Chapter 394: Arrangements

On the Hundred-Refinement Peak, Yaoguang leafed through a thick dossier.

"The Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects, the Six Great Fiendish Dao Sects, the Six Buddhist Temples, the Nine Demon Race Lineages, the Three Great Martial Dao Sects, the Ten Divine Races, and the Four Great Immortal Dynasties..."

These were the named inheritances of the North Sea Star. Unlike those forces with just one Dao Lord and a handful of disciples, each of these factions commanded tens of thousands of disciples, held its own territory, and operated on a massive scale.

The Heavenly Dao Sect belonged to the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects, but it was not the strongest among them. The mightiest, the Three-Qing Temple, had three Dao Lords.

And if one were to use the Heavenly Dao Sect's thirteen Void-Shattering cultivators as a reference, the Three-Qing Temple's Void-Shattering cultivators likely numbered over thirty.

The same went for the Six Great Fiendish Dao Sects. For the Yin Lunar Sect to hold its own against the Heavenly Dao Sect while sharing borders with both it and the Taiyi Immortal Sect, its Void-Shattering Realm supreme elders certainly numbered above ten.

Well, whether it could still keep that number above ten after losing the Eight Desolations and Dark Fiend Lords was another question.

Then again, the hallmark of fiendish cultivators was rapid cultivation before Dao Integration, paired with vanishingly slim odds of ever achieving it. The Yin Lunar Sect's Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators probably still exceeded ten.

If a single Yin Lunar Sect boasted that many, the Six Great Fiendish Dao Sects together could easily muster between eighty and a hundred Void-Shattering fiendish cultivators.

As for the Nine Demon Race Lineages, their Void-Shattering demon sovereigns would only be more numerous, comfortably in the triple digits. And then there were the divine races, plus assorted minor factions and factions from beyond the North Sea Star...

"Scraping together fifteen to twenty targets to gain Daemon Hunter experience won't be hard. As long as..." He glanced at the Limitless Sword, which had already taken rough shape. "I'm strong enough."

"Deputy Sect Master," Wan Liugui's voice came from outside the array.

Yaoguang opened the array, and the Void-Piercing battle immortal walked in and presented a dossier. "These are all the holdings of the Lu and Li families in the Southern Capital and across the southern domain. They've handed everything over as a congratulatory gift on your becoming lord of the southern domain. They've also relinquished the Enlightenment Spirit Liquid and Longevity Fruit industries."

Yaoguang gave a nod of acknowledgment.

Those two families certainly knew how to read the room, surrendering essentially everything they had built up in the southern domain over centuries as their gift of apology.

"Hand the Enlightenment Spirit Liquid and Longevity Fruit industries to the Ling and Chi families." With a single sentence, Yaoguang decided the futures of two families.

"Yes, I'll summon them at once." Even as Wan Liugui replied, a touch of envy stirred within him.

With those two industries as their foundation, each family would take in at least ten million Pure Yang Grand Pills a year, income enough to support eight or ten Void-Piercing cultivators without strain.

As long as they kept the industries running, give it a few thousand years and Void-Piercing cultivators would emerge from their families one after another; and whenever a truly gifted junior appeared, the Void-Refining Realm would be a foregone conclusion.

Of course, going from the Void-Refining Realm to the Void-Shattering Realm demanded a colossal investment that these revenues alone could not cover.

But so long as they kept growing with the southern domain, their income would rise with the tide, until the day it was truly enough to nurture a Void-Refining cultivator into a Void-Shattering one.

"Also, ask Wu Changfeng to come see me," Yaoguang said.

"Yes." Wan Liugui withdrew.

Soon, Wu Changfeng arrived at the Hundred-Refinement Peak, a step ahead of Chi Yu and Ling Ruogu.

"Deputy Sect Master," he greeted.

Yaoguang handed him a jade talisman.

Wu Changfeng examined it and quickly recognized what it was. "This is the monitoring station system developed by Guardian Mo Ye, isn't it? Not especially refined, and it demands considerable investment, but its strength is a high tolerance for error."

"Correct." Yaoguang nodded. Wu Changfeng indeed knew the southern domain's affairs thoroughly. He produced another piece of jade. "Now look at this."

Wu Changfeng extended his psychic thought into it. This time, a shocked expression spread across his face within moments. "An upgraded version of Mo Ye's monitoring system? No, wait! The differences are fundamental. Mo Ye's stations rely purely on numbers to watch their surroundings, but we border the Yin Lunar Sect along four states. The area to cover is enormous; full surveillance would require an unthinkable amount of manpower and resources. But this system of yours..."

He looked up at Yaoguang. "It massively improves efficiency, cuts construction time, and increases precision a hundredfold. Even a Void-Shattering cultivator suppressing their aura wouldn't be able to hide, so long as they're a living creature... If I'm not mistaken, the core of this system comes from a soul-type Dao Technique?"

"Yes. I used the detection-type Dao Technique True Spirit Light as the system's core, then developed it further around one of my talents," Yaoguang explained. "Through a talent of mine called the Thousand-Spirit Master, I can sense individual spirit artifacts. Embed those spirit artifacts in the monitoring stations to form perception nodes, then use a soul-type Dao Artifact as a relay, and my True Spirit Light can radiate across the entire border."

"That would require an enormous number of spirit artifacts... The costs will be high. And every station will need staff to maintain it. That amount of manpower..." Wu Changfeng said, weighing his words.

"Consider it job creation." Yaoguang smiled. "As for the money... I'm not short on funds these days. I just want to make the southern domain a place where people are truly safe."

"The southern domain?!" Wu Changfeng's heart jolted.

"That's right. We make sure that anyone who enters the southern domain and commits a crime is dug out immediately and punished severely. Give it time, and no one will dare run wild in the southern domain again," Yaoguang said. "Of course, we will trial it in the four border states first. Only once the method proves workable do we roll it out across the whole domain."

Wu Changfeng gasped. If this plan of Yaoguang's could actually be implemented, the southern domain would become the safest place on the North Sea Star.

And on the chaotic North Sea Star, a place of absolute safety would be nothing short of paradise in everyone's eyes, drawing an unending stream of cultivators to settle.

Those cultivators would bring manpower, wealth, and expertise. Given enough time, how far the southern domain might develop was beyond imagining.

"So I intend to send you to the four border states with a shipment of spirit artifacts, in charge of building the foundational monitoring stations," Yaoguang said. "The border is dangerous work, especially now that we've just killed two Void-Shattering fiend lords and Void-Refining peak masters of the Yin Lunar Sect. You're the only one who can take this task."

"Thank you for your trust, Deputy Sect Master. I'll spare no effort to get this monitoring system built as fast as possible."

"Good." Yaoguang nodded. "Build the border stations first. I'll send you the Dao Artifact that will serve as the network's hub when it's ready."

He produced a storage treasure. "Here's the first batch of spirit artifacts."

Wu Changfeng accepted them with a solemn expression. After a moment, something occurred to him. "Deputy Sect Master, does this monitoring system of ours have a name?"

"The system's original purpose is to root out fiendish cultivators sneaking into our southern domain, and later it will serve to hunt down any cultivator who commits evil here. The aim is a sky net, vast and wide, that lets nothing slip through. So... let's call it the Sky Net system," Yaoguang said.

"Sky Net." Wu Changfeng gave a firm nod, cupped his hands, and departed with the treasures.

Watching him go, Yaoguang started studying the Sky Net system's possible flaws. His Thousand-Spirit Master talent gave him remote awareness of every implement he refined; in other words, each spirit artifact was an extension of his sight, and he had also cultivated the True Spirit Light, a soul-perception Dao Technique.

The heart of the Sky Net system was to combine the two, making every monitoring station an observation node, with the True Spirit Light as the means of observation.

But the True Spirit Light channeled through the Thousand-Spirit Master had limited power, so he needed to forge a Dao Artifact attuned to the True Spirit Light to amplify it.

When the stations were linked into a network, an entire region could be kept under watch. Better still, the Dao Artifact's artifact spirit could shoulder part of the alert function, sparing him from constantly having to keep watch by using Thousand-Spirit Master.

In its mature form, the system would need only one Void-Piercing cultivator and one Dao Artifact to monitor several states. Eight or ten Dao Artifacts, on top of a few million spirit artifacts, would complete the layout for the entire southern domain and bring all of it under surveillance.

A cost like that was unthinkable for anyone else, but to him it was nothing. Safety and stability mattered more than any amount of resources.

"Later, once conditions are ripe, I'll issue the directive that everyone born in the southern domain, or seeking to enter it, must leave a mental fluctuation on file. The Sky Net system's coverage will be even more complete. The Sky Net will be able to track any living being in the southern domain as soon as it's needed."

Yaoguang knew this measure would breed plenty of resentment. Cultivation was an intensely private affair, and many cultivators guarded their privacy jealously.

When the time came, they could weigh the trade for themselves. All he had to do was make sure he possessed enough power to carry his will through.

Shortly afterward, Chi Yu and Ling Ruogu arrived at the Hundred-Refinement Peak in turn. When they learned Yaoguang was placing the Enlightenment Spirit Liquid and Longevity Fruit industries in their hands, they were filled with joy.

Yaoguang went on assigning work to the others. At the same time, he distributed great quantities of pills to the cultivators of the Nine Cauldrons Sect, ensuring their cultivation would continue advancing by leaps and bounds.

Their talent might not be exceptional by the North Sea Star's standards, but a good environment could dramatically raise the rate of success, much like students from a farming village and students in a nation's capital—the difference in environment was enough to erase small gaps in intelligence.

A month later, Yaoguang finished all his arrangements. The storm from the battle that had slain the Yin Lunar Sect's two Void-Shattering and five Void-Refining fiendish cultivators gradually subsided.

Yaoguang poured his remaining energy into refining the heavenly fiend origins, improving the Heavenly Dragon-Slaying Array from time to time, and nurturing the Limitless Sword in spare moments.

And so, in the blink of an eye, another fifteen years passed.