Chapter 345: Advancing by Retreating
"How about each side sends representatives to form a committee for joint interim management?" Liu Zhen offered this suggestion.
As an elder who had witnessed Bai Mo's entire rise to power, he felt profoundly the shadow that had always loomed over the Huaxia Federation. He believed that no rash moves should be made before definitively confirming the opponent's demise.
Therefore, he merely proposed establishing an interim management committee. This way, if by some slim chance, Bai Mo, not quite dead, were to truly return one day, there would be a legitimate reason for them to gracefully retreat.
Forming a committee together implied dragging everyone in, creating a vested interest group around the Contribution Points system. The power and benefits represented by the system were simply too immense for any faction to sit idly by while others monopolized them. When the time came to face pressure, they could also present a united front.
Liu Zhen always felt that the man couldn't have died so easily. The two clashing worlds in the European sky very likely still bore Bai Mo's shadow behind them.
"Alright. We can consider making it permanent later." The one making the final decision was still Chen Bo. He, too, intended to take a prudent path. This upheaval had resulted in countless casualties, leaving behind a massive mess, but it had also, in a roundabout way, created innumerable vacant opportunities. Rather than fuss over the Contribution Points system, which was like an invisible powder keg, it was better to first distribute the other things.
Although he and Liu Zhen were not in the same faction, their views on this matter were remarkably consistent: Bai Mo might not have died so easily.
No matter who it was, they didn't hold much positive opinion of this fellow who, like an uncrowned emperor, lorded over everyone with his absolute power while also taking a huge chunk of profit. Even if Bai Mo didn't actively influence the surrounding balance, his very existence was an invisible threat.
But everything could be gradually planned for; there was absolutely no need to rush to claim everything he possessed before his death was confirmed.
...
The Huaxia Federation's top-level meeting continued for a full two days. The problems brought by this upheaval, the subsequent reconstruction, and the related distribution of benefits all needed to be studied one by one.
Even though everyone present was a Fifth-tier Transcendent whose thoughts far surpassed those of ordinary people, and even if they only needed to set the general direction, they still toiled without interruption for over forty hours. Those responsible for relaying meeting orders also changed several shifts; not everyone had a superhumanly strong body like them to sustain over forty hours of high-intensity work.
"I didn't expect that he would be the fated protagonist chosen by Gaia in the end." Before cutting off the connection between the Nine Netherworlds and Earth, Bai Mo destroyed several of his avatars located on the Moon. "But it's perfectly reasonable. After the cleansing of the Spirit Devourer and Red Radiance chaos, Earth suffered heavy losses. On the other hand, this contingent on the Moon not only remained unharmed but also gained much from the Moon plunder war."
"News just in from satellites: not only the light pillars outside Tianqing City, but light pillars all over the world have disappeared." Just before the meeting was about to end, the Ziliu Sea received the latest intelligence from the military.
Due to the continuous terrifying gravitational pull emanating from around the light pillars, attracting surrounding life into them, on-site monitoring personnel from various countries had already evacuated, replaced by clandestine observation by spy satellites in space.
"They also discovered an astonishing fact: the Ta Ke Desert had vanished by one-sixth after being illuminated by the light pillars, and the uninhabited areas of the Qingzang Plateau also disappeared by nearly five percent, forming two basins."
"Even in their disappearance, they won't give us peace."
"Leaving their mark on this world?"
"The light pillars finally vanished, perhaps he truly..." As members of the new generation, the young people selectively ignored the latter half of the sentence. After receiving news of the giant light pillars' disappearance, their minds became active once more.
With Chen Bo, Cheng Mu, and Bai Mo as the first generation of Ancestral Transcendants, this group, who generally rose to prominence seven or eight years after the Spirit River Autumn, were referred to by outsiders as the new generation.
Compared to the pioneers who started from nothing, they at least had cultivation techniques that had undergone multiple trials and optimizations. Therefore, at the same cultivation realm, their power was generally a cut above their predecessors.
They were ambitious and desired to acquire more benefits for themselves. But the cake had long since been completely divided by the first-generation seniors. For the newcomers to obtain resources for continued progress, they either had to develop them themselves, or snatch food from the tiger's mouth.
But being a cut above was still just a cut above, not an overwhelming advantage.
The general social environment remained predominantly peaceful. Within the same combat power level, military might was not the sole decisive factor; it was impossible to demand that resources be handed over just because one was slightly stronger.
Now, Bai Mo's sudden departure, and the sheer size of the pie he left behind, enticed all these young people, who were even more eager for resources.
What was even more enticing was that he had always been a lone wolf, leaving no legitimate successor or remaining faction behind him. This further fueled their ambitions.
As for his "sacrifice" to resist that red monster... it didn't matter. Bestowing any amount of honor upon a dead person was no issue. What did it matter if he was posthumously granted a state funeral befitting a head of state? What mattered was that he was dead, and he had left behind a vast amount of assets.
Although they couldn't recklessly meddle with the Contribution Points system, which was the most critical, these young people still reaped a great many benefits from their maneuvering with other, secondary things as compensation.
"So you just handed the virtual reality system over to them?" Wen Jian asked, puzzled, after the meeting adjourned.
"On one hand, it's to temporarily shut these people up. Right now, we need unity, at least superficial unity."
"On the other hand, their internal structure isn't monolithic either; they also have various factions. It won't be easy for them to completely digest this nationwide system," Chen Bo explained impassively. Having held high positions for many years, he had a mature set of methods for dealing with such issues.
"If they dare to swallow it, they'll have to be the first line of defense in the future..." He didn't voice this thought, merely letting it turn over in his mind.
As the one closest to the next realm, from the numerous pieces of information he secretly traded with Bai Mo, he clearly understood how tenacious the life force of a Chemosynthesis stage cultivator was. As long as their Primordial Spirit remained intact, they could lie dormant for decades and emerge as a formidable figure once more.
"How could I suddenly have this feeling? Since the light pillars disappeared, the danger of undergoing the Reincarnation Tribulation has vanished by more than half." Walking along the path in Ziliu Sea, Chen Bo suddenly had a strange sensation: the danger of breaking through to the next realm would be much lower now.
"Our servants are still too few." After the connection with the real world completely disappeared, Gaia looked at the sparse figures within the Nine Netherworlds and said.
"After overcoming numerous obstacles, the meager power that could be transmitted, it's not bad to have captured these few thousand people." The Red Radiance adherent, also trapped within the realm, was considerably more optimistic; at least he wasn't alone.
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