Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

The so-called Holy Clan is essentially a family of cultivators.

The original concept of the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Mansion was to respect humans, but it was later taken over by families with the bloodline of ancient demon beasts.

The concept of "respect for humans" has been replaced by "respect for the holy race," with various cultivation families monopolizing resources. This has completely corrupted the system and led to the current monstrous state.

Lin Zhao suddenly asked, "Does the Heavenly Law Divine Sect have a way to deal with this spiritual power?"

Tianhao was silent for a while, then said, "The Heavenly Law Divine Sect naturally has ways to deal with these, but it can only purify a small area."

The Southern Continent spans millions of miles, with countless spiritual veins. How much resources and spiritual power would be needed to completely purify them? Even emptying the entire resources of the Heavenly Law Divine Sect wouldn't be enough.

Pollution is easy, purification is difficult, especially since this is a project that the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace has been undertaking for tens of thousands of years. Every inch of land and every spiritual vein in the Southern Continent has been permeated with alien spiritual power.

Lin Zhao nodded; he understood this principle.

Each dominant power, leveraging the resources of its sect, possesses the means to control and regulate a continent spanning millions of miles.

The Heavenly Law Divine Sect controls 90% of the spiritual veins of the Central Continent, and uses the remaining 10% to create 800 secret realms, where various monsters are raised as training subjects for their disciples.

However, this method is only effective within the continent itself, and its impact on other continents will be greatly weakened, especially when facing a continent ruled by a dominant power.

This is also why the Heavenly Law Divine Sect has been unable to breach the Myriad Beasts Spirit Venerable's Mansion.

The Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace has completely bound itself to the trillions of mortals in the Southern Continent.

Mortals feed demonic beasts, demonic beasts provide for cultivators, and cultivators rule over mortals.

Monsters and mortals are both nourishment and weapons of war.

The cultivators of the Heavenly Law Divine Sect could not stay in the Southern Continent for long and could only rely on war fortresses such as Wanshu Town Rock Fortress to advance slowly.

This is destined to be a long and protracted war of attrition.

Tianhao suddenly said, "My senior brother, the Holy Son of Heavenly Punishment, once said that destroying the Myriad Beasts Spirit Venerable's Mansion is only the first step in completely solving the problems in the Southern Continent."

The second step is to completely destroy all the spiritual veins in the Southern Continent, allowing the spiritual energy to return to the natural world, and to purify and re-evolve the spiritual veins.

The third step—to slaughter all living beings in the Southern Continent, including the trillions of mortals, who have become part of the Southern Continent's spiritual energy cycle, as well as their deeply ingrained belief in demonic beasts.

He believed that only by completely destroying everything here could all the problems be solved.

The air between them remained silent for a long time.

He suddenly remembered a hellish joke: the way to make everyone happy is to kill everyone.

The trillion ordinary people are not just a simple number; they are a trillion living people, with joys and sorrows, and with their own families and friends.

Tianhao turned to look at him, his gaze as calm as a deep pool: "Brother Lin, if one day you become a Nascent Soul Celestial Venerable, facing the Myriad Beasts Spirit Venerable's Palace, what would you choose to do?"

Lin Zhao remained silent.

He thought of what he had done—annihilating tens of millions of ordinary people.

Although those mortals were long dead, leaving only empty shells whose bodies had been corrupted and eroded by demons.

But Lin Zhao did indeed do it.

But here are trillions of living, breathing ordinary people.

If they were to kill all these trillions of mortals—what difference would they make from the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace?

"I have no idea."

After Lin Zhao finished speaking, he turned and walked out of the cave. After a few steps, he stopped without looking back: "How will Brother Tianhao handle this?"

Tianhao did not answer his question.

Lin Zhao did not receive an answer.

He smiled, but it was unclear whether he was laughing at Tianhao, at himself, or at this ridiculous world.

Then he walked out, leaving Tianhao still deep in thought.

-----

Half a day later, the cultivator army withdrew from the Barbarian Tribe and began returning to Wanshu Town Rock Fortress.

Lin Zhao remained silent throughout the journey. Standing on the chariot, he gazed at the endless Hundred Thousand Mountains below, at the barbarian figures that appeared and disappeared in the dense forest, and at the tribal ruins in the distance.

Tianhao walked alongside him the whole time, and after a long silence, he suddenly spoke.

"Actually, I don't know what to do either."

Tianhao didn't look at Lin Zhao, but gazed at the sky ahead, his voice soft, "There are always many things in this world that we are powerless to change."

Regarding the spiritual veins and the affairs of trillions of mortals, there's nothing we can do for the time being.

But there are always some things we should do, and are capable of doing.

He turned to look at Lin Zhao, his gaze serious yet somewhat unfamiliar: "For example, destroy the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Palace and sever the source of evil."

Lin Zhao remained silent for a moment before finally saying seriously, "The Palace of the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord should be destroyed."

He knew this was an invitation from one side, but also a choice of sides.

But he still said that he couldn't stand what the Ten Thousand Beasts Spirit Lord's Mansion was doing.

A satisfied smile appeared on Tianhao's face; this was the real reason he brought Lin Zhao here today.

Lin Zhao is a secret disciple of the Yunhai Cangming Sect, the only secret disciple in ten thousand years. He has a great chance to advance to the Nascent Soul stage in the future, which means that Lin Zhao is very likely to become the actual controller of the Yunhai Cangming Sect in the future.

Among the dominant forces in the Cangyuan cultivation world, the strongest are the Tianlu Divine Sect and the Yunhai Cangming Sect.

Although the Heavenly Law Divine Sect is powerful, it does not possess the ability to destroy a regional overlord on its own.

However, if the Heavenly Law Divine Sect and the Cloud Sea Azure Sea Sect join forces, they would truly have the potential to destroy the Myriad Beasts Spirit Venerable Palace.

This may still be a long way off—Lin Zhao may not be able to become a god, and even if he does, he may not be able to control the Cangming Sect. Even if he does control the Cangming Sect, he may not be willing to join forces with the Tianlu Divine Sect.

But this is an opportunity, a seed.

The seed may take root and sprout in the future, or it may die young, or it may remain buried underground forever, but it is still a hope.

----

On the way back, Tianhao didn't continue talking about ideals; he gave more practical reasons.

Although the Myriad Beasts Spirit Lord's Mansion does not engage in human affairs, its strength is indeed formidable, and its sect has a profound foundation.

If we can really destroy it, the generation that accomplishes this feat will obtain a massive amount of cultivation resources, and at least ascending to the Spirit Realm will be no problem.

The first generation masters of each sect took advantage of the opportunity of the Cangyuan Immortal Cultivation World's destruction and rebirth to advance to the Void Returning Realm and ascend to the Spirit Realm.

The resources the three of them obtained during their operation to wipe out the Qingyu Clan were enough for them to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage.

But what about after the Nascent Soul stage? And the Deity Transformation stage?

The Cangyuan cultivation world is too ancient, and all resources are controlled by powerful forces, so simply exploring and searching for treasures is not very meaningful.

Ideals are one thing, reality is another.

Ascending to the Spirit Realm is the most practical goal for cultivators, and this reason is more effective than anything else.

Lin Zhao nodded, not denying it. Ideals also need to be put to work; goals detached from reality are meaningless.

For cultivators, acquiring resources, improving their cultivation level, and ascending to the upper realm are the most fundamental driving forces.

Ideals detached from reality are ultimately just castles in the air.