Is One Enough to Do Anything

Even if they did nothing but cultivate there, it would still be worth the trip.

The secret realm offered by the Lingxian Sect was called the Greenwild Secret Realm. There were ten access permits, each allowing entry for five people, making fifty places in total available for auction. Each permit was valid for fifty years.

The auction house in Xiushui City had also provided a detailed list of all the basic resources available within the Greenwild Secret Realm. Quite a few of the items on the list were enough to make one’s heart race.

With those resources, many of the ancestral alchemy and artifact-forging recipes in their sects—recipes that had long been shelved because of a lack of materials—could finally be put to use again.

Thus, the moment this lot was announced, the entire venue erupted.

By this point in the auction, every sect that had come to participate was displaying unprecedented enthusiasm.

Regardless of how many spirit stones they had already spent on previous bids, they all rolled up their sleeves and shouted out prices without restraint.

After two or three years of accumulation, many sects had fortunes that were vastly different from what they had been before.

At first, everyone bid with great vigor. But as the auction progressed, many sects began to show signs of fatigue.

Those whose financial foundations were not quite as strong began considering another option: seeking partners.

For example, Han Shangyi, the head of the Qinghe Sect—one of the first-tier sects that had been prospering alongside the Lingxian Sect over the past two years—received a message from Yang Quan, the head of the neighboring Qingfeng Sect.

“Old Han, how about we cooperate?” Yang Quan asked.

It was said that the Qingfeng Sect and the Qinghe Sect had a deep connection dating back to their ancestors. However, neither sect’s historical records contained much information about it, so the story had merely been passed down sporadically among their descendants. In the past century, though, the two sects had maintained a good relationship, and the two sect leaders were personally acquainted as well.

Their private rooms were next to each other because they had chosen them together when they arrived.

The Qingfeng Sect was located quite far from the Pushi Kingdom. By the time the winds from Xiushui City had reached them, it had long been impossible for them to catch up with the first wave of sects. If the Qinghe Sect had not sent them a message, they might not even have managed to catch the tail end of the second wave. As a result, when it came to a major project like this auction, their financial resources were somewhat lacking.

Han Shangyi asked, “How do you want to cooperate?”

Seeing that he had not refused outright, Yang Quan did not beat around the bush. “You secure five places and give two of them to us. I’ll help you shoulder the cost in spirit stones.”

“One place,” Han Shangyi replied.

“What good is one place? Two. After all these years, you should learn to be more generous.” Yang Quan continued haggling.

“One.”

Han Shangyi showed no intention of yielding.

In truth, he had been thinking that he could afford to give a little more. Two places, however, were too many. At most, he could give one and a half—but the people entering the secret realm could not be split in half, with one half going here and the other half going there, then sewn back together to make a complete person. So one place was all he could offer.

Sensing his resolve, Yang Quan could only take a step back. “All right, then. Our sect will take the worse end of the deal and cover thirty-five percent of the spirit stones. We’ll take one place this year, two next year, and one the year after that. How does that arrangement sound?”

Han Shangyi considered it and found it quite reasonable, so he agreed.

With the Qingfeng Sect helping shoulder the cost, Han Shangyi bid even more aggressively.

Quite a few of the other sects and royal families also thought of seeking partners, and they hurriedly began negotiating in private.

Although they could wait until the auction ended and then negotiate with the successful bidders, by that point it would no longer be a partnership. It would be an absolute seller’s market, with the winning bidders having complete control over the terms. The other side would have no bargaining power at all.

Compared to that, joining forces and bidding together was far more equal.

Thus, when the auction for the secret-realm places finally ended, five or six of the ten permits had been purchased through cooperative bidding.

One of them had even been acquired through the cooperation of five royal families, with each family receiving one place.

After all, when it came to wealth, the royal families of the mortal world found it difficult to compete with the major sects. Moreover, they generally cultivated far fewer practitioners themselves. They were not like the sects, which recruited disciples year-round and possessed large numbers of talented elites.

Naturally, the people of Xiushui City were fully aware of these arrangements.

It was not that they had been monitoring the sects and royal families. Rather, the sects and royal families themselves had informed Xiushui City of their private agreements.

The reason was that some of them were worried Xiushui City might not permit such pooling of resources. What if, after they had painstakingly won the secret-realm permits, Xiushui City took them back on the grounds that the arrangements violated the rules?

After enjoying several years of a prosperous cultivation life unlike anything they had experienced before, and personally witnessing the flourishing prosperity that had swept through the mortal world since the establishment of Xiushui City, these sects—regardless of their past attitudes—no longer had the slightest intention of challenging the Lingxian Sect.

Not to mention that the Lingxian Sect had now offered access to a secret realm.

This directly led many sects and royal families that had already been close to the Lingxian Sect to acknowledge it as the leader of the mortal world. One after another, they sent messages to the Lingxian Sect’s mountain gate. Though labeled as greetings, they were in truth declarations of allegiance.

Many sects even planned to offer tribute to the Lingxian Sect under the pretext of presenting gifts.

The Lingxian Sect did not refuse. After accepting everything, it merely expressed that everyone had it difficult enough and that there was no need to send such extravagant gifts in the future; normal exchanges between sects would be sufficient. It then sent gifts in return.

When the various sects and royal families received the reply, their leaders felt greatly reassured.

Since the Lingxian Sect had not rejected the gifts sent alongside their declarations of allegiance, that meant it had accepted them. And it seemed that the Lingxian Sect was not greedy for the resources of these sects. Having such a powerful elder brother was not a bad feeling at all.

Because of this, several days later, Lin Xiao’s system rang out in his mind.

[Ding—Congratulations, host. You have successfully gained the wholehearted support of twenty sects in the mortal world, as well as the support of more than fifty sects in total. You have greatly increased the prestige of our sect in the mortal world and completed the mission exceptionally well. The rewards for this mission have been divided into personal rewards and sect rewards, which have been distributed to the private treasury and the sect treasury respectively. Please check them at your convenience.]

Lin Xiao was delighted when he received the system’s notification. The rewards had actually been divided into personal and sect rewards this time, which meant there was likely quite a lot of them. They were sure to be good things.

But before he could even open his private treasury to take a look, the system’s notification sounded again.

[Ding—It has been detected that the host has exceeded the requirements for the activation mission of Version 2.0 of Sect Development. The series of Version 2.0 Sect Development missions will now be officially unlocked.]

[Version 2.0 Sect Development Mission One: Thanks to the sect’s outstanding performance, it has gained tremendous prestige in the mortal world. However, an excellent sect cannot remain isolated in one corner if it wishes to continue developing. It must dare to explore and advance, taking the sect beyond the mortal world and toward the cultivation world. The host must establish a sect branch in the cultivation world within ten years.]

[Helpful hint: The location of the branch will have a tremendous impact on the sect’s future development in the cultivation world. Please choose the location carefully.]

Lin Xiao: …

All of a sudden, he no longer felt like checking his rewards.