Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 228 The Legend of Old Man Lü, Collecting Heavenly Crystals
In the portable space.

Old Man Lü slowly woke up and found himself lying on the ground with several figures standing in front of him.

His eyesight was failing, and he couldn't see clearly. He shook his groggy head and asked, "Who...are you?"

Jin Jiu smiled and said, "Sir, there's no need to be nervous. I just have some questions that I'd like to have answered by you."

Old Man Lü gritted his teeth: "I won't say anything!"

“That’s a real shame…though I wouldn’t have needed to ask anyway,” Gin said. “The Demon Lord!”

The demon king, with his blue face and fangs, appeared, grinned ferociously, and then directly entered Old Man Lü's body.

A moment later, Old Man Lü opened his eyes.

“Master, I have obtained all the information.”

"tell me the story."

"Yes!"

The story of Loulan begins in ancient times.

In the great battle between Yanhuang and Chiyou, Chiyou created eighty-one enormous war machines, also known as the War Gods, which caused Yanhuang to suffer repeated defeats.

At this moment, the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden appeared and, with the power of the divine dragon, defeated Chi You and destroyed the eighty warrior demons.

However, the remaining warrior-demon was the first one created by Chi You, and it was made with extremely precious materials, making it almost impossible to destroy.

So the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden sealed it deep in the desert and entrusted the Loulan Kingdom with its defense.

At the same time, the dragon left behind some of its power, which transformed into a dragon soul to protect the Loulan Kingdom.

The Loulan Kingdom is not only located in a remote area, but also possesses the power left behind by the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden, which is eternal and can bewitch people, making them unaware of the presence of others.

Even if someone could cross the vast desert and reach the location of the Loulan Kingdom, they would still be unable to find it under this power.

In this way, we can prevent those with ulterior motives from deliberately searching for Loulan and unsealing the Demon God.

However, the greatest challenge facing the Loulan Kingdom, situated in the desert, was not the ambitious people of the Central Plains, but the harsh environment of the desert.

High temperatures and deserts will destroy and swallow up oases one after another.

The Loulan Kingdom also faced this danger.

Fortunately, the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden had made preparations in advance. The dragon soul she left behind was the ninth son of the divine dragon, 'Pixiu'.

Pixiu can easily devour metal and turn it into its own power.

When it is asleep, it will turn into an inconspicuous stone ball.

As the son of the dragon, Pixiu is born sacred. During its slumber, it can automatically absorb the golden power between heaven and earth.

Among the five elements, metal produces water.

By combining the methods left behind by the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden, the metal power absorbed by the Pixiu can be transformed into water to nourish the Loulan Kingdom.

So over the years, countless oases, kingdoms, and city-states in the desert have been swallowed up by the desert, but Loulan alone has always existed.

However, many years ago, a traitor appeared in the Loulan Kingdom and stole the Dragon Soul.

This directly led to a water crisis in Loulan.

Loulan sent out one warrior after another in an attempt to retrieve the Dragon Soul and resolve Loulan's crisis.

Old Man Lü was actually a Loulan man.

When he was young, he left Loulan and came to the land of the Seven Kingdoms, which was in constant war. According to the information obtained by his predecessors, the Dragon Soul was very likely in the hands of the Qi Kingdom.

So he went to the State of Qi and later joined the Qi Mo.

When Qin conquered the six states, Qi was the last to be destroyed, but that was not because Qi was powerful, but simply because Qi was the farthest from Qin.

As one state after another was destroyed by Qin, Qi, though willing to resist, was powerless to do so and could only send envoys to Qin to deliver gifts.

When Old Man Lü found the Dragon Soul, it had already been sent to the Qin Kingdom's palace along with other gifts.

Fortunately, when the dragon soul was dormant, it was just an indestructible stone sphere, so the Qin state did not take it seriously.

In order to reclaim the Dragon Soul, Old Man Lü joined the anti-Qin alliance formed by the remnants of the six states.

Within this alliance, he learned about Tianjing.

It turns out that the Hun Tian Bao Jian, which King Wu of Zhou once used to sweep across the world, had been lost to foreign lands hundreds of years ago, and was obtained by the seven kingdoms and some martial arts forces.

But none of them knew what Tianjing was.

Only the Qin Kingdom understood the secret and had been secretly collecting them for hundreds of years, eventually gathering all ten Heavenly Crystals.

Ying Zheng was a man of extraordinary talent. He cultivated the first nine levels of the Hun Tian Bao Jian (a magical artifact), using it to defeat his greatest rival for the throne, Cheng Jiao, thus securing his position, consolidating power, and subsequently sweeping across the six kingdoms.

The remnants of the six states, upon learning of this, were filled with regret and decided to find a way to seize the Tianjing from Ying Zheng.

Ying Zheng pursued immortality, yet like every emperor, he began building his own mausoleum from the moment he ascended the throne.

The remnants of the six states suggested that Ying Zheng build a sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, and peaks within his tomb to demonstrate that he could continue to rule the world after his death.

To achieve this goal, a large number of treasures would naturally be needed to fill the tomb.

Among them, the ten Celestial Crystals are of utmost importance.

The remnants of the six kingdoms will replace the real Heavenly Crystal with their own forged Heavenly Crystal.

The plan started off smoothly.

Ying Zheng had already successfully cultivated the first nine levels of the Hun Tian Bao Jian, so he sent the nine Heavenly Crystals to Mount Li.

However, the remnants of the six states quarreled over the ownership of the Heavenly Crystals, which led to the leak of information. Not only did the Qin state reclaim two Heavenly Crystals, but the alliance also collapsed, and everyone scattered and fled.

The stone sphere formed from the dragon's soul was inconspicuous, but it was indestructible.

Old Man Lü got involved in the plan, so he took advantage of the plan of the remnants of the six states to get the Qin state to send the stone ball to Mount Li, and then quietly got his hands on it.

He is a very shrewd strategist.

Even before the plan began, he had already forged the identity of a mechanical master in the border town, and would occasionally appear in the town.

He cultivated this identity for ten years.

After the plan was successfully carried out, he obtained the Dragon Soul and prepared to withdraw, abandoning his identity as Master Qi Mo and retreating to the border.

However, due to the conflicts between the six states, his conspiracy was exposed, causing his withdrawal to completely fail, and he was even put on the Qin state's wanted list.

What he didn't expect was that the remnants of the other six states who fled all tried to escape to the Western Regions, which directly led to Qin increasing its border defenses.

Old Man Lü fled back to the border town, but couldn't cross the border, so he had to go into hiding for the time being.

This period of incubation lasted for several years.

He never found an opportunity to leave with the Dragon Soul.

It wasn't until Marco reported him that the Qin state took notice of him and began to monitor him closely.

Even now, it has fallen into Zhou Ming's hands.

"I didn't realize this guy had such a rich life experience."

Born in Loulan, he went to the State of Qi to learn mechanical arts, participated in the rebellion of the six states, and went with the flow.

The plans of the six kingdoms all failed, but he successfully retrieved the Dragon Soul that Loulan needed.

They even prepared for this step ten years in advance, forging their identities.

If those remnants of the six kingdoms hadn't been so useless, actually fighting amongst themselves at such a crucial moment and dragging Old Man Lü down, he probably could have brought this dragon soul directly back to Loulan, resolved the crisis in Loulan, and become a great hero of the Loulan Kingdom.

But in the end, it was a miscalculation.

He had calculated everything, but he hadn't calculated the incompetent teammates around him.

It's truly a pity. "Demon Lord, draw portraits of everyone involved in the switcheroo and the theft of the Heavenly Crystals. Xiao Ai, once you have the portraits, immediately search all targets and retrieve all seven Heavenly Crystals that are currently out of reach as quickly as possible!"

Zhou Ming gave the order.

"Yes!"

"We also need to pay close attention to the three Heavenly Crystals from the Qin Kingdom and see if we can find an opportunity to get our hands on them!"

The three Heavenly Crystals in Qin's possession happened to be the three most powerful ones.

Among them, the two that were seized by the Qin state after the plan involving the six states was exposed were the fifth-level Purple Star River and the eighth-level Golden Dawn.

As mentioned earlier, each level of the Hun Tian Bao Jian has infinite potential, but the natural power represented by each level is stronger than the previous one.

The fifth level of the Purple Star River is even more powerful than the previous four levels.

Not to mention the eighth level of Golden Dawn.

In fact, the golden crystal in Old Man Lü's hand was a replica of the eighth layer of Golden Dawn.

The most powerful and most important one was naturally the one in Ying Zheng's hand.

The Tenth Level of the Heavenly Mirror!
Xuan Universe!
This level is the most powerful, and also the most mysterious.

In the past, King Wu Ji Fa only cultivated to the ninth and a half level at first, but he did not fully comprehend the last level.

After going through many hardships and growing up, I finally came to a complete understanding of this.

At this point, he was already at his peak.

Ying Zheng had comprehended the first nine levels, but he had no idea about the tenth level at all, so he always carried the Xuan Universe Heavenly Crystal with him.

The remnants of the six states launched their plan, and Ying Zheng generously sent the first nine layers of Heavenly Crystals to Mount Li, intending to seal them in his tomb. However, he kept only the tenth layer in his possession, attempting to comprehend it.

This shows how mysterious and difficult to understand the tenth level is.

However, once the Heavenly Crystal is mastered, its power is naturally astonishing.

However, after the remnants of the previous six kingdoms caused such a disturbance, Ying Zheng became more vigilant, and the level of defense against the three Heavenly Crystals was far greater than before.

And that Xuan Universe Celestial Crystal was always with Ying Zheng by his side.

Even with Ai's current intelligence capabilities, she couldn't find any loopholes to get her hands on Xuan Universe in a short time.

Zi Xinghe and Jin Chenxi do have some possibility.

However, Zhou Ming gave up.

If we're going to get our hands on these three Heavenly Crystals, we should get them all at once.

If they were separated, it would likely only make Ying Zheng even more vigilant.

It will only be more difficult to obtain the strongest Xuan Universe by then.

Let's hold off for now and wait until we come up with a foolproof plan.

Those remnants of the six kingdoms, having existed for only a few short years, could not hide too well, and were quickly found one by one under Ai's formidable intelligence search.

One by one, the Heavenly Crystals fell into Zhou Ming's hands.

"It is indeed a genuine Heavenly Crystal; the natural power contained within it is truly vast!"

Zhou Ming picked up a pure white celestial crystal, activated his Heavenly Eye, and without even needing to extend his spiritual power, he was able to perceive the boundless natural power within the celestial crystal.

This celestial crystal is the weakest first layer of White Cloud Smoke in the Hun Tian Bao Jian.

It contains the natural power of clouds and mist.

To be honest, it's rubbish.

At most, it can only spread, obscure the view, and play a disruptive role.

But in any case, the forces of nature are the forces of nature.

If you don't use all those fancy tricks and just use the power within, then even if you've only just mastered it, you can easily suppress a Grandmaster with the help of the Heavenly Crystal.

The second layer, Rose Cloud Ripple, also lacks significant destructive power, but it can create colorful clouds and deflect force with minimal effort.

Compared to the first level, it's barely somewhat useful.

Only at the third level of Kunlun Earth can one harness the power of the earth and possess some direct offensive capabilities.

"However, at least it can help me perfect the Seven Swords..."

Zhou Ming thought.

Both representing the power of nature, the Ten Heavenly Crystals and the Seven Swords have many overlapping aspects.

By drawing upon its intricate techniques, Zhou Ming can also perfect the Seven Swords more quickly.

At the very least, now that we have this White Cloud Smoke and Rose Cloud Ripple, we can directly manufacture the Purple Cloud Sword.

Other celestial crystals also have their own unique uses.

"However, using the mysteries within the creation of the Seven Swords is sufficient. Keeping all these Heavenly Crystals in hand seems a bit wasteful..."

It should be taken out and put to some other use...

Zhou Ming began to ponder.

On the desert, under the scorching sun, a huge ship sails on the sea of ​​sand.

Such a spectacular sight is truly astonishing.

It's surprising to see ships sailing in this desert.

Could it be that this sea of ​​sand and the ocean really are not much different?
If that's the case, a desert navy isn't entirely without potential.

But in reality, this enormous ship was a mechanical creation of the Gongshu family.

Despite the fluttering sails on a ship, the wind is actually only a small part of the power used by the ship to move.

What truly supports this ship are the numerous hidden mechanisms.

The wooden Taoist moved through the cabin like a ghost.

"Gongshu and the Mohist school truly deserve to be called the two most powerful schools of mechanical engineering in the Nine Provinces today. The mechanisms beneath this massive sand ship are absolutely exquisite..."

The wooden Taoist couldn't help but think of the fleet assembled by the nameless island, whose ships were quite exquisite.

But compared to this huge ship, it's nothing at all.

"If we could learn from the mechanisms of this ship and apply them to the open sea, the ship's speed could probably be increased several times over!"

This was, after all, something that would benefit the organization, and Mu Daoren took it very seriously.

Of course, what he really cared about was the reward for his service after completing this task...

Not far away, in a cell, a girl dressed in common desert attire, but with fair skin, was tightly bound by iron chains and locks. She was not a desert person at all.

"This woman... seems ordinary, but she possesses an extremely pure and powerful force within her... What is her origin?"

The memories of the past few days involuntarily surfaced in Mu Daoren's mind.

While Zhou Ming was constantly gathering intelligence and rapidly acquiring Tianjing, things were also developing in the border town.

Tianming, who escaped through the mechanism, was found by the Qin army first. At the critical moment, a boy named Shaoyu, who claimed to be from the Xiang clan of Chu, rescued him.

However, the three who arrived later—Da Siming, Shao Siming, and even Wei Zhuang—were completely beyond their ability to handle.

Fortunately, Gai Nie arrived in time and held off Wei Zhuang and other experts, allowing Tianming and Shaoyu to escape.

It was during their escape that the two encountered the girl in front of them.

Her name is Xiao Li.

(End of this chapter)