Longzang

Chapter 641 Harvest (Part 1)

One step outside the door, one step inside the door, and it's already two different worlds.

The main hall is majestic and towering, dark and deep; only by stepping inside can one truly appreciate its grandeur and magnificence. It is like gazing at a distant mountain, unaware of its height, until one reaches its foot and realizes its towering stature.

From the outside, this grand palace appeared to contain an entire city. But when Wei Yuan stepped inside, he discovered that a city truly was hidden within.

The interior of the main hall is hundreds of feet high, much taller than it appears from the outside, suggesting it contains spatial mysteries.

Flickering lights, like starlight, illuminated the interior of the hall. Indeed, a small town existed here, seemingly inhabited by several thousand sorcerers. They all stopped what they were doing and looked at Wei Yuan, some with blank stares, some with anger, and others with fear.

Before Wei Yuan lay a road leading straight to the city center, where a mansion stood. The main building appeared to be only three stories high, a type of house that even wealthy families in ordinary towns could afford.

Wei Yuan opened his umbrella and walked towards the mansion, completely ignoring the gazes of the sorcerers on both sides. Under the umbrella, he was like a shadow, his face hidden in the darkness, difficult to see clearly.

As Wei Yuan stood before the door, a slightly short shaman stepped out. The shaman bowed with human etiquette and said, "The master's avatar has fallen. You must be the new master of this place. Please follow me. The master has already given instructions."

Wei Yuan showed no fear and calmly entered the mansion, following the shaman to the study. The shaman presented two maps and explained, "This is a map of the kingdom, marked with mineral resources and some important locations. However, the master said this map is not detailed, and many places have not been thoroughly explored."

The second document is a map of the town within the palace. This town is built in the style of the Wu tribe, and the owner's intention is that if you don't like it, you can tear it down and rebuild it. The Wu people in this town are all in a primordial spirit state, without physical bodies outside. If you dislike them, you can send them to the outside world to fend for themselves.

This section contains information about the resources and industries within the palace. There are three Witchcraft Treasure Refining Rooms, ten Witchcraft Treasure Sprout Cultivation Rooms, and three herb gardens, one of which is specifically for cultivating the Netherworld Grass. There is also one alchemy workshop, two blacksmith shops, three workshops, and two wineries. There are three storerooms, but they are not very well stocked.

After checking each of them, Wei Yuan asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Wu Li."

"Wu Li, take me for a walk around the city."

"My lord, please follow me."

Wei Yuan first visited the Wu Bao Refining Room, which included two smaller rooms and one extremely spacious one. Inside was a fire pool several meters in diameter, with dim black flames burning within.

Strangely, the room wasn't hot at all; instead, it felt chilly. The weapon-forging room had seven seats arranged around the fire pit. When necessary, the magical array here could accommodate seven weapon refiners simultaneously.

Yu Zhizhuo's voice rang out at this moment: "This witch array is of extremely high quality, and the creator's skill level is even above mine. Even in the Heavenly Crafting Hall, it can be considered a first-class weapon-refining room. With a little modification, we can refine our human race's magical treasures here. Moreover, the environment here is special, which greatly reduces the difficulty of refining many Yin-Yang attribute magical treasures. Some magical treasures that were originally difficult to refine may be successfully refined here."

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan was immediately moved.

Taichu Palace differs from other sects in that it does not place particular importance on magic treasures. After all, once one reaches the Yujing realm, the effect of magic treasures becomes negligible, and one needs to use corresponding spiritual treasures.

Moreover, for a magical artifact to unleash its true power, it requires years of nurturing. Some cultivators from smaller sects often spend hundreds of years nurturing their artifacts to enhance their strength. However, the talented disciples of the Taichu Palace scoff at this, each believing they can definitely cultivate to the Yujing level. Therefore, they all strive diligently, relying on their Dao Foundation and Dharma Avatar to roam the world, leaving no time for the meticulous nurturing of their magical artifacts.

This Uncle Li is clearly a master of magical artifacts, and Wei Yuan has personally experienced the power of an opponent covered in magical artifacts. If magical artifacts could be like magic weapons, requiring no nurturing and usable immediately, and were easy to manufacture and mass-produced, that would be ideal.

The most valuable feature of this magical artifact crafting room is undoubtedly the pool of eternally burning ghostly fire. According to Yu Zhizhuo, this place should be a natural fire eye, which is why the crafting room was built here. Secondly, the magic array that can accommodate seven people at the same time is extremely rare. Although the Heavenly Crafting Hall has a large array that can accommodate twelve people, it was left by the founding immortal, and no one in later generations has been able to replicate the immortal trace. The only other arrays are one that can accommodate nine people and one that can accommodate seven people.

This magic array has a certain chance of advancing magic weapons below the Heavenly Rank by one rank when refining them, so Yu Zhizhu valued it at five million. That's the price it would fetch if sold to the Heavenly Crafting Hall. This refining room alone is enough to compensate for Wei Yuan's losses in this battle; the two smaller rooms can be considered a bonus.

Wu Li could not hear Yu Zhizhuo's words because Yu Zhizhuo's consciousness was emanating from the umbrella.

Holding an umbrella, Wei Yuan followed Wu Li to the Wu Bao embryo cultivation room. The room was decorated in the style of the Wu tribe. Some Wu Bao embryos were soaking in individual pools on the ground, constantly moving; some were lying quietly on cocoons hanging in mid-air; and some were climbing on small trees.

These magical artifact embryos seemed to possess life, unlike inanimate objects. Wei Yuan could also see that these embryos already had some spirituality, and their quality would definitely be superior after being refined into magical artifacts.

Wu Li then said, "There is a cultivation room here that the master keeps secret for his own use. Please follow me."

Wei Yuan followed him to an open space, which was completely empty except for two trees. Wu Li chanted a spell, and a water-ripple-shaped portal appeared between the two trees. He went in first.

Wei Yuan did not act immediately; a Dao Foundation Establishment warrior appeared beside him. The warrior stepped through the door first, and after confirming that there was nothing unusual or an ambush, Wei Yuan followed him in.

The space behind the door was small, with an extremely complex witchcraft array drawn on the ground, containing as many as thirty-seven nodes of varying sizes. Each node held a different witchcraft artifact or spiritual object. In the center of the array was a transparent jar filled with a pale red liquid, resembling diluted blood, from which floated a sprout. This sprout looked like a human girl, yet it had three long tails coiled behind it, a pair of wings folded on its back, and was curled up in a ball. It seemed to sense Wei Yuan's gaze, slowly raising its head, opening its eyes, and scrutinizing Wei Yuan with its bright red pupils.

Wei Yuan frowned slightly. He could clearly feel that this so-called magical artifact embryo was watching him and seemed to be thinking about something.

"Is this a witch's embryo? Is it alive?"

“It has life and spirit; it is indeed a living thing. However, most of the Wubao embryos are also living things, at least in our area,” Wu Li replied.

"Uncle-Master Yu, wouldn't using living creatures to forge weapons be against the natural order?" Wei Yuan asked with his divine sense.

“No!” Yu Zhizhuo answered decisively, then, as if realizing his response was somewhat hasty, added, “To be precise, the key lies in how you handle the materials.”

Many immortal metals and spirit irons possess inherent spirituality, some even containing life force; if we use this as a standard, then they can all be considered living beings. If this is considered against the natural order, you might as well ask Henshui how many living herbs are in the Creation Temple's medicine storehouse?

Xu Henshui continued, "Whether the medicine is alive or not is not important; the key is to deal with the karma. Most medicines do not generate karma, and even if they do, there are ways to deal with it. Our alchemists at the Creation Temple have a secret karmic purification pill that is specifically for this purpose. However, this pill actually uses karma as its raw material, making it extremely difficult to refine, and it must be refined by oneself to be effective."

The two talked back and forth for a long time. Wei Yuan understood that, ultimately, the key point was how to eliminate karma. However, no one knew what was in the jar, not even Wu Li knew its purpose. So, Wei Yuan left the place, sealed the gate, and hurriedly headed to the medicine garden at Xu Henshui's urging.

The herb garden was located on the other side of the small town, requiring one to cross the city. Wei Yuan followed Wu Li through a series of narrow streets, finally arriving at the entrance of a herb garden. Wu Li turned around and said, "My lord, you are truly skilled and daring. Aren't you afraid I might arrange for some assassins to ambush you?"

"I believe you," Wei Yuan said.

Wu Li's expression was somewhat subtle, as if he were saying, "I don't even believe myself," but he naturally wouldn't say it aloud.

Wu Li opened the gate to the herb garden and went in first, with Wei Yuan following closely behind. Wei Yuan naturally wouldn't tell him that several powerful cultivators, a demonic blade, and a celestial sword were hidden inside the umbrella. As long as he was holding the umbrella, he felt safe and secure.

(End of this chapter)