"An eighth-rank treasure land?"
Jiang Yuechu quickly picked out the unfamiliar term and glanced sideways.
This was the first she had heard of lands being divided into ranks.
Seeing her confusion, Gong Qiulan showed no impatience.
She lifted her teacup, moistened her throat, and patiently explained.
"Heaven and earth possess spirit, and the earth veins possess qi."
"Vast as this world may be, not every inch of land can sustain the cultivation of cultivators and demons. A treasure land is a region with stable earth veins that steadily produce spiritual qi to nourish all living things. Since ancient times, great powers have divided these lands into nine ranks, with the first being the highest and the ninth the lowest."
"A remote region like the Eight Hundred Miles of Linked Clouds has thin earth veins and barely qualifies as an eighth-rank treasure land."
"The spiritual qi an eighth-rank treasure land produces can sustain a million living beings at most. If too many are forced into it, the earth veins will buckle under the burden. Within a hundred years, its spiritual qi will run dry, and it will fall out of the nine ranks altogether."
Jiang Yuechu listened quietly, then asked, "What happens when it falls out of the nine ranks?"
"It stops producing spiritual qi and becomes dead land."
"For ordinary mortals without any cultivation, perhaps the only difference is their lifespan. They can still scrape by and reproduce. But living beings born and raised in dead land receive no nourishment from the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, so this world does not recognize them. The incense-fire power they produce is hopelessly impure and cannot condense into the merit we need. For Painting Realm cultivators and demons, such places are essentially worthless."
A brief silence settled over the pavilion after