Longzang

Chapter 668 Knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger
A young monk stood atop a small hill, gazing at the lush green world filled with swamps, dense forests, thickets, and swarms of mosquitoes and flies.

The mountain is not high, only a few hundred feet, and the slope is very gentle.

Standing atop the mountain, he gazed into the distance, and after a moment said, "This place is nice!"

Standing beside him were dozens of people, both civil and military, all dressed in Zhao state attire. Seven large flying boats were already parked on the flat ground at the foot of the mountain. By now, half of the flying boats had been emptied and began to take off one after another, heading towards the Zhao state.

Large camps have been built at the foot of the mountain, and tens of thousands of soldiers are donning sickles and shovels to clear bushes and dig drainage ditches. A group of craftsmen are surveying the terrain, digging foundations, and building the city.

The young cultivator opened the map and said to the people behind him, "This place is 3,500 miles from Qingming and 15,000 miles from Li Zhi's Zhenshan Territory. It is right between the two of them and is also southwest of Qingming. To the northwest, one can enter the Witch Domain, and to the southwest, one can pacify the mountain people. It also blocks the road from Qingming to the mountain people. It is a win-win situation!"

A scholar said, "This place has many advantages, but there is only one disadvantage: it is too far from the State of Zhao. If something happens, I'm afraid the country will not be able to provide timely assistance."

The young monk said, "That's why I prepared this. Bring it up!"

Several soldiers carried in a heavy box. Upon opening it, they found a strange, golden-green stone inside. Everyone was astonished at the sight: "The Azure Water Stone?"

The young cultivator smiled and said, "Indeed, although this stone can only expand the realm by a thousand miles, its properties allow it to draw water to protect the people of the realm. Firstly, it is suitable for this world, and secondly, it is suitable for defense against enemies."

The generals and strategists examined the map. If the boundary were established here and expanded, it would form a boundary with a radius of two thousand li, positioned in the southwest of Qingming. At that time, the edge would only be two thousand five hundred li away from the core of Qingming.

There have long been rumors that Qingming is a celestial stone. The internal assessment of the Zhao Kingdom is that the Qingming realm should expand to around 5,000 li, enough to establish several prefectures.

If the Biyue Boundary Stone were to be erected, it would be able to dig out a large chunk of the entire Qingming region, which would cause Qingming immense distress.

Seeing the young cultivator reach for the Azure Water Boundary Stone, a bearded warrior said, "Wait!"

"General Yang, what are your thoughts?"

The bearded general said, "Qingming's military strength is formidable, and Wei Yuan's military tactics are divine. Moreover, this area was originally inhabited by the Wu tribe, but it became an empty space after Qingming defeated the Rain Kingdom and the Wu tribe retreated."

"If we place the boundary stone here, there will be no room for maneuver; we can only win, not lose. I believe we should move it another thousand li to the southwest, which would further intimidate Li Zhi."

The young cultivator smiled slightly and said, "I know this battle can only be won, not lost. Winning would be fine, but losing would mean being condemned by everyone. So, we just need to make sure we don't lose."

He picked up the boundary stone and said, "If we go a thousand miles to the west and fail to inflict a deep wound on Qingming, Wei Yuan will most likely not come to fight. Then all my hard work training troops for three years will have been for naught. Father will not be satisfied either. Before I even start this game, I have already lost to the third and seventh brothers. I might not even be as good as my eldest brother."

The bearded general wanted to persuade him again, but then he saw the young cultivator tremble his hand, and the Azure Water Boundary Stone fell to the ground. Immediately, a golden-green light rapidly expanded, and wherever it passed, the world slowly began to change.

The young cultivator laughed and said, "Now we have no way out but to fight with our backs against the wall."

The bearded general hesitated, then could only sigh.

The young cultivator said, "Now that the boundary has been established, no one has a way out. General Yang, you can speak freely."

General Thick Beard was somewhat surprised, so he said, "Your Highness, then I will speak frankly. The Azure Nether firearms are sharp and numerous. Elite legions are one thing, but the elite troops of my Great Zhao are definitely superior."

However, firearms could dramatically increase the combat effectiveness of ordinary troops, and Qingming is known for its soldiers; we'll likely be facing hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Moreover, these hundreds of thousands will have just fought a bloody battle against the Wu tribe; there will be no weaklings.

The young cultivator said, "The Azure Nether firearms are formidable, as everyone knows. I'm already prepared, so naturally I won't use our painstakingly trained elite troops to fight against their ordinary forces. Hmph, firearms are just tools for mortals, what's so difficult about that? If they can have them, so can we. Men!"

Then, the guards carried over several large boxes. The young cultivator opened the boxes, and inside were neatly arranged flying swords and spears, with the edges of the boxes also filled with flying swords and spears.

The other boxes contained hundreds of gun-mounted throwing swords.

"This is the flying sword spear that Qingming is currently using. We can now mass-produce them; it's not difficult. The first batch is 5,000 spears, each with 10 flying swords. There will be 15,000 spears and 200,000 flying swords later. In a few months, there will be even more."

General Thick Beard's expression finally improved, and he cupped his hands, saying, "Your Highness's foresight is admirable!"

……

Wei Yuan hurriedly arrived at the weapon forging workshop.

Today's weapon forging workshop is no longer a small workshop as its name suggests. It is a behemoth that produces two million catties of ore and hundreds of thousands of catties of molten steel every day, owns sixteen mines, and has thousands of template Dao Foundation cultivators consolidating their realms here.

During the war against the Rain Kingdom, Wei Yuan desperately developed steel forging. More than 4,000 of the 6,000 template cultivators in the entire Azure Netherworld were assigned to the weapon forging workshop, resulting in the behemoth it is today.

The Weapon Forging Workshop comprises several workshops scattered throughout Qingming, their total area difficult to calculate. To facilitate memorization and location, they were numbered and divided into sections. Wei Yuan was currently visiting the most mysterious and core section, the Fifty-first. Section Fifty-first was located at the original site of the Weapon Forging Workshop, one of the best locations along Qingming's earth fire veins, the very spot Yu Zhizhuo had chosen back then.

In the years that followed, Yu Zhizhuo used the secret methods of the Heavenly Crafts Hall to continuously enhance the earth's veins, and now the natural earth fire in this place has been upgraded to a whole level.

Wei Yuan passed through numerous defenses before entering the core of District 51, where he met Yu Zhizhuo in a side hall.

The interior of this hall is pale white, clean and spotless, and divided into several different experimental areas, each containing completely different equipment.

There was a special area where a magic array was set up. Two Foundation Establishment cultivators meditated within the array, activating it to provide energy to the entire hall. They would activate the array for six hours before someone else would come to relieve them, and then they would rest for a day before returning to work.

Inside the hall, several cultivators were working intently, and Yu Zhizhuo was one of them. When Wei Yuan found him, he was holding a tool thinner than a hair, carefully arranging materials that were invisible to the naked eye.

Wei Yuan waited quietly to the side until Yu Zhizhu finished his work before asking, "Uncle, why did you call me over so urgently?"

Yu Zhizhuo said, “I have seen recent battle reports that the fourth prince of Zhao has erected a boundary stone in our southwest and stationed a large army there.”

Wei Yuan nodded: "That's right. I'm gathering intelligence on it. I also went over to take a look. There are quite a few people there. The boundary stone has already taken root, and they're building a city. I plan to go over later and try to persuade them to move, first with courtesy and then with force."

"Aren't we going now?"

Wei Yuan shook his head: "No rush. Let them finish building the city first. Building the city is very expensive, but the city wall is no longer of much use to us. Zhao is eyeing us covetously, so we should make them do more useless work to wear them down. If we attack now, they haven't spent enough money yet, and they might just pull up the boundary stone and run away."

"Didn't you ever consider that they might actually want to fight you seriously?"

"I know, the fact that the boundary stone is placed so close makes it very clear. Aren't they spitting in my face?"

Yu Zhizhuo said, "I also secretly took a look. Although I can't get too close, my spirit bird can get within fifty miles. Their tone was a bit strange, and then I suddenly thought of something."

Six months ago, one of my junior disciples reached a bottleneck in his cultivation and prepared to return to our main mountain for a closed-door breakthrough. This was a significant matter, so I allowed him to return. However, I heard nothing from him since. A couple of days ago, I visited the Zhao state's camp and suddenly remembered this matter. So I returned to our main mountain to investigate and discovered that my junior disciple had only stayed there for less than half a month before leaving, and there has been no further news since.

"What's that senior brother's surname?" Wei Yuan asked.

Yu Zhizhuo sighed: "His surname is Li, and he is a direct descendant of the Zhao and Li families."

"How many things has he handled?"

"The main focus is on manufacturing flying swords and firearms. Because his cultivation level is insufficient and his energy is limited, he hasn't yet come into contact with other things."

Wei Yuan said, "Six months is enough time to accomplish a lot. So it's very likely that the Zhao army has already been equipped with firearms?"

"And there's the flying sword spear," Yu Zhizhuo reminded him.

Wei Yuan's expression turned somewhat solemn. Firearms were mainly effective against Body Forging cultivators, posing a limited threat to Foundation Establishment cultivators. However, the Flying Sword Spear required Dao Power to activate, meaning it could only be used by those who had at least reached the Great Completion of Body Forging. A single shot from it could be fatal to even a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

However, Wei Yuan, having weathered countless storms, remained calm and said, "There's no need to be nervous. Since he only knew a limited amount of information and left half a year ago, let's first see what new progress we've made in the past six months."

Speaking of this, Yu Zhizhuo rattled off the details with great confidence: "Mainly because the new steel infused with Nether Iron began to be used in large quantities, we improved our missiles, and the rotary-barreled flying sword guns began mass production, as did infantry guns, long-range infantry guns, eight-wheel drive light tanks, and twelve-wheel drive heavy tanks. Breastplates capable of withstanding musket fire within fifty zhang were also fully deployed..."

The further they counted, the more relaxed they became, and finally they smiled at each other.

Yu Zhizhuo sighed, "Nephew Li's matter almost led to a disaster. I will strictly discipline my fellow disciples in the hall from now on. Those who have access to core secrets will be made to sign a blood curse."

"We're all from the same sect, is this really necessary?"

Yu Zhizhuo explained, "Although we are all in the Taichu Palace, those from aristocratic families are still quite different from us. In critical moments, many of them will stand on the side of their families. Those who truly consider the Taichu Palace their home are probably only people like us who have no roots."

"Then this matter will be decided by my martial uncle."

After leaving District 51, Wei Yuan ordered someone to go to the Zhenshan Boundary to invite Li Zhi over for a meeting.

Then he mustered a cavalry force of ten thousand men, ordered them to put on leather armor and carry old-fashioned firearms, and then brought in eight thousand rookie recruits who had not yet reached the Blood Fusion Realm to fill the cavalry. They marched in a mighty force toward the new territory of Zhao.

(End of this chapter)