In stark contrast to the Immortal Continent, the number of women in this world far exceeds the number of men. Although not to the extent that the Immortal Continent disrupts the balance, women occupy almost the majority of the resources in the entire Spirit Immortal Realm.
That's right, they call this world the Realm of Spirit Immortals.
In the Spirit Immortal Realm, women are revered because almost everyone here cultivates immortality. However, like the Immortal Realm, only women possess spiritual roots and can embark on the path of cultivation. Unlike the Immortal Realm, there are no celestial maidens here.
In other words, men are always mortals. Therefore, their status is extremely low, and they can only serve as appendages to cultivators. The rules governing men in the world are extremely strict, and they are kept in the inner quarters for their entire lives. They can only come out to see the world if the woman they rely on is willing. Even then, they cannot easily meet people; they must wear veils and shields when they go out and cannot be openly exposed to others, otherwise it would be considered a loss of their chastity.
Moreover, once a man is betrothed to a female cultivator, his life and death belong to her, and he is dependent on her for life. If he offends his master, the woman has the right to beat, scold, or even sell him at will.
Suddenly, I understood why that bullying girl on the street had been so self-righteous in believing that Feng Rong and Yuan Qi had angered her and that she wanted to sell them. Because in this world, men must cover their faces when they go out; otherwise, they are considered dissolute, unfaithful, and despised by society.
The more You You listened, the more curious he became. In both the Spirit Immortal Realm and the Immortal Marsh, only women possessed spiritual roots, yet the situations in the two worlds were completely different. The Immortal Marsh had not become a world where women were superior to men. Although women were outwardly more noble due to the protection of celestial maidens, outside of the immortal sects, men were still the majority of those in charge in the mortal realm.
In some celestial sects' histories, there have even been instances where celestial maidens were completely sidelined. Otherwise, Shuiyan and her ilk wouldn't have suffered so much. It wasn't that women lacked the ability, but rather that there were simply too few of them. Their numbers were insufficient to occupy all the important, dominant positions in society.
Without the celestial maiden, the women of that world would perhaps face even greater hardship, possibly being labeled as heretics before even reaching the level of cultivators. Humanity has always been prone to rejecting those who are different, and examples of those who are not of our kind being numerous and varied.
In a sense, the celestial maiden maintained a strange balance in the relationship between men and women.
This suddenly emerging Spirit Immortal Realm is a completely matriarchal world. The reason is not only because women possess spiritual roots, but more importantly, because the number of women steadily surpasses that of men.
Youyou doesn't particularly like either situation. Whether male or female, they are all part of humanity, so why insist on ranking them? Wouldn't it be better to develop and progress together?
But she also understood that this situation couldn't be resolved overnight. Jingjie's world was far more advanced than hers, yet some planets couldn't change this situation, or even recognize it as a problem. After all, humans are best at internal strife and self-destruction.
Besides being surprised by the positions of men and women in the Spirit Immortal Realm, Youyou also learned some other information. For example, this world is not a place where immortal sects are scattered everywhere and govern themselves independently, but rather it is organized into countries that check and balance each other.
Since all women can cultivate, cultivation here is like nine years of compulsory education—a skill that everyone needs and must master. Their country is called Crimson Star Kingdom, considered one of the more powerful nations in the Immortal Realm. Its ruler is a female cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
Above all nations, there exists an even more powerful organization called the Spirit Reverence Academy. You You inquired a little; it was extremely mysterious, and ordinary people knew little about it, only that it was considered a sacred ground for all cultivators of the Spirit Immortal Realm. The strongest cultivators on the entire continent were concentrated there, and it was rumored to enshrine the only true god in the entire Spirit Immortal Realm.
Every so often, the Reverence Institute organizes a "Holy Spirit Ceremony," at which the most outstanding cultivators from various countries are selected to participate, with the institute's head personally presiding over the ceremony. Legend has it that every cultivator who participates later becomes a powerful figure, and some are even directly selected into the Reverence Institute, soaring to great heights from then on.
The specific time for the "Holy Spirit Ceremony" is determined by the Pontifical Council, which then notifies various countries; there is no fixed time. It seems quite arbitrary, sometimes occurring only once every few thousand years, and sometimes multiple times every few hundred, decades, or even years.
This time, for example, it is said that less than two years after the last "Holy Spirit Ceremony" ended, the Holy Spirit House has announced that the next ceremony will be held in three months.
The reason there are so many cultivators in this city is because Qinghong City is one of the places in Chixing Kingdom for selecting cultivators to enter the academy.
"Where is the Jingling Academy?" You You asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Naturally, it's at the very top of the Nine Heavens, above the azure clouds!" The waiter, who was serving guests, talked on and on about the various legends of Jingling Academy, his eyes filled with longing and respect. Suddenly, as if he remembered something, he lowered his voice and whispered, "To be honest, I once overheard someone say that Jingling Academy is actually above the Heavenly Palace in the far north. I don't know if it's true or not." After saying that, he pointed to a direction outside the window.
"The far north?" You You turned to look in that direction, paused for a moment, and then smiled and replied, "Thank you, fellow Daoist."
"You're too kind, sir!" The waiter quickly returned the greeting, put down the dishes he was holding, turned around and left, kindly closing the door behind him.
"Xiao You, have you discovered something?" Yuan Qi suddenly asked.
Youyou glanced out the window again, shook her head, and said, "I'm not sure either. But when I released my divine sense yesterday, I vaguely felt that there was something over there, which was in the north direction."
"Is it that Jinglingyuan (mortuary)?" Feng Rong asked. "Is there really a problem there?"
“I don’t know…” Youyou frowned. “My divine sense couldn’t detect what it was, but it seemed to be quite far away from us, and it was indistinct, as if it might disappear at any moment.”
"Even Xiaoyou can't figure it out..." Yuan Qi's expression also became more serious. Logically speaking, with the abilities of a Realm Lord, there should be nothing that could escape her divine sense. Although this is not the Six Realms, her abilities are not restricted, so why is there only one place she can't discern?
"It seems that this is the reason why this rifted world appeared," Feng Rong guessed. "Since we can't detect it with our divine sense, why don't we go directly to see what's going on?"
“No!” Yuan Qi shook his head in opposition and continued his analysis, “If there really is a problem there, going there directly would easily alert them. Moreover, the sudden disappearance of our powers suggests that if there are enemies, this might be intentional on their part, and they may have already noticed our presence. We need to find a way to investigate without attracting attention.”
Youyou also thought it made sense. This world had obviously existed for more than a year or two, but the cracks had only recently appeared. What they needed to do was to find out the reason affecting the Six Realms, rather than destroy this world directly.
Just as the three were trying to figure out how to find out about the Jinglingyuan in the north, an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself to them.
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