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The decision made by the highest level of the Tianyuan City Lord's Mansion was quickly implemented.

On this day, several important visitors arrived outside Cave No. 19 in the West District of Tianyuan City.

Leading the group was none other than the Supreme Elder Xuan Yunzi, who was in the early stage of the Integration Realm. He held a whisk in his hand and had a gentle face. Behind him were two powerful elders in the late stage of the Refinement Realm, one in charge of criminal law and the other in charge of resource allocation.

Such a lineup is enough to show how much importance the City Lord's Mansion attaches to this meeting.

The cave's restrictions were lifted, and Su Ning slowly stepped out, still dressed in a simple blue robe, his aura as peaceful as that of an ordinary person.

Behind him followed Xiang Zhili and Hu Laomo, two newly promoted early-stage Void Refinement cultivators. The two had calm expressions, but their eyes held a hint of scrutiny.

"Hehehe, this must be Fellow Daoist Su, right? I am Xuan Yunzi, the Supreme Elder of the Tianyuan City Elders' Council. These two are Elder Gu and Elder Feng." Xuan Yunzi spoke first with a smile, his gaze sweeping over Su Ning, but he was taken aback.

With his Nascent Soul stage divine sense, he couldn't see through the depths of the young man before him at all. He only felt that the other party was like a bottomless abyss, with an unfathomable vastness hidden beneath an ordinary appearance.

He could only attribute it to some peculiar breathing technique.

"So it's Senior Xuan Yunzi and the two elders who have arrived. I am so sorry for not welcoming you sooner." Su Ning returned the greeting with a cupped hand, his tone neither humble nor arrogant, and stepped aside to invite the three into the cave's reception room.

After the guests and hosts were seated, Xuan Yunzi did not engage in much small talk and went straight to the point, stating his purpose for coming.

The delegation highly praised the contributions made to humanity by the ascended cultivators from the lower realms, led by Su Ning, and fully affirmed their potential. On behalf of the Elders' Council of Tianyuan City, they formally invited Su Ning and his subordinates, including those at the Refinement and Nascent Soul stages, to join the management of Tianyuan City and assume important positions.

And the terms offered were extremely generous:
Su Ning can directly become a core elder of the council, holding a prestigious position, possessing the right to vote on major matters, and being in charge of the defense and resource allocation of the western part of the city.

Xiang Zhili, Hu Laomo, and nine other cultivators at the Void Refinement stage were all granted the title of ordinary elder and concurrently served as deputy commanders of the Qingming Guard or Tianyuan Guard, wielding some military power.

The remaining Nascent Soul cultivators can be assigned to key positions in various departments based on their respective strengths and enjoy corresponding resource allocation.

The entire faction will gain a separate, larger spiritual region as its base.

The conditions were so favorable that even Xiang Zhili and Hu Laomo, who were standing to the side, were somewhat moved.

This was practically an acknowledgment of their legitimate status and voice in Tianyuan City, granting them significant benefits and respect.

Su Ning listened quietly, showing little surprise on her face, as if she had expected it.

He pondered for a moment before slowly speaking: "Thank you for your kindness, City Lord's Mansion and Senior Xuan Yunzi. We ascended cultivators are fortunate to be taken in by the Spirit Realm, and we should do our part for the human race. Tianyuan City is the shield of the human race, and it is our duty, along with that of my fellow cultivators, to serve this city."

Without any hesitation, he agreed immediately!

The decisiveness of his attitude surprised Xuan Yunzi and the other two.

"As for the specific job assignments," Su Ning changed the subject, his tone calm yet undeniably authoritative, "I'm used to a leisurely life and dislike too many mundane affairs, so a sinecure will suffice. Specific tasks can be shared by Fellow Daoists Xiang and Hu. As for the new spiritual land, we would be impolite to decline."

He casually relinquished the real power of the core elders, retaining only the title, but firmly placed his subordinates in key positions and demanded real territory.

A glint flashed in Xuan Yunzi's eyes, and he thought to himself that this boy was indeed extraordinary, knowing how to prioritize and let go of the trivial.

The goal has been achieved once people from the Suning faction have joined the management system.

As for real power, that can be worked out gradually.

He immediately laughed and said, "Fellow Daoist Su is wise and magnanimous, I admire him! I will do as you say!"

The two sides discussed some details, and the atmosphere seemed very harmonious.

However, throughout the entire meeting, both Xuan Yunzi and the two late-stage Void Refinement elders behind him felt an inexplicable sense of unease and oppression.

The person in front of them was clearly Su Ning, whose cultivation level was unfathomable but who didn't seem too strong. He was also quite polite to them, but they couldn't help but feel tense, as if they were facing some supreme being. They even unconsciously softened their breathing.

Especially when Su Ning's gaze occasionally swept over them, the profoundness that seemed to pierce through their souls and see through everything made the two late-stage Void Refinement elders break out in a cold sweat and subconsciously dare not meet his eyes.

Xuan Yunzi was slightly better, but his Dao heart still trembled slightly, and he needed to secretly circulate his cultivation technique to remain calm.

They then attributed it to the enemy's superior numbers, after all, there seemed to be other auras hidden in the cave, as well as the unique, fierce killing intent emanating from these lower realm cultivators, as if they had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

They would never have imagined that the source of their trembling and suffocating feelings came from the seemingly most harmless Su Ning!
That was the natural deterrent brought about by the vast difference in life levels. Even though Su Ning had restrained himself to the extreme, the "status" suppression that originated from the source would still make high-level cultivators with keen spiritual senses feel instinctively uneasy.

After the meeting, Xuan Yunzi and the other two left hastily, almost with a sense of relief.

After seeing the three off, inside the cave, Xiang Zhili frowned slightly: "My lord, such a quick agreement, is it perhaps...?"

Su Ning smiled faintly: "It's alright. They want to use this to restrain us, but why can't we take this opportunity to legitimately control a portion of Tianyuan City's power? It's just a matter of each getting what they need. As for those empty titles, they are irrelevant."

He gazed towards the distant City Lord's Mansion, his eyes deep: "From now on, we are 'our own people' of Tianyuan City. Next, it's time to figure out how to use this identity to better acquire resources, hone our team, and... wait quietly."

Waiting for the right time to leave the spirit world, and also waiting for the possible storms to come.

Soon after, the Elders' Council of Tianyuan City officially issued a notice announcing the personnel changes.

The group of ascended cultivators from the lower realms, led by Su Ning, has officially become a powerful force that cannot be ignored within Tianyuan City, stepping onto the forefront of the spirit world.

Although its core figure, Su Ning, has been unusually low-key, his seven Void Refinement Elders and more than ten Nascent Soul Transformation Generals have begun to gradually infiltrate various key departments of Tianyuan City, quietly influencing the operation of this giant city.

As for Su Ning himself, he became increasingly reclusive, seemingly becoming a figurehead elder with no real involvement. Only a very few could sense that the skies above the city, seemingly imbued with this new power, had become even more turbulent and unpredictable.

The City Lord's Mansion of Tianyuan City thought Su Ning was just a low-key and pragmatic ascetic, but little did they know that Su Ning was already preparing to start something big in Tianyuan City.

It's important to understand that every general has their own orders, and different individuals have different ideas. Su Ning has always believed that resources in the cultivation world are unfair.

In the lower realms, the conflicts among human cultivators are more pronounced, a survival of the fittest under the law of the jungle.

However, it would be inappropriate to continue this kind of internal strife in the Spirit Realm. After all, the human race is just the most insignificant foreign race in the Spirit Realm, and they have only been able to survive by uniting with the equally weak demon race.

Therefore, Suning needs to make corresponding changes in the Spirit Realm to provide a utopian cultivation sanctuary for all ascended cultivators.

……

Therefore, after rising to the top ranks of Tianyuan City and gaining considerable influence and resource allocation capabilities, Su Ning did not become obsessed with personal power. Instead, he turned his attention to a more distant future: the survival and development of the human race as a whole.

He knew that the strength of one person was finite, and only when the clan was strong could they truly stand firm in this dog-eat-dog spirit world.

Based on his own formidable strength and control over the Taixu Realm, he proposed a series of seemingly outlandish but ambitious plans that were enough to change the landscape of the human race, and with his growing influence, he strongly pushed for their passage at the Council of Elders.

Su Ning first presented a modified method for crafting soul tablets under the guise of researching ancient secret techniques.

This method requires all cultivators in Tianyuan City who are at least at the Foundation Establishment stage and voluntarily join this system to separate a strand of their natal soul thread and integrate it into a specially made soul tablet.

Afterwards, he personally selected the site and designed it, mobilized a large amount of resources, and built a black giant tower, thousands of feet high, inscribed with countless complex soul runes in the core area of ​​Tianyuan City—the Soul Tower!
All the refined soul tablets are enshrined inside the Soul Tower, where they are monitored day and night by the spirit of the artifact.

Once a cultivator encounters misfortune outside and their physical body collapses, as long as it is not the case that both body and soul are destroyed, their soul tablet will immediately sense it and attempt to remotely capture and guide their dissipated primordial spirit through the special laws of the Soul Tower!
Although the soul that is pulled back will suffer great damage to its vitality and even have its memories incomplete, it at least retains the last glimmer of hope of switching to the ghost path or being reborn by seizing another body!
For the cultivators of Tianyuan City, who have been fighting against the demon race for many years and have an extremely high mortality rate, this is nothing short of an extra precious life-saving charm!
This move caused a sensation throughout Tianyuan City!
Countless cultivators eagerly signed up, and even cultivators from other realms traveled great distances to come and store their soul tablets in the Heavenly Abyss Soul Tower.

Suning and the human race enjoyed unparalleled prestige for a time.

Then, targeting high-level cultivators and those who have made great contributions, Su Ning launched an even more precious substitute puppet.

This puppet is made primarily of Soul-Nourishing Wood grown within the Taixu Realm, supplemented with various rare spatial materials. It was personally crafted by Su Ning, who also sealed a wisp of the Taixu Realm's primordial power within it.

After refining this puppet, when a cultivator encounters a fatal attack, the puppet will automatically trigger, taking the damage in place of its master and randomly teleporting the master to a safe location thousands of miles away!
This is essentially giving cultivators a second life!
Although it is difficult to refine and the materials are expensive, making it difficult to distribute widely, each one issued means that a human elite has a much greater guarantee of survival.

This item immediately became the most coveted treasure among all cultivators in Tianyuan City, inspiring them to fight bravely and earn merit.

In addition, in order to fundamentally improve the cultivation environment of human cultivators, especially low-level cultivators and rogue cultivators, and to solve the problem of uneven resource distribution, Su Ning creatively proposed the establishment of the Taixu Pavilion.

Taixu Pavilion is not a simple shop, but a comprehensive institution that integrates lending, exchange, auction and consignment.

Lower-level cultivators or those in urgent need of breakthrough resources can apply to the Taixu Pavilion for a loan of spirit stones, using their future earnings or cultivation techniques as collateral, to purchase elixirs, magic treasures, and other items, greatly alleviating the resource pressure on lower-level cultivators.

In response to the situation where gold and silver are still used as currency in the mortal realm of the spirit world, and it is inconvenient for cultivators to trade directly with spirit stones, Su Ning overruled objections and launched spirit banknotes guaranteed by the Taixu Pavilion and backed by the vast resource reserves of Tianyuan City and Su Ning's personal reputation.

The spirit banknotes have varying denominations and are exchanged at a fixed rate with spirit stones. For example, one spirit banknote can be exchanged for one standard low-grade spirit stone.

Both cultivators and mortals can use spirit money for transactions, which is convenient and safe.

The precious spirit stones are stored by the Taixu Pavilion for actual cultivation or consumption in large-scale formations, in a proportion similar to the gold reserves of a mortal bank.

You can exchange spirit banknotes for physical spirit stones at any Taixu Pavilion branch at any time.

This move gradually unified the financial system of Tianyuan City and even the surrounding human regions, promoted commercial circulation, and made resource allocation more efficient.

More importantly, by issuing spirit currency, Taixu Pavilion and its backer Su Ning have effectively controlled the economic lifeline of the human cultivation world, accumulating a massive amount of actual spirit stone resources to support the huge expenses of the Soul Tower, substitute puppets, and their own cultivation.

These plans did not come without resistance at the outset.

Some conservative elders questioned whether the Soul Tower could really work, worried about the technology of substitute puppets leaking out, and opposed the "strange and ingenious technique" of spirit money disrupting the market.

But when the Soul Tower successfully saved the primordial spirits of several Nascent Soul cultivators whose physical bodies had been destroyed in the battle against the demon race, all doubts vanished.

When the first group of cultivators who made great contributions escaped certain death by using substitute puppets, this item became the highest reward for loyalty and bravery.

When the convenience of spirit money became apparent, trade flourished, low-level cultivators were able to break through through loans, and the entire Tianyuan City was revitalized, Su Ning's reputation reached its peak.

Although he remained secluded and rarely intervened directly in specific affairs, the measures he proposed that benefited the entire clan made him a "sage" and "protector" in the eyes of countless low-level cultivators and mortals.

The cohesion and survival ability of the human race have been genuinely enhanced.

Most of the costs were borne by Taixu Pavilion through financial means and by Suning's own Taixu Realm output, without overdrawing Tianyuan City's original reserves. In fact, they were made even more abundant, which is the infinite charm of the financial system.

Standing atop the Soul Tower, overlooking the increasingly prosperous megacity, Su Ning felt little pride.

He knew this was just the beginning.

This will lay a more solid foundation for the human race in the spirit world, so that if he leaves in the future, we can rest assured.

At the same time, these measures also silently bound the fate of the human race more deeply to the "Tai Xu Pavilion" and to Su Ning.

...(End of chapter)