Journey to the head

A huge floating ship rose up from the wide mooring area outside Meihuafang. Dozens of large and small Yunshan Sect flags with green background and cloud patterns were flying in the wind on the ship.

This giant ship is fifty meters long from head to tail, and its total volume is five or six times larger than Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou. The hull is made of tough and thick spiritual wood, and various mechanisms connect the hull parts to each other. In addition to the hull, it is also covered with a thick layer of dark metal armor, and densely packed talismans are shining on the armor.

There were also many hideous long spikes extending from the armor, shining brightly in the sunlight, and there was also a huge spiral ram on the bow - when this ship crashed into the enemy fleet, it would definitely cause huge damage.

Hidden between those long spikes on the armor are dark holes for spiritual power cannons. These spiritual power cannons are particularly thick and were originally designed for close combat.

This is a commander-class airship that rarely appears around Meihuafang, but compared to itself, the large "Lu" banner fluttering on the central mast of the giant ship is more eye-catching.

The Nascent Souls and Golden Cores from various sects that came to welcome Tianyuanzi Lu Qian last night have already returned, and the news has spread that the Yunshan Sect will host a banquet for them at the Biluo Peak at the mountain gate, and Lu Qian has already boarded this airship.

In fact, the Yunshan Sect had allocated this ship to carry the three hundred spiritual seedlings. Without the need to carry the spiritual seedlings, Lu Qian took Bai Yujing into his Dantian and boarded the ship with the Yunshan Yuanying and Jindan, inspecting the spiritual veins of various places while heading towards the Biluo Peak.

Tao Boliang was introducing the situation of this ship to Lu Qian.

Feiji Zhengyuan Shenzhou, the command-class airship of the Yunshan School, was developed based on the "Huaiyuan Kangji Fighting Ship" of the Xuanwei School. It was modified based on the Yunshan School's own explorations and various airship blueprints obtained by the Sikong Family, and was tailored to the needs of the Yunshan School.

The maximum speed can reach 1,800 miles per hour, slightly slower than the ordinary Jindan escape speed, and can carry 400 cultivators.

It is positioned as a high-speed and high-protection assault ship. Under the cover of its own firepower, it uses its high speed to directly penetrate the enemy's battle formation, and then engages in boarding combat with fierce close combat firepower.

After a careful inspection, Lu Qian was very satisfied with this type of airship.

This Feiji Zhengyuan Shenzhou first sailed northward, passed Liangxiang County, entered Chongming County, and inspected the Shuangyefang built on Qianlongjian, and the Taobaofang East and West Shuangfang areas built on Qingli Mountain and Liuhua Valley.

Xie Yongchang was reprimanded in the morning and then allocated a quota for Tianxin Lotus Pond. He was naturally very nervous and respectful as he introduced the business conditions of the two places to Lu Qian.

What he didn't know was that Lu Qian was somewhat absent-minded during the inspection at Frost Leaf Square, because the underground water vein connecting with the blind snake clan of the Chen family was nearby, and it had been disconnected for fifty years. In addition, as Ningzhou Wuliang Xuanjun said, there have been frequent unusual movements among the hundreds of clans underground in recent decades, so he couldn't help but feel worried.

But this matter can only be put off until after returning from Taiyi Paradise.

Thinking about the recent schedule, it is really very busy. I will use today and tomorrow to investigate the spiritual veins in various places in the territory, and then return to the Blue Sky Peak to wait for the summons of Heming Zhenjun. After returning from the banquet, I will also host a banquet on my own and invite all the sects in Cangzhou to gather at the Blue Sky Peak. Then I will investigate the situation of the blind snake in the world and carry out special operations against the ancestral veins of Yunshan in Qingzhou.

After inspecting the two major markets and encouraging Xie Yongchang, Lu Qian led his team to continue northward.

The uses of the various spiritual veins in Chongming County and Sanshan County have not changed much, but their functions have been weakened because the mountain gate has been moved to Biluo Peak in Pinghu County.

Lingsha City is the breeding center for spiritual seedlings from Chongming and Sanshan, one of the spiritual medicine planting bases, and the garrison of the Yunshan School's "Lingsha" combat brigade. There are more than two Jindan stationed there all year round.

Underground in Lingsha City, Lu Qian and his party inspected the mining situation of the Lingshi ore veins.

With the current prestige and strength of the Yunshan Sect, there was no need to conceal the situation of the spiritual stone veins. Moreover, there was also a spiritual stone mine with good reserves in Xuantu County. In fact, the four sects of Cangzhou in the past, and even some independent Jindan sects, all controlled spiritual stone veins.

However, after letting go and no longer hiding, after several large-scale surveys, they discovered that the reserves of spiritual stone veins beneath Lingsha City were extremely huge, and could be called the first in Cangzhou.

Such a huge spiritual stone vein also shows that many years ago, there was a very high-grade spiritual vein here. However, the spiritual vein was buried deep underground, and the spiritual energy stagnated and eventually crystallized into minerals, which in turn blocked the spiritual vein.

Everything is predestined by fate. Imagine if the high-level spiritual veins here had not been blocked, perhaps a powerful sect would have appeared in the northwest of Cangzhou, instead of the chaos and disputes among the various Jindan sects.

The Yunshan Sect would not be able to gain a foothold and grow here, and eventually become a legend.

The Lingsha City's Lingshi smelting base is divided into two floors.

The upper level is where the smelting furnace is located. The melting of the spirit stone ore makes bursts of crackling sounds, and the molten magma surges in the furnace like the roar of the tide.

This place is under the jurisdiction of the Lingkuang Hall of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but is technically supported by Tao Boliang's Weapon Refining Hall.

Today, the smelting furnace has also been upgraded and renovated. While its scale continues to expand, it has achieved a certain degree of automated operation, which has reduced the number of disciples responsible for smelting spirit stones.

Lu Qian stood near the smelting furnace for a while, watching the assembly line from the lower level sending cart after cart of spirit stone ore into the furnace. After the impurities were separated after melting, they were condensed into one-inch square pieces of spirit stone using molds.
The feeling that wealth is increasing at a rate visible to the naked eye is truly pleasant.

The group then went down into the lower level mine, which was a fully automated mining site.

After decades of mining, it has become extremely huge, with tunnels extending in all directions and stretching as far as the eye can see. It is filled with the clinking sounds of spiritual mines being mined, the rumbling sounds of mine carts running, and the clicking sounds of mechanisms when small Taoist soldiers are operating.

Small Taoist soldier, "Miner No. 3".

After fifty years of experimentation and improvement, the miner's road soldier has been improved to the third type.

It was one and a half meters tall, with spider-like limbs in the lower body, which made it walk on rough roads as if on flat ground, and even easily hung on the rock wall to mine mineral veins. The six mechanical arms in the upper body held various mining, collecting, and pushing tools, which moved quickly, digging up a cluster of spiritual stone ore and throwing it into the cart on the ground.

When the cart is full, "Miner No. 3" will send the cart to the track paved on the ground and pour the full amount of spiritual stone ore into the mine cart on the track.

When the mine cart is full, it will trigger the magic circle and automatically move up along the track to the smelting furnace on the upper level.

Tao Boliang said that this kind of spiritual ore mining and smelting model has also been rolled out in the Xuantu County mine. Although there is no Corrupted Soul Phantom Iron there, it could have been mined manually, but how can manual labor compare to the efficiency of machines?
The deacon of the Lingkuang Hall introduced to Lu Qian that the current annual output of spiritual stones from the Lingsha City mine has reached two million pieces, while the output from the Xuantu County mine is one and a half million pieces per year, and both have basically reached the bottleneck of production capacity.

The total output of pure spirit stones from these two veins is 3.5 million, and the dividend from the Yunshan Sect market cluster is 18 million per year. This may not seem like much, but the key is that both veins can directly produce spirit crystals!
With the improvement of technology, the total output of spirit stones continued to increase, and more spirit crystal ores were mined. The output of spirit crystals was better than Lu Qian had imagined. The two veins could produce a total of thirteen or fourteen spirit crystals per day, and about five thousand spirit crystals per year.

The Yunshan Sect has a great demand for spiritual crystals. Every year, they have to spend a lot of energy and pay a premium to exchange the spiritual stone income for spiritual crystals. The annual output of 5,000 spiritual crystals has greatly supported the circulation of spiritual crystals in the Yunshan Sect. In addition to the seizures from the Sikong family and the thank-you gifts from the Xuanwei Sect, the Yunshan Sect still has a sufficient reserve of spiritual crystals. Yunshan disciples above the Geng level can basically enjoy the convenience brought by spiritual crystals.

What is even more surprising is that the Lingsha City mines have even mined the original spiritual marrow ore!

Over the past fifty years, dozens of pieces of spiritual marrow ore have been mined.

Unfortunately, the smelting of the spiritual marrow ore has reached a new level, and the Yunshan School does not have the corresponding technology now, so it can only be kept as a treasure and is temporarily useless.

Fortunately, Lu Qian was the only one in the sect who was using the spiritual essence, and he had not used many of the thousand spiritual essences that Taiyi Paradise rewarded him with when the forbidden sect was in turmoil. The spiritual essences were enough for him to use for a long time.

After returning to the surface from underground, Lu Qian looked at other spiritual veins. Xinbao was one of the weapon refining bases, Fucang Mountain was one of the spiritual plant cultivation bases, Wenning Mountain was used as a rehabilitation and convalescent branch, and Yongcui Valley was one of the spiritual valley and spiritual livestock breeding bases.

As for the other first-level spiritual veins, those near the border line were built into outposts, and the others were used to grow spiritual plants and medicines.

The most changed place is the former mountain gate Mianlong Mountain, which has been built into the Yunshan School Heroes Memorial Hall, which mainly consists of the Longshou Peak Battle Site, Longzhua Peak Heroes Stele Forest, and Heroes Cemetery. It is an important educational base in the Yunshan School Spirit Seedling Cultivation Program. At important moments, Yunshan’s top leaders will come here to pay tribute and comfort the spirits of the heroes.

Lu Qian and his party also came here and held a simple but solemn ceremony to commemorate the heroes of all generations, especially those who died in the zombie rebellion.

Afterwards, Feiji Zhengyuan Shenzhou headed eastward, passed through the uninhabited and dead desert, and entered the western part of Junle County.

Junle County is divided by Hanjiang River. The western half of the county is where the Zhiling Sect moved from Huaiyou County. Above the Hanjiang River is Hanjiangzhu, a fourth-level spiritual vein of Yunshan. The eastern half of the county is where the Xianyou Sect, Huanmeng Temple, Erqi Sect, Shaoyin Sect and other subordinate sects of Yunshan are led by the Zhou family of Cangluya.

As for the Golden Elixir of the Zhiling Sect, True Man Ruyi had already received the news and was waiting for him here.

In fact, according to legal principles, Zhiling Sect is an independent Jindan Sect, even if Yunshan Sect is a Yuanying Sect, it does not need to be so formal. Besides, his family originally occupied Huaiyou County, but under the order of Yunshan Sect, they had to give up the large county Huaiyou and retreat to Junle Half County.

How can I not feel resentful? How can I not feel aggrieved?
But True Man Ruyi chose to swallow all this anger.

He deeply understood that in the northern part of Cangzhou today, the Yunshan School has the final say!

Moreover, the forced relocation of their family was a decision jointly made by the four factions in Cangzhou under the auspices of Taiyi Paradise.

In other words, the reason why his family has fallen to such a state is the result of the exchange of interests among the four major gangsters in Cangzhou!

Resistance is a dead end, and harboring resentment will keep you from leaving Junle County for the rest of your life!
Don't think that if you hide in the county and practice hard under the order to stop fighting, you will have a new world after advancing to the Nascent Soul stage. Don't you see that the death of Master Yiguang of Li Yuanzong of Sanshan County was unclear, and now Li Yuanzong is even more obsessed with Yunshan Sect, fearing that one day Yunshan Sect will order Master Wei Ting to go on the stage to fight with Linglu Sect and Huanggen Sect to the death and settle the feud.

So what if our family is better than Li Yuanzong?
Only by integrating into the new order of northern Cangzhou headed by the Yunshan Sect and only by waving the flag and shouting under the Yunshan Sect can we break free from the cage of Junle County.

Not only the Zhiling Sect, but also the Guangyao Sect of Dongping County is like this. The weaker they are, the more they are submissive to the Yunshan Sect and willing to be the vanguard, hoping to be allowed to join the Chongming Alliance.

Last night, True Man Ruyi also attended the welcoming banquet held by the Cangzhou sects for Lu Qian, and Lu Qian also got to know this person.

Lu Qian didn't bother to care what Ruyi Zhenren and the others were thinking. As long as these people could be used by him and were under his control and could not betray him, it was enough.

If they perform well enough, they can also share some of the glory of the Yunshan School as the "majority" of the "United States".

Therefore, in response to Master Ruyi's active flattery, Lu Qian also acted courteously and invited him to board the boat for a chat.

It was just that Lu Qian was just passing by the Zhiling Sect this time. The Feiji Zhengyuan Divine Boat was moving at a very fast speed. In a short while, it had already passed half of Junle County and arrived above Hanjiangzhu. Then True Man Ruyi took his leave and left.

The fighting ship landed on Hanjiang Island. Led by Tao Boliang, Lu Qian and his party inspected the Yunshan School's military equipment foundry base.

Although this city possesses a fourth-level spiritual vein, it is located in the middle of a river, where the ground fire is not strong and there is plenty of water. It is not suitable for refining equipment, but is suitable for casting.

Therefore, a foundry base under the Armory Hall was built here, and Tao Zhongxian should have been in charge. However, Tao Zhongxian is about to face the golden elixir tribulation, and has been preparing at Biluo Peak, so the affairs of the Armory Hall can only be temporarily taken over by his brother.

Amid the clanging sounds of anvils and hammers colliding and the roar of machinery running, Lu Qian expressed his admiration for the great contribution of the Tao brothers to the Yunshan School's smelting business while inspecting the two most important products of the arsenal.

Airships and Taoist soldiers (including small Taoist soldiers).

Tao Boliang reported that the Yunshan sect now had 200 elite-class airships Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou, 20 commander-class airships Feiji Zhengyuan Shenzhou, and 2 champion-class airships.

The reserves are minted in a ratio of 100:10:1.

But considering the current number of disciples, there are more than enough airships even if all of them are on board, so only a part is allocated for use, and the rest is stored in the treasury for use in wartime.

After passing through most of Hanjiangzhu City, a large open space suddenly appeared, and two huge ships suddenly rushed into the eyes of Lu Qian and his party.

Each ship is several times the size of the Feiji Zhengyuan Shenzhou. In total, their volume is more than thirty times that of the Lingxu Zhenyuan Shenzhou!
They had already received the news that the headmaster was coming to inspect the results of the shipbuilding. Now, the four combat battalions of "Bi Chao", "Ling Sha", "Mian Long" and "Han Jiang", a total of 2,400 Yunshan warriors were waiting here. When they saw Lu Qian show up, they immediately cheered like a tsunami.

Among them were older disciples of the Yunshan Sect, as well as new disciples who had joined the sect in the past fifty years and had never seen Lu Qian before. But at this moment, everyone was looking at the Yunshan leader, the Cangzhou legend, with admiration.

Following Lu Qian's order, the disciples entered the giant ship. The next moment, there was a buzzing sound from the ground, and the giant ship swayed gently and rose into the air, with bright starlight flowing on the ship.

This is the champion-class airship that the Yunshan Sect had just completed building and was currently in the practice stage.

The mighty Shenzhou of the Star World! (End of this chapter)