Longzang

Chapter 545 Steel and Will (Thanks to Alliance Leader Beichen Qishen)

"On Protracted War," a not-so-long article, took Wei Yuan a full half-hour to read, with most of the time spent pondering it word by word.

This article is a masterpiece that integrates the wisdom of 300,000 years of human history with knowledge of the outer world. It clearly points out that the war with the Rain Kingdom can be divided into three stages: strategic defense, strategic stalemate, and strategic offense.

Currently, Qingming has gradually shifted from strategic defense to strategic stalemate, and Hongye's plan to quickly destroy Qingming has failed.

The Azure Netherworld is inhabited by human beings. As long as everyone is encouraged to be like a dragon, and the value of mortals is fully explored, and the human destiny is gathered to fight against the Witch Realm, the strength of both sides in the war will ebb and flow. In the future, the Azure Netherworld will inevitably turn to strategic offense and eventually completely destroy the Rain Kingdom.

In the foreseeable future, Wei Yuan will likely be able to establish Qingzhou and recreate the glorious era when the three immortals of Taichu Palace opened up Yunzhou.

The destruction of the Rain Kingdom was only the beginning of the struggle against the Witch Clan. The war between the human and the Witch Clan had lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. It was probably impossible to destroy the Witch Clan even after Wei Yuan became an immortal and died of old age.

But as long as Qingming exists, and mortals can all become like dragons, and humanity's fortune will flourish, other human nations will naturally follow suit. With humanity's great fortune flourishing, even more Wei Yuan will emerge.

This process may last for tens of thousands of years, hence the title of this article: "On Protracted War".

In addition to the main text, it also has an appendix entitled "An Analysis of Comparative Advantages in the War Against the Witch Clan".

The attachment provides much more detail, primarily addressing the current war. Based on data from the six previous major wars, the article analyzes in detail the strengths and weaknesses of the Land of Rain and the Azure Nether, and proposes a series of specific countermeasures.

Many of these suggestions are quite unreliable. For example, in the section on manpower, the main point is to find a way to bind Su Xuejing to Qingming's chariot. If he's a man, pair him with a woman; if she's a woman, pair her with a man. It's not impossible for them to leave in the future; they can just leave the child behind.

In addition, Ji Liuli, the Peacock Buddha Mother, the Little Red Lotus Monk, and so on, should not be overlooked either.

The report even suggested that Wei Yuan go and inherit the Great Joyful Buddha.

The Crouching Dragon and the Phoenix Chicks astutely realized that once Wei Yuan inherited the Dharma form of the Great Joyful King Buddha, many female cultivators and female cultivators would be bound to the Azure Chariot, whether they liked it or not. If Wei Yuan lowered his standards even further, male cultivators would also be doomed.

Wei Yuan was both amused and exasperated, and crossed out all the unreliable suggestions.

However, Wei Yuan took Ji Liuli's suggestion seriously. Based on available information, Ji Liuli was experiencing a problem with her Dao Heart, but the exact nature of her issue was unclear. Furthermore, the Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chicks, drawing upon Wei Yuan's experience, discovered that Dream Consumption might be the best solution to the problem of her Dao Heart.

Her dreamscape is so realistic that it could be mistaken for reality, and issues with her Daoist heart might be exposed within it. Once the problem is identified, a solution is possible.

Wei Yuan noted down the suggestion and then carefully read the other parts.

Aside from the fact that the characters in the "Human" chapter let loose a bit, the rest of the story is quite rigorous and logically sound.

After reading it, Wei Yuan pondered for a long time, then went to find Xu Wenwu and had a long talk with him for the entire afternoon. Wei Yuan mostly listened to him talk, only occasionally bringing him back on track when he strayed too far from the topic.

Xu Wenwu hadn't spoken so freely in a long time, and Wei Yuan was quite knowledgeable about the outer world, so he was very adept at responding and even made some jokes unique to the outer world.

Sometimes, Xu Wenwu even thought that Wei Yuan was just like him, a fat otaku from another world.

Before long, it was dinnertime, and a cultivator brought over the food. Xu Wenwu and Xu Shiba lived here, and the cultivator brought over two large food boxes, containing six dishes and a soup, plus a ten-pound bucket of rice.

The food looked like a lot, but Xu Shiba could actually finish it all by herself. The little girl was growing very fast, and the price was that she had to eat five meals a day.

After a deep conversation with Xu Wenwu, Wei Yuan finally stood up. Before leaving, he hugged Xu Wenwu and patted his obviously fleshy back, saying, "After the next battle, I will arrange for your foundation-building."

Xu Wenwu was both surprised and delighted: "I can also achieve the Dao Foundation? You, didn't you say last time that I might encounter a Heavenly Tribulation?"

Wei Yuan laughed and said, "Originally it was just a possibility, but after our conversation, it has become certain that there will be a heavenly tribulation. But it doesn't matter, you will be blessed with good fortune at that time, so it should be a close call, at most you will suffer some physical pain."

Xu Wenwu's cheeks twitched, a mixture of anticipation and trepidation; it seemed he wouldn't be getting a good night's sleep tonight.

As Wei Yuan stepped out of the courtyard, he felt that he had never had such a clear vision of the future. Victory was no longer just a belief, but a path and strategy that he could rely on to implement.

He flew directly to the weapon-forging workshop and entered Yu Zhizhuo's residence.

Yu Zhizhuo's hair was disheveled, sweat beaded on his forehead, and eight sheets of jade paper floated in front of him as he simultaneously processed eight data calculations. Seeing Wei Yuan enter, Yu Zhizhuo was somewhat surprised and sent a wisp of his divine sense to ask, "Why are you here again?"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "I came here to go mining with my martial uncle."

"Mining?" Yu Zhizhuo's spirits lifted, and his entire demeanor changed. Mining was the only activity that could pull him away from his desk at this moment.

"Wait for me a moment, I'm going to take a nap first."

Yu Zhizhuo didn't even go back to his room; he simply collapsed onto a recliner and fell asleep. He then appeared at the Creation of Heaven and Earth Research Institute, found a seat, but this time he wasn't accepting a mission; he was submitting one.

Yu Zhizhuo had already broken down the spell template-related issues into more than four hundred specific calculation and deduction parts. He submitted them all at once, and then the Immortal Plant Association would assign these tasks to others for processing.

All Yu Zhizhuo needed to do was wait for the results to come out and then compile them himself. In this way, he saved 90% of his effort and the research progress was greatly accelerated.

However, as someone who was naturally obsessed with cultivation and weapon crafting, Yu Zhizhuo preferred the process of calculating things bit by bit. But now that time was of the essence, he stopped insisting and chose to use worldly resources as an aid.

Wei Yuan stood aside, feeling that the scene was somewhat strange.

They entered their own Dharma Image right in front of them, and then worked diligently and earnestly inside, indeed very effectively and efficiently. The problem was that everyone inside was doing their own thing, no one consulted Wei Yuan's opinion, and many newcomers didn't even know who Wei Yuan was.

At this moment, Wei Yuan felt that the abundance of spirituality in the world of the mind was not necessarily a good thing.

About half an incense stick's time later, Yu Zhizhu woke up and said, "Everything is arranged. If we're lucky, the Melting Gold Technique should be completed by this time tomorrow."

Wei Yuan silently added a bit of luck to Yu Zhizhuo's chart and said, "Don't worry, your luck will definitely be good."

Yu Zhizhuo opened the map and asked, "Where should we go to mine? There are four mines to choose from. The largest vein is in the south, but it's mainly iron ore."

"This is it."

Yu Zhizhuo didn't ask any further questions, fearing that Wei Yuan might change his mind, and directly led Wei Yuan south. At the same time, Wei Yuan had his Dao Foundation Warriors gather five hundred Dao Foundation cultivators to wait at the mine.

As soon as they arrived, the two went straight down into the mine and into the deepest working face. At this point, the underground passage was only about one person high, allowing two people to walk side by side.

Under Yu Zhizhuo's guidance, Wei Yuan set up more than thirty enlightenment foundations in one go, and even released the enlightenment Dharma image.

The cultivators simultaneously unleashed their Water Blade Technique, sending torrents of water crashing into the ore vein and instantly slicing off large chunks of it. The three Dao Foundations worked in parallel, simultaneously carving a passage, while the Dharma Image worked alone, using the Water Blade Technique to shift its position slightly, creating a passage taller than a person.

Once all the cultivators were in place, Wei Yuan selected a mineral vein and began to cast the Golden Light Water Blade Technique.

The moment he made his move, the atmosphere changed again. The water, dotted with golden light, didn't even need to move; large swathes of rock and mineral layers collapsed on their own. In the blink of an eye, a huge working face, about ten feet in diameter, appeared in front of Wei Yuan, and it continued to advance at a rate of one foot every few breaths.

One Dharma Aspect is equivalent to at least dozens of Dao Foundations. Adding Wei Yuan himself, it was equivalent to hundreds of Dao Foundations mining at the same time. In an instant, the earth shook and mountains trembled, and large swathes of ore rushed down like a mountain torrent!

Such a display stunned Yu Zhizhuo, who had spent his entire life mining. He was so flustered that he almost didn't have time to use his magic to reinforce the mine tunnels. Only then did he realize that Wei Yuan had foreseen this, and that the five hundred Daoist foundations he had brought were all there to transport ore.

Wei Yuan worked through the night until dawn before stopping. Yu Zhizhuo, on the other hand, left halfway through, handing over the task to his junior brothers to reinforce the mine tunnels and direct the digging direction. He himself went to the forging workshop to urgently begin construction on a batch of new blast furnaces.

Wei Yuan has already stated that at least thirty Dao Foundation cultivators will be left behind to mine underground using the Water Blade Technique. The difference in mining efficiency between those who can use the Water Blade Technique and those who cannot can be tenfold. With this group of top-tier Dao Foundation miners, the iron mine's output has increased several times over, and the number of blast furnaces is no longer sufficient.

Wei Yuan had already discussed with Yu Zhizhuo the plan to double the number of blast furnaces. To speed up the process, Wei Yuan also brought in a thousand Daoji (a type of construction worker) to assist Yu Zhizhuo in building the blast furnaces.

In terms of work, a cultivator who has reached the Great Perfection of Body Forging is equivalent to hundreds of ordinary mortals, while a Foundation Establishment cultivator can carry a thousand-pound weight and fly around, making them as efficient as ten or more Great Perfection Body Forging cultivators. With so many Foundation Establishment cultivators assisting, the blast furnace that originally required three months to build can now be completed in just two days.

This expansion will increase Qingming's daily steel production to 600,000 jin, enough to forge 10,000 sets of all-steel heavy armor or 60,000 full-body shields.

In less than half a month, Wei Yuan was able to arm every civilian who went into battle to the teeth, and not just with armor. Because there was enough production capacity, Wei Yuan was full of confidence and took out all the stockpiled steel to recast it into steel decks.

These decks will be used on small forts, welded together to form the incredibly sturdy roof of the forts.

This steel roof can completely block the heavy arrows hurled by sharpshooters and withstand the bombardment of the primitive gunpowder of the witch tribe. Only the black liquid inside the ball can corrode it, but it will take time to corrode through it. In that time, the soldiers inside the fortress can inflict several times more casualties.

This highly toxic and corrosive black liquid was not concocted, but rather secreted by some kind of war beast of the Wu tribe. Wei Yuan didn't believe that such high-quality poisonous liquid could be produced in large quantities.

Even if the Land of Rain has many war monsters, the price of this black water will far exceed that of steel. In terms of value, it will probably be at least several hundred times more expensive than steel.

With his steel fortress consuming the witch clan's venom, Wei Yuan didn't think he would lose.

Gunpowder could not be mass-produced in a short period of time, but steel could.

Wei Yuan plans to build as many steel fortresses and fortifications as possible, and then arm even the most ordinary and unassuming warriors with steel. Ultimately, the Witch Clan and Hongye will face a nation completely armed with steel, where every civilian will be transformed into a monster clad in armor.

Just as Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo said, Qingming now has enough steel; it all depends on whether the Wu Clan has an iron will.

(End of this chapter)