Seized by the System

At the Cultivators Assembly in the Land of Heritage.

Ten or so human powerhouses gathered and held an emergency meeting once again.

“Firstly, we would like to congratulate China on the effort made towards the population explosion plan. They have successfully solved the population problem. According to the latest reports, the babies are in good condition and will be released to the market after about three years…” When the Black Wizard, who was the host of the meeting, arrived at this part of his speech, the jaws of the group of people before him fell and they stared at him with stunned expressions. There was even a hint of fear among them.

He quickly lowered his head to check his script and apologized. His face was red with embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ve misread the script. The last part was about problems related to the herbs’ growth.”

It was then that everyone felt relieved and laughed.

Ren Ruofeng frowned and whispered something to a worker beside him. Then, he resumed listening.

The meeting’s host continued, “We would like to discuss an important issue today which is about the sealing of the cauldron. It has to be sealed every once after a month and ten days, which is very costly. Based on news from the Great Venerable Dragon God, this cauldron is the World of Spirits and Souls’ tool of collecting taxes. It can absorb the power of the seal and at the moment, there’s no solution to tackle this problem. We can only wait for the future.”

“Since the Great Venerable Dragon God can’t even find a way to deal with this, we can only wait and see,” a cultivator spoke up.

“Yes, first we persevere through this period and once these tens of billions of babies grow up after a few years, they can provide magical energy and the power needed to seal the cauldron will be nothing in comparison.”

“Hmph, how do you all know whether this tax is a fixed tax and not a floating tax?” Someone burst the crowd’s fantasy cruelly.

The Assembly sank into a state of silence.

After some time, someone came up with a proposal. “For now, it looks like the only way to solve this is to imitate those migrants. We migrate at once to another planet, spread out and relocate the humans. The current population is still maintained in the arcane realm. In this respect, we don’t have to worry about the rise in taxes.”

“Your passive method of avoiding the problem is useless. If someone can create a cauldron, he can create two or three more of them. So what’s the point of spreading out the humans?” A person disagreed with his idea and rebutted.

“What do you say we should do, then?” the rebutted cultivation powerhouse asked furiously.

The atmosphere in the hall turned fiery.

It was easy to pick a bone with someone but it was incredibly hard to solve problems.

“Quiet, please. It’s true that we’re in a passive situation and we don’t have a proper solution to seal the cauldron for the time being. However, the suggestion provided by this honorable man here is not a bad one. We can no longer hide in this cramped area.” Ren Ruofeng stood up and waved his arm. “Only through stepping forwards and development that we can solve this matter. I’ll show everyone present here a video.”

The hall became silent at once.

Among the seventy or eighty cultivation powerhouses in the hall who were at the Lake level or above, half of them came from China. Just like after the Second World War where the industrial output of America was equal to more than half of the world and far surpassed the nation’s competitors. Hence, the nation had the greater say in crucial matters.

Thus, when Ren Ruofeng spoke, some people still gave him some respect despite their reluctance, or else anything suggested by them would not be realized.

Just like the sealing of the cauldron, the ones who made the most effort were still the Chinese.

Ren Ruofeng produced a USB drive and passed it to a worker in the hall.

Soon, a foreign scenery appeared on the huge screen at the front of the hall.

It was the planet where Maxwell was on.

Everyone turned to focus his or her attention on the huge screen.

“Hey, this place looks almost like Earth?” someone gasped.

Forests, oceans, deserts, grasslands, clear skies… Aside from the lack of animals, no one would have suspected if someone said that this was a tourist destination somewhere on Earth.

“Everyone, please simmer down. This is the place where the group of migrants had settled down. A detailed star chart has been finalized. It’s located in the Andromeda Galaxy…” Ren Ruofeng explained to the crowd.

Nevertheless, those who could comprehend the exact location of this spectacular place were few and far between. Even though it was the 21st century, a majority of the cultivators were oblivious to Earth’s exact location in the Milky Way.

Then again, cultivators were not astronomers. Excluding a few who were interested in constellations, the rest of the people hardly had time to gaze at the stars. To them, having an interest in the universe was now a luxurious hobby. They would rather spend time on other activities, either on cultivating or networking and forming alliances…

Luckily, Ren Ruofeng continued to summarize the facts, saving them the trouble of looking up information on the internet.

“The Andromeda Galaxy is situated 2.54 million light years away from Earth. It’s a big galaxy, nearest to the Milky Way with a diameter of 220 thousand light years. Based on this fact, these migrants have great support from the gods. Their objective is clear, that is to use this group of people to monopolize a huge galaxy.”

The video continued to play. Soon, it came to the section of the clip where Wang Jinghong transformed into the thousands of Vitality Slaves…

“Hiss… A work of a god, no doubt.” All of the cultivators were appalled.

Someone felt curious and asked, “When we got the River God to assist us, he had spent more than half a year before locating a habitable planet that’s 600 light years away. Yet, the gods behind these people are so powerful that they can direct people to a place that’s 2.54 million light years away?”

“Yes, how are we going to go against our opponents when they are so much stronger than us?” another person asked dejectedly.

“Looks like the contract between humans and gods that was signed earlier has to be upheld. If not, they can crush us with a tiny little finger.”

From time to time, someone wailed mournfully…

“Quiet, everyone.” Ren Ruofeng had to stop the atmosphere of giving up from spreading. “Yes, the gods are powerful, but they aren’t invincible. Didn’t the Great Venerable Dragon God defeat the incarnation of the Spirit Lord earlier? That’s the strongest power that a god can project onto this realm.”

“Sigh, the Great Venerable Dragon God is still a True Dragon from the Upper Realm, hence he’s able to resist the god’s power. A bunch of weaklings like us is at the mercy of our opponents.” A cultivator shook his head and sighed gloomily.

Although cultivators were supposed to be strong-willed and tenacious, a majority of the first batch of cultivation powerhouses had not been through long periods of arduous training. They had earned their present cultivation base mostly due to recognition from the Heavenly Axiom. As the saying went, haste made waste.

In legends of the prehistorical world, clans who bore Heavenly Destinies could easily become a deity, yet they were still child-like when it came to their behavior. It was exactly like how Gonggong failed to defeat Zhurong and proceeded to crash into a wall. ¹ To any adult, was that not an immature act? Not only was it meaningless as a person could not defeat his enemy, but he would also harm himself as well.

Thus, when the group of cultivators realized how superior the Upper Realm was as compared to themselves, it was normal for them to feel discouraged.

“So what?” Ren Ruofeng said defiantly. “At least the Venerable One is on our side and we have quite a number of gods as our friends. This shows that we aren’t completely defenseless.”

A bit of morale was restored when the crowd heard this.

In fact, the gods were still reluctant to do the hard work. After all, it was not easy to cultivate until such a high level. Who did not want to indulge in a lavish and relaxing life as often told in legends?

Even regular humans were aware that freedom had to be fought for. So how could they not understand this concept?

“Very well, it looks like we have come to a consensus. My objective of playing this video is to let everyone know we can also do what they can do. As long as we persevere, every cloud has a silver lining.”

All of a sudden, a round of applause rang out in the hall.

“True, there’s no point in leaving others behind. The Andromeda Galaxy belongs to them while the Milky Way belongs to us,” someone cheered.

“That’s the point!” Multiple cries of agreement could be heard.

As time passed, the use of the Biological Management Chip and the concept of human integration had slowly ingrained themselves into the hearts of the people.

When issues were brought up to the people at the top of the ladder, the cultivation powerhouses had to follow the will of the people too in order to maintain their present authority.

After all, they did not possess the viciousness of the migrants, who could create and colonize a clan on their own, yet intend to preserve a civilized way of life.