Time drifted on.
Before anyone knew it, more than two thousand years had passed.
During that time, mortal dynasties rose and fell through several cycles, while generations of Immortal Sect Citizens turned over dozens of times. The old exhausted their lifespans and died, and newcomers took their place.
Throughout it all, powerful cultivators kept emerging. More and more reached Spirit Transformation.
The elite among the Immortal Sect's trillion citizens, together with many peerless talents who had ascended and immigrated, drove the steady growth of its Spirit Transformation ranks. Senior officers kept rising through the Citizen Fleet, providing strong support for the Immortal Sect Fleet's expansion.
During this period, the Immortal Sect successfully established diplomatic and trade relations with the Nine Great Immortal Sects of the Ancient God Domain, the Demon God Sect, and the Myriad Races Alliance. Each side obtained what it needed.
With no war underway, every faction seemed friendly and willing to talk. Peace appeared to reign between domains—if one ignored the undercurrents stirring beneath the surface.
The Immortal Sect's many goods, standard-issue artifacts, and standard-issue pills sold briskly across the domains. In a remarkably short time, their quality and low prices won them renown among nearby factions, bringing the Immortal Sect vast quantities of spirit stones and precious materials and further swelling its Spirit Transformation ranks.
Trade in precious materials of Void Refining grade and above, however, was restricted. The various factions of the Ancient God Domain were wary of transactions at that level.
Even so, the Immortal Sect's flood of goods had already provoked resentment from factions such as the Demon God Sect and the Myriad Races Alliance. Stricter trade restrictions seemed to be taking shape.
They had discovered that, against this flood of cheap imports, their low- and mid-level alchemists and artifact refiners could not