Who taught him to practice swordsmanship like this?

Chapter 163 My Master Wants Me to Cultivate Diligently

Although there weren't many moves and the energy flow wasn't complicated, it still took Tang Dezhao an hour to master the Emperor's Sword.

Su Baichen and Tang Dezhao sat together at the desk in the imperial study and chatted in a relaxed manner.

"Your Majesty, have you encountered any problems recently?"

Tang Dezhao shrugged: "What other problems could there be? The only issue is that the Northern Wei is constantly increasing its troop strength on the border, and Baizhou is always in dire need of attention. Also, the Wu Kingdom in the east has been making small moves, so we have to be careful of them backstabbing us."

"It's really tough being attacked from both sides and having no help."

Su Baichen asked, "What about the State of Qi? Should we contact the Gao family of Qi? I had a good chat with the Gao emperor earlier; he should understand the principle of 'if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold' (meaning that if one's lips are gone, one's teeth will be cold)."

Tang Dezhao: "What about Gao Liu? They exchanged a few letters and that was it. Don't be fooled by his carefree life there, where he can kill ministers at will. He can only do that because of the support of his Gao clan. In reality, he has very poor control over the local areas of Qi, and it's difficult for him to mobilize the national strength. If he uses his clan's armed forces for foreign wars, the Gao clan's position will be unstable."

Su Baichen was somewhat surprised after hearing this, but also felt that it made perfect sense.

"Then we can't count on him. The only way for our Liang Kingdom to survive and grow stronger under this pincer attack is to survive and grow stronger."

Tang Dezhao smiled bitterly: "It's easier said than done. We lack armor and soldiers, we lack military rations, we lack everything—"

Su Baichen pondered for a moment and said, "Wait a minute, I'll think of a way."

In Yinfeng Gorge, Su Baichen, who was studying the Daoist scriptures, suddenly felt a jolt.

He received the memories sent by the illusory clone, and then began to ponder them—

A moment later, he released another illusionary clone.

However, this illusory clone did not go to the capital region, but to Changchun Palace.

On the other hand, the main body was browsing through some miscellaneous books in the Daoist canon.

What are miscellaneous books?

These so-called ingenious skills and tricks are nothing but gimmicks!

That illusory clone went to Changchun Palace to find his sister Zhaodi, specifically to discuss with her how to develop a fertilizer that could be produced on a large scale with high efficiency and low cost.

Sister Zhaodi is a herbalist, so she must be an expert.

Meanwhile, the person on the main body was browsing through miscellaneous books, actually looking for information about metallurgy.

He originally wanted to go to the Array Weapon Sect to exchange ideas, but then he thought that the Array Weapon Sect forged magical artifacts for cultivators, and the Array Weapon Sect might not be the right fit for his expertise.

Moreover, even if you want to engage in exchanges, you first need to have some goods or services yourself.

Thinking this, he simply created another illusory clone to search for the knowledge he wanted in the book together.

Because of his limited mental energy, he can currently maintain a maximum of four illusory clones at the same time.

He was studying metallurgy, preparing to incorporate some ideas from his previous life to solve the problem.

The illusionary clone sent to Changchun Palace has also arrived.

"Sister Zhaodi, here's the situation. Do you have any way to concoct a cheap elixir that can quickly increase grain production?"

Lin Zhaodi was completely baffled. She had been learning how to use spiritual plants to make medicine and treat illnesses, but how to increase food production was a completely different matter.

She felt that this was really not within her area of ​​expertise!

But when faced with Su Baichen's already quite masculine face, she simply couldn't bring herself to refuse.

"Okay, I'll give it a try."

Su Baichen felt slightly relieved upon hearing this.

After all, he didn't just entrust this task to Lin Zhaodi alone.

As the youngest female disciple of the Yang Sect Master, Kaiyang Zhenren—the sect's junior sister—if something happens to her, she can mobilize far more than just a tiny bit of power.

Su Baichen's illusory clone eagerly offered a string of sweet words, and only after ensuring that Lin Zhaodi would go all out did he disband himself with satisfaction.

Su Baichen, the main body of the Yin Sect, received feedback and breathed a great sigh of relief.

He happened to find information about forging furnaces, and after a brief study, he went to the Yin Sect's weapon-refining room.

Although the Yin Sect does not have a department specifically responsible for weapon forging, disciples often need to forge weapons on a regular basis, hence this weapon forging room.

There's a furnace in this weapon-refining room. I heard that this furnace was ordered from the Array Weapon Sect by the previous sect leader, and it's a high-grade item.

Su Baichen examined the furnace's operation and found that, as expected, simply burning coals inside would raise the furnace temperature to around 1000 degrees Celsius after a period of time.

Su Baichen knew that this thing was already a furnace capable of smelting steel!

Moreover, this is a technique from hundreds of years ago; the current Array Weapon Sect may already have more advanced gadgets.

So he immediately left the seclusion to find his master.

He doesn't have the ability to run a blast furnace steelmaking business himself, and even if he did, he wouldn't be in the mood—why do things yourself when you can outsource them?

So he went to the Mysterious Yin Master and told him what had happened.

Master Xuan Yin instantly understood his meaning. After pondering for a moment, he said, "That's simple. Make the furnace ten times bigger and increase the furnace temperature by ten percent. The requirements are clear, and they can do it."

He then took out paper and pen and began writing a letter, listing all of Su Baichen's requests, and placed it in a package along with many talismans.

He then reached out and beckoned, and the ethereal dragon steed that had been faintly visible in the sky descended—it picked up the package and soared into the sky.

Su Baichen looked at Xuan Yin Zhenren in surprise and asked, "Is this... a trade with them?"

Master Xuan Yin nodded and said, "This kind of thing is too simple for the people of the Array Weapon Sect, far from being enough to be exchanged. Therefore, it can only be obtained by purchasing it or by owing favors."

"Of course, we are all disciples of Changchun Palace, and if I or even you asked for it, they would certainly be willing to owe us a favor—but since it can be resolved through exchange, why incur a favor?"

Upon hearing this, Su Baichen seemed to understand something and said, "So, if we could find a way to communicate with them on an equal footing, we could find a way to get their technology for free?"

Xuan Yin Zhenren:

"

""

Was that the main point he made just now?

He said irritably, "The point is, we shouldn't easily owe anyone favors! Only in this way can people see you as a person of principle, and when you really need it, others will be willing to do more to help you."

Su Baichen quickly agreed, saying that he had "benefited greatly" from the life philosophy taught by his master.

Of course, he had already interpreted these words in his mind as something else: Don't be greedy for small gains, if you're going to owe, owe a big one!

But he didn't dare say it, for fear that his master's blood pressure would rise.

"Alright, that's settled then. You can delegate your tasks to your senior brothers. You should focus on your cultivation here and stop worrying about unnecessary things!"

He now wished he could whip Su Baichen to work harder at cultivation—if he didn't know that such things couldn't be forced, he might have actually done so.

Su Baichen shrank back, intimidated by his master's tyranny, and obediently slipped away.

However, he still frequently used the illusionary clone technique, sneaking off to Changchun Palace to find Sister Zhaodi and discuss the matter of cheap fertilizer.

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