Heyang City, Inner City.
Cultivators streamed back and forth in bustling succession. In this city of opportunity, jointly shaped by independent cultivators and great sects, everyone had their own tasks to attend to.
Compared to the vague and intangible cultivation of the past, visible, measurable progress each day was undoubtedly the finest stimulant.
Though the great cultivators at the top still felt lost and troubled over how to advance further, lower-ranked cultivators—especially those below the Core Formation realm—could clearly know when their next step would arrive.
The cultivators living here spent one-third of every day working.
Yes, unlike in the past, when cultivators cultivated if they had spirit stones and went out seeking resources if they did not, cultivators within Heyang City no longer immersed themselves wholly in cultivation, even when their own progress was visibly rapid.
A fast start had never truly meant being fast. In a sufficiently peaceful environment, there was no need to worry about whether one would survive until tomorrow. Everyone could foresee what their next day, next month, even next year would look like. When the timeline stretched out, being ahead by a day or two no longer made one so anxious.
Today, he might exhaust all his cultivation resources and achieve a sliver of progress beyond his former self, while you honestly found a job to earn spirit stones and used your remaining time to cultivate and catch up.
When his spirit stones ran dry one day and he had no choice but to take desperate risks in trades that brought resources faster but carried far greater danger, who could predict when he would again earn enough resources to cultivate in peace?
Perhaps some accident would strike, and he would perish amid the dangers of the Outer City. That was hardly impossible.
This was