Change in the Empire

"We have already sent four teams made out of Foundation Building cultivators and 2 teams made out of Core Formation cultivators to investigate."

"One of the Foundation Building teams didn't return, while both of the Core Formation teams returned safely."

"The three Foundation Building teams' harvest is mostly worthless pills and some demon cores."

"The Core Formation teams were luckier however, and they managed to find a Core Formation cultivator's corpse.", Shao Peng reported the results of the investigations.

"Do we have any clue about the person behind these scrolls?", Emperor Wu asked and the ministers shook their heads.

"To be able to do such a thing, it means that they are at least as powerful as me.", Emperor Wu shook his hands and stopped the investigation regarding this person.

Here we have to talk about what actually happened.

Four days ago, someone dropped thousands of scrolls over the Sun Empire's capital, Dawn.

At first, everyone thought that this was a declaration of war of the Snow Heaven Sect, but they quickly found out that they were wrong after they checked the scroll's content.

The scrolls contained information about the Dark Forbidden Forest and a map with a location marked inred paint.

After most forces sent some cannon fodder to investigate, they found out that in the location marked in the map, there was a high chance that a treasure existed.

Most of these treasures were pills for Body Building cultivators, but there were also people who discovered things useful even for Core Formation cultivators.

For a Nascent Soul cultivator like Emperor Wu, taking the risk to visit the Dark Forbidden Forest for such treasures was pointless.

However, how many people were in the Nascent Soul realm?

Most cultivators of the Sun Empire were in the Qi Condensing realm and only the most fortunate that had their own opportunities reached the Foundation Building.

For them, these treasures were simply priceless.

"What's the reaction of the other forces?", Emperor Wu asked.

"Your Majesty, no Sect Leader has made a move so far, but most sects have secretly allowed their disciples to explore the forest.", Shao Peng reported.

"As expected.", Emperor Wu nodded.

In fact, the scrolls were just an excuse for those sects.

The forces of the Sun Empire had long wanted to explore the forest, but they had been afraid of the public backlash.

Especially now that everyone could see that the situation between the imperial family and the Snow Heaven Sect was worsening, everyone wanted to get resources and become stronger before the civil war fully erupted.

Although in some ancient books it has been mentioned that the forest is dangerous, the sects and the imperial family didn't really know how dangerous it was.

They didn't even know what a forbidden area is, as they were cut off from the rest of the world.

"Inform the cultivators of the Empire that they are allowed to explore the forest.", Emperor Wu leaned back on his chair and commanded.

It wasn't only the sects that wanted to obtain resources.

Emperor Wu also wanted to find an opportunity to break the current stalemate and completely annihilate the Snow Heaven Sect.

What he didn't know was that a similar conversation took place in the Snow Heaven Sect.

In the Dark Forbidden Forest, the mastermind behind everything that happened, was calmly drinking tea outside his little hut.

The person that created those scrolls was obviously Li Yuan with the help of the Heaven's Secret System.

When he realized that he needed to force people to visit the forest, Li Yuan immediately came up with a plan.

What is something that no sane cultivator can resist? It is treasures.

There might exist some cultivators that like to secretly cultivate in a cave for decades, but those people are very few and far between.

It's not that more people don't want to, it's just that they are not talented enough and need resources.

Li Yuan's plan was simply: use treasures to lure cultivators in the forest.

The Sun Empire just happened to be his first choice.

The fact that no powerful cultivators existed there and that they were cut off from the rest of the world, meant that a Great Saint wouldn't pay him a visit and slap him to death.

As for how he dropped these scrolls, it was very simple.

After Xiao Yan left to find the Soul Enhancing plant, Gu Ling'er visited him and sincerely apologized for her previous attitude.

Li Yuan, as a qualified business man, didn't think less of his customer and instead made a deal.

He would would give a 50% discount to Xiao Yan, and in return Liu Feng had to drop these scrolls in the capital once they left the forest.

For a Saint, such a task was very simple and he didn't fail Li Yuan's expectations.

Of course, Li Yuan knew that his actions would cause many cultivators to die, but he didn't feel guilty about his actions.

Let's not say that most of the information contained in the scrolls was true, even if it wasn't, he would feel nothing.

After being stuck in the forbidden area for so long, he had already accepted that the only thing that really mattered was his own well-being