming great calamity of heaven and earth would rely on him to overcome. Many Earth Immortals of side-branches were originally worried about how to establish a relationship with him to seek help when the calamity came, assuming relationships would be difficult to form and only hoping to connect through his disciples or even his grandchildren.

Now that they received his invitation, they were both shocked and delighted: Here was their connection!

Inside the palace, Shi Feiyang planned while continuously sending out disciples or a Flying Sword Transmission to send messages, as this was a major project needing many resources.

Suddenly, Yue Yun of the Emei Sect came to him on his own initiative.

Shi Feiyang let him in, ordered the servants to serve tea, and asked what he needed.

Yue Yun, with some difficulty, explained his situation.

Since the Emei Sect had once been hostile to Shi Feiyang, they had sought many allies, such as Tianqian Mountain Xiao Nan from the boundary of the Northwest Sea, who also was an Earth Immortal facing the challenge of transcendence.

Initially, everyone thought of relying on the Emei Sect for overcoming the tribulation. Now that the Mysterious Sect’s leader leaned towards Shi Feiyang, it was he who would definitely lead them through future tribulations. Tianqian Mountain Xiao Nan thus intended to ease relations with Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang listened and laughed aloud, "Let Xiao Nan come by all means, we are currently in need of people to peacefully get through this Ancient Earth Tribulation. I would be more than happy if he decides to help."

Upon hearing these words, Yue Yun felt relieved.

Thinking of how Tianqian Mountain Xiao Nan and others initially fought a life and death battle alongside the Emei Sect against Shi Feiyang, and now that the Emei Sect had reconciled with Shi Feiyang, they were all at a loss. It would be most disgraceful of the Emei Sect if this issue could not be resolved.

Before arriving here, many from the Emei Sect had thought Shi Feiyang would bear a grudge and certainly ostracize those people. Li Yingqiong even had plans for a smaller collective tribulation for the Emei Sect to help these individuals in case Shi Feiyang rejected them.

For some reason, since the year he obtained Shi Feiyang’s Lianshan Four Techniques, Yue Yun had developed a fondness for Shi Feiyang.

He was harshly treated by Shi Feiyang back in the day, but the Lianshan Four Techniques were incredibly exquisite, with extremely high upper and lower limits, and various ingenious aspects were beyond his imagination.

Master Lianshan originated from side entrances to the path, amassing a vast collection of demon path secret manuals for cultivation, before integrating them to create a technique from the side path to the righteous path.

Yue Yun felt that Shi Feiyang’s Lianshan Four Techniques were by no means inferior to the techniques created by Master Lianshan, even surpassing them in some aspects.

He had reassessed the causes and consequences of the Emei Sect’s feud with Shi Feiyang and believed that from start to finish, the Emei Sect was too arrogantly self-important, not taking those from side paths seriously, always having a condescending attitude which led to one misstep leading to another.

In his mind, Shi Feiyang had a broad mind and profound moral integrity; his divine skills and mana were unfathomable. He would definitely not hold a grudge for past matters against those people.

"Master Shi’s magnanimity is truly admirable! Then I will let them come over," he responded.

Shi Feiyang nodded in agreement. Having reconciled with the Emei Sect, there was no point in holding grudges against those who helped.

Moreover, throughout the years of conflict with the Emei Sect, he had never been at a disadvantage; it was always the Emei Sect that suffered losses.

It took a whole three months for him to finalize all the arrangements, and then he began implementation.

On the day of the summer solstice, he exited the palace, took all his guests, a total of over four hundred sword immortals of all ages and generations, left the Capital on a cloud of auspicious purple qi, and hastened towards the South Sea.

In no time, they arrived at Tongye Island.

Tian Chi and his disciples came out to meet them, with a large number of independent immortals from the South Sea already waiting there. The three sisters of the Purple Cloud Palace, Yi Zhou of Xuan Turtle Island with his wife and concubines, son and daughter-in-law, Zhan Shu and Wang Xian from Fēihóng Island, Cui Haike of Juping Island from White Stone Cave with his two disciples Yu Zhong and Yang Li, Hong Zhenwu, the island master of Qinghe Island, the island master of Snow Wave Island, the elderly man from Snow Wave Mountain Island, Du Fangheng from Cuiluo Continent, Zhu Ping from Qingmen Island, Xie Wuhua, the small immortal source independent immortal from Southern Pole Island, and others, including around fifty to sixty people from nearby East Sea and West Sea, had come.

Together, they paid their respects to Shi Feiyang according to their seniority.

Shi Feiyang’s disciples, several of whom had already reached the Heavenly Immortal level of cultivation.

Especially Jin Xunu, Lin Han, Shi Sheng, Deng Bagu, and Huo Wuhai, whose inner and outer skills had already reached perfection, ready to ascend to the Immortal Realm at any time.

These side path independent immortals had to respectfully address them as "Fellow Daoists," and who would dare to act arrogantly in front of Shi Feiyang? Many directly referred to Shi Feiyang as a senior, performing the rites of the younger generation; except a few particularly old-timers, like Yi Zhou, who also treated Shi Feiyang very politely, addressing him as "Fellow Daoist."

Tian Chi invited the group of immortals into the palace. Jin Xunu was already there waiting, reporting to Shi Feiyang the details of the earlier assignments: "As per Master’s plan, we relocated eight mountains, cast spells to refine them into floating islands, and arranged them around Tongye Island into a mobile Eight Trigrams Array."

During these three months, Jin Xunu and others had been doing preliminary preparations, which were quite extensive.

To prevent the Ancient Poison Flames from spreading uncontrollably in the sea and causing secondary disasters, they had to divert the ocean currents tens of thousands of miles upstream.

For this task, Lin Han and Shi Sheng, with a group of independent immortals, set up seventeen invisible barriers in the sea to block the currents.

Others cast spells to drive away the Water Clan, clearing every fish, turtle, shrimp, and crab within thirty thousand miles; even sentient plants were transferred elsewhere, completely clearing the sea area.

For this purpose, the Marshal of the Grand Demon Clan of Yu Country, Yuan Gui, summoned twenty-eight species, totaling three hundred thousand from the Demon Clan from Outer Heaven Divine Mountain to assist in relocating the local Water Clan.

Many with blood relations, like the local merfolk recognized their kin from the Outer Heaven Divine Mountain and all moved there; those who did not wish to move were free to go elsewhere.

As for those who had not awakened their spiritual intelligence, they were either driven away by spells or all led to Outer Heaven Divine Mountain.

Such a massive undertaking barely completed in three months was just enough.

However, there was no other choice, as the Ancient Poison Flames accumulating underground were too plentiful, and Shi Feiyang had lent Tian Chi the Earth Tablet, which only delayed for about half a year, and it could no longer be suppressed; even with the Earth Tablet, an eruption was imminent.

After inspecting everything, Shi Feiyang was quite satisfied; Jin Xunu and the others had followed his instructions to the letter and executed them very well.

He said to everyone, "The eruption of this Earth Tribulation is just a part of the upcoming grand tribulations of Heaven and Earth. However, Heavenly Tribulation, Earth Tribulation, and Human Tribulation are mixed and none is simple. There will definitely be demon humans coming to cause disruptions; everyone must unite and work together to get through this ordeal."

"Master Shi speaks most wisely," Tianqian Mountain Xiao Nan was the first to respond.