"Tsk, all dead, and not a single body I can use. I was hoping to perform Possession," Food Immortal said unhappily.
"Next time, I'll take you to the market. There are plenty of cultivators there. You can possess whoever you like, Senior," Mo Caihuan said.
Food Immortal said sheepishly, "I was only talking. I can enjoy fine food just as well inside your Spirit Altar. There's no rush to possess anyone. There are still plenty of ingredients in that Golden Core cultivator's storage pouch, and my Nascent Soul has already recovered to the middle Golden Core stage. Once I reach the late Golden Core stage, won't Possession be a breeze? Am I in a hurry? Not at all."
The cultivators' corpses had been found in the imperial palace, mangled beyond recognition, resembling beasts rather than people. These were the emperor's Blood Attendants. To spur their Magic Power and strengthen themselves, they had taken a secret drug that turned them half-human, half-demon.
"A secret blood sacrifice technique that transforms you directly," Mo Caihuan said.
"Tempted? You have no Magic Power, so you want to use your bloodline power directly? There are indeed secret techniques that bypass spiritual power and let you fight using bloodline power alone, like the Indestructible Body I taught you. But even without Magic Power, you still need energy from your bloodline. A mortal's bloodline is too weak. Those secret techniques require special bloodlines. Their transformations used spiritual energy to alter their flesh, not their bloodlines."
Mo Caihuan said, "What if we used a Magic Array to convert it? Could we bypass spiritual energy and activate the bloodline directly?"
"I've never tried. I don't know."
"And you call yourself a Nascent Soul cultivator, Senior. You don't know anything."
Food Immortal said irritably, "Mind your manners. If you had a Spiritual Root, I'm confident I could train you into a Nascent Soul powerhouse. But you just happen to have no Spiritual Root. Whose fault is that? Not mine. Blame yourself. I've already taught you to use bloodline power and master the Indestructible Body. Don't be insatiable."
Realizing she had gone too far, Mo Caihuan lowered her head. "I'm sorry."
"Hmph, I'm magnanimous enough not to quarrel with a junior." Food Immortal understood Mo Caihuan's urgency and her fear of interference from cultivators. But reality was cruel. Without a Spiritual Root, she had to live at cultivators' mercy.
Mo Caihuan said, "Senior, could you teach me a cultivation art?"
"You have no Spiritual Root. What do you want a cultivation art for?"
"Mo Kingdom needs to train cultivators of its own. While promoting compulsory education, I hope to teach children cultivation as well, then select those with Spiritual Roots for further training," Mo Caihuan said. "So please teach me an introductory art that anyone with a metal, wood, water, fire, or earth Spiritual Root can practice."
"Heh, train your own cultivators? Do you think that's possible? Even if we take ten thousand steps back and say you succeed, do you really expect cultivators to protect Mo Kingdom for ten thousand generations?"
"I don't expect ten thousand generations. I only hope cultivators can show mortals a little more empathy and cooperate with them more," Mo Caihuan said.
"It's common for cultivators to enter the mortal world and spend a lifetime living among mortals. But that's only a few decades. In the end, immortals and mortals still walk different paths. It's like dogs, which only live ten years. People raise dogs and grow attached to them, but those dogs eventually die. Raising a dog is only one experience in a person's life, not the whole of it. To cultivators, mortals are merely passing visitors." Food Immortal thought Mo Caihuan was too naive and did not understand cultivators' indifference.
"Please grant my request, Senior."
"You're a stubborn mule. Fine. I have a Heartless Art that can detect Spiritual Roots. Anyone with any kind of Spiritual Root can cultivate it to produce spiritual energy. Take it," Food Immortal said.
"Thank you, Senior. I'll eat more delicious food right away."
Dissecting cultivators' corpses was essential, as it allowed their weaknesses to be studied.
Mo Kingdom had already occupied one-third of Heavenly South. Rather than chase quick gains, Mo Caihuan focused on restoring production and building infrastructure as swiftly as possible. Three years of consolidation would prepare them for the next expansion.
Countless young people answered Mo Kingdom's call, flocking over from the remaining two-thirds of the land and throwing themselves into its infrastructure projects with blazing enthusiasm.
There were even entire villages that fled to Mo Kingdom.
The other countries imposed far too many harsh taxes and levies. Tyranny was fiercer than a tiger.
Heavenly South was now divided into four opposing powers, with the Righteous Dao Alliance, the demonic path, the Nine Nations Alliance, and the Heavenly Dao Alliance each occupying one-quarter.
Of the Seven Sects of Yue Kingdom, Spirit Beast Mountain had surrendered, while the other six major sects had fled to the Nine Nations Alliance.
Neither the Righteous Dao Alliance nor the Heavenly Dao Alliance would take them in. Only the Nine Nations Alliance, situated in a troubled region, was willing to offer them refuge. All nine countries in the alliance bordered the Mulan Grasslands.
The Mulan Magicians of the Mulan Grasslands frequently headed north to plunder cultivation resources, crossing blades with the Nine Nations Alliance's cultivators. The alliance was chaotic, and territories often became vacant. Whoever seized them got to keep them.
With the four powers now locked in a standoff, none dared act rashly, and they had no energy to intervene in mortal affairs.
The cultivators could only say that without coincidence, there would be no story. The timing of Mo Kingdom's rise was uncanny. It had launched its war swiftly during the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths and seized one-third of the territory.
Mo Kingdom spent three years putting its house in order, cracking down on unscrupulous merchants, wiping out bandits, building reservoirs, smoothing roads, educating talented people...
Only then did it begin a new wave of expansion, taking another third of the territory.
Then it repeated the same method: eliminating bandits, maintaining public order, restoring production, and stabilizing its holdings for three years before launching its final expansion. This time, it would unite every mortal country east of the desert.
Many cities surrendered voluntarily and did not need to be attacked at all. Mo Kingdom had already won the people's hearts. Everyone had had enough of bandits, enough of foolish rulers, and enough of courts that accomplished nothing.
Many young people had completed their studies in Mo Kingdom and learned about its army's strict discipline. Knowing that Mo Kingdom truly fought for the common people, they eagerly persuaded their elders, their friends and relatives, and even local officials.
Thus, the final three years of unification swept through like a force crushing rotten wood, meeting no resistance.
In the end, only the desert and the countries in the far west remained outside its rule in Heavenly South. Those were too difficult to reach. An expedition across the desert could not be undertaken in the short term.
From the Mulan Grasslands in the south to the Ten-Thousand-Mile Desert in the west, from the Boundless Sea in the north to the Nameless Sea in the east, there was only one mortal country across that vast land-Mo Kingdom.
By then, Mo Caihuan was fifty years old, and her four mothers had retired to enjoy their twilight years in peace.
Though her appearance had not changed, time would not halt its steps for anyone. She now understood why Han Li had felt such urgency before reaching Void Refinement: he had been afraid he would die.
Time trickled away. Once one's cultivation could no longer advance, one would eventually burn through one's lifespan and breathe one's last. That was why Han Li had been in such a hurry. If he failed to break through before his lifespan ran out, he could only die with regrets.
Mo Caihuan was anxious too and wanted to break through as soon as possible. Unfortunately, body tempering was too difficult, and the spiritual energy was too thin for her to advance. Though she had continued converting Spirit Stones into life force to strengthen her body, she could still feel her lifespan slipping away.
Still, she was not so afraid of death. Even if she departed this world now, people would remember her name a thousand years later. She had spent half her life accomplishing great things within a mortal's reach, enough to leave her name in history and live on in another way.
But this was not the end. Development had to continue.
One day, Yan Ruyan came to the mortal world alone. Time in the cultivation world seemed frozen, with everything unchanged. Yet in the mortal world, seas had turned to mulberry fields, and everything was vastly different.
Mo Kingdom was working hard to connect every village to water, electricity, roads, and radio broadcasts.
The railway construction site wound eastward from the capital's southern gate, stretching beyond sight. On White Chrysanthemum Mountain west of the city, people enjoying their days off climbed high to gaze into the distance. It was a scene of peace.
Perhaps being a mortal wouldn't be so bad. As Yan Ruyan looked at the harmonious scene, she suddenly felt that mortals had it better than immortals.
In the past, mortals had lived short lives, without enough food or warm clothing. Cultivation had been the only way to escape their wretched fate. Now, mortals lived about as long as Qi Refining Stage cultivators, so there was little need to cultivate.
After all, advancing beyond the Qi Refining Stage was far too difficult. Unless one had powerful backing, one had to enter the bloody battles of the Ascension Conference, where fewer than one in ten survived.
For unaffiliated cultivators, it was better to live a peaceful, stable life than fight over an elusive chance.
She sighed and descended into Mo Palace.
"Please ask Her Majesty to come out and meet me." Yan Ruyan stood in the courtyard, her Divine Sense already having detected Mo Caihuan.
Though they had not met for more than a decade, both remembered the other.
"Young Madam, you've come from so far away, and I failed to come out to welcome you. Forgive me, forgive me." Mo Caihuan had not expected Yan Ruyan to arrive so suddenly. She looked left and right, only to find that Yan Ruyan was alone, with no sign of Wang Chan.
"Stop looking. I came alone." The corners of Yan Ruyan's mouth curved upward. "Am I not welcome?"
"I wouldn't dare. You are a lady of such distinguished standing, Young Madam. I should have gone to pay my respects to you. I've been remiss. Please come inside and take a seat."