Chapter 315: Oh Well, at Least They're Making an Effort for Me

"The Taiping Celestial King's methods are getting more and more savage." Guo Ruyi's brow furrowed.

She was the Legitimate Eldest Daughter of the Jade Belt Guo Family, one of the Mage Family representatives sent to monitor and control the Taiping Celestial King.

After arriving, she also took over some of the important affairs of the Taiping Heavenly King Army and held considerable power.

At the beginning, she was wary of the mysterious Taiping Celestial King, but now, she completely dreaded him.

"All told, it must be tens of thousands of people by now, right?"

"The Taiping Heavenly King Army hasn't killed as many people as he has alone." Guo Ruyi voiced her dissatisfaction.

Thanks to the support of numerous Mage Families, the Taiping Heavenly King Army's conquests were mostly without difficulty.

In their eyes, this was nothing more than the Mage Families joining forces to set up a scheme, using the Taiping Heavenly King Army as a shell.

And now, that Taiping Celestial King was acting with increasing impunity.

"So what? You go kill him then." Yang Bing, the young master of the Night Traveling Yang Family, said casually. "You know the Sun Family, right? Their Sun Family Ancestor was killed by this very Taiping Celestial King."

"If you can't stand it, you can do it yourself."

Yang Bing's tone was extremely languid, making him seem like some nobleman's son, but in reality, he was no pushover. He was exceptionally skilled at sowing discord and stirring up trouble.

He had previously stirred things up to the point where the original generals of the Taiping Heavenly King Army all viewed each other with enmity.

The Mage Families didn't need the Taiping Heavenly King Army to be internally united, so they needed to incite all sorts of conflict.

Yang Bing understood what Guo Ruyi was thinking. Wasn't she just trying to find some fool to stick their neck out for her?

The people who came here to reap benefits were not the same idiots Guo Ruyi could wrap around her finger with her looks and flirtations.

A Third-Grade Mage, even in the former Yunhan Dynasty, was not someone an ordinary person could compare to.

If their own clan ancestors were to come, then maybe.

A bunch of juniors like them were worthy of scheming against him? Weren't they just courting death?

From beginning to end, their schemes were targeted at the Taiping Heavenly King Army, not at the Taiping Celestial King himself.

Yang Bing easily guessed that Guo Ruyi was just thinking of expanding her own interests and letting someone else act as the brute.

The other disciples from the Mage Families also watched on coldly, none of them echoing Guo Ruyi's sentiment.

However, Guo Ruyi's expression didn't change at all. It was just a failed scheme. Everyone present was a disciple meticulously groomed by the Mage Families.

They had all experienced the secular world, fallen into their fair share of traps big and small, and possessed both vision and experience. If someone had actually fallen for it, Guo Ruyi would have to carefully consider if they had some scheme of their own.

"A Third-Grade Mage... this humble girl is no match for him."

"But we can't just let him go on killing like this."

"A quarter of an hour ago, the Taiping Celestial King demanded another three thousand people." Guo Ruyi seamlessly changed the subject, providing herself with a prepared line of retreat.

The others also began to ponder. Three thousand today, five thousand tomorrow—where would they find so many people to supply the Taiping Celestial King?

"This Taiping Celestial King... what kind of Spiritual Root is he cultivating that requires so many people?" Seeing his chance, Yang Bing also spoke up, probing the others for any intelligence they might have.

It wasn't that he had never seen a Spiritual Root that required people as sacrifices or sustenance, but he had never seen one with such an enormous demand.

Moreover, they went in and never came out. Not even dregs were ever transported out. It was all very mysterious.

Yang Bing's question was destined to go unanswered, as no one else present knew the situation either.

"Let's set this matter aside for now. It's just a few people. If he wants them, give them to him."

"What's more concerning is the large amount of Spiritual Roots and resources he's requisitioned, including no small number of High-Grade and Middle-Grade Spiritual Roots. Those also go in and never come out," another Mage Family disciple said.

The Taiping Celestial King demanded either commoners, Jianghu Mages, or some Spirit Demons. To them, the only loss was to the Taiping Celestial King's reputation.

But he was also demanding all sorts of Spiritual Roots and resources in earnest, and that was a tangible loss.

"So what? He's taking from his own share. Our seventy percent has already been divided up," Guo Ruyi said, glancing at the speaker. He was just trying to use this as an excuse to carve out a little more for himself.

But his own strength was insufficient, so he was trying to leverage the group's momentum.

Unfortunately, strength was strength. No matter how absurdly the Taiping Celestial King acted, he was still a Third-Grade Mage, not someone they could plot against.

If he were to catch them in the act and kill them, the Mage Families behind them would endure it for the sake of their own interests.

Afterward, once they were of no more value, their families would indeed avenge them. But they would already be dead. Could revenge bring them back to life?

"Then what's the point of talking? Let's adjourn. I have plenty of things to deal with." After speaking, Yang Bing stood up and left directly, showing no regard for anyone's face.

Guo Ruyi followed him out soon after.

Seeing this, the so-called "small meeting" quickly disbanded.

Everyone left cleanly and decisively, giving the perfect impression of a group that couldn't unite.

After that, they all went their separate ways to handle their own affairs. After all, they had come here and obtained power, so naturally, they had corresponding duties.

Otherwise, how could they show off the power they held in their hands?

Just as one who controls troops must train them, and one who holds the grain supply must manage its distribution.

-----------------

"These people are truly willing to put in the effort for me, putting on a show every so often to demonstrate their disunity." Qi Suian looked at the report in his hand and couldn't help but sneer.

This wasn't the first time the Mage Family disciples had held a small meeting, and the purpose of these meetings wasn't to target Qi Suian.

Rather, it was to send Qi Suian a signal: our interests conflict too much, so we can't unite against you.

Any normal person would know that such petty tricks couldn't possibly fool him. They were just doing it to put Qi Suian at ease, to make him stay obediently in the Taiping Heavenly King Army and be their scapegoat.

Otherwise, if Qi Suian ran off, their entire investment in the Taiping Heavenly King Army would be a total loss.

So, expressing dissatisfaction wasn't to let Qi Suian *know*, but to let Qi Suian *see* that there was an opportunity to be exploited.

This led to the core theme of the entire meeting: that they were helpless against Qi Suian because he was a 'Third-Grade Mage'.

How could they truly be helpless? Backed by the Mage Families, they had plenty of methods and abilities to deal with Qi Suian.

But there was no benefit in targeting him, so why would they?

'Oh well, it's good that they're willing to put in the effort for me. In the future, we'll all have to live in the same furnace.'

'With this kind of tacit understanding, I won't have to worry about them scheming against each other once they're in the Melting Furnace.' Qi Suian had no intention of letting them go.

As soon as the Taiping Heavenly King Army's interests reached their expected threshold, this group of Mage Family disciples would immediately unite and show Qi Suian no mercy.

After finishing the report, Qi Suian's gaze fell once more upon the special physique. It was now the size of a human head, a perfect sphere with extremely regular protrusions and indentations on its surface.

The protrusions swayed like tentacles, while the indentations rhythmically contracted and expanded, as if breathing.

'After feeding it so many resources and going through thousands of modifications, big and small, it's finally a success.'

Qi Suian looked at the special physique in his hand. Its foundation was the Nine Extremes Body, but it could accommodate far more Spiritual Roots.

It could refine and accommodate ninety-nine portions each of High, Middle, and Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots, for a total of two hundred and ninety-seven Spiritual Roots.

As for other functions, there were relatively few. The hardware just needed to be tough enough; all other functions could be filled in by the Spiritual Roots, which acted as the software.

Of course, its ability to refine and accommodate so many Spiritual Roots was the result of Qi Suian carefully taking the strengths of numerous other special physiques and compensating for their weaknesses.

Otherwise, relying on a Nine Extremes Body alone, there would be no way to increase the capacity eleven-fold.

Then, Qi Suian directly transplanted it into his body.

A seed, naturally, must take root and sprout.

But this wasn't through the seed itself, but rather something like a vaccine.

After being transplanted into his body, the Abyssal Virus within Qi Suian began to assimilate and absorb this seed.

After all, besides the Spiritual Root gene fragments, its main body was made of Qi Suian's own flesh and blood as the foundation, with the Abyssal Virus as the binding agent.

In essence, it was just a mass of Abyssal Virus that had undergone a Spiritual Root-type mutation.

Qi Suian would naturally not choose the Spiritual Root gene fragments as the main component, but rather as the part to be absorbed.

As the absorption proceeded, Qi Suian could feel all the Abyssal Virus in his body begin to upgrade.

'It should take about an hour. Not a big deal.'

In the end, it was just a targeted upgrade patch, not some incredibly high-tech thing.

It was just that this patch was difficult to create, but simple to install.

Having dealt with the hardware, Qi Suian's attention turned to the software.

Meaning, the Spiritual Roots.

He pulled up the massive amount of Spiritual Root data he had researched over this period.

His first choice, naturally, was the Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots.

He had to proceed in order. Only after all the Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots were "installed" could he install the Middle and High-Grade ones.

Data streamed before Qi Suian's eyes.

'Ninety-nine Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots provide too many skills. Even if they were all single-art Lower-Grade Spiritual Roots, stacking them would still give me ninety-nine abilities.'

'What's more, I can't possibly choose only single-art ones, so I need to mix and match them to form a single, holistic active skill.'

'To fuse the arts of ninety-nine Spiritual Roots into a single art.'

'And it has to be the one most suited for me.'

This was a huge undertaking. First, he had to test which arts Qi Suian himself was suited for.

He wasn't very good at fighting, so many arts were unsuitable for him.

'I don't lack attack or defense. I don't even fear fighting against groups.'

'Theoretically speaking, with the Tai Sui God, I have no weaknesses.'

'So, it would be best to choose a support type.'

'For example, something to enhance my perception and reflexes.' Qi Suian knew his own situation. He wasn't weak in terms of power, but he was lacking in combat experience.

That was something that would likely be very difficult for Qi Suian to train, so he opted for a different method.

In that case, as long as he could perceive an enemy's attack earlier and react faster, wouldn't that solve the problem of his lack of combat experience?

'No, that's still not enough. I'll go straight for the Celestial Demon Dissolving Technique!'

'Since it's all about augmentation anyway, I might as well burn my life force to directly boost all my stats.'

'I'll just crush them in battle and let my enemies witness the beauty of superior stats.'

'After all, perception and reflexes aren't isolated effects; they can only be fully utilized through the comprehensive development of the human body.'