The Lightning Tribulation Supervisory Department, Supervisory Analysis Center.
Looking at the two latest anomaly reports and the reports from the dispatched staff who had yielded no results, Mo Xiaoyao sighed repeatedly, utterly vexed.
To have this happen right after the New Year.
It truly gave him a feeling of heart failure!
"Boss, it's just a few more Golden Core cultivators who deliberately failed to report after their tribulation. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, right? After all, we already have over ten thousand Golden Core cultivators registered. A few missing won't make much of a difference and won't stir up any trouble!"
A regular staff member, who had been very confused for a long time and was now even more so seeing Mo Xiaoyao sighing, couldn't contain his curiosity and asked.
With such strict population censuses in recent years, there were still many loopholes and unregistered individuals. What was the big deal with a few unregistered Golden Core cultivators? Nothing in this world was perfect and without flaws. They shouldn't be too strict.
"You don't understand. This isn't just about a few more or fewer Golden Core cultivators, nor is it just a matter of simple concealment. Generally speaking, normal individuals who cultivate and break through to the Golden Core realm will voluntarily report it.
After all, after reporting, there's a substantial monthly subsidy.
There are generally only two possibilities for deliberate concealment: one is that they are unaware of this information, and the other is that their cultivation breakthrough is abnormal, meaning they are individuals who, by normal processes and their past performance, could not possibly have broken through to Golden Core.
If we delve deeper into these two situations:
The former could very well be disciples of sects and aristocratic families who hid in blessed lands or sealed themselves off many years ago, re-emerging after the spiritual energy resurgence, and are now hiding, secretly accumulating strength, unwilling to be used by us, or even intending to oppose us.
The latter could be those who have undergone soul possession, cultivated some evil methods or magic, or perhaps awakened past-life memories and are hostile towards or at least distrustful of our relevant institutions.
Regardless of the situation, these individuals are definitely not easy to deal with, nor are they stable factors.
So how can I not worry?
And how can the higher-ups not demand a thorough investigation!"
After a brief explanation, Mo Xiaoyao quickly proceeded to report the latest information to his superiors. In accordance with the instructions from the higher authorities, he convened an internal meeting, clearly stating that their main goal for the year was to tackle the recent abnormal lightning tribulation incidents from last year and early this year, and to find the tribulators and ascertain their situation.
However, despite their efforts to investigate, the actual results were quite unsatisfactory, as they couldn't find any commonalities among these lightning tribulations. Apart from all of them deliberately choosing to undergo tribulation on rainy days, the locations of each tribulation could be described as being all over the map.
They were scattered everywhere, like flower petals scattered by a celestial maiden.
Full of uncertainty.
Unable to directly ascertain the specific identities of the tribulators, they could only resort to some crude methods. For example, conducting a carpet search within a radius of several hundred kilometers around the lightning tribulation sites to check for any formations, hidden spaces, or secret realms.
Another method was to conduct covert investigations on all individuals within a radius of several hundred kilometers around the lightning tribulation sites, looking for any families or individuals whose behavior, economic income, and other aspects showed any abnormalities compared to the past.
But when Ding Yun and her family underwent tribulation, they never did so near their homes, always traveling as far as possible. As a result, they found several secret realms, some formations, and quite a few rogue cultivators and demonic cultivators, but they couldn't find Ding Yun and the others.
Their investigative direction had suddenly entered a blind spot.
Without any clues.
It was at this moment that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth abruptly experienced its ninth surge, and the spiritual energy concentration once again skyrocketed.
The spiritual energy resurgence of heaven and earth was not a steady recovery.
Instead, it was a recovery with fluctuations.
Under normal circumstances, it showed a slow and stable growth. However, every few years, there would be a peak surge, and each surge was stronger than the last. In the past forty years, there had been a total of eight such surges, and the intervals between each surge did not have a clear and standard pattern.
Currently, relevant agencies could only infer.
That it would likely occur within a period of two to three years.
So, although the sudden ninth surge caught them off guard, they were somewhat mentally prepared.
However, an accident still occurred.
The spiritual energy concentration surge caused by the ninth spiritual energy eruption far exceeded their imagination and initial predictions. The spiritual energy concentration that could only support the birth of Nascent Soul cultivators did not, as they expected, only surge to the level supporting the mid-to-late stage of Nascent Soul, but instead, as if it had been injected with stimulants, it directly broke through to a level sufficient to support the birth of Soul Transformation.
And even the birth of Integration Ancestors.
In an instant, the vast majority of the sealed blessed lands, awaiting the spiritual energy resurgence, the sects hidden by formations, and even those separated from the world, all had their seals and barriers lifted, officially announcing their reappearance.
The Soul Transformation Ancestors of the major sects and aristocratic families.
Awakened one after another, greedily absorbing spiritual energy.
For a time, the spiritual veins at the spiritual energy nodes across the globe surged like fountains, transforming into spiritual rain that covered an area of hundreds of kilometers. Previously hidden and undiscovered blessed lands one by one were exposed. Mountains like Huashan and Taishan were not only growing taller but also gained numerous mountain peaks that never existed before. Even the major oceans saw tens of thousands of new islands.
These were not naturally formed due to the spiritual energy resurgence; they had always existed but were previously sealed or concealed by the major sects and aristocratic families through powerful spells. Their current appearance was merely the unsealing.
It could be said that the commotion caused by this spiritual energy surge was greater than all the previous eight combined. All national agencies immediately suspended their ongoing work and shifted their focus to dealing with this major change.
Emergency meetings were continuously convened.
Of course, this was the change on the national level. The major sects and aristocratic families that had just reappeared, the rogue cultivators on overseas islands, and the sects that had not dispatched outer disciples or disciples into the mortal world were also either holding internal meetings to discuss their emergence or dispatching disciples to gather information.
In short, for the time being, as neither side had a complete understanding of the other, the secular government and the ancient immortal sects and aristocratic families had a relatively restrained relationship, with no major conflicts erupting.
Nor were large-scale battles waged.
They were in a phase of mutual interaction and understanding.
As for what would happen next, whether they could develop peacefully and work together, or if ideological differences would lead to a great war, it was truly difficult to say and very precarious.
But at least Ding Yun and her family were fine now.
With Soul Transformation cultivators emerging on a large scale, who would care about a few concealed, recently breakthrough Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators!