Lin Mu raised his brow upon hearing the name of the Long Cloud Alliance from the elder's mouth. He knew the Long cloud alliance was the second alliance that was formed when Gu Yao created the Zither wind alliance.

The Long Cloud Alliance was a product of circumstance and the sects within it only reunited only because of the threat of the Zither Wind Alliance. Plus, it allowed them to compete against the top three sects due to this.

The alliances had powers that were comparable to each of the top sects alone. While this meant that the top three sects could join up to easily eliminate them all, they knew that it was impossible to happen.

The top three sects had long legacies and they certainly would not join up together as it would me sullying the honor of their ancestors. But while they might not join up together, they could pull in other smaller powers.

There was already news about the Rainbow Pill sect thinking about pulling in the entire Great Zhou Empire under their wing. Until now, the sects and the empire were in a delicate balance.

While the sects were ultimately located within the territory of the entire Great Zhou Empire, which represented the Secular world, they still had their independent territories within them. 

Many sect's territories were bigger than that of kingdoms of the Great Zhou Empire. Thus, one could understand just how much power the sects held. The only reason why the Great Zhou Empire was able to stand was that they represented the secular world and the people who were recruited into the sects ultimately came from there.

If there was no Great Zhou Empire, the commoners would have a hard time flourishing. And if there were no commoners left, how would the sects get their disciples. One must know that only a few among the commoner were able to cultivate, not to mention reach a sufficient cultivation base.

Thus, if the sects wanted a decent number of people with a talent for cultivation, they would need an even large number of commoners.

Some people wondered if the sects were so strong, why do they not take over the Great Zhou kingdom?

The answer to this was rather simple… logistics and administration.

The exact population of the entire Great Zhou Empire was still unknown to everyone, but they could easily estimate that it was in the tens of billions. With these many people, there were many difficulties such as providing them shelter, security, food and clothing.

Even the Great Zhou Empire could not do all this on their own and thus allowed the existence of Vassal states. That was the reason why the Kingdoms still existed within the banner of the empire.

This allowed the empire to distribute the workload according to different regions. This also took care of the region specific problems and needs that varied from time to time. If the cultivation sects were to take over the entire Great Zhou empire, their workload would become massive.

They were supposed to be cultivators detached from the secular world; if they controlled the empire, they would have no time to cultivate at tall. Plus, the headache of handling the needs and complaints of billions of people would probably lead them to Qi deviation instead.

Thus as a wise man once said, 'why do something that exhausts you when others can do it for free.' The cultivation sects never took over the great Zhou empire and let them proceed on their own.

But now what the Rainbow Pill sect was doing was rather different. Instead of taking over the entire empire, they were forming an alliance. This would allow them priority to choose the talented people and treasures that occasionally turned up in the world.

The implications of this were simply massive and if the emperor were not sick, even the Great Zhou empire would not have thought of ever doing it. 

Lin Mu had thought about all this and knew that the conflicts between the alliances were conducive to Gu Yao's plan. The man did not really care if the people of the sects perused in the conflict as long as he got to enjoy the resources.

But now that he heard the elders' words, Lin Mu suspected if the Long Cloud Alliance had already started to target the Zither wind alliance or not. From the tone of the elder, it did seem like they had been concerned about this for a long time.

"So what if I am?" Lin Mu commented casually.

Hearing his words, the elder's eyes went wide.

"I knew it. You truly are from the Long Cloud Alliance, aren't you?" The Elder said as anger appeared on his face.

Lin Mu did not respond to the man and simply kept his silence, not solving the misunderstanding. The other elders also heard the conversation and got wary.

"Dammit! The Long Cloud Alliance managed to do a preemptive strike! It should have been us who did it first." The third elder cursed.

The extra time that these elders had taken in the conventions was exactly what Lin Mu had wanted, and a smile appeared on his face. If it were not for the mask he was wearing, the elders would have definitely become alert.

While the elders were cursing their luck, Lin Mu suddenly raised his right hand and punched out.

Boulder Collapsing Fist- Second Form: Piercer!

~Zoom~

The first elder felt all the hair on his skin stand, as a sense of danger encompassed him. His gut was telling him that if he was hit by this attack, he would absolutely meet his demise.

~shua~

He moved his legs and the mist on his body propelled him to the side like a rocket. The speed at which he had moved was nearly comparable to that of Little Shrubby. 

~phew~

"I almost got hit…" The first elder muttered to himself.

The man saw Lin Mu's attack missing and going past the location he was standing on. But then his face fell, as he saw its target.

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