"Due to the incident with the vestments, all the vestments the Qing Yu Immortal Sect have sent to the Western Region in the last three years have to be returned for re-inspection. At the same time, the Lord of Tianyuan City has urgently ordered the Qing Yu Immortal Sect to submit 10,000 sets of vestments within a year's time. The first batch of vestments, numbering 1,000 sets, must be delivered to Tianyuan City in a month and a half."
Tuoba Guoyun's face was gloomy when he informed Wenjie and Chen Shaojie of the news in Wenjie's office.
"A thousand sets of vestments in a month and a half?"
Wenjie's face sank. "But the journey to deliver the vestments from the Qing Yu Mountains to Tianyuan City itself will already take at least half a month. That means we have to produce a thousand sets of vestments within a month. How's that possible?"
Tuoba Guoyun said in a gloomy voice, "The Lord of Tianyuan City has issued the Tianyuan Order. There's already no more room for negotiation in this matter."
"But... Senior Brother, please talk to the Sect Master about this. Maybe we can still negotiate..."
"There's no use, Junior Sister. Let's just try to come up with a solution."
Tuoba Guoyun dismissed Wenjie's words with a wave of his hand. He straightened his back and said, "The Sect Master has left this matter completely in my hands. He and the Elders already have their hands full because the Tianyuan Order also stated that, in order to make up for the damages caused by the vestment incident, we must deploy a thousand more cultivators of Tier 4 and above to Tianyuan City."
"What?!"
Wen Jie's face went completely pale, as if she had heard something unthinkable. "How?... Why?..."
Chen Shaojie was a complete noob who knew nothing. He could understand every word in the conversation between Tuoba Guoyun and Wenjie, but when the words were strung together into sentences, he no longer understood what they meant.
Seeing Tuoba Guoyun and Wenjie fall silent, he took the opportunity to ask, "Pardon me, Seniors. What is Tianyuan City?"
Tuoba Guoyun frowned and turned to look at him. "Did you not listen to the lectures in the Hall of Learning? Did you not read the books they issued?"
"X﹏X"
Chen Shaojie realized that he was acting rashly again.
Of course he had listened very seriously to every lecture in the Hall of Learning. After all, the information was very useful to him and helped him learn more about the world.
But he did not actually read the books issued by the hall.
It was not his fault. All the books were written in the classical style of writing. Not only were they difficult to understand, there was no punctuation, so he could not even tell the beginning of a sentence from the end. He could not read them at all.
Every time he tried to read one, he would not even get past the first page before he fell asleep without realizing it. He slept very well as a result.
This even caused him to develop a strong dependence on the books. If he did not read one before bedtime, he would not be able to fall asleep anymore. He was troubled by it too.
Now, he had a book constantly lying next to his pillow for bedtime reading.
When Tuoba Guoyun saw Chen Shaojie remain silent, he looked really disappointed in Chen Shaojie. "The Tianyuan City is the city built by all the sects and clans of the Nine States back when they formed the alliance against the demons. It's located right in front of the Ancient Heavenly Gate in order to grab the demon invasion attempts by the throat. The Lord of Tianyuan City is chosen collectively by all the clans and sects of the Nine States. The lord is in charge of all personnel in Tianyuan City, and all cultivators sent to the Heavenly Gate to fight against demons must obey his orders."
Oh, so the Tianyuan City was like a bridgehead at the front line...
And the Lord of Tianyuan City was like the commander-in-chief of the Nine States Alliance Army at the front line...
Chen Shaojie thought he had nothing to lose anymore, so he asked again, "What's the Tianyuan Order? Must we obey it?"
Although the Lord of Tianyuan City was the commander-in-chief of the allied forces at the front line, his authority should not extend so far back to the rear. There must be something special about this Tianyuan Order.
As expected, Tuoba Guoyun glared at him even more sternly, "Back when the sects and clans made the vow to resist the demons together, they also made a rule that the Lord of Tianyuan City can issue the Tianyuan Order to the Nine States for the sake of fighting against the demons. The one who receives the order, be it a sect or an individual, must obey the order."
"I see!"
Chen Shaojie finally understood. So the Tianyuan Order had a very high administrative priority and was recognized by all nine states.
In short, there was no more room for negotiation. The Tianyuan Order had been issued, and the Qing Yu Immortal Sect could only obey.
Mobilizing a thousand cultivators was another story, but there was no way the Embroidery Pavilion could avoid producing a thousand sets of vestments within a month now.
That's so distressing...
Chen Shaojie felt that the reward of 100 merit points was not that easy to obtain any more.
He had just made all the preparations for the reference number, but now something like this had suddenly popped up. What should he do next?
Of course, he would not just give up so easily. He asked, "Senior, what about the matter of the reference number?"
"Let's put it on hold for now!"
"But Senior, I think the matter of the reference number and the matter of vestment production do not conflict. We can do them both simultaneously."
"But we don't have enough hands in the pavilion to do both at the same time. We should put it aside for now," Tuoba Guoyun shook his head helplessly, "The main priority now is to come up with a way to produce 1000 sets of vestments in a month."
"That's impossible,"Wenjie shook her head with a wry smile. "Even if we work day and night, we can only produce 800 sets at most."
Tuoba Guoyun frowned. "Maybe we can ask the Vast Storage Hall if they have any left in storage?"
Wenjie shook her head. "They probably don't. Did you forget about the green devourer bug outbreak a year ago? It destroyed a batch of precious materials in the Vast Storage Hall, including a batch of vestments. Senior Brother Busan has been repeatedly asking me for vestments after that."
"Then it's really troublesome!"
Tuoba Guoyun pondered while gently rubbing his chin.
Chen Shaojie lowered his head and gazed at the floor for a while. Then, he suddenly said, "I have an idea that might work."
"Hmm?"
Tuoba Guoyun and Wen Jie looked up at him at the same time.
Chen Shaojie deliberated for a moment before he said, "But I have a condition."
"What condition?" asked Tuoba Guoyun.
"I'd like to get the reward of 100 merit points that you promised me in advance so that I can go redeem a cultivation technique."
Chen Shaojie had given it some thought. Sure, a high salary was nice, but as long as the merit points were not in his hands, there would be a lot of uncertainties. That's why he put forth this condition. He would feel safer with the merit points in his hands.
"Not a problem!" Tuoba Guoyun replied with a magnanimous wave of his hand.
He added, "And if you can really help the Embroidery Pavilion produce a thousand sets of vestments within a month, I don't mind rewarding you another 100 merit points afterwards."
"Really?"
Chen Shaojie's eyes lit up. Now that's what a bigshot looked like! Long live hall master!
Tuoba Guoyun frowned and urged him, "Tell us your idea first!"
Chen Shaojie asked Wenjie unhurriedly, "Senior, I noticed that each vestment is worked on by a single embroideress from beginning to end, is that right?"
Of course. How else could they do it?
Wenjie did not quite understand where Chen Shaojie was going with this, but she still answered with a nod, "That's right."
Chen Shaojie asked again, "How long does it take for the fastest person to finish embroidering a vestment?"
Wenjie thought about it and replied, "Two days."
"What about the slowest one?"
"Three days... sometimes four."
"Okay, I understand."
Chen Shaojie nodded and started telling them his method.
It was actually not anything extraordinary. Everyone on Earth used it. It was called the "assembly line".