Turning the enemy's resources to one's own use would signify the success of the second stage of Li Chen's transformation plan. It would also mean he could thoroughly conquer Chess Mountain and turn it into a colony or vassal while paying very little himself, with Chess Mountain bearing all military expenses and cultivation provisions.
From a military perspective, those skilled in warfare drew their provisions from the enemy, ensuring their armies had enough to eat. This was a victory in the art of war.
But what mattered more to Li Chen was that failure to achieve this would mean the transformation had failed. His use of Mortal Dao Artifacts and mortal strength would be nowhere near sufficient to contend with cultivators!
That would put him at a grave disadvantage when dealing with enemies of the Outer Dao in the future. Li Chen could only settle for the next best option: make greater use of existing Dao Path techniques and Mechanism Puppets, recruit large numbers of talented Puppet Masters, and purchase Mecha and Battle Puppets.
Li Chen felt that if things truly reached that point, the war in Chess Mountain would have been fought for nothing.
Of course, he could never resign himself to that. If it really came to that, he would at least have to squeeze hundreds of billions in profits out of Chess Mountain before he was satisfied.
Li Chen had already set two strategic objectives, one greater and one lesser.
The greater was to swallow Chess Mountain whole, devouring ten thousand miles like a tiger. That way, he would gain both people and wealth, with all of Chess Mountain's riches falling under his control. That was big money.
The lesser still required squeezing oil from stone, extracting enough cultivation provisions to build the Heavenly Hero Divine Crane.