Chapter 754: The Thumbtack
Due to the existence of various mass-produced power armors, unarmored first-tier and second-tier cultivators, frankly speaking, were only evenly matched with ordinary people wearing power armor on the battlefield.
Therefore, first-tier and second-tier cultivators were essentially worth no more than the cost of a mech suit in the Federation. While not quite as common as dirt, they were certainly a dime a dozen, and the competition to climb higher was incredibly fierce.
Of course, remaining in the mortal world, first-tier and second-tier cultivators could still fare quite well, relying on their motor reflex nerves and thought efficiency, which surpassed ordinary people by several levels.
After all, ordinary people outside of battlefields couldn't possibly wear power armor assistance systems worth millions every day for work. When similarly unequipped, low-tier cultivators were still far more efficient.
Moreover, the most compelling reason for low-tier cultivators to strive upwards was the high correlation between wealth and cultivation level in the Federation.
In other words, your wealth matched your strength.
There was no such thing as deciding not to cultivate anymore and returning to the secular world to live as a wealthy gentleman. This was because the secular world and the transcendent world existed under the same sky, using the same currency.
Federation Yuan could buy bread, and it could also buy Spirit Stones.
Being a wealthy gentleman was a privilege reserved for high-tier cultivators in the Federation.
If one accidentally acquired wealth beyond what their current realm could support, they would either have to quickly convert that money into cultivation resources to rapidly increase their cultivation, or pay protection money to a powerful figure. Otherwise, they would soon face subtle but pervasive obstacles everywhere they turned.
The low-tier cultivators, who made up nearly ninety-nine percent of all cultivators, were constantly enduring this torment.
In terms of social structure alone, the Federation was no longer a pyramid. A thumbtack—a thumbtack-shaped society—described it much more accurately.
The cultivator class, less than three percent of the total population, and within that, approximately one percent of mid-to-high-tier cultivators, held the vast majority of the Federation's wealth and power.
If one were to divide it further, the very tip of the pin could be divided again. After all, Fifth Tier cultivators and those above, the grand cultivators qualified to attend the Federation Council, accounted for less than one percent of the total mid-to-high-tier cultivators.
The wealth of a single True Immortal, by merely revealing the tip of the iceberg, would be enough to hire an army of millions of cultivators.
...
"Fourth Tier, even Fifth Tier and Six Tiers, are all mixed up in this bloody battle," Yun Jie's projection remarked to Bai Mo from another corner of the battlefield.
"It seems the battle on your side isn't that intense," Bai Mo observed, seeing that Yun Jie had the leisure to make such a comment while fighting another True Immortal.
"Do you think we'd fight like hungry dogs over that little bit of Qi Luck you left behind? That would be too undignified," Yun Jie chuckled. "A mere spar, stopping before serious harm, that's all it is."
"Among everyone here, the Head of the Ye Family and the Speaker are at the core of the True Cultivator-Xuan Cultivator struggle. Ye De Xian hopes to return to the ancient era where aristocratic bloodline houses reigned supreme and mortals merely served as new blood. The Speaker, on the other hand, is a staunch supporter of the current system.
But I don't think the outcome will change much. At most, Ye De Xian will implement his methods on the noble flagships under his command. Ultimately, the True Cultivator path just doesn't win the hearts of the majority of cultivators."
"..."
"The cultivators' sense of superiority, especially that of low-tier cultivators, needs to be manifested through mortals. Forcibly separating them and stripping them of their last vestiges of superiority... honestly, that's a bit too cruel."
Yun Jie spoke at length about the True Cultivator and Xuan Cultivator issue. Bai Mo could tell that despite being in the True Cultivator faction, Yun Jie's personal leanings were still somewhat towards the Xuan Cultivator side. However, not by much—his daughter, as a bargaining chip, held more weight and brought him to the other side.
As for the thoughts of mortals, he hadn't mentioned them at all from beginning to end.
...
The battle in space was divided into several major parts.
First was the main battlefield of the World Tree and the divine statue.
By this point, the World Tree, having undergone several rounds of wild growth, had become entangled with the Halo Oracle Titan. Millions of wood elves and low-tier acolytes had begun the most brutal close-quarters combat at the points where the two behemoths' bodies met.
They had forcibly turned a space battle into a land battle.
Except this 'land' was far from flat, sometimes even a vertical surface at ninety degrees.
The World Tree, formed from Ying Huo, was using countless super-vines, each over fifty meters thick and far more tenacious than carbon fiber, to entangle the divine statue Titan. Simultaneously, its roots at the bottom rapidly infiltrated the Execution Planet to retrieve pre-stored supplies.
The entire Execution Planet was a nutrient planet meticulously prepared by Ying Huo's side for a long-term war against Ramdo.
"So... thick..."
Mi La watched the entire process as a root belonging to the World Tree drilled a hole with a radius of over twenty meters through the Execution Planet's surface, then continued its descent towards the planet's core.
"I'm a Fourth Tier cultivator, at least... how do I feel like I'm not even in the same dimension as a Seventh-tier True Immortal?"
"A single root hair is thicker than my entire body."
"..."
"Look over there, the divine statue's eyes seem to be glowing?" With the help of the pendant, they were able to see the situation tens of thousands of kilometers away, at the other end of the main battlefield.
"It looks like... a strange green glow... Oh no, quickly, dodge!!!" Sella, the wind elf and diviner, was the first to sense the danger.
"That green light is coming straight for us, or rather, for this entire area!"
"This area? Could it be..."
Before Mi La could finish her sentence, the green light, emitted from the divine statue's eyes, reached the surface of the Execution Planet, which was tightly enveloped by the World Tree, at light speed.
At this moment, a formidable stasis field seemed to have appeared on the Execution Planet's surface, firmly holding the green light outside the planet.
"Ramdo, did you really think I hadn't considered this?"
As the battle had progressed to this point, the two True Immortals, locked in a life-and-death struggle, began to have a meaningful conversation for the first time.
"I know that you know."
Before his words faded, the green light silently dispersed into countless specks of light, permeating the interior of the force field like a rain of photons.
"And I know that you know that I know."
The next moment, the originally colorless and transparent force field shimmered with a rainbow of colors, its repulsive force against the green light specks growing immensely, consciously ejecting these foreign objects.
"I also know that you know that I know that you know."
A peculiar quantum signal emanated from the divine statue's eyes, and the green light specks vanished from their original positions in an instant.
...
"Huh? Why did it suddenly disappear?"
"They've entered a microscopic battle." Using the pendant's power again, Mi La finally understood what had happened.
The green light specks, now molecular in size, were attempting to challenge Ying Huo's minimum precision control over the force field.
"Let me see too." Sella took the pendant from Mi La's hand and, with the help of the pendant's divine sense, saw a scene that made her extremely uncomfortable.
The sky was filled with nanometer-scale green light specks...
"My trypophobia is acting up."
"..."
PS: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.jpg.
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