Chapter 912
: Being a jelly bean?
"Stop looting! Third squad, knock all those wolf fangs off, don't miss a single one! They're great material for making armor-piercing arrows! Seventh squad, you guys stop cutting the meat and take the armor off the rhinoceros's carapace intact! Anyone who breaks the armor plates with an axe will have half a month's pay docked!"
The open space inside and outside the city gates had now been transformed into a massive slaughterhouse and open-air warehouse. Thousands of city guards and civilians who had spontaneously come out to help were wielding boning knives, axes, and saws, moving through the mountains of monster carcasses.
Zheng Yi took a few steps closer, and a wave of intense heat hit him. Several burly men were working together to flip a huge fifth-tier fire lion over. Although the lion's fur was burned and pitted, the soft yet tough crimson hide under its belly remained intact.
"This is a real treasure!" Han Wuhen had somehow squeezed to the front of the crowd. Today, he wasn't wearing his usual flamboyant brocade robe, but rather a gray cloth jacket. He was fiddling with a sandalwood abacus, typing away rapidly. "The belly skin of the Flame Lion is impervious to water and fire! If we peel off this whole piece and take it to the Qingyun Sect's market, we can get at least three hundred mid-grade spirit stones! We're rich! Heavens above, our Hongyun City is truly rich this time!"
Elder Liu stood beside Han Wuhen, holding a still-dripping cyan crystal core in his hand. He held it up to the sunlight, and a greedy flush crept onto his usually stern face: "It's more than just fur! Look at all these Green-backed Wolves! The inner cores of third-tier demonic beasts aren't worth much, but the sheer number is staggering! I just roughly estimated that there are at least three thousand lying around here at the foot of the city wall! That's three thousand wind-attribute inner cores!"
Zheng Yi did not interrupt their fervor, but quietly walked to the huge head of an armored rhinoceros. The rhinoceros's horn had been neatly sawed off, and the cut gleamed with a dark metallic luster.
Guo Tianyou saw Zheng Yi and quickly jumped off the cart, running over in a few strides, carrying a bunch of shiny things in his hands: "Sir! You're finally back! Look at this, these are 'Earth Element Beads' that were cut out of the bellies of those earth dragons! My goodness, there are more than four hundred of them!"
"Have the casualties been tallied yet?" Zheng Yi didn't look at the Earth Element Beads, but stared at Guo Tianyou's bloodshot eyes.
Guo Tianyou paused, his fervent emotions instantly cooling. He dropped his smile, opened the blood-stained ledger in his hand, and said in a low voice, "The count is out. One hundred and twenty-seven seriously injured, and over six hundred lightly injured. Most suffered fractures, burns, and eye damage from the poison gas. Fortunately, Master Ku Lian's pills kept them alive. As for the dead... only fifteen."
“Fifteen,” Zheng Yi repeated the number. In a siege battle involving tens of thousands of monsters, this casualty figure was nothing short of a miracle, but it still weighed heavily on his mind.
"The fallen brothers will receive ten times the usual compensation. Those with elderly family members will be cared for in a welfare home until their death; those with children will be personally taught swordsmanship by me." Zheng Yi's voice was not loud, but the previously noisy crowd suddenly fell silent. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the man in the old fox fur coat.
"Sir, you are kind and righteous." Han Wuhen sighed, and stopped using the abacus in his hand.
"After the compensation is paid out, what are you going to do with the rest of these things?" Zheng Yi looked around and pointed to the mountain of animal hides, bones, and inner cores.
Han Wuhen immediately perked up. He tucked the abacus into his belt, rubbed his hands together, and stepped forward: "Sir, I just discussed it with Elder Liu. This batch of spoils is too large; Hongyun City simply cannot consume it all on its own. I plan to use the Han family's caravan to transport the pelts, inner cores, and rare bones of these high-level demonic beasts in batches to 'Golden Light City' and 'Azure Cloud Market' three hundred miles away for sale."
Elder Liu stepped forward, stroking his beard as he echoed, "Indeed. Especially the carcass of that sixth-tier Iron-Spine Demon Ape. Although you took its inner core, sir, its skeleton and fur are all top-grade materials for crafting top-tier magic weapons! As long as we transport it out, the spirit stones we get in return will be enough for our Hongyun City to live comfortably for ten years! At that time, we can hire more high-level rogue cultivators to protect the city and buy more advanced defensive formations!"
"Sell it?" Zheng Yi looked at the two of them, a cold smile creeping onto his lips.
He walked to a cart piled high with armored rhinoceros carapaces, picked up a heavy bone plate the size of a door panel, and tapped it lightly twice with his fingers, producing a dull metallic clang.
"Do you know how many poisoned arrows this deck can stop on the battlefield?" Zheng Yi turned to look at Han Wuhen.
Han Wuhen was taken aback by the question: "Well... it can certainly block quite a bit. But if we sell it and exchange it for spirit stones..."
"Can spirit stones block arrows?!" Zheng Yi suddenly raised his voice, and this shout, mixed with a faint trace of purple-gold sword intent, made Han Wuhen and Elder Liu's eardrums buzz.
"The beast tide has receded, and the Huang family has been wiped out. But do you think the world is now at peace?" Zheng Yi slammed the massive bone slab back onto the cart with a loud bang, making the entire cart bounce. "The Qingyun Sect is dealing with the demonic chaos in the south, and there are battles everywhere. The number of refugees is increasing every day. The world outside is in chaos, and you actually want to sell your sharpest knife to exchange for a bunch of stones that are only good for looking at but not for eating?"
Elder Liu's face turned somewhat grim, and he argued, "Fellow Daoist Zheng, you can't say that. We can use spirit stones to buy ready-made standard equipment! These demon beast materials are unprocessed, and the city defense army can't use them at all."
"If we can't use it, then we'll find a way to use it! Are all those blacksmiths in Hongyun City just sitting around doing nothing?" Zheng Yi interrupted him mercilessly, his gaze sweeping over the city guards and civilians. "What did we rely on this beast tide? Not spirit stones, but this Black Rock City Wall, the shields in our brothers' hands, and the medicine in Master Kulian's furnace! From today onwards, not a single scale or drop of beast blood from the spoils of war is allowed to be sold out of the city!"
The entire place was completely silent, except for the mournful sound of the wind blowing across the moat.
"God bless you!" Zheng Yi shouted.
"Here!" Guo Tianyou straightened his back abruptly.
"Pick out all the wolf fangs, the armored rhinoceros horns, and the fiery lion claws. Send them to the blacksmith camp in the south of the city and tell Old Wang to stop forging all the farm tools and mix these things into the black iron! I want every one of the three thousand brothers in the city guard to be able to pierce the skin of a third-tier demon beast with their spears!"
"Yes, sir!" Guo Tianyou exclaimed, his face flushed with excitement.
“Zhao Sanhuai!” Zheng Yi turned to look at the side.
"I'm here!"
"Take men and deliver the armored rhinoceros's carapace, the flaming lion's belly, and all the intact blue-backed wolf pelts to the leather workshop. Tell those old leatherworkers not to worry about the patterns or how they look, just rivet them with copper nails and line them with thick cotton. I want to see a thousand heavy armors and two thousand light armors within half a month!"
Zhao Sanhuai was so excited that he stammered, "Sir... how much will it cost to hire people?" "Select a batch of low-level inner cores from the seized ones and pay them directly to the people in the city as wages! As long as they are willing to put in the effort to sew leather armor, they will be provided with three full meals a day, plus a piece of wind spirit crystal fragment!" Zheng Yi waved his hand.
Upon hearing this, the surrounding villagers, who had only come to help with the moving, instantly erupted in excitement.
"Sir! My wife's sewing skills are the best in the surrounding area! I'll call her over right away!"
"I can do that too! I used to be an apprentice in the leather goods business!"
Ignoring the cheers of the crowd, Zheng Yi walked straight to Han Wuhen and Elder Liu, whose faces were somewhat embarrassed. His tone softened slightly, but remained firm: "Patriarch Han, Elder Liu. I know you are merchants, and it is a merchant's instinct to pursue profit. But in this city, human life is more valuable than spirit stones. You want profits, fine. I will grant you the exclusive right to purchase any surplus scraps in the city. But all core military resources must remain within the city."
Han Wuhen sighed, then shook his head with a wry smile: "I admire your vision, sir. You're right, in chaotic times, might makes right. Too many spirit stones will only attract thieves. I'll go and arrange for the Han family's shops to close down and have all the employees go to the leather workshop and blacksmith camp to help out."
Elder Liu could only cup his hands in greeting: "Since you have made your decision, sir, the Liu family will naturally comply. I will go and bring out the few Fire Cloud Oxen that the family keeps to help transport these heavy objects."
After calming down the two "money bags," Zheng Yi did not return to the city lord's mansion to rest. Instead, he turned around and headed straight for the side courtyard in the east of the city, which was filled with a strong medicinal fragrance—the alchemy room.
Before even entering the courtyard, one could hear the almost manic laughter of Master Kulian coming from inside:
"Hahahaha! The heat! The heat should be even higher! Grind that fourth-tier spiny dragon's inner core into powder! Don't shake! Don't let your hands shake!"
Zheng Yi pushed open the door, and a wave of heat mixed with the pungent smell of medicine hit him. In the courtyard stood three large bronze cauldrons, each about half a person's height, with charcoal burning red-hot at their bases. Master Ku Lian's hair was a mess, like a bird's nest, and his Taoist robe was full of charred holes. He was shirtless, frantically stirring a large cauldron with a blackened iron rod. His two disciples were exhausted and collapsed on the ground, panting heavily like bellows.
"Master, don't burn yourself out." Zheng Yi walked into the courtyard and casually closed the door, shutting out the noise outside.
When Master Kulian turned around and saw that it was Zheng Yi, he immediately threw down his iron rod and scrambled over, grabbing Zheng Yi's sleeve with eyes that shone brightly: "Sir! You've finally arrived! Treasures! All of them are treasures! Just now, Guo Tianyou sent over three large buckets of the essence blood of the Iron-Spine Demon Ape, as well as the bone marrow of those dozens of Flame Lions! I've been refining pills all my life, and I've never even dreamed of seeing so many top-grade materials!"
"Having plenty of materials is a good thing, but don't waste them." Zheng Yi walked to the largest medicine cauldron and glanced inside. Dark red medicinal liquid churned inside, and the faint sounds of tiger roars and ape cries could be heard.
"What are you refining?" Zheng Yi asked.
Master Kulian wiped the soot off his face and proudly puffed out his chest: "This is the 'Boiling Blood Bone Forging Ointment' that I just improved after searching through ancient books! The main ingredients are the bone marrow of the Flame Lion and the essence blood of the Demon Ape, plus the thirty-odd herbs we stored up a few days ago to strengthen the body and nourish the vital energy. This stuff can't be eaten; it has to be applied externally!"
"How was the result?"
"Sir, you underestimate this old man!" Master Kulian gestured wildly. "Just apply this ointment to your body and soak in the medicinal bath for an hour, and even an ordinary person without any cultivation foundation can gain a hundred pounds of strength out of thin air! If our city guards, those men who have practiced basic martial arts, use it, their skin and flesh will become as tough as old tree bark, and ordinary swords and knives will at most leave a white mark when they cut into them!"
Zheng Yi's eyes finally lit up.
This is what he truly desires. Even the best equipment is ultimately external. Only when the soldiers themselves are physically strong can this army truly become a formidable force.
"How many people can this cauldron of ointment supply?" Zheng Yi asked directly, getting to the heart of the matter.
Master Kulian counted on his fingers and looked troubled: "Although there are many materials, the refining process consumes too much spiritual energy and mental energy. This full cauldron, when boiled dry, will only yield a little over a hundred catties of ointment, enough for about two hundred brothers to soak once. If we want all three thousand guards in the city to use it, even if I put these old bones into the furnace, I still can't burn it out."
Zheng Yi pondered for a moment, then took out the "Soul-Controlling Heart-Locking Crystal" that had been dug out of the demon ape's brain and had lost its luster from his sleeve.
"Although the array within this crystal is destroyed, its material itself is a top-grade spirit-gathering stone." Zheng Yi handed the crystal to True Person Ku Lian. "I'll embed it under your main medicine cauldron to help you gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and stabilize the heat. You only need to be responsible for preparing and decocting the medicine. Go to the city and recruit doctors and apprentices who know a bit about pharmacology to do it. Assembly line operation, understand?"
Master Kulian took the crystal, feeling the immense spiritual power remaining within it, and his hands began to tremble again: "I understand! I understand! Sir, you're going to use the flesh and blood of demonic beasts to forge an iron army out of thin air!"
“It’s not just for external application.” Zheng Yi looked at the mountain of low-level inner cores piled up in the courtyard. “Don’t keep those third-level Green-spine Wolf inner cores. Combine them all with the scraps from the Rejuvenation Pill to make ‘Qi Gathering Pills.’ Don’t worry about the quality; as long as they don’t kill you and can quickly replenish your physical strength and meager spiritual power, that’s fine.”
"Sir, are you going to sell your candy?" Master Kulian gasped.
“Yes, we’ll distribute them like candy. Patrolmen, guards, stone carriers—anyone who gets tired can have one.” Zheng Yi’s tone was calm yet domineering. “Others see monsters as a disaster, but we’ll treat them as medicine. This city was raised on the flesh and blood of monsters, and the people inside will also be strengthened with the marrow of monsters.”
Five days later.
Hongyun City Training Ground.
The morning mist still lingered in the air, but the atmosphere on the drill ground was so intense it seemed to ignite the very air. (End of Chapter)