The decline caused by the death of more than half of the Nascent Soul and higher-level cultivators should be overcome very quickly given the current situation!
The Star-Sea Continent had suffered heavy losses in that battle not long ago. From the Soul Transformation to the Void Refinement stages, more than half of the continent's highest-ranking cultivators had perished. Although their remains had been transformed into spiritual essence under Qi Ping's management to further upgrade the spirit veins, the spirit veins would quickly recede if the continent failed to produce enough experts in the short term. The number of spirit veins currently distributed across the Star-Sea Nine Domains required a massive amount of spiritual support to maintain.
The current prosperity hid a very obvious crisis, but at the moment, only Qi Ping was aware of it. While Meng Tianqi and the others knew bits and pieces, they did not see the full picture as clearly. The issue was extremely complex; it was only because Qi Ping was an Earth Immortal Druid—having reached a certain level of fusion with heaven and earth—that he could deeply sense these connections.
Although Qi Ping's current degree of fusion was not yet high, the complexity of heaven and earth itself was immense. To have reached his current state at his current cultivation level was already considered a miracle.
In the following period, the cultivators who had joined the Star-Sea Nine Domains threw themselves into frantic construction, driven by the lure of a bright future, expectations for a better life, and the external pressure of the Demon Race. Large tracts of spiritual fields were rapidly reclaimed and nurtured into incredibly fertile land.
Most notably, many cultivators contributed sophisticated methods of land reclamation. These techniques allowed many previously barren areas to be transformed into fertile spiritual soil. Together, these methods increased the total area of spiritual fields in the Nine Domains by at least thirty percent over the original estimate! And this number was still steadily climbing!
Among these, even Qi Ping was moved by a method called the Circumpolar Star Land-Reclamation Technique. This was provided by a rogue Nascent Soul spiritual farmer named the Shennong Daoist, who was an expert in formations. Though gifted in formations, he had a singular passion for farming. Due to a lack of high-grade spiritual fields, he had been unable to test or cultivate many of his precious spiritual plants or his cross-breeding methods for spiritual herbs. Unable to compete for high-grade land through sheer force, he had spent his life collecting various ways to upgrade soil.
After half a lifetime of practicing star-attribute cultivation and comprehending the Way of the Stars, he had finally integrated these insights to create the Circumpolar Star Land-Reclamation Technique. According to this method, by using a small amount of spirit stones and spiritual energy paired with a secret recipe for nurturing spiritual soil, one could gradually develop fields suitable for star-attribute spiritual plants.
The only drawback was that this method was quite difficult and required a long time. However, for Qi Ping, this was not an issue at all. With his current wealth and mastery of formations, such difficulty was non-existent. Furthermore, after reviewing the man's method, Qi Ping was shocked to find that the required amount of spiritual energy was incredibly low, yet the quality of the resulting star-attribute herbs was superb.
It was through this method that the Shennong Daoist had secretly risen from an ordinary rogue Qi Refinement cultivator to a famous figure. One caveat was that these fields had to be planted with the hybrid spiritual herbs he had spent years testing; normal herbs struggled to survive in such soil, and refining them required specialized cultivation methods.
In a way, the Shennong Daoist had almost created his own self-contained system. This was why Qi Ping valued him so highly. Most cultivation methods in the Star-Sea Continent relied primarily on spiritual energy. Even star-attribute methods used spiritual energy as a carrier to merge with stellar power; spiritual energy was the core root used to leverage the power of heaven and earth. However, the Shennong Daoist's technique used almost pure stellar power, with spiritual energy serving only as a minor lubricant and balancer.
For a Star-Sea Continent facing a shortage of spiritual energy, this undoubtedly opened a new frontier. The continent did not lack the power of the stars, the sun, or the moon that shone upon the myriad worlds. In the past, the limited use of these powers was mainly due to the immense difficulty of comprehension and utilization. As long as people could practice the spiritual energy system, no one bothered to research how to perfectly use stellar power in a mana-thin environment.
But now, the continent was facing the predicament of spiritual decline. Someone had finally blazed a trail, though it had remained unknown until now. Qi Ping felt this system was worth pursuing and could be expanded from stellar power to solar and lunar power. If these forces could be introduced into the continent on a large scale, it might bring immense benefits to the development of the world itself.
Thus, Qi Ping had Lin Yue personally receive the Shennong Daoist and granted him a massive reward. Qi Ping also spent a bit of time deducing similar techniques and formations for the three types of celestial power, tasking the Shennong Daoist with establishing a new institution to experiment with them.
Of course, this was only a minor experiment. The Great Dao of spiritual energy remained the orthodox path. While spiritual energy was still sufficient, pursuing pure stellar power would be like choosing the branch over the root. Nevertheless, this path was worth exploring. If successful, it might make the cultivation system of the Star-Sea Continent even more brilliant in the future.
For Qi Ping, the most important thing was that it provided a new train of thought and a direction. To him, the world was infinitely complex, possessing endless mysterious powers of which spiritual energy was but one. As his cultivation rose, Qi Ping felt more and more the mysterious vastness of this great world. The spiritual energy system might not be the only path to immortality; there might even be systems stronger than it, though his current vision and knowledge were still too narrow.
Therefore, Qi Ping maintained a spirit of exploration toward the essence of this world. Whether it was the Dao-Heart system, the spiritual energy system, the Earth Immortal system, or the system of sentient beings—all these power structures intertwined to form a puzzle of how he utilized the world's power. Qi Ping increasingly realized that this world might be far more mysterious and vast than he imagined. The Qi Refinement system might just be one branch, perhaps not even the strongest, or perhaps it had its own flaws.
He could not judge the truth of these matters yet, but he had caught faint echoes of information from the Great Dao. This was why he remained inquisitive—to find the true path to immortality and eternal life in the future. He also wanted to ensure that if the spiritual energy system were ever restricted or targeted, he could calmly find a way to counter it. He did not believe that in the long history of the cultivation world, no one had ever researched powers specifically meant to restrain spiritual energy.
So, Qi Ping was very willing to let the cultivators of the Star-Sea Continent perform these experiments for him. He supported the idea of a hundred flowers blooming. Since the continent was under his control, he wanted to use the collective wisdom of all its cultivators to blaze a truly powerful path to longevity.
A single person's power is ultimately limited, but the cultivators of an entire continent are infinite!
Compared to the short-sighted act of devouring the lifeforms of a continent to gain power, Qi Ping preferred to have everyone work toward exploring the world for him. What he needed to do now was build the most stable system possible for his pursuit of the Great Dao. The Earth Immortal system gave him an invincible home and an environment for exploration, while the governance system allowed him to utilize the wisdom of every cultivator. He had given these people a good environment and a system for promotion; in return, they only needed to develop the world for him.
'This world might be countless times more wonderful than I imagine... But my strength alone is not enough. I need the strongest possible backing.'
The path revealed by the Shennong Daoist was a pleasant surprise, but it was just a small microcosm of the current Star-Sea Nine Domains. In fact, he was just a small part of the spiritual farming industry. With the wisdom of countless cultivators gathered, every industry was experiencing explosive growth. The entire Qing-God Army and the Qingyuan Academy were busy to the point of exhaustion.
Yet no one complained; instead, they were tireless and joyful. Everyone knew that according to the current trend, the future development of the Nine Domains would reach an staggering level, perhaps even surpassing any era in the history of the Star-Sea Continent. And having met a leader like the Bee Daoist, they were bound to share in an unimaginable piece of the pie. No one doubted this; the Bee Daoist was the most exceptional leader they had ever seen.
As news of breakthroughs and development arrived from various industries, the already high-spirited atmosphere was pushed to an unimaginable level. Those industries and groups that had not yet made breakthroughs felt ashamed, especially when they saw those who were receiving rewards left and right. Their eyes turned red with envy! Thus, they worked just as desperately to avoid losing face and to claim those generous rewards!
Consequently, after the first wave of expansion, the various industries did not lose momentum; instead, the atmosphere became even more heated. The most eye-catching was the alchemy industry. Alchemy had always been the most pursued field for cultivators, so its overall development was the best and received the most focus. Due to the various incentives, countless miraculous alchemy techniques and recipes were brought forward.
When these techniques and recipes collided, the alchemists—who possessed the highest talent—welcomed an epic upgrade. It was worth mentioning that while contributing a recipe earned massive contribution points and rewards, exchanging for a recipe or technique also required a small amount of points. Although it wasn't much, the sheer volume of exchanges was massive!
As a result, Qi Ping not only didn't lose resources on rewards but actually made a profit in spirit stones! He also obtained a vast amount of alchemy techniques, recipes, and knowledge for free, which he then handed over to the Golden Marrow Bees. After the bees, who possessed a hive mind, digested this knowledge, their level of honey brewing was bound to rise again.
Because Qi Ping now had a large number of Nascent Soul-level and Soul Transformation-level bees, their collective research and inheritance over the years meant they already possessed more alchemy knowledge than any single alchemist on the continent. They could now even brew solid honey that was identical to a pill—or rather, it wasn't honey at all, but a pill that was even better than normal ones! In this gathering and collision of knowledge, the Golden Marrow Bees were the greatest beneficiaries.
However, the alchemists didn't lose out either. By contributing their own knowledge, they gained access to ten times more information, along with the discounted knowledge and special honey samples provided by Qi Ping. Once they digested these things, they would surely raise their alchemy skills to an unprecedented level. And this was just the beginning. With the establishment of the Alchemy Pavilion gathering all the world's alchemists, the future was even more promising!
Furthermore, the explosive growth of the alchemy industry benefited more than just alchemists. Alchemy solved cultivation problems, making it the industry most closely tied to a cultivator's destiny. As various pills emerged and were promoted at reasonable prices, the ordinary cultivators became the biggest winners. Some had untreatable old injuries, some had flaws in their cultivation, some were poisoned, and some were stuck at bottlenecks.
But now it was different! As these pills with special medicinal effects hit the market at normal prices, many cultivators made their final breakthroughs. Their cultivation levels rose dramatically! For a time, every cultivator realized the benefits brought by the Bee Daoist's measures.
Hard work was rewarded, there was a safe environment for living and cultivation, and one could buy the right pills—was there a more praiseworthy life than this? How could such an environment not fill them with motivation! Meanwhile, their respect and reverence for the Bee Daoist grew stronger in their hearts.
"Senior Bee Daoist must remain immortal and invincible!"
"I have never admired anyone in my life, but Senior Bee is the exception!"
Next in terms of industrial prosperity were the artifact refining and spiritual farming industries. Other industries, though not reaching such heights, still brought great convenience to the lives of ordinary cultivators, forming the map of the Nine Domains' flourishing development and together creating a legend of growth.
Finally, what made Qi Ping somewhat excited was that while good news kept coming from the Nine Domains, a new animal companion suitable for him had finally been found!