Above the Shaman City, which had only just taken shape, several Great Shamans stood suspended in midair, silently watching columns of soldiers march into the city.
Boats steadily sailed along several waterways. Though the cargo vessels were modest in size, every single one was fully laden, stretching into the distance as far as the eye could see.
Far away on the other side of the Shaman City, a curtain of light connecting heaven and earth was faintly visible. Inside the curtain of light, everything was clear and bright. To the Great Shamans, this brilliance felt uncomfortably glaring, far less pleasing than the deep green hues of the Wu domain.
From the vantage of the Shaman City, Qingming looked as if a chunk had been forcibly gouged out from the middle of heaven and earth.
Upon the Shaman city walls, countless slaves labored tirelessly, hauling cut stones onto the ramparts to raise and thicken them. Each time a layer of masonry was laid, a Shaman Scholar stepped forward to splash fresh blood and chant incantations. The blood soaked into the stones, dyeing them a faint, dark crimson. Primarily human blood mixed with various kinds of foul and poisonous blood, it was specially formulated to corrode the clear qi of the human domain.
Yet the Great Shamans still wore furrowed brows. One said, "The city's defenses are far from sufficient. This won't withstand a single strike from Yue Jinshan."
"That old bastard's first strike is far too ferocious. Whoever gets in his way dies. We'd be better off letting him attack the city."
"Lord Hongye is pressing us hard. Should we launch another assault?"
"No. What if that old thief Yue strikes right at that moment? That old bastard is crafty as a fox."
While the Great Shamans were debating, a sudden gust of gale-force wind swept across the area, and a figure as massive as a mountain appeared before them.
Bare-chested, he had long manes growing from his head and back, with two massive tusks protruding beside his mouth. He stood twice as tall as any of the Great Shamans, holding an exceptionally heavy hexagonal greatclub in hand.
When he came to a halt before the shamans, his terrifying pressure caused them all to take an instinctive step back.
The Great Shamans bowed together. "Great Shaman Yanxin."
Yanxin's six eyes swept coldly across them. "Lord Shengxin has decreed an immediate offensive against Qingming!"
The Great Shamans exchanged glances, none offering an immediate answer.
"What? Is there a problem?"
Steeling himself, one Great Shaman said, "The humans have prepared means inside capable of easily annihilating us. Whenever we draw near, our hearts pound with dread, and our spiritual senses scream warnings. This subordinate believes it is best to wear down their strength using ordinary troops. Once we wipe out their army or draw out their hidden trump cards, victory will naturally follow.
"However, our forces must currently guard against surprise raids from Western Jin, and our numbers are far too inadequate. Lord Hongye has already promised to reinforce us with three hundred thousand troops within three months. Launching an assault then would be foolproof."
Another Great Shaman chimed in, "This region was barren to begin with, devoid of anything useful; the most valuable things here were human livestock for sacrifice. But after years of warfare, not one in ten remains, and most survivors aren't even fit to be sacrificial offerings. Why not let Qingming fatten them up for us first?"
Yanxin immediately grew impatient and roared in fury, "All of you making excuses—do you think you can't take down a tiny domain established barely over a month ago, or do you think Lord Shengxin's commands can be ignored?!"
The shamans fell into silence.
Yanxin suddenly spat right into the face of the Great Shaman before him and barked, "Shu Li and Hongye are useless trash, and their subordinates are all a bunch of worthless garbage!"
A Great Shaman's aura surged violently as he roared, "You dare insult Lord Shu Li and Lord Hongye?!"
Yanxin's long mane bristled. A massive claw seized the Great Shaman by the throat, hoisting him up like a chick before roaring into his face, "They're two pieces of trash as well! What, you dare object?!"
The Great Shaman's face turned livid purple as he struggled desperately, but before Yanxin's terrifying magic power, he was as frail as a maggot. Yanxin's roar left his head spinning and his vision blurring, saliva showering his face.
Yanxin laughed raucously. "You really think Shu Li can protect you? I've uttered his name several times now. Has there been any response?"
The Great Shamans remained silent.
Yanxin flung the Great Shaman aside and sneered, "A bunch of trash still thinking yourselves important? Truth be told, Lord Shengxin never expected you to accomplish anything.
"This time, all you have to do is lure that human out so I can place the shamanic curse Lord Shengxin specially crafted onto him. As for whatever lethal weapon is inside that domain, you won't need to bear the brunt of it—I will block it myself!"
Several Great Shamans breathed a sigh of relief. Yanxin snorted. "To think Hongye relies on people like you—no wonder his fortunes have gone from bad to worse."
At this point, a Great Shaman standing at the very back spoke up: "Lord Yanxin, I am relatively familiar with the humans and have planted several covert pawns on their side. Perhaps I could make a trip over to Western Jin; it might be possible to prevent them from sending aid to Qingming."
Yanxin stared at the Great Shaman, searching his memory. "You're Phantom? Fine, go give it a try. You're useless on the battlefield anyway."
After bowing, Phantom departed immediately, not lingering for even a moment. Yanxin shook his head at the sight and said to the remaining Great Shamans, "You come from major tribes yourselves; why do you spend every day mingling with her?"
One of the Great Shamans said, "Lord Yanxin, what if we wait three more days? Ten thousand warriors will arrive in three days, and Phantom should have put her plans into motion by then as well. If she truly can stop Yue Jinshan from sending reinforcements, your mission will be that much easier to accomplish."
Hearing the name Yue Jinshan, Yanxin was uncharacteristically calm and did not lose his temper. After a brief pause, he nodded slowly.
***
In the Qingming forging grounds, Yu Zhizhuo was assembling an odd mechanical apparatus while Wei Yuan and the other cultivators from the Palace of Grand Beginning gathered around to watch.
The apparatus featured a gantry suspending a massive iron hammer weighing over a thousand jin, with a crank arm on either side. Yu Zhizhuo assembled it while fabricating parts on the spot, trimming and adjusting any components of improper size right then and there.
From his fingertips shot wisps of pale gold sword qi, shaving and slicing continuously. Shavings as thin as cicada wings drifted down from the components as their dimensions edged toward the target tolerances.
Though these shavings were of iron and steel, they were so thin that they floated in the air; dozens stacked together barely matched the thickness of a single hair. From this technique alone, one could see the profound depth of Yu Zhizhuo's sword arts.
Fortunately, what he was building was not a precision machine, and the work it was intended for was coarse labor. There was no real need for such meticulous perfection, so from beginning to end, Zhang Sheng never found an opportunity to intervene.
Zhang Sheng let out a quiet breath of relief.
The machine was soon fully assembled. Two cultivators carried over a massive, specially crafted anvil and set it underneath. Yu Zhizhuo took an iron ingot; holding it in his hand for a few breaths, he turned it red-hot before laying it upon the anvil.
Then Yu Zhizhuo turned the crank. Through various transmission mechanisms, the iron hammer was hoisted up. Once it reached the designated height, a release mechanism tripped automatically, letting the hammer drop and smash heavily onto the iron block.
Yu Zhizhuo adjusted the hoist height slightly and let the hammer drop several more times. The iron block flattened and stretched under the blows, taking on the rough shape of a steel plate. Yu Zhizhuo bare-handedly picked up the still glowing-red plate, inspected its quality, and finally nodded in satisfaction.
Yu Zhizhuo turned around and said, "With this machine, there's no need to swing hammers to forge steel billets. Just crank the mechanism to hoist the hammer, and let gravity drop it. The hammerhead I made today weighs only a thousand-plus jin, lifted to a height of over a zhang. The force of its impact is roughly equivalent to that of your early Dao Foundation cultivators, and every single blow carries the exact same force. Operating the crank arms only requires some physical strength; speed doesn't matter much, so Body Casting cultivators can handle the work."
Looking at this machine, Wei Yuan was already stunned beyond words. Yu Zhizhuo had used no formation arrays and no rare materials—only the most commonplace steel, iron, and timber. Yet operated merely by Body Casting cultivators, it could match the output of hammer-wielding Dao Foundation cultivators.
Taking his thoughts a step further, Wei Yuan realized its efficacy was vastly superior to hammer-wielding Dao Foundation cultivators. Dao Foundation cultivators were human, after all; they grew weary, had lapses in concentration, and even when fully focused, slight variances in impact force were inevitable. But this machine delivered identical blows every time, without error or fatigue.
Body Casting cultivators outnumbered Dao Foundation cultivators by dozens of times. Even if hundreds of these machines were built, Wei Yuan had more than enough hands to operate them, ensuring they could run day and night—the workers might rest, but the hammers never would.
Though he had yet to make precise calculations, Wei Yuan estimated that the efficiency of one such machine was roughly equivalent to three hammer-wielding Dao Foundation cultivators. After all, a Dao Foundation cultivator could only work eight shichen a day.
Wei Yuan immediately instructed Cui Yu to organize personnel and mass-produce these machines. Yu Zhizhuo added, "Your people probably aren't skilled at crafting devices. Let several of my junior brothers lend a hand; that will speed things up."
Wei Yuan naturally had no reason to refuse. Cui Yu then set out with four martial uncles from the Hall of Heavenly Craft and gathered over a hundred Dao Foundation cultivators to chop timber, smelt iron, and manufacture the machines.
Once the crowd departed in a flurry of activity, Wei Yuan stepped before Yu Zhizhuo, bowed deeply, and said, "Martial Uncle possesses immense talent! We look at those records day after day and have read them countless times, yet none of us ever conceived of this. Martial Uncle's design truly creates ripples on a tranquil lake, stirring thunder from silence. That it can be so simple yet so remarkably efficient fills this junior with utmost admiration!"
Yu Zhizhuo's dark-skinned face beamed with pure delight as he chuckled. "It is merely a little trinket put together offhandedly. Since you like it, it is yours."
"This... wouldn't be proper, would it?"
Yu Zhizhuo beamed and said, "Nothing improper about it, just a fair exchange of courtesy."
Zhang Sheng wore a deadpan expression.
Over in the distant lumber yard, Cui Yu swung his sword, instantly carving ten large logs into timbers one foot square and two zhang long. Every single timber was accurate down to the hair. The other Dao Foundation cultivators were either shaping wood or forging iron, turning out parts one by one under the guidance of the cultivators from the Hall of Heavenly Craft.
Even newly advanced Dao Foundation cultivators could swing an iron hammer for eight continuous shichen with consistent force; machining these parts was effortless by comparison, not to mention having Heaven Foundation cultivators like Cui Yu, Wang Yu, and Xu Yi on hand.
Presently, Dao Foundation cultivators unleashed their magical instruments and brought various Dao arts to bear, feverishly machining components. Scores of Body Casting cultivators hauled materials back and forth, carting finished parts off to the Weaponsmith Workshop.
After discussing among themselves, the cultivators gave this machine a name steeped in the style of the otherworldly realm: the iron-forging machine.
Inside the Weaponsmith Workshop, all was bustling chaos. Wei Yuan reorganized the layout, setting aside floor space for a first batch of three hundred iron-forging machines, with a second batch of eight hundred or a thousand to be decided later.
The iron-forging machine was simple in construction, sturdy, and durable; by morning, an estimated hundred units could be assembled. Though the steel plates produced by the machines were only rough stock requiring final finishing by cultivators, it still saved ninety percent of the labor.
Each iron-forging machine could produce ten steel plates in one shichen; a hundred machines meant over ten thousand plates a day. Once all three hundred were in place tomorrow, it would take a mere three or four days to equip every person in the domain with a steel-tube gun.
Body Casting cultivators could be equipped with three each!
At this moment, Wei Yuan wished every cultivator could hold an extra gun in their mouth.
The Hall of Heavenly Craft truly lived up to its reputation; as soon as Yu Zhizhuo arrived, the bottleneck was broken in an instant. Seen after the fact, the iron-forging machine seemed utterly commonplace and not at all difficult, yet before laying eyes on it, none of them had even conceived of the idea.
Wei Yuan's thoughts raced, realizing he would soon face a new headache. High-quality steel plates would now be in ample supply, but raw iron and gunpowder would fall behind once more.
Wei Yuan felt the need to have a serious talk with Sun Yu, to get him to set aside that immortal medicine, amoxicillin, for now and put his mind toward figuring out how to produce more gunpowder.
In all the time since establishing Qingming, this was the first time Wei Yuan felt everything was moving in a positive direction, that light had finally appeared ahead. It was just that Yu Zhizhuo's remark about "a fair exchange of courtesy" seemed to carry an underlying meaning whose purpose eluded him.
Suddenly, Wei Yuan's heart stirred. Somewhere within his Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, spiritual energy abruptly surged, and several wisps of azure qi slowly coalesced.
Moved by an inner resonance, he gazed into the distance.
Within a shanty in the city of Yong'an, a loud cry suddenly rang out as an infant came squalling into the world.
This was the first child born in Qingming.
Chapter 234