The River God's fixed appearances in dozens of rivers scattered across the land, and its manifestation only thrice per day at each location, were soon discovered and spread throughout the realm.
The ensuing struggle, with this phenomenon at its core, immediately commenced.
Especially when a river where the River God manifested was conveniently located near several sects, those sects would invariably engage in fierce disputes over it, nearing full-blown war.
Or rather, they had already ignited such wars because of it.
If demonic sects were among them,
The conflict would only become more brutal.
As for mortals, let alone mortals, even cultivators with lower cultivation levels were not qualified to approach those dozens of rivers. Within days, these rivers were either unilaterally occupied by major sects or jointly seized.
The more avaricious ones directly tossed their sect's most powerful and precious treasures into the rivers, expecting to receive even more potent and valuable items in return. The more cautious ones, however, chose to retain their sect's core inherited supreme treasures.
They would then discard less important items into the rivers,
Fearing hidden dangers from the River God's intervention.
Some sects had even begun to exploit loopholes. For instance, they would place all their valuable belongings into their sect's largest storage ring and throw that into the river, to test if the River God could evolve both the ring and its contents.
Another example was throwing already evolved items back into the river to see if further evolution was possible.
Or perhaps, re-submerging supreme treasures that had previously been lost in the river to see if they could transform without limit.
These actions were, in principle, supposed to have restrictions. After all, a concept-level River God consumed the future of a civilization. Unchecked, it would inflict immense damage on the future of that civilization. However, Ding Yun's objective was precisely to destroy the future of the cultivation civilization.
To guide this civilization from prosperity to decline.
Therefore, she deliberately lifted all sorts of restrictions. Even if they threw the Myriad Treasures Pagoda, which had already evolved into a top-tier immortal artifact, into the river again, Ding Yun would continue to transform it for them, yielding them supreme immortal artifacts and acquired spiritual treasures. The consumption of the cultivation civilization's future for transforming a supreme immortal artifact and an acquired spiritual treasure was equivalent to the cost of transforming tens of thousands of ordinary immortal artifacts.
With such immense consumption, why not?
However, since acquired spiritual treasures were no longer items that beings below the immortal level could refine, their transformation was useless to the cultivators. With no one currently able to ascend to immortality, they had no means to use or refine acquired spiritual treasures.
Nor could they present them to the upper realms as offerings.
Thus, after a few such attempts, the number of people trying this diminished. They preferred to evolve cultivation techniques and various spiritual pills that boosted cultivation. Additionally, spiritual pills that extended longevity and preserved life were also given extreme importance.
Many even resolved to seize this glorious era to attempt breakthroughs, to see if they could ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Consequently, the entire Southern Region's cultivation world entered an unprecedented era of cultivation prosperity. Various spiritual pills and elixirs, originally extremely rare, capable of altering spiritual root aptitude, were now consumed and used freely. Spiritual pills that could aid cultivation without side effects or directly increase cultivation levels were also readily available.
Due to the sheer abundance of spiritual pills and elixirs, they no longer needed to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth to cultivate. Hence, they completely failed to notice the continuous decline in the concentration of spiritual energy in the environment. Or rather, even if they did notice, they paid it no mind, lest it bring them worry.
However, to ensure a semblance of fairness, Ding Yun did not allow this unchecked extravagance to continue indefinitely. After a month, she altered the River God's appearance locations, causing it to manifest near smaller and medium-sized sects that had received little benefit, or even directly within their sect grounds, to prevent them from being utterly useless.
Ensuring that advantages were not just given to those who could seize them.
This was to guarantee the equitable distribution of benefits.
Preventing the strong from growing stronger and the weak from becoming weaker.
Although the River God's sudden change in behavior caused some unrest in the Southern Region's cultivation world, with many sects becoming anxious and agitated, as some sects failed to keep their secrets, news eventually leaked out about the River God's presence near their rivers or within their sects. Sects that had lost access to the River God quickly sought out others, either through coercion or cooperation, to share its benefits, finally regaining access.
However, the situation evolved from exclusive access or cooperation between one or two sects to collaboration among three, four, five, six, or even seven sects.
Fortunately, they had by now become accustomed to packaging all their sect's belongings into a massive storage ring and throwing it into the river. Therefore, despite the reduced frequency of individual sect offerings due to the increased number of collaborators, their actual gains were not diminished. They remained so abundantly supplied that their entire sects could casually consume pills.
As cultivators and cultivation sects across the Southern Region became deeply immersed and unable to extricate themselves, Ding Yun ceased her direct involvement in Southern Region affairs. While continuing to raise her children and guide their cultivation, she began to explore expanding the River God's influence to other regions, aiming for a widespread phenomenon.
After all, the cultivation civilization's future was quite robust.
It required collective prodigality to deplete it.
To be thoroughly wasted within a mere few years or a decade.
Furthermore, this act of prodigality was not without its price. The depletion of the cultivation civilization's future was one cost. However, those who benefited could not possibly receive only advantages without any drawbacks. It was just that the karmic retribution that should have befallen them had been suppressed by Ding Yun using the concept-level River God. She planned to release it once the cultivation civilization's future was exhausted and the Age of Dharma Decline had set in.
At that time, they would undoubtedly be entangled by karmic retribution.
Their karmic sins would reach heaven...
The karmic retribution for depleting and destroying the future of the entire cultivation civilization would be dispersed and descend upon them.
It was likely that their souls would be scattered, their bodies turned to dust,
And even then, it would be difficult to repay.
Such immense karmic retribution, if borne solely by the cultivators of the Southern Region, would be too tragic; they could not shoulder it. Moreover, Ding Yun not only desired an Age of Dharma Decline but also wished to fundamentally destroy the entire cultivation world, which would be most conducive to her comprehensive promotion of technological advancement.
Therefore, it was natural to involve as many cultivators from as many regions as possible, ideally all cultivators.
To jointly participate in this grand carnival of the cultivation world.
To collectively bear this massive karmic retribution.
And finally, to be destroyed together.
As for whether Ding Yun and her children would also bear karmic retribution, there was no need to worry about that. She held the concept-level River God, a supreme treasure, which could both suppress and transfer karmic retribution.
With so many cultivators in the world needing to bear immense karmic retribution, transferring the karmic burden from the three of them to others was a mere act of blending into the crowd.
It could be considered incredibly simple.
There was no need to fear discovery by the Heavenly Dao.