Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 154: Chapter 117: Lies Don’t Hurt, Truth Is a Swift Blade

Cangxuan City enjoyed an excellent location within the greater Linjiang area.

It boasted not only mountains and rivers but also a variety of mineral deposits.

However, under the rule of the previous City Lord, Cangxuan City’s output was pitifully low. The vast majority of its annual exports consisted of little more than unrefined ore.

Over time, Cangxuan City earned the nickname ’Mineral City’ among its neighbors in Linjiang.

Without a doubt, the name was thirty percent praise and seventy percent mockery.

Even after the previous City Lord raised taxes to a staggering one-third, the people of Cangxuan City could still just barely scrape by, thanks to their round-the-clock mining.

Throughout all of Linjiang, perhaps only a handful of cities possessed such a great geographical advantage.

It was no wonder the citizens and Reincarnators from other towns were green with envy.

Now that Li Chang’an was in charge of Cangxuan City, its people suddenly discovered new opportunities opening up to them. Naturally, they were eager to shed the ’Mineral City’ moniker.

After all, for them, it was a title steeped in blood and tears.

…

…

Soon after arranging for workers to cultivate the Spiritual Fields, the various weapon materials Li Chang’an had custom-ordered from Qi Long were delivered.

To make the best possible impression on Li Chang’an, Qi Long had timed the delivery perfectly, arriving punctually on the afternoon of the tenth day.

Li Chang’an inspected the quality and specifications of the goods. Once he confirmed that everything met his requirements, he promptly finalized the transaction through his Rebirth Mark.

Exotic Beast Tides were one of the greatest threats Reincarnators faced in this world. Every year, tens of thousands of Reincarnators lost their lives to them. The number of cities that fell as a result was several times higher.

After all, when an Exotic Beast Tide struck, a Reincarnator could at least rely on their own power to flee to another city.

The common citizens, however, had no such ability. They could only stand and fall with their city.

Therefore, fending off an Exotic Beast Tide was a task that required the utmost caution, leaving absolutely no room for error.

This would be the first Exotic Beast Tide Li Chang’an had faced since becoming a Reincarnator.

While Cangxuan City wasn’t one of the high-risk cities closest to an Exotic Beast Cave, not a single preparation could be skipped.

Cangxuan City had to be armed as quickly as possible.

Only by being well-armed could Cangxuan City truly become a safe haven for both Li Chang’an himself and all of its residents.

The armory, on which construction had only recently begun, was not yet complete.

Therefore, the equipment and materials delivered by Qi Long had to be stored in the City Lord’s Mansion warehouse for the time being.

After personally taking inventory, Li Chang’an led the group of young recruits into the warehouse and said, “These are all materials for military-grade weapons. Your job is to learn how to manufacture and assemble them as quickly as possible…”

As he spoke, he pulled a manual he had prepared beforehand from his pocket and handed it to the young recruits, telling them to follow the assembly procedures inside.

These young people were all highly educated, top-tier professionals. Unlike ordinary citizens, talent like theirs was in high demand; they could have found respectable, well-paying jobs in any city.

They were the ideal candidates for engineers and technicians.

In fact, to get the armory operational as quickly as possible, Li Chang’an had even had Zhao Xi poach a number of key engineers from other cities with high salaries to join this group.

They had a deep understanding of the world’s various mainstream armaments and technological devices.

Thus, after just a cursory glance at the materials, these highly educated professionals quickly deduced that Li Chang’an had recruited them to build Energy Particle Beam Cannons and Super Electromagnetic Cannons.

Building Energy Particle Beam Cannons made perfect sense to them.

After all, this weapon was one of the primary offensive tools major cities used to deal with Exotic Beasts.

Furthermore, the business was almost completely monopolized by the Reincarnator Families. The various Energy Particle Beam Cannons they produced were far more powerful and had a much greater range than ordinary ones.

However, as it was a semi-monopolized industry, the price of the cannons produced by these families was astronomical.

Many cash-strapped Reincarnators from smaller towns considered themselves lucky if they could afford to install even two or three.

The vast majority of fledgling Reincarnators even had to take out loans from the Reincarnator Association just to afford them.

Under these circumstances, it was natural for some, like Li Chang’an, to order parts from military contractors and attempt to assemble the cannons themselves.

This approach could indeed save a substantial amount of money.

However, as for self-assembled equipment… well, the results were often hit-or-miss.

To put it simply—if a self-assembled weapon could fire properly, it was a success. If it could fire properly *and* be aimed, that was a Great Success.

If it could fire properly, be aimed, and maintain a margin of error within fifty meters per shot, that was considered a *super* Great Success!

As for the probability of a successful assembly, apart from the experience of the workers on the line, the most critical factor was whether the City Lord could provide a sufficiently precise set of blueprints.

Now, Li Chang’an had provided a set of blueprints.

Although the young engineers hadn’t yet examined them for precision, as long as there were blueprints, assembling an Energy Particle Beam Cannon would be no problem.

They were all very confident.