The Fourth Financial Crisis

The Haiya area is the collective name for the coastal plains near Haiya City.

This coastal plain is long and narrow in shape and small in overall size, but it has flat terrain and well-developed transportation. Although its agricultural output is not as good as that of Luoxia City, which is thousands of miles away, it is much stronger than that of the nearby Luanshi hilly area and Tianshu Mountains area.

According to Bo Nanke's theory of cultivation economics, infrastructure construction is the best means to stimulate the economy. For thousands of years, the Haiya Sect has used earth magic to build several smooth official roads to connect Haiya City with nearby areas. Several major cities are connected together, and these main transportation roads also greatly facilitate the daily life of mortals in the Haiya area.

Even monks like Yang Lu who are not yet able to fly in the wind can enjoy the convenience brought by developed transportation.

In addition, as a regional commercial center, the official road in Haiya City has a considerable amount of people rushing to and from the road. There is no need to worry about anyone blocking the road and robbing. This makes Yang Lu Weiwei, who has just made some small achievements in cultivation, is a little regretful.

Other people's cultivation world is full of people killing people and grabbing treasures, and geese plucking their hair. On average, 80 of the 100 people the protagonist meets will end up dead. It has been a few months since I came to the Kyushu cultivation world, and I haven't even done it myself yet. At least, I'm going to be a road robber to make myself addicted!

The two of them traveled day and night, traveling along the official road in the Haiya area, occasionally resting at roadside inns to restore their mana. Finally, two days later, they left the coastal plain area controlled by the Haiya Sect and entered the Tianshu Mountains area controlled by the Shanying Sect.

The Tianshu Mountains are located more than 200 miles west of Haiya City.

The terrain here is steep and shrouded in thick fog all year round. The fog in the mountains gathers and disperses in unpredictable ways. His vision suddenly opened up, and suddenly a mist came over him, and he couldn't see his fingers again.

The main peak of Tianshu Mountain Range stands proudly above the layers of clouds and mists, like a hub connecting heaven and earth.

This is why the word "Tianshu" got its name.

The terrain of the Tianshu Mountains is rugged and cultivated land is scarce, making them unsuitable for ordinary people to live in. Although the continuous and huge mountain system covers an area more than ten times that of the Haiya Plain, the total population in the area is not even as large as the Haiya area. half of.

However, Tianshu City also has its own advantageous industries.

The vast sea of ​​forests in the Tianshu Mountains provides a natural forestry and paper industry base.

In addition, because the huge canyon system of the Tianshu Mountains is covered with various complex topography such as stone forests, lakes, rivers, towering ancient trees, abyss and ground fissures, large areas of the Tianshu Mountains have been demarcated by the Wuliang Sword Sect. It is a monster nature reserve, and various low-level monsters often appear there. You can even occasionally see traces of golden elixir stage monsters.

After the hunting ban period ends every year, a large number of cultivators, holding hunting licenses jointly issued by the Wuliang Sword Sect and the Mountain Eagle Sect, go to the Tianshu Mountains Nature Reserve to kill monsters to obtain merit, and by the way, obtain the fruits produced by the monsters. Training materials.

Forestry, papermaking, monster industry, and Xiuzhenfang City together constitute the economic pillar of Tianshu City.

Compared with Haiya City, a sea trade and commercial center that is deeply secular and full of the smell of copper, Tianshu City, located at the foot of the main peak of the Tianshu Mountains and shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, is more in line with Yang Lu's impression of the traditional world of cultivation.

However, the fluttering immortal energy cannot be eaten as food. In the final analysis, the cultivation sects still have to compete for hard power.

Due to the very harsh geographical environment of the Tianshu Mountains, the Mountain Eagle Sect is far inferior to the Haiya Sect in terms of population and economic development level in the jurisdiction. In the competition with the Haiya Sect, it has been at an absolute disadvantage for a long time.

However, with the current leader of the Mountain Eagle Sect, Chen Ming, taking power, the strength gap between the two sects is rapidly narrowing.

Chen Ming is a top-grade wind spirit root cultivator. A cultivation genius with this kind of spiritual root qualification will most likely join a famous sect in Zhongzhou such as the Wuliang Sword Sect or the Golden Knife Sect in order to achieve better results. Becoming a member of a local sect such as the Haiya Sect or the Mountain Eagle Sect is equivalent to voluntarily giving up the hope of becoming a great monk at the Nascent Soul Stage.

Because the combined total of Earth-level exercises of the Sea Cliff Sect and the Mountain Eagle Sect may be less than five, it is very difficult for cultivators with high-grade spiritual root qualifications to find exercises that match the attributes of their own spiritual roots.

The reason why the Wuliang Sword Sect is so powerful is that although the skills of the Wuliang Sword Sect are average in power, they do not require much spiritual qualifications. For example, Yang Lu practiced the "Immortal Heart Sutra - From Beginner to Mastery", and almost all spiritual skills Any cultivator with basic qualifications can practice it.

Despite this, when Chen Ming attended the Immortal Ascension Conference, he made a surprising decision——

Become a member of the Mountain Eagle Sect!

The reason is very simple. Chen Ming's background is very similar to Murong. He is also an abandoned baby without a father or mother. He was taken in by a charity hall run by monks from the Mountain Eagle Sect since he was a child. He has strong feelings for the Mountain Eagle Sect.

He resolutely refused the invitation of Wuliang Sword Sect and became the direct disciple of Wu Ming, the previous head of Shanying Sect.

Naturally, the Mountain Eagle Sect attaches great importance to this high-grade spiritual root genius who took the initiative to join. From the beginning, Chen Ming was trained as the next head of the Mountain Eagle Sect.

And Chen Ming lived up to expectations. It took him nearly 400 years to finally become a great monk at the sixth level of the Golden Core. His cultivation level steadily suppressed Jiang Hua'an, the head of the Haiya Sect who was at the third level of the Golden Core. He even had a big advantage. Opportunity to challenge the realm of the late Jindan.

Chen Ming is also known as the number one master in the southeastern coastal area of ​​Zhongzhou. Even Liu Hanxing is no match for him!

As the saying goes, heaven and earth are united in time. Not only did the Mountain Eagle Sect usher in a powerful leader, but as the Wuliang Sword Sect vigorously promoted the management concept of "rule of law in Zhongzhou", the Mountain Eagle Sect's papermaking industry also ushered in a golden age.

According to the theory of Luo Shen, the management master of the Wuliangjian School, the core of the legal system is procedural justice, and the core of procedural justice is to leave traces. The management model of traditional cultivation sects, in which high-level monks make decisions based on their heads, will lead to excessive expansion of power at the top of the vassal sect and is no longer able to adapt to the development needs of Zhongzhou cultivation society.

In order to strengthen the control of the vassal sects of the Wuliang Sword Sect, the Wuliang Sword Sect requires all vassal sects to formulate rules and regulations for all important daily affairs. All major decisions must be made in accordance with legal procedures, and meeting minutes must be recorded and archived. If local governance is to be carried out in the future, If a problem arises, the files sealed by each vassal sect must be able to ensure that the Wuliang Sword Sect can look back for 200 years.

This is why every department in the Haiya City Lord's Mansion has such a thick departmental charter.

In addition to these heavy departmental regulations, the Haiya City Lord's Mansion has also built a huge archive storage room using constant temperature and humidity immortal arrays. The Wuliang Sword Sect can even access the minutes and minutes of high-level meetings of the Haiya Sect from hundreds of years ago. Work ledger.

Although cultivators can also use magic weapons such as jade slips to record information conveniently and quickly, cultivators are busy with cultivation on weekdays and will certainly not personally take charge of the tedious daily management work. They will leave it to mortal clerks like Han Fulai, at most. Given some directional guidance, this management model of "everything has rules and decisions must leave traces" has inevitably led to a significant increase in paper consumption throughout Zhongzhou, and the price of office paper has also skyrocketed.

As the largest papermaking industry base in southeastern Zhongzhou, Shanying Sect's profits have experienced explosive growth in recent years.

Chen Ming is also a talented and strategic sect leader. He has not been dazzled by the huge profits of the paper industry. Instead, he clearly realizes that the prosperity of Tianshu City's paper industry relies heavily on the policy support of the Wuliang Sword Sect.

Therefore, he spared no expense to bribe Cheng Shuying, the Supreme Elder of Wuliang Sword Sect's Merit Hall, which made the Shanying Sect go from being a vassal sect on the edge of "no one above" to become Cheng Shuying's most die-hard supporter. Send a branch to protest.

Facts have proved that Chen Ming's judgment was not wrong.

While the "rule of law in Zhongzhou" has brought prosperity to Tianshu City's papermaking industry, it has also brought a heavy burden to other sects. Many vassal sects have proposed to the Wuliang Sword Sect that they should simplify the vassal sect's service procedures and reduce the use of office paper. consumption, do not engage in large-scale literary exchanges, which will increase the financial burden of local sects in vain.

However, Cheng Shuying, a major supporter of the Mountain Eagle Sect, refuted all such doubts with high-sounding reasons such as "the laws of the ancestors cannot be abolished" and "the work that leaves traces is an important starting point for performance evaluation."

If Cheng Shuying had not stepped forward to block many overt and covert attacks for the Mountain Eagle Faction, the Mountain Eagle Faction would not have been able to enjoy the huge profits from the papermaking industry over the years. Not only that, Cheng Shuying also pushed the Wuliang Sword Sect to issue an import ban on the grounds of endangering the security of Zhongzhou, prohibiting the import of Huoyunzhou office paper into Zhongzhou, which further increased the monopoly profits of Zhongzhou's paper industry.

In return, the Mountain Eagle Sect has also become the most fierce pawn of the Merit Hall of the Wuliang Sword Sect.

Cheng Shuying was already clearly at a disadvantage in this competition for the leadership of the reform of Zhongzhou's Xiuzhen social security system. In order to help his backer reverse the situation, Chen Ming even took the initiative to shout out the slogan of piloting a new generation of Xiuzhen social security system for Gongdetang.

You must know that the new generation of cultivation social security system is the eye of the storm in the power struggle among the top leaders of the Wuliang Sword Sect. All major local cultivation forces are afraid of avoiding it. Chen Ming forcibly takes charge of Cheng Shuying's place in the battle, which is equivalent to pushing himself to the forefront of the storm and putting him at the center of the storm. The entire Shanying sect was welded to death on the chariot of Gongdetang.

This approach can make the Mountain Eagle Faction the absolute direct descendant of Cheng Shuying, but it also allows the Mountain Eagle Faction to offend almost all neutral and hostile factions in Zhongzhou. It is hard to say whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

In any case, this is certainly a bold choice!

However, Yang Lu can also deeply understand Chen Ming's difficulties. Tianshu City does not have the unique conditions of Haiya City. The prosperity of the paper industry and Xiuzhenfang City are highly dependent on the policies of the Wuliang Sword Sect.

Today, the Wuliang Sword Sect feels that the Sea Cliff Sect is too powerful and needs the Mountain Eagle Sect to check and balance it, so it sets up Xiuzhenfang City in Tianshu City. Another day, it feels that the Mountain Eagle Sect is disobedient, and the Wuliang Sword Sect can re-establish the Fang City in Tianshu City. other cities.

In fact, Ren Tianyuan, the Supreme Elder of the Wuliang Sword Sect who was born in Luanshi City, has been pushing to move the entire Xiuzhenfang City to Luanshi City, but he gave up because of Cheng Shuying's strong opposition. In contrast, the Haiya Sect does not have such problems. It is certainly impossible for the Wuliang Sword Sect to move away the coastal plains and ports in the Haiya area.

In the case of insufficient innate talent, if the leader Chen Ming wants to make a comeback, he can only take risks!

Compared with Jiang Hua'an, the low-key leader of the Haiya Sect, leader Chen Ming obviously has a very radical personality. Perhaps only people with this kind of personality will refuse the olive branch offered by the Wuliang Sword Sect and resolutely become a member of the Mountain Eagle Sect. Take charge.

As soon as Yang Lu and Chen Ping arrived at the immortal Tianshu Mountains, they felt the inconveniences that the geographical environment brought to ordinary mortals' lives. For example, the flat official road in Haiya City became rugged after entering the mountainous area. It is said that ordinary mortals have difficulty in transportation, but even the spiritual energy consumption of cultivators like Yang Lu has increased sharply.

In the eyes of outsiders, Yang Lu should be practicing low-level Xuan-level or even yellow-level skills from the Golden Sword Sect.

Although it is also the first level of Qi refining, no matter in terms of recovery speed or total spiritual energy reserves, ordinary low-level techniques cannot be compared with the supreme secret book "The Infinite Heart Sutra - From Beginner to Mastery".

Therefore, every once in a while, Chen Ping would take the initiative to stop and let him recover a little bit of his mana.

Yang Lu didn't intend to expose the fact that he was practicing heaven-level skills, so he only used three-thirds of his strength to perform the divine movement technique, and followed Chen Ping unhurriedly, without rushing in front.

When resting, he would also pretend to absorb some spiritual energy. Although according to the power of the heaven-level skills, he could directly rush to Tianshu City without taking a breath.

After the two of them walked around and arrived at a small mortal town in the middle of the valley, Chen Ping took advantage of the opportunity to rest and introduced the situation here to Yang Lu: "This is the Tianshu Mountains Monster Nature Reserve. The entrance is in, and it’s only about 30 miles away from Tianshu City. After your spiritual energy recovers, let’s head to Tianshu City in one go!”

In the Jiuzhou cultivation world, mortals can become cultivators through cultivation, and wild beasts can also become monster beasts through cultivation.

In fact, regarding the origin of monsters, there is currently a huge debate among cultivation historians. The current mainstream theory in the academic circle is the exogenous theory proposed by senior Bo Nanke more than 2,000 years ago.

As we all know, cultivation is a business with a strong Matthew effect.

If a sect occupies a large territory and has many resources, it will produce more high-quality spiritual roots, and the sect members' practice will naturally progress faster; sect members with good spiritual root qualifications and fast progress in practice will naturally seize more resources. and more turf. The two strengthen each other, which will naturally produce the effect that the strong will always be strong.

Therefore, as opposing cultivating forces in the same ecological niche, monsters and cultivators find it difficult to achieve long-term equilibrium at the game level.

As long as one party has a certain advantage, this advantage will snowball until it completely eliminates the other party. This is like the native Indians in the Earth's Stone Age. Their military advantage over the American beasts was not obvious, but such a small advantage continued to accumulate, and eventually all large creatures in the Americas were exterminated by humans.

Based on this, Bo Nanke believed that monsters that were in the same ecological niche as cultivators but could not compete with cultivators could never have appeared from the beginning. Therefore, the relationship between monsters and cultivators should be similar to that between native Indians and large American giants. In the relationship between beasts, one of the two must be born under the influence of external forces.

This theory is not without purpose.

Kyushu cultivators have long realized that the world of Kyushu is not the only civilized world. There are many other worlds outside Kyushu, such as the legendary extraterrestrial battlefields and the demon world. Even within the Jiuzhou cultivation world, there are two humanoid races from the outer world, which are called "demon race" and "spiritual race" by cultivators respectively.

Since monsters can provide valuable cultivation materials, in order to prevent the disorderly expansion of human monks and the complete extinction of monsters, cultivators finally chose to establish a monster nature reserve to provide sustainable cultivation resources for the cultivation world.

The weather has just turned warm and it has not yet reached the hunting period specified by the Wuliang Sword Sect. There are not many cultivators staying in this mortal town. However, according to Chen Ping, when the hunting period begins, a large number of cultivators will gather here. this.

The two did not stay too long in this deserted town. After a short rest, they set off again and arrived at Tianshu City, the final destination of their trip, before dark.

Tianshu City is built on the mountain, at the foot of the main peak of Tianshu Mountain Range. According to the undulations of the mountains, Tianshu City presents a layered structure one by one. There are two towering city walls at the foot of the mountain and halfway up the mountain, dividing the city into two parts: the inner city and the outer city. The outer city of Tianshu City is the residential area for ordinary mortals, while the inner city is arranged from low to high, including the business district, the wealthy district, and the Xiuzhenfang urban area. The planning is quite neat.

Tianshu City Overlord Mountain Eagle Sect is headquartered at Yingxiang Peak, the highest point of the main peak of Tianshu Mountain Range, overlooking the vast mountains like a king.

This magnificent mountain city has far exceeded the limit of the productivity of traditional agricultural society. From the mist-shrouded city itself, we can see the supreme power of cultivators to move mountains and reclaim seas!