Longzang

Chapter 352 A Toad Descends to Earth
After the great battle, the cultivators of Taichu Palace gathered together for the first time. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss the foundational cultivation plans for the new batch of Foundation Establishment cultivators. This was a matter of great importance, so everyone put aside their other tasks and gathered here. In addition to the usual group of cultivators, Fei Yutong and Xu Wenwu were also present.

Xu Wenwu's cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds. Ever since he obtained the Azure Lotus to improve his aptitude, Wei Yuan discovered that as long as someone around him absorbed the luck, Xu Wenwu's own cultivation would also improve.

Seeing that Xu Wenwu was close to completing his Dao foundation, Wei Yuan invited him to listen in and familiarize himself with it in advance.

Wei Yuan first showcased the Immortal Sword Pseudo-Sun, a fire-elemental immortal sword that combines combat and fire-starting/temperature control, making it the top choice for the current realm's foundational cultivation. Next was the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword, followed by the newly developed Ten Directions Glazed Golden Fire, which hadn't yet been widely promoted.

After Wei Yuan finished his demonstration, the most senior of the three, Master Chuhe, said, "These immortal swords are indeed quite good, and the Ten Directions Glazed Golden Fire is an even further improvement. However, most of these are of the fire element, while the Wuyu region is more akin to water and wood, which is one reason."

Secondly, my garden is expanding rapidly, and my spiritual fields need cultivation by Foundation Establishment cultivators. Otherwise, I'll have vast tracts of spiritual land, but no one will cultivate them. Therefore, I think it's best to postpone this Foundation Establishment phase a little longer, until I've researched and developed the Water and Wood elemental foundations.

Sun Yu also said, "There are many types of fire element. In fact, we can further subdivide them. For example, we can take wood element as the base and generate fire from wood. This is the fire of life. The requirements for this fire are slightly higher than those for the fire without roots, but it is still at the human level, so the difficulty is not much higher. Those who cultivate this fire are naturally suitable to become alchemists."

Yu Zhizhuo was most familiar with the properties of things. He picked up a Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword and casually wiped it, restoring it to spiritual energy. He said, "Actually, forming a sword from a Dao foundation will consume additional Dao power and will not add any killing power. It is better to directly comprehend the Five Elements Qi. This way, the difficulty of cultivation can be reduced a bit."

The group discussed it amongst themselves, and the core discussion ultimately focused on the Ten Directions Glazed Golden Fire. This foundation is actually the Qi of the Five Elements, the most basic of the basics, requiring no external form and minimizing any extra burden.

Since Yu Zhizhu replaced ordinary rootless fire with wine fire, the difficulty of this foundational path has dropped to a new low. This gave everyone a much-needed boost in their thinking.

For example, the wood element energy is clearly easier to discern from weeds than from pine and cypress trees. Thus, the True Man of the Weeds held a handful of grass and, in just a moment, deciphered the grass energy, laying the foundation for the wood element grass energy.

Then, the cultivators spent a moment perfecting and supplementing it, and thus the first new Dao foundation of the Wood element based on grass energy in the Azure Netherworld was born: the Six Paths Jia Yi Divine Wood Energy.

The gold shop was easy to deal with. Gold and iron are difficult to melt and refine, but there are materials that are easy to melt. Yu Zhizhuo directly chose tin.

There's not much to say about Earth; it's just a matter of adjusting the tightness of the grip, with limited room for maneuver. Water is the most difficult to handle; I couldn't find a good way to reduce the difficulty, so I had to give up.

Wei Yuan manifested several foundational Dao bases that set the lower limit, and the cultivators discussed and improved them. From then on, Qingming had several more Five Elements Dao bases to suppress the realm.

However, Wei Yuan anticipated that there would be more and more people like the Cui family elders in the future, who would also be a major source of income for the realm, so the strength of the Dao Foundation was also quite important.

Finally, the main inspiration for this aspect came from Fei Yutong. The little girl suggested designing the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword in different shapes and colors. Although they are essentially the same, they would look like three different immortal swords for everyone to choose from.

This matter was not difficult, and Wei Yuan readily accepted the advice and quickly completed three new Dao foundations: the Great Bright Subduing Demon Golden Feather Sword, the Silver Wing Sword, and the Mysterious Azure Sword.

The second issue is whether or not to develop a magazine-fed musket.

According to Xu Wenwu, this issue shouldn't even need to be discussed. His own world has already proven that rear-mounted systems are a generation ahead, and automatic weapons are a generation ahead. The new generation generally outperforms the old generation.

However, the consensus reached by the group was that using magazines would require a bolt action, making mass production difficult. Moreover, gunpowder production was currently limited; even with newer types of gunpowder, each bullet would still require two kilograms. After continuous fire, gunpowder consumption would increase exponentially, making it impossible to supply.

Because there are countless beings, Wei Yuan's strategy has always been to ensure that everyone has a gun.

To increase gunpowder production, it is necessary to provide Yu Zhizhuo and Sun Yu with a large number of Dao Foundation cultivators. At the same time, research on the principles of physical properties must also be put on the agenda.

Therefore, in the final analysis, what is most needed right now is to promote the Five Elements Dao Foundation as soon as possible, lower the threshold for Human Foundation, and increase the number of Dao Foundation cultivators.

As soon as the meeting ended, Master Chuhe, Sun Yu, Yu Zhizhuo, and Feng Tingyu flew straight to the new city. Today was the day they were to give a sermon to the young man from the Xu family. Everyone from the Taichu Palace loved to teach and took this very seriously, none of them wanting to miss the opportunity to preach and demonstrate their profound knowledge in front of thousands of people.

The True Man of the Hoeing Fields was the most proactive, giving a sermon every seven days without fail, rain or shine. As a result, the young Xu family members made the fastest progress in learning the Earthly Origin Scripture.

This good thing was out of Wei Yuan's reach, so he could only leave Xu Wenwu behind to give him some pointers on his cultivation.

Following the style of True Lord Xuan Yue, Wei Yuan slowly sat down at the head of the table, adopting a dignified posture and exuding a profound aura. He said, "Let's visualize the visualization diagram and see."

Xu Wenwu sat cross-legged on the futon, forgetting himself and the world around him, and after a moment a visualization appeared.

Wei Yuan was drinking tea when he suddenly spat it out!

In the words of the outer world, this toad was perched on the bunker, wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest, with a rocket launcher in its left hand and a Gatling gun in its right.

That's not all; the toad also has a pair of huge dragon wings growing on its back. Although it looks a bit out of place, it is indeed exceptionally cool.

This was the first time Wei Yuan had lost his composure since he had cultivated the vast land of rivers and mountains. He silently wiped the tea off his clothes, wanting to offer a few comments, but found himself at a loss for words.

After a long silence, Wei Yuanfang asked, "Where did the bullets come from?"

Xu Wenwu was taken aback.

He scratched his head and said, "I'll go back and think about it some more, maybe I should add an ammo box or something."

Wei Yuan was both amused and exasperated. Could one simply add a strange phenomenon to a visualization? Besides, Xu Wenwu was ruthless; the Gatling gun had nine barrels, which couldn't be solved with just one or two boxes of bullets. So Wei Yuan earnestly explained to Xu Wenwu the importance of not being overly ambitious and that haste makes waste.

Just as Wei Yuan was earnestly trying to persuade him, Xu Wenwu suddenly seemed to have an epiphany. His visualization changed accordingly, and the bunker where the toad was perched slowly transformed into a large ammunition box! Judging by its size, it could probably hold tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition. Moreover, the ammunition box had a viewing window, allowing one to see that it was filled to the brim with ammunition, not just an empty shell.

Wei Yuan remained silent for a long time.

Finally, Wei Yuan spoke again: "The weapons and ammunition in your left and right hands are not interchangeable..."

Wei Yuan felt somewhat ashamed upon hearing this; it was simply nitpicking, finding fault with nothing, and insisting on commenting even when there was nothing to say.

But Xu Wenwu suddenly realized, as if struck by a thunderbolt, and said, "That makes sense! Let me think about it again..."

"Go back and think about it slowly!" Wei Yuan kicked Xu Wenwu out.

After Xu Wenwu left, Wei Yuan thought back to the toad he had seen back then, and apart from its size, there was only one word left: bald.

"Never mind, the new waves push the old waves forward..." Wei Yuan wanted to comfort himself, but then he remembered that in the information written by Xu Wenwu, the next line of this poem was "the old waves die on the beach".

It's a pity Ji Liuli wasn't there, otherwise Wei Yuan would have liked to pull her aside and discuss whether they should just offer Xu Wenwu as a sacrifice to the heavens.

As night deepened, Wei Yuan wanted to cultivate a little longer, but his Dao heart was shattered, and he couldn't calm down no matter what.

So he simply flew to the forging workshop and watched as batches of molten steel came out of the furnace, became steel ingots, were repeatedly forged, hammered into shape in molds, and finally, were slightly modified by the craftsmen into tools.

After watching for a while, Wei Yuan's mind gradually calmed down, and he went back to continue his cultivation.

The region needs to cultivate 500,000 mu of new farmland, which has greatly increased the demand for agricultural tools. During this period, the weapon forging workshop has been producing agricultural tools at full capacity, resulting in a significant acceleration in the pace of farmland cultivation.

Zhao State, Yuyang Prefecture.

The garrison commander, Cui Shutong, picked up a set of breastplates, put them on, tried wielding a sword and drawing a bow, and then took them off.

A man beside him said, "Sir, this is a breastplate handmade by our craftsmen. It is made of steel that has been refined a hundred times, and its quality is definitely superior to that produced by Qingming."

Cui Shutong picked up a piece of breastplate and snapped it onto the already assembled breastplate. There were obvious gaps between the two pieces of plate, and a finger could be inserted in many places.

The man said, “Our breastplates use more steel and offer better protection. They are also meticulously crafted by artisans. Since each artisan has different work habits, there will inevitably be some differences, but it does not affect their use at all.”

Cui Shutong neither confirmed nor denied, but simply asked, "How much do the armors made by your company cost?"

"Your Excellency, our quality is better, so it should be a little more expensive, twenty-five taels a pair."

"Expensive."

The man gritted his teeth and said, "Twenty-two taels! I really can't go any lower!"

"Let me think about it, then I'll go down."

The man was somewhat unwilling, but he still retreated.

Cui Shutong walked to the other side of the training ground and casually opened a cargo box with the Qingming symbol. Inside were neatly stacked armor plates, so tightly fitted together that it was difficult to even insert a toothpick.

At this moment, a young military officer standing beside him said, "Uncle, we purchase tens of thousands of sets of armor every year, which is no small amount! Why don't we let our own people earn some of that money?"

Cui Shutong picked up a piece of steel decking from Qingming, then picked up a heavy arrow and thrust it into the deck. The arrow pierced right through the deck. He examined the broken steel surface carefully, remaining silent for a long time.

The young military officer also examined the broken surface and said, "The steel is not very fine and uniform, and it is much worse than high-quality steel. Uncle, the twenty-two taels he offered is already very low, after all, it is high-quality steel."

Cui Shutong opened another box of decking, randomly took out a few pieces, pierced them with arrows as well, and handed them to the young man. The young military officer looked at them for a long time but couldn't figure out what they were about, not understanding Cui Shutong's intention.

Cui Shutong said slowly, “These few pieces of armor were just picked out by me. You think the steel isn’t very good, but what’s rare is that every piece of armor is exactly the same quality. It can’t compare to hundred-times-forged steel, but how long would it take to prepare the materials for hundred-times-forged steel? The person you found might be able to make a hundred or two hundred sets, but what about ten thousand or twenty thousand sets? How many craftsmen does he have? Can he guarantee that every set will be of the same quality as the ones delivered to me?”

The series of questions made the young military officer break out in a cold sweat, and he dared not answer.

Uncle Cui sneered, saying, "The quality of the armor delivered to me is definitely high. The people I send to inspect it will certainly be paid, and what they see is the kind of armor specifically for them. But the soldiers on the front lines are going to wear it into battle! Better quality armor could save hundreds or even thousands of lives in a major battle!"

Cui Shutong patted the young military officer on the shoulder and said, "You are still young. There will always be a time when you can go out and stand on your own. There are many ways to make money, but don't make money on weapons and equipment. That's the foundation of our livelihood!"

(End of this chapter)