The Spirit veins were something like natural spirit energy generators. It was something like natural geothermal energy that was produced by the planet they were in. These exposed veins could be used by the cultivators as fuel for their cultivation, the closer they were to them the more energy they could absorb into themselves and speed up their progress.
Just like Zhang Dong was able to use stormy weather to hasten his progress, so could others use these spirit veins. Just that these were far more universal and didn’t require any specialized techniques. The vein placed here wasn’t the largest, maybe the floating cube had sapped it of its energy for all these years it was buried here.
The good thing about these naturally occurring treasure areas was that they recharged themselves over time. This was actually something good as the sect could set up their spiritual formations now and block other sects from finding this place. If those three sects noticed that the United Element sect found a better location for cultivation then they had, they would surely come asking for trouble.
‘Yeah, I found something, bring more people we need some architects. I think I found the new location for our sect.’
Matt ended his communication with Zhang Kuo while outside of the hole. He knew that they could somehow hide this place from prying eyes but that didn’t mean that they would be suspicious of them. The whole act of placing your sect in the lowest of low areas was already really sketchy. He didn’t think that the other three sects would act before gathering more evidence though, they just needed to somehow falsify it.
If they managed to make it seem like there was a smaller pocket of spirit metals or spirit herbs here instead of a spirit vein then the other sect would probably leave them alone.
‘Hm, can I somehow redirect the spiritual energy from this spirit vein into the Dimensional Regalia, with its aura masking traits I should be able to hide everything.’
His first thought was to use the pocket dimension. On the outside, they would look like a small sect while on the inside they would prosper into a mighty hidden titan. He went back to his library to find the right array formations for the job. He flew up into the sky and was already mapping the whole area out, his map feature was quite handy in situations like this.
‘This planet is as huge as the sun but I remain in this little part of it… it’s kind of funny…’
He thought back to the life he was living. His life here wasn’t very adventurous, he had remained in the vicinity of a couple of cities he knew and never left. His clan kept him from moving, the only freedom he ever had was when he worked as his demon hunter persona and even then he didn’t really wander into the large sect territories.
He was even slowly wondering why he was even working this hard. Wouldn’t it be okay if he just built the sect anywhere and relaxed, he just needed to pay some spirit stones to the other sects from time to time. Not like they would come to murder him unless they found out that they all had immortal level skills. Then he thought to all of the people that were depending on him and smiled, he couldn’t just abandon them.
‘Well, might as well do a good job while I’m at it.’
He pumped himself up, he could create the best and strongest sect that this world had ever seen. He was already in the nascent soul realm so he had enough time to do it meticulously. He went back to examining the surroundings until some of his sect members arrived. It was Zhang Kuo and with him were a couple of unknown elders from the other sects that he didn’t have the opportunity to talk too. With them was also Zhang Zi piloting the large flying ship that was hovering above the tall trees.
“Sect leader we are here!”
They all bowed to him and jumped down to the ground. They looked around the forest area and noticed some of the weak beasts scattering out of the way to hide themselves. They were curious why the sect master wanted this to be the new location.
“Good, let me show you something.”
The people here were mostly in foundation establishment but all of them stuck through till the end so they could be trusted. He brought them down to the hole that he had dug up. The spirit vein was in a separate cave of its own, the walls were all crystallized and these crystals were close to spirit stones but not quite.
Everyone’s eyes opened wide with surprise, this was truly a magnificent spot to set-up their sec.
“As you can see, this is a spiritual vein, it’s a bit drained now but it should recover within a year.”
“We must secure it, set up formations to block out the spiritual energy from leaking out.”
Zhang Dong said what he thought about the situation. About how he wanted to hide this from the sects and how the Dimensional Regalia treasure would be used. He even wanted to design a separate teleportation gate and place it into his treasure. This way people wouldn’t have to constantly use the small medallion as an entrance. This would also hide its true form and whereabouts from any potential spies.
The whole sect became busy overnight, the most concerned people were the tribesmen. The small pickup for the Dark Palm sect turned into a large event as they started seeing more and more people from the United Elements sect coming to their village. It didn’t take long for them to notice that they were building something in the forest. They were concerned at first but they had trust in Zhang Dong and that he wouldn’t hurt them. The days started passing and the word that this sect would be using their forest as their main base of operations was brought to light. The tribe members were ecstatic about this news, they were even allowed to stay here.
The whole building process would take a while but Matt was mostly concerned about keeping the spiritual vein hidden for now. Unless a spy appeared then it would be safe. This is also why he decided to stay in person, he would use his map feature to catch any people unrelated to his sect in the area. His spiritual sense filled the locations around the spot that the new sect was being built.
This was quite a boring task as he could only sit around and stare. His people were mostly finished with setting up the smaller formations that would block out the spiritual energy from seeping away. The buildings started to slowly take shape, the first thing going into place would be the walls around the center area.
He was going to place a giant castle right in the middle of the spirit vein. It would have an angular hip roof at the top with the Sects name written out on a flag. There would be six large pagodas all around it that would house some of the stronger elders from his side. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to place into the courtyard just yet, probably some gardens and maybe a place for people to train in.
This grand structure would be nothing but a distraction though, the real sect would be right in the immortal grade treasure that he had found so long ago. He didn’t think killing one demonic cultivator would let him discover such a useful treasure but he was apparently a lucky man.
This center castle would be the most important structure, but not like it would be the only one. There would be smaller yet similar buildings spread out throughout the forest area that would need to be cut down. They would be placed in strategic locations in a decagonal fashion around it. More walls would be placed between those Chinese styled buildings to complete this large defensive fortress.
On the inside, there would be more buildings like apothecaries, training areas, smithing shops that would aid the disciples on their journey into the future. Matt really wanted to place his sect on some large mountain peaks but there just weren’t any at this geographical location and he wasn’t quite powerful enough to raise giant mountains from the ground to carry them over here.
While he was overseeing the construction he noticed some people sneaking around. There have actually been a couple of spies that he had apprehended during the weeks of this construction. The three sects might have looked uninterested but they still sent cultivators over to snoop about. It started with foundation establishment cultivators trying to peek then evolved into core formation elders trying to glide through the forest on their flying blades.
He had promptly taken care of them, he knew well that the sects wouldn’t actually admit that these people were from their side. Such was the life of a spy if they got caught there would be no rescue party coming. Thanks to this he was free to relocate them into the ‘free labor’ initiative movement, maybe he would release them after his sect got powerful enough to not fear the three larger ones surrounding them. He still knew that they were just following orders; this wasn’t something he would want to punish people for.
This day was a bit different though as the people snooping were far too weak.
‘Qi condensation?’
He raised his eyebrow while continuing to hover above the construction site in a lotus position. He used his spiritual sense to gather more information. There were two people coming and they were still quite far away, if they moved too close then the United Element sect guards that were also placed around the area would find them out.
‘It’s those two kids?’
The ‘spies’ were actually just two youths from the Tatar Tribe. It was the silkypants that he had met over two years ago and the youth that he saved while flying towards civilization. The two were now moving in unison towards the construction. This location wasn’t that far away from their village so they could probably reach it within the day.
‘Did someone fall asleep on the job back at the village?’
He had told Zhang Kuo to make sure that the villagers wouldn’t go towards their sect’s new location. Even if the possibility was low, they could be captured by the enemy sects and forced to cough up some intel if they wandered in too deep. He gave out a sigh and used his communication jade to call his retainer. He couldn’t really leave his spot and this wasn’t something a sect leader should be dealing with.
In a matter of minutes, there were two cultivators at their location. The youths were scared out of their wits and tried apologizing, from what he could tell the reason they wandered into the forest was to join the sect. They were promptly removed from the premises by the two sect members that consisted of one Feng Clan member and one Huo clan member.
‘They wanted to join the sect?’
He thought to himself. It was a bit too soon for that but in the future, he wanted to expand. He needed a batch of fresh recruits that were around the land. Some of the sects were strenuous with this process making the new disciples go through rigorous tests. Some used connections with rich families to procure favor while accepting their youths into their midst.
He didn’t really want people getting into his sect just by association, the three main clans were an exception as they were considered the founding members. He moved his gaze back to the people below as he went back to watching the progress. If you didn’t count the spies from the other sects the days went by peacefully. They were on the right path but as always he and his people needed time and he hoped that this time around they would have enough on their side.