Battles at the Martial Saint level were already earth-shattering, let alone a battle between a pseudo Martial God and a half-step Martial God. Therefore, Ding Yun had already brought all his disciples to the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley.
And while leading everyone to build the sect.
The news that someone had fought with the Flood Dragon in the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley and had even seemingly defeated it was spreading at the current world's maximum information transmission speed.
Upon receiving the news, people were shocked.
Those who were powerful and influential, or who had once harbored ambitions for the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley, immediately began inquiring about who this powerful individual was, what the current situation of the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley was, whether the Flood Dragon had escaped or been killed, or if it had been subdued by the strong expert.
Did the other party leave the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley after the fight?
Or did they stay there?
As for their intentions, it was none other than thinking that if the Flood Dragon had escaped and no one was there, they might be able to seize the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley. Or, they thought that if the person had left and only a severely injured Flood Dragon remained, they might be able to take advantage of the situation and kill it while it was weak.
Flood Dragons were treasures all over.
Even a drop of blood or a single hair had great use.
Unfortunately, the results of their inquiries were quite disappointing, because the reality was what they least wanted to see: the powerful expert had not only subdued the Flood Dragon.
But had also stayed in the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley.
Furthermore, they had already hired many people and purchased a large quantity of construction materials, which were being transported to the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley. Everyone quickly learned that this powerful expert intended to establish a sect within the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley.
And the subdued Flood Dragon.
Would become the sect's guardian divine beast, easily crushing the guardian divine beasts of the three great Holy Lands, all of whom were at the Martial Saint level.
The three great Martial Dao Holy Lands each had guardian divine beasts.
They were the Jade Qilin of Kunlun Holy Land, the Jade Phoenix of Yaochi Holy Land, and the Five-Colored Peacock of Pure Land Holy Land.
On the surface, they seemed no less impressive than the Flood Dragon, and perhaps even more powerful. However, in reality, this was merely them flattering their own guardian divine beasts. The so-called Jade Qilin was merely a mutated elk with a trace of Qilin bloodline. The Jade Phoenix was merely a Nine Heavens Azure Gold Finch with a trace of Jade Phoenix bloodline. The Five-Colored Peacock was specially cultivated by the Pure Land Holy Land with countless elemental resources to curry favor with the Peacock King, an artificially mutated peacock.
Only at the Martial Saint realm were they somewhat presentable.
In terms of bloodline, they were truly laughable.
The Yunlei Flood Dragon, even though it was just a Flood Dragon, was a pure-blooded direct descendant of the亞龍 (Ya Long, sub-dragon), with a bloodline second only to that of a true Dragon. This was far beyond those that merely resembled divine beasts or possessed a mere trace of divine beast bloodline.
How to describe it? In terms of bloodline hierarchy, they were at most comparable to the mixed-blood dragon descendants of the Yunlei Flood Dragons and other mutated species within the Sky Dragon Thunder Valley.
Even though those mixed-blood dragon descendants were only Grandmasters.
Their Grandmaster realm was achieved upon adulthood without much cultivation. With a bit more effort in cultivation or living a few hundred years longer, they could easily achieve Martial Saint.
Thus, before Ding Yun's sect was even officially established, it had already become famous throughout the world, and coincidentally, had dealt a blow to the three great Martial Dao Holy Lands, instilling in them a sense of urgency. Because this yet-to-be-established sect.
Clearly intended to rival them, becoming the fourth great Holy Land, and perhaps even aiming to surpass them.
With a guardian divine beast one tier higher than theirs, the sect founder who could defeat this divine beast would naturally also be one tier higher. While in terms of foundation, they were undoubtedly far superior to this unestablished sect, when it came to top-tier strength and reputation, it was hard to say.
For a time, the three great Holy Lands secretly held meetings to discuss how to deal with this matter. If invitations were sent to them when the sect was officially established.
Should they go and offer congratulations normally?
Or should they give a show of force and intimidate them?
Because the martial world and the imperial court were too deeply intertwined in this world, and Martial Saints could shake the very foundations of a nation, the stir caused by Ding Yun inevitably affected the imperial court. Some countries tried to understand the background of this suddenly appearing Martial Saint.
Some countries attempted to contact Ding Yun for cooperation.
Upon learning of this situation, Emperor Zhang Tai, besides being puzzled about where this mysterious Martial Saint came from, became even more anxious and eager to break through to the Martial Saint realm as soon as possible. Without the power of a Martial Saint, he always felt somewhat unable to suppress the insidious forces within the court.
He knew very well that maintaining imperial power did not solely rely on suppressing other noble families and influential clans. One's own strength was crucial for greater confidence. At this moment, his desire to break through to Martial Saint was not only for the temptation of a thousand years of lifespan.
But also because the three great Martial Saints of the imperial family were aging.
The oldest had less than a hundred years of lifespan remaining, and the youngest had less than four hundred years.
The urgency brought about by the ambitious noble families played a part.
Once he successfully broke through, he could at least ensure that the imperial family would still have three Martial Saints after a century. And if he truly succeeded, this secret art would continuously provide Martial Saints for the imperial family in the future.
The imperial family would no longer have to worry about their descendants being mediocre.
And struggling to produce Martial Saints to dominate the realm.
As for the vital essence of a Grandmaster at the peak of perfection and the problem of exterminating the opponent's clan, these were not difficult matters for the imperial family. The confiscation of property and extermination of a clan were nothing to an empire.
It was not unusual for such things to happen year after year.
Not to mention finding a family with a crime, even a guiltless family could easily be made to appear guilty.
For these reasons, Emperor Zhang Tai hurriedly issued another secret edict, stating that if Yuwen Tian could not take the head of the descendant of the Zhenbei Marquis who practiced the Seven Killers Art within three days.
He would be beheaded himself.
Upon receiving this secret edict, Yuwen Tian was truly helpless. Because the person suspected to be the descendant of the Zhenbei Marquis had not reappeared since the last time. For a Grandmaster to hide in the already sparsely populated north, let alone him being just a Grandmaster, even a Martial Saint would not be able to find him.
When the deadline was only one day away, in order to save his life, Yuwen Tian quickly found a person at the early Grandmaster stage, killed him, and based on his understanding of the aura within the bodies of the original Zhenbei Marquis and his son, he disguised and modified the Grandmaster's corpse.
Then, with trepidation, he presented the corpse as his accomplishment.
However, Emperor Zhang Tai, who was absolutely certain that the Zhenbei Marquis was dead, did not even look closely at the corpse. After sensing the aura of the Seven Killers Art on the body, he waved Yuwen Tian away and hastily went into seclusion. It was not uncommon for emperors to go into seclusion in the martial world.
After all, the crown prince had long since come of age.
And was already supervising the government.