Xiushui City

Lin Xiao rapidly checked the dimensions of each section, making sure that once the entire city was placed, it would blend as seamlessly as possible with the existing developments in Xiushui Village.

Fortunately, the city had been planned with Xiushui Village’s original layout in mind, so this was not difficult.

Before long, Lin Xiao had selected the perfect location.

He was just about to notify Liu Yunan to lead people in calming the tourists who knew nothing about the situation, lest they be frightened by the sudden changes, when the system in his mind suddenly displayed a notification.

【Ding—Congratulations! Sect member Liao Pantu has successfully advanced to the Spirit Transformation Realm. By extracting the concepts from the Origin Essence Heart Sutra and the core principles of the Soul Refinement Art, he combined the two to create an entirely new advanced cultivation method, the Origin Essence Soul Scripture. He has become the sect’s first Spirit Transformation cultivator and the first to independently create a cultivation method. The reward has been delivered to the private treasury. Host, please check and claim it. Note: “Advanced” means breaking free from the inherent framework of the original cultivation method and producing entirely new core content. This differs from a derivative branch that remains under the framework of the original method.】

What?!

In just over a month, Senior Liao had quietly advanced to the Spirit Transformation Realm? And he had even independently created an entirely new advanced cultivation method, the Origin Essence Soul Scripture?

Lin Xiao was utterly stunned.

After the shock came overwhelming delight.

With this, if nothing else, their Lingxian Sect could at least act without restraint throughout the mortal world, right?

Not that he actually wanted to throw his weight around.

But they could certainly afford to be a little more high-profile now.

For example, if he had known that Senior Liao would reach the Spirit Transformation Realm, he would not have invited only a portion of the guests to this annual gathering. He could have simply printed a huge number of invitations and sent them throughout the mortal world!

Unfortunately, the annual gathering was tomorrow. It was clearly too late to send out additional invitations now.

Fortunately, such things could not be accomplished all at once anyway.

Although he was somewhat curious about the reward in the private treasury, the most important thing at present was to finish setting up the city and prepare for the guests arriving tomorrow.

Once Lin Xiao saw from high above that Liu Yunan had finished settling the commoners below, he aligned the enormous phantom of the city with the position he had selected and pressed confirm.

“Boom—”

A deep, resonant hum shook through everyone’s ears.

The people on the ground immediately felt the earth beneath their feet lurch as if the world itself were trembling. Then, howling winds swept in from every direction.

The commotion startled the birds and beasts in the surrounding forests. They darted out from every corner and fled in all directions.

Dust billowed into the air.

“Ow! What’s happening?”

“Heavens! Could it be that the mountain god is angry?”

Although Liu Yunan and the villagers of Xiushui had already been calming everyone down, many people still panicked when faced with the sudden disturbance.

“Don’t panic, everyone! The immortals of our Lingxian Sect are building a city! Don’t panic!”

There were simply too many people for Liu Yunan and the others to reassure every one of them. Many villagers joined in, explaining the situation to the anxious tourists.

Everyone continued to feel the ground vibrating beneath their feet, as if some violent upheaval were taking place deep underground.

After roughly ten breaths, the disturbance beneath the earth finally began to weaken, until it subsided completely.

Just as everyone thought it was over, another earth-shaking rumble came from all around them!

This time, however, the disturbance was different. It did not come from beneath the ground, but from the surface far in the distance.

With a thunderous boom, the people saw a towering wall suddenly burst out of the earth.

The distance was too great for them to see the wall clearly, but its immense height made it unmistakable. Centered around Xiushui Village, it enclosed a vast stretch of land.

The surrounding villages were all included within its boundaries.

Liu Yunan had already arranged for disciples to visit those villages and discuss the matter with them. When the villagers learned that they, too, would benefit from Xiushui Village’s construction of a city, they were overjoyed.

Over the past few years, the nearby villages had enjoyed no shortage of benefits from having a cultivation sect nearby. Not only had the marriage prospects of the young people in their villages improved, but whenever natural disasters struck, the sect would send immortal disciples down the mountain to help.

The growing number of tourists had also allowed the surrounding villages to benefit. While Xiushui Village had enjoyed the lion’s share, the neighboring villages had at least received their share of the scraps, and everyone had become considerably wealthier.

When they had first heard that Xiushui Village was going to build a town, the surrounding villages had already regarded it as a wonderful thing. From then on, they would no longer have to travel such a great distance to Cuifeng Town whenever they wanted to stroll around town or sell something.

But who could have imagined that before long, they would be allowed to become city residents as well?

As a result, the villagers in the surrounding settlements had developed an extremely high level of trust in the Lingxian Sect, just like the people of Xiushui Village. When the sect specifically sent disciples to discuss the matter with them, they even told the villagers that if they did not wish to live inside the city, the sect would provide them with a resettlement allowance and help them move to a village outside the city’s boundaries.

Where could anyone find immortals this considerate?

Thus, when the villagers of the surrounding settlements witnessed these changes, they were naturally shaken as well. Yet when they saw the towering city walls rising from the distant horizon, their excitement had already overwhelmed their unease.

Once the lofty walls finally stopped growing, another round of movement began.

The ground suddenly seemed to be pressed flat by an enormous invisible machine. Not only did the land become smooth wherever it passed, but it was also paved with glossy black-jade-like flagstones.

The stone roads stretched in every direction throughout the area within the city walls. In the blink of an eye, they covered the entire city, even extending along the paths in every village without missing a single one.

Moments later, exquisite and imposing buildings rose from the ground one after another. They appeared right before the people’s eyes—some perched atop towering mountains, others built beside flowing waters.

Those who witnessed it all firsthand had long since become too astonished even to exclaim. They were so stunned that they had forgotten everything else, merely standing there with their mouths agape as they watched it unfold.

Among them were numerous spies from other nations.

That was right. Ever since the Lingxian Sect had revealed itself to the world—especially over the past two years—many spies that other nations had planted in the Pu Si Kingdom had made their way to the area around Xiushui Village.

However, those spies were ordinary people, and the only information they had managed to send back was that a sect called the Lingxian Sect had appeared in the Pu Si Kingdom.

The reports they could send from Xiushui Village usually amounted to little more than observations that the Lingxian Sect maintained frequent contact with ordinary citizens instead of distancing itself from the secular world like other sects. Their superiors had not even bothered forwarding such useless information to higher authorities.

The people were astonished by the changes before their eyes. This was the first time they had personally witnessed what the work of immortals truly looked like.

And in places beyond the people’s sight, even more changes were quietly taking place in every corner of the city.

…

Once the city had been completely set in place, the system’s notification sounded in Lin Xiao’s mind again:

【City placement complete. Please name the city.】

It was time to name it.

This time, Lin Xiao did not hesitate. He had decided on the name long ago.

【City name: Xiushui City. Confirm?】

“Confirm.”