Qin Renhuang just became an immortal, and you told me this is the prehistoric time

The current situation of the Tianxing Sect being "outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant" is the result of his deliberate indulgence and even secret guidance. How could he possibly believe in the "sincerity" of these people?
After the chorus of "pledging loyalty" subsided, Ying Xuan slowly spoke, his tone calm.

"You elders are very kind. The sect's current state is indeed due to your efforts."

He then changed the subject.

"However, the foundation of a sect's development lies in the accumulation of resources and its profound heritage. During my recent trip, I gained some insights into formations and wish to further improve the protective formation of my Tianxing Sect."

Upon hearing this, the Nascent Soul cultivators immediately perked up and listened attentively.

"I need you all to mobilize all elders and disciples to refine the 'Five-Colored Spirit Soil' with all your might."

Ying Xuan said.

"The quantity... should be sufficient to cover 108 large islands."

Refining spirit soil? Laying out islands? The Nascent Soul cultivators were taken aback at first, then loudly agreed.

"I will obey the sect leader's decree! This matter is easy; I will certainly do my utmost to complete it!"

In their view, refining spirit soil, though labor-intensive, was not difficult. With the current surge in the number of cultivators in their sects, the efficiency was extremely high. As for the source of the spirit soil? They could simply dig from the spirit fields of the smaller sects and families that had merged into the sect!
In any case, the spiritual fields in the Tianxing Mountains are already sufficient, even somewhat overflowing. As long as the sect leader doesn't ascend to immortality because of this matter, they're willing to dig up as many spiritual fields as they want!

"very good."

Ying Xuan nodded and added.

"After the island is paved with spiritual soil, a large number of spiritual roots and herbs will naturally need to be transplanted, especially rare seeds. Issue my decree: All disciples of the sect, if they know of any clues about rare spiritual roots and herbs, whether or not they are within the sect's control, may report them. Once verified, they will be awarded corresponding points. We will collect as many as the sect has."

Upon hearing this, a glint of light flashed in the eyes of many Nascent Soul cultivators below.

Immediately, a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator from a medium-sized sect in the former Nine Kingdoms Alliance stepped forward and bowed.

"Sect Leader! In the spirit field of my original sect, I secretly cultivated a 'Ten Thousand Year Ice Heart Orchid,' which contains a trace of ice-type laws and is extremely rare! I am willing to return in person to dig it up intact and present it to the Sect Leader for transplantation on the new island!"

This Nascent Soul cultivator was calculating rapidly in his mind.

Because he had some old acquaintance with the elder of the Tianxing Sect who had persuaded him to join, he had long seen through the true nature of the Tianxing Sect—it relied entirely on the sect leader, who was at the Nascent Soul stage. Once the sect leader left, the sect would inevitably disintegrate.

Therefore, when he merged with the sect, he deliberately left behind the most precious spiritual roots of the original sect and hid them in the original sect's secret spiritual field, intending to accumulate some foundation for his future independent establishment.

But now the sect leader himself wants to preserve rare spiritual roots, and it seems that he intends to transplant them on a large scale to that mysterious island with the great array.

Rather than letting these treasures potentially benefit others in the future, or being unable to take them with me when I leave, it's better to take them out now and exchange them for real points! As the strongest member of my original sect, I should naturally take the lead in the "contribution" and points of these resources!

With him taking the lead, the other Nascent Soul cultivators immediately reacted as well!

"Sect Leader! In the forbidden area behind the sect's mountain, there was a small patch of 'Earth Fire Golden Lotus,' nearly nine thousand years old, with both fire and metal attributes, and extraordinary spirituality!"

"Reporting to the Sect Leader! When I was traveling in my early years, I discovered several seedlings that resembled 'Ethereal Flowers' on a cliff. This flower has spatial attributes and is extremely rare. I have been secretly monitoring its growth and am willing to offer up the location!"

"In the original family's secret vault, there were several seeds of the 'Azure Dragon Vine of the Wood element,' which are said to be an ancient and exotic species, brimming with vitality..."

In an instant, the main hall became bustling with activity.

One after another, Nascent Soul cultivators eagerly shared information about rare spiritual roots and herbs they possessed or knew of, their enthusiasm palpable as if they wanted to lay bare their hearts to the sect leader. In a short time, the types and quantities of rare spiritual roots they reported far exceeded the total number planted in all the spirit fields of the Heavenly Star Sect!

Ying Xuan listened quietly with a smile on his face, nodding slightly from time to time and praising.

"Good, very good. The elders are indeed devoted to the sect and their loyalty is commendable."

He understood perfectly.

This so-called "loyalty" is nothing more than another manifestation of being driven by self-interest.

They were eager to convert the "potential resources" that they might not have been able to fully control or take away into tangible "points" and potential "favor from the sect leader." This suited him perfectly.

“Besides spiritual soil and spiritual roots.”

Ying Xuan and the others quieted down slightly before speaking again.

"The stability of the island formation requires a large amount of refining materials containing stellar attributes. Issue an order: From this day forward, any disciple who contributes 'Star Sand,' 'Meteorite Refined Gold,' or 'Star Pattern Stone' will receive double the points they can exchange for."

The Nascent Soul cultivators once again accepted the order in unison, already pondering where these materials might be found, or which sects might have them in their treasuries.

After all the Nascent Soul cultivators received their orders and withdrew, the main hall returned to tranquility.

Ying Xuan sat alone on the throne, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

His demand for a massive amount of spiritual soil was not entirely for the islands within the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends Formation. The imperial palace of the Great Qin World covers thousands of miles. If it were to be entirely covered with this high-quality five-colored spiritual soil, given the world's current stage of development and resource production rate, even at a ratio of one to one hundred, it would probably be far from enough to drain the entire Great Qin World.

We must leverage the power of this world to "produce" and stockpile on a large scale.

The materials with stellar attributes are intended to further strengthen and perfect the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends Formation, especially those "Star Gods" that are currently being nurtured.

With a thought, Ying Xuan raised his hand and gently gestured towards the void outside the hall.

The next moment, throughout the entire Tianxing Mountain Range, in all the spirit fields, there were spiritual roots and herbs that were over five hundred years old, full of spiritual energy, and even contained a faint aura of laws.

As if drawn by an invisible force, they broke through the soil on their own, transforming into streams of light of various colors, flying into the sky, and disappearing into the faintly visible star array, where they were carefully transplanted to their corresponding star islands.

The once lush and verdant spiritual fields, filled with all kinds of spiritual herbs, were suddenly left with a large empty area, with only those relatively young or ordinary varieties of spiritual herbs remaining, making them appear somewhat sparse.

After doing all this, Ying Xuan's figure flashed and he left the Star Palace. The next moment, he appeared in the heavily guarded treasure vault.

The elder in charge of guarding the treasure vault was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator. He was startled when Ying Xuan suddenly appeared and quickly bowed in respect.

"Greetings, Sect Leader!" Ying Xuan waved slightly, his gaze sweeping over the scene inside the warehouse.

Rows of tall jade shelves were neatly stacked with tens of thousands of gleaming magical artifacts! From the lowest-grade magical implements to the top-grade ancient treasures, the variety was vast and the attributes complete, a truly dazzling sight. In the corners, mountains of various magical artifacts were piled up, their numbers impossible to estimate.

His divine sense spread out like mercury, quickly sweeping over all the magical treasures. A moment later, he raised his hand and pointed, and dozens of magical treasures with the most obscure and ancient aura, or those with obviously extraordinary materials and the potential to become immortal artifacts, automatically flew off the shelf and landed in his sleeve.

Immediately afterwards, with another thought, all the high-grade magical artifacts in the warehouse that had the potential to be upgraded to magic treasures through re-refinement also flew up, transforming into a torrent that passed through the warehouse gate and flew towards the large array island in the sky.

"I will take these magical artifacts back, refine them, upgrade their grade, and then send them back to replenish the treasury."

Ying Xuan said calmly.

"Yes, Sect Leader, you are incredibly powerful!"

The elder of the treasure vault immediately flattered him.

Looking at the warehouse, which was noticeably emptier, Ying Xuan turned to the elder and asked with a half-smile.

"Elder Li, you have been in charge of the treasure vault for some time now. Do you know that in the cultivation world, magical treasures and artifacts are closely related to a cultivator's strength, and are often one of the most scarce resources of a sect? Why does my Tianxing Sect... have so many 'idle' magical treasures and artifacts piled up here?"

Upon hearing this, Elder Li was taken aback at first, then his face quickly turned red, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He stammered for a long time before lowering his head and carefully explaining.

"Reporting to...Reporting to the Sect Leader, this...is mainly because...because with you, Sect Leader, presiding over our Heavenly Star Sect, our prestige is awe-inspiring throughout the world. When disciples of the sect travel outside, as long as they reveal their identities, no one dares to offend them easily, and there are even fewer times when life-or-death battles or the use of powerful magical treasures are necessary..."

He secretly glanced at Ying Xuan's face, and seeing that the other party was just listening quietly without any anger, he mustered up his courage and continued.

"Moreover...moreover, most disciples feel that the most important thing is to use points to exchange for cultivation techniques and improve their cultivation. No matter how good the magic treasures are, they are ultimately external things. So they would rather contribute the magic treasures and artifacts they obtain to the sect to exchange for points, which they can then use to exchange for scriptures to study. When they really need them, they can just use the points to exchange them back...Anyway...anyway, there are always some in the storeroom..."

As he finished speaking, his voice grew softer and softer, and his head bowed even lower.

This is indeed the thought of most disciples, and one of the reasons why the treasure vault is accumulating more and more magical artifacts. But he dared not say it outright, which actually reflects the disciples' "temporary" mentality towards the sect—since the sect has a leader, they are safe and secure, and resources can be exchanged at any time, so why should they bind magical artifacts to themselves for a long time?

If the sect leader were to ascend to immortality one day and the sect were thrown into chaos, it would be safer to run away with the items redeemed from points than to carry around a magical artifact that might attract covetous eyes.

How could an elder who was merely guarding the storeroom dare to directly expose such thoughts? He could only vaguely explain that "this disciple is wholeheartedly devoted to cultivation and does not value external things."

After listening, Ying Xuan smiled noncommittally and patted him on the shoulder.

"I see. It's because the disciples are so eager to improve. Alright, you can continue to look after the storeroom."

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving Elder Li standing there, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead and letting out a long sigh of relief, but his heart was filled with increasing unease. The sect leader's smile just now... no matter how you looked at it, it seemed somewhat unfathomable.

Ying Xuan strolled through the newly opened spirit fields, which were somewhat empty because he had previously collected a large number of adult spirit roots, his gaze sweeping across the ridges.

He discovered that, apart from the young or ordinary seedlings of spiritual herbs, almost every edge or corner of the spiritual field was neatly planted with one or more kinds of "grains" that exuded a faint spiritual aura and had full ears of grain.

"These are... spirit grains?"

Ying Xuan raised an eyebrow slightly and looked at the head of the Spirit Plant Hall who was following behind him and looked a little nervous. He was a Nascent Soul cultivator who had recently joined a sect that was good at spiritual plants and originally belonged to a sect in the Nine Kingdoms Alliance.

"Reporting to the sect leader, it is indeed Linggu."

The head of Lingzhi Hall quickly bowed and answered, secretly relieved.

With the sect leader absent these days, the Nascent Soul elders in the sect have become increasingly unscrupulous. Under the guise of expansion, they have absorbed familiar or friendly sects in the Nine Kingdoms Alliance by "merging" them with other sects. As for those that are unfamiliar, weak, or have little connection with them, they often use ruthless methods to wipe them out and plunder their resources and books, euphemistically calling it "contributing to the sect."

Although the hall master also gained some points from this, he was still somewhat uneasy. After all, the sect leader's public reason for establishing the sect was to gather cultivators to find the void passage. Such indiscriminate killing seemed to go against the original intention.

The fact that the sect leader was asking about such a "trivial" matter as Linggu made him feel a little more relaxed.

He explained.

"Sect Leader, you are wise. Planting a suitable amount of specific types of spiritual grains in the spiritual fields near the nodes of the spiritual veins can help to cleanse and purify the spiritual energy of the earth veins. This will make the spiritual energy output from the spiritual veins more refined and gentle, which is conducive to the absorption of spiritual herbs. In the long run, it can even slowly expand the nourishing range of the spiritual veins."

This is a common technique used in various schools of thought to nurture and optimize spiritual veins.

"Oh? Is that so?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Ying Xuan's eyes, but he quickly understood.

He collected a vast amount of books in this world, but most of them were cultivation methods, secret techniques, pill formulas, and weapon-refining diagrams. There were not many records of these "little tips" and "common sense" that permeated daily planting and cultivation, or they were scattered in various places and did not form a system.

This further solidified his previous idea—when returning to the Great Qin, he could not only take away cold, hard books and resource samples, but also a group of living cultivators who were familiar with the "details" of the entire cultivation civilization of this world!

These "common sense" values ​​passed down through experience, oral tradition, or mentorship are often the most vibrant, practical, and easily lost parts of civilization during migration.

He looked up at the faint, illusory silhouettes of starry islands in the sky and gave instructions to the head of the Spirit Plant Hall.

“This method is excellent. Once the spiritual fields on the island above are completed, you will need to arrange for manpower to plant spiritual grains, and the variety should be as complete as possible.”

The head of the Spirit Plant Hall felt a slight chill and quickly agreed.

"Yes, sir!"

He naturally understood the sect leader's meaning. This spiritual grain was something cultivators consumed daily, containing pure spiritual energy from heaven and earth. Long-term consumption was highly beneficial for stabilizing one's foundation and slowly improving one's cultivation, with effects even surpassing those of simply meditating and absorbing impure spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

Some top-tier spirit grains offer slight benefits even to Nascent Soul cultivators. However, because spirit grains grow slower than many spiritual herbs and require high-quality spiritual fields, their numbers have always been scarce. The Heavenly Star Sect's ability to cultivate them on a large scale relies entirely on the 108 modified, high-quality spiritual veins.

Now that the sect leader wants to plant the spirit grains on that floating island, which will obviously become his private domain, it means that the top-quality spirit grains produced by the spirit fields in the mountains below will likely decrease significantly in the future, with most of the high-quality output going to the area above.

This would undoubtedly harm the interests of ordinary disciples. However, in the Tianxing Sect, the sect leader's will is the highest law, especially since this sect leader is a Nascent Soul cultivator; no one dares to object. (End of Chapter)