Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

Tushan Immortal City.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, allowing Divine Sense to sweep in all directions, enveloping the entire Immortal City to make a simple assessment.

”Seven years.”

”Without realizing it, seven years have passed since Tushan Immortal City was reclaimed.”

He sighed slightly.

A gloomy mood persisted for years without fading; perhaps it would take decades more to gradually get used to it and forget until only occasionally remembered.

At that moment, as Divine Sense swept through the entire Tushan Immortal City, it immediately detected tremendous changes within.

The vast slums, occupying nearly half the city district, were gone. The stench of urine and filth that once permeated the air was no longer present, replaced by green tiles and grey bricks, shaded woods, and flourishing flowers that never seemed to wither throughout the year.

In the morning, a light mist hovered, by noon, gold light shone down, and in the evening, the sunset glowed, while at night, lotus flowers bloomed like lanterns, thriving in every corner.

Although they were all just First-order Spiritual Plants, with medicinal properties as well, they were still a feast for the eyes, creating a scene like a flower palace, with endless streams of visitors, many of them Cultivator couples.

”Not good-looking.”

”This city is so effeminate.”

Jiang Ding criticized.

This was the consequence when the ones in power were predominantly women.

It lacked the rugged and sharp temperament of Sword Cultivators and, if one wasn’t careful, one could easily become entrapped in this tender land, making it difficult to leave and strive through hardship.

”Sadly, I am but a cold and unfeeling swordsman…”

Jiang Ding was unconcerned about this and had no intention of correcting it. He looked past the scenery, toward the people in the city.

Hundreds of thousands of Cultivators, those cultivating Qi, building foundations, and forming Golden Pills were all present, the Golden Pills being those of the Shang Clan – these merchants were known for valuing money over life.

The Direct Lineage feared death, so they sent the Collateral Lineage; and if the Collateral Lineage was afraid, they sent vassals; business just couldn’t stop.

People could die, but business had to go on.

The malice once constantly present in the eyes of passing Cultivators had vanished, becoming more serene, no longer quick to fight to the death over a disagreement.

Every time a team of thirteen sword-bearing women in green dresses passed by, the surrounding Cultivators would immediately cast looks of awe, and even the most barbaric of men suddenly became good-tempered.

A lot of such people had died over the past seven years.

After numerous selections, the city had become much more peaceful.

On both sides of the streets, places like Chunfeng Building and Red Mud Garden had disappeared completely, without even a trace left in the dark.

Perhaps this was why there seemed to be a proliferation of intimate Cultivator couples everywhere.

As for places like Soul Refining Tower, Blood Soul Cave, Zombie Cave, and Fierce Ghost Pit, not a grain of them remained.

Not only had they vanished, but those who remained had to deny ever being involved in such trades. Any hint of resurgence resulted in a host of related individuals being sentenced to death.

In just a few years,

Large-scale Talisman shops, Magic Tool shops, Elixir stores, and sizable enterprises like Spirit Beast Gardens, Spiritual Plant Estates, and Spirit Fish Lake mushroomed up.

There was no adoption of new technology, just a simplification of existing techniques, standardizing the practices and procedures for Talisman, Magic Tools, Elixirs, breeding, and cultivation; with regular assessments and streamlined logistics.

Just these measures alone boosted the productivity of the entire Three Kingdoms region by several times over.

It’s important to note,

that the total amount of Spiritual Energy in the world is not fixed.

It came from the transformation cycle of the world out of the void and chaos, from inside the Spiritual Vein, and also from within the Spiritual Plants.

Of course, having too many Spiritual Plants is not acceptable; it would cause damage to the soil and the environment.

An orderly, cyclical cultivation ecosystem is conducive to the increase in concentration of Spiritual Energy in the environment.

A sect, tending a Spiritual Vein for several thousand or even tens of thousands of years, even without relocating or plundering other veins, has the opportunity to raise its grade, from second-order to third-order, or from third-order to fourth-order and so on.

But this related knowledge is extremely precious.

It represents the data of thousands of years of cyclical processes from a single location, immeasurable human and material resources consumed during experiments, along with the frequent possibility of mistakes, making the barrier to entry extremely high.

This academic knowledge, which could be dubbed the cultivation equivalent of slaying dragons, if passed down in any form, could claim titles like ’Dragonseeker Master’ or ’Celestial Master Clan,’ becoming honored guests of great powers.

However, for the citizens of Xianmen Sect, all of this is common sense.

The successors of Xianmen Sect are no joke.

Any citizen of Xianmen Sect, as long as they are not too eccentric, are willing to learn humbly, are down-to-earth, and can apply the knowledge from books in practical ways, has a great chance of becoming a competent ruler of a land.

Jiang Ding estimated roughly, based on the current structural model of the cultivation population and the industry structure, that the cultivators in the Three Kingdoms could still double.

Of course, it’s not possible to have too many high-level cultivators.

Their consumption alone is at least equivalent to tens of thousands of cultivators, and low-level Spiritual Energy and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures are not enough.

After the population of cultivators doubles, the number of practitioners can no longer increase.

Otherwise, it could cause damage to the ecological environment of the Three Kingdoms over thousands of years, and the collective degradation of the Spiritual Veins across the Three Kingdoms is indeed possible.

At this time, the coping strategy in the Xianmen Sect textbooks is to raise the score requirements for the Cultivation Department to reduce the number of new cultivators being born, waiting for the old generation of cultivators to age, then opportunistically raising the threshold.

This is the reason for the annual change in the number of places offered for the college entrance examination to the Cultivation Department; everything is openly stated in the textbooks, with nothing concealed.

In the Three Kingdoms, due to the absence of the Central Array Spirit Computer for assistance, there’s no way to regulate in detail, so the prices of Elixirs, Spiritual Veins, Spirit Fruit, Talismans, and Cultivation Methods are raised instead, performing macro-control.

There are definitely inaccuracies, and policy casualties occur from time to time, but the desired effect is still achievable.

”So many Demon Race cultivators...”

After assessing the mental health status of the Immortal City’s cultivators, Jiang Ding noticed that among the cultivators coming and going on the streets, some occasionally displayed characteristics like rabbit ears and tails, bull horns, snake tails, dog ears, wings, etc., which is a reflection of incomplete transformation by middle and low-level Demon Race cultivators.

Compared to seven years ago, there seemed to be more Demon Race cultivators, mostly from herbivorous tribes like the Rabbit Tribe, Bull Clan, and Bird Clan, as those with cannibalistic habits had been killed off. There were also Tiger Clan, Three-tailed fox tribe, Snake Clan, etc., but in smaller numbers.

Observing their condition, they seemed to be doing well. The Demon Race’s different tribes were originally fraught with deadly feuds, even internally, and there had not yet been the emergence of a ’Demon Race’ racial consciousness.

After implementing Jiang Ding’s plan for adjustments in Tushan Immortal City, the hatred dissolved quickly.

Of course, there were also truly deep and serious enmities, but those responsible were now dead.

Furthermore, with almost equal treatment to the Human Race, and that too among the better orders of the Human Race, many short-sighted Demon Race cultivators instantly felt they had arrived in the Immortal Realm.

They were freely able to learn Cultivation Methods, knowledge of Talismans, Magic, farming, hunting; they were treated with equality without worrying about their safety.

This kind of treatment was unprecedented within their own tribes, not even in their dreams, where the powerful overlords of their own kind only knew how to exploit—they were better off than outsiders, but only just a bit, and overall the treatment was very cruel.

Now, within such a favorable environment, many from the Demon Race quickly developed a strong sense of belonging. No matter who it was, none wanted to leave this wonderful life behind.

In Jiang Ding’s assessment, many Demon Race cultivators’ sense of belonging and loyalty to the Immortal City was even stronger than that of most Human Race cultivators.

”However, plain and simple is the ultimate truth.”

”Excessive loyalty and excessive hatred are both abnormal states, unsettling and unstable conditions,” Jiang Ding remarked indifferently. He did not gleefully revel in others’ loyalty like a feudal ruler might have: ”The Human Race is the foundation, a fact that must not be shaken. The combined strength of all the cultivators from various races must not exceed one-fifth of that of humans.”

”If it approaches that, then it’s time for macro-control.”