The scene ended there, but it didn’t shatter and disappear like an ordinary Enlightenment Dao vision. Instead, a speck of light was born from within it, and the entire scene began to loop, just like a breakthrough vision.
Meanwhile, his reserves of Merit and Qi Fortune Energy surged.
A moment later, when everything stopped, his Merit had surprisingly increased by a full eight points, while his Qi Fortune, oddly enough, had only increased by two.
Zhang Deming gazed at Nangong Cheng’s speck of light with a strange expression. This was the first time he had reaped so much more Merit than Qi Fortune from a single target.
Three or four people had already achieved promotions with his help. Tong Hou had yielded pure Qi Fortune without a shred of Merit. This Nangong Cheng, however, seemed to be the opposite. He didn’t provide much Qi Fortune, but he gave eight points of Merit—far more than the five Zhang Deming had received from Feng Mingyou’s Destiny Alteration.
Looking at the speck of light, Zhang Deming waved his hand and tossed it into the chaotic sky.
Then, Zhang Deming’s Heart Spirit withdrew from the Spirit Nurturing Space and returned to reality.
The two had been in the Secret Realm for a while now. Yang Guangfu had seen Zhang Deming fall into a daze right after they entered.
He paused and hesitated for a moment, but decided not to disturb Zhang Deming. Instead, he stood quietly behind him, waiting patiently.
After a moment, Zhang Deming came to his senses. He glanced around and saw Yang Guangfu standing quietly behind him, head lowered, waiting patiently.
Zhang Deming paused for a second and said, "Let’s go. I was just thinking about something and got lost in thought for a moment."
Yang Guangfu smiled. "It’s alright. The day is still young, anyway."
Zhang Deming nodded and took the lead, leaving the cluster of buildings. Standing at the edge of a small hill, he gazed out at the endless plain before him, which was completely filled with block after block of Spirit Fields.
Zhang Deming carefully extended his senses, and his expression shifted. "Are these all at least One-Star Spirit Fields?"
Yang Guangfu smiled and nodded. "That’s right. This Wu Earth Secret Realm is different from the Cyan Wood Secret Realm. It hasn’t been divided into numerous zones.
It used to have them, including a core area, but the Sect did away with that after taking control.
Most of the Secret Realm is made up of One-Star Spirit Fields. The original core area is now where the Two-Star Spirit Fields are, with a few rare ones at the very center.
And this Wu Earth Secret Realm is responsible for the vast majority of the Sect’s resource supply.
This includes many Promotion materials, Elixir materials, and so on...
This is the Sect’s largest logistics base, its biggest production center."
Zhang Deming looked at the endless farmland and asked, astonished, "Since most of the early-stage promotion materials come from here, and the Miscellaneous Affairs Department has so many Spirit Fields, how can they still be crying poverty?"
Yang Guangfu smiled. "These belong to the Resources Department, you see!"
"Uh..."
Zhang Deming’s expression was strange. Though the other man hadn’t said it outright, his meaning was perfectly clear.
’So, the Spirit Farmers in this Secret Realm are just contract workers? Hired hands?’
’The Resources Department is the landlord???’
’Ha! The Miscellaneous Affairs Department deserves its miserable decline. If they keep managing things this way, who else is going to suffer but them?’
Speechless, Zhang Deming shook his head. He checked the information on his Identity Card and headed towards the original core area of the Secret Realm.
Along the way, Zhang Deming saw many Spirit Farmers tending the land.
However, their farming was on a completely different level from that in the Outer Sect. For one, their Cultivation was higher—at least Advanced Apprentice, with many being Tai Chi Cultivators.
Even those not using Magic weren’t performing hard labor. With a wave of their hands, they could control various Arrays and Artifacts to quickly plant and care for everything.
As a result, even though the Spirit Fields were numerous, the area vast, and the total number of Spirit Farmers high, the place was not densely populated.
Zhang Deming ran quickly, and Yang Guangfu struggled a bit to keep up behind him.
After running for some time, they were still surrounded by endless Spirit Fields. Zhang Deming frowned slightly; because the Wu Earth Secret Realm consisted of a single, undivided area, it was much larger than expected.
So, a Vine sprouted from Zhang Deming and wrapped around Yang Guangfu’s waist.
While Yang Guangfu was still stunned, Zhang Deming whispered, "Flying!"
Then, under Yang Guangfu’s astonished gaze, the two of them floated into the air and shot toward the core area.
·······
The two traveled for a long time before arriving at the core area. Although the core and ordinary areas were connected without any barrier, Zhang Deming could still tell the difference at a glance.
The styles of the two areas were completely different.
If the previous area was the Immortal version of industrialized farmland, then the core area was the Immortal version of a country estate.
Here, a courtyard residence stood every few plots of Spirit Fields.
The plants in the Spirit Fields were also sparse, meticulously cared for by one or several Disciples.
Most of what was planted here were Two-Star materials, many of which were renewable Two-Star promotion materials.
This was the source for the vast majority of ingredients required by the Sect’s Duality Promotion Formulas.
Of course, the rare primary ingredients required for some of the rarer formulas couldn’t be grown here.
This place supplied the vast majority of the Sect’s common materials, along with some precious, cultivable ones.
Seeing Zhang Deming staring blankly at the manors of various sizes, Yang Guangfu spoke up. "I heard that the four departments have been discussing putting a great deal of effort into building a Spirit Field region in the Cyan Wood Secret Realm as well."
Zhang Deming asked in surprise, "They’re building more?"
Yang Guangfu nodded. "As things stand now, the Sect is always short on low-level resources, never having a surplus. But the even greater shortage is in high-level resources.
Especially Three-Star Materials. Most of those are allocated by the Blessed Holy Lands. The Sect has had to send a great many people over there to compete for these resources.