The Pros and Cons of Qilin Cliff

While it's true that Qilin Cliff's innate conditions are unparalleled, as if blessed by heaven itself. The spirit veins alone beneath the ground number in the millions. However, this prosperity is built upon the predatory extraction of the Primordial Great Earth Ancestral Vein's essence, making it impossible to replicate or promote elsewhere.

The entire Qilin Cliff acts like a massive, natural spirit qi aggregator and converter, forcibly gathering spirit veins from an infinitely vast region through some profound method to nourish this single corner of the land.

This method can create extreme prosperity in the short term, but from a long-term and overall perspective, it might overdraw the potential of the earth veins in the surrounding and even larger areas, representing an unsustainable development model.

Furthermore, Lin Yan believes that Qilin Cliff's management of its ecological environment is frankly... rather crude.

For instance, in the Divine Wood Garden, although there are many spirit roots, their planting layout is chaotic. Spirit roots of different attributes are mixed together, not only failing to promote each other but actually interfering with one another. He once used the Mini Ecology Simulator to perform a simple deduction: if spirit roots of similar attributes were planted in separate slots, with formations designed to complement each other, creating multiple small ecological cycles, the growth speed and quality of the spirit roots could be increased by at least thirty percent.

And although the Myriad Treasures Cave has numerous treasures, its mining methods are crude, lacking any awareness of protection and nurturing. After some precious mineral veins are barbarically mined, the caves are abandoned without backfilling or guiding the regeneration of earth qi. In the long run, this not only leads to resource waste but also damages the earth veins.

The distribution of spirit qi throughout Qilin Cliff, while generally extremely dense, is also highly uneven. Near the Seven-Colored Cloud Waterfall, the spirit qi is almost liquefied, yet the number of living beings residing there is extremely scarce, resulting in a great waste of spirit qi.

In densely populated areas like some valleys, the spirit qi is relatively sparse. If the earth veins in some areas were systematically sorted and a more reasonable spirit qi circulation network were constructed, the spirit qi distribution across Qilin Cliff could be made much more uniform, leading to higher utilization.

In addition, the number of living beings residing near Qilin Cliff is extremely large. Besides the core Qilin Clan, there are countless other races that have attached themselves.

The living and residential arrangements of these beings lack unified planning, often with a piece of land arbitrarily designated as the living space for their respective clans. This leads to imbalanced utilization of spirit veins in different areas, with some places having excess spirit qi and others being relatively sparse.

Throughout Qilin Cliff, there is almost no sign of public facilities, nor unified material allocation, information exchange, or crisis response mechanisms. Everything relies on the clan rules of each group and the occasional intervention from the high-level Qilin Clan elders.

The entire society's operation is still in a very primitive stage, a "tribal alliance" maintained by the prestige of powerful individuals and blood ties.

"It's prosperous, indeed, but large without refinement, flourishing without longevity..." Lin Yan sighed inwardly. Qilin Cliff's prosperity is more like a "bloated" state built on resource accumulation, lacking refined management and the internal drive for sustainable development. Once external resource input decreases, or internal turmoil arises, it's questionable how long this prosperity can be maintained.

Of course, Lin Yan only pondered these thoughts in his mind and did not voice them. After all, he was merely a guest, and it would be impolite to rashly criticize the host's management style.

Moreover, despite the beautiful scenery of Qilin Cliff, Lin Yan keenly sensed a tense atmosphere, like an impending storm.

On some massive training grounds, organized Qilin Clan warriors were practicing combined battle formations. Workshops for refining artifacts and pills were also unceasingly refining magical treasures and elixirs day and night. These were clearly preparations for large-scale warfare.

Mo Xuan seemed to have noticed Lin Yan's attention and lowered his voice, saying, "Father and several elders have been busy and out of sight lately. I heard they are planning a major operation to completely clear out the 'Myriad Sha Cave' in the southwest and the 'Meteor Sea' in the southeast, two great ominous lands. Several Ancient Fierce Beasts comparable to Primordial Unity Golden Immortals are entrenched there, posing a constant threat to the clan."

Ao Ye also chimed in, his dragon face filled with excitement, "We've heard about it too. It's not just the Qilin Clan; our Dragon Clan is also mobilizing troops and preparing to move against the 'Eye of the Nether' and the 'Northern Nether Ice Prison.' The Phoenix Clan also seems to have its sights set on a few Ancient Fierce Beasts deep within the 'Undying Volcano Cluster' in the south. It seems the Primordial Great Earth is truly about to usher in a great war."

Lin Yan's heart grew serious. It appeared that the major powers were all preparing to launch attacks against the fierce beast forces. Perhaps the Great Tribulation of fierce beasts on the Primordial Great Earth was about to begin from here? After the Innate Beings, represented by the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Three Clans, eliminated the fierce beasts, these three clans would officially begin their reign over the Primordial Great Earth.

One day, Mo Xuan led Lin Yan and Ao Ye to the base of the Qilin Cliff, where they would jointly comprehend the Dao rhymes on the cliff face, making final preparations for their upcoming breakthroughs.

"This is the best place on Qilin Cliff for comprehending the Dao. Even I can't come here casually. I had to beg my father for a long time before he allowed me to bring you two here," Mo Xuan said boastfully to the two of them. "We will comprehend here for a while, and then we will go into seclusion to break through to the True Immortal Realm. Lin Yan, Xiao Ye, I'm sure I'll break through before you two."

"That's not necessarily true, Xiao Mo. Lin Yan just broke through to the Heavenly Immortal Late Stage, so he might not be as fast as you. But I'm only one step away from the True Immortal Realm now, so I think I might break through before you," Ao Ye said confidently, puffing out his chest.

"Hmph, then let's compete and see who breaks through first. The loser has to give the winner three Spirit Treasures or Spirit Roots, how about it? Xiao Ye, do you dare to bet?" Mo Xuan said, shaking his head in disagreement.

"Bet, I'll bet. What dragon prince am I if I'm afraid of you," Ao Ye extended his dragon head and bumped Mo Xuan's Kirin Head three times, and the bet was thus established.

Just as the three of them were sinking their consciousness into the runes on the cliff face, carefully comprehending the profound Dao rhymes, the space around them suddenly produced an extremely subtle fluctuation.

Lin Yan was most sensitive to spatial fluctuations. The moment the spatial fluctuations touched him, the Heaven and Earth Bead in his Sea of Consciousness trembled slightly, then released a force, as if resisting the power of the spatial fluctuations.

For a moment, Lin Yan's body was pulled and stretched by two forces. Fortunately, his physical body was strong, and the spatial power from the opposite side seemed to contain no malice. Otherwise, he felt he might have been torn in half. But even so, it gave him a very strong sense of discomfort.

"Hmm?" A faint, almost imperceptible sound of surprise came, followed by an even more massive spatial power.

The next moment, Lin Yan felt a dizzying sensation. The scenery before his eyes blurred, twisted, and then suddenly became clear.

When he opened his eyes again, he found that he was no longer at the edge of Qilin Cliff, but inside a pavilion. Mo Xuan and Ao Ye beside him were also looking around in a daze.

Lin Yan looked around and found that the pavilion was suspended high above the clouds, with the vast and boundless scenery of Qilin Cliff below. Faint colorful spiritual mist swirled around. Being in it felt like stepping into a fairyland beyond the heavens, overlooking the mountains and rivers of the mortal world.

In the center of the pavilion, there was a large white jade square table, on which a few plates of immortal fruits and spirit tea were casually placed, emitting a clear fragrance.

What made Lin Yan's heart tremble even more were the figures sitting around the round table.

At the head of the table sat an old man with an ancient face and a majestic figure. He wore a wide daoist robe of gold and red, with jade-colored Qilin horns on his head that were warm and translucent. His eyes were as deep as the sea, as if they contained the entire Primordial Great Earth.

He just sat there quietly, not deliberately emitting any aura, but Lin Yan felt as if he were facing an unshakeable ancient divine mountain, or looking up at a boundless firmament. Just by his gaze, his Primordial Spirit involuntarily felt a sense of awe and submission.

Judging from the jade horns on his head and this imposing aura, it was the ancestor of the Qilin Clan, the true master of Qilin Cliff, Ancestor Qilin.

On either side below Ancestor Qilin sat several people with profound auras and varied expressions.

The first person on the left was an old Daoist wearing a plain grey daoist robe, with white beard and hair. His face was thin and refined, his eyes clear as a baby's, yet deep as the starry sky. His aura was almost imperceptible, as if he were one with the natural world.

Lin Yan looked closely and realized that this old Daoist was the one he had met once before, the one who wanted to take him as a disciple but was refused – Old Daoist Hongjun!