Big Data Cultivation

In short, due to Feng Jun's departure and a shortage of goods, Mount Zhige is not what it used to be.

Before Feng Jun left, he not only took away the Spirit Gathering Array of High-Rank, but also took some people from Tiantong, causing the allure of this place to drop further.

Only the Combat Cultivators still recognize Feng Jun, often coming here to wholesale consumables such as wires and switches—these things are not like the Boiler Camel Motorcycle; in Huaxia of the Earth Realm, there is as much as you want, and Feng Jun had stocked up a large batch before he left.

In fact, it was a Combat Cultivator who ran to White Pebble Beach to notify Feng Jun that something had happened at Mount Zhige.

Finally, five months ago, Feng Jun entrusted Tiantong to send a batch of goods, allowing Mount Zhige to barely hold on till now.

But three months ago, You Longzi came again, seemingly looking to cause trouble for Feng Jun, but Mount Zhige still had Elder Liao Brother. He had Lang Zhen show the land deed, saying this land was bought by Feng Jun; if you dare to attack, then I can only retaliate.

Elder Liao Brother was merely at the second layer of the Qi Refinement Realm, and could not possibly be a match for You Longzi, who was at the sixth layer of Qi Departure, but as long as he dared to fight back, a battle involving Qi Departure Cultivators breaking out in the Secular World would cause trouble for You Longzi beyond handling.

The main forces maintaining the consensus in the Cultivation World are the Four Sects, Five Wutai, and Two Peaks, One Valley.

So You Longzi just slapped Elder Liao Brother once and left; Elder Liao Brother spent a month recovering from his injuries.

However, after You Longzi left, he attracted two other Qi Departure cultivators, one at the first layer and the other at the fourth layer.

These two Qi Departure cultivators somehow communicated and had the Prefectural Governor issue an order to charge fees here under the pretext that commerce at Mount Zhige was booming.

Originally, this place was still the forbidden area of Zhige County's Official Government, but now that Feng Jun is gone, the county magistrate has also been replaced. The most crucial thing is, they have two Qi Departure Cultivators as backing, behind whom is the colossal Yinsha Sect.

So these yamen runners tried to collect fees, and the people of Mount Zhige wanted to resist, but they have two superiors!

These two superiors didn't come alone; they brought seven or eight Qi Refinement Realm cultivators with them, not only intimidating Elder Liao Brother but also those Combat Cultivators who occasionally appeared.

Several Combat Cultivators have already gotten into conflicts with the other party due to disputes, with both sides having wins and losses, but overall, one side having two superiors, while the other only has one, always made the outsiders have a stronger position.

Gradually, the Official Government also realized that Mount Zhige is "weak internally despite appearing strong," and directly ran to the mountain gate to collect fees. Those imposters also came to Mount Zhige, trying to buy all kinds of materials at low prices and getting more blatant by the day.

Currently, both sides are in a tug-of-war; You Longzi, who initiated it, has long lost interest here—in fact, this guy is already dead, and the two superiors he used were informed by the Official Government before entering openly.

Now it's the Martial Cultivators from both sides confronting each other. On Mount Zhige's side are the Tian Family, Mi Family, Yu Family, Chen Family, and Mu Family, while the opposing side is also from a few families in the Family Alliance, fighting over product sales—one wants to buy forcefully, the other doesn't want to sell.

Anyway, from these maneuvers, it can be seen that although the people in this realm may not know the term "proxy war," their methods are indeed this way.

The tricky part is that the other side has an Innate Expert, while Mount Zhige does not; the only Innate, Chen Junwei, left with Mountain Master Feng.

Luckily, on Mount Zhige's side, there are still Combat Cultivators and Tiantong speaking fairly, and the other side does not dare go too far—no matter what, Feng Jun holds the land deed and has the moral high ground.

But if Feng Jun doesn't return now, speaking of having the right is useless; are there not enough examples of forceful plundering?

After listening, Feng Jun gazed at that fourth-layer Qi Departure cultivator, his expression a bit strange, "Si Xiaoguang, is it? Were you the one who destroyed my warning Boundary Monument?"

"I am willing to compensate," Si Xiaoguang, now restricted, no longer had his previous arrogance, "I am willing to compensate ten thousand Spirit Stones for the offense committed by the fellow Wu Xin of the same level."

Feng Jun looked at him with a half-smile, "Was it really unintentional?"

"Uh, you could say it was intentional," Si Xiaoguang dared not deceive further, "I just felt that having such a Boundary Monument in the Mortal Realm was too conspicuous, so I destroyed it."

Feng Jun sighed softly, "Do you think you were foolish? Even You Longzi dared not destroy it, but you did?"

You Longzi indeed dared not destroy the Boundary Monument because he knew that even Master Sumiao had visited this place, which is why he instigated others to trouble Feng Jun instead of striking himself.

"I know now," Si Xiaoguang replied with a bitter smile, thinking, if I had known you could still invite a Golden Core, how could I have had such courage?

"I don't plan to hold you accountable for destroying evidence," Feng Jun spoke slowly, "but not inviting you in will not do."

Si Xiaoguang was shocked upon hearing this, are you going to kill me? He couldn't help but exclaim loudly, "We are from the Endless Sea Hunting Alliance; the Alliance has four Golden Core Masters, Mountain Master Feng… we are willing to compensate!"

"Four Golden Core Masters, my foot," Qu Jianlei sneered coldly upon hearing this, "A mere loose cultivator alliance, and you really think you're important?"

Another Qi Departure superior called out, "It was You Longzi who forced us; you dare not go after him and can only bully loose cultivators?"

Sun Rongxun snorted coldly, "You Longzi is already dead, I, the Crimson Pheonix's Rongxun, am not afraid of him!"

Crimson Phoenix Rongxun? The two Out-Dust Experts exchanged a glance, their faces pale.

Feng Jun couldn't be bothered with them anymore and instead looked at Elder Liao Brother, "Go and capture all the Qi Refinement Realm practitioners who followed them."

Without saying a word, Elder Liao Brother turned and left.

Only then did Feng Jun look at the eight martial cultivators, nodding slightly, "You really do have some guts."

"Mountain Master Feng, please forgive us. We just assumed you wouldn't return," the Innate Expert said with a bitter smile, "Moreover, we were forced by the Out-Dust Experts, we had no choice."

Feng Jun sneered dismissively, "Whether you had a choice is none of my business… Chen the Innate, they are for you to handle."

At that moment, people began to arrive one after another, and someone shouted, "Mountain Master Feng, these people should be exterminated from their clan!"

Feng Jun looked and vaguely remembered this person as Mu Fengtang, with Lang Da's younger sister beside him. The once-handsome young man now had a scar running diagonally across his face, even splitting his ear in two.

However, the Mu Family had deep resources; the scar, though long, had healed well, likely due to the use of precious medicine. Even so, once healed, the scar remained quite noticeable.

He also had one hand on a crutch, clearly indicating a leg injury, while Lang Da's younger sister supported him intimately.

Seeing this, Feng Jun couldn't help but be curious, "Doesn't your Mu Family also have Innate experts? How did you end up suffering such a loss?"

"It's a gamble, when you lose, you have to accept it," Mu Fengtang spoke frankly, "Moreover, our Innate was held up by someone else…"

The Mu Family had cornered the market on Dew Fragrance Water in three prefectures, and later the Boiler Camel Motorcycle, which aroused much jealousy. However, at that time, the Mu Family had a good relationship with Mount Zhige, so as long as Feng Jun approved, others' dissatisfaction was of no consequence.

But when Feng Jun left and never returned, the jealous finally had their chance to act; the Mu Family's Innate had to stay and guard the clan, and Mount Zhige couldn't be supported anymore.

As for the gamble, that was quite normal; the forces on both sides were evenly matched, and no one could overpower the other. To avoid large-scale casualties, settling market shares by gamble was quite standard.

Mu Fengtang finally stated, "A gamble is a gamble, but they have illegally invaded Mountain Master Feng's territory, offending an Immortal, deserving extermination from the clan."

Strictly speaking, it might not count as offending an Immortal, since it was a war by proxies, with Immortals on both sides.

However, now that Feng Jun was on the winning side, the other side naturally had offended an Immortal.

"I support this statement," Kong Ziyi was the first to express her stance, "Just so happens my Taiqing sect has accompanying disciples, willing to cooperate with you."

Besides her and Yu Pao from Wuwei Peak, the Taiqing entourage also included accompanying Qi Refining disciples—it's not that the two couldn't get used to leaving their serving disciples, but those disciples also wanted to come to Mount Zhige to broaden their horizons.

Of course, whether or not this involved the instructions of the Golden Core Masters was hard to determine.

Upon hearing these words, the two Out-Dust Experts from the opposition turned even more ashen—was there not only the Crimson Phoenix Sect but also the Taiqing Sect?

By this point, they realized why You Longzi did not fall into this trap. Although they knew he was already dead, they couldn't help cursing internally—having seen tricky people, they had never seen ones this tricky.

Ultimately, they were just Loose Cultivators. Though the Endless Sea's Hunting Alliance was quite a large organization among Loose Cultivators, its intelligence-gathering abilities were far inferior to those of the Four Sects or Wutai.

They only knew that Feng Jun was not to be trifled with and had complex social connections, yet as members of the Hunting Alliance, they didn't want to be looked down upon by You Longzi. They felt it was okay to provoke such a lone wolf.

At this time, two more Qi-Refining Practitioners arrived, "Qiuchen Market Combat Cultivators, meeting Mountain Master Feng."

The Combat Cultivators' support for Mount Zhige had always been strong; Feng Jun had found several livelihoods for retired Combat Cultivators, which was a great favor to them, but these foreign forces severely harmed their interests as well.

Thus, in safeguarding Mount Zhige, the Combat Cultivators' attitude was extremely resolute—of course, there were definitely some with weaker resolve, but the Combat Cultivators struck the hardest, especially after Feng Jun shipped another batch of goods.

The two Out-Dust experts from the Hunting Alliance didn't dare to thoroughly offend the Combat Cultivators. Yes, they were Out-Dust experts, which was true, and did not need to heed Qi Refinement Realm practitioners, but the number of Combat Cultivators in the Cultivation World was too vast.

"No need for courtesy," Feng Jun waved his hand and spoke calmly, "I still intend to manage the area around Mount Zhige. Previously, I was busy advancing my cultivation level and hadn't paid enough attention, which attracted some demons and ghosts, but that won't happen again."

The two Combat Cultivators were exceptionally exhilarated, "Thank you, Mountain Master Feng. We are also accustomed to procuring goods from here now… selling them at Qiuchen Market, with many comrades coming over to learn various technological skills."

Mi Yunshan nodded at this, "That's indeed the case, now there are over five hundred thousand Combat Cultivators in Qiuchen Market."

Feng Jun was taken aback for a moment, and then the Big Boss's thought emanated from the Spirit Beast Bag, "Strange, why do I smell the aura of the Great Dao?"

(Updated to summon the guaranteed monthly vote.)