Longzang

Chapter 544 Temporary Workers

In the desolate realm, Wei Yuan pondered for a brief moment.

In reality, only one day had passed since he came and went. In the last round, Wei Yuan dug up a three-foot square piece of Nether Crystal, and now he could finally turn around freely.

But seeing the Nether Iron pressing down on him bit by bit, Wei Yuan had no time to catch his breath. He quickly conjured four small hammers of different sizes and began to strike the Nether Crystal.

After the previous experiment, Wei Yuan now had a general understanding of the Nether Crystal's vibration range. The four small hammers, each different in appearance, fell in turn, and the clanging sounds overlapped. After each of the four hammer blows, a crack appeared on the Nether Crystal. Wei Yuan struck it two more times, and the Nether Crystal shattered into pieces on the ground.

After collecting the mined crystals, Wei Yuan had more room to move around, enough for a table. He continued hammering, and after a while, he chipped off another large piece of mined crystal. Looking at this relatively intact piece of mined crystal, Wei Yuan suddenly had an idea. He carefully stood the piece of mined crystal upright, using it to hold up the mined iron pressing down from above.

Wei Yuan dug two more rounds, uncovering several hundred kilograms of Nether Crystal, roughly ten feet square. He then looked back and saw that the Nether Crystal pillar had indeed stopped the Nether Iron from sinking, which put him at ease. He then went back to continue digging.

Before his Dao power was exhausted, Wei Yuan had already mined nearly two thousand catties of Nether Crystals, which totaled about two zhang square, before returning to Qingming.

Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan's first action was to visit Master Chuhe and Sun Yu, giving each of them a piece of Nether Crystal the size of a table. Master Chuhe beamed with joy and led Wei Yuan to see the Nether Sea Devouring Witch Flower.

This Witch-Eating Flower is entirely a deep purple, with slender petals that gradually change from white to purple, their tips slightly curved, and a rich amethyst crystal gathered at the curled point. The Witch-Eating Flower looks very delicate, but there is not a single living creature within a radius of about ten feet. Even cats and snakes keep their distance, and only flying sables dare to approach slightly, but they dare not enter more than three feet away.

Master Chuhe took out an ordinary magical longsword and threw it over. Suddenly, the flower sprayed out a cloud of pale purple mist, which instantly stuck to the magic sword. A cloud of mist floated out of the magic sword and was absorbed by the witch-eating flower. Then, the magic sword suddenly shattered into a pile of lifeless debris.

The True Man of the Hoeing Fields threw over another small piece of Nether Crystal. This time, the Witch-Eating Flower suddenly became excited and flew out of the soil, embracing the Nether Crystal in mid-air with its leaves! It then flew back to its original spot, re-rooting itself in the soil, and carried the Nether Crystal into the soil with it.

Wei Yuan was also taken aback, never expecting that this Witch-Eating Flower could actually move freely! Its roots in the soil were just a disguise!
Its pounce was as swift as lightning; ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators simply couldn't dodge it. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator of Cui Yu's caliber before he achieved Dharma Aspect would have been doomed.

"Where did this flower come from?"

The old Taoist priest, Chu He, didn't hide anything and said, "Brother Diao found the seeds of this flower deep underground. I used the bones of a great witch as soil and the corpse energy of countless witches as nutrients, and finally succeeded in cultivating it. This flower should have been the natural enemy of the witches in ancient times, so I named it the Witch-Eating Flower."

Now that he has enough Nether Crystals, the old Daoist is confident he can cultivate it into a Demon Flower of the Imperial Realm level. Then, his Dharma Image will have another sea of ​​demonic flowers, allowing him to advance further in the Myriad Transformations Realm, and the Heart Realm will be within his grasp!

Wei Yuan glanced at the Witch-Eating Flower, then recalled the seaweed in the human world. It seemed that the Witch Domain was teeming with natural enemies, all of them exceptionally ferocious. If even the flowers and plants were like this, one could only imagine how formidable the birds and beasts must be. But one thing they all had in common was that they all fed on witches.

It seems that the Wu tribe has lived a rather miserable life since ancient times.

Wei Yuan left the herb garden and went to the clinic.

Sun Yu wasn't greedy at all, saying he didn't need that many Nether Crystals. The amount Wei Yuan gave him was enough to mix with several thousand kilograms of poison, enough to kill half the population of Ningzhou.

But Wei Yuan had so many Nether Crystals he didn't know what to do with them, so he insisted on giving them to Sun Yu. Sun Yu accepted them with a smile, saying that he could use them to exchange for Heavenly Powers when he was short of money.

Wei Yuan remained silent, then turned and left.

After providing the materials, Wei Yuan donated several dozen kilograms of Nether Crystals to the Taichu Palace. As a result, the contribution channel of the Merit Hall was closed, and Nether Crystals were temporarily no longer accepted. Taking advantage of the fact that True Monarch Xuan Yue had not yet returned to the Northern Mountain Gate, Wei Yuan contacted the Ancestral Master through the Shadow Wall and then inquired about the exchange mechanism of the Merit Hall.

The materials priced by Taichu Palace using the Heavenly Merit system are all of the Imperial View grade. However, the number of True Lords in Taichu Palace is limited, and the number only increases or decreases every few decades. Many Imperial View grade materials are only useful to three or five True Lords, or even fewer. Once the quantity exceeds a certain limit, they simply cannot be used.

The same applies to the underworld and its crystals.

All Imperial-grade spiritual treasures require a spiritually connected main material as their core; this is the key to determining the quantity and quality of the treasure. Materials like cold iron and dark crystal are secondary materials; without the main material, no amount of secondary materials is of any use.

Having figured out how the Taichu Palace merit exchange system worked, Wei Yuan knew that he wouldn't be able to exchange Nether Iron and Nether Crystals for anything else in the short term, and he figured the same would be true for other materials.

However, the fact that Taichu Palace doesn't accept Nether Iron doesn't mean it has no other uses. In fact, Nether Iron has a wide range of uses, but it's just too expensive, and apart from refining Imperial Spirit Treasures, no one is willing to use it for anything else.

This time, Wei Yuan didn't rush back to the Netherworld. He calculated that with the Nether Crystal Pillar supporting it, the underground space could last for at least a day. But to truly establish a space, Nether Iron was still needed as a pillar.

At this moment, another report appeared amidst the everyday life of ordinary people. This report was quite interesting; it was a joint effort between the Institute of the Creation of Heaven and Earth and the Institute of War Equipment for the Equality of All Beings, and it had a distinctly otherworldly feel to it.

Accompanying this report was a near-term development plan for the area. A key point of the plan was to raise a small island in the ocean fifty miles from the central city for future development. The plan required Wei Yuan to complete this task within three days, with no delays allowed.

Upon seeing this development plan, Wei Yuan felt completely overwhelmed.

In the past, Renjian Yanhuo was a little girl who let him dress her up however he wanted; if he wanted a gold hairpin, he'd give her one; if he wanted a skirt, he'd give her a pleated skirt with gold tassels. But now, she actually wants to dress herself up? And she's even given Wei Yuan a task?
Wei Yuan's Dao power was limited; it was already insufficient to cope with the war, dig soil in the Netherworld, and raise the land for human habitation. The crucial point was that this development plan specified the island's exact location, size, and shape, but didn't tell Wei Yuan what it was intended for!
Wei Yuan's anger was no small matter; it was practically tantamount to rebellion. The problem was that despite his careful investigation, he couldn't figure out whose idea this plan was. It was as if some hidden dragon had drunk too much water, suddenly had this idea, then broke it down as a task, and ultimately produced this plan.

The little dragon at the source was a researcher at the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute, and a newly promoted one at that. He only appeared in the human world after the war in the Land of Rain, and his real age was only one month.

Moreover, although he worked at the research institute, he was not formally employed. In other words, if Wei Yuan were furious and insisted on holding someone accountable for this plan, the final result would likely be the dismissal of a temporary worker.

How could such a petty trick fool Wei Yuan? Wei Yuan simply sneered and went ahead and raised a small island according to the plan. He wanted to see what those hiding behind the scenes were really up to.

Wei Yuan, well-versed in history, had become wary. If those guys weren't up to no good, why would they hide themselves and send out a temporary worker to take the blame?
But such tricks can only fool fools, and even then, they are completely devoid of sincerity.

This plan involved thousands of mortals and two immortal plants. How could a temporary worker possibly make decisions on such a large project?

Wei Yuan thought that if they used a dean or vice dean as a scapegoat, it would make more sense, and they might actually fool him.

Although dissatisfied with the development plan, another report gave Wei Yuan pause for thought. Upon seeing this report, Wei Yuan immediately forgot his anger and began to read it carefully. Even after reading it repeatedly, he was still not satisfied.

This report is divided into two parts: the main report and the appendix. The title of the main report is: "On Protracted War".

(End of this chapter)