Rebuilding the Immortal Cultivator Clan

"Uncle, it seems we can return to the family alive," Li Zhirui whispered through a secret voice transmission.

But if one looked closely, they would find that there was actually no smile in the depths of his eyes; instead, they were filled with worry.

The reason was that, with the birth of a Nascent Soul True Lord in Shen Leishan, their strength had risen substantially, and their attitude toward their vassal forces was likely to no longer be as friendly as before.

In the future, whether it was collecting tributes or summoning cultivators to fight, it would no longer be as lenient as this time.

The disciples of Shen Leishan would become arrogant, and if a few spoiled brats emerged, they might even bully others using their status.

The only consolation for Li Zhirui was that the Li family was far enough from Shen Leishan, tens of thousands of miles away, and should not be affected by it.

"Yes, we can live and return," Li Shiqing hadn't thought this much; after all, they had just been in dire straits, and having narrowly escaped death now, he couldn't care too much.

As soon as the tribulation clouds transformed into pure spiritual energy and poured into Yun Lei's body, the demon cultivators knew that it was a lost cause and naturally wouldn't stay and fight to the death. They turned and fled one after another.

Especially those demon cultivators with Golden Cores, they scattered like birds and beasts, employing escape techniques without hesitation—some turned into a blood light and instantly fled hundreds of miles away, while others simply vanished without a trace, not even a wisp of their presence to be found.

"Demon, do not flee!"

"Take my sword!"

This time, it was the cultivators' turn to attack. Some bold ones or those who wanted to curry favor with Shen Leishan immediately set up their Escape Light and chased after the demon cultivators.

Li Zhirui and Li Shiqing exchanged glances and followed suit, but they secretly communicated through voice transmission, "Uncle, we don't need to truly fight with the demon cultivators. Just make a show of it to express our stance; that's enough."

"I understand."

The two of them moved at extreme speed, but the demon cultivators, desperate to save their lives, employed every technique they had. Even the two of them couldn't catch up completely, let alone that they were just putting on a show for Shen Leishan.

Half an hour later, the two returned to Shen Leishan with slumped shoulders, and they were not alone—most cultivators had the same dejected expression.

However, this contrast highlighted those cultivators who had gained something, each unable to hide their joy.

When Li Zhirui and Li Shiqing returned, the Golden Core who was now a Nascent Soul True Lord had just finished absorbing the spiritual energy and truly transformed into a Nascent Soul!

"Disciple Wen Qinglu..."

"Disciple Xue Baili..."

"We congratulate Ancestor Yun Lei on overcoming this tribulation and advancing to the Nascent Soul, achieving enlightenment with gains, and enjoying a lifespan of a thousand years."

A Nascent Soul enjoys a lifespan of a thousand years. Even though Ancestor Yun Lei was already over four hundred years old before transcending the tribulation, with the formation of the Nascent Soul, he suddenly gained an additional six hundred years!

"Hahahahahahaha..." A hearty and deafening laugh echoed into everyone's ears.

Following that came an overwhelming aura, Li Zhirui felt his vision blur and his heart pound uncontrollably, even his blood seemed to boil.

The might of the Nascent Soul was so fearsome that just its presence made him lose any notion of resistance!

Including the normally enigmatic Spirit Sense which began to frantically pulse, warning him not to make any movement, or else his core would shatter, and he would die!

"I, Yun Lei, have sought the Dao for four hundred years, and today I have finally formed my Nascent Soul, hahahahahaha…" Following a burst of laughter, the True Lord disappeared from sight, presumably to stabilize his realm and sort through the gains from his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul.

——

One day later, Shen Leishan hosted the cultivators of the vassal forces including Li Zhirui at the Welcoming Guests Building.

After a round of toasting and socializing, with a light cough from the Sect Leader, the room immediately fell quiet, and everyone awaited his speech.

"This banquet is both to thank the fellow Taoists for coming to our aid and to send you off. My Shen Leishan has encountered a demonic calamity and needs to spend a great deal of time and manpower to cleanse it thoroughly. There are few idle hands in the sect, and I fear neglecting you, so I won't keep you much longer."

Seeing the Sect Leader being so polite, Li Zhirui not only didn't let out a sigh of relief like the other cultivators but instead felt a trace of unease.

Favors granted must be repaid!

Though not entirely accurate, that was the gist of it, and one must know that Shen Leishan currently held an absolute advantage and had no need to be so courteous to them.

"The demonic disaster this time is widespread. I hope when you return, you can summon your disciples and clansmen to exterminate these demon cultivators and evil cultivators, and give the common people a peaceful and happy life."

Sure enough, the Sect Leader's next words revealed his true intentions.

"Of course!"

"Demon cultivators and evil cultivators are a great scourge, everyone should eliminate them!"

What else could the crowd do? They could only loudly agree, and moreover, they had to accept this arduous task with smiles on their faces.

"Hahaha, you truly are moral and noble cultivators!"

The crowd engaged in another round of praise, saying how Shen Leishan was favored by the Heavenly Dao, how Cloud Thunder True Lord was in tune with The Great Tao, and how the Sect Leader was wise and resourceful, leading Shen Leishan to the summit. In essence, they were finding various ways to sing their praises.

Until a certain Golden Core cultivator asked, "Elder Wen, might you know when we could exchange for Spiritual Objects from the Supreme Ancestor's treasury with the Merit Points we earned for killing demon cultivators earlier?"

Merit Points, like the Li family's Contribution Value, is a scoring system; however, unlike the Li family, their Merit Points hold greater value.

As this question was asked, the banquet fell instantly silent. This was a matter concerning their personal interests, so many cultivators eagerly watched the Sect Leader at the head of the table.

Furthermore, there were also many cultivators who had perished in the battle against the demon cultivators, and Shen Leishan had promised compensation for those losses.

Actually, neither of these mattered much to Li Zhirui, as he and Li Shiqing had not killed a single Golden Core demon cultivator. There were quite a number of Foundation Establishment demon cultivators, but they were not highly valued.

"Please be patient, everyone. My Shen Leishan's Spirit Veins have been greatly damaged by demon cultivators, and we now require a large amount of Spiritual Objects, to the extent that our storehouse is short on supplies and we fear we cannot provide so many Spiritual Objects in the short term."

Upon hearing this, many cultivators' faces instantly changed, especially those whose clansmen had fallen. They did not dare to glare angrily but rather their complexions turned terribly pale, and even two people seemed about to collapse, nearly fainting.

"However, rest assured, once Shen Leishan's repository of Spiritual Objects has slightly recovered, we will inform everyone to come and make the exchange."

In fact, his words weren't false. The stash of Spiritual Objects in Shen Leishan's storehouse was indeed running low. Preventing the deterioration of Spirit Veins, re-establishing the Great Array, and so on all needed a large number of Spiritual Objects.

But the largest consumption of all was actually by that Cloud Thunder True Lord and the previous great battle.

The former had taken a large portion of Spiritual Objects from Shen Leishan for his own mana improvement, as well as to restore his mana during Tribulation Transcendence.

The expenditure of that great battle between immortals and demons went without saying; those two endless Formation defense lines could not have been successfully set up if not for the profound depths of Shen Leishan!