Ding Yun had barely settled in the mortal realm when the cultivation world plunged into its final frenzy, or more accurately, the very top echelon of cultivators did.
They began to bathe in the river's waters in large numbers.
Achieving immortality through encounters with the river.
For them, daily life consisted only of fighting, death, and bathing in the river's waters to evolve and ascend. Upon achieving immortality, they would immediately be guided to ascend.
No one clung to the mortal world anymore.
As they continuously ascended and departed, the speed at which the cultivation world's spiritual energy and ley lines depleted grew ever faster. Previously, even with the river's miraculous encounters and evolutionary processes, the things created from spiritual energy consumption remained within this world. Now, however, their ascension represented a massive amount of spiritual energy and resources being taken away from this world.
It was no wonder the depletion of spiritual energy and ley lines accelerated.
Another half a year passed, and the largest spiritual ley line in this world completely collapsed. The overall spiritual energy concentration of the entire world dropped so low that it was almost impossible to absorb spiritual energy into one's body. Perhaps only a few geniuses could manage it; those with slightly lower aptitudes could not even sense the thin spiritual energy.
Furthermore, with the current spiritual energy concentration, relying solely on external spiritual energy for cultivation would, at best, allow one to linger in the Qi Refining stage, with Foundation Establishment being exceptionally difficult. For cultivators of slightly higher cultivation, expending even a single unit of spiritual energy would require several days of absorbing external spiritual energy to compensate for the loss, without any other supplementary sources.
At this point, Ding Yun's primary objective was largely achieved.
However, to eradicate all possibilities, Ding Yun did not immediately recall the conceptual River God. Instead, she allowed the conceptual River God to continue roaming the outside world, approaching cultivators who were previously too weak, too low in status, or simply too unlucky to have had the chance to interact with the River God.
This allowed them to also experience the river's miraculous encounters before their departure.
Seeking the next destination.
Another half a year later, the spiritual energy in this world completely vanished. That's right, completely vanished. Whether it was famous mountains and great rivers or any other place, even the most crucial and core blessed lands of the major sects, all collapsed due to the severance of spiritual energy. Those who hid within, hoping to escape the era of declining magic, were forced to emerge.
This included the secret realm of the Qixia Kingdom's imperial palace.
All were destroyed.
At this moment, cultivators in heaven and earth could barely survive, let alone fight. They could not even prevent their own spiritual energy from leaking out, unless they completely sealed themselves, becoming unthinking, unfeeling beings akin to stones.
Otherwise, they could not stop their spiritual energy from leaking.
In this moment, they finally understood the terror of the era of declining magic.
And the unfolding of events did not end here, for the final step had yet to commence. As the last wisp of ordinary external spiritual energy dissipated, Ding Yun immediately released the conceptual River God's suppression of the karma and karmic forces of all beings. In an instant, countless karmic forces radiated across the land.
Even those who had already ascended were not spared.
All were tracked across realms.
Because this was a tribulation initiated by the Heavenly Dao, a calamity for all beings, it did not involve waiting for death before judgment. Instead, the tribulation descended instantly. Those with the deepest karma and karmic forces experienced the Five Declines of Heaven and Man on the spot, turning into dust.
Next was the descent of divine punishment, a fight to the death.
This meant that as long as a person was alive, the heavenly tribulation would not cease.
Following that was self-inflicted deviation from cultivation, leading to immediate demise. In such cases, there was still a chance for reincarnation in the future.
Of course, before these calamities descended, Ding Yun had already transferred the karma from herself and her two children to those individuals with the deepest karmic ties. Their karma and karmic forces were already so immense that survival was impossible, so adding more or less did not make much difference; they were like a louse that no longer feared being bitten.
The overall result was that those who had ascended primarily faced the Five Declines of Heaven and Man, perishing within moments. Beings in the immortal realm who encountered them dared not approach.
Let alone investigate.
Because everyone understood that this was a wrathful act of the Heavenly Dao, and anyone who dared to intervene or save them would be cursed for the death, for soiling their land. They worried about being implicated and facing misfortune.
Those remaining in the mortal realm faced rolling thunder from the heavens, and many perished quickly. Then, a large number succumbed to deviation from cultivation, leading to their deaths. It was no exaggeration to say that over ninety percent of cultivators were wiped out. The remaining were mostly low-level Qi Refining disciples; having even a Foundation Establishment cultivator was remarkable.
The lifespan of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators was similar to that of mortals. Powerful technological weapons could easily eliminate them. Therefore, the current environment could be considered one where obstacles were removed.
The legacy left by the Qixia Old Ancestor for the Qixia Kingdom.
Only Ding Yun and her two children remained.
However, Ding Yun still did not rush to widely promote technology. Instead, she once again summoned the conceptual River God, splitting it into countless avatars to collect the belongings of all the fallen cultivators.
This was to prevent anyone from discovering them later and the emergence of new cultivators.
Then, she continued to utilize the conceptual River God, but this time, instead of providing miraculous river encounters to others, she used the avatars of the conceptual River God to gather orphans from all over the world.
She initiated technological enlightenment on a broad scale.
There was no other way; this world was too vast. Relying on a single point like the Qixia Kingdom to gradually expand technological ideas to the entire world would take an unknown number of centuries. Ding Yun did not have that much time to waste.
Therefore, it was natural to initiate enlightenment everywhere simultaneously.
With this approach, with good luck, it could be accomplished in about forty to fifty years. Even with bad luck, within a century, she could surely lead the people of the world into a modern, first-level civilization, achieving a basic level of universal moderate prosperity.
If she did not ensure that all people in the world lived well, even better than during the peak of the cultivator civilization,
How could the superiority of technology be demonstrated?
There was another benefit to sending out a large number of avatars: they could help rectify a minor issue she had overlooked earlier. For example, they could concurrently eliminate low- and mid-level demonic beasts located throughout the world.
That's right, when Ding Yun was conducting large-scale miraculous river encounters, although she did not forget to consider the high-level demonic beasts, she truly forgot about some of the low-level ones. As a result, after the plan was fully implemented, Ding Yun discovered that a large number of low- and mid-level demonic beasts had never encountered the River God and had not been exterminated by the Heavenly Dao.
Although these demonic beasts could not survive for long in the absence of spiritual energy, and their intelligence would likely collapse before their physical forms, this "not for long" did not mean one or two days or months.
It was measured in years, ten or twenty years.
The technological side had just begun its enlightenment, and it lacked the capability to deal with these demonic beasts. If Ding Yun did not intervene,
The common people of the world would truly be in peril.
After all, ordinary humans were no match for demonic beasts.
Forgetting about the low- and mid-level demonic beasts was indeed Ding Yun's oversight; there was no way to shirk responsibility. Therefore, she naturally had to bear this burden and find a way to deal with those demonic beasts. Using the River God's avatars to combat the demonic beasts was her final plan.
Although it was troublesome, it was effective and served a dual purpose: it dealt with the demonic beasts, protected humanity, and simultaneously facilitated global technological enlightenment.
The only drawback was that Ding Yun's personal magical power consumption was somewhat high, but with the relics of cultivators collected from around the world, she could sustain it. At least another hundred or so years of support would not be a problem.
This length of time would be enough for her to exterminate the demonic beasts.
And it would be enough for her to complete her plan.