While Gu Lingzhi was working hard to improve her cultivation, the construction of the Gui Yuan Clan did not fall behind.
The people that Zhuo Rong provided were all extremely talented builders. In less than a year, they had completed the numerous complicated and luxurious palaces. If one were to look up from the base of the mountain, they would only see rows of stairs that did not seem to end. Only when they were near the clouds then would they be able to see a corner of the palace. And only with the movement of the clouds would the entire glory of the mysterious palace be visible.
The board with the three bold and forceful words “Gui Yuan Clan” written on it was hung in the middle of the mountain gate. It reminded people of the origin of this name.
Starting from the top part of the mountain, above the cloud line, buildings were built along the mountain peak in an irregular but beautiful arrangement. The main hall of the Gui Yuan Clan was built on the highest point of the peak. The area in front of the main hall could fit over ten thousand people. The main hall was majestic and dignified. Behind the main hall, there were the library pavilion, training grounds and other necessary facilities. Further behind, it was the main palace. The main palace was where the Clan Leader and other important leaders of the clan would reside. Further behind was then where the ordinary members would reside.
The entire Gui Yuan Clan could hold a few ten thousands of disciples easily.
Looking at the continuous infrastructure of the place, the corners of Gu Lingzhi"s mouth twitched. Zhuo Rong had built the Gui Yuan Clan according to how a huge clan would be built.
All she wanted was to give people from the Tianyuan Continent a place to stay and did not think of expanding outwards. However, Rong Yuan reminded her.
“A complete clan cannot only have the clan leader, elders and managers. We must have a lot of ordinary disciples to be considered complete.”
If their Gui Yuan Clan only consisted of people from the Tianyuan Continent, it would surely arouse suspicions.
“Now that the clan infrastructure has been built, we can start accepting disciples. Including the people that we found from various places, once we start accepting ordinary disciples it won"t be difficult for us to uphold the image of a small clan.”
“But won"t it be inconvenient if we allow outsiders into our clan?” Absolutely no one could know about their true ident.i.ties.
“Silly girl.” Rong Yuan knocked Gu Lingzhi"s head lightly, “Have you forgotten that most clans in the Realm of the G.o.ds have an internal and external differentiation? When we let Wu"er out we can register them as internal disciples while the other children can be listed as external disciples. The external disciples can stay at the surrounding of the clan, won"t that solve the problem?”
Ye Wu"er was Pan Yue and Ye Fei"s daughter who was now of the Martial Sage rank. It was a pity that with limited resources, despite how much Spiritual Medicine Gu Lingzhi fed her, the Martial Sage rank was her maximum. However, there were still advantages in that. With limited resources, she could not enter a higher rank but her ability to reproduce was not affected. Under Gu Lingzhi"s guidance, she married a lad from the Spirit Tribe and gave birth to a boy who had incredible talent for cultivation. At a young age, his cultivation was about to surpa.s.s Ye Wu"er and there were high hopes for him to become a True G.o.d.
“The Third Prince is right, as long as we make the distinction between the internal and external disciples clear, there won"t be a problem.” Xin Yi smiled.
“Why are you still calling him the Third Prince? Xin Yi, you better change the way you call him. If outsiders were to hear you, it would not be good.” Nie Sang stood at the side in a refined manner as he smiled.
He had found them via the Spiritual Weapon that Gu Lingzhi had left with the Zhuo Family"s business.
The shape of the weapons Gu Lingzhi created was slightly unusual and was unique with no chance of being copied. As long as the person was from the Tianyuan Continent, they would recognise it. In addition, Gu Lingzhi had informed the shop that if anyone were to ask of the name of the weapon maker, they just needed to say that it was made by the “Black Thorn”.
When the clan had yet to be completed and they could not openly recruit members, Gu Lingzhi had resorted to this and managed to find quite a few members.
“Sorry, I am too used to it. I will be more aware next time, Elder Nie.” Xin Yi playfully punched Nie Sang.
Nie Sang pretended to return the gift, “You are welcome, Leader Xin.”
Gu Lingzhi was humoured by the two of them and also faced Rong Yuan, “Elder Rong, it is nice to meet you.”
Rong Yuan replied courteously, “It is nice to meet you too, Elder Gu.”
Everyone else burst into laughter as they also greeted each other. All these Ascension Members were given the t.i.tle of Elders in the Gui Yuan Clan. When all the other Ascension Members that had yet to be caught found their clan, their Gui Yuan Clan would probably be the clan with the highest number of elders in the entire Realm of the G.o.ds.
Choosing a house that they favoured amongst the houses for the elders, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan entered the place. Qin Xinran and Nie Fang had chosen the place next to them. In this manner, the huge Gui Yuan Clan finally had some character to it.
Spending half a day tidying up the place, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan went to the Feixing Pavilion in the nearby town the next day to release the news that they were accepting disciples. Xin Yi and Tianfeng Jin"s names were included along with the posting of the Gui Yuan Clan and anyone who saw their listing would definitely see their names. Thereafter, Gu Lingzhi went to the shops in town to buy some materials to make weapons. She was preparing to help her friends upgrade their weapons.
When she was in the Tianyuan Continent, due to the problems with materials and cultivation, she could at most make low-grade G.o.dly Weapons. Now, things were different. There were a lot of precious materials in the Realm of the G.o.ds that she could use to make a higher grade weapon, how could Gu Lingzhi miss out on that?
It was the same when it came to medicine cultivation. She could now try her hand at making G.o.dly Spiritual Medicine in the secret medicine cabinet in her Inheritance s.p.a.ce.
After buying a bunch of materials for Alchemy and Weapon Forging, the group rode their flying beasts back to the Gui Yuan Clan as the sky was starting to turn dark.
After travelling for a while, Gu Lingzhi suddenly frowned as she turned behind to look.
Behind her, there was only Tianfeng Jin and nothing else. The ground they were travelling on was also level with only short shrubs. There was nowhere to hide.
Was her sense wrong?
Gu Lingzhi hesitated before turning her head to look at Rong Yuan. She saw the pondering look in his eyes and knew that her feeling was not wrong. There was really someone following them.
“Someone from the Feixing Pavilion?”
Rong Yuan shook his head, “I don"t think so.” If it were someone from the Feixing Pavilion, they won"t be following us so carefully. They would have come out directly. With Pan Luo as their backing, no matter how isolated the town was, the Feixing Pavilion would still have power.”
“Xiao Jin, Xinran, let"s rest a while at the mountain in front before continuing.”
“Why? Isn"t it just a short while before we reach home?” Qin Xinran tilted her head and asked, her canines poking out.
“Because I am tired.” If they were to fly all the way back to Gui Yuan Clan, wouldn"t they be exposed by the person following them?
Gu Lingzhi then ordered the flying beast she was on to charge ahead and Rong Yuan followed tightly behind her. Everyone else was confused but followed along.
When Gu Lingzhi reached the base of a mountain, she acted as if she was really here to rest as she took a chair and table out of her Storage Ring and even took out several things to eat. Rong Yuan made a pot of boiling tea using his spiritual energy.
Qin Xinran found a chair to sit amidst her confusion. Her eyes blinked, questioning them.
Gu Lingzhi laughed lightly, “The scenery here is pretty nice and it is already very late. We can rest here for the night and continue our journey tomorrow.
As she spoke, her eyes flitted backwards. They immediately got the signal and stopped questioning her.
Tianfeng Jin was even more efficient as she quickly cleaned up a place and laid down a thick and soft blanket. She sat on it, adopting a cultivating position.
Qin Xinran, Xin Yi and Nie Sang were all slightly slower as they each found a place to rest.
Gu Lingzhi stretched out as she leaned backwards and landed perfectly into Rong Yuan"s embrace. Rong Yuan chuckled, as he buried his nose in her neck and took a deep breath, “It"s a middle-cla.s.s True G.o.d, specialised in hiding and trailing.”
Gu Lingzhi nodded subtly as she was pulled up intimately by Rong Yuan, “You all should wait here, we are going to catch some beasts for dinner.”
Qin Xinran immediately joined in, “I want to go too.” But she was pushed back down lightly but firmly by Nie Sang.
“Let"s just wait here, we have been following them the whole day. Isn"t that enough?”
Qin Xinran"s mouth opened and closed as she lifted her cup indignantly and sipped on it.
On the other side, Xin Yi had been walking around. Finally under Tianfeng Jin"s doubtful gaze, he laid a blanket next to her and sat in the same position as her. He then smiled in satisfaction.
Tianfeng Jin blinked as she did not know what to think. Her face heated up slightly as she tilted her head.
Xin Yi had been subtly monitoring her reaction and his smile widened as he noticed her reaction. It was as if he did not see Tianfeng Jin sit in a position that was meant for cultivation as he retrieved numerous spiritual fruits and snacks from his Storage Ring. He placed them on a small side table and invited Tianfeng Jin to share them with him.
“I don"t know how long Lingzhi and Rong Yuan will take. We should eat something first.”
Tianfeng Jin looked at the food on the table and looked at Xin Yi"s expectant eyes. She felt her face heat up even more. She coughed unnaturally before turning to Qin Xinran and Nie Sang.
“Come over and eat too.”
“No, no thank you. You both can go ahead.” Qin Xinran shook her head fervently. The atmosphere between the two of them was so mysterious, she would be an idiot to not be able to sense it. It is no wonder that when they were choosing their houses, Xin Yi had rushed to choose one that was nearest to the main palace. So it was to be close to her.
Qin Xinran rubbed her chin as she wondered when Xin Yi started to have feelings for Tianfeng Jin.
As she pondered over it, she really remembered all the details that she missed out before.
For example in the past whenever Gu Lingzhi was around, Xin Yi would pay attention to Gu Lingzhi. This made her misunderstand that Xin Yi was interested in Gu Lingzhi. However, in the past year after they ascended, it seems like Xin Yi was no longer around Gu Lingzhi. For the majority of the time, he was always near Tianfeng Jin.
What was even more obvious was when they were in the Thousand Mountains Range. Xin Yi was basically following behind Tianfeng Jin the entire time. At that time, she only thought that Xin Yi was not bad as a person and that he knew how to protect girls. She never thought that he would have another motive.
Just as Qin Xinran was shocked at her realisation, the sky turned dark. However, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan had yet to return.
“Wait here, I will go look for them.” Nie Sang was serious as he quickly rushed in the direction that Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan had gone.