After Five Elements Mountain expanded, the most immediate impression was that the various basic Five Elements treasures in the mountain's lower regions had greatly increased in number.
Under such circumstances, even if they failed to find any hidden cave abodes or special opportunities, simply scouring the mountain could still yield a considerable harvest.
For Qi Gathering Realm and Core Formation Cultivators lacking in strength, this was undoubtedly tremendous good news.
The various rare treasures and crafting materials obtainable on Five Elements Mountain were severely constrained by their growing environments and required conditions. In the outside world, all of them were exceedingly rare treasures, worth a fortune.
Thus, even if the rare items they gathered were not needed for their own cultivation, they could still fetch a good price outside. No matter how one looked at it, it was a business guaranteed to turn a profit.
With basic resources relatively plentiful, cultivators whose cultivation and strength were not particularly outstanding began changing their strategies.
They no longer stubbornly pursued greater heights in search of opportunities that were difficult and dangerous to explore.
Instead, they settled down and began carefully gathering Five Elements crafting materials that offered steadier returns and were easier to collect.
This change directly resulted in a clear stratification among the cultivators after they entered the mountain, based on their cultivation and strength.
Around sixty percent of the cultivators chose to remain in the mountain's lower regions, collecting Five Elements treasures in a relatively safe environment.
Because there were enough people, after several days of searching, two temporary barter markets even appeared on the mountain's northern and southern sides.
Cultivators practicing different Five Elements Dao arts could exchange rare treasures here, obtaining crafting materials beneficial to their own cultivation.
The remaining forty percent were those with higher cultivation and