Chapter 578: Building a Moon

The first-phase project of the Dao Soldier System was nearing its end.

Jie Ming stood at the edge of the plain in the East District of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, looking at the huge array composed of rune pillars and energy nodes.

All 108 rune pillars had been erected, each 100 meters high, with the surface engraved with dense runes.

Those runes flickered with faint light under the grey-red sky, echoing each other, forming an energy network covering the entire plain. Beside them, the Black Giant priests waited respectfully for the master's inquiry.

"How is the progress of the first-phase project of the Dao Soldier System?"

"93% completed."

Jie Ming nodded.

"Continue."

"Yes!"

Watching the Black Giant priests fly down quickly to command the Black Giants to continue working, Jie Ming withdrew his gaze.

"Still 7%... soon."

Jie Ming muttered.

In at most two or three years, the first phase of the Dao Soldier System would be officially enabled.

So, the preparation work could already begin.

The refining of Dao soldiers required many materials, most of which could be found as substitutes in the wizard world.

Minerals, elemental crystals, biological samples, the base for refining... these were all easy to talk about.

However, when Jie Ming was studying the Dao Soldier System some time ago, he suddenly discovered that there was one thing that needed to be prepared in advance.

Di Liu Jiang (Imperial Flow Pulp).

Jie Ming turned back to the laboratory, sat down to calm his mind, and found the ancient book pavilion in the depths of his consciousness.

The Great Dao Book Pavilion was quietly floating, its whole body seemingly cast from white jade, emitting a soft light.

Jie Ming's heart moved, the doors of the book pavilion opened, and a stream of light flew out from the depths, turning into an ancient book in front of him.

He reached out to take it and opened the pages.

The opening was a passage of classical Chinese:

"For plants and trees to become demons, they must receive the essence of moonlight, but not just any moonlight—it must be the moonlight of the Gengshen night. Because the moonlight of the Gengshen night contains Earthly Flowing Pulp, shaped like countless olives, with ten thousand golden threads hanging down in a row. If plants and trees receive its essence, they can become demons; if foxes and ghosts eat it, they can manifest supernatural powers. Since plants and trees have nature but no life, the flow pulp has nature and can supplement life; foxes and ghosts have their own life, so eating it is of great benefit."

Jie Ming narrowed his eyes, quickly scanning this text.

Di Liu Jiang.

This thing, while not becoming a common commodity in the cultivation world, wasn't particularly precious either, but it had a wide range of uses.

Although the refining of Dao soldiers wouldn't necessarily use Di Liu Jiang, if Di Liu Jiang could be added, it could significantly improve the aptitude and upper limit of the Dao soldiers.

Even if not used to refine Dao soldiers, simply as a material to improve cannon-fodder units, or used for alchemy, it was top-tier good stuff. More importantly, it was a "conceptual material."

Like Red Dust Qi and Incense Divine Power, Di Liu Jiang didn't need to be collected from the natural world, but could be created out of thin air by collecting the concept of "moonlight" and mixing it with spiritual energy.

Jie Ming continued to flip forward.

Behind it was the specific array construction for manufacturing Di Liu Jiang, from the layout of the array base to the engraving of the array patterns, every step was written extremely detailed. He spent half an hour memorizing all the content, then closed the book and fell into deep thought.

"Moonlight..."

He raised his head and looked at the sky outside through the skylight of the laboratory.

The sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane was grey-red, covered year-round with volcanic ash and sulfur clouds.

Above the clouds, two light orbs were emitting light.

One was the projection of the Fire Elemental Plane, hanging 24/7, the only "sun" of this world.

The other...

Was the projection of the 7th-tier large elemental pool.

Looking at that slightly dim projection, Jie Ming's mouth twitched.

When he built the 7th-tier large elemental pool, he didn't pay much attention to this detail.

That huge energy core hovered in the center of the plane, its energy radiation passing through the atmosphere, forming a second light source in the sky. Although it was dimmer than the real sun, it was enough to illuminate the earth.

In other words, the Purgatory Sulfur Plane had two suns and no moon.

"No moon, huh..."

Jie Ming rubbed his temples.

The prerequisite material for Di Liu Jiang was "moonlight essence."

Without a moon, where would the moonlight come from?

Just like when he extracted Purple East-Coming Qi and needed the concept of the sun, Di Liu Jiang also needed the symbol of the moon.

Although the vast majority of planes didn't have real stars as suns, the so-called "sun" was just a projection of the Fire Elemental Plane. But as long as that "projection" existed, the concept could be established.

Similarly, the "moon" of a plane was usually a projection of the Water Elemental Plane.

But the Purgatory Sulfur Plane was too small, and all along it only had the projection of the Fire Elemental Plane, with no projection of the Water Elemental Plane at all.

This was also the reason why a unique sulfur ecology formed here—water elements were scarce, and fire elements were excessive.

"Then let's build a moon."

Jie Ming quickly made a decision.

He looked up at the projection of the 7th-tier large elemental pool in the sky.

That thing had been hanging in the sky, shining day and night like an idiot.

Usually, he didn't pay attention, but now it seemed this thing could be modified just right.

It didn't need to be turned into a real moon, just let it appear only at night.

Hide it during the day, let it shine at night, and adjust the color and frequency of the light to make it look more like "moonlight" rather than "sunlight."

In this way, the Purgatory Sulfur Plane would have the concepts of "night" and "moonlight."

With the concept, one could extract moonlight.

With moonlight, one could manufacture Di Liu Jiang.

The logic was sound.

But the problem was... this level of array modification, he couldn't handle alone.

He didn't build the 7th-tier large elemental pool himself; adding a set of "day-night switching" arrays to it without affecting its core functions, and also simulating the spectrum of moonlight, had already exceeded his personal ability range.

It even exceeded the ability range of the Black Giant priests.

Jie Ming didn't hesitate, raised his hand to tap the Magic Network terminal, and entered the internal trading platform of the Nuolun Workshop.

Search for "Large Elemental Pool Modification Construction Team."

A pile of results popped up instantly.

【Nuolun Workshop Direct Construction Team, undertaking various large-scale facility construction and modification projects】

Jie Ming casually selected one of the construction teams that had availability.

【Captain: Alfred, 6th-tier Array Master】

【Team Size: 127 people, including 8 5th-tier array masters, 36 4th-tier array masters, the rest are auxiliary personnel】

【Business Scope: Elemental pools, energy nodes, protective arrays, spatial anchoring...】

【Quote: Depends on the complexity of the project, base fee starts at 5 million low-tier military merits】

【Recent Availability: Has a slot within three months】

Jie Ming scanned it and clicked "Contact" directly.

The other side replied very quickly.

【Alfred: Hello, Lord Jie Ming. What help do you need?】

Jie Ming typed a reply, describing the content he needed to modify in detail.

The other side was silent for a few seconds, then popped up a long string of questions.

【Alfred: You need the elemental pool to appear only at night? How is the specific time node defined? Is it according to the plane's rotation period, or according to a fixed duration?】

【Alfred: Simulating the moonlight spectrum, what band does it need to be precise to? Is it simply lowering the color temperature, or does it need to simulate the special frequency of the Water Elemental projection?】

【Alfred: How long does the elemental pool need to be shut down during the modification process? Do you have backup energy on your side?】

Jie Ming answered one by one, explaining all the details he could think of.

Another few seconds passed.

【Alfred: Understood. We can take this project. Total quote is 8 million low-tier military merits, including material costs and labor costs. The construction period is about 20 days, provided that you cooperate with the shutdown. Do you think this is okay?】

Jie Ming's mouth lifted slightly.

【Deal.】

【Prepayment of 3 million, we will set off immediately after arrival.】

Jie Ming transferred the money immediately.

Closing the Magic Network terminal, he looked up again at the bright projection in the sky.

In 20 days, the Purgatory Sulfur Plane would have a "moon."

Once Di Liu Jiang was manufactured, the quality of the Dao soldiers could be improved by a grade.

Jie Ming stood up and walked out of the laboratory.

Outside, the Black Giant priests were still busy on the East District plain.

He looked at the huge array that was finishing up, turned around, and flew toward the direction of the elemental pool control array.

Before the modification, he had to back up all the core data of the elemental pool. ===== CHAPTER 579 =====