Seeing that Wei Yuan was about to say more, Yu Zhizhuo immediately cut in, "You don't need to say another word! Don't get in the way of my dao art research!"
Yu Zhizhuo returned to his desk and buried himself in his work. By now, his eyes were bloodshot, and his thoughts moved like lightning. His calculation speed had increased noticeably; he was evidently intent on producing improved versions of the Gold Melting and Earth Transforming Incantations as quickly as possible.
Seeing this, Wei Yuan was about to leave when Yu Zhizhuo suddenly said, "I almost forgot to remind you: Nether Crystal is extraordinarily resistant to dao arts, so the Earth Transforming Incantation probably won't work on it. However, although Nether Crystal is hard, it is inherently brittle. With your brute strength, you should be able to crack it open."
Like a flash of lightning through Wei Yuan's mind, everything clicked.
Nether iron and Nether Crystal were both famed for their resistance to dao arts. Nether Crystal in particular was impervious to nearly all dharma idol-grade dao arts, and even most Scenery Command arts were ineffective against it. For that reason, it was a vital material for refining defensive spirit treasures, flying vessel armor, and defensive grand formations.
Wei Yuan had just cast over a hundred Earth Transforming Incantations earlier without the slightest effect, so he had abandoned the Nether Crystal to concentrate on nether iron. Now, with Yu Zhizhuo's reminder, Wei Yuan realized that Nether Crystal was actually the primary direction to pursue.
Wei Yuan handed both chunks of nether iron to Yu Zhizhuo and returned immediately to the Nether Cold Realm.
Upon arriving, Wei Yuan noticed that the space he occupied had shrunk a bit more—in just a short while, it had lost a fist-sized volume. It seemed that whenever he wasn't there to hold back the pressure, the hollow would slowly be compressed.
Fortunately, the Institute of Structural Mechanics had finally delivered its first research result: an arched support structure. They had even begun advanced research on a semicircular dome support.
Yet looking at the structural diagram—completely hand-drawn, without a shred of data or theoretical backing—Wei Yuan suspected the project was merely an excuse to swindle funding.
But there was no time to worry about that now. Wei Yuan adjusted his bodily structure, stuffing part of his body into the space left by the nether iron, exposing the Nether Crystal underneath.
Then, Wei Yuan manifested a steel chisel and struck toward the Nether Crystal with all his strength.
Yet after hammering over a hundred times, he had only left a faint white mark on the Nether Crystal. He recalled the properties Yu Zhizhuo had mentioned: hard, but brittle.
Wei Yuan blessed himself with the karmic luck of the immortal orchid and began pondering how to deal with the Nether Crystal. With his karmic luck elevated, inspiration soon struck, and his intuition found a way.
Putting away the steel chisel, he switched to a small hammer with a smooth face and tapped the mirror-smooth surface of the Nether Crystal. The Nether Crystal produced a clear, ringing note that resonated endlessly; evidently, the entire surrounding area was vibrating.
Wei Yuan's spirits lifted. The method indeed worked!
He formed a straight channel through the center of his body, about two feet long. The small hammer dropped down through the channel, striking the Nether Crystal.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Wei Yuan struck blow after blow, constantly adjusting the hammer's weight, speed, and internal structure, striving to find the manner of impact best suited to induce resonance within the crystal.
After several hundred strikes, the crystal's reverberations suddenly turned shrill and thin. Then, with a sharp crack, several fractures appeared!
Overjoyed, Wei Yuan kept hammering. More and more cracks spread through the Nether Crystal until he finally drew a piece up and took it into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
With new space cleared, the hammer had a longer swing, correspondingly increasing its speed and force, allowing him to strike even faster. Before Wei Yuan reached his limit of endurance, he chipped off three more pieces.
Returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan manifested the chunks of Nether Crystal. Nether Crystal was very light; the pieces he had chipped off—each the size of a wooden stool—weighed only a dozen-odd jin altogether. Yet converted into heavenly merits, they were worth thousands. Back when Wei Yuan had nearly pierced away Yanxin's entire lifespan with a single spear strike, the heavenly merits he earned were barely comparable.
Wei Yuan sighed with emotion, genuinely feeling that Nether Shamans were extraordinarily lucrative.
Afterward, Wei Yuan went to the Hall of Merits. Under the rare material contribution column, he found Nether Crystal. As expected, contributing one tael yielded fifty heavenly merits.
Wei Yuan took two large chunks of Nether Crystal, totaling about ten jin, placed them into the formation, and transmitted them to the Main Hall. Then, he browsed the records concerning the Nether Shaman kingdoms and exchanged over a thousand merit points for materials.
In no hurry to head back, he stayed in the Hall of Merits to read. To speed up progress, he also manifested two Dao Foundation-grade and one dharma idol-grade enlightened warrior to read alongside him.
The materials they read would automatically be stored in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. Ever since discovering this, various records and texts had accounted for the lion's share of Wei Yuan's spending in the Hall of Merits, and the information stored within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World grew daily.
However, using enlightened warriors to read records had a drawback: them reading it was not the same as Wei Yuan reading it himself. If he wanted to master the relevant knowledge in the future, he would have to study it all over again in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. But at least this spared him from having to pore over the vast majority of unimportant or uninteresting material.
Just because Wei Yuan wasn't interested didn't mean mortals weren't. There were currently over seven hundred thousand mortals in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, with all kinds of hobbies. Some even dedicated themselves to studying mindless, lowbrow storybooks and doggerel verse.
While reading, Wei Yuan waited for his dao power to recover. Just then, a notification arrived from the Hall of Merits: a total of five thousand heavenly merits had been credited to his name.
Seeing the message, Wei Yuan's mind went momentarily blank. He could hardly imagine that heavenly merits could come so easily. When he had earned his very first sum of heavenly merits, it had been a matter of surviving by the skin of his teeth.
Yet as the heavenly merits were credited, Wei Yuan noticed that the price of Nether Crystal in the Hall of Merits had changed—from fifty heavenly merits per tael down to one heavenly merit per tael.
This price drop was truly drastic. But thinking of that boundless expanse of Nether Crystal beneath the Nether Cold Realm, Wei Yuan felt that one heavenly merit per tael was entirely acceptable. He estimated, however, that after turning in another several dozen jin, the submission channel for Nether Crystal would probably close, just like it had for Nether Soil.
By now, Wei Yuan's dharmic power had mostly recovered. He placed his remaining two pieces—totaling five or six jin—into the formation and chose to donate them freely, making a small contribution to the sect.
After this round of donations, the price shifted once again, dropping to one heavenly merit per five taels.
Thoroughly satisfied, Wei Yuan hummed a little tune as he headed back to the Nether Cold Realm. In this excursion, he had both earned plenty of heavenly merits and done his part for the sect; naturally, he was in high spirits.
Returning to the Nether Cold Realm, Wei Yuan found that the space he had painstakingly excavated had shrunk slightly again. He manifested a cauldron structured like an arch and set about reinforcing the hollow. But just after he erected two arch supports, the golden mountain above settled slightly, and the freshly placed arches shattered on the spot!
Furious, Wei Yuan immediately gave the mortals of the Institute of Structural Mechanics a harsh scolding in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. He followed up by unleashing a hailstorm and torrential rain, soaking these people—who had yet to finish building their houses—into drowned rats, before returning to mining Nether Crystal.
After being dressed down, the mortals kept silent on the spot. But the moment Wei Yuan left, they began pointing fingers at each other—absolving themselves of blame while trying to pull their rivals down and get them expelled from the institute.
After a chaotic clamor that lasted half a day, the mortals finally changed the institute's sign to: The Institute of Structural and Materials Mechanics.
This name revealed their true underlying thoughts: they didn't believe there was anything wrong with the arch structure; rather, the materials Wei Yuan used were simply garbage.
***
At the main mountain of the Palace of Grand Beginning, a pair of young cultivators flew back, heading straight for the Hall of Merits. The pair consisted of a man and a woman—the man handsome, the woman sweet.
Beaming with pride, the young male cultivator laughed heartily and said, "Junior Sister, I stumbled upon an extraordinary opportunity this time and obtained a full five taels of Nether Crystal! When we get to the Hall of Merits, I'll give you two taels. That way, your heavenly merits will surpass a hundred, putting your name on the leaderboard. True Monarch Beihai will be selecting true disciples soon; when the time comes, you might just catch his esteemed eye!"
The female cultivator was pleasantly surprised. "Really?! B-but how could I accept such a gift? I... I have nothing to repay you with..."
Lowering his voice, the male cultivator said, "Junior Sister, surely you know how I feel about you..."
A blush instantly rose to the young woman's cheeks, and she said bashfully, "Oh, you wicked man..."
The young male cultivator laughed, and the two walked into the Hall of Merits, chatting and laughing.
A moment later, a mournful wail suddenly echoed from within the Hall of Merits.
With a furious expression, the young female cultivator rushed out of the hall and flew off. The male cultivator scrambled after her, shouting as he flew:
"Junior Sister, let me explain..."
Chapter 541