Chapter 21 – The strongest yet weakest power

“Brother Hai, where exactly is this place?” Qin Cheng asked.

“This would be my natal artifact,” Hai Yun replied. He decided that he wasn’t going to hide any secrets from his fiancé, as that would only lead to things becoming counterproductive. “Oh right, I should apologize for stealing you from Elder Nangong like this. Because I brought you in here, I can’t eactly send you out without the Hai clan main branch noticing”.

“That’s fine. I like it in here anyway”.

Right after the Spirit Blood practitioner who had accompanied Hai Gui made his move, Hai Yun had brought himself and Qin Cheng into the Isle of the Wailing souls. Because of the messy situation, Si Wang had used a portion of her soul force to soften the ground underneath them so the impact was greatly dispersed. However it still took nearly a day before Hai Yun regained consciousness. In this time, neither Xue Yi nor Si Wang showed themselves to Qin Cheng.

However Qin Cheng did not stray at all, in fact she only went looking for water. Even that was not because she was thirsty, but so she could tear of a portion of her skirt and use it as a rag to wipe of al of Hai Yun’s blood.

The two gods couldn’t help but gain a favorable impression of the naïve looking 13 year old. Their attitude was just like that of an old couple testing their future daughter in-law.

After waking up, the first thing Hai Yun had done was finish his marriage proposal to Qin Cheng. Earlier he had been stopped by all the commotion.

This is where Xue Yi realized Hai Yun’s greatest flaw. He might be a genius in alchemy, but has 0 practical experience. Other than refining elixirs, he had never dealt with politics before, so he was always being stumped by these situations and doing various stupid things.

For example, essentially letting Hai Gui talk and not cutting him off. If it had been anyone else, they would have shut him up before he finished his last sentence. That wasn’t even much of a debate, Hai Yun was just getting a complete and total roasting by words.

They would seriously need to work on his speech skills…

“Oh right, Qin Cheng I should introduce my master to you,” Hai Yun clapped his hands under this new realization.

As if on cue, Xue Yi appeared before the duo with a slight smile on his face.

“This is my master, Xue Yi. He’s an old geezer from the past Great Antiquity period and held a lofty office under a God Emperor. Although he is not the strongest person from the Great Antiquity, but he will reluctantly do for my master,” Hai un sighed.

“Reluctantly… qualifies… Fine, why don’t you go find a better candidate for a teacher. From this point on, I shall teach you nothing!” Xue Yi fumed.

“Right, he also frequently throws temper tantrums. Don’t underestimate the temper tantrum of someone over a hundred thousand years old.”

“I dare you to say that to my face brat!”

“Did you forget that your just a spirit now. You don’t technically have a face!”

“You!!!! How come you have such a sharp tongue around me but couldn’t even speak up for yourself when you were accused by that Hai Gui. DO you know how much trouble you’ve invited for yourself?!?!”

“Qin Cheng greats the sacred master,” Qin Cheng bowed in the formal greeting one gives to their elders.

“Rise,” Xue Yi waved his hand. “When did all these different forms of bowing develop anyway. It really is bothersome to be a junior in your era”.

“Eh… You didn’t have these customs back in the Ancient Antiquity?” Hai Yun asked.

“The only thing we had to do back then was kowtow to our masters. This whole, bow to elders and what not was definitely not around then. Probably because everyone was immortal so we never knew who was how many years old…”

“Puh… Wait, then how did these customs come about?” Qin Cheng’s curiosity was also piqued by this comment. To her these customs was a show of formality and represented the respect she gave to her elders, however she had never wondered how these customs came about in the first place.

“Eh… why do you think I know. Probably because some fool was making bets with another fool and was like, ‘If I win this bet you better kowtow to me and call me your grandfather’ or something. Since most people would become disciples of some old codgers who thought strutting around in a white beard earned them some respect,” Xue Yi commented nonchalantly.

One should remember that Xue Yi looks like a middle aged man with sand peppered hair which is more black then grey. So it can be assumed that maintaining a young face was not only not impossible, but probably something many ten thousand year old monsters used to do back in the day.

But still… to think the customs of bowing to ones elders probably came from someone trying to shame someone else… It really made people feel, well stupid…

“Brother Hai, what should we do now? Since we decided to run away, then we obviously cant go and join another power. That would be too disloyal for me,” Qin Cheng asked.

“he he he… No matter which power we joined it would take hundreds of years before we became powerful. Let me explain something to you.

The current power structure is divided into many powers of different grades. Historically, the highest grade of power was the 7th grade federation of 40,000 years ago. It was a single power which controlled the entire continent! Supposedly at that time there were many practitioners who had surpassed the Spirit Sovereign realm. 30,000 years ago, however the great emperor who led the continent died.

After his death the 3 supreme elders broke off into their own factions and the era of the triumvirate came about. Each of these elders was about equal in power, however no one was able to cultivate to their realm and challenge them, simply because they would kill anyone who got close. The law they instituted was that there must never be another practitioner at their realm, because if there was then the moment they died everything on the continent would go to that person.

Thus they hunted and killed anyone with heaven defying talent.

However, they also could not live forever and after their deaths, the strongest people left were the 6 last gods.

The reason we call them the last gods is because under their rule, they prevented anyone from learning the secret to breakthrough into the divine realm from the Spirit Sovereign realm.

Thus, the era of the 6 god kings lasted from 20,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago. Then the strongest people in society were only at the peak of the spirit sovereign realm. There were about 30 some of these codgers, and it just so happens that they each wanted to create their own sect.

Thus the present era of the peak powers. Since Spirit Sovereigns only have a life of about 2,000 years the number of peak powers has always been changing. However since no one can break through the divine realm, the world is somewhat at peace. Currently they are divided into 4 great alliances, the Martial alliance, Life alliance, Flame Alliance and Sword alliance.

Outside of these alliances there are also many peak powers who choose to remain independent. The Holy music Pavilion is one such power. They are one of the stronger ones with 2 people at the peak of the Spirit Sovereign realm, 10 at the 9th step of the spirit sovereign realm and nearly 80 people at or below the 8th rank of the spirit sovereign realm.

Using this logic, we can see that the alliances themselves. The strongest alliance is the martial alliance. They are composed of the Earth Fire Crane clan, Great Desolate Palace, Thousand Fist sect, Frost Phoenix Dynasty and the Chronicle Fire Dragon Clan. In total, they have 10 members at the peak of the Sovereign Profound realm. Nearly 100 at the 9th step of the Spirit sovereign realm and more than a thousand other Spirit Sovereigns.

However even though this seems quite intimidating, there is actually a single peak power which is able to keep this alliance in check. They are frequently called the strongest, yet weakest peak power.

The infamous, Scarlet Cloud Poison Sect. With absolutely no Spirit Sovereign practitioners. However they have 9 people at the peak of the Spirit Emperor realm and 81 at the 9th step of the Spirit Emperor realm,” Hai Yun explained.

“but isn’t the spirit emperor realm an entire realm under the Spirit Sovereign. So the difference between the peak of the Spirit Emperor and the Peak of the spirit sovereign should be 10 entire steps!” Qin Cheng was alarmed, how could a power without a single spirit sovereign be called the strongest peak power? Could they really put up a fight against more than a thousand Spirit Sovereigns?

“This is precisely why they are called the strongest, yet the weakest. They practice a special at called the Scarlet Cloud Poison arts. There are a total of 11 stages and mastering each one allows a person to have the power of someone an entire stage above them. That is to say, if someone at the 9th step of the Emperor profound realm from their sect were to fight with someone at the 10th step of the Spirit emperor realm from another sect, and the emperor from the Scarlet Cloud Poison Sect mastered the 1st level of the Scarlet Cloud Poison arts, then the two would be evenly matched in power.

Why this is true, no one knows clearly, but it is definitely true. The greatest fear for all the other peak powers is precisely that someone at the peak of the Spirit Emperor realm in that sect masters the 11th level of the Scarlet Cloud Poison Arts. It is highly possible that if that were to happen they would have the strength equal to someone at the early stages of the Divine God realm. The other fear, of course, is that someone breaks through to the Spirit Sovereign realm, because that would have the exact same effect.

So if we were to use this logic, the Scarlet Cloud Poison Sect would have 9 peak Spirit Sovereigns and 81 9th step Spirit Sovereigns. That’s almost the same amount of power as the entire martial alliance, none of the 6 peak powers which make it up could independently face of with the Scarlet Cloud Poison sect. The disparity is just too great. It is only because Spirit Emperors can’t live as long as Spirit Sovereigns that the martial alliance was able to exceed the Scarlet Cloud Poison sect’s numbers.”

“There really is such a power?” Qin Cheng was astounded.

“Yes, there really is a power like this.” Hai Yun affirmed. “From this logic one can see that the real support of any sect is actually the number of Peak Spirit Sovereigns. So if we were to join one of those powers, we would probably be placed nearly at the top and other than the other Children of heaven from other sects, we would not have any other opponents that would fight all out with us.

This is why I want to create my own influence. The best part of that would be that we wouldn’t have to deal with a lot of backstabbing. In most peak powers, there are lots of hidden political games going on for power and joining one of them would require us to enter that conflict eventually. This is the benefit of creating a brand new influence,” Hai Yun finished.

“But, with just the two of us now, aren’t we too weak?” Qin Cheng understood the logic behind what Hai Yun was saying but there was a big problem. They were simply not strong enough right now!

“He He He… We don’t need to be the strongest to get a big influence. We just need to have strong subordinates who would not dare to betray us,” Hai Yun smiled.