Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World

Chapter 521: Chapter 280: Ruins

He appeared in the marketplace cabin but didn’t see Luo Dingran, who was usually there.

He glanced at the consignment board. It listed over three thousand Red Blood Pills and five hundred thousand kilograms of Wilderness Rice, but nothing else.

The Red Blood Pills had been his greatest source of Points for the past few months, becoming a cornerstone of his enterprise.

The materials for the Red Blood Pills were now being cultivated on a massive scale, so raw materials were no longer a problem. Outside, Red Blood Mushrooms and Red Jade Ganoderma were also being prepared for large-scale cultivation, meaning the outside world would soon be able to supply a large quantity of Red Blood Pills as well.

As for the Wilderness Rice, Luo Dingran had set the price at one Point for five kilograms to sell off the current stock before the next harvest.

This was a five-fold improvement over the previous rate of one Point per kilogram.

This was no issue for Cheng Zongyang, as long as it converted to Points. After all, the Wilderness Rice harvests were quite substantial. He would have been fine even if the price was ten kilograms per Point.

Leaving the cabin, he saw that the farmland where Wilderness Rice had once grown was now being used to cultivate Red Blood Mushrooms.

"My Lord!" A Soul Slave in charge of the daily Red Blood Mushroom harvest was surprised to see Cheng Zongyang. He immediately stopped what he was doing, stood up, and cupped his fists in greeting.

Cheng Zongyang asked, "Where did Steward Luo go?"

The Soul Slave immediately replied, "He gave me instructions before he left. If you arrived, My Lord, I was to tell you that he went over to Ruin Site One."

Cheng Zongyang heard this and nodded slightly. "Alright, you can get back to your work."

"Yes, My Lord."

The Soul Slave cupped his fists and left. Cheng Zongyang looked around, then turned back into the cabin and went to the Teleportation Tower to teleport directly to the Site One station.

Cheng Zongyang appeared in a new location. He looked around and found himself inside a small wooden cabin filled with stacks of tools.

Stepping outside, he found himself on a mountainside. This was the location of the ruins the Exploration Team had discovered.

He had only heard Luo Dingran’s general report on the situation before and had never visited the site himself.

Not far away, Luo Dingran was overseeing his men as they excavated the earth. Catching movement from the cabin out of the corner of his eye, he turned to look and saw Cheng Zongyang had arrived.

He immediately walked over, smiling as he asked, "My Lord, have you finished your work?"

Cheng Zongyang nodded. "For the most part. The rest will just have to wait. I also need to find a way to establish a self-sustaining positive cycle for Jade Peak Immortal City. There’s still a lot to do."

Luo Dingran agreed, "That’s true, but once those people go to the Ice and Fire Cultivation Immortality Realm, I’m afraid they won’t come back."

Cheng Zongyang laughed. "Whether they return is none of my concern. But the price to go there isn’t just signing a contract; money and Spirit Stones are both indispensable. Besides, I want Jade Peak Immortal City to become truly renowned, not just an ordinary city that’s famous in name only."

Luo Dingran said, "That’ll be difficult. Tianduan Mountain isn’t like the Cultivation Immortality Realm, with valuable things like Spirit Medicines and Demon Beasts. There aren’t any dangerous places to explore, either."

Cheng Zongyang replied, "The Martial Arts Realm has its own resources, and Tianduan Mountain’s resources are also extremely abundant. Exotic Beasts, precious Medicinal Materials... we can have Martial Artists collect these things, or grow the raw materials we need, in exchange for future Cultivation Resources. They’ll be more than happy to do it."

’Whether resources in the Ice and Fire Cultivation Immortality Realm were scarce had no impact on him whatsoever. His control over the resources of the Martial Arts Realm and the Wilderness World was more than enough to lay his plans and maintain control.’

"But those things aren’t of equal value," Luo Dingran pointed out.

But Cheng Zongyang just smiled. "Whether the value is equal or not is for us to decide. Besides, without Cultivation Techniques, all they can do is wait. In the early stages, they can only improve by following the path of the Martial Dao. Here, with me, aside from my own people, it’s impossible for anyone to directly practice Cultivation Immortality Techniques!"

Luo Dingran was slightly taken aback by this but quickly understood what Cheng Zongyang meant.

’He’s leveraging the information disparity and his control over the passage between worlds. He’ll force them to advance via the Martial Dao, making them work in Jade Peak Immortal City to earn Cultivation Resources and contribute to the city’s prosperity.’

’It would also prevent talented individuals from advancing too quickly through Cultivation Immortality Techniques and stirring up trouble in the Immortal City.’

’Most importantly, the Immortal City has very little Spiritual Qi. If Cultivators were to appear, there wouldn’t be nearly enough for them to absorb.’

At this time, Cheng Zongyang continued, "Da Liang is relying on Su Wunian, who broke through the Innate realm to enter the Extraordinary, to try and retake the Land of Four Mansions. While it might be possible, Su Wunian won’t be able to last long. First, he has no Demon Cores or Spiritual Qi to replenish his energy. Second, he has no Cultivation Technique, so he has no idea how to continue his Cultivation. Therefore, sooner or later, he will also come to Jade Peak Immortal City."

After saying this, Cheng Zongyang didn’t elaborate further on the matter. He walked over to the excavation site and asked, "How’s the excavation going? Have you found anything?"

Luo Dingran pointed to a temporary wooden shed. "My Lord, everything we’ve dug up so far is over there. Not much of it is valuable, and we still don’t have any concrete information about these ruins. The only thing we know is that this mountain is called Sanmao Mountain. For now, we’ve only found some tools and common household items, but there are a few oddities. You can go take a look."

Cheng Zongyang walked toward the shed as he listened.

Luo Dingran walked alongside him and continued, "From what we’ve dug up, we have two initial theories. The first is that this site was originally some kind of sacrificial pit, since many of the excavated items are everyday objects like porcelain, metal vessels, and even some coffins.

"However, as we dug deeper, we discovered the foundations of several buildings. These are foundations for homes, not a cemetery. So, our second theory is that this was a village. The current state of the ruins was likely caused by a landslide that buried it."