Chapter 427 - 178: "Eternal Night Hall, Tian Yi!

Chapter 427: Chapter 178: "Eternal Night Hall, Tian Yi!

These past few days, the Mortal Realm’s Ghost Stone reserves had been steadily increasing. He had built two city walls on either side of the high-speed rail line that ran from the Port to Nameless Mountain, even adding a roof.

Otherwise, batch after batch of Ghost Stones being transported from the Port to Nameless Mountain would be too conspicuous if seen by outsiders.

Moreover, the Ghost Stones acquired from the Jiangbei Defense Line each day not only completely covered all daily expenses but also generated a profit of several million, nearly ten million, Ghost Stones.

It was basically a fixed asset.

Currently, the Mortal Realm had three main channels for acquiring Ghost Stones—

mining on the New Continent, the Ghost Ore produced by Ruling the World, and the Jiangbei Defense Line.

As for the high-speed rail...

When he had first set the price for the high-speed rail, he had never intended for it to be a major source of profit. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have set the price so low that everyone could afford to ride it.

...

"Hey!"

A Mortal Realm member from the Hundred Valleys Pavilion, who was distributing meals, looked at a portly man guarding the defense line and waiting for eternal night to fall. He asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"Logically speaking, a small faction like yours doesn’t need to respond to the Mortal Realm’s call to arms."

"Remember me? I used to be with the Wild Wolf Gang in Jiangbei City. We ran into each other quite a bit back then."

"I remember, I remember. Of course, I remember."

This portly man was none other than the Patriarch of the Jiangbei Li Family, and formerly the Pavilion Master of the Jiangbei Marketplace. A wide, slightly embarrassed smile spread across his face as he spoke.

"Well..."

"I still have a few strong men under me. I figured, every little bit of help counts."

"Good on you. That’s the right attitude."

The member of the Mortal Realm’s Hundred Valleys Pavilion chuckled, placed a barrel of food on the City Wall, and then steered his Flying Ship toward the next section.

...

"Alright, let’s put some fucking muscle into it!"

At this moment, the Mortal Realm’s Xiyang City was incredibly bustling. After two expansions, Xiyang City’s territory was now much larger than even Jiangbei City’s.

What does it look like to cook for hundreds of thousands of people at once?

In Xiyang City, the Mortal Realm’s Hundred Valleys Pavilion provided the answer.

A repurposed river flowed through Xiyang City.

Upstream, they washed rice.

Midstream, they washed vegetables.

Downstream, they filtered oil.

Five thousand enormous stoves, arranged like a honeycomb, were scattered across Xiyang City. They all shared a single, gigantic flue. At this moment, all the stoves were lit, sending a hundred-zhang-high column of green smoke into the sky, mirroring the dusk.

In a nearby open space, Spirit Rice was piled up as high as small hills.

To the left, hundreds of people, with practiced ups and downs of their cleavers, were dicing huge slabs of pork.

To the right were a hundred people, all of them at least Level 6-7 Cultivators. They stood atop scorching hot stoves, wielding six-foot-long iron spatulas to stir-fry in gigantic woks.

When the lids of a hundred steaming towers were lifted simultaneously, the steam shot into the clouds in a neat line, like a long dragon!

The Hundred Valleys Pavilion Master, Qi Chong, stood on a high platform overlooking the scene below. He held a Sound Transmission Stone and roared, "Granary Number Three is running out of rice! Refill it!"

Normally, the operation of a defense line required a great number of people.

But in most cases, they subsisted on dry rations, with the occasional hot noodles. They rarely cooked full meals, as the logistics for so many people were simply too difficult to manage.

This was also why the No. 7 Defense Line had a meal of dumplings after every rainy season—they simply couldn’t get a proper, decent meal at any other time.

But...

For the Jiangbei Defense Line, the Domain Lord’s order was to let everyone eat their fill.

Qi Chong received the order.

And so...

The Jiangbei Defense Line had very likely become the defense line with the best food in the entire Eternal Night Continent.

Food?

A year ago, the New Continent had been bathed in the Golden Rain, turning much of its land into Level 10 Farmland. After receiving the Domain Lord’s permission, Qi Chong had specifically taken people from the Hundred Valleys Pavilion to the New Continent to reclaim the wasteland.

They planted vast, vast fields of Spirit Rice.

It matured so quickly they could barely keep up with the harvest.

Moreover, after the Golden Rain, countless new shoots had sprouted on the New Continent, making it a perfect place for grazing. Qi Chong had then led the Hundred Valleys Pavilion to raise cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and the like on the New Continent. ℯ𝕝.

You could say...

The Mortal Realm might run out of Ghost Stones.

But if the day ever came that the Mortal Realm ran out of food, he would personally hang himself without a moment’s hesitation.

Back when the Mortal Realm established the Hundred Valleys Pavilion, the Domain Lord didn’t have many requirements for him.

One of them was:

The grain reserves had to be sufficient. For example, if the Eternal Night Continent fell and the Mortal Realm was left to fend for itself in Jiangbei, the food reserves would determine how long they could hold out.

So...

Qi Chong looked down at the scene with a satisfied expression, chuckling happily. ’I think I’m doing a decent job as the Hundred Valleys Pavilion Master.’

Letting people eat their fill, and letting them eat well.

That was his duty.

Although the Hundred Valleys Pavilion was just an inconspicuous department in the Mortal Realm, not as adventurous as the Commerce Pavilion or as responsible for a wide range of affairs as the Logistics Pavilion, even the simplest of tasks had to be done well.

Done well, day after day.

’Besides,’ he thought, ’this isn’t simple at all. If someone else were in charge, they really might not be able to achieve what I have.’

...

Across the sea stood the New Continent.

Bathed by the Golden Rain, this continent, once ravaged by great wars, had been transformed into vast stretches of fertile land. Young saplings sprouted from the soil, and the entire continent was a picture of thriving prosperity.

Many Mortal Realm Members were spread across the various Ancient Battlefields and within the Ghost Ore veins that had formed after the Golden Rain, gathering Ghost Stones.

Meanwhile, standing on a Flying Ship, Ah Le, the Vice Pavilion Master of the Hundred Valleys Pavilion, gazed behind him.

Vast fields of prime Farmland, stretching for tens of thousands of mu, rippled in the wind.

Previously, the Mortal Realm had only farmed inside Xiyang City. Although Xiyang City had grown quite large after several expansions, there was still a limit to its size. They could only plant so much. It wasn’t like they could plant crops outside the city walls, could they?