Chapter 748

Chapter 748: The Great Development of the World

In the year 6430 of the Xia calendar, Haigang City.

Lin Jiang announced his retreat and immediately cut off contact with the outside world, truly entering seclusion.

Lin Jiang wanted to try to break through to Tao Achieving. He reached the later stage of Void Achieving over a hundred years ago, and with constant use of pills over the years, he has now reached the peak of Void Achieving.

This time, Lin Jiang did not expect to break through directly to Tao Achieving. According to his plan, he would need to challenge it more than five times. With repeated attempts, gaining experience each time, he believed success would eventually come easily.

So this time was just an attempt, to gather some experience for the future.

At the same time, many cultivators in Huaxia’s higher ranks also entered a period of seclusion. The new generation of cultivators led by Ning Li and Lin Liyan was gaining more and more fame, taking over many mundane tasks.

This is also a habit of the cultivation era. Even for major sects, cultivators at the Soul Changing stage rarely handle ordinary matters directly. They usually just have their names attached, while those with Nascent Soul level cultivation take care of real business.

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On Ying Continent, Li Qing was leading people to clear the surrounding seas of the demon race. Since their last defeat, the Demon God Temple had been quiet for many years, and their control over the demon race in the middle of Yu Hai had loosened significantly.

This caused the strength of the sea demon race to suddenly soar, and it seemed that many fourth and fifth rank Demon Kings appeared in groups, while sixth rank Demon Kings were also quite common.

Now that Li Qing was taking action herself, these demon races had bad luck; besides a few clever ones who ran away quickly, almost all of them were wiped out.

"Master, we have retrieved the bodies of the Demon Kings, not a single one escaped."

Standing on the surface of the sea, a dozen figures flew over; they were elders from the Wangxian Sect leading a new generation of cultivators. The new cultivators were filled with a strong killing intent, clearly having undergone thorough training.

"With the death of the sixth-rank giant shark Demon King, the route from Ying Continent to the western part of Shen Continent is now clear. Shipping by sea will be smooth and easy, which is very beneficial for Ying Continent."

Li Qing nodded. The waters from the eastern part of Shen Continent to Ying Continent had been cleared by Huaxia, creating several safe shipping routes that allowed trade between them. Sea transport costs much less than other methods, saving real money.

However, the waters from Ying Continent to the western part of Shen Continent had not been cleared, and the ships from Ying Continent were not as sturdy as the new ships from Shen Continent. Ying Continent had tried several times but had been sunk by the sea demon race, suffering heavy losses, which forced Li Qing to take action herself.

"Once the sea route is open, products from Ying Continent can be sold directly to the countries in western Shen Continent. Anything will sell very well. The countries in western Shen Continent are mainly under the influence of Huaxia, Qingyun, and Zhou Liao, making it an economic colony of theirs. Sea shipping costs one-third of land transport. Unless Huaxia builds many teleportation arrays in western Shen Continent, they cannot compete with our prices. Master, we need to compete with Huaxia for the market."

An elder added that they aimed to open the sea route for the market in western Shen Continent, where there are dozens of small countries with a population of billions, creating a huge market.

The Three Countries Alliance all have railways leading to the western part of Shen Continent, but rail transport can’t compete with sea transport, which is much cheaper.

Unless they are willing to build more teleportation arrays, but the cost and maintenance of teleportation arrays are very high; even Huaxia has not done this.

"If we do this, which country do you think will be the easiest to hit?"

"It has to be Qingyun; Qingyun is a landlocked country and can’t compare to Zhou Liao and Huaxia. Our Northern Ying Continent and Penglai don’t have much interest in them. They rely on the western part of Shen Continent for support. We might be able to push Qingyun down completely, making it worse than Zhou Liao."

"The world’s development depends on exploitation, so let’s target Qingyun. Quickly organize a trade caravan to explore the western part of Shen Continent, and start a price war to drive Qingyun out first."

"Leader, the western part of Shen Continent has been troubled by demon races for many years, with many casualties each year. We from Ying Continent also need to send experts to support them."

"That’s fine. The new generation of cultivators no longer have large battles to fight; they take turns going out to hone their skills, and this is a good opportunity for them to practice against the demon beasts."

Li Qing said the new generation of cultivators are the reserve troops of all major powers, and everyone values them highly. In this regard, Ying Continent is much stronger than Qingyun and Zhou Liao because they can send a lot of golden core and Nascent Soul level cultivators there.

Once the situation in the western part of Shen Continent is stabilized, the market of billions of people will be the hope for Ying Continent’s rise. All kinds of new technologies need a market to flourish; without the benefits provided by the market, there is no motivation to develop new technologies.

"Yes, Master."

A group of cultivators instantly became excited. They were already dreaming of drawing energy from the billions of people in the western part of the Shen Continent. Such a huge market could bring new life to the Ying Continent, make it stronger, and give it the power to compete with Huaxia. Just thinking about this made their hearts race with excitement.

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Penglai Continent, Wanghai City.

Lu Xuan’s power has grown rapidly in recent years because he has taken over many of the local forces in the Penglai Continent. In recent years, the calls for independence among these locals have become louder, even declaring that the Penglai people should rule the Penglai Continent. Under this mindset, there have been fierce conflicts between the native people and the immigrants in the Penglai Continent.

They also used various politically correct arguments to silence the countries, as, legally speaking, they truly were the masters of the Penglai Continent.

However, the Penglai Continent is linked to the interests of many nations, so it could not simply be handed over. With the silent approval of various countries, Lu Xuan took the first move. He didn’t use any underhanded tactics; instead, he engaged in a fair trade war and crashed the companies of the native forces with low prices.

Those companies were similar to Lu Xuan’s, mainly focused on agriculture and livestock. After all, the Shen Continent had an agreement not to allow the Penglai Continent to develop heavy industry; at most, there were only some light industry to support.

With Huaxia as his backing, Lu Xuan easily dealt with them. Soon, some high-ranking natives went bankrupt and committed suicide, leaving behind a group of scattered people.

At this moment in Wanghai City, inside Lu Xuan’s villa, the piles of spirit stones were being used by the Spirit Gathering Formation to draw out spiritual energy, causing the concentration of spiritual energy in his villa to soar, spreading in the form of mist everywhere.

In this environment, Lu Xuan did not need to meditate or practice; he simply took off his clothes and lay on the bed, with all his cells becoming incredibly active. He was like a vacuum cleaner, continuously sucking in the spiritual energy into his body.

"In the later stage of Soul Changing, in at most fifty years, I will surely break through to Void Achieving. After that, should I continue to act humble or show my true strength?"

Lu Xuan was thinking about his plans. He had already reached the later stage of Soul Changing, and his speed of improvement was impressive. He believed that in no more than fifty years, he could break through to Void Achieving, much faster than the top talents in Huaxia.

He still kept in touch with Lin Liyan and the others, often discussing matters of cultivation. He knew that Lin Liyan and the others had slowed down after entering Soul Changing, as the amount of spiritual energy required was enormous, and refining the spiritual energy took a lot of time and effort every day.

Lu Xuan’s personality clearly did not want to be humble forever. Back on Ying Continent, he had already played that role long enough, which was why he planned a series of events; right now, he only felt like he was lying low.

Achieving Void level is considered powerful in this world. According to what he learned, there were only a few dozen in Huaxia and a few in Ying Continent; no one else had reached it. If he broke through, he could be certain his strength would place him among the top one hundred of humanity.

Having great strength makes it very normal to seek appropriate rewards.

"Not enough, not enough, my strength is still not enough, nor is my influence. Fighting alone without being the strongest in the world is insufficient. Therefore, becoming the world’s number one becomes very necessary."

Lu Xuan finally shook his head and gave up the idea of exposing his ambition as soon as he reached the Void Achieving. He still needed to lie low and grow stronger until he became number one in the world.

To become number one in the world, he needed a shortcut, just like in his past research. Without this shortcut, he wouldn’t even have a position; he would have long become a pile of bones.

The words "evil cultivation method" popped into Lu Xuan’s mind. The evil cultivation methods were banned by all the countries in Huaxia, but they still popped up everywhere in secret. Lu Xuan managed to get a few and studied them secretly, although he hadn’t paid much attention before because their training speed was still slower than his.

But now, Lu Xuan was a bit interested. If the evil cultivation methods could combine with his own uniqueness, there seemed to be great potential.

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Fangzhang Continent, Demon God Temple

The Demon Queen had not shown herself for decades. The major decisions in the Demon God Temple were made by the Fire Scale Demon Emperor and the Shenwu Demon Emperor. Before going into seclusion, the Demon Queen had talked to them. Her purpose for this seclusion was to break through to the Transmigration Stage, which was the only chance for their demon race to turn defeat into victory.

Therefore, the two Demon Emperors were very loyal to the Demon Queen and diligently watched over the Demon God Temple’s group of demons.

For more than a hundred years, there had not been a great war on Fangzhang Continent, which was an opportunity for both sides to rest and recover. Over these one hundred years, the demon race slowly regained its vitality, and fifth and sixth-level demons kept appearing.

"Shenwu, the formation around the Demon God Temple is ready."

"Almost done, the demon patterns are similar to the human patterns. Over the years, I have studied the human patterns a lot, and I have set up layers of formations around to block everything."

Shenwu Demon Emperor said that the demon race has been learning from the human race, which is true. They set up these formations to guard against the human race spying on the demon race’s information again.

"That’s good. Whether a new Demon Emperor appears or the Demon Queen becomes the Demon Emperor, it needs to be kept secret."

"Yes, last time we suffered a big loss. If the humans had not known, we might not have lost."

"Let’s not talk about the past. We should think about the future. The human tribe is strong and has the power to completely destroy us. If we don’t seize this opportunity, you and I could become human beast pets."

"Hmph, the Xuanwu clan is a born divine beast. How could we be human beast pets?"

"By then, it may not be up to us."

"Huo Lin, don’t be so pessimistic. Trust the Demon Queen and believe in our demon race. Right now, we have six peak sixth-level Demon Kings on the brink of breaking through. If they succeed, we will not lack strength to fight again."

The Shenwu Demon Emperor said, "The demon race is making progress, not only the Demon Queen, but other demons are also working hard to grow stronger, including those two."