At present, Fulong Mountain had already been leveled into medicinal fields using excavators and bulldozers. Large quantities of spiritual herb seeds and seedlings had been continuously shipped over from the Shennong Sect, planted into the ground, and a villa had even been built on the premises.
But Jiang Tian’s plan for Fulong Mountain wasn’t as simple as just turning it into farmland—he intended to set up a grand formation there.
Once this formation was in place, it would be even more powerful than the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Array. Its spiritual energy would be so abundant that even ordinary mortals living within it could extend their lifespans.
Jiang Tian planned to have his grandfather, parents, Qing’er, and Sister Ziwei all move in together and cultivate side by side.
This formation, however, was far from being as simple as the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Array at the King’s Villa.
King’s Villa was certainly decent, but Xiuhu Lake was only about ten square kilometers in area, and Lion Peak was barely a hundred-meter-tall hill—how much spiritual energy could they possibly provide?
Fulong Mountain, on the other hand, was completely different—stretching over ten kilometers, standing several hundred meters tall, and hiding a massive underground vein of earth-fire spiritual energy beneath it, which was precisely what gave rise to the Tangshan hot springs.
And since it was located in the outskirts of Jinling, far from pollution, its spiritual energy was purer and more abundant—ten times more potent than that of King’s Villa.
The formation Jiang Tian had been planning these past few days would cover an area of one square kilometer in radius, making it ten times more powerful and complex than the previous Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Array. It would draw and condense spiritual energy from a radius of over ten kilometers into this one formation.
Moreover, he also had to incorporate functions like illusion, attack, defense, lightning induction, and mist concealment. The materials required were extraordinary—truly a formation of earth-shattering proportions.
His experience at the Martial Arts Federation Conference had put Jiang Tian on high alert. As he rose to power, he would inevitably carve a bloody path forward. It went without saying that he would offend martial arts masters, and it was even possible that the authorities would grow wary and suspicious of him.
If anyone came seeking revenge, this formation needed to be capable of withstanding at least a full day and night of heavy firepower.
Some days ago, Jiang Tian had already reached out to the heroes of Lingnan and figures from the mystical arts circle like Red Leaf and Huang Wentao, asking them to gather formation materials. Today was the day he was supposed to hand over the supplies.
“Mr. Jiang!”
“Master Jiang!”
As Jiang Tian entered, representatives from the Jiangbei region—Ye Gufeng—along with Bai Choufei, Tie Minghuang, Tang Shaoze from the Jiangnan side, and numerous other mystical arts masters, all rose to their feet. They bowed deeply, their demeanor exceptionally humble.
“Congratulations, Master Jiang, for shaking Jinling to its core and wiping out the three great families!”
“Indeed! That was a truly magnificent victory!” They all offered their congratulations, their eyes gleaming with excitement and reverence.
There was no denying it—in this financial super-limited war, the Jiang family had reaped substantial gains, and that went without saying. But the various forces and families that had provided capital and participated in the operation had all walked away with their pockets overflowing as well.
“None of this would have been possible without everyone pooling our efforts together! Please, have a seat!” Jiang Tian lounged lazily into his chair while gesturing for everyone to sit down, speaking with an easy smile.
“Without Master Jiang, we could never have won!” Only then did the group dare to take their seats, exchanging polite pleasantries.
“How’s the collection of formation materials coming along? Whoa, looks like you spent quite a bit, huh? Hand me the invoices—I’ll transfer the money to you!”
Jiang Tian swept his gaze over the boxes that filled the spacious tea room to the brim and chuckled.
The Lingnan crew had done a solid job—chunks of jade, quite a few pieces of jade marrow, thousand-year-old sunken wood, black iron, sea-patterned rainbow stones, demon flame stones, sky-wind vines, and so on.
“About a billion yuan or so,” Bai Choufei reported. “But Master Jiang, you don’t need to pay us. The floating profits we made from taking down the three families will more than cover it.”
It could be said that their joint assault on Jinling’s three great families had been highly lucrative.
Take Bai Choufei, for example—his Qingyun Society had taken over all the entertainment venues formerly controlled by Bai Choufei’s rivals, netting him at least two billion yuan from that alone, not to mention the floating profits from carving up the three listed companies.
“Never forget the ones who dug the well when you drink the water! Believe in Tai Chu, and you shall have eternal life!” Tang Shaoze said with devout sincerity.
Tang Shaoze had made over a billion himself, and the rascal had gone on to donate another five hundred million to build two temples.
Word had it that many of the Buddha statues there were carved in the likeness of Jiang Tian—he had seamlessly merged his faith in Buddhism with his faith in the great cause of Master Jiang.
The other wealthy magnates had also raked in anywhere from one to two billion each, so you could say everyone got a piece of the pie.
“Oh, that’s good then.” Jiang Tian nodded, but a faint frown creased his brow.
“There are still some more materials in the back courtyard…” Ye Gufeng stood up and pointed toward the window as he reported.
Jiang Tian swept his divine sense over the area and sighed. “To be honest, these materials are still far from enough.”
The truth was, Jiang Tian was feeling a bit anxious.
As his cultivation deepened, breaking through and advancing became increasingly difficult, because he needed ten times the amount of pure, concentrated spiritual energy compared to before.
Formations on the scale of the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Array and ordinary elixirs were now useless to him.
He also wanted to transform his physique and reshape his physical body, but materials like that weren’t easy to come by.
His only option was to use a massive quantity of formation materials to set up the Fulong Mountain Grand Array, condensing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to force a breakthrough.
And this also affected the progress of his grandfather, parents, and Sister Ziwei in their cultivation—time waited for no one.
“You’re absolutely right, Master Jiang. In fact, we’ve been gathering materials according to your instructions ever since you acquired the Fulong Mountain plot!”
Seeing Jiang Tian’s displeased expression, Bai Choufei immediately grew nervous. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said in a trembling voice:
“For this collection effort, we mobilized hundreds of people from the Southern School of Feng Shui and Mystical Arts, scoured major antique markets across the country, and reached out to numerous mystical arts families and sects. You could say we turned the entire nation upside down!”
Everyone present wore helpless expressions.
“Hmm…” Jiang Tian gave a slight nod.
He knew they had done their best. The manpower and resources expended had been immense. Unfortunately, this was the age of the Dharma’s decline—spiritual energy was depleted, and cultivation resources were scarce. This was beyond human control.
Just then, Daoist Red Leaf’s eyes suddenly lit up. He slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “Master Jiang, everyone—we’ve overlooked something!”
“What?” Jiang Tian asked.
“Our vision has been too narrow!” Red Leaf said. “Why should we focus only on China and ignore what’s available overseas?”
“Overseas? Do they even have formation materials over there?” The group looked baffled and confused.
“I can’t speak for other places, but in the Nanyang region, there should be plenty of formation materials!” Red Leaf said.
“Ever since Zheng He’s voyages to the South Seas, Chinese people have been continuously migrating to Nanyang. And during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, as well as the wartime chaos of the Republic era, even more Chinese fled to Nanyang to do business and make a living. By some estimates, the total number reached several million—even tens of millions!”
He continued with a nostalgic air: “These Chinese immigrants not only provided labor for the local populations, but also brought with them a vast amount of Chinese culture—including mystical arts and Feng Shui culture…”
He sighed with deep feeling: “Most importantly, these places never experienced the ten years of turmoil, so their cultural heritage was preserved and continued. As a result, they became hubs of Chinese Feng Shui and mystical arts. At the same time, the local Nanyang traditions also had their own Ten Great Dark Arts, creating a fusion of Chinese Feng Shui and indigenous Nanyang mysticism. That’s why Xingzhou in Nanyang came to be known as the capital of mystical arts!”
“Xingzhou? Singapore?” Jiang Tian asked.
“Yes, that’s right. And that includes Hong Kong as well—their mystical arts scene is actually far more vibrant than the mainland’s! People like Xu Mozhai can even drink and chat with Hong Kong’s Chief Executive—they’re highly regarded!” Huang Wentao chimed in agreement.
“Every year at the end of the year, Xingzhou hosts the Global Mystical Arts Exchange Conference! The variety of magical tools and materials on display is vast as the sea.”
Red Leaf spoke with longing in his voice: “If we go to Xingzhou to make purchases at that time, we’re bound to make some great finds!”
“Hmm, that works.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Tian’s eyes lit up. He nodded and said, “You can go ahead first to scout the situation. If you come across anything suitable, buy it. I’ll make a trip there myself later as well.”
“Yes, sir!” The group responded in unison.
“By the way, any news on the Empress Flower?” Jiang Tian swept his gaze across the room and asked.
“Not yet.” They all shook their heads.
“You must find the Empress Flower as soon as possible. This is even more urgent than setting up the Fulong Mountain Grand Formation!”
Jiang Tian frowned, visibly displeased. “What have you even been doing? A bunch of useless good-for-nothings!”
“We understand!”
“Master Jiang, please calm down!”
“We’ll find it as soon as possible—” They all rose to their feet, cowering like frightened cicadas, and bowed deeply.
Jiang Tian had all the formation materials transported to Fulong Mountain. With the help of Red Leaf and the others, he set up the formation’s foundation, while the missing materials were left aside for the time being.
Afterward, the many mystical arts masters from Lingnan set off for Xingzhou to scout ahead and search for more formation materials.
One day, Jiang Tian was inspecting and tinkering with the formation at Fulong Mountain.
Ye Ziwei called him: Chen Zhenming had finished his work and was about to leave China to return to the United States.
“Chen Zhenming put in a lot of effort this time. We should give him a proper send-off!” Jiang Tian chuckled.
“Exactly. During the financial war, Chen Zhenming worked overtime every single night and lost five or six pounds from the exhaustion!” Ye Ziwei laughed.
From beside her, Jiang Tian heard Jiang Lin cut in: “The Tianmu Hot Spring Club at Mingyue Mountain is pretty nice—they’ve got food, drinks, entertainment, and you can soak in the hot springs to unwind. Why not take him there?”
Jiang Tian laughed. “Ha, you just want to show off your hot figure and seduce Chen Zhenming into confessing his feelings to you, don’t you?”
Over this period, Jiang Tian had also noticed that Chen Zhenming’s feelings for Jiang Lin were far from ordinary.
Now that he was about to leave Jinling, if he didn’t confess soon, when would he? Someone else might beat him to the punch before he knew it.
“Pfft, you and your dog mouth that can’t spit out an ivory tusk!” On the other end of the line, Jiang Lin’s face turned red as she retorted.
Soon enough, the plan was settled.
Jiang Tian suddenly had a flash of inspiration and called Zhen Shuai: “Zhen Shuai, pick up Guangxu and come to the Tianmu Hot Spring Club at Mingyue Mountain tonight—we’re giving Chen Zhenming a farewell dinner!”
After all, the four of them had grown up together as kids, sharing a deep bond. If Chen Zhenming came back and they didn’t tell the other two, that wouldn’t be right.
“Chen Zhenming is back?”
Zhen Shuai was hearing this for the first time and was stunned. Then he said with a sour tone:
“Jiang Tian, that’s not cool of you. He came back and you didn’t even give me a heads-up… Are we still brothers or not?”
Ever since Jiang Tian had beaten up Nie Feng and scared Yu Qiang into submission, Zhen Shuai had started paying serious attention to Jiang Tian’s affairs and doing some research.
That was when he discovered that Jiang Tian had become the crown prince of Yao Wang Group.
Later, when the Jinling Jiang family defeated the three great families of Jinling, he was so shocked he nearly tripped over his own feet.
Of course he was happy that his brother had turned out to be so impressive. But now, he could already feel a growing distance between himself and Jiang Tian, and that left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
“Zhenming has barely stepped outside since he got back—he’s been working the whole time!” Jiang Tian explained with a wry smile.
“Mingyue Mountain Tianmu Hot Spring? I know that place well. Alright, I’ll book a private room and a hotel first. I’ll come pick you up!”
Zhen Shuai didn’t waste any more words and hung up the phone.
By dusk, he had already picked up Tan Guangxu, and the two of them appeared together at the entrance of the Fulong Mountain villa.
