The Lords' Council: Heavenly Pivot Court
Inside the tunnel ahead, the Tiger Sha Demon Army continued its advance.
The vast, cleared tunnel was reshaped, and with the fluctuations of magical power, the spirit-patterned floor tiles extended accordingly.
Lin Xu walked slowly through the empty tunnel, where the Heavenly Artisan Yaoguai, disguised as miners, used spirit-patterned steel chisels to carve through the rock walls.
With a cracking sound from the spirit-patterned hammer, the hard rock crumbled, and large chunks of Shitou rolled down the rock face.
He swept over the stones; most were low-value, ordinary Shitou that would be shaped by the Heavenly Artisan Yaoguai and turned into hard stone bricks to be dragged into their territory.
Whether it's paving roads, building city walls, or constructing outposts and fortresses in the wilderness, each has its value.
Among the rocks scattered around, there were several unusual minerals of different colors.
Lin Xu opened the item panel to check.
Item: Iron Ore Grade: White, Common Type: Material Effect: Can be refined into common metal Purity: 6
Description: This is a common iron ore with a coarse texture and medium iron content. After refining, it can be used to make white-grade weapons.
Purity refers to the metal content of an ore. A score of 6 means that the iron ore contains between 60% and 70% iron.
Weapon manufacturing requires skilled craftsmen and the establishment of a complete production line.
Because equipment in the Spirit Realm is produced through hand forging, even white weapons made of ordinary iron are highly sought-after items among adventurers.
In addition to iron ore, this mine also produces copper, silver, and gold ore, as well as ferrous iron ore.
Item: Black Iron Ore Grade: Cyan Common Type: Material Effect: Can be used to refine basic spiritual materials Black Iron Purity: 3
Introduction: Black iron is hard and tougher than ordinary iron, and is a common base material for refining low-level magical artifacts. Black iron is a primary spiritual metal on par with black iron, and is often used to make blue-grade weapons and equipment.
This is such a large mine; once it's developed, it will provide a continuous supply of materials.
Even these dead zombies are resources!
Lin Xu sensed the dense corpse energy emanating from the cave. To the corpse-driving craftsmen, this dense corpse energy was equivalent to pure Spiritual Qi.
Even these dead zombies themselves are excellent tonics for corpse refining.
The first group of corpse-driving masters who had completed their initial training directed their refined corpses to leap to the pile of corpses, pick up the dead bodies on the ground, and bite them.
Lin Xu calmly watched this scene. Inside the dead zombie's body, a large amount of corpse energy was being devoured by the refining corpse, and then refined and absorbed by the Profound Yin Qi within its body.
A moment later, the White Jiangshi zombie, having absorbed enough corpse energy, swelled up slightly. It casually tossed the dried and decaying remains onto the ground. Lin Xu watched as the corpse driver pulled the corpse refiner back into a meditative state. As the accumulated corpse energy within its body was purified, the white downy hair grew longer and longer, until it was about an inch long.
After draining the life force of seven or eight zombies, the white fur on the corpse turned purple and gradually became dark purple.
The second stage of corpse refining: Purple Zombie.
The skin turns bluish-purple, and the muscle fibers harden, making it resistant to ordinary sword and knife cuts.
Lin Xu opened the corpse's attribute list and found that the corpse's agility and constitution attributes were increased by 1 each, and the Purple Zombie's body was more resilient in defense than the White Jiangshi.
The refining corpse, which had advanced to the Purple Zombie stage, once again grabbed a zombie and extracted its corpse energy. The seemingly useless zombie corpses also came in handy. Even the dried corpses that had been drained of their last bit of corpse energy were collected. All of these could be used as materials for the Undead class.
"Is this the capital city?" Jiang Wanqing looked at the Capital Airport. As the largest air transport center in Central State, planes take off and land here almost every minute.
It is said that it was built and put into operation a hundred years ago. The invasion of the Spirit Realm did not make this place desolate. On the contrary, due to the demand for air transport, it has been expanded many times and has become more prosperous.
"Let's go, I'll take you to the Lords' Council to complete the formalities." Xia Jingyi, standing beside her, took her hand. "There will be plenty of opportunities to see it later."
As the lord's liaison officer stationed in the capital, Jiang Wanqing will obviously be traveling by plane frequently in the future.
As you drive through the streets, you see towering residential buildings on both sides.
Jiang Wanqing had already become a Daoist priest and awakened her magical powers; she could vaguely sense a faint Spiritual Qi emanating from these buildings.
She subconsciously activated her Spirit Eye Technique, and saw a magic circle enveloping the entire ordinary residential building, flickering with a faint spiritual light.
"Is this a protective magic array?" Jiang Wanqing's face showed surprise. She glanced at the residential buildings along the way and found that every single one of them was shimmering with the spiritual light of a magic array. "Does the capital city have Spirit Vein?"
As we all know, there is no Spiritual Qi in the real world.
This kind of formation, which uses Spiritual Qi as its energy source, will become inanimate once the supply of Spiritual Qi is cut off.
If the protective arrays in these buildings were all powered by Spirit Stone, she couldn't imagine how many Spirit Stone it would take to supply such a city every day.
"You guessed it? Rumor has it that Lord Lin Xu possesses the complete Daoist professional lineage, and it seems that's true." Xia Jingyi glanced at her in surprise, then said thoughtfully, "The capital city is under the protection of Old General Gu Qiancheng, so of course it has Spirit Vein."
Jiang Wanqing's delicate body trembled; she had heard the name Gu Qiancheng before.
One of the first lords, Legendary of Central State.
That was something her grandfather mentioned when he told her stories. From the beginning of the Spirit Realm invasion until now, a hundred years have passed, and this hero who once turned the tide is still alive.
His name has been buried by time, becoming a memory for a generation, yet he silently guards the heart of this country.
Half an hour later, the vehicle stopped in front of a magnificent building.
The oriental-style palace is 365 meters high and 108 meters wide, roughly square in shape. The green bricks and gray tiles, the flying eaves and upturned corners are shrouded in mist. The glazed tiles are bathed in a sky-blue halo, and the bronze wind chimes hanging from the eaves tremble silently, echoing some ancient rhythm.
In the corridor beneath the eaves, the dragon patterns on the vermilion pillars are powerful and vigorous, as if they are about to break through the wall and soar into the sky.
The giant bronze cauldron placed on the square in front of the gate is about three feet high and the three-legged round cauldron is about five feet in diameter. The body of the cauldron is engraved with the four-character ancient seal script "Carrying Heaven and Qi Yun". Thirty-six large incense candles as thick as a bowl are inserted in the cauldron. The rising green smoke seems to symbolize the rising national destiny.
Above the main entrance of the building, a golden plaque hangs under the nine-tiered eaves, bearing the three characters "Heavenly Pivot Court). The brushstrokes are sharp as swords, and the silver hooks and iron strokes seem to conceal thunder patterns.
"This is the Lords' Council, where you'll be based from now on. Your office is ready; you don't need to prepare any extra supplies. Everything is provided here." Xia Jingyi looked at the magnificent palace, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes. "Let's go; everyone is waiting for you."
Surprisingly, the check-in process for this magnificent hall, a symbol of territorial power, was very simple. Jiang Wanqing was simply pulled aside to sign a document and received a key.
Before she could even see the office, Xia Jingyi pulled her into the large conference room on the top floor.
Or, to put it another way, the entire 108 floors are a large, interconnected conference room, arranged in a ring shape.
As Jiang Wanqing followed Xia Jingyi into the conference room, all eyes immediately turned to them.
Jiang Wanqing quickly glanced around. The huge conference room was arranged in three concentric rings. The seven seats in the inner ring were already full, while most of the hundreds of seats in the middle ring were still empty—not because people hadn't come, but because no ID badges had been placed and the seats hadn't been activated.
The outer ring is the largest and has the most people, with two to three hundred people sitting in several hundred seats.
"Here." A young woman in Central waved and invited her to sit down with a smile.
"Go ahead," Xia Jingyi reminded him from the side, "The inner ring is exclusive to Legendary lords, the outer ring is for Enfeoffed Lord and acting lords, and the middle ring belongs to Pioneer Lord."