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"They only believe in this because they are in a position of power; no wonder Bi Province the most dead cities."

Shan Heyuan shook his head, disagreeing. "The cultivation world isn't my world. Here, there's the Heavenly Dao and human destiny. They only care about profit; how can that last?"

This is actually another form of exploitation. The people of the Azure Bird Palace may not have said anything, and the local residents may not have realized it. So the dark side of this land has silently grown stronger in places where the sunlight cannot reach.

As the former sect leader of the Sword Reverence Sect, Shan Heyuan silently memorized the local situation.

If you have the chance, you should take care of things here.

The cultivation world is not just for high-level cultivators.

If everything is driven by self-interest, then there is no point in saving the cultivation world.

Cultivating Spirit Plant requires a certain period of time.

The Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird is a Nascent Soul- level spirit beast, and its staple food, the Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass, must be at least at the Core Formation level.

It's not easy to grow this kind of spiritual herb in a dead land.

Even though Shan Heyuan's planting skills are already at the Master level, it is not easy for him to grow this kind of spiritual herb well.

Since he no longer had a physical body, he could only ask Shen Duheng to help him plant the seed by verbally describing it.

The Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass is not easy to grow. As a sword cultivator, Shen Duheng did not have the corresponding cultivation Cultivation Method, so the final result was rather mediocre.

Several times, Shan Heyuan wanted to open up his small world and plant the crops himself.

Unfortunately, the Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass requires Death Qi, not life energy. His small world lacked Death Qi, making it impossible to cultivate this special spiritual herb.

Therefore, the only option is to leave this medicinal herb outside and let it heal slowly.

Planting is a rather tedious task; you can only follow the steps and wait for time to pass.

During this process, the two tried to cultivate their skills and also tried to find out about things outside.

Shan Heyuan asked Shen Duheng, "Are your men still usable?"

"It's no use," Shen Duheng said. "Zhuo Zheng has sided with Ji Li, and most of his men have already betrayed him. Most of those who haven't are in danger, and I've already given them secret orders to go into hiding."

Shan Heyuan sighed, "I was wondering why Ji Li found us so easily back then; it turns out there was more to it than met the eye."

When Ji Li tried to find them again, they had no way to go outside and could only stay here incognito.

Shen Duheng would sometimes sneak out to exchange for supplies and bring back news from outside.

The situation outside is even more dire now; new cities are dying almost every month.

The top sects were also uneasy about this and took many new actions, such as stockpiling resources, consolidating their power, and recalling their core disciples who were outside.

They focused their inquiries on Ji Li's whereabouts.

I heard that Ji Li failed her Tribulation Transcendence and was seriously injured; she is currently recuperating.

Of course, it's still using Shen Duheng's name for now.

Shan Heyuan commented, "A shameless person is invincible. Ji Li will spend her whole life sneaking around, hiding in the shadows."

Shen Duheng: "He is seriously injured and has no new Spiritual Power to replenish it, so his path to ascension is basically cut off. No matter how much he struggles, it's just a death throes."

Shan Heyuan sighed, "It's a pity we can't take revenge ourselves; he got off too easily."

Major events are happening in this world every moment, but unfortunately they are confined to their corner and cannot participate. They even receive information that is several days behind the times.

Everyone can sense the impending storm, but most people are powerless to stop it.

Those top sects gradually turned their attention to death.

Perhaps this world will one day perish; all they are doing is taking the current situation of this doomed place into account and making preparations as best they can.

In case the entire cultivation world "dies" one day, they can continue to maintain the existing power order with the resources they have accumulated.

Shan Heyuan and Shen Duheng had experience managing large sects, so they could naturally see through the thoughts of these top sects.

Shan Heyuan: "Such a conservative approach is a really bad strategy. The Dead Land seems to be doing alright for now, but it relies on the influx of various Law Artifact, spiritual objects, and Spirit Stone from the outside world. Once the entire cultivation world is wiped out, the Dead Land will have no other source of sustenance and will be unable to maintain its current lifestyle."

Shen Duheng: "With their rampant hoarding."

"No matter how much supplies we stockpile, they will eventually run out. At that point, the entire cultivation world will be even weaker, and there will be no chance of recovery."

"There's no chance of a comeback now. The cultivation world has tried for thousands of years, but it's still difficult to reverse the decline."

Both of them felt a deep sense of powerlessness when this issue was raised.

There's really nothing they can do.

To save the world, we need a large amount of resources, manpower, and feasible solutions.

They have nothing and can barely take care of themselves.

Currently, their Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass and other spiritual herbs are only growing at a moderate rate, and they cannot make a living off these herbs.

If they only sold spirit herbs, they wouldn't even be able to sustain their daily cultivation.

Just as the two were struggling with their current situation, things took a turn for the better one summer afternoon—

That afternoon, Shen Duheng and Shan Heyuan, whose earring was attached to his ear, were inspecting the spiritual herbs in the field when they discovered that eighty percent of the herbs in one plot had withered.

Both of them were shocked.

Shan Heyuan: "How come so many of them have withered?!"

Shen Duheng paused for a moment, then said, "I forgot to water it the day before yesterday."

"That's not right. Even if we forgot to water it the day before yesterday, it shouldn't be this bad. Spirit herbs are relatively resilient." Shan Heyuan, who knew the Spirit Plant very well, questioned, "Judging from how dry the soil is, it can't be just from not watering it yesterday, right?"

Shen Duheng's calm face betrayed a hint of guilt. "It needs to be watered by the day before yesterday at the latest; I forgot to water it for a while before that."

Shan Heyuan was both amused and exasperated. "So, how many days have you gone without watering it?"

"Eleven days." Shen Duheng, "Sorry, I won't forget next time."

This is not a big deal. They've all been focused on cultivation lately, so it's normal that they've neglected this aspect.

Shan Heyuan sighed, "It's my fault, I forgot to remind you."

The two divided the responsibility.

Shan Heyuan said with heartache, "It's still too dry here. I didn't expect it to dry out like this after just over ten days without watering. It's such a pity, this batch of Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass was almost at the Foundation Establishment stage."

Shen Duheng checked it and said, "It's not completely dead yet. I'll water it and see if I can save it."

"Probably not." Shan Heyuan was quite experienced in cultivating spiritual herbs. "Look, its core is almost dry. It's not a particularly resilient spiritual herb, so watering it won't help."

Shen Duheng still wanted to salvage the situation. "I'll give it a try."

Shan Heyuan agreed, "That's fine. You can water them with spirit liquid first. If that doesn't work, I'll make them into Fertilizer Pill in a couple of days, so it won't be a waste."

They're short on funds right now, and the external environment isn't great either, Shan Heyuan has learned not to waste any materials.

The Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass has withered and died, so it can't be sold. But it can still be used to make Fertilizer Pill or Spirit Elixir.

Shan Heyuan estimated that if it were dried to this extent, it should be able to retain about 70% of its Spiritual Power.

That's not bad.

Shen Duheng took out spiritual liquid from his storage bracelet and watered the Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass.

After the spiritual liquid was poured on, the Brilliant Creek Dragon Grass didn't change much, but the parched earth quickly absorbed the spiritual liquid.

Seeing this scene, Shan Heyuan couldn't help but say, "If only you knew the 'Spring Transformation Art,' you could turn them directly into spiritual mist, instead of having them completely absorbed by the soil below."

Shen Duheng paused for a moment, then said, "How about we plant it in a flowerpot next time?"

Shan Heyuan disagreed. "That won't work either. Planting it in a flowerpot isolates it from the earth, depriving it of nutrients; it'll easily die."