Chapter 822: Entering the Pass
"What? The Four Great Sects are opening Xuanwu Pass?!"
"Then who will stop the Tide of Beasts from Ten Thousand Mountains?"
"They're actually willing to do that?"
Suddenly, a shocking piece of news spread throughout the entire Southern Cliff Province.
This world had always been in a state of conflict between humans and demons. In Southern Cliff Province, the two sides generally used Xuanwu Pass as their boundary, with hundreds of thousands of li in every direction being fiercely contested zones.
In the past, the Four Great Sects had always led the way, dispatching cultivators from top to bottom to guard Xuanwu Pass and the numerous surrounding fortresses, to defend against the endless Tide of Beasts that periodically surged from Ten Thousand Mountains.
Although the defensive missions were arduous, they also yielded massive resources from the demonic beasts. Each year, the total value of materials obtained solely from the demonic beasts exceeded a hundred million spirit stones, at the cost of merely a few unfortunate lives.
Therefore, unless a super Tide of Beasts, occurring once every millennium or even ten millennia, required the mobilization of the entire Southern Cliff Province's forces for defense, it was usually the Four Great Sects and their vassals who firmly held control over these benefits on a daily basis.
"It seems the issue with pseudo-cultivators has become so problematic that even the Four Great Sects are starting to feel the pinch."
"They're letting pseudo-cultivators, more numerous than cockroaches, deplete themselves against low-tier demonic beasts, who are just as numerous as cockroaches."
"Who would have thought that the cultivators of our human race would one day be able to contend with demonic creatures through sheer numerical advantage..."
Many people could see through the schemes of the Four Sects of the Sunfire Palace, but to be honest, the cultivation world was indeed in a chaotic mess, overwhelmed by the tide of pseudo-cultivators, and most expressed their approval of this move.
Originally, among mortals, those with true spirit roots capable of cultivation were one in a hundred, if not rarer. Often, out of thousands of people in a single town, only one or two individuals with barely acceptable cultivation aptitude could be selected as seeds for the Dao.
For major sects and grand schools, selecting disciples could be described as one in a hundred thousand, or even a million.
But now, pseudo-cultivators were rampant; among every ten mortals, two or three, unwilling to accept their fate, chose to burn twenty years of their vital essence and lifespan to embark on this pseudo-cultivation path.
The wildly expanding ranks of cultivators led to an endless demand for spirit stones, spirit herbs, and spirit pills.
Among the pseudo-cultivators, the relatively honest ones chose to become cheap labor for major sects and grand schools, earning a paltry income.
Those with greater ambitions became hyenas, hunting everywhere. From lone cultivators to small families, and even resource points with weak sect defenses, all were their prey.
The cultivation world was harassed to the point of utter misery by these endless marauders. In particular, Qi Refinement cultivators, unless supremely confident in their own strength, now dared not venture out alone.
Because these hyenas most enjoyed plundering Qi Refinement cultivators who ventured outside their sects.
Once a person was killed, their valuables were divided, and everyone scattered in different directions to flee, then they'd see who was unlucky enough to be hunted down and eliminated by the deceased's sect.
For the sake of a mere Qi Refinement disciple, an ordinary sect couldn't possibly dispatch too many forces for revenge.
Over time, even a super sect like Sunfire Palace suffered significant losses among its lower-tier disciples.
After all, they couldn't possibly prevent Qi Refinement disciples from leaving the sect, nor could they hand all tasks over to Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators.
As long as they ventured out, there was risk.
As for eradicating the prevalence of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Art?
They hadn't even considered that method.
Not to mention the current widespread popularity of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Art; attempting to prohibit its spread would be nearly as difficult as annihilating mortals.
Behind the Yin-Yang Five Elements Art, there was also a mighty expert, most likely beyond the Incarnation stage.
If they were truly to massacre all the pseudo-cultivators, they would definitely have to consider his opinion.
...
"Enter the Pass!"
"Enter the Pass!"
"Everyone, let's enter the Pass together!"
"As long as we enter the Pass, beyond it lies vast spirit ore mines, countless spirit herbs, and innumerable large cave estates filled with abundant spirit qi! We'll be able to live good lives, eating barbarian beef every day and residing in top-tier spirit mansions!"
Accompanying the news of Xuanwu Pass being opened, a doctrine known as "Entering-the-Passism" also began to spread throughout the entire cultivation world.
Compared to the previous logic of pure discrimination against pseudo-cultivators, Entering-the-Passism increasingly pointed the finger at Xuanwu Pass as the reason for the growing hardships faced by middle and lower-tier cultivators.
The demonic beasts on the other side of Xuanwu Pass occupied too many resources that rightfully belonged to the human race, which was why everyone was not living so well.
As long as they entered the Pass, slaughtered these demonic beasts who had usurped their nests, and flayed them to the bone, they would reclaim what belonged to humanity, and everyone would then be able to live good lives.
This theory, propelled by those with ulterior motives, quickly gained widespread support from pseudo-cultivators.
On one hand, the entire cultivation world had always placed the blame squarely on the pseudo-cultivators.
They believed that the pseudo-cultivators' viral growth in numbers was the cause of all problems, and they had suppressed them in every possible way, stopping just short of a large-scale massacre.
And the pseudo-cultivators, who had long been shouldering the blame and were constantly being pointed at, finally had a rare argument that shifted the blame for everyone's difficult lives onto a third party, which was very comforting mentally.
On the other hand was the inherent flaw of quickly-trained cultivators — their lack of education.
The pseudo-cultivators who had only undergone a few months of crash course training might have been illiterate, barely recognizing a few characters, before entering the class.
After just a few months of study, at most, they had swallowed whole without chewing the introductory parts of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Art; as for other classic works and treatises, they remained utterly blind.
"Everyone says I'm not wrong, so I'm definitely not wrong!"
"The culprits are those damned demonic beasts, who stole the living space that rightfully belongs to us!"
"Kill!"
"Plunder!"
This simple, crude, and blame-shifting theoretical logic was quickly accepted by most pseudo-cultivators.
...
"Senior Bai, I see everyone saying that entering the Pass is good, and they're going to Xuanwu Pass in droves..."
"I heard there are heavenly materials and earthly treasures everywhere beyond the Pass..."
Outside the Seven Profound Gate, Mo Fengwu and a few other women, carrying two urns and heading to pay respects at Mo Tianxie's tomb, happened upon Bai Mo sitting by the grave.
After more than twenty years of effort, and with a "slight" helping hand from the Yin-Yang Sect's Sect Master before the sect's dissolution, three of the women who had ascended the mountain together had reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
As for the other two women who ultimately failed to reach Foundation Establishment, they had turned into two urns of white bones, now carried in the hands of the three who succeeded.
"Bury them first."
"..."
With a casual flick of Bai Mo's hand, the thick soil above Mo Tianxie's coffin automatically receded, revealing the coffin itself.
Mo Fengwu and the other woman stepped forward, opening the coffin. Inside lay Mo Tianxie, already reduced to white bones.
"Adoptive Father, I will continue your dream of cultivation! I will let everyone know that even without a spirit root, one can still cultivate!"
"Even beauty turns to white bones; in the end, it's nothing more than a handful of yellow earth."
Bai Mo picked up the urn of bones belonging to Madam Yan, gently opened the lid, and poured the contents into the coffin.
A perfectly re-arranged human skeleton was thus interred with Mo Tianxie.
That skull still seemed to vaguely retain a hint of the elegant woman's charm from that day.
"Fellow Daoist Mo, the world you desired, where even mortals can cultivate, I have already realized it for you."
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