299: It's a dead end!

The Six Desires Demonic Sect Cultivates using the seven emotions and six desires of living beings, and this Six Desires Heavenly Demon Art is a lower-level chapter derived from the Grotto-Heaven Legacy, "Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing Ten Thousand Spirits Great Method".

Those who Cultivate this technique will eventually degenerate into "Six Desires Heavenly Demon Seeds" and ultimately become the favorite nourishment for those Devil Heads of the Six Desires Demonic Sect.

This matter is not exactly a secret in the Grotto-Heavens; those with some status in the Inner Domain basically know about it, but Cultivators in the Outer Domain know very little.

And everyone has a tacit understanding not to speak of it, even the so-called Righteous Path Sects are the same.

This is because although the Seven Grotto-Heavens compete with one another, they remain restrained, and this is considered a "Family matter".

Regarding their attitude toward the Outer Domain, they mostly view it as livestock to be raised and harvested at will.

Therefore, they won't go out of their way to expose each other's secrets or destroy another's Dao Foundation.

Otherwise, if you cheat me today and I cheat you tomorrow, everyone ends up hurting each other, and the ones who benefit in the end are these "livestock" in the Outer Domain.

"These people are too wicked; how is this any different from beasts!" Lu Ming couldn't help but inwardly criticize as he read this.

Murong Jingyang had evidently already cultivated the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Art and was basically on the "must-eat list" of the Six Desires Demonic Sect; it was only a matter of waiting for him to ripen before someone came to pick the peach.

Regarding this, Lu Ming remarked, "Why Cultivate the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Art! It has no future!" "If you want to Cultivate something, you should Cultivate my Asura Dharma Body!"

However, he had no intention of letting Murong Jingyang switch Cultivation Techniques right now.

Because only by becoming "livestock" does one have value for utilization, and for a Golden Core "livestock," the other party would give some preferential treatment.

Even if Murong Jingyang made a big scene later, someone would grant him enough "tolerance".

Therefore, continuing to Cultivate the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Art served as a temporary talisman for Murong Jingyang; at least before the "Six Desires Heavenly Demon Seed" matured, he did not need to worry too much about his safety.

As for whether the Six Desires Demonic Sect people ultimately profit, or if he can snatch food from the tiger's mouth, it will depend on their respective methods.

Lu Ming withdrew his Divine Sense and looked with deep, quiet eyes at Murong Jingyang, who was already absorbing Spiritual Qi to heal his wounds, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Then go ahead and wreck yourself! You still want to return to the Southern Wilderness Region? Keep dreaming!"

Stay here obediently and "expand his territory" well for him!

However, with this, the final objective of his trip had been achieved, and he no longer lingered; his figure began to fade away slowly.

Naturally, he would not place all his chips on Murong Jingyang alone. The Black Sha Marsh was just the beginning; he still needed to scout for suitable Puppet families in more places and lay down more chess pieces.

...Cultivation takes no account of years; in the blink of an eye, three years passed.

The chaos caused by Murong Jingyang's Core Formation had gradually subsided.

However, the landscape of the Black Sha Marsh had undergone subtle changes over these three years.

As for the Murong Family, the Liu Family and Teng Family had not taken direct action, but their secret suppression had never ceased, and their control over subordinate forces had become even stricter.

After all, having one Murong Family was already troublesome enough; if another one appeared, the Black Sha Marsh would be in chaos!

Therefore, they required the subordinate forces to report the flow of resources within their clans and the changes in their Family members' cultivation levels periodically.

At the same time, they strictly prohibited various clans from privately trading spiritual materials, precious pills, and other resources of the third rank and below.

Finally, they even required the most outstanding juniors from each Family to enter the two families for "advanced studies," to be personally cultivated by the two families.

However, regarding this, all the forces knew exactly what was going on. This wasn't "advanced studies" at all; it was clearly sending hostages over.

But pressured by the Golden Core might, though they were unwilling in their hearts, they could only comply.

At the same time, they hated the Murong Family to the core.

Because the Murong Family had pulled such a stunt, it had essentially blocked the retreat for other families.

From now on, let alone imitating the Murong Family to attain the Golden Core, even Foundation Establishment promotions were now strictly controlled by the Liu and Teng Families.

Moreover, now that you have achieved the Golden Core Breakthrough, as someone who was once oppressed, you should at least stand up and say a few words of justice. Even if you asked them to defect to your side, it wouldn't be impossible to negotiate!

But what happened? After Murong Jingyang was defeated and fled, he vanished without a trace, and the dignified Golden Core Family was now living even worse than they were!

As for the last Golden Core Family, the Hu Family, three years had passed, and even the dullest person could see that something was wrong.

For the first year or two, the Hu Family Cultivators announced to the outside that their Hu Family Ancestor was in seclusion, and everyone felt it was reasonable.

After all, for a Golden Core True Person, seclusions of several years or over a decade were common, so disappearing for a while was understandable.

But the problem was that the Hu Family started to fall into chaos themselves. Fighting for power and profit is human nature, and Cultivators are no exception.

If they could unite and keep a consistent story to the outside world, the Hu Family could hold on for ten or more years, try to find a way to produce another Golden Core, and perhaps the crisis would pass on its own.

But as it turned out, without a Golden Core True Person to preside over them, the various branches of the Family started harboring ulterior motives over resources.

The main lineage felt they were the legitimate path and should inherit the Hu Family Ancestor's Legacy, but the other Branch Lineages refused to accept this.

"When the Hu Family Ancestor was here, you took the lion's share while we ate leftovers; now that the Hu Family Ancestor has fallen, you main lineage still want to suppress us for a lifetime—how does that make any sense!"

So, back and forth, some things could no longer be hidden.

The outside world naturally sensed something was wrong.

The Liu and Teng families reacted the fastest; under the instruction of their Golden Core True Persons, they tested the Hu Family's bottom line several times.

First, they seized resources, then they seized mineral veins and occupied territories, and in the end, blood was even shed.

But from beginning to end, the Hu Family Ancestor never appeared.

At this point, they finally confirmed that the Hu Family Ancestor had a major problem!

And such a third-rank Family that had lost its Golden Core protector naturally became a piece of fat in everyone's eyes; they all wished they could rush up and bite off a chunk of meat.

But the Hu Family was, after all, once a Golden Core Family with unfathomable depth; even the Liu and Teng families were unwilling to expend huge costs to gnaw on this hard bone.

They had not forgotten that there was still a Murong Family in the shadows!

Although they had been suppressed miserably over these years, this was only treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

After all, Murong Jingyang had only fled due to severe injuries; although there had been no news of him for three years, no one believed he was dead.

As long as Murong Jingyang returned, the Murong Family could sweep away their decline and formally sit at the table in the Black Sha Marsh.

Therefore, in order not to let Murong Jingyang take advantage of them again, they chose to make division the main goal when dealing with the Hu Family, cooking the frog in warm water.

"Aren't the Branch Lineages dissatisfied with the main lineage? Then come and defect to our Liu and Teng families! We will support you in taking power!"

The effect of doing this was excellent.

With the support of the Liu and Teng families, two Branch Lineages of the Hu Family rose rapidly; over this year or more, they were already able to contend with the Hu Family's main lineage.

It left the Hu Family in a complete mess!

But what no one knew was that this was merely a facade!

In secret, the Hu Family had actually quietly changed hands!

And the one occupying the Hu Family was none other than the "severely injured" Murong Jingyang!