Luo Chen walked slowly through the illusory streets, his thoughts returning to that moment. A faint stir of emotion rose within his heart.

He had to come. The ideal cultivation site for a Foundation Establishment cultivator was one with a second-tier spirit vein. Such places were incredibly rare, even in the lands surrounding Dahe Market.

Ordinarily, few Foundation Establishment cultivators would linger in an area with only a first-tier spirit vein. Those who did were usually bound by circumstance. Family-bound cultivators like Mi Shuhua, Nangong Jin, and Li Yixian had chosen to remain, unwilling to abandon their families or the resources tied to them. Others were sect-affiliated cultivators sent on long-term assignments to manage remote holdings.

Even without access to true second-tier spirit veins, such individuals often relied on special methods to aid their cultivation. Mi Shuhua employed a spirit-gathering formation to transform the land into a pseudo second-tier cavern. Duan Qiankun activated the Ice-Fire Spirit Spring, temporarily transforming it into a pseudo second-tier spirit land.

Yet such methods carried a heavy cost. The resources required were staggering,...