The Jie Sect had an inner sect and an outer sect.

The inner sect consisted of personal disciples of the Grandmaster of Heaven, including the Daoist of Many Treasures, the Golden Spirit Saintess, the Saintess of Wudang, the Saintess of Turtle Spirit, Zhao Gongming, and Mistress Three Clouds, along with the seven immortals who served them.

Aside from them, there were also third generation disciples such as Wen Zhong, Yu Yuan, and the Fire Spirit Saintess, along with fourth generation disciples such as Yu Hua and Hu Lei.

As such, it was only natural that there were countless outer sect disciples of the Jie Sect.

The four Holy Men of Nine Dragon Island, the ten Sky Lords, Mistress Rock… the doctrine of the Jie Sect for the Grandmaster of Heaven was primarily for all beings to gain life. The principle was that all were welcome to the Sect—in fact, when he preached everywhere years ago, all who listened to his teachings were considered his disciples.

At the moment, Jiang He was following the Daoist of Many Treasures to the outer circle of buildings beyond Biyou Palace, which were the lodgings for the outer disciples of the Jie Sect.

“Martial Uncle!”

“Grandmaster Jiang He!”

A Grand Luo introducing himself as Luo Xuan came to greet them as they arrived before a large temple. His Daoist title was Lord Fire Star, and he was one of the orthodox deities of the Celestial Court aside as well as an outer disciple of the Jie Sect.

Jiang He casted Luo Xuan a few more glances then.

He was unfamiliar with the name ‘Luo Xuan’ but familiar with the name Lord Fire Star, as he had a ‘role to play’ in the divine myths of Earth himself.

As Luo Xuan led them along, he said, “These three Demi-Saints arrived last night, claiming that they had killed a Demi-Saint and several Grand Luo of the machine race, and have come to claim the bounty.”

Soon, Jiang He met the three ‘brave warriors’, all of whom were unique beings in the universe.

One of them was a tall woman with an ample figure, and would definitely be a beauty judging from her back—her face was green and her ears were pointy, however, and looked like a character straight out of Avatar.

There was also a groundman whose skin was completely yellow-brown.

Jiang he mistakenly assumed him to be a Stoner, but he explained that he was a earthen spirit, which was essentially identical to a Stoner.

However, while Stoners were born in mountain boulders within their own realm, earthen spirits were instead born from the earth-element, places where Earth Dao was concentrated.

“Elemental Dao spirit?”

Jiang He was surprised.

There were truly all sorts of wonders in the universe.

He was aware that elemental spirits were likely to be born in locations with high concentration of Elemental Dao, though most such entities would not count as alive, had no intelligence, and would have a hard time cultivating.

The one before them, however, had not only gained sentience, but also cultivated up to Demi-Saint and manifested a genuine form.

Jiang He’s gaze then turned toward the third Demi-Saint, who was wearing black robes and a black mask.

Seeing Jiang He’s suspicious look, they promptly took off his mask to reveal a face glimmering in metallic silver.

“A machine?!”

Luo Xuan could not help crying out beside them.

Flames ignited over his body right then as he released his Dao and mystic treasures, glaring tightly at the machine and growling, “How bold of you… a Demi-Saint machine daring to intrude here, at the hallowed grounds of the Jie Sect? Perhaps you know nothing of death?”

The Daoist of Many Treasures scowled as well, whereas Jiang He was smiling faintly.

Gesturing for Luo Xuan to hold back for the moment, he studied the machine from head to toe before smiling. “You wouldn’t be stupid enough to be this suicidal after cultivating to this level… may I ask your name?”

“Nine-Five-Two-Seven.”

“…”

Jiang He was speechless.

Are you screwing around with me now?

What sort of name is that?

Nonetheless, the Daoist of Many Treasures picked up on Jiang He’s doubt and communicated telepathically, “Machines had always used numbers as names—their patriarch’s is named Zero.”

Zero?

Many thoughts crossed Jiang He’s mind in that very instant.

The machines were all robots gaining Dao?

But there was no way they popped up out of nowhere… someone must have made them.

And while Zero could have created every other robot, who created Zero?

Meanwhile, Nine-Five-Two-Seven was soon speaking about his ‘life story.’

“My father was just an ordinary mining worker…”

“Wait!”

Jiang He cut him shot and exclaimed in shock, “Isn’t your race consisted of machine lifeforms? How do you get parents? And what do you mean, mining worker?”

“Sir… my father was a miner robot and I call him father because he made me.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Keep going.”

It turned out that Nine-Five-Two-Seven’s father was a miner robot—the lowest caste of machines that were not sentient.

Weirdly, however, this particular miner robot had developed self-awareness.

As his self-awareness gradually fleshed out, he learned the method to make more robots. Hence, with rare minerals he had gathered and hidden in secret, he made Nine-Five-Two-Seven.

Soon, a misfortune unraveled.

The mining robot was captured and its sentience was directly erased, killing it off entirely…

A troubled look appeared over Nine-Five-Two-Seven’s silver face as that, and he hoarse spoke, “Father used the rarest of ores to make me, which granted me great combat ability right after I was born. I left a trail of bodies behind me as I made my escape away from the mining vein…”

“I returned, seeking revenge after I had improved in strength, only to realize that an undying divine spirit—the machine equivalent to a Golden Immortal—resided just behind the mountain.”

“That divine spirit hunted me after I destroyed the mining vein… but I finally gained the power to retaliate thousands of years later, slaying that divine spirit… only to find out afterwards that a great empire has its back…”

“…”

That was basically one of those epic fantasy novel plots…

Jiang He was quite engrossed by the machine’s tale.

The protagonist started a tale of revenge, slaying monsters in his journey of vengeance and then being hunted…

“You are now Demi-Saint, which is rare among Machines. Saints always value Demi-Saints, appointing them as governors across their constellation.”

Nine-Five-Two-Seven growled through clenched teeth. “Zero’s grandchild was the one I had a grudge against… now that I’ve killed him, there is no place for me in the machine race.”

Pfft.

In the end, Jiang He was unable to refrain from laughing out loud.

Still, he quickly composed himself and said, “Sorry, I can’t help it… well, let’s talk about the bounty reward…”

With that, Nine-Five-Two-Seven took several corpses out of his Void Storage.

There were indeed four Grand Luo and one Demi-Saint.

Jiang He rewarded the three Demi-Saints as promised, along with an extra set of mediocre-grade acquired soul treasures, saying, “Please help me spread the word so that more elites would mobilize. That’s the only way to cause more heartache for the machine leaders…”

And yet, the three Demi-Saints tagged along with Jiang He instead of leaving.

Plop!

Nine-Five-Two-Seven promptly went down on his knees and exclaimed, “Lord Jiang He, we hope to follow you… Please take us in…”

The trio would never dare to leave the Three Realms after killing Zero’s grandkid.

Even if Zero was no Saint, both Saints were his creations, and therefore considered his sons…

Among the machines, he was higher in status compared to the Saints!

Jiang He impatiently waved them off, however, saying, “Begone, I don’t lack servants… the Jie Sect accepts any disciples, so can’t you just join them?”

He was grumbling as he returned to his sealed room, and climbed inside his Farm.

The strengthened version of the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation as well as the Esoteric Nine were about to be ripe, and Jiang He was not in the mood to take in slaves.