Chapter 339: Refining (1)
The country of Qingyun is a million miles to the south.
Yan Dynasty, Imperial Capital, Hellfire City.
Red walls, red tiles, and even the ground is paved with red glazed tiles. At first glance, the Yan Dynasty Imperial City looks like a sea of fire. Deep in the palace, on the three-hundred-foot-high Sky Fire Platform, the Yan Dynasty Emperor Huo Yu (yu) is holding his breath and concentrating, using the smallest sparrow-hair brush to carefully outline an extremely neat brushwork painting.
As Huo Yu moved, the air on the huge Sky Fire Stage twisted and everything floated. The robes of the palace maids and eunuchs standing in the distance who were serving him fluttered in the wind, and the cheek muscles of many people were distorted and twisted by the invisible force.
Many palace maids and eunuchs had to gather their magic power and secretly cast magical prohibitions in order to barely keep their bodies steady under the endless pressure coming from all around and not make any unusual movements that would disturb Huo Yu.
Only a few old eunuchs with extremely deep cultivation, who had reached the perfect state of growing golden lotus, could stand beside Huo Yu as if nothing had happened, and compliment him with a smile on his improved painting skills.
Huo Yu seemed to have not heard the compliments from his trusted old eunuchs.
His face was stern, and he wrote every stroke of the fine brush in his hand meticulously, but his heart was in turmoil like a raging sea.
He has suppressed his own realm for three hundred years!
Three hundred years ago, he had reached the highest perfection in the Golden Lotus realm.
However, according to the ancestral precepts of the Yan Dynasty, this is even the unspoken rule practiced by several surrounding dynasties - once the reigning emperor breaks through the Golden Lotus realm and reaches the 'Golden Lotus Opening' realm, he must abdicate and let others take over, and then concentrate on spiritual practice!
But... having tasted the sweet fragrance of power, which emperor in power would be willing to give up power and abdicate?
There is still a "but". If you don't abdicate, those old guys in the royal family, especially those former , are they likely to let you go?
So ... Huo Yu began to suppress his cultivation three hundred years ago, and his cultivation remained stagnant for a full three hundred years. Moreover, for a full three hundred years, he did not take even a single pill, drink a bowl of spiritual tea, or eat even a grain of spiritual rice.
For three hundred years, he has been just like ordinary people, drinking the most ordinary spring water, drinking the most ordinary tea, and eating the most ordinary fruits and vegetables.
Even when it came to favoring concubines, he didn't dare look for those with advanced cultivation - for fear that one of them would be "rebellious" and suddenly use the Yin-Yang Harmony Technique on him, inject some cultivation into him, and force him to break through.
Even though he was so cautious and careful, after three hundred years, he had suppressed it to the extreme and had to break through. If he continued to suppress it, it would cause great harm to his soul and body.
In three years at most, I will have to abdicate!
The lotus seed of the Great Dao in the body has been shattered, and the Dao rhythm of the Great Dao that has been cultivated hard has filled the whole body. It may break through the blockade of the body at any time, entangle and evolve with the Dao rhythm of the heaven and earth in the outside world, and then break through the realm.
Therefore, Huo Yu's every move now will cause strange phenomena in the surrounding heaven and earth.
I can't suppress it anymore!
"Those rebellious sons have been jumping around a lot lately." Huo Yu carefully sketched a butterfly and said calmly, "We can't let them have it so easy... We should give them some trouble... I went through so much trouble to defeat those brothers and finally ascended the throne. Why do they have it so easy?"
"Be it the families, sects, or any other messy people behind them ...if you don't bleed a little and cut a little flesh, don't think you can get away from me so peacefully."
Huo Yu glanced at a few trusted old eunuchs and said, "How much benefit can be extorted from this is up to you... You have all been with me for so many years. When you were in power, you had everything going for you. Everyone served you. You could get whatever you wanted!"
"But when we are no longer in power, we will just have to rely on the fixed amount of resources allocated to us by the royal family every year... Haha, what's the difference between us and beggars?"
"So, you have to be a little more ruthless and have a darker heart. Don't be soft-hearted just because they are my sons..."
Huo Yu said calmly: "Don't give me face, don't be like my great-grandfather. Everyone said he was 'benevolent', haha, benevolent until now, but every year he reaches out to his children and grandchildren to cause famine... Are you kidding?"
Several old eunuchs had cold lights flashing in their eyes and glanced at each other quickly.
"You have to be ruthless, you have to be ruthless... You can even find a few suitable targets and wipe out all nine of their clans... Speaking of which wealthy families in our Yan Dynasty are the richest now, you can figure it out."
"I can still hold on for about three years... In three years, you can see if I can wipe out a few of them. That would be the best."
"Also, in the past three years, you have embezzled as much as you can from the national treasury and the royal family treasury. In the past three hundred years, you have been too cautious."
"You can be a little bolder...you can take bigger steps...you can be a little more ruthless and heavy-handed!"
"In order to make our future life easier, we can make more money, even if the means are despicable... it's not shameful."
Huo Yu gave a few old eunuchs a lesson in earnest words.
Several old eunuchs nodded desperately, like a few hungry dogs that had been hungry for several days and could not wait to bite people.
Light footsteps sounded, and a red-robed eunuch between old and middle-aged walked in quietly, holding a thin scroll in his hands. A dozen feet away from Huo Yu's painting table, the eunuch had already knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, the news from Qingluo Fairy City..."
Huo Yu was stunned for a moment, put down his paintbrush, and pointed at the scroll in the eunuch's hand.
The scroll, which was more than a foot long and as thick as a finger, suddenly emitted infinite clear light, and expanded with a "swish", turning into a giant banner that was three feet and hundreds of feet long, which quickly rotated around the Sky Fire Platform.
Countless green words gushed out from the banner, and each word was flashing with a strange light.
A deep and powerful voice came from the clear sky: "The hundred-year tribute will be paid five years in advance. You vassal states should prepare quickly and not miss the deadline."
Huo Yu's expression suddenly changed slightly.
Just as Qingyun Kingdom is a vassal of Yan Dynasty, Yan Dynasty is also a vassal of the more powerful "Xian Dynasty" Yunluo Ancient Kingdom.
Every ten years, the Qingyun Kingdom would pay tribute to the Yan Dynasty.
Likewise, every hundred years, the Yan Dynasty would pay tribute to the Yunluo Ancient Country with countless rare treasures and countless cultivation resources. Even fine wines, delicacies, top-grade furnaces, and so on, all needed to be prepared in countless quantities.
In particular, every time the emperor of Yan Dynasty paid tribute, he would go to Qingluo Immortal City in person.
In Qingluo Fairy City, the emperor of Yan Dynasty had to kneel and kowtow to the emperor of Yunluo Ancient Kingdom like a subject. Even an ordinary subject of Yunluo Ancient Kingdom could show off his power in front of the emperor of Yan Dynasty and find fault with them and cause trouble for them.
Huo Yu thought that this hundred-year tribute would still take five years, by which time he would have abdicated and given way to others, so he would have nothing to do with this tribute - but the ancient country of Yunluo did not follow the kingly way and actually moved up the time?
There was a faint gleam in his eyes, which quickly swept across the green words flying in the sky.
Huo Yu frowned.
All along, the tributes to the Yunluo Ancient Kingdom were prepared by the major vassal states. Anyway, no one dared to fool the Yunluo Ancient Kingdom, so all the tributes were naturally first-class goods, and the total amount was also an astronomical figure.
But this time, not only was the tribute brought forward, but a list was directly sent to the Luogu Kingdom, requiring Yan Dynasty to prepare the resources according to the listed items.
There are fewer things for luxury and entertainment.
All the fine wine and food, rare silks, beauties, handsome boys, etc., have disappeared.
Instead, there are various cultivation resources.
Especially the amount of rare metal ores that can be used to forge magical weapons made Huo Yu's heart bleed.
Yan Dynasty produces more than a dozen rare fire-attributed metal minerals, which can be used to forge various giant war tools, especially some terrifying war tools with the power to destroy the world. The energy cores of these fire-attributed metal minerals must be forged.
In the list sent by the ancient country of Yunluo, the first list is the name of the fire-attributed metal ores in this market.
The number marked at the back almost made Huo Yu vomit blood.
"What are you doing here... This Mysterious Pattern Earth Fire Gold can be used to forge acquired spiritual tools, but it needs to be refined from Earth Fire ore veins. Our Yan Dynasty only produces a million catties of it every year, and they are asking us to pay a tribute of 130 million catties?"
"One hundred and thirty million jin, what are you going to do with this? What are you going to do with this?"
"Mysterious Pattern Earth Fire Gold. If you add three coins of this gold to an ordinary magic weapon, it will have its own lava earth fire, increasing its lethality by more than ten times... One hundred and thirty million kilograms, this, this..."
Huo Yu looked at the list with a gloomy face: "How much Xuanwen Dihuojin is left in the national treasury?"
An old eunuch thought for a moment and whispered, "It's about the same. This is all that has been saved over the years. Your Majesty, are you saying..."
Huo Yu licked the corner of his mouth and cursed in a low voice: "It's rude... Of course we know that there are spies from the ancient Yunluo Kingdom in the Yan Dynasty court... But, knowing our inventory so clearly and making a list for us based on the numbers... This is too rude, you should have a little more dignity!"
As the suzerain state, it sent spies to find out the financial situation of the vassal state, and then asked the vassal state to hand over all its belongings directly... Even bandits would not do this!
Really, it’s not nice!
But... Huo Yu narrowed his eyes: "The ancient country of Yunluo is the most particular among the surrounding immortal dynasties. Its clothing and etiquette are the most particular... This time, it suddenly became so unrefined... Hiss, something is wrong. Something on this list is wrong..."
"Is this... going to start a war?"
Huo Yu's face turned pale: "This is about to start a war!"
"With whom? With whom?" Huo Yu said in a hoarse voice, "It's just a normal thing for us vassal states to fight each other and cause casualties of 300 to 500 million people."
"The ancient Yunluo country is preparing for war!"
"Who is it going to go to war with? Which Immortal Dynasty?"
A group of old eunuchs turned pale with fear.
The ancient Yunluo Kingdom was such a huge behemoth. If it was preparing for war, then once the war broke out, the vassal state of Yan Dynasty would be nothing but cannon fodder and might be in danger of destruction at any time.
"Call the nine generals of the Nine Military Offices back to Hellfire City... Quickly!"
