Chapter 862 Dao Lineage Generation and Restriction, Sect Generation and Restriction
At this moment in the livestream room, Ye Xingli was substituting for Zhang Yu to host the livestream.
After all, Zhang Yu was busy with affairs every day, so it was impossible for him to spend every day in the livestream room doing promotions.
As for Ye Xingli, she had rich experience in downward-compatible livestreaming. The finance work on her hands had also been completely delegated to Ying Xin, so she happened to have both the ability and the time to take charge of the work in the livestream room.
Ye Xingli could be heard saying, “Welcome, newly arrived darlings. You can click to follow the host. Once the number of people reaches 1000, I will start a lucky draw.”
“Darlings, the benefits I fought for with Minister Zhang for a long time have finally been approved. Everyone, log onto the platform now. All you need to do is forward the invitation link, and for every new user you successfully invite to register, you will get one month of basic Dharma Realm service for free.”
Although she had not livestreamed much in the sect layers before, as she operated it over these past few days, Ye Xingli gradually became familiar with and adapted to the work in the livestream room.
She even had a feeling that the Soul Cultivator audience from the Former Days Graveyard were not much different to interact with compared to the Junior College Students below; in many cases, they might be even easier to satisfy.
“Anyway, they both mainly target the lower-tier market.”
Ye Xingli thought to herself And the status of Soul Cultivators in the sect is probably even lower than that of Junior College Students in the University layers. They are no longer just poor people, but absolute paupers.
“Even those who can come to watch my livestream are already the ones with decent conditions among Soul Cultivators… The lowest level Soul Cultivators have almost no chance to watch my stream. They can only read second-hand text messages spread and reposted by others.”
“The talking points I originally learned from the Poverty Simulator also need to be appropriately modified. Combining them with the specific circumstances of Soul Cultivators in the sect layers, it needs to become a Pauper Simulator.”
Ye Xingli planned to ask Zhang Yu to borrow some computing power from the Calculation Pool. Using her own Spirit Realm Techniques, she would set up a simple localized Pauper Simulator to assist with her work.
And to achieve this, she also needed to occasionally gather information she was unfamiliar with through the Spirit Realm.
“Celestial Inquiry Star, give me some talking points that will make Soul Cultivators feel a sense of closeness.”
“Celestial Inquiry Star: Judging from past conversation records with me, this user’s identity is a Sect Staff, and they are currently retrieving cases of Sect Staff and Soul Cultivators interacting closely within the sect… I simply cannot believe what I am reading. It is possible that the user is teasing me for fun. In my reply, I should…”
On the other side, Fu Ji watched the content of Ye Xingli’s live stream and nodded slightly: “Ye Xingli is doing quite well, or rather, these Soul Cultivators from the Former Days Graveyard have been treated as non-humans for so long that they get touched just by a Sect Staff casually calling them darlings a few times.”
While supervising the work, Fu Ji thought smugly: “Hmph, what Immortal Slayer, Desolate Ox, what else can you guys do besides staying in Zhang Yu’s mind all your lives and blabbering? Can you do things for Zhang Yu on the outside like me?”
Suddenly, Fu Ji’s gaze focused as she looked at a few comments in the live stream.
“Ye Xingli is a scammer!”
“Scamming who?”
“She has been scamming Junior College Students out of their money ever since she was in the Lower Realm!”
“Good thing I never went to a Vocational College, that scared me to death.”
“Hahahaha a Junior College Student? Don’t they deserve to be scammed then?”
Seeing this, Fu Ji snorted coldly and quickly said to Zhang Yu: “Another bot army has come to attack. Fortunately, I reacted quickly, instructed the Soul Cultivators stationed in the live stream, guided the comments, and after glossing over it, I blacklisted and muted the bot army.”
“Trolls?” Zhang Yu’s eyes flickered, and countless images appeared in his mind, consisting of news and data from the Management Committee, the Development Zone, Soul Cultivator Companies, and the joint venture company.
Among them, he could see that the major Soul Cultivator Companies were all using public opinion to attack the joint venture company’s applications on the Dharma Realm.
“Manipulating memories will greatly threaten data security. Is it really safe to store employees’ memory data on the Dharma Realm like this?”
“Dharma Realm Technology is essentially opening a backdoor in Soul Cultivators, allowing the Myriad Laws Sect to interfere with the business of other sects at any time.”
“The expansion of the Dharma Realm Dao Lineage will greatly impact the foundations of the major sects! It might even trigger a war among the Ten Great Sects. I hope the Myriad Laws Sect will immediately stop this dangerous act for the peace of Kunxu.”
From data security to sect security, and even the threat of war, all kinds of public opinion pressure rushed forth, constantly pressing down on the joint venture company and Zhang Yu.
Compared to this, the troll attacks Ye Xingli herself was currently facing paled in comparison.
“President, Zhang Yu and his people are throwing money to buy users. Even though we have tried our best to ban them, there are still Soul Cultivators who jump into the pit Zhang Yu and the others dug for a little petty profit, allowing the Dharma Realm to harvest them in the future. It is simply extremely short-sighted…”
“Sigh, them getting harvested themselves is a small matter, but affecting the overall situation of the Dao Lineage is truly a crime deserving of ten thousand deaths.”
While Xiao Yunhe was reading his assistant’s report, he suddenly frowned, his consciousness seemingly detecting certain marked information within the Spirit Realm.
He reached out and made a grabbing motion, instantly catching a Soul Cultivator from outside the office in his hand.
At the same time, his gaze swept over, and he had already seen Ye Xingli in the Soul Cultivator’s field of vision, along with the invitation link that had just been sent out.
“How bold! You actually dare to register right under my nose? And even invite new users?”
“Did you think that just because I don’t usually look directly at Soul Cultivators, I wouldn’t be able to sense what you are doing?”
Xiao Yunhe snorted coldly and reached out to wipe his hand over the Soul Cultivator in front of him.
“Strip Employment!”
In an instant, the position information above the other party’s head was completely stripped away. They were instantly fired and became an unemployed Soul Cultivator.
The Soul Cultivator let out a tragic cry and said, “Unemployed? I am unemployed? No, I haven’t even paid my data fee for today! And I am…”
The many Soul Cultivators and Sect Staff watching this scene were all shaken to the core.
Xiao Yunhe did not give the Soul Cultivator a chance to continue speaking. He merely waved his hand, and a loud rumble echoed within the Spirit Realm. A blacklist appeared before the crowd, exuding an overwhelming aura of killing intent that struck fear into the hearts of the observing Sect Staff.
“Ban!”
In the next moment, Xiao Yunhe reached out and pulled forth a cluster of the Soul Cultivator’s personal information, slamming it directly into the blacklist.
The Soul Cultivator let out another tragic cry before turning into a wisp of green smoke, completely disappearing from everyone’s senses.
Once entered into the blacklist, this Soul Cultivator did not merely disappear from Xiao Yunhe’s sight, but vanished from the eyes of all companies and Sect Enterprises affiliated with the Former Days Alliance. They could no longer see his existence, view his information, or communicate with him in any way.
Likewise, in the eyes of the Soul Cultivator, Xiao Yunhe and all cultivators associated with the Former Days Alliance became entities that could not be seen, touched, or spoken to.
From now on, he would never be able to find a job through any company of the Former Days Alliance.
The Soul Cultivator said unwillingly, “It was the manager who asked me to go test it! It’s not that I really wanted to register myself!”
Xiao Yunhe beckoned with his hand, dispersing the descended blacklist, and then said indifferently, “These paupers do not understand the big picture. We still have to be ruthless to make them understand what is right and what is wrong.”
“Transmit the process of today’s ban to all departments at all levels, order all Soul Cultivators to watch it collectively, and then submit a three thousand word reflection.”
The assistant knew this was killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, strictly guarding against any Soul Cultivators going to register at Zhang Yu’s joint venture company, and hurriedly agreed.
Then the assistant reminded again, “President, most Soul Cultivators should not dare to risk the ban to register, but some Soul Cultivators, especially those from the Myriad Laws Sect, under Zhang Yu’s bewitchment and hearing some Sect Devotee declarations, will still insist on going to Zhang Yu’s side.”
“There is also some Soul Trash who cannot find jobs and have no way out; I am afraid they will also be attracted over.”
“In this way, although the number of Soul Cultivators Zhang Yu recruits every day is not much, a steady stream flows over time. If this continues in the long run, I am afraid…”
Xiao Yunhe waved his hand and said, “Rest assured, they won’t last long.”
“The decision from above… should be coming down soon too.”
“Hmph, when it involves a Dao Lineage Struggle, how could it be shaken by the mere will of a group of Soul Cultivators?”
“After all, Zhang Yu is originally from the Lower Realm. His vision and understanding of Dao Lineage Struggles… are too shallow.”
Zhang Yu could see that, although the public pressure was constant and the Former Days Alliance’s ban was ongoing, relying on the continuous waves of recent promotion, combined with the attractiveness of features supported by the Dharma Realm such as working memory and the First Heaven Mode, as well as the temptation of a free one-year basic service and a one-month basic service gifted for inviting new users, the joint venture company’s new registered user count continued to grow.
“It just so happens that it’s now the end of the year, and a large number of Soul Cultivator positions within the Myriad Laws Sect are gradually being phased out. The vacated Soul Cultivator positions can continuously be provided to us, allowing us to supply the Soul Cultivators.”
Although the joint venture company had previously signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Myriad Laws Immortal Clan and many companies and departments of the Myriad Laws Sect, the replacement of Soul Cultivators in various places still had to be done step by step. It was impossible to replace all existing Soul Cultivators in one breath.
However, this was just right for Zhang Yu. After all, the joint venture company had only just begun formal operations, and the number of Soul Cultivators they could hire was still not large.
“The number of positions and the number of Soul Cultivators are gradually growing in sync, which is perfect for slowly eating into the market.”
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed since the opening. Zhang Yu’s gaze swept over the latest registered user numbers and the company’s business volume, allowing him to estimate that the joint venture company’s market share had already broken through 2%.
The data did not look high, but it was a qualitative change from nothing to something, representing that the Myriad Laws Sect had officially gained a foothold in the Soul Cultivator Industry of the Former Days Graveyard.
Fu Ji said, “Remember, when writing the report, you can’t just say this is a simple 2% breakthrough. Instead, it grew from a level of not even 1%… Let me look at the data, it was about 0.3%, a practically non-existent state, growing to the current 2%, achieving a full 667% market growth!”
But as Zhang Yu looked at the statistical data for the Soul Cultivator support rate on the other side, it had already reached 45%.
Such a data gap between a high support rate and a low market share, apart from the reason that the joint venture company had only recently opened, also showed that although a large number of Soul Cultivators wanted to try working at the joint venture company, they did not dare to come over due to the existence of the blacklist.
Zhang Yu secretly thought in his heart, “As long as we cannot break through the restrictions of the prohibition, the vast majority of Soul Cultivators will not dare to come over, and we will only ever be able to absorb the Sect Devotee Soul Cultivators of Myriad Laws, as well as the Soul Cultivators in the Former Days Graveyard who cannot find work and are driven into a corner.”
“If the number of Soul Cultivators is insufficient, providing more jobs will be meaningless.”
Besides, Zhang Yu understood that relying solely on the Myriad Laws Sect to provide Soul Cultivator jobs was not enough.
After all, among the Ten Great Sects, the Myriad Laws Sect was not exactly a major employer of Soul Cultivators. Even as one of the top three sects, the scale of their Soul Cultivator jobs couldn’t even rank in the top eight. On the contrary, they had quite a few users of High-Intelligence Artifact Spirits.
Zhang Yu knew that if things continued this way, the joint venture company would at most reach a 5% to 6% market share in the future.
This would neither meet the Reincarnation Immortal Emperor’s requirement of 10% to obtain another Evil God.
Nor would it meet the Myriad Laws Immortal Emperor’s requirement of 20% to receive the so-called heavy reward.
This was without even considering the subsequent counterattacks from Xiao Yunhe and the others.
Over the past month, apart from their public opinion offensive and the blacklist, Xiao Yunhe and the Former Days Alliance had made no other moves. To Zhang Yu, this felt more like the calm before the storm.
Because he knew that with the Myriad Laws Sect stepping in, the other party would absolutely not remain idle. Their current quietness only meant that they were still preparing some kind of fierce offensive.
Right at this moment, a piece of news exploded like a thunderclap in the Spirit Realm, instantly shaking every faction in the Former Days Graveyard to the core.
“Today, the White Bone Cult and Netherworld Palace announced the addition of Myriad Souls Workshop and its subsidiary companies to the ban list.”
Zhang Yu’s gaze slightly narrowed. Myriad Souls Workshop was the registered name of the joint venture company. And this news also represented the other party’s offensive, which had suddenly escalated from an industry ban by the alliance of numerous Soul Cultivator companies within the Former Days Graveyard to a sect-level ban.
“This action is based on information controlled by the two major sects, with reasonable grounds to determine that Myriad Souls Workshop is engaged in activities that violate the ‘Sect Security Law’ and the ‘Immortal Rights Protection Law’.”
“The Joyful Union Sect, Celestial Monster Sect, and Pill Cauldron Sect simultaneously issued sanction measures, following up to impose restrictions on Myriad Souls Workshop.”
Seeing this scene, Fu Ji exclaimed in shock, “five major sects are joining forces to ban us? Do they have to be this ruthless?”
Immortal Slayer said, “It shows that the major sects attach great importance to the Dharma Realm. Expanding even a little bit… has triggered sect-level sanctions.”
The Sect Examination Clone said angrily, “This is unfair competition! They just can’t compete with my Myriad Laws Sect in Immortal Dao Technology, so they can only resort to underhanded tricks.”
At the same time, the joint ban by the five major sects had boomed into action.
A talisman jointly developed by the five major sects was supplied for free, and it could be used for free wherever the Spirit Realm covered.
This talisman was called the “Divine Soul Security Talisman”. As long as this talisman was cast, it could freely detect whether the target Soul Cultivator’s memory data had any traces of artificial alteration.
Once a problem was discovered, a warning would pop up before the user’s eyes: “High-risk Divine Soul vulnerability detected. This Soul Cultivator poses a serious security risk. Please ban them immediately.”
And if one chose to ban them immediately, it would instantly cut off all information exchange between oneself and the target Soul Cultivator. One could even have their entire department and the entire company ban the Soul Cultivator.
Looking at these introductory details, Fu Ji could not help but curse, “This is too fucking shameless. How can having traces of memory manipulation be called a vulnerability?”
The Auspicious God said, “Yeah, it is too shameless! Even we Evil Gods wouldn’t wrong people like this.”
Zhang Yu could not help but think inwardly, “Motherfucker… are they treating Soul Cultivators who have used the Dharma Realm memory service as viruses?”
He could not help but sigh in his heart. The blessing of the Dharma Realm Technology, although bringing a huge advantage to the joint venture company, had also brought stronger opponents.
Immortal Slayer said solemnly, “It is not as simple as just banning Soul Cultivators. The target of this Divine Soul Security Talisman is the Divine Soul, which means… apart from Soul Cultivators, it can also be used on ordinary people.”
“This is using Soul Cultivators as an excuse. If they step up their efforts in the future, it will mean a ban on all cultivators who use the Dharma Realm memory services.”
“In the name of banning Myriad Souls Workshop, they are actually seizing the opportunity to ban the Dharma Realm, and also forcing people to choose between the two.”
The Sect Examination Clone gritted his teeth and said, “To insult our Myriad Laws Sect like this, aren’t they afraid of starting a sect war?”
At this moment, Zhang Yu seemed to see a pair of giant hands descending from the sky, pressing directly on top of his head, about to completely crush the entire joint venture company.
Zhang Yu understood that as the sanctions of these five major sects fell, the intensity of this Dao Lineage Struggle involving the Dharma Realm had explosively surged once again.
What worried him more was whether the remaining several major sects would also join the ban in order to block the Dharma Realm Dao Lineage.
If so, he feared that the joint venture company’s market share in the Former Days Graveyard would never exceed 10%.
Just then, Rank 7 Sect Staff Jie Lingtong, who was responsible for Dharma Realm support, sent a message to Zhang Yu: “Minister Zhang, have you seen the joint sanctions from the Five Great Sects?”
In Jie Lingtong’s view, now that the intensity of the Dao Lineage Struggle had skyrocketed, the Former Days Graveyard was simply filled with danger at every step. Only this Minister Zhang, whose background was unfathomably deep, was most likely to understand the higher-ups’ thoughts and countermeasures.
Fu Ji said, “Zhang Yu, this is no longer a matter that only involves the Former Days Graveyard. We must ask the Immortal Emperor for instructions.”
Zhang Yu nodded, and so he co-wrote a report with the people in his mind.
In the report, they first flattered the Immortal Emperor and the Dharma Realm, then talked about the current achievements of the joint venture company, and then asked the Myriad Laws Immortal Emperor about the next arrangements.
This time, the Myriad Laws Immortal Emperor replied very quickly, only giving Zhang Yu a single word.
“Continue.”
Seeing this word, the Sect Examination Clone said excitedly, “Did you see that! The Immortal Emperor told us to continue, which means everything is still within the Immortal Emperor’s plan.”
“You got fooled by just a single word?” Fu Ji said worriedly. “I’m just afraid that while the Immortal Emperor tells us to continue, he is also preparing to hand us over as scapegoats in the end.”
Zhang Yu did not answer, but just continued to push forward the business of the joint venture company.
However, with the news of the ban from five great sects, the daily user registration numbers of the joint venture company plummeted sharply. After half a month had passed, the market share barely reached 2.1%.
And during this half month, Zhang Yu observed various news in the Spirit Realm, only feeling that an atmosphere of restlessness seemed to surge throughout the sect layers, as if contradictions and conflicts were occurring everywhere.
Until this day, another piece of news caused a sensation in the Spirit Realm. Impressively, the five great sects of Myriad Laws, Heavenly Demon, Heavenly Sword, Vajra, and Immortal Soldiers had reached an agreement, coming to a consensus on the Soul Cultivator issue. They would establish local Dharma Realm devices, and localized information processing would be conducted under the monitoring of each sect to provide Dharma Realm Technology support for Soul Cultivators.
Seeing this scene, Fu Ji was greatly shocked: “How is that possible? These several major sects actually allow the Dharma Realm to expand to their side? Are you kidding me? How on earth did the Myriad Laws Immortal Emperor do it?”
The Sect Examination Clone laughed heartily: “My Myriad Laws Sect really is the number one among the Ten Great Sects! The Myriad Laws Immortal Emperor is truly the number one Immortal Emperor!”
Zhang Yu carefully flipped through the relevant news content while recalling the various events that had occurred in the sect layers over the past half month.
There were conflicts between the Immortal Soldiers’ Immortal Dao Revolution and the Vajra Sect’s Myriad Buddhas Paying Homage to the Sect, conflicts between the Heavenly Sword Sect’s Sword Intent conversion and other sects’ magic power supply, as well as conflicts erupting from internal investigations and killings of Evil Gods within several sects…
The next moment, a flash of enlightenment suddenly passed through Zhang Yu’s mind.
“It’s not just the Former Days Graveyard engaging in the Dao Lineage Struggle.”
“In other places… Heavenly Sword, Vajra, Immortal Soldiers… all sects are engaging in the Dao Lineage Struggle.”
“But while there is struggle, there is also alliance.”
Just then, Desolate Ox said, “As the major sects develop their Dao Lineages, if they want to increase the coverage of their Dao Lineage, or even eventually develop it into an Immortal Dao Lineage and a rule that covers the world, they will ultimately need to make the Dao Lineage transcend their sect.”
“For a Dao Lineage to transcend a sect, it must follow the relationship of mutual generation and restriction, avoiding the sects that restrict it and allying with the sects that generate it.”
Zhang Yu nodded. At this moment, he strongly felt that he was not the protagonist of this world, nor was the Former Days Graveyard the main battlefield of the Dao Lineage Struggle. Instead, the entirety of Kunxu was on a chessboard where the Ten Immortal Emperors fought against each other.
To win in the Former Days Graveyard, he had to rely not only on his own abilities and methods but also on the schemes of the Immortal Emperors across the entire chessboard.
“I must go with the flow…”