Longzang

Chapter 680: Taste of Sweetness
As soon as the thought popped into his head, Wei Yuan immediately put it aside, forgot about it, and stopped dwelling on it.

Fortunately, news arrived at this time that a caravan from the State of Zhao had arrived, bringing five million catties of silk.

The caravan was unmarked. They unloaded the silk at the edge of Qingming and brought hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to offset the price difference between the silk and the brocade, as well as to pay for the soldiers' food and lodging.

Wei Yuan hadn't expected Li Chengfeng to act so quickly, and as a result, he ended up in a flurry of activity. After a whole day of coordination, he finally managed to gather one million bolts of brocade and transport them to the Qingming border.

At the border, Wei Yuan met Li Chengfeng. Li Chengfeng was wearing a cloak and hood, completely obscuring his face.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan arrive, Li Chengfeng stepped forward from the crowd and approached Wei Yuan, saying, "The silk has all arrived; it is of superior quality and in full weight. Now, may my soldiers of Great Zhao return home?"

Wei Yuan had already scanned it with his divine sense, and Qingming also had hundreds of cultivators responsible for inspection. The silk that was sent was indeed of the highest quality.

Wei Yuan then said, "Your Highness is indeed a man of his word. There are over ten thousand healthy soldiers in Qingming, and these can be released for now. However, there are still thirty thousand wounded soldiers receiving treatment in Qingming. Moving them now would be inappropriate."

Li Chengfeng smiled wryly, "I knew you wouldn't release him so easily. Do you want extra medical expenses? Any other demands? Mention them all!"

Wei Yuan, with an upright and righteous expression, said solemnly, "Am I that kind of person? Your Highness underestimates me! Your men can receive better treatment in Qingming, so I don't think there's any rush to go back. If you don't believe me, Your Highness can come with me to see for yourself."

After a moment's thought, Li Chengfeng said, "Alright, I'll go with you to take a look."

The generals and advisors hurriedly tried to stop him, but Li Chengfeng said, "It's alright! If Lord Wei wanted to kill me, he could have done it long ago. There's no need to wait until now."

Immediately, Li Chengfeng followed Wei Yuan and flew into the Azure Sky. The wounded soldiers of Zhao were all gathered in the military camp outside the town of Zhike, which was only a hundred miles from the border and would be reached in the blink of an eye.

The military camp was exceptionally clean; the camp of tens of thousands of people was almost spotless. Thousands of lightly wounded Zhao soldiers were divided into dozens of teams, spontaneously cleaning up filth and moving supplies in the camp, and everything was in perfect order.

In front of several large tents in the center, thousands of soldiers lined up in long queues, waiting to be admitted for treatment. More than ten teams of doctors were also examining each tent, checking the soldiers' recovery progress.

These doctors were all dressed in distinctive white coats, each one young and beautiful, as radiant as peach blossoms, yet as aloof as ice. Behind them followed a team of assistants, all of whom were handsome men and pretty women, with the majority being girls.

Li Chengfeng was dumbfounded. He noticed that when a team of doctors entered the main tent, the blood and vitality of all the wounded soldiers in the tent suddenly surged, and they didn't even need medicine.

Wei Yuan pointed to the camp below and said, "Fourth Prince, what do you think of my medical camp? In the past few days, only a dozen or so people have succumbed to their injuries."

Li Chengfeng exclaimed, "Unprecedented! Absolutely amazing!"

He was speaking from the heart. Normally, the wounded soldiers lived in ordinary military camps, which would never be as clean as this medical camp. With such a pristine environment, coupled with the obvious power of the Jianmu tree generating Xuan energy, only a dozen or so of the 30,000 wounded soldiers ultimately died. In any other place, at least a thousand would have perished.

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "The Zhao soldiers are the strongest army in the world, so it is only right that they are treated this way."

Li Chengfeng bowed to Wei Yuan and said, "Ten taels of silver is indeed too little for their medical expenses in Qingming. Lord Wei, please feel free to give any instructions you may have."

At this moment, Li Chengfeng adopted a very humble attitude in order to take these wounded soldiers back, since no one else was watching anyway.

Wei Yuan then said, "Since Your Highness has said so, then I won't stand on ceremony. If you want to take them back, that's fine too. Two million catties of silk will be enough to bring back ten thousand people. I'll buy them at the market price in Zhao."

Li Chengfeng carefully calculated that he only needed to lose a little on transportation costs; six million catties of silk would cost at most fifty thousand taels of silver. Compared to exchanging it for a large number of elite soldiers, it was insignificant. He immediately said, "Okay, but I need some time." Wei Yuan smiled brightly, "No problem! I'm very patient."

Then Wei Yuan pulled Li Chengfeng aside and said in detail, "It doesn't necessarily have to be two million catties. Sending a few hundred thousand catties at a time is also fine. If you don't have enough top-grade silk, medium or low-grade silk will also work. Just calculate it according to the market price. Anyway, you won't lose out at all if you exchange two hundred catties of silk for one person."

Li Chengfeng hadn't expected Wei Yuan to be so long-winded and talkative like a merchant, so he couldn't help but ask curiously, "Lord Wei, you're almost as busy as you can be, so why are you so fixated on this silk?"

Wei Yuan said, "Your Highness should know that Qingming produces brocade, but do you know how it is produced?"

Li Chengfeng asked curiously, "Isn't it produced in the workshop?"

Wei Yuan said earnestly, "The Qingming brocade is produced by newly promoted Dao Foundation cultivators. I use this method to help them temper their minds and consolidate their Dao Foundation. It has miraculous effects! If the supply of this silk is cut off, many Dao Foundation cultivators will have nothing to do and will be unable to consolidate their realm."

Li Chengfeng solemnly said, "I see! Then the silk thread must not be broken."

Wei Yuan laughed heartily and said, "You, Fourth Prince, truly understand me?"

The two looked at each other and smiled, both appearing very sincere.

At this time, Qingming's second batch of fifty brocade weaving workshops were about to be completed, at which time the monthly output of brocade would reach one million bolts, roughly equivalent to the entire eight prefectures of Ningzhou. Thus, the annual demand for raw silk would be approximately 60 million catties, or 600,000 dan, or 30,000 tons.

Wei Yuan was quite satisfied with getting over ten million catties of silk from Li Chengfeng. He then began to consider when he could get another batch.

Last time, Wei Yuan utterly defeated Li Chengfeng with just artillery fire, without even having a chance to use his new chariots and high-powered missiles. In the next battle, Wei Yuan plans to test the effectiveness of his chariots. Secret drills within Qingming have already proven that a concentrated deployment of chariots is the bane of cavalry; even the Dragon Wing Iron Cavalry has fallen. Wei Yuan eagerly anticipates clashing with the renowned iron cavalry of Zhao.

Wei Yuan calculated the time and figured it should be soon. At this moment, Jin is in chaos, having just suffered a defeat in the north, and the crown prince has been dealt a heavy blow by him. With King Zhao's shrewdness, he won't let such a golden opportunity slip by; he'll surely try to take a piece of Jin. The question is whether he intends to seize two or three prefectures, or even more.

Li Chengfeng, of course, was unaware of Wei Yuan's thoughts, but after inspecting the medical camp, he felt relieved and returned to the border with Wei Yuan. However, he had some concerns. These soldiers had fared so well in Qingming; they couldn't afford to be too different upon their return. It seemed the money originally intended for purchasing flying swords would have to be used to renovate the camp.

In the blink of an eye, the two reached the border, where over ten thousand healthy Zhao soldiers were still on their way. Wei Yuan suddenly asked, "Brother Li, it seems you're missing a few men?"

Li Chengfeng remained expressionless and said, "The rest of them have other assignments, so they didn't come along this time."

Wei Yuan immediately sensed a fluctuation in Li Chengfeng's primordial spirit, which meant he was probably lying.

The rest was handed over to his subordinates, and Wei Yuan and Li Chengfeng returned to their respective posts. It was time for Wei Yuan to study again, so he took out the book by the Immortal Lord of the Listening Sea and, steeling himself, headed straight for the Hall of Merit, preparing to continue his research on the Five Elements Daoist Soldiers.

The Five Elements Dao Soldier is a very common and versatile spell, something you can learn casually without needing much comprehension. But this very spell was dissected and studied step by step by the Immortal Lord of the Sea Listening, who went straight to the origin of the Five Elements Dao.

Frankly, Wei Yuan didn't understand this way of studying magic at all. It was like wanting to eat an egg—why did he have to delve into the entire life cycle of a hen?
Despite his inner complaints, Wei Yuan had already tasted the benefits of the Golden Light Water Blade Technique. Although he couldn't yet use the Five Elements Dao Soldier spell, his understanding of the Five Elements Dao had made rapid progress.

As usual, Wei Yuan went straight through the portal into the Enlightenment Room, only to find that someone was already there. The room was small, and the two bumped into each other immediately. For a moment, Wei Yuan felt as if he had crashed into a mountain of Nether Iron.

(End of this chapter)