Not long after, the Soul Grandmasters all arrived at the conference hall.
In addition, Xue Duo 'er also brought two trusted aides of the Virtuous Snow Palace to participate in the conference.
Su Chen went straight to the point and briefly explained the purpose of this conference.
"This …"
Knowing that Su Chen wanted to annex the surrounding forces of the Soul Palace and strengthen the Soul Palace, everyone was shocked.
Logically speaking, Su Chen's words were a bit too forceful.
Although the surrounding sects did not have as much time to develop as the Soul Palace, they were not to be trifled with. They had painstakingly fought for the Soul Palace and now it was time for them to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. No one would agree to this if the Soul Palace suddenly came over and asked them to submit.
If that was the case, they could only use force to suppress them.
Su Chen's strength was obvious to everyone. The Blue Dragon Guards that Su Chen brought last time also made everyone guess that Su Chen must have reached some kind of connection with the Immortal Dawn Sect and obtained their support. With such a background, martial strength was definitely not a problem.
But if you want to attack others, you have to have a reason. If you want to strengthen yourself, you won't attack others indiscriminately. This was definitely not a righteous way of doing things. Once this spread out, the Soul Palace's reputation would be greatly damaged. Even if the surrounding sects were to be conquered, they would not submit to Su Chen from the bottom of their hearts. If this went on for a long time, it would be a disaster.
Chief Yu Shi was silent for a moment and spoke first, "Little Chen, I know that you are anxious to develop the Soul Palace, but isn't this a bit too hasty?
As long as the Soul Palace continues to develop itself and become stronger to a certain extent, the surrounding sects will naturally climb up to the Soul Palace and use the Soul Palace as the core. If you attack now, I'm afraid it will be difficult to convince the masses. "
The other Soul Grandmasters nodded.
"Little Chen, you have to think thrice. Our Soul Palace is inherited from the Spirit Clan. In the Immortal Cultivation World, we have a weak footing. These years, we have obtained the recognition of the surrounding sects with great difficulty. If we act like tigers and wolves now, it will cause a series of chain reactions."
"In my opinion, if the Hall of Souls wants to expand outwards at this stage, we absolutely cannot use force. We should first strengthen our connections with the surrounding forces and form a stable alliance. The best plan is to use the Hall of Souls as the core to stabilize the surrounding cultivation forces."
Su Chen did not find it strange that everyone was against his proposal.
The Hall of Souls belonged to the conservative faction among the large and small factions in the cultivation world. They were used to keeping a low profile and had always maintained the principle of not offending others if others didn't offend them. Now that Su Chen wanted to take the initiative to annex the surrounding factions, this went against the habits of the Hall of Souls for many years.
However, they clearly misunderstood Su Chen's understanding of the word 'annexation'.
Su Chen smiled and said, "Everyone, don't be in such a hurry. I haven't finished yet. The annexation I'm talking about is not the use of force to purge and suppress, but the lure of benefits."
"Lure?"
Everyone was confused again.
Although the Hall of Souls was not poor, it could not be said to be too rich. The greatest value of the Hall of Souls was this Soul Sea. In contrast, their control of cultivation resources such as minerals was lacking compared to the strength of the other sects.
The Hall of Souls was famous for its control of souls. Compared to the traditional cultivation sects, there was a certain level of awareness. Their demand for cultivation resources was not as strong as the other factions. Therefore, their financial development and accumulation was not too obvious.
Moreover, the natural resources of the Hall of Souls were not superior to the other sects. Under such circumstances, what could they use to lure the surrounding factions?
One had to know that Su Chen was talking about annexation.
Using the lure of benefits to make the surrounding sects take the initiative to join the Hall of Souls was not something that could be done with ordinary benefits.
Could it be that Su Chen wanted to use the name of the Immortal Dawn Sect?
If he used the Immortal Dawn Sect as bait to attract the strength of the surrounding sects, there was a certain possibility.
After all, the Immortal Dawn Sect was the largest sect in the surrounding area. If they could join the Immortal Dawn Sect's circle of allies and obtain the protection of the Immortal Dawn Sect, it would definitely be very attractive.
However, the Immortal Dawn Sect was a colossus. Even if Su Chen had a certain degree of cooperation with the Immortal Dawn Sect, it would not be so easy for him to use the name of the Immortal Dawn Sect.
Moreover, in this way, wouldn't the Hall of Souls become a subsidiary of the Immortal Dawn Sect?
Wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse? With Su Chen's temperament, he would not do such a foolish thing.
Su Chen saw that everyone was guessing but could not grasp the main point. He simply said, "In my hands, there are more than three hundred billion Spiritual Stones of cultivation resources. Moreover, this number will increase exponentially in the next few years … To put it more bluntly, I have so much money that I can't spend it. Even if I don't spare any effort to develop the Hall of Souls, fifty billion Spiritual Stones of cultivation resources would be enough. The remaining resources would be wasted if I keep them. Therefore, I want to make the best use of them. I want to use these resources to attract talents from all over and quickly strengthen the Hall of Souls."
Once this was said, the entire hall was silent.
After a long while, Yu Shi asked while stammering, "Little Chen, is what you said true?
You really have three hundred billion Spiritual Stones of cultivation resources? "
"That's three hundred billion. Little Chen, are you dreaming?"
"The annual revenue of the Hall of Souls is only one billion."
"If we sell the Hall of Souls, we might be able to get three hundred billion. However, those are all fixed assets. In reality, no matter how much we gather, it would be difficult to get more than fifty billion."
Hearing everyone's words, Su Chen was slightly surprised.
"The Hall of Souls … is actually so poor?"
As soon as he said that, everyone looked at Su Chen with a complicated expression.
Su Chen shrugged and blushed with shame.
He always thought that the Hall of Souls was quite rich. He did not expect that it was only worth five Spirit Root Strengthening Pills.
However, if he thought about it carefully, he knew that this was the normal situation in the Immortal Cultivation World.
Resources would be monopolized by the upper class.
Spirit Mountain, the Three Sacred Sects, the Nine Grotto-Heavens, and the 72 Prefectures. These were the upper class of Spirit Mountain.
Other than that, the strength of the sects, to put it bluntly, was actually not up to par.
In the entire Spirit Mountain, 90% of the resources were monopolized by these upper class.
There were countless small sects below. Not to mention drinking soup, even if there were bones to gnaw on, they would be considered very comfortable.
This involved a macroscopic issue on the economic level, so there was no need to talk about it.
To put it simply, in this Immortal Cultivation World with such a long history, the gap between the rich and the poor had reached a very terrifying level.
However, this world was too big. Standing from the perspective of the bottom class, it was difficult to see the entire world clearly. Without sufficient reference objects to compare, the feeling was not very obvious.
However, the problem was always there.
The strong could easily monopolize a large amount of resources, while the weak could only survive in the cracks.
Su Chen himself was also an example.
The Spirit Root Strengthening Pill was a monopolized resource.
Others did not have it, only he had it.
It was very normal for a pill that he casually refined to be equivalent to the entire assets of a small sect.