Chapter 519
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: What Does the Eternal Joy Garden Look Like Exactly?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
What exactly did the Eternal Joy Garden look like?
With the token left behind by Ancestor Master Tingyou, Lu Yang quickly connected to this elusive, ethereal yet undeniably real mysterious realm.
As it turned out, humans truly could not imagine things they had never seen.
Even someone as talented as Ancestor Master Tingyou was no exception, so the Eternal Joy Garden he created naturally drew inspiration from the object he interacted with most in daily life—
The Myriad Spirits Banner.
Lu Yang looked around and saw that the so-called Eternal Joy Garden was actually an enormous black box, filled with countless pitch-black coffins. Each coffin held a cultivator, their faces showing expressions of smiles, pain, or blankness, embodying all the vicissitudes of mortal life.
"My goodness..."
Lu Yang blinked, and with the highest authority in the Eternal Joy Garden granted personally by Ancestor Master Tingyou, he swiftly grasped all the information about the place.
First was the Eternal Joy Garden itself.
‘The essence of this mysterious realm is similar to the Worry-Free Heaven, pushing the interplay of reality and illusion to its extreme, positioned at the boundary between existence and non-existence.’
‘As for the members recruited by the Eternal Joy Garden, besides the higher-ups from various sects in the Jiangnan region, there is also a sizable population of ordinary mortals and Qi Refining disciples. The Eternal Joy Garden aids their cultivation and growth, while they carry out tasks to sustain its operations.’
It was a symbiotic relationship.
And without a doubt, this bond further strengthened the connection between the masses and the Worry-Free Heaven, while tightening the seal on the True Lord.
‘It buys about... ten more years.’
Lu Yang calculated with his fingers and soon had an answer. "In my previous life, the seal lasted sixty years, yet the True Lord broke through after thirty by burning his cavern world to manifest."
Ancestor Master Tingyou had optimized it further on that foundation.
With the expansion of the Eternal Joy Garden, the time the True Lord could forcefully descend was extended to forty years. At first glance, it did not seem like much.
But everything must be viewed in comparison.
The original Heaven of Non-existence had already been refined to perfection by the Innate True Person Mu Changsheng, a figure who wielded the heavenly tribulation fortune and was himself a peerless genius.
Under such circumstances, for Ancestor Master Tingyou to devise the Eternal Joy Garden and upgrade the Heaven of Non-existence was already extraordinarily impressive.
If there was any flaw in the Eternal Joy Garden, it was not in the hardware.
Rather, the underlying logic of its design was off.
As Lu Yang reviewed the intelligence on the Eternal Joy Garden, he furrowed his brow.
‘All cultivators recruited by the Eternal Joy Garden receive its blessings, with the garden enhancing their cultivation and Dao attainments.’
Seeing this, Lu Yang was stunned.
How did the Eternal Joy Garden empower its members? Ancestor Master Tingyou had modeled it after the Celestial Court's system—essentially the positional authority of the Worry-Free Heaven.
But this had limits.
‘Unless it’s something like the Everflowing River with its boundless conceptual image, positional authority is not infinite. Overuse leads to self-damage!’
Compared to the positional authority expended, most recruits were Qi Refining cultivators or even mortals, with few at Foundation Establishment. They yielded scant resources.
Under these conditions, it could never break even.
In other words, the Eternal Joy Garden was consuming the Worry-Free Heaven's power to sustain its members.
To Ancestor Master Tingyou, this might have seemed worthwhile, as it boosted Lu Yang's chances against the Golden Winner. But to Lu Yang, it was different.
"Positional authority squandered on Qi Refining cultivators?"
"What a waste!"
Lu Yang looked heartbroken. "Mere Qi Refining nobodies, not even full humans, and Ancestor Master treats them too kindly! How can the Eternal Joy Garden ever grow big and strong like this?"
With that thought, Lu Yang immediately began altering the setup.
First, the practice of using positional authority to empower cultivators had to end. It was pure money-burning, without even a sound in return.
Lu Yang's new setup was simple, summed up in four words:
Increase revenue, cut costs.
‘From now on, the true bodies of all cultivators joining the Eternal Joy Garden will be sealed away, replaced by simulacra created by the garden using positional authority.’
‘All subsequent enhancements and empowerments from the Eternal Joy Garden will apply only to these simulacra... This turns it into the garden temporarily lending positional authority to the cultivators, which can be reclaimed at any time. Essentially, it remains mine, smoothly slashing personnel costs?’
Beyond that, generate revenue.
‘Starting today, the Eternal Joy Garden officially issues Eternal Joy Banknotes. All enhancements and empowerments must be exchanged using these banknotes.’
‘Completing tasks earns Eternal Joy Banknotes.’
‘Handing over spirit materials, treasures, Dao arts, or rarities can also be traded for Eternal Joy Banknotes—of course, to me, they’re just numbers.’
It was empty-handed profit-grabbing at its finest.
After all, the cultivators exchanged for banknotes to empower themselves, but all that empowerment stayed on the simulacra.
Meaning Lu Yang spent not a dime, getting free labor!
He had no qualms about it. Without squeezing their surplus value, how could he advance? The strong should ruthlessly exploit the weak!
In truth, he never expected these Eternal Joy Garden cultivators to fight battles for him—most were not even full humans. Their uses were verifying his Heavenly Fire Above and serving as cannon fodder, resource gatherers, and scouts for perilous lands.
‘For that, they should thank me!’
With their true bodies sealed in the Eternal Joy Garden, only simulacra ventured out. Even if they died, new ones could be made, at worst losing a bit of divine sense.
In short, as long as the Eternal Joy Garden remained undiscovered and unbreached,
These cultivators were unkillable!
‘But they can’t know that. Best to design a revival system: first three free, subsequent ones cost Eternal Joy Banknotes.’
On top of that, Lu Yang added dozens of paid features to the Eternal Joy Garden, aiming to fully unleash these members' potential.
‘Expand to Jiangbei and overseas!’
‘With the Eternal Joy Garden, I no longer worry about actual governance. Once absorbed, they become my subordinates!’
Of course, the Worry-Free Heaven's positional authority was finite, so Lu Yang could not admit everyone.
Just like in Jiangnan: select and absorb the key leaders governing regions, and those under them naturally fell under Lu Yang's rule.
Soon, under Lu Yang's impetus, a brand-new Eternal Joy Garden began rumbling into operation, swiftly spreading to all four corners of the world.
Several months later.
Lu Yang sat in the Tianwu Hall, idly shoving the comatose Empress Xiao aside as he routinely checked the Eternal Joy Garden's operations over these days.
At this moment, the Heavenly Fire Above in the vault of heaven had been fully ignited, its dazzling light visible from Jiangdong, Jiangbei, Jiangnan, or even overseas. These were manifestations of Lu Yang's "authority," with only the Jiangxi Pure Land left untouched.
But Jiangxi had the World Honored One, so he could not rush.
By comparison, Lu Yang had an unexpected delight—one of his greatest gains since the Eternal Joy Garden's expansion.
The next second, Lu Yang entered the Eternal Joy Garden.
His gaze quickly fell on a cultivator under its management, a Primal Saint Sect disciple who had recently run into trouble:
He had been possessed.
Possessing him was a fragment resembling a treasure jade, within which lurked a figure shrouded entirely in smoke. Lately, it had been guiding his cultivation.
Soaring Empyrean!