The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

When Moran finished organizing the memories of the three Dao Ancestors and piloted the Star Sea Ark to the location where their physical bodies had perished, retrieving the core of the "Ten Thousand Swords Cave Heaven," "Mysterious Ice Cave Heaven," and "Eternal Spring Cave Heaven" one by one, the Qingyou Realm World Consciousness, which had been closely watching her every move, was almost driven mad with envy and jealousy.

That was the grotto-heaven of three Dao Ancestor Realm cultivators, containing immense primordial power.

Watching Moran effortlessly acquire these three "treasures," while he himself received nothing from the "unequal" contract, the consciousness of the Azure Netherworld felt as if his heart was being torn apart.

In the end, intense greed overcame the fear of Moran's power.

After Moran returned to the Azure Netherworld, it cautiously contacted her again.

"...Congratulations to our ally...for using unparalleled divine power...to slay three Immortal Dao Ancestors in succession...such a feat is unprecedented and unparalleled...truly...truly a great fortune for our Azure Netherworld!"

The Azure Netherworld consciousness spoke with a tone of "sincere" admiration, as if it were not the one that had hesitated, shirked responsibility, or even harbored malicious intentions before.

Immediately afterward, without waiting for Moran's response, its thoughts turned somber, filled with regret and self-reproach:
"...Before...before I was foolish and short-sighted, and almost made a terrible mistake...I hope...I hope you will be magnanimous and not hold it against me...I...I am truly filled with remorse..."

Seemingly feeling that it had laid enough groundwork, it smoothly changed its tone:
"...Just now, in order to withstand the attack of that Dao Ancestor and protect my allies, I have exhausted my remaining essence... The ascension passage has been plundering my essence for many years... Now I am completely exhausted and can no longer maintain the stability of this world..."

Its will trembled, its voice trembling with sobs:

"...I wonder...I wonder if my allies could, in consideration of my hard work even if I haven't achieved anything, share...from those spoils of war...even just a tiny bit of primordial power...to help me stabilize this world and leave a glimmer of hope for all living beings...I...I would be eternally grateful!"

It exaggerated its own tragic situation in an attempt to evoke Moran's "sympathy".

Moran was surprised to find that the world consciousness could be so dramatic. This time, she quickly used mental magic to control the enemy. There were very few attacks that actually landed on the boundary membrane. Those few attacks were not enough to make the world of this world realize that it was on its last legs.

She scoffed, too lazy to waste words haggling with it, and simply replied, "Are you trying to break the contract? I don't mind acquiring some more source power!"

A single sentence shattered all the wishful thinking in the Azure Netherworld's consciousness.

Its pitiful voice of thought abruptly ceased, daring not to say anything more, for fear that if it continued, it would violate the contract and bury all its own source power.

Now it finally recognizes a cruel reality: in front of this evil star, it has no bargaining power. Being able to preserve its own consciousness and obtain conditional knowledge support from the other party is already the best outcome at present. As for the three Dao Ancestor Cave Heavens that are so close yet so far away, it is destined to be out of reach.

Seeing that the world consciousness of the Azure Netherworld had completely fallen silent and was no longer making noise, Moran stopped paying attention to it.

She rode a flying carpet and quietly infiltrated the interior of the Azure Netherworld to conduct on-site investigations and gather intelligence, preparing for the localization of the "Tianxuan Academy version of card magic".

She found a cultivator at the late Golden Core stage and, using mental magic, carefully read through his life memories without damaging his core.

This Golden Core cultivator's life was almost a microcosm of the Azure Netherworld. After reading this, Moran finally understood why the world consciousness of this realm was in such a terrible state.

Although the Azure Netherworld is not as cruel and cold-blooded as the Immortal Realm, it is still a world where trust is extremely scarce. In this world, clans and aristocratic families are the absolute cornerstone.

Mortals live in clans, and cultivators mostly come from large and small immortal cultivation families.

From the memories of this Golden Core cultivator, Moran saw families closely linked by blood ties.

From a young age, the children of the clan are instilled with the concept that "one prospers, all prosper; one suffers, all suffer," and that personal achievements are closely related to the rise and fall of the family.

Cultivators work diligently to hone their skills and seek resources, not primarily for personal immortality, but to enhance their family's strength and bring glory to their lineage.

There were conflicts within the clan.

Like Lin Yan, the owner of this memory, he came from the Lin family of Dayan City.

Within the Lin family, there is constant infighting and even discord among the clan members over resource allocation, inheritance rights, and the right to speak.

But deep in Lin Yan's memory, when he was a child, he was ridiculed by his peers for his mediocre talent. It was an eccentric uncle in his clan who secretly gave him a basic pill. Once, when he encountered a powerful enemy during a training trip, it was several cousins ​​who were not close to him who risked their lives to cover his retreat and help him escape. When he successfully formed his core, the entire family, regardless of their previous relationship with him, felt genuine joy and pride and poured resources into helping him stabilize his realm.

The struggles between members of the same clan are always constrained by an invisible bottom line: the bond of blood ties.

To paraphrase a popular saying among clans and families in this world, "You can fight behind closed doors, but you must never side with outsiders."

Once outside the family, vigilance and scheming become an instinct.

When interacting with other families, they always talked about "interests," and every cooperation was accompanied by repeated weighing and probing, for fear of being taken advantage of by the other party.

Independent cultivators are considered unreliable speculators and must be treated with extreme caution; dealing with people from other families requires even more careful consideration, as every smile may conceal a scheme.

Trust is an extremely rare thing, existing almost exclusively among blood relatives.

The world is made up of family fortresses that are centered around bloodlines, relatively cohesive internally, and full of competition and defense externally.

Together, they constitute the cold and realistic social backdrop of the Azure Netherworld.

The reason why the world consciousness of the Azure Netherworld has become like this is because it is like a "family consciousness" magnified billions of times, regarding its own source power as the most important "family wealth". It is instinctively wary and calculating towards Moran, this sudden "outsider".

Its meager "gift" is like a large family encountering a rogue cultivator with no family background but possessing valuable treasures. They only want to give the person something to fool them, and then figure out how to exploit the person and use the treasures to strengthen their own family's power.

It has no concept of repaying kindness with kindness or fair trade with outsiders. (End of Chapter)