Sectarian Union

News of Fang An's deal with Lin Feng had a resounding impact on the shopping mall. The Kingdom of Zhou buying large amounts of the Immortal Shopping Mall's food threatened to upset the balance between it and the surrounding nations. Eating the shopping mall's food had a profound impact on how quickly and easily one could cultivate.

Great Yan was best posed to respond to this development. The day after the Kingdom of Zhou began buying mass amounts of food, Great Yan sent over funds to do the same.

Those who were most caught off guard were those who had arrived late. Zhou and Yan were the earliest movers by virtue of their closeness to the shopping mall. The other surrounding nations had only just sent a few people to investigate when they were suddenly faced with a difficult decision.

They either had to heavily invest in an unknown entity or risk falling behind the two nations. To make matters worse, many of the other countries surrounding Great Yan were smaller than the two early movers. The amount of resources they needed to mobilize had a greater effect on them than on Great Yan and the Kingdom of Zhou.

Among these most affected countries was the Sectarian Union. In fact, the Sectarian Union wasn't a country at all, it was a collection of cultivation sects that jointly governed a large amount of territory to the south.

Their split internal structure paired with the fact that they had to travel farther than many other participants put them in a particularly bad position to compete.

Faced with this difficult decision, many of the sects came to make a different choice.

——

A pair of wagons slowly traversed a dirt road as they headed into a mountain pass. Armed guards on horseback surrounded the two wagons as they slowly plodded along.

Other than what could be seen on the surface, the cultivation base of two hidden Core Formation Realm experts could be sensed coming from the two wagons. It was obvious that whatever was being transported within the two wagons was quite valuable. Despite this, the armed guards seemed relaxed and the Golden Core cultivators within the two wagons did not seem to be on alert.

Two Core Formation experts and a large group of armed guards were already enough to make anyone think twice about attacking such a caravan. Added to this, the symbol of the royal family of Zhou was plastered across the side of the wagons. No one expected anyone to be foolish enough to find trouble with the caravan.

As the wagons walked deeper into the mountain pass, the road became more cramped and difficult to traverse. Cliff faces on either side forced the guards to walk in a long line in front and behind the two wagons.

The congregation came to a stop.

In the middle of the mountain pass, standing right where it was the most narrow, was an old Daoist priest. He stood with his eyes closed, unmoving, in front of the crowd of armed men, forcing the entire caravan to stop.

"Priest! Make way for the Zhou royal family!" An armored man on horseback hollered out.

The old priest's eyes slowly opened and he gazed lazily at the man who had yelled out. The armored man jolted with fright and gripped his spear tightly as the old man's eyes met his.

Meeting the old man's eyes felt like being stared at by an enormous beast.

The old man took a deep breath and glanced over the crowd in front of him. Everywhere his gaze passed, the guards had to struggle to keep control of their horses.

"Leave the wagons and you can still live." The old man whispered. Despite how quietly he spoke, every man in the caravan could hear his voice, like it was being spoken directly into their ear.

The two Golden Core cultivators from the Kingdom of Zhou burst out of the wagons in anger. A cultivator had actually dared to stop the caravan!

Both of the Golden Core cultivators stepped into the air above the guard's heads and marched their way to the front of the caravan. Flaring their internal energy to intimidate whoever was brave enough to threaten them.

But, as they got close to the front, one of the cultivators stopped in shock, leaving his companion to continue forward alone.

"Elder Ru?!"

The old priest opened his eyes fully in surprise.

"Oh? You know me?" The old man laughed once in disbelief, "Unfortunate."

"Elder Ru, why are you stopping us? We have nothing against the Whispering Wind Sect." The guard who had recognized Elder Ru seemed panicked.

Elder Ru blew out a gust of air.

Screeeeech!

Elder Ru had attacked without another word. The breath raised a gust of wind that raged inside the narrow pass like a hurricane. It turned into countless blades of wind that carved into the rock with a shrill shriek.

The armed guards barely had a second to react before the wind reached them.

"Aaaaah!" Screams of pain echoed out as the bodies of those in front were reduced to mulch. Those standing a further back lost limbs and were nearly flayed alive.

The Golden Core cultivator who had not recognized Elder Ru and had continued forward was killed instantly as the wave of wind washed over him and reduced him to a bloody powder.

The survivors looked on in horror as Elder Ru's Nascent Soul Realm cultivation base was fully unveiled.

"Elder Ru! Why!?" The surviving Golden Core cultivator screamed in fear and disbelief.

Elder Ru only shook his head.

After the remaining members of the caravan were reduced to nothing but broken bodies, Elder Ru sent out a message using a jade slip.

"Send over the disciples. I've caught another of the Zhou caravans."

——

Back at the shopping mall, Lin Feng was happily watching his points go up.

After making that deal with Zhou An, purchases of his food shot up sharply. Now, just a few days later, he was ready to unlock a new shop.

Opening the system menu, Lin Feng scrolled down the list of shops available to unlock and he quickly found the pharmacy.

He figured that out of all the options he had, this one would be able to cure Mei's injuries most simply. There might be other store types that could help Mei, but he didn't want to gamble when points were still so hard to come by.

Decisively unlocking the new store. Lin Feng watched excitedly as the option to place down a pharmacy became available for fifty points.

Looking around the main room, Lin Feng didn't see Mei anywhere, so he hurriedly walked down into the main hallway where people had been slowly making their own market.

The people just inside jumped backward in shock as Lin Feng came barreling through.

Seeing Lin Feng in the back rooms was a rarity and word quickly spread. Hearing about this, Yang Xinhe smelled an opportunity and quickly ran to find Lin Feng.

"Senior Lin, how rare to see you back here! Can I help you with anything?"

"Where's Mei?" Lin Feng didn't waste any time.

"Ah? Senior Mei? She is eating at my family's restaurant right now."

Lin Feng was happy to hear Yang Xinhe knew where Mei was, but he paused when he realized he didn't know where the Yang family restaurant was.

"Take me there."

"Of course, Senior Lin! We would be happy to have you!" Yang Xinhe was overjoyed. "Right this way!"

Leading Lin Feng deeper into the hallways, the crowd hurriedly made way for the pair. The conversation went quiet as the two of them appeared and then buzzed back to life as they left, wondering what Lin Feng was doing outside of the main room.

Leading Lin Feng past the first main room, which mostly had people cultivating with only a few stalls in the center of the room, the pair quickly left the part of the hallways that were full of people.

Entering the dimmer and quieter parts of the shopping mall, Yang Xinhe took a right at a fork in the path before coming to another large room. Inside was a large number of tables surrounding a wooden stage. On the stage, a beautiful woman was playing some music.