Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

He walked slowly to the crimson crystal and extended his fair and slender right hand.

There was no hand seal being performed, nor was any true energy being released.

He simply used two fingers, as if picking up an ordinary grape, to gently pinch the deadly fire thunder that exuded an aura of destruction.

"Click."

Use your fingers slightly.

That ancient weapon, powerful enough to level a mountain, was crushed into a pinch of red powder at Li Changqing's fingertips without even a spark.

He opened his palm, letting the powder fall through his fingers and into the cracks of the white jade platform.

The moment those raging fire-attribute energies touched his skin, they seemed to encounter the most terrifying ruler in the world, obediently vanishing into nothingness and transforming into a pure breeze.

Having eliminated this last hidden danger, Li Changqing clapped his hands.

He looked up and surveyed the vast underground cavern, gazing at the spirit stone ore shimmering on the rock walls.

This treasure trove has now been opened to the public, ready to be unearthed by the artisans of the Ming Dynasty and transformed into the rolling wheels that propel that vast empire forward.

"The night is long, it's time to go back and rest. Tomorrow, that old wolf Zhao will probably be pressing for settlement again."

Li Changqing chuckled softly, his blue robe swaying in the breeze.

His figure gradually faded on the white jade platform, like a splash of ink melting into the darkness, disappearing completely into the deep underground.

The next morning.

When the sunlight once again bathed the camp at Zhenhai Fort, Li Changqing sat on that low stool next to the shop of the Fuyuan.

He was holding a bowl of congee and eating breakfast slowly with a dish of pickled vegetables.

The rough paper ledger sat neatly on the table, the ink completely dry.

In the distant military camp, Wang Shouren was fully armed and ready to personally lead his engineering battalion deep into the caves to explore the mineral veins.

The entire Ming Dynasty expeditionary force was eagerly anticipating the upcoming bountiful harvest.

No one knew that in this seemingly peaceful night, this accountant in a worn blue robe had already saved tens of thousands of brave men of the Ming Dynasty from a catastrophe that could have destroyed the world.

……

The morning mist of Wolong Ridge, carrying the unique dampness and earthy smell of deep mountains and forests, lingers for a long time on the dark brown mountainside.

Last night's earth-shattering artillery fire and fierce battle have left an indelible mark on this ancient mountain forest.

The broken, towering trees lay scattered haphazardly among the rubble.

The remaining flesh and blood of the two-headed python had been mostly pecked away by early birds, leaving only a few thick white bones, which stood menacingly against the pale sky.

At the temporary camp outside Zhenhai Fort, the smoke from the morning cooking gradually rose.

The shop of Fuyuanhao was set up between two ancient trees, with a spacious shed covered by a moisture-proof tarpaulin.

Old Wolf Zhao was directing several men to sort and pack the scraps of animal hides and bones they had collected from the engineering battalion the night before into large wooden boxes.

Each box was filled with coarse salt for preservation and the lids were nailed shut.

In one corner of the shed, Li Changqing sat on a wooden stump.

His slightly worn blue cloth robe looked rather thin in the morning breeze.

A rough paper ledger was spread out on the table, and the ink in the inkstone next to it was freshly ground.

He held a wolf-hair brush and focused intently as he wrote lines of tiny characters on the account book pages.

"Forty-five taels of damaged wolf pelts, worth one hundred and thirty taels of silver. Ten pairs of armored boar tusks, worth eighty taels of silver..."

His tone was calm; he would state a number and then jot it down with his pen.

The dull thuds of the men carrying wooden crates around him, and the sounds of drills coming from the distant military camp, failed to disrupt his smooth and effortless rhythm.

Old Zhao patted the salt off his hands, walked to the table, lowered his voice, and his eyes were full of shrewd, mercenary glint.

"Just these scraps that others look down on, if transported back to Tianjin and resold to Taoist temples that refine medicine and private workshops that forge weapons, can easily triple in value. If we could get a whole scale from that giant python, we wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for the rest of our lives."

Li Changqing placed the pen on the pen holder, gently blew on the still-wet ink, and closed the account book.

"Nothing should be done to the extreme, and the same applies to making money. The lion's share naturally goes to the imperial court and the Ministry of War, while we merchants follow behind and pick up the scraps that slip through our fingers, so that we can live a long and stable life."

If you're too easily swayed and reach for what you shouldn't, you'll have nowhere to cry for justice in this desolate wilderness of the New World.

His words were perfectly timed.

Although Zhao Laolang was a greedy merchant, he could distinguish between what was important and what was not. He immediately nodded in agreement and turned to keep a close eye on his men's packing work.

At this moment, a large number of soldiers had gathered outside the cave deep in the mountainside.

Wang Shouren, the Minister of War, stood at the wide entrance of the cave, fully armored and with a long sword at his waist.

Behind him stood five hundred fully armed engineers, each carrying a torch and a steel pickaxe, standing in neat rows, completely silent.

Shen You, a student of the Imperial Academy, was dressed in a moon-white casual robe and carried a specially made "spotlight array" lantern.

The lantern was not lit with lamp oil, but instead contained a low-grade spirit stone the size of a fingernail, which emitted a stable and soft white light, illuminating the surrounding area of ​​several feet in detail.

"General, the scouts have reported back that the path deep inside this cave is winding and has many forks, and the spiritual energy is extremely dense. Most people's compasses would fail inside."

A forward knelt on one knee and reported in a deep voice.

Wang Shouren nodded slightly, his gaze calm and serene.

"Pass down the order: after entering the cave, every ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) advance, drive a wind-stabilizing stake into the rock wall and pull up a tow rope. No matter what rare treasures you encounter, no one is allowed to move them without military orders. Anyone who disobeys will be punished according to military law."

The reason why the Ming Dynasty's army was able to sweep across this wild continent was never due to momentary bravado.

Rather, it was this almost harsh military discipline and the cautious, step-by-step approach.

"Shen Jiansheng, you lead the way with a lantern. If you find any traces of the formation, warn us immediately."

"Yes, sir."

Shen You took a deep breath, picked up the array lantern that emitted a soft light, and stepped into the deep and unknown cave.

Wang Shouren, his hand on the hilt of his sword, followed closely behind. Hundreds of engineers, carrying torches, filed in.

The air inside the cave was much more humid and cold than outside, yet it was refreshingly invigorating due to the powerful spiritual energy.

The group descended the winding passage, with only the sound of synchronized footsteps and the faint crackling of burning torches in their ears.

On the rock walls on both sides, large pieces of raw spirit stone ore occasionally refracted an alluring fluorescent light under the lamp.

Those unmined veins, like galaxies sleeping in the rock strata, reveal the astonishing wealth of this land.

But military orders are absolute, and the five hundred engineers kept their eyes straight ahead, none of them daring to glance at the treasures within reach.

After walking for about an hour, the passage ahead suddenly opened up, and the sound of gentle ripples on the water could be heard in the air.

"General, we've reached the end of the road. There's an underground lake there."

Shen You stopped and raised the lantern in his hand high.

A white halo pierced the darkness, illuminating the deep blue lake that stretched for hundreds of feet.

Everyone's attention was instantly drawn to the solitary white jade platform in the center of the lake, and the weathered skeleton on the platform.