Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery
Chapter 500 - 485: The Tushan Immortal City of the Century

Within the Demon Palace,

Molten Gold Vines stretched across mountains and fields, and these years, they had been harvested many times, accumulating a large batch.

Clang!

The Taiqing Flying Sword sang softly as it flew out from the deep blue lines between the brows.

"Before the Golden Pill, it is just a Tools embryo of a treasure."

"After the Golden Pill, in the instant that I ascended to Golden Pill, the Taiqing Flying Sword had already become my Life Treasure, ranking as low-grade. Yes, from the perspective of Array Patterns, that is how it is."

Jiang Ding's Divine Sense surged into the Life Flying Sword, meticulously inspecting the Formation Method within the Life Flying Sword, recalling the content of Treasure prohibitions and Refining he had learned.

"One major characteristic of human Golden Pill Monks is the ability to continuously refine and nourish their own Life Treasures, growing stronger over time."

"Thus, the situation where humans of the same rank are generally inferior to those of the Demon Race of the same rank is completely changed."

"The secret technique of refining treasures differs among the Immortal Sects, but there is a standard that many Cultivators agree on: Seventy-two Earth Evil Prohibitions and Thirty-six Heavenly Gang Prohibitions."

"Low-grade treasures possess one to twelve Earth Evil prohibitions, mid-grade treasures thirteen to thirty-six Earth Evil prohibitions, and high-grade treasures thirty-seven to seventy-two Earth Evil prohibitions."

"Nascent Treasures are where after reaching the perfection of seventy-two Earth Evil prohibitions, the foundation of the Life Treasure becomes profound, and upon an opportunity, the seventy-two Earth Evil prohibitions transform into a single Heavenly Gang Prohibition, resulting in a qualitative change in power. This is what makes a Nascent Treasure."

Jiang Ding observed the prohibition patterns within the Taiqing Flying Sword.

Many meridian-like Formation Patterns spread out around a slowly rotating Nine Aperture Golden Pill at the center, with many Array Patterns converging next to the Golden Pill, forming a glowing Earth Evil Prohibition.

"From the perspective of Array Patterns, my Life Flying Sword is the least of the low-grade Magic Treasures, entirely dependent on the Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold and Taiqing Spirit Iron for face."

"The mere material has its limits."

"Besides Array Patterns, starting from the Golden Pill, Cultivators need to continually refine Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure into the Flying Sword, enhancing its essence bit by bit. Over hundreds and thousands of years, this will exceed the limits of Taiqing Spirit Iron and Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold, and advance a step further."

Jiang Ding murmured to himself, reaching out his hand and drawing over a third-order Melted Gold Fruit to him, its dark brown peel densely covered with molten patterns, giving a vague sight of its magma-like internal substance.

This was the material he had prepared to cultivate for more than eighty years as an auxiliary for refining the Flying Sword.

It would act as a catalyst, melting the required Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure for the Flying Sword, and integrating it within the Flying Sword.

"It would be best if it's a metal-type Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure."

"Third-order Metal Essence, Sharp Silver Iron, Number 21 Synthetic Gengjin, Kong Copper Crystal... and so forth, these are all good materials, to be tested one by one, to find out the most suitable thing for the growth of the Taiqing Flying Sword."

Jiang Ding pondered silently.

"The supreme secret technique for refining Flying Swords, 'Great Sun Heavenly Pond Sword Refining Method' has not been lost, but it needs some modification to adapt to the 'Wan Hua Magnetic Element Scripture'. My teacher promised to handle it for me over twenty years ago; there are still a few years to go."

Gathering the matured Melted Gold Fruits within the Demon Palace, Jiang Ding unfolded his Divine Sense, a fifty-kilometer wide Divine Sense Scanning covered the entire Tushan Immortal City and the surrounding territory, not missing a single detail.

In nearly a hundred years of development, Tushan Immortal City had almost reached the limit of this Cultivation realm.

Over forty Golden Pill Monks were permanently residing in the Immortal City!

The Foundation-building Cultivators numbered in the thousands, and Qi Practitioners were in the hundreds of thousands. Here, whatever you need, as long as it's first or second-order and you have Spirit Stones, you can get it immediately, with most of the prices of Magic Tools and Elixirs being even lower than in the Northern Plains.

Even third-order Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasures and Magic Treasures appeared from time to time, no longer as rare as before when a single third-order item was considered top-notch and hard to come by.

In nearly a hundred years, Tushan Immortal City had brought him more than three billion low-grade Spirit Stones in wealth, most of the funds needed for the construction of the super Air-Space Battleship depended on this.

Of course, this kind of situation won't last forever.

The Triple Grade Superior Spiritual Vein of Tushan Immortal City couldn't support the Cultivation of so many Golden Pill Monks, and the surrounding products weren't that great. Many of these early and mid-stage Golden Pill Monks were just unable to endure the chaos of the Northern Plains and sought a temporary refuge. Many consumed Spirit Stones and top-tier second-order Spiritual Veins for their Cultivation.

The moment the chaos in the Northern Plains ceases or stabilizes a bit, they would leave.

However, many of the Foundation-building Cultivators would stay behind, as this place is considered a very suitable site for their Cultivation, safe, with decent resources.

"We've seen the young master,"

A slight ripple of Spiritual Energy flashed by, and five late-stage female Foundation-building Cultivators knelt down on one knee.

```

Slightly ahead of the four, was the petite Gong Caiyu with her adorable round face, dressed in a snug white dress, with a white-sheathed longsword at her waist. Her quasi-third rank Heaven Light Dao Troops Flying Sword had been nurtured for over eighty years.

The other four were the First Maid of Spring, Chun Jian; the First Servant Girl of Autumn, Qiu Shanggong; and the First Servant Girl of Summer, Shangyun—all three being cultivators of the Sky Spiritual Root and seemingly on the verge of breaking through to the peak of Foundation Building.

The last one, however, was a girl with tan skin and unremarkable looks, exuding a strong rural air.

Her name was Dong Cang, the First Servant Girl of Winter.

She was of the Three Spiritual Roots, but possessed the Mist Spirit Body, giving her an incredible talent in Concealment and espionage. After reaching the Latter Stage of Foundation Building, she could even avoid the Divine Sense Scanning of early-stage Golden Pill monks. Consequently, she rose to her position and became the First Servant Girl of Winter, responsible for the intelligence work of Tushan Immortal City.

"How is the Tushan Kingdom doing?"

Jiang Ding asked, his interest in affairs beyond the Demon Palace rekindled for the first time in a decade.

In the past century, the land occupied by the Demon Country had been fully developed, and its population had grown beyond five hundred million. Many cities started experiencing a shortage of land despite large populations, leading to the abolishment of pro-natal policies long ago.

Thanks to the abundant human resources, the Tushan maiden group of one hundred and forty-five members was constantly refreshed with new entries and eliminations, with the selection criteria becoming increasingly stringent, reaching a terrifyingly high level.

Dual Spiritual Roots no longer guaranteed automatic entry.

One must also possess an exceptional level of comprehension.

For those with Three Spiritual Roots, only those with comprehension at the level of 'dragon and phoenix among men' qualified to join the Tushan maiden group.

To date, all one hundred and forty-five maidens have entered the Foundation Building Period, many reaching the Mid-stage Foundation Building. Fully promoted to official maidens, each one was equipped with a quasi-third rank Heaven Light Dao Troops Flying Sword.

A team of twelve Dao Troops could hold off an early-stage Golden Pill monk for a while.

Three teams of Dao Troops were enough to slay a Golden Pill Monk.

Of course, this wasn't because they were that powerful, but rather due to the power instilled into the Dao Troops Flying Swords by the Dari Swordsman, as an extension of his own strength.

"Young Master, the public order is generally good."

Gong Caiyu, responsible for internal suppression, crisply replied, "All twelve cities of Tushan have Law Enforcement Hall monks stationed and frequently summon nearby Foundation-building cultivators for battles. With our round-the-clock patrols, bandit cultivators and demon cultivators appear very rarely, and the public order remains as it was ten years ago."

"The mining operations in Tushan are proceeding normally."

Chun Jian, who was in charge of Tushan's mining affairs, took up the report.

"However, as a century of mining has passed, the mineral resources are gradually depleting. We often have to delve deep underground to extract some Spirit Mines. The Poisonous Liquid Silver Mine, which has been mined the longest, is the most severely affected, with annual output decreasing significantly. We have invited a Golden Pill expert skilled in prospecting to survey the site, and he stated that the triple-grade Poisonous Liquid Silver Mine would likely be depleted within a hundred years."

"Depleted?"

Jiang Ding frowned.

This was within reason, as he had deployed numerous mining spider-type robots to excavate the Poisonous Liquid Silver Mine day and night for nearly a century, yielding vast quantities of the Poisonous Liquid Silver that were used to coat the Dyson Mirror Surface sword-shaped drones, satisfying the manufacturing of one thousand and twenty-four drones with some to spare.

But the issue was, he needed to manufacture even more sword-shaped drones in the future—at least ten times that amount!

"Never mind, by the time I enter the Nascent Soul Stage, perhaps some kind individual will make a donation..."

Jiang Ding temporarily shelved the concern.

"As for Spiritual Plants..."

"...and Spirit Beasts and Spiritual Fish, etc..."

Qiu Shanggong and Shangyun reported in succession, each on their respective areas of responsibility. Of course, they merely supervised these sectors as eyes and ears, rather than dealing with them directly.

Owing to the Dao Troops Flying Swords, lying to the Dari Swordsman was difficult for them, ensuring a degree of loyalty.

"Young Master, about the intelligence work..."

Dong Cang, the First Servant Girl of Winter, spoke up.

"Our hidden maidens-in-waiting have infiltrated all the major forces controlling the second-grade Superior Spiritual Veins and above within the Tushan Kingdom."

"Additionally, seventy-three official maidens at the Foundation Building stage have begun to employ the 'Tiaren Transformation Method' to infiltrate Northern Plains. They're attempting to blend into various nerve centers of Northern Plains' immortal cities and various-sized forces. At the moment, they're only peripheral disciples, able to access only public intelligence..."

```