He was born as a blacksmith, but he dominated the world

Chapter 515 Preparation
In ten years, the Daqian border army conquered hundreds of thousands of miles of land.

The number of border troops has expanded from over ten million ten years ago to more than fifty million today.

The changes brought about by the large number of people are very clear.

There are 20 to 30 million people just dedicated to ensuring the border troops have enough food, water, and shelter, and they are still extremely busy.

Fortunately, the medicinal herbs of the Second World were used to refine countless elixirs.

This allowed everyone's cultivation level to continuously improve, making their journey much easier.

Otherwise, the logistical supply routes alone, spanning hundreds of thousands of miles, would exhaust people to death.

To this day, the unconquered land is less than 100,000 li, and only five dynasties remain.

They have already completed their mutual annexation and now united an army of 30 million, intending to put up a final resistance.

However, the outcome was not in any suspense. When the number of border troops reached fifty million, they had no rivals in the Pit World.

Even the powerful clans are now very obedient.

From the military garrison to the government offices, all positions of real power were filled by people from the imperial court.

A decade or two ago, this kind of thing would have been enough to make powerful clans overturn their tables.

But now they have lost both the courage and the power to overturn the table.

The battle with the Li clan of Qingzhou back then severely damaged their strength, which is the most regrettable thing for the powerful clans.

If they had known this would happen, they would have preferred to spare the Li family of Qingzhou and ignore all hatred in order to save themselves.

And the root of all this lies with Jiang Lin.

The powerful clans were well aware of this.

If Jiang Lin hadn't released those Dao Martial Realm elders to come back with a message, this disaster wouldn't have happened.

But it's pointless to talk about these things now, as Jiang Lin's status and position have long surpassed anyone else's.

If Emperor Shun was the ruler of the Great Qian Empire, then Jiang Lin was a military lord who could rival him!

The dozens of generals of the Great Qian Dynasty were all his old acquaintances, including his sworn brothers like Liao Mingxu.

The two apprentices, Song Ziyan, who came later, are now generals.

Although Miao Yonghuai is still a general, it is said that he will be promoted to marshal in the next expansion of the army.

Not to mention that all the weapons in the world are forged by Jiang Lin, making the Blacksmith Camp the undisputed number one department, surpassing the grandeur of the early days of the Great Qian Dynasty four hundred years ago.

Over the past decade, Jiang Lin's skills have also been continuously improved.

[Skill 1: Level 15 Mastery, perfectly controlling flame temperatures up to 15,000 degrees Celsius, increasing fire efficiency tenfold, improving the quality of forging materials tenfold, with a 23% chance to upgrade the grade of forging materials (no upper limit), and a 30% chance to upgrade the grade of forged items when remelted, with a 9% chance to upgrade by two grades.]

[Skill 2: Level 15 Skill - Increases the quality of forged items by five times. Every hammer strike will increase the Refinement level. Can fuse and forge items, increasing attributes by 10]

[Skill 3: Level 3 Insightful Observation - Allows one to observe the vast ocean and the changing seasons, taking in the passage of time in a single glance]

[Skill 4: Level 5 Furnace Technique, using the body as the furnace, the mind as the hammer, and gold and fire essence as the materials to forge an indestructible golden body (progress 13.7/100), which can increase one's skills by 90%]

[Skill 5: Level 12 Transformation, Perfect Tempering, increases the quality of forged items by 300% (15% may double), and increases all attributes of forged items by +7]

[Skill 6: Level 7 Unfailing Arrow - Increases accuracy by 100% within the field of vision and increases damage by 30%]

[Skill 7: Level 12 New Sharpening, Perfect Sharpening, increases the quality of forged items by 300% (15% may double), all attributes of forged items +7]

[Skill 8: Level 13 Nine Revolutions Success, 100% success rate in alchemy, increases pill quality sixfold, 50% chance to upgrade grade, can create beginner, intermediate, advanced, top-tier, and extraordinary pill recipes]

All skills have been upgraded by at least three or four levels, with the most significant change being the Mastery of Skills.

One of its amazing skills, which has a 23% chance of increasing the grade of forging materials (with no upper limit), has already created many surprises.

With subsequent forging and refining, there is a 30% chance of upgrading the grade, and a 9% chance of upgrading by two grades. Jiang Lin's casually crafted low-grade holy weapon has a high probability of being directly upgraded to a high-grade divine weapon.

As for the original mid-grade and high-grade divine weapons, they were directly upgraded to extraordinary quality.

To date, Jiang Lin's highest record is a seven-level advancement, directly upgrading a sacred weapon to a superior-grade extraordinary weapon.

Unfortunately, this skill seems to have a hidden negative attribute.

The higher the original rank, the lower the probability of promotion.

Even if one truly reaches the level of a superior divine weapon, the maximum advancement is only three levels, just one step away from reaching the level of a breakthrough weapon.

Nevertheless, this divine skill is still terrifyingly powerful.

Jiang Lin's ability to mass-produce top-grade divine weapons and weapons of extraordinary quality truly makes him worthy of the title of "Master of Weapons."

Thanks to this, the generals and commanders of the border army were overjoyed.

Each general has a weapon of extraordinary quality, each commander-in-chief has a top-grade divine weapon, and even the adjutant generals must have at least a low-grade divine weapon.

With the addition of the blacksmith camp, which now has over 100,000 people, the daily production of precious weapons is in the tens of thousands.

Those military officers were at least Xuanbing (a type of military rank), while Baobing (another type of military rank) were all distributed to ordinary soldiers.

With upgraded weapons and improved cultivation levels, the border army's battle formations have become more than ten times more powerful than they were ten years ago.

Even if those dynasties within a hundred thousand miles united, how could they possibly be a match for the Great Qian?

Their demise was inevitable.

Therefore, the Great Qian Dynasty no longer paid attention to those few dynasties, and the generals could lead their troops there on their own.

The imperial court is currently focused on only one thing.

That's the God-Shocking Array!

A month ago, Emperor Shun finally brought up the matter of the Shocking God Formation.

Using giant skeletons as weapons, tens of millions of border troops are integrated into the army, relying on a unified will to drive powerful divine bodies to fight.

This idea astonished everyone in the room.

Although some people knew about this beforehand, they still felt their whole body tremble when they actually heard Emperor Shun bring it up.

Tens of millions of border troops, now invincible, why do they still need to do this?

Emperor Shun did not hide anything and took the opportunity to tell the news about the pit world.

Upon learning that the area spanning millions of miles was merely a small crater within a much larger world, they realized it was nothing more than a tiny hole.

Outside, there are giants and gods fighting each other. If we don't follow their example, we will inevitably suffer an undeserved disaster sooner or later.

Those who hear about this for the first time naturally do not believe it.

A crater spanning millions of miles? How is that possible?
If this is just a small pit, how big must the outside world be?

Do countless giant divine bodies really exist?

But no one dared to question Emperor Shun, let alone with Jiang Lin testifying beside him.

The two most powerful people in the Great Qian Empire stood together, and even if they had a bellyful of doubts, they had to swallow them back.

"The Duke of Jiang will tell you what happened next," Emperor Shun said.

Jiang Lin stood beside the dragon throne, looking down at the ministers with their various expressions.

The palace has been expanded many times, and the number of ministers has increased more than tenfold.

After all, with a territory spanning hundreds of thousands of miles, the original population was far from sufficient. Even from a great distance, Jiang Lin's voice still reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Actually, the Divine Shock Array shouldn't have been used so early. But in the distant future, there are some things you don't know, only I do."

"The border troops are not numerous enough, but they are enough to power the giant's divine body."

"However, the giant gods from the outside world that Your Majesty just mentioned are not the targets of our conquest. Our enemies are other worlds."

Emperor Shun couldn't help but glance at him; he had only recently learned of this matter.

Jiang Lin told him that the first thing to be conquered was not the giant's divine body, but the other worlds.

Emperor Shun couldn't understand why, when the outside world was more dangerous and closer to the current predicament, they would choose to go to a distant place instead of something closer.

Wouldn't it be more in line with our needs to address the immediate crisis first?

Jiang Lin said the same thing to him back then, just as he is saying to the ministers now.

Many things happened in the distant future that you are unaware of, but I am aware of them.

Emperor Shun once asked Jiang Lin how he knew about the future.

Jiang Lin did not hide anything and told him that he had a special ability, a kind of magical technique similar to the Void Observation Dao, which allowed him to see a certain degree of the future.

Emperor Shun did not have much doubt, because Jiang Lin's rise to power was too fast, so fast that it was only natural that he possessed some kind of magical ability.

"May I ask, Duke Jiang, what are these other worlds you speak of? Even if one possesses a giant's divine body as a weapon, how can one travel there?"

Before the minister could finish speaking, a loud rumbling sound came from outside.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw the Hengyu Furnace, which was thousands of meters tall, descend from the sky and land outside the palace.

Jiang Hengyu sat upright on a lotus throne, surrounded by divine light, like a primordial deity, inspiring awe and making people dare not look directly at him.

Ten years have passed, and Hengyu Furnace has completed its second extraordinary advancement.

But Jiang Lin didn't let him continue exploring the world; instead, he kept accumulating energy, all for today.

Jiang Lin declared loudly, "The Hengyu Furnace can tear apart the barriers between worlds, allowing us to send the Giant God Body to participate in the war. Let's start with the weakest hostile worlds, conquering them step by step and growing stronger."

"Until one day, the giants and gods of the outside world became ants in our eyes."

In countless future scenarios, the world first conquers the outside world, then ascends to the heavens, and uses the main world as a base to wage war against other worlds.

But after discussing it with his future self for a long time, Jiang Lin thought that since all these paths had been proven to be wrong, why not give up on the main world and start with other worlds first?

The main world is neither the weakest nor the strongest.

Fighting at this point in time will prolong the conflict for a very long time.

On the contrary, starting with the weakest world can save more time.

When picking persimmons, choose the soft ones first.

Jiang Lin's idea was fully recognized by his future self. It was a path he had never taken before, and it had a certain chance of success.

Therefore, after leaving the Hongyu Universe, Jiang Lin released the powerful clans, allowing them to wage war against the Li clan of Qingzhou.

Then, on the back mountain of the Xujiandao, the leader of the Xujiandao was given a new option.

Now, having set aside hostility and vigilance towards the outside world, everything is for the purpose of saving time and resources, and focusing all energy on preparing for the conquest of other worlds.

So far, this strategy has not encountered any problems.

The powerful clans were defeated in their infighting, and the Void Observation Dao remained silent for ten years, with its mysterious and unpredictable Dao Master keeping a low profile.

Now the border army is about to completely conquer the world of pits. Once all the hostile dynasties are wiped out and the world is completely unified, then in theory, the world will be at peace.

By then, the entire border army will have merged into the giant's skeleton, laying the foundation for conquering other worlds.

The ministers looked at each other in disbelief. This idea was simply too outrageous, so outrageous that they could hardly imagine it.

Just when it seemed that the vision of the founding emperor was about to be fully realized, they were about to go on to conquer other worlds. When will this war end?
Jiang Lin didn't want to fight either, but what could he do?

Four hundred years ago, Ma Ningyan saw the giant divine body outside the pit and realized that she was just an ant.

Therefore, the Great Qian Dynasty's conquests never ceased for four hundred years.

Now I see a more distant future and know that I am still an ant.

The battles of the Great Qian Dynasty still cannot cease.

The only difference is that the target and reason for the conquest have changed from the common people to the future, many years later.

Jiang Lin did not argue with the ministers, because he knew very well that no matter how you said something you hadn't seen, no one would believe you.

Just like the four hundred years of war in the Great Qian Dynasty, even now, many people still cannot understand it.

The meaning of war lies in the future.

The mistakes of this life will lead to achievements in the future!
After a brief explanation, Jiang Lin announced that the Tianxia Prefecture Army would take over the guard duties after the border troops left.

Its main significance was to suppress the traitors who were still secretly active in various places, attempting to restore their country.

Those remnants of the old dynasty were not completely wiped out; they went into hiding and would occasionally cause trouble.

Fortunately, the power of the Great Qian Dynasty has now reached its historical peak, surpassing even that of the founding emperor.

Although the local army was not as strong as the border army, it was sufficient for suppressing the enemy.

Furthermore, activating the Divine Shock Array is not the right thing to do now.

After the border army has completely conquered the last 100,000 li, it will still be necessary to stabilize the lives of all people under heaven.

Roughly estimated, it will take at least five to ten years of preparation.

After explaining these general strategies, Emperor Shun waved his hand.

The underground palace of the royal palace's private treasury was opened, and the skeleton of a giant, stretching for thousands of miles, was transported out.

The immense power impacted everyone, almost causing them to vomit blood.

Fortunately, Emperor Shun immediately ordered special materials to be used to isolate the majestic aura; otherwise, all the court officials would probably have been killed.

The ministers were horrified as they stared at the enormous skeleton of the giant.

They finally realized that what Emperor Shun and Jiang Lin said might be true.

Even if there is only one such giant divine body, how can the Great Qian resist it?

The activation of the Divine Shock Array is imperative.

As for conquering other worlds first, although some people wanted to oppose it, it was to no avail.

The advantage of highly centralized power is that it eliminates the need to pay too much attention to the opposition of a few individuals.

The giant's skeleton was continuously thrown into the Hengyu Furnace.

The Hengyu Furnace, having undergone a second extraordinary advancement, instantly expanded by tens of thousands of meters, almost bursting out of the pit.

The giant's skeleton was much larger than it, but when it was thrown into the furnace, it blended in quite naturally.

Having the ability to explore the world is not just about exploration; it also means that Hengyu Furnace has, to a certain extent, acquired the power of spatial rules.

(End of this chapter)