"Figured as much," Lei Weiyuan thought to himself once he heard the old man's introduction.
He already had his suspicions from the crystal clear eyes and palms and hearing the name all but confirmed his suspicions.
"Based on your reactions I take it you've heard of me," Deng Chao said once he noticed Lei Weiyuan's reaction.
"Those keen enough have atleast heard of your name in the past 2,000 years especially those of our level and even if they didn't, they have atleast heard of the Crystal palm jade sect," Lei Weiyuan said.
Deng Chao had a pained look on his face once he heard the name Crystal palm jade sect. It seemed to elicit memories in him that he would rather forget.
Yang Qing who at first didn't know who Deng Chao was even after hearing his name, showed a reaction when Lei Weiyuan said the name, Crystal palm jade sect.
As part of their curriculum, the Order didn't only teach combat, cultivation arts, and other secondary profession skills but they also placed emphasis on their students learning the history of the continent that they would be serving in addition to the institute's own history.
Learning history was a measure of ensuring their students and all who worked for the Order knew why they did what they did, to create a sense of solemnity and respect for what they do. But it also served as a measure to open their eyes to how things could change in an instant to help them in keeping their guards up and increasing their sense of vigilance and discernment in all their duties because that keenness might be the difference whether a murderous calamity is avoided or not.
As an added measure to ensure that their students did actually give the history classes the attention it deserved, the Order started giving out high merit points to those well-versed in those classes. Merit points were a highly sort after and privileged resource at the Order. It was a form of currency used within the Order that could be used to purchase anything, especially in cases you had no spare spirit stones lying around. Infact in some regard, it was even deemed more valuable than spirit stones as a form of currency.
There were things even if you had sufficient spirit stones you couldn't buy whereas when it came to merit points as long as it was within the Order you could buy almost anything with it including even more leave days which was what pushed Yang Qing to be a history nerd. He even went to the extent of learning different languages, obscure techniques of preserving worn-out scrolls, and deciphering broken texts all for the precious leave days he would score.
The higher-ups soon noticed an obvious loophole in this as Yang Qing the greedy hound and exploiter that he was learned so much history that he ended up having merit points that granted him half a year worth of leave days which he shamelessly used much to the hatred and envy of his colleagues on hearing how much of a wastrel he was.
When others would redeem such a huge amount of merit points on expensive cultivation resources such as herbs, weapons, pills, or cultivation arts that were of a higher grade or gain privileged access to special locations like restricted sections of libraries, access to special locations that offer boosts in enlightenment and cultivation, get their courtyards retrofitted with much higher grade arrays. Yang Qing in his infinite wisdom and young master persona wasted it all on a chance to lazy around and eat. There was even a judge who suffered qi deviation once he heard the news of how Yang Qing spent his merit points.
The Order on recognizing another flaw once again because of Yang Qing's exploitative nature decided to cap the amount of merit points one can spend on leave days per year despite the vehement and deeply passionate protests Yang Qing offered.
...
It didn't take too long for Yang Qing to recall the history of the Crystal palm jade sect especially since up until 400 years ago it was one of the top rank 2 sects in the whole southern continent.
From what Yang Qing had read, the sect was founded by four people about three thousand years ago.
They were four martial siblings with tremendous talent with three being masters in their own area. One was so skilled with the sword that he achieved sword intent in 14 years, the other was skilled with formation arrays that he killed a core formation expert while being at the beginning stages of the foundation establishment stage, and the third one was skilled in alchemy and medicine which was the reason they managed to survive for so long despite constantly engaging in battle for resources, especially in their earlier growing years.
As for the fourth, not much was known about him except he barely participated in the skirmishes especially when the sect started up he was always the one left manning the base. Many assumed the three brothers arranged it that way since he was the weakest of them and it was safer to have him at the sect rather than the constant battles and dangers they engaged in to try and fight for resources and expand their sect's influence.
It took only a thousand years for the Crystal palm jade sect to move from being a no-name rankless sect to a rank 2 sect when one of the brothers broke through to the domain realm. Three hundred years later another brother broke through and a hundred years after that another one broke through. Three of the brothers broke through while news of the fourth one was never known since he never made any monumental moves. There was a time the sect was attacked while the 3 brothers were away but the attackers were swiftly dealt with. It didn't create much of a storm as the outside world assumed it was due to sect treasures and powerful arrays that the assailants were swiftly dealt with, after all, one of the leaders of the sect was a renowned array prodigy and there were no witnesses left alive to say any different from the group that attacked the sect.
For the next 1,600 years, the name Crystal palm jade sect shook the continent as it had a meteoric rise with unstoppable momentum to be one of the most powerful sects below the rank 1 sects and organizations. In those 1,600 years, they also managed to add three more domain realm experts to their ranks. With the reputation they had built up they managed to attract numerous talents. Two of those domain experts came from their sect disciples while the third was a guest elder who joined in as a domain expert.
Only one in a million cultivators would potentially be able to step into the domain realm. This was the rank that served as the watershed that separated the above-average from the true genius. Of course, there were those with massive luck who manage to breakthrough due to some fortune then there are those who saunter through on their own two feet.
The domain realm, the door that shuts countless of those who thought themselves the sons and daughters of destiny out and lets in a few.
But once someone breaks through that realm in addition to an explosive increase in lifespan is the sheer firepower a domain expert can exert. There was a saying around the southern continent that if you had a single domain expert and no other cultivator in your kingdom, that kingdom is guaranteed atleast 10,000 years of peace and prosperity.
That was how much of a deterrent and an asset having a domain expert was. They were highly valued even in rank 1 sects and holy lands and here there was a new upstart in the name of Crystal palm jade sect had 8 of them in 3,000 years.
Many had thought with the way things were going for them they would continue to rise up to a rank 1 sect. They had an astonishing number of domain experts, three talented leaders, and the best of all was their technique. It was one of the fundamental reasons they were able to draw in many talents and also grow so fast. The crystal jade palm art. Yang Qing didn't know much about it except those who had mastered the technique were able to shatter mountains and sink their hands in the most deadly of poisons and elements such as fire and frost with nothing happening to them. It was a lethal technique that offered absolute destruction and defense.
With this technique and talented people to bring the most out of it, they were able to easily sweep past their foes. Yang Qing whose hobby involved truancy, eating, and more truancy also loved collecting cultivation arts of all ranks. The more powerful ones were to see if he could draw inspiration from them and the lower-ranked ones were to see if he could add to them and improve their grades.
When reading about the Crystal palm jade sect, their cultivation art drew him in and he couldn't help but want to add it to his collection. Based on his guesses if the description of the art was right, it was at the very least, an upper-rank blue-grade art.
He couldn't help but have his hopes reignited when he saw Deng Chao in front of him. Though he still couldn't guess his identity.
"I wonder who he is among the eight domain experts that they had? I've never heard of Deng Chao and I know he isn't one of the leaders because they were all…" Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh once his thoughts reached that point as he looked at Deng Chao who still had a melancholic look cloaked in sorrow.
400 years the rising star that was the Crystal palm jade sect was snuffed out. It is not known how but rumors started floating around that one of their leaders had found a quasi-saint treasure in the Millions treasure ocean. This drew countless eyes from everyone including even some newly promoted rank 1 sects, clans, and empires. The more time passed by the more the rumor gained traction and spread.
The potted rumor soon boiled over and exploded when 10 rank 2 sects and some organizations besieged the Crystal palm jade sect. A thunderous war that shook the entire continent soon took place with domain experts at the lead. At the time the Order was pretty new. The war had taken place 400 years ago whereas the Order had just been established 100 years prior. A battle of that level was beyond what the Order with its then pitiful manpower could handle at the time.
The war lasted 3 years but the fangs of the Crystal palm jade sect were revealed for all to see in that war. They decimated 7 of the rank 2 sects who besieged them and they even secretly diverted some of their manpower to decimate the sect grounds of those 7 sects. They were well on their way to forcing a stalemate with the remaining forces when a third party suspected to have come from some rank 1 organization and suspected to be the mastermind behind bringing so many rank 2 sects together, intervened.
The crystal palm jade sect got decimated with as few survivors as possible with the leaders confirmed to be dead but not before they took a large bite from the third party forces who despite joining the party late suffered such huge losses that one would have thought they were there from the start. They became the primary recipients of the damage of what a cornered beast can do in its last moments.
As for the supposed quasi-saint treasure, it couldn't be confirmed that it even existed as all the parties present left with nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. Of the remaining three rank 2 sects two of them got attacked by their rivals once news got around of them suffering grievous injuries from the battle and the last sect subordinated itself to a rank 1 empire thus ensuring its safety as for the third party, they lost two domain experts, over a dozen palace stage experts and nothing else to show for it.
The history of the Crystal palm jade sect became a firm reminder to Yang Qing to always be vigilant as the continent was rife with greedy wolves and billions of threads of conspiracies. Especially with the recent attacks on people from the Order he couldn't help but suspect that there was something larger at play here other than discontent against the Order doing its duties.
