In the main hall of the Infinite Dao Sect, many people surrounded the throne where the leader was seated, with numerous reports being presented and voices continuously echoing through the place.
It had only been one day since the release of the sect's new missions, and this great hall, due to the meeting taking place there, had received a last-minute focus on a major visual upgrade.
Paintings had been placed, patterns drawn, items and ornaments arranged, turning that place now not only large, but also dignified, opulent, and well illuminated.
At that moment, in front of the throne and the crowd, a woman with black hair and eyes calmly reported to the sect leader with a confident bearing about the changes that had occurred under her jurisdiction.
Her name was Han Yue, one of the four female inner elders of the sect's Punishment Pavilion, the person entrusted with the administration of the empire, and, of course, an avatar of Aotian.
"Sect Leader, the empire's expansion is proceeding in an orderly manner. Using our control over all Golden Core sects, we have begun to take over their satellite spiritual veins and are compiling a complete map of the entire continent. We have also started drafting plans for the continent's Feng Shui."
"In addition, we have relocated the empire's capital on the Beixu Continent to a perfect-grade third-level spiritual vein, replacing one of the old emissary sects. After taking control of it, we established a Feng Shui formation there that broke the great bottleneck between third- and fourth-level veins, thus creating the first spiritual vein on that continent capable of nurturing Nascent Soul cultivators."
When the elder spoke this part, the elders around her applauded politely with small smiles for the creation of a historic achievement accomplished by the hands of their sect.
Elder Jian Huiyin, the former leader of the Bamboo Sword Sect, with her platinum hair, was also there and had her eyes shining with slight shock upon hearing the news, applauding instinctively along with everyone else, as her mind was somewhat shaken that such a thing was possible.
Before, achieving such a feat was considered impossible, because the power necessary to convert third-level energy into fourth-level energy was beyond the capacity of a third-level vein. All previous attempts in history had ended with the veins collapsing.
It was not like the previous energy levels, where simply compressing the energy was enough. It was also necessary to raise its quality to an extreme level, something the veins of the desert continents simply could not do.
Only the Feng Shui of the Infinite Dao Sect had the ability not only to strengthen and purify energy, but also to metamorphose it into a much higher quality, creating such a miracle.
Waiting for the applause to end, Elder Han Yue, responsible for the administration of the empire, continued speaking in a calm tone.
"Now we are working to radiate the energy of that vein, which is located in the center of the continent, across a large area, and truly begin building the empire around it. The inhabitants of the old cities have been moved there and, with the soldiers already trained and the help of the disciples, everything is falling into order in the expansion of personnel."
"For now we have not touched the other sects, but the mortals are already being slowly transferred from various domains to the empire's satellite cities in an orderly manner, without being excessively fast so as not to destabilize the progressive foundation we are creating."
"Fortunately, with the Stairway of Sincerity, it is still easy for us to judge kind and capable people to join our ranks, preventing useless and malicious individuals from polluting the army and administration of the empire with corrupt personnel."
"As for the sects and clans scattered throughout the continent, they will gradually be relocated to strategic locations across the empire, settling in mountains that lack spiritual veins but are still bathed in abundant spiritual energy."
"But they will have to follow our laws and will no longer be able to act as they please, and they will also be required to pay taxes. Of course, the benefits of living under our jurisdiction are beyond doubt, and to some extent they are already grateful that we did not simply exterminate them, even though we have both the power and the motive to do so."
"Such an approach is also beneficial for us, because in the future these powers will serve to find and cultivate talents for our sect, and they will be rewarded for doing so."
She explained quickly, making everyone aware of the sect's plans.
The people there were no longer only Aotian's avatars and Elder Jian as in the past; several authorities and talented individuals recruited by the empire were also present, having proven both their abilities and their sincere hearts.
As for the idea of relocating the sects scattered across the Beixu (Northern Void) Continent, it was necessary for Aotian's future plans, which involved their spiritual veins. Otherwise, he could have simply left those people where they were. But since he needed those locations, he would have to expel them to prevent any interference.
Even so, he was not so extreme as to eliminate bloodlines and sects that had existed for thousands of years and were full of history just for convenience. Nor was there any real need to forbid sects and clans from existing within his territory.
Aotian preferred that everyone have the opportunity to make their own choices and create their own powers and ideas under his rule if they wished, as long as they started from the basic premise of not harming or forcing others, sowing chaos, pain, or death.
Thus, as long as they followed the laws of the empire, they could grow and develop in peace.
Competition and the desire to grow led to progress, and Aotian did not want to eradicate such things.
Elder Han Yue then explained a few more points about the progress of the empire, and the sect leader, Tian Zhu, along with the other members in the room, nodded in satisfaction.
After the leader thanked her and those involved for their hard work, asked a few more questions, distributed rewards, and gave new orders, the floor was passed to another elder.
It was Wen Tai, an inner elder of the Heritage Pavilion, with the appearance of a middle-aged man and a scholarly aura, who stepped forward this time, drawing everyone's attention.
He was responsible both for delivering the Dao preachings to the disciples—whose next session was already scheduled to take place in a week—and for the empire's spiritual sciences department, a division that sought to explain how physical phenomena behaved in the face of the miraculous power of spiritual energy.
"Sect Leader, the progress of spiritual science studies has been advancing in rapid steps, both in the theoretical and applied sense."
"We have already developed methods that allow mortals to generate value for the cultivation world and, in turn, gain advantages from it, although the real applications may still take some time."
He spoke while raising his hand and projecting an image of light, where the design of the structure of some type of item appeared, full of notes around it. Then he began speaking as the images constantly changed to several different items.
"These are some of the tools we have created, which aim to break down the barrier between mortals and cultivators, allowing both to integrate into a single society, rather than the previous distance that used to prevail."
"Here we have carriages powered by spiritual energy, which we call cars. Their structure and internal formations have been compiled to become extremely basic and crude, allowing even mortals, without spiritual energy, to build this vehicle on their own, as long as they use spiritual materials and follow the design precisely, although it is still something complicated, time-consuming, and exhausting for them."
"There are also spiritual stoves, spiritual cellphones, spiritual lamps, spiritual toilets, spiritual air conditioners, spiritual tractors, spiritual irrigators…"
The man began listing several types of basic items, which made everyone in the hall look in wonder at the creativity of the creations, although their mouths twitched slightly whenever the word spiritual accompanied the name of an item.
Although the names were a bit amusing to hear and had the word spiritual attached, everyone there, upon seeing the designs and understanding their usefulness, knew that for cultivators those things were probably not very useful. But on the other hand, for mortals, they were simply marvelous and unimaginable.
But Elder Wen Tai had not finished yet, and soon everyone understood where he was going with this.
"…If cultivators intervened, they could build such items with ease and speed, and with a quality far superior to what mortals could achieve. However, mortals simply have nothing of value to offer in exchange for the labor of cultivators, and we of the Infinite Dao Sect also cannot continuously provide spirit stones to make cultivators from all places help mortals all the time."
"If we truly want to blur the dividing line between the two sides, both must have value to offer each other. Only eternal interests can maintain eternal allies."
"That is why our team has already devised, together with the empire's administration, incentives for mortals to enter the field of spiritual agriculture and livestock."
"Using high-quality crops that are low-maintenance and easy to grow—carefully selected by us, such as spiritual rice, spiritual sugarcane, and spiritual tea, among other items that can be consumed by both mortals and cultivators and provide numerous benefits—mortals will finally be able to generate value for cultivators, particularly targeting Qi Refiners."
"We have also selected weak spiritual fish, but nutritious and usable as spiritual materials. Peaceful spiritual bees, excellent for pollinating fields and producing spiritual honey, among other options. There is even peaceful and foolish spiritual cattle, also excellent for being cared for by mortals, although in those cases the help of cultivators is still required to perform the slaughter for consumption."
"We will also teach mortals some tactics to improve production, such as selecting the best specimens to prioritize in breeding, and so on."
"With such tactics, we believe that in about a year mortals will already be able to produce value for cultivators on their own, although our sect will need to support them slightly during this initial period, which will be done in the form of loans."
"The entire plan is based more on a pyramid structure. Mortals communicate with Qi Refiners, exchanging value among themselves, but they do not deal with stronger cultivators, who do not need consumption items such as crops, nor excessive amounts of low-level materials. As for the Qi Refiners, they end up working for cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage, generating their own value, and so on."
"In general, that is the idea. And not all mortals need to generate value directly for cultivators. It is enough that a portion of the population produces sufficient value for them, while the rest can generate value among themselves."
"Low-level cultivators, in turn, will have interest in the crops and materials cultivated by mortals, which are laborious and time-consuming and that they do not wish to dedicate themselves to, preferring to spend their precious time cultivating immortality."
"Thus, for these Qi Refiners, the best and cheapest form of exchange with mortals for these items of interest to them is to mass-produce the tools we created for the daily lives of mortals, which cultivators can construct quickly and easily at low cost."
"With this, both sides create their own products, a stable cycle of exchange, commerce, and value generation is established, which helps both sides progress and grow, thereby fulfilling the empire's goal of mutual and beneficial coexistence between the two parties."
With the end of his explanation, another round of polite applause arose, with everyone smiling and recognizing the value of the project.
Both Aotian himself and the others were eager to see that future described, and the Infinite Dao Empire on the Beixu Continent would be the first to build that vision for the world.
The meeting continued, with several elders and other people presenting reports, creating a clear vision for all members of the Infinite Dao team about what was happening in the various operations of the sect.
Only late at night did the meeting end, and everyone began to disperse. The sect leader, Tian Zhu, however, remained seated on his throne, with a deep and indecipherable gaze.
'Everything is going well in the sect, and the empire will be a great vision in the future. Perhaps in a few years, under my leadership, the level of comfort and culture there will not be different from that of Earth, or perhaps even more advanced. Education, art, music, films, books, series, and perhaps even more impressive things may arise, such as fully immersive virtual reality!'
A faint smile, almost imperceptible, appeared on Tian Zhu's lips, something Aotian could not restrain, revealing his true feelings.
'After I manage to ensure the world's survival, and once I grow a little weary of cultivation, I can already imagine myself spending a few years in retirement and on vacation there, with Rihai by my side, and, with any luck, a few little ones to stir our lives a bit…'
The more he thought, the more that small smile gently grew, breaking the normally indifferent expression of the fearsome sect leader.
His eyes shone gently, eager for that scene.
'The future really is something to look forward to, isn't it?'