Chapter 60: Migrating Population
2014-06-18 Author: Gu Zhenren
Jun Jie, Yi Shi, Qi Ren, Hao Xiong, Jun, Hou, Wang, Di, Huang, Sheng—these are the ten acknowledged realms of Monster Tamers in the Nine Provinces, defining the world and standardizing the universe.
This standard is said to be ancient, passed down for a long time. In the Sea Eye Abyss, Emperor-level powerhouses have discovered that this same standard was applied even in the era of the Ancient Saints.
Within this pyramid of power, Jun Jie is the most superficial foundation, the lowest standard for entry. Those who cannot reach this level are not considered qualified Monster Tamers.
“From the coming-of-age ceremony to Jun Jie, then to Yi Shi, Qi Ren, and now to the High-level Emperor realm, thinking back, it feels like a dream!” Chu Yun mused internally.
He understood the hardships of cultivation. The later stages for Monster Tamers demand increasingly vast resources, especially at the Emperor level, where this demand escalates exponentially, reaching terrifying heights.
A King-level Monster Tamer with over a thousand Demonic Beasts in their possession is considered an anomaly. An Emperor-level Monster Tamer, however, must manage an entire World. Aside from Innate Demonic Creatures, acquired Demonic Creatures can no longer be counted individually; they must be calculated in tribal units.
Take Chu Yun’s Immortal Pouch World for instance. It now houses over 300,000 Demonic Plants and more than 150,000 Demonic Beasts. These Demonic Plants and Beasts thrive within the Immortal Pouch, absorbing Vital Energy to grow while simultaneously generating World Power to benefit the entire Immortal Pouch World.
Of course, at present, this return still falls short of Chu Yun’s investment. Only when he reaches the initial stage of the Emperor realm will the returns match the investment, essentially achieving self-sufficiency.
“At the initial Emperor level, one transplants Demonic Plants. At the middle Emperor level, one migrates Demonic Beasts. At the High-level Emperor stage, one must begin to transfer populations.”
Chu Yun couldn’t help but think of the Immortal Pouch Worlds of some High-level Emperors.
Over the past few months, these Immortal Pouch Worlds had left a deep impression on him.
Having a population represents a qualitative leap for an Immortal Pouch World. A herd of thousands of Demonic Beasts is often no match for a Monster Tamer with hundreds of subordinates. Both Demonic Plants and Demonic Beasts possess powerful survival capabilities, but in terms of intelligence, they fall short of humans.
Humans are the spirits of all creation.
Spirit is the most potent among living beings.
Only under human wisdom can the power of Demonic Creatures be unleashed to its fullest potential.
For an Emperor-level Monster Tamer, migrating populations not only leads to a qualitative improvement in combat power but is also a necessary stage for advancing to the Emperor realm in the future.
The High-level Emperor stage can be considered a bridge, connecting what came before and what is to come.
In his dealings with Emperor-level powerhouses, Chu Yun had sought advice from many predecessors. The High-level Emperor stage is crucial, many times more important than the initial or middle stages.
At this stage, the more population a Monster Tamer migrates, the more prosperous their development will be, and the smoother their advancement to the Emperor realm. Conversely, if the population cannot be increased, advancing to the Emperor realm becomes a distant prospect.
Within the Nine Provinces, there are over forty Emperor-level powerhouses, yet only over twenty Emperor-level powerhouses. Countless High-level Emperors are stuck at this bottleneck, unable to break through due to population limitations.
Regarding this, Chu Yun felt quite confident.
“The High-level Emperors who are stuck at this stage all have Immortal Pouch Worlds with extreme environments, making it difficult for the population to survive, let alone develop. However, my Immortal Pouch World has a perfect World Core, gentle Vital Energy, abundant World Power, and vast resources. My foundation is far more solid than theirs.”
“However, even so, I cannot be careless and must work harder. Through exploration of the Sea Eye Abyss, Emperor-level powerhouses now possess capabilities comparable to those with Innate Demonic Creatures and have the means to construct perfect World Cores. The secret of perfect World Cores absorbing Chaos Demonic Crystals is but a thin veil away. It’s possible someone might discover it any day now.”
Chu Yun consistently felt a sense of urgency.
Once the secret of perfect World Cores is discovered, he will almost certainly be unable to acquire Chaos Demonic Crystals anymore. Chaos Demonic Crystals will instantly become the most sought-after item, and their prices will skyrocket.
At that point, various powerhouses will realize how much of a bargain Chu Yun got. Chu Yun, having suppressed the purchase price to an extremely low level, will have gained hundreds of times more than he paid.
Enraged Emperor-level powerhouses will unite to suppress Chu Yun, and some may even launch retaliatory attacks. This will be a major test for Chu Yun.
Therefore, he must seize the opportunity while the secret is still undiscovered to rapidly enhance his strength, migrate the largest possible population, and advance to the Emperor realm as quickly as possible.
Hence, even though the Sea Eye Abyss has not been fully explored, Chu Yun had no choice but to abandon it and focus all his efforts on migrating the population.
There are generally three methods for migrating populations.
The first is to migrate from the Nine Provinces. This method comes at the most exorbitant cost. The Nine Provinces are themselves nine Immortal Pouch Worlds, each owned by one of the Nine Saints. To migrate populations from the Nine Provinces would undoubtedly mean robbing the Saints of their wealth.
However, the Nine Provinces are all prosperous and vast, with abundant resources. The number of Demonic Beasts is countless. The variety of Demonic Beasts is calculated in the millions (millions of varieties are not that many; considering just the animal species on Earth, there are 1.3 million types).
The population required for advancement to the Emperor realm is, for a Saint, like a drop in the ocean, causing no significant harm.
The Saints are aware of this need among Emperor-level powerhouses, and in the Saint Halls of the Nine Provinces, there is a service for exchanging Contribution Points for population.
The second method is to purchase population from other Emperor-level or Emperor-level powerhouses.
Many High-level Emperors and Emperor-level powerhouses have human populations developing in their Immortal Pouch Worlds. Some Emperors engage in trade with this, making substantial profits, with the Human Emperor being a prime example.
High-level Emperor powerhouses sometimes also sell populations. This is because their Immortal Pouch Worlds have extreme environments, and once the population reaches a certain level, they encounter a bottleneck. Excess population requires more resources and often becomes a burden. Selling these burdens allows them to convert them into resources, making it a win-win situation.
The third method emerged only with the appearance of Ancient Saint inheritances.
Within the Sea Eye Abyss, Inherited Secret Realms exist. Low-level secret realms teem with Demonic Creatures from the Ancient Saint era. Higher-level secret realms not only contain a massive number of Demonic Creatures but also surviving remnants of the Ancient Saints.
Migrating these survivors from the Ancient Saint era is the best method, involving the lowest cost.
However, these high-level Inherited Secret Realms only begin to appear at the four-hundredth layer. With Chu Yun’s combat power, even mastering the Battle Skill, he would be struggling to cope around the three-hundred-and-eightieth layer.
The Sea Eye Abyss is divided into 666 layers. The first four hundred layers are the primary domain for Emperor-level powerhouses, while the remaining two hundred layers are generally accessible only to those at the Emperor level.
Exploring the layers below the four-hundredth is difficult even for basic reconnaissance, let alone finding hidden high-level Inherited Secret Realms. Even with immense luck in discovering a secret realm, developing it would inevitably attract covetous individuals.
Over the past few months, Chu Yun, in collaboration with numerous Emperor-level powerhouses, explored a total of four low-level Inherited Secret Realms. Each exploration attracted a large number of powerhouses. On one occasion, their combined combat strength was weak, forcing them to involve a later-arriving Great Emperor to share the profits.
If there were truly high-level Inherited Secret Realms, Chu Yun would be unable to develop them or protect his interests.
Therefore, Chu Yun abandoned this method first.
The remaining two methods each have their advantages and disadvantages.
The first method, migrating population from the Nine Provinces, comes at a high price and will incur significant expenses. However, due to the advanced development of the Nine Provinces, the quality of these populations will also be superior.
The second method, purchasing from powerhouses like the Human Emperor, involves a lower asking price but a lesser quality of population. Most of these people are ignorant and poorly educated, largely from tribal eras with backward civilizations, incomparable to the talents of the Nine Provinces.
One offers high quality, the other offers cheapness.
After several days of deliberation, Chu Yun chose the first method.
With his decision made, he quietly left the Sea Eye Abyss and, using his Xingzhou Token, returned to Xingzhou.
As he belonged to the Xingzhou faction, he would naturally migrate population from Xingzhou.
To exchange for population, corresponding Contribution Points are required. Although Chu Yun was severely lacking in Contribution Points, this issue was resolved after he contributed a large amount of Innate True Essence, Star Stones, and Enlightenment Stones, among other treasures, to the Star Saint Hall.
“If these Contribution Points were converted into corresponding treasures, then a Jun level powerhouse would be worth one Star Stone. A Hou level powerhouse would require ten Enlightenment Stones. As for a Wang level powerhouse, the cost would be fifty units of Innate True Essence. It’s not too expensive, actually.”
Chu Yun internally calculated and found the situation to be better than his initial estimations.
His exploration of the Sea Eye Abyss had yielded substantial gains, and he now possessed ample resources, increasing his purchasing power. Moreover, this pricing had remained unchanged since the beginning, not increasing with market fluctuations.
In fact, the prices in Xingzhou were slightly higher than in the other eight provinces. However, there was no alternative, as Chu Yun was part of the Xingzhou faction, and he had no means to migrate population from other provinces.
By dedicating the vast majority of his treasures to the Star Saint Hall, Chu Yun instantly acquired a large quantity of Contribution Points.
Upon returning to Huode City, he met his adoptive father, Shu Tianhao, again and explained the general purpose of his visit.
In this world, his adoptive father was undoubtedly one of the few who would support Chu Yun unconditionally. The higher echelons of the Archipel also raised no objections.
Chu Yun’s intention was to undertake a grand endeavor: he planned to migrate the entire Archipel.
Shu Tianhao, Yu Ya, Huang Xiao, Wu Datou, Bai Mian, and others were mostly at the Jun level, a tier Chu Yun could afford. As for the rest, their cultivation levels were even lower. Although they were numerous, the actual Contribution Points consumed were far less terrifying than the numbers might suggest.
The Archipel currently had hundreds of thousands of people. Migrating these populations would have been an extremely arduous task. However, due to the Archipel’s unique geography, consisting mainly of islands, Chu Yun decided to use Innate Demonic Creatures and the Battle Skill to uproot these islands collectively and move them into his Immortal Pouch.
Combined with a stable political structure, the migration process proceeded extremely smoothly.
After three days and three nights, the entire Archipel vanished from Xingzhou, leaving behind only the vast ocean in its place.
Simultaneously, the royal city of Dunhuang Country and its entire royal family also disappeared.
Dunhuang Country is, after all, an Island Country, vast in area with a larger population. Chu Yun was already at his limit and could not achieve more.
Thus, Chu Yun virtually exhausted his Contribution Points in an instant, and his Immortal Pouch World gained hundreds of thousands of new inhabitants.
(To be continued)
