A forest with four holy trees meant even more opportunities and resources. Just the water of the lake would allow for two hundred thousand additional troops to be brought into the new world.

The stone on the island at the heart of this lake had been analyzed as a metal that could change shape and form. It wasn’t exactly hard, but it was durable and very pliable. It was likely that new alloys for armor plates could be developed with its addition, strengthening everything from airships to individual soldiers.

The main restriction behind the development of weapons in the Evernight World, apart from technology, was material. Especially when reaching the fortress level, the materials had to be combined with different special components in order to produce their respective attributes. However, there wasn’t much production to speak of when it came to such materials. Most of them were simply chanced upon, and their extraction process could be duplicated sometimes.

This meant that a single type of special material might only be enough for a couple of fortress weapons. People would have to figure out something else if they wanted to build more weapons at the same level. The design, production line, and auxiliary components had to be changed. Hence, the discovery of high-end material held significant meaning for the Empire as it might lead to a new fortress weapon.

The beasts themselves were a form of resource, and more research was needed on how to utilize their core lair. The appearance of minerals was also greatly increased within the forest, with almost every rock in the lair being a different ore.

In short, everything here was a valuable treasure. Up to this point, Qianye had only been using dark golden sandstone to repay his loans since it was available in large supply. This came to the point where the market price for dark golden sandstone had dipped in the Empire.

It was still extremely valuable despite the dip, and they were picked up from the ground, anyway. That was why Qianye had no hesitation exchanging them for vast amounts of ammunition despite Song Hui’s warning about supply and demand.

Qianye’s forces were currently expending large amounts of ammunition. Usually, they would wipe out a stash equal to a year’s supply for an ordinary army corps.

Of course, Fort Continent could not produce such numbers. The black market wasn’t exactly reliable, either, so the Great Qin was the only stable route. The aristocratic families that dealt in arms were greatly delighted by the recent developments.

Not only did they assign overtime work to satisfy Qianye’s demand, but they also spread good word about him both in court and outside. They applied various methods for permission to trade certain sensitive equipment and ammunition, or greater export quotas. The current Qianye was like a black hole that would take up any and all armaments they had for sale.

Some voices were speaking against his case in court, and quite a few were worried that Qianye’s rise would harm the Empire. As for how many of them were sincerely worried about the impact of a newly-risen power and how many were secretly worried about Qianye’s subtle relationship with the Empire, no one really knew.

The suspicious voices and objections were soon drowned out by the rising deluge of voices supporting Qianye. The status of those who could deal in weapons had never been mediocre in any given era. Not only did they possess great power and connections, but they were also now working together toward a single cause, affording them a fairly big voice. Families like the Drinking Horse Yin Family, the Kong family, and the Zhao clan were the leading representatives in this argument, followed by a large number of smaller families.

The surge of orders from the Fort Continent brought great benefits to various parts of the arms industry. Zhao Jundu required a large amount of resources as well, not to mention the void continent was also a bottomless pit, but how could the Empire match the returns Qianye was bringing them. Besides, rare minerals was a much more welcome form of payment compared to gold coins.

Zhao Jundu wasn’t so bad since he could harvest similar rare materials from the new world, just not as much as Qianye. The Transcendent Continent, though, was in shambles. The aristocratic families were barely hanging on and couldn’t even afford to pay the soldiers’ salary. Who could bring out supplies and equipment? All they could do was seek help from the Empire and rack up more debt.

This didn’t mean that these families didn’t have a private stash, but who would take out money if they could buy things on loan? Things had already deteriorated to this state, anyway. It couldn’t get any worse.

This meant that those firearms giants felt increasingly unhappy with these families and had been giving them countless eye rolls. They would only fork out a batch of old goods when rushed by the Empire’s negotiator. Their most advanced factories and technicians were working overtime for Qianye, doing their best to meet the orders from Fort Continent.

The aristocratic families of the Transcendent Continent were naturally dissatisfied, so they also joined the side attacking Qianye. It was just that their role in court was different from before—everyone looked at them with sympathy and a bit of mockery.

Losing territory was a fundamental mistake that could shake an aristocratic family’s foundations. They would’ve long since lost their status if it wasn’t for the special circumstance that was the new world. Before Qianye and Zhao Jundu’s accomplishments, they couldn’t even say that humans were helpless against disasters. After several attempts, the aristocratic families of Transcendent Continent finally gave up the meaningless struggle.

It was simply a case of stunted ambitions in poverty.

As for the Bai clan, their attitude toward Qianye was even stranger. Qianye had gained fame at their Frozen Jade Hall, so they should rightfully hate him and cause trouble at every step. The strange thing was that they would remain completely silent whenever Qianye was brought up. Those who had hoped to gain the support of the Bai clan could not understand this at all.

The separate reasons added together to form a giant wave. In recounting Qianye’s good points, they elevated his pioneering efforts on Fort Continent to the same level as his accomplishments on the void continent. Considering his accomplishments, it was only right to sell him several dozen divisions’ worth of supplies.

Everyone was dumbstruck by the way these firearms giants were acting for the sake of business. Even the Song clan, famous for their business tactics, still acted with a degree of elegance.

That being said, the Kong and Yin families were top aristocratic families with significant inheritance and connections. These people used to focus on their safety. Now, even these people had jumped out to speak for Qianye and looked like they would bite anyone in opposition. Those speaking against Qianye found nothing beneficial in it, so they eventually fell silent.

The entire Imperial court was filled with praises of the expedition on Fort Continent. Of course, the top contribution had to be the Emperor’s. It was only because of his brilliance that a capable subject like Qianye had come into being.

As for what the supreme ruler was thinking inside, the ministers did not know. The Radiant Emperor treated this matter the same as any other court business—since there was a clear conclusion among the ministers, he simply ordered for the matter to be recorded and executed.

And since the Imperial military was reorganized, the suppression in and out the court against the Zhao clan had lessened significantly. The eyes of many major characters fell upon Duke Chengen Zhao Weihuang.

A clan with so many divine champions, perhaps only Prince Greensun and his rapid progress could rival them.

Zhang Boqian was still heirless, while Zhao Weihuang had already produced divine champion scions like Qianye and Zhao Jundu. Zhao Ruoxi, with her Red Spider Lily, was a special existence as well. In addition, Zhao Junyi, Zhao Junhong, and Zhao Junxiao were also highly talented. Zhao Junhong had also been evaluated as having the potential to pass the divine champion threshold.

From this, it was obvious that Zhang Boqian could not catch up to Zhao Weihuang at all in terms of children. Before Qianye’s appearance, the accomplishments of Duke Chengen’s branch had mainly been attributed to Princess Gaoyi. After all, she possessed pure Imperial blood and was a genius herself. Qianye’s rise to power sent an entirely different message because it proved that the bloodline came from Zhao Weihuang.

The number of people seeking familial ties kept growing by the day. Zhao Junyi was already married so he was out of the question, but Zhao Junhong was only promised for an engagement and hadn’t even held a small ceremony. There was still a chance that it could be canceled. Zhao Jundu was naturally a hot commodity since his bloodline was still top-grade despite his damaged foundations. His descendants would surely be talented as well. Zhao Ruoxi had so many suitors that she had to hide in her courtyard every day.

Some with even more flexible thoughts saw that the competition was too fierce for the children, so they actually started to have designs on Zhao Weihuang’s concubine position! Of course, that was just in private, or else Princess Gaoyi wouldn’t be happy.

Behind all the gifts—in the form of money and daughters—these families had only one request. That was to give them one of the children, be they boys or girls.

The intention was to use Duke Chengen as a breeding stallion. Princess Gaoyi was furious upon hearing about it, but the aristocracy acted secretly with a smile on their faces, and there were so many of them that the princess couldn’t quite erupt in public. All she could do was refuse them one after the other. There was so much smiling involved that the princess felt her face stiff at the end of the day. The only one she could vent her anger on was Zhao Weihuang.

Duke Chengen looked serious, but he was fairly delighted inside. In private, he would frequently say, “What’s the use of a heavenly monarch? I would never trade these kids for one.”

These words inadvertently offended all of the heavenly monarchs, so some of the more talkative ones started spreading it.

The Profundity Monarch and Northridge Monarch could be ignored since they were both in isolation and no one knew their whereabouts. Zhang Boqian merely nodded in acknowledgment after hearing about this. The Pointer Monarch was in a leisurely mood—he carefully listened to the recount about the Zhao clan’s prosperity but made no comment on the matter. All he did was stroke his beard with a mysterious smile until the minister who came to report the matter excused himself out of fear.

Even after leaving the residence, that minister couldn’t help thinking about the Pointer Monarch’s smile. He had a feeling that the old man’s smile contained a deeper meaning, almost like he was delighted and satisfied.

Delighted? Satisfied? He simply couldn’t figure out what was there to be satisfied with Zhao Weihuang becoming the number one stallion in the Empire.

What he didn’t know was that after his departure, the Pointer Monarch immediately ordered his men to seal the gates and refuse all visitors. He returned to his study to brew a pot of strong tea. He then produced a set of flexible armor and a set of small instruments.

This flexible armor was so small that it would only fit on a newborn, but the craftsmanship was incomparably intricate and the materials were extremely rare. Every leaflet in the armor was covered in runes, which weaved together to form a larger array.

Once placed on the table, the surrounding origin power would gather toward the armor, drawing in pure daybreak origin power and expelling murky energy. As though it were breathing, the inside of the armor was eventually filled with pure origin power.

Such an array could be considered a work of the gods!

The Pointer Monarch picked up a leaflet and began carving an array on it using delicate instruments. This nail-sized leaflet was soon densely packed with runes. Even someone of the monarch’s caliber had to spend an entire half-hour to finish the array.

He carefully attached the last leaflet to the flexible armor and said while stroking his beard, “It looks like my skills haven’t deteriorated since I was young. With such a divine item, my grandson will be able to cultivate immediately after birth. He’ll have achieved some progress by the time he’s one year old, the other kids are still drinking milk by then! Humph! Zhao Weihuang, humph, humph!”

But after some thought, he felt that his attitude wasn’t entirely excusable. He shook his head and said to himself, “Let it be, let’s just say that Zhao Weihuang contributed a bit. Bah! A bit is too much, just a tiny speck.”