Controlling the Five Thunders and the Two Worlds

Chapter 553 The Lunar Base is Ready
Speaking of the Southern Frontier, Daoist Yanling and Daoist Qingwei, along with several others, had already cleared away the demonic realm beneath the Poison Dragon Swamp's ley lines and had now emerged to join Daoist Zhiqing and the others.

Previously, Daoist Zhiqing and others followed the Heavenly Fox Ancestor to open up a path and killed Xiong Wuji, a black bear spirit who had a grudge against Qingqiu Mountain, and obtained a large amount of evil energy.

Then the rest of Ba Tianjun, Chifa Gui, and even Diyuan Shenwang quieted down considerably, either sealing off their mountains in seclusion or hiding away, allowing the fox clan of Qingqiu Mountain to pave the way to Yazhou in the Central Plains.

Without the demons and monsters blocking the way, it is actually very easy for cultivators to clear paths through mountains and build bridges over rivers.

For Taoists who cultivate the Five Elements and Five Qi, powerful ones like Master Yanqi can even directly burrow underground, while ordinary ones can also manipulate the earth's veins. Even if they cannot move mountains and fill seas, it is not difficult to change the terrain and landform to a limited extent.

Gentle as Daoist Yanling, with a sweep of divine light, merged with the earth's veins and mobilized the five elements, carving out a mountain road that winds around the mountains and leads forward.

The road has a solid foundation, with no risk of falling rocks above or collapse below. The stone surface is three meters wide, so it's safe for pedestrians to walk on and even for vehicles to drive on!
The violent Yuanhe Daoist, with a single slash of his Pure Yang Flying Sword, cleaved a mountain peak that was virtually impossible to cross, creating a canyon resembling a narrow gorge.

With a wave of the hand, rocks flew up and the canyon road was cleared, creating a smooth two-lane road!
Although the methods of the fox clan of Qingqiu Mountain were not as smooth and natural as those of the old Taoists of Daluo Palace, they each had their own unique characteristics. They even recruited a pangolin friend and carved a cave large enough for a horse-drawn carriage to pass through at the foot of a mountain.

At the same time, they also found a group of bird demons, and together they built a sturdy suspension bridge across a very wide transverse canyon, connecting the two places.

Of course, the old Taoist priests of Daluo Palace did not devote all their energy to opening up mountains and building roads. They were only responsible for the general direction of the excavation, while the specific details of the repairs were left to the local people.

Only when you truly put in the effort will you cherish and protect the fruits of your labor.

So the eight old Taoists, along with some other Taoists whose skills were not yet sufficient, traveled in the southern borderlands. Sometimes they would meet with the friends invited from Qingqiu Mountain and search for traces of the demon together.

But whether the Demon Ancestor had learned his lesson or the demon cultivators had become more cunning, they lingered in the southern border for a long time, and apart from killing a few more wicked demons and monsters, they did not find any more people who had fallen into demonic possession.

Of course, the gains were still much greater than when they traveled in the Central Plains. Not only did they contribute a large amount of evil energy and two thunder seeds to Gu Zhao, but their own cultivation and magical power also increased significantly.

Daoist Yanling, Daoist Yuzhang, and others have become even stronger, while Daoist Longqin, Daoist Honghai, and others are getting closer and closer to five hundred years of cultivation.

……

For the next few days, nothing happened in the Wanlingjiang North and the Southern Frontier Mountains. The Jueyin Heavenly Kingdom was also reorganizing its affairs, gathering information on the Qing Kingdom and the Three Saints Kingdom, and gathering intelligence on other Western divine kingdoms.

After taking the two women on a tour of Shanzhou, Gu Zhao prepared to return to Jiangzhou.

It wasn't that they were tired of looking around, but rather that Gu Zhao had something to do and needed to go back.

"Is the lunar base ready?"

During a telepathic conversation with Daoist Qingye, Gu Zhao asked in surprise, "It's only been a few months, aren't we supposed to revise the design?"

“That’s right, it’s because we need to revise the design drawings and then create the base engineering modules, which is why it took several months. Otherwise, they would have been ready long ago,” Master Qingye replied.

Gu Zhao: ???
Master Qingye sighed, "We still have some misunderstandings about the speed of national engineering projects. Once the whole country is mobilized to do something, the efficiency is simply astonishing."

"Back then, it only took ten days from design to delivery of a hospital that could accommodate a thousand people."

Master Qingye said quietly, "This lunar base is already considered slow. It is said that they divided into three project teams to design it separately, and finally selected the best one. They also made improvements based on the other two plans. After the plan was finalized, the actual manufacturing was much simpler. After all, there are no technical barriers. With the domestic industrial manufacturing capabilities, all the modules were completed in less than half a month."

After compiling all these engineering modules, the aerospace department conducted relevant tests in the lunar environment to ensure the absolute safety and long-term operation of the lunar base.

Only after it was confirmed that there were no problems, and that any issues could be resolved independently by the engineers at the lunar base, did the Taoist office finally contact me.

At this point, Master Qingye smiled and said, "According to the inside information I've gathered, the most time-consuming part is actually the selection of personnel. It's said that the space agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are scrambling to compete for this lunar landing."

In other words, the lunar landing mission didn't require consideration of payload capacity, and the base design incorporated extremely high redundancy. Ultimately, a total of thirty scientists and engineers were confirmed to have landed on the moon.

"Only thirty?" Gu Zhao shook his head. "That's too stingy. I thought that as the vanguard of the lunar landing, there would be at least two or three hundred people."

Master Qingye, "..."

"It's already ten times more than the Tiangong space station, and it's enough for all kinds of experiments."

Master Qingye explained, then said, "I just broke through to the moon recently, and I may not be able to support a round trip to the moon. Didn't Yunyang say he wanted to go to the moon? Bring him back."

“Okay!” Gu Zhao nodded. “It just so happens that you’ve been away on business for quite a while. Now that you’re back, let’s see whether to go to the Southern Frontier or the Western Divine Kingdom.”

Master Qingye laughed heartily, "Naturally, I'll go wherever there are many demons and monsters!"

……

The Jueyin Heavenly Palace had already established a foothold in the Western Divine Kingdom, and Shanzhou was now its heartland. So Gu Zhao took the two women and also brought Xingri Ma and Ma Huai back to the Daluo Palace.

One more constellation guardian star official has been added, bringing the total number of star officials in place to fifteen.

Hou Hao, the Fire Monkey, and Yuan Lin, the Water Ape, warmly welcomed Ma Huai and explained the precautions for visiting the Daluo Palace.

Zhuo Qingyan and Li Qingshuang led the women back to the backyard, where they discussed matters in Shanzhou and distributed the gifts they had brought back to them.

Gu Zhao then went to see Yun Yang, who was already eager to meet him, as well as Chang Yi and Yang Shuo, who were also very interested.

"Next time, when the lunar base changes shifts, you two will go." Gu Zhao comforted the two, then looked at Yun Yang, "Everyone has things to do, so you'll have to bear with it for a few more days."

Yun Yang understood. "I'm still young, I have plenty of time in the future. Besides, I volunteered to take this mission to the moon."

So Gu Zhao took Daoist Qingye back to the Daluo Palace and Yun Yang back to the research institute.

Not long after, a golden light shot into the sky from Guangzhou and headed straight for Yandu.

(End of this chapter)