Chapter 349: The Intermediate Cultivation Tower Is First Completed
Tianhe Region, Red Moon City.
The Red Moon Building, which normally should not have many people working late at night, was now brightly lit from its hundreds of floors because of one piece of news. Hundreds of thousands of employees of the Red Moon Merchant Guild were busy, all for a single matter.
Did Vice City Lord Moye of Mist Mountain Domain City yield when facing Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?
In the conference room on the top floor of the Red Moon Building, more than ten top-ranking senior officials of the Red Moon Merchant Guild sat around a round table. The atmosphere in the hall was extremely oppressive. One after another, they silently looked at the middle-aged Blood Pattern Clan man with half-white hair at the head.
This middle-aged man was none other than Gu Sen, president of the Red Moon Merchant Guild and one of the few Heavenly Human Realm mid-stage extreme grandmasters in the Four Regions, just a step away from the Heavenly Human Realm advanced level.
“Is this all the information?” After reading the documents in his hand, Gu Sen frowned and asked.
“President, this is all the information on Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. Everything we could investigate is in here,” a nearby young Blood Pattern Clan man at early Heavenly Human Realm said respectfully.
“This Kui Lang really deserves death! Breaking the rules is one thing, but he has even brought this kind of trouble upon the merchant guild!” Looking at the information in his hand, Gu Sen could not help his fury. “Pass on my order. Deal with everyone from his line. Our clan does not need such stupid people!”
Gu Sen’s anger made the more than ten peak high-level Blood Condensation Realm members present collapse to the ground, almost vomiting blood.
“President, handling that is easy, but how should we deal with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now?” the early Heavenly Human Realm Blood Pattern youth asked. “Although the Four Great Domain Cities previously said that matters between our sides end here, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now does not even give face to Vice City Lord Moye of Mist Mountain Domain City, and Mist Mountain Domain City has not said anything. In future explorations of the Forbidden Zones, we may encounter serious trouble.”
Within the Four Regions, the Four Great Domain Cities suppressed everything, and no Heavenly Human Realm grandmaster dared go too far. But inside the Forbidden Zones, even the Four Great Domain Cities had no control.
Since even Vice City Lord Moye of Mist Mountain Domain City was not a match for the hall master of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, it would be all too easy for them to make a move against the Red Moon Merchant Guild inside the Forbidden Zones.
Now that the Forbidden Zones were encroaching on the Four Regions faster and faster, they would likely cover the Four Regions in a few years. If they could not find a way out within the Forbidden Zones soon, only annihilation awaited them.
“Pass down my order. From now on, no one is allowed to provoke anyone from Obsidian Martial Arts Hall,” Gu Sen sighed. “As for exploring the Forbidden Zones, from now on we will act together with the Four Great Domain Cities. With people from the Domain Cities present, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall should not dare to act recklessly.”
“President, if we do that, I’m afraid our guild’s exploration progress will slow down a lot,” the early Heavenly Human Realm young man said anxiously. “And the Four Great Domain Cities will definitely treat us as cannon fodder.”
“Don’t worry, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall will not be able to be so arrogant for long,” Gu Sen said with great certainty. “Give me a little more time and I will break through to Heavenly Human Realm advanced level. By then, with us and them both at Heavenly Human Realm advanced level, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall will not be able to do anything to our Red Moon Merchant Guild. Also, during the last exploration of the Ice Plains Forbidden Zone, I discovered traces of living supplies deep within the Ice Plains Forbidden Zone. These items are very new, not like they were made over a hundred years ago. They should have been made in recent years. The Abnormal do not manufacture items; they only know slaughter. I suspect that deep within the Ice Plains Forbidden Zone, there are people living there.”
“There are people living in the Forbidden Zone?” The Blood Pattern Clan members present could not help their eyes lighting up.
After so many years of exploring the Forbidden Zones, all the major factions had fallen into despair. No one had expected that there were still people who could live inside. This would definitely be the greatest discovery in the Four Regions in hundreds of years.
“President, can this be confirmed?” the early Heavenly Human Realm young man could not help asking.
As long as it could be confirmed, and they could contact the people living inside the Forbidden Zone, the future of the Red Moon Merchant Guild would be limitless. Even the Four Great Domain Cities might have to beg the Red Moon Merchant Guild, let alone Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
“This is also the reason I have called you here this time,” Gu Sen said with a smile. “The calm period of the Forbidden Zone in the Ice Plains Region is coming soon. During this calm period, I will take you there. That way we can find those people living in the Forbidden Zone more quickly. As long as we can make contact with them, our Red Moon Merchant Guild will be able to surpass the Four Great Domain Cities and become the number one major power of the Four Regions.”
Everyone from the Red Moon Merchant Guild could not help getting excited upon hearing this.
Although Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now faintly had the potential to become the fifth Domain City, dealing a heavy blow to the Red Moon Merchant Guild, Gu Sen’s news undoubtedly filled them with hope again.
A group of people capable of surviving in the Forbidden Zone would, without question, be extremely powerful. After all, not just anyone could stay in the depths of the Forbidden Zone, let alone survive its danger periods. If the Red Moon Merchant Guild could make contact with them, their own strength would rapidly increase. By then, surpassing the Four Great Domain Cities might not even be a problem.
While the Red Moon Merchant Guild was discussing Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and this new discovery, the other major powers of the Four Regions were also discussing Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
Barren Ridge Region, Black Steel City.
An elderly Snake-person of early Heavenly Human Realm looked at Tie Mu, whose body length exceeded six meters, and instructed, “Tie Mu, since you got along well with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall last time, the matter of further cooperation with them will be handed entirely to you. Even if we lose some profit, you must find a way to join with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall for joint operations in the Forbidden Zone. Now that the Forbidden Zone’s encroachment is accelerating, deep exploration in the Forbidden Zones is rarely done in cooperation with other factions. If we cannot quickly find a path to survival within the Forbidden Zone, our entire race will be finished.”
“Great Elder, rest assured, I will definitely get this done,” Tie Mu said with full confidence. “Although the hall master of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is very powerful, their industrial capacity is lacking. The sky battleships and C6-class flying transport vehicles we Black Steel provide are now very scarce vehicles for Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. If we give them priority supply, they should not refuse deep Forbidden Zone cooperation with our Black Steel.”
The technical ability of the Four Great Domain Cities had always been top tier. They might not be able to manufacture sky battleships built from C6-class alloy, but producing C6-class flying transport vehicles was easy. Such technical capability was something no factions outside the Four Great Domain Cities possessed, much less Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
For any faction seeking development, various resources were indispensable, and transport had always been a headache for all major factions. Because of that, flying vehicles had always been hot sellers. Even the Four Great Domain Cities would order sky battleships and C6-class flying transport vehicles from Black Steel.
Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had become famous in one battle and would definitely want to expand rapidly and become the fifth Domain City within the Four Regions as soon as possible, which would require a tremendous amount of resources. The demand for Black Steel’s sky vehicles at that time could be easily imagined.
“Go,” the Snake-person Great Elder nodded. “Take some of the geniuses selected in our tribe this year with you, especially the top few. Take half of them. Obsidian Martial Arts Hall has always recruited disciples from outside. Since we want to cooperate, this will be our first step.”
“Great Elder, the top geniuses selected this year all have extraordinary talent. Even if they entered a Domain City, they would at least be rated as super geniuses. A few of them might even reach Half-Step Heavenly Human or even Heavenly Human Realm in the future. Sending half of them over, is that not too many?” Tie Mu could not help saying.
As a top-tier first-class major power in the Four Regions, Black Steel Heavy Industry would not, like the cities governed by the Domain Cities, send all its best geniuses into the Domain Cities.
Usually, in order to maintain relations with Barren Ridge Domain City, they sent only a few geniuses there. The very best were kept within Black Steel, since strengthening themselves was the first priority. Sending geniuses into another faction basically meant those geniuses would become that faction’s people in the future.
Now sending half of the best batch of geniuses of this year, especially when this batch was the best in the last twenty to thirty years, would be a tremendous loss for Black Steel.
“Go. These geniuses may be the future of our race, but our future may not have that much time left,” the Great Elder waved his hand. There was a hint of regret in his eyes, but rationality told him that deepening cooperation with the future fifth Domain City was very important now.
If they waited until Obsidian Martial Arts Hall developed to the level of a fifth Domain City and produced a grandmaster, then trying to deepen relations and jointly explore the depths of the Forbidden Zone would no longer be a matter that could be settled with such a small price.
“Yes!” Tie Mu nodded helplessly and left.
In the eyes of ordinary people in the Four Regions, a top-tier first-class major power like Black Steel Heavy Industry was not much weaker than the Four Great Domain Cities. But only the high-level leaders knew how great the gap truly was.
It could be said that if a vice city lord of a Domain City personally came, they could wipe out these top-tier powers. The only reason the Four Great Domain Cities treated them with a certain respect was concern that their grandmasters might go mad, hide, and wreak havoc on cities.
A situation like Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s, where even a vice city lord was forced to yield, was absolutely the first in decades within the Four Regions. The last force to receive such treatment had already become the city lord of Ice Plain Domain City.
That’s right.
Ice Plain Domain City had used the position of city lord to absorb that faction and merge it entirely into Ice Plain Domain City. Such grand strategy and boldness had stunned all the major powers of the Four Regions at the time and made Ice Plain Domain City the second Domain City, second only to Tianhe Domain City among the Four Great Domain Cities.
If they did not seize this chance before Obsidian Martial Arts Hall fully developed, and quickly build a solid relationship, then once Mist Mountain Domain City or another Domain City drew Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in and merged it into their Domain City, making it the city lord’s force…
Mist Mountain Region, Chiyue Town, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
“Hall master, Coach Qin Mu, who went to Mist Mountain Domain City to investigate, reports that there is no movement over there for now,” Wu Zhuoqun softly reported as he looked at Lin Qi, who was resting with eyes closed in the beginner meditation room. “It seems the Insectoid Race does not plan to act yet.”
When Lin Qi had suddenly stepped in to stop Moye, the vice city lord of Mist Mountain Domain City, Wu Zhuoqun had truly been terrified.
It was not that he doubted Lin Qi’s ability to defeat Moye, but that the Insectoid Race had always been raising the humans of the Four Regions like livestock, secretly attacking whenever someone “fattened up.” If the Insectoid Race directly targeted Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now, they would have no power to resist and could only flee to live in the Forbidden Zones.
But the Forbidden Zones were not safe places, especially after the calm period passed into the danger period. That was the time that even the shelters in the Forbidden Zones dreaded most.
According to people like Fan Yaoguang, if they had not mastered the two technologies from the ruins—the defensive force field and the qi and blood domain field—then with one being able to use an energy barrier to resist attacks from the Heavenly Human Realm, and the other able to fully suppress all non-friendly qi and blood within its range, the shelters in the Forbidden Zones would have been destroyed long ago. They would never have lasted until today.
“No movement? The communication technology of Sky Dome Shelter is really impressive. A personal device alone can communicate freely within thousands of kilometers and still communicate over hundreds of kilometers even inside the Forbidden Zone. If only we could get more from Fan Yaoguang and the others,” Lin Qi glanced at his newly replaced Sky Dome Battle Armor bracer and sighed slightly.
Previously, long-range communication technology had always been controlled by the Four Great Domain Cities. Even the large communication equipment used by major cities only worked within five hundred kilometers and was enough to make all major factions drool. As for devices capable of communication over one to two thousand kilometers across the Four Regions, the Four Great Domain Cities would never put them up for sale.
Wealthy major powers like the Red Moon Merchant Guild or Earth Star Pharmaceuticals could only rely on point-to-point message relays, which were much slower than those of the Four Great Domain Cities, and the cost of maintaining such equipment was extremely high.
Now Sky Dome Shelter had achieved all this with just a battle armor bracer. It could communicate across regions within the Four Regions at distances exceeding five thousand kilometers, and even within the Forbidden Zones it could maintain communication over five hundred kilometers. In the Four Regions, this was practically black technology.
Because of this communication technology, the defense and detection capabilities of Chiyue Town had also risen to a much higher level. This was also part of his confidence in daring to confront Moye directly.
If there had been any movement from Mist Mountain Domain City after he defeated Moye, he would have immediately led people to the shelter in the Forbidden Zone. As for a sneak attack, that was impossible as well. With the Sky Dome type three life detector he had obtained from Fan Yaoguang, no powerful life form within one hundred kilometers could escape detection.
A distance of one hundred kilometers was enough for him to make all kinds of preparations. Even if the city lords of the Four Great Domain Cities gathered together, he would have enough time to escape. However, unless absolutely necessary, he would not do that. After all, Chiyue Town had taken great effort to build up to its current state, and abandoning it would be a great pity.
“Hall master, although Mist Mountain Domain City shows no movement, we still do not know what the Insectoid Race is thinking,” Wu Zhuoqun suggested. “Should we recall some disciples from the Forbidden Zones to guard Chiyue Town? That way, if only small groups of the Insectoid Race attack, we would at least have some temporary fighting strength.”
“Recall some disciples?” Lin Qi thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Forget it. Direct more resources to Luo Qi and let her complete the new battle armor as soon as possible.”
The number of players who had entered the High Martial Arts Descend scenario had already exceeded one hundred thousand, and the number who had reached the Blood Condensation Realm had recently reached fifteen. The fastest cultivators were at beginner level Blood Condensation Realm extreme, only one step away from intermediate level Blood Condensation Realm.
If those players were stationed in Chiyue Town, they could indeed resist small groups of Heavenly Human Realm grandmasters, but only in the sense of buying time. They would not be able to change the outcome.
To truly confront the Insectoid Race behind the Four Great Domain Cities, the new battle armor was a more reliable solution.
The new alloy developed by Yi Ye Fu Yun had unquestionable metal strength. Even if Lin Qi attacked with full power, he could only dent it slightly. This level of alloy absolutely exceeded C-class, reaching D-class levels. Luo Qi even suspected that the new alloy might be the E-class alloy recorded by the Star Energy Civilization.
The strength of battle armor made from such an alloy could be easily imagined.
However, shaping this new alloy was extremely difficult. It required a melting temperature above thirty thousand degrees and at least Bone Forging Realm martial artists for shaping, so production was very slow. Over these past days, Luo Qi had completed less than half, and had been constantly urging Lin Qi to assign more people to her, especially Blood Condensation Realm martial artists, to the point that Yinuo was now working as her assistant.
Just as Lin Qi was thinking about how to allocate more manpower to Luo Qi, a system notification suddenly sounded in his ears.
System: Congratulations, host. The intermediate cultivation tower renovation is complete. Would you like to activate it now?
(The chapter ends here.)
