Chapter 460 - Four Hundred and Fifty-Six: The Ultimate Order
Saying that the Xu Clan of Yuanzhou is a relative of the Tang Clan is not entirely accurate, as the Xu Clan did not fully recognize the Tang Clan as one of its own. Possibly, only the Yuanzhou branch of the Xu Clan recognized the Tang Clan as relatives, and this recognition only extended to the family of
Tang Sen.
Old Xu has been in Xiling for half a year and has never thought of visiting the Tang Clan’s headquarters or meeting the leader of the Tang Clan, let alone formally showing any kind of greetings.
Such behavior is not only because the Xu Clan looks down on the Tang Clan, but also because the elopement of Xu Shuhui did not receive the understanding or approval of the Xu Clan.
As a representative of the Xu Clan who travels around the world, naturally he cannot step out of line to acknowledge the relative standing of the Tang Clan. Because if it’s simply brought up to the level of a prominent clan, the Tang Clan and the Xu Clan are incomparable. Even Yuan Zhong, a soldier of the Falling Star Army, disdain the Tang Clan, let alone the Saint Child.
Since there has never been any communication, the Tang Clan cannot obtain any information about the Xu Clan from Old Xu. So when Tang Luo suddenly said that he was willing to talk about various aspects of the Xu Clan, everyone at the table, except Tang Sen, pricked up their ears to listen.
“If we want to talk about the Xu Clan, we first need to talk about the strength of the Xu Clan before discussing potential. Speaking of strength, Xu Sheng, as the King Realm powerhouse with the shortest lifespan in the world, passed away at two hundred years old. The 72 blood successors of the Fierce Realm did not join the Xu Clan, but scattered in all directions and each established their own prominent clan. The Xu Clan, after the death of its Saint, had its powerful members abandoned and even left the clan ground in the province of Tiansouth, running to the somewhat desolate area in Yuanzhou. This is why the powers of the world say that the Xu Clan has withdrawn from the list of the strongest, but this is old news from hundreds of years ago.”
“After the Xu Clan came to Yuanzhou, they continued to uphold Xu Sheng s teachings of treating everyone like a dragon. They gathered almost all the refugees in Yuanzhou, began to build cities from wasted land, and constructed several huge cities over hundreds of years, ruling over millions of people. Ying City is even known as the center of Yuanzhou. They command the three powerful armies of Divine Sword, Falling Star, and Cavalry, and their Supreme Sword Scripture of the Heavens is hailed as the number one killing method. Gentlemen, how do you think the Xu Clan managed to become so powerful in just a few hundred years?”
As Tang Luo shared some information he learned from Old Xu, the high-ranking members of the Tang Clan started to ponder about the path to becoming a powerful clan of the Xu Clan. Tang Luo had more to say, he continued: “I don’t know if you have noticed that in recent centuries, those secluded sects and holy places in the world have also begun to reach out to the outside. Martial Saint Mountain in Longzhou has been hosting a competition of heroes every ten years for the past centuries, and even the disciples of Martial Saint Mountain have been wandering around the world to enlist the martial artists who are shedding their worldly constraints and are under 15 years old. The Wuxiang Zen Temple has established 108 temples, each recruiting no fewer than 800 disciples with the wisdom to understand the teachings every year. The Beast Taming Sect has spread its gate all over the world, occupying almost all the Beast Valleys in the world. All of these are an indication that these exiting sects are beginning to feel dissatisfied with the status quo.”
■’The main reason why these holy places in the world show signs of shifting towards worldly existence is due to the stimulus of the Xu Clan in Yuanzhou!” Tang Luo confidently stated: “A secluded noble family that has been negligible, rose to the top of the world’s strongest after a few hundred years of recuperation and regeneration. This rate of improvement causes fear in most of the holy places and sects in the world, so they followed suit. However, due to the huge conflict of new and old ideas, these sects and holy places could not focus their efforts, thus ending up in this strange state of being half worldly and half secluded.”
Over the past six months, Old Xu sometimes chatted with Tang Luo about the holy places in the world, such as the An Family in Zhongzhou, Martial Saint Mountain in Longzhou, Wang Clan in Tiansouth, Wuxiang Zen Temple, and Xuanji Sect. Perhaps this representative of the Xu Clan didn’t realize how precious the information he casually shared was, because to him, these were simply old news from over a hundred years ago. It was no harm to chat about this occasionally with relatives.
But what he didn’t know was that there were people who could piece together a clear storyline that perfectly fits with reality from scattered pieces of information. Initially, without this information, there would be no way to guess. But with this information, Tang Luo finally found a reasonable explanation for the strange behaviors of these holy places and sects over the past century.
Because of Xu Sheng’s demise and the departure of the 72 disciples, the Xu Clan had almost become the weakest holy place in the world. However, this holy place, within just a few hundred years, returned to the peak of the world’s strongest. You should know that during these few hundred years, the major sects and holy places were not ceasing to develop, but were developing with all their strength and attentively. Even so, they were surpassed by the Xu Clan in the remote area of Yuanzhou, so a sense of crisis inevitably rose within them. But the biggest difference between people lies in how they see things. Elder Tang Hongtao, however, does not think there is anything strange about the return of the Xu Clan to the highest rank: “Although Xu Sheng died young, no one can match his research in martial arts in the world. During his lifetime, it was said that all sword techniques in the world come from Xu Sheng, and the Sword Pavilion of the Xu Clan was revered as the number one holy place for sword cultivation in the world. Although Xu Sheng is gone, his martial arts research and sword theory are far superior to those of the major holy lands. As long as the descendants can study deeply, it is only a matter of time for the Xu Clan to return to the ranks of the strongest.”
As an Elder of the Secret Arts Pavilion, Tang Hongtao likes to look at the rise and fall of forces from the perspective of martial arts research. A thousand years ago, when the Tang Clan came to Longzhou to clear up the wild, the Heavenly Pathway Technique did not even have the Combined Attack Technique, let alone the Fierce Realm Killing Technique. It was only after the Tang Clan researched the Heavenly Pathway Technique generation after generation, and plundered countless books to study it again, that the Heavenly Pathway Technique took on its current posture as a top-level Xuan-level technique.
At that time, the clans that also owned Xuan-level techniques always felt that the traditional was the best and the old was the best, and they gradually disappeared in the long river of history. From his perspective, the main reason why the Xu Clan could return to the pinnacle is not because of any extraordinary policies, but because their martial arts research is superior to any holy place.
After telling about his understanding of the progress of the Xu Clan, Tang Hongtao also raised doubts about Tang Luo’s argument: “Also, the Xu Clan’s Cavalry, Falling Star, and Divine Sword armies are only powerful armies that have been formed in a few hundred years. Let’s not talk about the An Clan in Zhongzhou, Martial Saint Mountain in Longzhou, just Wuxiang Zen Master alone has known strongmen as the Four-sided Buddha Lord, eight Heavenly Protectors, ten Bodhisattva, eighteen permanent Arahants, thirty-four Incarnated Kings, thirty-four Deities of Heaven, ninety-eight God Generals of the Retinue, five hundred Golden Body Arahants. Such a Superior Heavenly Sect has a greater prestige than the three armies of the Xu Clan. To say that the historical sects have emerged one after another in the past hundred years because of the stimulus from the Xu Clan, I beg to differ.
Although the Tang Clan is in a corner, they do not neglect in collecting information about world affairs. Although the strength of some of the worldly sects is mystifying and hard to figure out, the Wuxiang Zen Master has established 108 temples across the world, which is considered as a worldly Zen Holy place, and Zen practitioners are all open and generous in their demeanor, so people have a basic understanding of the strength of the Wuxiang Zen Master.
But such understanding is as good as despair, just the five hundred Golden Body Arahants alone are all at the peak of the Fierce Realm, let alone the Bodhisattva, the Heavenly Protectors, and the Four-sided Buddha Lord..