PCJ – Chapter 686 Major Construction

This excavator was certainly extraordinary. While all its parts appeared to be made from ordinary steel, in reality, they had all been refined using artifact-crafting techniques. The same volume of material required ten tons of raw steel to forge just one ton’s worth in volume—though the weight remained largely unchanged. The refining process had nearly eliminated all impurities within the steel.

In the cultivation world, this kind of steel was considered a very low-grade material. In the past, Kong Fangzhou would have been embarrassed to work with such a base material. But now, he led a large group of artifact refiners who spent day and night producing it. He even gave this refined steel a fancy name: Mystic Steel.

The excavator Kong Fangzhou built was about the size of a mid-range excavator. Normally, such a machine would weigh around 10 tons, but his version weighed nearly 200 tons due to the density and purity of the Mystic Steel.

Kong Fangzhou operated the machine, slicing the massive boulder into neat, square blocks as easily as cutting tofu—leaving behind barely any debris.

“Hall Master, does that mean the excavator is a success?” asked Huang Chen, an artifact refiner from the Artifact Refinement Hall.

Huang Chen had formerly been a disciple of the Refining Sect. After the Kong family joined the Meishan Sect, most of the Kong clan’s refiners were assigned to the Artifact Refinement Hall. In reality, the hall was basically under Kong clan control—similar to how the Herbal Hall was structured.

Kong Fangzhou shook his head. “Not quite. It still isn’t agile enough. I’ve spent so long mastering the controls. If someone else tried to use it, they’d have to spend a lot of time just to get familiar.”

“But the size is just too big. Even though it’s a magical artifact, controlling it won’t be easy. I think we’ve been too influenced by the design of ordinary excavators. Some of the transmission systems could be simplified. We can replace mechanical pivots with artifact mechanisms instead. That way, control should be more flexible,” said Kong Wei from the side.

Kong Fangzhou’s eyes lit up. “Yes! You’re absolutely right, Kong Wei. I got stuck in conventional thinking—trying to mimic a mundane excavator instead of solving these systems with our refining techniques. Quick, help me disassemble this thing. Actually, never mind disassembling it—we might as well forge a new one from scratch.”

Soon, the clang of hammering filled the Artifact Refinement Hall once more. Though this new excavator was massive, the materials were relatively simple. For a skilled refiner, it was an easy task. Hundreds of tons of steel were refined into Mystic Steel parts. Kong Fangzhou also drew from modern industry practices to introduce standardization across components, simplifying the assembly process.

In an ordinary factory, it would’ve taken a fleet of robotic arms to assemble such a heavy machine. But here, most of the work was done by hand. These cultivators lifted the heavy components with ease. And where necessary, magical tools provided even greater precision and flexibility than modern robotics.

A day later, a new excavator was assembled. It looked very different from a normal excavator. If a typical operator saw it, they would probably think it was a pile of scrap metal—there were no visible mechanical parts that could move the arm.

However, under Kong Fangzhou’s control, the machine not only moved, but did so with incredible agility. It acted almost like a human arm, capable of performing intricate movements. Tasks like opening bottle caps were trivial—it could even thread a needle. At one point, Kong Fangzhou operated it to hold a calligraphy brush and paint a portrait on rice paper. His artistic skill was surprisingly impressive—the beauty he drew was vivid and lifelike.

Soon, these machines from the Refinement Hall were transported to Yingpan Mountain. To avoid drawing attention, they weren’t flown in by helicopter. In any case, helicopters couldn’t possibly lift such heavy equipment.

Instead, Kong Fangzhou had specially forged a peculiar flying vessel for transportation. It wasn’t very large—just big enough to carry two excavators at a time. The combined weight was 300 to 400 tons—an incredible load.

This flying vessel was, naturally, a magical artifact. Covered with over a thousand formation arrays and embedded with hundreds of spirit stones, it lifted off smoothly and transported the machinery to the highest peak of Yingpan Mountain, then gently descended to drop them off before returning for more.

Kong Fangzhou had combined the mechanisms of flying swords with modern aerospace design to develop this flying ship. It looked more like a hovercraft, though it flew through the sky.

With the two excavators, Kong Fangzhou led the cultivators of the Artifact Refinement Hall in clearing a level area at the mountain’s peak. What was once rugged terrain was quickly leveled. Meanwhile, another group began carving caves into Giant Sword Peak, establishing residences and spiritual gathering formations.

The area was soon enshrouded in thick mist, concealed by a massive mountain-protection formation. Ordinary people could no longer see the peak, nor approach it.

This protective formation was a combination of an illusion array and an attack array. Most people would get lost as soon as they entered the outer layers and would be unknowingly redirected away.

The Artifact Refinement Hall would be the first to move from the secret realm to the new location. They selected a nearby stone mountain to serve as their new base. Kong Fangzhou planned to hollow out the mountain and construct their headquarters inside.

With the powerful excavators, it didn’t take long to hollow out a spacious cavern. The granite rock was incredibly tough, but after excavation, the interior was extremely sturdy and collapse-resistant. Kong Fangzhou also set up numerous formation arrays along the walls, making the place resistant even to modern weaponry.

The construction of Meishan Sect’s new base was well underway.

At the same time, inside the Xiyun Secret Realm, Mei Qing was making great strides in developing new pharmaceuticals.

She was working on novel antiviral and anti-cancer drugs. In these fields, domestic technology lagged far behind that of other nations. Foreign pharmaceutical companies maintained tight control over these drugs. Domestically, not only was access difficult, but the cost was prohibitively high for most people.

As a PhD in biotechnology, Mei Qing was highly knowledgeable and deeply aware of these issues.