The battle concluded without fanfare. It happened in the midst of the sea of clouds with few, if any observers. What little news of the incident that eventually reached those paying attention to such matters contained sparse details. Two Spirit Lords with old grudges had found each other and got into a fight. It was eventually stopped by a third Spirit Lord and the two decided to settle their differences and become friends.
This was somewhat strange but not uncommon. It was easy to form grudges but it was also possible to settle grudges without bloodshed. As such, Chen Wentian's ploy attracted very little attention, exactly what he had hoped for.
As for Immortal Sage Gardener Zhang Qing, he was now an unwilling member of the Million Swords Menace. He was also still a member of the Hero Alliance of Mount Liang. All the spiritual oaths he had to take did not interfere with the old oaths for the hero alliance at all, which surprised him greatly.
Chen Wentian was amused by Zhang Qing but kept the secrets to himself. As someone who cultivated the Anatta Soul Nirvana Art, the master of the soul realm and countless souls, he considered himself an expert at spiritual oaths. Out of countless souls that roamed the world, he was the only one who could experiment with spiritual oaths and find out their limitations.
Such oaths between one's spiritual energy and the heaven and the earth would result in death if broken. Normal people had only one chance at life so they would not take unnecessary risks. Chen Wentian, on the other hand, could bind such oaths to spare souls at will. And if broken, he would lose a spare soul but that was it.
With his experience, he had deduced the oaths for the Hero Alliance of Mount Liang would prevent Immortal Silver Brawler Yu Yanwu from acting against the interests of the alliance. This mean that outsiders could not use Yu Yanwu to attack other members or weaken the alliance from within.
However, Zhang Qing was an exception. He was an exception because he and Yu Yanwu had become enemies on their own, through their various grudges. Yu Yanwu fighting with Zhang Qing would not violate his oaths to the alliance. This provided the perfect loophole for Chen Wentian to take advantage of.
Yu Yanwu had not done anything against the alliance. He had merely gotten into a fight with an old adversary. The fact that his adversary got beaten up to the brink of death by a third party did not matter, at least to the oath.
Yu Yanwu and Zhang Qing were both not stupid people. Although Chen Wentian did not explain it, they could deduce certain things. After they realized how they had been played, they could only swallow their discontent and respect their new bandit lord.
The next day, the three immortals met up once again within the sea of clouds.
"Zhang Qing, how are your wounds?" Chen Wentian asked.
"Yes, Lord Sword Bandit. Many thanks for avoiding my vital organs yesterday." Zhang Qing replied respectfully.
Chen Wentian laughed, "Good, good. I won't mistreat you so you have to do your best from now on."
"Yes!"
"Hmm," Chen Wentian scratched his fat chin as he glanced between Yu Yanwu and Zhang Qing, "Say, do you two have any more enemies? Tell me and I will take care of them and we can make more friends… hahaha!"
The two older men looked at each other regretfully.
"My lord," Yu Yanwu said, "If my lord wishes to recruit more immortals to your Million Sword Menace, I can name two more candidates. However, if we do this so soon after Zhang Qing… I meant Brother Zhang… it will raise suspicions."
"My lord, I agree. We should wait a few days at least."
Chen Wentian chuckled and shook his head, "Do you really think waiting a few days will matter? Those old monsters of the Northern Oligarchs or the Seven Potentates? They have seen countless tricks and schemes under the heavens. But don't worry, I am not a careless person. I need to recruit a few more people but we'll save it for later. Now…"
He looked around at the calmly floating clouds around them. He could see nothing except white in all directions. He had yet to meet one of those fabled clouds that had gained spirituality let alone the other kinds of clouds.
"Zhang Qing, where is this temple of yours?" He asked.
"My lord…" Zhang Qing's face formed an expression of extreme reluctance.
However, he could only obey. The fact that he had found a small cloud temple a few years ago had nothing to do with the Hero Alliance. Thus, Chen Wentian could force him to reveal its location.
"It is not far. But we should be careful, we don't want to tip off anyone else." Zhang Qing replied after adjusting himself.
"Of course, of course, lead the way." Chen Wentian waved.
The trio set off once more, twisting their way through the maze of clouds, making sure nobody was following them. Zhang Qing's temple had been a lucky coincidence. Chen Wentian changed his plans and decided to take a look inside to satisfy his curiosity.
They stayed at the top layer for a while before descending slightly. Their flight speed lowered as a strange pressure fell around them. Their bodies felt heavier. Their spiritual senses were suppressed. And their immortal auras no longer felt as powerful as before. It was as if they had partially returned to the old days when they were still mortals. They couldn't do anything about it. Even Chen Wentian was affected.
"Interesting," He said. "I imagine this can get dangerous very quickly..."
The reason nobody had ever explored the deepest parts of the Temple of the Clouds or reached its bottom was that they did not dare to. The further one went, the greater this mysterious pressure would become. At some point, Spirit Lord Realm immortals would lose the ability to resist. They would lose the power to fly and they would plummet into the white abyss, to certain death.
Spirit Kings would be able to delve deeper but they would also hit a limit. Spirit Emperors could go even deeper but they would still be risking their lives. It was unknown if higher realms such as Spirit Saints or Spirit Demigods had ever visited the Temple of the Clouds. If they had, either nobody knew of it or they had also perished.
One thing was certain, nobody was dumb enough to take the risk.
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