Chapter 325: Earth Fire Mingyi Hexagram Hexagram

Xu Jia stepped on the waves and rode the tide, soon arriving at Luzon. By this time, the second batch of immigrants had already arrived. The first batch consisted of only two thousand five hundred people; after a year, their numbers had increased rather than decreased, as they had subdued a group of Wonu Country natives and a group of native islander slaves.

The second batch of immigrants was much larger. Thanks to the integration of various merchant ships and the addition of sturdy ships and powerful cannons, they no longer feared pirates. With the protection of the Ao Jialong Dragon Head Statue, these trade ships could transport ten thousand immigrants at a time.

This was still because Xu Jia had repeatedly stressed that these immigrants were not cargo, but the foundation of the Daoist people and the cornerstone of the future Dao Kingdom. Only then did each ship carry at most one hundred and fifty people, or at least seventy or eighty, equipped with a ship doctor, medicinal herbs, and various fresh fruits and vegetables to prevent the immigrants from dying on board or suffering from severe acclimatization issues.

Now, on Luzon Island, a wharf had been established. A large number of East Sea merchants, upon learning that this place was occupied by their countrymen, considered it a safe transit point. Merchants were always well-informed, and besides, there was the Golden Toad mediating within; he was the most adept at finding paths to wealth.

However, Luzon was not a vital thoroughfare; to truly control the thoroughfares, one had to look globally at several straits and canals.

Xu Jia's figure was light and refined. Back in the day, Damo crossed the river on a reed; Xu Jia stepping barefoot on the waves was certainly comparable to Damo, not to mention similar to the Eight Immortals crossing the sea in the *Journey to the East*.

Among the small boats on Luzon, there was one with a chubby, baby-faced appearance—it was Xiaopangdun. He had lived a hard life here for a while, with his primary job being Daoist cultivation and his secondary job being beast taming. Sometimes he served as a diplomat, a Luzon ambassador, hoodwinking the various tribes into believing in the true faith and having the tribes offer sacrifices to deities to submit, hoping to receive an official decree and transform from barbarian wild gods into running dogs under the Heavenly Master.

The volcano Mountain God of the Wusachi tribe, with whom he had first communicated, had already been hoodwinked by him.

Luzon was in a tropical region with frequent heavy rainfall, and the soil was eroded by rain, so it was actually not fertile. If it weren't for the volcano occasionally spewing thick smoke and dropping large amounts of volcanic ash, this place would not have become arable, fertile land.

Therefore, this Mountain God was of authentic lineage. Despite the terrifying appearance of the eruptions, its actual duty was that of an agricultural guardian god, a god of abundance, as well as a fire god, a symbol of Dimu's wrath, a god of forging, and so on.

Don't look at the local natives as having a low level of civilization, similar to the tribal people of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era; they already knew how to smelt metal. Moreover, local mineral deposits were quite rich, especially gold and copper mines. As for iron mines, although not as abundant as gold and copper, they did exist.

It was just that agriculture had not yet fully spread, and the various tribes had not yet submitted, so there was no strong industrial foundation. Now, there were smelting sites here, but they were mostly Earth Method iron smelting, collecting iron-bearing silt to burn and refine, which was very primitive.

Hui Zhuo was fishing when he suddenly felt something and looked toward Xu Jia, his internal Immortal power momentarily stimulated.

"It's Master!" He was just excited and wanted to wave, but then he thought of something and shrank back a bit. Aside from being kind and amiable at the very beginning, Xu Jia's subsequent meetings were basically all sorts of brutal tests. He had previously thought it was exile to Luzon, but it turned out he was living quite comfortably here—eating fresh fruit, sea fishing, beachcombing, diving, and sunbathing on the beach; it was quite enjoyable.

Xu Jia also sensed something. At this moment, two large pythons transformed from King Cobras suddenly rose from the seabed—they were Chang Yuying and Chang Yu'e. Their figures had actually grown even larger. In the tropical region, they did not need to hibernate, and marine food was abundant; the two of them had basically transformed from "mountain-crossers" into seabed titans. The local natives called them "Naga."

The two large pythons carried Xu Jia on their backs, showing affection. Chang Yuying even spoke: "Master Xu, you have finally come."

The two of them followed the immigrants to serve as Protectors. Secondly, in the Nanyang region, there was much giant snake worship, so they could thrive in such a place.

Xu Jia sensed their cultivation, which had increased by at least fifty years of Daoist Practice, and knew they were doing well: "It has been hard on you. Are you accustomed to it here?"

"Although this place cannot compare to Sanqing Mountain, where we merged with the Dragon Vein in Sanlong Dong and obtained the Spirit Machine of the mountains, it is comfortable. There are many of our kind, and many are sentient; they have all been subdued by us sisters. There is even a snake tribe that has directly turned to worship us; their original object of worship was also a snake, which we ate."

"The reason we did not obtain the Dragon Vein is because it has not been combed. Large places have large-scale dragons, and small places have their own patterns. From the perspective of Feng Shui, Luzon is a natural Blessed Land, the residual energy of the Central Plains Dragon Vein entering the sea, like a Dragon Pearl on the ocean." "It only needs to be properly adjusted to obtain a Tongren Hexagram."

The Tongren Hexagram is a hexagram of Qian and Li, a hexagram of like-mindedness. This place is tropical and has volcanoes; using this hexagram as a base, combined with the underground fire, it becomes the image of Mingyi Hexagram Hexagram, which signifies the struggle between light and darkness, but it will ultimately succeed.

Back when Sun was overseas, he had the image of these two hexagrams.

Chang Yuying and Chang Yu'e could not see the symbolic meaning of the geography and Feng Shui, but they just felt that whatever Xu Jia said was right, and they delivered Xu Jia to the wharf.

On the wharf, Xiaopangdun had already tidied his clothes and bowed deeply to Xu Jia: "Disciple pays respects to Master! May Master enjoy immortal blessings forever and ascend to the truth of the Great Dao."

"Your flattery skills have improved quite a bit in these two years; you can easily say such thick-skinned and nauseating words." Xu Jia retorted, then walked forward and asked: "How is the task I gave you?"

Xiaopangdun perked up: "Now that we have reclaimed farmland, there are already over ten thousand mu. Each mu is meticulously cultivated, and with three harvests a year, the annual yield per mu can reach fourteen or fifteen hundred catties; after drying, it is about a thousand catties."

"In addition, we have found a type of large taro that grows even without much effort; it can be eaten as a staple or as a vegetable. Another thing is bananas; the bananas here are quite large, but eating too many makes one feel flustered. However, the yield is high, and the only drawback is that they are difficult to transport."

"Adding these things up, the annual grain is basically more than enough to eat. As for the sweet potato, potato, corn, or cassava you mentioned, we are still looking for them, but we haven't found them in Annam, Siam, or those Nanyang countries. They grow rice just like us, and their rice is even more fragrant."

"However, cotton has been found and is being grown on a large scale. It was brought over from Heavenly Punishment. I was thinking of loading it onto the cargo next time and bringing it to you, but I didn't expect you to come here directly."

"Cotton is good! If those haven't been found, keep looking. If they aren't in Nanyang, they must be in South America. With current technology, it is still very difficult for you to get there."

Xu Jia said: "Besides these trade-regulated routes, you should recruit a batch of pirates and let them become navigators and adventurers. Invest money in them and tell them there is a new continent to explore new routes. The Nanyang countries were originally tributary states of the Great Ning Dynasty, but later the Great Ning closed the sea, and with the increase of Wonu pirates, their tribute became unprofitable. You can lobby them next time and let them pay tribute again, so you won't have to go there to collect grain; they will take the initiative to come and trade."

"This matter can indeed be done." Xiaopangdun's eyes rolled around: "Master, your vision is truly far-reaching."

"Once you bring them here, tell them this is a duty-free zone, free trade, collect their management fees, and then train the navy. Are my Daoist acolytes now usable?"

"They are all being trained by Junior Brother Gongming. They are young, but their bodies are growing fast. While practicing Daoism, they are also learning martial arts. A few days ago, it is said they went deep into the dense forest together and caught a five-zhang-long python. This python has no intelligence and has not yet become a demon, yet it can grow so large. They are practicing some kind of Python Form Fist, which is specifically for refining tendons."

"That Junior Brother Gongming is now like a humanoid monster. He was eight feet tall before, and now he is probably nine feet. His blood and energy are like wolf smoke; when he practices martial arts, there are bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning. His strength can split mountains and crack rocks. Why is the gap between my Human Immortal and his Human Immortal so large?"

Xu Jia heard his envy and said: "He is naturally gifted. He earned the title of Martial Scholar, and now he has obtained the Lingbao Register Method and is moving in this direction, which shows his single-minded study. You follow me to learn the Great Yellow Court, which is authentic, but you are lazy; otherwise, you should be preparing to undergo the Earth Immortal tribulation now."

(End of chapter)