Under such circumstances, the greatest operating cost of magic-energy machinery, vehicles, and equipment was the magic energy consumed every minute and every second.
This was also one of the reasons why magic-energy equipment was difficult to popularize on a large scale.
Aside from the technical requirements and manufacturing costs, magic-energy power itself was an extravagant form of propulsion.
For most ordinary people, it was far less cost-effective than human or animal labor.
Only someone like Zong Shen, who truly had mines at home, could afford not to care.
At present, there were not too many magic-energy vehicles and devices in the territory, and the [Magic Energy Crystals] obtained through mining were entirely sufficient to cover the consumption.
Even if the territory expanded further in the future, he would not need to worry. After all, Azshara Mine had yet to reach its full potential, and there were still vast numbers of undeveloped veins.
Furthermore, the mine collapses caused by the Blood-Burning Demon invasion and the outbreak of the Epoch War had buried portions of ancient mines and mineral veins.
As long as Zong Shen fully developed the Azshara mineral veins, they would be enough to sustain the construction costs of a Great City, with ore left over for trade.
The reserves there had originally been sufficient to support Azshara Great City sending tens of thousands of miners to excavate it for centuries, even millennia.
By the time the catastrophe and war broke out, that mine had only been developed for one or two hundred years.
Moreover, as far as Zong Shen knew, the Azshara mineral veins were indeed substantial, but across the entire Endless Continent, there were still countless deposits larger than it.
That was because the Endless Continent was simply too vast.
Even "vast lands and abundant resources" was insufficient