At the foot of Buzhou Mountain.
The earth-shaking battle cries and savage impacts of the past had been replaced by rhythmic roaring.
A colossal furnace cast entirely from Netherworld Divine Iron greedily inhaled and exhaled baleful earth-vein energy. At its core, a fist-sized "sun" burned steadily, releasing energy purer and more immense than Solar True Fire!
The energy was diverted through pipelines formed from profound runes, powering rows of enormous mechanical puppets that cut and polished ten-thousand-jin boulders as easily as tofu.
Not far away, a celestial aqueduct a hundred zhang wide had begun to take shape. Like the spine of a giant dragon, it was ready to draw the Weak Water from the south to the barren northern lands.
The entire Witch Tribe settlement resembled a prehistoric civilization that had unlocked its technology tree, brimming with a wild yet precise industrial beauty.
And the creator of it all, Xuanzheng, wore a "hard hat" polished from a ferocious beast's skull. He leisurely tore off a sizzling, grease-dripping roasted beast leg and watched the bustling scene before him with the satisfied smile of a capitalist.
"Brother Zhurong! Brother Gonggong!"
Xuanzheng's voice was not loud, yet it clearly overwhelmed every rumble.
Boom!
The Fire Ancestral Witch Zhurong, the hot-tempered fellow who had once known only how to reason with his fists and flames, now rushed over like a devout apprentice, his eyes blazing with fervor.
"Thirteenth Brother! It worked! It really worked!"
He pointed at the furnace, so excited that the flames covering his body trembled. "Just one tiny wisp of my origin fire! Just that tiny bit! Yet the power it drives now is ten times stronger than when I go all out! And... and it keeps going endlessly!"
The Water Ancestral Witch Gonggong followed close behind, his expression transformed into