"To start off with. Avoiding the three large religious organisations, the imperial family and the large noble families are all a good idea, as all of them are supported by someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!
Outside of this, there are countless smaller forces inside the Sky Empire, the most important of which are the current three strongest kingdoms of the Empire, the Dark Sky Kingdom, the Blood Sky Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Sky God.
All three of them are under one of the three religions, with the Kingdom of the Sky God having lost a lot of territory over the last few years due to the Archbishop from the Order of the Sky God in charge of the kingdom suddenly disappearing. If not for the fact that the Church of the Plague God suddenly appeared and took control of over a dozen kingdoms, it was likely that the Kingdom of the Sky God would have ceased to exist…"
"Church of the Plague God? They took control of over a dozen kingdoms!? How did those three large religions allow something like this to happen?"
Hearing about the Church of the Plague God after a long time, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised when he suddenly learnt that they had taken control of over a dozen kingdoms close to the border between the core and border region of the Sky Empire.
At the very least he now understood why the Church of the plague God had disappeared from the Azure Sky Kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms that had been trying their best to deal with their sudden intrusion.
From the looks of it, the Church of the Plague God should have moved all their people over to these kingdoms to resist the attack of the three religions that had already taken control over most of the faith inside the Sky Empire…
"Yeah, I also just learnt about this a few months ago. Apparently, a few years ago, the Church of the Plague God tried to take over several kingdoms all around the border of the Sky Empire but had no real success.
Because of this, the three religions stopped paying any attention to them and only sent their Archbishops to check up on the matter ever few months if they managed to take control of a small kingdom.
However, after a few years of things being like this, one of the Archbishops from the Order of the Sky God went missing. Not a long time after that, one of their strongest experts at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm was killed by the Cardinal due to him being a spy from the Church of the Plague God!
Hah… Out of all the religions, the one who had it the worst is the Order of the Sky God that ended up losing two of its Archbishops in a short period of time. Especially after the two other religions took advantage of this weakness to take away territory from the Kingdom of the Sky God and some of the other kingdoms under the Order of the Sky God. Forgetting about the threat of the Church of the Plague God. In the end allowing them to take advantage of this lack of attention to take control of a rather large kingdom before rapidly extending their control to the surrounding kingdoms before the other religions even had a chance to respond and stop them before they managed to successfully establish themselves inside the Sky Empire…!
Now… On to the different powers that exist below these Soul Ascension level powers-"
Listening to what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say upon hearing how the Church of the Plague God had managed to successfully establish themselves inside the Sky Empire.
Even if he had expected for the Church of the Plague God to be strong, he had not expected for them to directly take control of over a dozen kingdoms located just around the border to the core region of the Sky Empire without the other three religions even having a chance to respond in time to stop them.
From the looks of it, among the three- now four religions of the Sky Empire, the Church of the Plague God should be the most difficult to deal with in the future…
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao focused his attention on what Elder Meng who was in the process of explaining the countless different powers that existed inside the Sky Empire that would be a good idea to avoid.
…
"Given that your strength should at least be in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm from what I can tell, there aren't that many other forces that you will have to be worried about inside the Sky Empire.
Even if there are a few independent forces with Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts like the Iron Sky Kingdom in control of most of the spiritual metal circulating through the Sky Empire, you should be able to easily avoid them."
After spending close to half a day explaining the different weaker powers existing below the one's currently in control of the Sky Empire, Elder Meng finally finished his long and detailed explanation of the different powers inside the Sky Empire and some of the special places that would be a good idea to visit. Allowing Xuan Hao to gain a far better understanding of the Sky Empire compared to what he had learnt before and also giving him a few locations that would be a good idea to visit of his way back to the sect after everything in the capital had finished up.
No matter how useful the book Yi Min had given him and how many records he had managed to read through about the Sky Empire, it was all inferior when compared to the detailed description of the current power structure that Elder Meng had given him.
Not to mention gaining a better understanding of the different powers he had already learnt about beforehand, he also managed to learn who were allied with and if there were rumours of them having reached a higher realm than the one recorded in the book Yi Min had given him.
Even without having talked much with Elder Meng, it was obvious to Xuan Hao that this old man was a rather special person. Not only did he have an extensive understanding of the Sky Empire, but he had also come up with a way for his domain to increase in strength by itself!
"Hm? Is there something else you want to ask? I still have some time if there is anything more you are curious about…"
Seeing Xuan Hao not saying anything after he had finished talking, Elder Meng could not help saying this as he curiously looked towards him. Wondering if there was anything more Xuan Hao wanted to know about the Sky Empire that he might have forgotten to talk about earlier during his extensive explanation of the different powers and more special locations inside the Sky Empire.
"Ah? Ah! Yeah, there was actually something I wanted to know something about, but it's not related to the Sky Empire. The thing I want to know more about is your domain... Or to be more specific, your way of integrating a different domain into it."
Realizing that he had remained silent for a good five minutes going over the information that Elder Meng had given him, Xuan Hao could not help being taken aback for a short moment before asking the question that had been on his mind ever since he had seen Elder Meng first show off his domain in the public square outside the Black Mist auction house.
Even if he had managed to examine the domain from afar and had some ideas about how he had done things, he could never be certain about it, as he had never used his divine sense to observe the domain in detail.
Not to mention, Xuan Hao already understood just how difficult it was for someone to integrate two domains together into a single domain after he had integrated his sword domain and ice domain into a single domain.
The stress put on the soul was simply not something a Fifth Stage Domain Lord like Elder Meng could endure!
Of course, this just resulted in Xuan Hao being far more interested in finding out how he had done it. After all, standing in front of him in person, he could clearly feel that Elder Meng's soul should not be any stronger than an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert at his cultivation realm!
With this in mind, how had he managed to successfully integrated the weaker rainwater domain together with the far more powerful mist domain without any problems?
"This… Sure, I don't mind telling you, it's not really anything special like you might be expecting…"
Hearing what Xuan Hao said, Elder Meng showed a surprised expression for a short moment before saying this with a somewhat sad expression on his face.