All They Needed Was Something Good to Eat

There was an old saying: do not fear scarcity; fear unfairness.

No major sect capable of extending its sphere of influence across several states was a pushover. When facing those rising minor sects, they might seem somewhat weak because they did not wish to dirty their own hands.

But if anyone truly treated them as toys that could be kneaded at will, Ye Xiu believed that not only would those major sects left off the wagon join forces to raze Heyang City to the ground, even those few who had just been sweet as honey with him would turn around and deal with him.

It sounded contradictory, didn't it?

These major sects had clearly taken the initiative to cooperate in order to preserve their own ruling power, yet when those they had left behind were truly about to lose their chance to catch up, they would step in to lend a hand instead?

But it was not actually that difficult to understand.

It was still the same old truth.

The cultivators of hereditary major sects had long ceased, deep in their hearts, to see independent cultivators beneath them as people at all.

Even though Heyang City had now proven the strength on which its existence rested, these people still looked down from on high at Heyang City's independent cultivators.

A handy tool.

That was the label Heyang City's cultivators bore among the major sects.

Unafraid of death, passable combat strength, exceptionally effective against minor sects.

And most importantly, because of that laughable persistence and those ideals, the overwhelming majority of Alliance cultivators were unwilling to seize those resource profits that looked somewhat filthy.

The spirit Ye Xiu had painstakingly instilled into the Alliance's independent cultivators was laughable in the eyes of major sect cultivators.

Mortal notions of morality meant nothing