Chapter 772: Fortune
The birth of the Void Mothership, naturally, could not have happened without the assistance of the Xierdesi Main God Temple.
After several rounds of negotiations between the two parties, the Void Worm Xierdesi, which had declared itself the Main God Temple after separating when the Federation strategically retreated to the Moon more than a hundred years ago, rejoined the Federation over a decade ago.
They would serve as the Federation's vanguard for exploring other spatial layers.
Thanks to Xierdesi's return, the Federation regained control over the Manghuang Realm and several other spatial layers they had developed.
The two True Immortals, one Divine Immortal, and one Ghost Immortal who commanded the Main God Temple Xierdesi also joined the Federation's True Immortal ranks.
...
At the same moment, with the birth of the title "Star Lord," several True Immortals cultivating the Ghost Immortal path could clearly sense a powerful torrent of Qi Luck surging madly into Bai Mo's body.
However, this phenomenon did not last long. The rapidly incoming flood of Qi Luck swiftly dissipated, like water without a source.
"Naming new ranks can also absorb Qi Luck?"
"Was his discourse today for this very purpose?"
"..."
All sorts of thoughts filled their minds.
Ever since Bai Mo revealed last time that Qi Luck had the effect of reducing tribulations, the various True Immortals of the Federation began to dedicate significant energy to the study of Qi Luck.
They had all experienced at least one Reincarnation Tribulation and understood very well the difficulty of overcoming such a tribulation, let alone how each subsequent one was harder than the last. With their lives at stake, research plans related to overcoming tribulations had always been given top priority.
After some years of research, the Federation gradually came to understand that Qi Luck, like the Faith Power or incense offerings of the Divine Path, was essentially a form of collective unconscious spiritual power, and from a certain perspective, it was also toxic.
With fortune, heaven and earth align; without it, heroes find no freedom.
If one's own strength couldn't control it, one would, in turn, become a mere instrument of Qi Luck.
It might appear that rich lolis, saintesses, witches, and demonesses arrived one after another, that treasures could be found simply by strolling outside, and that one's cultivation speed was like taking a rocket. In truth, everything was merely the tasks of a master.
Of course, this "master" might be formless and shapeless, and their methods of control sufficiently subtle, potentially never revealing themselves throughout an entire lifetime.
Just like Bai Mo back then, who, regardless of cost, pushed the mere mortal Ning Yan Huo to peak Fourth Tier, and then utilized him to achieve certain objectives.
It was just that Qi Luck operated more covertly, more naturally, making it appear to everyone as if everything was achieved through one's own efforts.
The Son of Qi Luck was the quintessential example of this.
Before the mission was complete, Qi Luck would descend upon them, and everything would be smooth sailing. After the mission was complete, Qi Luck would scatter like wind and clouds, returning to reality.
...
"Is this where it ends?" Bai Mo said, pointing at Wu Ling on the ground.
His "this is where it ends" contained several meanings.
Firstly, his discourse concluded here.
Secondly, it was to put an end to this largely meaningless war, which was purely a drain on human lives.
Lastly, it was for the Federation to abandon its pursuit of Wu Ling.
"Why would you go to such lengths to protect a mere mortal?"
Although Wu Ling had stirred up a lot of trouble, even unleashing an unprecedented End-of-Magic Domain that had caused them no small inconvenience, in essence, in the eyes of the Immortals, he was still nothing more than a small ant.
If they truly wanted him to disappear, and one stomp wasn't enough, they'd simply stomp a few more times.
"No matter how many times you kill a shadow, it's meaningless unless you extinguish its light source," Bai Mo explained with a slight metaphor.
"He's someone from another Star Lord?" Yun Jie couldn't help but ask.
He knew very well that only an equivalent existence could warrant such serious handling from Bai Mo.
But Bai Mo shook his head, offering no further explanation.
Preserving Wu Ling's life was less about protecting him and more about ensuring a period of tranquility for the Federation.
According to Bai Mo's observations across multiple spatial layers, only one Son of Qi Luck would appear at a time in any given era.
Even if the previous incumbent's Qi Luck had completely dissipated, rendering them a mere mortal.
As long as they remained alive, a new Son of Qi Luck would not emerge to stir up wind and clouds. Instead, they would quietly accumulate strength and slowly grow.
So, theoretically, the best method would actually be to capture Wu Ling and keep him confined like a pig, using all sorts of longevity treatments to make him live as long as possible, until his fated lifespan was completely exhausted and could no longer be prolonged.
However, Bai Mo did not wish for the Federation to remain forever stable and harmonious, with a permanently solidified class system. A Federation that was a pool of stagnant water was not the state he desired, so he naturally did not explicitly state these thoughts.
"Considering the favor today, I promise you that as long as he doesn't actively cause trouble again, my wood spirits and I will no longer pursue this fellow," Ying Huo was the first to give its pledge.
It had Bai Mo's crazy acceleration experiments from back then to thank for its complete sentience. Otherwise, with a tree demon's vague sense of time—a creature that treated a day as a minute—it might not have accumulated human-like intelligence even after another three to five hundred years.
Therefore, despite it being a clearly transactional mutual exploitation, Ying Huo still believed it owed Bai Mo a favor.
Just like the Sons of Qi Luck, even after finally realizing their lives were actually a pre-arranged play, a significant portion of them would still be grateful for the Qi Luck.
Because if not for the workings of Qi Luck, the so-called Son of Qi Luck might have simply been an ordinary person living an unremarkable life, never experiencing such a magnificent and tumultuous existence.
...
"Me too!" Yu Po chimed in.
To be honest, he held no grudge against Wu Ling.
A few verbal offenses? To him, who was profoundly self-absorbed and indifferent to worldly affairs, it wasn't even as significant as a light breeze brushing his face.
To gain Bai Mo's favor for this discourse, a small effort like this was simply nothing.
Apart from the Immortals, there were actually some mid to high-tier cultivators who had used special means to eavesdrop on this extraordinary "broadcast."
However, the cultivation of Profound Lords and True Lords was simply too far removed from them.
For those who had no hope of even passing the first major hurdle of ascending to the Immortal Rank, listening was in vain.
At most, it would provide them with a few more proud talking points when boasting to future generations.
"Even I experienced the Immortal World War and listened to a True Immortal's discourse (though only from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away)."
True Immortals were top-tier existences, with only one appearing among a billion cultivators, let alone the realms beyond True Immortals.
Out of the Federation's trillions of people and thirty billion cultivators, there were fewer than thirty True Immortals in total.
For the vast majority of cultivators, their lifelong dream was merely to advance to Five Tiers, join the ranks of the Federation's nobility, and own their personal command ship.
Yet, even this was an unattainable dream. According to the statistics of the Federation's Presiding Council, there were fewer than two hundred thousand nobles at Five Tiers and above.
The era when one could make rapid progress through casual practice and where Heaven-grade spirit materials were abundant had passed. Rough-and-ready heroes who indulged in reckless consumption and wasted opportunities would find it hard to rise again.
Today's Federation, after more than a hundred years of development, was teeming with comprehensive academies, colossal sects, and ancient aristocratic families. From the foundational to the top tiers, the entire cultivation system had become systematic.
Comments