Big Data Cultivation-Chapter 1286: Crimson Phoenix’s Backup Plan

If Kong Ziyi were present, she would know that the Rongxun Hall is actually a branch of the Crimson Pheonix Sect.

The Taiqing Sect also has a similar branch called the Yuanxun Pavilion. It is for the seasoned and elderly people in the sect who have contributed but do not want to handle chores anymore and have no place to go, so they join the Yuanxun Pavilion.

In the Rongxun Hall of the Crimson Pheonix Sect, all members are cultivators at the Dust-removing stage. Before they die, they continue to enjoy the sect’s benefits and can even transfer some of these benefits to their clan without any interference from the sect.

Such favorable conditions are not available to all Dust-removing stage disciples. It is only available to those who have made significant contributions to the sect. Moreover, when major events occur in the sect, members of the Rongxun Hall must be willing to sacrifice themselves. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

In summary, Rongxun Hall is a group of idlers, yet they are unmatched in their loyalty to the sect and serve as the last resort for protecting the sect’s legacy in major sects.

Generally speaking, members of the Rongxun Hall do not leave the sect. They do not participate in sect affairs, are familiar with each other, and spend their days idly chatting and verbally sparring.

However, this time, Chi Luan sent out two members of the Rongxun Hall to secretly protect Feng Jun.

Initially, she hesitated over this decision and merely sent people to monitor Feng Jun’s news. But as time went by, Feng Jun’s diagnoses and treatment recommendations for many elders yielded positive results, convincing her of the need for his covert protection.

The scope of this "covert" was difficult to grasp, and it was inconvenient for her to use others, so she planned to mobilize people from the Yuanxun Pavilion.

This decision alerted the person in charge who was in closed-door cultivation—only the master could mobilize the Rongxun Hall.

Once the master understood the situation, they stated that Chi Luan could indiscriminately mobilize anyone beneath the top five members, and then returned to seclusion.

The white-haired elder is named Qu Jianlei, who once received immense gratitude from the Crimson Pheonix Sect and secretly admired Chi Luan’s mentor. Falling short of the conditions for joining the Crimson Pheonix Sect, he instead served as a guest elder for two hundred years and is the only person to enter the Rongxun Hall as a guest elder.

Initially, Elder Qu was somewhat resistant to this assignment as he did not wish to leave the Crimson Pheonix Sect, even though he knew there could be no outcome with Chi Luan’s mentor. Still, the thought of being close made him happy.

Chi Luan had to visit him specially, explaining that Feng Jun’s capability to treat elders was secondary; the crucial aspect was his precise matching for the sect’s Fire Marrow Pill.

The top-tier combat strength of the Four Great Sects is the Golden Core Masters, but the core competitiveness lies in the Dust-removing elders. What would happen if the Crimson Pheonix Sect could gather one or two thousand elders compared to the other three sects’ three to four hundred each?

Especially crucial was Chi Luan’s belief that "once the news gets to the Yinsha Sect, the consequences would be unimaginable."

Understanding the logic, Qu Jianlei immediately decided to accept the task.

His nature was somewhat unruly, but protecting the interests of the Crimson Pheonix Sect was the greatest obsession of his life.

In the Four Great Sects, the Crimson Pheonix Sect was the least informed — without exception, they had no distinct intelligence network, though obtaining mainstream information was no problem.

However, to Qu Jianlei, this was not a major issue. After wandering through the Cultivation World for many years, upon becoming a guest elder of the Crimson Pheonix Sect, he engaged in many covert activities, possessing his own intelligence channels and knowing where to find information.

Compared with him, Fang Wenping was still far from being comparable, so he learned that the rascal was probing for information on Feng Jun.

He cared little about what happened to Kong Ziyi; that was the concern of the Taiqing Sect, but he must ensure Feng Jun’s safety.

Upon his shoulder, a white owl cawed, "Why don’t I go protect him first?"

"Old woman, shut up!" Qu Jianlei spoke impatiently, "At night, you can’t see anything, still thinking you’re an owl? With Kong Ziyi by his side, how could he not have a Golden Core Master as a trump card?"

The owl was another member of the Rongxun Hall, not some Spirit Beast transformation, but a cultivator of a rare cultivation technique of the Crimson Pheonix Sect. Unfortunately, during cultivation, interference from a Falcon Swan led to frequent appearances in this form.

For a human, this form might seem disgraceful. However, transforming into this form made information gathering convenient, and it surprisingly had an effect on prolonging life — the life force drain slowed by half.

In other words, a cultivator who might live another thirty years could live sixty years in this form.

She disliked becoming a bird, but with life’s ticking clock, living an extra day was a gain — she wasn’t afraid of sacrificing her life for the Crimson Pheonix Sect, but unnecessary sacrifices were to be avoided.

She was about fifty years older than Qu Jianlei, both at the ninth level of Dust-removing, treating him as a younger brother. Upon hearing his words, she couldn’t help but snicker, "You dare call me an owl one more time, and I’ll gouge your eyes out and crush them underfoot?"

Verbal sparring in the Rongxun Hall was everyday life. If quarreling once was satisfying, then perpetual quarreling was endlessly satisfying—and those who stopped normally were gone.

Qu Jianlei wouldn’t care to argue with her, "You’re worse than an owl. At least it can see at night; you can’t see in the dark... you’re a senile old owl."

"Believe me, I’ll truly kill you?" The owl stamped impatiently on his shoulder, "I alone can ensure Feng Jun’s safety!"

"Safety, my foot," Qu Jianlei laughed dismissively, "A directionally challenged person like you, do you even know the road to Cypress Slope without me?"

"I did find out," the Owl replied smugly, "It’s only around a hundred thousand miles away. Now I’m considering whether to go protect Feng Jun or to stay here and kill those rats."

Qu Jianlei rolled his eyes, "Isn’t an owl supposed to eat rats?"

"Are you trying the latest... way to court death?" The Falcon Swan got annoyed, retracting its claws and leaving five holes on his shoulder, yet oddly, no blood flowed.

Feng Jun had no idea these things were happening behind him. After helping people deduce for three days, he returned to his lodging at dusk, feeling vaguely that something was off.

He carefully sensed his surroundings and turned to Kong Ziyi, "Daoist friend Ziyi, doesn’t the defensive formation here seem stronger?"

Kong Ziyi had been observing the Energy of Wooden Fiends for the past few days. However, she wasn’t planning on breaking the formation, so she didn’t pay much attention to the defensive formation—what was the point of staring at it for no reason?

But hearing Feng Jun say this, she sensed it and indeed furrowed her brows, "The defense mechanism of this formation has been reinforced. Strange... Is there another beast tide coming?"

"That’s nonsense about a beast tide," a Yin Spirit scoffed in Feng Jun’s mind, "All this talk about the Four Great Sects and Taiqing excelling at deduction, I find it rather common. It’s obvious they discovered a potential threat and have greatly heightened their vigilance."

Feng Jun couldn’t help but frown, "Who are they guarding against? It’s not you, is it?"

"If they could detect me, that would be weird," the Yin Spirit said dismissively, "I feel it’s more likely you’ve been exposed."

"Are you kidding me," Feng Jun snorted dissatisfiedly, "My cultivation level is right here, clear for all to see. Why didn’t they care at first, but now they do?"

In fact, the Yin Spirit wasn’t wrong, it was indeed Feng Jun who was exposed. Fang Wenping finally learned about his relationship with Kong Ziyi.

It was still about that incident at Mingsha Fang Market, but Mingsha Fang Market was a million miles away, and Bewildering Soul Forest was more than a hundred thousand miles from this Fang Market, so information exchanged rather slowly.

Besides, here is the Land of Slaughter, what happens in a Fang Market millions of miles away, the cultivators of Bewildering Soul Forest need not care.

Just like on Earth, who in the war-torn regions of Africa cares if the richest person list of a Chinese province shifts?

However, if Fang Wenping inquired in that direction, it was still easy to get the news.

Then he found out that Kong Ziyi was not just a core disciple of Taiqing, but also represented Master of Zixia Peak on missions.

Although Feng Jun was merely a loose cultivator, he had a very good relationship with Kong Ziyi. The two of them even gathered over ten elders to openly massacre a Qi Appearance Clan in the Fang Market, and even harmed a member of the Fang Market’s Elder Council, which also implicated that clan.

When Fang Wenping heard this news, he was completely stunned. Such bold actions made even the Wen Family lament they couldn’t compare.

The Wen Family dares to act decisively whether in the Bewildering Soul Forest or in the wild, but these folks openly attacked a dwelling in the Fang Market...

The Wen Family always boasted of fearing no Golden Core, and indeed, the Bewildering Soul Forest forbade Golden Cores. However, if they truly didn’t care about Golden Cores, why boast about it?

In the Cultivation World, for every Golden Core Master, if they were to set a bounty, wouldn’t the elders flock madly to attack the Wen Family at Cypress Slope?

The Wen Family is determined to protect the clan, but others have determination too—like that elder bent on seeking death, Yang.

Anyway, when Fang Wenping learned about Feng Jun’s specifics, he was truly terrified. He didn’t think he could deal with these two elders—even if he could ambush them, he couldn’t withstand the wrath of the Master of Zixia Peak.

Fortunately, he hadn’t started any action yet, so there was still a chance to remedy the situation.

So he immediately reported the news to the Wen Family. When the Wen Family heard, they were also scared that such powerful figures were lurking in their territory—an agent for a real master from Taiqing?

Being an agent for a real master wasn’t the most frightening thing; more frightening was that this person dared to hurt others and... was utterly reckless.

Having a gun is scary enough, but what’s scarier is that they truly dare to pull the trigger.

Thinking about how these two had been neglected by them for several days, and recalling how they had once confronted a Taiqing elder years ago, the Wen Family quietly upgraded their defensive formation, even though this increased the consumption of Spirit Stones, but... better safe than sorry.

Besides that, they had to do something, so shortly after elevating the defensive formation, Fang Wenping came knocking at Feng Jun’s door.

With a genial smile, he said, "Greetings to Elder Feng, have you been enjoying your stay recently? Is there anything we can do for you?"

(To be continued, it’s the end of the month, expect an additional update at midnight as usual, reserve monthly votes for next month.)