Longzang

Chapter 476 The Use of the Canal
Everyone shared their opinions.

Of all the cultivators present, only Li Zhi was not from the Taichu Palace, so he spoke first: "Let me first share my opinion. I believe that the Wu Clan may want to continuously draw water through this canal to change the environment of this world, prevent Qingming from expanding further, and even cause the realm to shrink."

Secondly, I think we can appropriately broaden the scope of discussion on some less core and important issues. Mr. Cai Shizhi is a scholar of great learning, not only in classics, history, philosophy, and literature, but also in military and national governance. I think it wouldn't hurt to hear Mr. Cai's thoughts. If that's still not enough, I can invite a few more teachers from the Four Saints Academy.

Finally, I wrote a letter to my father. Soon, an elder in the family will be coming to oversee things. I also hope that my father will send some advisors over to help in various ways.

Wei Yuan patted Li Zhi on the shoulder without saying anything more. At this point, their friendship was so deep that no thanks were needed.

Zhang Sheng believed that once the canal was completed, it would become a transportation artery unmatched by any other means, with a transport capacity far exceeding all other methods. The Wu tribe could use this canal to continuously transport soldiers and supplies, and the scale of the war would likely be no less than the last great war that ravaged the land.

However, there are no signs of the immortals leaving the scene yet, which is a bit of good news.

Others had different opinions. Some believed that this might be part of an extremely large formation, and that there might be a spell comparable to the Great Curse of Cause and Effect that would follow.

The old Taoist priest believed that the Wu tribe would inevitably send some kind of aquatic war beast along the canal to be deployed on the battlefield.

Yu Zhizhuo, however, believed that if the canal water was continuously used for irrigation, it would be impossible to open an underground passage on the front line. Furthermore, flooding the city with the river water could also breach the still-imperfect defenses of Ding'an. Therefore, Yu Zhizhuo argued that the most urgent task was to dig a deep trench on the front line, so that if the Wu tribe released the water, it could be diverted away.

This suggestion was very useful, and Wei Yuan immediately assigned a task amidst the everyday life of the people: to plan the water diversion canal, including its location, direction, construction method, and so on.

After issuing the task, Wei Yuan took the opportunity to check the situation in his sea of ​​consciousness.

Wei Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness was now truly a vast ocean. This azure water was actually formed from magical power, and Wei Yuan could feel it permeating his entire mental world and slowly transforming it. In this process, the azure water was gradually becoming a part of Wei Yuan's mental world, albeit very slowly.

The city in the middle of the sea is not large, and much of it is occupied by the enormous Jade Mountain. In addition to the Jade Mountain, various immortal plants have also moved themselves into the city.

The immortal plants naturally need to have their own style, and each one must occupy its own space. In fact, the immortal plants themselves can negotiate the size of their own spaces, but the believers will not agree.

The young girl, Yin Yang, occupied a corner of the city; the area she occupied was practically nonexistent in the eyes of mortals. The immortal plants would never approach her, and the mortals who had achieved cultivation recognized the area as extremely terrifying and dangerous. Therefore, the two curators of the Battle Saint Hall solemnly warned their factions not to approach that area.

That said, the original location of the Fighting Saint Hall was not within the city; it is now submerged. Therefore, the hundreds of members are currently crammed into a courtyard with five sections, with no space at all for actual sparring.

The entire city was like this, with two-thirds of the city occupied by Jade Mountain, Immortal Plants, and the Maiden Yin Yang, leaving 80,000 to 90,000 mortals to squeeze into the remaining third of the area.

However, the people of the Fighting Saint Hall were too impatient, and since there was nowhere for them to actually fight, they could only choose to have a verbal contest, which was to spar by verbally describing their moves. For a time, everyone in the hall sat discussing techniques and fighting in pairs. Unexpectedly, one of them, although his martial arts skills were mediocre, was extremely good at talking. He persuaded many masters along the way and actually managed to fight his way to the vice master.

The deputy curator was a genius and looked down on him, but he was tricked by him and couldn't win the argument.

The once vast Fighting Saint Hall was reduced to a single figure: the Hall Master himself. Hundreds gathered to witness this epic battle. But the debate had barely begun, and before the man could utter a single word, the Hall Master unleashed a torrent of Daoist energy, instantly knocking him unconscious.

Everyone was stunned, but also full of admiration. The master of the hall was indeed the master; ordinary people simply couldn't out-argue him.

Although the city was crowded, after receiving the mission, the girl Yin Yang still rebuilt the network and drove mortals to work in the surviving research institute.

Wei Yuan scanned the city with his divine sense and was about to leave when he suddenly saw a platform built on the city wall. Next to it was a sign with the four large characters "Taigong Fishing Ground". Several people were fishing with fishing rods they had found from somewhere.

Wei Yuan shook his head helplessly and withdrew from his sea of ​​consciousness. The Azure Water was formed from the Holy Witch's magical power; even ordinary spirit fish couldn't survive there, so how could there be any fish? Of course, the hooks of those people were also straight.

At this time, the cultivators in the council hall had almost finished their discussion, so Wei Yuan mobilized the laborers to immediately begin digging a water diversion ditch in case the witch tribe really used water to attack.

At the same time, Wei Yuan dispatched all the merchant caravans in Qingming to purchase large quantities of spirit wood, thunder sand, and other key materials for gunpowder. Wei Yuan had already stockpiled a considerable amount, but he knew that once war broke out, no amount of supplies would be enough. Now, before news of the Witch Clan's attack spread, Wei Yuan planned to clear out all the surrounding goods. Otherwise, once the news spread, the supplies needed in Qingming would be astronomically expensive.

Furthermore, all cultivators in the realm awaiting advancement to the Foundation Establishment stage have their current schedules cancelled. Wei Yuan plans to have them advance within three days, as many as possible. This way, they can receive more training before the war.

At the same time, Wei Yuan stopped supplying grain outwards, and all troops moved north. Six of the eight giant crossbows were installed in Ding'an City. Meanwhile, the weapon forging workshops were operating at full capacity, frantically producing short-barreled cannons.

During the last brief war with the Wu tribe, one statistic caught Wei Yuan's attention: more than half of the Wu tribe members who died in front of Ding'an City were killed by short-barreled cannons.

Upon this conclusion, the military immediately began to re-examine all war data and discovered that the previous calculations were incorrect. The short-barreled cannon was far more effective on the battlefield than ordinary firearms, comparable to the flying sword gun, and even surpassing the multi-barreled flying sword machine gun.

Just as Wei Yuan was desperately preparing for the upcoming battle, a strange change occurred in the new city. All the young men and women were once again paired up and reproduced on a large scale, including the young men and women who served as guards.

By the time Wei Yuan discovered this, most of the young men and women had already finished their business.

(End of this chapter)