Chapter 1118: Nurturing Refining Void-Rank Material: Great Earth Wumu Gold

Jiang Ding did not conceal his form for the first time, flying through the skies of the Northern Plains, surveying the mountains, spirit veins, earth, and rivers here.

From time to time, he would descend to the ground, take out formation tools—either mineral ores or spirit stones—and channel hand seals to set something up.

After a period of time, cultivators from Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting arrived to take over matters here.

Sometimes Jiang Ding would fly to a fourth-rank spirit vein somewhere, lingering within a certain Nascent Soul-rank sect, regardless of whether the sect's patriarch led the entire sect to welcome him from the upper realm, setting something up.

Sometimes he would plant a tree; sometimes he would move entire mountain peaks with great magic power, altering the local earth veins.

Sometimes he would plan out a spirit herb garden here, or build a spirit beast garden.

After spending several years busying himself with matters in the Northern Plains, Jiang Ding flew to the Eastern Sea, Southern Border, and Western Desert, setting up many things and planning many industries in each—spirit herb gardens, spirit beast lakes, deep-sea aquaculture currents, deep-sea plantations, deep-mountain mines, and so on.

These were his arrangements for the Refining Void industries within this Minor Thousand World.

Just as the Minor Thousand World of Jiao Jiao Mingyu contained Refining Void-rank demon stones and demon vine fruits, this Minor Thousand World, though damaged, could still nurture Refining Void-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

It would simply take a bit more time.

However, by layering on the more scientific and efficient nurturing methods of the Immortal Sect, the output might be higher and the time shorter than that of Jiao Jiao Mingyu's Minor Thousand World.

"The final result is—"

"A Refining Void-rank top-grade material, worth 0.8 Refining Void battle merits—Number One Synthetic Synthetic Gengjin—one of its main materials: the Great Earth Wumu Gold Mine."

Jiang Ding stopped at the fifth-rank spirit vein Gu God Peak in the Southern Border, channeling the final hand seal.

At that moment, he sensed that the circulation of the entire world's earth qi and spirit veins had shifted, all converging toward the direction of the Liu Dao Sect in the Southern Border, condensing something within.

The world, at this moment, was like a net of law.

This net of law was composed of four enormous main veins—the four fifth-rank spirit veins of the Southern Border, Eastern Sea, Northern Plains, and Western Desert—and beneath them various spirit herb gardens, spirit plant gardens, lakes, rivers, deep-sea currents, undersea spirit veins… and so on.

The buildings, spirit herb gardens, formations, spirit fields, and so forth upon it were all parts of this composite three-dimensional formation, and none could be altered too greatly.

Otherwise, the process of nurturing Refining Void-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures would come to nothing.

This was one of the important reasons Jiang Ding needed to stabilize the order of Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting; he would not allow anyone to interrupt his thousand-year plan and thereby affect the future growth of his life-bound flying sword.

Because of the boundary-stabilizing formation regulating the earth's spirit veins, this nurturing would not damage the world's Immortal Dao ecosystem; on the contrary, it would accelerate the world's growth.

Refining Void-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures were, after all, far too insignificant compared to the volume of an entire world.

This kind of

formation resembled the great innovation of using the world's breathing as energy to generate power.

The power produced by the world's breathing would have been wasted anyway; some terrifyingly brilliant figure in history discovered this method, and it was passed down.

Jiao Jiao Mingyu's was different.

That method was extremely crude—it would directly use the world's internal spiritual qi and earth qi to condense Refining Void-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures, causing damage to the world.

Of course, the damage was equally very slight; otherwise, if the world's origin consciousness grew angry, even a Great Emperor would die in an instant.

Although this method caused very slight damage to the world as a whole, for the surface layer—the uppermost layer where living beings dwelled—the impact was still enormous. Therefore, every twenty thousand years, it had to be "fallowed" once, for ten thousand years.

Even Great Emperors dared not violate this principle, seeking quick results and draining the pond to catch all the fish.

These were all bitter lessons from history.

However, even so, there was still a price.

Those who caused slight damage to the world—especially over tens of thousands of years—would, in the unseen workings of fate, encounter some "bad luck." It was uncertain how it would manifest; after all, the world's subconscious had not grown angry, but one's "luck" would simply be a bit worse. If one's strength was sufficient, it would not matter.

The world.

The Minor Thousand World.

The higher one's cultivation, the more one held the world in awe—not like Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation cultivators, who believed that because they could move mountains and fill seas, and destroy billions of living beings, they had conquered the entire world.

"Probably six hundred years…"

Jiang Ding surveyed the world's spirit veins with the Da Ri Ding Gao Jie formation and calculated the result: "If nothing changes, within six hundred years a portion of Great Earth Wumu Gold Mine can be condensed, which can serve as the main material for refining Number One Synthetic Synthetic Gengjin, at half price for internal citizens."

"The remaining half can be paid with fifth-rank and fourth-rank heavenly materials and earthly treasures, plus a large amount of spirit stones—no problem for me."

"It's just that it takes six hundred years to produce one portion…"

Jiang Ding sighed softly.

He felt the difficulty of cultivation—the further one advanced, the more so it became.

This efficiency was already much higher than Jiao Jiao Mingyu's Horned Demon Imperial Clan's one portion per thousand years, but a bit lower than Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's one portion per five hundred years, and a bit lower still than the Immortal Sect's one portion condensed every four hundred years.

The reasons were, first, that the world had once been damaged, affecting the state of the world's Immortal Dao ecosystem; and second, that the Immortal Sect's efficiency was built upon "intensive cultivation"—without a highly developed Immortal Dao civilization, without citizens of extremely high quality working in the Immortal Dao industrial system, the condensation efficiency could not be further accelerated.

"In a thousand years, I should be able to obtain close to two portions of Great Earth Wumu Gold Mine."

"According to the records of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion's inheritance, if the Taiqing Flying Sword successfully advances to a Great Emperor weapon, it needs one portion of Number One Synthetic Synthetic Gengjin every fifty years; my thousand years of accumulation

would only last me a hundred years."

Jiang Ding said, head aching.

"At that point, I can only exchange Refining Void battle merits with the Immortal Sect—my Refining Void battle merits are sufficient—but the problem is the Immortal Sect doesn't have that much Number One Synthetic Synthetic Gengjin!"

"The Immortal Sect is already a pauper!"

"Taiyi Qingmu Xianzong's approach is to stockpile heavenly materials and earthly treasures in massive quantities before the Dao Child emerges, using at least fifteen thousand years to accumulate all kinds of resources, preparing everything, and only then beginning to raise the Dao Child, carefully watching over their growth."

"It's not that the Immortal Sect lacks foresight."

"It's that the Immortal Sect's history is too short. In such a brief span, they still had to face all kinds of life-and-death bloody battles, often total wars—surviving was already impressive; their accumulated wealth is pitifully meager."

"…Forget it, we'll talk about it later."

"This is something for me a thousand years from now to worry about. Right now, the Taiqing Flying Sword is still very far from becoming a Great Emperor weapon; it might not even advance upon breaking through to Soul Transformation."

Jiang Ding murmured to himself and returned to the Liu Dao Sect.

On the Liu Dao Wang Zuo, a one-armed youth in blue robes sat calmly, looking at the several people before him—Gong Gong Caiyu, Han Lin, Mu Mu Tianxue.

"Go back."

"My closed-door healing and cultivation this time will last for a very long period."

Jiang Ding looked at the several people, especially Mu Mu Tianxue, and smiled: "I wish you fellow Daoists success in attaining Soul Transformation and extending your lifespans by ten thousand years; otherwise, my closed-door cultivation will not be at ease."

"I will absolutely not fail the trust Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun has placed in me."

Han Lin and the other two bowed deeply, took one last look at the blue-robed youth on Wang Zuo, and then slowly withdrew from the Black Demon Palace.

This meeting might well be the last.

This is the fate of cultivation practitioners — endless partings, endless watching as old friends and acquaintances die, until there is no longer any ripple in one's heart.

Within the Black Demon Palace, the silence that had been maintained for many years past returned once more.