The year was 6,129 in the Xia calendar.
Lin Jiang had just returned to Huaxia when spiritual energy surged once again. He went to Qingyun to awaken the only three cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage. They were the last remaining Nascent Soul stage cultivators who were sleeping. They were all outstanding geniuses from different sects who had taken many longevity treasures in advance to survive until now.
"Greetings, Ancestor."
Lin Huafei returned from the research institute to visit Lin Jiang.
"How has the research institute been recently?"
"The research has reached a deadlock. Using scientific methods to synthesize medicine is fine for low-grade elixirs, but it doesn’t work for high-grade elixirs. High-grade elixirs require the integration of Tao Achieving essence. It’s not just a simple fusion of medicine. We have failed several times, so I have decided to give up and start refining elixirs anew."
"It’s up to you. I won’t interfere with your research. There are already forty to fifty awakened cultivators now, and the spiritual energy has recovered to the point where Soul Changing is possible. Many people have an increased demand for elixirs. You must take on the responsibility of refining elixirs."
"Are you entrusting me with the task of refining elixirs, Ancestor?"
"Of course. Is there a problem?"
"No, my ability in Alchemy is not the strongest, I’m afraid people won’t be impressed."
Lin Huafei said that there were several alchemy experts who were better than him when they woke up from their long sleep. His Alchemy skills were not at the same level as the others’.
"It’s okay, your talent in alchemy is good. You just need to practice more. I am planning to establish a special department for Pill, Talisman, Item, and Formation, similar to the Pill Hall. You will be the head of the department."
"Since the ancestor trusts me, I will not let the ancestor down."
"That’s great. You can choose the alchemy location yourself. You will have full authority over the Spiritual Herb Garden at Cloud Mountain."
Lin Jiang mentioned that there are many high-level spiritual medicines in the Spiritual Herb Garden at Cloud Mountain. They are ready to be harvested now.
"Yes, ancestor."
"Time is running out. Remember, once the spiritual energy is fully restored, we will have no advantage over the demon clan. They will definitely seek revenge. So, the more skilled individuals we have, the better. We need to produce more pills as soon as possible."
Lin Jiang reminded Lin Huafei that they regretted not defeating the demon clan in the battle at Zhou Liao. When the spiritual energy fully restores, there will be several Tao Achieving level Demon Emperors in the demon clan. At that time, their advantage will be lost.
After that, Lin Jiang gathered some other leaders. Even though Lin Jiang’s talisman technique was top-notch, he wasn’t interested in handling the specific business, so he delegated it to others.
The work at the Spiritual Energy Research Institute continued. However, due to the threat of demons, the funding was not as much as before. Lin Jiang needed a lot of money for his work, so he couldn’t support it fully.
Another problem was the global economic downturn. More than 40% of the world’s land was occupied by demons, and every country was struggling to deal with them, which had a huge impact on the economy.
Some people had suggested that Lin Jiang should cancel the space exploration project because it had been years with little return on investment. However, Lin Jiang refused to do so. While the investment had decreased, it couldn’t be stopped.
"Sir, these are documents from your financial group. Please take a look."
After dealing with these matters, Lin Jiang returned to his office only to be handed another stack of documents.
Lin Jiang glanced through them. They were about the financial groups undergoing transformations. The spiritual energy recovery had caused heavy losses for some groups but had significantly increased business volume for others, requiring them to transform, a process that had been ongoing for many years.
"Has Li Qing also woken up?"
After handling the financial matters, Lin Jiang checked other sources of information and saw that Li Qing had indeed woken up. Even though the Wangxian Sect dominated the Ying Continent, Huaxia’s interests in that region were still significant.
This is all because of inertia. Huaxia’s presence in industry is too big, and Ying Continent can’t cut off economic ties with Huaxia completely. If the two economies stop interacting, Ying Continent’s economy will regress for several decades. They won’t be able to independently develop many products, so some people took pictures of Li Qing.
"Sir, is this Li Qing also an acquaintance of yours?"
"Yes, she is an old acquaintance."
Lin Jiang chuckled. He had quite a few old acquaintances now, including the Demon Queen. Old acquaintances keep showing up.
"Sir, Li Qing is quite talented. According to calculations by artificial intelligence and related experts, in the past two years since Li Qing appeared, Ying Continent’s strength has increased significantly. She seems to be good at imitating you, sir."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, in the past two years, many of Ying Continent’s policies have been learning from Huaxia’s. For example, they reformed the education system to make education more widespread, used cultivators to create a surge in power, and continued to combat the Yao tribe in Northern Ying Continent, among other things."
"Haha, interesting."
Lin Jiang chuckled. Li Qing is very clever. Her management skills are only average, ordinary at best, but she is very intelligent. She only needs to imitate, not surpass or innovate.
On this side of Huaxia, many strategies were proposed not by Lin Jiang himself, but by many experts and scholars. The experts working for Lin Jiang were not ordinary people. If any of them dared to suggest that every household should have five hundred thousand in savings, they would be fired by Lin Jiang the next day and told to go home to take care of their children.
"Sir, if Ying Continent becomes even more powerful, will it affect us? Should we prepare in advance?"
"That’s not necessary. Let’s give them a chance. It’s better for the human race to become stronger."
"Yes, sir."
"Fetch me the information about Shen Continent."
Lin Jiang nodded. Even though Zhou Bang had tried to assassinate him before, Lin Jiang didn’t pursue the remaining people. Although Li Qing had woken up and distanced herself from him, it wasn’t enough to make Lin Jiang angry.
During the era of cultivating immortality, Lin Jiang had already abandoned them. He had taken away the people he needed to take away. It was better to treat them as strangers.
Lin Jiang started looking into the matters concerning Shen Continent. The first thing that caught his attention was the battle of Zhenhai City led by Zhou Liao, which happened several years ago and still hadn’t recovered. Especially due to the nuclear radiation, the impact was extensive, causing the industries and agriculture in those areas to almost collapse.
This made Zhou Liao harbor a deep hatred towards the demon race. In these past years, Zhou Liao had launched a severe hunt against the demon beasts within his territory. Even towards Penglai Continent, Zhou Liao was more active than Huaxia, occasionally engaging in small-scale battles with the demon race.
"Five countries in the alliance quietly accumulated a lot of strength."
Lin Jiang saw the news from the northern part of Shen Continent. Over the past few years, the five countries in the alliance have gained a significant amount of strength. The strongest Jiabang Empire now has eight golden cores.
"Sir, we must not underestimate the monsters in the northern part of Shen Continent. The monsters in the western part of Jiabang Empire are different and even stronger."
"I know, those are not exactly monsters, they are considered elves."
Lin Jiang said. In the past, the Stone Monsters from Liang State appeared. Fortunately, the Stone Emperor from that era didn’t fall asleep, otherwise it would have been even more challenging. The physical strength of the Stone Monsters is too powerful, conventional weapons are almost ineffective. The alliance of the five countries has a heavy burden.
"Send an official message instructing them to completely withdraw the remaining troops, loosen the restrictions on the alliance of five countries, and establish a cooperation plan with them."
After some thought, Lin Jiang said. As the defeated side in the Second World War, the alliance of five countries has been restricted by the Alliance Three Countries and had troops stationed. However, in recent decades, the number of stationed troops has been decreasing. At its peak, the three countries had nearly two million troops combined, but now it is only around three to four hundred thousand. These troops are not very useful and can be completely withdrawn.
"Furthermore, we need to support their economy and military. In the past, the human race had no enemies, so any wars were civil wars. But now, with a major threat looming, Lin Jiang doesn’t want the northern part of Shen Continent to be occupied by monsters."
Moreover, how can we say that even the five-country alliance has the Huaxia Language circulating. In fact, they can be considered half of our own people, which is better than the indigenous population.
"Teacher, doing this will affect many people’s interests."
The secretary reminded, "Having overseas troops has always been very beneficial. It involves many complex things and many people’s interests, including Lin Jiang’s."
"It doesn’t matter, if someone shows their teeth, just get rid of them."
Lin Jiang shook his head. He knew that overseas troops were the most corrupt place in Huaxia. A news story came out a few years ago about a toilet costing 180,000 Huaxia coins, but Lin Jiang didn’t care back then.
However, now he was going to do this and no one could stop him. If someone showed their teeth, Lin Jiang would eliminate them. Even when Lin Jiang was just a mortal, he wasn’t afraid of them, let alone now when he had awakened dozens of cultivators.
The secretary saw Lin Jiang speak like this and stopped talking. They all knew that Lin Jiang had the confidence to do this.
Lin Jiang looked at the map of power distribution, deep in thought. The stalemate between the human race and the demon race was not a good situation. There had to be a breakthrough, they couldn’t continue like this.

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