In the clouds above Jinhuai Prefecture City.

Wang Ping calmly observed the bustling city below. Nearby, Yu Lian tumbled through the clouds. Back in the Six Heart Sect, she had to constantly suppress her inquisitive nature, and it had nearly driven her mad with boredom.

The conflict that had erupted in the border region with Mozhou Road was clearly Ren Kong’s deliberate doing.

Ren Kong’s intention was obvious: he wanted to seize upon Wang Ping’s encirclement of the Wulang Sect disciples to make a major issue of it. Moreover, he had found himself a backer in advance—not one from within the True Yang Sect, but Wu Ma Daoist.

Xiao Shan Lord, seeing the situation with perfect clarity, had summoned him, Zi Luan, and Xiu Yu just before the conflict was about to erupt. He told them a bland, irrelevant-seeming story. His purpose was to prevent Xiu Yu from going down the wrong path, and also to serve as a warning to Wang Ping and Zi Luan.

The three of them tacitly chose to reconcile for the time being.

Zi Luan had agreed to Xiu Yu’s proposal for a simple reason: since Xiu Yu was the one handling it, it would have nothing to do with him or Wang Ping, whether it succeeded or failed.

What would become of Mozhou Road was not within Zi Luan’s or Xiu Yu’s considerations, and even less so for Xiao Shan Lord. In fact, one might say Xiao Shan Lord would be pleased to see Mozhou Road fall into a bit of chaos. That way, people would grow nostalgic for the time before the True Yang Sect.

"What are you thinking about?" Having had her fun, Yu Lian shrank down and rested on Wang Ping’s shoulder, flicking her forked tongue.

"I’m wondering if the past Xiao Shan Lord described really existed. If it did, the spiritual energy back then must have been extremely unstable. If that’s the case, how did Cultivators keep their minds from being corrupted?"

"Isn’t that simple?"

Yu Lian said lightly, "The living creatures of the world are the materials to stabilize spiritual energy. All it takes is a single ritual sacrifice!"

Her words were cruel, yet her tone was casual.

Wang Ping froze, his mind involuntarily conjuring an image of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. In it were countless bizarrely-shaped Cultivators, forcibly using the flesh and blood of innumerable living beings to stabilize spiritual energy.

Chaos is relative!

Even a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood is a form of order—one completely different from the order in Zhongzhou today. Perhaps some people achieved the Realm of True Monarch by using such an order to stabilize their own emotions.

Perhaps if the world descends into chaos in the future, that kind of order will be repeated!

At this thought, Wang Ping couldn’t help but gaze intently at the lively Jinhuai Prefecture City to the west. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He still preferred a scene like this. He felt a natural revulsion toward the mountain of corpses and sea of blood in his imagination, because that was not the Dao Wang Ping cultivated.

"Don’t overthink it!" Yu Lian reminded him just in time.

Wang Ping turned to meet Yu Lian’s gaze, then drove the unpleasant images from his mind. He then brought her down to his exclusive room on the top floor of the Daoist Scripture Hall’s main building.

"The path of immortality... how ephemeral it is," he sighed.

"For Fellow Daoist Changqing, the path to immortality must be a wide-open road, wouldn’t you say?"

Yunshan followed closely behind Wang Ping, landing on the Celestial Platform and meeting his gaze from outside the room. "These past two days, because of your ideas, countless people have fallen on the path of cultivation. Have you, Fellow Daoist, ever sighed for them?"

Wang Ping looked at Yunshan, who showed no intention of entering, and replied with a smile, "I too started from Qi Cultivation and worked my way up. In all my years of cultivating the Dao, the thing that left the deepest impression on me was what happened back in Yongming Port. At that time, I clearly felt that my life was not in my own hands."

"Are you trying to recreate what happened in Yongming Port?" Yunshan frowned.

"Do I look like someone who can call the shots?" Wang Ping spread his hands, glanced down at himself, and spoke with a self-deprecating tone.

’I absolutely cannot afford to make an enemy of this man. He holds immense prestige among low-level Cultivators and is also a member of the Star God Alliance.’

Hearing this, Yunshan pondered for a moment before speaking seriously, clasping his fist in a salute. "Fellow Daoist, the peace this world enjoys was not easily won. You spend your years in seclusion cultivating, so perhaps you have long forgotten the suffering of the mortal world. I know you may no longer care, but there is a reason the Human Dao prospers. The consequences of going against the heavens will be tragic..."

"Since you’re heading to the headquarters in Shangjing City to register this time, you should take the opportunity to look around. See for yourself what a filthy place the ’sacred land’ in people’s minds truly is. Then you will know what peace is, and what true suffering is."

After speaking, he performed a solemn bow, then drifted down from the Celestial Platform.

After Yunshan left, Yu Lian said, "He gives me a really intense feeling of pressure. I feel so small in his presence. I don’t even feel that way in front of the Lord."

"Haha!"

Wang Ping laughed heartily. After he finished, he extended his Primordial Spirit Consciousness down to Zuo Xuan on the floor below.

Zuo Xuan had been waiting at the entrance for a long time. She was even more anxious than Hu Qianqian would have been. After all, this operation to encircle the disciples of the Wulang Sect was the most important case since she had taken over management of the Daoist Scripture Hall.

She never expected that a case that should have been in the bag could have gone so awry.

"Come up."

The voice in her ear caused Zuo Xuan to compose herself. Instead of taking the stairs, she flew directly to the Celestial Platform on the top floor, just as Yunshan had done.

"Fellow Daoist!"

She saluted and was about to speak when Wang Ping, who was holding a ’Pocket World Mirror Instruction Manual,’ cut her off. While flipping through the bamboo slips in his hand, he said, "Two things. First, investigate the details of Wu Ma Daoist’s disciples in Nanlin Road. Second, everything we do must be by the book."

"Yes!"

Zuo Xuan acknowledged the orders and suppressed the report she had been about to give.

As the Pacification Envoy of Nanlin Road, Wang Ping couldn’t just rush to the scene of every incident like a lone wolf, giving commands based on his own whims or using his powerful cultivation to suppress things by force. If he did that, he would become the laughingstock of the Southern Cultivation Realm.

Forget Wang Ping; even the Second Realm Cultivators from both sides had tacitly chosen to withdraw after assessing the situation.

「The next day.」

The chaos in the border region between Nanlin Road and Mozhou Road vanished without a sound. However, neither side sent anyone to clean up the dozens of miles of scorched earth.

Before dawn, Wang Ping activated the array he had refined and attempted his daily fusion of the Heaven-Reaching Talisman.

The Inspiration Realm here was much richer. Although no Spiritual Creatures approached, the spiritual energy was incredibly stable, yet within that stability, there was a sense of unusual activity.

As usual, after finishing his cultivation, Wang Ping’s emotions grew particularly cold and detached.

Just then, the sky brightened. The morning market outside the Daoist Scripture Hall was already bustling, and it seemed to have grown even larger than when Zi Luan was in charge.

This was because after Wang Ping took power, he had hired a large number of clerks to handle administrative affairs. Unlike Cultivators, they had daily needs—eating, drinking, and relieving themselves—which in turn drove consumption in the market. Even the rent for nearby courtyards had gone up.

Yu Lian said, "I smell fresh shrimp. Should we go down and buy some?"

Wang Ping walked to the window and gazed at the bustling market in the distance. Feeling the spiritual energy these people emanated within the Inspiration Realm, his cold indifference began to soften ever so slightly.