In the distance, the domain field behind the ghost-type creatures surged forward like a speeding train, swallowing the battlefield, expanding all the way to Feng Qi's position. After enveloping him, it kept spreading behind him.
The clash between the two domain fields was over in an instant.
The dust-filled world before him suddenly shifted.
It felt like he had been teleported to another world.
There were no light sources in the sky, which glowed with an eerie green hue. The ghost-type beings floating overhead moved like fish diving into water, becoming incredibly active. Their flight speed noticeably increased.
The scene made Feng Qi feel puzzled.
The battle down the slope was still ongoing. The ghost-type beings already held a clear advantage, but not enough to end the fight in such a short time. Why had they suddenly gained overwhelming dominance? And why had their domain field completely consumed the opposing side's domain field so quickly?
Just as Feng Qi was trying to make sense of it, the Demon Blade's voice echoed in his mind.
"Probably the space crystal got ambushed and shattered."
Hearing this, Feng Qi immediately understood what had happened.
Unlike the human world, every clan-based domain field in the domain world had a spatial core. This spatial core acted like the formation eye of a grand array. If destroyed, the entire domain field would quickly collapse.
Everything inside—resources, lifeforms—would either spill out or become loot for the invading domain field.
Clearly, there was more to this war than just open conflict.
The ghost-type creatures had successfully destroyed the spatial crystal of the domain field belonging to those armored in dirt-colored battle gear.
The already tilted scale of war had now completely tipped in favor of the ghost-type side.
After the shift in domain field dynamics, the ghosts in the sky seemed to respond to a call. Like swallows returning to their nests, they swarmed in from all directions, diving onto the dirt-armored domain creatures and tearing at them with savage force.
Seeing this, Feng Qi no longer felt like watching from the sidelines.
It was obvious what would come next—no surprises. The brutal competition would end with one side's complete annihilation.
Avoiding the main road where the battle raged, Feng Qi took a detour westward along the ridge.
That's when he noticed something strange—the merging domain fields were reshaping the landscape.
On both sides of what had been a barren road, crimson flowers now bloomed like blood. They looked just like the legendary bǐ'àn flowers from myths.
Swaying in the wind, the flowers released glowing dust. Inhaling the air, he didn't catch any scent.
But when he focused on them, Feng Qi could feel a mysterious energy trying to seep into his spiritual sea. The intrusion was faint, not strong enough to break through the barriers of his consciousness, and was repelled.
He didn't know how long he walked, but the number of blooming flowers kept increasing along the path.
The whole scene gave him the feeling of walking down a road of no return, straight into an abyssal hell.
But there wasn't even a hint of fear in his heart.
After countless timelines of struggle and perseverance, his spirit had become unshakable. Even if what lay ahead was an endless sea of pain or mountains of blades and fire, he would still press forward.
The merging of the two worlds was still going—and only getting more intense. The rapidly changing terrain proved it.
Then, turning to glance toward the battlefield, Feng Qi suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He realized the war hadn't ended the way he had expected—with the complete slaughter of one side.
On the battlefield, the few thousand dirt-armored lifeforms still standing had raised both hands and were prostrated flat on the ground. Meanwhile, the surrounding ghost-type beings didn't launch a finishing blow against them.
Confused, Feng Qi suddenly remembered an article from his past.
Back in his days at Old Day Academy, he'd majored in Domain Studies. That field had tons of documentation on the customs and cultures of domain creatures.
He had seen this exact posture in the learning materials before.
It was a gesture of surrender, a plea for mercy. Clearly, these dirt-armored domain natives had abandoned resistance and were hoping to negotiate with the ghost-type lifeforms.
Under Feng Qi's astonished gaze, the domain creatures were soon shackled with chains forged entirely from energy, linked together, and led north under the guard of a team of over a hundred ghost-type beings.
Watching this, Feng Qi had a guess about what awaited them.
Unless something unexpected happened, those domain lifeforms would become slaves raised by the ghost-type species.
Just like how the Mist Tribe once kept subordinate forces as servants, forcing them to work on their behalf and handle mundane tasks.
For example—mining rare ores.
In fact, he'd once asked the Mist Lord a question: why didn't they use specialized tools for mining? Humans used tech-based engineering and assembly lines that made extraction much more efficient while reducing casualties in deep mine tunnels.
Compared to raising slave labor, this approach was clearly more efficient.
The Mist Lord had given Feng Qi a very reasonable answer to that question.
In fact, many races did possess engineering equipment, yet they still chose to use slave labor for mining. The main reason came down to a few unsolvable problems.
The first was radiation in the underground mines.
Special mining zones deep underground emitted intense radiation. Prolonged exposure would lead to rapid physical deterioration, which was one reason they wouldn't send their own kind into the mines and instead relied on expendable labor.
The Mist Tribe had also considered using engineering tech stolen during raids to speed up mine development.
But that approach still failed to solve the issue of intense radiation deep within the mines.
For instance, the Mist Tribe had once tried controlling an engineering puppet from the surface—one designed specifically for ore extraction—and sent it into the mine. However, because the puppet lacked independent will and relied on external control, it only got a bit over a hundred meters deep before it lost connection. The chaotic radiation inside the mine disrupted signal transmission.
The Mist Tribe had experimented with other types of engineering tech as well.
In the end, they concluded none of it could match the efficiency of slave labor.
They didn't value those laborers' lives. Whether they died in the depths of the mines didn't matter and had no impact on the development of the tribe's strength.
Compared to all the fancy methods, in radiation-filled mines where signal interference was constant, slave labor was still the most efficient and practical mining tool.
And once raised, their offspring would also become slaves—a resource that would never run dry.
Seeing those native domain forces being led away, a sudden thought popped into Feng Qi's mind.
Could humans also raise weak domain races as slave labor?
Human civilization was poor at converting and using resources, especially in mining. Their efficiency was laughably low. Some mineral resources were even completely abandoned.
This was especially obvious in the front-line supply zones.
Take the Star City West Supply Zone from the previous timeline, for example. Every time a domain field was conquered and its spatial core shattered, the field would merge with the human world, becoming part of human territory—including the ore veins and spiritual plant zones within.
The spiritual plant zones were still manageable. Humans would replant and harvest them. In fact, a whole field called Spiritual Botany had even developed around that.
But the ore veins? Only those near the surface got mined. The deeper mineral zones were ignored entirely.
The reason was simple—too much radiation. Signals couldn't get through. The average human's weak body couldn't survive there for more than 24 hours.
Sending regular people to mine was basically trading lives for resources—and not getting much in return.
Stronger humans—warriors—were the rarest combat asset in human civilization. Their purpose was to explore and fight off domain fields. Sending them to dig rocks underground was a total waste.
It would be putting the cart before the horse.
Multiple factors combined meant that these deep mineral zones, which were rich in rare and special ores, became nothing more than decoration. Humanity simply had no way to utilize them.
Now, watching the ghost-type beings enslave the dirt-armored natives, the idea of using domain creatures as human civilization's slave labor felt more appealing than ever.
They could handle spiritual plant cultivation, rare underground resource extraction—anything.
It was a cruel idea, sure. But if he looked at it from the perspective of all humanity, it was the right choice.
He was long past the age of soft emotions.
He was used to thinking from the standpoint of what was best for the human race.
Toward his fellow humans, he could show infinite tolerance. But when it came to alien lifeforms, he felt not the slightest bit of compassion.
Giving humanity its own slave labor force of foreign races might be a viable path forward.
At that moment, the Demon Blade's aged voice rang out in his mind:
"I've looked through your memories, and I have to say, you're one interesting guy. Your kindness is reserved only for your fellow humans—you'd risk your life for them without hesitation. You could be called a saint. But when it comes to outsiders, there's not an ounce of mercy in you. Ruthless, decisive. You could just as well be called a demon to them... But I've got to admit, your way of thinking is correct."
"Blade bro, you think this method could work too?"
"Of course it could. Otherwise, why do you think the strong tribes raise slave labor? It saves a ton of space and time. You'll notice the growth systems of those strong tribes are very well-designed. The younger generation focuses entirely on cultivation and improvement, while the rest of the tribe works to expand territory and gather resources. As for all the menial chores? They leave those to the slave labor. The young ones, even the elders, would never waste their time on such trivial tasks."
The Demon Blade paused for a moment, then continued:
"The biggest difference between strong and weak races lies in this—weak races, in their pursuit of resources and interests, usually end up exploiting their own lower-class members. Even when leadership changes within a weak race, the result is the same—continued exploitation of the bottom tier, using their sacrifice and labor to gain resources. After all, the path to development for any race inevitably requires a group of bottom-rung contributors to handle foundational tasks."
"But strong races aren't burdened by this. Their foundation is built on the sacrifices of countless weaker races. Strong races have no 'lower-class' of their own. The labor needed to keep their systems running is all outsourced to other races. The only responsibility their own people bear is to expand the racial skill tree, improve and strengthen their development systems, and handle external conquest and plunder. This saves them a ton of time and space."
Feng Qi had heard the same explanation from the Mist Lord before.
Their views were clearly aligned.
Strong races exploit the weak, and weak races exploit their own.
By comparison, humanity currently sat somewhere in the middle.
Like many weak races, humanity still needed its base population to make sacrifices and fill the lowest positions across various fields, in exchange for the resources that would be funneled to the elite tier—who, in turn, sacrificed their lives to push the race forward.
Like the high-death-rate research institutes... or the brutal front lines.
It was a cycle of positive development.
At the same time, the children of the lower classes had almost the same starting point as those of the elites. With enough effort and talent, they could rise to join the elite tier—but the cost was massive.
And the meaning of "elite" in this era wasn't the same as it was before the Cataclysm.
Back then, elites were entrenched interest groups—enjoying the most, contributing the least, gradually turning into an oppressive class that bled the lower rungs dry.
But now, elites symbolized burden and responsibility. Once someone reached that height, they were expected to dedicate their entire lives to humanity—not for comfort, but for a future of harder battles ahead.
People like Wei Wei, Tian Shu, Old Wang...
They were the true representatives of this generation's elite. Yes, they received the most resource support, but they also shouldered burdens that had nothing to do with luxury or ease.
This kind of positive cycle was a good fit for humanity's current stage of development—but it had flaws.
Compared to strong races, humanity couldn't allocate its entire population toward cultivation systems, technological advancement, or infrastructure. A huge number of base-level jobs still had to be done by people.
The ones truly pushing human civilization forward? Less than 0.01% of the population.
If resource supply issues could be solved, humanity's next step forward would be clear—liberate its own people from menial labor and delegate those tasks to other races.
Then every human could become a force for the future of civilization.
Feng Qi realized—that's what a strong race should really look like.
If you had to exploit your own people to grow, you weren't strong.
True strength meant exploiting others—for better welfare, superior training resources, more advanced knowledge and education, and so on.
A strong race doesn't even have the concept of "lower class."
At that moment, a seed took root in Feng Qi's heart. He felt like he had just found a turning point humanity would have to cross on the road to becoming a strong race.
But he didn't dwell on it too deeply.
Before any of that could happen, humanity had to solve its resource problem.
That turning point still lay in the future. Right now, resource scarcity was the biggest issue.
Even if every human was a genius, there weren't enough resources to nurture them all.
But one thing was clear—once humanity reached a certain point, and resource conversion hit its ceiling, they'd need more manpower to open new frontiers and raise efficiency. That would mean more systemic development.
At that point, cooperation—or even dominance—over other races would be necessary.
Lost in thought, Feng Qi kept moving forward.
The fusion between the two domain fields was still underway.
Features from the ghost-type beings' domain kept appearing in the environment. The path ahead was blooming with bright flowers, as if welcoming his arrival.
Then the Demon Blade's voice suddenly echoed in his mind:
"Kid, fighting Jian Ji means fighting the entire Sword Tribe. Have you thought about building your own force? Pull in some capable folks to serve you. When it's time to go head-to-head with Jian Ji, your loyal followers could help block those annoying Sword Tribe warriors from interfering."
"Huh? Start a force of my own?"