198: Chapter 198: Consolidating the spoils of war, the era of universal cultivation begins?

The crisis was resolved, the treaty was signed, and the reparations were in hand.

Above the main peak of the Qingyun Sect, that terrifying pressure that had been suffocating them for a whole day finally dissipated.

The sunlight shone down once more, warm and gentle.

The cultivators and staff who had fallen unconscious gradually woke up under the care of others.

They looked around in confusion, completely unaware that just moments ago, their world had walked along the edge of destruction.

Meanwhile, the core figures who had witnessed the entire event were still in a state of immense shock and daze, unable to snap out of it for a long time.

"Is this... over?"

The Qingyun Sect Leader muttered to himself, watching the storage ring shimmering with precious light in Jiang Ning's hand, feeling as if he were dreaming.

That was the Great Immortal World!

The supreme plane where, according to legend, immortals walked everywhere and heavenly gods were as common as dogs!

Just like that... she was forced to pay reparations and cede territory by Junior Sister Jiang Ning... no, by Ancestor Jiang, with just a few words and an incomprehensible "Heavenly Punishment"?

He suddenly felt that all the ancient books he had read about the legends of the Upper Realm might be fake.

"I... I have lived for over a thousand years, but today, I have truly seen something new."

Boss Wan was also filled with emotion. The way he looked at Jiang Ning could no longer be described as just "awe"; it was the look one would give a "Creator God."

"Consultant Jiang, we... we really succeeded!"

Special Envoy Wang and his team, after a brief moment of stunned silence, erupted into earth-shattering cheers.

They hugged each other, their eyes brimming with tears of excitement.

They had made history!

With the bodies of mortals, they had gambled against gods and won the final victory!

This achievement was enough to be recorded in the annals of Earth's civilization and passed down through the ages!

Jiang Ning looked at the cheering crowd, a faint smile appearing on her face.

Although spending three million merit points had caused her great heartache, the results obtained far exceeded her expectations.

She probed the storage ring from Old Man Xuanji with her divine sense.

"My God..."

Even with her current level of knowledge, when she saw the contents of the ring, she couldn't help but gasp.

The space inside the ring was as vast as a small world.

A mountain built entirely of "High-Grade Immortal Jade" emitted a mesmerizing halo of spiritual energy.

The quality of these immortal jades was over a hundred times higher than the top-tier spirit stones in the Immortal-Mortal Realm; taking out just one piece would be enough to drive a Nascent Soul cultivator mad.

Beside the Immortal Jade mountain was a vast herb field.

Stalks of "Ten-Thousand-Year Vermilion Fruit," "Nine-Leaf Immortal Ganoderma," and "Undying Dragon Grass"—legendary items in the outside world—were planted neatly there like Chinese cabbage, each one emitting a rich medicinal fragrance.

On the other side, various rare materials for artifact refining, such as "Star Secret Silver," "Void Divine Iron," and "Chaos Primordial Stone," were piled into another small mountain.

And this was only the reparation after a thirty percent reduction!

"The Heavenly Dao Execution Department is truly filthy rich."

Jiang Ning sighed inwardly.

It seemed that this group of "Universal Urban Managers" had scavenged quite a lot of good things from various worlds over the long years.

But now, all of this had become her spoils of war.

Besides these material resources, the most important things in the ring were two information jade slips.

One was the "Complete Map of the Great Immortal World and Surrounding Known Star Regions."

The other was "Historical Research on the Lost Civilization 'Mechanical Cult'."

Jiang Ning's consciousness sank into the first jade slip, and instantly, a vast and boundless three-dimensional star map unfolded in her mind.

The complexity and vastness of this star map far exceeded everything Earth could currently detect.

It not only marked hundreds of millions of stars and worlds but also used different colors to delineate the territories of major factions.

For example, cyan indicated the jurisdiction of the "Heavenly Dao Execution Department"; red indicated the "Demonic Alliance," which was hostile to the Execution Department; gold indicated the transcendent "Ten Thousand Buddhas Sacred Land"; and some gray and black areas were marked as "Unknown Dangerous Lands" or "Void Battlefields."

The Great Immortal World was not a unified whole.

It was more like a "Universal United Nations" composed of countless powerful factions, full of disputes and games.

And the Immortal-Mortal Realm where they resided was merely an inconspicuous speck of dust on the edge of the "cyan region" in this massive star map, not even worth labeling with a name.

"So that's how it is..."

Jiang Ning understood instantly.

No wonder Old Man Xuanji agreed to the negotiations so readily.

Because most of the Execution Department's energy was spent on confronting other factions like the "Demonic Alliance," and they had neither the time nor the inclination to invest too much cost into a small, remote, and particularly thorny lower realm.

Using a "reparation" that, while painful, was affordable to trade for the compliance of a "tough nut" to stabilize their rear was a good deal.

For them, this trade was not a loss.

"It seems this universe is even livelier than I imagined."

Jiang Ning exited the star map, already forming a brand new, grander plan in her heart.

She took a small portion of the reparations and handed them to Boss Wan and the Qingyun Sect Leader.

"Take these things and distribute them to the major sects that contributed this time. As for the rest, transport it all back to Earth and hand it over to the state for unified allocation."

"Yes! Ancestor Jiang!"

Looking at the immortal jades and spiritual herbs that would be enough to make the entire cultivation world fight until they bled, the two of them were so excited their voices trembled.

Next, Jiang Ning sought out Special Envoy Wang.

"Special Envoy Wang, I need you to report to Earth headquarters immediately and establish a new project team."

"What project?" Special Envoy Wang asked quickly.

"The 'Sea of Stars' project team." Jiang Ning's eyes shimmered with starlight. "Using the star map and resources we obtained this time, we are going to start designing and building 'Interstellar Expedition Ships' capable of true long-distance space travel!"

"Our goal can no longer be limited to a tiny Immortal-Mortal Realm."

"It is the entire universe!"

Upon hearing this, Special Envoy Wang was jolted with excitement, immediately standing at attention and saluting: "Yes! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"

After handling these matters, Jiang Ning announced she was entering seclusion.

She needed to properly digest her gains, especially the information regarding the "Mechanical Cult."

Meanwhile, because of the "divine gifts" that had descended from the sky, the Immortal-Mortal Realm sparked an unprecedented craze for cultivation.

Countless high-quality immortal jades were poured into the planet's great formation, and the concentration of spiritual energy throughout the world began to soar again at a terrifying speed.

Gradually, a peculiar phenomenon appeared.

Some mortals who originally had no aptitude for cultivation, nourished by such dense spiritual energy, began to have their bodies passively cleansed and marrow washed, unexpectedly sensing Qi without a teacher and stepping into the Qi Refinement Stage.

At first, it was just isolated cases.

But as time passed, this phenomenon became more and more common.

Farmers working in the fields, peddlers hawking their wares in the marketplace, children reading in schools...

More and more people, inadvertently, opened the door to cultivation.

A brand new, magnificent era of "Universal Cultivation" seemed to have quietly begun.

And this era would inevitably bring new social changes, as well as... new problems.