Chapter 263: Alchemy Workshop Upgrade, Population Explosion, Resource Relaxation [End of Month]

"The material of this bottle is porcelain?"

Xia Hong didn't look at the pills first, but focused on the four bottles used to hold the pills. The four bottles were only the size of a fist, in four colors: green, blue, yellow, and red. The bottle bodies were crystal clear, and there were many exquisite beast-shaped patterns on them, which immediately reminded him of porcelain.

Cheng Feng was stunned and said: "Porcelain? I don't know either. This is a new material developed by the Craftsman Department last month. I heard it was fired from kaolin clay brought back from Wuyuan. The appearance is very beautiful, and it has been very popular with the women in the camp recently. Because the raw materials are scarce, the output is very low. The price in the Camp Supplies Department is not low. Just such a small bottle for pills costs 400 contribution points, and it's not guaranteed to be exchangeable."

Fired from kaolin clay, it really is porcelain!

Xia Hong took the bottle, and a trace of exclamation rose in his eyes. He had only been out for four months, and the camp had actually produced porcelain.

It wasn't that porcelain was so precious, but the key was that it could not only serve as a carrier and symbol of civilization, but also marked that Does Da Xia internally no longer focused only on eating and dressing warmly, and had already given birth to a small amount of spiritual needs.

This could be considered Does Da Xia's first luxury item in the true sense!

Xia Hong teased secretly, then opened the four porcelain bottles. A strange fragrance immediately rushed to his nose. Seeing the four different pills, his eyes lit up.

Seeing Xia Hong open the porcelain bottles, Cheng Feng immediately followed to introduce the pills:

"The eleven types of herbs the leader gave me during the day should all be very precious. They actually synthesized thirteen pill formulas at once. These four porcelain bottles contain the four most useful ones, which are the Yang-Protecting Pill, Beast Spirit Pill, Blood Origin Pill, and the most precious one, Yang Origin Pill..."

Eleven types of herbs, but thirteen formulas were synthesized.

Clearly, the many herbs previously recorded by the Alchemy Workshop interacted with these eleven types of herbs to synthesize so many. This proved that every single one of the eleven types of herbs he brought back this time could serve as a main ingredient for a formula. No wonder Cheng Feng said these herbs were very precious.

Accompanied by Cheng Feng's continued introduction, Xia Hong's expression became more and more excited.

Yang-Protecting Pill, with Zhu Silver Flower as the main ingredient. After taking it, anyone can gain the ability to act briefly in the sun: one hour for Logging Realm, two hours or more for Earth-Digging Realm;

Beast Spirit Pill, with Red Yang Fruit, Linglong Fruit, and intermediate beast meat as main ingredients. It can improve the efficiency of the Earth-Digging Realm in absorbing beast meat. It can be seen as an upgraded version of the Beast Origin Pill, with an effect more than ten times stronger than the Beast Origin Pill. A holy product for Earth-Digging Realm cultivation;

Blood Origin Pill, with Double-Colored Liquid Spirit Fruit, Panxiang Leaf, and intermediate beast blood as main ingredients. It can improve the efficiency of the Earth-Digging Realm in using beast blood to reshape skin-membranes to the limit;

"The final Yang Origin Pill..."

Speaking of the last pill, Cheng Feng paused before continuing:

"I previously asked the leader for three jin of jade bones just to refine this kind of pill. Its formula is the most complex, covering not only the eleven types of herbs the leader gave me but also adding seven relatively precious herbs currently in our Alchemy Workshop. Only after adding three jin of jade bones was one furnace refined. There are about nine finished pills in one furnace, and they are all here. If nothing goes wrong, it should be the spiritual pill for Frost-Resistance level cultivation that the leader mentioned!"

Xia Hong carefully poured out the pill from the last red porcelain bottle. Smelling the strange fragrance coming from the pill, a trace of intoxication appeared in his eyes.

The Yang Origin Pill was fiery red in color, with several black patterns in between, as if wrapped in a layer of magma. It felt as hot as fire in his hand. Without the skin-membrane strength of the Frost-Resistance level, touching it directly would likely cause burns.

"The only flaw of this Yang Origin Pill is that it consumes a large amount of coal stones during refining. I used a total of 50,000 jin last night."

50,000 jin, what's that!

Normally, when boiling jade bone medicine, it takes 70,000 jin to match one jin of jade bones. Refining a furnace of Yang Origin Pills with 50,000 jin of coal stones is simply as economical as it can be.

"Gulp..."

Xia Hong didn't hesitate and swallowed the one in his hand directly. Then, in front of Cheng Feng, he closed his eyes and began to feel the medicinal power of the Yang Origin Pill.

His skin-membrane began to make a drumming sound. It was the flesh and blood under the skin-membrane being torn and reorganized by the medicinal power. The powerful medicinal power couldn't be completely absorbed and even kept radiating outward through the skin-membrane.

The surprise in Xia Hong's eyes grew stronger, and his face gradually revealed ecstasy.

"Three times, no, almost four times. The medicinal power of one Yang Origin Pill is at least four times that of one jin of jade bone medicine. It's simply heaven-defying!"

The herbs Cheng Feng needed to refine the pills were all requested from Xia Hong, so Xia Hong knew very well that the herbs he consumed to refine this furnace of Yang Origin Pills were only the amount of three jin of jade bone medicine.

What does this mean?

Using the materials for boiling three jin of jade bone medicine, in Does Da Xia's Alchemy Workshop, nine Yang Origin Pills can be refined, and the medicinal power of one Yang Origin Pill is three to four times that of jade bone medicine.

"Not only is the medicinal power three to four times greater, but the absorption efficiency of flesh and blood is also far beyond the directly boiled jade bone medicine. If Yang Origin Pills can be continuously refined, Does Da Xia's Frost-Resistance level cultivation efficiency will far exceed all other camps in the future!"

Xia Hong's expression was ecstatic. Looking down at the other three types of pills, his expression became increasingly fiery.

"Beast Spirit Pill, Blood Origin Pill, Yang Origin Pill, plus the Beast Origin Pill, Does Da Xia has all the pills for cultivation from Logging Realm to Frost-Resistance level. As long as the output of these few types of pills can be guaranteed, Does Da Xia's cultivation speed in these four stages will far exceed most other camps."

The Yang-Protecting Pill is also not simple, allowing the Earth-Digging Realm to appear under the sun.

On a small scale, for individuals, this is a good thing that can save lives at critical moments;

On a large scale, for the camp, as long as there are enough Yang-Protecting Pills, it can change the battlefield situation in minutes.

The only thing to consider now is the source of the herbs!

These eleven types of herbs all came from Longyou. Currently, there isn't one that Does Da Xia obtained itself.

Xia Hong's brows narrowed slightly, then he ordered Cheng Feng.

"Notify the people in the Alchemy Workshop to stop what they are doing first."

Cheng Feng was puzzled when he heard this, but he still immediately let everyone stop what they were doing.

Does Da Xia already had quite a few pharmacists, a full sixty or so.

Everyone stopped and looked back at Xia Hong, their faces puzzled.

Xia Hong's mind moved slightly, and the system's resource panel immediately decreased by 200,000 wood, 200,000 coal, and 400,000 iron.

At the same time, inside the entire Alchemy Workshop, twenty furnaces and the dark green round medicine tripod in the center also erupted with a burst of strong light.

Seeing this scene, Cheng Feng and the others clearly realized something, and their expressions became excited.

After more than ten breaths, the strong light dissipated.

In the Alchemy Workshop, however, amazing changes had already taken place.

First, the area of the Alchemy Workshop had expanded to twice the original size, and a small ten-meter square open space appeared in the back, not knowing what it was for;

Second, the twenty furnaces for refining medicine were also a circle larger than before, and the space for storing fuel under the furnaces was also twice as large;

Finally, the green medicine tripod in the center, although its size hadn't changed, had an extra circle of simple cloud patterns on the outer layer, and it also radiated fluorescence, from which a strange medicinal fragrance would drift out from time to time.

Alchemy Workshop (Level 3): Medicine refining apparatus. Input any item to identify the item's attributes. Items with medicinal properties will be automatically recorded.

Special Function 1: Can automatically generate formulas based on recorded varieties, can input materials into the medicine tripod according to the formula, add water and boil, and pills can be automatically formed.

Special Function 2: Medicine furnace can be used to identify pharmacology and organize pill formulas.

Special Function 3: Using the medicine furnace to refine pills can increase the pharmacist's pill formation rate by 30%.

Special Function 4: Comes with a ten-meter medicine field, can consume coal to cultivate spiritual medicine.

Consumption: Boiling per hour/coal 1,000; identification function will consume varying amounts of coal stones depending on the preciousness of the item; medicine field consumes 200/day

Upgrade conditions: Wood 1 million, Coal 1 million, Iron 5 million, Silver 10,000, 100 synthesis formulas

…………

There were three more special functions. The second and third were clearly aimed at the path of cultivating pharmacists. With these medicine furnaces, Does Da Xia should soon have its own pharmacists.

The fourth was even more exciting: medicine field!

Does Da Xia could cultivate spiritual medicine itself, consuming 200 points per day, which was 4,000 jin of coal per day. Although this consumption was terrifying, if it could continuously generate spiritual medicine for the camp, it wouldn't be anything.

Instead, the camp's coal was currently in a state of long-term overflow!

Seeing the first four special functions, Xia Hong was originally very excited, but seeing the last upgrade condition, his face immediately collapsed.

"These upgrade conditions are getting more and more harsh!"

Wood, coal, and iron were actually easy to talk about, mainly the latter two.

100 synthesis formulas, even adding the 13 new formulas this time, Does Da Xia currently only mastered 44 formulas in total, still 56 short. One must know that the further back these formulas go, the harder they are to synthesize;

Silver goes without saying, 10,000 points, equivalent to 50,000 jin of silver, which is more than the silver resources required for the upgrades of all other buildings combined.

Before finding a silver mine, except for the two items of Black Soil Wall and Yellow Soil Land, the other seven buildings didn't need to be looked at. This completely extinguished Xia Hong's thought of upgrading buildings.

After telling Cheng Feng all the functions of the upgraded Alchemy Workshop, Xia Hong thought for a moment and continued to order:

"I'll have someone send another batch of herbs and jade bones later. You prioritize refining Yang Origin Pills, then use the remaining herbs to refine Blood Origin Pills and Beast Spirit Pills. Refine as many as you can. Also, study the usage of the medicine field."

"Your subordinate obeys!"

Cheng Feng's expression was incredibly excited. After saying this, he led people to look at the medicine field.

Speaking of which, the four workshops of Alchemy, Forging, Xia Clothing, and Woodworking were all under the jurisdiction of the Craftsman Department, but because Cheng Feng's Logging Department often needed to use the Alchemy Workshop, he was specifically responsible for the affairs of the Alchemy Workshop, which could be considered sharing a part for Mu Dong, the Director of the Craftsman Department.

Xia Hong returned to the main building, quickly organized a large batch of jade bones, Cold Apple Jade Dew, and ten other precious herbs, and then called someone to send them all to the Alchemy Workshop.

"Thanks to Xia Chuan's lion's opening, this batch of herbs sent by Longshan and Zhaoyang is enough to match 180 jin of jade bone medicine. Taken to the Alchemy Workshop, it is estimated that 60 furnaces of Yang Origin Pills can be refined, which, if nothing goes wrong, will be 540 pills. It will certainly be enough for me to cultivate to the peak of the Frost-Resistance level, or even break through to the Manifesting Yang level. In this way, the cultivation problem of the Frost-Resistance level is basically solved!"

Xia Hong's eyes moved slightly. Frost-Resistance level cultivation, concerning himself and the rest of the camp, had always been the top priority. Now that this matter was successfully solved, he could free up his mind to focus on the development of the camp.

………………

The screening work was ongoing, and the Longyou Great Migration was proceeding at the same time.

Every night, about 5,000 newcomers came from Mirror Valley. In the middle, there were two or three accidents of cold beast invasion. Fortunately, the scale wasn't large, and they all passed through without danger in the end, with minimal population loss.

From April 29th to May 9th, the mighty population migration finally ended. A total of 49,000+ people came afterward.

By the time the sky was just bright on May 10th, when Xia Hong checked the system panel again, the camp's population had officially broken through the 100,000 mark.

【Territory Population: 102,942】

In the main hall on the top floor of the main building, Xia Hong sat alone on the high seat, looking at the camp population data, and a trace of memory suddenly rose in his eyes.

"The nine towns of Mo'ao Mountain, just in terms of population scale, the gap between Does Da Xia and them shouldn't be too big. It's just that I don't know how much the strength gap is!"

He remembered Yang Ning and Li Hu.

Those two "pride of heaven" from Beishu.

A trace of contempt rose in Xia Hong's eyes. The pride of heaven in his mouth was, of course, more of a tease. Even three years ago, he had never put those two in his eyes, let alone now.

What he was truly interested in was Beishu, and the other eight towns of Mo'ao Mountain!

Nine town-level camps with a population of over 100,000, what kind of prosperous scene was it?

How magnificent was the Mo'ao Mountain Range that Yang Ning and Luo Ming and others had talked about?

What did the five types of strange monsters—Craft, Nightmare, Fierce, God, and Demon—look like respectively?

And what Luo Ming said, that leader named Yang Zun, as proud as those two Yang and Li, every time they mentioned him, they would show respect and fanaticism, and even required everyone to add the prefix of Great Lord. To what extent had Yang Zun's strength reached?

………………

These many confusions, previously limited by strength, Xia Hong had all suppressed in his heart. Now, accompanied by his own strength becoming stronger and stronger and Does Da Xia's scale becoming larger and larger, they naturally all surfaced again.

Xia Hong stood up and turned to look at the full map of Does Da Xia's territory behind him.

"Cannot put the cart before the horse. Only by stabilizing the rear can I focus on solving the puzzles.

The current expansion focus must be placed on Longyou. Yang Dew is a desperate land. After taking the Beehive, Does Da Xia basically controlled the east and north entrances of Red Wood Ridge. Red Wood Ridge reaches the Ying River in the south and basically can be determined to have no human camps. The west side likely borders Longshan and has no entrance, which means..."

Xia Hong drew a large circle on the map, framing the entire Red Wood Ridge, and continued: "The entire territory of Red Wood Ridge has returned to Does Da Xia. The next step is exploration, to convert the resources of Red Wood Ridge into strength as soon as possible."

Thinking of this, a sense of heroism inevitably rose in Xia Hong's eyes.

To this day, Xia Hong already had a rough outline of the environment Does Da Xia was in.

Previously influenced by Luo Ming, his concept was that only after passing through the Arrow Bamboo Forest to the north could it be considered the territory of the Pingxi Plain.

Now it seems that everything west of the entire Twin Dragon Mountain should be at the same altitude.

Therefore, the Twin Dragon Valley where Does Da Xia is located, including Red Wood Ridge further west, should all be considered the territory of the Pingxi Plain.

"From the perspectives of cold beasts, vegetation, medicinal herbs, and mineral resources, there are only three resource lands within the Pingxi Plain. Ranked by area from small to large, they are Arrow Bamboo Forest, Red Wood Ridge, and Longshan.

Now Red Wood Ridge and Arrow Bamboo Forest both belong to Does Da Xia. The largest resource land, Longshan, Does Da Xia also controls the two entrances of Wu Shuang and Cold Jade, and can also get a share of it. Just from the perspective of resources, taking Longyou is only a matter of time. Zhaoyang and Longshan have no hope of a comeback!"

From a long-term perspective, resources are equivalent to strength, indisputably.

Moreover, in terms of the efficiency of converting resources into strength, Does Da Xia is only higher than other camps, not lower.

Although Longshan and Zhaoyang are currently stronger than Does Da Xia, Xia Hong has confidence that this situation will soon be reversed.

Moreover, the speed of this reversal will be faster than imaginable!

Tap tap tap...

A burst of footsteps came from behind, interrupting Xia Hong's thoughts.

Then, Qiu Peng's voice sounded.

"Report to the Leader, the screening work for all personnel in the camp has been completed. The last batch has all migrated into the camp tonight. A total of 65,924 ordinary people from the three Longyou families have been arranged to live in the temporary large wooden houses in the outer city.

The Camp Supplies Department has already registered their household registration. There are still nearly 13,000 people from the three families left in Longyou who haven't come over, including 1,388 Earth-Digging Realm members, who have all been broken up into two parts, respectively cooperating with our garrison in Wu Shuang and Cold Jade. The remaining Logging Realm members mostly stayed in the Beehive, and a small number were transferred to Wu Shuang and Cold Jade, responsible for the logistics of the garrison points!"

Xia Hong's expression was slightly excited. These 60,000+ people who migrated from Longyou first were all ordinary people who hadn't broken through to the Logging Realm. He knew that the Logging Realm and Earth-Digging Realm members were left in Longyou.

So strictly speaking, Does Da Xia's current population should have broken through 110,000.

Qiu Peng's report hadn't ended, and he continued:

"Our own Earth-Digging Realm members have also arrived home, totaling 1,800 people, including 20 intermediate hunting teams of 1,000 people, and the remaining 40 low-level hunting teams of 800 people."

This time, all 32 intermediate hunting teams in the camp were transferred to Longyou. Xia Chuan clearly considered garrisoning Wu Shuang and Cold Jade, so he left 12 elite intermediate teams.

Xia Hong nodded slightly and asked: "Just these? Who else is back?"

Qiu Peng nodded and said: "I heard from those who arrived first that the Secretary should intend to personally sit in Longyou. Yu Wentao, Yuan Cheng, Luo Yuan, Meng Yi, Zhu Yuan, Lin Kai, Lu Yang, Huang Yong, Hong Gang, Peng Bo, Chen Yingyuan, and others, eleven people, are now in Mirror Valley and should be back soon."

Excluding himself, and counting the four—Peng Bo, Chen Yingyuan, Chen Yingba, and Wu Tianxing—Does Da Xia's current Frost-Resistance level members should be twenty-three.

Zhu Ling and Qiu Peng are in Xia City, Yue Feng is in Mirror Valley, Xu Ning is in Wuyuan.

Hong Guang, Hong Tian, Zhao Hu, and Zhao Bao were sent by himself to garrison Cold Jade.

Xia Chuan should be garrisoning Wu Shuang with Zhao Long, Chen Yingba, and Wu Tianxing.

In other words, there are currently eight Frost-Resistance level members left in Longyou.

Eight Frost-Resistance level members left in Longyou should be enough for now!

"The Secretary sent word back, saying that the three garrison points in Longyou have all started normal hunting life. Once the straight road between Mirror Valley and the Beehive is repaired, the various resources in Longyou can also start being transported back to Xia City."

Xia Hong nodded. Beehive people can go south to Red Wood Ridge to hunt and log. Cold Jade and Wu Shuang also have entrances to Longshan branches. Without war in Longyou, all three garrison points can live normally.

"Since the people from the Hunting Department are all back, prepare to lower the price of beast meat again. The cultivation qualifications of the Martial Arts Hall remain unchanged, temporarily still prioritized for those who are about to break through to the Earth-Digging Realm. Also, there is one more thing I need to arrange for you to do..."

With so many hunting teams back, the supply of beast meat naturally wouldn't be a problem, and resources should be relaxed a bit. 5 contribution points for 1 jin of beast meat is not very friendly to the 60,000+ people who have just joined the camp recently.

Hearing Xia Hong say he wanted to lower the price of beast meat, Qiu Peng's expression was clearly a bit hesitant, but he still listened patiently. Until Xia Hong finished speaking, he then spoke with a trace of hesitation:

"Leader, I happen to have a suggestion I'd like to mention to you..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 264 =====