Chapter 958: This Is My Eastern Sea

Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting's tendrils have spread across the Western Desert.

Naturally, the first step was to build first-, second-, and third-grade teleportation arrays relying on the spiritual veins in various regions.

A third-grade teleportation array refers to a short-range array capable of teleporting within a thousand-kilometer radius, mostly used by mid- and low-grade cultivators.

A second-grade teleportation array refers to a long-range array covering a range of three thousand to thirty thousand kilometers.

A first-grade teleportation array refers to an inter-domain array capable of transporting personnel between the Western Desert and the Northern Plains; it must rely on a fifth-grade spiritual vein for construction, carries a prohibitively high usage cost, requires strict approval, and is generally usable only by Nascent Soul cultivators and above.

Currently, Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting is constructing second- and third-grade teleportation arrays; as for the first-grade arrays, Jiang Ding will personally handle them, using pre-fabricated array instruments from the Immortal Sect, simply laying them out across the Great Snow Mountain Sacred Land.

The teleportation arrays being built in various regions are prohibitively expensive, requiring the tax revenue of the entire Northern Plains for over fifty years.

However, this is necessary.

This represents Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting's tangible control over the Western Desert.

Without teleportation arrays in various regions, moving a cultivator army from the Northern Plains to the Western Desert to suppress a rebellion would take over a decade just for the march, while searching and tracking the enemy would take decades more; going and returning, it would likely take a century.

By then, the mustard greens would be cold.

Under such circumstances, so-called rule is impossible; one could only adopt a de facto feudal system, appointing Nascent Soul cultivators to manage various regions on behalf, requiring only the remittance of taxes, while the enforcement of Master Tushan Law in daily life would be merely perfunctory.

This naturally was something Jiang Ding could not accept.

The terrible transportation situation would not only make rule difficult but also hinder the exchange of goods and technology; nominally, both the Northern Plains and the Western Desert were managed by Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, but in reality, due to geographical constraints, they had degenerated into two independent economies, utterly unable to leverage the advantages of Immortal Industry.

This would cause his wallet to shrink drastically.

Even if an Immortal feudal sect were to levy exorbitant taxes and act inhumanely, it could squeeze out very little profit; moreover, since he was a tolerant and kind person, the yield would be even lower.

Therefore, Immortal Industry must be established in this small realm, even if it is only basic processing Immortal Industry relying on the Immortal Sect system.

Otherwise, no grand blueprint plans could even be discussed.

"Descend!"

Jiang Ding stood atop the Great Snow Mountain, on a bird's nest as large as a mountain, constructed and woven from various spiritual mysterious ices.

He formed hand seals, sending numerous large cauldrons, copper nails, and other array instruments flying in all directions to anchor the earth veins, organize the spiritual energy, and divide Yin and Yang.

There were not many array instruments, only tens of thousands; compared to the spectacle of millions of array instruments of various grades filling the sky when the Liu Dao Sect set up their array, this was far inferior.

This was because Jiang Ding had low requirements.

Jiang Ding spent several months carefully studying the Ice Soul Divine Light Array, the great mountain array of the Western Desert Demon Beast Imperial Court, and found it also quite

simple; thus, he modified it himself, had a batch of array instruments custom-made by the Immortal Sect, and directly began construction, now reaching the final step.

Hum!

As the last ice-crystal cauldron descended, the spiritual energy and earth veins across tens of thousands of kilometers stabilized, and mysterious array patterns spread in all directions.

"Fifth-grade, lower-rank, Ice Soul Divine Light Sword Array!"

"Uh, it's a bit of a mishmash; it seems even worse than the original Ice Soul Divine Light Array of the Western Desert Demon Beast Imperial Court..."

Jiang Ding scanned all directions with his divine sense and sword intent, inspecting carefully, his small face flushing slightly red.

Previously, he had mocked the array arts inheritance of the Zhenjun Zhenjun Bingfeng Clan, calling it crude and incompetent, saying it was no wonder they were barbaric and ignorant demon beasts, fit only for body refinement and incapable of such delicate work.

Who would have thought that when he personally took up the task, his work was even worse than theirs!

"This is absolutely not a problem with my array arts skill!"

Jiang Ding's blush flashed and vanished instantly; he spoke with righteous indignation: "This plan saves the most money; with only over a billion lower-grade spirit stones, we have a usable fifth-grade, lower-rank array."

"Such cost-saving, such thriftiness, is simply a genius design!"

"The brilliance of this array lies in its cost control; ordinary people can't see it, and some misunderstand; I'm too lazy to argue with them..."

Jiang Ding chattered on, saying things people couldn't understand.

After finishing the work, Jiang Ding looked around, threw out a jade sword, and let it land at the core of the array.

This was a fourth-grade spiritual sword containing a strand of his divine thought, holding necessary memories, used to guard the Great Snow Mountain Sacred Land and, when necessary, control the Great Snow Mountain array to fight enemies, much like the strand of divine thought left by the previous Great Sun Sword Disciple, Ming Chong Chong Guang Zi, at the Great Sun Sword Sect.

This strand of jade sword divine thought, combined with the fifth-grade, lower-rank Ice Soul Sword Array, could hold its own against a Hua Shen Chu Qi cultivator; at the very least, it would not lose.

This was just right; it was enough.

Raising the standard further was not impossible, but it would result in a loss, violating the Immortal principle of centering on economic construction.

"The core of this mountain peak is a fifth-grade spiritual vein; it cannot be wasted; we must create a fifth-grade spiritual herb garden, a spiritual beast garden, or something similar..."

Jiang Ding had endured hard times for too long and was very frugal.

He issued an order to the Zheng Sect to handle it.

By the way, after conquering the Western Desert Demon Beast Imperial Court, Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting had gathered quite a few tree demons, flower demons, ginseng demons, grass demons, and other spirit-plant-type demon beasts.

Those that ate humans were naturally executed; those that did not mostly joined the Agricultural Sect, falling under the command of the Agricultural Sect Sect Master, Chun Chun Sanwa; they were quite skilled at these tasks of cultivating spirit plants.

The Agricultural Sect Sect Master, Chun Chun Sanwa, confidently told Jiang Ding that with these elite troops and strong generals, next year's agricultural output in the Northern Plains would increase by at least twenty percent; as these spirit-plant demon beasts cultivated the Agricultural Sect techniques, the output would increase even more.

These spirit-

plant demon beasts had special talents in this regard.

Regarding the tax revenue that forms the cornerstone of agriculture, Jiang Ding did not neglect it; he pulled up relevant intelligence and studied it carefully.

Currently, the many spirit-plant demon beasts are loyal to Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting; there is no need to wait for several generations for their backgrounds to be cleared.

This is because in the Western Desert Demon Beast Imperial Court, the ruling demon beasts were the Zhenjun Zhenjun Bingfeng Clan and the six Wang Zu clans; the many spirit-plant demon beasts were in a marginal position.

In a power structure like the Western Desert Demon Beast Imperial Court, where the strong prey on the weak, being in a marginal position was a terrifying thing.

The many demon beast Wang Zu clans did not care if you were also a member of the demon beast race; in their eyes, the many spirit-plant demon beasts were no different from human flesh and blood slaves, sometimes even more delicious, and being swallowed alive and flayed was commonplace.

'Demon Beast,' this racial identity was truly too ethereal and vague.

Demon beasts without Wang Zu status would consider pig demons, grass demons, and other weak demon beasts to be of the same kind, the same race, merely food on the plate, with no difference.

Racial contradictions within the demon beast race were immense, hardly any different from those among humans.

Now, these spirit-plant demon beasts had joined Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting, enjoying the same treatment as cultivators, instantly feeling as if they had arrived in paradise.

"Pay a little attention,"

"The Agricultural Sect must pay attention to the cultivation of human agricultural cultivators, and must ensure that over fifty percent of agricultural talents come from the human race."

Jiang Ding issued the directive.

This isn't racial discrimination—alright, it is.

Master Tushan Master Tushan Zhongting must ensure that the human race will not be constrained by others in agriculture, artifact-refining industries, and all other places; cultivators of various races can only add flowers to brocade, this is the principle.

What is even more important is that, just like the human race's talent in combat and killing, the human race is indeed weak at the beginning, inferior to spirit-plant demon races in agricultural arts, but with learning, geniuses keep emerging, arts keep improving, and they can surpass the limits of spirit-plant demon beasts.

As long as agricultural prodigy cultivators emerge, humanity's agricultural arts ceiling will be far higher than these demon races.

Of course, if demon divine-beast bloodlines like Phoenix, Azure Dragon appear, that's another matter.

It might require the topmost prodigies of the human race born in the Endless Worlds to compare, and it is almost impossible for a single world to have a human prodigy reach such heights.

Jiang Ding busied himself, spending some time finishing the political affairs of the Western Desert.

After confirming that Master Tushan's rule over the Western Desert was initially stabilized, Jiang Ding stepped onto the teleportation array at the center of the Ice Soul Sword Formation for cross-domain travel, chose the direction of the Eastern Sea, with no receiving formation, so it was a random teleportation.

"Eastern Sea,"

"Xi Ping'an, this is my Eastern Sea…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured, disappearing within the teleportation light.