Chapter 152: The Blueprint

To think of a thing is to do it—this has always been the unwavering style of the Heavenly King Alliance. By the very next day, news regarding the alliance's recruitment of new members had spread at lightning speed across the entire ancient city of Loulan and over a dozen surrounding cities.

Clearly, this alliance, with its almost fanatical reputation, held an immense and irresistible attraction for passionate youths.

In just a single day, no fewer than several thousand young experts had gathered outside the gates of the Heavenly King Alliance's branch courtyard.

With flushed faces, they scrambled to push their way to the front, terrified that the sheer number of applicants would leave them out in the cold.

Facing this overwhelming frenzy, Jialuo and the others exchanged bewildered glances, completely dumbfounded and scarcely believing that the alliance possessed such a magnetic pull.

Eventually, when the scene grew so heated that a brawl seemed imminent, Kongkong and his companions hastily stepped forward. They announced that the alliance would only accept cultivators at the Spirit Emperor rank and above, and that anyone meeting this criterion would be permitted to proceed to the next stage of screening. Only then did the severely congested situation ease slightly.

"Hmph! Such a tiny Heavenly King Alliance, yet their threshold for accepting members is so ridiculously high! What are they acting so cocky about? I wouldn't deign to join them anyway!"

A mid-stage Spirit Emperor cultivator walked away from the crowd with a disgruntled look, speaking disdainfully toward the alliance courtyard. He seemed to have completely forgotten how desperately he had been shoving his way forward just moments before, putting on a lofty and aloof facade.

"Sour grapes! Who was just fighting tooth and nail to push forward and nearly knocked me flat on my back?"

Beside him, a tall, slender youth cast a contemptuous look in his direction, despising the man's hypocritical behavior to the extreme.

Hearing this, the first youth reacted like a stray dog whose tail had been stepped on, and he lunged forward as if to attack. However, when he sensed that the aura emanating from the person before him was far more formidable and profound than his own, he instantly deflated, swallowed his words, and slunk away in disgrace.

As one by one, the young talents lacking sufficient strength departed, the space before the courtyard gates finally appeared much clearer. Of course, this quietness was only relative to the roar of tens of thousands.

Aside from those whose strength fell short of the Spirit Emperor realm, several hundred elite Spirit Emperor experts still thronged the entrance.

Inside the courtyard, nearly a hundred members of the Heavenly King Alliance were currently bustling about with burning enthusiasm, tearing down useless structures to make preparations for the next steps.

"Xiaochong, how many members does the alliance currently have?" Further away, Xiao Chong and Xiao Ye sat leisurely in grand armchairs, showing no intention of getting up to lend a hand.

Hearing Xiao Ye's inquiry, Xiao Chong rolled his eyes helplessly and replied, "The initial batch had just over ninety people, and almost all of them have now advanced to the Spirit Emperor level. During the subsequent recruitment drive, the number swelled to two hundred and thirty, though only a dozen or so of those are Spirit Emperor-tier experts."

At these words, Xiao Ye fell into deep thought. He gently tapped the armrest of his chair with one hand and muttered as if to himself:

"If things continue this way, there is too vast a disparity in strength within the Heavenly King Alliance, and having everyone lumped together might not be ideal."

"These later recruits are all top talents from their respective regions, and every single one of them is arrogant and proud. This won't do; we must devise a method to separate the strong from the weak. That way, members with lower strength will naturally strive harder in their cultivation, aiming to break into a higher tier of the circle."

"My thoughts exactly!" The baby-faced He Tao appeared silently behind Xiao Chong, lazily sinking into another grand armchair before continuing:

"Wherever there are people, there is a martial world. In the past, we were brothers who shared life and death, so there was no need to draw strict boundaries. But now, the Heavenly King Alliance has evolved into a massive faction. If we lack hierarchy and order, trouble will brew sooner or later."

In truth, during the period when Ye Feng was absent, the very scenario that Xiao Ye and He Tao worried about had already manifested on several occasions.

For instance, a few newly joined Spirit Emperor experts had grown deeply resentful of being excluded from the alliance's core circle, triggering several disturbances over the matter.

The most severe incident had been orchestrated by Jin Rui, a cousin of Jin Ming, who was once ranked third among the young generation of the imperial capital.

As a member of the imperial capital's aristocratic circle, Jin Rui possessed a number of die-hard cronies. After joining the alliance, and emboldened by his connection to Jin Ming, Jin Rui threw his weight around everywhere, using the banner of the Heavenly King Alliance to commit all sorts of outrages.

However, out of consideration for Jin Ming, Jialuo had chosen not to punish him severely, issuing only a verbal warning.

Far from showing restraint, Jin Rui—upon discovering that the alliance possessed such a core circle for deliberating major affairs—incited a large group of people to clamor for admission.

The outcome of this was that Jialuo ruthlessly severed one of Jin Rui's arms, expelled all the troublemakers from the alliance, and stripped Jin Ming of his core circle status for three months as punishment for failing to properly govern his subordinates.

"My proposal is this: let us establish an Inner Pavilion and an Outer Pavilion within the Heavenly King Alliance. Those who meet the Inner Pavilion's recruitment criteria and possess strength at the mid-stage Spirit Emperor level or higher will automatically enter the Inner Pavilion. Everyone else will be assigned entirely to the Outer Pavilion!" He Tao said.

As he laid out his vision, Xiao Ye nodded continuously, signaling him to continue.

"The Heavenly King Alliance will be divided into the Core, the Inner Pavilion, and the Outer Pavilion. The Core will temporarily maintain its current size until the madman Ye returns. As for the Inner Pavilion, we can set a rule: anyone who slaughters a Spirit Emperor-tier expert from the sacred grounds may enter the Inner Pavilion. Naturally, the prerequisite is that their own strength must reach the mid-stage Spirit Emperor level or higher."

"Within the Inner Pavilion, every hundred members will form a hall, headed by a single Hall Master. In the future, these Hall Masters may also be elevated into the Core."

"As for the Outer Pavilion, the structure will be roughly similar, with three hundred members per hall, also led by a single Hall Master."

"If anyone from any hall goes outside to swindle and bully others, their arm will be severed, they will be expelled from the Heavenly King Alliance, and their Hall Master's position will be revoked."

He Tao eloquently laid out the entire blueprint taking shape in his mind. The two Xiao brothers grew increasingly engrossed the more they listened, until finally, they were rubbing their palms together and itching to take action.

"I admit that your idea has merit, but the saying goes that rewards and punishments must be clearly distinguished. Your scheme contains only punishments and no rewards, which will undoubtedly provoke widespread dissatisfaction!" Kongkong shook his head slowly, strolling over in a leisurely manner before sprawling out in another grand armchair.

"Oh... Let that madman Ye rack his brain over this! Ye Long has brought news that Fifth Master Ye has already pinpointed that fellow's location. He should be arriving here in a matter of days!" Jialuo had arrived as well. Normally a man of few words, he now wore a rare and genuine smile.

"Really? That fellow is simply too outrageous! He dumped this massive mess in our laps and vanished for over a year. When he gets back, we must ruthlessly extort him—though I must say, those spiritual fruits of his were quite exceptional!" As he spoke, Xiao Chong drooped shamelessly, water literally pooling in his mouth.

Boom...

Just as the group was letting their imaginations run wild, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from outside the main gate, immediately followed by a chaotic cacophony of shouts flooding their ears.

Whoosh...

A figure darted swiftly toward them in a panic, crying out urgently, "This is bad! Several experts from the sacred grounds have come to smash the place up, and they've already injured several of our people!"