Huoran reached the meeting room and entered, greeting the ministers inside as he sat down in his chair. They returned the greeting, and after a few minutes of small discussion, he cleared his throat to signify the start of the meeting. "Everyone, It's nice to be home and from my stroll this morning, everyone is doing well it seems", Huoran started the meeting, "This morning I checked on the weavers, and saw large bolts of cotton, wool, hemp, and silk. I inspected each of them and found everything is satisfactory, so we should be able to start training tailors now. Also the paper and scroll making department has been able to produce cheap paper, but also high quality paper and skins that will be perfect for talisman making. Minister Fu, I predict you will be very busy in the upcoming days."
"That's what I want to hear, Boss Wei", Fu Kai responded, "I know my department has been awaiting this opportunity."
"Excellent, please in numerical order, start the reports since the last meeting", Huoran said.
Starting from the first ministry, each minister briefed Huoran on the current status of their department. Afterwards they would ask a few questions and he would provide some guidance. After the seventh minister completed her report, Huoran smiled, "Only a few issues, but I can see you are all doing well in your positions. I have a few announcements to make as well, some pertain to here and others to outside the island. First, in a few more days, I believe that the first Qi realm pod or QR pod for short, will be completed. If everything goes as planned, once it operates flawlessly, I'll be using it to begin training for every profession, combat training, and some fun activities as well. Second, the cultivator evaluation artifact is almost complete and once put in service, will be used in multiple ways. We will use it to produce identification for all citizens of the island, as well as, evaluate cultivators. The results of this evaluation will allow the instructors and the cultivation center to develop a custom training program for each person. Now for news from outside, a year from now a secret realm is rumored to open in between Tang Mountain and White Tiger city. I plan on taking some time to go investigate it, as I believe it will help me find a way to make our own realms here to use for more efficient farmlands. Of course three years from now, we will get our first visitors from the Mountains and Rivers Sect. And a year after that, a large tournament is supposed to be held for second rate guilds recruiting disciples in the area."
Minister Ye asked, "Boss Wei, with the last group of people you've brought, our numbers reach over ten thousand now, but I don't believe we have enough work for everyone. Do you have a plan for this?"
"Yes, I do, I'm aware about the amount of residents we have now and we will definitely need them", Huoran told the ministers and continued, "Another thing I observed was that a large number of people will break through to the Qi Gathering stage soon, and as that happens, they will move from their current jobs to new ones. The people leaving will need to start training their replacements now and expect a busy schedule as people move departments. A few of the new training programs involve running businesses and crafting professions, so the departments of commerce and industry need to be ready."
Ministers Song and Fu nodded and then Minister Song asked, "I haven't heard the full plan for my department yet and I'm curious about what it involves?"
Huoran thought for a moment and then proceeded, "My apologies Minister Song, you're correct, I've been so busy that I haven't taken the time to explain. I'll give you an overview now and send you the detailed overview later. We provide three levels of products and services here when people visit. The first level is raw materials, our farms and mines will produce these materials, and most will move on the the second level, but a small amount will be available for direct purchase. This includes anything plant or animal grown or raised here, as well as, ores and minerals mined. The second level is production, and this level is taking materials from the first level, and producing products that will be sold at Market Square. The third level is the service, this will include hotels, cultivation centers, entertainment facilities such as the cinema, but this level requires people. They will greet guest, answers questions, provide information and items, clean, and take money from the guests. Your job will also involve coins and goods, which will be done in different facilities including a new one I call a bank. Before you ask more questions, I'll email the documents to you and we can discuss later. For now I need to return to the workshop to finish the projects I spoke about."
Soon after Huoran concluded the meeting, and returned to the artifact refinement floor. He had been spending most of his time in simulation space trying to perfect the QR pod, but even now the correct refinement and arrangement of runes eluded him. Spending the rest of the day without success, he returned to his home and ate a large dinner. Afterwords he went to his mediation room, activated the spirit gathering array and cleared his mind. As he sat there he thought about the process of cultivating at this realm, as the name suggested, Qi is gathered by cultivator and stored in his dantian. Just like air, Qi could be compressed, and when enough Qi was compress in the dantian, the gaseous Qi would convert to a liquid state. Once the cultivator had compressed enough Qi to a liquid state, the body would undergo the next phase breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage. With the amount of Qi he had absorbed since entering this stage, most cultivators would have broken through already but since he had such an odd body constitution, he had to have equal levels of each elemental Qi. After an hour of cultivating, a surge began to stir inside him and he felt a rush of Qi rapidly increasing around him. All the liquified Qi began merging into his body, and he felt as his body was evolving in strength and comprehension of the elements around him. The environment around his cave became erratic and many of first people to reach the Body Perfecting realm felt their bottlenecks loosen and they ran to their homes to attempt breakthroughs as well. As Wei Huoran completed his breakthrough, he took a few minutes to evaluate himself and was amazed by the new feeling of strength. His body just felt different, it was as if the Qi merged into ever cell and transformed him. He felt his vitality was stronger than ever and theorized that if there were no issues, he would live longer than before.
'Congratulations on your promotion to the next realm', Quanliyuan said, 'but I'm not sure how this is possible. From my understanding of the Grand Array, there is a powerful array formation in it that suppresses everything here to the level of Qi Gathering stage. You seem to be able to just ignore formations.'
'I have many scrolls, manuals, and artifacts to study now that I promoted', Huoran thought, 'If only I could find an artifact like you to study to understand how your simulation space works…, I'm an idiot, Quanliyuan, is it possible to display your artifact form in sim space?'
'Yes, I believe so', Quanliyuan answered.
'Please display now', Huoran replied.
As he entered sim space he saw an artifact that reminded him a jellyfish, an orb with many tendrils. Some tendrils would interface with different parts of the brain to gather and relay data and as he approached the generated image, he started inspecting it. He found rows upon rows of small runes everywhere, and the combinations and arrangements of the engravings were way above his level. Fainted by what he saw, he began to memorize everything etched into Quanliyuan's body. After memorizing everything, he was exhausted, so he went to bed.
The next morning, he took a few hours in the morning to congratulate all the new Qi Gathering cultivators, and after speaking to them and the ministers, returned to his workshop. For the next four days, he stayed in sim space, analyzing all the runes, arrays, and engravings used for simulation space.