Li Tianqi was merely trying to scare them.
Zhao Guang and the other two were escorted to the Eternal Immortal Sect, where Ancestor Lan confined them using his methods.
The older generation of the Li Clan was no longer willing to expend their mental energy on the Imperial Dynasty.
The repeated betrayals and persecutions by the Imperial Dynasty had completely stripped them of their trust in outsiders.
They much preferred to focus on augmenting their own martial strength.
"Brother Chang'an, what exactly do you want?" Staring at the circle drawn on the ground, Gongyang Ju, his face deathly pale, asked Li Chang'an.
"Everything is negotiable. We came with sincerity."
"Indeed, my young friend."
Wenren Jiuyue's body was stiff.
"We came to advise you for the sake of the Southern Frontier, and also out of consideration for our past friendship.
Immortals reside within the Blood Moon. Even if you continue to struggle, it is nothing but a dead end."
Only Zhao Guang remained silent.
Li Chang'an stared at the three of them for a long time.
He was different from his elders; his gentlemanly demeanor bound him to doctrine, ensuring he didn't lay a hand on these three while at home.
However, their conflicting stances compelled him to capture these individuals attempting to disrupt the order of the Southern Frontier.
He excelled at reading people. Through just a brief observation, he had already understood many things.
"The Human Emperor can no longer control Wenren Xianyi."
"What?" Wenren Jiuyue was momentarily stunned.
"Wenren Xianyi sending you here was not to persuade us to surrender. Quite the contrary, she was absolutely certain our Li Clan would not leave."
Li Chang'an looked at the three with pity.
"She intended for you to deliver intelligence to us, providing us with a bit of capital to deal with the Blood Moon."
"You are just fear-mongering!" Wenren Jiuyue's expression turned fierce; Li Chang'an's words provoked a furious roar from him.
This caused Zhao Guang's eyes to narrow.
"She is cooperating with the Western Frontier. There are many people she could have sent to the Southern Frontier. Why would she need two mighty figures like you?"
Li Chang'an's voice was soft and deliberate.
Gongyang Ju frowned deeply. "And I am here as well."
Li Chang'an merely glanced at Gongyang Ju, completely ignoring him.
"Because... because we can move swiftly, and if we encounter danger..." The ferocity on Wenren Jiuyue's face suddenly drained into an ashen pallor.
"Her objective is Ancestor Lan's Daos. What she wants is for us to exhaust every possible means to fight against the Western Frontier.
After all, no matter how foolish she is, she wouldn't be foolish enough to let the Western Frontier expand infinitely.
Even if the Imperial Dynasty cooperates with the Western Frontier, they must maintain a dominant position."
Li Chang'an continued,
"You three have thus become the key. Since you are our old friends, we wouldn't immediately harbor killing intent towards you.
You can provide us with intelligence to bolster our chances against the Blood Moon, or... perhaps you three are, in yourselves, a karmic opportunity for our Li Clan."
"No!" The veins on Wenren Jiuyue's forehead throbbed wildly.
"I am a member of the Wenren family, absolutely loyal to Her Majesty the Empress! She would never do such a thing to me. Cease your nonsense!"
Li Chang'an completely ignored Wenren Jiuyue's anger and rebukes.
After all, the truth was often too painful.
"What I want is intelligence. As for life or death, that rests entirely in your own hands."
...
[Year 1020]
[You peered into three rules, all reaching 1%. Your strength at the Dao-Glimpsing realm increases by 3%.]
[Your family obtained a massive amount of intelligence from the three captives.
The Imperial Dynasty colluded with the Western Frontier to persecute the Southern Frontier in exchange for 'immortal seeds'.]
Such a thing as an immortal seed was present in Linghu Xian's body back in Jade Mist Valley, and Linghu Xian's corpse still resided within the family.
Now that they had captured Zhao Guang, they finally gained a complete understanding of immortal seeds.
It turned out that beneath the Blood Moon, Dao Seeds would be planted.
Those implanted with Dao Seeds were essentially equivalent to the existence of an 'immortal kin'.
An immortal seed, however, was an entirely different thing.
It was much like Lu Niang inside Li Yaoqing, altering Li Yaoqing's strength and physical body bit by bit.
An immortal seed was a medium for an immortal's revival, capable of awakening an immortal within their body.
Yet even an immortal could potentially be suppressed.
Take Linghu Xian, for example.
It was Linghu Xian who influenced the immortal seed within his body.
This was because the immortal seed inside him merely housed the existence of the Immortal realm—the weakest kind of immortal.
Even an immortal could only exert a minimal influence on a true powerhouse.
The immortal seed inside Zhao Guang granted him the strength of a half-immortal.
His physical Spiritual power grew increasingly potent, his lifespan was extended by more than tenfold, and it granted Zhao Guang the qualification to wield immortal arts.
However, this was not without its side effects.
The immortal seeds were suppressed by the entity within the Blood Moon.
But immortals were inherently the most powerful existences between heaven and earth; how could they willingly be exploited by the 'inferior beings' in their eyes?
An immortal would grow alongside the host body.
While it appeared they were growing stronger together, the immortal was ceaselessly eroding the host's soul and mind at every moment, waiting to break free from its cocoon.
Just like Li Zhiheng, who had to rely on his Childlike Heart to suppress the immortal seed. Of course, his Heavenly Dao Divine Heart... was still quite mindless.
Li Wei estimated that while the immortal influenced the person, it was simultaneously influenced by the person.
After all, having endured the crazed, generation-after-generation internal struggles of the Zhao Clan, it was impossible not to suffer mental instability.
"In other words, the Imperial Dynasty is engaged in a contest just like the immortals."
Li Wei pondered for a long time, having already formed a hypothesis in his mind.
According to the intelligence gathered by the Red Dust Immortal and Li Xinri in the Central Plains, some people had already been implanted with immortal seeds.
Wenren Xianyi had undoubtedly acquired many immortal seeds through her cooperation with the Western Frontier to bolster the power of the Human Race, all to achieve her ambition of dominating the world.
The immortals, in turn, were seizing this opportunity, attempting to hide within human bodies.
The Western Frontier and the Southern Frontier... were merely supply stations for the Empress to cultivate 'half-immortals'.
Li Wei had witnessed just how much power a single half-immortal possessed on the battlefield in Grandhaven Prefecture.
"Immortal seed... immortal seed..."
Li Wei repeatedly murmured these two words.
The immortal arts taught by the Red Dust Immortal were also a conduit to awaken immortals.
The immortals were slumbering. Cultivating the immortal arts of an immortal carried a certain probability of earning that immortal's favor and awakening them within one's body, though this often occurred in weaker individuals.
"If I were to plant an immortal seed within my body..." Li Wei narrowed his eyes slightly.
After only a brief moment of thought, Li Wei shook his head.
The Yin-Yang Fish diagram encompassed three thousand Daos. He didn't need to open the Dao Gate; he only needed to comprehend the rules to 100%.
In theory, his Tai Chi was not inferior to Ancestor Lan in the slightest, perhaps even stronger.
Since he could grab a Red Dust Immortal single-handedly, striving to become an immortal would actually be a step backward.
Amidst his thoughts, Li Wei was slightly startled.
One descendant had already planted an immortal seed.