Big Data Cultivation

Chapter 2387: Chapter 2379: A New Idea

Once Feng Jun raised the question, the mixed-rabble side instantly found a backbone to rally around.

They were at least all Golden Core Masters, who among them would be an idiot? Everyone immediately declared: the one who draws the lots is one side, the one who picks first should be the other side.

But the two sects’ True Immortals felt differently: this Insect World was opened up by us in the first place, and we brought more people. The mining capability of two hundred Golden Cores is hardly weaker than your mere seventy-five people, is it?

The mixed rabble also had their argument: we have seven True Immortals; if we run into an Insect Race assault, we hold the advantage in high-end combat strength.

The two sects’ True Immortals refused to accept that: what do you mean "you have seven True Immortals"? There’s clearly me, Yuangang, a female cultivator among them!

Xia Nichang couldn’t hold back anymore: let’s just keep our ledgers separate. Your Yuangang female True Immortal clearly entered through White Pebble Beach. If we really want to talk about roots, I’m a Jinwu True Immortal. Talking about this is really pointless.

The two sides quarreled to the point where no one could get a word in. Feng Jun had originally intended to back off a bit, but then he noticed just how agitated those Clan Practitioners were.

Purely from the perspective of gathering resources, cultivators from clan systems really are more willing to risk it all than those from sect systems.

Feng Jun did not want to give everyone the impression that he was "biased toward sect cultivators," because he knew all too well in his heart that he himself was also a clan-system cultivator—or you could even say he didn’t really count as clan-system; he was just a Loose Cultivator who happened to bring a few disciples.

This situation would be exposed sooner or later, so he couldn’t possibly cut himself off from the clan cultivator group.

So he lightly cleared his throat. "Since the dispute is so deadlocked, should I invite Fishing Elder True Sage over again to preside?"

As soon as these words came out, both sides fell silent. The mixed rabble felt that Xuanhuang True Sage would never speak in their favor, while the two sects’ True Immortals felt that to trouble a True Sage over such a trivial matter—even if they won in the end—would only make the True Sage unhappy.

In the end it was the Xuanhuang Sect’s True Immortal who spoke. "Mountain Master Feng, we brought more people, and right now Tianqin cultivators are rapidly advancing in this world. Extracting the Energy Stone as quickly as possible is the proper way."

Feng Jun shook his head indifferently. "No one knows the Energy Stone situation on this planet better than I do."

"With the area you’ve drawn, even if all two hundred of your Golden Cores work together, you won’t finish mining it in seven or eight years. My suggestion now is: I’ll do the division and you pick first. Otherwise, I can only go invite Fishing Elder True Sage."

Fishing Elder True Sage was indeed a stickler for rules, but Feng Jun didn’t believe that a dignified True Sage would go back on his word over such a trivial matter—he had clearly said everything would be split fifty-fifty. Now that they’d played tricks, and still wanted to argue reason?

Another Xuanhuang True Immortal couldn’t help it. "Why is it that you do the dividing and we pick first? If we draw the lots and you pick first, isn’t that fine?"

The mixed rabble burst into loud laughter at that, and the True Immortal from the Gongyang Family fanned the flames even more. "Then it’s settled like that!"

Only then did this person realize they’d misspoken. The female Yuangang True Immortal couldn’t take it anymore. "How we split it isn’t the important part. What matters is we can’t drag this on. The front lines have been waiting for supplies all this time, and we’re still quibbling over every ounce?"

That was indeed the truth. In the end, everyone still agreed that Feng Jun would do the dividing, and the two sects’ cultivators would pick first.

Of course, when Feng Jun drew the divisions he tried his best to be fair. The two sects were still a bit resentful, but for the moment they could only accept it. Over the next three to five years they would still have to work together; if the Insect Race attacked, they would still be comrades-in-arms.

After the sites were chosen, Feng Jun marked out three mine entrances for his own people. Each entrance would have basically ten people stationed there, which, counting the rotation, meant about twenty per entrance. Three entrances came to about sixty people total, and the remaining fifteen could, besides taking turns on guard duty, act as mobile support.

Seeing how smoothly Feng Jun arranged everything, the disciples of the two sects also came over, hoping he could help indicate a few mine entrances for them as well.

On issues of this sort, where principle was involved, Feng Jun was not going to put on airs. In one go he pointed out six mine entrances for them, two of which were basically open-pit mines and very convenient to work.

On Feng Jun’s own territory, there were actually open-pit veins as well; he only needed to strip off a thin layer of rock on the surface. But he felt that open-pit ore was generally of lower quality, so he still prioritized extracting higher-grade ore.

After all, this planet really had too many Energy Stone mines; anywhere you dug was convenient. With his manpower limited, he didn’t want to waste too much effort on raw extraction, so he could only prioritize high-grade ore.

Mining began almost in an instant, and the various camps were also set up. To avoid attracting attention, the camps were all semi-subterranean. Each mine entrance was also given aura-concealment to prevent the Energy Stones’ aura from luring in the Insect Race or Human Race.

On this point, the two sects’ disciples were not stingy with their know-how. They provided a Formation concept: the Formation was a Hidden Formation, powered by Energy Stones as its energy source, and was perfectly suited to conceal the mine entrances.

When waging external war, Human Cultivators were still quite united.

The pity was, they had the design but not the materials, so Feng Jun specially made another trip to Tianqin, spending three days to purchase several dozen sets of materials. Although the expense wasn’t small, it meant that the Hidden Formation wouldn’t need to consume Spirit Stones in the future, so it was still worth it.

Over the next few days, everyone gradually fell into a proper rhythm. The Golden Core Cultivators felt that three mine entrances were a bit too few and wanted to open a few more—Golden Core Masters have extremely strong endurance; they can work ten days to half a month straight and recover after one night’s rest.

So Feng Jun marked out three more mine entrances. With that, even Nascent Soul True Immortals could occasionally go in and collect some Energy Stones.

I heard they’ve added more shafts, so the two Sects’ True Immortals came over again, saying they also want more shafts.

Feng Jun didn’t hide anything and directly assigned them eight more shafts. At a time like this, he still had to emphasize working together.

But there are always some petty people around. Two days later, Dantai Yuhu came over.

In the eyes of the Clan Practitioners now, Feng Jun was at least someone fairly impartial. She complained to him, "Two days ago when we talked about the Hidden Formation, they claimed they were out of materials. Now that there are more shafts, they can still set up formations just fine. So stingy."

Feng Jun could only shake his head with a wry smile. He really hadn’t paid attention to such trivial matters.

"We’re in a war after all. It’s perfectly normal for them to keep some backup materials for themselves, right? Unlike me, they can’t Teleport around at will. And honestly, those two Sects have improved the Formation this much and are willing to teach it to us. We should be grateful."

"Mountain Master Feng really does handle things with a clear head." Dantai Yuhu stuck up a thumb.

She hadn’t come to Feng Jun just to complain. Those words were mainly to test him.

Seeing that he understood the bigger picture, she finally asked, "I heard that the Human Race in this world has a very high level of technology?"

The two camps’ mining teams actually communicated quite a bit in private. Not to mention anything else, the Qinggang Sect where Yue Qing was from was originally a branch of Yuangang Gate. Even though they were now split into different camps, they were still tied together by blood and bones. Sharing some intel with each other was nothing.

Feng Jun glanced at her and nodded slightly. "Their technological level is very high, but I’ve already warned you: don’t take any weapons out of this world."

Dantai Yuhu smiled sweetly. "Weapons definitely won’t be leaked. I just want to ask: do they have any equipment that can quickly mine an Energy Stone Mine? If such things exist, I think our mining speed could increase a lot."

Feng Jun thought for a moment, then shook his head slightly. In the knowledge he had obtained, there were indeed similar types of equipment, but mostly not for Energy Stones—more for mining iron ore and such. The main issue was that known Energy Stone Mines generally didn’t have this kind of massive reserves.

Like the sixth Mining Star in that star system: it did have some Energy Stone Mines, but they were all in extremely fine, scattered deposits. You could use machinery to mine them, but not large-scale heavy equipment.

But the key problem was, "I’ve thought about this too, but the Human Race’s devices here are heavily networked, and they’re very strict about identity verification, especially for large-scale equipment like that. Without an ironclad identity, it’s basically impossible to buy any."

He actually wanted to add, even if he wanted to buy them, he didn’t have their currency. And after buying them, he’d still have to guard against them tampering with the equipment. It really wasn’t something easily done.

But after thinking it over, he felt there was no need to explain that much to her.

Dantai Yuhu blinked twice. "I thought we could exchange Energy Stones for some equipment. In this world, Energy Stones should be equivalent to Spirit Stones in Tianqin, right?"

How could I be this stupid! Feng Jun slapped his thigh and said seriously, "You’re right. I’ll go check where we can buy this stuff."

Golden Core Cultivators may have strong Cultivation Levels, but mining still burned Spiritual Energy. If they could avoid wasting Spiritual Energy, why wouldn’t they?

Having achieved her goal, Dantai Yuhu stood up, cupped her hands with a smile, and said, "Then we’ll be waiting for Mountain Master Feng’s good news."

After saying that, she turned and left without offering any conditions. In her view, asking for conditions would be stupid.

As long as she could leave a deep enough impression in Feng Jun’s heart, wasn’t that much better than naming conditions?

Feng Jun didn’t bother to care what she was thinking. Once he had some gains, she wouldn’t be left out of the benefits anyway.

He mulled it over carefully and realized this was actually doable, so he summoned Xia Nichang. "I need to make a trip to the front lines. You stay here and keep an eye on things. Make sure everyone doesn’t get into conflicts, and also keep up the defenses."

The Human Cultivators in the Insect World did value cooperation, but those Clans’ True Immortals still tended to favor their own people a bit. When Feng Jun was around, it wasn’t an issue. Once he left, someone had to keep the situation under control.

Xia Nichang might only be Nascent Soul First Layer, but she was part of the Jinwu Inner Court, and that identity carried real weight.

However, when she heard this, her brows arched up. "You can just trouble that senior brother from Taixu Sect with this. If you’re going to the front lines, you need someone to protect you, right? I can take that job."

"I don’t need you to protect me." Feng Jun shook his head and answered in a low voice, "That place isn’t friendly even to Nascent Soul Middle Phase. I know you’re not interested in mining, but going there is out of the question. Didn’t you hear True Sage Diaosou say that even Nascent Soul Cultivators—two of them—have already been injured?"

Hearing this, Xia Nichang really did feel a bit dejected, but then her eyes rolled slightly. "Then pick a True Immortal from the Four Great Clans to go with you. They’re all at least Nascent Soul Middle Phase."

(Updated to here, calling for monthly tickets.)