All Right

"That's fine."

"That's enough?"

"It is currently confined in the Cardinal's Chamber, which is equivalent to possessing a cicada, but it has not yet successfully reincarnated and has not reached the Nascent Soul Realm, so it cannot perceive the outside world or provide feedback."

We're not as knowledgeable about cultivation as you are, but mechanisms are child's play. I'll just assemble a converter, connect an external speaker, and we can communicate. Look, I even added a camera for her. As for what kind of prosthetic body we'll make for her, we'll discuss it with her and see what she thinks. By the way, it'll cost extra if you want us to make a prosthetic body for you."

"Alright, alright, here's a piece of candy, go play... Ahem, Junior Sister Lu, Junior Sister Lu, it's me, Qingyue! What do you think?"

Lu Xing's voice came out intermittently from the speaker connected by a metal wire.

"Senior brother... how many years have passed? You've aged so much..."

Li Fan, "..."

"Where's my older brother...?"

"Oh, Lu Qi, right? Here she is."

So Li Fan turned around, brought the flowerpot behind him over and placed it in front of the camera, parted the leaves of the night-blooming cereus, and showed Lu Qi's head, which was planted in the flowerpot, to her.

Lu Xing, "..."

"Let me make it clear beforehand that this has nothing to do with me! He insisted on cultivating the Tai Su Dao himself. I gave him the chance, and others have been fine after consuming it, but who knew he couldn't handle it? Sigh, it's really tough..."

Li Fan was speechless. Look at Lu Qi's arrogant tone, all that talk about being a master strategist and a mastermind, offering gifts one minute and becoming his disciple the next, talking about wanting to cultivate the righteous path, acting like he was destined by heaven, Li Fan's fated disciple. Plus, Si Nan was egging him on, making Li Fan think this kid was something special. So, he gave him a chance to try, but damn it, he failed!

Headache. I can't believe eating another piece of candy didn't help? Well, not entirely useless, just a little bit. At least Lu Qi's head retained its human form, which allowed Li Fan to plant him in a flowerpot to save his life, right...?

Moreover, this Tai Su rock sugar wasn't used for testing as soon as it was made. Needless to say, Li Fan and the three fish were given it to Lin Xiang, Li Tangyuan, and Li Sheng later, and their skills improved greatly. Li Fan was therefore full of confidence, thinking that this time it was a success. He never expected that in the blink of an eye, someone else would be sent away to keep his fellow disciples company.

It seems the Tai Su Dao is indeed quite fair; regardless of your gender, age, intelligence, intelligence, handsomeness, or ugliness, the probability of transformation is always fifty-fifty.

It's all or nothing.

Why don't we just promote the Epiphyllum oxypetalum rock sugar soup as is?

After all, when it comes to assessing aptitude, spiritual cultivation, and financial resources, most people can't compare to Lu Qi. If even he can't succeed, then further increasing the success rate probably won't make others any more successful.

Li Fan's goal was not to cultivate elites, but to benefit all people. After all, he could feel that the moonlight was getting stronger and stronger. Although his realm had not made any breakthroughs, his cultivation was constantly increasing. The Discipline Institute simply threw the mutated Devil Embryo into his Moshan Barrier and that was it. There was no time to study them one by one.

Judging from the recent official gazette and the occasional reports from Daoist Qiongqi, the northern kingdoms have been ravaged by war, with nine out of ten houses empty and countless lives lost. It is unknown whether the Nangong Immortals are behind it, but many places have been filled by Devil Domain, with countless demon caves, Fourth Department are filled with demons who kill and eat corpses and cultivate evil arts.

That 50/50 success rate is actually acceptable; surviving half the time is better than nothing.

Ugh, this makes him look like Thanos...

"Senior brother..."

"Oh, junior sister, what do you need? Do you want a new prosthetic body? Leave it to me, senior brother. Back then, Qingyue wouldn't be where it is today without your help at Tiantai Mountain. I must repay this kindness. Just tell me what you need."

Li Fan placed Lu Qi's flowerpot on the windowsill next to him, letting him bask in the moonlight of the Celestial Realm and grow strong.

"The Lu Family are... members of the Divine Cult... lurking in Ink Bamboo Mountain..."

"Oh, I know all that. It's all in the past, Junior Sister, you don't need to mind. You are a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain. Right now, Ink Bamboo Mountain is in need of talent..."

"Senior brother... please be quiet and listen to me..."

Li Fan, "... Oh."

" In the Lu Family home... there is a Heavenly Soldiers... a Nascent Soul Stage level mechanical artifact... a Dao body created by my father... My elder brother and I completed the artifact... but when I tried to control the divine weapon, I failed... the artifact seems to have developed its own 'spirit,' resisting my control and escaping... Please, senior brother, report to the abbot and send the sect's garrison master to retrieve the weapon... otherwise, the consequences will be dire..."

Li Fan patted his chest and said, "Oh, the Heavenly Soldiers, is that it? Okay, I'll take care of this side quest. Junior Sister, you can rest assured and relax. Your senior brother is very strong!"

Lu Xing, "Then... I'll have to trouble you, senior brother... Also... could you please find a skilled mechanic to maintain my movement... My movement's pivot is about to overload..."

"Oh, okay, okay..."

So Li Fan scanned the secret realm and found Du Gongshi, whom he had met before. He handed over Lu Xing's cardinal to him for safekeeping and asked him about the Heavenly Soldiers.

Du Gongshi was also impressed, "The children of the Lu Family are truly remarkable. I heard that Lu Qi conquered a mountain for the sect with just a dog, but I never imagined that Lu Xing, at such a young age, could complete the modification of the Cardinal Materialization on his own, and even develop something like Heavenly Soldiers. Truly, the younger generation is to be feared..."

Li Fan: "No, a dog..."

Du Gongshi, "As for the Heavenly Soldiers, it refers to the armor worn by the Dou Department Martial God of the Ancient Immortal Palace era when they fought against the ancient demon gods and great monsters. Originally, it was just simple armor, but later, after Martial God died, his heroic spirit resided in the armor. The Immortal Emperor, moved by his loyalty, ordered the Imperial Household Department Imperial Order to supervise its manufacture as Shangfang Divine Weapon. The armor made was controlled by the heroic spirit, and even if no one wore it, it could move on its own and go into battle to eliminate demons."

Later, this technology spread and became essential divine equipment for celestial soldiers. If a soldier died on the battlefield without receiving a divine decree, his heroic spirit's fighting skills would be recorded in these specially made Heavenly Soldiers. With slight modifications, these skills could be transformed into Shangfang Divine Weapon. Perhaps Lu Xing was unaware of these secrets and activated the celestial soldiers' remnants among the repaired equipment?

Li Fan exclaimed in surprise, "So powerful? Then why is the Immortal Palace so weak?"

Du Gongshi shrugged. "It's all because of that petty squabble among the Three Palaces factions. The higher-ups set an example, and even the Imperial Order is caught up in the infighting. They're quick to resort to bloodshed and exile. If they don't do anything wrong, they'll be accused of wasting the court's funds and impeached if the research fails. The rest are just sycophants who coast along. Their daily lives are filled with corruption, bribery, and the resale of state weapons. They're laymen instructing experts, making a complete mess of things."

Under the guise of saving public funds, they had already driven away many skilled craftsmen. When they later audited the accounts, they even burned down the armory. What's more, they shifted all the blame onto us, the celestial craftsmen who had served the Immortal Palace for generations. In the end, they expelled our ancestors from the capital and exiled them to the South Border on charges of embezzlement.

"Hmph, those remaining in the Three Palaces are all second-generation rich kids who bought their titles with money and are nominally registered in the Imperial Household Department. They probably haven't even touched a chisel before. Their daily tasks are subcontracted to workshops in the countryside. When war comes, they just pay out of their own pockets to procure some armor and bows to fool the enemy. Their armory is already incomplete, so how could they possibly repair and manufacture those ancient divine weapons?"

Li Fan, "..."

Du Gongshi, "Let's not dwell on these troublesome matters. In short, since Xing'er has repaired such a divine weapon, we can't just leave it unattended. This weapon itself is a divine armor capable of withstanding a demon god, and it also contains the killing intent of an ancient Martial God. Since Mountain Lord has the time, he should retrieve it as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary casualties."

As he spoke, Du Gongshi shook his head, clutching Lu Xing's mechanical pivot, and walked away, muttering to himself.

Li Fan actually wanted to ask about the dog, but seeing Lu Qi's head, which he had tossed onto the windowsill and was now smiling like a sunflower at the False Moon of another world, he decided there was no rush.

These three siblings are probably destined for greatness, future stars. Even their dogs will likely not be unknown.

However, the most urgent task now is not to let a rampaging mech run rampant. It just so happens that Li Fan has been spending all his time in Li Family Village repairing things, and he's gotten numb from all the repairs. He should seize every opportunity to go out and let loose.

So Li Fan did some quick calculations, drawing on his experience from months of practice problems, and deduced the location of the berserk divine weapon. This ancient martial arts version of the mecha, of course, didn't understand calculations, nor could it conceal its whereabouts. It wandered around like a headless fly for a while, and after roughly figuring out where north was, it headed north. It should be approaching the border region by now, right?

Where else could they go? The Martial God of the Immortal Palace, upon awakening, would naturally return to the Three Realms to pledge allegiance. After all, the martial artists of the Celestial Venerable's generation risked their lives to confront those world-destroying demons head-on, not for worldly things like high positions, riches, or a promising future!

So Li Fan went to retrieve the Golden Dragon White Star Twin Swords, which had been repaired and reinforced with meteorite iron given to him by the eunuchs. Seeing that Xuan Tian was still in seclusion, he decided not to take it with him. He grabbed the Kun's tail, wrapped it in Sword Light, and took it out. It had licked so many Heavenly Ghost Contracts that it had enough; he could take it out for a spin and see how well it had progressed in its recent sand-eating cultivation.

After leaving the secret realm, I took a detour to inspect it, and the appearance of Ink Bamboo Mountain had changed drastically.

After all, with a massive migration of millions of people, hundreds of thousands of households have settled across the river. In just a few months, the forests and vegetation of the nine peaks of Bamboo Mountain, including the lush bamboo groves, have been completely cut down. Everywhere are rows of shacks and shacks, and near the sects on each peak are workshops, coal-fired stoves, and blacksmith shops. The once verdant land is now a hazy yellow, with billowing smoke and gusts of coal wind, and the air quality is absolutely terrible.

There's no other way; people need to eat something hot, cook over a fire, wash, and keep warm. Besides, given the terrain of Ink Bamboo Mountain, there really isn't that much farmland to allocate, so industrial development is the only option.

Fortunately, the cultivators of Bamboo Mountain all went to the Ten-thousand-mountains to level up, so there was no shortage of cultivation caves. Moreover, the refugees who stayed on the mountain were given property and support by the peak masters and sects. Therefore, the peak masters of Bamboo Mountain agreed to give the mountain to Ink Bamboo Mountain for overall planning. They didn't care that the Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land for cultivation would be turned into a bustling mortal world.

The abbot's plan remained unchanged: the most important thing was saving lives, and he had no time for environmental protection. So, regardless of local specialties, he organized displaced people to directly and destructively exploit the resources of Bamboo Mountain Jiufeng through a work-for-relief program.

They devoured all the spirit birds and beasts of the Nine Peaks of Bamboo Mountain, cleared out all the forests and trees, and mined out all the iron and jade deposits. In short, they did whatever brought them money and goods. All kinds of Heavenly Treasure, materials and supplies that were not edible were handed over to the various government agencies and factories on Heavenly Craft Peak for processing. The finished products were then purchased by the eunuchs of the Li Country and transported to Kunlun to be sold in exchange for food and supplies.

With all the resources exhausted, the cultivators of the Nine Peaks of Bamboo Mountain naturally wouldn't return to cultivate. In fact, it was equivalent to the immortals of Ink Bamboo Mountain slaughtering all the local Demon Race and migrating south as a whole, from south of the Li River to south of Moshan, giving up their original land for mortals to cultivate and live on. It was roughly equivalent to adding a new prefecture to the Li Country, Bamboo Mountain Prefecture.

The expansion of the Immortal Palace since ancient times has been like a wheel rolling forward, rolling from the Central Plains all the way to the four seas.

Judging solely from the subsidies on the books of Li Country and Ink Bamboo Mountain, and calculating the population expenditure, Li Fan estimated that the new 'Bamboo Mountain County' could easily accommodate one or two million people and restore civilian production. By the time Bamboo Mountain itself became crowded, his 'Moshan County' would probably be ready for people to live in.

However, the construction of a sect is far more complex than the strategic plan seems. Even without considering the influence of external forces, the population that has migrated to Bamboo Mountain has already begun to form factions and engage in internal strife and competition.

Wherever there are people, there is conflict; internal strife is inevitable.

The refugee groups quickly banded together, forming three distinct factions based on language, customs, and origins: Zhen, Xun, and Li.

This is largely because the first wave of refugees fleeing from Xun Kingdom were Oldest One settled in the fields along the banks of the Li River. Refugees from Zhen Country and the Central Plains who arrived later could only be assigned to hunt in Bamboo Mountain. Meanwhile, most of the Li Country who migrated from Changsi City entered the workshops of Heavenly Craft Peak. After this settlement was formed, those who arrived later were more inclined to settle in their respective communities and villages.

It's not just ordinary people wearing straw sandals who band together for self-protection; even those wearing boots band together.

Wealthy people tend to gather near Lou Guan Tower. Because the abbot is there and various Lou Guan guardians frequently come and go, it's considered safer. Prices in this area have skyrocketed, even reaching the point where palaces and ships gather like those in the Three Enclosures. Lou Guan Tower can no longer be called a village or town; it's now a veritable prefectural city.

The internal grudges and factions within the ruling class were even more complex. There were exiled noble families Li Country the Central Plains, local noble families from elsewhere, and the original independent cultivator families of the disciples of Ink Bamboo Mountain. Various communities and groups also divided into streets and neighborhoods, living in their own small circles, vying for trade routes, demon slaying, border defense, mountain patrols, and various land reclamation tasks, trying to get a foothold in the thriving power of Ink Bamboo Mountain and get a share of the pie.

For example, now the garrison commander of a certain Moshan Town, the Grand Master, and the Guan Nei Hou have become the objects of currying favor. When Li Fan flew across the territory of Ink Bamboo Mountain in his escape light, people on the ground knelt down to pray for blessings or pointed and whispered.

At this time, there was a large group of children, who looked and dressed like scions of noble families. They were running like marathons, traversing mountains and valleys, heading straight for Moshan. They probably heard about Li Fan meeting Lu Qi and thought that the gate to immortality had opened. They all looked like they would not give up until they reached Li Family Village, found their immortal destiny, and became disciples of the mountain lord.

Since they were willing to become pioneers in the Tai Su Dao experiment, Li Fan was naturally very gratified. He couldn't let Lu Qi almost die on his first try and lose confidence in his product. Perhaps increasing the experimental sample size and using big data could salvage the situation!

Okay, that's fine, let's begin! Promote the method of becoming human!

So Li Fan ordered through the independent system that the Iron Guards of Moshan lift the restrictions, and that if anyone managed to sneak into the manor, they should be rewarded with a bowl of sweet water.

It's a 50/50 chance anyway. If someone dies, just cut off their head and plant it in the yard.

Then Li Fan flew away from Ink Bamboo Mountain, his Sword Light flashing as he fled north to the borderlands to capture a mecha.