Ji Chen opened the dossier, his voice echoing through the stone chamber.
"The Taichu Immortal Vein took the lead, joining forces with Hun Yuan, Wu Ji, and the rest of the Seventeen Great Sects to form a Demon-Slaying Alliance."
"They've sealed off all ten of Central Province's highest-ranked large Turbid Qi Forbidden Zones with formations."
"Independent cultivators have to pay exorbitant entry fees just to get in and hunt Demon Beasts."
"And that's not all."
Ji Chen turned a page, his brows tightly knitted and his tone tinged with anger.
"They've set up checkpoints at the exits and forcibly take seventy percent of the scrap that independent cultivators risk their lives to bring out."
"They dress it up as alliance management fees and formation maintenance fees."
"Anyone who refuses has their limbs broken on the spot and their scrap confiscated."
"Yesterday, on the outskirts of Black Wind Valley, there was an independent cultivator named Li Tie. He was a tough nut to crack."
"To obtain a crystal stone for his gravely ill Dao Companion, he lurked in the poison miasma for three days and nights, losing an arm before he finally managed to kill a Demon Beast."
"A deacon from the Taichu Immortal Vein not only stole the Demon Beast but smashed its bones inch by inch right in front of him, mocking him as a useless wretch."
"Li Tie couldn't swallow that insult and stepped forward to argue, only for the deacon to shatter his dantian with a single palm strike. No one knows whether he's alive or dead."
"Once word spread, the independent cultivators' hearts turned completely cold."
"Everyone's saying the sky over Central Province has become the same man-eating sky it used to be."
"The Demon-Slaying Alliance is outrageously arrogant now. They've set up purchasing stations in