A day later, Li Yao, Long Yangjun, and Li Jialing, leading the brawny soldiers that had been carefully selected, climbed through the zigzagging cracks and the unknown, abandoned wells, ascending for several thousand meters on the giant excavators that were similar to the earthly dragon. Finally, they approached the altitude where the “Great Iron Plants” was at.

On their way, they passed countless desolate or dying towns.

The five thousand meters below the ground was generally a boundary. The views and the purposes of the towns up and down were entirely different.

The towns established above the five-thousand-meter line were mainly to accommodate the excessive population on the ground and to expand the living space of humans. The towns below the five-thousand-meter line, on the other hand, were almost all created because of the discovery of a certain resource.

Both the rare mother lodes and the residences from tens of thousands of years ago were enough to attract the Immortal Cultivators who came like locusts. They brought tremendous hominoid slaves to the place. Those hominoid slaves often attracted even more people to work together. It was often the case that a lively, thriving town would rise spontaneously in a very short time.

However, the good days did not last. Once the mother lodes ran dry or the treasures in the relics were all collected, it would mean the doomsday of the towns.

The Immortal Cultivators who had enjoyed enough would simply stand up and leave, but they usually would not bring the hominoid slaves who had worked hard for them, as well as the persons of the service industry who gathered for the hominoid slaves.

The fate of those people was all entwined with the mother lodes and the relics. They were barely capable of anything except for mining and working as mice in the explorations of relics. After the resources were exhausted, their outcome after they were abandoned by the Immortal Cultivators was certainly more than miserable.

Apart from the stronger ones who could risk passing the narrow, deep cracks and tunnels to try their luck in other underground towns, most of the people were destined to wait for their death in the desolation and darkness, ending even more pitifully than the residents of the 10,084th district.

Li Yao had seen too many of such towns on his way here.

The residents of a lot of towns had been entirely annihilated, leaving the fluorescent bones that were emitting gloomy light. There was also the rusted, collapsed mining magical equipment that had also lost the vigor, like the tombs of iron and skeletons.

But what was even more miserable were the towns where the residents had not entirely died but were still struggling in desperation.

On the faces that looked like walking skeletons, their eyes were full of hunger and thirst. The brilliance that they were beaming out made even Li Yao unable to look back at them.

Naturally, Nepenthe developed well in the desolate towns. Wherever they reached, as long as it was not really a place where everybody was dead, some Nepenthe believers would come to meet them, offering them clean, drinkable water and taking away the roasted meat from the 10,084th district, which was then distributed to the local residents after being pulverized and mixed into the porridge in case the residents choked on the meat.

Judging from the residents’ gratitude when they gobbled the food, Li Yao estimated that they would never betray Nepenthe even if their heads were cut off. The religion certainly had the support of the people.

According to Long Yangjun, Nepenthe was not the only religion flourishing in the underground worlds. In fact, a myriad of peculiar thoughts and organizations had been developing rapidly in the remote towns in every Sector of the Imperium. Some people worshipped Nepenthe, some trusted the Covenant Alliance, some believed in the Chiyou Cult, and some even directly put their faith in the extraterrestrial devils. There was a weird approach to training named “devil dance” that was popular among them.

All in all, as long as they could temporarily forget their pain, with their wounded, broken body paralyzed for a moment, and they were given a slim chance of defeating the Immortal Cultivators, those “humble hominoids” were willing to believe in anything from the gods to the devils.

“Let me put it this way—”

Long Yangjun summarized, “The people here believe in everything except for the true path of immortality and the highest authorities.”

Li Yao thought of something. He meant to ask Long Yangjun what about the ideas of the Cultivators.

But on second thought, he realized that Starlight had been active at the edge of the Imperium for hundreds of years, reborn after destruction dozens of times. The more it developed, the greater it became. Was it not because of the Immortal Cultivators’ cruel oppression too?

Yes. The picture where he announced the return of the Cultivators in “Manjusaka, the City in the Sky” had been spread to the entire Imperium via the Spiritual Nexus. Chances were that a lot of hominoids of the Imperium had been awakened and were training themselves and preparing for resistance with “Cultivator” as their goal.

Perhaps there were also such people who had been moved, shocked, and convinced by the ideas of the Cultivators deep inside the capital planet?

He should be more confident in the ideas of the Cultivators and stop underestimating himself. Even the Chiyou Cult and the extraterrestrial devils had their followers. Were the ideas of the Cultivators really devoid of any attraction?

There must be people who trusted the Cultivators, who looked forward to the Cultivators, and who were willing to become Cultivators whatever it might take!

In any case, the trip to the underground worlds was a great eye-opener for Li Yao, which made him realize how decayed and corrupted the foundation of the Imperium was. The Immortal Cultivators’ reign over the place had actually lost effect. People would rather believe in the emotionless Path of Ultimate Benevolence or follow the extraterrestrial devils than trusting the Immortal Cultivators above their heads. How ironic and pathetic was that?

No matter how the Immortal Cultivators brainwash the people of the bottom level and promote the ideas that the “true human beings” are supreme and the “hominoids” must contribute their everything, their reign is about to fall apart!

Li Yao thought to himself, The people of the Imperium have abandoned the true path of immortality with their real actions. In the next second, it will be the Cultivators’ turn to show our sincerity and win as many people as possible over from the ideas and organizations such as the Covenant Alliance, the Chiyou Cult, and the extraterrestrial devils!

Such a purpose could only be accomplished through wisdom but not by force. Even if he was not heavily wounded but at his peak state with the best gears, it would be impossible for him to simply kill the heads of the Covenant Alliance, the Chiyou Cult, and the extraterrestrial devils one after another. After all, they had the wide support of the people because they had done a lot of good things diligently or provided comfort for the people at least.

If Li Yao were to act recklessly, he would completely ruin the appeal of “Cultivators”.

I have to find a way to erect the brand of the Cultivators. Right now, the bottom-level people at the center of the cosmos have had enough of the Immortal Cultivators. They are simply turning to the cults because they do not have a way out! The path of the Cultivators is a business that can be dated back to ten thousand years ago after all. The invisible assets it has are prodigious. As long as we can set up the brand again, there is no reason why we can’t win the competitions against the Covenant Alliance or the Chiyou Cult!

Li Yao scratched his chin quickly. Well… I’m best at creating brands!

After they took a brief rest in a desolate town, a lot of warriors would join Nepenthe’s army and march upward with them.

Li Yao secretly observed the army. The quality of the soldiers was out of his expectation. They were all extremely strong. It was hard to imagine that such a group of people was raised in the underground worlds where the resources were highly inadequate. Although their spiritual roots were not awakened, they all had bulging muscles and rising temples, which suggested that they were all good fighters.

Li Yao secretly compared them to the general soldiers of the Star Glory Federation, only to discover that they were not very far behind in terms of body quality.

Thinking quickly, Li Yao soon realized that it was probably a “survivorship bias”.

First of all, the refugees escaping to the underground worlds over the past tens of thousands of years were certainly the elites and experts on the ground back then. So, their bloodlines had been very powerful since the beginning.

It was exactly because of the harsh environment and the shortage of resources in the underground worlds that the people who were relatively weak were screened out in the cruel filtering in the ten thousand years, their genes eradicated in the infinite darkness.

The people whose bloodlines survived to this day were naturally the most stubborn and strong ones!

Most of the warriors in the army used to be miners and relic explorers. They were the best type of soldiers.

Miners were sturdy and highly organized. To control the complicated and precise mining magical equipment, they had to be more or less educated. At the very least, they knew the operations of a lot of magical equipment and how to maintain the simple-structured civil magical equipment. So, they could control the military magical equipment after slight training.

Also, the mine owners of the Imperium of True Human Beings, to reduce the cost and increase productivity, often insanely modified their miners, which, objectively, transformed them into monsters with infinite strength.

Think about it. If a miner’s work efficiency was higher than a spiritual puppet, he must be as good at smashing someone’s head into pieces.

In the “Heavenly Ring Sector”, one of the four new worlds of the Star Glory Federation, a great riot of the miners against the rulers had taken place before. Ding Lingdang was even the organizer of the riot who experienced it in person. Later, when she chatted with Li Yao about the details, Li Yao learned how terrifying the well-trained miners could be after they were organized.

It was needless to say the relic explorers.

Although the Immortal Cultivators were just using hominoids as mice, which they put in the unexplored relics to test the traps and the defense rune arrays, and nine out of ten “mice” were killed in accidents, those who luckily survived could become terrifying monsters after they passed the trials of the relics.

Boss Bai, the Pirate Potentate that Li Yao encountered in the Flying Star Sector, was such a relic explorer at the beginning.

There was also “Heaven Battering King Qi Changsheng”, one of the “Four Rapscallions” of the Ancient Sages Sector on par with Long Yangjun. The man and his Heaven Battering Army were grave robbers at the beginning, which was another kind of relic explorers.

While the relic explorers were far fewer than miners in number, they were the captains and lieutenants of the army. Every one of them had been lashed by the Immortal Cultivators with electromagnetic whips to explore the unknown relics and survived when too many of their companions were killed. Naturally, they were full of resentment for the Immortal Cultivators.

Such an army, after being armed by the magical equipment excavated from the warehouses, shelters, and relics, was truly not to be underestimated. Chances were that they could really achieve something great.