The Quest for Immortality

”However, this would require a great deal of material and manpower.”

”I have a way with materials, but manpower is somewhat limited.”

”Building new mines and connecting the mountains inevitably leads to encounters with the monster beasts of the deep mountains, or inhaling the pollution and filthy qi from the depths of the mines, which is very dangerous.”

”These tasks are impossible for Cultivators in the Qi Refinement Realm to accomplish without risking their lives.”

”But zombies can.”

”Most of these zombies were mining cultivators from South Yue City in life...”

”In the city, they may still have parents, relatives, or friends they knew well.”

”I want them to do one last good deed for their living relatives and friends, for their descendants, before their true death...”

Yang Jishan was deeply shaken.

He couldn’t help but look at Mo Hua, seeing his gaze as clear and sparkling as water.

The golden sunlight filtered through the trees, spilling over his body.

Yang Jishan took a deep breath, slowly stood up, and bowed solemnly to Mo Hua.

...

The following developments proceeded according to Mo Hua’s plans.

The zombies were to be destroyed.

The Corpse King, being a calamitous spawn of a Taoist Demon with three masters and a history of turning on them, Moore, was not planning on keeping it, despite the fact that he was ultimately the last master.”

Otherwise, it would have been a disaster sooner or later.”

The other Iron Corpses and Walking Corpses naturally had to be destroyed as well.”

To destroy zombies, a Corpse Burning Formation was needed.”

This Formation, it is said, was crafted by a great Formation master of the Taoist Court, specifically designed to eradicate the threat posed by zombies.”

It could incinerate both the corpses and the corpse poison, leaving no trace.”

Mo Hua studied the Formation, which truly was ingeniously constructed, using both fire and earth Pattern elements of the Five Elements Formation to conceal with earth and purge with fire, and it was indeed very practical.”

Mo Hua took a second look and secretly learned it…”

However, the number of zombies in South Yue City was too high.”

This was a large-scale zombie disaster, and correspondingly, the scale and number of Corpse Burning Formations needed were considerable.”

But all this was the responsibility of the Taoist Court.

Mo Hua didn’t need to worry about it.”

His only task was to figure out how to construct large mines.”

This measure had also been agreed upon by Yang Jishan and supported by the presence of numerous Cultivators from the Taoist Court.”

Among them, some genuinely sympathized with the plight of the Loose Cultivators of South Yue City and wished to do something good.”

Others were simply looking to curry favor with Mo Hua.

There were also those who were reluctant in their hearts, but could not forget the scene where Mo Hua made the Corpse King kneel and feared him, daring not to oppose him.”

The last group, seeing that everyone else had agreed, did not want to stand out and thus went along with the agreement...”

Despite the variety of motives and the complex situation, they eventually came to a consensus.”

Yang Jishan had connections with the Taoist Soldiers Court, and the other Cultivators were descendants of Cultivators from Sects and Noble Clans from the states of Taoist, Qian, and Kun.”

With their endorsement, the implementation of this task became much easier.”

Constructing large mines required manpower and materials.

The manpower had been resolved.”

The zombies were their ”manpower.”

This might be the most meaningful thing they had done since becoming zombies.”

Besides that, there was the issue of materials.”

The resources for building the mines partly came from the Taoist Court in South Yue City.”

The Taoist Court of South Yue City, from the top down, was extremely corrupt.”

Especially the Court Leader of South Yue City had taken who knows how many bribes from the Lu Family.”

Confiscating it all back, it was estimated to be a large sum of Spirit Stones.”

Of course, the Court Leader of South Yue City had already been dismissed from his post and thrown into prison; after the measure of his crimes, he was certain not to survive.”

It was just a question of how he would die.”

Beyond that, there was the Lu Family.”

The Lu Family had been raided.”

The confiscated wealth was all utilized for building the mines.”

These Spirit Stones and assets were originally extracted layer by layer from the mining cultivators, and now they were simply returning to their rightful owners, to be reinvested in the miners.”

Take from the people, use for the people.”

Mo Hua had considered all these matters before, but the actual raiding and confiscation still depended on Yang Jishan and the soldiers under his command.”

Yang Jishan was not polite.”

The Taoist Soldiers were well-versed in raiding.”

The collected Spirit Stones were incredibly numerous, amounting to several million, which even shocked Yang Jishan of the great Clan background, who couldn’t help but exclaim:

”This Lu Chengyun, no, this Lu Family, is actually this wealthy?”

”And this Court Leader actually embezzled nearly a million...”

However, Yang Jishan was also clear in his mind.”

In this world, wealth does not come without a cause.”

The wool surely comes off the sheep’s back.”

The poorer the Loose Cultivators of South Yue City became, the richer they grew.”

The richer they became, the poorer the Loose Cultivators grew.”

Their immense wealth indicated just how impoverished the Loose Cultivators of South Yue City had been over the years...”

This amount of Spirit Stones was too large to be kept.”

The Taoist Court would find a way to confiscate it, then layers of officials would skim off the top, enriching each handler.”

But this matter was too massive.”

It involved Taoist demons and implicated many powerful families; no one dared to siphon off wealth under such intense scrutiny.”

So, to quell the disaster and with Yang Jishan’s approval,

This batch of Spirit Stones ultimately stayed in South Yue City.”

Now with both manpower and materials ready, Mo Hua began the formal construction of new, large mines that connect several mountains.”