Chapter 115: Match

In the following time, the Sea Dragon Gang unexpectedly rose again and took control of over half of Xinlu Port’s territory. Just when everyone thought they would gradually take over the Hundred Families Association’s areas, they stopped fighting the Hundred Families Association. The gang distribution in all of Xinlu Port reached a state of balance.

This was exactly the outcome Qingyue Qiu had hoped to see.

The rules of the Sea Dragon Gang also changed. Not only did they reduce their members, but they also greatly decreased things like taking cuts and giving tributes. Compared to a gang, it became more like some kind of transportation company.

From then on, the Sea Dragon Gang slowly extended its reach to various places like the New Continent and the Central Plains, collecting all the information Zuo Zhicheng was interested in.

…

Late at night, Zuo Zhicheng sat in front of the experiment table in the underground base, fiddling with various bottles and jars on the table.

Months had passed without him noticing. During these months, besides handling matters related to the martial arts school and the gang, Zuo Zhicheng spent most of his time practicing Martial Arts and Dao Arts. Every day, he consumed Psychic Energy Fruit.

Because of the Psychic Energy Fruit, his Innate Primordial Breath grew very fast. The third evolution’s orange Innate Primordial Breath now made up 34% of the total. Clearly, the more the Innate Primordial Breath evolved, the slower its growth and the efficiency of his Physique Strength training became.

As for his Dao Arts training, the Life Grove had broken through the limits of the entire eyeball. This organ, similar to a nerve cluster, started from Zuo Zhicheng’s left eye and was spreading throughout his whole body. When this stage of training was completed, the Dao Arts practice would reach the Leakless state.

He could clearly feel silver threads growing out from his left eyeball, spreading across his entire body. Because of these threads, the parts of his body they spread to also began to absorb Light Energy.

By this point, even if Zuo Zhicheng had no experience in Dao Arts training, he knew that his reborn Life Grove was definitely not ordinary. This training speed was far beyond that of a normal person’s Life Grove. Not only was the training speed extraordinary, but its efficiency in containing, absorbing Light Energy, and releasing Dao Arts far exceeded the records in the Daoist Canon.

However, he had never been able to study the peculiarities of his left eye. Since no defects had appeared so far, he could only let it be.

As for his Spirit Refining training, after understanding the insights into the Human Aspect gained from the killings in the Underground Palace, his state of Heart Mind had entered an indescribable feeling.

This was precisely why throughout history, achieving Grand Completion of Qi Training was simple, but those who reached the three levels of Self Aspect, Human Aspect, and Dharma Aspect were very few.

The cultivation of this Power of Mind and Spirit was often hard to describe with words; it was entirely a personal understanding of one’s own character, emotions, and perceptions of the world, reality, and nature.

Zuo Zhicheng started with killing intent and the will to kill. After several months of contemplation, he was now infinitely close to the Human Aspect realm.

‘Once I finish this task at hand, it will be time to go out for a walk.’ At this stage, Zuo Zhicheng felt restless after being still for too long and planned to go out to find an opportunity to break through to the Human Aspect. Then he would return to finish the remaining Psychic Energy Fruit and prepare to join the Shadow Corps in eliminating the Underworld King Snake in the Underground Palace to seize the remaining Psychic Energy Fruit and tree.

However, according to Qingyue Qiu, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was sparse now, and the growth of Spiritual Energy Food had slowed down significantly. Perhaps after they finished all the Psychic Energy Fruit in the Underground Palace, a new batch might not have grown yet.

If they wanted Spiritual Energy Food then, they would have to find other sources.

But that was a matter for the distant future. For now, Zuo Zhicheng still needed to finish his current task and then go out to find an opportunity to break through to the Human Aspect. What he called an opportunity was naturally killing people, killing many people. For this, he had collected a lot of information to identify targets, waiting only to finish this task before setting out.

As for the task he was currently handling, it was related to the Sea Dragon Gang. After his reforms, the Sea Dragon Gang became a half-legitimate, half-illegal organization. Although it could still survive due to his presence and the secret support of the Shadow Corps, the reduced benefits from the reforms and the huge costs of setting up the intelligence network meant the Sea Dragon Gang was gradually spending more than it earned.

So what Zuo Zhicheng needed to do now was create some profits for the Sea Dragon Gang. His choice was to make Matches.

Matches, in the previous life on Earth, became truly practical only after thousands of years of invention and improvement. Before that, due to reasons like rare materials, toxicity, and inconvenience, they could not be used on a large scale.

The history of matches in this world was similar. Currently, the people of Great Qi mainly used flint and firestones for ignition. What were called matches were mostly just fire-starting aids. Real matches that could ignite through friction, because their materials were toxic, were used by only a few people.

What Zuo Zhicheng wanted to do, knowing the principles, was to find the necessary materials and create the formula for safety matches. In this era where fire was widely used and needed by every household, once the Sea Dragon Gang started selling these safety matches, it could surely generate huge profits.

After all, current firestones, flint, fire starters, and fire drills were far inferior to matches in convenience. Yet current matches had drawbacks like toxicity, rarity, and being prone to spontaneous combustion and explosion due to their chemical composition.

The components of safety matches mainly consisted of an oxidizing agent, combustible material, and binder. The friction strip on the matchbox relied on red phosphorus, antimony trisulfide, and a binder. The difference from the current matches in this world was that the red phosphorus and oxidizing agent were separated, making them safer. The chemicals used were also non-toxic.

After this period of research and searching, Zuo Zhicheng had basically completed the development of the safety match formula. However, the Sea Dragon Gang’s development was just starting, so Zuo Zhicheng decided to share this formula with Qingyue Qiu of the Shadow Corps to ensure stable profits.

A few hours later, Zuo Zhicheng looked at the formula on the paper and the steps for making safety matches. He sighed; it was finally done. Next, he just needed to give this to the Shadow Corps and the Sea Dragon Gang. At least for the next few years, he wouldn’t have to worry about the funding for the intelligence network.

As for the specific operations, management, and sales, Zuo Zhicheng didn’t want to spend much time on them. The reason the intelligence network and the gang existed was solely to further enhance his strength. If matters related to the gang and martial arts school took up too much of his training time and slowed down his progress in becoming stronger, that would truly be a loss for him.

Especially after seeing the information about Shen Zong and understanding the level of personal power one could achieve in this world, Zuo Zhicheng looked forward to it even more.

Dao Arts and Martial Arts had become his greatest pursuits now.

Now that the match matter was finished, it was time for Zuo Zhicheng to break through to the Human Aspect.