Chapter 765: The Diversion Ends; Wrapping up the Spirit Veins

Chapter 765 -383: The Diversion Ends; Wrapping up the Spirit Veins

Therefore, when he noticed the number of people had been cut in half, he immediately went outside.

Zhou Zhendong was still stationed there. When he saw Cheng Zongyang arrive, Cheng Zongyang spoke before he could even salute. “The first batch is enough.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhendong immediately cupped his hands in acknowledgment. “Yes!”

Zhou Zhendong acted swiftly and decisively. After speaking, he saw that Cheng Zongyang had already departed. He then dispatched a messenger to inform Su Ze that the quota had been met.

Outside the city, when Su Ze heard the quota had been filled, he continued arranging the remaining people into a final group to proceed to the neighboring Luoyang Prefecture.

From the very first day, these people had been sent off in batches, first allocated to the northern and eastern regions. Only the last ones to leave were assigned to closer locations.

After the last batch was counted, Su Ze asked the soldier who was keeping a running tally, “What’s the total?”

“Great Marshal, the total is 67,612,564 people!” the soldier responsible for the census responded instantly.

“Over sixty-seven million people! Go report this to Steward Zhou so he has the final numbers,” Su Ze ordered.

“Yes, Great Marshal!”

In the time that followed, the Thirteen Royal Families took over from Da Liang, beginning the process of evenly distributing the remaining population and sending them to their respective territories.

The more people they had, the more taxes the Thirteen Royal Families could collect. The two went hand-in-hand, which was why they had spared no effort in competing for the population initially. Now that they knew how many people Da Liang had taken, they knew how to divide the rest, as the arrangements had been made in advance.

Next were the Jin Kingdom, Xiliang, Great Chen, Yu, Da Qian, and the farthest, the Wei Kingdom.

This population redistribution continued for nearly another half a year. In total, the relocation of over a hundred million people took a full year before everyone was settled in their designated new homes. The amount of resources consumed and manpower mobilized during this period was unimaginable.

But the Thirteen Royal Families of the various nations managed to handle it all.

Throughout that year, the Cheng Clan Commerce Association’s operations never ceased. Besides ensuring a steady supply for Jade Peak Immortal City, vast quantities of acquired goods were sent to the Immortal Realm to be sold.

Fortunately, with the population now dispersed, the tens of millions of people were not an overwhelming number, so long as the needs of the Cultivators among them were met.

The initial houses were all empty shells, creating an enormous demand for furniture and household goods. And while the other commerce associations had substantial inventories, the Cheng Merchant House still possessed the most basic supplies.

In a unique state of “post-disaster reconstruction,” the Immortal Cities of the Immortal Realm experienced a massive business boom.

During this period, many Cultivators wanted to visit the Martial Arts Realm, but they were temporarily restricted from doing so because the population transfer was still ongoing.

For the past year, Cheng Zongyang had spent almost all his time in the Hall of Ten Thousand Races, constantly monitoring the situation in the Immortal Realm.

At present, only thirty percent of the Immortal Cities in the Immortal Realm had been opened. Even with sixty to seventy million Cultivators spread among them, the cities still felt spacious and empty.

After the population transfer concluded, the nearly ten thousand Cultivators who had broken through in the Martial Arts Realm and gathered in Jade Peak Immortal City over the years all departed for the Immortal Realm as well.

It wasn’t a large number, but since the count of Qi Cultivation Practitioners in Jade Peak Immortal City was growing daily, it was only a matter of time before a steady stream of them filled the ranks of the Immortal Realm.

Likewise, the Cultivators from the Immortal Realm began attempting to enter the Martial Arts Realm to get a sense of the situation there.

In the main teleportation courtyard, a sign had been erected. It began: A warning from the Lord of the Immortal Realm…

Upon seeing that single phrase, any Cultivators who had been harboring ulterior motives immediately abandoned them. They began to wander through Jade Peak Immortal City purely as tourists, gradually learning about the city.

Over the past year, once Cheng Zongyang saw that the situation in the Immortal Realm’s various cities had stabilized, he stopped monitoring them so closely.

The Ring Spirit would watch over the rest. He still had other matters to attend to. ‘For instance… the remaining Spirit Veins in the Cultivation Immortality Realm!’

The Spirit Veins of the Five Great Immortal Sects, and those of the twenty-one branch families from various factions that had remained behind—he intended to take them all!

‘You want to just laze around and wait to die in the Cultivation Immortality Realm? Fine. Go be mortals, then.’

‘In a few hundred years, the population of the Cultivation Immortality Realm will have increased. Maybe I’ll give them another chance then, but that’s a problem for the future.’

‘Besides, these Cultivators are all bound by the Ten Thousand Races Spirit Seal. When they die, their bodies and Divine Souls will be collected by the Realm of Ten Thousand Races. Their deaths won’t be in vain.’

‘I won’t let these Spirit Veins go to waste. These High-Grade Spirit Veins will either be used to bolster the Immortal Capital in the Immortal Realm, or they’ll be used in the Martial Arts Realm to increase the Spiritual Qi density around the Immortal Cities.’

Just before he left, however, Cheng Zongyang suddenly asked, “How is the Spiritual Qi recovery in the Realm of Ten Thousand Races coming along?”

Over the past year, various factions had sacrificed numerous Soul Crystals and Spirit Veins. Not only had he paid back his debt of three Soul Crystals to the Ring Spirit, but he had also received other rewards in return.

But whether it was the sacrificed Spirit Veins or the deaths of Cultivators, the Ring Spirit had integrated it all into the Immortal Realm. The recovery should have progressed to a certain extent.

“It has currently reached 86%,” the Ring Spirit replied, its voice ethereal and mysterious, as if echoing from a distant horizon.

Cheng Zongyang was shocked. “That much? I remember those factions only sacrificed a little over a hundred Spirit Veins. That adds up to this much recovery?”

“They were mostly low-grade Spirit Veins. And this recovery only applies to the Immortal Realm region, not the entire Realm of Ten Thousand Races. The overall recovery is only 26.1%.”

Cheng Zongyang: “…”

‘Right. Still a long way to go.’

With that, Cheng Zongyang teleported to Channel Two, and the Ring Spirit opened a rift. Cheng Zongyang stepped through and instantly arrived in the Cultivation Immortality Realm.

When he arrived in Ice City, he found it completely desolate. The once-thriving metropolis, formerly bustling with crowds and endless streams of carriages, was now shrouded in a deathly silence.

The cold wind howled, shrieking like mournful ghosts and wolves as it swept through the empty streets. The once-glorious buildings appeared especially desolate under the dim light, as if recounting tales of their former splendor.

Thick snow, no longer cleared by anyone, piled high on the streets. Snowflakes danced and drifted with the wind, adding to the bleak and desolate atmosphere.

“The glory has faded, and the warmth has gone with the crowd,” Cheng Zongyang murmured, standing in the middle of the empty street and looking up, filled with a myriad of emotions.

A complex emotion flickered in his eyes—a blend of nostalgia for the city’s past prosperity and firm resolve for the future.

Although he was the cause of everything before him, he felt not a single shred of regret. He knew with certainty that if he hadn’t acted, he and the Ring Spirit would have eventually found themselves in extreme peril.

Besides, this prosperity hadn’t vanished; it had simply been transferred to the Immortal Realm and the Martial Arts Realm.

While in the Martial Arts Realm, he had even instructed Zhou Zhendong to negotiate with the various kingdoms, encouraging their people to have more children.

While this would increase the fortune of the Human Race and accelerate the unsealing of the Three Talents Reversal Array, it would also allow the Ring Spirit to gain more power.

Over the past year, while overseeing the Immortal Realm, Cheng Zongyang had not only focused on his Cultivation but had also engaged in countless discussions with the Ring Spirit, planning many important matters together.

They had numerous plans, but all of them required the Ring Spirit to reach a certain level of Ability before they could be executed. As for himself, after dealing with the Spirit Veins, he too would focus on further increasing his own strength.

Cheng Zongyang didn’t linger in Ice City. He turned and flew toward the territory of the Five Great Immortal Sects.

Along the way, he saw that the various Immortal Cities had been picked clean. Almost anything that could be carried away had been plundered, and the Teleportation Arrays were no exception.

Piloting the Flying Cloud Shuttle, Cheng Zongyang shot like a bolt of lightning toward the nearest of the sects, the Carefree Immortal Sect.

When Cheng Zongyang arrived before the main gate of the Carefree Immortal Sect, he found the once-magnificent entrance looking quite desolate. With seventy to eighty percent of its members gone, the gate seemed to silently prophesize the sect’s inevitable future.

And yet, the life force here was no different than before. The existence of their Spirit Vein was the foundation of their confidence, the reason they dared to remain.

Cheng Zongyang released his powerful Divine Sense, rapidly scanning for the location of the Spirit Vein. His action quickly drew the attention of the sect’s leadership.

“What insolent cur is this!” A furious roar, filled with rage and authority, echoed like a clap of thunder.

At that exact moment, Cheng Zongyang locked onto the Spirit Vein’s location.

The instant his opponent emerged, Cheng Zongyang produced the Array Soul Stele, which he had already “charged” with one hundred thousand points of Array Energy.

Without a word, he threw it down toward the sect. In the span of a few thoughts, a Tier Six Array—a combination of imprisonment and bewilderment—materialized, instantly trapping every Golden Core and Nascent Soul Cultivator within its bounds.

Only the remaining personnel and the Underground Spiritual Vein were left outside.

His direct and overwhelming approach was designed to lure them out and trap them all at once. Inside the formation, the captured Cultivators began to frantically attack the Grand Array, but it was all in vain.

A Tier Six Array deployed by the Array Soul Stele was far beyond their ability to break.