Chapter 339: Rain

After spending a full two months of repeated attempts and exploration, with the efficiency of burning banknotes in an incinerator, and spending millions of funds, Ji Jue finally took a solid and reliable first step in the study of the nine-type Chunjun!

Since it was hard-won and the sampling was completed, the technology was verified, and all the processes were fine. Then he had to find a budget, set up a project, practice, and prepare for production!

For most artisans, this is the beginning of torment.

Budget is difficult, project establishment is difficult, research is difficult, maintenance is difficult, and results are even more difficult. It's difficult, difficult, difficult. But if there is a slight mistake in the middle, investors will lose their bottoms, and the already not-so-high reputation will be even lower. A bottomless pit is like this.

Millions thrown in, not even a sound.

Ji Jue doesn't need a financier, his own industry is enough to maintain the workshop's operation, but now that such a big project is to be set up, he still feels stretched.

Especially since the final result Chunjun is also for self-use, a sword made of self-nature and self-spirit, and it is impossible for others to use it.

So he can only be responsible for his own profits and losses, and solve it himself.

Not only are there many blessings required, but there are also a lot of gaps in materials.

Although he harvested a lot of friendship and materials in the Desert Rally, none of them were suitable—the dust crystals of the wasteland system can be used for Chixiao or Zhanlu, but because the physical properties are too full and stable, they will form knots during spiritual quality sublimation, which is not suitable for the ascension and ether systems.

Materials of the ether system can be solved through the Tong family. After all, Tong Shan still had a lot left when he did the calligraphy, and there is also an ether blessing 【Seeing Simplicity and Embracing Plainness】 that needs the Tong family's channels—

It seems that two chickens were brought too few.

Next time you visit, you have to bring two more, if not, think of other ways.

As for the materials and blessings of the ascension system...

These days, ordinary materials can still be spent, but truly precious things are all snatched up by all parties the moment they appear, and are even directly monopolized, and cannot be bought on the market at all.

Just when Ji Jue was at his wit's end, an unexpected visitor took the initiative to knock on the door of Ji Jue's workshop. In the mighty roar, a helicopter descended from the sky and landed slowly on the deck of the Prosperity.

On the pure white helicopter outer layer, a familiar pattern was drawn in bright red—that is the emblem of the Chongguang Church!

After the cabin door opened, an old figure walked down slowly carrying a box.

The Deacon Elder of the Yacheng Chongguang Church.

The old elder had dark skin, full of sunburn marks, ten fingers rough, and his short white hair had already begun to go bald, shining in the scorching sun, looking quite funny.

It's just that, facing this old gentleman, I'm afraid it's hard for anyone with a conscience to open their mouth and laugh.

The ascension system is all dead-brained, with rich emotions but heavy obsessions. Sometimes they are even more rigid than the personality of the wasteland, and the most common thing is to drill into the tip of the horn and not look back.

Since he was sent to Yacheng at the age of twenty-one and took over the Chongguang Sanctuary, which was not much better than a ruin at the time, for so many years, this elder has invested his life in the compassion guided by the dogma for decades.

Running around, pulling up many low-cost hospitals including the Jici Hospital from scratch, raising funds for the poor and orphans who no one cares about, and until today, there has never been any stop.

Facing a young man like Ji Jue, the old man still took the initiative to reach out, his smile warm: "A rash visit, hope it didn't disturb you."

"Where is that!"

Ji Jue shook his head flatly, not daring to pretend at all, his attitude was very low: "If you have anything to tell me

"I was just about to send a batch of vaccines outside the city, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to stop by.

No need for tea, I have to leave immediately."

Right there on the deck, the Elder waved off Ji Jue's invitation, not sitting down to rest, but instead handing over the box in his hand: "I heard people say you were looking for things all over the market, so I asked Miss Ye; many of these things were in the warehouse, so I just brought them along."

The heavy box landed in Ji Jue's hands.

It was unknown how many years old it was; the artificial leather covering the box was full of cracks and signs of peeling, but the items inside were wrapped in three layers of protection, and underneath, there was even a spiritual quality seal from the artisans of the church.

The moment he opened it, Ji Jue was dumbfounded.

Right in the center, inside a fist-sized piece of amber, was exactly the Metamorphosis Blessing 【Feathering and Returning to Truth】 that he had been searching for through various channels for over a month without a trace!

Not only that, but there were many other precious materials from the Metamorphosis lineage, including materials left behind when Chosen Ones died—nearly relics!

"How could you do this?"

He subconsciously closed it, not daring to look again, wanting to shove the box back.

But the Elder did not take it.

"The Chongguang Sect is not a begging organization, and we aren't as destitute as you think."

The Elder waved his hand in a solemn refusal: "Although Feathering and Returning to Truth is precious, it would only gather dust sitting in the warehouse. These materials were all donated by church members or believers; if they can be used for a righteous cause, isn't that their wish as well?

Giving them to you is actually a good thing, so they don't get targeted by other artisans of unknown origin who might do something harmful."

"I'm an artisan too, how do you know I won't do something harmful?"

Ji Jue laughed at himself, not expecting that even though he was hated by people and dogs alike in the Association, caused trouble everywhere in the city, and recruited people to open sweatshops in the wilderness—doing almost everything but human things—he would still be considered a righteous person by the Elder.

The Elder laughed too, grabbing his hand and patting it gently: "When facing those who are irredeemable and wicked, there is naturally no need to talk about morality or compassion.

Moreover, if someone can provide a stable job for those who are wavering due to the struggle for survival, allow the elderly and children in the wilderness to use air conditioning and drink clean water, and help the disabled get out of their wheelchairs—such a person, no matter how bad they are, how bad can they really be?"

"Calling on everyone to cherish one another is also a tenet of the church."

Amidst the roar of the helicopter restarting, he waved his hand one last time and raised his voice to tell the young man before him: "Do not feel guilty; just consider it an investment or a reward from the Chongguang Sect, Mr. Ji."

Just like that, after refusing Ji Jue's attempt to make him stay, he boarded the helicopter and hurried away.

Leaving Ji Jue alone on the deck, watching the helicopter disappear into the horizon.

After a long silence, he sighed soundlessly.

Owed another favor—

The preparations for the Pure Might had taken a giant leap forward thanks to the support of the Chongguang Sect, but the gap in what was still needed could not be closed overnight.

Ji Jue finally managed to temporarily break away from his tedious research and deal with trivial matters.

Time passed bit by bit, day after day; half a month flew by, during which Ji Jue had that inexplicable dream once more.

It was as if it were a reminder from the Remnant.

Just as Tong Ting had said, when encountering such things, one can only prepare more; beyond that, doing more only leads to more mistakes. For a moment, a sense of urgency surfaced once again.

The preparations for the Pure Might showed no sign of completion for the time being, and the sharpening of the Pan Ying would also take time; however, the sequence for the Little Niu Ma 【Immovable as a Mountain】 had been gathered by a stroke of luck.

The ones who had taken the initiative to come to his door with the blessing were actually a group of miners from a settlement that dug for minerals!

There were actually quite a few mineral veins of various sizes in Haizhou, but the vast majority either had tiny reserves, sparse content, or complex terrain—or even layers of silt—or simply all of the above, making them completely devoid of value for large-scale development.

In the wilderness, settlements that made a living by digging for minerals were not uncommon, and most people in the settlements wouldn't refuse an occasional side job; after all, if you dig it up, it's money, and there's always a market for it.

As for the cost, it was nothing more than one's life; if you're starving to death, can you really not dare to do it for fear of dying?

Don't talk to me about safe production; just roll up your sleeves and get to work. As long as it doesn't collapse, dig until you die. Every year there are rumors of settlements getting rich overnight from discovering precious minerals, and likewise, every month there is tragic news of a mine collapse in some settlement.

In the wilderness, life and death are routine.

Everyone is used to it.

And now, Ji Jue watched this group of dusty settlement members who had traveled thousands of miles to the coast, specifically to find him, bringing giant rocks in trucks.

The rocks, several cubic meters in size, looked just like raw jadeite.

Taking another look, it was indeed raw jadeite; from the cut surface, one could see a moist, pea-green light. But the quality was actually quite average, and the content wasn't much.

What was truly precious was the blessing contained within. Under long-term geological changes or special conditions,

natural blessing materials would form in the earth's veins; with just a little processing, a complete blessing could be separated out. This was also one of the sources of blessings in the Wasteland lineage.

Sometimes, by chance, these naturally formed blessings would be swallowed by beasts, causing many changes; this was also the cause of most disaster beasts.

The one placed before Ji Jue at this moment was, literally, a treasure of heaven and earth.

And it was the 【Spring Flow Pulse Rotation】 that was the final missing piece in the 【Immovable as a Mountain】 sequence!

In the complex and vast underground water system, after undergoing who knows how many years of gestation and metamorphosis, with water systems extending in all directions and connecting to the earth's veins, and after experiencing many earthquakes or other conditions, such crystals would naturally be born.

The movement of the wasteland formed by the intricate changes of earth veins and water veins.

With such a blessing, the Chosen One's spiritual quality could easily extend and expand along the earth and water veins without any obstruction—and when paired with 【Human-Heaven Isomorphism】, which could connect spiritual quality circulation areas into a whole, and 【Solid Rock Firmness】, which could distribute damage across the whole, it formed the top-tier defensive blessing sequence of the Wasteland lineage: 【Immovable as a Mountain】!

"Are you sure?"

Ji Jue patted the smooth surface of the stone and told those people: "Although from the perspective of raw stone, it's not worth much money, the thing inside is worth more than just a little. Although the demand isn't high, at the very least, it could fetch several million or ten million."

"I can't come up with such a large sum of money all at once."

Hearing this, the young people in the group had their eyes light up instantly, their expressions changing, but the middle-aged man leading the team ignored their tugging and became even more determined.

"We'll sell it to you, Boss Ji. Whether it's more or less, you name the number; we aren't picky!"

Seeing him so determined, the young people behind him grew anxious and whispered a reminder: "Old Uncle—"

The Old Uncle turned back and glared at him, his face changing instantly from fawning to fierce and cold. With his long-standing authority, wherever his gaze swept, all the young people were like cicadas in winter, not daring to speak again.

This trip to the coast to sell this thing was his own insistence, and the speed was incredibly fast—the thing was dug up at night, and after sitting at the edge of the field smoking for two hours, they set off that same night; by the time lunch came the next day, they had already arrived at Xinquan.

They had even spent money through acquaintances to pull strings and see Yan Jian and Lu Feng.

Yan Jian and Lu Feng knew nothing about these things, but after the cloth was pulled back, the raw stone fell into the eyes of Isis.

"Can you tell me the reason?"

Ji Jue turned curious: "There are so many buyers in the wilderness; this thing shouldn't be hard to sell, right?"

The wrinkled, prematurely aged middle-aged man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth stained with tobacco, his attitude extremely humble: "We can't reach any of the higher-ups."

"But as for the others we can reach, we don't trust a single one of them."

These days, those who can make a living in the wilderness have at least some skills; although not many, they must have some skills.

And in Ji Jue's observation, the man was an ordinary person; however, there was a thin, dark, middle-aged woman following behind the man, looking down, who had faint fluctuations of spiritual quality on her body, much stronger than an ordinary person.

Although her aptitude wasn't good enough to be called a 'good talent,' it was enough to detect the abnormality of this raw stone.

The existence of Chosen Ones is no distant secret in the wilderness; moreover, things that can be connected to Chosen Ones are often valuable—very valuable, extremely valuable.

Or, dangerous—very dangerous, extremely dangerous!

Whether it's a blessing or a curse, a settlement can't keep it. Besides, a settlement village of ninety-some people relies on poverty to protect itself; if they get mixed up in this, even a blessing would turn into a curse.

Either bury it back and pretend nothing happened, living in fear, or sell it off quickly, earn whatever you can, and then move as soon as possible—preferably into the city to change your identity.

Regrettably, the wilderness is not a genuine, honest marketplace, and the eating habits and faces of many merchant caravans or buyers don't even qualify as human.

The only path they could find was this coast, which still kept a little bit of conscience in the wilderness.

In the past, when taking advantage to buy goods, there were countless people who considered themselves 'smart' who would say, "If I were the factory director of the coast, I would definitely do this or that, and I'd definitely earn more," and so on.

But when something really happens, no one goes to look for the smart people.

The word has already leaked out.

A settlement of ninety to a hundred people—it's impossible for every mouth to be sealed tight and not leak a single bit of news. What's more, couldn't those who didn't dig for minerals and didn't get a share of the money find their own way to get money?

Time is tight, and they can't afford to gamble.

The man lowered his head, not daring to look Ji Jue in the eye.

Under the cold air of the air conditioner, he wiped his sweat before saying the most fatal reason:

"The rainy season is coming."