Chapter 65: You'll Love It Too Happiness is just that simple.

Kingdom of Di.

A young man was living in the depths of misery.

With his younger siblings left unattended and wreaking havoc across the house, he was busy changing the diaper of an infant who had just finished feeding. One moment, his sister would hit his brother; the next, his brother would fall and cry out for comfort. They called out "Older Brother, Older Brother," swarming around the youth. Every single call sounded like a demonic incantation piercing his brain, far more terrifying than the cries of the Lesser Golden Crows he had once heard.

At that moment, the door was pushed open. Bairang walked in carrying a bag, and before he could even speak, Weisheng Wu snatched the bag right out of his hand, shoved the infant straight into his arms, and declared, "I'm going to make dinner! You take a rest here."

Habitually shifting the baby into a more secure position while supporting its little bottom, Bairang gave the child a gentle pat. The baby burped softly and instantly stopped crying. Handing over two plates of beans he had bought on the street to the remaining two children and telling them to race to see who could shell them the fastest, Bairang bought himself a quiet and peaceful room.

Carrying the baby into the kitchen, he leaned against the wall and chatted, "Guess who I saw on the street just now?"

Weisheng Wu hesitated slightly as he added rice to the pot and asked, "Could it be your brother?"

Bairang shook his head. "My brother is currently resting in the dungeon of the Kingdom of Di. He just had someone send him fine wine and exquisite food. What you're holding in your hand is something I conveniently swiped from the cell on my way here."

"Then many thanks to Eldest Brother!" Weisheng Wu decisively cut the largest piece of beast meat into small chunks and tossed them into the casserole.

"Aren't you even a little bothered that this came from him?" Bairang couldn't help teasing.

"I'm not even bothered by the house, courtyard, and children left behind by the old man," Weisheng Wu snorted coldly. "A true man provides for his family; how could he possibly care about such trivial details?"

He had recently hit a low point in his life. After all, making money was simply too difficult! Although he possessed divine power and could punch out two mountains and a lake with a single blow, the Kingdom of Di had shut down a dozen mines over the past few days, claiming that the lack of earth-energy to combat corrosion meant they had to abandon a portion of their jurisdiction. Consequently, his income had plummeted drastically. Facing the exorbitant living expenses of his household, he still felt utterly exhausted. The monthly bills flooded in like a rising tide.

Bairang's reasons for asking for money were always entirely justified: the wet nurse had to be paid; the little girl's clothes needed to be fully prepared; the nights were cold, so the sacred wood could not be spared—each of the three children required a pile of it every single night; outings for play were essential; and since the children were growing, they certainly couldn't survive entirely on white wood. Life was so hard, so there had to be fruit... The more Weisheng Wu listened, the more mentally fatigued he felt, realizing that no matter how plump his purse might be, it could never sustain this steadily inflating household expenditure.

He even had to go find Bairang's brother to extort money just to sustain them all...

"Don't dwell on it. After all, you haven't withdrawn from the organization yet, so drawing a monthly salary is entirely reasonable," Bairang comforted him. "The Deputy Sovereign also knows your name; he won't have you locked up."

"I am not dwelling on it at all," Weisheng Wu said as he placed a piece of sacred wood into the hearth. Standing before the blazing fire, a sudden question popped into his mind, "How on earth do people live like this? Doesn't it cost a fortune for Ji Yaoguang to raise a close friend? He's so poor, how on earth can he afford it?"

How could anyone afford to raise a little sun?

"The Green Emperor has plenty of things he can sell; what are you comparing yourself to him for?" Bairang laughed. "By the way, tomorrow is the deadline for the travel expenses to Mount Tu. The departure is scheduled for mid-next month. Are we going to travel along with the main caravan, or should we rent a spirit beast carriage?"

"We are renting a spirit beast carriage, of course," Weisheng Wu said, glancing at the three children at home. "They are so small; how could a tent possibly block the purple sun along the road? Everyone moves so fast, and little children simply can't keep up. Spirit beast carriages have hearths where we can burn sacred wood, so we won't have to fear the night."

"Then here is the cost breakdown: the sacred wood burned along the way, the toll passes for the five of us, the carriage rental fee, the spirit beast fodder that we need to provide ourselves, plus the deposit..."

Weisheng Wu listened until he felt faint. "Can this even be earned in a month? Should we just sell the house?"

"We wouldn't find a buyer on short notice, and property values in the Kingdom of Di are plunging drastically right now. Rumor has it that they'll be shrinking further in the future, and part of the academy will be demolished to serve as residential zones, so everyone is taking a wait-and-see approach," Bairang said. "I have a win-win solution. Next month is the grand sorting day, and the barrier of the Witch Kingdom will open up. We can hitch a ride on the Green Emperor's chariot and save all this money."

Weisheng Wu instantly grew guarded. "You aren't planning to pull off some shady stunt, are you?"

"My brother does all the dirty work; I'm just going to stand by and watch," Bairang sneered. "Where do you see all these conspiracies? Right now, various vassal states are bogged down with plenty of troubles of their own. We don't even have to lift a finger—the ones sweating are them. Get ready; I saw Lin Zhao return to the street earlier, so that kid will definitely come over to sponge a meal off you later. Just remember to bring this up to him when he does."

Weisheng Wu froze in place, controlled by sheer speechlessness for two seconds before sighing helplessly, "Fine, understood."

Ah, he still preferred being alone. Back when he didn't have a family to drag him down, a single punch could solve every problem. Yet now, he had to bow his head for the sake of money...

He set the food to boil while waiting for his friend to arrive.

However, after a long wait, the food was fully cooked, day turned to night, and an entire day passed, yet his friend never showed up.

"What is going on here?" Weisheng Wu muttered, wrapping a sleeveless robe around himself with his hair standing all on end. "Bairang, watch the house. I'm going to go look for Ah Zhao. Since he hasn't shown up for this long, he might be starving."

Bairang replied from the inner room, "Alright."

-

In a massive underground palace treasury within the Kingdom of Di, one hundred magnificent little birds stood atop one hundred giant machines, akimbo and laughing uproariously, their voices brimming with extreme arrogance: "Hahaha, now my singing can resound across the entire heaven and earth once again!"

Lin Zhao yawned as he looked at the tiny assembly line, unable to keep a frown from forming on his face. "These discarded letter-conches—you only managed to collect a hundred of them?"

"That's right," a little bird hopped onto his shoulder. "Letter-conches are quite sturdy. Normally, after they're discarded, the tip of the conch is usually used as a weapon, while ordinary people collect the shells to drill holes and polish the internal septa, turning them into wardrobes or storage boxes. These hundred-plus are already everything I managed to find by turning the entire Kingdom of Di upside down."

Lin Zhao said somewhat helplessly, "Then make sure you all remember to collect them from now on. Also, you need to find people to purchase discarded conch shells from the other quarters and the Witch Kingdom; otherwise, how can production possibly scale up?"

At the same time, he said gently to the dozen or so apprentices who had accompanied him, "Have any of you ever considered imitating the structure of this conch horn and replicating a similar structure using ordinary materials?"

"That's not particularly difficult," said Sa'a, the leader, nodding. "There are bone needles inside this conch. Under different spiritual resonances, the bone needles strike the ridges and grooves within the conch to produce different sounds. As long as we become familiar with the positions and frequencies of these strikes, we can replicate it—it will just take a little time and material."

Though he had no idea why anyone would make a device that looked destined to fail in the market, Sa'a would never turn down any request from the client. This was a hugely important figure whom even the Sovereign treated with polite deference; he had to execute every single task within his power to perfection!

"Then I'll have to trouble you all." Lin Zhao pointed a finger. "If you're missing anything, just ask him for it."

"Right, right, just look for me. If there's something I can't find, I'll go find my older brother," the little bird landed on Si Li's head. "Brother, hurry and use your abilities to help me gather all the components so your younger brother can break through his realm and ascend in a single bound!"

"Right on time. Mass production will also require a fair bit of spiritual origin," Sa'a's puppet quickly wielded a pen, scribbling out a list. "This device doesn't participate in combat, so it consumes very little spiritual resonance. Even a piece of the lowest-grade spiritual origin can last for an entire year."

"What kind of battery is that, lasting for so long?" Lin Zhao couldn't help his curiosity. "I mean, what kind of spiritual origin is that?"

"It refers to materials imbued with spirituality," Sa'a explained. "Ordinary sorcerers can also infuse spirituality into materials themselves. For instance, a scale from the Sovereign's body is an exceptionally fine spiritual origin, capable of instantly providing explosive power no lesser than that of a human-witch, making it a common material for superior secret treasures."

Lin Zhao couldn't help glancing at the Sovereign of Di, sighing inwardly, "You Heavenly Witches are all walking material warehouses."

-

"A scale takes a very long time to grow back, so you can't afford it," Si Li plucked the bird off his head with a helpless expression and negotiated with Lin Zhao, "What should we do with these one hundred devices? If I use my influence, I can still manage to sell them off."

Lin Zhao smiled slightly, "Who said anything about selling them? Put them in every single street and plaza across the Kingdom of Di. Tonight, we're having a listening session."

Si Li instantly grasped the essence of the plan and smiled slightly. "Don't we need to publicize it? I can authorize Ah Jin to use the letter-conches throughout the Kingdom of Di to notify the citizenry."

Lin Zhao shook his head, his brows and eyes carrying an innate haughtiness, "No need. It would cause a stampede!"

-

When Weisheng Wu walked out from the outer palace of the Great Wall, night had already fallen, leaving him feeling somewhat preoccupied.

Lin Zhao hadn't returned, and neither the Sovereign nor the Deputy Sovereign of Di was present. Had another major incident occurred?

And with the Deputy Sovereign away, would those prisoners in the dungeon manage to escape?

Right at that moment, he saw a beast-taming shaman of the Kingdom of Di riding a spirit beast unique to the realm. The rider carefully lifted a half-man-high machine from the back of a plump, black-and-white giant beast, placed it right in the center of the plaza, and stood guard beside it. The rider's mount, a black-and-white bear, squatted nearby, casually snatching a large bamboo stalk from a bamboo grove close by. With an easy snap, it bit down with relish.

"My lord!" someone immediately stepped forward to reprimand. "These golden-rimmed bamboos are meant to filter the purple sun; how could you let your spirit beast eat them?"

The young knight, clad in leather armor, cast a helpless glance at his own mount—which was taller than three men even while sitting down—and replied, "We were summoned in such a rush that I didn't have time to feed it beforehand. I promise, this is the only one it will eat."

"That's more like it," murmured someone nearby. "Golden-leaf bamboo is so expensive. Feeding that to a spirit beast would bankrupt a family in half a month."

"Exactly. Cultivating bamboo every year takes so much effort; how can we just feed it to the black cavalry beasts when it hasn't even withered?"

Weisheng Wu's focus, however, lay elsewhere: "What kind of treasure is this, that it actually requires black cavalry beasts to stand guard over it?"

"That's right, aren't the black cavalry supposed to guard the Great Wall defense line?"

Just as the crowd chattered and grew denser by the minute, two loud, clear-throated coughs suddenly erupted from inside the giant machine. The volume was so startling that nearby passersby jumped in fright.

"Is it just a letter-conch?" They instantly lost interest. "Is there some big news again?"

"If it were major news, why wouldn't they use a real letter-conch? This looks like some sort of secret ritual instrument!"

Just as they were chattering amongst themselves, the giant machine suddenly emitted a voice that sounded immensely proud yet tinged with a hint of arrogance: "Subjects of the Kingdom of Di, I am your Deputy Sovereign, Si Jin! Today, I am going to use this secret instrument to let you all hear my singing, which hasn't been heard in a long time! Are you looking forward to it?"

The moment those voices rang out, it felt as though ancient memories and legends buried deep within their souls had been touched, freezing everyone in place.

Yet the machine's voice gave them no time for contemplation, eagerly declaring: "Well then, listen up! My first song: A tedious life~ Sitting paralyzed in my chair~ Suddenly there's a little bird~ Who actually calls me older brother~ The voice is very sweet~ His true form must be quite fine too~ Feathers lack~ two~ Feathers lack two..."