Although Hao Ran Zhēnzūn had joined the Loose Cultivator Alliance, he did not stay there long. After laying low for a while, he put on a new identity and went roaming the Spirit Region again.
He had tasted the sweetness of exploring dangerous lands before, so this time he headed to the far west of the Spirit Region, to the Tar Desert Gobi. His good luck ran out there. He was trapped for more than eight hundred years in a time array within that perilous Gobi, nearly losing his life.
Yet misfortune birthed fortune. Hao Ran comprehended the Law of Time and leapt into early Mahayana. Only then did he break the array that held him and leave the Tar Desert Gobi.
When he returned to the Loose Cultivator Alliance, the righteous versus evil war had broken out. As an elder of the Alliance, he became a field leader, taking Alliance cultivators to fight on the Ancient Battlefield. Truth be told, his hands were itching after being idle so long, and he wanted to temper his strength.
Upon entering the Ancient Battlefield, he showed no mercy against the evil cultivators surging out of the Wuwang Ruins. He charged at the front every time, and with his mastery of the Law of Time, he severely wounded many high-level evil cultivators.
With their arrogance suppressed, the evil cultivators set Hao Ran as a target. They began to play dirty in secret, and lured a human cultivator at the Void Refining stage whose dao heart was unsteady. While Hao Ran Zhēnzūn was battling a Mahayana evil cultivator, that Void Refining cultivator pretended to be blasted into their duel. When Hao Ran moved to flick him out of danger, the man self-detonated, leaving Hao Ran heavily injured.
A powerhouse from the Demon Region rushed in and saved him, but his wounds were too severe. He had to retreat from the Ancient Battlefield to recover. Du E Zhēnzūn of the Loose Cultivator Alliance then dispatched another early Mahayana cultivator to the front.
Hao Ran returned to the Alliance to heal. Because he was injured on the Ancient Battlefield, the Loose Cultivator Alliance provided heavenly materials and treasures to aid his recovery as much as possible.
He had been in seclusion for less than a year when he sensed upheaval in the Weiyu Realm. He hurried out, then joined the Mahayana Ancestors stationed in the regions to reseal the evil god's body, which had been on the verge of breaking free after ascending.
During the sealing, juniors of Haoran Sect made him proud. The Grand Array had been split by Cao Yi into eighty-one sub-arrays that covered the Weiyu Realm, leveraging the realm's natural earth-vein flows to suppress the evil god's body, saving spirit stones while achieving the goal.
Although half the sub-arrays had been damaged by the evil god's thrashing, the core structure remained. Hao Ran Zhēnzūn kept Cao Yi at his side and, together with the other five Mahayana Zhēnzūn, restored the damaged formations and re-linked the array. They embedded it precisely into the sealed grounds deep in Yunxiao Sea where the evil god's body lay, completely suppressing the restless evil power.
The strength of Mahayana Zhēnzūn was naturally a world apart from Yunxi and company when they were at the Out-of-Body stage. With six Zhēnzūn acting in concert, they brought the Grand Array to full effect, pressing the evil god's body down entirely and using the formation to grind away its power, stabilizing the newly returned Weiyu Realm for the time being.
Before, Hao Ran Zhēnzūn had been a lone blade. Now that the whole sect had ascended, as the founding Ancestor he could not shrug off responsibility. He happened to be convalescing anyway, so he moved the entire sect to his own territory.
The place was remote and barren, but at least no one contested it. It was far from the turmoil, and Hao Ran Zhēnzūn could shield them. So although Hao Yi grumbled with her mouth, her orders were swift. She also tossed three storage rings to Hao Ran Zhēnzūn and even assigned him tasks.
"Senior Brother, did you not say you would lay Spirit Gathering Arrays? Do not say I am squeezing you. Here are the array materials, and the spirit veins our sect has saved over the years. Bury them where appropriate.
The spiritual energy of the Weiling Realm is far richer than the Weiyu Realm's, so the spirit veins will drain more slowly and should last until the sect stabilizes.
Also, Yu Huo and Zong Hao have chosen a mountain as the Planting Peak. They will transplant the spiritual flora we brought. Trouble you to lay a few time arrays so we can harvest a first batch early. That way Dan Peak can refine pills and medicines. We cannot sit and eat the mountain empty. What we refine can be traded with the Loose Cultivator Alliance."
Hao Ran Zhēnzūn stroked the short beard at his chin and agreed heartily. He understood well. Junior Sister Hao Yi would not let him be idle. She had guarded the sect for ten thousand years and brought it into the realm whole and hale. For that alone he could not play hands-off shopkeeper. The sect still bore his name.
Business settled, Hao Yi decided not to squeeze her Senior Brother too hard and smiled. "Senior Brother, you likely do not know this. Ran Xi received the Yixian Gate inheritance in the lower realm. Her alchemy surpasses all. It was thanks in part to her that we gathered two hundred late Divine Transformation cultivators to break through together.
Her medical arts are excellent as well. When there is time I will have Ran Xi take your pulse and assess your injuries, and we will find a way to hasten your recovery. You will need to shield the sect for a few more years."
Though Hao Ran was Mahayana, the sect currently had no Unity-stage cultivators. Only Ran Xi stood at Void Refining, and there were just two at the Out-of-Body stage. The overall cultivation ladder had a gap, which was not helpful for growth.
This was why she was eager for her Senior Brother to regain his peak. If someone came to shout at their gate, there would be no one fit to fight.
Hao Ran nodded. "Good. I understand. Yixian Gate also has a sect in this realm. If they learn Ran Xi inherits their mantle, they will likely pay a visit. Best to build a good relationship. One fifth of the battlefield's pills come from Yixian Gate. Their reputation in the Spirit Region is high."
Hao Yi sipped spirit tea and continued, "Rest easy, Senior Brother. Ran Xi knows what to do. I sent her to Haoran City to receive people.
Before, not knowing the situation here, we did not bring over the families that rely on the sect in Haoran City. First, we feared the flying boat could not carry so many. Second, we worried there was not enough space and that bringing too many would draw eyes and invite rejection.
"Now it seems those worries were extra. Faced with this chain of barren mountains, no one will covet it. So I reached out to the Haoran City families. They agreed to relocate first, saying Haoran Sect is comparatively reliable."
Hearing this, Hao Ran Zhēnzūn masked himself by taking a sip of tea. He had not expected the Weiyu Realm to ascend whole either. Thankfully, though the land he chose was barren, it was vast, and not a fat piece in the eyes of great sects and clans, suitable for early development.
Hao Ran Zhēnzūn went off to complete his tasks. At the same time, Cao Yi was also busy, leading the sect's formation masters to set up the Sect Protection Grand Array. It was a massive project, and they dared not be careless.
As for Yunxi, who had been sent out, she took Lin Keyang and Zhang Lingrui, along with Sheng Yuhong and Zhou Lingchuan, and turned back toward Haoran City in the Western Region to bring people over.
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I've also got a little "toy" to share, basically a YouTube song downloader. It's a simple .bat file, so you just copy and paste the link and it'll automatically download and convert the video you want. I'll include the installation steps too, since the .bat file needs another program to run properly.
Remember to read all the instructions before running any .bat or .sh files. There are seven tabs in total. Two of them cover installation for Windows and Mac, along with how to set up the script. The first tab is the final checklist of things you need to change before using it. Tabs four and five are the Windows scripts, and tabs six and seven are the Mac scripts.
You can find it in my Google Drive or Terabox under the "My – Mine" folder, inside "Youtube Audio." Both cloud links are on my Carrd: https://rikhi.carrd.co