Chapter 811

Early morning is a magical time. When the first ray of sunlight shone through the window, Xiaoyu felt as if he had woken up in his own courtyard in the ancestral lands; the events of yesterday were like a long dream, seemingly very distant.

He gathered his spirits and walked out of the bedroom, suddenly seeing that an Eight Immortals table had been set in the main hall, with four types of breakfast items and a pot of good tea placed upon it.

In the study, a large stack of official documents had been moved in. Xiaoyu flipped through them casually; they were all about the current development of Yongan City and some official business that urgently needed handling.

Xiaoyu immediately felt energized; he hurriedly finished his breakfast and began to work.

At this time, Wei Yuan was busy dealing with the backlog of Azure Void affairs amidst the "Human Renjian Yanhuo." He specifically added one item: renovating the Yongan City Lord's Mansion. After thinking about it, he ordered someone to notify Xiaoyu to attend the ceremony for the rollout of the cargo trucks.

The ceremony was held at the Weapon Forging Workshop. The current Weapon Forging Workshop was an entire region, over a hundred miles in circumference, divided internally into seven or eight functional zones.

This was just the headquarters; various factories and mines were set up everywhere. There were over seven thousand cultivators honing their Dao Foundations here, fifty thousand craftsmen of various types, and five hundred thousand ordinary people.

The new engines were the size of small houses, so the cargo trucks were naturally not small. This vehicle had ten tires on each side—two in front and eight in back—with each wheel being a dual-tire setup. A single tire was as tall as Wei Yuan himself. The overall height of the vehicle body was close to three stories, and it was fifteen zhang long.

Looking at such a behemoth, Xiaoyu was naturally shocked, but Wei Yuan and the others were all accustomed to it.

Afterward, Yu Zhizhuo invited the cultivators to board the vehicle to demonstrate its performance in person. This vehicle came with two arrays: Weight Reduction and Wind Control. It usually traveled on the ground driven by the engine, and in rugged terrain, it could fly briefly, up to a hundred zhang at a time.

This vehicle could carry up to five hundred thousand catties of cargo and could travel at high speeds on basic roads where two horse-drawn carriages could pass side-by-side. Just twenty of these vehicles could supply the daily needs of a hundred-thousand-strong army.

The key was that this vehicle could travel on ordinary roads, and for the same weight, the cost of transporting goods per thousand miles was less than one-tenth that of a flying boat. Flying boats consumed high-grade spirit jade, while this vehicle mostly consumed the Qi-replenishing elixirs meant for Dao Foundation cultivators, plus three meals a day.

After inspecting the entire vehicle, Wei Yuan decided on the spot to produce one hundred of them.

This vehicle could be further modified for many other uses. By this time, Wei Yuan had already thought that if they equipped a few vehicles on the routes from Azure Void to Green Water, and from Azure Void to Hanyang Pass, and ran them regularly, they would recoup their costs in less than half a year.

Next was the final part of the ceremony. Wei Yuan took out the four large characters "Building a Cart Behind Closed Doors" and gifted them to Yu Zhizhuo. Yu Zhizhuo displayed them publicly, then ordered them to be framed and placed in the new workshop's office, while also having the four characters "Building a Cart Behind Closed Doors" inlaid at the main gate of the cargo truck workshop.

The ceremony was brief and enthusiastic, with applause like thunder throughout the venue.

Xiaoyu stood on the stage, watching Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo go through the motions of exchanging the calligraphy, and suddenly had a feeling: although the people off-stage all felt this kind of ceremony was very boring, the people on-stage felt it was particularly good. No wonder they were all tireless in doing it.

Xiaoyu, meanwhile, was watching from the stage and felt it actually wasn't that bad; he thought that doing it a few more times wouldn't be unacceptable, and perhaps he would be the protagonist next time.

Wei Yuan faced the crowd, smiling brilliantly, and specifically froze for ten seconds to allow everyone to clearly see his demeanor. After such a performance, he harvested over a hundred strands of Azure Qi, and thus, satisfied, he ended the ceremony.

Wei Yuan now accepted all sizes of destiny, refusing none; this was the foundation of his survival.

Xiaoyu quietly transmitted his voice to Wei Yuan: "Has it already developed to this point?"

Wei Yuan replied: "Do you remember Xu Wenwu? Some time ago, I fished out a world fragment that is very similar to the world beyond the heavens. I absorbed a lot of memory and knowledge about the world beyond the heavens from the fragment, and I've already organized it and put it in the library. If you want to see it, you can just sleep at night."

"Then the government affairs of Yongan City..."

"Most of them are handled by the Political Affairs Hall now. You should familiarize yourself with them first; handle what you can, and hand over what you can't to the Political Affairs Hall. I've already had them gradually transfer official business to you. Once you're familiar with it, you can move the approval process over."

Such an arrangement was naturally for the best, and Xiaoyu's somewhat anxious heart was set at ease.

Originally, when he first arrived in Azure Void, Xiaoyu had come to hold Wei Yuan accountable. After Wei Yuan subdued Xiaoyu's forces without a fight, Xiaoyu accepted the old position of Yongan City Lord. For one, it gave Wei Yuan face; for another, Yongan City was now grand in scale, and there was also the factor of nostalgia—taking over as City Lord was also a fine story that could elevate Xiaoyu's reputation even further.

However, after experiencing yesterday's dark day, Xiaoyu's mindset had undergone a subtle change; he was no longer high and mighty. Could Zhang Sheng not manage this core city of Azure Void? Could Ji Liuli and Behind Bao Yun not manage it? Feng Tingyu... well, she truly couldn't manage it. Xiaoyu felt this to be the case.

After the ceremony ended, Wei Yuan hurriedly rushed back to seclude himself, continuing to wrestle with numbers and curves. The calculation work for the second trajectory was already seventy percent complete; victory was in sight.

As for the Grotto-Heaven core on the new trajectory, Wei Yuan had already prepared it: it was the cauldron that held the yin souls, which he had snatched back when he was in the Northern Territory years ago.

The material of this cauldron was inherently of a very high grade, and after being soaked in soul power for ten thousand years, it had long since mutated, becoming extremely yin and cold, and possessing the true meaning of despair and returning to silence. Once cultivated into a Grotto-Heaven, its attributes would inevitably be quite extreme, and it might even be a natural golden Grotto-Heaven.

With every new Grotto-Heaven formed, the "Human Renjian Yanhuo" would be perfected a little more, and Wei Yuan's cultivation base would also take a big step forward.

At this moment, that handful of Wuji Apricot Yellow Soil had absorbed chaotic Qi for many days, and it was now about a zhang in circumference. A water vat was placed on top of it, and three Mirage Demons stood around the vat, staring at each other with wide eyes.

This tiny piece of land, no bigger than a palm, was difficult even to turn around in, and the attributes of this place also made them, as water-natured beings, quite uncomfortable; they relied entirely on the innate water Qi in the central vat to survive.

Although it wasn't comfortable here, as beings of the Imperial View, they were even less willing to stay in the "Human Renjian Yanhuo." There, the Mind-Reflection Worlds of the three Mirage Demons would be firmly suppressed, as if solidified, unable to move at all—an indescribable discomfort.

By comparison, they were more at ease on this small piece of land. Thus, the three demons had no objections to Wei Yuan moving them onto it. Besides, this was the core of a new Grotto-Heaven that would constantly grow larger, so they would be able to turn around in the future.

Wei Yuan inspected the interior of the "Human Renjian Yanhuo," felt there were no problems, and came to his own private courtyard in the Heaven and Earth Creation Research Institute, opening five hundred and twelve tasks, preparing to continue calculating the second Grotto-Heaven trajectory.

Before starting work, Wei Yuan specifically looked at Xiaoyu, seeing that he had indeed also entered the "Human Renjian Yanhuo" and, guided by staff, had also arrived at the Research Institute.

The staff member was a girl with an ordinary appearance. After explaining how to use the system, she directly opened sixteen tasks for Xiaoyu.

Encountering the task system for the first time, Xiaoyu was inevitably a bit flustered. Even with Shaoyang Star Lord helping, handling sixteen tasks at once was overwhelming, and he was in a state of chaos.

Seeing this, Wei Yuan was naturally in a good mood and opened another sixty-four tasks, his processing speed flying.

On the other side, Shaoyang Star Lord was constantly exclaiming: "This system is truly magical, with a hint of the Heaven and Earth monitoring of the various Lords of the Immortal Heavens. That mortals could actually create such a system is truly inconceivable."

Xiaoyu nodded: "Indeed. This is probably not something an ordinary cultivator could use. We are all struggling so much; if this were Feng Tingyu..."

Shaoyang Star Lord suddenly said: "This realm is full of monsters, but perhaps the destiny of an entire generation of the Primordial Palace has gathered here. In a few days, you might as well go visit your elders and walk around; I want to see what level their Dharma Forms are at."

"You mean..."

"Thanks to you, you haven't won a single battle since descending; how can you calm the accumulated frustration in your heart? Why don't you dissolve your physical body and commit suicide, then reincarnate and cultivate again?"

Xiaoyu was displeased: "Do you really think my ability is lacking? Can you blame me for losing?"

Shaoyang Star Lord glared back at Xiaoyu, not giving an inch: "Otherwise what? Could it be that this Star Lord's ability is lacking?"

Xiaoyu looked coldly at Shaoyang Star Lord, saying nothing; everything was in his eyes.

(End of chapter)