Sovereign of the Ashes

The high-level summit hosted by the Magus Civilization began shortly thereafter.

The discussions mainly revolved around the overall war strategy for the next several thousand years, as well as the interests and demands of the various factions involved.

If any faction leaders had concerns regarding recent military deployments, or requests they wished to raise, this was also the place to voice them.

In truth, however, the Magus Civilization had already reached a consensus on most of the major policies long before the representatives of the various factions arrived.

This summit was meant more to fill in the gaps and settle whatever issues remained.

One such issue concerned the Buddhist faction.

Lady Bev urged the Lamp-Bearing Buddha and the forces he represented to make use of the teleportation arrays as soon as possible and accelerate their deployment toward the border battlefields of the Grand Cosmic World.

The Buddhist faction had been moving quite slowly. Even now, nearly one-third of its legions had yet to reach their designated combat zones.

Part of the reason was that some of those legions still had their eyes on the enormous war profits being made on the Gallant Federation’s main front.

Since they had failed to convince Lady Bev and the others to give them a share of the spoils there, they naturally had to find other ways to get a piece of the pie.

And in recent years, the Buddhist faction had indeed come up with a rather clever solution.

Large numbers of small and medium-sized Buddhist sects under their influence had been sent to the Magus Civilization battlefield under the guise of rogue cultivators, allowing them to participate directly in the fighting on the Gallant Federation’s main front.

Of course, these sects and rogue cultivators affiliated with the Buddhist faction were required to hand over half of their war profits to the Magus Civilization. But still, they got to keep the other half!

Either way, the Buddhist faction still profited. The only question was how much.

This was also one of the main reasons why such a bewildering variety of Immortal Realm cultivators could now be found across the Magus Civilization’s battlefields.

With the Buddhist faction setting such a “good example”, the small and medium-sized sects belonging to other Immortal Realm factions were naturally unwilling to sit back and watch, especially for those that had once been affiliated with the sage courts.

One after another, they lowered their status and entered the Magus Civilization battlefield as rogue cultivators.

The Chan Sect was a good example.

Although it had yet to commit its main forces to the Magus Civilization battlefield, many of the medium and small schools under it had already been active there for the past several centuries.[1]

And it was not only the Chan Sect. Ordinary members of the Yao Clan, ghost cultivators, and even demon cultivators from the Immortal Realm had also begun slipping into the Magus Civilization battlefield over the past few centuries, drawn by the staggering profits being made by rogue cultivators there.

The Yao Clan was one thing. After all, two great sages were currently stationed on the Magus Civilization’s main battlefield, and Magus World itself held no particular prejudice toward Yao Clan beings from the Immortal Realm.

From Magus World’s perspective, they were basically just another kind of magic beast!

Ghost cultivators and demon cultivators, however, were another matter entirely. Both were widely despised throughout the Immortal Realm Civilization.

Demon cultivators, in particular, were regarded as outright heretics and evildoers.

Yet with the Magus Civilization’s oversight being relatively loose in this regard, large numbers of ghost cultivators and demon cultivators had still managed to slip through.

When Lady Bev brought up the need for the Buddhist faction to accelerate its military deployment, the Lamp-Bearing Buddha took the opportunity to raise another issue.

Among all the great sage courts of the Immortal Realm, the Buddhist faction was undoubtedly the least tolerant of ghost cultivators and demon cultivators.

Thus, while the Buddhist faction agreed during the meeting to transfer the remainder of its main forces to the Grand Cosmic World battlefield as soon as possible, Lady Bev and the representatives of the various great sage courts also put forward a proposal concerning the future screening of rogue cultivators entering and leaving the Magus Civilization’s battlefields.

In truth, the Magus Civilization itself held no particular animosity toward ghost cultivators or demon cultivators.

From Magus World’s perspective, they were just necromancers and black mages.

Necromancers were a perfectly legitimate branch of spellcasters in Magus World.

As for black mages, although they were kept firmly under control by the Magus Civilization, they could still prove quite useful when the situation called for it.

So no matter how much trouble those ghost cultivators and demon cultivators caused back in the Immortal Realm, once they entered the Magus Civilization’s territory, they had little choice but to keep a low profile and also generate revenue for the Magus Civilization...

The overlord-level beings sent there by the Immortal Realm were all sages with deep ties to the Magus Civilization, and this was another important reason the Magus Civilization could maintain such firm control over the situation.

Take the Buddhist faction, the Chan Sect, the Jie Sect, and the Yao Clan, for example. The Magus Civilization had deliberately guided all of them toward the Grand Cosmic World battlefield to confront the Amenkha Empire.

They had to. The Amenkha Empire was certainly a threat, but it was not the only one. The Immortal Realm Civilization itself was also a potential threat.

When dealings reached the level of entire civilizations, personal relationships alone could never be completely relied upon.

Just imagine it... If more than a dozen overlords from another civilization suddenly appeared within the Magus Civilization’s own territory, even its high command would probably lose sleep over it.

Naturally, these were far from the only matters discussed at the summit.

Another important topic was the exchange between magicoins and the currencies of the Immortal Realm.

At present, magicoins remained the sole circulating currency on the Magus Civilization’s main battlefield.

However, during this meeting, the Magus Civilization finally established official exchange rates between magicoins and the currencies commonly used throughout the Immortal Realm.

For immortal jade, which was mainly used by the Immortal Realm’s Rank Four and above powerhouses, the exchange rate was set at one immortal jade to ten thousand magicoins.

As for the two currencies most commonly used by ordinary Immortal Realm cultivators, one spirit jade could be exchanged for one hundred magicoins, while one yuan was equivalent to one magicoin.

Establishing these exchange rates resolved many of the problems surrounding the allocation and circulation of war resources between the Magus Civilization and the Immortal Realm.

More importantly, it also pushed cooperation between the two civilizations another step deeper.

Even on the Amenkha Empire battlefield, which lay extremely far from the Magus Civilization’s homeland, the standard currencies of the Immortal Realm had already begun circulating alongside magicoins.

The Magus Civilization could not control this, and had no real way of doing so, so it might as well go with the flow and push things along.

The same principle applied to its management of the rogue cultivators.

Over time, the Magus Civilization had gradually realized that directly demanding half of their earnings only bred more resentment and resistance.

After all, no one would willingly hand over wealth they had fought for, least of all those frontline combatants who had risked their lives to earn it.

Since outright “confiscation” was too crude, the Magus Civilization simply changed its approach.

The policy of directly taking half of the rogue cultivators’ earnings was gradually phased out, while greater emphasis was placed on magicoins and the overall prices of goods instead.

At first, many Immortal Realm cultivators fighting on the Magus Civilization’s battlefields cheered when they heard that half of their spoils would no longer be confiscated.

But it did not take long for them to notice that everything around them was getting more expensive...

Immortal Realm cultivators who rushed to the Magus Civilization to fight could hardly prepare every pill, artifact, piece of equipment, and other supply they might need in advance.

After fighting on the front lines for long enough, they inevitably had to replenish their supplies locally. Besides, many of them were also deeply curious about the Magus Civilization’s magitech products and alchemical creations.

Naturally, all of that cost money... More specifically, magicoins.

As a result, many Immortal Realm cultivators were stunned after several hundred years of war to discover that although their strength had grown considerably, the wealth they had actually accumulated was nowhere near as impressive as they had imagined.

This method of extracting wealth through magicoins was not limited to rogue cultivators either.

The Magus Civilization also applied the same principle in its dealings with the various sage courts.

This was precisely why the Immortal Realm Civilization had pushed so strongly for a proper currency exchange system.

The sage-level powerhouses of the Immortal Realm were naturally well aware of what the Magus Civilization was doing. During this high-level summit, they raised their objections to the subtle flow of wealth through magicoins and demanded that certain adjustments be made.

The Magus Civilization had no intention of souring its relationship with the Immortal Realm, and the Immortal Realm had no reason to do so either. If there was a problem, they could simply sit down and negotiate.

At this stage, what both sides wanted most was cooperation and mutual benefit.

The Magus Civilization was not so unscrupulous as to squeeze its allies dry, and the sage courts of the Immortal Realm were no different.

As long as the countless ordinary cultivators and beings beneath them could also reap some benefits from this Clash of Civilizations, then the relationship between the two sides could still be considered healthy.

In the end, the final round of negotiations proceeded extremely smoothly.

Nezha of the Chan Sect also announced that the Chan Sect had completed its military mobilization within the Immortal Realm and would begin deploying its forces to the Amenkha Empire battlefield in stages over the next hundred years.

In fact, this high-level summit had partly been arranged for Nezha’s benefit.

As the Chan Sect’s representative, she needed an initial understanding of the overall situation across the Magus Civilization’s battlefields before her faction formally entered the war.

“Well then, here’s to a fruitful collaboration in this Clash of Civilizations,” Bev said with a smile as the summit drew to a close.

1. Translator’s note: The “school” (門派, mén pài) here does not refer to educational institutions like the schools or universities we attend. Instead, it refers to sects, orders, or organized groups whose members follow the same teachings, philosophy, cultivation methods, martial lineage, or religious doctrine. In Chinese fantasy, wuxia, xianxia, and historical settings, a school usually has its own master, disciples, techniques, rules, territory, and lineage. Its members are often trained under the same system and see themselves as part of the same tradition. A few famous examples are the Shaolin School, which follows Buddhist teachings and is well known for Shaolin martial arts, and the Emei School, which is often associated with swordsmanship. ☜