Chapter 1200: Chapter 1200: Mastering One’s Craft
After the banquet, Kong Ziyi didn’t leave but instead stepped forward to examine Dong Liuye’s condition.
After inspecting for a while, she turned to Feng Jun. “It feels like it’s hard to save her; what do you think?”
A flicker of strange light flashed in Huang Fu Wuxia’s eyes, followed by a sigh. “Mountain Master Feng certainly has ruthless thods—doesn’t know how to pity beauty, does he?”
“Pity beauty? Nonsense,” Feng Jun said with a dismissive smile. “I only know she wanted to attack . Since that’s the case, she’s an enemy. When facing an enemy… why should I hold back?”
He then turned to Kong Ziyi and nodded slightly. “I currently don’t have the ability to treat her. What about you, Zi Yi Daoist Friend?”
To be precise, he didn’t think that Dong Liuye was absolutely beyond saving. After all, there are countless secret techniques in this realm, and he didn’t have enough resources to match anything suitable. He simply couldn’t find a treatnt thod.
Kong Ziyi pondered for a mont and slowly shook her head. “I have a feeling that even the Leisure Soul-Replenishing Pills… may not be able to save her.”
Feng Jun spread his hands with a grin. “I think the sa. Dare I ask, Zi Yi Daoist Friend, do you have any other thods?”
Leisure Soul-Replenishing Pills were certainly ineffective. He still had a bottle gifted by Kong Ziyi, with over a hundred pills—it had been matched within his mobile space but was proven incapable of saving Dong Liuye.
“No more,” Kong Ziyi also shook her head. It must be noted that Leisure Soul-Replenishing Pills were custom-made by Master Sumiao and were highly addictive. Even in the mobile space, such pills were rare.
“Then that’s unfortunate,” Feng Jun shook his head. “Looks like killing her is the only option left.”
“Lend her to ,” Kong Ziyi raised her hand and took out a Spirit Beast Bag designed for a Qi Departure Realm cultivator, using it to collect Dong Liuye. “I’ll take a closer look to see if there’s a chance of saving her.”
Afterward, she and Huang Fu Wuxia stood up to bid farewell, while everyone else either resud their cultivation or took their rest.
By the next noon, Huang Fu Wuxia’s people were the first to arrive at Lantern Town—five Qi Refinent cultivators and ten martial masters.
They were rely Interdiate and High-Rank martial masters, not even Innate experts. Such individuals within the cultivation world typically had only one role—laborers!
Nonetheless, the Huang Fu family’s operations were vast, and they required a large workforce. Furthermore, it must be said that so martial masters, though not favored by aptitude, were quite intelligent—not inferior to ordinary Transcendent mortals.
Take, for example, Feng Jun’s communication personnel from the Earth Realm; many were martial masters.
Soon after, the Du family’s descendants arrived—a total of twenty-nine individuals, ranging from Transcendence to the High Tier of Qi Refinent, along with two Innate experts. Their presence gave off an aura more imposing than Huang Fu Wuxia’s team.
However, Du Wentian knew well the terror of Huang Fu Wuxia and had preemptively briefed his family. “Your job is to patrol and fulfill your responsibilities. Rember, those people belong to Chairman Huang Fu’s group. Maintain friendly relations with them… You’ll all be working together in the future, supporting one another.”
Truth be told, there was no need for him to remind them. Du Fanghui had already sent word back to the family—Lu Clan had fallen, and it was Feng Jun who brought them down. Beyond that, brawling in the Fang Market was hardly sothing anyone could hide.
Additionally, Du Fanghui’s connection with Feng Jun was brokered by Manager Tang from Tiantong. Old Tang still had to consider Huang Fu Wuxia’s position.
Manager Tang held a rank higher than Huang Fu Wuxia, but that’s only because Chairman Huang Fu had declined promotion—otherwise, they’d at least be on par. Comparing their cultivation levels and family backgrounds? That wasn’t even necessary.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Feng Jun announced, “Apart from patrolling, I have another task for you—collecting fossilized insect corpses.”
Both groups weren’t particularly high-level individuals. Patrolling itself was hard work requiring plenty of cheap labor.
No one objected. They imdiately headed toward White Pebble Beach.
Upon arrival, Feng Jun explained the situation with fossilized insect corpses and stated, “I don’t care how you operate, just gather these underground fossilized insect corpses for —I’ll pay for it.”
Initially, he considered simply covering patrol costs, offering fifty Spirit Stones a year.
—If anyone felt the compensation was insufficient, they could search for so side jobs within the vast region instead.
But when preparations in the Earth Realm were finally ready—such as oil storage tanks enabling bulk trades—he realized: extracting crude oil wasn’t going to be a simple task.
Extracting tens of thousands of cubic ters of crude oil would exhaust Feng Jun—it’s not viable for one person when the volu gets too large.
Moreover, Feng Jun calculated an estimate. Processing ten thousand cubic ters of crude oil could potentially yield several million in profits. For tens of thousands of cubic ters, that figure would exceed billions.
Consequently, Feng Jun believed extracting ten thousand cubic ters of crude oil for one Spirit Stone was a trade worth doing—it’s a multi-million business on his end for rely one Spirit Stone.
Admittedly, from a pure investnt-return perspective, Feng Jun’s Jade Loft project yielded the maximum benefit—he spent rely so silver to obtain a Jade Loft worth trillions.
However, those estimates were idyllic. With the sudden surge of jade supply, prices couldn’t remain at that level.
To Feng Jun, he had his valuation for Spirit Stones within the Earth Realm—a single Spirit Stone was worth at least a billion.
Of course, valuations allowed for fluctuations. He planned to monopolize Spirit Stone supplies for the Earth Realm, considering anything above five hundred million acceptable.
This wasn’t an exaggeration. Even within the mobile space’s black market, one Spirit Stone was valued at most five hundred taels of Gold—no more than that. Going higher only ant using the wrong channel, which equated to theft.
Five hundred taels of Gold roughly equaled twenty-five kilograms, translating to just over six million—and that’s black market pricing.
In practice, Feng Jun could sell a set of air conditioners and refrigerators for four hundred taels of Gold and trade for five Spirit Stones.
The conversion had so quirks. However, it was clear that avoiding the black market could place a single Spirit Stone at around one hundred taels of Gold—five kilograms, barely exceeding a million.
Despite breaching the billion-dollar valuation threshold for Spirit Stones, Feng Jun deed it worthwhile.
One Spirit Stone could exchange for ten thousand cubic ters of crude oil—a trade clearly viable.
In the cultivation world, Spirit Stones were paradoxical—they could be incredibly lucrative yet also extrely hard to acquire. Back then, Shangguan Yunjin, a Qi Refinent disciple at Wuyou Platform, couldn’t even take out a single Spirit Stone. Who could claim they were easy to earn?
Feng Jun bought White Pebble Beach with the intention of extracting oil himself, leaving patrolwork costs untouched at fifty Spirit Stones—certainly not cheap when adding possible side jobs.
Once calculations unfolded, he concluded that hiring workers for oil extraction seed more cost-effective.
The Du family and Huang Fu family mbers were sowhat bewildered but promptly began the extraction efforts.
Only one oil well existed, which was clearly insufficient—daily outputs barely reached twenty thousand cubic ters.
Considerably more manpower was available. A Transcendent cultivator could fill thirty Storage Talismans within an hour—approximately three hundred cubic ters. Over ten hours, that beca three thousand cubic ters.
Calculating a ten-hour workday, just eight Transcendent cultivators could handle the production. Factoring in reduced intensity for talismans and shift rotations, sixteen Transcendent cultivators would suffice; anything beyond this wasn’t necessary.
Adding Qi Refinent cultivators made the production even less adequate.
By the second day, Du Wentian approached Feng Jun, suggesting the construction of five or six additional oil wells to achieve daily outputs of one hundred thousand cubic ters—at least ten Spirit Stones-worth daily production.
Feng Jun expressed support but also emphasized considering well-sealing asures during extraction. Continuous oil extraction simply wasn’t feasible-under optimal conditions, his own cultivation ti couldn’t be sacrificed.
He proposed setting up formations at wellheads for temporary halts whenever needed.
Yet Du Wentian argued against the extravagance of formations, as they would consu Spirit Stones. He recomnded using large stones as weights instead. With the Du family’s abundance of Qi Refinent disciples, these tasks could be resolved with re effort—why waste Spirit Stones?
Du Wentian further suggested building storage facilities instead of worrying over constant extraction cycles. He acknowledged fossilized insect corpses were flammable and explosive but noted that this was trivial for cultivators. Digging large pits within mountain caves and coating them into rock chambers offered safe storage.
Stone posed no fire hazards unless soone intentionally introduced a fla source—making the storage facility highly secure.
Feng Jun reflected on this logic and ultimately assigned the storage facility’s construction to the Du family.
Another day passed, and new issues arose. Du family disciples felt the mining-like tasks were unsuitable. The team originally assigned to patrol White Pebble Beach comprised individuals focused on combat proficiency, sentries, and young talents gaining exposure.
Du Wentian proposed recruiting ordinary Transcendent individuals instead—those without Qi Refinent prospects—since these people were abundant in the cultivation world, often struggling to find work. Offering a daily wage of seven to eight fragnt Spirit Stones would guarantee ample workers.
Providing food and lodging ant that even five fragnt Spirit Stones daily were sufficient.
To dispel accusations of sloth within his family, Du Wentian even offered to cover the costs himself, requesting only permission from Mountain Master Feng for their recruitnt.
Though Feng Jun felt a bit frustrated—honestly wanting to simplify the matters—he agreed. The argunts were logical; imposing mining tasks on elite family cultivators was indeed excessive.
This ti, however, he didn’t offer to cover wages—Feng Jun had already paid extraction fees.
He believed: since the Du family made this decision, they must bear the corresponding costs.
Still, he chuckled bitterly: what had begun as a casual operation had now spiraled into increased wells, storage facilities construction, and specialized workforce recruitnt.
The industry seed to be expanding more and more.
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