182: Chapter 182: Emptying the Treasure Pavilion of Top-Tier Materials

Manager Qian stood to the side, watching the glowing little cube in Jiang Ning's hand, muttering to himself. He had been cultivating for four hundred years and this was his first time seeing someone explore a forbidden land this way. In his understanding, one had to send in death squads or use high-tier exploration magical artifacts to slowly grind through such places.

Yet Jiang Ning just sent in a few little metal lumps with wings.

"Consultant Jiang, will… will this thing actually work?" Manager Qian couldn't help but ask.

Jiang Ning stared at the constantly refreshing waveform graph on the screen and replied without raising her head: "Whether it works depends on the data. Right now, there isn't just a spiritual energy storm inside, but also severe gravity anomalies. Manager Qian, stop watching here and go help me prepare some things. I need three hundred 'spirit-suppressing stakes'. The materials must be the alloy written on my list. If Wanbao Pavilion doesn't have them, have your artifact refiners smelt and forge them on the spot."

Manager Qian took the blueprint Jiang Ning handed over; it was densely packed with various symbols and lines he couldn't understand. Although he couldn't decipher it, he could feel that the structure of the object was extremely rigorous.

"I will get it done right away." Although Manager Qian had no confidence in his heart, Boss Wan's orders were absolute.

Just at this moment, a harsh alarm sound suddenly came from the tablet computer.

"Consultant Jiang, Unit 3 has lost connection!" Company Commander Zhang shouted from over there.

Jiang Ning looked at the final image transmitted back on the screen; it was a twisted spatial rift, like the gaping maw of a monster, that had swallowed the drone whole.

"The space is unstable," Jiang Ning analyzed calmly. "This indicates that the physical structure of the Pillar of the World has already begun to collapse. Company Commander Zhang, have the remaining machines retreat; the data is sufficient."

She stood up, brushed the dust off her body, and looked at the violent wasteland before her, already having a plan in mind.

"Let's go, back to the Wanbao Pavilion warehouse. I need to pick the materials myself."

Returning to Tianxuan City, Jiang Ning went straight to the core underground treasury of Wanbao Pavilion. Usually, not even Nascent Soul elders could enter here at will, but now, holding Boss Wan's jade token, Jiang Ning went through without any obstruction.

Pushing open the heavy bronze doors, a rush of spiritual energy so dense it was almost liquid hit her face. Jiang Ning looked at the rows of neat shelves before her, and her eyes lit up.

This wasn't a warehouse; it was practically a gold mine.

Ten-thousand-year Profound Ice, Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, Great Sun Gold Essence… these treasures, which could trigger a sect-exterminating war outside, were piled up here like Chinese cabbage.

Jiang Ning didn't stand on ceremony, recording as she walked on the computer she carried with her.

"This one, this highly spiritually conductive ore, I want three tons." Jiang Ning pointed at a pile of stones emitting blue light and said.

The Wanbao Pavilion warehouse keeper following behind trembled, nearly dropping his notebook: "Consultant Jiang, this is 'Blue Crystal Marrow'. The entire treasury only has this much in stock, and you want three tons at once?"

"What, didn't Boss Wan tell you? Now is a time for saving lives, don't be stingy with me." Jiang Ning glanced at him and continued walking forward.

"Also this, this self-repairing soft jade, I want ten crates."

"This one, this black gold that can block divine sense detection, I want all of it."

Jiang Ning was like a wholesaler stocking up; she wanted every material that could be used for the reinforcement project. The warehouse keeper's face grew paler and paler, until he eventually became numb. He thought to himself, this isn't repairing something; this is basically coming to ransack the place.

Jiang Ning finished her round and basically settled on all the core materials she needed. Looking at the mountain of treasures, she thought to herself: If these things were on Earth, they would probably trigger an industrial revolution directly. But in this cultivation world, they could only lie here and rust.

"Manager Qian, once the materials are ready, send them directly to my temporary processing plant." Jiang Ning said to the approaching Manager Qian, "I need one hundred skilled artifact refiners. They don't need to understand any profound techniques; they just need to be able to smelt these materials into standard shapes according to my molds."

"Standardized production?" Manager Qian was stunned for a moment.

"Yes, I want every single spirit-suppressing stake to have the exact same dimensions, weight, and spiritual power conductivity." Jiang Ning explained. "This kind of planetary-scale engineering cannot tolerate even the slightest error. I won't use the things you previously refined by relying on gut feeling."

Manager Qian wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded in agreement. He discovered that Jiang Ning had a terrifying sense of precision in the way she did things. Every instruction was crystal clear, and every requirement was quantified to the extreme.

Over the next three days, on a plot of open land outside Tianxuan City, a massive, modern workshop shed rose from the ground.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and hundreds of artifact refiners, under Jiang Ning's direction, were busy like assembly line workers. They were originally arrogant masters of artifact refining, and at first, they were quite resistant to this kind of "blacksmithing" work.

But when they saw Jiang Ning use a strange machine to detect the errors in their finished products within a mere few seconds, they all shut their mouths.

"Any with an error exceeding one-thousandth, redo them all." Jiang Ning held the detector, her voice ice-cold.

A disciple of the Shenhuo Sect was unconvinced: "Consultant Jiang, this is just a tiny difference; can't we just smooth it over with magical power?"

Jiang Ning walked up to her, looked into his eyes, and said: "What you are repairing is the Pillar of the World. The pressure there is tens of thousands of times higher than here. This tiny difference will become a fatal crack once it gets down there. You want to smooth it over with magical power? How long can you hold out there?"

The disciple was left speechless by the question.

Jiang Ning had no time to waste with them; she had to keep an eye on the modifications of the spiritual energy robots. These robots were redeemed from her system, specifically to cope with extreme physical environments.

"Consultant Jiang, there's a reply from Earth." Company Commander Zhang ran over holding a printed proposal. "The expert group believes that simple physical reinforcement won't work; a spiritual energy circulation compensation system must be established. They suggest utilizing the Spiritual Energy Network we laid out previously to create a global-scale spiritual pressure counter-surge."

Jiang Ning took the proposal, read it carefully, and nodded: "Great minds think alike. I was thinking the same thing. However, this requires the cooperation of all the sects in the Immortal World; those selfish bastards probably won't agree so easily."

"Didn't Boss Wan say he would handle it?" Company Commander Zhang asked.

"He can handle most of them, but there are always some who want to take advantage of the crisis." Jiang Ning sneered, "Like that so-called Nirvana Sect. I heard they have been very active around the forbidden land recently."

"Nirvana Sect?" Company Commander Zhang frowned. "The bunch of lunatics who think the world's destruction is the truth?"

"Yes, that's them." Jiang Ning looked into the distance. "They believe repairing the Pillar of the World is acting against the heavens and destroying their 'Great Dao'. These people are the biggest obstacle to our project this time."

She turned around and shouted to the soldiers of the engineering battalion: "Brothers, polish your weapons for me. This time, not only are we repairing the foundation, but we also have to clear out some trash along the way. Anyone who dares to block us from working, let them reach true nirvana!"

The soldiers shouted in unison, their morale high.

Jiang Ning knew very well that this hard battle had only just begun. She looked at the spirit-suppressing stakes that had already taken shape and silently prayed: I hope these "industrial products" can really withstand the "heavenly might" of this cultivation world.