Chapter 309 So Difficult

Chapter 309: So Hard

Shang Yunduo was quite satisfied with his current situation, sighing, "People can only be happy if they're content."

But then he couldn't help changing his tone, "Unless they're so angry they can't stand to live anymore."

Pei Jie: "...Hm? Those mortals?"

"Not entirely," Shang Yunduo couldn't help sighing again, "Ah... Senior, why do you think they never quit?"

He started counting again, grabbing Pei Jie's fingers and muttering as he counted, "Humans fight humans, demons fight demons, demons invade human territory to fight humans, humans invade demon territory to fight demons, demon beasts eat humans, humans eat demon beasts, demon cultivators hunt demon beasts, demon beasts eat demon cultivators, human cultivators kill mortals, mortals kill human cultivators—don't they get tired?"

Pei Jie: "..."

Shang Yunduo was rattling off like a tongue twister, but Pei Jie mostly followed along. However, at the last two items, Pei Jie interrupted him: "How can mortals kill cultivators?"

Shang Yunduo was surprised, "Well... Ah? Senior, as expected of you—you zeroed in on the key point right away!"

Pei Jie: "..."

There was nothing else that puzzled him. Before he went into his deep slumber, he had already guessed that the two races and the demon beasts around Boundary Mountain wouldn't stay peaceful, especially since Shang Yunduo had just filled him in on the past decade.

The only thing that caught him off guard was this one thing.

Pei Jie thought for a moment and asked, "Weapons, then?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Shang Yunduo nodded repeatedly, amazed, "You figured that out too?"

Pei Jie: "...Other than weapons, I can't think of anything else right now."

Body Techniques were theoretically possible, but they depended a lot on talent and family background. For mortals who could barely put food on the table to master body techniques that could kill cultivators within ten years—that was pure fantasy.

So, besides weapons, the only other option would be mortals suddenly learning to tame demon beasts.

That was even more far-fetched than body techniques.

But Pei Jie was also curious about what kind of weapon it was.

Shang Yunduo eagerly launched into the story:

"Senior, do you remember how I once told you about a kid from an all-mortal family, no cultivators in their bloodline, who tested with Four Spirit Roots."

Remembering there were several such kids, Shang Yunduo added: "The chubby, clumsy one whose sister dragged him to boxing every day, but he could never get the hang of it. I gave him extra coaching, but he still couldn't learn. I was worried he'd feel bad about himself, so I encouraged him to try something else. He told me in secret he wanted to be an Alchemy Cultivator—that's the one!"

Pei Jie vaguely remembered. Back then, whenever Shang Yunduo left Four Directions City every ten days to visit him at his seclusion spot, he'd sit next to him and ramble about all sorts of things, just like now.

He thought for a moment, "That kid with the surname Ye?"

"That's right, that's right! It's him!" Shang Yunduo said, beaming with pride as if bragging about his own kid, "He used Spirit-Binding Stone to forge blades, spears, bows, and arrows that mortals can use too!"

Pei Jie was taken aback.

People had tried refining artifacts with Spirit-Binding Stone before, but for Spiritual Cultivators, refining Spirit-Binding Stone was inherently contradictory. Not only was the refining process a huge pain, but it usually didn't add any special power or effect to the artifact. And if done poorly, it could even mess up the artifact's properties. After trying it for the novelty, Artifact Cultivators basically gave up on it.

And yet a kid had actually pulled it off?

Pei Jie couldn't help but be curious: "Do they work well?"

Shang Yunduo: "As long as the range is far enough, in theory they can injure Foundation Establishment cultivators. But cultivators have fast reflexes—Foundation Establishment is faster than Qi Refining—so actually landing a hit is really tough."

Pei Jie nodded. That was already pretty impressive.

After all, over ninety percent of cultivators in the world were at the Qi Refining stage. Of those at Qi Refining who could break through to Foundation Establishment, fewer than one in ten made it, and it was getting even harder. In today's cultivation world, going from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core already made you a high-level cultivator, and very few managed it. Nascent Soul was even rarer.

Being able to hurt Foundation Establishment cultivators meant being able to go up against most cultivators in the world.

As for the trouble of actually hitting targets, in his view, that wasn't an impossible hurdle.

With good terrain, traps, and bait, you could find ways to corner cultivators or make up for it with numbers. As long as you put your mind to it, you could always come up with something.

Besides, when it came to strategy, mortals were no worse than cultivators—they just didn't understand cultivators well and had an ingrained fear of them.

With such weapons, that ingrained fear could be gradually broken with just a few inspiring victories.

Even if they couldn't take the offensive, holding such weapons could completely serve to increase their bargaining power with cultivators or for self-defense.

But if there were only one or two such weapons, that was another matter.

Pei Jie asked, "What method did he use to refine the Spirit-Binding Stone? Are the materials expensive?"

Shang Yunduo: "Not expensive—herb dregs!"

Pei Jie: "...Herb dregs?"

"Yes!" Shang Yunduo chattered on, recounting what he'd heard from the person involved.

As Pei Jie listened to the prescription that had to be refined into dregs, most of it he wasn't familiar with, but he vaguely felt he'd seen it somewhere...

The pharmacy?!

When Shang Yunduo couldn't see, they had gone to mortal doctors for treatment, and the pharmacy where they picked up herbs had these medicines.

Pei Jie: "They used ordinary herbs?"

Shang Yunduo: "Yes! Mostly ordinary herbs."

Pei Jie was speechless. No wonder cultivators couldn't think of this refining method.

But it made perfect sense.

After all, the kid came from a mortal family. Even if his household was fairly well-off in Four Directions City, it only meant their days were better than before—they didn't expect him to earn spirit stones to support the family.

Though he didn't need to bring anything home, his family couldn't give him anything either.

It was impossible for him to practice with Spiritual Plants like a sect-trained Alchemy Cultivator. Besides, even though he loved alchemy, his skill and talent were somewhat lacking. Not only did alchemy fail to earn him spirit stones, it ate up everything he made from Artifact Refining.

So even though spiritual plants at Boundary Mountain were much cheaper than elsewhere, he still couldn't afford to practice with them.

Thus, Shang Yunduo's improved elixir recipe compendium became his practice bible.

"...The kid also said all his inspiration came from my recipes, and if there was any credit to give, it should go to me. It made me feel a bit embarrassed, hehe. It actually has nothing to do with me, and he's already updated his version—it has nothing to do with my recipes anymore. Senior, guess what he uses now?"

Pei Jie shook his head.

Shang Yunduo leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Pond mud!"

"Hm?!"

Shang Yunduo: "It's the pond mud brought up when digging for Spirit-Binding Stone! And it's still a secret."

Pei Jie narrowed his eyes, a flood of thoughts hit him in an instant.

How the hell did Sifang City get its hands on the pond mud from digging up Spirit-Binding Stones?

Unless Lin Yu, as the lord of both cities, had hauled a large quantity of Spirit-Binding Stones over to Sifang City.

He cleaned out Ganjiu City's stockpile and brought every last newly dug stone with him. Or maybe Ganjiu City had already been marked, the stockpile was untouchable, so they had to dig fresh—and Lin Yu risked his neck to haul the new ones over.

Shang Yunduo said the kid's original reason for forging this weapon was for the mortals who farmed, gathered herbs, and hunted outside the city—so that if demonic beasts showed up and they couldn't run in time, they could whip out the weapon and defend themselves.

But Sifang City was just a small town. Even counting the mortals who came to trade, did they really need this many Spirit-Binding Stones?

Lin Yu was using this as a chance to poke the cultivator world right in the eye.

Thinking back to what Shang Yunduo was up to when he first woke up, Pei Jie asked, "Are the surrounding sects already gunning for Sifang City? So you're cooking up a new City Protection Array for it?"

Shang Yunduo's eyes went wide as saucers. "Mm!"

Looking at Shang Yunduo's face, which practically screamed "How the hell did you guess that again?", Pei Jie couldn't help but pinch his cheek.

What was so hard to figure out about that?

A weapon that can kill cultivators—no matter what it was made for—once it's used on cultivators, and could be used on them again, is automatically going to be seen as a provocation.

Knowing Shang Yunduo, if he hadn't tried it himself, he wouldn't have been so sure it could hurt Foundation Establishment cultivators. If he was saying that, it meant someone had already used it like that.

And Lin Yu had hauled Spirit-Binding Stones all the way down to the pond mud—so clearly, this weapon could be mass-produced.

So, a weapon that could kill Foundation Establishment cultivators and be mass-produced—would cultivators and sects just sit back and let mortals run around with it?

No way.

They'd crush anyone who dared to shake up the Immortal and Mortal order before the mortals got too strong. Nascent Soul Stage Lin Yu would be a pain to kill, so they'd off the kid who forged the artifacts first, as a warning to other Artifact Cultivators and mortals.

But Shang Yunduo had already gone to Sifang City to see that kid, and from the sound of it, they'd talked a lot—so how could he just stand by and do nothing?

So, to protect that kid, and to protect the whole city that would definitely back that kid, Shang Yunduo naturally wanted to upgrade the city's grand protection array.

Of course, he could never make an array as badass as Wentian City's.

But he didn't have to.

Shang Yunduo was right—that weapon, no matter how many of them there were, had one huge flaw: it was too slow.

Taking on Foundation Establishment cultivators already required a bunch of conditions. Against high-level cultivators, unless they stood there like statues, stripped off their artifact robes, and let the enemy take a swing, there was nothing to worry about.

So even if this was a slap in the face to the cultivator world's authority, Deity Transformation stage cultivators wouldn't bother getting involved over something this small.

Besides, the Deity Transformation stage cultivators currently needed a favor from him.

But if Shang Yunduo turned around and asked them for help, they'd definitely brush him off with the excuse that Deity Transformation cultivators don't meddle in cultivator world affairs.

So, the worst-case scenario for Shang Yunduo was Nascent Soul stage cultivators getting involved.

And his only ally was Lin Yu, who was only at Early Nascent Soul and sucked at arrays.

So Shang Yunduo had no choice but to rely on himself to quickly cook up an array that fit Sifang City—one that could hold off Nascent Soul, even Late Nascent Soul, cultivators.

It all lined up with the array diagrams in the books he'd been flipping through earlier.

An array that could withstand Nascent Soul attacks—not hard, but not easy either.

If the conditions were right, Shang Yunduo could actually pull it off; worst case, he'd find a similar environment and copy the setup.

But Sifang City was just an ordinary, nothing-special little town—resource-poor, a place no sect had ever bothered to claim.

There just wasn't any similar environment to work with!

No terrain to use, no spirit stones to spend, and the city's only real asset, the earth fire, was completely useless against Nascent Soul cultivators.

You can't make bricks without straw—that's exactly what was stumping Shang Yunduo.

From the hasty notes and ideas he'd scribbled down, when he couldn't think of a solution, he planned to dig into his own pockets and chip in spirit stones to set up an array for Sifang City first.

He'd even tucked in a note tallying up how many spirit stones he had. At the time, he didn't know Pei Jie was about to wake up, so he'd listed out the costs for spirit herb materials, supplies for the mortals around Wentian City, spirit stones and stuff for improving the environment around the Endless Sandbar, plus spirit stones set aside for Teleport Tokens.

It looked like a lot of spirit stones, but they were tight again.

Their Young City Lord Shang had even started toying with the idea of robbing a spirit stone mine.

He'd circled a few little mines on the map.

But Shang Yunduo himself knew that wasn't a long-term fix.

A city protection array that ate up too much could bankrupt a whole city—Wentian City's example was still fresh in his mind.

Pei Jie picked up the book Shang Yunduo had been reading and flipped further back.

Turns out it wasn't a copied array manual, but notes pulled from all kinds of array books.

Judging by the range of array content, Shang Yunduo had clearly spent a lot of time zoning out to find solutions, with ideas jumping all over the place.

But from the changes in the content and notes, he seemed to have been stuck for days, and the latest pages had a real "fresh out of ideas" vibe.

Shang Yunduo watched Pei Jie flip through the book with eager eyes, looking a little embarrassed.

He quickly snatched back the tucked-in note and the map for robbing the rich to feed the poor.

As Pei Jie turned each page, Shang Yunduo pointed out what he thought was useful, explained why he'd copied it, then brought up the parts that didn't work, didn't apply, or he had no clue how to fix.

Dozens of pages later, he'd talked himself hoarse with confident explanations, but he still hadn't found a solution.

Shang Yunduo buried his face in Pei Jie's neck, whining, "Arrays are so hard... Senior, I'm so stuck..."

Pei Jie held back a smile.