92: Chapter 92 Xuan Guo Immortal Throne

"I am indeed a Grandmaster."

The Mountain Lord spat out a bone seal, and his aura abruptly dropped from Earthly Immortal to Grandmaster.

Lu Hu looked down at the large seal; it was a mark made from tiger bone, shimmering with strange colors.

Although it was at the immortal level, it could not forcibly raise a tiger's power to the level of an Earthly Immortal.

The reason the Old Mountain Lord could be an Earthly Immortal likely had to do with the colors covering the bone seal.

Lu Hu was not sure what this energy was, but the moment he touched it slightly, he perceived extremely vast and complex emotions.

Lu Hu hurriedly severed his connection with the tiger bone; these emotions were too complex, and as someone with a simple personality, he was not suited to touch them.

"Faith, power of vows, and the national destiny—these are the roots of the source of my power."

After spitting out the tiger bone, the Old Mountain Lord's aura was low and depressed, as if he were so aged that he might stop breathing at any moment.

"Mountain Lord is an official position. I have held it for over two hundred years, and I have forgotten my original name."

The Old Mountain Lord's eyes were cloudy, and his head trembled slightly, as if his brain were recalling the past. But so much time had passed that he could not remember; the memories of his youth were stored in the deepest recesses, and his aged brain could not retrieve them.

"I won't think about it anymore."

The Old Mountain Lord sighed, swallowed the tiger bone again to restore his state, and looked at Lu Hu.

"After I heard of your existence, I even thought about passing the position to you."

"It probably won't be needed."

"I think so too!"

The Old Mountain Lord nodded. Lu Hu gave him a feeling of being unfathomable, and the position of Mountain Lord seemed like a burden on Lu Hu.

"What does this 'Mountain Lord' official position mean?"

Lu Hu asked. He possessed super-strong aura perception. Since entering Xuan Kingdom, he also felt that Xuan Kingdom had an unusually high number of Earthly Immortals; wherever there were large cities, there was Earthly Immortal power.

"Imperial edict, blessing of national destiny, ranked as an Earthly Immortal."

The Old Mountain Lord explained that there are two types of immortals. The immortals of Xuan Kingdom are different from those who cultivate to become Earthly Immortals themselves; the immortals here are a kind of position—whoever has the ability to sit on it is an immortal.

Since a thousand years ago, the cultivation environment has become difficult, and it is hard for geniuses who cultivate to become immortals through their own strength to be born in the world.

The official positions of Xuan Kingdom became the hope for becoming an immortal, but the number of immortal positions in Xuan Kingdom is fixed. Whoever wants to become an immortal must wait for the previous immortal to step down from the position.

The minimum requirement to inherit an official position is Grandmaster cultivation. In the past, there were many Grandmasters, so there was no worry about successors for the positions.

As the cultivation environment became increasingly difficult and the number of Grandmasters decreased, a major problem arose with the inheritance of official positions.

An official position is equivalent to an immortal position, allowing an ant who is not an immortal to inherit the power of an immortal; in reality, this ant only has a superficial understanding of the power they wield.

Each inheritance follows the handed-down rituals, requiring the immortal holding the position to personally pass it to the next successor. They do not understand the mystery of doing so, only knowing that by following the ritual, they can successfully pass on the immortal position.

The inheritance cannot be broken. Once broken, even if a successor who meets the conditions appears in the future, the inheritance ritual cannot be held because the previous immortal—a crucial part of the ritual—is missing.

The conditions for inheriting an official position are arduous. When an immortal grows old and there is no new generation to inherit, the national destiny disperses, and another path leading to the immortal road collapses.

Over a thousand years, Xuan Kingdom has already lost five Earthly Immortals because five immortal positions could not be successfully passed on.

In the current Xuan Kingdom, most Earthly Immortals are troubled by the problem of finding successors, and the Old Mountain Lord is no exception.

The Old Mountain Lord's position was passed down from generation to generation by the Mountain God of Xuan Kingdom. It is not an ordinary mountain god, but the God of Ten Thousand Mountains, the supreme ruler of all mountain gods.

The successor of the Mountain God does not dare to compete with the Mountain God for the title, hence the name Mountain Lord. Since the Mountain God attained the Dao with a tiger body, the Tiger Clan possesses a unique advantage in inheriting the Mountain Lord position, and every generation of Mountain Lord has been from the Tiger Clan.

By the generation of the Old Mountain Lord, there is already a risk of the inheritance being broken.

"Fifty years ago, my son's aptitude was insufficient, and he lost his life during the inheritance."

After the Old Mountain Lord inherited the Mountain Lord position, because he could not find a member of the Tiger Clan who met the requirements to inherit the next generation's Mountain Lord position, he personally cultivated his own son. The result was that his son, with unstable foundations, could not withstand the power of the Mountain Lord position and died suddenly.

"Hu Ben is the successor I have chosen. His aptitude is good, but I am still worried."

Although Xuan Kingdom is stable, various conflicts are still unavoidable. A race that possesses an immortal naturally has a higher status than other races. If the Tiger Clan loses this immortal position, their future days will not be easy.

Having already failed an inheritance once, and with Hu Ben not yet being a Grandmaster, the Old Mountain Lord feels he cannot hold on for many more years. With the precedent, he dares not forcibly raise Hu Ben's cultivation realm, so his pressure is immense.

The Old Mountain Lord hopes that the more qualified successors there are, the better; with more attempts, success is bound to come. Unfortunately, among the more than a dozen Grandmasters of the Tiger Clan, only Hu Ben meets the conditions.

"Hu Ben is indeed good; he should be able to succeed in the future."

Lu Hu nodded. In truth, he couldn't see anything, but saying a few kind words didn't cost anything.

However, regarding the inheritance of official positions, he could not provide any help. Different professions are like mountains apart; his cultivation realm was high, but his knowledge wasn't, and he did not understand the so-called power of national destiny of the official positions.

After chatting with the Mountain Lord for a long time, Lu Hu stated the purpose of his visit.

"I will take you to see Emperor Xuan tomorrow, but do not hold too much hope!"

The Mountain Lord shook his head. The Qian Kingdom was arrogant, and as it continued to develop, he could see that sooner or later there would be a war with Xuan Kingdom.

Xuan Kingdom was strong, but that was limited to the fixed region of Xuan Kingdom. Just like him, if he left Xuan Kingdom, the connection with the Mountain Lord position would become weak, and the Earthly Immortal power could not be maintained for long. This was also the reason why the outside world claimed he was a Grandmaster.

This was the shortcoming of all the immortals in Xuan Kingdom; one moment of negligence, and they would be in danger.

Did they really think Xuan Kingdom didn't want to deal with the Qian Kingdom?

It was just that reality was too helpless, and the Mountain Lord told this secret to Lu Hu.

"We must try regardless."

Lu Hu pondered. The shortcomings of Xuan Kingdom's immortals were obvious, but they still had strength. Besides, Emperor Xuan couldn't just watch the Qian Kingdom continue to develop, right?

...

The next day, Lu Hu followed the Mountain Lord to see Emperor Xuan. Upon approaching the Xuan Imperial City, Lu Hu confirmed that Xuan Kingdom also possessed the power of a Heavenly Immortal. However, this was not the Qian Kingdom, and he had come with friendly intentions, so nothing would go wrong.

Upon meeting Emperor Xuan, Lu Hu went straight to the point. Just as Lu Hu had thought, Emperor Xuan was also worried about the Qian Kingdom.

The strength of Xuan Kingdom was stagnant, and it had even weakened due to broken inheritances, while the Qian Kingdom was constantly expanding. In this way, there would eventually be a day of collision!

He wanted to conquer the Qian Kingdom but was worried about both sides suffering, or even losing to the Qian Kingdom.

Yes, losing to the Qian Kingdom!

The combat power of Xuan Kingdom was mainly displayed within its own territory; when fighting outside, less than one percent of its power remained. Emperor Xuan had some understanding of the Qian Kingdom's foundation, and if they really fought outside, they feared they would lose to the Qian Kingdom.

Lu Hu proposed cooperation to deal with the Qian Kingdom. Emperor Xuan was tempted and wanted to do it, but he still refused.

"Fellow Daoist, if we are to fight, the final outcome will be decided by the top-tier power. Earthly Immortals are not enough!"

"I know, but please consider it carefully."

Lu Hu released a bit of his aura. Emperor Xuan was very strong and made him feel threatened, but the threat did not come from Emperor Xuan himself, but from the power surrounding Emperor Xuan.

Emperor Xuan's vision was limited; he misunderstood his level of strength, so it needed to be displayed.

"You..."

Emperor Xuan was shocked, Emperor Xuan was dazed, Emperor Xuan was stunned and unable to recover his senses.

A long time later, Emperor Xuan regained his reason, thought seriously, and bowed to Lu Hu.

"This matter cannot be decided by me alone. Please allow me to call some people!"

After saying this, Emperor Xuan took out a jade seal and infused it with true qi. Several golden lights flew out from the jade seal and floated into the distance.

"What a good treasure!"

Lu Hu exclaimed in admiration. He had seen this jade seal in Ancestor Que's memories; it was a magical treasure taken out by one of the four Heavenly Immortals who ascended together at that time. That Heavenly Immortal, it turned out, originated from Xuan Kingdom.

"This is the magical treasure passed down by the Young Ancestor, the world-suppressing seal!"

Emperor Xuan generously handed it to Lu Hu, not worried that Lu Hu would covet it.

Lu Hu touched the world-suppressing seal. His first impression was that it was hard—very, very hard. Secondly, it was full of endless emotions and voices, thousands and tens of thousands of times noisier than the Mountain Lord's bone seal. Lu Hu dared not touch it much and hurriedly let go.

However, Lu Hu understood that the source of the power of the Mountain Lord's bone seal seemed to be the world-suppressing seal.

It should be that the position represented by the Mountain Lord's bone seal was conferred by the world-suppressing seal.

Young Ancestor...

That means there is an even older ancestor above.

Xuan Kingdom had produced more than one Heavenly Immortal. Lu Hu really wanted to understand the history of Xuan Kingdom, but now was not the time.

Seven rays of light flew in from the distant sky. Upon getting closer, it was discovered that these were living beings. After landing, they gathered with Emperor Xuan and communicated.

Lu Hu and the Old Mountain Lord drank tea on the side, and the Old Mountain Lord introduced the identities of the arrivals via voice transmission.

The most special one had the heads of a bear, wolf, leopard, dog... nine heads in total. He was known as Daoist Jiuyao and was the immortal of nine great clans of Xuan Kingdom.

Beside Daoist Jiuyao was a beautiful woman in nine-colored immortal robes, Fairy Jiuyao, who was in charge of the clouds and energy of Xuan Kingdom.

There was also one holding a large club, wearing animal skins, with coarse hair all over his body, looking like a savage—and indeed he was a savage—the sun of the savage clan, Great Venerable Wo Ri.

Beside Great Venerable Wo Ri was a figure in black robes, with a face full of flesh, a tall stature, and a fierce appearance, causing the surrounding space to turn pitch black. He was the king of the underground night of Xuan Kingdom, the Whale Night Demon Lord!

The remaining three were wearing gorgeous Daoist robes and all came from the Dao Sect, the most influential power in Xuan Kingdom. They were Perfected Shouyin, Perfected Zhong Chu, and Perfected Gang Jiao.

These seven people, plus the Mountain Lord and Emperor Xuan, controlled the nine most important positions in Xuan Kingdom. Each one of them could influence the rise and fall of Xuan Kingdom!