Chapter 424: Chapter 285 Hui Ming Zhan Tie_2
So even though the common people suffer terribly, with tens of thousands dying from hunger, cold, or being captured and killed, the local strongmen and gate valves take advantage of this chaos to expand and grow, flying the banners of the Heavenly King, Immortal Palace, or Mystic Sect, and engaging in mass plundering of people, resources, and land.
And notice, it’s plundering, not destruction. No one in their right mind would only focus on destruction—the ultimate goal of risking one’s life is always wealth and glory. In the end, wealth and resources are merely transferred from one person to another.
So although the Heavenly King’s rebel army takes the lion’s share, most of what they seize are gold and silver treasures, money, grain, and women—resources that are actually not of much use to the Mystic Sect.
What does the Mystic Sect want?
In immortal cultivation, it’s naturally about magic, companions, wealth, land, and the Heavenly Materials and Treasures. The competition for immortal fate within the spiritual mountains and great rivers is a given. Here, we’ll focus on the materials needed from the mortal world.
The largest quantity of resources the Mystic Sect requires from the mortal world are ores and wood.
Ores are relatively easy to understand; to put it simply, they’re the ’spirit stones’ commonly seen in novels.
Mines containing spiritual qi that can be refined, various Heavenly Materials and Treasures, Meteorite Star Iron, or metal and non-metal mineral aggregates birthed in the special environment of the Taiji Realm, or even those pitch-black clumps that don’t seem like much—anything dug up from underground can be collectively termed as spirit stone mines.
Even the ordinary gold, silver, copper, iron, jade, elixir, vermillion, and sulfur aren’t ingrained with spiritual qi. Still, these auxiliary materials, extracted from mountains, caves, and mines, are indispensable in the arts of the Mystic Sect, including alchemy, boiling medicine, and artifact forging, as various secret formulations naturally require their use.
These countless materials, whether ores or otherwise, are numerous and categorized extensively. If all of it were left for the Outer Mountain disciples to collect, there would certainly be a rebellion.
"Damn! I swallowed a Golden Core, and I’m here just to mine for you???"
But immortals need these resources. If you don’t mine and I don’t mine, someone still has to mine, right? Also, the crux of the matter is that ordinary people don’t generally need to deliberately gather minerals.
After all, for a commoner’s daily needs, where would they even use ores or jade? Farming, weaving, and performing labor barely leave time, who would specially collect such things? Moreover, can mines possibly remain in the hands of the common folks?
As the spirit stones mostly derive from miners, governmental officials, gate valves, landlords, and local strongmen, it is up to these people to coax or coerce the populace into mining for the essential material resources needed by the Qi Refiners of the three great sects. To seize the spirit stone veins, one must first curry favor with the local powers to obtain their generationally controlled mineral resources and manpower.
Yes, the cost of winning over a group might be hefty, but just drawing in a single family and recruiting their sons and grandsons into the sect would suffice. Surely, they would supply a wealth of spirit stone mines delivered right to the mountain for tribute. Isn’t this a favorable trade, known as resource equity?
The second major resource is wood.
Wood is just wood, not necessarily spirit wood, just the plain firewood and fuel for burning.
Given that there’s no nuclear fusion or natural gas these days, in ancient times, wasn’t it merely chopping firewood for burning? True, there is coal for iron smelting, forging, lime burning, and refining vermillion and sulfur, but at the end of the day, it still needs to be mined, so it falls under the category of ores.
Immortals could indeed use the Red Evil Technique to produce high-grade Samadhi True Fire or casually conjure colorful flame reactions or Plasma Sparks, lighting fireworks wouldn’t be too difficult.
Yet again, comes the thought, "I swallowed clouds and mist for hundreds of years, finally achieving immortality, and now you want me to tend a stove???"
Besides, firewood is a cheap resource. Why burn a Red Evil Talisman when burning firewood is just the same? Exchanging such resources, how many carts of firewood can be obtained!
In the current era, the immense machinery and golden bodies of the Immortal Palace, with immortals ascending to the heavens, leave mortals to still struggle with mere firewood—such a setting indeed seems peculiar.
But, in the bizarre settings of the immortal cultivation world, there are plenty of such anomalies, and while the people within the palace are busy vying for power and profit, mountain dwellers focus on perceiving the Heavenly Heart, rarely does anyone vex over these minor issues, and so tens of thousands of years pass without notice, and the mortal populace is still gathering firewood.
Unless it’s refining precious immortal pills that require Pill Masters and children to tend the flames with utmost care, the furnaces for boiling medicinal residue and auxiliary materials are just fed with firewood.
Previously, procuring firewood was simple, without much concern. But now with the Mystic Sect’s expansion, behemoths like the nine major sects of the immortal family demand thousands and tens of thousands of kilograms of consumption, with hundreds of sword furnaces and pill furnaces running uninterrupted day and night, with the sword furnace’s flames needing to burn for centuries.
Seeing the Cloud Platform continuously immersed in incense smoke, shrouded in clouds and mist, it’s clear the expenditures of the Mystic Sect are no less than those of the Immortal Palace.
Similar to mineral resources, this also depends on local strongmen and landlords to organize manpower to harvest from the mountains for contribution.
But the issue is, the populace needs firewood too.
Isn’t firewood essential for heating, cooking, and warmth? Nowadays, firewood can even count as currency.
Sure, you can sequester all the market’s wood if you dare, the rich will give it up if you collect it all. But if wood prices soar, and piles of frozen corpses line the roads, who’s to blame?
Would you complain to the rich after using firewood for alchemy? Would you share your elixir upon completion? What’s more, if the masses freeze or starve to death, who’ll assist in mining and woodcutting then?
Also, don’t forget the Immortal Palace! If everyone goes off mining and woodcutting for the Mystic Sect, who’s left to pay taxes and supply grain to the Immortal Palace?
This means the wood obtainable from the market and mines are both limited. Manpower too, naturally, is limited.
In sum, each year, in every place, the resources of firewood, manpower, and mines are all finite.
The celestial pills and treasure swords refined using minerals, wood, and people are naturally also limited.
This share, whether the Alchemy Workshop or the Sword Furnace, is equally up for contention.
The three great sects, nine major sects, inner and outer mountains—all are vying for it.
Compete for it—this is Tie Dan’s task.
Hence, more than half of the names on this list either own mines or woods, or they are from places like Taicang, Jun Shu, Pingzhun, Capital, Jitian, Wuguan, and Iron Official—those who were finance administrators of the Gen Kingdom in former times, familiar with local affairs.
Whether through deceit or coercion, we must win them over and bind them to the Sword Sect’s war chariot.
This is because the large expenses on ores and wood, which are not transactions done once or twice. Whether they can be a long-term hold on mines and forests, whether local strongmen can be subdued or allied with, and whether stable production and continuous resource supply can be achieved, directly determine the destiny of the entire sect.
Of course, merely controlling the distribution of ores and wood, the Tianyin family alone gains untold benefits.
Yes, the fighting is for Tie Dan to do, and the distribution is theirs; with benefits, they naturally fill themselves, but fail to compete or do poorly.
Lacking ores, inadequate wood, production delays, ruining sect items, and deteriorating the mountain’s fortune—who bears responsibility in the end?
Haha, everyone understands.
"Young Master, the first person on the list is trouble."
"Could it be Master Tianyin is making things difficult for you?"
Tie Dan was speechless, you catch on so quickly...
"Why, who is it? Are they formidable, Divinity Transformation level?"
"Rather than formidable, they might be untouchable..."
"By now, they’re probably already dead..."
Tie Dan frowned and took the note to glance at.
"Changshan Guard..."
Counting on his fingers, it seems they led troops against the rebel army and were ultimately besieged and destroyed.
"Young Master, we must quickly head to the north moat of Ye Capital City!"
"Indeed, perhaps there’s still time!"
So, following Hui Ming Zhan Tie’s guidance, Tie Dan swiftly moved with escape light, landing by the moat in no time, seeing from afar over a hundred people dismembered, their limbs broken, being roasted by Northern captives, with torsos hung on moat bridge pillars to be displayed, staining the Zhang River red.
Among them, one continued cursing, though his tongue was cut, blood spewed from mouth and nose, yet he ceaselessly roared, drenching those captive soldiers with blood, enraging them so much they sliced his flesh.
Onlookers dared not speak in anger, only shedding tears in silence.
That probably was him.
"Go drink blood!"
"By the decree of magic!"
Hui Ming Zhan Tie leaped, with sword light raging, slaughtering the Northern captives into pieces.
Tie Dan jumped agilely, clambered onto the bridge, and with a pull of the rope, brought the blood-drenched human log before him.
"Is it Yan Zhongjie?"
The man, with his throat and tongue severed, merely coughed blood and nodded slightly,
Tie Dan said, "Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?"
The man gazed into the distance towards the Dragon Palace, letting out a wrathful roar, a mournful rage akin to a dragon’s wail.
Tie Dan nodded,
"Alright! I agree! Soldier Disintegration!"
Then, with a flash of sword light, he severed his head, leaping away.