Chapter 79: Artifact Refining Preparations

Wu Yuan strolled into the Bamboo Forest Spiritual Land with the air of a lord surveying his estate.

His gaze immediately settled on the dozen [Purple Bamboo] plants growing beside the pond. They were magnificent specimens—tall, straight, and radiating a faint, violet luminescence. Piles of raw Purple Jade and glittering Spirit Stones were stacked around their roots like offerings.

A squad of agile rat demons patrolled the perimeter, their eyes darting nervously as they scanned for threats.

Big Old Black lay sprawled on the grass nearby, barking orders despite his relaxed posture.

“Look alive, you lot! The Purple Bamboo is ripe!” the massive black rat shouted. “Do not let a repeat of the hummingbird incident happen! Remember how Brother Huang Two cried? He wailed so loud he nearly cracked the sky! We couldn’t stop him from sobbing for days!”

Wu Yuan’s ears twitched. He involuntarily glanced at Little Yellow.

The hamster’s chubby face, usually a healthy golden hue, turned a violent shade of beet-red.

“Squeak…”

Little Yellow curled into a tight ball, burying his head deep into his belly fur. He looked like he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole. The sheer indignation radiating from him was palpable.

With hearing far superior to any normal rodent, Wu Yuan easily picked up the venomous mutterings coming from the fluff-ball.

“Big Old Black… you dead rat… if you get to eat dinner tonight, my surname isn’t Huang…”

Wu Yuan suppressed a chuckle. He kept his expression stoic, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing to save his lieutenant’s remaining shred of dignity.

“Big Old Black!” Wu Yuan shouted, cutting through the tension. “Are the plants ready or not?”

Whoosh!

Big Old Black scrambled to his feet and dashed over, patting his chest with a dull thud to emphasize his sincerity.

“Boss! Don’t you worry! The Purple Bamboo is fully mature. We can harvest it right now!”

Big Old Black paused, tilting his head as he looked at the trembling ball of hamster fur on the ground. “Eh? Brother Huang Two, what’s wrong? Why are you curled up like that? Bad mood?”

Thwack!

Wu Yuan didn’t hesitate. He planted a swift kick on Big Old Black’s rump.

“Less talking, more cutting!” Wu Yuan barked. “Harvest the bamboo immediately. I have a use for it.”

“You got it, Boss!”

Big Old Black rubbed his butt, completely oblivious to the death glare burning into his back from Little Yellow, and turned to organize the harvest.

Armed with the freshly harvested [Purple Bamboo], Wu Yuan made his way down to the underground crevice beneath the bamboo forest.

Heat rolled off the jagged opening in waves. This was the geothermal vent near the Ore Mother—the perfect natural kiln.

Wu Yuan stood at a safe distance, watching the shimmering air distortion near the entrance.

If I didn’t need to establish the Standard Operating Procedure personally, I wouldn’t step foot near this hellhole, Wu Yuan thought, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. The rat demons have been mining Purple Jade Marrow down there without issue, so it’s safe enough. Still… better them than me.

“Alright, move it! Efficiency, people!”

He directed the flow of traffic from the safety of the cooler tunnel.

Squads of rat demons carried sections of Purple Bamboo into the fissure. Wu Yuan had already prepped the raw materials, carving specific Spirit Patterns into the bark. Without these inscriptions, the intense heat would simply incinerate the wood, scattering the Spiritual Qi before it could condense into charcoal.

Inside the crevice, the temperature was hellish.

Workers darted in, deposited their loads, and sprinted out, their fur drenched in sweat. As soon as one team exited, gasping for air, a fresh team rotated in.

It was a seamless assembly line of rodent labor.

Under the relentless geothermal roasting, the Purple Bamboo transformed. The organic wood burned away, leaving behind a dense, crystalized carbon structure.

When a worker brought out the first finished piece, Wu Yuan inspected it with a critical eye.

He pinched the charcoal. It was purple-black to the core, heavy, and humming with contained energy.

“Excellent,” Wu Yuan nodded, tossing the sample to Big Old Black. “This meets the quality standards. Maintain this temperature and duration. I want the entire batch processed exactly like this.”

Big Old Black caught the charcoal, looking serious. He immediately ran off to scream at the workers to keep up the pace.

Wu Yuan watched the operation with a satisfied smile. The industrial machine of Little Green Mountain was running smoothly.

Leaving the sweaty confines of the charcoal factory, Wu Yuan headed for the far side of the mountain.

His destination: The Fire Ant Nest.

This colony was a strategic expansion, located on the opposite slope to maximize his surveillance network. It appeared as a nondescript mound of earth, but underneath, it was a fortress.

Winding tunnels snaked deep into the bedrock, designed to confuse and trap intruders.

Fist-sized Fire Ants, their carapaces gleaming black and red, marched in endless lines, carrying food into the depths. Among them were larger soldier ants—Spirit Insect rank elites—guarding the perimeter.

Around the main entrance, over a dozen satellite caves were filled with “Meat Mushrooms,” a staple crop for the colony. Big Old Black also made regular deliveries of Moon Spirit Grass to supplement their diet, ensuring the colony grew at an explosive rate.

Sensing their master’s arrival, the hive mind buzzed with activity.

Two massive Ant Kings emerged, carrying a colossal figure between them.

The new Ant Queen.

She chittered softly, rubbing her antennae against Wu Yuan’s leg in a display of affection.

Wu Yuan smiled. Unlike the previous queen—that stubborn, rebellious creature he’d been forced to feed to the Pangolin—this one was a model employee.

He had placed a Spirit Controlling Seal on her the moment she hatched. She was docile, obedient, and completely loyal. Still, Wu Yuan made a point to visit regularly; magical slavery was reliable, but personal rapport yielded better results.

He inspected her form.

She was a biological machine optimized for a single purpose. Her head was small, only the size of a fist. Her thorax was the size of a watermelon. But her abdomen…

It was the size of a human adult, a grotesque, pulsating sac of milky-white flesh that dragged behind her. She had no legs to support it. She looked like a chain of fleshy spheres fused together.

She had awakened the [Jade-Bellied Round Bead Ant] bloodline.

Combat capability: Zero. Mobility: Zero. Egg Production: God-tier.

She had min-maxed her entire evolution into reproduction. Her eggs were like white jade beads, and she could lay thousands in a single day.

Wu Yuan reached out and patted her massive, taut abdomen.

Slosh… Clack, clack.

A sound echoed from inside, like rushing water mixing with colliding jade marbles.

“Sounds healthy,” Wu Yuan nodded approvingly. “Keep up the volume.”

The louder the sound, the more eggs were gestating inside.

“How is the refinement project going?” Wu Yuan asked. “The Ant Crystals?”

The Queen waved her antennae. Immediately, one of the Ant Kings scurried into the tunnel and returned carrying a fist-sized crystal.

Wu Yuan weighed it in his hand.

It was lighter than the previous batches—almost half the weight. And instead of being clear, it was murky and opaque.

“Perfect,” Wu Yuan murmured.

The cloudiness wasn’t an impurity; it was density. The effective essence had been compressed to a higher state.

“Good girl.” Wu Yuan fed the Queen a stalk of premium Moon Spirit Grass. “I need you to prioritize these. Ramp up production.”

The surrounding Ant Kings began to click their mandibles in agitation.

To them, this was heresy. Ant Crystals were useless to the Queen; producing them drained her vitality and slowed down the growth of the colony. Their biological imperative was to protect the Queen’s health so she could lay more eggs.

One particularly large Ant King, likely the strongest of the royal guard, couldn’t take it anymore.

It rushed forward, chittering frantically. It nudged the Queen with its head, trying to push her back into the safety of the nest, away from the bad master who demanded she waste her energy.

The Queen, who had been happily munching on the Spirit Grass, froze.

She was docile to Wu Yuan. She was not docile to her subjects.

In a flash of movement that defied her bulk, she lunged.

CRUNCH.

Her mandibles, the only part of her that held any lethal power, snapped shut around the Ant King’s head.

The King’s body went rigid. It didn’t fight back. It didn’t dare harm the Queen. It simply trembled in terror as its head was sheared off.

Crunch, crunch, slurp.

The Queen leisurely consumed the traitor’s head, mandibles working efficiently.

Wu Yuan watched the brutal execution with a flat expression.

When she was finished, the Queen rubbed her blood-smeared face against Wu Yuan’s hand, asking for more grass.

Wu Yuan obliged, feeding her another stalk and patting her small head.