Chapter 5088 — The Northern Cultivation Alliance
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
The three great sects of North Island were of one blood. Though among themselves there were inevitably all manner of open and covert struggles, against outsiders they always closed ranks as one. Individually, each could rank only among the Ten Minor Sects and Clans, but put the three great sects of North Island together, and even the mightiest of the Four Great Sects and Clans would never dare take them lightly. Now that the Mystic Mechanism Sect had fallen into decline, it was hard to avoid a sense of shared peril—when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold.
"By the way, there is a question I meant to ask earlier. Why does 'North Island' precede the names of the three great sects? Could it be that there are other islands in the Primordial Small Jianghu?" Wei Zhao said thoughtfully.
"Uh—our sect has been called the Cangwu Sect of North Island since ancient times. Why would you ask such a thing, Martial Uncle?" Xin Yi'an grew somewhat suspicious at once. Still, Wei Zhao had just recited the entire original Azure Cloud Pacified Heart Formula for him, so he would not go so far as to suspect Wei Zhao of being a fraud again; he merely found the question odd.
"No—at least in my time, it was simply called the Cangwu Sect, without the words 'North Island' prefixed to it," Wei Zhao said with a perfectly straight face, making it up as he went.
He was certain Xin Yi'an knew nothing clear about matters of the Primordial era—after all, such things were hardly possible to verify. Unless the man could find an elder of the sect who had truly survived from the Primordial era and confront him face to face, and even then Wei Zhao could spin whatever tale he liked. For matters so unrelated to core interests, no one would truly care.
"That..." Xin Yi'an was indeed stumped. He shook his head with a bitter smile. "Though I already hold the position of elder in the Cangwu Sect of North Island, I truly know nothing of such matters. All I know is that it has been called the Cangwu Sect of North Island for as long as I can remember. Still, this is only natural—after all, geographically our three great sects lie to the north of the Primordial Small Jianghu, and gazing across the lake, it is fair enough to call it North Island. Moreover, our three great sects of North Island also belong to the Northern Cultivation Alliance."
"The Northern Cultivation Alliance?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.
"Yes. The Primordial Alliance is merely a unified name; in truth it is composed of an alliance of five top-tier powers, divided into East, West, South, North, and Center. Our three great sects of North Island and certain other sects and clans belong to the Northern Island Cultivation Alliance, the Northern Cultivation Alliance for short. The Snow Sword Sect and the Thousand Blades Sect, for instance, belong to the Central Cultivation Alliance, while the Qiankun Sect and the Purging Evil Sect belong to the Southern Cultivation Alliance. There are also the Eastern Cultivation Alliance and the Western Cultivation Alliance," Xin Yi'an explained.
"..." Wei Zhao was utterly speechless at hearing all this. Was this not simply a replica of the five great islands of the Heaven Tier? Apart from a few differences in detail, the overall arrangement was almost identical. This only made him all the more convinced of his earlier bold conjecture: the Cloud Tier Island and the Primordial Small Jianghu had absolutely come from the same womb!
"Martial Uncle, the strength of the five great alliances is determined by the strength of the sects and clans under each of them. Beyond that, however, the five great alliances each have their own exclusive forces. Of those, disciples like me know little; only by entering the alliance's council of elders can one grasp such core secrets. At my present level, I am far from qualified," Xin Yi'an said with some embarrassment.