Ian Song knew Old Man Tanner was speaking the hard truth, but there was no way he could tolerate his own woman marrying another man.
But right now, his strength was lacking. No matter how eloquently he spoke, he couldn't give the people present any confidence. So he quickly changed the subject: "Enough, let's put this aside for now. Old Man Tanner, tell me about the power structure in the Tang Capital!"
After a moment of thought, Old Man Tanner slowly began: "Let’s start with the Outer City. The Tang Capital is the heart of the Tang Dynasty and has the highest concentration of experts. That’s why every first-rate sect sets up a branch hall in the Outer City. Within the Tang Dynasty, there are seventy-two sects qualified as first-rate, and each branch hall has at least one Divine Transformation expert overseeing it.
Aside from the seventy-two first-rate sect branch halls, there are three major native forces: Heaven’s Dao Alliance, Heroes’ Tower, and Beauties’ Pavilion.
Heaven’s Dao Alliance was founded by seven Divine Transformation experts and controls the business of all thirty-six official marketplaces in the Outer City, raking in gold daily. Rumor has it the Sixth Prince is involved behind the scenes. Heroes’ Tower was founded by the One-Armed Wanderer, whose strength is extremely high—he reached the peak of late Divine Transformation five hundred years ago. He adopted five sworn sons, all of whom have reached the Divine Transformation stage under his guidance. Heroes’ Tower controls every tavern, inn, and teahouse in the Outer City, bringing in hefty profits. Lastly, there’s Beauties’ Pavilion, said to be founded by the current Grand Princess, with more than two hundred brothels under its banner. The public manager of these businesses is a mid-stage Divine Transformation expert named Lu Sidniang.
A princess running brothels?
Ian Song couldn’t help but click his tongue in surprise.
Beyond these three major native forces, there are also some small gangs and sects, ranging from a dozen to several hundred members. Their leaders are usually only at the Nascent Soul stage, and they mainly deal in shady businesses.
As for the Inner City, no power dares to take root there, because the headquarters of the Prime One Church is located inside. As the saying goes, 'one does not allow others to snore beside one’s bed.' So, no one dares to establish a force in the Inner City. That’s why most residents are high-ranking officials, nobles, and long-lived cultivation world elders.
Among the nobles, the three ducal residences stand out the most. The only power on par with them is the Grand General’s Residence. Grand General Tyson Niu is now over twelve hundred years old and is a Fusion-stage expert—the number one powerhouse in the Tang Dynasty’s military.
However, the people from the Grand General’s Residence keep a low profile. As long as you don’t provoke them, they won’t bother you either."
"So, what exactly is the Prime One Church’s strength?" Ian Song asked.
Old Man Tanner replied, "The Prime One Church is the state church of the Tang Dynasty. Its headquarters has an Immortal overseeing it, and the sect master is a mid Tribulation-Crossing supreme expert. Beneath the sect master are twenty-four elders—the weakest of whom are Fusion-stage experts, while the strongest are said to have reached Tribulation-Crossing. There’s even a legend that the church’s greatest fighting force is the Loose Immortal Legion, which supposedly numbers over ten thousand loose immortals!"
So-called loose immortals are actually cultivators above the Nascent Soul stage who lost their physical bodies and then used secret arts to rebuild them. Loose immortals have only one way to increase their strength: passing tribulations.
Each time they survive a heavenly tribulation, their power rises by a level. Tribulations come once every thousand years.
If someone manages to survive nine tribulations, they ascend and become an immortal—not just any immortal, but a Golden Immortal.
But almost no one can survive all nine loose immortal tribulations. Eight tribulations is usually the absolute limit!
"What about the three princes?" Ian Song asked again.
Old Man Tanner said, "The Tang Emperor has three sons and five daughters. The three sons are the Second Prince, Fourth Prince, and Sixth Prince. Of these, the Sixth Prince has the highest cultivation—he’s already reached late Divine Transformation, and his talent is scary. The Second and Fourth Princes are only at mid Divine Transformation. That’s why most people favor the Sixth Prince, and he even has Fusion-stage experts under his command. Since the Tang Emperor will abdicate in ten years, the struggle among the three princes is fierce. Just a few months ago, the Sixth and Fourth Princes’ factions fought inside the palace, and the emperor had to reprimand them both!"
At this point, Old Man Tanner glanced at Ian Song and continued, "Recently, Master Mingtan has been planning to marry the Saintess Lila Li to the Sixth Prince. This shows the Prime One Church strongly favors him, so his reputation and influence have soared lately!"
"Isn't the Prime One Church afraid the Tang Emperor will take offense, openly supporting the Sixth Prince like this?" Ian Song sneered.
Old Man Tanner replied, "The Tang Dynasty is different from the Ming and Song Dynasties—ancestral law says each Tang Emperor can only reign for a thousand years. So there’s no such thing as a new emperor forcing the old one to abdicate. Even if the Prime One Church supports the Sixth Prince, he can only become emperor after the current one retires. Since it doesn’t threaten the Tang Emperor, he won’t care too much. Besides, the Prime One Church’s strength speaks for itself, and with an Immortal in residence, even if the Tang Emperor is unhappy, there’s nothing he can do!"
After that, Ian Song asked Old Man Tanner a few more things about the Tang Capital.
In the blink of an eye, an hour passed. The cultivators who had gone to attack the Duke of Qi Residence gradually returned, bringing recording stones to document the process, so Ian Song didn’t have to worry about anyone faking their kill count.
However, most of the people they killed were just Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators.
So Ian Song didn’t have to pay out many top-grade spirit crystals—the total was just over thirteen thousand.
Back when he left the fantasy world, he brought away a massive stash of top-grade spirit crystals, plundered and mined by a vast empire over decades. Just in top-grade spirit crystals, he had more than twenty million, and hundreds of millions of high-grade ones.
After handing out the top-grade spirit crystals, Ian Song’s name spread instantly throughout both the Inner and Outer City, thanks to these cultivators’ word of mouth. Even the princes and princesses heard about him, and of course, the Prime One Church—the Tang Dynasty’s number one cultivation force—also took notice.
Just as Ian Song sent off the group of rogue cultivators who’d completed their tasks, a distinguished middle-aged man arrived, accompanied by two Out-of-Body subordinates.
"I am Victor Zhong, here to pay my respects to Young Master Song!"
"Who’s Victor Zhong?" Ian Song asked Old Man Tanner.
"The Seventh Alliance Lord of Heaven’s Dao Alliance."
Old Man Tanner sneered, "Heaven’s Dao Alliance moves fast—they’ve probably got their eyes on the spirit crystals in your pocket!"
Ian Song just smiled, formed a quick array seal, and the formation split open to reveal a passageway. "So it’s the Seventh Alliance Lord—please, come in!"
Seeing the passage in the formation, Victor Zhong hesitated for a moment, then left his two subordinates outside and strode into the array.
Taking in the azure sky and vast grassland, Victor Zhong couldn’t help but exclaim, "Young Master Song’s array skills are truly astonishing!"
"Please, Seventh Alliance Lord, have a seat."
Ian Song smiled and pointed to a stone bench.
After some brief pleasantries, Ian Song looked at him and said, "Seventh Alliance Lord, what brings you here today?"
"I’ve come to do business with you, Young Master Song," Victor Zhong said with a smile.
"Oh?" Ian Song looked intrigued and gestured for Victor Zhong to continue.
"Please take a look, Young Master Song!"
Victor Zhong handed Ian Song a booklet. Ian flipped through it and found it listed various spirit medicines, pills, artifacts, and miscellaneous items, each with a price.
Most of it didn’t interest Ian Song, but the spirit medicines caught his eye. With his Pill Condensation divine ability, as long as he had enough ingredients, he could refine plenty of pills.
His new subordinates were still trying to break through to Divine Transformation, and this booklet happened to include the spirit medicines needed to refine Godbreaking Pills, which help shatter the Divine Transformation bottleneck.