These people had all crossed the Land of Absolute Spirit before, and now they could not help feeling that the place where they were being held was remarkably similar to it.
This filled them with unease and panic.
What could be more terrifying to cultivators than losing their spiritual energy?
If they had known in advance that they would be entering a place like the Land of Absolute Spirit, where spiritual energy was cut off, that would have been one thing. But they were currently surrounded by abundant spiritual energy, only for it to suddenly vanish completely.
The change threw these cultivators, who relied utterly on spiritual energy, into a state of panic.
Would this energyless state last only for a short while, or would it continue indefinitely? They had no idea. But if it was the latter, their group of cultivators would be in serious trouble.
That was because, barring any special circumstances, the regular communication cycle established between Wanwantong's intelligence network in the mortal world and its headquarters was once every five years.
The latest reporting team had departed just three months ago.
A normal reporting team consisted of only around ten Golden Core cultivators. It took them roughly a year to return to the cultivation world, after which they would report their work to headquarters and spend three years recuperating there.
During those three years, headquarters would provide the group with various cultivation benefits as compensation for their work crossing the Land of Absolute Spirit. The cultivators would seize the opportunity to cultivate as hard as they could, then, after three years, return to the mortal world carrying supplies allocated by headquarters for their colleagues there, along with new instructions.
Of course, any cultivators whose terms of service in the mortal world had ended would return with the reporting team as well. However, when the team went back to the mortal world, those cultivators would not be returning. New personnel would be assigned to replace them instead.
Now, every one of Wanwantong's informants in the mortal world had been captured.
And the reporting team had already left the mortal world three months ago.
In other words, this group of informant cultivators would have to wait for the current reporting team to spend seven or eight months reaching headquarters. Then they would have to wait another three years while the team recuperated. Four years from now, the team would spend another year returning to the mortal world, where they would discover that the informants had been captured. After that, they would need another year to return to the cultivation world and report the situation to headquarters. Finally, they had no idea how long it would take headquarters to send people over to arrange a rescue.
It had to be said that the Heart of Heaven Sect had chosen its timing with exquisite precision.
They had a clear understanding of the movements of these informants and naturally knew exactly when they sent people back to the cultivation world. Venerable Zhiyu had deliberately chosen this moment to prepare for his breakthrough. That way, even if something unexpected happened, the Heart of Heaven Sect would have more than enough time to respond.
They simply had not expected the Pusi Kingdom to move directly against the informants and capture them all.
It also had to be said that the Lingxian Sect had been quite lucky.
In short, if there was no other way to send word of the informants' capture back to headquarters, and nothing went wrong along the way, headquarters would dispatch an exceptionally powerful expert the moment it received the news to rescue them. Under the most ideal circumstances, they would still have to remain in this wretched place for at least six years.
Six years!
Not one, two, or three years—six years!
If this place truly remained without spiritual energy for six years, most of them might suffer a decline in cultivation because they had been unable to stabilize their realms for so long. Their lifespans would then be shortened, and they would eventually die.
When they had crossed the Land of Absolute Spirit before, they had at least carried various pills that replenished spiritual energy. They might not have had enough to use freely, but they had enough to ensure that their cultivation would not regress.
Things were different now.
Almost none of them had much of anything valuable left.
After all, when they had been arrested by the various sects and imperial clans, they had been searched several times!
The people who arrested them, guarded them, and escorted them had all taken their turn. Every time the prisoners passed through another pair of hands, those hateful cultivators from the mortal world stripped away another layer of their possessions.
Those cultivators from the mortal world had even shown remarkable cooperation. Each time they looted the prisoners, they did so with perfect restraint, leaving quite a lot behind at first.
This had briefly delighted the informant cultivators. They had assumed the cultivators of the mortal world feared the backing they had in the cultivation world.
Only later did they realize they had been celebrating for nothing. These ignorant bumpkins were afraid of their background? Not a chance!
Those people had simply been leaving wealth for the ones who came after them!
They were surprisingly considerate of one another!
Thus, by the time the informant cultivators were escorted to Xiushui City, they had already been looted several times.
Although they still had a few things left, anyone could tell that the remaining possessions had certainly been deliberately left behind for the people in Xiushui City to claim.
They simply did not understand why no one from Xiushui City had come to search them yet.
It would be inaccurate to say that the informant cultivators had very little left. The cultivators of the mortal world had shown considerable restraint, knowing that keeping watch over and handling these cultivators was the most important thing. They also knew that, if the cultivation world discovered what had happened, Xiushui City would be the first place to face them directly. Thus, everyone had tacitly agreed to leave the prisoners a fair amount.
But there were more than ten thousand people. Relying on their remaining resources to last six years was sheer wishful thinking.
On the first day after the spiritual energy disappeared, more than ten thousand cultivators sat cross-legged in their rooms and waited uneasily. Although they could not sense even a trace of spiritual energy, they did not know what else to do besides meditate. They could only hope that the spiritual energy might suddenly return.
On the second day, some of them began to lose patience and went downstairs to wander around, pacing back and forth across the open ground in front of Building Fifty.
On the third day, some became so anxious that they walked around aimlessly, while others simply took out the resources remaining in their pockets and began cultivating in earnest. At a time like this, cultivation was the only thing that could give them even a little peace of mind.
…
On the tenth day after the spiritual energy disappeared, Venerable Gui Jia led a thousand Golden Core cultivators in issuing an order to the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators below them. They were commanded to hand over all the cultivation resources in their possession, such as Spirit-Replenishing Pills and Spirit-Gathering Pills.
The order was presented as a measure for these difficult times: by having their superiors centrally manage and uniformly distribute the resources, the group could ensure that their benefits were maximized.
The Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators were dumbfounded.
What did “centralized management and unified distribution” mean? What did “maximizing everyone’s benefits” mean?
Their cultivation might not have been as high, but they had all spent many years carrying out unsavory missions for Wanwantong. How could they possibly be naive enough not to understand what the order really meant?
Wasn’t it simply a demand for the low-level cultivators to hand over their resources so that the high-level cultivators could use them for cultivation?
Why should they?
In a place without spiritual energy, the low-level cultivators were clearly the ones who could hold out for the shortest time. These people were either Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators, and they could last far longer than the rest of them. Yet now, they were openly trying to seize the low-level cultivators’ cultivation resources.
Why should they?
Most of the lower-level cultivators were furious but did not dare say anything.
Still, there were always a few who did.
That person did not confront the high-level cultivators directly. Instead, he quietly voiced his discontent among the lower-level cultivators, saying, “If we were outside, then fine. But why should they be giving us orders here? This place prevents anyone from using offensive techniques!”
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
