Published at 8th of September 2026 7:19 am

Chapter CH.1949 Flowing River

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Wu Hong had a lot of work to do, so she focused on all the documents in front of her. The Holy Land's managerial system was great, but there was room for improvement. First, Wu Hong started with the recruitment methods. In the current system, the holy land has three ways to recruit disciples: First, they send elders throughout their territory to find talented disciples and raise them from a young age; these are the core of the Holy Land and usually the source of the Saint Son and Saintess. The second recruitment method is a public trial. Every few years, the Holy Land recruits widely, and they accept anyone who hasn't proven the Dao yet.

The third recruiting method is from the top factions. The Holy Land provides these factions with a certain quota, which they usually use to send their best disciples. Wu Hong was fine with the first recruiting method, but both the second and third had a major issue: loyalty. Many of these recruits are either too old and already have a complete view of the world, or their loyalty is usually split between the Holy Land and their original faction.

Wu Hong understood why they used this method. The world is on the verge of destruction; the existence of the Samsara Battlefield means high casualties among the disciples and elders. As such, the holy land cannot ignore such a large avenue for recruitment. With the high mortality rate, most of those recruits don't survive long enough to form factions inside the holy land or threaten it in any way.

Regardless, Wu Hong wanted to improve on this system, and she chose a simple method: affiliated academies. The Holy Land will build academies across the territories to train disciples from an early age. Once academy students meet the requirements—including loyalty—they can be sent to the Holy Land. Meanwhile, those who do not meet the cut can be sent to other factions.

This approach can form a tighter bond with those factions while also subtly influencing them. After all, after spending so much time in the academies, these students will be partial to the holy land whether they know it or not. When it comes to brainwashing disciples, most of the 13 Overlords have mastered the disciple.

"That's not enough," Wu Hong thought. For her array to succeed, the academies aren't enough. So, next, Wu Hong plans to spread the [Mortal Civilization]. The Battle Spirit System has drastically improved the lives of mortals, but it's not enough. Once their entire civilization is rebuilt, more people will be happy, and happiness equates to hope.

More importantly, the Mortal Civilization is based on knowledge; to be precise, the spirit and runes. Once it spreads, there will be even more talented individuals with talent for the field, which Wu Hong can recruit into the academies to rebuild the Profession Dao of this timeline; she can even recruit mortals who have mastered runes. One Dao Washing Pill is enough to reverse their fate and grant them cultivation talents.

With a wave of her hand, Wu Hong wrote the plan for the academy and the Mortal Civilization and handed it to the Holy Lord, who reviewed it and then sent someone to execute it. With the sect's external situation settled, Wu Hong moved on to internal affairs. Most of the Holy Land's operations were up to her standard, so she didn't need to change much; the only exception was the duty of the Battle Peak Master.

The truth is, he was in charge of too many things: teaching disciples to cultivate, training their battle skills, training their cooperative abilities, training the Holy Land's army, managing the disciples' trials, teaching the small number of body refiners, and much more. In fairness, this generation's Battle Peak Master excelled at a few of these tasks, primarily group battle and army training. Ever since he took office, the Holy Land's casualties have decreased by 17.3%.

However, Wu Hong was not satisfied—especially when it came to training individual combat strength. So, she fixed the issue, and her approach was simple. Every Peak Master had two Vice-Masters underneath them. Wu Hong added a few more, tasking each of them with controlling one aspect of training. Moreover, she set up strict guidelines, objectives, and training methods for these Vice Peak Masters to follow.

"Now the foundation is set; we can begin," Wu Hong thought. She immediately selected a group of the best Array Masters and Weapon Refiners; the number wasn't ideal, so Wu Hong also used the same tactic from the Borderworld. However, this time around, she also built a Heart Protection Array to combat the Curse of Forbidden Knowledge. Then the group began building the "array."

Ten yuan epochs passed, and Wu Hong wasn't close to finishing her project. However, the Holy Lord came to report.

"What is it?" Wu Hong asked without stopping to engrave a set of runes in the air.

"The other two have relented. They are willing to pay for the array repair."

"That was faster than I thought." Wu Hong nodded.

"The Three Path Array is one of our last defenses. After seeing how fast we are improving, they have begun to worry; they need more safety — more trump cards," the Holy Lord sneered.

"Don't hesitate to extort them."

"Pardon me?"

"You heard me: make them pay as much as possible. Don't hesitate to use my avatar to threaten their array access; make them bleed. Ignore them if they start talking about war."

"Alright."

The Holy Lord left, and Wu Hong thought he wouldn't see him for a while, but less than 5 yuan epochs later, he returned with major news.

"Five of the worlds in our territory were attacked. There were countless mortal casualties, and more importantly, the Battle Spirit Systems in those worlds were destroyed."

"Did the holy land do it? Well, it doesn't matter," Wu Hong said. "How is Rune Shadow doing?"

"She's still training the new spies."

"She's taking too long," Wu Hong frowned. However, her hands never stopped engraving. "In that case, you'll have to do it yourself. Attack ten of their worlds; you don't need to be extra cautious, just don't make it obvious that we did it. And every time our territory is attacked, retaliate and double the number. Lastly, once they ask to rebuild the systems, quintuple the price."

"As you wish."

The Holy Lord returned a few more times over the next few million years to report the situation; the war of aggression had stopped. The other two holy lands were used to the Emperor Path succumbing to pressure, but after seeing how fast and fiercely they retaliated, they understood that things were no longer the same.

For a while, Wu Hong had peace, which let her focus on the current project—until 12 yuan epoch later, when Han Guo visited. "Saintess, it's done. The holy lands tried to assassinate Xu Yuhan."

"What's the result?" Wu Hong asked, her gaze fixated on a cauldron in front of her; this time around, she was refining a material, not engraving runes.

"Our people intercepted them and saved his life," Han Guo replied. "We've also used this incident as an excuse to put an armed force directly inside the Xu Clan."

"It seems Young Master Xu no longer trusts his clan."

"That's right. After the last encounter, he immediately began investigating the clan secret. He discovered a few 'clues' of Great Elder Xu Lu plotting to revive Emperor Sui," Han Guo sighed. She never realized how stupid that kid Xu Yuhan was.

"Did you control that Xu Lu?"

"Yes, he's now one of our own."

"Good. Now, all you have to do is isolate Xu Yuhan from his clan; force him to rely on us while using his status and prestige to gain control of the Xu Clan. When the time is right, we'll eliminate the patriarch and put him in charge as a figurehead."

"I'll get it done."

Han Guo left, and time continued to flow like an eternal river. Eight yuan epochs after the meeting with the Destiny Peak Master, someone else came to visit: a woman dressed in all black with a mask flashing with runes.

"Has the Rune Phantom Guard been created?" Wu Hong asked.

"Yes, my lord."

"Where are you, lieutenants? Show them to me."

A group of people suddenly appeared behind the masked figure, and Wu Hong glanced at them. Every single member had a body made of runes, which made Wu Hong nod in satisfaction. This shadow organization was modeled after the one from the Origin Seal Continent, which meant they had all their abilities: knowledge absorption—even information in the mind—array modification, forceful array control, void fusion, soul manipulation, soul stealing, and more.

"You know what to do," Wu Hong said.

All the major events had been dealt with, so Wu Hong thought she would have a decent moment of quiet. Sadly, she was wrong. Less than 2 yuan epoch after the official organization of the Rune Phantom Guard, Rune Shadow came to report that Long Aojing had successfully become a Quasi-Saint. More importantly, he wanted to organize a counter-attack on the Red Cloud, and he was slowly building momentum for the occasion.

"You need to stall him; the last thing I need is for the Red Cloud to feel more threatened than it already is and fight back with all their force," Wu Hong said. She knew most of the Three Path Array had been repaired, leaving only the section in the Samsara Battlefield. However, the Red Cloud has drastically increased their attacks on that side, which is why the Borderworld has been relatively peaceful. Moreover, Wu Hong felt the Red Cloud was about to make a major move soon; the last thing she wanted was to force them to do it early.

"Before I'm finished here, there can't be any counterattack."

"I understand, Lord, but with Long Aojing's current strength, I alone cannot stop him."

"Where is Avatar 3? The one who was comprehending a higher level of the Qi Saint Will Prototype?"

"Her enlightenment has ended, and she decided to take the time to upgrade your techniques," Rune Shadow replied.

"Send her to deal with Long Aojing if necessary."

"As you bid."

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