Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3736: The Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect

The room stayed quiet for several moments after Lady Kang revealed the location.

Lin Mu leaned back slightly, his fingers tapping the armrest of the chair as he organized his thoughts.

"The Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect..." he muttered again.

That name carried immense weight.

It was not simply because of the sect itself, but because of the person behind it.

Lin Mu looked up.

"The Immortal Court is divided into three factions," he spoke of what he knew, slowly. "The Peaceful Faction, the Neutral Faction and the Hardliner Faction."

Lady Kang nodded.

"The Neutral Faction currently controls the majority," Lin Mu continued. "Around half the seats from what I know. The Peaceful Faction should have around thirty percent and the Hardliners the remaining twenty."

"Correct." Lady Kang confirmed.

Lin Mu thought deeper.

The Hardliner Faction had fallen in influence over the recent eras.

Their authority within the Four Immortal Courts had reduced continuously. Policies favoring diplomacy and stability had risen. The Peaceful Faction gained momentum while the Neutral Faction continued balancing everything.

And yet...

No one dared underestimate the Hardliners.

Their influence may have fallen.

But their power had not.

Lady Kang seemed to understand what he was thinking.

"The Hardliner Faction never lost strength," she said calmly. "They only lost political ground."

She poured tea for both of them before continuing.

"Their armies still exist."

"Their sects remain."

"Their elders still sit in the highest halls."

"And their strongest experts are as terrifying as before."

Lin Mu nodded.

Political decline and actual weakness were entirely different things.

A faction could lose influence while still possessing enough strength to overturn worlds.

And the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect was one of those powers.

It was the home sect of the leader of the Hardliner Faction.

The Heavenly Stream Immortal Daoist.

Lin Mu frowned slightly.

"I know little about him."

Lady Kang seemed unsurprised.

"Few do."

She took out another jade slip.

"The Heavenly Stream Immortal Daoist is the Supreme Elder of the Eastern Immortal Court."

Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed.

Supreme Elder.

That title alone was enough.

He was only one step beneath the Court Head himself.

Lady Kang continued.

"His influence within the Eastern Court is immense. Though his political stance follows the Hardliners, his authority extends far beyond faction lines."

She paused briefly.

"And his cultivation..."

Her expression turned serious.

"He has overcome four complete Transcendent Immortal Tribulations."

The room became quiet.

Even Lin Mu felt his heartbeat pause slightly.

Four.

Not one.

Not two.

Four... Even more than the Abbot of the Green Lotus Temple.

He slowly exhaled.

He understood exactly what that meant.

The Transcendent Immortal Tribulation was unlike ordinary tribulations.

Each crossing brought immense gains.

Power.

Transformation.

Longevity.

But every gain came with terrifying danger.

Some immortals gained merely several thousand years.

The exceptional ones obtained tens of thousands.

The stronger the reward, the greater the tribulation endured.

Lady Kang continued softly.

"He is one of the longest lived known immortals in the entire Immortal Realm."

"His age is estimated to exceed one hundred thousand years."

Lin Mu fell silent.

One hundred thousand years.

That number alone felt unreal.

He thought through it carefully.

Even conservatively speaking...

If the man gained around twenty thousand years from each Transcendent breakthrough...

Added his original lifespan.

Added treasures.

Longevity fruits.

Pills.

Rare resources.

The number made sense.

And if those tribulations granted more...

The true number might be even higher.

Lin Mu finally understood why the man stood at the top.

He was not simply powerful.

He was ancient.

He had lived through eras.

Wars.

Rises and falls.

Countless geniuses.

Entire worlds probably appeared and vanished during his lifetime.

Lady Kang nodded.

"He is widely considered one of the top three experts in the known Immortal Realm."

Lin Mu stayed silent.

That alone made the problem terrifying.

And yet Lady Kang was not done.

"The sect itself is equally troublesome."

She spread another map.

The projection appeared between them.

Lin Mu looked.

His expression changed again.

The map showed a world.

An enormous world.

Mountains.

Continents.

Oceans.

Cities.

Fortresses.

Yet the entire thing was marked with sect divisions.

Every region.

Every land.

Every mountain range.

Everything belonged to the sect.

Lady Kang looked at him.

"When I said the vault was in a sect..."

She tapped the world.

"I meant the world itself."

Lin Mu stared.

"The entire world?"

Lady Kang nodded.

"The Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect is one of the rare sect worlds."

"The world itself became the sect."

Lin Mu felt genuinely shocked.

This was not common.

World sects existed.

But they were rare.

A great example was the Serpent Moon Sect that the Saintess was from.

Most sects occupied territories.

Mountain ranges.

Provinces.

At most a few continents.

Yet this...

An entire world devoted to one sect.

It meant complete control.

Resources.

Population.

Armies.

Infrastructure.

Everything.

Lady Kang continued.

"The Heavenly Stream World is enormous."

"Every continent contains branch divisions."

"Every major city answers to the sect."

"Every resource vein belongs to them."

"The oceans."

"The skies."

"The spiritual lands."

"All theirs."

Lin Mu slowly understood the scale.

This was not merely a sect.

It was a civilization.

Lady Kang leaned forward.

"The sect openly possesses ten Transcendents."

Lin Mu looked up immediately.

"Openly?" he repeated.

Lady Kang smiled faintly.

"Yes."

"Openly."

The implication hit instantly.

Ten were known.

More were hidden.

Ancestor halls.

Retired elders.

Sleeping immortals.

Secluded monsters.

No one knew.

And with a sect of this scale...

There were certainly more.

"Thousands of prominent immortals originate from the sect," Lady Kang continued. "Many serve within the Eastern Immortal Court as well as some in other courts."

"The sect forms a significant part of the court’s backbone."

Lin Mu finally understood the full picture.

The vault was hidden inside a fortress.

A fortress called a world.

Ruled by one of the strongest sects in existence.

Backed by the leader of the Hardliner Faction.

Protected by unknown numbers of Transcendents.

And somewhere inside all that...

Lay the inheritance vault of the Virtuous Calamity Daoist.

Lin Mu rubbed his forehead.

"This got troublesome."

Lady Kang actually laughed softly.

"Troublesome?"

She shook her head.

"No."

"This is already in the realm of insanity."

Lin Mu smiled helplessly.

Fair enough.

Then his expression turned serious again.

"How certain are you?"

Lady Kang answered immediately.

"Completely."

Lin Mu looked up.

She continued.

"Pyxis confirmed it repeatedly."

"The vault is there."

"There is no mistake."

Lin Mu fell into thought.

A long silence followed.

Lady Kang watched him quietly.

Eventually he spoke.

"The question is no longer where the vault is."

Lady Kang nodded.

"Yes."

Lin Mu looked at the map again.

"The question is..."

"How do we enter a sect that occupies an entire world?"

The room became silent once more.

Outside, Mantleheim continued as usual.

Forges burned.

Hammers rang.

Lava flowed.

Yet inside the private room...

A new journey had quietly begun.