The long-term plan devised by the East-West Army's high command was bound to place enormous demands on all manner of resources.
Setting aside the day-to-day cultivation needs of the thirty-thousand-strong army, every one of the numerous formations arrayed across those Qiankun Worlds had been built on a mountain of materials.
Without sufficient resources to fuel the formations, they would be unable to display their full power.
As the army's commander, Xiang Shan was beyond reproach when it came to marching and fighting — that much had been proven ever since he took command of the East-West Army.
But Liu Zhiping had discovered that the man was a spendthrift through and through — the sort who had no idea how expensive daily necessities were until he had to manage a household himself.
When the East-West Army was first assembled, the various eighth-grade commanders who hailed from different passes had each brought along the logistical resources their respective garrisons had contributed.
It could be said that when the East-West Army was established at Fengyun Pass, the resources it carried were staggeringly vast. The high command had done the math — such a colossal stockpile would be more than enough to sustain thirty thousand cultivators for three hundred years, with plenty to spare.
Three hundred years would surely be long enough for the Dayan Army to reclaim the Dayan Pass. As long as Dayan was recovered, there would be no shortage of resources in the future.
Yet in reality, once this vast stockpile — enough to sustain thirty thousand people for three centuries — had fallen into Xiang Shan's hands, it was squandered to nothing in a mere two or three years!
When Liu Zhiping learned of this, she had nearly fainted from rage. But after a moment's thought, she realized exactly where those resources had gone.
Earlier, he had ordered the army's accompanying artifact refiners to forge tens of thousands of puppets, then deployed them toward the Dayan Pass to draw the Mo Clan's attention — only for the Mo Clan to annihilate them to the last.
Now he intended to set up formations on world after Qiankun World, and each one required tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of formations.
None of which came cheap.
With such extravagance, no amount of resources could have held out.
Xiang Shan's conduct perfectly embodied the saying that a real man either kills without mercy or spends without restraint.
This man, who had lain dormant for three thousand years before returning to the eighth grade, had managed to embody both qualities in full.
In terms of military talent, Liu Zhiping could not match Xiang Shan, so from the moment the East-West Army had departed Fengyun Pass, it was essentially Xiang Shan making the decisions while Liu Zhiping at most helped him deliberate and analyze the merits and drawbacks of each plan.
But this western army commander was, after all, a woman — and a natural-born homemaker at that, as anyone could tell from the way she had once made those meat buns so delicious back in the market town.
So Liu Zhiping had naturally assumed control over the East-West Army's finances without anyone daring to contest her.
Now, however, the thirty thousand soldiers of the East-West Army found themselves in a rather awkward situation.
The army's remaining supplies would barely last another ten years.
No one had imagined that the first obstacle the East-West Army would face on its campaign to Dayan would be a shortage of supplies. After all, the resources contributed by the various passes had been calculated to last three centuries. In everyone's expectations, the East-West Army might encounter all manner of difficulties — but a lack of materials was the one thing no one had anticipated.
Without resources, the soldiers' cultivation would inevitably suffer. Damaged warships could not be repaired, let alone the subsequent plan to use Qiankun Worlds to assault the Mo Clan's royal city.
So the very first thing Liu Zhiping did after taking charge of the army's finances was to order the soldiers to mine Qiankun Worlds and gather resources.
After all, the Mo Clan at the royal city was hunkered down in a posture of strict defense and would not venture out to attack, so the East-West Army had plenty of time and energy to devote to this work.
Mining resources was no difficult feat for the humans.
First, they would scout the void for suitable Qiankun Worlds, then use the Void Yin-Yang Mirror to relocate the chosen worlds to a position near their base camp, where they could be mined with ease.
With thirty thousand soldiers in the Dayan East-West Army, even working in rotation they could dispatch several thousand to ten thousand workers at a time. The efficiency was remarkable — once a Qiankun World was relocated, it would be reduced to rubble within ten days to a fortnight.
Meanwhile, the soldiers out scouting for suitable Qiankun Worlds could also keep an eye out for ones worth preserving to use as ammunition in the next assault on the royal city — killing two birds with one stone.
So now, when Yang Kai peered out through his own Small World, he could see in the void beyond Qiankun World after Qiankun World that had been chiseled to pieces, along with the ceaseless figures of workers bustling across their surfaces.
It had been ten years since he had settled in this village at the foot of the mountain.
Ten years — the time flow inside his Small World. In the outside world, it was barely two and a half years.
Ten years might pass in the snap of a finger for a seasoned cultivator, but for ordinary people who had never practiced cultivation, it was no short span.
To be sure, the spiritual energy within Yang Kai's Small World was extraordinarily rich, and the living conditions were excellent. Ordinary people could easily live to a hundred, and some centenarians even made it to a hundred and fifty.
But for the hunter and his wife, life had reached its midpoint.
Xiaoxiao's arrival had given this childless couple the joy of family, and the two of them had poured nearly all of their love into their daughter.
Xiaoxiao was undoubtedly brilliant — she grasped everything at a glance, and even at the school, she constantly earned her teacher's praise.
She was also remarkably sensible for her age. Even as a small child, she had learned to help her mother with housework and follow her father up the mountain on hunts.
To have such a daughter in their lives, the hunter and his wife had no regrets.