Chapter 29: Life After Demonic Sects Were Defeated
Word soon spread that more than half of the notorious demonic cultivators had mysteriously died in the Eastern Region. They had traveled in a massive, aggressive group to somewhere and never came back, causing many across the lands to assume that they had died horribly.
The demonic cultivators who didn’t participate in the invasion felt a wave of relief after finding out all those who went had died. Though this grim situation still left them deeply worried, because after so many powerful demonic cultivators had died, what if the mysterious, hidden power in the Eastern Region was now angry and came after them next?
This looming fear left many of the remaining demonic cultivators living in constant, paranoid uneasiness, as they could suddenly encounter a powerful, vengeful group coming to kill them out of pure anger.
After a few days of intense worry, all the demonic cultivators who heard about the utter annihilation of the vanguard group that went to the Eastern Region made a firm decision that they would go back into hiding. This was because living in constant, suffocating fear over a piece of territory was simply not worth all the trouble.
These panicked demonic cultivators then abandoned their newly acquired sect land and let go of the righteous cultivators that they had enslaved, desperately hoping it would prevent the powerful force from going as far as to search for them after they hid away.
The orthodox cultivators who were released were entirely confused as to why they were suddenly let go, as demonic cultivators are known for being inherently cruel and devoid of any human morality. Though deeply confused, after all the demonic cultivators actually packed up, left, and didn’t come back, the broken cultivators that were released finally realized that they were truly let go.
These freed cultivators then went back to rebuild their respective, ruined sects while also inquiring about what had happened. They then heard the shocking news that half the demonic cultivator forces were wiped out in the Eastern Region, which had scared the rest of the demonic cultivators away into dark corners.
The released cultivators felt an overwhelming gratitude to the mysterious, faceless force that had helped them. Though they still had a lingering fear, as the dangerous Eastern Region had caused the massive deaths of all the powerful cultivators across all regions. Still, it was the fault of those greedy invaders, as they themselves went to cause trouble in the peaceful Eastern Region, so the regular cultivators didn’t really blame the Eastern Region anymore.
These people were still afraid, but more than that, they were very grateful, and some even began to worship the powerful being in the Eastern Region.
So, the surviving cultivators, trying to be deeply respectful of the mysterious force to avoid causing any trouble, decided to go back to their sects and close them down. The demonic cultivators had caused far too much damage to them, so even if they wanted to cause trouble outside, they didn't have the combat strength anymore.
Closing their sects allowed them to safely recultivate their top combatants so they wouldn't continue to remain as weak as they were now, especially since almost all the top cultivators in the mortal world were dead. Due to so many high-level cultivators dying from both the demonic sects and the mysterious force from the Eastern Region, the general level of cultivators had dramatically decreased.
It would now be hard to even find anyone above the Nascent Soul stage, much less a rare Mahayana cultivator who would ascend soon. This would signal the start of a dark new age where high-level cultivators would no longer reign supreme for a long time.
This historic change, despite being unfortunate for the arrogant cultivators, made all the ordinary mortals in the lower realm without cultivation talent very happy. Much like the peaceful situation in the Eastern Region, without the greedy cultivators coming to cause them trouble, the mortals could now do as they pleased.
A golden era of rapid development was starting for the mortals in all regions as forbidden information and technology could now be spread and developed. All the ordinary mortals who benefited worshipped the mysterious force in the Eastern Region like a benevolent god for all his help to them. With newfound, fiery motivation and absolute freedom, the mortals developed very fast, causing a massive industrial revolution in the lower realm.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yun, who didn’t know anything about this massive shift, was currently relaxing in the Invincible Cloud Sect. All the women except Nangong Yu had gone back into deep seclusion.
After Jiang came back, they had noticed that there was a massive commotion outside. After inquiring about it from Jiang Yun, they realized how dangerous the outside world was again and wanted to get stronger so as not to be a useless burden to him.
Seeing everyone go into seclusion, Nangong Yu decided she wanted to stay with Jiang Yun a little longer. It didn’t matter to her if she waited a few more days to go into seclusion, as having romantic alone time with him right now was worth much more.
Jiang Yun, having free time again now that everyone except Nangong Yu was in seclusion, decided to venture out of the sect again. As Nangong Yu seemed to want to follow along, Jiang Yun allowed it, and the both of them left the mountain sect to explore the mortal world again.
It had been over three months since Jiang Yun had easily defeated the demonic cultivators, and he finally had time to have fun in the mortal world again. So, he went out to explore.
In these three months, Jiang Yun was not idle; he spent that boring time learning complex alchemy as fast as he could so he could start learning array formations. These three months had been quite fruitful, as Jiang Yun could now successfully make a Beginning Dao Comprehension Pill.
Having spent so much time frustrating himself over boring alchemy, Jiang Yun decided he needed a mental break before he started learning array formations. Though Jiang Yun wanted to finish learning alchemy to make a Dao Formation Pill—as a Dao Unification Pill is unheard of—making a Dao Formation Pill from Jiang Yun’s calculations would take far too long, and it would be better to just start learning array formations.
Since Jiang Yun had time now to take a break in the mortal realm, he took Nangong Yu to the nearest mortal village. In the bustling village, Jiang Yun was once again surprised by the technological progress made in just a few months.
From the looks of it, there were foreign faces not belonging to the Eastern Region, and there were quite a few of them. Jiang Yun could tell that these were people from the other regions. He could only assume the rapid progress was due to these people, as the spreading of knowledge is the fastest way for technological development.
What caused Jiang Yun to be so surprised was that heavy machines were now being used to mass-produce products. From the looks of it, these machines used steam to power themselves, and they were used to make clothes, plow the fields, forge weapons, and much more.
This was truly a massive advancement in civilization among ordinary people in a cultivation world. These steam machines were being used on such a wide scale now that the products made by them could be seen everywhere, as many people had new, cheap clothes as well as very finely made weapons that had gotten much cheaper.
Jiang Yun was initially surprised, but then he thought back to modern Earth and how the technology there was still significantly better, so the initial shock quickly wore off.
This, though, was not the case for Nangong Yu, as she had never seen something so advanced before. Everything was so new that she had to ask around what everything was as she tried to understand what she was looking at.
Listening to the locals explaining what these machines were, Nangong Yu was surprised by all the technical wonders that mortals had developed. These weak mortals without any Qi had made such useful machines to help in their daily lives without having to rely on expensive cultivation. This made Nangong Yu wonder how far these machines could go without the need for cultivators.
Jiang Yun let Nangong Yu wander around, enjoying her cute reactions to the new experiences while not having to react himself, as he had already seen far more advanced machines before.
After learning a lot of information and calming down, Nangong Yu then looked back at Jiang Yun, who seemed totally disinterested in the machines. Nangong Yu then asked, "These machines are so amazing, why aren’t you surprised like me? These machines can do things only powerful cultivators could do before, but now even mortals can do it using these metal things."
Jiang Yun then calmly told her that he had seen similar things before, and it wasn’t so surprising to him. Nangong Yu then felt a bit upset, as she couldn’t see Jiang Yun being excited at seeing the development of the mortals just the way she did.
Though Nangong Yu was upset, she then went back to Jiang Yun’s side and asked, "Where are we going now?"
Jiang Yun then told Nangong Yu, "We are here to relax and have fun, so is there anything you would like to do while we are here?"
Nangong Yu, hearing she could decide where they could go, suddenly felt very happy, as she was already forming a fun plan for the day in her mind. She was very excited to spend the day with Jiang Yun and wanted the day to be as unforgettable as possible, so her plan had to be amazing. She then put a lot of deep thought into the plan before eagerly pulling Jiang Yun along with her.