Almighty God of War - Chapter 83

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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083

Imperial Palace, the Emperor’s Office.

Emperor Changseong, the ruler of the Hwan Empire who had passed his fortieth year, silently listened to the report presented by Chief Eunuch Sang On.

The Chief Eunuch of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the pinnacle of the eunuch organization, supervised the eunuchs within the palace.

Not only that, but he was also a person with tremendous authority who conveyed the Emperor’s commands and reviewed petitions for the Emperor’s approval in advance, offering his opinions.

“…Therefore, the ‘Salt Sales Merchant License Request’ submitted by Shangguan Wana of the Mangeum Trading Company remains pending at the Salt Transport Office due to opposition from the Minister of Revenue.”

The Salt Transport Office was a department under the Ministry of Revenue that oversaw all administrative matters related to salt distribution.

After Sang On finished his report and bowed his head, Emperor Changseong spoke.

“The Minister of Revenue’s backing would be Golden Tower Manor.”

Though it seemed like a question, his voice carried certainty.

“That is correct, Your Majesty. And Geumsan-ru also seems to be desperately blocking this matter by clinging to the other side’s coattails.”

Emperor Changseong frowned.

“Even Geumsan-ru? They weren’t the type to have such great greed for salt.”

“It seems to be because the contents of the proposal submitted by Shangguan Wana are too radical.”

Sang On carefully continued.

“She said that if they allow her to purchase salt certificates, she would sell salt at half the current market price – one nyang of silver coins per stone of salt.”

Emperor Changseong’s eyes narrowed.

“Half price… Is that possible?”

“It is impossible. According to calculations by our Court of Imperial Sacrifices, even the cost price after deducting margins and taxes from current market salt prices approaches one nyang of silver coins. But with sixty percent of the sales amount – one nyang and two hundred mun – designated as taxes…”

“Hah… Then Shangguan Wana is saying she’ll sell at a loss, at a price that doesn’t even meet the cost?”

The Emperor chuckled softly and continued.

“How strange. The renowned Mangeum Manor wouldn’t be planning to go bankrupt, so why would they submit such a proposal?”

“Golden Tower Manor and Geumsan-ru seem to speculate that Mangeum Trading Company is prepared for massive initial losses to establish itself in the salt market.”

“Hmm… So Mangeum Manor’s strategy is to accept losses initially, then sell salt at the same price as others after establishing themselves in the market?”

“That is correct, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor’s gaze sank deeply.

Completely different calculations were taking place in his mind.

‘Those Golden Tower Manor bastards are trying to extend their influence even to the frontier military with the massive wealth earned from salt, which makes me uneasy. They’ve grown too large. They need to be checked, but…’

He looked out the window once more.

‘I wonder if that young lady from Mangeum Manor can truly bell the cat around those old foxes’ necks. Hehehe, this should be interesting.’

Emperor Changseong spoke.

“The major trading companies would want to protect their interests. But for the people’s livelihood, it would be right for salt prices to come down.”

Sang On asked cautiously.

“Then shall I tell the Ministry of Revenue to grant Shangguan Wana the right to purchase salt certificates?”

Emperor Changseong shook his head.

“No.”

The Emperor spoke with a somewhat languid air.

“Let’s watch how that young lady Shangguan Wana overcomes this difficulty, and observe her wisdom and boldness. I want to see a new variable enter this game.”

His gaze turned toward the crown of the bowing Sang On’s head.

“So there’s no need to issue separate orders to the Ministry of Revenue.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

“You may withdraw.”

Sang On quietly withdrew.

A new stone had been placed on the vast Go board that was the Imperial Capital.

* * *

Guyang Cheongang headed to the eastern outskirts of the Imperial Capital under Yeom Pung’s guidance.

Though it was an area with few houses where fields and farmland spread widely, several massive warehouses covering hundreds of pyeong had recently been built there under Shangguan Wana’s orders.

Over thirty warriors were stationed there, maintaining thorough security.

Guyang Cheongang and Yeom Pung entered the warehouse, receiving greetings from the warriors.

Along with a distinctive oil smell, thousands of panels made of oil-soaked paper and wooden frames coated with oil were stacked, while another warehouse had bamboo tubes piled up like mountains.

Everything was materials for the new age’s alchemy that Guyang Cheongang had designed and Shangguan Wana had prepared.

While he was touring the warehouse with Yeom Pung, Shangguan Wana, who had heard the news, came to find them.

“Young Master, what brings you here?”

“I wanted to see how the plan we made is being prepared in reality.”

At his words, Shangguan Wana looked at the oil panels piled like mountains in the warehouse.

“Young Master, excuse me, but… I still can’t believe it. Can we really produce eight to ten times more salt than existing salt fields with just this thin oil paper and bamboo tubes?”

Guyang Cheongang turned to her with a smile.

“Young Lady, I don’t claim the impossible is possible.”

He held up one oil panel and said.

“Right now this is just oil paper, but it will soon become the heart of the ‘Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation’ that will capture the sun’s power to boil seawater.”

He paused briefly, then looked directly into her eyes and continued.

“I will inscribe the Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation that I created onto this oil paper. This formation serves to gather the sun’s yang energy into one point and amplify that power dozens of times.”

Then he pointed to the bamboo tubes piled like mountains in the other warehouse.

“Also, my unique Heavenly Salt Purification Technique will be inscribed on the bamboo tubes. When salt gathered by the Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation and initially filtered through quicklime undergoes secondary processing in those tubes, all bitter taste and impurities will be removed.”

“Ah…”

“Afterward, only crystals as white and pure as snow will remain. The salt we’ll make will be dimensionally different from what Golden Tower Manor currently sells, not only in production volume but also in quality.”

Seeing that Shangguan Wana still seemed to have difficulty understanding, Guyang Cheongang smiled and continued.

“The Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation works on the same principle as inscribing tens of thousands of very small mirrors on paper to focus sunlight into one point. And you can think of the secret technique inscribed on these bamboo tubes as the world’s finest ‘sieve’ that filters out even the tiniest grains of sand mixed in water.”

If someone unfamiliar with him heard this story, it wouldn’t be strange to say a charlatan was spouting nonsense.

It was that unrealistic.

But when faced with the absolute certainty in his eyes, there was no room for seeds of disbelief to sprout.

Shangguan Wana sighed inwardly.

Because whenever she talked with Guyang Cheongang, she always felt somehow inadequate being overwhelmed by his confidence.

“Believing in your words, Young Master, I have already completed almost all preparations.”

She continued with a voice filled with enthusiasm.

“I purchased fifteen million pyeong of useless coastline in Shandong Province at a bargain price, and have secured all the oil paper and bamboo tubes needed to build massive greenhouses there.”

“I believed you would accomplish it.”

“The workers to build the greenhouses are already being moved there. Once His Majesty’s salt sales license is granted, we’re fully prepared to immediately move all materials here to the salt fields and begin production.”

Guyang Cheongang asked with a gentle smile.

“Excellent, Young Lady. Are you short on funds?”

“Not yet. My personal pocket money that Father gave me as business capital when I left the manor, plus the profits from spirit pill sales, are sufficient to cover everything.”

“This business isn’t your burden alone, Young Lady. The fate of the Guyang Family Estate is also at stake. Lack of funds isn’t failure but just part of the process, so if you face even the slightest difficulty, don’t hesitate to tell me. As long as I’m here, our great enterprise will never stop because of money.”

At his words, Shangguan Wana’s eyes wavered.

“Those words alone are reassuring. If needed, I’ll definitely tell you.”

A shadow crossed Shangguan Wana’s eyes as she continued speaking.

“But the license… that final gateway is really not easy to break through. The interference from Geumsan-ru and Golden Tower Manor is too fierce.”

Guyang Cheongang smiled and said.

“With your abilities, Young Lady, you’ll break through that as well. I believe so.”

Shangguan Wana sighed inwardly once more and muttered.

‘When Young Master Guyang says things like that, I have no choice but to work harder…’

After Shangguan Wana and Yeom Pung left, Guyang Cheongang sat in lotus position in front of the oil panels piled like mountains.

‘Akasha, let’s begin.’

[Understood, Doctor.]

Akasha’s cheerful voice followed.

[As you know, with the completion of my fourth-stage evolution, I can now release up to ten thousand nanobots externally and maintain them for one hour.]

‘A very desirable evolution.’

[However, if used at maximum capacity, Doctor’s internal energy will be completely depleted afterward, leaving you exhausted. I recommend investing only half or less of the total available amount.]

‘There are too many oil paper panels for that. I can’t spend months here. Invest everything. Even if I go all out for one time period, I can recover by taking a Dragon Nourishing Pill and practicing energy circulation and breath control for a moment.’

[That will make external detection impossible.]

‘Since I erased the Thousand Li Tracking Incense, Blood Sea can’t track me either. And there are thirty guard warriors here. Let’s trust them.’

[Understood. I will now begin the engraving work of the ‘Solar Energy Integrated Circuit’ and ‘Magnetic Resonance Heat Network’ using one hundred thousand nanobots.]

Ten thousand nanobots flowed out from Guyang Cheongang’s body and flew toward the stacked oil paper panels.

Seeping through the microscopic gaps in the paper, they began a grand journey to change the molecular structure of the oil and paper itself, like ink spreading through rice paper.

However, maintaining this process required Guyang Cheongang’s massive internal energy continuously.

He had to keep practicing qi circulation with the Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art to supply energy to the nanobots, causing his true energy to be continuously consumed.

Fortunately, this engraving work wasn’t about explosively consuming internal energy like in combat, but maintaining it in a thin, steady stream.

Thanks to this, the recovery speed of his Transcendent Impermanence Divine Art could barely keep up with the speed at which his internal energy was being consumed.

If it had been ‘Maximum Combat Mode’, this work would have been impossible.

* * *

This salt production business was impossible without Akasha’s transcendent technology, no matter how much of a genius Guyang Cheongang was.

The salt production method he conceived could be called future alchemy that destroyed all common sense of this era.

Salt production in the Hwan Empire was mostly done through primitive methods of evaporating seawater using sun and wind at coastal salt fields.

Some was mined from rock salt mines and salt lakes, but the quantity was minimal.

However, what Guyang Cheongang conceived was on a different dimension.

His plan was divided into two major stages.

The first stage could be called the core of this plan and miraculous alchemy.

Guyang Cheongang planned to cover the entire salt field with a massive greenhouse made of oil paper and wooden frames.

And on that oil paper, he would engrave ‘Solar Energy Integrated Circuits’ using Akasha’s nanobots.

This greenhouse system, which Guyang Cheongang named ‘Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation’, completely captured the sun’s power to boil the salt field water and forcibly crystallize high-purity salt.

According to Akasha’s calculations, using this method could theoretically yield eight to ten times more salt than existing salt fields.

The fatal weakness of oil paper being damaged by high temperatures was solved by engraving another microscopic ‘Magnetic Resonance Heat Network’ inside the oil paper.

This converted excessive heat into invisible energy fields and dispersed it, perfectly preventing the oil paper from burning or being damaged.

The second stage, named ‘Heavenly Salt Secret Art’, involved engraving ‘Natural Magnetic Field Generation Circuits’ on bamboo tubes.

This circuit repeats salt molecular activation, impurity filtering, and recrystallization catalyst patterns.

In that process, it creates modern-style salt that is snow-white and pure, completely different from the yellowish, bitter-tasting salt of this era.

The work Guyang Cheongang was doing now was the first stage, the Heavenly Fire Solar Flame Formation.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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