Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 823 - 682 Young Master, You are an Evil Ghost Among Lustful Men!

Chapter 823: Chapter 682 Young Master, You are an Evil Ghost Among Lustful Men!

Li Xuan glanced sideways, looking at Leng Yurou, who was covered in a glass mask, dressed in modern work attire, and then smiled, "I am also quite curious, what magic does my mother possess that makes you dare not to come home for several days? She even complains about you, saying that you lock the workshop door, preventing her entry."

Leng Yurou’s complexion changed slightly as she thought, What else could it be?

Mrs. Liu constantly hints around, telling her to think more about herself, to take action if she likes someone, and not to wait until the future to regret it; there’s also the Shenqi Union and the Peacock Manor, which need a male successor to take over the business—who could bear it?

Leng Yurou didn’t dare to talk back, so she could only try to avoid confrontation.

However, she did not plan to explain to Li Xuan, and with her arms crossed, she looked at him with a cold gaze, "You don’t come to the Three Treasures Hall without a purpose. Tell me! What do you want me to do now? If it’s about firearms, our Shenqi Union has recently delivered three thousand rifles and twenty cannons to the Ministry of War. There was no need for you to make a special trip."

Li Xuan, however, looked up at the minting machine in front of him, "When was this made? Why didn’t you tell me?"

"It was half a month ago," Leng Yurou shook her head. "The coinage minting machine is actually quite simple, incomparable to the organ puppets. I can make it easily."

"The problem is refining aluminum powder and then melting it into an alloy, which costs still haven’t been reduced to the figure you mentioned. I am working on improving it. However, the spinning machine and the cotton gin have already been made. When do you plan to launch them?"

The cotton gin is used to remove cotton seeds. Cotton was introduced to China during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the reason it wasn’t utilized for a long time was because of the seeds, as removing them manually was quite troublesome.

Li Xuan’s pupils brightened, his interest in these two machines was even greater than in the minting machine.

Yet, he soon shook his head slightly, "It’s not time yet, but your Shenqi Union can start pre-ordering cotton from merchants in various places. Cotton is usually sown in April and May, and now is the right time."

Leng Yurou pursed her lips, reluctant.

She knew that cotton would definitely be very profitable in the future, but she had no intention of expanding Shenqi Union’s business just yet.

Shenqi Union currently had enough on its plate with the new iron and cannon factories, lacking thousands of skilled technicians and craftsmen, let alone the capital?

Li Xuan knew her thoughts as if he could see through her. He glanced at her sideways, "The Court will subdue Liaodong this year, and with the migration and frontier development, there will be a need for at least six million pieces of cotton clothes and coats, not to mention the entire north, which could easily sell twenty million pieces of cotton clothing.

"Also, the border army, I am pushing the Ministry of War to let all of the army of Weisuo switch to cotton armor. Spending some money on cotton now, and by selling these orders in a few months, you will earn many times more."

After the appearance of the rune-fired flintlock rifles, traditional heavy armor had become ineffective, whereas cotton armor, lined with iron sheets and fixed with copper nails, was more practical. Not only was it stronger in protection, but it was also lighter and more cost-effective.

This business, Earl Chengyi’s mansion was also involved. Earl Chengyi’s mansion was short on funds, able to muster about five hundred thousand teals of patterned silver.

However, several wealthy women around him, like Luo Yan and Xue Yunrou, were very interested. They all had large amounts of capital.

In modern times, this would be considered insider trading, which is illegal, but in this era, there were not so many considerations.

He also needed to control the orders through Shenqi Union to significantly increase the production of cotton this year.

Otherwise, when the time came for them to use it, there wouldn’t be much cotton available, and the merchants would hike up the prices.

Leng Yurou’s eyes lit up at this, and a smile appeared on her face, "That sounds about right."

Li Xuan then took out a roll of blueprints and handed them to Leng Yurou, "This time I came to ask for your help in making an organ puppet. This is the blueprint. See if you can make it."

After Leng Yurou had looked at it for a while, she then looked oddly at Li Xuan, "Young Master, are you perhaps a reincarnated lecher? Even Luo Yan, and those Dragon Snakes and Kylin, can’t satisfy you anymore?"

Li Xuan was confused, "What are you talking about?"

He snatched the blueprints from Leng Yurou’s hand, then his gaze froze.

The blueprint depicted a stunningly beautiful woman, enchantingly attractive, with an exquisite figure like a ravishing creature from the human world—designed by Lv Qiluo for her own organ puppet. The width of the face, length, height of the nose, length of the eyes, waist circumference, and so on were all clearly marked.

—She was not wearing any clothes.

Li Xuan had not seen this blueprint before. Previously, Lv Qiluo had summoned countless barks and leaves using wood techniques, and achieved them with a wave of her hand.

Li Xuan knew Lv Qiluo needed this organ puppet for special requirements, otherwise, there was no need to seek help from Leng Yurou and Mr. Xue.

This was because Lv Qiluo herself mastered many techniques of creating avatars.

However, Li Xuan had no interest in this. He had no time to delve into runes and organ techniques for the time being.

"You mustn’t look!" Lv Qiluo’s voice arrived a bit late at Li Xuan’s ear, a green mist swirling around her body, and a thin fog covered the blueprint, blocking Li Xuan’s view.

Being a ghostly body, there was no unusual color on her face, but her voice was very unnatural, "A gentleman does not watch what is improper to observe, Li Xuan. You are the Hufa of Neo-Confucianism, a great scholar of this age. Don’t you understand even this basic principle?"

Li Xuan wasn’t really interested in an organ puppet; he just glanced sideways at Lv Qiluo, who was only 120 centimeters tall, flat-chested, and looked like a child, then chuckled, "I understand now, indeed people always desire what they lack the most."

Lv Qiluo’s eyebrows slightly raised, and then a hint of murderous intent condensed in her emerald-like eyes.

She thought this guy must be courting death!

A moment later, a burst of green thunderbolt exploded within Li Xuan’s body.

Caught off guard, Li Xuan trembled as electricity coursed through him, his head emitting wisps of green smoke.

Lv Qiluo had been ruthlessly thorough, making him feel as though his entire body was being devoured by myriads of ants.

"What are you doing?" Leng Yurou looked at him suspiciously, scanning Li Xuan up and down, "Why are you shocking yourself?"

Li Xuan, having barely endured the electric shock, then forced a laugh, "I was refining my body with Thunder Style, and it went slightly out of control just now. By the way, can you craft this magical instrument puppet? If it’s too difficult, the puppet’s capabilities can be reduced, and the array’s complexity can be simplified, but the appearance must be exquisite, resembling a living person as closely as possible―the more lifelike, the better."

Seeing Leng Yurou’s doubtful and disdainful glance, he explained helplessly, "What exactly do you think your young master is? A shameless, vile ghost driven by lust? This puppet isn’t even mine; I’m doing this as a favor for a friend."

Only then did Leng Yurou put away her suspicious look; she fell into contemplation, "I’m still somewhat interested. This blueprint involves some ancient secret techniques of mechanics, which are worth studying. However, manufacturing it is very expensive; just purchasing the materials would cost at least eight million silver coins, nearly the equivalent to an immortal treasure. Are you sure you want to manufacture this?"

Li Xuan’s face stiffened in an instant, thinking that this was going to be problematic―

※※※※

Still, Li Xuan hardened his heart and placed the order with Lv Qiluo.

The ’Seven Orifices Exquisite Furnace’ that Lv Qiluo gave him was invaluable, almost akin to a divine treasure; Li Xuan couldn’t bear not to spend the eight million patterned silver coins.

Moreover, with the magical instrument puppet, he would be the greatest beneficiary.

Especially since he still had money on the books, at least.

During the previous battle of Chengde, Li Xuan had acquired a large amount of wealth from Heavenly Master Qianyuan, Zhang Guanlan.

When this man had stepped down from his position, he took away centuries of savings from Tianshi’s mansion, all of which were incredibly wealthy.

After Zhang Shenye and Xue Yunrou’s revenge, they felt uncomfortable keeping all the relics from Zhang Guanlan’s possession for themselves and shared half with Li Xuan.

The share included a damaged immortal treasure among various other rare and exotic treasures, magical instruments, and elixirs, worth tens of millions of silver coins.

Then, in the battle at Chaobai River, Master Zhongliu gifted Li Xuan two fake divine treasures from the Lord of Baihu Palace and lord of Zimei Palace, under the guise of returning a favor.

One contained the Rule of Extreme Heaven called ’Zhenhun’ in the ’Zhenhun Seal’, and the other contained the declining Rule of Extreme Heaven in the ’Eight-Sided Declining Sword’.

Both were priceless treasures and could no longer be measured by silver coins.

Even without the Rules of Extreme Heaven, they were still top-tier divine artifacts with immense power.

Yet, because these two items were so precious, Li Xuan had yet to find a suitable owner for them.

The few girls around him either could not use them or felt they did not deserve them and thus were reluctant to accept.

Li Xuan intended to barter these treasures for items that they could use, but he had yet to find suitable trade partners.

At the level of fake divine treasures, it was difficult to find someone willing to trade, let alone for items of equivalent value. It would have to be a gradual process.

Besides, the various elixirs and rare items carried by the Lord of Baihu Palace and lord of Zimei Palace were also numerous, worth around three million in total.

More recently, in the battle at Xuanfu, he also obtained two million patterned silver and two immortal artifacts from Tuotuobuhua.

These two immortal artifacts were both related to Dragon Qi, and Yu Hongchang had decided to purchase them for storage in the Grand Temple.

The Court would not allow such Dragon Qi-infused items to be dispersed outside, lest they fall into the hands of ambitious and potentially troublesome individuals.

The problem was that although the Court shouted its intentions to buy, both the Ministry of Revenue and the internal treasury were out of funds.

Now, Li Xuan could only hope that his governmental reforms would enhance tax collection for The Court and help him settle his own debts.

In conclusion, although Li Xuan didn’t have much actual silver on hand, his net worth on paper was substantial.

Leng Yurou, aware of his financial situation, agreed to his request for credit.

Lv Qiluo felt somewhat embarrassed and said apologetically, "Don’t worry, I will find a way to reimburse you for this money."

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan smiled, "Forget about the money; the innate gourd vine and Jiutian Xirang you gave me, each is an extremely rare treasure. But what I need most now is a technique for creating a clone of myself. You—"

He was in the midst of speaking when suddenly, his expression changed and he looked up at the sky.

A mass of red light, like a meteor, hurtled down towards them from the clouds.

The Capital City’s Wulong and Jiuding Hunyuan Array responded automatically but failed to block the red light. Li Xuan waited until the red light approached to discover that it contained a woman in court dress, her eyes tightly shut, sinking into unconsciousness.

Li Xuan thought to himself, what’s this? A beauty falling from the sky?

His body reacted faster, already flashing forward to begin using his mana to mitigate the woman’s fall.