Jing Wei and his family had a grudge with the Imperial family and the emperor, along with several of the top sects. Those were the sects that could be directly excluded from the choice of potential allies.

"Which sects participated in attacking you and your clan before?" Lin Mu questioned.

"The top three sects were mostly neutral, but it was their neutrality that gave the others free rein to act as they wished. But the ones that did not act at all were only two from among the top sects.

These are the Long Cloud sect and the Noon Grass sect." Jing Luo answered.

"Well then. That's our choice for the allies. We either go for the Long cloud sect and gain help of the entire Long Cloud alliance or go for the solitary Noon Grass sect." Lin Mu decided.

"Alright. Even if the other members of the Long cloud alliance were once involved in hunting us down, we can spare them, since they are under the leadership of the Long Cloud sect.

As for the Noon Grass sect, I don't really have anything much to say about them. Even back when the Jing clan was at its peak, we didn't have any transactions with the Noon Grass sect and they hadn't bought any peak grade spirit tools and weapons from us." Jing Luo explained.

"I see… we can choose who to go to depending on who's closer, then." Lin Mu spoke.

"Hmm… if we consider the distance then the Long Cloud Sect is the closest to us. It will take about a month or more to reach it though." Jing Luo replied.

"How far is the Noon Grass Sect?" Lin Mu questioned.

"It is to the extreme south, almost at the border of the previous southern continent. If we want to get there, it would take us over six months to do so." Jing Luo answered.

"Six months? Even at Little Shrubby's speed?" Lin Mu asked, feeling a bit surprised.

"Yeah, I considered his speed too. If it was a straight distance, it might have only taken two months to reach there, but the problem is the terrain obstacles that come up. Many of them can't just be passed directly and need to be crossed through safer paths.

Not to mention many of these areas are dangerous to pass through and are populated by numerous beasts some of which can even reach the Dao Shell realm. Plus, with the location that the Noon Grass sect is located, the danger increases even more.

The dense forests of the southern lands are home to the most resources in the world and also the most dangerous beasts. There are multiple Dao Treading beasts that live there as well. 

Perhaps if the beasts had some ambitions, they might have already taken over the world as the number of Dao Treading realm beasts easily outnumbers that of the humans." Jing Luo explained.

"My… that's a lot. And what about the Immortal Ascension realm? Are there any cultivators or beasts of that level?" Lin Mu couldn't help but feel curious.

Even in the records that Lin Mu had obtained till now, there was no mention of details like these. Most of it was minor information that just prodded the surface and left one wanting more.

"The Immortal Ascension realm is a complex realm. From what I heard from my grandfather, it has no stages and is said to be a boundary realm. As for what that means, I do not know, and neither does my grandfather.

In the current world, perhaps only the ancestors of the top three sects are at the Immortal Ascension realm. But even then, they do haven't appeared in the world for thousands of years.

As for the beasts… there is no specific record of them. But there was a rumor that I read once. It is said that while beasts are inherently stronger than humans in the lower realms, their comprehension is far lower when it comes to higher realms.

Even when the unification of the five continents happened, there were no Immortal Ascension realm beasts that appeared. Though if we go by the common understanding, the majority of beasts of the world don't even live on land but rather the great ocean.

And going by that logic, it should have the strongest beasts too and thus Immortal Ascension realm beasts." Jing Luo further explained.

Lin Mu thought over his words and found them to be reasonable. 

"Hmm… it makes sense that no Immortal Ascension realm beasts appeared back when the unification of the continents happened, since there were simply no beasts as strong as that living on the land. 

As for the aquatic beasts that are at the Immortal Ascension realm, they never had a problem with the unification since they lived in the ocean in the first place. Hence having no conflict of interest." Lin Mu said, while nodding his head.

Lin Mu and Jing Wei discussed for a few more hours before finally deciding upon their plan of action. 

"I guess this should be fine for now. First, we'll see if we can inform Wu Hei about our situation by finding an outpost of the Hei corps. Then we need to establish points of contact in multiple regions.

For that, we shall be taking the assistance of the merchants and have some of their cultivator employees stay in those locations full time so we have relay points." Lin Mu spoke.

"I'll also try to get some high grade communication jade slips ready. We have plenty of materials for it and I should be done in a couple of weeks. Then we can distribute them as needed. 

Jingming Shang already took the responsibility of handling the information net for us. This will help us to obtain information as soon as possible when they find traces of Gu Yao." Jing Luo replied.

"Good. Once all that is done, we will head onwards to the Long Cloud sect to propose an alliance.

Hopefully, they are willing to listen to us…" Lin Mu stated.

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