“As expected of Blackstone City…”
Lu Li was sitting in a mine cart with Snake Venom, gradually descending toward the lower part of the city.
“Yes, Saintess Su may have a mansion in the city, but when it comes to knowledge of the underground, it’s still our Snake Clan and the Rat Clan who know better.”
Snake Venom flicked his forked tongue, producing a hissing sound.
“We’ve basically completed your task. If the soil we’ve excavated containing fragments of Blackstone is used to improve the spirit fields, it can greatly increase yield.”
“If ground into powder and fed to mortal beasts, they can grow even larger. It can even make it easier for mortal beasts to gain spiritual wisdom and evolve into low-grade demon beasts.”
As Snake Venom spoke, the mine cart passed a corner, and he released a water screen to dispel the heat.
“As for why Blackstone City produces this Blackstone, it’s related to this… peculiar lava lake at the very bottom.”
“But this Blackstone shouldn’t be inexhaustible, right?” Lu Li asked.
“It definitely isn’t. If we went by Blackstone City’s past expenditures, it wouldn’t be difficult to sustain it for several thousand years.”
Despite his delight, Snake Venom’s eyes flashed with a trace of worry.
“But now that we need to expand the city, build furnaces, and raise an army, we can’t squander it like before.”
“So during this period, as per your suggestion, Saintess Su, we’ll learn from the Human Race. I have to say, human skills and crafts are indeed much more impressive.”
Snake Venom guided the mine cart around another corner.
Then Lu Li saw an incredibly vast underground lava lake.
The originally pitch-black world was instantly illuminated, a dazzling orange-red reflected off the stone walls, allowing Lu Li to make out the Rat Clan and Scale Clan busy at work.
“Saintess Su!”
“Celestial Fox Saint!”
“Greetings, Saintess!”
“Everyone has worked hard.”
Lu Li’s pink eyes flickered, and as his True Yuan surged, the blinding light dimmed considerably, allowing him to see a massive furnace in the lava lake.
“Is the True Yuan extracted from the frenzied beast corpses sufficient?”
“It’s sufficient. Rather, the frenzied beasts are more valuable than we imagined.”
Snake Venom directed the mine cart toward the furnace.
“Frenzied beasts lack spiritual wisdom, so they don’t meet the new regulations of your Blackstone City. That means we can freely skin them to make weapons.”
“The hide can be made into armor, the bones ground for the outer layer of gun barrels, the sinews turned into bowstrings, and the blood can be blended into rune ink.”
Snake Venom paused, then added a bit sheepishly, “It’s just that our Blackstone City’s methods are crude—mostly just skinning and dismembering. They’re far from true Yao blood craft.”
“But surely no Yao would want to eat the flesh, and the reason why frenzied beasts go mad is still unclear,” Lu Li asked.
“Yes, that’s also a problem… Our Yao Race all have demon cores, but inside a frenzied beast’s body, there’s something called… a mad core.”
Snake Venom took a gray mad core from his pocket.
“Saintess Su, although our Snake Clan has examined the mad core, we don’t know if your holy blood will react to it. Be careful.”
“I will.”
Lu Li closed his eyes, slowly penetrating the mad core with his divine sense.
But the moment his divine sense touched the mad core, there was only endless nothingness, empty of anything. Not even spiritual energy existed.
“Saintess Su?”
“I’m fine. In other words…”
Lu Li opened his eyes.
“…at least with current methods, the mad core has almost no practical value.”
“Yes, according to our speculation, ordinary demon cores contain the essence of our Yao Race, inherited memories, and some special clans even place their spirit soul inside.”
As Snake Venom spoke, he looked at the Snake and Scale clans dissecting the frenzied beasts.
“But for frenzied beasts, all their energy goes into their physical bodies.”
“That’s why they’re so powerful. Thanks to Saintess Su bestowing the Celestial Fox Clan’s inheritance and adding human technological improvements.”
Snake Venom sighed.
“Then we also discovered the basic pattern.”
“About ten Qi Refining low-rank frenzied beasts can be refined into spiritual energy equivalent to a single low-grade spirit stone.”
“For Qi Refining mid-rank, three are roughly enough for one; for Qi Refining high-rank, one can yield about ten.”
“As for Foundation Establishment frenzied beasts, it varies from dozens of spirit stones… Overall, it meets your requirements.”
“That’s perfect.”
Lu Li nodded. The most critical piece had also been resolved.
Blackstone City’s merit system was something he had borrowed from the Human Race’s military merit system.
But the Human Race had a complete logistics system to support it; Blackstone City did not.
So in the early stage, Lu Li planned to use the Wolf Clan’s stockpile for support, and in the later stage, he would need to sustain the war through warfare itself.
“Moreover, the Heavenly Furnace has an advantage. Placed directly in the lava lake, we don’t need to use spiritual energy, true yuan, or even Blackstone as fuel.”
Snake Venom led Lu Li to the exit of the Heavenly Furnace.
“Combined with the Flood Dragon Clan’s water control technique, the frenzied beast corpses on the surface can be sent underground the fastest via waterways.”
“The water currents can both transport the corpses and cool down the furnace walls and mine tunnels—killing two birds with one stone.”
“I have to say again, Saintess Su, this operational mechanism of yours is incredibly convenient. The frenzied beast corpses are sent underground, processed into weapons, and turned into spirit stones. Then some miscellaneous materials can also be burned and refined together. When they’re sent back up, they can also bring the fine Blackstone fragments up with them.”
“And this Blackstone, along with the earth from excavating larger workspaces, becomes the necessary material for expanding Blackstone City.”
“It’s just learning some human knowledge.”
“It’s also that we Yao Race were too isolated before… Ah, why did the Demon Emperor… cough…”
Snake Venom stopped there and immediately shut his mouth, retracting his tongue.
After deliberating for a moment, Snake Venom spoke again.
“I’ve only heard that over in the Yao Kingdom, they can even cultivate demon bones into living armor and refine beast sinews into bowstrings that contract on their own.”
“Without needing us demon soldiers and generals, these demon armors can automatically seek out enemies and kill them.”
Snake Venom lowered his voice, “But how could Blackstone City ever get such things?”
“The Demon Emperor must have his own considerations.”
Lu Li swept his divine sense over the batch-forged spirit stones.
Although their spiritual energy was not as gentle as natural spirit stones, it was sufficient for driving the Nine Spirit Guns and low-grade magical artifacts.
“But… I think I can guess some of the reasons.”
As the mine cart traveled upward, Lu Li gradually found answers in his heart.
During his brief study at the Yin Yang Sect, he had learned that in this world, every layer of energy extraction incurred massive waste and loss.
Because of this, the Human Race continuously developed new techniques, using everything they could.
Yet even so, the proportion of cultivators among the population remained constant.
In discussions with Liu Qingxi and her group, they, as Holy Son and Holy Daughter, had also heard the sect’s Golden Core True Masters discuss this.
If spiritual energy were to be exhausted… of course, that was the most extreme scenario.
Cultivators might become no different from ordinary people. So they had to prepare from very early on to treat mortals with equanimity.
Not to mention that ninety percent of cultivators were trapped at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment stages their entire lives.
In all aspects of daily life—food, clothing, shelter, transportation—they still had to rely on mortals. Thus, protecting mortals was their duty.
As for the Yao Race, it wasn’t that they lacked skills.
On the contrary, through the Azure Luan Mirror’s inheritance, Lu Li had glimpsed records of the Yao Race from earlier times.
Their mastery of flesh, bones, demon cores, and fascia far surpassed that of the Human Race.
But the Human Race’s hundred crafts were designed to allow mortals to farm, transport, smelt, and make tools, enabling a city to operate with countless ordinary people.
The Yao Race was different.
From birth, they were stratified by bloodline and form.
Many mortal Yao couldn’t even speak complete sentences.
Those who could truly access demon magic, blood craft, and demon artifacts were mostly the royal courts, major clans, or at least demon soldiers and generals at Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment and above.
Under these circumstances, it was only natural for the remote Blackstone City to imitate the Human Race.
And the true core Yao arts served only those high-ranking Yao.
‘But the most critical matter… still hasn’t been solved.’
Lu Li looked at the dark mine tunnel, pulling back his thoughts, and couldn’t help shaking his head.
Their trip to the Yao Race was meant to understand why the Beast Tide occurred.
And why there were frenzied beasts.
But after all this time, the Yao Race themselves had only a half-baked understanding of these things.
Rather, the Yao Race’s cultural and knowledge conditions were simply incapable of explaining such phenomena.
So the Heavenly Furnace could only solve the immediate resource problem.
To truly unravel the mystery of the Beast Tide, they had to let ordinary Yao learn to record, identify, reason, and pass down knowledge on their own.
That was also why Lu Li planned to have Liu Qingyun establish a school.
Most mortal Yao couldn’t even speak clearly.
Qi Refining Yao were slightly better, but their thinking was still somewhat chaotic.
Only at Foundation Establishment did they become a little more coherent.
Lost in thought, Lu Li and Snake Venom arrived above ground.
Amid the waving farewells of the Yao, Lu Li came to the temporary school.
But inside, it was also in chaos.
Because different Yao tribes had completely different perceptions of the world.
Take the most basic arithmetic: the mortal Snake Clan understood it, but they lacked fingers.
When anxious or wanting to speak, they could only make hissing sounds on the ground.
The Cat, Dog, Jackal, and Wolf clans found it convenient.
They could just count on their fingers.
But that only made the class extremely chaotic.
There were those flying in the air, hanging on the walls, sitting on chairs, and slithering on the ground. All sorts were present.
“It seems… this is a long-term matter.”
Lu Li saw Liu Qingyun’s exhausted face at the podium and revealed a bitter smile.
“But it’s also a hopeful thing.”