Chapter 388: Divergence

Inside the Council Hall, a heated debate arose among the Lords regarding the upbringing of junior cultivators.

"We've already reclaimed many vital resources and raised the exchange threshold... do you really think we need to cut resources further, Jin?" a Lord couldn't help but ask. "Wouldn't that leave them with too little?"

"Too little?" Jin shook his head from where he sat. "When Yuan was weak, there wasn't a single Lord in the entire cultivator faction. There were no good resources then, and he could only comprehend the fundamental rules of the Source World's operation, yet he still became a Lord, didn't he? When I was weak, Yuan was the only Lord in the cultivator faction, and resources were very scarce, but I still made it through, didn't I?"

"Luo Feng rose from the very bottom of a weak 'primitive universe' in his home Source World, with negligible resources. Later, he endured hardships to reach the 'Origin Continent,' the core area of the Source World, and remained very poor. At that time, the two wealthiest ancient kingdoms on the Origin Continent almost monopolized all resources."

"After Luo Feng left the Source World and arrived in the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm, he was still so poor he couldn't afford primal chaos bloodlines, only fragmented materials from lower-tier primal chaos life forms!" Jin stated. "What does that tell you?"

"It tells you that fewer resources can extract greater potential!" Jin declared. "If you give these juniors too many resources, they won't cherish them."

Luo Feng smiled and nodded, "Brother Jin knows me quite well. I agree with what you said, Brother Jin. We must make junior cultivators accustomed to a 'poverty-style cultivation method.' If they can still reach the peak of the God King realm with scarce resources, it means they are worth nurturing!"

"With scarce resources, the probability of reaching the ultimate God King realm is extremely low, and the difficulty far exceeds what it is now. Juniors filtered through such a process, upon later accessing top-tier resources, might just be able to break free from their confines!" Luo Feng explained.

He himself had always strived to extract the maximum potential from every single resource! Luo Feng's cultivation path also proved another point: as Yuan mentioned, after entering the God Emperor stage, he completely groped his way through the darkness, without relying on any inheritance!

"The inheritances we left behind previously proved to be detrimental," Wulan agreed. "The more powerful a being, the greater the influence of their legacy, making it difficult for juniors to forge their own path." "I believe any inheritance that helps break free from confines should not be disseminated," Yuan stated. "Let the juniors figure things out for themselves!"

All the Lords nodded. They had taken detours, and all their past experiences had proven one thing: to become a Lord, one must discover the path independently.

"As for resources, for this era, we will follow Luo Feng's experience," Yuan said with a smile. "Let the juniors grow with scarce resources, and once they prove themselves exceptional enough, then provide them with suitable resources!"

Following the traditional rules, the cultivation methods for a new era would largely reference the experiences of newly breakthrough Lords.

"Brother Luo Feng also rose from the Source World," Moman remarked with emotion. "All eight of us Lords today emerged from the Source World! This indicates that while the countless worlds we created have more sentient beings, their innate talents are flawed!"

"There's a fundamental difference between the worlds we created and the Source World!" Yuan stated. "As beings who master the ways of primal chaos rule operation, he has always strived to create a Source World, but has never been able to!" "In the future, resources must be more skewed towards the Source World!"

Wulan said, "After all, only the Source World can give birth to new Lords!"

"I believe that within the entire cultivator domain, the existence of 'Calamity Cultivators' should be prohibited!" Luo Feng declared. "A cultivator who treats all beings in an entire Source World as resources might achieve something, but they extinguish the hope of all other beings in that Source World!"

Luo Feng could understand the law of the jungle, but not the kind of cultivator who *is* the calamity itself—slaughtering the beings of an entire world, even over cycle after cycle, continuously harvesting the life forms of an entire Source World! Such cultivators should not exist!

"Brother Luo Feng, I am a Calamity Cultivator," Jin said, looking at Luo Feng.

"So am I," Nagu said, looking at Luo Feng.

Jin looked at Luo Feng: "I was born a Demon of Destruction. Under the influence of the Source World, destroying all beings is my destiny. By sinking into destruction and mastering it, I ultimately became a Lord."

"For the sake of my cultivation path, all beings naturally serve as my resources!" Nagu said calmly. "Even in the future, I will still need the corpses of Originators as my resources!"

"Every path has its meaning," Jin said, looking at Luo Feng. "Calamity Cultivators have their own reason for existence!"

"Pure destruction cannot give birth to life," Luo Feng countered. "Even you have comprehended a part of life's mysteries." The Primal Chaos Destruction Dao that Jin mastered actually contained ten percent life, otherwise, it would be impossible to form a life entity!

"It was by sinking into destruction that I could eventually transcend and control destruction," Jin stated. "Every cultivator has a different path; no path's growth should be restricted. Any single path could potentially give birth to a Lord!"

"A path that leads to monstrous sins and the destruction of countless lives should not exist."

"What do you mean by sin?" Nagu asked, looking at Minghuang. "In this endless Primal Chaos Space, there is only strength and weakness! Sin is merely a judgment in your own heart! Minghuang, you are too narrow-minded."

"We are all life!" Luo Feng declared. "We should naturally have compassion for the weak; we all originated from weakness!"

"The law of the jungle dictates that death due to weakness is simply fate," Nagu calmly replied.

Upon seeing this, Yuan immediately felt a headache coming on!

For countless ages, the Lords had always had their conflicts! Jin, Nagu, and Moman formed one faction—though Lord Moman was not as extreme as Jin or Nagu, he largely appreciated the 'law of the jungle' as a way of survival.

Minghuang was benevolent at heart, and Wulan also greatly admired Minghuang; they formed another faction!

Yuan was all-inclusive, while Xingmang acted as an observer, not participating in conflicts. It seemed Minghuang and Luo Feng shared similar stances, suggesting future clashes would be even more intense! Yuan felt quite helpless!

Previously, Minghuang, the staunchest opposer, was somewhat outnumbered, but the addition of Luo Feng, who broke through using sheer power, gradually balanced the strength of the two factions!

"Compassion for the weak? The native primal chaos life forms won't show any mercy to the weak!" Jin retorted. "Luo Feng, you also cultivate primal chaos life; don't you understand that the weak will ultimately be destroyed?"

"Destruction is for the protection of life," Luo Feng said, looking at him. "Both sides have deep research into life and destruction, but clearly, their directions differ."

"Harsh environments can better foster their growth," Moman said. "Brother Luo Feng, when you were growing, you also faced calamity-like beings—when you were weak, you faced the Golden Horned Beast, and later the World Beasts. These Calamity Cultivators can provide sufficiently powerful motivation to other cultivators!"

"The Calamity Cultivators we need to address are those who destroy all beings in an entire Source World," Luo Feng clarified. "Against such beings, weak cultivators don't even have a chance to resist."

"Alright," Yuan finally spoke. "Stop arguing. We'll stick to the old rules."

"Those of you Lords with particular ideas can implement them within your 'Absolute Territories.' In the vast remaining areas of the cultivator domain, we'll continue with the 'hands-off approach.'"

"If you can't persuade others, then rely on strength! If anyone can defeat the combined might of the other Lords, then we'll follow their proposal. Otherwise, if your strength isn't enough, you'll have to endure it!"

As soon as Yuan spoke, the Lords fell silent. "To defeat the combined forces of the other Lords with just one's own power—no one in the entire endless Primal Chaos Space can do that." There was nothing to be done, Luo Feng sighed inwardly, disagreeing with some of their ideas but forced to accept common ground while retaining differences.

When he was weak, Luo Feng once thought that becoming a Lord would allow him to establish rules entirely according to his own will. But now that he was a Lord, he realized that what he could change was still limited.

Not to mention the opposing factions, even within their own faction, decisions were made collectively by all eight Lords.

"Next agenda item!" Yuan immediately moved on to the next matter. "According to tradition, a grand celebration must be held for the birth of a new Lord!"

The birth of a Lord was rather special. For instance, new Originators born within the native primal chaos life form faction wouldn't have any celebrations. Only when an 'undying and indestructible' being was born, one who could secure a seat in the Eternal Land, would there be widespread celebration.

Every Lord was significant enough to command the attention of the entire endless Primal Chaos Space. They naturally held a seat in the Eternal Land, so a celebration would certainly be held.

"Let's reclaim our territory first!" Luo Feng proposed. "Many of the 3,600 world clusters in our cultivator domain haven't been recovered yet. Let's hold the celebration after the territory is fully reclaimed!"

"Very well, we'll go with your idea," Yuan nodded. "Our most crucial task now is how to reclaim the territory!"

The eight Lords began their discussion. While they had internal disagreements, externally, they stood united! Even with Jin and Nagu's personalities, they understood the immense help the cultivator faction had provided them.

Soon, a complete plan for reclaiming the territory was successfully formulated. Each of the eight Lords was assigned a task!

The Land of Primordial Beginnings, Sky Moon Sea Cave Mansion!

At this moment, bustling high-tier primal chaos life forms gathered outside the cave mansion!

They were extremely excited, discussing amongst themselves, and waiting for Lord Luo Feng to grant them an audience!

"The last time we had an audience with a Lord, the Lord was only a Half-Primal Chaos Being. In less than two thousand epochs, the Lord has already reached the pinnacle, even ending the war!" The thin old man, Teng, was quite excited. A large group of companions gathered around him; they were high-tier primal chaos life forms from the Dark World Cluster! In the past, the Dark World Cluster was very obscure!

Now, the Dark World Cluster was Lord Luo Feng's homeland and his 'Absolute Territory.'

"Our Dark World Cluster has become the Lord's Absolute Territory! In the future, it will be ten or even a hundred times more prosperous!"

"We, his compatriots, will also be greatly valued!"

Outside the Absolute Territories, a 'hands-off approach' was generally adopted, and with the birth of a new Lord, territories would be re-divided. Therefore, only an 'Absolute Territory' would receive a Lord's full attention for development, naturally leading to extreme prosperity.

Besides the tens of millions of high-tier primal chaos life forms, there were also 23 World-tier Primal Chaos Life Forms waiting outside the cave mansion!

Tianlang Ke was among these 23 World-tier Primal Chaos Life Forms! "Brother Tianlang," a companion said with a smile, "You're the Lord's compatriot, and the only World-tier Primal Chaos being born in the Dark World Cluster. You're surely destined for great importance from the Lord!"

A companion beside him smiled, "I'm sure you'll secure one of the inspection roles!"

Most of the other World-tier Primal Chaos Life Forms looked at Tianlang Ke with envy. After all, it was normal for compatriots to be given important positions by their Lord.

The first time the Lord came to the Land of Primordial Beginnings, tens of thousands of high-tier primal chaos life forms from the same world cluster went to pay their respects, but Tianlang Ke did not. World-tier Primal Chaos being 'Candleflame' observed from the side.

Suddenly—

An invisible ripple descended, and all 23 World-tier Primal Chaos Life Forms and over ten million high-tier primal chaos life forms fell silent. They all felt their utter insignificance and weakness under this terrifying aura!

A man in black robes with black hair descended from the void!

Tianlang Ke saw this being; it was his first time seeing his Lord, Luo Feng, in person.

As a World-tier Primal Chaos being born in an Absolute Territory, he would serve under Lord Luo Feng for all eternity to come!

"Greetings, Lord!"

All twenty-three World-tier Primal Chaos Life Forms bowed respectfully.

"Greetings, Lord!"

Over ten million high-tier primal chaos life forms were all incomparably respectful!

Only by truly facing a Lord's true form could one comprehend the chasm-like difference between themselves and a Lord.