Chapter 59

“Third Uncle, Third Uncle…”

Chen Chaoyan knelt on the stairs while staring at the palace in the sky and quietly tugging at Chen Jiezhi’s sleeves.

Chen Jiezhi peeked at Mister Black Cloud in front of him before turning to his niece.

“Even the King of Tang’s palace is not so imposing and doesn’t hover in the sky,” Chen Chaoyan whispered.

Chen Jiezhi nodded silently.

The two Chen clan elders at the side felt the same way.

They sincerely felt it was the best decision they had ever made to come to Chang’an Fortress after being hunted down.

Here, not only would their clan be safe, but they might even be able to make a comeback and reclaim what they had lost from the Eastern Tang Dynasty.

Guo Zi and Hui Tianyu of the Cold Mountain Sect had never seen the palace of the Eastern Tang Dynasty.

But they were equally sure that the Cold Mountain Sect would have a bright future here.

The little girl, who was no longer panicked, had calmed down and was now looking around curiously.

Mister Black Cloud revealed a faint smile on his lips and looked to the side at the captured people of the Fortune Celebration Temple and the Mirror Moon Tower.

Zhang Dongyun felt grateful to them from the bottom of his heart for not rushing into the former Impenetrable Fortress with Gu Hechuan, that traitor of the Azure Cloud Temple.

Otherwise, they would not have been able to trigger the guarding quest and would have been overshadowed by Gu Hechuan, who had higher cultivation.

But now…

[Random Guarding Quest 3.1—Kill or capture the Mirror Moon Tower elder He Qian and the Fortune Celebration Temple elder Daoist Shun Ming who have entered the fortress.]

[You have captured He Qian and Daoist Shun Ming and completed Random Guarding Quest 3.1. Rewarded 800 Guarding EXP.]

He had obtained 500 Guarding EXP from dealing with Gu Hechuan and accumulated the 2,000 EXP required for the second upgrade.

The EXP required for the third upgrade and expansion of the fortress increased to 3,000 Guarding EXP and 3,000 Construction EXP.

It was all thanks to the Fortune Celebration Temple and the Mirror Moon Tower.

As soon as the second upgrade and expansion finished, they came here and gave him 800 Guarding EXP.

This way, he was only 2,200 Guarding EXP away from the next upgrade.

However, he was still short of 2,900 Construction EXP.

After refreshing the list of quests, the new construction quest appeared before his eyes.

[Construction Quest 3.1—Primary literacy education. Address the current overall literacy deficit of the population. As the first step, reduce the illiteracy rate to below 50%].

This is still okay. There isn’t much change…

Zhang Dongyun had told Hui Tianyu and the others in the fortress to search for and gather people who could read and write earlier.

They don’t need to be highly educated. Rather, a basic level of education is sufficient.

A lot of work has gone into preparing for the quest at hand.

But it’s a heavy load, and there’s still a long way to go…

Most of the people in the fortress are refugees and surrendered Tang Dynasty soldiers.

It’s an immense systematic project to increase the literacy rate.

The fortress’s basic education is not necessarily sufficient.

It will be difficult to reduce the illiteracy rate to less than half.

Well, if it’s the literacy rate I set… Zhang Dongyun rolled his eyes.

He had set the standard of literacy to be 1,500 characters to be able to do basic reading and writing…

If I had known this would happen, I would have made it much easier.

Fortress Lord Zhang felt regretful.

In any case, the fortress had once again upgraded and expanded, making him feel good.

[Fortress Lord: Zhang Dongyun

Current range: 16 kilometers east-west, 24 kilometers north-south, 8 kilometers above, 8 kilometers below ground.

Range of the fortress walls: 4 kilometers east-west, 6 kilometers north-south.]

The Impenetrable Fortress once again expanded by four in every dimension of space from before.

In terms of cross-sectional area, or floor area in the world, it had expanded by sixteen times.

Right now, it had reached 384 square kilometers.

Compared to Qinzhou Prefecture, Longbei County, and Eastern Tang, it was still not very big.

But each time it expanded, its area would increase by sixteen times. And in the long run, it would soon be a place not to be underestimated.

The current scope of the Impenetrable Fortress had exceeded the entire White Cloud Abyss and touched other mountain ridges in Dragon Ridge.

With further expansion, it should be able to reach the bottom of the mountains.

In comparison, within the scope of the entire system, the people in the fortress right now could be considered sparsely populated again.

Zhang Dongyun recalled that there would soon be another quest to increase the population again.

I can make early preparations and plan ahead.

With a larger population, the difficulty of lowering illiteracy will increase.

I’d better finish that primary literacy quest and earn the Construction EXP first.

Fortress Lord Zhang sat in the Great Ming Palace and watched the old bloody shadow demon come up the stairs as he made his plans.

The old demon was apprehensive and arrived outside the palace door.

The palace door automatically opened.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” The old bloody shadow demon was respectful as he stepped into the palace.

The palace was empty, with only a faint glow of light and some clouds flowing.

After passing through several halls, the old bloody shadow demon finally paid his respects to Zhang Dongyun, who had transformed into the Evil Emperor, in the main hall.

Zhang Dongyun looked down at the old bloody shadow demon, who was paying its respects, and calmly said, “You may dispense with the pleasantries.”

The old demon got up after giving thanks, took out a few secret objects, and presented them to Zhang Dongyun above.

“I am incompetent and have let you down, Your Majesty. I could not bring Heavenly Wolf back.” The old bloody shadow demon first confessed before explaining. “In the cave, it was not the traitor Yang Li, nor was it a real heavenly wolf, but… a heavenly wolf demonic soul.”

Thanks to the Impenetrable Fortress System, Zhang Dongyun knew that it was telling the truth.

He casually received the items the old bloody shadow demon presented and pondered in his heart.

One of them was a demonic soul and not a cultivator at the eighth realm of the Demon Dao, the Demonic Soul realm.

In other words, for some reason, a Demon Dao cultivator who was at least at the eighth realm and cultivated the Heavenly Wolf Transformation had separated out their own heavenly wolf demonic soul.

The demonic soul had been left in that secret cave, and the whereabouts of that cultivator was unknown.

Considering the relationship between the imprint of the immortal ruins fragment, it should be Yang Li.

But the question is, where is Yang Li himself?

The old bloody shadow demon had presented three items.

A black jewel the size of a grown man’s fist.

A piece of fur.

And a stone slab.

The black jewel was the product of the old bloody shadow demon’s victory over the heavenly wolf demonic soul.

The demonic soul had caused a headache for the people of the Forgotten Truth Temple. But the old bloody shadow demon could restrain the opponent based on the mystic techniques imparted by Zhang Dongyun. Thus, it could capture it.

Zhang Dongyun carefully studied it and compared it with the memories of Evil Emperor Ming Tonghui. He was sure that the heavenly wolf demonic soul was from Yang Li.

The fur, on the other hand, should be derived from a demonic cultivation technique with a shedding characteristic.

It was the incidental product when Yang Li was separating out his heavenly wolf demonic soul.

The reason the enemy went to such great lengths might be due to the fact that he had been severely injured by Evil Emperor Ming Tonghui during the incident in the immortal ruins.

The injuries caused by the Evil Emperor were like tarsal maggots, making it difficult for him to reincarnate and recultivate.

Severing the heavenly wolf demonic soul was like a lizard with a broken tail seeking survival.

On the surface of the stone slab, a mysterious engraving appeared, which was closely related to the immortal ruins fragment in Yang Li’s hand.

Zhang Dongyun raised his eyebrows lightly.

Did Yang Li leave these things in the secret cave because he was out of strength and forced into doing so, or…

Was it intentional?