Qingyang Zi's idea was very simple, that was to scatter these various people together so that they could not form a unified group to deceive the upper echelons and hide things from below.
Pei Xuanjing was not aware of Qingyang Zi's idea, but even if he had known, he wouldn't have said anything. Instead, he would have agreed with him as it demonstrated that Qingyang Zi was entirely committed to the development of the Taoist Academy.
In the following period, numerous Taoist Academies were being built within the boundaries of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty. Those who were selected and approved by Pei Xuanjing as instructors and local leaders of the future branches of the Taoist Academy also rushed to the locations they had been arranged.
The Taoist Academy, a holy place that countless people had long yearned for, had once again became the focal point of many people's attention.
It should be known that over the years, the Taoist Academy in Tiandu had cultivated numerous powerful individuals. Therefore, each time the Taoist Academy recruited disciples, it would lead many people to scramble for the few available spots, and even some children from powerful families aspired to enter.
However, there were too many martial artists in the world, and even with the expansion of Tiandu's Taoist Academy over the years, the number of disciples they annually recruited only amounted to a few thousand. In comparison to the countless martial artists worldwide, this was merely a drop in the ocean.
Therefore, when Pei Xuanjing had initially intended to establish more branches of the Taoist Academy, he received overwhelming support from numerous martial artists who had been eagerly anticipating this day.
During these few years of preparation, while Pei Xuanjing was selecting instructors, another group was choosing locations for the academy branches in various prefectures. The construction of the Taoist Academy was also underway at the same time.
Originally, the amount of money required to build countless branches of the Academy was astronomical, even by Pei Xuanjing's standards. Therefore, his initial idea was just to start building in some key prefectures and gradually move forward.
However, he underestimated the desire of the countless martial artists in the world for the Taoist Academy. When the initial plan for the construction of the academy branches came out, the martial artists immediately petitioned together, hoping that Pei Xuanjing would establish more branches and promising to donate generously themselves. They just needed Pei Xuanjing to agree, and they would handle the rest.
In addition to the desire of the martial artists, the Great Ming Divine Dynasty was extraordinarily supportive of Pei Xuanjing's implementation of the Taoist Academy's construction.
Although they believed that Pei Xuanjing certainly had his own plans and was not merely establishing a pathway for the martial artists like the rumors suggested, this did not imply that they would oppose this matter.
Because for the Great Ming Divine Dynasty at this moment, although it had ascended to the status of a divine dynasty, it was arguably the weakest in history. They needed to rapidly increase their national power and allow the Great Ming Divine Dynasty to flourish.
The prosperity of a divine dynasty, besides having supreme high-end combat power, largely depends on their grassroots base, which is the real pillar of a divine dynasty.
If the foundation of the former Great Ming Empire was the common people, then the true foundation of the current Great Ming Divine Dynasty is this multitude of martial artist cultivators; they are the foundation of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty.
Only when these martial artists and cultivators continuously grow stronger, will the Qi Luck of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty flourish even more.
Thus, with the implementation of what Pei Xuanjing is promoting now, the Great Ming Divine Dynasty has inadvertently become one of the beneficiaries. Even if they knew that Pei Xuanjing had his plans and calculations, they could not give up and were forced to promote this matter instead.
With the six hundred years of accumulation by the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, although the amount of money required to build countless branches of the Taoist Academy was substantial, it was not unaffordable.
Besides, they didn't need to shoulder the financial burden entirely by themselves.
"What are we doing? Building Taoist Academies, seeking benefits for countless martial artists. For such a matter, if only the imperial court were to provide funding, it might indeed get the job done, but what about the powers from all over? Wouldn't they want to make a contribution for the martial artists? We can't do this!"
Those were the words of Yan Weizhong, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites. He believed that what they were doing now was for the benefit of countless martial artists. Although the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, as the emperor of its people, has the responsibility to do this, they cannot forget the other forces in the world, cannot forget their sympathy for the martial artists, cannot deny them the right to contribute, and cannot reject their good intentions.
So, after Yan Weizhong's words were spoken, the various forces, led by the Taoist School, naturally could not ignore it. They needed to respond.
After all, anyone who wasn't a fool understood that at this moment, building branches of the Taoist Academy was the will of the people and something that countless martial artists were looking forward to. If anyone was stingy with their money, it would inevitably end badly.
Let alone any top alliances or first-class powers, when facing the wrath of countless angry martial artists, it wouldn't matter who you are.
Even forces with bad reputations in the martial world like the Demonic Cult and heretic alliances had to admit their errors in the face of such circumstances, not daring to provoke public anger, to avoid their opponents taking advantage of the situation.
Therefore, even if they were dissatisfied, they, like the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, would have to grit their teeth and get through it.
For this reason, Minister Yan Weizhong was even more despised by various forces, so much so that some had even placed high bounties on his life secretly.
Unfortunately, after the Ghost Emperor of Fengdu was killed by Pei Xuanjing and the remaining forces were absorbed by Zhao Baiyang, although there were still assassin organizations rising in the world, no one dared to provoke a senior official of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty for the time being.
After all, besides his high political status, Yan Weizhong had also refined a divine position, and he had stayed in Tiandu without leaving. It would not be easy to act against him. Moreover, if it were so easy to deal with him, those who were furious wouldn't have to offer bounties, they could simply act personally, right?
As for the bounties placed on him, Yan Weizhong didn't care at all. The only person he cared about was the Emperor of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, who was the one he needed to pay the most attention to, everyone else was irrelevant.
Not to mention that after refining a divine position, he already had enough power to protect himself, just being within the Divine Dynasty, as long as he did not lose the Emperor's favor, no one could threaten him, and those other forces definitely wouldn't want to provoke the wrath of the mysterious and powerful master of the Divine Dynasty.
"This Minister Yan is indeed a formidable person. Just with a few words, he managed to save the Great Ming Divine Dynasty a significant amount of money." After hearing about his actions, Pei Xuanjing couldn't help but admire Yan Weizhong's extraordinary methods.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner. Once the construction of the Taoist Academy was completed, and te instructors and heads of departments moved in, the academy started recruiting students.
Pei Xuanjing was constantly dividing his spiritual consciousness, attaching it to the statues in each Taoist Academy to form his own network.
After Pei Xuanjing successfully condensed his Golden Core, his essence, mind, and spirit merged and advanced to the Seventh Level of the Spirit Realm.
Originally, Pei Xuanjing thought that dividing his spiritual consciousness would be simple since it wasn't his first time doing such a thing.
However, when he actually started trying, he had to admit that it was a complex and mentally draining process.
Creating a single strand of spiritual consciousness was simple. Even creating ten or a hundred strands wasn't hard. But when it came to creating thousands of strands, Pei Xuanjing realized that it was quite a burden for him.
Especially when these thousands of strands of spiritual consciousness needed to be constantly dispatched to the statues thousands of miles away, maintaining them consumed a great deal of energy.
Were it not for the abundant Power of Faith he had accumulated over the years, Pei Xuanjing might have been pulled down by these thousands of strands of spiritual consciousness.
But where there is input, there is harvest. As Pei Xuanjing persevered, he found that his Divine Soul's power, which had been stagnating for a long time, was once again increasing. Although the increase may seem insignificant, it was still a considerable gain for him.
It must be known that at his present Realm, the power of his Divine Soul was already terrifying. Although it wasn't powerful enough to make stars explode with a single thought, it was still enough to change the color of the sky, create or destroy storms, and cause mountains and rivers to explode.
This minor progress would have otherwise required Pei Xuanjing to spend a lot of time cultivating.
And so, Pei Xuanjing entered a state of retreat, continuously dividing his spiritual consciousness and releasing it…
These days, it took him five years to complete this task. He spent five years leaving his divided spiritual consciousness in countless Taoist branch academies to complete this step.
"I now feel like a central processing unit. As long as I will it, I can receive feedback from any Taoist branch academy at any time." Pei Xuanjing silently thought to himself as he processed the information fed back by these spirits.
At this moment, he could clearly sense the situation in each Taoist branch academy, the disciples praying before his statue, exchanging martial arts and skills…
It had to be said, this feeling was amazing, like he had the world in his hands.
But Pei Xuanjing knew very well in his heart that all this was not reality. He could only act as an observer for now, as he couldn't intervene in reality through any of his spiritual consciousness, or directly use the divided spiritual consciousness to do anything with the Power of Incense Faith.
However, Pei Xuanjing was not dissatisfied with this at all, but rather, he felt it was only natural. After all, this was the first step in his plan. According to his original plan, if he wanted to actually use the power of his divided spiritual consciousness to intervene in reality, he didn't have that power yet and needed more time to accumulate it.
What Pei Xuanjing needed to do next was to slowly nurture these divided spiritual consciousness, using the Power of Incense Faith to make these forces stronger. Whether he recalls and merges these spiritual consciousness later or uses them to complete his final plan, it would be beneficial.
The affairs of the Taoist Academy were temporarily concluded. After all, Pei Xuanjing divided so many strands of spiritual consciousness, and these spiritual consciousness needed time to settle.
Pei Xuanjing temporarily put this matter aside and shifted his focus to another matter.
The Divine Position!
After he refined the Sanbao Jade Ruyi, Pei Xuanjing no longer had to worry about the influence of the Divine Position. He could borrow the Sanbao Jade Ruyi to comprehend Heaven and Earth, and master the authority of the Divine Position without being assimilated by it.
Only after the last life simulation did he find numerous matters to handle, which needed time and energy, so he didn't have enough time to study the Divine Position.
Now that he had enough leisure time, he wanted to see the changes in the Divine Position he currently held.
Yes, changes.
After the last life simulation, when he projected the power of the Golden Book and Jade Scroll of the Eternal Divine Dynasty into the sub-volume of the Golden Book and Jade Scroll of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, the sub-volume underwent a huge transformation.
With the transformation of the sub-volume of the Golden Book and Jade Scroll, the power and authority of the divine position that Pei Xuanjing had granted naturally changed as well.
His Divine Position was called Shenxiao Yuzhen King of the South Pole Eternal Life, or Jade Purity True Monarch for short. His Divine Position borrowed the title derived from the Emperor of the South Pole Eternal Life. Although the initial power was very strong, it was an upper-level Divine Position. At the Sixth Level of the Spiritual Realm, Pei Xuanjing could wield the power of the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm through this Divine Position.
But this Divine Position had many deficiencies. He only had a part of the authority derived from the Emperor of Longevity, specifically the authority over destructive forces and creation.
Such authority may seem very powerful to others, as the power of thunderbolts was indeed horrifying.
But for Pei Xuanjing, it was just not good enough. After all, he was originally just one step away from the Seventh Level of the Spirit Realm.
After this life simulation, if the Golden Book and Jade Scroll hadn't projected the power of the Golden Book and Jade Scroll of the Eternal Divine Dynasty, causing a transformation and causing the authority of this Divine Position to be upgraded again, then the use of this Divine Position to Pei Xuanjing would not have been that great.
The change in the Golden Book and Jade Scroll this time allowed Pei Xuanjing to expand his control over the power of the Divine Position of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, also causing the Divine Position to change once again.
The original Jade Purity True Monarch could only control thunder, but now he had another authority – to summon wind and rain. With the addition of this authority, the enhancement the Divine Position could provide Pei Xuanjing was also increased, allowing him to have the power comparable to the Spirit Realm Eightfold.
And with the Sanbao Jade Ruyi, Pei Xuanjing didn't need to worry about refining the Divine Position directly, and then being bound and assimilated by it in the future.
In the following time, Pei Xuanjing would use the Sanbao Jade Ruyi to refine the Divine Position completely, keeping the Divine Position in his control. Naturally, the Sanbao Jade Ruyi also gained more authority, able to command thunder and summon wind and rain.
Time flies, and the seasons change.
Everything in the world has been conducted in an orderly manner, and in a blink of an eye, the world has been peaceful for twenty years.
In these twenty years, the martial world has undergone dramatic changes. The concentration of the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi has been continually increasing, thus raising the power level that the world can accommodate, numerous powerhouses of the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm from the Sky Wasteland have descended.
Of course, these powerhouses at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm have to face a brief period of rejection by Heaven and Earth once they arrive. Their combat power cannot be fully utilized. Therefore, even if some of them are dissatisfied with the rules set by Pei Xuanjing, who is known as the world's first and unrivaled powerhouse, most people still retain their sanity and chose not to provoke him. Instead, they chose to remain dormant.
However, there are always some rash and foolish people in this world. Inevitably, not all powerhouses were content to comply with Pei Xuanjing's rules, whether because of their own arrogant nature or because they were instigated by others.
Some people believe that local snakes cannot be oppressed by even the strongest dragons. But for these powerhouses, they thought of themselves as dragons that dare to cross the river.
Several cultivators at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm descended and revealed their formidable strength. Once they learned that only Pei Xuanjing, a powerhouse at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm, and the enigmatic emperor of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty were ruling the world, they immediately began to act recklessly.
They completely ignored the rules set by Pei Xuanjing, rampaging in the world and plundering heavenly and earthly treasures birthed by the revived Heaven and Earth. In addition, they had no scruples about attacking ordinary people and martial artists.
This thoroughly angered Pei Xuanjing. While in seclusion, Pei Xuanjing once again descended, manifesting his terrifying power. He consecutively killed four cultivators at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm, which immediately shocked the entire world.
Truth be told, the actions of these people, recklessly trampling on the rules, were undoubtedly a provocation and a test to Pei Xuanjing's attitude. They were waiting for his response. Behind all this, there must be a lot of people covertly supporting and instigating them.
However, no one expected Pei Xuanjing to be so decisive, domineering, and terrifying.
Reaching the Ninth Realm of Spirit is like ascending to the heavens in a single step. Cultivating to the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm and stepping into the Sixth Level means becoming a powerful figure who dominates a region even in the Sky Wasteland, where there are numerous powerhouses. Unless it is absolutely necessary, the top powers would not easily offend such powerhouses.
One can say that a cultivator who has attained such a stage can lead a good life without encountering any major crises, as long as they do not offend all the powers and avoid joint encirclement and suppression.
As for the current state of the Sky Wasteland, although many cultivators die each year, deaths of cultivators at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm can be traced back to hundreds of years ago during the great battle between the human race and the Demon Race.
The fall of the four cultivators at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm shocked the world. Especially those who had returned from the Sky Wasteland were immediately terrified by Pei Xuanjing's ruthless and decisive measures.
They originally thought that with many powerhouses from the Sky Wasteland about to return, Pei Xuanjing, who was now the strongest in the ancestral land, would have some misgivings even if he usually acted high-handedly.
Even if these people violated Pei Xuanjing's rules, he would only temporarily suppress these people, and it was uncertain whether he would have the ability to suppress them…
However, such a result sent chills down the spines of countless people.
Even in the Sky Wasteland, a world where survival of the fittest is bare, powerhouses still possess certain privileges. But now, the fact that a powerhouse at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm, who could dominate a region, had fallen, shocked countless people.
"Powerhouses have privileges, and as the strongest, I have my own privileges and rules. Those who anger me should die!"
These were the exact words given by Pei Xuanjing when Mu Binghua from Heart Moon Lake came to persuade him.
Once these words were made known, the world fell silent, and no one could refute Pei Xuanjing's words.
Of course, the reason they were speechless was ultimately due to Pei Xuanjing's power.
It should be noted that this time, it wasn't Pei Xuanjing's real body that killed these people. He simply manifested an incarnation. With minimal effort, he easily killed several cultivators at the Seventh Level of Spiritual Realm.
Just by using an incarnation to kill cultivators at the Seventh Level of the Spiritual Realm, such terrifying power made everyone silent. Some even suspected that Pei Xuanjing might have reached the Spirit Realm Eightfold.
Pei Xuanjing's attack this time undeniably made the returning powerhouses from the Sky Wasteland fall silent, not daring to violate Pei Xuanjing's rules in any way.
Next, the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi in this Daming World became denser and denser. Countless martial artists broke through their realms, entered the Spiritual Realm, and the number of cultivators in the Spiritual Realm increased drastically.
Heaven and Earth are fair. The initial silence of Heaven and Earth restricted all martial artists, preventing them from reaching higher levels, causing numerous talents to die in regret.
However, once the seal of Heaven and Earth was broken and Heaven and Earth were revived, the world began to give back to all martial artists. During this revival, not only did the concentration of Heaven and Earth Essence Qi increase, but the will of Heaven and Earth also became apparent, and the principles of Heaven and Earth became clear.
For both martial artists and cultivators, practicing in such a drastically changing environment is highly beneficial. The problems and bottlenecks in their cultivation are diminished, and they can break through more easily.
In these twenty years, the branches of the Taoist Academy have been expanding continuously. Every year, martial artists of appropriate age join the academy. They receive guidance in the academy and take tasks in front of the statues of Pei Xuanjing in each academy, earning contribution points and exchanging them for skills and martial arts to enhance their strength.
After more than twenty years of development, countless branches of the Taoist Academy have been established. Apart from Pei Xuanjing and Qingyang Zi who handles the affairs of the academy, no one knows how many branches of the Taoist Academy there are in the world, nor how many powerhouses have graduated from the academy.
Over the years, new generations of talents in the martial world have been rising steadily. Pei Xuanjing has become a figure of legend, and many newcomers seldom get the chance to see him. Even his disciple Pang Hong has become an influential figure in the martial world, a highly respected elder to countless juniors.
Of course, although Pei Xuanjing still remains aloof and indifferent to world affairs as he used to be, he can't ignore the rapid growth of the academy. The academy has almost become a behemoth that all forces are extremely wary of, but can do nothing about.
"The Taoist Academy is now all over the world. Countless powerhouses have come out of the academy. They consider themselves disciples of the national teacher. I'm afraid it will be difficult to remove the tail in the future," someone in the Great Ming Divine Dynasty said.