Mountains and giant beasts, cabins in the woods

the next day.

It was time to go to work at the newspaper office again. The job was almost the same as before, except that I was delivering newspapers under a blanket of snow.

Liu Xingmo woke up automatically before the mine bell rang. He quickly put on his clothes, ate something, and then rushed to Birch Avenue to catch a ride to Midtown.

This time, he couldn't resist bringing some savings to prepare materials for the ritual implements.

Blood-based magical artifacts are naturally powered by blood energy, which is most compatible with the muscles, bones, skin, and flesh of living beings. Therefore, the materials used for blood-based magical artifacts are mostly fragments of mythical beasts.

Liu Xingmo took a fancy to a second-tier magic weapon—the Spine Chain, whose main material was the spine of a Blood Path Beast.

Black Dragon Village has quite a few Blood Path Beasts. If you're lucky, you might even get a suitable spine.

Actually, the book didn't mention this magical artifact, but Liu Xingmo knew it in his heart. Human bloodline cultivators are essentially bloodline beasts as well.

No wonder no one in the entire village uses any magical artifacts, not even the stewards and elders; perhaps this is one of the reasons.

Liu Xingmo had read about a demonic organization called the Blood Shadow Sect in ancient books, which specialized in the dark uses of blood.

Those demons are good at hiding, and the mysterious organization we encountered outside the city earlier might have been their disguised spies from the Yin Kingdom.

The investigation outside the city is still ongoing, and another wave of trouble is likely to occur when winter ends.

Liu Xingmo, lost in thought, went to the library.

The heavy snow covered the massive building, and a wide snow cave was dug out at the main entrance.

At this moment, people are coming and going.

The few educated people in the village have free time in winter and can come to the library to relax.

Pushing open the door, the giant macaque was reading a book as always.

Liu Xingmo greeted, "Good day, Director! I have something to report. I plan to recruit two junior members of Jiang Feiming's family to help with some tasks."

The giant macaque put down its book, turned to look at the young man who had entered, and said, "The old baboon's two little kids? Not bad."

"I made an appointment with their mother to come and report today."

"You're quick on your feet! That's good, the old baboon's family line has a successor."

The giant macaque turned its gaze back to the book. It looked at it for a few seconds, but couldn't concentrate. Finally, it couldn't help but pound its fist on the table, baring its teeth and roaring:

"That damned old bastard! What on earth is he doing? He's such a decent person, why would he collude with spies! I've known him for 150 years, a full 150 years!"

Recalling the Daoist cultivation inheritance he had received before, Liu Xingmo tentatively asked, "Master, does Instructor Jiang Feiming have ulterior motives? For example, is he trying to obtain intelligence from spies by contacting them...?"

"The old baboon has gone blind! Alas—!" The curator sighed deeply, closing his eyelids in anguish. "I visited him in prison, but he remains unrepentant and insists that I continue working for him."

"What's wrong?"

"It's just some boring nonsense, but I won't mind telling you. He somehow got hold of a bunch of random blueprints, labeled with things like trains, ships, steel furnaces, spinning machines..."

"Huh?" Liu Xingmo's eyes widened. "And then?"

The giant macaque rolled its eyes: "And then? That old baboon grabbed my paw, calling me 'old brother' over and over, with snot and tears streaming down his face, saying those things were treasures he'd worked so hard to get!"

"Jiang Feiming, that stubborn old man, rarely asks for favors. This is the first time he has yielded to me. He asked me to gather a group of bright and clever young men in the school, to study the blueprints carefully, and to carry them forward."

Liu Xingmo trembled slightly: "And then?"

The giant macaque shook its head: "Seeing that he was so stubborn, I had no choice but to abandon him. Alas! Now, by helping to look after his two descendants, I can at least repay our years of friendship."

"This..." Liu Xingmo felt like a deflated balloon. "Director, do you think it's possible that their ideas are good and right?"

The giant macaque was indignant: "How is that possible? Useless, ingenious tricks that only hinder cultivation! The iron lump does all the work, what's the point of us raising contracted beasts?"

"Leaving aside trains and ships, could you show me the blueprints for the steelmaking furnace? I've been helping out in the mine recently."

"Come and pick it up when you leave tomorrow."

Liu Xingmo was both amused and exasperated.

Director Liu Linghou values ​​scholarship, but in the way that an old scholar would regard pedantic and pedantic documents.

He would rather live a life of poverty himself than not find money to establish schools. But his old-fashioned thinking couldn't keep up with the times.

This is an era of rapid change, where emerging technologies, ancient kingdoms, and lurking evil forces are all making their appearance on the world stage.

No one can say for sure what path Heilongzhai will take in the future.

Liu Xingmo knew that he was now insignificant and had little influence, but he had added another stroke to his grand life goals.

I arrived at the office and worked with three employees.

No one came to report it until the afternoon.

How strange! What are those two up to? Are they giving me attitude?

Liu Xingmo didn't care anymore. Since he had the inheritance, it didn't matter whether the other party changed their mind or not.

I stayed up until midnight to print out the new newspaper.

At the same time, he also took the time to type and print books, namely the collected edition of Liu Xingmo's novels.

This thing combines a year's worth of content into one book, providing a large amount of information and making it suitable for collection. Print 1,000 copies and sell them for 35 yuan each, using the proceeds as year-end bonuses.

This stuff is really easy to sell; the surplus can even be sold to caravans and exported to distant countries.

Liu Xingmo had no idea how many people in the world had actually read his book. He simply did his job and collected his payment.

Given the newspaper's rudimentary movable type printing facilities, printing was extremely difficult. The four of them worked themselves to the bone, but only managed to finish the first one-sixth of the novel. Perhaps it was indeed time to hire new staff.

The next day, still no one came to report.

Never mind that, just do what you need to do.

They sold newspapers in the snow during the day, had a meal together at night, and then split the money.

After obtaining the blueprints for the new steelmaking furnace, Liu Xingmo headed straight for the Zhongcheng Pharmacy.

The fortress-like building remained as busy as ever inside.

Liu Xingmo found window number 13 and bought a low-grade yellow-rank spiritual medicine, a meridian-opening flower, a medium-grade black-rank spiritual medicine, and a jar of wolf milk.

Pay and deliver as usual.

Liu Xingmo asked the receptionist, "Sister! I'd like to inquire, do you have any spiritual medicine with the same effect as Seven-Colored Coral? The kind that gathers spiritual energy."

The girl behind the steel fence smiled sweetly: "As you said, there are seven more kinds of spiritual herbs. Three of them are Xuan-grade, produced by Black Dragon Village itself, so they are relatively affordable. The other four are Huang-grade, purchased from abroad, and are not cheap when you factor in shipping costs, so their cost-effectiveness is very low."

There are so many?

According to Mary, these elixirs can be processed into first-class Philosopher's Stones and fused into her natal alchemy furnace.

It's worth investing heavily in!