Chapter 1801 – Tide of Rogue Cultivators
Time pa.s.sed and it has been a whole year since Zhao Hai returned from the Heavenly Demon Realm. A lot has happened since then, with the biggest change happening to the Black Tiger Gang.
The Black Tiger Gang now has three huge bases that were in operation. The main base of the sect was their Inferno Valley Base. This was the center of the sect’s governance and was home to its most powerful force. Then there was the Wandering Soul Group Base. It was a smaller base that acted as a training center for disciples. Naturally, the defenses of this base couldn’t be looked down upon. Then lastly, there was the Ignored Valley Base. There were plenty of disciples that didn’t know of this base’s existence. Only those important to the sect were aware that it exists. This base was the logistics center of the sect. There were ma.s.sive swathes of underground medicinal gardens as well as a horde of goldeater mice that could recycle metals. The base supplied the resources of the sect.
The Ignored Valley base was very secretive. This was because the base produces the blood in which the entire sect functions. As long as the Ignored Valley base existed, the Black Tiger Gang would continue to create pills and artifacts. This would bring advantages for the sect in the approaching war.
Zhao Hai also underwent another project in this period of time. He dug two underground pa.s.sages that connected the three bases. This was an extremely huge project. Zhao Hai used a lot of resources to accomplish it. The pa.s.sage was about a thousand meters underground. Even Immortal Experts wouldn’t be able to detect these pa.s.sages using their spiritual force.
The two pa.s.sages allowed five large artifacts to go through in parallel. n.o.body would expect such a huge structure to exist underground.
Zhao Hai didn’t tell anyone about these two pa.s.sages, not even Zhang Feng. If Zhao Hai didn’t use these pa.s.sages, n.o.body would know they existed at all.
The entire Black Tiger Gang was now on alert status. Even Liu Wenqiang’s group was preparing to go towards the Black Tiger Gang.
Liu Wenqiang continued to be active in Bright Yang City. In the beginning, some people from the Heavenly Yang Alliance were trying to deal with him. But later on, after Zhao Hai acted and dealt with these people, the Heavenly Yang Alliance turned quiet. This gave Liu Wenqiang more s.p.a.ce to move around the city.
Although the Heavenly Demons had yet to invade the Great World of Cultivation, Zhao Hai knew that they were coming. The Heavenly Demon Army was poised to take action at any time. They will arrive soon. Moreover, this invasion has been planned for a long time. The Heavenly Demons would attack all nine provinces at the same time. Being close to the Myriad Demons Sect, Bright Yang City woud definitely be in danger. Therefore, Zhao Hai gave Liu Wenqiang the order to gather the people who were willing to go to the Black Tiger Gang and enter the sect.
To avoid the attention of the Myriad Demons Sect, Zhao Hai didn’t let Liu Wenqiang use Bright Yang City’s transmission formation to go to the Black Tiger Gang. Instead, he instructed them to go to a remote mountain where he constructed a large transmission formation. Liu Wenqiang’s group would be able to use this formation to travel immediately. Even if the Myriad Demons Sect finds out about it, it would be too far into the future. The Heavenly Demons would have invaded by that time.
Liu Wenqiang brought a lot of rogue cultivators with him. Just as Zhao Hai expected, these rogue cultivators brought their families with them. Apart from some young men who had potential, there were a lot of old people who no longer had any chance to increase their cultivation. Even if they were given to other sects en ma.s.se, they would be rejected.
However, Zhao Hai has no intentions of driving these people away. Conversely, he was happy that they came over. These elderly cultivators would free up a lot of needed slots for serving disciples. With the arrival of these old cultivators, the low-level manpower crisis of the Black Tiger Gang was immediately solved.
Since the sect also required more disciples, the treatment of the serving disciples has improved. Now, the serving disciples had the same allowance as the outer disciples before. After all a lot of these serving disciples were outer disciples who had been demoted. It would be a waste to leave them uncultivated.
After the old cultivators arrived, Zhao Hai immediately arranged for them to go to the Ignored Valley base and manage the medicine gardens. Their work was relatively relaxed. Every day, they only needed to add some waste pills or trashed artifacts to the formations. Then they would have to pay attention to the growth of the medicinal herbs. There was basically no physical labor required.
These old cultivators were also aware of their place. Although they were only serving disciples of the Black Tiger Gang, their treatment was very good. Compared to their previous jobs that earned them one or two spirit stones, they were living in bliss. Most importantly, they were given a peaceful place to retire.
As for the family members of these old cultivators, there was no need to worry about them. After arriving at the Black Tiger Gang, the sect immediately tested each one of them. As long as their apt.i.tude wasn’t horrendous, they were immediately absorbed into the outer sect.
The old cultivators knew that there was no longer any hope for them to progress, so they were very concerned about their descendants, especially those with good talent. Now that these descendants have joined the outer sect, the old cultivators were relieved. This time, the Black Tiger Gang received nearly half a million people.
Five hundred thousand people wasn’t a small number. Besides the old cultivators and those with no talent, the outer sect of the Black Tiger Gang increased by 300 thousand. Of these 300 thousand, there were around 50 thousand who were candidates to be further trained. The gains were very big.
Although sects didn’t care about what happened to the rogue cultivators, the disappearance of 500 thousand people from Bright Yang City was still a huge matter. Bright Yang City and the Myriad Demons Sect immediately conducted an investigation. In the end, they didn’t know where the 500 thousand people went.
Although they didn’t discover anything, the people of the Myriad Demons Sect weren’t stupid. They knew where those rogue cultivators went, they all went to the Black Tiger Gang.
The Myriad Demons Sect were aware of the actions of the Black Tiger Gang in Bright Yang City. But they didn’t take it to heart. A sect like the Myriad Demons Sect didn’t need to rely on rogue cultivators to increase its strength. This was because the sect already had enough talents.
Moreover, whenever a disciple doesn’t have enough strength to become an elder, these disciples would leave the sect and establish a clan. Once their clan develops, any talents it produces would be delivered to the sect. This ensures that fresh blood would be injected into the sect every year. In exchange, these clans would be protected by the sect.
The Black Tiger Gang also had the same setup. They had a lot of clans in various places. However, during this period of time, the Black Tiger Gang developed too quickly that these clans weren’t able to fill up the sect’s lack of manpower. Therefore, the Black Tiger Gang could only recruit from the rogue cultivators.
However, rogue cultivators lacked foundation compared to these clans. After all, these clans were directly connected to a sect. Their resources were much better compared to the rogue cultivators.
The Myriad Demons Sect hadn’t suffered huge casualties recently and it also has no plans of expanding anytime soon. Because of this, the disciples supplied by the clans were enough for them. There was no need to recruit rogue cultivators.
Nevertheless, the Black Tiger Gang’s recruitment of 500 thousand people caused the Myriad Demons Sect to worry. Five hundred thousand wasn’t a small number. The sheer number of cultivators alone was enough to be taken seriously. Even if these people were weak, if they moved together, it would still cause the Myriad Demons Sect to suffer. It was only at this time that the Myriad Demons Sect understood the Black Tiger Gang’s plan.
What happened next caused the Myriad Demons Sect and the entire Northern Divergent Province to shake. Rogue cultivators of the province began to flock towards the Black Tiger Gang. At the same time, the Black Tiger Gang ate them all up like a glutton. No matter how many rogue cultivators came, the Black Tiger Gang accepted them all.
Digesting these rogue cultivators wasn’t an easy matter. The mindset of these rogue cultivators needed to be corrected before they could integrate into the sect. If their mindset wasn’t corrected, they might cause trouble in the future.
For rogue cultivators, entry to a sect was a very good thing. But if the sect doesn’t have any resources to train them, why would the rogue cultivators join? Rogue cultivators weren’t stupid, they wouldn’t go if there were no benefits.
Now, the Black Tiger Gang was accepting rogue disciples from all directions. And yet, there were no complaints from these newcomers. What did this mean? This indicated that the Black Tiger Gang has enough resources to give to these rogue cultivators.
The Black Tiger Gang was a medium-grade sect. How could it have so many resources? Where did it come from? This issue immediately entered the minds of the Myriad Demons Sect’s high-level figures. Then they realized that the Black Tiger Gang has been preparing for this move for a long time.
After they figured it out, the high-level members of the Myriad Demons Sect were so enraged that their faces turned red. They wanted to suppress the Black Tiger Gang. But instead of bowing down, the Black Tiger Gang just turned their noses up high and crossed their hands behind their back. Even if the Myriad Demons Sect wanted to stop this ma.s.sive absorption of cultivators, it was too late. In the eyes of these high-level figures, since the Black Tiger Gang dared to do this publicly, then that meant that they had a way to fight any suppression coming their way. The Myriad Demons Sect was left not knowing what to do!