Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery
Chapter 983 - 954: Dari Swordsman Can Turn an Immortal Sect into a Pauper

"Senior, please take a look at this."

While chatting, Jiang Ding earnestly took out a palm-sized piece of Spiritual Gold, filled with resounding sword hums, and handed it to everyone.

Though this piece of Spiritual Gold was only the size of a palm, it gave off an incredibly sharp and blazing hot aura, with electromagnetic light swirling around it. Sword Qi would occasionally shoot out, and just a thread of it could pierce through the protective shield of an Immortal of Nascent Soul.

Great Sun Luminous Gold!

With the help of the incarnation of Heavenly Monarch Wan Ji, the Immortal Capital No.1 Great Sun Gold Factory on the outskirts of Xiandu officially began production this year, and this was their first finished product.

The total investment of the Immortal Capital No.1 Great Sun Gold Factory was thirteen trillion Low-grade Spirit Stones, including many fifth-grade heavenly and earthly treasures.

The factory employed one million and seventy thousand workers, among which there were forty-eight Nascent Soul Monks.

Three incarnations of Nascent Soul Cultivators alternated to oversee the factory. With the help of the Array Spirit, they controlled the Factory Formation Method and completed the refining of Great Sun Luminous Gold, such fifth-rank top-grade material, producing one piece each year.

All of this required a great deal of money.

The one million and seventy thousand workers needed to be paid, all of them were citizens of the Immortal Gate, and their wages had to comply with the legal standards including social insurance and housing fund, weekends off, holidays, and maternity subsidies. Missing any of these meant facing hefty fines.

Multiple violations, and the factory would be shut down.

Dare to violate, and neither the Dari Swordsman nor Tusen Heavenly Monarch, who suppressed the Northern Plains, would be of any use.

Under these circumstances, many Immortals and Heavenly Monarchs wanted to move their factories to Small Worlds since labor costs could decrease to less than a tenth.

However, few have been successful.

There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that the quality of workers in Small Worlds is inadequate. Immortal Dao Industry is extremely complex; it requires talents who have received higher Immortal Gate education to operate Formation Methods and Immortal Dao instruments and possess sufficient Formation Dao skills.

The secondary reason is the strong local protectionism within the Immortal Gate. Many regulated materials and many restricted Immortal Dao instruments cannot be moved out of Xianmen's Mother Planet.

Thus, the production in Small Worlds naturally can't begin.

The forty-eight Nascent Soul Immortals in the factory required Fourth-rank Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures as wages, while the three rotating Divinity Transformation Heavenly Monarch incarnations required Fifth-rank Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Plus, the raw materials for producing Great Sun Luminous Gold were also expensive, not lacking in Fourth and Fifth-order heavenly and earthly treasures.

In summary,

Every piece of Great Sun Luminous Gold Jiang Ding produced for the Taiqing Flying Sword had a cost of six hundred and twenty-three billion Low-grade Spirit Stones!

Six hundred and twenty-three billion Low-grade Spirit Stones!

Spirit Stones!

Stone!

When Jiang Ding first saw these figures in the report, his head spun, and he staggered unsteadily.

He suspected his money had been embezzled.

And it was done brazenly and unscrupulously!

Because of this, Jiang Ding spent a month investigating from top to bottom, not letting a single Spirit Stone slide.

In the end, he concluded with dismay that this was the reality.

Moreover, the old senior, Heavenly Monarch Wan Ji, was adept in policy. He even applied for several policy supports for him, and only after a discount did it come down to this figure; otherwise, it would have been more.

It can only be said that there is a reason why each generation of the Immortal Sects and Great Sun Sword Pavilion only has one Taoist disciple.

An entire Immortal Sect, during the same era,

Could only afford one Taoist disciple!

Every Taoist disciple was a terrifying Gluttonous Beast, a Chaos Gold-devouring Beast!

In front of a Taoist disciple, a mountain or sea of Spirit Stones meant nothing. They could burn through it in an instant while still crying out in hunger.

What if the standards were lowered?

Lower the standards, and one could support two, three, or four Taoist disciples at the same time.

This would be an extremely foolish act.

The same amount of resources, if all poured into one Taoist disciple, would almost certainly ascend to Refining Nothingness.

If you cultivate three Taoist disciples at the same time, you cultivate three disciples with a twenty to thirty percent chance of ascending to Refining Nothingness.

The end result might be two or three ascensions to Refining Nothingness, or it might be one.

It's also possible that none would ascend.

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The risk involved was simply too great.

Moreover, a Taoist disciple cultivated with all available resources could easily thrash three disciples who were trained separately.

Such is the Immortal Path; the strongest among the top decide everything. Leading by a step, being a small realm higher, means not just thrashing, but a possible massacre.

Six hundred twenty-three billion low-grade Spirit Stones a year!

To be honest, Jiang Ding was scared.

The Northern Plains were still recovering, and the current yearly tax revenue was a mere fifty-seven billion low-grade Spirit Stones. Even if the demon race was repelled and the entire Northern Plains unified, it was uncertain whether revenues could double.

Under such circumstances, even if they squeezed more and reduced the salaries of Nascent Soul and Golden Pill Cultivators, it would not increase by much.

Change was necessary!

Great Sun Luminous Gold had to join the big division of labor within the Xianmen industry chain!

Only by doing so could costs be reduced. It wasn't feasible to build everything from scratch and bear all the costs alone; that's an abyss that no number of Spirit Stones could fill.

"Great Sun Luminous Gold?"

The Sun Extinguisher Heavenly Monarch recognized it immediately.

It was a new fifth-grade top-grade material recently developed by the sect, once featured in the "Cultivators" journal, spanning several pages, garnering the attention of many Divinity Transformation Cultivators.

"Why show this to us?"

The Sun Extinguisher Heavenly Monarch wondered with confusion: "We have no understanding of the Sword Dao, what's the point?"

"This isn't about Sword Dao."

"It's about materials."

Jiang Ding explained: "Great Sun Luminous Gold, a fifth-rank top-grade material, possesses extreme toughness, sharpness, and a high capacity for accommodating 'intent.' It is resistant to high temperatures and corrosion; it has no problems handling the high heat and severe cold of the fifth rank."

"Shouldn't you consider applying such near-perfect material to engines of Starry Sky Fortresses, main fortress cannons, and ammunition?"

"If successfully applied, wouldn't the performance of the Immortal Gate's warships rise another level?"

"This represents the peak of the fifth rank material exploration by a Domain Ruler!"

Jiang Ding was highly persuasive.

If the Great Sun Luminous Gold industry could develop greatly, not only could he reduce costs, he might even profit tremendously from Great Sun Luminous Gold!

"That does seem reasonable…"

The Sun Extinguisher Heavenly Monarch, Canghai Heavenly Monarch, and others showed signs of being moved, finally turning to Pingyang Heavenly Monarch.

Pingyang Heavenly Monarch had a burly frame, his face adorned with horizontal scars and wielding a massive gold chain, resembling a butcher more than anything. However, he was actually an expert in materials science; his appearance merely reflected his personal taste.

"Not quite."

Pingyang Heavenly Monarch shook his head: "Our Materials Research Institute tried it immediately, it won't work. The Great Sun Sword Pavilion's fifth-rank composite material, like their path, is too extreme, suitable only for elite Sword Cultivators."

"For Magic Cultivators and the slightly less skilled Sword Cultivators, fusing it into Treasures would be nearly the same as mixing in poison."

"However."

"When there's a problem, we should address it."

Jiang Ding refused to give up, exuding confidence: "The Military Soul of the Immortal Gate is a form of 'intent,' as is the Sword Intent of Sword Cultivators."

"To a certain extent, they are interrelated, we can conduct research, we can establish a new 'intent' research project, and I will do my utmost."

"A new 'intent' project?"

Pingyang Heavenly Monarch was visibly stirred.

Magic Intention, Sword Intent, Military Soul — these all referred to the specialized adaptation of a Cultivator's Divine Soul.

In this area, the Great Sun Sword Pavilion was at the forefront of the Domain, far outpacing other Sects.

The Xianmen's research in this area was truly difficult, with few results, hence they were always reluctant to invest much funding.

Now, here was a Dari Swordsman!

It should be noted that the Dari Swordsman could almost represent the entire Great Sun Sword Pavilion and was an equal to the Great Sun Sword Master.

His participation could indeed greatly accelerate the research on 'intent.'

As the several discussed the Tao and their theories, after flying for several months, the Great Sun Heavenly Pond finally approached the two small realms of King Xu.

Sun Extinguisher Heavenly Monarch and others ceased their discussion, their eyes gleaming with anticipation.

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