Chapter 887: Chapter 704: Mental Path’s Retaliation, Fourth Realm National War

On that day, Qing Ying was originally supposed to go to Jiangnan with Lin Xiaosu.

But she didn’t go.

Because Lin Xiaosu assigned her a task: go to Lanzhou.

She received instructions for two matters.

First, investigate the Qian du Sect.

Second, investigate King Lanning.

What exactly should be investigated?

From all angles!

This instruction is exceedingly taboo because the targets of investigation are all extraordinary.

King Lanning, the current Second Prince, has maintained his status among the top two princes for a long time. Many people have speculated that after the former Crown Prince Hong Ding collapsed, he was the most hopeful to succeed in the Eastern Palace.

And the Qian du Sect is even more formidable.

It is a branch of the Wan du sect.

What kind of sect is the Wan du sect?

One of the "Nine Gates"!

That is to say, its position in Jianghu is comparable to the Ancient Sect, Demon Sect, and even the former Reincarnation Sect.

It is one of the nineteen super giants at the top of the pyramid.

Under normal circumstances, who would dare provoke the Wan du sect?

Who would dare directly target the Qian du Sect, a branch of the Wan du sect?

But this new aristocrat in the Dahuang Court, insists on having such courage, arranging for his trusted aides to enter Lanzhou before going to Jiangnan, to thoroughly investigate these two major targets—one prince currently holding the top position, one force on the pinnacle of the Cultivation Path.

After four months of comprehensive investigation, Qing Ying has basically completed her task, fully reporting to Lin Xiaosu...

Her report focuses on the Qian du Sect.

The Qian du Sect is very evil.

The Qian du Sect is a sect on an island in a lake, that lake is called Tianji Lake, because the water changes color with the seasons, sometimes revealing Heavenly Mechanisms, attracting countless cultivators to view it as a holy ground for cultivation, flocking there.

However, a thousand years ago, an originally non-native super sect, Wan du sect, reached into the lake, and upon their involvement, the lake turned into a poison lake, its water poisonous, the creatures within highly toxic, even the wind over the lake carried poison.

This poison—not to mention ordinary people who certainly couldn’t endure it—even cultivators couldn’t withstand it.

Thus, the fishermen on the lake, the people on the shore, the sects around the lake, died or fled, eventually making the entire lake a sphere of influence for the Wan du sect, without anyone daring to lay a finger on it.

Wan du sect engaged in large-scale infrastructural development on the island at the heart of the lake, establishing a new sect, known as "Qian du Sect."

If it were only this lake, it wouldn’t be too extreme.

However, there are signs showing that the Qian du Sect has been expanding, using extremely treacherous methods.

Around Tianji Lake, hundreds of years ago, a kind of grass called "Mengyan Grass" appeared out of nowhere. This grass has extraordinary resilience; it takes root on landing, and upon contact by humans or animals, can cause madness in mild cases, or instant death in severe cases. More deadly, the seeds of this grass float with the wind, rooting upon landing, its roots rapidly spreading underground, growing faster than bamboo shoots.

The land along the lakeside is rapidly being occupied by this toxic grass.

Regardless of whether it’s the government, local magnates, villagers, or cultivation sects, they naturally refuse to let the fertile land passed down from their ancestors become a field of poisonous grass, so they’ve tried all means to remove the grass, but it’s exceedingly difficult.

Pull this grass up, leave it under the sun for ten days half a month, it still lives when exposed to water.

Cut it into numerous sections, and each part can take root.

If you think of burning it clean, congratulations, you’ve found a fast track to the Ghost Gate, the smoke created by burning the grass can wipe out an entire village.

The government really had no solutions, some even approached the Qian du Sect, negotiating, pleading, explaining the dangers...

However, people from the Qian du Sect, deny it!!

They absolutely refuse to admit the spreading of the Mengyan Grass is related to them.

They also refuse to remedy it.

Almost all informed individuals know this Mengyan Grass is a demon artifact used by the Qian du Sect to seize territory.

However, they simply won’t admit it.

This leaves no way at all.

With the backing of one of the nineteen giants, the Wan du sect, no one dares to use force to eliminate it, and without removing it, this Mengyan Grass aggressively spreads in an extremely domineering fashion.

Within five hundred years, half of Lanzhou has fallen, entirely becoming these toxic grass fields.

Regardless of originally belonging to the government, the Imperial Family, large clan families, or sects, all of it is occupied by the toxic grass.

The air is filled with hallucination-inducing toxic gas.

The land is entirely toxic fields.

All water sources are toxic water.

How can a person live there?

So, they can only relocate.

Currently, the area of half a province is effectively under the control of the Qian du Sect, only they can freely move in and out of this toxic sphere, and they even raise a large number of poisonous creatures within.

This is the situation of the Qian du Sect.

Their expansion has not stopped, currently this poisonous grass is still spreading, already less than a hundred miles from the capital Dongning City of Lanzhou.

Some have estimated, in at most ten years, this ancient city of three thousand years will be completely overrun by toxic grass.

The Dongning Seventeen Families and Three Great Sects are fiercely competing with the Qian du Sect, there are signs showing, in the past year alone, seventy-two horrific cases occurred because of this, with four thousand three hundred and twenty-nine people poisoned to death.

At this point, Qing Ying took out a thick booklet, where she recorded detailed historical data of these seventy-two horrific cases with her fly-sized handwriting.

Lin Xiaosu received this booklet, soaked with her four months of sweat, and flipped through it, quickly scanning, roughly a quarter of an hour later, he turned to the last page: "Alright, now tell me about King Lanning!"

"If the Qian du Sect is like demons, then King Lanning in Lanzhou is practically a living Buddha for all families..."

Qing Ying explained the situation she had learned.