Chapter 163 - Travelling Across the Sect
In the Fragment Sect, which was located directly East of the Southernmost point on Planet Yushu, there were three main regions; the core sect, the inner sect and the outer sect.
The core sect existed as a ring around the central four coloured mountain peaks. Directly to the West of the core sect lay the South Pole. The South Pole remained as an unoccupied region surrounded by the Fragment Sect, the Xuqi Sect, the Xuqi Dynasty and the Hukon Clan. This region remained closely monitored by all of these superpowers, because it was at this location that the entrance to the evil inheritance appeared once every ten years.
Bordering on the core sect were the three branches of the inner sect; Red Branch, Blue Branch and Black Branch.
Further out from the inner sect lay the 13 outer sect nations. Each of these outer sect nations was truly enormous.
Whilst the core sect was only a few hundred miles across, this was owing to the fact that there were only a few thousand core sect disciples residing within the core sect at any one time.
Each of the inner sect branches was measured in the thousands of miles, accommodating tens of thousands of inner sect disciples.
But the outer sect nations operated on a completely different scale; hundreds of millions of inhabitants occupied each of these nations!
These numbers still did not do justice to the scale of the outer sect nations, because the lands were simply too vast, stretching out for tens of thousands, some for hundreds of thousands of miles! The reason for the lands being so large, was because much of the land in the outer sect nations was used to gather countless resources through farming or other means. Many of the mortals in these nations were employed to work around these lands, gathering the resources and supplying them to the main sect through a highly structured chain of command. This created an environment that was extremely sparsely populated in some places.
Yaan kept all of this in mind as he flew towards the boundary of the core sect formation. His plan was to leave the core sect, then to fly over the inner sect without stopping. His destination was the outer sect.
Earlier, talking to the disciples made him realise that he had been detached from lower realm cultivators and more ordinary cultivators for too long. He wanted to return to a place with weaker cultivators, where he would continue asking his question about dao.
He wanted to know…what is dao? Or rather, he wanted to hear others’ interpretation of dao.
He could try to question the residents of the inner sect, but honestly, the inner sect disciples wouldn’t be much different compared to the core sect disciples. Only in the outer sect nations would Yaan find smaller cultivation cities, similar to North Ghu City, or even smaller. In these places, it would be easier to find a greater variety of cultivators from all walks of life, although even then, almost all of them would still be aligned to the righteous path.
He could not quite explain it, but Yaan had the distinct feeling that he would find better answers to his question amongst the more ordinary cultivators compared to those elites in the inner and core sects.
“You’re leaving?”
Yaan stopped in his tracks just as he was approaching the edge of the inner sect. The Immortal Ancestor appeared directly in front of him, but this was not outside of Yaan’s expectations.
“I am. Will you interfere?” Yaan asked plainly as he cast the immortal a brief glance.
“No.” The white-haired man shook his head lightly. “So long as you remain in the sect and keep to the sect rules, I will not intervene.”
After saying this, he immediately vanished. It was unknown if he had flown off at such a speed that Yaan was unable to trace his movement, or if he used some sort of instant transportation method. It could even be the case that the Immortal Ancestor was still standing right beside him, but hid his presence so exquisitely that Yaan could no longer sense him.
He continued on his way.
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Yaan flew at a comfortable pace, travelling a couple of hundred miles every hour. He could maintain a much faster speed than just this, but this speed allowed him to observe the surroundings and the inner sect down below whilst he travelled.
This speed was already faster than Yaan’s maximum long distance travel speed prior to forming his Vital Qi Core, yet he felt that even travelling twice as fast would not be problematic.
‘It seems that despite the Vital Qi Core Realm being a Rank 4 cultivation realm, it is actually equivalent to Rank 5 in terms of strength…’ He thought to himself.
Yaan moved his gaze downwards. Below him, the disciples of the inner sect's Red Branch went about their daily lives.
In the Fragment Sect, extreme heat and extreme cold cultivation techniques were extremely common. Those who cultivated extreme heat joined the inner sect’s Red Branch, those who cultivated extreme cold joined the Blue Branch, all others joined the Black Branch.
Another interesting point regarding the Fragment Sect’s internal structure, was that there were only around 200 or so elders in the entire sect. For the most part, the disciples handled their own affairs, whilst the elders only oversaw the overall situation. There might only be two or three elders stationed within each inner sect branch at any one time.
This setup was possible thanks to the exquisite formations which covered the Fragment Sect’s inner and core sects. Many of the key locations throughout the sect were managed by formations, so the disciples were able to cultivate in a structured manor without the need for supervision by any of the elders.
Aside from this, the more senior, older disciples, were also given responsibilities within the sect. Especially those who no longer had any chances of progression, they often became involved in the sect’s managerial affairs, assisting the next generation of disciples whilst handling the various organisational workings that any sect would need to deal with. In most sects, these individuals would be classed as elders, but that wasn’t the case in the Fragment Sect. The title of ‘Elder’ was highly esteemed in the Fragment Sect for this exact reason.
Yaan casually observed everything from above as he flew over the inner sect. He was not stopped a single time, in fact, hardly anyone even noticed him flying above the inner sect.
Yaan was restraining his aura right now, but he was not using any special concealment method. Even so, merely hiding his aura to this extent was enough such that nobody below the Spirit Core Realm had any chance of noticing him. If he used a spell to conceal his presence, even those at the Spirit Core Realm would be unable to track his position.
Right now though, Yaan could not use any spells. He was unable to use ordinary Qi refining spells with his Vital Qi. The Spirit Plane Lord did imprint some methods into his mind which were compatible with the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, but these would need to be practised before they could be used. Alternatively, Yaan could possibly take a Qi refining spell and adapt it to suit his own cultivation, but this would take much longer to achieve.
Even though one or two of the senior sect disciples noticed him, they didn’t dare to approach him, not to speak of stopping him. His direction of travel made it clear that he had come from the core sect, whilst his speed of travel and his aura concealment showed that his strength was equivalent to a core sect elder!
In the outer and inner sects, nobody would get in Yaan’s way, he could come and go as he pleased. Perhaps he might need to stop if he by chance ran into a core sect elder, but the chance of this happening was extremely slim, given the size of the sect and the low number of elders living out here.
Most of the inner sect’s Red Branch was occupied by cultivation paradises, places which were filled with the element of fire in one way or another. Cultivation caves, chambers, tempering zones such as mountains, volcanoes, regions of wilderness, and so on. There were also various inner sect disciple cities dotted about, though it seemed that plenty of inner sect disciples chose to live away from the public spaces, secluding themselves and focusing whole heartedly on their cultivation.
Yaan watched casually as disciples cultivated in the regions of extreme heat. He watched as some struggled whilst other seemed unfazed by their environment. He watched as people came and went from the cities, living their lives, sometimes peacefully, sometimes in conflict. Of course, even when there was conflict, nobody lost their life - murder was banned in the Southern Continent after all.
The lifestyle of these cultivators was typical for those inhabiting the sects in the Southern Continent. They cultivated, sometimes by themselves, sometimes amongst others. They lived their lives within the sect, without having any contact with the world outside of the confines of the sect.
Since the Fragment Sect was so enormous, it wasn’t strange that most of its members would live their entire lives without ever stepping outside of its walls.
Eventually Yaan felt like he had seen enough. He increased his speed and no longer paid attention to the goings on below, continuing with his journey until he reached the outer sect.
His destination this time was the Nation of Ti.
It didn’t really matter which nation Yaan visited, but he chose the Nation of Ti because he knew that there were currently no elders in this place, which was preferable since he didn’t want to bother dealing with any of the sect’s elders right now. The Nation of Ti was one of the less affluent nations, hence the elders paid it less attention.
Yaan was looking for typical cultivators, those who had no dealings with the elite of the sect, those who lived more ordinary lives.
That’s not to say that he was looking only for weak cultivators. In fact, there were actually some Spirit Core Realm cultivators living in the outer sect nations, but they were the most ordinary of those at the Spirit Core Realm. Anyone who was able to reach this realm, yet chose to remain within the outer sect, did so for one of two reasons; they either wanted to seclude themselves away from the world, or they wanted to lord over the masses in the outer sect.
A Spirit Core Realm individual could even gain significant influence in the inner sect though, so there were very few who would choose to remain in the poorer and less optimal environment of the outer sect.
For the most part, those living in the outer sect nations were mortals and lower realm cultivators. In a way, the outer sect was quite similar to the general society found in the outside world.
After flying for slightly over one day, Yaan arrived at the Nation of Ti. He stopped and looked down at the border, an enormous marble wall which separated the inner sect from the outer sect.
Yaan examined this wall carefully, but no matter how diligently he searched, he could not find the clues that he had hoped to find.
‘In the end, the formations covering the sect must all be immortal level formations.’ Yaan concluded with a disappointed sigh.
He had tried many times, but he failed to find a single trace of the many formations said to surround the sect. However, he knew that these formations existed, because he had personally witnessed how those formations connected to the various places throughout the core sect, allowing the smaller scale formations to function by monitoring the core sect members at all times.
‘Escaping from an immortal is still not possible for me.’
Yaan’s disappointment faded away, now replaced by a serene acceptance.
He no longer concerned himself with this matter, as right now, he was truly most concerned with seeking dao. With a single step, Yaan effortlessly entered the outer sect.