In many ways, the kingdom of turtles was by far the most advanced civilization within all Four Seas. Although their reputation hadn't spread past the East Sea and its coast, their influence and monopoly on cultivation resources granted them a unique status in the vast oceans.
One of the greatest ingenuities of the turtles was their ability to mass produce immortal spiritual weapons. The turtles were amongst the first to truly excel in forging and this showed with their early successes in forging primordial spiritual treasures in the image of various exalted Xiantian spiritual treasures.
Since the great sermon many thousands of years ago, the primordial turtle clan's ability to create treasures had improved massively. In the years that followed, they had perfected a mass production assembly line that was able to field armies equipped with treasures. Of course the quality can never compare to genuine xiantian spiritual treasures, or even lesser primordial grade treasures and only hovered around the immortal grade.
Gui Daiyu led Zulong through one of these facilities consisting of hundreds of turtles working in tandem. The facility was emptied of water and contained large amounts of spiritual fire.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Gui Daiyu said, pointing at the assembly line of workers. Starting with the group's carriages, carrying raw materials of luminescent sea iron and azure copper. These were delivered to experts of the immortal realm who melted the metal. Another group smiths poured the metal into ready-made casts, then passed to immortal hydromancers.
Zulong nodded slightly, "I guess so." He said while observing one of the halberds produced. He dragged his fleshy fingers across the warm metal, frowning at the sensation. He missed his scales.
Zulong was reminded of his personal treasures, the Twenty-Four Sea Calming Pearls and the Dragon Pearl. Both items were at the pinnacle of Xiantian spiritual treasures. Compared to both, this halberd was simply too subpar.
"But there are so many," he murmured in wonder. He placed the halberd back on the sea of racks. The storage area was half full and already contained thousands of immortal spiritual treasures.
"And you just churn out spiritual treasures like nothing?" He asked.
"Well, yes. To many of the weaker clans, weapons like these are integral to their fighting force. Not many can afford to be like us major clans." she explained.
"Back when I roamed the seas, I found Golden Immortals everywhere. Surely they'd have a few," Zulong said.
"When you roamed the sea?" Gui Daiyu took a minute to think, "Well that was before I was even born but I do know a few things. Golden Immortals are numerous but the number of clans out there easily dwarfs them by an order of magnitude. Only the higher end clans have Golden Immortals. How many did you run into?"
"Hundreds, dozens of strong ones and many more weaker ones. Nevertheless, there were indeed hundreds of Golden Immortals," Zulong said without hesitation. "That was thousands of years ago, though. Without a doubt there'd be over a thousand by now."
Gui Daiyu chuckled much to Zulong's chagrin. "There are hundreds of thousands of clans out there in the East Sea alone. Not everyone has a Golden Immortal for protection. Not everyone can just raise one, either."
Gui Daiyu signalled for Zulong to follow her. She led him across the business district of the city. It was an area which sold crucial cultivation resources such as pills and herbs, along with raw materials for forging. They also passed by many shops selling various luxury goods as opposed to those catering to basic needs.
Zulong stared at a piece of artwork being auctioned from a window. Then he saw jewellery displayed in a nearby store. "What is the point of all this?" he muttered.
"Come on, the pill hall's not far from here," Gui Daiyu called out to the dragon. She led him to a tall structure, a massive building where many alchemists roamed. She led him inside the building, showcasing many shelves upon shelves of pre-made alchemical pills that boosted cultivation. Pills rich in certain types of Qi and Dao laws.
"Pills are incredibly useful for cultivators. They are the reason we've been able to strengthen ourselves and our allies massively in recent years," Gui Daiyu explained while introducing the dragon to the place.
The early alchemists of this era learned to combine special spiritual herbs into medicinal pills for the purpose of healing, cultivation, and various effects. Although the higher one's cultivation was, the lower the effects became, they were still useful for those in the early stages of cultivation.
Zulong picked up a red pill and closed his eyes, but in the end he couldn't sense anything from it. Gui Daiyu took the pill from his palm and explained that it was an Earth Soil pill, designed for immortals attempting to master the earth element of the Wuxing. A crucial step in advancing through the True Immortal and Profound Immortal realms.
"This is the backbone of our civilization," Gui Daiyu spread her arms and announced in pride. "This is what allows us to flourish, it's what allowed us to gain favour with the strongest experts in the East Sea."
She pointed out into the streets. "With our strength secured, it afforded us room to grow in other directions as well. Just in case you were wondering, cause you know, I saw you gazing at the shops earlier," she quickly explained. "Many advancements came from these growths as well. The exalted one only provided so much and we had to figure things out. But one person would never be able to advancement in so many directions on their lonesome."
She looked at him expectedly, "Pretty cool huh?" Zulong looked around the place with many glancing passersby. All alchemists with varying levels of expertise and cultivation, all functioning like a well oiled machine just like the weapons facility he was at.
"All this just for lesser beings?" He said.
"Well it's better than living in caves, scavenging for food, and praying for the next godfiend you meet to not kill you, then pray that they won't extort you, then pray even harder that they'll save you from disasters," she said. "There is strength in unity."
"Yeah, I guess it's pretty impressive," Zulong muttered. His gaze landed on the city outside. Even with his cultivation sealed, his eyesight was still very powerful.
"Come on, there's still a lot more I need to show you," Gui Daiyu announced with her hands on her hips, encouraging the dragon to see more of the city. She showed him everywhere from open parks made to appreciate beauty, to art galleries, to people selling fictional stories of all things.
For someone who had spent his whole life fighting and training, it was a wholly unique experience. The way civilians just went about their daily lives evidently brought the princess much pride. The people in turn greeted her with open arms and adoration. In contrast, the dragon was unknown to the average mortal.
"My family holds the heart of the people," she explained to Zulong. "We have their faith and trust and thus their loyalty."
"Working together huh," Zulong walked with Gui Daiyu for a long time. He simply explored the sights. Not too long after, the duo stood before a large construction site. A new temple complex was in the process of being built as per orders by the turtle king.
"Your servants follow your orders perfectly," Zulong said as they sat on a hillside watching the temple's construction.
"Of course, we're very careful of who we put in charge, or else something terrible might happen," Gui Daiyu admitted.
"And by having competent ministers, it frees your father up to improve his cultivation."
"That is correct, our trusted ministers require little supervision. They are loyal to us and we to them," she said.
"And in the event this proves otherwise?" Zulong questioned.
"I think you know the answer to that," Gui Daiyu answered with a sinister tone. Zulong nodded in acceptance. It would seem that the dragon needed to reevaluate the turtles.
"Civilization, it is quite impressive," Zulong relented. Sitting beside him, Gui Daiyu smiled triumphantly. Zulong began reflecting on what he'd seen over the tour, on the many signs of cooperation between the masses and their adoration for their ruler.
Suddenly, gut Daiyu jumped up. Zulong turned his attention to the princess as she left him behind. At the construction site, a five hundred metre stone statue had fallen as the floating platform transporting it gave in due to its weight. It was going to hit a group of weak turtles who were transporting materials underneath.
Despite being an important building site, powerful cultivators were not stationed here. Most Immortals were either in the army, cultivating in seclusion, worked as a minister or some other important post that required their expertise.
Gui Daiyu arrived almost instantaneously and caught the statue with her great strength. However she felt the immense weight of the statue and her eyes widened in realization. "Ocean suppression sea stone!" She exclaimed in shock.
It was one of the heaviest substances in the entire world with a unique property of immense weight and extreme sturdiness. It was incredibly impractical to use for forging artefacts because it was such a stable and heavy substance.
Even a crownless Heavenly Immortal like Gui Daiyu struggled beneath the statue. As she was sweating profusely, she felt a huge amount of weight being taken off her. Looking back she saw Zulong lifting the statue with his own incredible physical strength.
"Move out of the way!" Zulong commanded the turtle workers who immediately scrambled away from the construction site. "Gui Daiyu, I'm going to throw it onto the ground on three," he reassured the struggling princess.
In a feat of great physical might, Zulong pushed the top end of the statue up, flipping it back onto its base with a mighty thud. The dragon wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Ocean suppression sea stone on a fucking statue?" He asked, bewildered at the sheer extravagance of such an act.
Though impractical to work with, this material was also very rare in the East Sea. He examined the statue which must've been very difficult to make. He frowned upon getting a closer look.
"Is that supposed to be master?" He asked, pointing at the features he vaguely recognized as his master, if slightly inaccurate. "He's nowhere near as good looking as this statue shows." he declared when the turtles nodded.
"What is going on? Why aren't there Heavenly Immortals or even my father here to supervise if you're going to move a statue made of ocean suppression sea stone?" She demanded in anger.
"Your Highness, a thousand apologies," the head worker kowtowed in fear. "The foreman left in a hurry after receiving a royal decree but we also had a deadline to meet. If the temple for the Great Saint of Yingzhou is not completed, I'm afraid there will be repercussions."
"I don't think he cares about that at all," Zulong said, though this was largely ignored amidst Gui Daiyu's furious speech
"I'll talk to my father then. If that statue had fallen, a lot of damage would've been done. Being crushed would only be the beginning."
"And now I question your intelligence in making a decoration of all things out of such a material," Zulong chuckled in amusement.
In the end, Zulong stayed to help Gui Daiyu out in managing the construction site. In the meanwhile, the workers around them only stared in bewilderment at the banter between the two.