Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

With the conquest of the Great Snow Mountain Sacred Land, two Divinity Transformation Heavenly Monarchs of the Ice Phoenix Clan were killed in battle, and the West Desert War was declared over.

The Northern Plains Tushan Courtyard achieved a comprehensive victory!

The subsequent work was mainly focused on clearing the remnants of the Cannibal Demon Tribe in the West Desert, settling the accounts of criminals and guilty demons, as well as establishing grassroots governance and taxation.

At present, the most important task in the West Desert is the recovery of the population.

Under the rule of the Demon Race for thousands of years, coupled with their recent defeat in the war and their frenzied slaughter of Western Desert Human Race slaves to vent their rage, the population of the Western Desert Human Race has dropped below one million, less than one-thousandth of its heyday, to the point of near extinction.

This is the case for mortals; naturally, it is the same for Cultivators who are born from them.

In the entire West Desert, it’s uncertain whether there are even a thousand Cultivators of Foundation Establishment and above; the native civilization of the Western Desert Human Race’s Immortal Path is basically nonexistent.

If not for external influences, it would take at least several hundred thousand years of decline and emergence, the wisdom and Blood Bone of countless Heavenly Prides accumulating bit by bit, to create the Immortal Tao culture we have now.

And that’s if they’re lucky. With a bit less luck, the extinction of the entire race is very probable.

This is the greatest difference between the Human Race and other races; they have no inherent bloodlines, relying entirely on Acquired civilization.

The height of Immortal Tao civilization directly determines the power of the local Human Race.

Without civilization, the Human Race is weaker than even the weakest Pig Demon Race, like ants among ants, ineligible even to be slaves.

Without civilization, Pig Demons and Bull Demons are stronger than the Human Race, growing flesh faster than humans; an utterly worthless race.

The current West Desert’s native Human Race civilization is essentially ruined.

However, this is no problem, as people can be migrated from the Northern Plains, and this goes for Cultivators as well. Many Cultivators will be overjoyed and willing to exchange their Battle Merits for such an opportunity.

Because, the vast West Desert is filled with various ranks of Spiritual Veins, Spirit Mines, and Spiritual Medicine Gardens!

From First-order to Fifth Order, all are available.

There are endless opportunities here, substantial war dividends; as long as one has Battle Merits, everyone can carve out a sizeable share of the spoils of war for themselves. One can use their own Battle Merits to further their Cultivation Base or pass it on to their descendants; it is all a matter of choice.

Of course, taxes are inevitable.

Every Cultivator of the Tushan Central Courtyard should understand that only birth, Cultivation, and taxation are inevitable in one’s life, with the demand for taxes being heavy, mostly above fifty percent and rates of seventy or eighty percent are not uncommon.

This is not excessive.

Almost the entire West Desert can be said to have been conquered by the Tushan Heavenly Monarch, who bore over ninety percent of the battle’s pressures and slew the enemies before his eyes. The Battle Merits of the millions of Lower Rank Cultivators pale in comparison to his.

It can be said that over ninety percent of the West Desert is the spoils of war belonging to the Tushan Heavenly Monarch.

Fairness must not only exist among Low-ranking Cultivators but also among High-Level Cultivators!

For Cultivators, what they exchange with Battle Merits are merely the management rights to various spirit lands and Spiritual Medicine Gardens. If they are inadequate, they can give up at any time and hand them over to Cultivators with stronger management capabilities.

Now in the Tushan Central Courtyard, management spells are becoming trendy, such as the Great Splitting Earth Technique, which tills dozens of acres of spirit land at once; like the Great Cloud Rain Technique, which waters dozens of acres of Spiritual Medicine Gardens at once, and like pest control spells, Artifact Refining Techniques, Alchemy...

Such management spells are becoming popular, no longer prioritizing spells for combat and strife.

Whose management spells are better, and who can increase production more, will get more rewards.

The same goes for those who develop new management spells, as a single harvest could be much greater than the gains from dozens of times if one were highway banditry!

Whoever can manage better, whoever can research and develop more, will get their hands on more Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure and merits.

And Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, as well as merits,

For cultivators, it means future prospects, it means life!

Weighing the two alternatives, many cultivators place the practice of combat arts second and devote a great deal of time to studiously researching economic magic, developing suitable local business magic, which is not hard to understand.

Economy is the foundation of social customs and culture.

In the Tu Shan Central Courtyard Cultivation World, the custom of judging a cultivator solely by their prowess in combat is beginning to change; many female cultivators have begun to admire those with accomplishments in economic arts, and many elders have taken a liking to young cultivators gifted in management. And so on.

This makes many traditional cultivators unhappy, believing that they have lost the essence of cultivation, which is harmful to the world.

In the world, what ultimately matters the most is strength.

If one does not possess strength, no matter how skilled in management one is, they will be overtaken by alien races, by demon cultivators—an act of abandoning the essentials for the trivial.

This debate has been heating up for a while and hasn’t subsided to this day.

Jiang Ding has heard these surging public opinions and simply laughs them off.

That cultivators use their mighty mana, Divine Sense, and magic for developing production rather than fighting and killing is precisely the result of his gradual guidance.

These measures greatly benefit the production of Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure throughout the whole world and the circulation of Spiritual Energy as well.

This world has already been damaged.

It could be said that what might have originally taken hundreds of thousands of years to recover, to give birth anew to Peak Divine Transformation Cultivators, now requires only tens of thousands of years, thanks to the beneficial cycle of the Immortal Tao Ecosystem.

As for the delay in practicing combat arts, leading to a decline in cultivation strength and ultimately becoming slaves to alien races because of that weakness?

That is even more of a joke!

What used to be like in the Northern Plains Immortal Cultivation World?

One family after another, one sect after another, engaged in never-ending battles. Every cultivator, even the most talented Alchemist with the best aptitude, spent most of their time honing their combat arts. They had no choice, for even in wealth, without strength, they could easily become prey to other cultivators at any time.

Stepping outside carelessly and getting killed for your treasure was an everyday occurrence.

It is safe to say that every cultivator was in a frenzied arms race, with no choice but to compete.

And in the end, what was produced?

A horde of cultivators as wretched as beggars, most of whom had few Treasures or Magic Tools, and even those were of inferior quality.

The combat arts they spent their lives honing were indeed somewhat impressive in terms of their ferocity and adaptability, but in terms of true magic structure, mana utilization efficiency, and the ability to manipulate Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi... and so on, these indicators are simply abysmal, without any value to speak of.

Only with wealth can we speak of strength!

As numerous cultivators sharpen their skills in economic magic, the overall wealth of the Cultivation World greatly increases. Using these increased fortunes to trade for more powerful Magic Tools and Treasures, to purchase Elixirs for cultivation, to acquire Talismans, and to combine them with sophisticated Army Formations.

Aren’t all these means of increasing strength?

It can be said that in the current Northern Plains Immortal Cultivation World, cultivators of the same order and similar status and aptitude may indeed be less fierce and decisive than those of old, for after all, they have spent less time refining those traits, not frequently facing life and death, conflict—this is a fact.

But in a real fight, today’s Northern Plains cultivators can absolutely crush and defeat the old Northern Plains cultivators!

There is no doubt about it.

Because today’s Northern Plains cultivators have completely surpassed the old ones in all aspects such as Cultivation Method, magic, Magic Tools, Talismans, etc!

As long as they don’t go insane or suddenly lose their wits, today’s Northern Plains cultivators can absolutely crush and defeat the latter.

This is the importance of economic development in the Cultivation World.

Only when the Immortal Tao economy has developed and prospered can we talk about paths and strength. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of beggars competing with treasures, talking about how exquisitely and decisively they snatched a large bowl of rice today, which is laughable.