Chapter 1385

Oriana nodded.

"I called you here precisely to discuss this matter."

"Should we welcome back our Divine Tree and the Wang Zu? Or turn a blind eye?"

Louise raised an eyebrow, not rushing to speak—this was indeed a troublesome choice.

Regardless of what exactly was happening within the Nature Elves, things on Lin Cheng's side remained as peaceful as ever.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Lin Cheng brought the girls once again to take part in the semifinals of the Inscription Competition.

Today's match was even livelier than yesterday's. The contestants eliminated yesterday all showed up today as spectators, making the atmosphere on site more vibrant, and the competition was proceeding in full swing.

The content of the semifinals was forging and enchanting using randomly distributed materials, with the finished product serving as the basis for judging victory or defeat.

Compared to yesterday's match, the randomly distributed materials greatly restricted some contestants' performance, but on-the-spot adaptability and forging fundamentals became all the more important—it was indeed a very good form of test.

Today, Society Head Huoerde once again chose to attend, though whether he would withdraw midway again was unknown.

Lin Cheng expressed his concern right away.

"Society Head, is your physical condition alright today? You won't withdraw midway again, will you?"

"Cough, cough."

Society Head Huoerde, who had just been drinking tea, choked on a mouthful of it.

"How do you even talk? How can you curse someone to be carried off the moment you arrive?"

"Nonsense, my body is as tough as ever."

"Then how come you were carried off yesterday? Being old and your body not being up to it is a fact, you have to admit it." Lin Cheng, looking every bit the man who'd been through it, patted the Society Head on the shoulder.

This made Society Head Huoerde a little angry, his beard trembling.

Although he couldn't compare to the elves by Lin Cheng's side, his age was more than enough to be Lin Cheng's grandfather.

"Don't bring up yesterday's matter again… just watch the match in peace."

"Mm, I won't be coming tomorrow." Lin Cheng appeared to be watching the match, but not a single word came out of his mouth.

"Why?" Huoerde turned his head in confusion.

Was he planning to imitate him and become a hands-off boss? But he had only stood him up for a single day. The importance of the preliminaries and the finals—which is light and which is heavy—could Lin Cheng really not tell?

"Nothing much, the Crown Prince is coming tomorrow, you should have heard, right? I was appointed as Vice Minister of the Empire's Ministry of Works. Although it's only a nominal post, I still have to do the work."

"Is it about that Magic Crystal Internal Combustion Engine?" Huoerde naturally kept close tabs on the Empire's important affairs, especially those concerning their forging world.

Recently, the Second Imperial Prince Li Jian proposed to Your Majesty the comprehensive reform of the Empire's infrastructure. Your Majesty was pleased but also angry, because of some useless people within the Empire's Ministry of Works, so the entire Ministry was overhauled, causing an uproar throughout the Imperial Capital. Among the most famous of these was Lin Cheng's Magic Crystal Internal Combustion Engine.

Renowned for its high efficiency and low energy consumption, it could greatly boost labor efficiency, effectively replace manual labor, help reclaim more fields, sow seeds, and even harvest, increasing overall output, and could play a role in every trade and industry.

This epoch-making product gave Society Head Huoerde quite a boost in face, after all Lin Cheng was one of his people.