Whispers drifted among the distant trees, the shock and wariness within them unmistakable.
Anyone who possessed admission to the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform during the riot period came from a family whose circumstances could hardly be summed up by the word "wealthy." Considerable power and influence inevitably stood behind them. Even then, only the core descendants their families spared no effort to cultivate could enjoy such resources. That threshold alone shut out the vast majority of soul masters.
Young soul masters with backgrounds like these had knowledge and perspective far beyond those of ignorant, narrow-minded fools. Xu Qingjia's group still had plenty of fighting strength left, but even if they had shown signs of exhaustion and stopped to rest, no one would have provoked such terrifying potential enemies for their families over this trifling gain-unless they were already hostile to the Federation, like certain radical followers of Shrek.
Perhaps the elders behind a genius would not mobilize their forces over a minor clash. But who dared gamble on whether this future leader, destined to grow into a towering tree, would remember today's "offense" after taking the reins of power?
The world was not all fighting and killing, settling grudges as one pleased-that was how desperate outlaws survived. Its true rules were also entwined with far more complex, far-reaching human relationships and long-term calculations.
Xu Qingjia swept a calm glance over the distant cliff. Keeping a measure of vigilance, he began tallying their gains.
"The quality of the Intermediate Zone really is more than a cut above the Low-Level Zone."
By a rough estimate, each person had gained enough spiritual energy from this beast tide to increase their spirit's age by over seven thousand years. That was equivalent to the five of them joining forces to "kill" soul beasts whose combined