Chapter 505 — The Business Ways of the Xuanmai Sect

"In conclusion, the situation in Frostgate City has largely stabilized. Through propaganda and guidance, along with several effective work-for-relief programs, the administrative officials we sent have won the initial trust of the locals, and the large-scale renovation of the Cathedral District is regarded as the crowning achievement of the 'Heroic Resistance' campaign, earning the praise and support of nearly all the citizens of Luan."

Heidi placed a report before Gao Yang, and as she spoke, an expression of reassurance spread across her face.

"This way, even if diehard loyalists of the old church try to stir up trouble, they will find it hard to make any waves."

Gao Yang leafed through the report before him and nodded slightly. "Good... but we must still guard against embers flaring back to life. Remnants causing trouble in the open are not frightening; it is when they slip into hiding that they become hardest to deal with. Leave that to Amber—the agents of the Military Intelligence Bureau are adept at such matters. By the way, how goes the demolition of the inner city wall over there?"

Heidi thought for a moment. "According to the plan, two-thirds of the walls on the west and east sides of the Cathedral District will each be demolished, and the remaining wall will be kept purely for commemorative and decorative purposes. Demolition of the west wall has already begun—the citizens of Luan are of course supportive, but frankly... Ancestor, is this really necessary?"

"The inner wall of Frostgate City is different from those elsewhere. For centuries, that wall has been more than a wall—it is a symbol, a symbol of the absolute boundary between god and man, of the absolute gulf between the priestly caste and ordinary people. As long as that wall stands, even if we demolish the great cathedral, the 'Cathedral District' in people's hearts will remain a domain forbidden to ordinary folk, and that runs entirely counter to the doctrine of Holy Light preached by the new church," Gao Yang explained patiently. "I know what you are thinking—the inner wall is part of the city's defenses, and demolishing it could weaken Frostgate's ability to respond to disasters. As for that, take a look at this..."

As he spoke, Gao Cen drew a document from the materials at hand and pushed it across the table toward Heidi.

Heidi lowered her head and glanced at it curiously, and at once realized it was a sketch of some large-scale rune array—the details of the runes were not all listed due to space constraints, but on the overall structure diagram, roughly circular in shape, were clearly marked the energy extraction array, resonance zone, functional zone, amplification zone, projection zone, and so on.

"What is this?" Heidi studied the contents of the document closely. "The scale... is this large?!"

"It is the city-grade shield of Boulderhold Fortress," Gao Yang said, lifting the teacup beside him and taking a small sip. "We found the original design drawings of the city shield in the library of Boulderhold Fortress. During the fortress's renovation, the engineers also dug open the foundations and saw the rune array from a hundred years ago—after the materials were brought back, Jenny spent over half a month studying them with her apprentices and assistants, and this is their achievement."

Heidi's eyes went wide at once, and the hand holding the drawings even trembled slightly—for a mage, this was unimaginable wealth!

Though this mage was now almost entirely devoted to city construction and internal affairs...

"A city-grade magical shield is a strategic-level creation... in all of Ansul there are fewer than ten shields of this grade..." Heidi's tone carried disbelief. "The Rune Research Institute... can mass-produce even something like this?!"

"The biggest problems with city-grade shields are energy consumption and stability. Because they consume so much energy, they must be built on natural focal points of magical power; because stability must be ensured, vast quantities of expensive magical materials are consumed. These two points have limited their application, but now Jenny has optimized it on two levels and directly fused the magic net with the base structure of the city-grade shield, which gives it the possibility of mass production," Gao Dai said. "I plan to install the first prototype shield in Mingyuan City, coordinating construction with the large-scale renovation of the Cathedral District. If the results meet expectations, then henceforth every city on Cecil's lands—even every town-level settlement—will have such a shield built."

"Build... build a strategic-grade shield in a town?!" Heidi cried out, and in her mind a torrent of budget figures instantly crackled past; on the spot she was ready to vehemently remonstrate and talk the Xuanmai Sect out of this shocking notion. "Ancestor, you must calm down! This is a giant shield system, not a magical streetlamp..."

The moment she faced a budget problem, the Cecil steward who held the purse strings lost all reason, and she even began grumbling about the Xuanmai Sect the way Rui Bei would—which proved that the Cecil family's stubborn streak was mostly a hereditary factor, only in some it was dominant and in others temporarily recessive...

Looking at Heidi's expression, which was on the verge of dying on the spot, Gao Yang could more or less guess why his eldest granddaughter was so beside herself—Heidi's meltdowns came from no more than two causes, after all: overtime or no money. Seeing that her spirits were still fine and there was no smoky-eye makeup around her eyes, it was most likely no money—so he shook his head. "Don't be so nervous. The cost of Jenny's optimized giant shield is lower than you imagine, and once a large project like this begins, it means the rise of a host of ancillary industries—byproducts of manufacturing shield units, new types of engineering machinery, a great many jobs. In the long run, all of these will become benefits."

"Money only has value when it flows; sitting in the vault it is nothing but ingots..." Heidi thought helplessly of what the Xuanmai Sect had once said to her, then looked at Gao Yang and said with a little hesitation, "Ancestor, in wanting to spread this kind of shield to every town, is there also another reason..."

Gao Yang looked into Heidi's eyes and could not help but marvel inwardly that this great-great-great-...-granddaughter really was a clever one, and her cleverness was not like Rebecca's—she could always keenly find the crux of a problem, which reduced the difficulty of communication considerably (of course, Rebecca sometimes stumbled onto the crux as well, but that blunt little doe was always trying to headbutt the crux). "As you think—the magic tide. We must face it sooner or later."

Heidi let out a breath. As expected, she thought.

The cost of installing such a giant shield system in every city and town-level settlement would be no small sum. Even if, as the Ancestor said, Jenny had already reduced its cost to a level the Duchy of Cecil could bear, it would still be an enormous expense—at this stage, when the duchy's situation had only just stabilized and countless infrastructure projects were waiting to begin, to devote a considerable portion of its construction capacity to this expensive shield with no direct economic output meant only one possibility...

The magic tide could come at any time.

"I understand," Heidi said, bending slightly at the waist and speaking with earnest solemnity. "I will draw up the plans for this."

Looking at Heidi, whose face was as grim as if she were preparing for death, Gao Yang was also pondering.