246: Chapter 246 High-Level Inspection, Shocking Spoils

Lu Changyuan stood up. He did not take the evaluation form—leaving it exactly as it was on the side of the table, the crease still in the position where Elder Wei Changfeng had just folded it.

"Elder Wei—please."

He pushed open the door to the Lords Mansion backyard warehouse. The door hinge had not been oiled—when pushed, the stone axle ground against the stone socket with a harsh, grating friction. Elder Wei Changfeng stood at the doorway—there were no cold light stone lamps lit inside the warehouse. But his vision as a Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator did not require them—he could see things in the darkness more clearly than in daylight.

The warehouse was piled with Abyssal Beast bone armor. They were sorted by part—a pile of breastplates, a pile of back armor, a pile of bone spurs, and a separate pile of bone spearheads. Every pile was taller than a person's waist. The dark green bone armor of the Late Foundation Establishment Stage was further sorted into three grades based on the density of the bone grain—the grade with the densest grain was piled in the innermost part, with a label inserted on top written in charcoal: "Armor density near False Core level—can be used as main material for high-grade armor plating." The inner core of the Golden Core level Abyssal Beast was placed separately in a jade box—the lid was open—and the pale golden spiritual light of the inner core illuminated the cracks in the warehouse ceiling.

The salvaged fragments of the Golden Core Abyssal Beast bone armor occupied an entire wall on their own. Each piece was nearly twice as thick as the Late Foundation Establishment Stage bone armor—the bone grain formed dark golden spirals, and the dark blue crystal shards embedded in the centers of the spirals were still emitting a very faint spiritual light. These strategic-grade Artifact Refining Materials, which were sold by the piece and traded by the drop on the black market of the Royal Capital—were piled in stacks and packed in baskets on Blue Moon Island.

The Golden Core Abyssal Beast's bone spear—the one from the beast that died outside the reef wall yesterday—had been dragged up from the seabed by Leng Feng and his men. The bone spear stood in the corner of the warehouse—it was a section taller than the warehouse ceiling, and the spear tip was forced to bend downward by nearly two inches, but the three dark blue crystal shards embedded in the spear blade remained intact. Each shard was the size of a thumb's fingernail—on the water-surface market, one piece could be traded for a set of Late Foundation Establishment Stage protective armor, and if one found an Artifact Refiner to process it into a weapon insert—the value would at least double again.

There were no extra decorations in the warehouse. No shelves. No classification signs. Bone armor was stacked on top of bone armor—bone spurs were tied into bundles and leaned against the corner—there were too many leg armors piled up to fit, and a portion spilled out from the side of the door frame—the edges of those spilled leg armor pieces had been repeatedly blown by the sea breeze, and they were coated with a very thin layer of harbor salt frost.

Elder Wei Changfeng stood at the warehouse entrance—watching for nearly ten breaths. Within those ten breaths, he did not speak—did not walk forward—did not reach out to touch anything. His expression changed from indifferent to frozen—not the frozen state of shock, but the kind of frozen state of a person who had spent decades in the Ministry of War's logistics System, only to suddenly discover that the warehouse of the most remote D-grade stronghold on the front line was piled with Materials that were in short supply in his own strategic reserve warehouse.

He raised his right hand from his side—his fingers hovered for a moment over the nearest stack of Late Foundation Establishment Stage breastplates—he did not touch them, only felt the residual Spiritual Pressure naturally radiating from the surface of the armor plates. The residual Spiritual Pressure of a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Abyssal Beast's bone armor would continue to dissipate after leaving the main body—the dissipation cycle was about three to five days. The residual Spiritual Pressure of these armor plates was still present—indicating that they had been stripped off no more than two days ago.

"These things—" Elder Wei Changfeng's voice was nearly half as slow as it had been when they were in the Lords Mansion. Every word seemed to be ground in his throat before coming out. "How many did you kill?"

Leng Feng stood outside the warehouse door—his observation scope hanging at his waist, his scabbard buckle fastened. The newly changed hemostatic powder on his left shoulder was still seeping tiny threads of blood from under the armor plates—the blood threads had dried, forming a layer of dark red hardened crust on the white gauze.

"Yesterday, two Golden Core Middle Stage. One died on the reef wall—the inner core is in the jade box right in front of you. The other was heavily injured and retreated—we couldn't catch up, and it got away. The day before yesterday, the first wave of the beast tide—we slaughtered nearly sixty Late Foundation Establishment Stage ones. The day before that—" He paused, "The day before that, we were still drawing talismans."

Elder Wei Changfeng turned his head—and glanced at Leng Feng. He wasn't looking at his face—but at the dried blood thread on his left shoulder, the grayish-white salt frost on the armor plates that had been repeatedly soaked by seawater and dried, and the handles of the Formation Flags bulging from the inside of his belt. He watched for about three breaths—then withdrew his gaze—and cast it back toward the jade box containing the Golden Core inner core in the innermost part of the warehouse.

"Three days. Two days of fighting. One day of preparation." He recited each of these three time periods—his voice so soft that only Lu Changyuan, standing beside him, could hear. Then he turned—and walked toward the Lords Mansion. As he walked, his stride returned to the normal span of a Golden Core Late Stage Cultivator—but his pace was nearly thirty percent slower than when he came—it wasn't due to old age, but because he was recalculating the weight of Blue Moon Island as he walked.

Back in the Chart Room—Elder Wei Changfeng did not sit. He stood in front of the chart table—pulled the previously folded Ministry of War evaluation form from his sleeve—unfolded it—and flipped to the evaluation comments section on the last page. The evaluation comments section was blank—he had brought a pen—the tip of the pen hovered over the blank section for nearly five breaths—then he withdrew the pen back into his sleeve.

"Lord Lu—the Ministry of War has been in short supply of high-grade Artifact Refining Materials recently." His tone changed from the official indifference to a slow, deliberate negotiation. This tone of negotiation was like a different person compared to before he entered the warehouse—it wasn't feigned—it was the result of having calculated the weight of Blue Moon Island. "The Ministry of War's Formation and Artifact Department in the Royal Capital, the Artifact Refining workshops, and various front-line troops—are all looking for high-grade bone armor Materials to replace ordinary Spirit Iron. For the breastplates of Late Foundation Establishment Stage, the Royal Capital is willing to purchase them at market price. For the Golden Core level bone armor fragments and inner core—they can be priced individually according to their grade. Payment in Spirit Stones—delivered directly through the Ministry of War's logistics channel."

Lu Changyuan stood across the chart table—he did not immediately reply. He reached his hand into his inner sleeve pocket—touched the stack of items inside that were already bulging out to the seams—Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's Jade Slip was on top, pressed underneath were Commander Tie Zhan's "hold the line" military order, the image-recording bead, the soul-searching fragment diagram, the network of contacts list, the first page rubbing of the account book, the defense handover document, and the comparison chart of the new and old Sword Net threads. Eight items were stacked together—he could feel the paper quality and thickness of every layer.

"Elder Wei—" He moved his fingers away from his inner sleeve pocket. "Blue Moon Island is not short of Spirit Stones."

Elder Wei Changfeng's fingers, which were hovering over the teacup, paused.

"Not short of Spirit Stones." Lu Changyuan's hand moved away from the chart table—and pressed onto the Killing Array sub-plate at the head of the table. The sixteen array eyes on the sub-plate emitted a very faint blue-white fluorescent light in the morning light—the light was stable, indicating that the outer Sword Net was operating normally in low-power standby mode. "I am missing one thing—something that Spirit Stones cannot buy."

The Chart Room was silent for about three breaths. The light from the cold light stone lamp illuminated the defense map on the chart table until it turned white—next to the Killing Array spiritual power consumption curve marked on the map, Su Qingli's charcoal writing was still there—the layout positions of the chain Formation Plates, the records of the Sword Net breaches, and the time the Golden Core inner core was extracted. Every annotation was on this map.

Elder Wei Changfeng placed the teacup on the table—the bottom of the cup clicked against the stone surface so lightly there was almost no sound. He looked at Lu Changyuan—the extremely faint silver light ring on the outer circle of his pupils flashed under the light. The Spiritual Pressure of the Golden Core Late Stage was not deliberately released—it was that at the moment he re-evaluated the weight of Blue Moon Island, his aura naturally tightened in his body.

"You say—Spirit Stones cannot buy it." He enunciated the two words "Spirit Stones" very slowly—so slowly that one could hear the pause of his tongue against his palate between the syllables. "What thing—cannot be bought with Spirit Stones."

Lu Changyuan did not answer directly. He pulled a Storage Pouch from under the chart table—opened it—and poured the contents onto the chart table.

It was not bone armor. It was a batch of Materials even more carefully selected than those in the warehouse. The Golden Core Abyssal Beast inner core—the complete one—the pale golden spiritual light spread across the table surface, and the range of the light was nearly twice as large as it had been in the jade box. A full set of Golden Core level bone armor fragments—stacked by part—breastplate fragments, back armor fragments, leg armor fragments, bone spur segments—each piece was marked with the bone grain density and residual spiritual power reading. Added to this was a batch of complete bone spurs stripped from Late Foundation Establishment Stage Abyssal Beasts—each over three feet long, with a bone dark grain density nearly three times that of ordinary Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beasts—tied into three bundles, with each bundle tied with a slipknot using old array thread.

"This is a personal greeting gift from me to Elder Wei—it has nothing to do with Blue Moon Island's public accounts."

[part:gemini-3.5-flash]

Lu Changyuan placed the Storage Pouch on the chart table—its opening facing Elder Wei Changfeng. According to the black market prices in the royal capital, the items on the table were worth more than enough to buy out all the cultivation resources a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator would need for the rest of his life, with plenty to spare.

Elder Wei Changfeng stared at the Golden Core inner core on the table. He looked at it for a long time—so long that Special Commissioner Wei Yuan, standing behind him, removed his hand from the clasp of his Storage Pouch, silently wiping his palm against the seam of his robe nearly three times.

Then, Lu Changyuan took a third item out of another drawer of the chart table. It was smaller than the Golden Core inner core—a Jade Slip pinched between his fingertips. He placed the Jade Slip next to the Golden Core inner core—not opening it, just letting it sit there.

"Special Commissioner Wei Yuan once gave me a set of survey data on the shallow layers of the abyssal vein." His voice was very soft—so soft that Special Commissioner Wei Yuan, standing behind Elder Wei Changfeng, could not hear it clearly. But Elder Wei Changfeng heard it clearly—and the moment the name "Special Commissioner Wei Yuan" left his mouth, his finger pressed down slightly on the rim of his teacup. "It marks several safe passages. At the end of one of those passages is a Cold Iron vein."

Elder Wei Changfeng's finger froze on the rim of his teacup.

"Blue Moon Island is willing to provide Elder with five hundred catties of deep-sea raw Cold Iron Ore every month. It will bypass the military's ledgers—my people will deliver it directly to the delivery point designated by Elder. As for the Ore quality—Leng Feng." Leng Feng walked in from outside the door, pulling a fist-sized Ore sample from the inner side of his belt and placing it on the chart table. The fracture of the Ore gleamed with a very faint silver-blue—the characteristic low-temperature metallic luster of Cold Iron Ore. The surface of the fracture was still stained with seabed silt, the grains of sand reflecting extremely fine mica flecks in the morning light.

"This was retrieved by Leng Feng from a depth of twenty-five hundred zhang in the Dragon Burial Trench—it is the outcropping of the vein at the very end of that safe passage. The deeper veins haven't been mined yet; five hundred catties is just the amount from the outcropping." Lu Changyuan pushed the Ore next to the Golden Core inner core—the three items lined up on the chart table. The pale gold of the inner core, the dark green of the bone spur, and the silver-blue of the Ore—the three colors each shone with their own light in the morning sun.

"Public spoils of war in exchange for a public Puppet. Private Cold Iron in exchange for private Huitian Pills and Elder's protection." Lu Changyuan withdrew his hand from the chart table, letting it hang by his side again. His fingers curled slightly, the calluses from holding a pen on his knuckles gleaming with the waxy white characteristic of old calluses in the cold light.

Elder Wei Changfeng remained silent for nearly twenty breaths of time.

In the Chart Room, the only sound was the extremely faint popping from the Spirit Stone fragments slowly burning away inside the cold light stone lamp—pop—sounding once every few breaths. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan stood behind Elder Wei Changfeng, his breathing twice as slow as usual, his lips pressed into a tight line, the corners of his mouth pulled down slightly.

Then, Elder Wei Changfeng let out a laugh.

It was not a sneer. It was a hearty laugh—though not loud, a low-frequency chuckle vibrating from his chest. It was the laugh of a man who had rolled through the military's logistics and personnel Systems for decades, let out after calculating every layer of this transaction's cost-effectiveness.

"Lord Lu—if you joined the military, it would only take you twenty years to sit in my position."

He swept the Storage Pouch on the chart table into his own storage ring—his movements clean and decisive, without any polite refusal. Then, leaving Special Commissioner Wei Yuan outside the door, he turned his head and lowered his voice.

"Core Formation-grade war Puppets—the military's strategic reserve depot has some in storage. However, stored items must be reported as damaged to be released from the depot, and the write-off process takes at least three days to complete. I will arrange it. The core drive Array Pattern of this Puppet is an ancient Formation from three hundred years ago—it works, but it is about thirty percent worn down. The Spirit Stones consumed each time it is activated are nearly double the spiritual energy consumption of a standard Core Formation Cultivator, and it requires a cooling period after half an hour of continuous combat. If you can accept these terms, it will be delivered to your Pier in three days."

Lu Changyuan nodded. He did not press further, nor did he bargain. Being able to obtain even a damaged Core Formation Puppet already exceeded the standard deployment level of Blue Moon Island's current defensive line—the entire Zhenhai Fortress did not have a single Core Formation Puppet. Asking for more would only undermine his own position.

"Huitian Pills—three of them." Elder Wei Changfeng continued, his voice lowered so that only the two of them could hear. "They are sealed in the innermost layer of the military's logistics elixir depot—I will allocate them under the guise of 'Emergency Combat Readiness Medical Replenishment for the Left Wing Defense Zone'. Three are enough to serve as the combat readiness storage for a Foundation Establishment outpost—any more would trigger an audit of the elixir depot."

"Special Commissioner Wei Yuan—" Elder Wei Changfeng straightened his back, his voice returning to its normal volume, "from today onward, you will remain on Blue Moon Island. You will serve as the logistics liaison officer between the military and Blue Moon Island. Report back to the fortress once a month—the rest of the time, you will reside on the island."

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's lips twitched slightly, then closed. He stood at the entrance of the Chart Room, his back pressed against the doorframe, the fingertips of his left leather glove unconsciously rubbing against the seam of his robe. Half a month ago, the role he played on Blue Moon Island was that of a "full-time investigator of the Inspectorate"—responsible for investigating cases of intelligence leaks and missing spies in Fengzhen. Now, he had become a hostage between Blue Moon Island and the military. This private transaction could not go awry—if it did, Special Commissioner Wei Yuan would be the first one unable to escape.

"Lord Lu—please arrange a stone house for Liaison Officer Wei. No need for anything special—just like the other Array Master."

Lu Changyuan glanced at Special Commissioner Wei Yuan. The burn scar on Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's left hand that the wrist of his glove could not cover—a pressure-type burn above the web of his thumb—gleamed with the waxy white characteristic of old injuries in the morning light, identical to the scar exposed when he had removed his glove in this very same Chart Room half a month ago.

"The westernmost room in the row of stone houses next to the Pier's bulletin board is vacant. It was previously used to store Materials for repairing Formation bases—we just need to clear it out."

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan did not look up. He unbuckled his sword from his waist, leaning the scabbard against the doorframe; the tip of the scabbard made an extremely soft thud against the stone slabs. Then he turned and walked toward the Pier. As he walked, the swing of his left arm by his side was half its usual range—as if his entire left arm were resisting the very action of walking.

In the Chart Room, Elder Wei Changfeng picked up the military evaluation form from the table and flipped to the last page. He wrote a line of characters in the evaluation comments section. The handwriting was not his usual style for signing official documents—his usual style was angular, with every character looking as if it were carved with a knife. This line of writing had rounded strokes—so rounded that every turn was deliberately drawn inward by half an inch.

"Defense evaluation—Passed. It is recommended that the military logistics upgrade Blue Moon Island's combat readiness supply standards from Grade D to Grade B."

He folded the form, tucked it into his sleeve, and then stood up, walking toward the door. At the doorway, he paused and turned his head.

"Lord Lu—five hundred catties of raw Cold Iron Ore. On the fifth of every month, deliver it to No. 36 Jetty in East District 3 of the Zhenhai Fortress Inner Harbor. The berths there are under my direct jurisdiction—no one will inspect them."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

Elder Wei Changfeng walked out of the Lords Mansion—the protective Array Patterns on the Gold Sword Flying Vessel at the Pier had already been reactivated. The dark gold Array Patterns lit up one by one along the hull from front to back, in an order identical to the pre-flight self-check sequence. His two personal guards had already taken their positions on either side of the cabin door, the seawater stains on their armor plates not yet fully dry.

As the flying vessel ascended, the copper shavings on the Pier's stone slabs were swept up by the air currents, swirling in the air before settling onto the uncollected Formation Plates and bundles of talisman paper on the bulletin board. On the bulletin board, beneath the third rule of the wartime regulations, Commander Cai had newly added a line in charcoal: "Today's Contribution Point Exchange—Golden Core Inner Core Viewing: 500 points per incense stick."

Below it, the old Array Master had filled the blank spaces with marks—some drew circles, some drew checkmarks, and some used cinnabar ink to draw a rising red line next to their contribution point balance. The trajectory of the red line was completely opposite to the direction of the flying vessel's wake—while the flying vessel headed toward the royal capital, the arrow of the red line surged toward the top of the contribution point leaderboard.

Leng Feng stood on the stone platform, aiming his observation glass at the flying vessel's wake. Through the lens, the Gold Sword Flying Vessel shrank into a very faint golden speck of light in the clouds. He turned the observation glass toward the Dragon Burial Trench—the horizon in the lens was temporarily peaceful.

But he knew this peace would not last. The three Grade E outposts on the flanks had all fallen this morning—defeated soldiers and fleeing Loose Cultivators were being driven toward Blue Moon Island by the beast tide. The foremost crowd should already have reached the outer reef walls.