80: Chapter 80 Twenty-One Years of Evolution: The War Machine Takes Shape

The first day in the outside world had passed, but three years had already gone by within the Divine Kingdom.

The framework of the Hundred Arts Hall had been set up, but in Wang Pingan's view, it was far from enough.

Time continued to flow within the Divine Kingdom.

In the fourth year, Wang Mu split the Alchemy Pavilion into three departments.

One department specialized in Qi-Recovery Pills to replenish spiritual energy for the Cultivation Citizens after battles.

One department specialized in healing pills for the medical camp to treat the wounded.

The final department did not refine finished products, but only conducted spiritual herb proportion experiments, recording every failed pill formula into jade books one by one.

He also established a strict rule: whenever a pill was ruined during refining, one could not just curse; the reason had to be written down clearly.

This rule saved the Alchemy Pavilion.

Failures accumulated, the jade books grew thicker, and those who came later avoided countless detours.

The Formation Hall also made progress.

They dismantled parts of the Xinghuo Liancheng Formation to research micro Spirit-Gathering Formations. Initially, they carved them onto iron plates, which would break the moment spiritual energy was poured in. Later, they tried carving them onto discarded cannon barrels, but the barrels would snap in two.

In the sixth year, the first stable micro Spirit-Gathering Formation was finally completed. The effect wasn't astounding, but it increased the charging speed of the Psionic Heavy Cannon by half a percent.

Half a percent didn't sound like much.

But on the battlefield, half a percent meant the leeway to fire an extra round of artillery.

Wang Mu placed that formation pattern sample in the main hall of the Formation Hall, with eight characters carved on the base: "A thousand failures, only then one pattern."

The Casting Workshop on Wang Shan's side was even livelier.

Unlike the Cultivation Citizens who valued tranquility, a group of burly forging apprentices swung hammers around the furnace, sending sparks flying everywhere.

In the fifth year, the Casting Workshop stably produced E-grade sword-shields.

In the seventh year, they began tackling D-grade heavy armor.

D-grade heavy armor had much higher requirements for black iron purity, blood-energy pattern paths, and joint flexibility than E-grade armor. The first set of test armor was worn by a Blood-Condensing Heavy Infantry soldier; after running three steps, his knees locked up, and he fell flat on his face.

Wang Shan's face darkened as he watched.

"Are you fitting people with armor, or torturing them?"

The people in the Casting Workshop held their breath and spent three days and nights dismantling that set of heavy armor.

In the eighth year, the second set of test armor was formed; it could run and jump, but the shoulder pressure tolerance was inadequate, and Wang Shan slashed it open with one strike.

In the ninth year, the third set of test armor finally withstood the full-force collision of a Blood Condensation realm soldier.

The cheers from the entire Casting Workshop nearly blew the roof off.

In the same year, the Blood Medicine Workshop brewed a new version of blood-energy paste. The taste was still brutal, but the recovery effect had tripled.

Wang Shan tasted the medicine himself again. He was silent for a long while after drinking it.

Everyone looked at him nervously.

Wang Shan choked out a sentence: "After drinking this, I only want to tear down a mountain; it's a huge improvement."

The people in the Blood Medicine Workshop cheered on the spot.

In the tenth year, the Hundred Arts system experienced its first boom.

The first batch of D-grade standard heavy armor came off the assembly line of the Casting Workshop.

The assembly line was modified by Wang Mu and Wang Shan together.

Wang Mu was responsible for breaking down the processes, and Wang Shan was responsible for ensuring battlefield practicality.

The Casting Workshop was no longer one craftsman hammering from start to finish; it was split into five stages: smelting, embryo forging, pattern carving, armor assembly, and armor inspection, with specialists assigned to each stage.

The speed immediately increased.

On the day the one-hundredth set of D-grade standard heavy armor was produced, Wang Shan led one hundred Blood-Condensing Heavy Infantry soldiers to wear them for a drill.

Once the Xuanjia Zhenyue Formation was activated, the dark gold shield wall was visibly thicker than before.

Wang Shan swung his shield into the target mountain, and half the mountain collapsed directly.

He turned back and gave a thumbs-up to the Casting Workshop.

"This armor is tough enough to wear into battle!"

The eyes of all the citizens in the Casting Workshop grew hot.

They were finally not just blacksmiths in the rear; they were also participating in the war.

The Alchemy Pavilion also brought good news that same day.

The first batch of top-grade healing pills was produced, nine pills in total, and the medicinal fragrance rushed out of the pavilion, with even Wang Mu rushing over personally.

This type of healing pill could quickly repair muscle and bone injuries, and it was effective for both Blood Condensation and Foundation Establishment citizens.

During the battle against the Blood Moon Wreckage, it could have allowed dozens of severely injured veterans to return to the front of the shield wall much faster.

The old man in charge of alchemy knelt before the pill furnace, holding the pill bottle, his throat tight.

"Divine Lord, in the next battle, the children will be able to die less."

Wang Pingan stood in the sky, and hearing these words, his heart felt heavy.

He issued a divine decree.

"Alchemy Pavilion, the entire pavilion receives the highest merit."

Everyone in the Alchemy Pavilion knelt and bowed.

The Formation Hall also began carving micro Spirit-Gathering Formations onto the heavy cannons.

The first modified heavy cannon was test-fired; it charged faster, the cannon light was more stable, and the temperature of the barrel did not go out of control even after firing three consecutive rounds.

The veteran soldiers of the Artillery Battalion circled that cannon several times, their eyes burning.

They knew what this meant; in the past, heavy cannons had to pause after long periods of firing to wait for spiritual energy to flow back. With the micro Spirit-Gathering Formation, the firepower chain could last longer.

On the battlefield, if the firepower lasted an extra quarter of an hour, a batch of people would not have to charge forward against bone blades.

Wang Mu immediately ordered all heavy cannons to be modified in batches, without affecting the legion's combat readiness.

In the twelfth year, the legion was restored to full strength.

The six hundred vacancies lost in the Blood Moon Wreckage were filled by newly trained citizens.

The new recruits were not immediately assigned to the main formation. The veterans took them through a half-year bloody battle course, with very direct content:

How bone spiders charge.

How blood mist corrodes.

What signs there are before a Blood-Pattern Spider Guard self-destructs.

How to yield, how to close up, and how to turn a gap into a meat grinder when the shield wall is breached.

Beneath the Monument of Heroes, every new recruit had to listen to the veterans recite the names of the fallen.

Wang Pingan did not stop them.

The Divine Kingdom's legion should not forget those who died. By remembering, the later soldiers would understand why they trained, why they donned armor, and why they stood before the shield wall without retreating.

In the fifteenth year, the Immortal Martial Legion completed a full equipment change.

All three thousand main force members wore D-grade standard equipment produced within the Divine Kingdom. The precision was not as high as custom-made products from the outside world, but the specifications were unified, maintenance was convenient, and replenishment was stable.

In major battles, this was the key.

The Casting Workshop even began adjusting details for different troop types: heavy armor for shield soldiers had thickened chests, abdomens, and shoulders; Cavalry armor was lightened to increase waist and hip flexibility; long blades for the Sword Qi Battalion had spiritual-conducting patterns carved into them to facilitate spiritual energy infusion; the Artillery Battalion was equipped with specialized formation pattern toolkits, with a team of maintenance citizens from the Formation Hall assigned to every ten cannons.

After Wang Mu finished reviewing the new army configuration, he said something heavy for the first time.

"From now on, we no longer fear others cutting off our logistics."

Wang Shan stood to the side, patted his new armor, and smiled fiercely.

"Whoever wants to wear us out, let them ask our own furnaces if they agree."

In the seventeenth year, the population of the Divine Kingdom began to show significant growth.

Under the long-term nourishment of spiritual rain and blood-energy pools, the bodies of ordinary citizens became increasingly robust, illnesses decreased, and the aptitude of newborns visibly improved.

A school was built outside the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court, and a youth martial arts arena was built within the Martial Dao Holy City. Children no longer just learned farming and labor; they began to learn breathing techniques, herb identification, basic Body Forging, and formation pattern recognition from a young age.

Not everyone had to go to the battlefield.

What Wang Pingan wanted was a complete civilization.

Some practiced cultivation, some farmed, some refined pills, some forged armor, some raised horses, some repaired formations, and some recorded war merits. The larger the Divine Kingdom, the finer the division of labor; the finer the division of labor, the more steadily the war machine could run.

In the eighteenth year, Wang Mu officially reorganized the Hundred Arts Hall into four institutes.

The Alchemy Pavilion managed pills and medical cultivation. The Formation Hall managed battle formation nodes, heavy cannon formation patterns, and the Divine Kingdom's defensive formation. The Spiritual Plant Department managed spiritual fields, herb gardens, spiritual rice, and spiritual wood cultivation. The Talisman Institute managed basic talismans and legion consumption talismans.

Wang Shan's side was also reorganized into four institutes.

The Casting Workshop managed armor and weapons. The Blood Medicine Workshop managed martial arts supplies and body-tempering ointments. The Ordnance Institute managed heavy cannons, shield carts, Cavalry spears, and logistics equipment. The Armor Battalion managed equipment inspection, maintenance, and battlefield recovery.

Both systems rotated simultaneously, interlocking with each other.

The Hundred Arts of Cultivation and the Hundred Arts of Martial Dao did not compete for merit. Wang Mu and Wang Shan had both walked out of the Blood Moon Wreckage and knew that on the battlefield, missing one bottle of medicine, one piece of armor, or one formation pattern could mean filling in one more life.

In the nineteenth year, Wang Pingan set about dealing with the alien materials remaining from the Blood Moon Wreckage.

Bone spider carapaces were sent to the Casting Workshop and mixed into the outer layers of heavy shields. Bone blades were handed over to the Ordnance Institute to be polished and modified into Cavalry armor-piercing spearheads. The Blood Moon evil spirits were sealed into experimental formation disks by the Formation Hall to train citizens in resisting alien law suppression.

The core parts of the Spider King's remains were sealed away and left untouched.

Those were the remains of a demigod alien's true body, which had great value, but the Hundred Arts of the Divine Kingdom were not yet mature enough to fully digest them. Misusing them would only waste the materials.

In the twentieth year, the Xinghuo Liancheng Formation and the micro Spirit-Gathering Formation completed their first deep integration.

The spiritual energy consumption of the Artillery Battalion's firepower chain dropped by fifteen percent.

The Xuanjia Zhenyue Formation was also improved by Wang Shan and the Formation Hall together, with blood-energy circulation patterns carved on the inside of the shield armor, making it smoother for the rear rows to infuse blood energy after the front-row heavy infantry bore the pressure.

It didn't count as a breakthrough in a major realm, but the overall combat power of the legion had risen to a higher level.

Wang Pingan saw it clearly.

Wang Mu and Wang Shan were still stuck at the thresholds of Purple Mansion and Martial Ancestor, but they were not standing still.

The peak of Foundation Establishment could be stronger. The peak of Blood Condensation could also be stronger; every bit of potential in the current realm was being dug out.

When they eventually ascended to First-Order Deity and the law bottleneck opened, this accumulation would lead to success as naturally as water flows.

In the twenty-first year, the Divine Kingdom had completely changed its appearance.

The Eastern Immortal Dao Ancestral Court was shrouded in spiritual mist, the furnaces of the Alchemy Pavilion never went out day or night, the lights of the Formation Hall flickered through the night, and the herb fields of the Spiritual Plant Department stretched out in patches.

The Northwestern Martial Dao Holy City had blood energy soaring to the sky, the sound of hammers in the Casting Workshop never ceased, warriors took turns tempering their bodies beside the blood-energy pools, and the warehouses of the Armor Battalion were piled high with spare armor.

The Northern Military Camp had fluttering military flags, three thousand main force members were fully staffed and fully armored, and the reserve army had also taken shape.

The heavy cannons of the Artillery Battalion had all completed their first round of modifications, the Sword Qi Battalion was equipped with new-style spirit-conducting blades, the heavy Cavalry had switched to lightened Cavalry armor, and the shield soldiers' heavy armor was thick and steady; once the Xuanjia Zhenyue Formation was activated, the dark gold shield wall stretched across the front of the drill ground, and even Wang Shan's full-force collision could only shake it a few inches.

In the pill warehouse, Qi-Recovery Pills, healing pills, blood-energy pastes, and Spirit-Clearing Powders were categorized.

In the armory, sword-shields, heavy armor, Cavalry spears, cannon barrels, and formation pattern toolkits all had reserve stocks.

The Divine Kingdom no longer relied on blood transfusions from the outside world.

It could produce its own, repair its own, recover on its own, and train its own new recruits.

Wang Mu stood on the high platform of the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court and bowed to the sky.

"Divine Lord, the Hundred Arts of Cultivation have entered the door; pills, formations, spiritual plants, and talismans can all support the legion's consumption."

Wang Shan stood before the forging furnace of the Martial Dao Holy City, with rows of brand-new heavy armor behind him.

"Divine Lord, the Hundred Arts of Martial Dao are also completed. In the next battle, we will bring our own armor, our own medicine, and our own cannons to fight!"

Three thousand Xianwu main forces lined up in the Northern Military Camp.

Veterans in the front, new recruits in the back.

The names on the Monument of Heroes flickered in the blood light of the military soul.

The Blood Tiger military soul crouched in the sky, more solid than when the Blood Moon Wreckage ended.

I beg my foster fathers and foster mothers to give a five-star review; there have been too many bad reviews recently.

This foster son kowtows in thanks. Also, using love to generate electricity is free, oh.