White Country
Dust billowed, the sun blazed, and the ragged farrs and shepherds stared vacantly from afar at the source of the engine sounds.
At the end of the bumpy dirt road, a caravan of trucks, covered in rust and welding scars, slowly approached, with the leading vehicle presenting credentials at the masked soldiers' checkpoint.
Amidst the static in the radio, the rough barricades were moved aside, but unfortunately, the wind did not carry that weary chanting to set the mood.
Beyond the checkpoint and the valley, the tunnel's end was not the dry and sandy exterior world, but a serene gem-like lake, surrounded by recently built simple houses, bustling and noisy.
The truck convoy drove straight in and parked beside the village, and the young man at the front jumped down lightly, removing the sunglasses from his face.
He walked up, unconcerned by the people searching him, and glanced around: "Who is Mr. Inaya?"
"It's ."
The bearded man, who had been waiting, waved away those wanting to search him and reached out a hand. The young man smiled, shook hands, and pulled out an ID from his pocket: "I'm Yan Fei. This is the credential Mr. Ji gave ."
"It's not necessary; I've seen you before."
Inaya gestured for him to follow and led the way.
Amidst the many old buildings still under construction with scaffolding, there stood a house that had barely escaped its dilapidated state, yet the sunlight outside did not render the interior dim.
The air carried a slight scent of incense, seemingly ant to remove the musty odor, with so fruits placed on the table.
"Sorry, it's a makeshift ss, everything is still chaotic, not the best hospitality." Inaya poured water into a bowl from a clay pot: "It's too remote here, there's nothing special except for the good quality water; drink more."
Yan Fei didn't mind, gulped down the water, and glanced at the scene outside the window, softly sighing: "It's already quite good, much better than before... Do you need generators here? I can bring so over next ti."
"That would be a great help; we're still lighting candles at night."
Inaya sighed self-deprecatingly: "So many things to handle, a tangled ss, managing basic supplies is such a hassle. If not for la... ahem, Mr. Ji, this scene wouldn't be possible."
"If you have any other needs, don't hesitate to tell ."
Yan Fei grinned, pulling out a list: "This ti, I've brought so flour and miscellaneous items.
The profits from the Central Earth branch will prioritize your needs here."
"You've already helped a lot." Inaya seed relieved, smiled while looking at the list, and then his smile froze.
"Hmm?"
Boom—
A worker unloading goods outside trembled, dropping a large box that cracked open, spilling small paper-wrapped boxes everywhere. From the torn packages, a golden glow erged.
Bullets, bullets, bullets, bullets... all bullets!
And not just bullets.
Beneath the crowbar-opened boxes, amidst layers of cushioning straw, rose the acrid sll of gun oil. Blue-hued gun barrels appeared, tempered by fire. Another box revealed small, black, grid-covered grenades...
"Leader, leader—look at this!"
A bearded man raised his hands, holding a folded drone; there were countless such boxes in the vast truck.
As for the boxes marked with "handle with care, explosive danger," inside laid shoulder-launched rockets and mortar shells...
But the real treasures were in the long, stacked boxes on Yan Fei's truck.
The strange knives and swords.
On the black or iron-grey blades, scarlet patterns like blood vessels flowed silently, swirling rhythmically.
With the weapons in front, it's enough to arm a force of thousands, along with hundreds of Chosen Ones.
"Two hundred eleven mass-produced alchemy creations, ninety-one blessed weapons; mostly Legion and White Deer, crafted with blood sacrifice techniques, no need to worry about maintenance; if there's any deficiency, killing two people will restore them."
Yan Fei casually picked up a blood-colored blade, held it, and slightly activated it. Instantly, thick blood flas surged, entwining his body and face.
Fierce and wild, devouring anyone who gets close!
Soon, the blood flas dissipated, everything returned to normal, and Yan Fei tossed the object back into the box, turning back to smile at Inaya: "Mr. Ji said these are just so makeshift pieces, feel free to dispose of them.
There'll be new ones sent later; if there's excess, you can sell them at the Desert Market, but don't use his na..."
Inaya's expression twitched, drawing a curved knife to inspect it; the hungry, fierce blade humd, echoing its thirst. He raised his hand, slashing towards the distant lake.
Amidst the sharp sound of splitting air, a straight crack appeared on the lake's surface, stretching forward. Even the water couldn't nd the rift, boiling and surging continuously.
Suddenly, thunderous cheers erupted around.
Inaya, however, gazed in disbelief at the curved knife in his hand—balance, size, spiritual quality, and comfort, all perfect and unbelievably smooth!
rely a casual strike...
Truly deserves to be the Wolf Lord!
Easily accomplished such an exaggerated feat!
He smiled silently, sheathing the knife, finally asking earnestly: "Is there any other instruction from Mr. Ji?"
"There aren't any special instructions, just that you should do whatever you want to do. If you really want to give sothing in return, just pay more attention to the 'talent acquisition' plan we talked about before."
Yan Fei smiled slightly, extending his hand: "For the next period, I'll be staying as an intern apprentice to accommodate your needs. Feel free to ask about any equipnt or alchemy issues, I can even do bricklaying and plastering. As long as you don't mind that I don't have a craftsmanship license."
"You're always welco!"
Inaya laughed heartily, grasped his hand, and gave it a vigorous shake.
After moving the things, they headed towards the innermost part of the village with Yan Fei, the path was heavily guarded.
"Are things ready, Elder Dabit?" Inaya looked at the sleepy old man on the lounge chair.
"Everything's in the dungeon. Wasted so much food on them, they eat a lot, defecate a lot, but don't gain any weight... It's becoming unaffordable." The sinister old man propped himself up, stooped over, leading the way ahead.
Pushing open the shabby wooden door, a stench wafted from the underground passage. As a spark of light flickered, the figures chained behind the bars seed to be startled awake.
Screams and curses echoed incessantly, mingling with pleas and promises.
Even those Chosen Ones shackled with the Matrix and spiritual elents were nailed to the ground, their expressions ferocious, eyes filled with killing intent and hunger.
But the mont they saw the old man, their pupils instinctively contracted.
It's hard to hide the fear.
"Look, they were lively at first, but after being locked up for a few days, they beca docile. Even the toughest guys shed almost as many tears as the rest when they know they're about to die, their performances beco even more exciting.
But that's about it.
Federation and Empire lackeys, warlords' killing tools, poison bugs, garbage, those arrogant noble lords, and self-righteous Chosen Ones... Once they're here, there's no difference."
The sinister, stooped old man laughed eerily, watching the 'splendid performance' in the dungeon, asking causally, almost offhandedly: "Honestly, I don't really understand what 'that esteed person' wants with this trash. Surely it's not just for killing fun, right?"
"Of course it's to help them reform and make so contributions."
Yan Fei glanced at him, telling him nonchalantly: "Trash won't throw itself into the trash can, it takes so effort to let those useless people living expensive lives to realize reality.
Finding them a place where they can truly shine and contribute even a bit to this world, to offset and repay for the mistakes they've made."
"Heh..."
The elder seed to understand sothing and chuckled softly: "A truly compassionate approach, indeed."
"Who would disagree?"
Yan Fei lowered his eyes, overlooking the excellent materials before him.
Full of anticipation.
.
.
The joy of a garbage collector is turning waste into treasure.
Gather a little from the east, rummage through the west, connect a scrapped motherboard with a scrapped power supply, add two scrapped graphics cards, all of them being garbage, but when put together, none despises the other, and after so effort, it surprisingly works, even achieving marvelous results!
Burn yourself, create miracles!
Thinking about it this way, it does seem quite thrilling...
This must be the bond between garbage collectors and garbage.
And Ji Jue had beco engrossed in creating garbage.
Enjoying every mont of it.
Not being able to create, he even felt reluctant.
"...Succeeded again! Isn't it? This works too?"
Ji Jue frowned, reaching out to scoop a scorching red-hot sword blade from the furnace, his brow tightly furrowed—the sword blade was riddled with cracks, yet with spirit light flowing around it, it seed perfectly ford, its faint mournful wailing causing a resonating lant.
With a casual wave, flas flowed from the blade, lingering in the air before eventually fading.
Sparks flickered, rising and falling between the cracks, as if breathing.
Though the style was peculiar, it could already be considered a fine piece among alchemy creations, with potential for further advancent once blessed.
"Record A917—Success, reason for success, four-part harmony, mutual complent, ascension and integration stages excessively complete, conflicts between extraction and purification insufficient to disrupt balance."
Ji Jue casually threw his work onto the towering pile of finished products beside him.
For over a dozen days, tirelessly imrsing himself in the workshop, his successes were countless, while failures were seldom...
Finished products piled into a mountain on the left, while failures were scarce on the right.
He never dread that one day he would be troubled by having too high a success rate...
Go away, you damned talent and gifts!
Let my efforts and sweat shine through!
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