When Su Hao returned to the merchant guild headquarters, he found that Ashan had already cleared out the small fry. He said, "Next, we'll clear out the factories outside the city. You take the eastern factories, I'll take the southern ones."
Ashan acknowledged him, immediately flew into the sky, transformed into a streak of light, and sped away. He never mentioned using Flash Step again. With the time it took to do that, he would have flown there already.
After this incident, he resolved to go back and properly practice the ability "Precise Flash Step." Otherwise, like today, by the time he tried to show off with a new ability, ten seconds would already have passed! What use was that? Meanwhile, Su Hao used Flash Step to arrive at the factory district outside the city. A vast stretch of the place had been built entirely from wooden planks, and it looked exceptionally sturdy and durable. Although the metallurgical industry had risen in recent years, constrained by raw materials, the output of all kinds of metals remained very limited, and iron goods were still quite rare.
The factories were still operating day and night without pause. The roars of countless machines running inside blended into one continuous din that carried far into the distance.
Although the various Immortal Sects had seized these factories and slaughtered all the managers, after only one day of quiet, they had reassigned the workers to their posts and restarted the machines. At the same time, they arranged for Artifact Refining masters and Formation masters to analyze the principles behind the machines' operation, paying special attention to the Hydropower Spirit Stations.
Clearly, they had already regarded these factories as the property of their own Immortal Sects.
Yet they ran into an enormous problem as soon as the