325. Changes in the sect

Chen Ren ended up spending quite a bit of time with Qing He, going over everything she and Princess Yanyue knew about the Demon Sword.

Apparently, he had gained that title because in most of his public appearances, he had always used swords. That had not really been the case in the pagoda, so Princess Yanyue had never even considered that Jun could be the Demon Sword. She had known he was probably a famous demonic cultivator, but without the sword techniques, the connection had never formed in her mind.

That alone told Chen Ren how flexible Jun actually was. But his background made it even clearer.

With techniques taken from the Guardian sects, knowledge from the imperial vault, and whatever else he had accumulated over the centuries, what Chen Ren had seen in the pagoda was probably just the tip of the iceberg.

If not for the restrictions of the pagoda, Chen Ren would have suffered a fate worse than death.

To be honest, even if he had simply been captured, that would have still been true. It was not as if they had been able to truly deal with Jun even when he was restricted by the pagoda.

According to what Qing He told him, Jun was also not someone who moved alone.

Apparently, he was the sect leader of the strongest demonic sect, a force called Immortal Path. They controlled a large amount of territory outside the empire, and Jun had dozens of disciples under him.

All of them had been hunted down by the empire for centuries, but they always managed to escape.

The two disciples he had brought into the pagoda, Wenji and Shuyi, were probably among his youngest ones.

Qing He also told Chen Ren about a long list of crimes committed by Immortal Path.

In the first place, as soon as Immortal Path had been established, they had taken down two well-known sects just to spread their name throughout the empire.

Everyone who had participated in that attack was still alive to this day. The two sects, however, had been annihilated completely. Even the mortals who worked there had not survived.

It was unfortunate, truly.

After that, there had been many more crimes. Jun had also moved against several upcoming geniuses, clearly trying to damage the empire’s future generations before they could grow into real threats.

No matter what story Chen Ren heard about him, only one thought came to mind.

The man truly hated the empire.

For a while, Chen Ren even wondered if the emperor had killed Jun’s parents or something similar, and Jun had only found out later. After all, according to Qing He, Jun had been an orphan. If that was the truth, then maybe everything he had done was just revenge.

But that did not really seem right either.

Jun was far too focused on his goal of getting the medallion. And if Chen Ren was right, opening the Gates of Immortal would not just doom the empire. It might doom the entire world.

If Jun only wanted to bring down the empire, there were far more efficient ways to do it.

So, in the end, Chen Ren could only conclude that Jun was truly after the Gates of Immortal. There might be other reasons hidden beneath that goal, but that was what mattered most.

And if Jun had come to his sect, then Chen Ren was sure the man had either been trying to gather more information about him or looking for people close to him.

Actually, maybe both. That didn’t soothe his anxiety though.

Demonic cultivators often did that—try to find information before striking hard. And knowing Jun, he was the worst of them all.

At the very end, Qing He said something similar.

She took another sip of tea before saying, “I believe if Jun did not get what he wanted here, then he would have certainly moved somewhere else.”

Chen Ren looked at her. “He would not have just given up, huh?”

“Jun is not the type to give up,” Qing He said. “You need to be more careful and think about where else he might have gone. Because wherever it was, there might not be anyone left alive there.”

A bad premonition filled Chen Ren at those words.

There were only three places he could think of where he, or rather the original owner of this body, had spent most of his life.

The first was Meadow Village, which Qing He had already saved just by her presence. The second was Cloud Mist City and the Tang Clan. But they had passed by Cloud Mist City on the way here, and the whole place had seemed normal. If there had been a demonic cultivator attack, there was no way things would have looked like that.

Jun was also not stupid enough to hit a large city openly unless he had a very good reason.

Still, Chen Ren decided he would send someone to the Tang Clan just to make sure they were all right. In the end, there was only one place left.

The Chen Clan in Red Peak City.

Chen Ren had spent his childhood there, or at least this body had. It was also the easiest target out of all the places connected to him. From the stories Qing He had just told him, Jun had taken down several clans and sects before, both large and small.

The Chen Clan was only powerful in one city.

If Jun attacked them, it would not be hard for him to force them to surrender and spill everything they knew about Chen Ren.

That made him tense.

He had no love for the Chen Clan, but they were still innocent in this. He did not want them to be killed because of him.

“I will get Zi Wen to check the Chen Clan and see if anything happened there. I also need to think about the supply routes,” he said immediately.

His businesses were spread across different places now, and all the carriages carried the brand of the Divine Coin Sect.

Jun might intercept them too. That would ruin a lot.

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Anything inside the cities should still be fine, Chen Ren guessed, but the supply routes needed to be safeguarded. He could not let anyone in his sect get harmed just because a crazy demonic cultivator was after him.

Princess Yanyue seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“Does your sect have enough cultivators to act as guards?” she asked. “Do you want me to lend you some royal guards?”

Chen Ren almost said yes. But he also knew that relying on her too much would become detrimental to him in the end. So he shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I think I will figure something out.”

Qing He looked at him. “Do you have anything in mind?”

Chen Ren slowly nodded.

During his days on the last floor of the pagoda, he had actually thought about many things. What he wanted to do if he got out. How he was going to change his sect. What direction the Divine Coin Sect should move in from now on.

With the threat of Jun hanging over them, he guessed this was the best time to begin.

He looked at the pair and thought for a second. “I will call a meeting. I am going to reveal what we will be doing from now on. Starting today, I want to change the sect in a lot of different ways and make it strong enough that everyone fears us. I’m going to need every support I can get from everyone.”

“Huh?” Qing He narrowed her eyes slightly. “Did you lose your head in the pagoda or something?”

Chen Ren couldn’t help but smile at her question. “How many resources do you think I got out of it?”

Qing He looked confused for a moment, probably not expecting that kind of question. But after that, she seemed to think about it seriously.

“Enough that this can become an Established sect if you truly conquered the pagoda.”

Chen Ren smiled more at that.

Honestly, it takes a lot of resources just to raise a sect to that level. There were hundreds of small Emerging sects around the empire, but there were probably only a few dozen Established sects. Maybe somewhere between two and three dozen.

That was not a huge number.

Only half of them were truly recognised as Established sects. The other half were likely only placed in that category because they had a good past, even if they had declined over time. In the last three decades, only three new sects had managed to gain the status of an Established sect.

It was not easy to possess that many resources.

But looking at Qing He, Chen Ren simply shrugged. “Well, if I tell you, you will not believe me. So I will just show you during the meeting. There is no point repeating myself again and again.”

He said that much and stood up, looking at the two of them.

“Princess Yanyue, I do not mind you joining in,” he said and extended his hand. “So please head to the courtyard with Qing He. I do not think we will be able to do this anywhere else.”

The sect was still quite small, so they did not have any room large enough for everyone. And since both mortals and cultivators would need to be present, Chen Ren thought the courtyard was the best option.

The two of them nodded. Chen Ren immediately moved out into the hallway.

As soon as he did, Wang Jun spoke. “They are going to be so shocked.”

Chen Ren smiled at that.

The head was sleeping while he spoke with Qing He and Princess Yanyue, but it seemed he had woken up halfway through.

Why Wang Jun was sleeping as just a head was still a mystery, but he did not care enough to ask.

He simply moved through the whole place, telling anyone he saw to head to the courtyard. They bowed and left at once, and he kept doing that for a while.

It felt a little strange to do it himself as the sect leader, but the Divine Coin Sect was not that large yet. People like Feiyu and Hong Yi were already working, so Chen Ren had to drag them out too, telling them this was important.

In the end, they complied.

It took almost half an hour to gather everyone before Chen Ren finally made his way to the courtyard himself.

Only then did he realise just how many people were in his sect now.

There were far more mortals than before, and on top of that, the new cultivators made the whole place look even more crowded. Most of the mortals seemed extremely nervous about what was going on. The people who had gone with him to the pagoda looked like they had some idea of what was coming, while those who had stayed behind only looked confused.

The two city lords standing to the side looked bored. Yorren looked intimidating without even trying.

More than a few mortals were clearly keeping their distance from him, but Chen Ren ignored all of that and looked over everyone gathered in the courtyard.

He did not want to delay any further.

“Everyone,” Chen Ren said, his voice carrying across the courtyard, “I have been absent for a long time. But today, I am back. And I have called all of you here to tell you that everything in the Divine Coin Sect is going to change from this day onward.”

Chen Ren smiled when the entire courtyard went quiet.

“And for centuries to come, this day will be remembered as the day our sect took a leap toward the heavens!”

With that, he began his speech.

***

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