Chapter 161: Counting the Spoils

Holding the jade talisman in his hand, Jiang Yan sat dazed in the sect master's seat within the main hall of the Sword Qi Hall for a long time. It was not until Tang Wan walked up the high platform, leaned over, and softly called him "Senior Brother" in his ear that he finally snapped back to reality.

Seeing the crowd of Mount Hua disciples standing below the steps, Jiang Yan waved his hand to signal them to dismiss for the time being. As for the requests for audience submitted by the envoys of mortal grand dynasties, the Wulong Empire, and the Qingyue Emperor Dynasty, he left them entirely to the master-and-disciple duo of Muyun and Sun Yang to handle. Anyway, Sun Yang was now the Walking Envoy of Mount Hua across the realm, so dealing with the various empires and imperial courts in the future would be this kid's responsibility.

"Junior Uncle, Junior Uncle! This disciple wishes to borrow the Golden-Winged Tiger from you for a few days. The mortals down below are rather intimidated by it..." Outside the main hall, Sun Yang's voice came in as he chased after the playful Yunying, begging to use the spirit beast.

Jiang Yan handed the jade talisman in his hand to Tang Wan, a look of astonishment on his face as he said, "Junior Sister, although your brother here is no frog at the bottom of a well, I still never imagined that this world would be so vast!"

In Jiang Yan's hands were two jade talismans: one obtained after killing the Xie father and son of the Golden Flame Sect, and the other left behind by the monk Kongsheng of the Huasheng Temple. It was said to be a boundary map of the Greater Chiliocosm; though incomplete, its advantage lay in containing the Tanyue Realm where Mount Hua was located.

Tang Wan looked at the white jade talisman in her hand and read it out word for word.

"Among the tens of millions of worlds in the present era, having summarized the experiences of countless senior cultivators, I have categorized the various realms by their surface area: there are 8 great realms, 12 middle realms, 8,000 small realms, and countless mustard-seed micro-realms too numerous to distinguish individually, hence they are not listed here..."

Having read these words, Tang Wan also widened her eyes, her pretty cheeks completely suffused with astonishment. She stared dumbfounded at her senior brother, unable to utter a single word, and was even unaware when the jade talisman slipped from her hand and dropped to the ground.

"The world we live in is actually this huge!" Tang Wan murmured to herself.

A green radiance flashed across Jiang Yan's forehead as his spiritual sense surged out from his sea of consciousness, swiftly sketching out in the mid-air right in front of the two of them the boundary map he had just seen.

The boundary map was quite large. Densely scattered across this map were countless light points of varying sizes, each representing a world. Between these light points ran densely packed, glowing lines representing boundary gates connecting these worlds.

Right at the center of the boundary map were eight massive light points representing the eight great realms. These eight light points alone occupied roughly one-fifth of the entire map's area. Intricate networks of lines crisscrossed among these eight light points, with connecting rays linking almost any two of them, indicating that boundary gates connected these great realms to one another.

Surrounding the eight major light points were twelve medium-sized light points, noticeably smaller than the eight great realms, representing the twelve middle realms. What Jiang Yan found rather strange was that while there were quite a few lines representing boundary gates among the twelve middle realms, not a single connecting line indicated a boundary gate between the middle realms and the great realms.

On the periphery of the twelve middle realms were countless tiny light points. Although minuscule, these light points occupied the vast majority of the space on this boundary map. Furthermore, dense lines representing boundary gates crisscrossed among these small realms; connections existed not only between the tiny light points and the major light points, but numerous connecting lines also ran between the tiny light points and the medium-sized light points.

...

After expending an immense amount of effort, Jiang Yan and Tang Wan finally located the position of the Tanyue Realm.

In the far right corner of this boundary map, tucked tightly against the very edge, lay a light point even smaller than the smallest category of light points. Directly above this light point, the three characters "Tanyue Realm" were clearly marked.

In Jiang Yan's mind, the Tanyue Realm—which felt so unimaginably vast to him—turned out to be a tiny world tucked away in a desolate corner so remote it could not possibly be more desolate, falling short even of qualifying as a small realm, and far inferior to the eight thousand small realms. If cultivators originating from the eight great realms at the center of the boundary map were to come here, they would likely refer to the Tanyue Realm as an uncivilized wasteland.

Squished right against the Tanyue Realm was the Yun City Realm, a small realm identical in size to the Tanyue Realm. Just outside the Yun City Realm lay the West City Realm, a world qualified to be ranked among the eight thousand small realms, and surrounding the West City Realm were three other small realms, each the size of the Tanyue Realm, acting as its guards.

Among the various realms, boundary gates interconnected them. The largest West City Realm, in particular, had boundary gates connecting to all four of the other realms. The Tanyue Realm, however, stood isolated and lonely, with only a single thin line connecting it to the nearest Yun City Realm, possessing no passages leading to any other worlds. In other words, to enter any other realm, one had to pass through the Yun City Realm.

Jiang Yan glanced sideways at the Yun City Realm—which was the same size as the Tanyue Realm—and silently prayed in his heart that the Tiannan Sword Sect would not make an enemy of any sect within the Yun City Realm; otherwise, he would never have the opportunity to explore the Greater Chiliocosm.

"Shufang Realm."

Tang Wan pointed to a light point on the opposite side of the boundary map, far across from the Tanyue Realm, and spoke. There sat a tiny light point slightly larger than the Tanyue Realm, comparable to the West City Realm, which should also belong to one of the eight thousand small realms.

Jiang Yan's expression turned stern, and a surge of angry, repressed crimson flushed across his handsome face.

Shufang Realm, the Shufang Gate—the sixth-grade Shufang Gate—was precisely the root cause of his master Ding Yuan's death.

The other jade talisman presented by Xu Mingyuan contained a detailed record of the cause of death of Jiang Yan's master, Ding Yuan.

A few years ago, Dongfang Wenqing, the young master of the Shufang Gate, had casually arrived at the Tanyue Realm and was warmly hosted by Xie Wenyuan, the master of the third-grade sect in the Linqing Prefecture. Out of curiosity, Dongfang Wenqing attended a lecture on the Dao organized by the Golden Flame Sect for its vassal sects. At the banquet following the lecture, because Ding Yuan failed to offer him a toast, the unworldly Dongfang Wenqing flew into a rage and fiercely reprimanded Xie Beilun for disrespecting him.

Xie Beilun acted with prompt efficiency. With a few talisman-inscribed flying swords, he settled the score with Ding Yuan, the former sect master of Mount Hua, right at the entrance of the Monster-Hunting Battlefield. After the matter concluded, Xie Beilun sent a sword transmission via talisman to inform Dongfang Wenqing, the young master of the Shufang Gate, and subsequently received the very talisman sword currently in Jiang Yan's hand.

Dongfang Wenqing highly praised Xie Beilun for knowing which side his bread was buttered on, and made a promise that should the Golden Flame Sect ever need a favor from his father—who possessed cultivation at the Nascent Soul stage—the young master Dongfang would endeavor to put in a good word for them and would not forget their hard work today.

Upon learning that the Shufang Gate possessed such a formidable entity as a Nascent Soul cultivator, Jiang Yan finally understood why Xie Beilun had been so eager to suck up to Dongfang Wenqing. Just imagine a sect whose highest expert was not even at the Great Circle of the Foundation Establishment stage, suddenly encountering a sect where any random disciple sent out surpassed their highest expert in cultivation; how could they not be anxious to curry favor? However, what Xie Beilun and his son failed to realize was that the Shufang Realm, possessing Nascent Soul cultivators, was separated from the Tanyue Realm by an unfathomable expanse of starry space. Trying to cash in on Dongfang Wenqing's favors was likely an impossible pipe dream.

Contained within that jade talisman was also a sword transmission letter from Dongfang Wenqing himself. Judging by the tone of the message, this Dongfang Wenqing was painted as a textbook definition of a spoiled scoundrel who threw his weight around by basking in his father's prestige. Jiang Yan secretly vowed that he would one day cross the starry void, slay Dongfang Wenqing, and avenge his master.

"Senior Brother, Master's enemy is right there, seemingly a very, very long way away from us." Tang Wan gazed intently at the distant Shufang Realm, speaking with a tone laden with helplessness.

Although Tang Wan also yearned to avenge her master, the moment she realized that the vast Tanyue Realm she inhabited occupied nothing more than a microscopic dot on this boundary map, she understood that because they were so far removed from the Shufang Realm, the possibility of avenging her master became exceedingly slim. Unable to avenge her master, Tang Wan felt as though her departed master could never rest in peace in another world, filling her words with utter helplessness.

Jiang Yan stood up from the sect master's chair, flicked his sleeves, and declared with unyielding determination, "Shufang Gate, the blood debt of murdering my master—even if it is tens of thousands of miles away, Jiang Yan shall brave all hardships to wash away this grand enmity."

"Master Senior Brother!"

Muyun strode in lightly from outside the hall, holding a ledger. His chubby face bloomed into a smile as he looked up at Jiang Yan standing on the steps.

Jiang Yan glanced at the ledger in Muyun's hand, and a flash of joy likewise surfaced on his handsome face. Although the Xihe Sword Sect had fallen, its collapse happened so swiftly that the vast majority of the items within the sect were sealed away by the mountain-protecting grand array. Jiang Yan, having absorbed the Cyan Jade Seal, possessed the ability to control the mountain-protecting grand array of Dongmu Mountain. In the aftermath of the battle, Jiang Yan had immediately dispatched Muyun to tally the spoils of war and see what fine treasures the former behemoth, the Xihe Sword Sect, had managed to preserve.

"There really are quite a few good things inside the Xihe Sword Sect, Master Senior Brother! This disciple personally supervised over a dozen disciples as we sifted through them with our own hands, and we have finally cleared out these precious items. Zisu is currently leading several other disciples to tally the rest, but I brought these over first for Master Senior Brother to inspect."

Muyun held the ledger high, strode briskly up the steps, lifted the ledger above his head, and handed it to his senior brother.

Jiang Yan took the ledger, opened the first page, and scanned it roughly. Even with the powerful cheat that was the Sect Master System, Jiang Yan was still startled by the immense collection amassed by the fourth-grade Xihe Sword Sect.

Second-grade spirit weapons totaled 359 pieces, including 100 Cyan Wood Swords, 54 Golden Flame Swords...
Third-grade spirit weapons totaled dozens of pieces, including 15 Cyan Wood Bows, 7 Departing Water Swords...
Gradeless spirit armor totaled 328 pieces...
First-grade spirit armor totaled 65 pieces...
Second-grade spirit armor totaled 3 pieces...
Qi-Gathering Pills totaled 5,800 pieces...
...
Foundation Establishment Pills totaled...

Jiang Yan's eyes constricted slightly. As expected of a fourth-grade sect! Foundation Establishment Pills, which were rare even among third-grade sects, were hoarded by the Xihe Sword Sect by the dozen. The remaining spirit weapons, spirit armor, and spiritual pills were truly countless, making Jiang Yan itching to immediately go raid the other three fourth-grade sects just to acquire this many treasures again.

"Boom..."

While Jiang Yan was reading the ledger, a muffled, thunderous roar suddenly echoed from afar. Because the sound was so powerful, the ground even trembled slightly. Muyun's chubby body swayed from side to side, nearly tumbling down the steps amidst the shockwave of the sound.

"Has something happened again?" Jiang Yan looked up toward the exterior of the hall, speaking with puzzlement.