Struggling to Survive with Regression Power in the Primordial Saint Sect

Chapter 519: Everjoy Garden

What exactly did the 【Everjoy Garden】 look like?

With the token left behind by Ancestor Tingyou, Lu Yang quickly established communication with this mysterious and elusive place—seemingly nonexistent yet undeniably real.

As it turned out, humans were incapable of imagining things they had never seen.

Even one as gifted as Ancestor Tingyou was no exception. So, in designing the 【Everjoy Garden】, he naturally took inspiration from the thing he interacted with most frequently—

The Myriad Spirits Banner.

Lu Yang looked out, only to see that the so-called 【Everjoy Garden】 was essentially a colossal black box. Inside were countless pitch-black coffins, each housing a cultivator. Their expressions varied—some smiling, some in agony, others blank—each displaying the myriad states of the mortal world.

“My goodness…”

Lu Yang blinked. With the highest level of authority in the 【Everjoy Garden】 personally granted by Ancestor Tingyou, he quickly grasped all information regarding this place.

First, about the Everjoy Garden itself.

‘This mysterious realm closely resembled the 【Heaven Without Worry】 in essence, pushing the boundary between illusion and reality to its extreme. It lay at the threshold between existence and non-existence.’

‘As for the members recruited into the 【Everjoy Garden】—besides the leaders of various sects in Jiangnan—there was also a sizable population of mortals and Qi Refining disciples. The 【Everjoy Garden】 aided their cultivation and growth, while they, in turn, carried out tasks to sustain its operation.’

This was a symbiotic relationship.

And without a doubt, such a relationship further strengthened the ties between the masses and the 【Heaven Without Worry】, reinforcing the seal against True Lords.

‘The extension… about ten more years.’

Lu Yang performed a quick calculation and soon arrived at an answer: “The blockade lasted sixty years in my previous life, yet after just thirty years, True Lords were already manifesting through the burning of their cave-heavens.”

Ancestor Tingyou had optimized the system.

With the expansion of the 【Everjoy Garden】, the time a True Lord could forcibly descend had been extended to forty years. At first glance, it didn’t seem like much.

But context mattered.

The original 【Heaven Without】 had already been refined to the extreme by the Innate Daoist Mu Changsheng—an equally brilliant genius who bore the tribulations of Heaven and Earth.

Under these circumstances, the fact that Ancestor Tingyou could still design the 【Everjoy Garden】 and improve upon the【Heaven Without】was already astonishing.

If there was a flaw in the 【Everjoy Garden】, it wasn’t in its hardware.

Rather, the flaw lay in its conceptual design.

As Lu Yang browsed through the intelligence reports on the 【Everjoy Garden】, he frowned:

‘Every cultivator recruited into the 【Everjoy Garden】 received its blessing—it helped elevate their cultivation and attainments.’

Upon seeing this, Lu Yang froze.

How did the 【Everjoy Garden】 empower its subordinates? Ancestor Tingyou had based it on the Dao Court’s system—in essence, a fruit-position empowerment from the 【Heaven Without Worry】.

But that power had limits.

‘Unless it’s a fruit-position like 【Eternal Flow】 that possessed boundless conceptual imagery, fruit-position power wasn’t infinite. Overuse would lead to self-damage!’

Considering the fruit-position power being expended, most of those recruited were Qi Refining stage cultivators—many even mortals—with very few Foundation Establishment cultivators, offering minimal resources in return.

It was an unsustainable model.

In other words, the 【Everjoy Garden】 was draining the power of the 【Heaven Without Worry】 to sustain its members.

Ancestor Tingyou might’ve believed it worthwhile—after all, the 【Everjoy Garden】 could increase Lu Yang’s chances of ascending to the Golden Core stage—but Lu Yang himself had a different view.

“Wasting all that bright and precious fruit-position power… on Qi Refining disciples?”

“Sinful!”

Lu Yang grimaced. “A bunch of Qi Refining stage nobodies, not even worthy of being called ‘human’—Ancestor treated them too well! How’s the 【Everjoy Garden】 supposed to grow strong like this?”

With that thought, Lu Yang immediately began rewriting the system.

First, the act of using fruit-position power to boost cultivators had to stop. It was pure expenditure, not even producing any feedback.

His new policy was simple, summed up in four characters:

Expand Income, Reduce Spending.

‘From now on, all cultivators who join the 【Everjoy Garden】 will have their real bodies sealed. Their actions will be performed by simulated avatars crafted from fruit-position power.’

‘All enhancements and advancements within the 【Everjoy Garden】 will apply solely to the avatars. This way, the power lent is only temporary and can be reclaimed at any time—it remains fundamentally mine. Labor costs: slashed!’

In addition, new revenue streams were needed.

‘Starting today, the 【Everjoy Garden】 will issue the Everjoy Currency. All enhancements and upgrades must be exchanged using this currency.’

‘Completing missions earns Everjoy Currency.’

‘Submitting spiritual materials, treasures, techniques, or rare items also yields currency. Of course, to me, this stuff’s all just numbers.’

In essence, it was profiting from nothing.

After all, cultivators were redeeming currency to upgrade themselves—but all upgrades were applied to simulated bodies made by Lu Yang.

So he hadn’t spent a cent, and yet he’d harvested a mountain of free labor!

Lu Yang felt no guilt. If he didn’t squeeze these people for every drop of surplus value, how could he progress? A true powerhouse should ruthlessly exploit the weak!

Ultimately, he never expected these 【Everjoy Garden】 cultivators to fight alongside him. Most weren’t even considered human. Their only value was aiding him in proving the 【Heavenly Fire】, acting as cannon fodder, collecting resources, and scouting dangerous grounds.

‘And even then, they should be thanking me!’

After all, their real bodies were sealed in the 【Everjoy Garden】. The ones venturing outside were merely simulated forms. Even if they died, they could be rebuilt—only losing some divine sense at most.

In other words, as long as the 【Everjoy Garden】 remained hidden and unbreached—

These cultivators were effectively immortal!

‘Of course, they must never learn this. Better to set a limited number of resurrections—first three free, subsequent revivals require Everjoy Currency…’

Furthermore, Lu Yang added dozens of paid feature points within the 【Everjoy Garden】, hoping to stimulate these talents’ potential.

‘Expand to Jiangbei and overseas!’

‘With the 【Everjoy Garden】 in place, I needn’t worry about direct governance. Once absorbed, they’re my subordinates!’

Naturally, the fruit-position power of the 【Heaven Without Worry】 was limited. Lu Yang couldn’t bring everyone into the garden.

Just like in Jiangnan—so long as he targeted the upper echelons governing each region, those under their rule would, by extension, fall under his control as well.

Soon, under Lu Yang’s direction, a brand-new 【Everjoy Garden】 began to rumble into operation, rapidly spreading across the four corners of the realm.

A few months later—

Lu Yang sat cross-legged inside the Tianwu Hall, listlessly pushing aside the unconscious Empress Xiao as he performed his routine inspection of the 【Everjoy Garden】ʼs status.

At that moment, the 【Heavenly Fire】 high above the firmament had been fully ignited. Its blinding radiance was visible across Jiangdong, Jiangbei, Jiangnan, and even the overseas regions—a testament to Lu Yang’s dominion. At this point, only Jiangxiʼs Pure Land remained untouched.

But Jiangxi was guarded by the World-Honored One—he couldn’t afford to act rashly.

Compared to that, Lu Yang received an unexpected boon—his greatest gain since the 【Everjoy Garden】 began its expansion.

The next moment, Lu Yang entered the Everjoy Garden.

His gaze quickly landed on a cultivator under the Garden’s domain—a disciple of the Sacred Sect who had recently encountered a problem:

He had been possessed.

The possessing entity was a fragment shaped like a treasure jade, within which resided a smoke-shrouded figure who had recently been guiding his cultivation.

【Ang Xiao】!