The Human Emperor

Putting the matter regarding Consort Taizhen aside, after ‘directing’ the reply of the first letter, Wang Chong led Shen Hai and Meng Long out of the city,

“Young master, where are we going?”

The lush forest was filled with thorns, and the bushes reached the height of one’s chest, making it extremely inconvenient to walk around. Despite following closely behind Wang Chong, Shen Hai and Meng Long had already been cut by thorns several times.

They were already a far distance from the capital, deep in the wilderness, and the various bushes, tall grass, and towering trees made the terrain extremely hard to tread on.

Initially, when they heard that the young master was going to cultivate here to absorb Origin Energy, they were rather excited. But in the past few days, they realized that it wasn’t the case.

From the very first day they reached the mountain, their young master had been wandering around the area.

“Don’t worry, you’ll know once we reach our destination.”

Wang Chong answered as he slashed at the vegetation obstructing him. Even though he was ‘wandering’ the mountain with the duo, he didn’t neglect his training at all.

‘Might of the Barbaric God’ differed greatly from other cultivation techniques. As long as one reached the minimum requirement of the second layer of the Origin Energy Might 1-dan, one would be able to absorb Origin Energy from the surroundings even when one wasn’t meditating.

The only drawback was that it wasn’t as effective as meditating, but in any case, it was still an overwhelming advantage.

Wang Chong could clearly feel an invigorating sensation on his skin as he walked around the mountain forest.

“The mountain forest is filled with greenery, it is indeed much more efficient cultivating here than in the city.”

Wang Chong thought.

One could cultivate ‘Might of the Barbaric God’ regardless of whether one was walking or sitting. It wasn’t without reason that this cultivation technique was the top recommended technique in the military in his previous life.

Wang Chong’s mastery was still lacking. As a result, his rate of cultivation when walking was around sixty percent of that if he were to meditate. Along with the rise in his mastery and cultivation, the rate would increase.

Once he reached the highest level, it would be possible to cultivate even when sleeping.

This was something that other cultivation techniques could never hope to achieve.

“I wonder if I can find that spirit vein! …”

Proceeding forward on the thorny path, a thought flashed through Wang Chong’s mind.

Wang Chong was looking for a spirit vein; it was also the reason why he was wandering around the mountain with Shen Hai and Meng Long. There was a spirit vein hidden beyond the walls capital that not many people who knew of it, but Wang Chong happened to be one of them.

Spirit veins were rich in Origin Energy, and if one were to cultivate in such an area, one’s progress would be several times faster than anywhere else. No one knew how spirit veins were formed, and the only thing that was known was that its formation was probably related to the geography of earth in the immemorial era.

There were very few spirit veins in the surroundings of the capital, and most of them were already occupied by others. However, the one that Wang Chong sought was slightly different from the others.

It was much stronger than the other spirit veins.

Due to several unique reasons, it was impossible to sense this spirit vein from its surface. As such, it was left unnoticed. It was only many years later, when foreign steel cavalries stepped into the capital, was this spirit vein exposed.

When that spirit vein burst forth from the underground as though an erupting volcano, many were shocked. But by then, the spirit vein was already crippled.

As soon as the thought of entering the mountain forest to cultivate Might of the Barbaric God appeared in Wang Chong’s mind, he subconsciously recalled this wasted gigantic spirit vein in his previous life.

The unique geographical terrain around the capital trapped the spiritual energy hidden within, and no one, except for Wang Chong, had noticed this concealed spirit vein yet…

“Don’t stop, let’s continue on. I’ll open up the path so you two should check the surroundings for poisonous snakes.”

Wang Chong knew that the greatest threat one faced in the mountain forest was poisonous snakes. Even if one was a martial artist, a single bite from those poisonous snakes possessing lethal poison was sufficient to send a person to his grave.

It wasn’t without a reason that this spirit vein wasn’t noticed, and these lethal venomous snakes was one of them.

Wang Chong vaguely remembered that the number of snakes around the spirit vein was much greater than anywhere else, and their venom was much more potent as well.

Handing over the mission of warding off the poisonous snakes to Shen Hai and Meng Long, Wang Chong focused his attention on looking for the spirit vein.

‘Might of the Barbaric God’ was extremely sensitive to disturbances in the Origin Energy in the air. For the last few days, the reason why Wang Chong was wandering around the mountain was to feel the differing concentration in the Origin Energy in the surroundings via Might of the Barbaric God to roughly determine the location of the spirit vein.

Wang Chong had already scoured the south, east, and west. Thus, only one direction was left.

“We’re almost there!”

After a period of time, Wang Chong’s eyes suddenly lit up. Having successfully scoured the surrounding regions, Wang Chong gained a rough idea of the shape and terrain of this mountain range, thus allowing him to confirm the rough location of the spirit vein.

“Let’s go, that way!”

Wang Chong suddenly turned around, pointed toward one direction, and started paving a path.

The area which Wang Chong confirmed was in the midst of the various mountains. In there, trees that embraced one another in pairs grew, and the area didn’t look like a place where a spirit vein would be.

But Wang Chong felt a vague but definite familiar disturbance in the air. He remembered that it was the disturbance generated by a spirit vein.

He knew very well that this spirit vein was unique. Even if one were to find it, one wouldn’t be able to tell that one was standing right above the spirit vein.

Only when one walked to the closest mountain peak would one be able to sense the concentrated Origin Energy.

Wang Chong led Shen Hai and Meng Long to scour around the surrounding peaks, and about an hour later——

Weng!

When Wang Chong led Shen Hai and Meng Long up yet another mountain peak, he suddenly caught a familiar ‘scent’ in the surroundings.

This disturbance was dozens of time stronger than what he felt at the foot of the mountain.

“Hahaha, I’ve found it!”

Wang Chong was extremely delighted.

“Shen Hai and Meng Long, clear this region. I want to build a training field here. From now on, I’ll be cultivating here.”

Shen Hai and Meng Long glanced at each other in bewilderment. They couldn’t understand why the young master was so excited.

Other than the Origin Energy here being slightly denser than the other regions, they couldn’t feel anything else. Was this what their young master was looking for?

The both of them were perplexed.

But even so, they wouldn’t disobey Wang Chong’s orders.

“Yes, young master!”

Drawing their swords, they began clearing the thorns and trees in the surroundings, creating an empty training field for Wang Chong at the peak of the mountain.

“By the time this training field is cleared, you two will understand why I chose this location.”

Staring at the back of the duo, Wang Chong smiled.

Perhaps it was because of the unique greenery, or due to a special substance in the soil, the spiritual energy in the spirit vein was clogged up. Thus, one could only sense less than a single percent of it.

Shen Hai and Meng Long might carry doubts toward Wang Chong’s decision at this moment, but by the time they shaved a layer of soil off the surface of the mountain peak, they wouldn’t be thinking so.

Several hours later, a simple mountaintop ‘mini training field’ had been cleared, and seated in the center of this training field was Wang Chong, who was in the midst of cultivating Might of the Barbaric God. Overwhelming Origin Energy far greater than that of the other parts of the mountain forest gushed in from beneath his feet and his surroundings.

Both his Might of the Barbaric God and Dragon Bone Art would surely improve swiftly if he were to cultivate here.

“If I recall correctly, this place isn’t bought by anyone yet!”

As Wang Chong cultivated, he thought over this matter silently.

At this moment, no one should have discovered this spirit vein which took him eight to nine days to locate and reach.

But Wang Chong knew that if he were to frequent this place, it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed this place.

——This was how the world worked. If you didn’t notice this location, nothing would happen. But if you did, many people would come swarming here, hoping to get a slice of the pie.

The first step to find this precious spirit vein was a success, and the next one should be to secure the location. Given the importance of the second step, Wang Chong had to give it more thoughts.

“Shen Hai, if I recall correctly, this should be considered as a part of the barren mountains and it isn’t bought yet. Do you still remember where we are? Later on, make a trip to the Court of Judicial Review and buy down this location along with the surrounding mountain range.”

Wang Chong suddenly said.

“Ah!”

Hearing Wang Chong’s words, Shen Hai and Meng Long were taken aback.

In Great Tang empire, it was possible for one to purchase barren mountains. In fact, if one wished to, one could buy all of the barren mountains in the empire.

But of course, you had to have the money for it first.

Buying a mountain had always been expensive, needless to say, an entire mountain range. It was one thing if what one wanted to buy was a mine with a huge deposit of top quality ores, but if the mountain was barren, then it would mean a huge loss.

The fees of buying a mountain range were so great than even the typical affluent clan wouldn’t dare to dump money into it freely.

“Young master, this mountain range isn’t small. It will be a huge sum if you were to buy the entire area!”

“Indeed, young master! It would cost a minimum of eighty thousand gold taels to do so! Furthermore, it’s only a thirty year lease.”

Shen Hai and Meng Long tried to persuade him otherwise.

In their view, there was nothing of value in this mountain range and it wasn’t worth this sum of money. On top of that, the empire had imposed a time limit on one’s ownership after purchase.

If it was a mine, one should dig it out as soon as possible. How much one could dig out was one’s matter, and even if one were to end up making a loss, one couldn’t blame anyone for it. Thirty years later, one would have to purchase this land once again, and what’s worse was that it was likely that the price would have inflated then.

“Young master, is there an ore deposit below?”

Shen Hai asked carefully. After much contemplation, this was the only reason he could think of.

“Hehehe, this isn’t it.”

Wang Chong shook his head. He pointed a finger at the ground and smiled.

“It’s something even more valuable than an ore deposit!”

If Wang Chong wanted to grasp his destiny and change the fate of Great Tang and the world, he had to build up his own influence.

This was the reason why Wang Chong entrusted his little uncle, Wang Mi, to look for several formidable Imperial Army instructors for him.

This was an extremely vague plan that he hadn’t built on yet, but just a moment ago, Wang Chong suddenly realized where he should station his own ‘training base’ at.

By the time little uncle brought those Imperial Army instructors over, the land above this spirit vein would serve as an ideal training base. With this spirit vein, all he had to do afterward was to recruit a bunch of loyal and reliable people, and in the shortest time possible, he would be able to produce batch after batch of experts.

Batch after batch of loyal subordinates that he would be able to utilize.

——Just like the army he commanded in his previous life!

This would be his future ‘training base’!