Reverend Insanity: Dream Gu

More importantly, many of these problems were impossible to predict beforehand.

The first problem came from the three major carnivorous beast groups. They did not develop the healthy competition Lin Yan had expected. Instead of spreading across the Li Fire Plains and occupying separate territories, each group instinctively tried to eliminate the other two and monopolize the abundant resources.

Lin Yan could forcibly suppress them, but that would not solve the underlying problem. The moment he turned his attention elsewhere, another bloody conflict could erupt, forcing him to constantly spend time and effort maintaining the balance.

Therefore, he simply allowed them to fight.

Of course, Lin Yan would not allow any of them to go extinct. Whenever one side suffered overwhelming losses and faced destruction, he secretly interfered, allowing the survivors to escape as though they had narrowly avoided disaster.

After several bloody wars ended without a true victor, the three groups gradually realized that none of them could completely eliminate the others.

Eventually, each established its own territory and hunting grounds. Although conflicts still occurred from time to time, a fragile balance had finally formed, allowing all three species to coexist within the Li Fire Plains.

The second problem came from the fierce competition among herbivore groups for grazing land. Its main cause was the introduction of two Rank 6 Desolate Plants into the Li Fire Plains: the Dry Yang Fire Jujube Tree and Attract Fire Immortal Bamboo.

Both Desolate Plants were too powerful. They naturally protected their descendant species, allowing the Fire Jujube Trees and Provoke Fire Bamboo to occupy the areas with the richest earth qi and the most favorable environments.

This directly affected the beast groups that originally relied on these plants for food, including the Black and White Fire Bears, Red Horned Antelopes, and White Yang Elephants. Without a Rank 6 Desolate Beast leader capable of resisting the two Desolate Plants, they were gradually driven away and forced to feed on Fire Beard Grass, Flame Marsh Grass, and other vegetation growing in poorer regions.

As more beast groups crowded into the remaining grazing lands, competition for food and territory became increasingly fierce, making the shortage of grazing resources even worse.

Lin Yan’s solution was equally simple. He forcibly pressured the two Desolate Plants into withdrawing their protection, allowing the herbivore groups to feed on their descendant species once again.

The final problem came from the competition among the plants themselves, and its cause was even more unexpected.

Lin Yan had originally believed that Fire Beard Grass and Flame Marsh Grass would cause the greatest trouble. Since both occupied the same ecological niche, he expected them to compete fiercely until one eventually overwhelmed the other.

For this reason, he had specifically introduced Scarlet Cloud Flowers to ease the competition between them and maintain balance.

Who would have expected the Scarlet Cloud Flowers to become the real troublemakers?

While Fire Beard Grass and Flame Marsh Grass were busy fighting each other, this old six had quietly expanded from the sidelines, occupying more and more territory.

Just as Lin Yan was preparing to intervene and uproot every Scarlet Cloud Flower from the Li Fire Plains, something even more unexpected happened.

The Red Horned Antelopes and several other herbivore groups gradually changed their diets and began feeding on Scarlet Cloud Flowers. Their consumption naturally restricted the spread of the flowers, allowing the three plant species to gradually reach a new balance.

More importantly, after feeding on Scarlet Cloud Flowers for long periods, some herbivores began to undergo beneficial mutations. Their descendants inherited the ability to digest the flowers, gradually turning Scarlet Cloud Flowers into part of their natural diet.

If this continued, these herbivore groups might eventually produce Desolate Beast-level leaders of their own.

From beginning to end, Lin Yan had not interfered at all. The conflict among the three plant species had resolved itself through the adaptation of the surrounding beast groups.

This experience gave Lin Yan a deeper understanding of blessed land management. Not every problem needed to be solved by force, nor could every change be predicted in advance. Given enough time, the countless living beings within an ecosystem would adapt, compete, and eventually find a new balance of their own.

Survival of the fittest. Life would always find its own way.

This ecological imbalance had naturally affected the blessed land’s income. The Li Fire Plains had suffered the heaviest losses. Over the past three years, dozens of mortal resource points had nearly collapsed, leaving only the Netherfire Dragon Python resource point largely unaffected.

The Fire Ember Lakes had no competing species to disrupt their growth, allowing the python population to continue producing stable profits.

Despite all these losses, its monthly income in the outside world remained at around nine hundred immortal essence stones.

The reason was simple. While the Li Fire Plains suffered heavy losses, the northern Flame Desert, eastern Thunderous Hills, and western Molten Flame Mountains had continued developing steadily. Their growing resource points compensated for the losses in the south, allowing the blessed land’s overall income to remain stable.

What surprised Lin Yan most was that the three regions he had largely left alone had developed far more smoothly than the heavily managed Li Fire Plains.