Chapter 123: As Eternal as the Domain

Chapter 123: Coextensive with the Territory

With the introduction of the explosive spheres, Li Hongshen began to sense that some people were growing jealous and starting to stir up trouble. Rumors were circulating, demanding that Li Hongshen make the technology behind these spheres public for the benefit of all members of the Elite Society.

Li Hongshen offered no response and paid no mind to such talk; as long as no one dared say it to his face, he treated it as non-existent. Everyone involved was no ordinary person—Li Hongshen aside, the others had spent at least five or six hundred years in the Endless Wilderness. They knew such rumors were useless against him, and they knew that he knew they were useless. Yet, they spread them anyway, hoping to unsettle him or perhaps goading someone foolish enough to let jealousy cloud their judgment into causing him trouble. They hoped to find a chink in his armor and exploit it.

Beyond issuing a statement regarding his own stance, Li Hongshen paid little heed to these matters, focusing instead on aggressively developing his own strength. To him, worrying about gossip was far less productive than counting the days until he could exit the Endless Wilderness to meet Li Fuzhen. Indeed, after arriving at the assembly point, he had once timed his exit perfectly. Whether it was a meeting of minds or simply that Li Fuzhen understood him well, she was already waiting for him the moment he stepped out.

(Two hundred words omitted for brevity.)

Afterward, Li Hongshen sat with a teacup, sipping goji berry water as they recounted their progress and set the date for their next rendezvous. He then sought out Teacher Xia, enduring a lecture before seizing the opportunity to ask about his own challenges. First, he inquired about upgrading his mineral veins, asking how to use energy to accelerate their evolution into spirit-iron mines.

Teacher Xia offered no specific advice, noting that since Teacher Wang had already installed an energy node beneath the iron mine, they had to rely on the slow, grinding process of time; there were no shortcuts. Li Hongshen was not surprised; he had only asked out of a slim hope that the teacher might have a secret method.

Next, Li Hongshen sought ways to improve his explosive spheres. Originally crafted by hand, he wanted to transition to mechanized assembly lines for mass production and cost reduction. However, after years of trying, he had to give up because the core required engraving shamanic runes onto spirit-silver spheres, a process that necessitated a spellcaster and specialized artisans.

After obtaining a sample, Teacher Xia quickly provided a solution: change the approach. By creating a type of spirit-paper made from spirit-wood pulp and spirit-silver powder, one could use a printing method to transfer pre-made shamanic runes onto the paper, eliminating the need for spirit-gold wire. One could simply stick the rune paper inside the iron shell, have a spellcaster activate it, and then place it into an energy-injection machine to charge it into a finished sphere.

The detonation method also changed. Instead of injecting a sliver of energy to tear the spirit-caging rune, one would now detonate the spirit-gathering rune on the internal paper. This would trigger a minor initial explosion, which, combined with raging lightning or fire energy, would create outward pressure further intensified by the spirit-caging rune, significantly boosting the overall power upon detonation.

Of course, this remained theoretical until Li Hongshen returned to the Wilderness and conducted numerous trials to translate the theory into a functional product. This success became the foundation of his current confidence.

Later, Li Hongshen visited the Pengcheng Education Department to purchase several "Coextensive Life" qualifications. Upon returning to his territory, he intended to grant these to essential personnel, such as Shaman Ma and the Grand Elder. As subjects of his territory, their lifespans were not linked to his, and they could not be calculated in the same way. Consequently, many lords had to watch their subjects age and die, a reality they had to learn to accept.

However, there were ways to circumvent this. Throughout the long process of development, a lord would inevitably encounter rare talents who served as their right hand or the cornerstone of the territory. Letting such talent wither away could cause significant upheaval, such as a loss of top-tier martial force, stagnation in research, or administrative chaos.

In such cases, a lord could use Origin Points to sustain these individuals, anchoring their life to the territory itself. As long as the territory endured and the Origin Points remained, their lifespan would be as long as the territory's. Of course, this did not make them invincible; they could still be injured or killed by a fatal blow. Having a long life did not mean they could be resurrected.

These "Coextensive Life" qualifications were a primary means for an ordinary lord to control their high-level subordinates. Without them, why would warriors like Zhao Yun, meticulously trained by academies, willingly pledge loyalty to a lord and toil for the territory? In terms of energy systems, a Tier 2 spellcaster was akin to a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Xianxia system, and a Tier 2 warrior could rival a martial artist who had refined essence into energy—figures capable of ruling kingdoms in lower-tier worlds. While restricted by the limitations placed on high school student lords and the suppressive nature of the Endless Wilderness, they were still formidable.

For people like Shaman Ma and Zhao Yun, martial prowess was the least of their values. Li Hongshen placed greater worth on Shaman Ma’s research capabilities and manufacturing experience, and the decades of leadership and military command honed by Zhao Yun and Li Li. They were commanders he had painstakingly cultivated. Li Hongshen could not bear to watch them die of old age. Even knowing that these qualifications would consume a vast amount of his territory's Origin Points, he purchased them nonetheless. Shaman Ma and the Grand Elder had already been elderly before joining him, and even after several advancements, they were nearing their limits. Li Hongshen feared they might pass away before he could return to the Wilderness to redeem the qualifications, which would be a devastating blow to his research and administrative teams—a sight he was unwilling and unable to behold.