As Aotian walked with Rihai, he realized just how immense the city was.

Crowds of people moved back and forth, shattering the image he had of cultivators being reclusive, hidden away in cave mansions, only emerging on rare occasions.

‘Caves? Are you sure this isn’t a modern city?’ Aotian wondered.

If there were neon signs and giant screens, he could easily mistake the place for a modern metropolis.

Azure Cloud City was filled with gigantic and magnificent buildings. Despite their rustic and ancient design, it was impressive to see structures reaching up into the clouds.

Occasionally, small runes lit up across the constructions, revealing that their stability did not rely solely on architecture, but also on the handiwork of formation masters.

As Aotian and Rihai approached the city center, the buildings grew even taller.

“The vein beneath the city is a low-grade first-tier supermassive vein,” Rihai explained. “Normally, spiritual veins of this level don’t reach this size. But through human intervention—and the sacrifice of five nascent veins—this immense vein was formed.”

‘So, it’s the weakest type of spiritual vein, but it became gigantic through the sacrifice of the spiritual veins of five mountains,’ Aotian pondered.

He frowned and asked:

“Why do powerful cultivators allow so many people to live here? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to monopolize all this energy for themselves?”

Aotian didn’t believe that these powerful cultivators let the population occupy the city out of pure kindness.

“Haha!” Rihai laughed loudly before replying. “Definitely not out of kindness.”

Aotian rolled his eyes, his thoughts surprisingly aligned with hers.

“In fact, there are several reasons,” Rihai continued. “First of all, spiritual veins are renewable resources. They release a large amount of energy every day, but normally, that energy disperses throughout the region and eventually thins out, becoming as faint as in any other place. To prevent this, cultivators set up Qi convergence formations, which keep the energy concentrated.”

She paused before continuing:

“But a spiritual vein functions based on the environment around it. If the surroundings become saturated with energy of the same level it releases, the vein simply stops producing more. In other words, expelling cultivators wouldn’t make a difference—whether they’re here or not, the energy would remain the same.”

Aotian found this intriguing.

“What if we set up the formation somewhere else and draw the spiritual energy there? That way, the environment around the vein would remain depleted, and it would keep expelling energy.”

Rihai froze for a moment, then looked at Aotian, stunned.

Seeing her expression, Aotian couldn’t help but feel proud.

‘Hah! Just as I thought, the mind of a modern person like me is way ahead.’ He boasted mentally.

“Aotian, I’m shocked!” Rihai said, incredulous. “Shocked that you think everyone is as dumb as you! Pfff!!”

She tried to keep a serious face, but failed miserably.

Aotian’s eyes widened as he pointed at her, indignant.

“Y-You—!”

“Pff! Hahaha!” Rihai burst into laughter.

Aotian rolled his eyes, but deep down, he was amused.

“Haha! Ugh! My stomach hurts from laughing so much.” Rihai wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, holding her stomach.

“If you’re done, can you explain now?” Aotian asked, almost pouting.

“Sorry! Sorry! I’m just feeling great after getting back at you for all your teasing.” She smiled triumphantly.

Aotian let out a faint smile.

“Okay, okay! Now, pay attention. Every formation consumes energy. In fact, setting up large formations is only viable when you have access to a spiritual vein because spiritual energy is scarce throughout most of the continent. And the reason why formations need to be placed over a spiritual vein is that, aside from releasing energy, the vein itself is a raw cluster of Qi. This Qi can’t be used directly for cultivation, but for powering supermassive formations? It’s perfect.”

She explained seriously, now fully focused.

“I see!” Aotian clenched his fist and struck his palm. “You mean that if the gathering formation isn’t placed directly over the spiritual vein, the energy consumption will be greater than the absorption!”

“Exactly!” Rihai nodded and continued, “They’ve tried several solutions to force the vein to keep releasing spiritual energy. One of them was using formations to simulate a low-energy environment at the root, forcing it to expel energy even when the surroundings were already saturated.”

“And what went wrong?” Aotian asked, as this had also been one of his ideas.

“It worked… partially.” Rihai sighed. “The amount of released energy increased, but it didn’t condense into a higher quality. It only grew in volume. This means that the area covered in spiritual energy can be expanded, but at the same time, it requires a much larger gathering matrix. And then we return to the original problem: the matrix depends on a spiritual vein. If we extract too much raw energy directly from the root, the vein collapses.”

She finished her explanation and instinctively placed a hand on her throat, feeling her mouth dry from talking so much.

Her words made Aotian recall the ruins of the Tianzhu Sect, where his avatars had arrived on their first day in this world.

“Okay, I get it. What about energy condensation?” he asked.

“Condensing is possible, but the problem lies in the energy cost.” Rihai gestured. “Let me give you an example. Imagine that low-level energy is worth 1, mid-level energy is 10, high-level energy is 100, and perfect-level energy is 1000.”

Aotian nodded, indicating he was following along.

“If we want to condense a single unit of mid-level energy using low-level energy, we would need 10 units, plus the same amount of raw energy from the vein itself to perform the conversion. In other words, if we were to transform all of the city’s low-level energy into mid-level, the available energy would be reduced by a factor of 10. To condense high-level energy, the reduction would be 100 times. And if we wanted perfect energy, that reduction would reach 1000 times.”

She paused before concluding:

“This is exactly why the city’s outskirts have low energy, the middle area has mid-level energy, the center has high energy, and the core is where the perfect energy is concentrated.”

Aotian reflected. ‘So, the city could be even larger if not for energy condensation…’

“Then why don’t they just trick the vein into releasing more energy while condensing everything into perfect energy…? Ah, I see! Vein collapse, right?” He answered himself before Rihai could even open her mouth.

“That’s right!” Rihai smiled, pleased with his quick thinking.

“Veins have a limit on how much raw energy can be extracted before they collapse. If not for that, with such a massive vein, Qi Refinement cultivators wouldn’t stand a chance at controlling the city.” She crossed her arms. “But since the difference in energy magnitude between cultivation realms is absurd, the available raw energy isn’t enough to sustain a massive conversion to higher levels. Otherwise, Foundation Establishment cultivators would rule this city uncontested.”

Aotian felt that he was gradually understanding the logic behind the cultivation world.

“You mentioned that the city’s leaders have other benefits from allowing cultivators to live here and use their resources. What kind of benefits?” He asked, recalling something Rihai had said earlier.

“There are several, but the main ones are taxes, rent, labor, and commercial expansion. Having many cultivators around means market activity, revenue generation, and attracting explorers who bring valuable goods. Moreover, every residence charges a fixed amount of spirit stones for housing. For example, I pay 500 low-level spirit stones per year to live in the center. Once I reach perfection in Qi Refinement, I’ll have to move to the core, where the cost rises to 1000 spirit stones.”

“That sounds expensive…” Aotian murmured.

“Not really.” Rihai smiled. “If you used those stones to cultivate outside a spiritual vein, at the late stage of Qi Refinement, 500 stones would last about half a year. Most people don’t live alone like I do, so you can split the costs with companions. If there wasn’t a minimum level requirement for those renting in each region, low-level cultivators could flood the core.”

Aotian furrowed his brows. It seemed affordable… perhaps too affordable.

Sensing his skepticism, Rihai chuckled.

“Don’t worry, it’s not because the city owners are generous. It’s because they have no choice.” She crossed her arms, explaining with a slightly amused tone. “There are no Foundation Establishment cultivators among the city’s rulers. They don’t dare to push too hard. They have enough subordinates to defend against a few powerful cultivators, but if they anger the entire city, things wouldn’t end well for them.”

Aotian pondered for a moment and, in the end, simply shrugged.

“Well, that makes sense.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep