55: West Lake

“Ah—!”

Long Yuan let out a cry of pain, his face somewhat distorted, almost jumping out of the large vat!

Just now, after he dissolved a packet of Body Tempering Potion crystals in the water, the entire vat quickly turned pink, and a faint fragrance diffused, making him feel quite good. So, without any mental preparation, he directly jumped into it, only to be stimulated by a powerful medicinal effect that almost twisted him into a pretzel from the pain…

Fortunately, when he first underwent Transmigration, he had experienced a Soul-wrenching pain, which greatly increased his pain tolerance threshold. This made the current pain still within his endurance. He gritted his teeth, his face contorted, and persevered for a while. As expected, the situation gradually improved.

While adjusting his breathing, he silently circulated the Zhen Yue Sacred Elephant Fist Mind-Cultivation Technique. As the Mind-Cultivation Technique operated, he felt the medicinal power entering his body at an accelerated rate. As soon as this medicinal power entered his body, it circulated throughout his entire body with the Profound Qi and blood, from skin to flesh, from flesh to bone, and then to internal organs, blood, and bone marrow. The medicinal power, in a rather domineering manner, impacted his entire body, and continued to do so with the internal circulatory System, giving Long Yuan a sensation of pleasure akin to ecstasy. From the initial agony, he later even felt like he was resting and enjoying himself!

About an hour later, the entire vat of water returned to its original clear appearance, as all the light pink medicinal power had been absorbed by him!

“The effect is really good. I feel full of power all over now!” Long Yuan joyfully felt the changes in his body, finding his skin and flesh to be tighter and more elastic, seemingly with a faint luster flowing…

Practicing the Zhen Yue Sacred Elephant Fist in the Cultivation room, the sense of power immediately surged, and he even had some trouble controlling it. Cracks appeared even on the specially reinforced floor, and he immediately dared not Cultivate further.

“This is bad. It seems this place must be renovated again, otherwise, it won’t be able to withstand my power…” Long Yuan sighed softly.

In fact, he had encountered a new problem recently during his Cultivation. That was, when Cultivating the Creation Profound Heaven Skill, the Profound Qi vortex around him surged many times, and Profound Qi molecules from within the community and a larger surrounding area rushed towards him. This attracted the attention of many Xuan Practitioners, especially the few “protectors” who had been watching him downstairs, who also noticed it. Long Yuan overheard their discussions, which led him to not dare to Cultivate this Cultivation Technique for the past few days.

Now, practicing the Zhen Yue Sacred Elephant Fist again caused the floor to crack due to the greatly increased power. If he didn't want to collapse his own house, he had no choice but to reinforce the Cultivation room again.

Long Yuan thought carefully about this problem and realized that reinforcement was not a good solution. Because the houses in Hengbi Garden were not originally built for Xuan Practitioners, their structure was not that sturdy. Even if he reinforced it, Cultivating would still cause irreversible damage to the overall structure of the house. At that time, not only he would suffer, but also the residents of the entire building.

“So, what should I do now? Should I move to that villa in Yuhua District? Or find another way?” Long Yuan was a little troubled.

That villa in Yuhua District is located in the Xuan Practitioner area and is a detached villa built for Xuan Practitioners. The training room inside is certainly suitable for him to practice the Zhen Yue Sacred Elephant Fist. However, upon careful consideration, the huge Profound Qi vortex that appears when he Cultivates the Creation Profound Heaven Skill would attract more Xuan Practitioners from the surroundings to become suspicious of him.

This path is blocked; he must find other suitable places for Cultivation…

Long Yuan now has a deep understanding of Fengyang County. Currently, the places suitable for Cultivating Profound Qi in the county are mainly concentrated in Yuhua District. Among them, the good locations are occupied by the government and the five great Families. Other Xuan Practitioners who want to Cultivate must go to the martial arts halls they operate. Not only are the fees for these martial arts halls expensive, but the effects are not necessarily good. At most, they are just better than ordinary areas, because the best resources are definitely used by the government and the great Families themselves.

“However, according to the information captured by the Heavenly Dao Eye, there seems to be a place with rich Profound Qi in the western part of Fengyang City, and most of the waste generated in Fengyang City is also concentrated there. Why not go there and see the situation…”

Thinking of this, Long Yuan couldn’t sit still for a moment. He brought up the video from Luo Family Hospital and saw that Luo Yunfeng and Luo Pingchuan were still engrossed in studying the materials he provided. Then, looking at the several “protectors” downstairs who were yawning boredly, a slight smile appeared on his face. His figure flashed and disappeared into the shadows. Not long after, his figure had already slipped out of the community and headed towards the west of the city…

Although Fengyang County belongs to a third-tier base, its actual territory is quite vast. The core area and the surrounding Mortal areas are actually nestled among the mountains, which is the Fengyang Mountain Range. The city walls of the county are built against the mountains, making them extremely steep, easy to defend, and difficult to attack!

This is also the main reason it could become a base. Firstly, the exotic beasts outside are of lower levels, basically all below second-tier. Secondly, with such strong defensive capabilities, they are also very difficult to breach. Generally speaking, first and second-tier exotic beasts do not have very strong intelligence; they mostly act on instinct, and ordinary beasts are even more so. After experiencing the formidable defense of the base, they instinctively go around it. Therefore, Fengyang City has always stood here, becoming a paradise for the common people.

Of course, in the distant past, Fengyang had also suffered several beast disasters, with heavy losses to both military and civilians. Only later did such strong defensive city walls and a powerful city defense army come into being. It can be said that, apart from the two imperial capitals in the north and south, almost every base, large and small, has had similar experiences. Their establishment and development almost all reached their current scale after experiencing painful lessons.

However, the operation of every base has a similar pain point: the problem of waste disposal within the base. Whether it is incineration or landfill, it will cause environmental pollution within the base. As for the audacious operation of using waste incineration to generate electricity, like in Huaguo on Earth, there is no corresponding scientific and technological capability in this Otherworld Ming Dynasty, nor does anyone have this idea. After all, the price of fossil fuels in this Otherworld Ming Dynasty is extremely low, and the reserves are very large, seemingly inexhaustible.

Due to the threat of exotic beasts outside the city, people inside the base also dared not transport garbage outside the city. Because if they were to dump it outside the city, they would have to dump it much further away. Otherwise, once garbage accumulated, it would not only block the exit from the city but also be very likely to be used by exotic beasts to attack the city, which would be tantamount to suicide. However, to dump it far away, strong protection would be required, otherwise, no one would dare to transport massive amounts of garbage out to dump.

Furthermore, even if it were truly transported out and dumped, once these waste materials fell into the hands of exotic beasts, it is unknown whether it would accelerate the mutation of the exotic beasts. After all, garbage is also a resource. People often see large numbers of exotic beasts or exotic insects appearing at garbage dumps. Who knows if terrifying mutated species might suddenly emerge among them?

Therefore, the Great Ming had long stipulated that every base city was not allowed to dump garbage outside the city; it had to be processed locally within the base.

So, how to deal with these waste materials became a daily headache for every base manager.

And in Fengyang, the main waste disposal site is located in the west of the city!

This area has a lower elevation and originally had a vast lake called “West Lake,” which was a famous scenic spot far and wide. However, due to incidents of mutated fish coming ashore and attacking humans, the city's strong cultivators cleaned it up multiple times, and people no longer dared to live near the lake. Thus, this area was gradually abandoned. Later, garbage trucks brought loads of waste to fill the lake, resulting in the lake’s area shrinking day by day. By now, it is estimated that less than one-tenth remains…

Long Yuan had actually set his sights on this place long ago, but he wasn't thinking of Cultivating here, but rather wanted to collect the waste and garbage. Because his Cultivation was too low before, he simply didn't dare to act. Firstly, he worried that powerful exotic beasts might appear here. Secondly, he worried about being discovered and caught in the act. At that time, he might be seen as a madman, a good student not doing proper things but running off to pick up trash there, and he wouldn't even know how to explain himself…

But the situation is different now. The garbage dump in the west of the city will become his first target, and this is the true beginning of the Heavenly Dao Space massively devouring waste and converting it into energy. He has been working hard for this plan for over two months!

Long Yuan moved at an incredibly fast speed, reaching here in just half an hour. Along the way, he witnessed the lights going from abundant to sparse, then to scattered, until they completely disappeared. Upon arriving here, he only saw the faint moonlight cast over this vast area, with scenes of desolation everywhere…

……