149: Chapter 149 Nine-Ring Diversion, Starting Over

Hundred Arts Hall spent three years re-inspecting the remnants of the three alien divine kingdoms, eventually dividing the new land into three modification zones for water systems, gravity, and toxins.

Most of the water system Laws of the former Abyss Divine Kingdom were preserved, and Formation Hall was responsible for stripping away the corrosive branding within them before connecting them to the river network and spiritual farmland irrigation system.

The gravity Laws left behind by Ba'er Divine Kingdom were restricted to the northern mining area; aside from mining layer extraction, a pressure-bearing field for martial arts Cultivate was also planned on the outskirts.

Tuya Divine Kingdom's toxin Laws were strictly prohibited from entering residential areas, so Medical Cultivator Camp and Alchemy Pavilion jointly selected an uninhabited valley to establish a toxin-sealing research zone.

All three zones were set up with double-layer blockades; the inner layer isolated the leakage of Laws, the outer layer monitored changes in the Spiritual Veins, and personnel had to register their destination and length of stay before entering.

Wang Pingan personally inspected the modification blueprints, confirmed that there was no intersection of groundwater between the residential areas and the three Law zones, and authorized each department to initiate the second round of construction.

The water system modification progressed smoothly, and Formation Hall cut Carlo's remaining water system patterns into hundreds of segments, sequentially embedding them into the river channels and water purification Formations.

As the first round of trials concluded, river water free of grayish-green foam was poured into the experimental fields, and the roots of the spiritual rice plunged deep into the soil once again.

The progress in the gravity zone slowed down as multiple pressures were distributed within the same mining tunnel; a step forward might go smoothly, but the next step would press armor directly into the rock layer.

Formation Masters had no choice but to deploy force-discharging nodes every hundred zhang, with craftsmen using Formation piles to disperse the pressure; a three-li mining tunnel required two years to complete reinforcement.

The terrain of the toxin-sealing zone was perilous, and the toxins left by Tuya's divine corpse had melted into the Spiritual Veins, altering the medicinal properties with every extraction. Medical Cultivator Camp had already replaced seven sets of protective Formations.

Wang Pingan did not urge the three departments to speed up; previous modifications had proved that if the seized territory could not be converted into productivity, no matter how large the area, it would only drag down the divine kingdom.

In the twentieth year of the divine kingdom, the retention or removal of the nine supreme-grade Spiritual Veins was placed on the Ancestral Court's council table, as the old Spiritual Veins could not support their simultaneous operation.

Previously, the nine Spiritual Veins were forcibly connected in series; every time Spiritual Qi was released, the torrent would surge along the Ancestral Court's main vein toward the Twelve Study Cities, leaving the remaining areas with only a small fraction of the overflow.

If the energy supply was increased, the defensive Formations of the Twelve Study Cities would continuously overload; if the Spiritual Veins were suppressed, the hundreds of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers in the new land would fail to receive nourishment.

Formation Hall proposed widening the Ancestral Court's main vein, but that would require dismantling the old city Formations, cutting off power to the Twelve Study Cities entirely during the construction period, leading to unforeseeable future troubles.

Wang Mu stood before the Spiritual Vein map for three days, felt out nine Formation Flags of different attributes from his bosom, and nailed them into the locations of the nine Spiritual Veins.

"Each Spiritual Vein will independently supply a single region, and the surplus will be sent back to the Ancestral Court's main Formation for unified allocation. From now on, the nine Spiritual Veins will cut off mutual series connections."

The head of Formation Hall calculated for half a day, pointing at the red lines on the map, explaining that the diversion routes required an additional nine sets to be laid, and the consumption of Formation materials would exceed the original plan by thirty percent.

"Spending more Formation materials is fine. If something goes wrong with one Spiritual Vein, the other eight can still operate as usual. A territory of three hundred thousand square kilometers cannot be bound to a single main line."

Wang Pingan finalized the nine-ring diversion plan, allocated all the Formation materials dismantled from the alien altars to Formation Hall, and urged them to rush the construction of the nine sets of diversion circuits with all their might.

In the thirtieth year of the divine kingdom, the nine Spiritual Veins were connected to their corresponding regions, tens of thousands of Formation Masters took their respective posts, and the first territory-wide trial run was initiated.

The sluice of the first Spiritual Vein opened, causing the Spiritual Qi in the northern part of the Ancestral Court to rise. The second and third veins were sequentially connected, causing runes to light up on two newly built heavy-duty workshops.

When the sixth Spiritual Vein's sluice opened, the Formation patterns of the Twelve Study Cities dimmed in succession, and three outer study cities were cut off from energy supply within breaths.

An urgent report came from the northern mining area that the Spiritual Qi that should have flowed toward the cities poured into the strata instead, trapping thousands of craftsmen deep within the tunnels by collapsed rock walls.

On the main Formation Plate, the nine streaks of spiritual light tore at each other. Formation Masters forcibly severed the sixth line, which instead triggered a backflow in the fourth Spiritual Vein.

Wang Mu pushed aside the stack of calculation Jade Slips on his desk, slammed his palm onto the main control lever, and instantly cut off the energy supply of the second and sixth veins, suppressing the Spiritual Qi across the entire territory to its lowest level.

"Immortal Martial Legion, enter the northern mining area and rescue people along the backup passage! Formation Hall, hold the three study cities, and transfer all civilian Spiritual Qi to Medical Cultivator Camp and the orphanage!"

Wang Shan was recuperating in the camp, so the legion was commanded by three deputy generals holding the flags. Three thousand engineering soldiers rushed into the mining area carrying rock-breaking Formation piles to excavate the backup passage according to the old blueprints.

Underground gravity and backflowing Spiritual Qi intertwined, collapsing the newly erected supports several times. The engineering soldiers formed small Formations of ten to prop up the rock ceiling, dragging the craftsmen out of the underground in batches.

Two days passed, and all thousands of craftsmen escaped the danger zone. Only dozens were injured with zero casualties, and the northern mining area was also sealed off by the military with erected piles.

After the Twelve Study Cities restored basic energy supplies, Wang Mu summoned the various levels of deacons from Formation Hall and pressed the accident report onto his desk.

"I proposed the nine-ring plan, and I approved the main Formation routes. I will take responsibility for this mistake, and the craftsmen responsible for the construction will have their meritorious service recorded as usual."

A Formation Elder hurriedly stood up: "The master station's Spiritual Vein data was not accurate enough. The sixth Spiritual Vein is connected to the northern mining layer by a dark Void Realm vein, so the responsibility does not lie entirely with you."

"What the master station does is find these dark connections! After ten years of construction without discovering them, it means the plan had loopholes! If we keep arguing about responsibility, can the grand Formation be repaired properly?!"

Wang Mu picked up a cinnabar brush and crossed out the main lines laid over the past decade from the Formation map with a single stroke. Nearly half of the rare Formation materials were instantly destroyed, leaving all the Formation Masters in the hall struck dumb.

He broke the nine Spiritual Veins into three groups, with three sections in each group circulating internally. The cities, mining areas, and military camps would each possess an independent lifeline.

Only exchange ports were left between the three circulating groups; if one group was paralyzed, the other two groups would close their switches and lock down to maintain the operation of their respective regional Formations.

This new setup weakened the Ancestral Court's speed in mobilizing Spiritual Qi, but it completely eliminated the disaster of a single point dragging down the entire territory. Relaid lines would require another decade or more of effort.

Wang Pingan stepped into the air above the nine Spiritual Veins and pressed down on the divine core. Time Authority crashed down along the course of the Spiritual Veins, forcibly reducing the surging Spiritual Qi to ten percent of its original level.

The movements of the tangled Spiritual Vein nodes slowed down. Formation Masters holding Formation tools sneaked underground to dismantle the abandoned lines and drive in the three sets of sub-piles anew.

The dark connections previously hidden deep within the Spiritual Veins were laid bare under the time deceleration. The sixth Spiritual Vein was indeed hooked to the northern mining layer, and the source of the Spiritual Qi backflow was marked with crystal clarity.

Formation Hall did not bother with patchwork; intersecting lines were uprooted entirely, intact Formation materials were dragged back to the kilns for re-smelting, and severely damaged ones were buried as waste.

In the forty-second year of the divine kingdom, the first set of sub-ring Formation networks operated smoothly, and the river channels and tens of thousands of acres of spiritual farmland in the water system region began using independent energy supplies.

In the forty-fifth year, the gravity mining area was connected to the second sub-ring, and the pressure-measuring Formations in the tunnels lit up with cyan light, prompting the military to remove the outer boundary markers.

In the forty-eighth year, the third sub-ring connected the Twelve Study Cities and the Ancestral Court into a single entity, with the nine Spiritual Veins exhaling and inhaling according to the demands of each region.

Wang Mu ate and lived at the master Formation platform for a full three years, copying down the data of every round of Spiritual Qi tides. Only after confirming that the three sets of Formation networks did not interfere with each other in the slightest did he submit the report.

In the fiftieth year of the divine kingdom, Wang Pingan released the divine core. Time acceleration stopped, and the flow rate of the three-hundred-thousand-square-kilometer territory matched the outside world.

One hundred thousand Formation Masters and craftsmen returned their Formation Plates, and the territory's mountains, rivers, mining layers, fractured valleys, and underground subterranean rivers all fell into the new maps.

The fault zones were driven with blockade piles, isolation walls were built around the toxic water zones, boundary stones were erected in the gravity disorder belts, and every relocation path was equipped with two sets of evacuation diagrams.

Wang Pingan took flight from the Ancestral Court, inspecting the thirty-six core Formation bases along the nine supreme-grade Spiritual Veins, dragging out and screening every subtle energy fluctuation.

Deep within the seventh Formation base was wrapped a trace of alien Divine Thought that Formation Hall had previously failed to identify. Wang Pingan used the divine kingdom's Origin to force it out and crush it.

The twenty-first Formation base stepped beneath the old seabed, where salt toxicity exceeded the standard; Spirit Planting Department changed the site selection for the first batch of cities that very day.

Upon checking and landing at the final Formation base, Wang Pingan pressed the divine kingdom imprint into the thirty-six main platforms, returning all control of the nine-ring Formation network to the divine core.

[Divine Kingdom Territory: 300,000 square kilometers]

[Spiritual Vein Survey: Completed]

[Nine-Ring Formation Network: Operating stably]

[Controllable Area: 260,000 square kilometers]

[High-Risk Area: 40,000 square kilometers]

As the text on the panel settled, Wang Pingan descended an oracle into the Ancestral Court. The relocation documents for the second phase took effect, and hoisting Formations soared into the sky with a roar above the construction sites of the twenty-four new cities.