This village, and the countless mortals and cultivators of the Immortal Artifact Sect, lived like this.
Women became trees of flesh, breeding with ruthless efficiency. Men became miners and farmers, digging ore and tilling fields for the Immortal Artifact Sect. Ten years later, they died and nourished the earth once more, supplying resentment.
None of it required any investment of spiritual energy. It could go on forever.
Even as it cruelly oppressed living beings, the Immortal Artifact Sect placed extraordinary importance on nature and harmony.
All production and smelting conformed perfectly to the laws of nature. Nothing was ever exhausted for short-term gain. The black smoke of resentment was collected and turned into artifact-refining materials. It never polluted the environment, turning the sky gray, sending filthy water across the land, filling the air with a bloody stench, or driving living things to extinction.
The land was so fertile.
The sky was so clear it looked freshly washed.
In this place called the Black Iron 29 Domain, the environment was improving. The grade of its spiritual veins was rising, however slowly. Its future held boundless promise; it was even drawing closer to an upper domain.
Everything seemed wonderful.
"Heaven's favor!"
"Heaven's favor, heaven's favor..."
Jiang Ding stared at the sky and said coldly, "The Immortal Artifact Sect has heaven's favor. The favor of the Great Thousand World's consciousness. How enviable. How admirable..."
"The Immortal Artifact Sect."
"What an efficient civilization..."
Jiang Ding's voice was flat.
In this world, which mattered more: the Heavenly Dao or the Human Path?
Throughout the history of the immortal path, countless arguments had been raised and debated again and again. "Heaven and earth are without benevolence; they treat all things as straw dogs." "My fate is mine, not heaven's." "The Heavenly Dao is supremely impartial"...
Yet