The Zhuge Family is located behind a natural maze at the easternmost end of Meihuawu. Looking down from a high place, one can only see large tracts of red plum blossoms in full bloom, like clouds falling into rivers, brilliant and fragrant.
Jiang Yuebai followed Zhuge Zigan into the plum forest, only to discover that there was a lot of secrets deep in the forest.
The Zhuge family's city is divided into the outer city and the inner city. The outer city is made of blue bricks and white tiles, like a peaceful and prosperous small city on the river, with waterways and rivers all over, just like Meihuawu, except that those living there are Zhuge family's outer disciples and apprentices from other families.
The outer city is semi-open, and cultivators who have business dealings with the Zhuge family and other cooperative monks can enter the outer city at will.
After passing through the outer city, the first thing that came into view was a lush bamboo forest. The bamboo leaves rustled in the wind and the bamboo fragrance was faint, but Jiang Yuebai suddenly became nervous.
The seemingly peaceful bamboo forest gave her a sense of hidden danger.
Zhuge Zigan smiled and said to Jiang Yuebai, "This bamboo forest is also a natural formation. The path into the city changes every three months. There are traps and hidden weapons everywhere. Anyone who enters without permission, even if he is a Nascent Soul cultivator, will have to leave something behind."
Jiang Yuebai tensed up and secretly memorized the route Zhuge Zigan took her. This bamboo went around to the left, and that bamboo went around to the right. It was very complicated.
After walking for about two quarters of an hour, the two finally came out of the bamboo forest and saw a majestic and tall curved city gate. Jiang Yuebai had to tilt his head back to see the top of the gate and the shiny black cannon barrels sticking out from the battlements.
The city wall surrounds the entire inner city. There is a heavy machine gun every ten feet, with the black muzzle pointing in all directions. If an enemy attacks, the firepower is enough to cover everywhere without blind spots.
In addition to the mechanical artillery, Jiang Yuebai saw a sentry every ten steps and a guard every five steps on the city wall. They were all black-armored puppets holding long spears. There were even iron eagle puppets on the city wall that flew up from time to time for patrol.
It can be seen that those Iron Eagle puppets are not only capable of detection, but are also weapons for high-altitude attacks.
The level of defense was unprecedented in Jiang Yuebai's life. If Songfeng City of Tianqiang Realm had been built like this, all the demons who came would have been bombarded to death.
Zhuge Zigan walked to the city gate and raised the token. A faint light flashed across the plaque on the city gate with the word "Zhuge" engraved on it, and the tightly closed city gate rumbled open a crack.
"Daoist Wangshu, please."
Jiang Yuebai followed Zhuge Zigan into the city gate. She looked back at the city gate. The complex and sophisticated gears behind the gate made her scalp numb.
Those mechanical gears and linkage devices were all deeply embedded in the city walls on both sides, making Jiang Yuebai feel that the entire interior of the city wall was full of mechanisms. He just didn't know what the city wall would become when encountering an enemy attack.
With such tight armament, even a Divine Transformation cultivator wouldn’t dare to barge into Zhuge’s inner city.
Jiang Yuebai stepped accurately on the places where Zhuge Zigan had stepped, for fear that she would take a wrong step and trigger the mechanism. Countless spears and sharp arrows would shoot out from the wall and pierce her like a sieve.
Walking through the long corridor, the sunlight dispelled the shadows and shone on her face. Jiang Yuebai opened her eyes wide in surprise, shocked by the scene before her. It was a scene she had never seen anywhere else in the world of cultivation.
Everywhere you look, there are giant pillars made of mechanisms and gears, arranged in the shape of plum blossom piles, standing in the river, connected to each other by thick chains, supporting a magnificent city in mid-air.
The sounds of the mechanism turning came one after another, making people's heart surge. Jiang Yuebai kept looking up, following Zhuge Zigan, and kept turning around to check the surroundings.
On the chains between the huge mechanical pillars, various puppets quickly moved back and forth, transporting supplies. There were also puppet wooden birds in the air that carried messages, traveling back and forth between the palaces.
Amidst the rumbling sound, a giant Yanjia that was a hundred feet tall raised its foot and stepped past Jiang Yuebai, casting a large shadow that made Jiang Yuebai look very small.
Sitting cross-legged on top of Yanjia's head was a Jindan-stage cultivator, wearing a black suit with Zhuge family patterns, looking very imposing.
This large-sized Yan armor made Jiang Yuebai's eyes light up, not to mention Bai Jiuyou, and he couldn't help but take a few more glances.
Upon seeing this, she found something interesting. The large-sized Yanjia seemed to be made up of small-sized Yanjia with different characteristics. However, she had never seen the way of putting them together before, and she became curious.
"Daoist friend Wangshu?"
"Feel sorry."
Seeing Jiang Yuebai's eyes bright and full of curiosity, Zhuge Zigan smiled faintly and thought that Senior Sister Wuchen was right. Fellow Daoist Wangshu's heart was very pure and clear, completely different from that demon head Chenzhou.
"When Fellow Daoist Wangshu officially joins the Zhuge clan, you can explore all the places in the inner city except the forbidden areas."
Jiang Yuebai nodded and smiled, her palms felt hot and wet, she couldn't wait any longer.
Learn, learn, learn. She wanted to learn all of these, and build a city like this for the Tianyan Sect in the future, so that the Tianyan Sect would stand for ten thousand years, no, one hundred thousand years, or even a million years!
The palace complex above is like a dome, guarding the buildings distributed on the small islands on the river banks below. They are connected to each other by bridges, which is in line with the formation.
Zhuge Zigan introduced to Jiang Yuebai that the people living above their heads were all high-level cultivators of the Zhuge family who were at the Jindan stage or above.
There are also the five major 'mechanical courtyards' of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, the 'cartographing courtyard', the 'armor-making courtyard', the 'secret academy', the 'pharmacy' and other main halls of the Zhuge family.
The central square is at the center, and the surrounding areas are where the Zhuge family's inner sect foundation-building disciples and Qi-training disciples live and study.
The Zhuge family's teaching of their disciples is not like that of a sect, but more like that of a school, and their clan has never distinguished between legitimate and illegitimate children.
All the disciples and elders who can enter the inner gate, regardless of whether their surname is Zhuge or not, can choose the lessons taught by the elders.
The same applies to the teaching elders, who can be from the Zhuge family or from outside the family. Every month, they can exchange Zhuge family contribution points and various resources according to the number of classes they teach.
Jiang Yuebai only listened to Zhuge Zigan's casual introduction and felt that their system was complete and fair. No wonder they could prosper in the Baxian River Basin and even in the entire Jiuhe Realm.
"… In fact, the Zhuge family was able to achieve what it has today thanks to the guidance of a close friend of the Zhuge family ancestor. Therefore, the Zhuge family has always adhered to the principle of 'opening up the way for talents and opinions'. As long as anyone is willing to join the Zhuge family, the Zhuge family will treat them with the utmost sincerity."
Hearing this, Jiang Yuebai asked, "Is this also the reason why Yuanying cultivators in Meihuawu can stay for free?"
Zhuge Ziqian nodded, "That's right, make a good relationship and leave a good impression."
"It's really good. At least I felt that your Zhuge family was very generous." Jiang Yuebai said with a smile.
There were shouts coming from the square ahead. Jiang Yuebai looked up and saw many foundation-building and Qi-refining disciples of the Zhuge family scattered around the square.
Some people control Yanjia to fight, while others practice controlling objects with their spiritual sense.
There were people who, at the eighth level of Qi training, tried to lift the stone locks with their spiritual sense. There were quite a few such disciples, more than those who could control the Yanjia.
Zhuge Zigan followed Jiang Yuebai's gaze and said, "The Yin-Yang School is very powerful. It can be said that it can control everything. However, it is extremely difficult to practice. In addition to talent, acquired practice is essential. Many disciples went to the Yin-Yang School at first, but in the end they had no choice but to become Yanjia Masters."
"Except for the first generation of the Zhuge family who had both meridians and unique abilities, there have been less than twenty Yin-Yang masters from ancient times to the present, but only a few have made it to the top in this way."
"The current Yin-Yang School members in the Zhuge family only have Senior Brother Zhuge Ziying, who is in the late Nascent Soul stage, and Senior Sister Chanling, who is in the middle Nascent Soul stage. By the way, I haven't asked you yet, which lineage do you practice for Fellow Daoist Wangshu? Which lineage do you want to learn after joining the Zhuge family?"
Jiang Yuebai raised his lips and said without hiding anything, "I have never specialized in puppetry, but I still have some talent. I came here to see if I can become a Yin-Yang master."
Hearing this, Zhuge Zigan raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he did not pour cold water or question it. He just smiled and said, "Then Daoist Wangshu, I'm afraid you will have to suffer a lot in today's assessment. Please come to the front. The head of the family and the elders are here."
(End of this chapter)