Assembly-Line Production

The Industrial Zone Chen Daoxuan had planned lay in the vast plains east of Changping County. Continuing east from here would lead to Twin Lakes Island's only port.

Chen Daoxuan had chosen this location for the Industrial Zone not only to reserve land for its future expansion, but also to facilitate the import and export of magic artifacts and Spirit Mine ore materials.

The only inconvenience was this.

This place lay in the outskirts beyond Changping County City. It was surrounded by barren plains, and aside from a dilapidated Official Road leading directly to Changping County City, there were no other buildings.

Clearly, the environment here was far from friendly for the Artifact Factory workers who would soon be working here.

Yet even modern-day Earth could not completely solve such problems, much less the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island, whose conditions were far worse.

To resolve these issues, the prerequisite was proper infrastructure construction.

For instance, besides factory buildings, the Industrial Zone also needed employee dormitories, medical halls, and all manner of supporting facilities for shopping, entertainment, and other consumer needs.

After all, people were not machines. Even if the Chen Clan members could endure hardship, Chen Daoxuan had no desire to squeeze them dry.

He knew full well that everyone might tolerate harsh conditions when times were difficult, but once the family had grown strong, if he still kept exploiting them blindly, it would inevitably breed dissatisfaction among the Chen Clan members.

Ordinary mortals might not dare openly resist in the face of cultivators' overwhelming power, but they could always slack off and do only enough to get by.

Therefore, Chen Daoxuan had to consider the welfare and benefits of the Artifact Factory workers in advance, lest they showed up without putting in real effort during production and caused the family unnecessary losses.

The moment Chen Daoxuan learned that the Artifact Factory buildings had been completed, he hurried over by Wind Riding.

By the time he arrived at the site, everyone was already waiting in the factory grounds.

Chen Daoxuan stood in midair and looked down. The factory buildings below covered roughly a thousand square meters, far more spacious than the family's old Earth Fire Chamber.

After descending before the crowd, Chen Daoxuan looked at Chen Beiwang, whose face was full of weariness, and said, "Chen Yuancao, you've all worked hard!"

Hearing this praise, Chen Beiwang immediately revealed an incomparably excited expression. He cupped his hands and said, "This old man is already sixty-two years old, with half his body buried in the earth. I never imagined I would still have the fortune to build such a marvel for the family. This old man is too happy even to contain himself—how could I feel it was hard?"

Hearing these heartfelt words, Chen Daoxuan nodded. "But the capable must bear more burdens. Your Directorate of Works likely cannot rest just yet. Aside from the factory buildings, there are the employee dormitory district, all kinds of buildings within the factory grounds, and the roads connecting Changping County, the Industrial Zone, and the port. All of it awaits your Directorate of Works."

Sure enough.

At these words, Chen Beiwang's old face immediately fell.

Then, fighting spirit once more filled his stooped frame. "So long as the family does not disdain these old bones as useless, this old man is willing to work himself to death in the post of Director of Works!"

Hearing this, Chen Daoxuan could not help but feel respect for the old man before him.

Within the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island, even ordinary mortals thought wholeheartedly of developing and strengthening the family.

With a family like this, why worry that it would not prosper?

After offering everyone some encouragement, Chen Daoxuan entered the factory building amid a crowd that surrounded him like stars around the moon.

The interior structure of the factory building was exactly as shown in the design plans. There were ten separate rooms in total, each around a hundred square meters.

All the rooms were interconnected, allowing Chen Daoxuan to move conveniently from one workshop to the next.

After inspecting the place, Chen Daoxuan found that all that remained was to install the Spirit-Melding Furnaces.

As for the Formation to guide the Earth Fire Vein—the core Formation for constructing an Earth Fire Chamber—Chen Daoxuan had already finished setting it up shortly after the outer framework of the factory building had been completed.

Thus, after entering the factory building, everyone felt a heat wave similar to that of the Earth Fire Chamber washing over them.

Fortunately, whether it was Chen Liangyu and the others or Chen Beiwang's group, all of them had grown accustomed to this environment. No one complained of hardship or fatigue.

After touring the factory building, Chen Daoxuan nodded in satisfaction.

"Very good! I now declare that the first phase of the Chen Clan Artifact Factory project has officially been completed!"

With that, he took the lead in applauding.

Although they did not understand what Chen Daoxuan's gesture meant, everyone still copied him and began clapping.

Seeing their awkward movements, Chen Daoxuan sighed inwardly. Without setting off firecrackers and cutting a ribbon, it somehow felt as though something was missing.

He shook his head, tossing the absurd thought from his mind.

At that moment, Chen Liangyu sidled over and asked in a low voice, "Young Clan Leader, what should we name our Artifact Factory? We can't just call it the Chen Clan Artifact Workshop, can we?"

Hearing this, Chen Daoxuan glanced at him. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Call it the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Factory. For a long time to come, this factory will produce only one kind of magic artifact: flying swords!"

Not only Chen Liangyu, but also the many worker apprentices who had followed Chen Daoxuan in learning to operate the Spirit-Melding Furnaces had long witnessed the forging of Crimson Shadow Flying Swords many times.

Though they were all mortals and could not understand Formation inscription or the various forging techniques at all, they were still very familiar with the crimson flying sword itself.

Thus, everyone felt that the name Chen Daoxuan had given the Artifact Factory suited the product it was about to produce quite well.

The factory building was complete.

Next came the installation of the Spirit-Melding Furnaces.

Only Chen Daoxuan could handle this task. After all, the Spirit-Melding Furnaces were over a zhang in diameter and weighed dozens of tons. Even innate martial artists would find it difficult to move them.

Much less relocate them from the Earth Fire Chamber in the Red Copper Mountain Range.

After all, even in a straight line, the two places were at least dozens of kilometers apart.

After spending an entire day on it,

Chen Daoxuan used his true qi to support the Spirit-Melding Furnaces, making five round trips between the Earth Fire Chamber and the Artifact Factory. At last, he installed every Spirit-Melding Furnace in the various production workshops.

Next,

they only needed to prepare the Spirit Mine ore materials and enter the long-awaited production phase.

Chen Daoxuan had spent a total of 6,721 Spirit Stones in Guang'an Prefecture purchasing all kinds of materials, including those for setting up the Earth Fire Chamber Formation.

Of that amount, the materials for the Formation that guided the Earth Fire Vein cost exactly 3,000 Spirit Stones. The remaining 3,721 Spirit Stones had been spent on purchasing Spirit Mine ore.

Since the magic artifact Chen Daoxuan primarily intended to forge this time was the Crimson Shadow Flying Sword inherited by the family, he had purchased a full 1,200 jin of Red Copper Mine alone—0.6 tons.

Compared with the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of tons of metal ore from his previous life, 0.6 tons of Red Copper Ore sounded like children playing house.

But for the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island, this was already the greatest amount of Spirit Mine ore they could buy after emptying their coffers.

Aside from Red Copper Mine, the remaining 121 Spirit Stones had been used to purchase inexpensive Profound Iron Ore. As an auxiliary material for forging Crimson Shadow Flying Swords, Chen Daoxuan had also bought a full 121 jin of it.

According to Chen Daoxuan's experience forging Crimson Shadow Flying Swords,

forging one Crimson Shadow Flying Sword required ten jin of Red Copper Mine and one jin of Profound Iron Ore, with raw material costs of roughly 31 Spirit Stones.

Meanwhile, a First-tier low-grade flying sword sold in Guang'an Prefecture for around 50 Spirit Stones.

At first glance, the profit did not seem particularly high.

But one must not forget that the magic artifacts sold in the Rogue Cultivator Market of Guang'an Prefecture were all secondhand goods discarded by the scions of great clans—defective products with damaged Spiritual Aura and short service lives.

If there were brand-new flying swords of superior quality, they would certainly not sell for merely 50 Spirit Stones. Chen Daoxuan estimated that their price would rise by at least fifty percent.

And they would likely be scarce even at that price.

Calculated this way, the profits would more than double.

The next day.

When Chen Daoxuan arrived at the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Factory once more,

less than half an incense stick later, a mass of crimson liquid flowed out from the Discharge Port of the first Spirit-Melding Furnace.

His Divine Sense swept over the area.

The other four workshops were either refining Spirit Mine ore or preparing to begin refining it.

Seeing this scene, Chen Daoxuan could not help thinking of the assembly lines from his previous life. Though the assembly line of the Rainbow Sound Magical Artifact factory was somewhat slow, compared to ordinary Artifact Forgers, it was faster by far more than dozens of times.

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Daoxuan walked into the first Artifact Forging workshop.