World Online

by Srtyi

Earth Online – a virtual MMORPG that takes place in the future year of 2190 – a game that everyone will bet their futures on. Set in a map that is ten times the size of real-world Earth, players battle for supremacy in the first game to feature personal adventure, territory construction, and grand warfare. For every death you experience in the game, your level would drop back to 0.

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Read The World Online - Chapter 217 - Lone Peak online free - Light Novel Full

Chapter 217 - Lone Peak

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

In the early morning, facing the morning dew, a squad of riders exited the lord's manor, and went straight towards the Azure dragon gate. As the Qingfu horses stepped onto the green stone floors, there sounded out the clean and crisp clatter of horseshoes.

Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia brought four guards, and were prepared to go towards Qiushui City to the east to look for a suitable place for the sect. After the second city wall was built, to differentiate the gates, each gate was given a different name. The core region's city gates were renamed Azure Dragon Gate to the east, White Tiger Gate to the west, Vermillion Bird Gate to the south, and Black Tortoise Gate to the north. Ouyang Shuo went past the Azure Dragon Gate and passed the Eastern region toward the East gate which was slightly to the north.

Past the East gate, it was the Eastern wilderness. Out of strategic needs, the wild grass and plants were removed and now what remained was an empty and cold plain.

From the East gate, they made an easy straight route towards Shanhai City harbor. Compared to the times of Shanhai Village, the harbor was 20-30 times bigger. Ever since the Advanced Shipyard was moved to Beihai City, the region of water in front of the canyon was all under the jurisdiction of the harbor. As for the harbor, it was run by the Transportation Division. The current Transportation Division officially started taking on the role of modern transportation services.

During the planning, the bridge with linked up the main camp and Qiushui City wasn't built so there were numerous stone resources piled up at both sides. The masons shipped large rocks from the quarry and cut them into smaller pieces before grinding them into rods to use to build the bridge.

After considering that warships needed to go past this river, the design of the bridge was much more complex than the stone arch bridge in the inner city. Based on the architect Wuchi's first draft, the basic cost reached 500 gold.

The hardest part about building a bridge was to build supports for the bridge in the river. The canyon river had the Friendship river and the Qiushui river flowing into it so the water currents were fast and ferocious. Hence, such supports based on olden building standards were really difficult to make.

Ouyang Shuo briefly checked out the progress of the bridge before carrying on, crossing over using the boat at the harbor. The Qiushui City city wall was already built, and from afar it looked like a small city sitting on the plains.

Outside the city were acres after acres of grain land. Early in the morning there were already farmers getting busy.

"Blockhead, what are they doing in the fields? Are they plucking out the seedlings? Didn't they just plant them?" Song Jia couldn't understand their actions.

Ouyang Shuo laughed in amusement. "The farmers are plucking out grass and planting the seedlings. It is very easy for weed and wild grass to grow in the fields. If we don't remove them, they will compete with the grain for space and nutrients and affect the harvest."

"Oh!" Song Jia laughed in embarrassment.

Ouyang Shuo didn't choose to enter Qiushui City, and instead continued south towards the border of the canyon and continued east along the mountain range. In truth, after confirming that Song Jia wanted to build the sect outside of the city, he went to check out the Lianzhou map where there were already clear coordinates.

The difference from the main camp was that on this side of the Qiushui City, they didn't have rocky mountain ranges, but instead a straight forest path, intersecting with the plains to form a unique view. Walking on the plains, there were chances of wild animals like rabbits popping out.

Seeing the wild rabbit, Ouyang Shuo's hunter instincts were piqued as he took out the bow and shot at it. Unfortunately with his basic archery, unless he was lucky, there wasn't a chance for him to hit the nimble rabbit.

The missed arrow made him feel really embarrassed, especially in front of his lover. It turned into rage as he ordered the guards to shoot all the rabbits they met and bring them back to the lord's manor.

Song Jia was giggling at the side, Ouyang Shuo had something that he wasn't good at.

After going around 10 kilometers to the east, Ouyang Shuo signaled for them to stop. He pointed to a mountain peak and asked, "Can you see that mountain in front?"

Song Jia followed Ouyang Shuo's finger only to see amongst the fog the outlines of the mountain and one lone peak. What was more amazing was that the lone peak was like it was punched by a giant and only half the peak was left, narrowing at the middle part of the mountain, forming a giant platform.

"Great, this will be the place." Song Jia was elated.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Let's go and take a look."

"En!" Song Jia couldn't wait.

As no one had visited this place before, there were little tracks of men, and the road up was hard to walk. Ouyang Shuo and his men had no choice but to leave their Qingfu horses at the foot of the mountain and walk up on foot.

The 4 guards wielded the Tang knives and helped to open the road upwards. After walking for 2 hours, they finally reached the platform. Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia also had to rotate their inner strength to reduce their tiredness and fatigue.

The platform was huge, and on first glance it was more than 10 square kilometers, bigger than the Shanhai when it was still a town. Water flowed down from the peak and made a small pond at the foot of the platform, constantly sounding out noises. The water flowed out from the pond onto a small stream on the platform and flowed down it. Under the shine of the sunlight, the water stream formed a rainbow.

Beside the pond was an ancient tree, and on its branches were many unknown birds flying around. Seeing Ouyang Shuo and the others, they weren't afraid and flew up from the tree, circling their heads and chirping.

Song Jia fell in love with the place instantly and muttered, "So beautiful!"

Ouyang Shuo looked around and found that there was no lack of wooden materials. On the platform there was a water source which fruits could be planted. As long as grain was sent up on time, their sect could be self sufficient. As players had storage bags, to transport grain up was very easy.

"Jia Jia, bring Xiaoyue here tomorrow. She is the architectural advisor so ask her to do a basic design of the sect including the road to get down the mountain. After you all settle on the blueprints, I'll arrange for the Construction Division to work on it."

Hearing that Ouyang Shuo had planned everything out for her, Song Jia smiled gently. "Blockhead, you are the best."

"Ok la, sect leader Song, create a name for your future sect."

"Oh ya." Song Jia was instantly excited. "Blockhead, why don't we name it Dream Sword Sect!"

Ouyang Shuo was going to faint. "Your name is Jiaqi Rumeng, the courtyard you stay in is called Dream Pavilion, and now even the sect you want to call it Dream Sword Sect, it really doesn't have any standards."

Song Jia frowned. "Hen, then what would you name it?"

Naming something wasn't hard for Ouyang Shuo. He pondered and instantly thought of one. "It's east of a lone peak and looks upon Shanhai City. Why don't we call it Dongli Sword Sect, what do you think?"

Song Jia said crisply, "Blockhead, I couldn't tell you were so talented! Okay, let's follow your idea and call it Dongli Sword Sect."

As it got close to noon, they had their meal on the mountains. The guards cleaned the wild rabbits at the pond and found some tinder to start a fire for a barbecue.

Ouyang Shuo, who was an adventure mode player in the last life, often ate out in the wilderness and wild rabbit was a common meal. He gleefully showed his skills to Song Jia and barbecued the rabbit till it was crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Eating such a delicious wild rabbit, Song Jia couldn't help but commend it, and the four guards also finished up everything. After that, they didn't wait any longer and went down the mountain.

Going back to the lord's manor, it was already 4 PM.

After two days of promotions, there were many people who registered at the lord's manor. Zisu recorded all of them and announced on the morning of 9th month 1st day that they would have a trial at the lord's manor.

When having dinner, Yingyu mentioned, "Big brother, Er Wazi told me he wants to take a master and he doesn't want to go to the private school; he kept on begging me to talk you you about it, what do you think?"

Er Wazi was brought around by his side at the start, but as time passed, Yingyu became in charge of him. Ever since he went to the private school, his food had been settled by Yingyu.

However Er Wazi was still a member of the lord's manor. During the original household registration, he personally didn't assign him as a farmer and instead kept him in the lord's manor. Now that Er Wazi wanted to give up school to learn martial arts, he naturally needed Ouyang Shuo to agree.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it seemed like his half year of private school wasn't for nothing. At least he learned manners, asking him for permission.

Ouyang Shuo was a very sentimental person and he said to Yingyu, "Since he wants to, I won't stop him, allow him to go under Jia Jia and be a core disciple." Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia as he said it to seek her perspective. She nodded. She definitely had to agree to Ouyang Shuo's request.

Seeing that Ouyang Shuo agreed, Banxia, who was standing at the side had a weird expression on her face.

Yingyu has always treated Er Wazi as her real brother, and hearing him do such planning, she was naturally delighted. Although she wasn't from a martial arts background, she knew the difference between a nominal disciple and a core disciple. A core disciple would be though everything and inherit the entire sect, the choosing requirements were extremely strict.

Ouyang Shuo continued, "That kid could be considered our family. Since he has matured, we cannot keep calling him Er Wazi, we should give him a proper name. Yingyu, since you two are close like brother and sister, I'll leave it to you."

"En." Yingyu nodded and took up the task.

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Chapter 218 - Lord

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

The next morning, Yingyu brought Er Wazi to thank Ouyang Shuo.

"Cui Tianqi sees sire, thank you for adopting me." Er Wazi, who was now Cui Tianqi, respectfully bowed to Ouyang Shuo.

The growth of NPC kids grew faster than in the real world. When Cui Tianqi came to the territory, his skin was tan and he was thin. Although he was already 11-12 years old, as he had little amounts of nutrients, he looked around 8 years old. After only just half a year, as he had gotten enough nutrients, his bones started to grow and in addition to the education at the private school, the once naughty little brat had become a young teen.

Ouyang Shuo told him to stand up before continuing, "Be it studying or practicing martial arts, I'll support you. Since you chose martial arts, you must walk to the end of the path to be a useful person to the territory. Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Cui Tianqi said solemnly.

Ouyang Shuo nodded happily, "Now go greet your master!"

Just as Cui Tianqi was about to bow to Song Jia, she raised her arm and stopped him, he looked confused and didn't know what to do.

Song Jia turned towards Ouyang Shuo and said, "Wuyi, before he calls me his master I also want to teach one of your other people. Is that okay?" At a formal occasion, Song Jia would be like Bai Hua and the rest, and call him by his in game name.

Ouyang Shuo didn't understand what was going on. "Who?"

"Banxia!"

"You want to let Banxia continue to serve you?" Ouyang Shuo could only make such a conjecture. She was busy dealing with the sect, didn't have time to hire a maidservant, and it was Banxia who was serving her.

She shook her head. "I want her to be my core disciple."

Ouyang Shuo frowned, immediately guessing what was happening, his expression changed and he called out in a low tone, "Banxia!"

"Sire!"' She stepped out and bowed in front Of Ouyang Shuo, her face filled with fear and anxiety.

"Say, what's all of this?" Song Jia wouldn't want to take Banxia as her disciple without any reason, so Ouyang Shuo guessed that Banxia must have begged her. Song Jia was too nice and agreed. For such a thing to happen in the lord's manor where rank and power wasn't taken into account, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't accept it.

The atmosphere of the hall instantly became very serious.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo so furious, Banxia was freaked out and tears nearly rolled down from her face. She kowtowed and cried, "Servant is wrong, sire please punish me." Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, Banxia had heard that Song Jia accepted Er Wazi as a core disciple and went to ask Song Jia.

Banxia's village was robbed by a bunch of raiders and she only survived by hiding in the bushes. In the night, she personally witnessed her family being killed by raiders and a seed of hatred was planted in her heart, making her hope that one day she could take revenge.

Coming to Shanhai City and being recruited by Yingyu in the lord's manor, Banxia had quenched the need to take revenge, wanting to lead her life peacefully in the manor. Who would have thought that such a change would happen and that Song Jia would accept disciples, reigniting the hatred in Banxia's heart.

Banxia didn't dare to go and beg Ouyang Shuo, for fear that Ouyang Shuo would reject her. Last night, she took the opportunity when she was serving Song Jia to tell her about her past and beg her to take her as a disciple. Song Jia's heart softened, and seeing that her qualities weren't half bad she agreed and thus went to ask Ouyang Shuo for his permission.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down, wanting to kick her out of the lord's manor. Luckily, Yingyu stood out to calm him down. "Big Brother, seeing that she's immature, let her off this time."

"Yes big brother please give her a chance!" Qing'er pleaded too.

Lastly, even Zisu stood up and kneeled. "Sire please give her a chance."

Banxia was still young and seeing everyone speak up for her she really didn't know what to do. Only then did she know that she made a huge mistake and dragged down everyone, making her even more anxious, looking pitifully at Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo sighed and said, "Banxia didn't do her job and broke the lord's manor's rules. From today onwards she's kicked out and given back her freedom. From today onwards, she cannot use the name of the lord's manor or she won't be spared." Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to give out a punishment, if not how would he lead the lord's manor?

"Thank you sire!" Ouyang Shuo's decision was similar to admitting to allowing Song Jia to accept her as a disciple. Banxia was feeling emotional but also a bit sad as she would no longer be a part of the lord's manor.

The storm passed just like that. Banxia and Cui Tianqi bowed to their new master and became Song Jia's core disciples. As the future big sister and big brother of the Dongli Sword Sect, their futures were limitless.

Getting Banxia as a disciple, Song Jia decided not to hire a maidservant as she already had a disciple to serve on her. Ouyang Shuo also didn't want to hire another one, so only Zisu was left to look after the main courtyard.Gaia first year, 8th month, 25th day

Ouyang Shuo held a territory affairs meeting.

Before all the directors could report, the culture and education secretary Xu Shuda stood out and bowed solemnly to Ouyang Shuo," Sire, our division has a suggestion, please approve it."

"What suggestion?"

"At the moment, the imperial court has tilted sire Lianzhou Marquis. Based on our manners culture, you must be called lord. So calling you 'sire' will have to be stopped and everyone will call you lord; the various workers and civil servants as ministers; the lord's manor must also be renamed Lianzhou Marquis' manor, to stick with tradition." Xu Shuda was following traditional etiquette.

One shouldn't just think of it as a small change, in actuality it represented a change in the nature of the territory. Before being titled a noble, when the lord was reclaiming land in the wilderness or anywhere else, the court didn't give their permission. After becoming a lord, especially being titled a marquis personally by the court, his territory was now official.

Originally all this would be done straight after the title was given. Secretary Xu realized this problem.

Only 2 days after getting the title, the territory was upgraded. He then stayed in Fallen Phoenix Town for three days. Xu Shuda decided that he might as well just raise it at the end of the month meeting.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Fan Zhongyan changed his address and stopped using sire.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Tian Wenjing followed.

"Yes, lord, your subjects agree!" Everyone got up and bowed.

Ouyang Shuo said expressionlessly, "Permission granted!" From today onwards, he was one step closer to being lonely.

After Xu Shuda backed down, the Secretary of Meritorious Services Division stood up. "Lord, ever since the brothel was opened, many officials have started to spend their time to fool around there. How should we deal with such officials?"

Tian Wenjing spoke up. "Minister suggests to investigate and close down the brothel to prevent the problem from spreading." Tian Wenjing wasn't used to being soft and decided strong action was needed.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. "Such a method can't work; it's an entertainment outlet. We can't close it down or be so violent in our actions. if we do, we'll make the commoners angry. On the other hand, secretary Qin is correct, we cannot allow the officials to do their business matters there. Spread the lord's decree: if spotted once, they will be fined 3 months. Twice, they will be suspended, and the third time, they will be sacked."

Ouyang Shuo was curious about the olden brothel and wanted to go take a look, only now the situation didn't permit it. As a lord, he had to set an example. After Song Jia came, he couldn't go to such a place all the more.

"Yes lord!" Qin Shijian backed down.

Tian Wenjing approached once again and bowed down. "Lord, there are new developments with the mountain barbarians."

"Oh? Quick, quick, tell me!" Ouyang Shuo was excited.

"Recently, minister visited several tribes and heard of the same thing. Based on their descriptions, in the deep mountains there's a gigantic bandit mountain stronghold, and they often go down to rob the mountain barbarians. Hearing that we have such a strong military, the leaders of the tribes say that if we could help them destroy the stronghold, then they will be willing to cooperate with us and allow their elite warriors to join the Shanhai army."

"Bandit stronghold?" Ouyang Shuo couldn't understand how a stronghold would cause Tian Wenjing to be so solemn, and based on Shanhai City's military might, they could take it down easily.

"Based on their descriptions, this bunch is crafty and built the stronghold on a dangerous peak. There's only a narrow road up, making it easy to defend and hard to attack. Their numbers are also not small. Although we don't have specifics, it's definitely more than ten thousand people. Hence to take it down, it will definitely not be easy."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. So that was why, it was really not easy. Although Shanhai City's military had huge numbers, more than half were cavalry and sailors. Only around 4000 people could be used to attack the stronghold. With so few people, Ouyang Shuo didn't have confidence.

"First, contact the Military Intelligence Division. Let the mountain barbarians lead them and find out details about the stronghold. Second, persuade them to allow mountain barbarians to come down to class change and form the 3rd regiment. After completing both things, I don't believe we can't even take down a stronghold."

"Yes, lord!"

"Today, the 3rd regiment is still building, and after completing its development, we still need to clear out the raiders. Hence, Director Tian needs to cooperate well with the Military Affairs Department, and not let the mountain barbarian tribes think that Shanhai City are liars. When it's needed, we can send them a batch of grain to show our sincerity." Ouyang Shuo was prepared to play the grain card again. To these mountain barbarians, the grain was a savior.

"Understood, I won't let lord down!" Tian Wenjing had spent a long time building up relationships with the mountain barbarians, and understood their weak spots. With Ouyang Shuo's promise, he was more confident in completing the mission.

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Chapter 219- Chess Player and his Chess Pieces

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

After Tian Wenjing finished his report, the Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang stood up and bowed, "My lord, the thing about investigating the rock caves, the Construction Division has already completed it."

"Oh? Tell me!"

"Yes, lord!" Zhao Dewang reported, "On the south side, from Shanhai City all the way to the borders of the Yongye Forest totals at 25 kilometers. The Construction Division did an investigation, and we found eight dry caves. Out of these dry caves, the wine workshop, the military workshop, and the alchemical fire oil storage has taken up three. Of the remaining five, there are three small dry holes shorter than 10 meters and are only 2 meters deep. The remaining two are large scale dry holes."

After he heard Zhao Dewang's report, Ouyang Shuo finally realized one thing—not even a year had passed, but they had cut down a large portion of Yongye Forest. Based on this rate, they would cut down the whole forest in a few years.

If they really cut all of Yongye Forest down, it would definitely cause a large loss of soil and water, possibly igniting a huge flood from Friendship River. This was a huge threat to Shanhai City. Apart from that, if the territory didn't have the protection of the forest, other natural disasters like sandstorms would cause problems.

Earth online's weather was very realistic. If nothing unexpected happened, Ouyang Shuo's conjecture would come true.

After Zhao Dewang backed down, Ouyang Shuo called for the Material Reserves Department director, "Director Shen Zhui, the Material Reserves Department needs to have a plan and can't start cutting all the trees down. You should try to only cut down the large trees and leave all the small trees. Also, don't destroy the roots of this forest. Apart from that, we must prohibit commoners from logging themselves. At the same time, when adjusting wood supplies, use more from Qiushui City as the wood resources there are more vast."

Although Shen Zhui was flexible, he was a person from ancient times after all. How could he understand Ouyang Shuo's modern ideas of environmental conservation and sustainable development? He could only agree and follow the plan.

After this, Ouyang Shuo looked at Yingyu, "Director Cui, the Financial Department needs to work with the Auditing Division to strengthen the inspection of all branches and their transactions. It would be best if you could send someone to take a look at the books every month. At the same time, work with the Meritorious Service Division to assess the various managers and workers at the branches."

The Four Seas Bank was the core tool for Ouyang Shuo's ambition. Naturally, he would be more than careful with it. The branch at Mulan Town was still okay as manager Yang Yun was an old citizen of Shanhai City, so he had gained Ouyang Shuo's trust. The Financial Department had directly assigned the ones sent to Black Tiger Town, Xunlong Town, and Fallen Phoenix City, so Ouyang Shuo didn't know them well. Hence, he wanted to use this meeting to remind Yingyu of the level of importance he placed on it.

"Yes, lord!" Yingyu cared even more about the branches than Ouyang Shuo. If something happens to the Four Seas Bank, she would be the first one responsible as the director of the Financial Department.

After they all finished reporting, Ouyang Shuo ended the meeting.In the afternoon, little aunt Lin Jing helped Ouyang Shuo buy building blueprints and came to Shanhai City once again. This time, she didn't come alone. She had brought a small group of 30, which were the core members of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group.

The blueprints were the secondary reason for Lin Jing's trip here. Her main reason was to see her nephew and niece, and also discuss the cooperation between the group and Shanhai City.

As the Bow and Crossbow Division and the Armory Division slowly got onto the right path, Shanhai City's army had changed their equipment, and the armory had accumulated a lot of silver-ranked and below weapons such as bows, spears, knives, leather armor, and more. These items filled the armory to the brim, but the Material Affairs Department still arranged some people to maintain this equipment.

This batch of equipment was obtained from the raiders, some from when they attacked the city, some from when the soldiers changed class, so they had a huge quantity of equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was contemplating something. Rather than letting this batch of equipment gather dust, why not ask the mercenary group to sell them to rookie players? This batch of players had entered the game for three months and had earned some money to buy such equipment. To the Shanhai City military, this equipment were backward and useless, but to these new players, they were high-class and advanced.

Ouyang Shuo sent his plans for cooperation over to little aunt, and both of them agreed instantly, which was why little aunt had made her way to Shanhai City. As the number of weapons were really too many, little aunt had to bring the 30 core members with the largest storage bags to help smuggle the equipment.

Ouyang Shuo was going to give the Snow-War Rose mercenary group 20% of the profit from selling the equipment. Which meant that the higher the price they sold the equipment for, the higher the profits, which was the same as retailers in society. Also, this wasn't a one-off deal, as the Snow-War Rose mercenary group would sell the other backward items and equipment from Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo also allowed them to manage the remaining profits, and he asked them to set up a small courtyard in the nine imperial cities to be the offices of Shanhai City. Thes offices would help them to recruit talents. Apart from work occupation players, they would also be in charge of recruiting NPC talents that weren't doing too well in the capital city.

As Shanhai City's fame and reputation rose, it gained some fame amongst NPC groups, and it wouldn't be too far off to call that name widespread. Hence, there was a chance for them to hire such NPCs.

Apart from that, as the number of battles increased, more and more historical figures would enter the game. Moreover, these historical figures would most probably enter through the various system imperial cities. Hence to recruit them, he must reveal his sign. If not, even if they wanted to join, they wouldn't have a way to do so.

The Yanhuang Alliance had held a strong animosity toward the Shanhai Alliance since their inception. As such, Ouyang Shuo had decided to change his low profile methods and started to use the fame of Shanhai City to recruit talents.

The Chinese had always focused on balance. Shanhai City had acted conservatively, like a locked up nation. Although Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in building up a secretive image that helped him avoid problems in real life, he also had lost the chance of gaining many talents.

During the current galactic migration, everyone was online. Not only was everyone safe from dangers, but everyone was experiencing a life refresh. Since Ouyang Shuo wanted to fulfill his ambitions and rule planet Hope, he could only continue in such a manner. He had to expose himself and confidently make contact with other players to gain their support.

In his last life, Ouyang Shuo was betrayed by another. However, he couldn't grow fearful and wary of all players and not trust anyone because of that incident.

Imagine a chess player that didn't even dare to touch a chess piece. Wouldn't that be amusing?

If it were like that, even if Ouyang Shuo made use of the advantages of his reincarnation and made Shanhai City prosperous, he would still have the viewpoint of a small commoner. He wouldn't gain enough training. When he returned to the real world, he would definitely still face walls and troubles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to learn the lessons from his past life. He would not trust anyone easily, would not reveal all his cards to someone, and would never forget that people were greedy.

Players were chess pieces that moved in accordance to Ouyang Shuo's will.

As long as Ouyang Shuo raised his awareness, he wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Greed wasn't fearful, what was fearful was uncontrollable greed.

In the game, there were many elite players that wished to move over to Shanhai City. As for territories like Handan City, the core members were already set in stone, so normal players would lose the chance to gain trust and be greatly utilized. On the other hand, Shanhai City was a clean slate and was a better place for them to show their abilities.

The dangerous part about recruiting talents was the chances of spies infiltrating.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't afraid of them joining and revealing things about the city. Be it the east region military workshops, the military factory in the mountains, the mines, or the saltpans, they were all considered prohibited regions and were carefully monitored, so normal players couldn't even enter it.

Shanhai City's higher ups would remain NPCs, even Wuchi and Jiu Duanxian were only doing specific jobs. They weren't considered part of the management level of the territory.

Hence, Shanhai City had already built a perfect system that wasn't easily infiltrated.

Ouyang Shuo brought little aunt to see the Shanhai City Armory. When the guards opened the gate, they revealed an armory filled with neatly placed bows, swords, and armors, which made the members of the Snow-War Rose mercenary group feel a little dizzy.

"Oh my god, little Shuo. You are simply wasting such good things, so many weapons and equipment gathering dust. If players knew this, they would definitely scold you."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he couldn't rebut her because she was his little aunt.

Little aunt ordered the members to store all the equipment and make a list to check with the Military Affairs Department officials. After they ensured that everything was in order, they would place it in their storage bags. As for herself, she went into the elite area to pick equipment. Ouyang Shuo told little aunt that he would give her a set for free, so she obviously wouldn't let this chance go to waste.

Lin Jing only spent a day in Shanhai City. After, a casual conversation with Song Jia, she left with almost half of the armory to Jianye.

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Chapter 220 - Fuse

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Before Lin Jing left, she passed the blueprints of the basic buildings to Ouyang Shuo. She had bought these for three thousand gold.

Ouyang Shuo passed the blueprints over to clerk Bai Nanpu. He asked Bai Nanpu to pass these blueprints to the Construction Division and rush them to quickly build it. Based on the plans, they would build the Confucian Temple and Martial Temple beside the Yellow Emperor Temple. As for the clock and drum tower, they would build it in front of the black turtle gate, south of the commerce street, and the riverside of the inner city river would be its east and west sides.

8th month, 26th day. After two months of construction, they finally completed Xinan University. Ouyang Shuo led a group of officials to join the unveiling ceremony.

Compared to Ouyang Shuo's original design, Xu Shuda's advised him to place the grade 2 city basic building chess courtyard in the university, and it became the 4th college.

Ouyang Shuo pointed out during the unveiling ceremony that the motto of Xinan University was inclusivity and diversity. The future Xinan University had to produce many leaders and become the sacred grounds of learning.

After the unveiling ceremony, Xu Shuda accompanied Ouyang Shuo to visit Jiang Shang.

After Fan Zhongyan and Xu Shuda's persuasion, Jiang Shang had finally agreed to settle down in Xinan College. At the same time, he rejected the position of dean of the economics college.

It was autumn. Viridescent leaves filled the trees in the college and the birds chirped. At the northwest corner of Xinan University, there was a small man-made lake called moon lake. The lake water was from the inner city river that was separated from one wall. The lake had a small island in the center that was called Fallen Star Island. Jiang Shang had secluded himself here.

The Fallen Star Island wasn't connected to the outside. As such, you could only ride on a raft to reach the island. The raft gracefully drifted left and right. Through the clear lake water, one could see the fish that swam within.

As a thin rain drizzled from the sky, the water droplets fell onto the leaves.

Jiang Shang was already 80 odd years old. The Culture and Education Division had arranged two servants to serve by his side and take care of him. They helped him open a vegetable garden on the island to grow vegetables and fruits as well as rear poultry. To the ducks and geese, the moon lake was the best living environment.

After Ouyang Shuo arrived on shore, he looked around. The surroundings were graceful, but there weren't any carved columns, expensive trees, or flowers. A row of short thatched houses was built in the middle of the island. Before the houses were a row of fences that enclosed the area into a little courtyard. On the empty ground was a vegetable farm where various vegetables and fruits were grown, and some had even sprouted. Beside the small courtyard was a bamboo forest. As the wind blew over it, the crisp sound of bamboo rang in the air.

On the other side of the courtyard was a well, and beside it was a stone less than half a meter high. It looked very shiny and smooth. The servants introduced it as a place that Jiang Shang would sit on to read.

Jiang Shang was wearing a grass cape, as he fished next to the lake. Beside him, his little fish net was empty. He hadn't gotten anything. Ouyang Shuo wondered if he was playing a similar game to "Jiang Taigong is fishing, those that are willing will get hooked."

"Taigong, lord is here to see you." Xu Shuda opened his mouth.

Jiang Shang didn't react. He only turned around and made a hush motion toward Xu Shuda. Jian Shen was telling him to keep quiet and not scare away the fish that he was trying to catch. Xu Shuda was helpless, and he could only stand beside the lord and wait patiently.

The servant was smart and brought out a small stool for the lord to sit on.

They waited an entire morning. The downpour grew heavier and heavier, but Jiang Shang still didn't move. He didn't say anything. He just held his fishing rod for the entire morning and didn't even changed the bait.

Ouyang Shuo was helpless, as he knew that Jiang Shang was such a stubborn person. So, he could only leave, "Taigong, after coming without informing you, Wuyi will now leave. I'll come again next time."

Just when Ouyang Shuo was about to leave, Jiang Shang suddenly opened his mouth, "Lord, you already killed Wuwang during the Battle of Muye, right?"

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, but he calmly said, "Taigong why do you say such a thing?"

When you came back, I saw the lord's guards riding on warhorses. Weirdly, your guards weren't at your side during the interception. There is only one explanation—they were sent to intercept Wuwang," Jiang Shang's analytical skills were really terrifying.

Since Jian Shang found out, Ouyang Shuo had to speak the truth, "That's right, the guards killed Wuwang, and his head was sent to Di Xin. If because of that, Taigong wants to be a hermit and hole yourself up, I have else nothing to say. Farewell!" From this moment, Ouyang Shuo had given up on asking Jiang Shang to come out and assist him. He was a lord and was a Lianzhou Marquis. He would do things based on his principles, and he wouldn't change because of one person.

"Haih!" Jiang Shang exhaled a long sigh.

8th month, 28th day. Under the persuasion of the Internal Affairs Director Tian Wenjing, the mountain barbarian tribes had agreed to Ouyang Shuo's conditions. They sent one thousand men down the mountains to join the Shanhai City army.

One thousand mountain barbarian warriors were sent to the 1st and 2nd unit of the 3rd regiment. After the third regiment was built, they started to attack the raider camps in the east under the charge of Colonel E'Lai. They wanted to destroy all these raider camps within a week.

At this moment, they had almost finished the raider operation to the west. Moreover, they had destroyed all the territories near Shanhai City. The 1st regiment's troops were pointing at Yongye Town of the Sky Blade Alliance.

Yongye Town's lord freaked out. He panicked and pleaded to the Sky Blade Alliance, seeking their help to defend his territory and fend off Shanhai City's attack.

After they received Heise Pifeng's distress signal, leader Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue called out to the others. Apart from Guangshui Town that was busy defending itself, the other allies headed to assist Yongye Town.

Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue brought 500 troops each, while Gushan Town and Yishui Town brought 300 each. After accounting for Yongye Town's own troops, they had a total of 2,100 soldiers.

Sky Blade Alliance had just moved their men and was set on having a battle to the death with Shanhai City. Suddenly, Shi Wanshui received a retreat call and helplessly brought back the 1st regiment.

As the territory expanded, the position of the city's west camp continued to expand toward the west. As they cleared the raider camps in the west, the city's west camp moved west again. Now, it was set on a small hill just 10 kilometers away from the edge of the territory.

Ouyang Shuo chose to retreat, as he obviously had his considerations.

The Sky Blade Alliance would have high morale if Ouyang Shuo chose to fight at this moment. If he wasn't careful, the two leaders Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue would use victory to solidify the alliance's goals and hearts. Based on the strength of the 1st regiment and their limited siege weapons, it was really difficult for them to take down the built up Yongye Town. Even if they did, there would suffer heavy casualties, which didn't fit his strategic mindset.

On the other hand, if he chose to surround them and not attack, the Sky Blade Alliance would not choose to take the initiative to advance. As time went on, the alliance troops would be unable to stay in the long term. They would definitely panic if he dragged out things for a longer period of time.

The time wasn't right. Ouyang Shuo was still waiting for the Combat Logistics Division to build ladders. He was also waiting for the 3rd regiment to finish the east camps and finish training the new troops.

After the raider operation, Ouyang Shuo's goal was still to attack the mountain bandit stronghold to help solve this problem for the mountain barbarians. Additionally, this would allow him to get more of the barbarians to move down the mountain.

8th month, 29th day, Yongye Town.

"Shanhai City has retreated. What should we do?" said the lord of Gushan Town.

Yishui Lord Ruoshui Qianxin panicked. Her territory was very close to the east of Shanhai City, so she was afraid of being sneak attacked, "Since they have already retreated, we should go back."

"No!" Heise Pifeng freaked out, "Once you all leave, what if they attack? I'm sure that is his plan."

"But we can't all sit here and waste time. Why don't we go out and fight with them?" Dengtai Baifang didn't like doing nothing, and he hated feeling cooped up.

Ba Dao frowned and looked at Xiaofeng Canyue, "What do you think?"

"Based on our troops strength, if we give up the advantage of the city wall, we would definitely lose. It's not like all of you haven't seen the strength of their famous army. Their heavy armored infantry were directly opposite to us," Xiaofeng Canyue said helplessly.

Ba Dao nodded, "You're right. However, his considerations are valid. If we just sit here and wait, Shanhai will pick us off one by one in the end."

"Since that's that case, we can only request for assistance," Xiaofeng Canyue was looking very serious, "The Yanhuang Alliance are enemies with them. If we can get Di Chen to help us, Shanhai City wouldn't be a problem."

These words shocked Ba Dao, and he spat out, "No, that would be inviting a wolf into our house. They aren't a charitable organization. It's easy to invite them, but it's hard to ask them to leave. Aren't you afraid that they'll attack us from within?"

"I also think that it's not suitable," Ruoshui Sanqian and Dengtai Baijiang agreed with one another.

No one noticed that Heise Pifeng appeared out of sorts at the side, as an evil light flashed through his eyes. He was a cruel person. Now that his territory was in danger, even if it meant inviting a wolf in, he would do so. Heise Pifeng had already made a choice. Even if the alliance didn't accept it, he would contact Di Chen on his own.

Xiaofeng Canyue was frustrated, "This can't be done, that can't be done. Ba Dao, so what should we do?"

In this moment, the atmosphere was very tense and depressed.

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Chapter 221- Leading the Wolf into the Room

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

After the discussion, the members of the Sky Blade Alliance all left unhappily and brought their various troops back to their territories.

This result forced Heise Pifeng up the cliff. He had no choice but to directly write a letter over to Di Chen. He promised that as long as Di Chen was willing to help, Yongye Town would become a vassal of Handan.

Handan City, lord's manor.

Di Chen passed Heise Pifeng's letter over to Fenghua Juedai and asked, "So, what do you think?"

Fenghua Juedai took the letter and scanned through it, "This lord's motives are obvious. He wants to use us to protect his base."

"That's right, but this is also a chance for us. A chance to lock up Shanhai City, right? As long as we nail down this nail, we will gain control over future events," Di Chen had seen through everything.

"The situation isn't clear, and it isn't easy to make a move. If we provoke a lion, we must have confidence in killing it. If not, it might retaliate and bite us—even swallow us."

Di Chen frowned, "Your idea is to join up with the rest of the Yanhuang Alliance and work together?" The military power of Handan City was definitely not enough to go against Shanhai City, let alone destroy it. As for Yongye Town, it was not even part of his considerations.

Fenghua Juedai shook her head and said, "No, if we use the strength of the Yanhuang Alliance, this could turn into a large scale war between their alliance and ours. Now is not the right time to have a full-scale confrontation with the Shanhai Alliance. We should only fight when the time is right. If we fight now, only the smaller territories will benefit."

"Then, what is your idea?" Di Chen couldn't understand.

"It's very simple. We can't show ourselves in this, so we need to let another person go ahead."

"Sha Pojun?"

"That's right! He has already developed a deep hatred toward Qiyue Wuyi. If we let Heise Pifeng meet up with Sha Pojun, they will immediately click. With this, Handan City will be totally uninvolved, and we will remain unaffected whether they succeed or fail. If it succeeds, it's naturally a happy thing. But if it fails, we could take the chance to understand their strengths." Fenghua Juedai's tactic of using another to kill her target was incredibly scheming.

"Amazing!" Di Chen was delighted, "We still need to plan the specifics so that it will be enough to hurt that Qiyue Wuyi."

Fenghua Juedai kept quiet and didn't say anything.

8th month, 30th day. Shanhai City collected 8,500 gold in the latter half of the month. In addition to the 4,500 gold that the 1st regiment acquired from raider camps, and the deduction of the class change costs, Shanhai gained a total of 11,500 gold. The Financial Department sent an official to bring four thousand gold to rush to Tianshuang Town and build the Four Seas Bank branch.

Ouyang Shuo kept a thousand gold and passed the remaining 6,500 to the Financial Department. As various projects came to an end, the construction costs would have to be paid on time. The sum that he passed to the Financial Department was totally not enough. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the east raider operation to acquire another sum to pass to the Financial Department.

Based on the final calculations, it cost 2,000 gold to build Xinan University, the five bridges cost 500 in total, and the inner city roads also cost a large sum. Even though these roads weren't completed, the invested amount wouldn't be less than five thousand gold. As for the big bridge that connected Shanhai City, Qiushui City, and Friendship City, it cost 1,500 gold.

As the profits from the wine workshop and the colored silkworms increased, the profits grew more and more optimistic. Every month, it already brought in 500 gold. The Four Seas Bank interests rates were also rising, and the monetary help they needed had lessened. If not for that, the profits from the mine and the saltpans alone could never sustain the expansion and growth of the territory.

This round of Shanhai City's basic buildings cost over 10 thousand gold in construction fees. Ouyang Shuo also wanted to start the plans on the outer city roads after the inner city structures were completed. The building of the roads was a bottomless pit, so this wasn't something a normal territory could afford.

Gaia first year, 9th month, 1st day. It was the start of the school season.

"World Notification: the holidays are over, and classes are officially opened. Kids of age can choose whether or not to go to school. They can freely choose their standard and when they go to school, as well as the subjects they will take. Each subject will have tests and marks will be given. The grades will affect their achievement value. As for the specifics, players need to explore for themselves."

In reality, their bodies were frozen, which was similar to time being stopped. Even if players weren't willing to go to school, it wouldn't affect their learning. Hence, the federal government didn't force the students to go to lessons in the game. And from primary school all the way to university, grades would be used to separate students. Thus, they had a huge freedom of choice.

The virtual classes were similar to quest spaces, except time flowed at the same rate as the real map.

Ouyang Shuo had already planned out Bing'er's learning quests. In the morning, she would learn science and cultural knowledge; in the afternoon, Mr. You would teach her Sinology in the lord's manor. He realized that this little brat was slightly rebellious, so he needed to keep her in check. If not she would grow a lot worst.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect Bing'er to have great achievements when she grew up. He let her learn Sinology to help her develop good values and culture, shaping her into an upright person.

On the same day, Song Jia selected 500 nominal disciples from the 1,000 people that signed up. The design of the Dongli Sword Sect was already completed, and the Construction Division had already sent people to start working on it. The uneven mountain roads added a lot of difficulty to the project. Zhao Dewang predicted that it would take at least a month to complete.

Helplessly, Song Jia could only use a large courtyard in the official residence area to house the 500 nominal disciples and teach them the sect's techniques.

Song Jia looked really scary when she became serious. This lady took charge of everything that had to do with the sect, and everything had to go through her.

Apart from the sect grounds, there were also other issues to settle when building a sect. Firstly, sect ranks and standards must be set up. Uniforms must be designed based on their positions. Secondly, a set of weapons must be made for the disciples, mainly swords and knives, but also hidden weapons.

Most importantly, the future income source of the sect must be solved. Their daily expenses and the costs for weapons and uniforms all required large amounts of money. Especially weapons, a good exquisite iron sword cost 3 gold. Since Song Jia 500 had nominal disciples, each one having a sword would mean 1,500 gold.

The sects of old would have vast quantities of farmland at the bottom of their mountains, which they would utilize to earn money through agriculture. Alternatively, they would have their junior disciples run hotels, inns, or brothels in the city; or they would sell salt or transport goods—all profitable businesses. They could also be a beggar sect and ask the lower ranked disciples to beg for money, resulting in a sizeable income. The worst case was for them to do some robbing to earn money.

What about Dongli Sect? The bottom of the lone peak could be reclaimed as farmland, but no farmer would be willing to do so. As Shanhai City had large amounts of arable land waiting to be reclaimed, unless their brains had a problem, they would not go and be a tenant and rent a piece of farmland under the Dongli Sect. If one talked about shops, most shops in Shanhai City already had owners, and it was hard to get into businesses. Furthermore, they needed talent and money to run a shop, neither of which the sect had. As for transporting and selling salt, the authorities handle both of these, and Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make an exception even for Song Jia.

Thanks to the current situation, Song Jia finally realized that it was tough to run a sect. Helplessly, she could only take 1,000 gold away from Ouyang Shuo.

Song Jia was from the Song Family Financial group, so she had a mind for business.

She knew that she couldn't randomly spend the 1,000 gold, and she couldn't just ask Ouyang Shuo for money every time she needed it. He had given her the secret manual, he had chosen the sect location, and even the recruiting of members used the name of the lord's manor. His city's Construction Division had built her sect, and he had paid the fees. If this continued, she wouldn't be helping him. Instead, she would be causing problems for him.

After she pondered for awhile, Song Jia thought of a good idea.

As the Chinese said, if you face a mountain, you depend on the mountain; if you face the water, you depend on the water.

To earn money, she had to make use of the lone peak—other ideas were not dependable. The lone peak platform was a pleasant environment to grow herbs, and there were suitable spots for both herbs that liked the sun or the darkness. If they could build a medicine garden, it could let the money roll in.

As for the sales of the medicine, the Medical Department wouldn't reject them.

After Ouyang Shuo heard Song Jia's idea, he was very supportive. He personally brought her to greet Dr.Song and the manager of the medicine garden. Then, he asked them to send men to guide them on how to build a medicine garden on the mountain.

The medicine garden in the territory was built in the east suburbs, as it was a basic building. Its environment was naturally bad, and the medicines didn't grow well. As such, it couldn't keep up with the needs of the medical department. This problem had annoyed Dr.Song, so he obviously supported this suggestion wholeheartedly.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also specifically found Tian Wenjing and asked him to contact the mountain barbarians. They would be tasked with collecting seeds and seedlings. Then, they would pass the collected items to Song Jia and ask her to let men plant them on the mountain.

Ouyang Shuo moved a lot of resources to help Song Jia build a 1,000 mu medicine garden on the lone peak platform.

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Chapter 222- Hand in Glove

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Yongye Town, Lord's Manor.

As Ouyang Shuo busied himself with the lone peak medicine garden, Di Chen had linked up Sha Pojun and Heise Pifeng. These two were finally working together, forming a temporary alliance.

"How many troops did Shanhai City arrange at the east?" Sha Pojun asked. To take revenge on Ouyang Shuo, Sha Pojun had spent a lot—2,000 gold to teleport an elite army of 2,000.

Heise Pifeng hadn't remained idle; he said, "I've investigated. They have one full regiment on the west, a total of 2,500 men."

Sha Pojun frowned, "If it's like that, just depending on the two of us isn't enough to destroy that regiment, right?" Although Sha Pojun had a deep hatred for Ouyang Shuo, he didn't lose his mind.

"Brother Sha don't worry. I've contacted Xiaofeng Canyue and Chengfeng Polang from the Sky Blade Alliance. They will arrive soon," Heise Pifeng said with a lot of confidence.

"Great!" Sha Pojun was delighted.

Xiaofeng Canyue originally advocated getting outside help, and Chengfeng Polang was like Yongye Town, who directly faced Shanhai City's threat. Heise Pifeng had made it clear in the alliance channel that he had already invited Sha Pojun, who had brought a 2,000 strong army.

Xiaofeng Canyue was also very ambitious. She knew that she couldn't hesitate at such a time, so she brought over 1,000 of her elites and Chengfeng Polang brought 500.

Although Ba Dao didn't come, he promised to take part in the operation and attack from the east to tie up Shanhai City's military, forcing them to fight a war on two fronts.

They were very clear that this operation had to succeed. Once they failed, they would face the wrath of Shanhai City, and there would be no room for negotiation.

Even Sha Pojun didn't have the ability to send a second reinforcement squad in a short time. His 2 thousand strong army, the teleportation cost was already 4,000 gold, which was a huge sum to Asura City.

Heise Pifeng was also a ruthless person. To protect his own base, he didn't mind dragging down his allies.

9th month, 2nd day in the afternoon, a 4,000 strong army secretly met at Yongye Town.

The 4,000 strong army was composed of sword-shield soldiers, archers, and about 1,000 cavalries.

In the wee hours of the morning, they made use of the dark sky to sneak out of Yongye Town.

Their target was the Shanhai City west camp. It was only around 20 kilometers away from Yongye Town.

As darkness masked the troops, the soldiers had no choice but to light torches so that they could see their path. The light from the fires created the illusion of a fire dragon in the wilderness. This sight scared off the leopards and tigers that came out to find food, and they rushed into hiding.

At 3 AM, the troops reached the Shanhai City border. To prevent the sentries from spotting their tracks, they extinguished the fires and made use of the little light to continue forward.

Shanhai City hadn't built a settlement here yet near the border, as they had only recently acquired this territory. On the way here, one could occasionally see empty towns or villages that Shanhai City had taken from the previous lord's. However, Shanhai City hadn't sent any residents to live there.

When they saw these conquered territories, Heise Pifeng and the others felt threatened. If they did not unite to fight together, the situation before them would probably be their future.

As they had just won a war, the city west camp head Shi Wanshui grew careless, and he didn't arrange any night patrols. In his mind, it would be enough if he didn't bully others. Who would have the courage to attack Shanhai City?

At 5:30 AM, the army of 4,000 was like a specter that suddenly appeared outside the city west camp. The sky was slightly bright and a red sun rose up from the horizon.

As an advanced barrack, the city west camp was very well protected. It had thick wood walls and arrow towers. The invading troops killed the tired and unfocused sentries on the tower before they could warn the others. The last sentry gave out a cry as the enemy shot him down.

"Ahhhh!" a loud scream broke the silence of the wilderness and sounded the horn of death.

The sound threw the camp into a frenzy. The ones that patrolled within the camp reacted the fastest, and they rushed toward the gate doors. At the same time, a small squad broke off to wake up the soldiers of each unit.

Sha Pojun was the commander of this operation. When he saw that they had alerted the enemy, he tossed aside his intentions of infiltration and shouted, "Kill!"

The 2,000 odd sword-shield soldiers were like a pack of hungry wolves, as they charged toward the camp gates. Soldiers that carried huge logs rammed the gate. As no one was defending the gate, it looked like the soldiers could knock it down soon.

Luckily, at this time, the patrolling squad had rushed over and used their bodies to block the gate. At the same time, they used a circular piece of wood to block the gate to try and win time for the troops.

Under the assault of 2,000 men, the less than 10 men squad could not prevent the destruction of the gate for more than a few minutes. The invaders destroyed the gate and knocked the patrolling squad to the ground.

The captain of the patrolling squad, a rank 8 elite, grabbed the spear in his hand and hollered, "Kill!"

The enemies that broke in raised their blades and mercilessly chopped. The captain's spear stabbed into the stomach of one soldier. Unfortunately, the soldier's blade chopped down and instantly killed the captain. The other squad members didn't even have the chance to climb up, the enemies slashed and none of them survived. The troops that followed stepped onto the bodies of the patrolling squad, turning them into meat paste.

The sword-shield soldiers started to form squadrons. Like a pack of hungry wolves, they dashed toward the tents. The shouting and killing had alerted the Shanhai Army soldiers in the tents. Some had already dressed up, while others just grabbed their weapons and directly engaged the enemy.

The soldiers of the 1st regiment were elites of the Shanhai Army. Hundreds of battles had tempered each and every one of them. Even if they didn't wear their armor, they weren't afraid; they weren't even at a disadvantage. They fought off the enemy troops and gathered together. Then, they dashed out of the tent to gather with the main troops.

The enemy cavalry charged up under the command of Sha Pojun. They weaved in and out between the tents, as they focused on the groups that had formed up. This action prevented the soldiers of the 1st regiment from gathering up, which forced them all to fight alone.

The archers at the back fired wave after wave of arrows at the various tents, ruthlessly reaping away the lives of the Shanhai soldiers in the tents..

At this moment, the enemy had thrown Shanhai City's 1st regiment into chaos, and the troops could not gather up. The battle cries, the sounds of sharp arrows, the sounds of warhorses, and moans of pain from the injured formed a despondent song.

As a special rank general, Shi Wanshui's instincts were very strong. After the patrolling squad discovered something strange, he immediately woke up. As a general with vast experience, he didn't run out to check the situation. Instead, he started to don his armor.

After he wore his armor, he grabbed his spear and walked out of the tent. At this moment, the enemies were still attacking the main gates of the camp. As he faced this attack, he didn't ask why or who the enemy was first. Instead, he gathered the troops.

Shi Wanshui sent out his personal troops to sound the alert for help.

He commanded the patrolling squads to wake up all the soldiers, and he ordered them to suit up and gather near him.

While he waited for the troops to gather, Shi Wanshui asked his personal guards to fire the warning signal.

When the sentries on the other end saw the signal, they instantly fired theirs. One fired after another, as they worked together to pass the warning signal all the way to the main base. The troops that guarded the walls—the City Protection Unit—saw the warning signal and split into two groups. One group went to report to the main camp of the City Protection Unit; and the other made their way to the Lord's Manor to inform Ouyang Shuo.

The fastest unit to gather was the first unit. Shihu brought 500 armored warriors and rushed over. They were located behind the camp, so they had enough time to gather troops.

When he saw the first unit rush here, Shi Wanshui calmed down. He had confidence with the first unit here.

When he heard the sounds of killing increase, Shi Wanshui made the decision to retaliate, as he gathered all the troops along the way. He ordered the first unit to form a defensive formation, and they slowly advanced toward the second unit.

On the way there, they met a bunch of enemy cavalry, who weren't able to break down their defensive line. The first unit cut them to the ground. When the soldiers along the way saw the first unit, they rushed out and gathered with them.

Hence, Shi Wanshui used the first unit to open the road to gather more troops. As they went further, they reduced the number of men that dared to provoke them. When they got to the second unit, they had already expanded to 1,000 men.

As the 2nd unit was closer to the front, the difficulty of wearing the Buren Armor caused issues. The situation forced the mountain barbarians to helplessly use their shields and Tang blades to fight the enemies, which resulted in huge losses.

The sight of the large group of reinforcements delighted the lucky survivors. The 1st unit pushed up the defense line to buy the 2nd unit time to don their armor. At that moment, Li Mingliang brought the 3rd unit to reinforce them.

When he saw that the enemy troops were about to form up, Sha Pojun didn't dare to tarry. He gathered up his troops to prevent them from being split off.

Both sides had started to gather their troops, as they awaited the final battle.

Shi Wanshui made some calculations. In a short hour, the 1st regiment had lost 700 soldiers, which infuriated him. Such a big loss had never happened to him. When he saw the enemy troops gather, he didn't try to rashly force it. Instead, he ordered his guards to send a distress signal to the main camp.

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Chapter 223 - Reinforcement

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

The rushing horseshoe clatters broke the peaceful morning of Shanhai City as the two horses galloped on the commerce street. The troops reached the black tortoise gate and shouted, "Open the gates, there are urgent military matters!"

The ones defending the black tortoise gates were also city protection unit members, and seeing that they were the members protecting the north gate, they immediately ordered to open the city gates.

Going past the black tortoise gate, the cavalry split up. One went left into the barracks and the other continued straight to the lord's manor. He got off the horse and slammed the door. "Open up! Quickly open up!"

The guard opened the door. "Who's knocking?"

"Quick, bring me to the lord, there are urgent military matters!" The cavalry said anxiously. He didn't dare to be slow, asking the cavalry to wait in the hall before running toward the backyard.

Ouyang Shuo received the information and rushed to the meeting hall.

"Lord, the city's western camp has sent a distress signal."

Ouyang Shuo was astonished and had a bad feeling. He didn't have time to think and ordered, "Order all city protection unit members to go to their positions; order the northern and eastern camps to gather and wait for my command; order the Beihai Naval fleet's 1st unit to sail here, the territory will enter level two emergency."

"Yes sire!"

At the same time, the Guards at the Wuying courtyard were shocked. Captain Wang Feng dressed up and rushed to the meeting hall to get his orders, Ouyang Shuo didn't nag and just ordered them. "Gather your troops and follow me to assist the city's western camp."

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo returned to the main courtyard and wore his Mingguang armor, carried his exquisite iron spear, and returned to the front courtyard. In the Wuying Courtyard, the guards were already gathered.

Before they left, the Director of Military Affairs, Ge Hongliang, rushed over, Ouyang Shuo, who was sitting on a Qingfu horse, ordered, "Director Ge, you are in charge of the main camp, direct the northern and eastern camps as well as the Beihai naval fleet. Get ready to reinforce the city's western camp." Because he didn't understand much about the enemy, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to move large amounts of troops.

"Yes sire!"

Ouyang Shuo stopped hesitating and hollered, "Guards! Move out!"

The city's western camp was 60 kilometers away from Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to slack and ordered the guards to rush there, their breakfasts were settled on horseback to try to reach the western city camp as fast as they could.

City's western camp

As the camp had limited space, Sha Pojun, who had the numbers advantage, didn't want to have a mixed battle in the enemy camp and ordered his troops to group up and retreat out of the camp.

Shi Wanshui was busy gathering up the wounded and both sides kept a distance with a tacit understanding to regroup. After the enemy backed out of the camp, the 1st regiment had already formed up.

"Major general, what should we do next?" The first unit's major Shihu said.

The other majors looked towards Shi Wanshui, waiting for his plan.

Shi Wanshui kept silent and analyzed the situation calmly. "The enemy is twice our number, so we can only defend on the back foot and wait for reinforcements."

The 4th unit major Zhao Yan suddenly said, "Major general, I've been closely analyzing the battle and found that although they have a lot of men, their strength isn't strong. The main camp is 60 kilometers from here and I'm worried that before they arrive the enemy would want to burn down our camp. Why not take the initiative and attack to defend?" The ranks of the 1st regiment were not only high, but the soldiers were also trained by Shi Wanshui, so their combat power wasn't something that Sha Pojun could compare to.

What Zhao Yan saw, Shi Wanshui obviously saw too. Based on their strength, they had a fighting chance, but he was worried if they went head to head, it would cause heavy casualties.

"Major General, let's fight! This fight is too humiliating, they actually bullied us at our home. Since our morale is so high, we could make use of it. Just defending would instead lower morale, I fear it isn't a long-term strategy." The 3rd unit's major Li Mingliang supported and suggested a fight.

Shi Wanshui froze and he looked at the 4 majors, their eyes were lit with the thirst for battle and were waiting for Shi Wanshui's orders.

Shi Wanshui finally made the decision. "Ok, let's go head to head with them. We can't lose Shanhai City's military might; we must let them see what elites are."

"Yes sire!" everyone replied.

The soldiers of the 1st regiment lined up neatly and moved out of the camp, row after row. The ones in front were the archers of the 1st unit, who were in charge of countering their long-range attacks; behind them were the 1st and 2nd units; the left wing was the 3rd cavalry unit, and the right wing was the spearmen unit.

When the battle started, neither side hesitated and launched attacks simultaneously.

The 1st regiment, with their backs against the camp, chose to take the initiative. Once the enemies got into range, the 5th unit fired wave after wave of arrows on the enemies.

Sha Pojun's strategy was to use the cavalry to break down the 1st regiment line of defense, while the sword shields soldiers at the back would advance, and the archers would provide cover fire from the back.

Facing the high-speed light cavalry soldiers, the 5th unit could only afford to fire two waves before avoiding to the sides, opening up the middle before moving to the back. The 1st and 2nd units moved up and raised their shields to welcome the cavalry charge.

This was the battle between spear and shield.

The light cavalry soldiers were like a flood, crashing into the front. The mountain barbarians could clearly see the white steam coming out from the noses of the war horses. The cavalry raised their spears, and the heads of the spears shimmered in the light like they were choosing who to bite into.

Shihu and Shibao, the two majors, stood at the front of the forces and shouted, "Block!"

"He!" The elite mountain barbarian soldiers made a series of shouts, using the shields in their hands to try and fend off the charging cavalry. At the same time, they hacked down using the Tang Swords in their left hands directly at the weak legs of the horses.

It was like the cavalry was smacking into a steel wall. After penetrating the first layer, there was a second then a third. Of those that were knocked into, like a can being forced open, their shields broke and their armor crushed them down onto the ground. As the cavalry trampled on them, they were pounded into meat paste, their blood staining the Buren armor slowly seeping out onto the ground. The long spears with the momentum of the charge pierced through the Buren armor and took life after life.

Reaching the third layer, the cavalry could not proceed any farther and had no more energy to continue charging.

The iron flood started to surround them, stepping on the bodies of their fallen comrades. With the fire of revenge, they waved their weapons, one horse after another fell to the ground. Before the warriors could get up, they were cut into pieces by the sword-shield soldiers.

With the change of position from defense to attack, the unblockable attack from the cavalry became an instant reverse slaughter.

The cavalry tried to use their spears to retaliate. Unfortunately, it was useless without the power and momentum from charging. Facing the high defense of the Buren armor, the spears couldn't penetrate through.

When the heavy armored infantry troops had cooled down the enemy cavalry, the 3rd major Li Mingliang finally made a move. He drew his Tang Sword nd waved it forwards, shouting, "Cavalry unit, charge!"

"Kill!" Numerous Tang Swords were drawn, exuding a strong killing aura.

The cavalry unit came in from the left, suddenly going past the sword shield soldiers of the enemy to attack their backmost line. The defenseless archers could only fire a wave of arrows before being killed by the cavalry. They only wore simple leather, how could they defend against the charge?

The 3rd cavalry troops crisscrossed around the archers, their blades screaming with bloodthirst. As the light shone across, a human head dropped to the ground. The place where the archers were standing in slowly became a human hell. Enemy screams couldn't be heard as they were often killed with one blade. The cavalry unit was like a high-efficiency harvester, mercilessly taking life after life. The heads of the enemy were strewn all over. After being crushed by the warhorses, they sunk into the ground, the brain juices and the mud mixing together, making one unable to differentiate the two.

The archer forces being ambushed caused Sha Pojun to helplessly order a portion of his sword shield soldiers who were charging behind the cavalry to fall back to assist.

If one said that the alliance cavalry was a sharp knife, the sword shield soldiers behind them were like fruit knives. They looked simple, but their killing ability was shocking. They took the chance that the heavy armored infantry was being cooped up by the cavalry, to dash up, causing the 1st and 2nd units to be under attack.

Originally, it was the perfect opportunity. If one commanded properly, there was a chance to wipe out the entire 1st and 2nd unit. Unfortunately, the attack from the 3rd unit forced a portion of the soldiers to retreat. At the same time, the 4th unit that wasn't doing anything entered the fray and used their spears to buy time for the 1st and 2nd units.

In that moment, the battle was in a stalemate. Both sides had thrown in all their troops. It was a race against time. If the alliance could kill the 1st and 2nd units, then victory was theirs.

On the other hand, if the 3rd unit destroyed the archers and attacked from the back, then it would be the end for the alliance.

Intense killing shouts filled the sky. At the most intense moment, Shi Wanshui had to put down his command and enter the fight himself to buy some time for the heavy armored soldiers.

Just at that moment, with the sounds of horse hooves, a flag fluttered in the air. On it was a golden dragon facing the sun, shining brightly.

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Chapter 224 - Turning Things Around

Translator - TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

The orderly clatter of the horseshoes shocked both sides, causing the battle to come to a stop.

"The Lord Flag, it's the lord. The lord personally brought the Guards unit to assist us." The 1st regiment soldiers were delighted.

On the opposite side, the enemy troops morale dropped to the freezing point. Sha Pojun and the others muttered, "How? How did they rush here so fast? It's not possible, no!"

The Guards unit had made the record of traveling 60 kilometers in just 2 hours, from Shanhai City all the way to the city west camp.

Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of the group. After analyzing the situation, he didn't hesitate or take any rest, directly leading the Guards unit to rush towards their sword-shield soldiers.

Sha Pojun didn't give up and made a final struggle. He ordered the sword-shield soldiers to give up on killing the enemy sword shield soldiers, and raise their shields to block the cavalry's charge.

The Guards unit was the elite of the elite, the sharpest weapons of all, all of them were equipped with Mingguang armor, and rode on Qingfu horses. They were each equipped with a lance, a Tang Blade, a strong bow, and other top class equipment; their average rank was a terrifying 8th rank, and there were even rank 10 war elite soldiers.

Such strong men, how could anyone block their charge? The sword shield soldier formation, which looked to be impenetrable, was like paper and was one-shotted by the Guards from one end of the formation to the other, tearing it apart. The shining horse lances, under the huge momentum, effortlessly pierced through their armor, fresh blood splattering into the air. In the sword shield soldier formation, there appeared a long trail of emptiness strewn with many dead bodies.

After charging, the Guards took their lances and turned their horses around, pulling out their exquisitely built Tang blades. They were soldiers who'd been through hundreds of wars and were riding on the best of horses. Before the enemy could react, just as they wanted to cut at the horse legs, the guard's Tang blades had landed on their heads.

This was the same tactic the 1st regiment had used successfully on the light armored cavalry, but light infantry wanting to use that on heavy armored cavalry was the same as throwing an egg at a rock.

The reinforcements from the Guards unit helped raise the morale of the 1st regiment; especially with lord Ouyang Shuo fighting by their side, if they didn't fight with their all, how could they answer to the lord?

The middle troops and the remaining 1st and 2nd units, under the leadership of major Shihu and major Shibao, had started to focus on killing the trapped cavalry.

The 4th unit that was shifted down from the front lines, under the orders of Shi Wanshui, dived into the central troops to assist the 1st and 2nd units for completing the killing against the cavalry.

The Guards unit took over the defensive line and started to attack the sword shield-soldiers of the alliance like how they would to raiders, splitting them up and making them fend for themselves.

In the backmost line, the 3rd unit had killed most of the archers. The sword-shield soldiers who came to support as the number were too little. They couldn't put up a fight, adding with the low morale, they could only eat dust at the back.

The alliance had a big army, but it was being cut off piece by piece, unable to form a whole force. At that moment, even if Sha Pojun wanted to reorganize the troops, it was too late.

The scales of victory was starting to favor Shanhai City.

War was a huge test of the ambitions of both sides. Especially for the Guards unit who rushed here and immediately got into the battle, it was a huge test to their fitness.

Perseverance, only through that can one succeed.On the eastern border of Shanhai City, a 2,000 man army had crossed the border and entered Shanhai City's territory. This was an alliance force made up of Broken Blade Town, Yishui Town, and Gushan Town.

Out of a consideration of various benefits, the Eastern alliance commander, Ba Dao, didn't attack at the same time as the Western alliance troops. He was waiting for confirmation that the western troops had engaged with The Shanhai City army before entering the territory. Based on his view, Shanhai City's main force would be made busy by the western forces, and wouldn't bother about the east.

Unfortunately, what Ba Dao didn't know was that the 3rd regiment that was built not long ago was undergoing a raider operation at the eastern border. After receiving the distress signal, E'Lai sent out a scouting team to patrol the border region.

Hence, once the eastern troops entered the territory, in less than half an hour, they were spotted and reported to E'Lai.

Upon hearing the intel, E'Lai laughed coldly. "An army of fewer than 2,000 men, to think they even dare to stroll into Shanhai City, they really don't put me, E'Lai, in their eyes."

He gathered his troops and laid in wait on the road they had to pass. He knew that the 3rd regiment was just built and filled with rookies. Especially the 1st and 2nd unit mountain barbarian warriors, not only were they not equipped with the Buren armor, even a single hard battle also wasn't fought.

Hence, even though the 3rd regiment had more men, E'Lai wouldn't be so stupid to fight head on. At the same time, he reported the intel back to the main camp.

The one who was in charge in the main camp was Military Affairs director Ge Hongliang, first received the intel from the eastern camp, then the distress signal from the western camp. After confirming the plains were quiet, Ge Hongliang ordered for the 1st unit of the 2nd regiment to assist the western camp, and the 2nd unit would assist the eastern camp, the 3rd, 4th and 5th would stay still and focus on the plains.

The reinforcements of the second unit made E'Lai more confident to swallow the alliance troops to the east.Under the leadership of E'Lai, the 3rd regiment was ready to ambush the east alliance troops. The battle at the city's western camp had already entered the white-hot stage.

The first one to break the stalemate was the 3rd unit of the 1st regiment, the cavalry used their Tang blades to withhold Shanhai City military's honor, going on a rampage on the remaining archers. As more than half were killed, the soldiers lost their courage to resist and turned and ran, even the reinforcement sword-shield soldiers all lost their morale and started to scatter and run.

The 3rd major Li Mingliang wasn't ready to let them off, the cavalry chased after them, following closely and not letting any escape.

Every cavalryman in the Shanhai City army was armed with horned arrows. As they rode, they used the bows to mercilessly claim more enemy lives.

The arrows shot from the bow made a clear air breaking sound, piercing the leather armor and penetrating the skin, spinning into the bone and intestines.

In the endless wilderness, there wasn't anywhere to hide. The short, wild grasses couldn't block the view of the cavalry as they chased their prey like hunting dogs.

There was nothing more terrifying than seeing your friends die one after another. Their arrows were like a magician's tricks, accurate and endless.

In the end, the deserters couldn't run anymore. High amounts of adrenaline squeezed out all of their stamina, the soldiers were already desperate, and they stopped, raising their hands to surrender.

The surrender was like a plague, the moment it started, it spread and didn't stop.

After the 3rd unit, the 1st and 2nd units took the stage. They were the trump card units of Shanhai City, equipped with the Buren armor and came from various mountain barbarian tribes. They treated honor as their life and would never take a loss.

However today, because of the sneak attack, the soldiers of the 2nd unit were beaten convincingly. If it weren't for the help of the 1st unit, the 2nd unit would've been decimated.

Losing their honor and being insulted, one could only use the enemy's fresh blood to wash it off.

The warriors of the 1st and 2nd unit were as close as brothers. They had an understanding, two surrounding one cavalryman, one cutting the leg, the other killing the soldier that fell off.

Since the start, the alliance cavalries hadn't faced such a tough bone before.

It was like they fell headfirst into an iron barrel in a quagmire, no matter how they tried to turn left and right, what they met was metal. Once the metal barrel started to spin at high speed, they would be grounded by it and smashed.

What was worse was there were a bunch of spear wielding idiots who were ambushing them from behind. These shameless soldiers made use of their advantage to pierce the horses and not the people, it was really shameless.

They didn't want to think about victory, falling into the trap, they wanted to escape from this nightmare.

The cavalry wanted to escape, but the mountain barbarians weren't willing to let them. Their bodies weren't full of the enemy's fresh blood. Around their feet weren't all the enemy's bodies. This wasn't enough to wash off their shame; this wasn't enough to increase their honor.

The warriors wore an early 30 kg heavy Buren armor, so such a highly intense battle exhausted them. But they didn't want to rest, they squeezed dry all their energy to deal the final blows to the enemy. The Tang blades in their hands were still sharp, and the shields that they raised were still unbreakable.

"Ahhhh!" the mountain barbarians hollered, this was the death proclamation that they made to their prey when they were hunting in their tribes. Today, the proclamations were made towards the enemy cavalry.

The shouts spread across the wilderness, awing the hearts of everyone.

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Chapter 225 - Ambush

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Sha Pojun felt like he was in a nightmare, a nightmare that he wanted to quickly wake up from.

When Di Chen told him that he had a chance to sneak attack and scheme against Qiyue Wuyi, Sha Pojun was on cloud nine. He was unable to forget how Qiyue Wuyi humiliated him during the Battle of Zhuolu, saying that he was Di Chen's dog. Such an insult was worse than killing him.

Hatred would make a person lose rationality and he had undoubtedly been consumed by the bloodlust.

Sha Pojun had never stopped to think why Di Chen didn't do it himself and went to find him; he even didn't discuss with his family and directly brought 2,000 elites and teleported to Yongye Town.

He wanted to start his journey of revenge to let his soul filled with revenge burn bright.

At the start, the war was so smooth. They traveled in the dark and weren't spotted even when they were right in front of the enemy. Even when there was a small accident, the battle was still in their favor.

The alliance had smoothly charged into the enemy camp and started to slaughter. Seeing the Shanhai City soldiers one by one falling into puddles of blood, at that time Sha Pojun was having fun and having such a pleasant time.

Sha Pojun had even started to imagine that once he destroyed the sub-camp, he might even be able to lead the alliance troops to continue to attack the main camp of Shanhai City, making Qiyue Wuyi bow at his feet. Right now, he wanted Qiyue Wuyi to beg him to let him know who was who's bitch.

But, when did it start? When did the situation turn on its head?

The gathering speed of the enemy troops was far faster than the alliance expected. The enemy's strength was far stronger than the alliance's. Those mountain barbarians, even not wearing armor could actually fight head to head with the elite of the alliance.

Victory was so short-lived, and the slaughter couldn't continue. When the enemy's heavy armored infantry gathered, Sha Pojun knew that the time for him to pick them off had ended and the real hard battle was starting.

Even at that moment, Sha Pojun still thought that victory was still in his hand, as after entering the camp, the alliance forces were twice that of the enemy. If they commanded properly, there's no way they would lose.

Sha Pojun's alliance got into a formation outside the camp, taking the initiative to launch an assault on the enemy. For that, Sha Pojun didn't hesitate to bring his elite cavalry to line up at the front of the forces, equipped with sharp blades.

Unfortunately, the enemy heavy armored infantry was too strong and gave Sha Pojun a huge slap to the face. Shanhai City didn't hesitate to send the heavy armored infantry that Ouyang Shuo had spent large amounts of money on, how would the light armored infantry go against such an unearthly strong heavy armored infantry?

Following which, the sneak attack by the enemy cavalry unit gave Sha Pojun a huge blow.

Sha Pojun wasn't discouraged. He still believed that victory would belong to him. He calmed himself down and spurred his soldiers on, ordering a portion of the sword-shield soldiers back to defend while asking the remaining to advance to try to eat the enemy's heavy armored infantry forces.

Sha Pojun saw victory was in sight, however, that devil Qiyue Wuyi actually brought a bunch of terrifying heavy armored infantry. The enemy relied on just 500 heavy armored infantry and managed to withhold 3-4 times that of the alliance's troops, destroying their sword-shield soldiers.

What happened next was Sha Pojun's nightmare.

First, the alliance archer forces being totally decimated, and they started running for their lives. Following which, the cavalry forces that Sha Pojun were so proud of were also eaten piece by piece by the enemy's steel beasts, while only the remaining 100-200 lucky members were able to escape.

Lastly was the total destruction of the alliance forces.

Facing the enemy's heavy armored infantry and heavy armored cavalry attacks, the sword-shield soldiers who were struggling to hold on finally collapsed, raising their hands up to surrender. The warriors were very clear that as infantry, they couldn't escape the chase of the enemy's cavalry. The archers who tried to escape were the best example.

The lords were despondent. After the cavalries were destroyed, they immediately took their bodyguards and escaped. All their courage and faith were destroyed at that moment with nothing left.

They bet everything on this, and what they got in return was the utter destruction of their troops.

The lords were like birds to a gunshot. They even forgot to inform the eastern alliance soldiers who were still advancing through the alliance channel, causing them to be ambushed by the 3rd regiment.

Sha Pojun was about to look down on and despise this bunch of cowards, but he turned around and found that he was actually part of the large group that was escaping. The cavalries who escaped found their lord and together they escaped toward Yongye Town.

Ouyang Shuo was furious. The poisonous bugs that he'd reared for more than six months had retaliated and bit him instead. The thought of letting these lords go back alive had never crossed his mind.

When he saw Sha Pojun appear in the alliance, he knew that the Yanhuang Alliance and himself would have an irreparable relationship. It's either you die or I live.

Ouyang Shuo let Shi Wanshui stay and put him in charge of rounding up the prisoners and save the wounded as well as repairing the camp. He personally brought the Guards unit and the 3rd unit from the 1st regiment to chase the enemies.

At Qiushui City's eastern suburbs, 15 kilometers away from the border, there was a small mountain. On top of it, apart from wild grass, there wasn't even a single tree. This was the place that E'Lai selected for the ambush; the 3rd regiment and the 2nd regiment 2nd unit were all hiding behind the hill, waiting for the fish to get hooked.

Broken Blade Town's lord Ba Dao, brought an alliance force of 2,000, not facing any problems on his way. Over time he met a few raider camps. Upon seeing such a huge army, the raiders were like turtles and hid in their shells.

As the journey was peaceful, Ba Dao started to put down his guard, even not arranging a vanguard squad to explore the path ahead.

"Brother Dao, don't you find it weird? We have walked so long, and we haven't even seen a single patrolling soldier, is there a trap?" Gushan Town's lord Dengtai Baijiang felt a little uneasy.

Ba Dao shook his head. "You're thinking too much, did you notice that there are still raiders in this region? What does this tell you? This means that Shanhai City hasn't cleaned up this area. Naturally, there wouldn't be soldiers patrolling here. If not, they would be free food for the raiders." Ba Dao's explanation made a lot of sense.

Dengtai Baijing thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he didn't think about it anymore.

Behind the hill, the 3rd regiment's 3rd unit major, Zheng Liaokai, walked in front of E'Lai and said, "Colonel, they're here!"

E'Lai was riding the domineering Nian Beast Luosha. "Get ready to move!"

"Yes!"

Until the eastern alliance forces reached the central section of the hill, the 2 cavalry units of a 1000 cavalry were like wildlands spectres, suddenly popping out. Without any hesitation, they charged down the hill.

Closely after the appearance of the cavalry, the 3rd regiment's archer unit rained down on the alliance forces, suppressing the alliance archers, and applying cover fire for the cavalry forces.

The rain of arrows made a beautiful arc in the air, precisely landing on the archer forces of the alliance troops. When the arrows reached the soldiers, it entered their shoulders and their heads. Those who were hit in the head died instantly, and those who were pierced in the shoulder let out screams of pain. If they weren't attended to in time, there was a chance they would be paralyzed from the waist up.

Such a sudden attack made the alliance forces panicked; they had never expected that they would be attacked at such a time and place.

Ba Dao was flustered, panicking. "Get into formation, get into formation." The sword shield soldiers in the center turned and prepared to turn to the wings to build up the defensive line.

However, it was all too late. Before they could change formations, and before the sword-shield soldiers could raise their shields, the cavalry had made use of the downhill momentum to charge down.

The high speed charging cavalry force was a wide force as it covered the land, instantly messing up the alliance forces. The soldiers in the front cowered in fear and retreated while those at the back were still trying to get into position. The two parts knocked into one another, sending the military into chaos.

Just at that time, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th units made a loop from the back of the hill, appearing behind the alliance forces and stabbing them in the butt.

The mountain barbarian soldiers together with the spearmen started to launch an assault towards the enemies. The alliance forces which were in chaos were unable to coordinate with one another. The command system had failed, and soldiers started to fight for themselves. On the other hand, the 3rd regiment troops were united, and their movements were coordinated. Adding with the cavalry charging about freely in the enemy lines, they held the upper hand in the battle, grabbing onto the enemy troops.

The cavalry of the alliance forces were originally at the front of the force. At this point, however, they were totally useless. Charge in front, and there was no one in front; charge behind, and they were blocked by the sword-shield soldiers. Suddenly, the cavalry commander had an idea and ordered his men to charge up the mountain to get ready to kill the archer unit.

It was easy to go down the mountain but hard to go up. The archer unit at the top wasn't afraid, aiming at them and firing shot after shot. The archer unit captain ordered the soldiers to focus on the horses. Those that were hit felt to the ground, affecting the advance of the cavalry behind them.

On the short mountain road, the archers had managed to shoot 3 waves of arrows, and the cavalry was badly injured. The original 500 cavalries were only left with less than 200. They had struggled to reach the top of the mountain. Just as they were ready to harvest the archers, a general riding a green-scaled beast suddenly appeared in front of the archer unit.

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Chapter 226- Pursuit

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Naturally, the General in front of the archer unit was the third regiment colonel, Er'Lai. His mount, Luosha, was entering its first battle. Not only did it not feel out of place, it even excitedly roared, "Niannn!"

The suppression of the beast scared the alliance troops into a frenzy, which made them unable to advance.

Er'Lai stood at the front; he held his halberd and stood as a shield for his troops.

"Face your death!" Er'Lai hollered. He felt no fear even when he faced 200 cavalries alone. He launched an attack and charged into the group. He wielded his halberd and swung it around to perfection. He effortlessly flourished the 20-kilogram halberd. It was like a hook from hell; every wave took a life and made the enemy cower in fear.

Er'Lai's strokes were highly efficient and deadly. After a short moment, he sent blood and flesh flying around.

The Nian beast followed his master and unleashed its bloodthirst and charge abilities. It exuded an aura of ferocity and scared all the mounts; some even fell to the ground.

Luosha had a powerful charge that directly knocked some of the soldiers off their horses. Its horns were sharp weapons, which could easily pierce through the armor of the warhorses, and painted a truly gruesome scene.

The alliance cavalry surrounded Er'Lai, but they could not get close to him. Even if they luckily landed a spear on him, it barely scratched his Buren Armor. Their attacks failed to cause much harm. The same went for the iron armor that covered Luosha's body, head, and joints. As for the other areas, it had scales as strong as the Buren Armor.

Strong attack combined with an unbreakable defense, and the addition of a ferocious beast, the three together made them unstoppable. A man and his mount made the little mountaintop instantly become hell on earth.

Fresh blood flowed down the hill and slowly accumulated into a stream that trickled downward. Amongst the green of the hill, there was a line of striking red.

Such a stunning sight pumped up the soldiers of the 3rd regiment. Their majestic General had made their blood boil, and they charged toward their enemies.

On the other side, the alliance troops were in tatters, their morale at a freezing point, and they were on the verge of collapse.

The commander of the alliance forces, Ba Dao, had a look of despair as he witnessed the slaughter of his troops. He couldn't see any way to salvage this. At the crucial moment, he abandoned his troops and brought ten of his Guards to flee the battlefield, as he turned and escaped to the east.

Ba Dao's escape finally led to the alliance force's utter collapse.

When they saw their commander escape, the soldiers all lost their will to fight and followed behind.

Dengtai Baijiang gaped, as he looked at Ba Dao's escaping figure. He was unable to believe his eyes. He couldn't understand how the usually righteous Ba Dao would be such a coward and make such a low-level mistake. When he saw the mess in front of him, Dengtai Baijiang let out a long sigh and fell back. At least he had the slight air of a gentleman; he covered Ruoshui Sanqian and her troops before he followed behind.

People would only reveal their true colors when forced into desperate straits. Ba Dao was such a person. He only found out that he wasn't as courageous as he seemed when the situation turned sour.

After he fled for four kilometers, he finally realized the extent of the disaster he had caused. He wanted to rush back to reorganize the forces. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The Shanhai City cavalry relentlessly chased them. When the alliance forces saw that their efforts were futile, they decided to just surrender. Anyways, their lord had abandoned them and the warriors didn't have a psychological burden anymore.

As they needed to round up the prisoners, they missed the best time to make chase, which allowed Ba Dao to escape from death. The other two lords, Ruoshui Sanqian and Dengtian Baijiang, weren't as lucky. The 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment caught and killed them.

With that, the third regiment and the second unit of the second regiment had killed 820 men and captured 1180. At the same time, they had only lost less than 200 men—a total victory.

On the east side, Ba Dao had escaped, but the few lords on the left weren't so lucky.

Ouyang Shuo, his Guards unit, and the 3rd unit of the 1st regiment surrounded Sha Pojun and the rest. The alliance did not even manage to escape the Shanhai City border.

"Sha Pojun, why are you here?" Ouyang Shuo questioned.

Sha Pojun retorted defiantly, "Is it your business?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and laughed coldly, "It's not my business; I'm just afraid that someone is being used without them noticing." If Heise Pifeng wanted to find reinforcements, he would have asked Di Chen or Chun Shenjun. Why would he find Sha Pojun? Ouyang Shuo guessed that someone had schemed this and that someone wanted to make use of Sha Pojun.

Sha Pojun's expression changed; he seemed unsettled. However, he forced himself to calm down and said, "B*llshit, I find you an eyesore, and I want to destroy you. It's that simple."

"Good! You have balls! I'll fulfill your desire for death!" Ouyang Shuo didn't chatter on any longer and ordered, "Kill him!"

"Yes, lord!"

There were no challenges in this war. The Shanhai forces had surrounded 200 odd troops and did not allow any of them to escape. They destroyed all of these troop on the border of Shanhai City.

Before Sha Pojun died, he looked at Qiyue Wuyi with anger. 2,000 elite troops had died. He did not know how he would explain this to his family. The only consolation was that he didn't need to pay the teleportation fee. He could only comfort himself in this way to find a positive out of such a bad situation. Qiyue Wuyi's words left a seed of doubt in his head. After Sha Pojun thought hard, Di Chen's actions did seem a little suspicious.

Heise Pifeng could already imagine the outcome that awaited his territory. When he thought back on his past year of running the territory, he couldn't control his emotions when he realized that Shanhai City would conquer it. He scolded, "Qiyue Wuyi you coward; you're a butcher. You don't deserve to represent the common players."

Ouyang Shuo kept silent. In truth, he didn't have any anger toward Heise Pifeng's actions. If it was him, he could also only take a risk when forced onto such a path.

The winner was king; you die, and I live. The war between territories was just that cruel.

After they destroyed the remaining enemies, Ouyang Shuo recalled the troops and went back to the city west camp.

When he returned, it was pretty much back in order. The 1st unit of the 2nd regiment, under the leadership of Sun Tengfei, had rushed to assist. However, they were too late and didn't arrive in time for the final battle.

In the tent, Ouyang Shuo called the generals for a simple military affairs meeting.

Shi Wanshui made a report of the casualties and painfully said, "My lord, a total of 1,100 troops from the 1st regiment died, nearly half of the troops in the regiment. The 2nd unit is even worst, there are only 100 men left, it will need to be rebuilt."

After he finished the report, Shi Wanshui stepped out and kneeled, "The 1st regiment has lost many troops, as the commander of the city west camp, I have not done my job. Please give me my punishment, lord."

The five other majors all stepped up and kneeled behind Shi Wanshui, "Please give me my punishment, lord."

They had suffered heavy casualties because of their lax defense, which allowed the enemy to launch a sneak attack. Such a mistake, the generals predicted that someone was going to die for it.

Ouyang Shuo expressionlessly said, Come up!"

They all looked at each other. They remained on their knees, afraid to stand up.

"What is this? Do you need me to personally help you all up?" Ouyang Shuo's meaning confused them.

"The losses in this battle were not entirely your fault. Even I didn't expect the enemy to rush over, so I can't blame you all for not expecting the same," Ouyang Shuo said. However, his tone changed, "But to suffer such heavy casualties, you all are to be blamed. The enemy reached the camp and you all didn't notice it, isn't that too slow? The whole regiment must reflect. We cannot be too arrogant and think that just because we are within the border that nothing will happen to us."

"Yes lord," the various officers were all ashamed.

"In the military, we are very fair. If you do well, we will reward you. But if you fail, we will punish you. Shi Wanshui is docked half a year of wages, the five majors three months," Ouyang Shuo announced their punishments.

"We thank the lord for letting us off!"

After this, Shi Wanshui started to talk about the hostage situation, "My lord, we have captured 320 archers, 1,260 sword-shield soldiers, and 54 cavalry—a total of 1634 people."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Pass them all over to the Military Affairs Department and temporarily send them to the reserve force. As for the 1st regiment, after this operation ends, we will fortify the forces."

"Operation?" Shi Wanshui didn't understand.

"That's right. The enemy dares to challenge us, so they will have to pay a price in blood. I'll return to the main camp and gather the City Protection Unit and the God Machine Unit to help the first regiment destroy Yongye Town and Guangshui Town. How is it? Do you have confidence?" Ouyang Shuo announced his plan for revenge.

As Yongye Town and Guangshui Town had exhausted many troops now, it was the best time to attack. Ouyang Shuo didn't want to leave them any time to recoup, nor did he want to allow them to recruit and train new forces.

When he heard that they were going to take revenge, the blood of the general boiled. Then, he emotionally said, "Lord don't worry, we won't let you down!" Although the 1st regiment had lost half of their troops, with the help of the City Protection Unit and the God Machine Unit, he had absolute confidence in taking down two empty towns.

As it was wartime, the meeting ended quickly. Ouyang Shuo temporarily stationed the Guards unit and the 1st unit of the 2nd regiment at the city west camp, and he brought ten of his Guards to hurriedly return to Shanhai City.

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Chapter 227 - Expedition

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

By the time he returned to Shanhai City, it was already 4 PM.

He didn't directly rush back to the Lord's Manor. Instead, he headed toward the Military Affairs Department to listen to the report of the military affairs director, Ge Hongliang. When he heard that the 3rd regiment had obtained stellar results, his depressed heart felt a little relieved.

General Er'Lai didn't let him down. With this battle alone, he would gain a footing in the military. He would garner reputation and respect in the 3rd regiment. With him at the head of the 3rd regiment, Ouyang Shuo didn't have to worry at all.

Ouyang Shuo ordered Ge Hongliang to place all the prisoners in the reserve force.

The prisoners from both the east and west sides totaled at 2,800 soldiers. They were all proper soldiers and didn't need to class change. Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't waste them. At a proper time, he would place all of them in his army.

Ouyang Shuo told Ge Hongliang about the city west camp operation and asked the Military Affairs Department to assist.

"Director Ge, pass down my words!" Then, Ouyang Shuo commanded, "Order the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to rush to the main camp; order the Qiushui Town City Protection Unit

to help the 3rd regiment destroy Yishui Town and Gushan Town. The God Machine Unit shall split into two, one to help the city west camp and the other to help the city east camp to complete this operation."

This time, Ouyang Shuo was really enraged, and he didn't want to give his enemies any chances.

"Yes, my lord!"

After he left the Military Affairs Department, Ouyang Shuo didn't stop and rushed to the inner city barracks. He found the God Machine Unit Major, Wang Yuanfeng. After he gave the major some instructions, Ouyang Shuo returned to the Lord's Manor.

The news of the war had spread out in the territory.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, the manor was bustling. Song Jia and Yingyu heaved a sigh of relief when the saw him come back. Ouyang Shuo's safety had worried them.

Ouyang Shuo sent a message about the ambush he faced in Shanhai City in the alliance channel. He warned his allies to pay attention to their territory borders in case of similar situations.

From this battle, Ouyang Shuo realized that the warning system at the border was far from enough. After the territory increased, they hadn't set up sentry towers at the border, which gave the enemy a chance.

"Sha Pojun is so shameless!" Gong Chengshi scolded.

"Wuyi, is this Sha Pojun's own act or Yanhuang Alliance playing tricks?" Bai Hua asked.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said, "Baseless guesses have no meaning. Let's wait and see." Ouyang Shuo had similar worries to Fenghua Juedai. He didn't want to start a war between the two alliances so early.

Bai Hua was smart and immediately understood what Ouyang Shuo meant and said, "Understood."

Gaia first year, 9th month, 4th day, Shanhai City.

At 6 AM, Ouyang Shuo brought along his Guards, military affairs secretary Songsan, God Machine Unit Major Wang Yuanfeng, and the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment. They exited the city and went straight toward the city west camp.

At the city west camp, Ouyang Shuo stopped shortly to meet up with the Guards unit and the resting 1st unit of the 2nd regiment. This time, they set off toward Tianfeng Town, which was at the west-most side of the Lianzhou Basin.

Based on the military affairs secretary's introduction, Tianfeng Town was 300 kilometres away from Shanhai City. It was 240 kilometres away from the city west camp, near the Xila Lake.

Ouyang Shuo's strategic motives were simple—to totally destroy the threat on the west side. He wanted to pluck out the three main lord's on the west of Lianzhou Basin.

For this, he had to bring the troops on a long journey.

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue definitely wouldn't expect Ouyang Shuo to do that. Hence, Shanhai City purely brought cavalry. They planned to attack them before they could react.

The blistering sun was high up in the sky. Under the directions of the military affairs spy, a 1,500 men elite cavalry force ventured deep into the wilderness, toward the path of revenge.

To increase their speed, they took shorter rests. Ouyang Shuo had also taken 1,500 Qingfu horses from the city west horse stables. This action ensured that each cavalry had two Qingfu horses, so they could substitute between the two on the way.

The Military Affairs Division intentionally chose a route that avoided Yongye Town and Guangshui Town to prevent stirring up more side issues. In the afternoon, the force smoothly went past Yongye Town and entered to the deepest point of the wilderness.

For this long mission, Ouyang Shuo had made ample preparations. Not only did he bring enough Xingjun Tents, he also brought the military grain pills and the two triple-bow arcuballistas, which filled his storage bag to the brim.

9th month, 5th day, a series of simple notifications appeared in his ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Yongye Town, rewarded 200 merit points.""System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Yishui Town, rewarded 200 merit points.""System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Guangshui Town, rewarded 200 merit points.""System Notification: Congratulations to player Qiyue Wuyi for conquering Gushan Town, rewarded 200 merit points."Ouyang Shuo had conquered the territories of four members of the Sky Blade Alliance one after another, which made Xiaofeng Canyue and Ba Dao panic. The only consolation was that their territories were too far away, which gave them a temporary reprieve from pressure.

The loss of the western alliance troops proved one thing—even with outside help, they couldn't go against Shanhai City. Instead, they would end up on the receiving end of Qiyue Wuyi's crazy revenge if they took action.

Yongye Town thought that they could survive for a while, but now Qiyue Wuyi had forcefully evicted them.

9th month, 6th day night, the troops had reached Tianfeng Town.

Ouyang Shuo planned to use their tactic against them. He would attack in the early morning tomorrow.

At 5 AM the next day, the sky was slightly bright, and the fog hadn't dispersed. The air was still humid and water droplets formed on the shirts.

The Tianfeng Town suburbs were quiet, and even the most hard working farmers were asleep.

Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes shattered the silence of the suburbs.

The galloping sounds woke the farmers that lived outside the city. A middle aged men muttered, as he opened the door. But when he saw the cavalry troops, his mouth gaped open, and he ran back into his room in fear.

"Husband, who is outside?" asked a woman in the house.

"Hush, don't make a sound," said the astonished farmer. Then, he warned, "Military troops, an endless amount. Seems like we have to fend for our lives again. Haiz, it was so hard to settle down. Why must we face such a situation?"

"Let's just leave matters of war for the lord to worry. Do you think he can win?"

"You're a woman, so what do you know. The little kid from the neighbouring house went to war for the lord, but he didn't return. I heard that none of the people that joined the lord's army returned." The farmer wasn't as optimistic as his wife.

"Then, what should we do?" said the wife, as she panicked.

"What can we do? Pack up our stuff and run!"

At 6 AM in the morning, a orange red sun slowly rose from the east, and the sleeping town slowly woke up.

At this moment, the Shanhai troops were only two kilometers from Tianfeng Town's wall. When the patrolling troops saw a large force, they panicked and immediately sounded the alarm.

The resounding alarm broke the peaceful atmosphere and soldiers rushed out of the camps inside the city to the top of the city gate. A fast horse galloped on the streets of the little town, as the rider hollered, "Give way! Quick, make way!"

The rider stopped in front of the Lord's Manor. He didn't deal with his horse and just rushed into the manor. As he ran in, he shouted, Emergency military news! Emergency military news!"

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue hurried into the meeting hall and asked, "What's the situation?"

"Sire, more than thousands of cavalries have appeared outside of the town, and they don't look friendly!"

"What? Can you repeat what you just said?" Xiaofeng Canyue was so afraid that he dropped the tea cup in his hand, and it fell to the ground.

The rider didn't dare tarry and described the entire situation.

Xiaofeng Canyue sat on the chair, depressed, It was like he had lost his soul, as he muttered, "Qiyue Wuyi, I didn't expect you to be so ruthless, to actually chase all the way here."

"Sire, what should be do?"

Xiaofeng Canyue froze. When he regained his composure, he said, "Order the troops on the walls to defend. They are cavalry, so they aren't good at sieging. We still have a chance."

"Yes, sire!"

After the rider backed away, XiaofengCanyue couldn't remain calm anymore. He was very clear that the 300 Guards he had put together wouldn't be able to defend the wall.

He opened the alliance channel and contacted the last remaining ally of the Sky Blade Alliance, Ba Dao, "Brother Dao, Qiyue Wuyi is a devil. He has already attacked here, so I hope you can send some troops to help me."

Ba Dao freaked out. His first reaction wasn't to send help to Tianfeng Town. Instead, he ordered troops to patrol and check if there were any Shanhai troops around his territory.

"Brother Xiaofeng, it's not like you don't know. The main forces of Broken Blade Town were destroyed. I want to help, but I can't." What a joke, Ba Dao definitely would not help at such a time.

Ba Dao's attitude infuriated Xiaofeng Canyue, and he ruthlessly said, "Brother Dao, if the lips die, the teeth will feel cold. Such a theory, you don't need me to explain it to you, right? Qiyue Wuyi has already killed Heise Pifeng and the rest. Now, we can only rely on one another. If you don't help me, Shanhai City's next opponent will be Brother Dao."

Ba Dao obviously understood this theory. However, everyone had their own troubles. He gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Xiaofeng, don't panic. Once I confirm that there aren't any Shanhai City troops here, I will immediately assist you. How about that?"

Xiaofeng Canyue knew that this was the best that he could get. "I'll wait for you," as he said that, he closed the alliance channel to get ready for battle.

Xiaofeng Canyue knew that the city wall would definitely not hold. To not get conquered, he could only defend the Lord's Manor and buy time for Ba Dao's troops to arrive.

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Chapter 228 - Expedition Part 2

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Outside Tianfeng Town, seeing the heavily guarded city wall, Ouyang Shuo laughed coldly and ordered his troops to advance. They advanced until they reached around 500 meters away from the city wall.

Ouyang Shuo calmly took out the 2 triple-bow arcuballistas from his storage bag, the Guards soldiers under the god machine unit major Wang Yuanfeng's guidance started to fix and zero the arcuballistas.

After all of that, they immediately started firing at the walls to form steps.

Rows of arrows successfully pinned onto the city wall, and the wall was like an arrow forest, similar to rock climbing walls.

The Guards unit's first and second squadrons, who were already ready and waiting, under the lead of major Wang Feng, got off their horses and ran to the bottom of the wall, then used the step arrows to climb the wall.

The cavalry unit continued to advance and entered the range of the horn bow. They used their bows and fired towards the city wall, suppressing the city protection soldiers' fire and covering the advance of the Guards unit.

Tianfeng Town had just lost over 1000 men and were only left with around 300, how could they be the opponent of the cavalry unit? Those that revealed themselves were shot by arrows and instantly killed.

The sporadic tossing of rocks was unable to threaten the forces. One after another they successfully climbed up the city wall.

After they climbed up the city wall, they pulled out the Tang blades by their waists and engaged the city defence soldiers.

Making use of the chance, Ouyang Shuo ordered the 3rd, 4th and 5th squadrons of the Guards unit to lift up the battering woods to charge towards the gate to breach the city.

On the city walls, often it was an enemy who died. Although Ouyang Shuo's troops didn't have a large number advantage, they had an absolute skill advantage, killing and making the enemy retreat.

In less than 20 minutes, the city gates were breached, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th squadrons of the Guards units climbed up the walls to assist.

Ouyang Shuo kept the 2 sets of three-bow arcuballistas, and ordered the troops to enter the city and get ready to harvest their rewards.

The troops strolled into the city gates, smoothly killing anything in their way. From start to finish, this didn't even take an hour.

After the cavalry entered the city, the residents of the town were flustered as they hid in their houses. Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about these civilians and rushed straight for the lord's manor, only wanting to conquer it.

Tianfeng Town lord Xiaofeng Canyue led his last Guards and all his reserve forces, a total of 500 men, to defend in the lord's manor.

The only thing that made him happy was that 10 minutes ago, Ba Dao had finally brought the last 300 elites from Broken Blade Town over and defended the lord's manor together with him.

All the streets towards the lord manor were blocked up. They made use of the city wall protection soldiers to buy time for the residents to pile wood and stone to block the roads to buy even more time.

Ouyang Shuo seeing such a scene, decided to order everyone to get off their horses and decided to battle infantry style. He left the 3 squadrons of the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to take care of the horses, while the rest went past the blockages and resolutely entered the lord's manor.

In the lord's manor, there were 2 temporarily-built archer towers. Xiaofeng Canyue, under the protection of his guard, was on one of the towers. "Qiyue Wuyi, you are ruthless."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. "Since you dare to provoke me, you must expect for your territory to be buried."

"I won't let you succeed!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't want to waste any time with him, turning to Ba Dao who was by Xiaofeng Canyue's side and coldly laughing. "You are Ba Dao from Broken Blade Town? Your courage is commendable!"

Facing his threats, Ba Dao didn't react. "Today, either you die or I live."

"Great!" Ouyang Shuo hollered, "Attack!"

Ouyang Shuo took out the three-bow arcuballista once again, and under the leadership of Wang Feng, aimed at the 2 arrow towers, ready to remove the height disadvantage.

The one-shot-three-sword arrow was like a cannon, accurately flying towards the arrow tower and slamming into the soldiers on it. Even the tower itself lost a big piece and started shaking.

If Xiaofeng Canyue didn't think quickly enough, jumping down before it fired, he would have probably died.

Wang Yuanfeng tried again, ordering 2 more rounds to be shot. The arrow tower finally couldn't take it anymore, and broke into two parts at the middle, collapsing to the ground.

The soldiers under the arrow tower panicked and backed off, each one of them with their mouths agape. The strength and power of the three-bow arcuballista left a deep shadow in their hearts.

After destroying the arrow tower, Ouyang Shuo ordered the troops to proceed forwards.

"Fire the arrows!" The cavalry became archers, formed up outside the lord's manor and just pelted the inside of the manor with a rain of arrows. The Guards used their sharp knives and charged towards the doors of the manor.

Inside the lord's manor, there were screams. Without a doubt they were shot by the arrows, forcing them to be unwilling to stay on the patio and making them retreat to the walkways. No matter how much Ba Dao and Xiaofeng Canyue ordered them, they didn't dare to stand out.

What a joke, under such an arrow rain, standing in such an open courtyard, one would become a living target.

Behind the door, it was stacked with rocks, making it hard to break through in a while.

Ouyang Shuo decided to reuse his plans, ordering Wang Yuanfeng to shoot step arrows at the walls. The Guards used them to get up the walls, and with jumps, entered the lord's matter and engaged with the enemy.

Five hundred Guards were like 500 lions, starting a slaughter in the lord's manor.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't pleased and ordered a portion of the cavalry to climb up the walls, shooting downwards for the height advantage. The remaining men started to focus their energies on charging the lord's manor.

Xiaofeng Canyue's roadblocks were used by the cavalry as battering rams.

In the lord's manor, the arrow rain stopped. Under the leadership of the 2 lords, the soldiers rushed out of the walkway and started to fight with the Guards unit soldiers.

Even though they had the numbers advantage, they were still pushed back. The reserve force soldiers that they put together were rookies, and fighting against war elite soldiers, they were freaked out and didn't dare to advance.

Ba Dao was ruthless, bringing his elites to the front and engaging the Guards.

The cavalry archers that were on the walls continued to fire arrows to aid their attack. Ba Dao's forces became the priority targets to these archers.

The poor Ba Dao didn't defend himself well and was shot, causing him to kneel on the ground in pain.

The soldiers of Broken Blade Town, seeing their lord injured on the ground, grouped over and tried to drag him away. How would the Guards units give them such a chance? They ferociously charged forward.

In a moment, it was another bloodbath. The soldiers who couldn't focus on defense paid a heavy price to save Ba Dao. At that point, the result of the battle was set.

The cavalry on the walls jumped down onto the patio. A portion of them charged towards the lord's manor door, moving away the stone from the door.

Helplessly, Xiaofeng Canyue could only gather his remaining troops to give up the patio and back off into the meeting hall. Inside, the territory stone steele had slowly risen up, awaiting its unknown fate.

The Guards unit didn't immediately attack the meeting hall, but they helped the cavalry open up the main door. After opening it, Ouyang Shuo brought the rest of the forces into the lord's manor.

As the lord's manor's space was limited, a large portion of the cavalry was left outside the lord's manor, surrounding the manor to prevent anyone from escaping, especially the lord, Xiaofeng Canyue. At the same time, they were in charge of surveying the territory to prevent other forces from assisting them from the teleportation formation.

After the Shanhai City troops entered the patio, they formed up and prepared for the final battle.

Inside the hall, seeing the enemy troops like fish swarming into the sea, the alliance troops had looks of despair on their eyes.

The Guards unit troops were still at the front, and led the charge into the hall.

The alliance troops had their backs against the wall and had no way out; they could only wish for a better life next time.

In the narrow meeting hall, this became the last battleground of the 2 sides.

The soldiers from the Guards unit had a steel-like mental strength and an unbreakable spirit, charging forward; they weren't afraid of death and treated honor like their lives. Attack and killing were their instincts.

The soldiers were a highly efficient killing machine who proceeded quickly, killing anyone who blocked their way. Death was the best gift that they could give their enemy, and blood was the best present.

Such an atmosphere and scene made the enemy give up and stop struggling.

Xiaofeng Canyue and Ba Dao continued to try to raise their morale to do a final struggle.

Slaughter continued; fresh blood stained the gaps on the rocky floor, flowing everywhere. After being stepped on, there were many bloody footprints, like a cultivation ground of an asura.

The light of the blades shone across and blood splattered everywhere. The injured let out screams of pain and were drowned in the shadows of the blades.

Ouyang Shuo stood outside the hall, looking motionlessly at this slaughter.

As blood stained the earth and allies fell one after another, when their blades was broken in half, when their allies' blood blurred their vision, the alliance troops lost their courage and tried to escape. They went through the back door and tried to escape through the back courtyard.

Xiaofeng Canyue laughed. He didn't retreat like Ba Dao, pulling the sword at his waist and faced the Guards alone, shouting, "Kill!" This was his final song, as the Guards unit soldiers charged forward and cut him down.

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Chapter 229 - Conquering

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Gaia first year 9th month 9th day, 9:20 AM

Tianfeng Town's lord Xiaofeng Canyue died in battle.

Xiaofeng Canyue's miserable smile became Ouyang Shuo's deepest memory of this whole battle. Ouyang Shuo could totally understand the feelings a lord had towards his territory.

Xiaofeng Canyue didn't choose to escape, and in the final moment, he made the choice to die together with his territory. Territory warfare didn't have anything to do with righteousness or justice, good or bad. There was only survival, the strong live, the weak die.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the meeting hall, ordering the Guards unit to clean up the rest of the soldiers. He walked to the front of the Tianfeng Town stone steele, retrieving his Tang blade, rotating his golden internal strength, imbuing it into the blade before hacking down. Ouyang Shuo didn't know any blade arts so he could only use pure strength to destroy the stone steele.

The territory stone steele had a certain defence and durability, which was correlated to the grade of the territory and the grade of the village creation token.

For a grade 1 village built using the lowest copper village creation token, its durability was 100, and its defence was 10. For each grade the token upgraded by, its initial stats would increase by 20%; each grade the territory increased, the stats would double; for every huge upgrade, the stats would increase by 5 times.

Tianfeng Town was a grade 3 town, and was made using a copper creation token. Its durability was 8000, and defense was 800. Every time it was attacked, the durability would drop. If the combat power was lower than the defence of the stone steele, one would be unable to break through, but you'd deduct durability points.

Ouyang Shuo's knife removed only 12 durability points. Helplessly, he could only ask his Guards to launch an attack on the stone steele.

Half an hour later, the stone steele was finally destroyed.

The moment that it happened, a notification sounded in his ear.

"System notification: player Qiyue Wuyi has conquered Tianfeng Town. Please choose whether to conquer, hand over to another player, or destroy."

"I choose to conquer!"

Tianfeng Town had a strategic location, so Ouyang Shuo would obviously conquer it. Not only Tianfeng Town, but he chose to conquer the 4 other territories.

"System notification: after conquering, you may rename the territory, would you choose to do so?"

"No!" Ouyang Shuo didn't have the interest and wasn't in the mood to think of another name.

After conquering the territory, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to deal with the mess.

The battle in the back courtyard of the lord's manor had already ended, and with Xiaofeng Canyue's death, the remaining soldiers surrendered. As for Ba Dao and the others, they were all killed and no one was left alive.

Ouyang Shuo sat in the lord's manor, taking control over Tianfeng Town and giving out a series of commands.

He ordered the 2nd unit of the 2nd regiment to be in charge of removing the military power of the affiliate territories of Tianfeng Town. he informed the residents that Tianfeng Town was under the rule of Shanhai City. He ordered the Guards unit to be in charge of the law and order in the city to prevent looting. He made some of the residents clean up the lord's manor and gave instructions, restoring law and order.

In the afternoon, Tianfeng Town had basically returned to normal.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the 1st and 2nd units of the 2nd regiment to immediately return to Shanhai Town and bring back his orders. He ordered the 1st unit of the Beihai naval fleet to go up the Friendship river and rush to Xila lake to defend it. He appointed Construction Division secretary Zhao Dewang as the head of Tianfeng Town, choosing a group of elite workers and officials to come up together with the naval fleet. He ordered the shipyard to send a batch of shipmakers to Tianfeng Town to build a shipyard.

After they left, Ouyang Shuo started to receive all the officials in Tianfeng Town.

The lord's manor was already cleaned up and the bodies were removed, buried in the mass grave outside the city; the bloodstains were cleaned up, and only the air had the thick smell of blood.

Tianfeng Town being a grade 3 Town, amongst players it could probably be ranked in the top 300. Xiaofeng Canyue could also be considered a good leader who had run the territory well.

Tianfeng Town had a total of 23 officials. There were 11 black iron, 2 silver, 1 gold and no historical people.

After two battles, the Tianfeng Town army was nearly wiped out, causing the population of the town to lessen tremendously, totalling only 7000.

After Tianfeng Town was conquered, it would be unable to have any more refugees spawn. Ouyang Shuo would rather migrate all the people from the affiliate territories to the main city to help it break 10 thousand.

As Tianfeng Town was outside of Shanhai City's territory, Tianfeng Town couldn't be considered Shanhai City's, unless Ouyang Shuo moved all of them to Shanhai to live.

Ouyang Shuo obviously wouldn't do that, as he had big plans for Tianfeng Town.

He started to make changes the the administrative structure of Tianfeng Town, similar to that of an affiliate territory of Shanhai City, with 23 officials as the base. This was to build an Administration Department, Internal Affairs Department, Financial Department, and Material Reserves Department. Once Zhao Dewang had brought the elite officials over, Tianfeng Town could immediately start running again.

Out of the officials, the only gold talent was Pu Zhidao, who passed the imperial exams. He was 42 years old and was an important assistant to Xiaofeng Canyue.

Ouyang Shuo was in the lord's office alone with Pu Zhidao.

Civil servants had a backbone such that they wouldn't want to serve a second master, especially so quickly after their old one died. When he entered, he was cold, not willing to discuss with Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and he didn't mind, asking him to sit before saying, "Tianfeng Town and Shanhai City does have some conflict. Im sure you know, but I hope you can make your judgement on whoever started it."

Pu Zhidao was a bit emotional. As Xiaofeng Canyue's assistant, he was clear that Tianfeng Town picked the fight, which resulted in today's disaster. Since they lost, there was nothing they could say.

Since it was a knot, it wasn't so easy to remove it. Their stand was different so the points which they considered were also different. In his mind, Tianfeng Town's actions were correct, just that their strength wasn't enough.

Ouyang Shuo obviously didn't think that it would be so easy to convince him. "A good official learns and improves, I hope you can consider the wellbeing of the residents. If you don't do anything because of your pride and backbone, they would lose a good official, so why would you do that?"

Pu Zhidao let out a long sigh and bowed, "I greet my lord."

Ouyang Shuo helped him up and said, "With your help, Tianfeng Town will have no worries!"

Ouyang Shuo appointed him the Administration director, with a person who was familiar with the runnings of Tianfeng Town, it would make it easier for him get used to.

The next day, the Guards units got out of the city and started to clear up the raider camps along the border. Ouyang Shuo gave specific instructions that they were not only to clear those around Tianfeng Town, but also all those in the Xila Lake region.

The goal was first to make all the residents live peacefully at night and prove that their ruler had the power to protect their safety; second was to make use of this to gather a bunch of prisoners to build the city protection unit of Tianfeng Town. The Guards units couldn't be sent here for long periods of time, so before leaving, Ouyang Shuo had to ensure that they could defend themselves.

Tianfeng Town's recruitment ability was totally squeezed by Xiaofeng Canyue, so the only method was the raiders.

Ouyang Shuo brought four guards, and after leaving the city, walked towards Xila Lake.

As the brightest pearl to the west of the Lianzhou Basin, the Xila Lake was 3150 square kilometers, much larger than the size of a grade 1 county. Its deepest depth was 35 meters, and had an average depth of 25 meters.

The lake water was clear, such that one could see the bottom. The temperature was good and there was an abundance of fish and grass. Apart from that, many birds rested around the lake and depended on it for survival.

On the surface of the lake, fishermen were rowing their boats and tossing out fishing nets.

Xila Lake was a treasure trove, but Ouyang Shuo temporarily didn't have a plan to make use of it. As he looked towards the water, his heart felt happier instantly.

During the following week, the guards went out in all directions to clear the raider camps. Within a five thousand square kilometer radius, many camps of different sizes were all cleared by them.

This operation earned them 4100 gold, 1020 combat prisoners, 2250 non-combat prisoners, and many different resources, filling up the arsenal and warehouse of Tianfeng Town.

The battle successes of the Guards units awed the residents of Tianfeng Town.

To think that whenever Tianfeng Town tried to clear raiders, they were very careful and planned well, unlike these guards who effortlessly cleared them. Such a strong army brought these residents a sense of security.

The large addition of prisoners made Tianfeng Town's population increase significantly, Ouyang Shuo upgraded the town to a City, becoming the 4th city grade affiliate territory of Shanhai County.

Making use of the funds he gained, Ouyang Shuo chose a bunch of elites from the combat prisoners in addition to the prisoners from Tianfeng City to build Tianfeng City's city protection unit.

The unit included a sword shield soldier unit and an archer unit, a total of 1000 men. Ouyang Shuo chose a few key men from the Guards unit and left them here to be the major and sergeants.

The job of the city protection unit, apart from protecting the city, was also to continue to clear raider camps.

Based on his thinking, since there were no more refugees spawning, they had to use wild raiders to raise the population.

After the class change of the city protection squad, Ouyang Shuo kept 1000 gold. He kept the remaining 2700 gold to build a branch of the Four Seas bank to boost Tianfeng City's economy.

A short week after conquering Tianfeng City, Ouyang Shuo's many plans and solutions had breathed a new life into Tianfeng City.

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Chapter 230- Storm

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Gaia 1st year, 9th month, 15th day. Beihai Naval Fleet's 1st unit reached Xila Lake.

Tianfeng City, meeting hall.

Ouyang Shuo gathered all the important officials and generals and appointed Zhao Dewang as the city magistrate. He also appointed the Internal Affairs Director, the Financial Director, and the Material Reserves Director.

Beihai Naval Fleet's 1st unit broke away from the fleet and became known as the Xila Sailor unit, under the jurisdiction of Tianfeng Town. The original major Zhou Feng kept his position in the unit.

Based on the Administration Director Pu Zhidao's introduction, there were water strongholds in the lake where water bandits entered and left.

Hence, their first mission would be to clear the water bandits from the lake. Xila Lake was vast and big, and the water bandits were familiar with the environment. Clearing them out wouldn't be an easy matter.

Zhao Dewang's first task after his appointment as the city magistrate was the establishment of a naval port and a shipyard. Apart from that, there was the more difficult task of building a road from Tianfeng City to Shanhai City. Ouyang Shuo wanted to name this road Tianhai Road.

The Tianhai Road would be 300 kilometers long. It would require a largest investment and consume the most time out of all Shanhai City projects till date. To increase the construction speed, both cities started building at the same time. Then, they would meet up in the middle and join up.

A large portion of the road was out in the wilderness. The conditions were harsh; they had to defend against wild beasts and also raiders. Hence, troops had to protect the workers.

Tianfeng City's City Protection Unit's raider operation helped to pick the path for Tianhai Road.

The building of this road had a strategic meaning. As they built relays along the way and stuck the Shanhai City lord's flag on the road, they would strengthen the power and prestige of Shanhai City on the west region of the Lianzhou Basin.

Tianfeng City, Yongye Town, and Guangzhou Town formed a triangle. Once they used the Tianhai Road to connect them, it would be enough to control the west. Even if other territories asked for reinforcements, Shanhai City would have the time to react and send military forces to destroy or defend.

After they conquered the three most important territories in the west, Ouyang Shuo started to act more gentle toward the other territories. As for the specific policies, he would need to return to Shanhai City before he set them.

After Ouyang Shuo had a conversation with Zhao Dewang, he made his return trip to Shanhai City in the afternoon. On the way back, he also brought his Guards units to Yongye Town and Guangzhou Town to take a look.

Shanhai City had already sent officials to take charge and change the organization structure of Yongye Town and the other grade 2 towns. They had to build the City Protection Unit, open a four seas bank branch and assign policies.

The back of Yongye Town faced Yongye Forest, Ouyang Shuo named it Forestry Town. Guangshui Town and Yishui Town were close to the river, so it was easy to reclaim fertile land. As such, they were deemed as agricultural towns. The back of Gushan Town faced the mountain and Ouyang Shuo was ready to set it as the 2nd settlement location.

9th month, 18th day, in the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo and his group returned to Shanhai City.

When he came back, he directly rushed to the market to check the price of grain.

On the market, the price of grain had risen. Each unit was now 20 copper; the price had doubled. As the price of grain continued to increase, some lord players rashly used their gold to buy the grain. Those with vision had long since sold their wood and other resources to obtain gold to buy grain. This would ensure that they had enough to last them till the 11th month.

This fight for grain further pushed up the prices. Right now, the price of grain was sky high.

The main sellers of grain were the various Chamber of Commerces in the system imperial capital. These entities bought the grain from the farmers on the suburbs of the imperial city, but the grain wasn't limitless.

Every system capital city had tens of millions of players that stayed there, and their presence caused a huge strain on the grain supply. The merchants were all smart. When the prices rose, they started to accumulate grain and prepared to sell for a profit.

Hence, this whole situation got worse and worse; everyone got involved in it.

In this storm, Shanhai City also felt the side effects. The Four Seas Bank branches at the allies' territories had increases in loans, and their gold supplies were going to run out.

Ouyang Shuo immediately made the decision to harvest all the profits from the 1st half of the month to distribute to the branches. Mulan Town, Black Lion Town, and Tianshuang Town all got 2,000 gold, while Xunlong Town and Fallen Phoenix Town both got 2,000 gold.

Unfortunately, this sum of money was only a temporary solution to the territories. The lord's had to take the risk and start looking to clear raiders to earn money.

However, the limited amount of raiders posed a problem to them. Unlike Shanhai City, which basically had a harvest every time they upgraded.

While Ouyang Shuo was away, the city east camp had obtained 4,200 gold after the temporary stop of their raider operations due to the alliance's attack. After the operation on both the east and west sides, together with clearing things from the territories, 15,200 prisoners were sent to Shanhai City.

During this period, many work occupation players were teleported over to Shanhai City. The Fallen Moon Guild had reached the 1,000 member upper limit. Unfortunately, they were still a period of time away from upgrading.

Apart from that, Old Sun had continued to contact scientists and invited them to live in Shanhai City. Since that time, the professional group had expanded to 45, and it continued to increase.

The Snow-War Rose mercenary group had sold all the useless equipment that Ouyang Shuo gave them. With the sum, the mercenary group had started to set up offices for Shanhai City in the various system imperial cities.

Once they start running, Shanhai City would see a huge rise in the number of people that wished to live in their city.

They had rebuilt the 1st regiment; they chose the 3rd, 4th, and 5th unit members from the prisoners. As for the 1st and 2nd units, they still entirely consisted of elite mountain barbarians. The two large scale recruitments nearly squeezed the tribes dry of their fighting ability.

Based on the plan, he had pushed back Shanhai City's promise to destroy the stronghold of the mountain bandits by nearly a month's time.

To gain their trust and understanding, the internal affairs director Tian Wenjing had once again increased the grain help to the tribes.

When Ouyang Shuo returned, he immediately started the operation against the mountain stronghold. He codenamed it 'Bobcat.'

As this was forest warfare, apart from the Guards unit and the god machine unit, there were also eight other units apart from the cavalry units from the 1st and 3rd regiment.

The deputy secretary of military intelligence, Lengqian, had led a group of spies to investigate the stronghold situation. It was much harder to attack than they had expected.

The stronghold was located in the Er'Shi Ridge, which was easy to defend and hard to attack. Its population had reached 14,000 men and there were 8,000 mountain thieves. Among them, there were many elite mountain thieves. The only road up had three roadblocks that the mountain thieves had set up. To attack all the way up would be harder than ascending the heavens.

"Is there really not another way up?" Ouyang Shuo wasn't willing.

Lengqian shook his head and said, "The back of the stronghold is a cliff. To attack from behind its nearly impossible, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"A thousand meters away from the cliff, there is a mountain peak that is easy to climb up. The only problem is how to get past this thousand meters. Even if we use a zip-line, we can't tie it to the cliff." Lengqian was very pessimistic.

Ideas popped into Ouyang Shuo's mind, and he said, "I have a way to solve the problem of securing the rope." Ouyang Shuo thought about Bing'er's pet, Xue'er. She was the highest grade smart pet. Although she was only an ornamental pet in the game, she was strong and she could fly. Hence, she would be the perfect candidate to tie the rope onto the other side.

"Ah?" Although he knew that Ouyang Shuo wouldn't lie, his lord's words still shocked Lengqian.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off and said, "Let the Military Intelligence Division survey the mountain and find a suitable way up. Our troops will go up tomorrow."

"Yes, lord!"

After Lengqian left, Ouyang Shuo ordered director Ge Hongliang to ask the Combat Logistics Division to prepare enough zip-line rope, oil, and other miscellaneous resources to guarantee the smooth operation of bobcat.

At the same time, to prevent deaths and casualties, Ouyang Shuo ordered the formation of two sword-shield units and one archer unit from the reserve force to attack together. With that, this 6,500 soldiers attack on the Er'Shi Ridge mountain thieves was the biggest operation till date.

After they discussed the details, it was already 5:30 PM. He had just returned to the lord's manor, yet now he needed to leave at first light tomorrow due to the operation; he was living such a tough and restless life.

As they ate dinner, Ouyang Shuo looked at Xue'er, who was on Bing'er's shoulder, "Xue'er, tomorrow, I'll bring you to play, okay?"

Her eyes brightened up, and she flew up around Ouyang Shuo's head, "Go out and play, go out and play, lalala~~"

Bing'er's eyes also lit up, "Brother, can Bing'er come too?"

Ouyang Shuo resolutely shook his head, No, you have to go to school tomorrow!"

Bing'er's face turned crestfallen; she angrily used her chopsticks to stir the rice in her bowl, as she muttered, "Bad brother, bad brother, bias..."

Ouyang Shuo laughed, and he had to explain, "Tomorrow, brother needs to do an important thing, so it isn't to play."

"Really?" Bing'er didn't believe it.

Ouyang Shuo stared at her, "When did I ever lie to you!"

"Ok, Bing'er forgives you." This little brat's mood really changed quickly.

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Chapter 231- taking down Er'Shi Ridge

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

At night, Ouyang Shuo brought Song Jia to the patio to talk.

"How's it going with the sect? Is it going smoothly?"

"En, it's basically on the right track. However, you just returned, yet you have to leave tomorrow."

"I've no choice. Right now is a crucial time." Heise Pifeng's ambitions and Sha Pojun's interference had affected Ouyang Shuo's plan and poison insect rearing project.

It wasn't easy for him to calm everything down, so he had to get ready a series of plans to make up for his losses.

This operation did not only involve Er'Shi Ridge, but also the Yue'er Island that Pei Donglai had always eyed. The Beihai Naval Fleet, which had just become a regiment, had a unit taken away and needed to rebuild again.

"A good man conquers all four directions. Blockhead, it seems like you are becoming more and more like a hero," Song Jia made fun of him.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, as he thought of something, "Sect Leader Song, Dongli Sword Sect can think about recruiting some players. You can contact little aunt and ask her to help you out."

"I was thinking of the same way. Having a sect full of NPCs is so boring." Song Jia nodded in agreement, "Oh yeah, Bing'er has bugged me for some time. She wants me to accept her as my disciple. When that little brat saw our uniform she became envious."

The uniform she referred to was the sect uniform of the Dongli Sword Dect, which Qing'er had personally designed. The designs on the uniform robe had the patterns of clouds and dragons, which gave the wearer an elegant and unworldly air.

"Did you agree?"

"Of course not. How would I dare unless I got the permission of a certain control freak?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He did not bother to respond to her teasing, "Bing'er is still small, so it's better if she focuses on her studies. Anyway, the Nine Yin technique isn't suitable for her to train at her age."

"I'll listen to you."

The afternoon of the next day, the troops gathered at Qiushui City.

They had long since fixed the road from Qiushui City to Xuanniao Tribe. It became their best path into the forest. The troops would spend a night in Xuanniao Tribe before they ventured deep into the forest.

When the mountain barbarian tribes in the middle region found out that Shanhai City had finally sent their army to help them clean out the mountain bandits, they were naturally happy. To avoid alerting the enemy, Ouyang Shuo rejected the mountain barbarian's offer to help.

Apart from the Xuanniao Tribe, the military didn't enter any other tribes. They did this to avoid all the areas where the mountain bandits worked and directly charged toward the Er'Shi Bridge.

9th month, 21st day, in the afternoon, the forces arrived in the proximity of Er'Shi Ridge. Zhao Sihu was in charge of leading two sword-shield soldier units and one archer unit to attack the ridge head-on to attract attention.

On the other hand, the main force wrapped around the ridge and sneakily entered the peak of the mountain at the back of the ridge.

Mountain bandit stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"Boss, when we went down the hill recently, our brothers found many random people sneakily walking around. It seems like someone is planning something on the mountain stronghold," said military advisor Goutou.

The boss was tall and well-built. He had a rough look, wiith thick eyebrows and a full beard. He looked somewhat similar to a chimpanzee. He was topless and openly showed his chest full of hair. The captured mountain barbarian tribe ladies kneeled at two sides and helped massage him.

"Military advisor thinks too much. Who can actually attack our Er'Shi Ridge?" Although the boss looked rough and unkempt, he spoke fluently, totally contrary to his appearance.

The unique environment of Er'Shi Ridge let them live well, the square was also huge. If they continued to develop, they would become one of the rulers of the mountains.

The military advisor was just reminding him, as he didn't believe it either. When he saw that the boss wasn't paying much attention to it, he backed out of the Hall of Brotherhood. He was just a few steps out before he heard the sounds of a moaning woman behind him...

In the early morning, a dense fog blanketed the forest, the sun rose up from the peak, and the orange red sun shone down through the fog. However, it was unable to give anyone warmth.

Xue'er stopped on Ouyang Shuo's shoulder, excitement filled her little face, this little fellow had an unusually warmth toward forests.

Ouyang Shuo took out the zip-line from his storage bag and passed the end of it to Xue'er, "Good Xue'er, do you see the cliff there?" Ouyang Shuo pointed to the cliff a thousand meters above.

"En, I see it."

"Now I'll give you a mission. Tie the rope to the cliff; can you do it?"

Xue'er tilted her head and cutely said, "I'll try."

"Good, good luck!"

Xue'er picked up the rope and effortlessly flew toward the cliff on the opposite side.

After she flew far away, Xue'er tiny body became a little black dot. If someone only saw the rope flying in the sky, they would think that it was some supernatural phenomenon.

This thousand meter long rope, in addition to the oil added to prevent friction, was super heavy. Carrying it through the air was especially exhausting.

Although Xue'er was special, she slowly felt fatigued and beads of sweat started to form on her forehead.

This little fellow was just like her master; they both had a stubbornness in their bones. She continued to fly even though she was tired. During the final portion before the cliff, her body shook from left to right, apparently in real pain and exhaustion.

Ouyang Shuo, who stood on the other end of the rope, saw the rope swing. He felt pained but also nervous.

When she finally reached the other side, Xue'er was so tired that she was going to collapse.

Xue'er had to stop on a rock to rest and regain some energy. After resting, she followed Ouyang Shuo's orders and found a huge tree and tied the rope around it. The rope was already fixed and as long as one pulled hard from the other end, they would secure the rope.

After that, Xue'er nodded, pleased with herself. She turned around and flew back.

When he saw her come back, Ouyang Shuo took out his handkerchief and helped her wipe off the sweat.

Obviously, she was not used to this, and she giggled. When he saw her in such a good mood, Ouyang Shuo could finally stop worrying.

First, Ouyang Shuo arranged for a guard to test the reliability of the zip-line. He didn't hesitate and directly zipped toward the other side. The entire journey was very smooth.

After he reached the other end, the guard checked the rope on the tree to ensure that everything was okay. Then, he took out a red flag and waved it.

After they confirmed that it was safe, everyone started to zipline across.

In regards to the upcoming future war, Ouyang Shuo didn't want Xue'er to follow them, so he arranged for two Guards to protect her on the mountain peak. Once the operation ended, they would meet up with the rest.

After the troops gathered at Er'Shi Ridge, the military intelligence spies released the Feng birds to inform Zhao Sihu's troops, who were hiding at the bottom of the mountain. The spies told them to immediately launch their attack.

A 5,000 men army squeezing at the back mountain. Ouyang Shuo could not help but worry about the possibility of a mountain bandit coming to the back mountain and spotting them.

At that moment, they heard the sounds of chatter before them.

"Ah Man, did that chimpanzee bully you again yesterday?"

Following which a women cried,"living like this, I'll rather die."

"Ah Man, trust me. I'll get you out and save you from this hell."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head; he didn't expect to meet a pair of sad mandarin ducks. He looked toward Wang Feng, signaling for them to take the pair down but not take their lives.

Wang Feng understood and brought two Guards to sneak up.

"Ah, who are you?" The woman was about to scream, but the guard covered her mouth. Then, he knocked her out. He used ropes to tie them together and stuffed their mouths with cloths, dragging them behind a huge rock.

After that small interference, the back mountain was calm once again.

At the front, Zhao Sihu's forces.

After the Military Intelligence Division spy received the message from the Feng bird, he interpreted the order and reported to Zhao Sihu.

Next, Zhao Sihu hollered, "Heed my orders, attack!!"

"Yes!" The closely packed troops appeared from the forest and charged toward the first roadblock.

The first people they met were some patrolling soldiers that the mountain stronghold had sent down.

"Who are you?" the poor patrolling soldier still didn't understand the situation.

"We are the ones who will take your life." Zhao Sihu strode to the forefront and stabbed out with his spear. His move was as quick as lightning, and he stabbed the mountain bandit's stomach, causing the mountain bandit to fall to the ground in pain.

After they cleanly dealt with the patrolling squad, the forces advanced.

The first roadblock was set at the foot of the mountain and was like a front sentry. Hence, it was very rundown and had a wooden wall, similar to that of camps.

When the mountain bandits that patrolled on the mountain wall saw enemies pop out from nowhere, he panicked. Immediately, he sounded the alarm, some had lit the fire to warn the roadblocks at the back.

Zhao Sihu knew that he was in charge of a distraction attack, but if he could attract more mountain bandits, it could reduce the pressure on the back forces. Hence, his goal was to at least destroy a roadblock.

After Ouyang Shuo criticised the Military Intelligence Division, the three heads trained a batch of elite spies. The spies clearly investigated the details of the roadblocks.

To take it down, Zhao Sihu took a batch of alchemical fire oil from the Combat Logistics Division. After reorganising the archer unit, they bathed the arrows in the oil and lit them up and fired toward the roadblock.

Wave after wave of fire arrows ignited and quickly spread. In an instant, it became an ocean of fire. The huge fire was visible from all the subsequent roadblocks.

The mountain bandits at the second roadblock rang the bell seven times. This represented an enemy attack, an emergency situation that required reinforcements. Following this, they lit up the beacon to inform the third roadblock.

The message spread up until it reached the boss.

The boss had a really long night and hadn't woken up. When he heard the reports, he didn't bother about the girls he had fun with. Instead, he hurriedly dressed himself and rushed to the Hall of Brotherhood.

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Chapter 232- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 2

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Er'Shi Ridge, mountain bandit stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"What's the situation?" questioned the boss. The forceful and angry aura he emitted choked everyone, "Who has the courage to attack our mountain stronghold?"

"It's a proper army, with more than 1,500 men. They used fire arrows to burn our first roadblock." Goutou had received firsthand information.

"Heh, such nerve!" The boss became furious when he heard that the enemy had less than 2,000, "Order the brothers to kill them at the second roadblock."

"Yes!" The military advisor ran down to send the orders.

At the foot of the mountain, Zhao Sihu looked at the burning roadblock and didn't make a move.

Inside the roadblock, the mountain bandits that couldn't escape in time let out screams of pain, as the fire burned them alive. Although some of them escaped, their backs had caught on fire; they tumbled around on the ground and asked their allies for help.

The burning roadblock had similarly stopped Zhao Sihu and his forces from attacking.

The fire burned on for a whole hour before it slowly stopped. Zhao Sihu ordered his men to obtain twigs to extinguish the fire, which would clear a road for them to enter.

20 minutes later, the force continued their advance.

On the way, they didn't see a single mountain bandit; they had all retreated to the second roadblock.

Zhao Sihu knew that the real test was going to come.

He looked at this roadblock built out of rock, the fire attack weren't as effective anymore. This roadblock was hard to attack but easy to defend. With his current troops, breaching this place was harder than ascending the heavens.

The mountain bandit chieftain stood on the wall and shouted, "Who are you, to dare break my roadblock and attack my stronghold?"

"I'm the one that's going to take your life. You are all shameless and lack conscience. You steal from the mountain barbarians; you all don't deserve to live."

"Haha," the mountain bandit laughed like he had heard a joke, "With only you, you want to do the work of the heavens? Haha, it's better if you go home and feed your kids!"

"Haha haha," a bunch of mountain bandits also laughed loudly, mocking the troops.

Zhao Sihu didn't make a move, but he shouted back, "Cowardly tortoises; what's there to be proud of? Do you dare to come out and fight with your grandpa?"

The soldiers supported their major and mocked the bandits, hurling abuse at them. The threw out anything bad that they could think off.

"You!" The mountain barbarian chieftain was furious, "Shoot the arrows, shoot them, kill them!"

When the archers received this order, they started raining arrows at the enemy troops.

Zhao Sihu had prepared his troops for this, and the sword-shield soldiers raised their shield to block the arrow rain. They slowly backed off until they got out of range.

"Haha," the chieftain grew complacent, "Now, who's the coward?"

As a general that Ouyang Shuo had placed his faith in, Zhao Sihu wasn't simple. When he saw the mountain barbarians not fall for it, he took a look at the wind direction and thought of a plan. He ordered his troops to cut down the wet twigs and douse them in alchemical fire oil. The sword-shield soldiers braved the arrow rain to pile the twigs under the roadblock.

The mountain bandits didn't recognize the alchemical fire oil. When they saw these actions, they didn't know what their enemy was trying to do.

After his soldiers returned, Zhao Sihu ordered the archers to fire and ignite the twigs.

In a moment, smoke rose from the twig mountain. The wind was just nicely blowing toward the roadblock, which blew smoke into it and fogged it all up.

The chieftain finally realized that the enemy had tricked them, "Despicable, it's this method again!"

The thick smoke covered the entire roadblock; the mountain bandits found it hard to bear with it, and felt that breathing was very difficult. They had no choice but to leave the wall and back off.

Zhao Sihu grabbed the chance to order the troops to attack the roadblock.

Before they attacked, he ordered the troops to wet a cloth and cover their nose and mouths.

The mountain bandit were busy taking care of themselves. Without the interference of the archers, the Shanhai troops quickly took the gate down. Zhao Sihu ordered the archers to remove the twigs and the sword-shield soldiers charged in.

The mountain bandits were like headless flies in the smoke. When they saw the enemy chase in, they became like birds fleeing from a bullet, as the sword-shield soldiers chased them around as they ran.

The thick smoke slowly faded away; Zhao Sihu had successfully taken down the second roadblock.

Mountain stronghold, Hall of Brotherhood.

"Report!" the messenger ran inside the hall, "Boss, the enemy has taken down the second roadblock; they're advancing toward the third one."

"What?" the boss stood up, which instantly shook the floor, "Heipi that useless junk. How did he lose a roadblock so quickly!"

"Boss, it seems like the enemy general isn't simple," military advisor Goutou noted.

"En." The boss finally paid attention, Come, follow me to the final roadblock. I want to see who is coming."

"Yes!"

The boss personally let 4,000 elite troops and rushed to the third and strongest roadblock. It was like a iron fortress placed on the path, a total castle.

Zhao Sihu looked at the third roadblock. He knew that it was impossible for him to take it no matter what he did.

The boss appeared on top of the castle and shouted down, "Who are you? Say your name and I won't kill you."

Zhao Sihu laughed. Such a small mountain bandit leader, yet he still dared to talk about the rules of Jianghu, truly amusing. Zhao Sihu wasn't fazed, "Listen up, we are from the Shanhai City army, it's time for you to surrender."

"Ha? Shanhai City? What's that, such nerve." The boss had never heard of any Shanhai City.

"Heh, what an idiot." When Zhao Sihu saw that even the boss had appeared, he knew that he had completed the mission. As such, he shot the signal bullet.

When it reached the sky, it burst open in mid-air.

"What are they doing, are they calling for reinforcements?" The mountain bandits didn't understand.

Er'Shi Ridge, back of the mountain.

The main force had waited in the back mountain for two hours. Finally, they saw the signal and stood up, "Attack!"

"Kill!" the troops came out from their hiding spots and charged into the mountain stronghold.

Before they left, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Guards to wake up and untie the pair of unlucky couple.

After he woke up, he looked at Ouyang Shuo, shocked beyond words. Then, he stammered, "Yo … yo … you, who are you? Ho … how did you get here?"

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in disappointment. On the other hand, the girl was calm and asked, "Are you here to destroy the mountain stronghold?"

"That's right. I'm the lord of Shanhai City and the mountain barbarian tribes asked me to help them destroy this mountain stronghold. Can you lead the way?" Ouyang Shuo explained the reason why they were here.

When she saw that it was their saviour, she became so delighted she teared up, "I know the route, follow me."

Under the leadership of the girl, things went smoothly, and they directly entered the core area of the mountain stronghold.

At that point, the boss had moved more than half of the combat mountain bandits to the roadblock. When the remaining ones saw the troops, they were astonished.

Apart from the guards, a large portion of them didn't carry weapons. They would only get their weapons from the arsenal during operations.

Hence, the elite Shanhai City troops faced a bunch of barefisted Mountain bandits.

A slaughter, this was the only description of the battle that ensued.

Out of the participating soldiers, there were 2,000 mountain barbarians. The bandits had bullied a large portion of them before. As the saying goes, when one sees their enemy, their eyes will become red.

At that moment, all the mountain barbarian soldiers were furious, as they killed anyone that entered their sights, be it combat mountain bandits or non-combat ones. They cruelly murdered anyone that tried to escape.

When Ouyang Shuo heard the news, he ordered the troops to prevent the slaughter.

Time was very precious, and they needed to clear out all the combat mountain bandits before those at the roadblock returned. Where would they find the time to waste on the non-combat one?

Furthermore, the military weren't killers. Unless forced, he didn't want them to act against innocent people.

After they entered the mountain stronghold, Ouyang Shuo directly ordered the Guards unit to take control of the main gate. The archers took over the archer towers to prevent reinforcements.

Blood rained on the mountain stronghold; some of the mountain bandits hobbled to the roadblock, "Boss, boss. It's bad; it's very bad."

The boss felt that Zhao Sihu's lack of movement was very strange. After he heard this report, he had a bad premonition. He quickly ran up and grabbed the collar of the mountain bandit and furiously asked, "Speak! What happened in the stronghold?" He nearly strangled the mountain bandit.

"Cough, cough." The mountain bandit was half scared to death, "Boss, a large army has appeared in the mountain stronghold."

"How? Where did they come from? How many people?"

"Many. We couldn't count; they came from the back mountain." The mountain bandits had rushed here, so how could they've bothered to count?

"Back mountain?" The boss had experienced more surprises today than ever before in his life. He muttered, "The back mountain is a cliff. How did they come up?"

The military advisor remained calm and reminded, "Boss, what we need to do now is to make a choice. We must choose whether to assist the mountain stronghold or directly go down the mountain."

"Correct." The boss calmed himself down, "It's not an option to go down. The road is too small, so the enemy just has to block the road and we are dead." The boss felt frustrated, the advantages of the ridge had become the thing that left them no way out at this crucial moment.

"Let's return and fight them!" The boss chose to launch a final fight.

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Chapter 233- Taking Down Er'Shi Ridge Part 3

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

The mountain bandits decided to throw everything in; they rushed to reinforce the mountain stronghold.

When they reached the front, Ouyang Shuo had already controlled the entire stronghold. They had killed or forced all the combat mountain bandits to surrender. Then, they locked the bandits up.

When he looked at the shut stronghold doors, the boss became so angry he wanted to vomit blood. He didn't expect the enemy to proceed so quickly; this time, he had completely failed.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the arrow tower with his Guards by his side, "Those outside, listen up. I have taken over your stronghold. It's not too late for you to surrender."

"You have the guts to say that? Why not come out for a battle to the death!" shouted the furious boss.

Ouyang Shuo knew that if he didn't kill the boss, he wouldn't be able to recruit the mountain bandits, "Ok, I, the lord, will do as you wish." He turned around, "Which one of you wants to fight and slay him?"

"Lord, send me!" Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui both wished to battle.

Both of them wanted to fight the mountain bandit leader, it was pointless as the mountain barbarian leader wasn't their level. Ouyang Shuo didn't know which one to choose.

At that moment, Wang Feng stood out, "To kill a chicken you don't need to use a butcher knife. Lord, send me!"

Ouyang Shuo froze, "Good, I'll send you out!"

"Thank you, lord!" Wang Feng turned and walked down the arrow tower.

Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui were both happy with this decision and naturally didn't oppose it.

The doors of the stronghold opened and Wang Feng walked out under the protection of the Guards unit. Then, he pointed his spear at the bandit boss, "Shanhai City Wang Feng. I'm here to spar."

When he saw that his opponent had sent such a young general out, the boss grew even more furious, "A stupid kid that has just finished sucking milk? Eat a knife from your grandfather!" He raised his knife and charged at Wang Feng.

Wang Feng remained unfazed. He rushed forward and with a shake of his spear, he caught the knife. Both weapons were made of exquisite iron; both of the same quality.

Bajiquan and spears were the best combination. Wang Feng imbued the essence of the Bajiquan into each stroke of his spear.

Every time the spear struck the knife, a power will be spread through it, which numbed the boss's right hand. In a moment of carelessness, he nearly dropped his knife. This astonished him, and he didn't dare to underestimate his opponent anymore.

Since he was able to lead a whole mountain of mountain bandits, he naturally had strength. His strokes were heavy and powerful. Coupled with his vast experience, both of them fought evenly.

On the arrow tower, Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui watched on. Wang Feng's performance pleased these two experts, and they would comment a few words from time to time.

When the Guards unit soldiers saw their major strut his stuff, they started to cheer for him. The mountain bandits didn't back down and started to cheer their boss on. Both sides ended up in a war of voices.

The atmosphere made everyone's blood boil, and the battle instantly entered a white-hot stage. Each and every move aimed to take the opponent's life, as they both thought of various ways to try and kill their enemy.

Ouyang Shuo knew that it was hard for Wang Feng to chance upon such a battle. He might even break the bottleneck and become an intermediate general.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't a gentleman. To ensure Wang Feng's safety, he ordered Shi Wanshui to shoot an arrow to kill the boss if Wang Feng fell into a perilous situation.

Luckily, it didn't reach that step in the end.

The pressure that the mountain bandit boss posed had ignited Wang Feng's potential.

He got close to his opponent. Then, he shook his spear to use the ultimate technique of the Bajiquan—Cling To The Mountain. The spear was like a poisonous snake, as it stuck to the knife and slid down, pushing the boss away. Like a shadow, the spear continued to stick, which forced the bandit boss to release the knife and drop it to the ground.

After the bandit boss dropped his weapon, his face turned white, as he muttered, "My life ends here, carry on."

With victory in sight, Wang Feng waved his spear and charged forward with lightning speed. Then, he stabbed the spear into the bandit boss's chest.

The screams of the bandit boss slowly stopped.

Wang Feng pulled out the spear from the bandit boss's chest. Fresh blood spurted all over the place. The boss had his eyes wide open in disbelief, as he fell to the ground.

After he killed off his opponent, Wang Feng actually closed his eyes, as if he was reflecting on the battle.

In front of the stronghold, the mountain bandits were frozen. They didn't dare to move, as they faced Wang Feng, who stood with his eyes closed.

"Kill him, take revenge for the boss!" Finally, a mountain bandit reacted.

"Protect the general!" The Guards unit soldiers quickly rushed up to cover Wang Feng.

Ouyang Shuo stood on the arrow tower and ordered the archers to shoot.

Wave after wave of arrows pierced the mountain bandit group. Immediately, the arrows brought about a large amount of casualties. Then, the bandits regained their senses. The enemy had already taken the stronghold and had all the advantages. Instantly, they all backed off like rats.

Ouyang Shuo knew that they had settled the situation. He smiled at Er'Lai and Shi Wanshui, "Let's go out."

"Yes my, lord!"

After Ouyang Shuo exited the mountain stronghold, he looked at the mountain bandits, "Aren't you going to surrender? If not, don't blame me for killing you."

The bandits knew that it was over and immediately split into two sections. One group placed down their weapons and surrendered while the others chose to run.

Those that wanted to escape were obviously the ruthless ones. They knew that they had performed too much evil; they wouldn't be spared even if they surrendered.

For these people, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't give them a chance, and he ordered his men to give chase.

The Er'Shi Ridge was dangerous. Apart from the one way down, every other spot was a peak, so jumping down would only lead to one's death. The bandits knew that their road had been blocked. Their only choice was to jump and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, the archers blocked this last chance of survival.

The archers closely lined up by the cliff and shot down at the foot. The bandits that were not far away were hit and tumbled down. Only a few escaped, but they were unable to pose a threat. However, Ouyang Shuo still didn't want to let them off. He ordered Zhao Sihu and his men to search for them and clean them out.

After they cleaned up the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo returned to the mountain bandit boss's body. He found a dropped item under the body.

As expected, it was a token. After he took it out and looked at it, he was delighted, it was actually a rare summoning token.

Summoning Token (King grade): Randomly summons a king grade historical person to work for you.

Ouyang Shuo kept it in his storage bag. He wanted to use it when he got back.

After he dealt with all the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo ordered his men to clean out the stronghold and take all moveable resources.

At that moment, the mountain barbarian teen ran out, "Savior, the boss has a secret room. I can guide you there."

Ouyang Shuo was delighted, "Great, lets go!" Ouyang Shuo left a squadron of Guards to protect Wang Feng. He brought the remaining Guards and followed the barbarian teen.

The secret room was inside the bedroom, with a hidden passageway under the floor.

The Guards were worried about his safety, so they led the way. In a short while, they came out; their faces pale white. Some of them looked furious, "My lord, there are many girls locked up in the secret room."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, and he turned around to the mountain barbarian teen, "You brought us here to save them?"

She was also not nervous and spoke the truth, "I don't dare to hide it from Saviour, I have such an intention. But I didn't lie to you, his treasures are hidden in there too."

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Ok, let's go down together!"

There were torches on both sides of the passage, so it wasn't as dark as he had expected. Following the wet steps, they walked all the way down. In his heart, he counted approximately 70 to 80 steps before they arrived at a well lit hall.

Glancing around, the floor was paved with thick animal hides, while some who were treated poorly only had dried grasses beneath them.

There were more than a hundred girls, donned in tattered clothes, they stared apathetically into the void as they were lying on the animal hides or the dried grasses. When they saw that someone had come, they didn't panic nor were they happy; they were already numb.

In the corner, Ouyang Shuo also noticed several girls shriveled there. Their situation was horrible. They were as thin as bones and their bodies emitted a deathly smell.

Even though Ouyang Shuo was heartless, he still grew furious when he saw this scene. To think that the bandit boss had toyed and tortured these girls.

When the barbarian teen walked in front of them, she cried and laughed, "Sisters, we are saved." She said as she pointed at Ouyang Shuo, "This prince is the lord of Shanhai City. He is here to save us. They have killed the evil man, I personally witnessed it."

When they heard this, the girls regained their senses. A flash of happiness and life appeared in them. Tears unknowingly flowed down their eyes. They had thought that they had cried out all their tears. They had not expected that someone would come to rescue them from this place.

"Thank you, savior!" Some of the girls had regained their senses. They walked before him and kneeled down.

Ouyang Shuo personally helped all of them up and said, "Stand up, there's no need to thank me. From today onward, you are free and can return to your tribes and family."

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Chapter 234 - Searching for Treasures in the Secret Room

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

"Thank you for saving us!" In the secret room, the girls that were saved thanked Ouyang Shuo again.

Ouyang Shuo waved them off and turned around, ordering the Guards to let them find some clothes to pass to the locked up girls for them to wear before sending them back up.

After all these things were settled, Ouyang Shuo, under the directions of the mountain barbarian teen entered the secret room.

A mountain bandit leader's secret room obviously didn't have any hidden weapons; it was only a thick wooden door which the Guards broke down with brute force.

After breaking down the door, inside the secret room were rows of large boxes. Opening them, they were all kinds of gold and jewels, sparkling in the light, catching everyone's eyes.

Ouyang Shuo counted. There were a total of 2 gold boxes, 5 silver cases, and 1 box of gems and jewels.

Apart from 2 silver cases, the remaining cases were kept in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag. What he felt weird was as the secret room of a mountain bandit leader, he shouldn't only have such basic wealth.

"Are there other secret rooms?" Ouyang Shuo asked the mountain barbarian teen.

She shook her head, "This is the only one I know of."

Ouyang Shuo didn't believe her and ordered the Guards to check once again for any hidden doors or things of that type, he even personally joined in the search, knocking on the walls and floors.

Suddenly, he noticed that an oil lamp was hanging on a side of the wall. The secret room didn't have a torch in it and only depended on the light from the hall, hence the secret room was very dark.

Which was why, this oil lamp seemed really out of place.

Ouyang Shuo calmed himself down and walked up, trying to turn and fiddle with the oil lamp. With a click, and without using much strength, the lamp started to turn. Following which, the sound of rumbling appeared in the chamber. The inner wall of the secret room suddenly sunk in, and there was a small opening that only one person could get through to.

Ouyang Shuo let the Guards secure the entrance while he walked in alone. It was a very narrow space which only allowed two people to stand. There was a wooden stand in the middle with three boxes on it.

Ouyang Shuo opened a box; a gentle glow exuded from the box. It was actually a bead the size of a goose egg, and it felt cold in his hands.

Cool bead: helps to reduce heat and help one focus, aids in cultivation.

It was a decent support item, just that he didn't know how he could increase the cultivation speed of his internal strength.

Ouyang Shuo opened the second box only to see an old manual. The words 'Wu Hu Saber Manual', were written on it. It was a king rank cultivation technique.

Ouyang Shuo guessed that this was the knife technique that the mountain stronghold leader used.

Although the items in the two boxes were decent, they were of little effect to Ouyang Shuo, making him feel a little disappointed. He opened the last box, hoping that there was a certain treasure.

The third box was much bigger than the other two. Opening it revealed a green sword, quietly lying in its sword case.

Name: Qingfeng Sword (Platinum rank)

Hardness:55

Sharpness: 70

Toughness:55

Specialty: Broken blade (When a weapon's hardness is lower than the Qingfeng Sword's, there's a chance to immediately break it)

Evaluation: The Qingfeng Sword was part of a pair known as the "Qingfeng Twin Swords", a weapon Liu Bei used during the Three Kingdoms era. Liu Bei attacked Dongwu to take revenge on Sun Quan killing Guan Yu. In the end, Sun Quan ordered them to burn down Dongwu, causing Liu Bei to escape. In that escape, he lost one of his swords.

A treasure, an absolute treasure!

This was the first platinum grade weapon Ouyang Shuo had gotten since the servers opened, and it was the only platinum grade weapon in the game so far.

Apart from the normal hardness and toughness stats, there was an extra sharpness stat. Most importantly, it also had the broken blade specialty. Based on its hardness, as long as the enemy weapon wasn't some godly weapon, there would be a high chance of the effect coming into play.

This made it very terrifying. Think about it, your opponent could destroy your weapon at anytime during battle, so how could you focus on the battle?

It was a great sword. Sadly, Ouyang Shuo didn't know any sword techniques. A player's time and efforts were limited. Since Ouyang Shuo chose a spear as his main weapon, he couldn't be distracted.

Ouyang Shuo covered up the 3 boxes and kept them in his storage bag before walking out. When he reappeared, Ouyang Shuo didn't stop and ordered the Guards to carry up the two boxes filled with silver.

Once they walked out of the secret room, Wang Feng rushed up, his face filled with uncontrollable delight.

Ouyang Shuo asked,"Did you level up?"

Wang Feng nodded, "I didn't let lord down; I'm now an intermediate officer."

"Great, now I have another good general." Ouyang Shuo was elated.

Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Wang Feng (Gold rank)

Identity: Shanhai City Guards Unit Major

Occupation: Intermediate Officer

Loyalty: 95

Command: 55

Force: 75

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 35

Specialty: Fight to the death (Raise troops morale by 20%), Charging (Raise forces movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Technique: Bajiquan

Equipment: Soldier Mingguang Armor, Exquisite Iron Sword

Evaluation: Core disciple of master Lin Yue, direct and righteous personality, very loyal.

After Wang Feng went back to the troops, he led the Guards unit to sweep the mountain stronghold once again.

At 11 AM, their work here was nearly done.

Ouyang Shuo announced that he would reward the soldiers from this operation with these two cases of silver, resulting in their cheers and claps.

From the operation, they gained a total of 10,850 prisoners, 4,750 combat bandits, and a total of 5800 gold, not including the treasures.

Ouyang Shuo kept the most important things, but he left the grain and other basic resources. He ordered the Military Intelligence Division to inform the mountain barbarian tribes to receive this batch of resources.

The reason he did that was firstly because it was difficult to transport, and secondly because he could use it to thank others. The mountain barbarian tribes didn't stop working with them because Shanhai City had delayed their promise.

As for the equipment and military resources, they were naturally brought back to Shanhai City. The mountain bandit stronghold had a lot of weapons, spears, swords, and even special weapons that fit what they did. These naturally couldn't be given to the proper army and could only be sold by the Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

After settling everything, Ouyang Shuo gathered the forces and was ready to bring the prisoners back to the city.

Just at that moment, the barbarian teen brought 120 odd rescued teen girls in front of Ouyang Shuo, kneeling down and crying, "Please lord, accept us."

During this short period of time, they had heard of Ouyang Shuo's identity.

Ouyang Shuo frowned, "Don't you want to return to your tribes?"

The mountain barbarian teen acted as the representative, her eyes showing a sad expression, as she held back her tears, "Lord, we are all impure, how could we return to our parents? Even if we do, we would only bring shame. Being saved by you, our only wish is to go to a new place and wait for day where our lives come to an end, please accept us lord!"

"Please accept us lord!" The teen girls all echoed.

Ouyang Shuo remained silent. The scene in front of him made him think of the girls he had saved from the raider camp. Their situation was similar, saved from hell but because of traditional rules, they were insecure and felt lowly.

"What is your name? Wasn't there another man that wanted to save you? Do you want to live in Shanhai City too?" Ouyang Shuo asked the barbarian teen.

His words undoubtedly touched a sad spot, and the tears she was trying to hold gushed out.

The Guards beside Ouyang Shuo told him that the guy wasn't here.

Upon seeing that he was free, he started to look down on the girl for not being a virgin and left her, running back to his tribe.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he shook his head. Such cruelty, but it was the truth. In such a society, the purity of the girl was very important and girls were born the weaker sex.

Ouyang Shuo didn't know how to console them, just ordering the Guards to bring them back together.

The huge army rushed down the mountain with the prisoners and the resources to meet with Zhao Sihu and his group.

At the foot of the mountain, they got news that Xue'er and the Guards protecting her had rushed over too. Upon seeing him, she flew up happily and landed on his shoulder.

"Good Xue'er, you have done well. What reward do you want?"

Her eyes brightened. "Sweet~sweets~~" As she said this, she placed her fingers into her mouth and started sucking.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement; it seemed like she got influenced by Bing'er. "Ok, when we go back I'll prepare a huge box for you." The sweets she referred to were the malt candies that the residents made. They was very sweet, so no wonder she liked to eat them.

Xue'er's eyes became a thin line, and it suddenly flew up and nibbled on Ouyang Shuo's face. Following which, it flew around his head and appeared very happy.

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Chapter 235 - Military and Governance Meeting

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

After the greetings, Zhao Sihu reported. "Lord, all the mountain bandits that tried to escape have been killed."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "General Zhao, you have done a good job this time, breaking through two roadblocks and luring out half their forces, you deserve a reward!"

"This is my duty, I shouldn't be rewarded!" Zhao Sihu was a little emotional.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, taking out the that he had just gotten and passed it to Zhao Sihu. "I'll reward you with this manual, I hope you will train well in it and become a tiger for our army."

Zhao Sihu took over the manual emotionally, kneeling with one foot. "Thank you lord!"

Ouyang Shuo took out a box of silver from his storage bag and said, "Share this with your soldiers, they deserve it!"

"Yes my lord!"

After the rewards were handed out, they made their way back.

Gaia 9th month 25th day, afternoon

Ouyang Shuo and his troops returned to Shanhai City.

When he returned, he passed all the prisoners and resources over to the Military Affairs Department and Internal Affairs Department to handle.

The Military Affairs Department was in charge of giving prisoners trials, and killing the evil ones. The remaining bandits would be temporarily housed outside the city by the Household Registration Division. For this group of mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo had other plans for them.

Returning to the lord's manor, Ouyang Shuo took out the 2 boxes of silver and box of gems to Zisu, and she would be in charge of placing them in the internal storage of the lord's manor.

Of course, he also didn't forget to ask her to prepare a box of malt candy for Xue'er.

As for the 2 boxes of gold, Ouyang Shuo took them for the time being. Adding with the gold they had taken from the mountain bandits, Ouyang Shuo had a total of 31,000 gold in his storage bag.

After dealing with the small matters, Ouyang Shuo took out the biggest reward from this raid, which was a king rank summoning token.

Ouyang Shuo tore the token, and with a white light, a young general riding a white horse appeared.

"System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for successfully summoning king rank historical person Luo Shixin, awarded 50 reputation points."

Upon seeing Ouyang Shuo, the young men immediately got off his horse, knelt on the floor and said solemnly, "General Luo Shixin greets my lord!"

Luo Shixin was an official under Zhang Xutuo during the Sui Dynasty, entering the military during the farmer uprising and entering the Wugang army. He was given the role of supervisor, but was captured when they fought against Wang Shicong.

As he lost to Wang Shicong, he took his troops and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and was given the role of supervisor of the Xiazhou Daoheng army. He used his spear to stab Wang Xuanyin, taking over Qianjin Castle and helping Li Shimin bring peace to Luoyang, where he was given the role of Jiangzhou's supervisor and the lord protector.

Compared to other historical people, his specialty was his age. He joined the army when he was 14 and was captured when he was 19. When he was killed by Liu Heita, he was only 23.

He was a huge talent. Unfortunately he passed away too early. If not, he could've became a well-known general of his generation.

Ouyang Shuo was delighted. He took a step forward and helped Luo Shixin up. "General, please stand up!"

After he got up, Ouyang Shuo took a look at his stats.

Name: Luo Shixin (King grade)

Dynasty: Sui Tang

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced Officer

Loyalty: 80

Command: 70

Force: 85

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 35

Specialty: Courage (Raise troops combat power by 20%), Charging (Raise troops movement speed by 20%)

Cultivation Technique:

Equipment: Fine Iron Overlord Spear

Evaluation: Shixin can be used as a vanguard or a protector. Strictly follows the law, has no relatives, not attached to anything.

Luo Shixin's arrival was a saving grace for Ouyang Shuo. He was worrying about not having good generals and wouldn't be able to expand the army. With him, the problem was half solved.

As it was already late, they couldn't have a deep conversation. Ouyang Shuo introduced him to Ge Hongliang and asked Ge Hongliang to welcome him. As for the specific role and arrangements, they would be discussed tomorrow.

During dinner, Ouyang Shuo asked Song Jia a question. "How's the building of Dongli Sword Sect?"

"It's nearly finished; we will have our opening ceremony on the 1st day of the 10th month." Song Jia was very excited.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and laughed. "Wow I really have to call you Song Sect Leader from now onward. During the ceremony I'll give you a big gift."

Her eyes brightened, with Ouyang Shuo's position and rank, his big gift would definitely be big. She asked curiously, "What gift?"

"You'll know when the time comes." Ouyang Shuo wanted to keep it a secret.

"Hen, it's okay, don't tell me!"

9th month, 26th day, 10 AM.

As the 1st and 3rd regiments hadn't returned, Ouyang Shuo held a Shanhai City military governance meeting. This was the first time Shanhai City held such a meeting since military affairs and governance became separate; thus, it was of high importance.

Everyone who was a secretary and above were here; as for the military portion, everyone major and above were here. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also invited the professionals to attend the meeting.

During the 9th month, Ouyang Shuo spent most of him time outside and didn't have time for territorial matters. Luckily with the directors there, nothing much happened, but there weren't any eye-catching achievements either.

When Ouyang Shuo was in the Army Division, apart from the battles, the rest of the time he spent on thinking about the future planning and strategic settings of the territory.

As the territory continued to expand, and more player groups joined, Shanhai City looked prosperous, but internally there were many problems. The biggest problem would be the loss of direction without a strategic goal.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo wanted to have a military governance meeting to get ideas.

Ouyang Shuo said, "Courtier Fan, tell us the basic situation of the territory."

"Yes, lord!" Fan Zhongyan got up. "Till date, apart from Shanhai City, we have 8 affiliate territories, 4 cities and 4 towns. We take up half of the Lianzhou Basin, covering mostly the eastern and western areas. Population wise, Shanhai City has just broken 80 thousand, and our total territory population has broken 240 thousand.

"Finance wise, Beihai City, Qiushui City and Friendship City have all become self-sufficient, and their income levels are quite stable. The 5 new affiliate territories needs government help, especially Tianfeng Town, which needs to pay for half of the Tianhai Road, needing large amounts of financial help and subsidies."

After Fan Zhongyan backed down, Ge Hongliang, who was the military representative, said, "Lord, with Shanhai City as the core, counting Qiushui City, Beihai City and Friendship City, the central region has a population of over 200 thousand. Counting all our forces, however, we only have 15 thousand militants. I suggest we expand the military again."

As expected from him, Ge Hongliang's words were exactly what Ouyang Shuo wanted to hear.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. "Your suggestion is great. It's a good time to expand. Zhao Sihu!"

"I'm here!" Zhao Sihu stepped out.

"Use the city protection unit, two sword-shield soldier units, and one archer unit as a base to build the city protection regiment. You will be the deputy colonel, and once you officially upgrade, you will be promoted."

"Thank you my lord!" Zhao Sihu was very emotional and excited.

"As the city's western and eastern camps have been moving outward, it would be difficult for them to protect the city. Hence, compared to the city protection unit, the city protection regiment has a more important task. Apart from the city walls and city gates, you are in charge of the defense of the borders near Shanhai City. The regiment will include 2 sword-shield soldier units, 2 archer units, and one cavalry unit. The original crossbowmen squadron will be removed and be back under the god machine unit's command." The change in duty meant that it would go from 2nd rate in the army to of 1st rate and of the utmost importance.

"Yes my lord!" Zhao Sihu suddenly felt the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders.

"Zhang Daniu, Hu Yibiao!"

"Present!" Both of them stepped out at the same time.

"Qiushui and Friendship City's city protection unit will both become regiments, with both of you as deputy colonels." Ouyang Shuo reorganized the military system once and for all.

"Thank you, lord!"

After dealing with the city protection forces, Ouyang Shuo shouted, " Wang Feng!"

"Yes lord!"

"The Guards unit is now a Guards regiment with you as colonel. Remember, there's no rush in the building of the regiment. After all the regiments are done and their battle strengths have formed up, hold the trials." Wang Feng, who levelled up during the Er'Shi Ridge battle, had solved a huge problem for Ouyang Shuo.

"Yes, my lord!"

Shanhai City now had a city protection regiment and Guards regiment; with the help of god machine unit, it had nothing to worry about.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Luo Shixin, who was siting beside Zhu Hongliang. "Luo Shixin!"

"Yes lord!" Yesterday, Luo Shixin got familiar with the Shanhai City structure, and as such he was very confident.

"You are in charge of the 4th regiment, which will be a light armored regiment. You will be given Qingfu horses and located at the city's western camp. You will be the deputy chief of the camp and the colonel of the 4th regiment.

"Thank you lord!"

"Shi Wanshui!"

"Yes lord!" Shi Wanshui stood out.

"Once the 4th regiment is finished, the city's western camp would be up and running. Bring the 2 regiments along the route of the Tianhai Road and clear all neighbouring raiders."

"Yes my lord!" Hearing that there would be more action, Shi Wanshui was very excited.

Since he had decided to end the peace and start to show his might, Ouyang Shuo would naturally take the initiative to strike.

Based on his plan, the first step would be to clear the western area of the Lianzhou Basin to create a peaceful and safe environment for the development of the territory.

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Chapter 236- Thirst for Talents

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Ouyang Shuo had added five regiments - a total of 18 units, nine thousand soldiers, which basically used up all the members of the reserve forces they had gotten from the raider's city attack.

Ouyang Shuo did a rough estimation, just the class changes for this expansion would cost 10 thousand gold. He had earned money at a faster rate than other lords. Now, he was spending money at a far faster rate too.

When he had just entered the game, 100 gold was considered a huge amount. In just a year, he was currently dealing with thousands of gold.

As the military rapidly expanded, the average strength of the soldiers would decrease too. Apart from that, the provision of weapons definitely couldn't keep up with the rate of the expansion.

Based on the standards of the Shanhai City army, reaching 100% provision of bows was impossible. Additionally, the weapons workshop couldn't keep up to speed with the main weapon of the sword-shield soldiers and the cavalry, the Tang Sword.

The three thousand Qingfu horses that were kept at the city west horse stables were all used up. However, it still wasn't enough for all the Guards regiment and the 4th regiment. They ended up with a 1,500 horse shortfall. As for the three city protection regiments, giving them all Qingfu horses seemed like a far away fantasy.

Such a huge army was also a gigantic burden on the finances of the territory.

Based on the military salary standards, a unit based on an average soldier being grade 4 would cost 275 gold. A regiment used 1,375 gold and a division used 8,250 gold. This did not include the major general and the colonel's pay. Out of which, the general's salary took up 35%.

With such huge military spending, Ouyang Shuo didn't touch the profits from the Langshan Minefields or Northern Saltpans. Instead, he directly passed them to the Financial Department.

Hence, this was the strongest but also the weakest the Shanhai City army had ever been.

Military matters were only the first thing on the agenda for this military governance meeting.

Ouyang Shuo look around, "We last organized the lord's manor at grade 1 city and 4 months have passed since then. As the number of officials and civil servants have increased, the Mandarin Courtyard is getting a little tight."

"Hence, I've decided, based on the organization of the city, to activate the plan for the west of the lord's manor to be a district for officials. The standard would be for each division to have their own courtyard and each department will form a cluster. Including the Military Affairs Department, everyone will move to this district.

"As for the lord's manor, the front courtyard will become purely a meeting area. Apart from the meeting hall, the two sides will also have halls. The main hall will be used for the monthly military and governance meetings, while the small halls will be used for the daily ones. The office in the front courtyard will all be moved to the Mandarin Courtyard."

The changes in the organization of the lord's manor was in truth a change in its meaning and stature. After building the district for the officials, the lord's manor will change into a core area of power. This meant that Ouyang Shuo would officially put down the responsibility of secretaries and below, and he would only control the higher ups and the overall situation.

Ouyang Shuo already had so much to think about concerning outside affairs. He didn't have the energy to keep up with the specifics and micromanage the territory. Hence, he made use of the argument of the Mandarin Courtyard being too small to change the territory structure and organization.

This change wasn't as clear as setting up a division or department, but its influence was far more than either of those.

This type of internal revolution was something that many of them couldn't understand. To them, having an individual courtyard and not having to work under the watchful eye of the lord was something to be happy about. To see the deep meaning, probably only Xu Shuda and Xu Zhenchang could do so.

Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing looked at each other, their eyes showing a sense of uncertainty.

Ouyang Shuo didn't bother about their thoughts and said, "As the territory matters pick up and we get more and more busy, we will get more and more official letters. Hence, only depending on one clerk would grow very difficult. I've decided to set up a clerk office to focus on such letters. The responsibility of the manager of this clerk office is the same as a secretary. Bai Nanpu will be taken up this position. An additional four to five clerks will be hired to help him out."

"Thank you, my lord!" Bai Nanpu had finally made it; he had gained an official position.

Ouyang Shuo also announced that deputy secretary Jiancheng would take over the Construction Division from Zhao Dewang.

Ouyang Shuo had originally planned on letting Sun Xiaoyue take over. Unfortunately, she was only interested in architecture and not construction matters. Hence, Ouyang Shuo could only let that be.

After the reorganization, Ouyang Shuo started to announce his plans for the territory, "To conquer five territories at once is something to be happy about. Next, we need to think about how to integrate these five territories into the Shanhai City system. For them, we must have a plan and also subsequent goals. The main goal is the building of Tianfeng City. It has an important strategic location. I has a level of utmost importance, as it would be the center city for the west region."

"To support the building of Tianfeng City, I've decided to send the prisoners from the Er'Shi Ridge there, apart from those already selected for the reserve force. To do what? We have already missed the chance for land reclamation and also the second season of rice planting. The answer is to build a city wall. The wall it has now is too small-scale and is only able to hold a limited amount of people. Its outer wall has to follow that of a prefecture grade, 10 kilometres long, 10 meters high, and 30 meters thick."

The core project for Tianfeng City would be to finish this outer city wall and the official channel, these two large-scale projects. Ouyang Shuo made Zhao Dewang the city magistrate out of such considerations.

Ouyang Shuo's thinking was simple. Before they built Tianhai Road, Tianfeng City was cut off and far away, so it was difficult to expand.

Ouyang Shuo might as well just start building city walls and other simple buildings.

"Apart from Tianfeng City, the second priority is Gushan Town. It's close to the mountain barbarian tribes in the center region and located at a good strategic location. I've decided to move all the residents to Yishui Town and also attract the mountain barbarians to come down. I them to run Gushan Town themselves," as he said these words, he turned around and looked at Tian Wenjing, "Tian Wenjing, you will handle its building."

"Yes my lord!" Tian Wenjing assented.

Compared to the settlements at Qiushui City, Gushan Town had an advantage. Its facilities were all there and didn't need rebuilding. It could also hold 10 to 20 tribes.

Gushan Town also kept contact with the mountain barbarian tribes, so persuading them wouldn't be too difficult.

The only regret would be that they had missed the second rice planting season. When the mountain barbarians come down the mountain, Shanhai City would need to provide them with half a year of grain.

If one couldn't bear to pay for bait, they wouldn't catch the fish. Ouyang Shuo understood such reasoning.

After the original residents of Gushan Town moved to Yishui Town, it could help promote growth in Yishui Town and help it upgrade to Yishui City. Before they took down Broken Blade Town, Yishui Town would be the east side castle for Shanhai City, so it was important too.

Hence, after he started the creation of Shanhai Road, Ouyang Shuo needed to build channels and paths between Qiushui City and Yishui Town, including that of Gushan Town.

Since the mountain barbarians couldn't plant crops, using them to build official roads and paths were the best idea. It wouldn't cause to him to waste too much manpower.

As for the clearing of the raider camps across the path, he handed this task to the city east camp as a matter of course.

Ouyang Shuo settled the plans of the five affiliate territories with a few words. Moreover, he gave a working direction to the departments and divisions.

As the territory expanded, another big problem of Shanhai City was revealed—a lack of talent. The five affiliate territories were like Shanhai Town when it was at that stage; they lacked talent. Shanhai City had no choice but to send some high-level civil servants and officials over.

This resulted in a shortage of talent in the main camp.

If it was simply a shortage of government-level officials, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't be worried. After all, he did have Xinan University. After a little training, they could take up roles.

The crux of the problem was that outside of the government system, they lacked specialized talents. Apart from Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing, they didn't have any other high-ranked officials.

This worried him, the five affiliate territories were all struggling in this area. They were unable to find and develop talent.

A lack of talent restricted the growth and development of Shanhai City.

Xinan University was a long term plan, similar to the Shanhai City offices in the system imperial cities. They wouldn't affect the situation in the short term.

Historical people were also so difficult to obtain. The end of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties neared, so there weren't any famous ministers that he could obtain. The only thing Ouyang Shuo looked forward to was Yi Yun at the start of the Shang dynasty.

Unfortunately, half a month had passed since the Battle of Muye, but no one had seen Yi Yun.

Shanhai City had an advantage in attracting Shang dynasty famous ministers. Not only did they have Er'Lai, the famous general, they also had a gift from the Shang King. As such, they had a strong relationship with the Shang dynasty.

Moreover, the Mazu Temple, the Recruitment Hall, and the Yellow Emperor Temple raised the reputation of Shanhai City. Hence, the city had a huge advantage in attracting historical people.

Even so, they still didn't gain get any rewards yet, which made Ouyang Shuo anxious but helpless.

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Chapter 237- Rescued from the Death

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Ouyang a Shuo suppressed his thirst for talents and continued to plan and organize the territory.

"The finance problem of the territory is largely due to our excessive reliance on the Langshan Minefields and the Northern Saltpans. We lost the motivation to expand and find new industries because we have funds that stream in from these two places. As the territory and the military both expand, the gold from these two will not be enough and we need more.

"Be it the Langshan Minefields or the Northern Saltpans, their scale and profits have already peaked, so it has no potential for further growth. For the long-term future, we need to find other industries, apart from the core industries we settled on, the like military goods, the territory has also produced local products like the Three Flowers Wine and rainbow colored silk. These are high profit products. Unfortunately, they weren't focused on and are in a half-dead state. In truth, the potential of these local products are far higher than the mines and saltpans, as they have infinite possibilities."

Ouyang Shuo's words were a form of self-criticism and also criticism toward the work of the Financial Department. Be it the Three Flowers Wine or the rainbow colored silk, Ouyang Shuo had passed them over to the Financial Department and had given them some advice. Unfortunately, they took only small steps, and they weren't adventurous enough.

Ouyang Shuo signaled at Yingyu with his eyes to stop her from apologizing. Then, he said, "I've decided to set up an Industry Division. I'll place them in charge of the Three Flowers Wine, the rainbow colored silk, and the white tea. At the same time, I'll be taking out 5,000 gold to support its development. The specific plans include building a large-scale wine workshop at the west suburbs. Let's call it the Three Flowers Wine Factory. Monthly production must exceed 500 thousand units. Additionally, expand the production of the mulberry gardens to at least 10 thousand mu. Geography affects the white tea, so it faces a relatively high degree of uncertainty."

As the Three Flowers Wine opened up, the market in Dali became more and more popular. They could sell each unit of wine for two silver, resulting in a profit of 150 copper. If the factory could meet its production target, they could profit 7500 gold per a month. Moreover, if they expanded the factory the future, the profits would rise too.

After they built the Three Flowers Wine Factory, they would also create a large number of jobs.

Based on the information from the president of the textile association, Yingcui, Lianzhou Basin could rear silkworms four times a year. One mu of mulberry garden could produce 90 units of silkworm babies, with three units producing one unit of silk, and five units of silk producing a silk cloth.

Which meant that one mu could produce six colored silk cloths a season. On the market, one colored silk cloth cost one gold. After the deduction of 10% tax and the deduction of the costs, he would earn 4 gold in profit.

If the mulberry garden expanded to 10 thousand mu, they could earn 40 thousand gold each season and 160 thousand a year.

Based on his plan, the Three Flowers Factory and Mulberry Gardens were similar to another Langshan Minefield and Northern Saltpan, doubling the profits.

The plan that Ouyang Shuo suggested was very exciting, and it made everyone's blood boil.

Even so, Ouyang Shuo wasn't pleased and turned his eyes to the core industry—the Military. After he settled the problems with iron, the production of the three military workshops had increased, but this wasn't sufficient. If weapons production wasn't self sufficient, how could they hold firearm deals?

Ouyang Shuo looked at the head of Fallen Moon Guild, Sun Xiaoyue and said, "We will open the three military workshops in the east region to the tailors, the blacksmiths, and the carpenters from the guild. However, this is on the condition that they sign a non-disclosure agreement; I hope that the guild will act as the leading force for this job."

Sun Xiaoyue was invited to the meeting as an advisor, so it wasn't convenient for her to talk too much. As such, she just nodded in agreement.

After three months of hard work, the Fallen Moon Guild had upgraded its guild token to silver rank. This gave them a new upper limit of 10 thousand people. It also granted them an additional Guild specialty at the same time.

When Ouyang Shuo learned of this news, he immediately contacted his little aunt. Then, he teleported over all the work occupation players that the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group had gathered for Shanhai City.

In a short amount of time, the number of members in Fallen Moon Guild broke two thousand and continued to rise.

The number of player groups in Shanhai City continued to increase. For a more balanced development, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send some work occupation players over to Qiushui City and Friendship City.

As for Beihai City, he had not opened it to other players yet.

Work occupation players usually brought along their families. As such, they all lived in Shanhai City.

This side effect had its pros and cons. The players were all young people and their family members could be split into elders, those of the same generation, and those of the younger generation.

Elders would be their parents or even their grandparents, who all had vast experiences. These people would either choose fishing or cooking and just enjoy life. If they had a skill, Xinan University would hire them as basic level teachers, they were the most stable and settled group.

Those of the same generation would be the player's brothers and sisters, which were all young people. This batch were also work occupation players. However, their talents weren't distinct. Most of them were still adventure mode players.

They belonged to the most unstable group.

For that, Ouyang Shuo gave the order and opened the Procuratorate Division to the bailiff players, the medical division to healer type players, and Song Jia's Dongli Sword Sect to chivalrous experts.

Alchemist type players could also go to Qingyang Temple at the west suburbs.

As for Advisor and General type players, they were the saddest group. Shanhai City Military was temporarily not open to players, so they were unable to join.

The last type were the younger generation—the kids. These bunch were like Bing'er. They just needed to go to virtual school every day. When they didn't go to school, they would play around in the territory, adding some fun and noise to it.

As Shanhai City became more and more open, player groups started to trust and gain a sense of belonging toward Shanhai City.

After Ouyang Shuo made some final arrangements and plans for the military, affiliate territories, territory structure, and industries, he finally said, "I hope you can all work hard and make sure all these plans succeed."

"Yes, my lord!" The officials all bowed together.

With that, the military and governance meeting that Ouyang Shuo ran alone officially ended.

Just as Ouyang Shuo was organizing and planning the territory layout blueprints, something happened at Broken Blade Town, located east of Xila Lake. This event would affect the future of Lianzhou Basin.

Broken Blade Town, Lord's Manor.

"What did you say, can you repeat it?" Ba Dao didn't believe it.

"Sire, it's 100% true information. The mountain barbarian tribes that work with us found a gold mine in the forest. They don't know how to mine and extract the gold, so they want to work with us."

"Great!" Ba Dao slammed the table and stood up. Then, he paced up and down the meeting hall, as he tried his best to calm down, "The heavens didn't forsake me!"

During the territory war, Broken Blade Town had lost badly. Their military had nearly hit zero and they used up all the territory funds after the three teleportations.

To raise up funds to build a new army, Ba Dao had nearly sold all his resources. In that period of time, Ba Dao couldn't sleep. He feared that when he woke up, Shanhai City would have attacked. Luckily, Tianfeng City had used up all their efforts, and they had no time to think about further east. As such, they temporarily let off Broken Blade Town.

Just at that moment, the rise in grain prices had thrown Broken Blade Town into a state of emergency. On the verge of death, he became desperate.

While he thought that everything was lost, hope appeared.

The gold mine was undoubtedly a gift from the heavens. It gave him a road to survival.

"Qiyue Wuyi, I'll never forgive you!" Ba Dao viciously swore.

In the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Lord's Manor and entered the worship area.

It was very spacious and the square in the north area took up two-thirds of the worship area.

The square was made up of a green stone floor; there were also exquisite fences carved from Dali Stone all around.

There was a raised platform in the middle with a copper cauldron on it. Other than that, there weren't any other decorations in the square.

The three Temples stood at the back of the square. The middle was naturally the Yellow Emperor Temple. Beside it were the basic buildings of a Grade 3 City, the Confucius Temple, and the Martial Temple.

When one walked into the Confucius Temple, they would see five courtyards from the front to the back. The place had red walls, yellow tiles, Wanren Wall, Lingxing Gate, Pan Lake, Dacheng Gate, Dacheng Hall, Minglun Hall, Zhunjin Pavilion and the like.

The Confucius Temple paid respect to Confucius, his eldest disciple Yanyan, the 10 sages, the 72 worthy people, and the 22 wise people. Apart from the 22 wise people, the rest were Confucius's disciples.

The 10 sages all had statues, the 72 worthy people only had pictures, and they would all accept incense and worship.

In the game, Gaia made some changes to the Confucius Temple. Apart from keeping Confucius's position, it changed the 10 sages and 72 worthy people into ministers and historical people.

Shanhai City's Fan Zhongyan were among these people, listed as one of the 72 worthy people.

If a person listed here died in the game, they could be revived. This positive aspect made such a person virtually immortal like players.

Ouyang Shuo took out the incense pill and a system notification appeared in his ear.

"System Notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has an incense pill, will you use it?"

"Use it!"

With a swiping sound, the incense pill turned into a white light and entered the Minister Statue.

"System Notification: Incense pill has enriched Minister Statue, Confucius Temple has given birth to a new building specialty—Political Achievement (Raises chance of civil servants breaking through by 30%)."

As expected from the Confucius Temple, its specialty was made for civil servants.

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Chapter 238- Ice

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Ouyang Shuo walked out of the Confucius Temple and entered the Martial Temple at the other end.

The design of the Martial Temple was similar to the Confucius Temple. It paid respects to martial artists and generals. It had Jiang Ziya as the saint, Zhangliang as the secondary saint, along with 10 sages and 72 generals.

Shanhai City's Shi Wanshui was included as one of the 72 generals. As E'Lai was from a dynasty too long ago, he wasn't included, which was a pity.

Ouyang Shuo took out his last incense pill. A system notification sounded in his ear.

"System Notification: Found that player Qiyue Wuyi has an incense pill, will you use it?"

"Use it!"

With a 'Shua' sound, the pill turned into a while light and entered the General statue.

"System Notification: Incense pill has enriched General Statue. Martial Temple birthed a speciality—Martial Arts (Raises chance of generals breaking bottlenecks by 30%)."

This new specialty was a huge blessing for generals like Sun Tengjiao and Zhao Sihu, who were stuck at the basic general level. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to them breaking the bottleneck one by one.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect that the five incense pills that Di Xin gave him would be so effective, and it made him feel very thankful.

After dinner, Ouyang Shuo called all the girls in the back courtyard, including Siqin and Siqi. He looked at Yingyu, "Yu'er, after the Financial Department sets up the Industry Division, the shops and inns under the department will be under the Lord's Manor." The shops and inns were all businesses that lost money; Ouyang Shuo taking them up helped to show the magnanimity of the Lord's Manor.

Although Yingyu felt that it was weird, she nodded in reply.

During the military and governance meeting, Ouyang Shuo's criticism was something that Yingyu felt bad about. She wanted to make good work of the industrial businesses. Naturally, not having the shops and inns was good.

Ouyang Shuo looked at all the girls and said, "As the businesses under the Lord's Manor increase and the internal storeroom becomes more and more full, it will get busier and busier. Hence, we have to set up rules to regulate the matters here. I've decided to set up the Housekeeping Division, which will purely be in charge of the internal matters of the Lord's Manor."

Ouyang Shuo's point naturally garnered the agreement of everyone. As the organization structure of Shanhai City matured, the internal affairs of the Lord's Manor didn't seem structured. Yingyu had brought up this point to Ouyang Shuo before.

Ouyang Shuo looked at Song Jia and laughed, "The Housekeeping Division is its own organization and focuses purely on the Lord's Manor and nothing else. As for the position of secretary, are you okay with it?"

Song Jia blushed, as she heard the hidden meaning in his words. Him asking her to be the Housekeeping Secretary was similar to accepting her as the female owner of the Lord's Manor.

Actually, these matters were all hidden and kept quiet, but now Ouyang Shuo had placed it in the open. Obviously, it made her feel embarrassed.

"Okay!" Song Jia didn't hesitate much and agreed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He admired this the part of Song Jia. Once she regarded Ouyang Shuo as her husband, she wasn't afraid of others gossiping, "Apart from the Secretary, there will be a manager and two assistants. The manager shall be Zisu, while Siqin and Siqi will be the assistants."

"Thank you, my lord!" Zisu and the other two kneeled and thanked Ouyang Shuo.

As she had just established the Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia didn't have much time to bother with the Lord's Manor duties. Hence, the manager actually did most of the work. Zisu felt very emotional and thankful to receive such an important role.

It was unknown how Banxia felt, as she stood behind Song Jia and watched her few sisters gain such important roles. If she didn't choose to practice martial arts, she would also have a place in the Housekeeping Division.

"My lord, there's still a week till the mid-autumn festival. Do you have anything in mind?" asked Zisu, as she made use of this chance.

Ouyang Shuo froze, he didn't expect it to be mid-autumn so quickly. As a traditional Chinese festival, it was very important. It was a time when you reunited with your family.

"I don't have any requests, just do so as usual," Suddenly, Ouyang Shuo felt a little downhearted.

"Yes, my lord!" Zisu nodded.

"Disperse!" Everyone went off to do their own things, while Ouyang Shuo returned to his room.

Ouyang Shuo sat cross legged on the bed and took out the cooling bead. He placed it in his palm and closed his eyes. Then, he started to cultivate. He activated the internal strength in his meridians and rotated them in accordance with the . He started to slowly rotate it.

Right at that moment, cooling jets of air spread out from the palm of his hand. It spread into his meridians. After the stimulation of the cold air from the bead, the golden internal strength seemed to rotate a lot faster.

Furthermore, the calming effect of the cold air seemed to pacify the devil bloodline. It didn't affect his rotations any longer.

A full two months had passed since he had cultivated the technique to the 3rd layer. The upper limit of the 3rd layer was 5 thousand points, five times that of the 2nd layer.

During this time, Ouyang Shuo had diligently read the Buddhist scriptures. As such, cultivation had become much easier for him. The scriptures helped and made the clearer to him. It allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of it.

When he started cultivating this technique, he had totally relied on the cultivation knowledge that Gaia had placed in his head. He learned based on filling the blanks.

As he gained more knowledge in regards to Taoism, he tried to look at the cultivation technique in a new way. Slowly, he gained his own understandings, which made cultivation different.

In his dantian, the strands of internal strength had coiled up together, and they flowed everywhere like a haze. It looked very illusionary.

Till date, Ouyang Shuo could rotate for seven cycles. Each cycle would give him 8 points of internal strength. After he gained the cooling bead, his cultivation became quicker. The bead allowed him to rotate nine cycles.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo could gain 72 internal strength points a day. With this speed, he could soon train the to the 4th layer.

From this, one could see the importance of the cultivation path. External tools to help cultivation were also important. One small little cooling bead could help him a lot.

Unfortunately, one could only chance upon such a treasure.

Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo started to practice.

To not affect the sleep of Bing'er, Ouyang Shuo changed his practice area to an empty area in the backyard garden. To help in his Bajiquan practice, he also placed some dummies there.

Ever since Song Jia had come, two people would practice in the back garden.

Song Jia was a princess in real life, but there was a deep motivation and viciousness in her bones. Her motivation to practice was not less than someone like Ouyang Shuo.

The back garden in the early morning was a place filled with birds and the scent of flowers. When one stepped on the ground, the fresh smell of the grass and flowers would fill one's nose. One had to say, Gaia was amazing, this virtual environment was the same as real life.

The two of them greeted each other and walked beside one another. Then, they started their practice.

As he started to get deeper into the , the internal strength brought out an external strength. His body quality improved day after day, be it boxing or spearmanship, they all grew better and better.

Ouyang Shuo's fast learning ability started to show in his training.

Be it Bajiquan or the Yang Family spearmanship, they all improved at a tremendous speed. His Bajiquan had already reached the 'Perform with ease' level, and the Yang Family spearmanship had reached the 'Become proficient' level.

Ouyang Shuo's current strength was comparable to Lin Yi's.

The only regret would be that he hadn't found a suitable spear. The elite iron spear in his hand felt light. He felt like he couldn't exert any power with it.

Especially the normal wooden pole. It lacked any complicated crafting processes that could allow it to handle Ouyang Shuo's rotation of his internal strength.

If he imbued his internal strength into the spear, there would be an obvious buzzing noise. Then, the wood patterns and structure of the pole would break.

Helplessly, Ouyang Shuo could only give up on using his internal strength on the spear for now, as he couldn't change a spear every time he trained.

Although Shanhai City was prosperous, it couldn't afford such an expenditure.

After he finished his training, Ouyang Shuo was sweaty, and his shirt was soaked. He took a towel by the wooden rack and wiped off the sweat on his face.

On the other side, Song Jia was still practicing her sword. She was getting better and better with the Yuenu sword technique.

A breeze blew past, which blew a small leaf up. Then, it drifted in the air, just nice hitting the sword in Song Jia's hand.

The exquisite iron sword seemed to have merged with the air itself; it did not face any restrictions, as it moved through the air. He looked at the leaf again. Her sword had already cut the leaf into two like it was originally two pieces. Upon closer infection, the cut was covered in frost, which was an effect of the .

Both males and females could cultivate this technique, but different sexes would result in different results. Song Jia's internal strength had an ice effect. If she trained it to its extreme, the ice could imbue itself into one's heart and bones.

Compared to the iron spear, the iron sword in her hand could handle much more internal strength. Hence, Song Jia could use it without thinking.

"Pa pa pa!" Ouyang Shuo clapped in awe, "Good sword skill!"

Song Jia kept her sword and laughed, "How is it? I'm good, right?"

"Sect Leader Song's sword technique is too good. I'm envious." Ouyang Shuo didn't hold back with his compliments.

Song Jia was like a proud peacock. She giggled as she sheathed her sword. After she nodded at Ouyang Shuo, she turned around with style and the aura of a heroine.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He picked up his spear and returned to the back courtyard. Zisu had ordered someone to prepare cold water for Ouyang Shuo to bathe and wash up.

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Chapter 239- Digging the Cornerstone

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Gaia, first year, 9th month, 27th day, morning. Ouyang Shuo brought four Guards out of the city.

His destination was the Military Factory built in the stone caves in the western suburbs.

The Military Affairs Department was in charge of this. Three months had passed since they built this factory. It managed the production of military grain pills, military tents, and scaling ladders.

When one passed the city west gate, one would see masons working on the official path not far from the gate. The starting point of Tianhai Road wasn't the current city west gate, but the city west gate of the planned third city wall.

Although the official road wasn't like the inner city ones made from green stone, it still wasn't easy to build. Many wild grasses grew in the wilderness. The masons had to first remove these grasses and their roots from the soil, this measure prevented them from growing again.

The dirt road was made up of three main ingredients: limestone, dirt, and sand. They had to press the composite dirt to prevent growth of wild grasses and to prevent the road from becoming muddy during the rain.

The designer of Tianhai Road, Hui Tuban, specifically designed a 'Roller' that they had horses pull. He let the blacksmith shop produce a circular iron tube and used eight horses to pull it, which greatly reduced the manpower required.

As the official road was an important function to help military movement and transportation of resources, they couldn't make the road too narrow. They made it 20 meters wide, and it also had a good drainage system.

At the sides of the road, they also planted many trees.

Apart from that, along the way, there would be some streams from Friendship River as well as some hills. They needed to build bridges and also split mountains to open paths. The difficulty was nothing the inner city project could compare to.

Lastly, there was the important relay system, which included the relay path and the relay station.

The relay station could allow officials to stay overnight, they were a day away and 30 kilometers apart. Between the relays, there would also be simple shops to provide food and rest. Normally, there would be one shop every five kilometres.

After he exited the city, Ouyang Shuo took a left. After just 10 kilometres, he came to the rock cave where the Military Factory was located in. The cave entrance was a large steel door. Unless there was an emergency, it would remain closed. At the side was a small door that people could pass through, and it acted as the usual pathway.

In front of the cave was a restricted area warning sign, and a squad of soldiers stood guard next to it.

When he saw the level of secrecy and importance placed on this area, Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in agreement.

After he dismounted from his horse, Ouyang Shuo passed the reins to a guard and walked toward the big gate alone.

When the soldier on duty saw him, he bowed and said, "My lord!" Then, he rushed to steel gate; he wanted to open it up.

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, "There's no need. I'll just go in from the small door."

The soldier had a look of difficulty, "My lord... this..."

"Don't say anything more! I've come here without notice, so I don't want to disturb you guys."

"Yes, my lord!" The soldier didn't want to debate with him and respectfully opened the small door.

The inside of the cave wasn't as dark as he had expected. Pieces of white stone on the sides and the ceiling of the cave gave out a gentle white light.

Upon closer inspection, these actually weren't man made lights. Instead, they naturally occurred.

Ouyang Shuo knew that these small rocks were a type of fluorite, natural sources of light.

As he raised his head, he saw that the cave was over 10 meters high and 150 meters wide. The area in front of him was limitless. Such a cave wouldn't cause one to feel locked up and restricted.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival shocked the manager of the factory, a middle-aged man who looked very steady and calm. When he received the news, he rushed over, "My lord, welcome! Sorry I didn't welcome you better!"

Ouyang Shuo waved him off, "I came here without telling anyone. Just show me around!"

"Yes, my lord!" The manager nodded, as he led the way before Ouyang Shou, "The Military Factory is split into three regions, which mainly focus on the production of different resources." He pointed at the nearest region and said, "The most outer region is the one that makes the scaling ladders."

Ouyang Shuo looked toward the direction he pointed in, only to see a 10 meter path in the middle; a wooden wall boxed up the sides.

On top of the 4 meter high wooden wall, one could see set after set of scaling ladders piled up.

"How's the building progress of the scaling ladders?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

"My lord, based on the speed, we can build one everyday."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. After the scaling ladder region was the military tent region. Everyday, they could make 20 tents. Finally, it was the military grain pill region.

The ingredients for it the pills were just grain, some other secondary food products, and some seasoning. However, the process was very troublesome. On average, every pill used up three to four units of grain.

The efficiency of the military grain pill workers was quite high, and they made one thousand odd pills a day.

There was a little river stream behind the military grain pill region, and the workers' living quarters were around it.

After the tour, Ouyang Shuo left the stone cave.

When he returned, Ouyang Shuo used the trading platform to contact Cui Shouren from the Cui Chamber of Commerce.

The Dali Court gave Ouyang Shuo his marquis rank. The authorities recognized his title, which made it effective on all residents. Hence, the attitude of the Cui Chamber of Commerce had undergone a huge change.

They were only a business family, so their societal status wasn't high. To a noble like Ouyang Shuo, they naturally need to give him enough respect.

Of course, when it came to business, they would still act normally.

"Marquis!" Cui Shouren greeted first. After Ouyang Shuo instructed them, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had gathered up a bunch of grain. Purely on this point, Cui Shouren didn't dare to show any arrogance or superiority.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "Brother Shouren, I have something to ask of the Chamber of Commerce."

"Please speak!" Merchants hated owing favours, and the Cui Chamber of Commerce owed Ouyang Shuo a big one. They were worried about how they should return it. Since Ouyang Shuo had a request, Cui Shouren was naturally delighted.

"Your Chamber of Commerce has such a good reputation in Dali. Can you help Shanhai Coty recruit a batch of talents?"

Ouyang Shuo shifted his sight onto the Cui Chamber of Commerce. Compared to the Snow-War Rose Mercenary group that only influenced player groups, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had a huge influence on NPCs.

Cui Shouren was surprised, "Can you be more specific?"

"I need many talents. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a solution. There should definitely be many talented people with nowhere to display their capabilities in Dali City. This would include officials that are unable to be greatly used, generals that are unhappy, or some artisans. Shanhai City wants to recruit all these people," Ouyang Shuo explained his thinking, "Although Shanhai City is far away, we can give them a platform to show their talents. The salary we provide also won't be lower than the imperial city."

Ouyang Shuo had confidence. Not only because of his nobility, but also because of the effect his reputation level [Patriot] would have on NPCs, especially in Dali City.

Cui Shouren understood Ouyang Shuo's meaning. If they purely relied on the Cui Chamber of Commerce or his nobility, this plan might be hard to realize. But with both, it would be highly persuasive, and it would catch the interests of many people.

Dali had such a huge talent pool. Even if only a few leaked out, it would be enough for Shanhai City to use for a very long time. This act of digging a piece of a cornerstone was a very smart idea.

"Since it's your wishes, the Cui Family will try our best to help," Cui Shouren directly agreed.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, "To put them at peace and show our sincerity, I'm willing to give every talent a family settling down sum. As for the actual amount, I'll hand it over to the Chamber of Commerce to settle?" Based on Ouyang Shuo's thoughts, they probably wouldn't have earned too much if they were having a hard time.

"Marquis had thought over things thoroughly." Cui Shouren nodded in agreement, "Don't worry, we will treat this matter seriously. I won't let you down!"

"Thank you, sorry for the bother!" Ouyang Shuo said.

"No worries!"

Cui Shouren kept his promise. After their conversation, he immediately went to see the family head.

After listening to his report, the Cui Family head remained silent for a while. Then, he said, "The Lianzhou Lord has a long term goal, and he has planned it out very well. He has a desire for talents. Such vision and ambition, we can't miss this chance. Keep the promise!"

"Yes!"

"I allow you to use our family strength to recruit talents for the Lianzhou Lord. Apart from that, if our Cui Family disciples and children desire it, recommend them to him. At the right time, the Cui Chamber of Commerce can also consider setting up a branch in Shanhai City."

These words left Cui Shouren astonished, as he had never expected the family head would place so much importance on this matter. He had faith in the foresight of the family head and said,"Yes!"

After Cui Shouren left, the Family Head sat in the hall and muttered, "The Cui Family will restore its honor. At least, I didn't let down our ancestors."

Once the power of the Cui Chamber of Commerce started its work, it was actually quite scary.

On the Dali City roads and streets, Cui Family members swarmed out and brought letters and specially prepared gifts to every door to greet those students, officials, and generals.

These sudden visitors shocked some, while others liked it. Some of them treated these visitors calmly, and others rejected them at the door. There were many different reactions. The cooperation between the Lianzhou Lord and Cui Chamber of Commerce had a great effect. A large portion of them said that they would consider it before they gave the Cui Family a definite answer.

As for the artisans, they Cui Family easily recruited them. The main ones were the blacksmiths, tailors, and carpenter.

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Chapter 240- Becoming Famous

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

Gaia first year, 10th month, 1st day, Dongli Sword Sect base.

Lone Peak, Cloud Platform.

The originally empty cloud platform now had many courtyards. It had patios and pavilions; it looked very majestic. West of the cloud platform was a one thousand mu medicine garden known as 100 grass garden. It exuded the unique scents of medicinal plants.

A little stream split the cloud platform. There was an arch bridge above stream. Under the cover of the rainbow, it gave off a different aura and was very mystical.

Far away, at the bottom of the waterfall, beside the lake, was a wooden like hut, mixing in with the lake and the old tree, that was the sect leader's secret room.

The sect leader's secret room. One could only enter if invited, the safest room in the complex.

There was a green stone tiled square at the front of the cloud platform. 800 nominal disciples wore the same sect uniform and neatly lined up.

Song Jia wore a sky blue robe and stood before all the disciples. Behind her were her two core disciples, Banxia and Cui Tianqi. One held a sword, while the other held a book.

The sword was the Qingfeng Sword that Ouyang Shuo had given her; the book was the Taoist scripture that Song Jia would read.

Song Jia had a solemn expression, as she was dealing with the system interface. A system notification sounded in her ear.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Rumeng for applying to create a sect, automatically checking if she has met the requirements..."

"Requirement 1: Sect funds not less than 200 gold, requirement met!"

"Requirement 2: must have more than 500 disciples, requirement met!"

"Requirement 3: Cultivation Technique must at least be emperor rank, meets requirements!"

"Requirement 4: has its own sect base, requirement met!"

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Rumeng for fulfilling all the requirements. Player is allowed to create a sect. Please name your sect!"

"Dongli Sword Sect!" Song Jia said without hesitation.

In the sect leader secret room, a stone steele slowly rose up from the ground—the sect stone steele.

If this steele was destroyed and 80% of the disciples were killed, the sect would be destroyed.

"System Notification: Congratulations player Jiaqi Ru Meng for building the martial arts sect, Dongli Sword Sect. Player is rewarded five thousand reputation points. As the sect is within Shanhai City, Shanhai City has obtained the title 'Home of Martial Arts.'"

As the system notification sounded out, Song Jia instantly became famous in the China region. She didn't need to live in Ouyang Shuo's shadow. Now, she had a bright path in front of her.

Song Wen directly congratulated in the country channel, "Good job Sister!"

Ouyang Shuo didn't lag behind, "Congratulations, Sect Leader Song."

The world was in an uproar. His influence and words had made many player groups very interested in Dongli Sword Sect and Song Jia.

Players who thought about it would have noticed something. Since Jiaqi Rumeng was Song Wen's sister, why didn't she set up her sect in Song Wen's Tianshang Town? Instead, she set it up in Qiyue Wuyi's Shanhai City.

Gossip! Sky breaking gossip!

The country channel burst into activity as players started to throw out conjectures.

"Qiyue Wuyi vs. Jiaqi Rumeng, big reveal, are they friends, a couple or..."

"They are definitely a couple. Don't tell me there is actually such a pure friendship?"

"Couple 1!!"

"Aiyo, another dream has been broken~~"

"[Brother Wuyi Fanclub] demands a battle!!"

"Little sister above, don't forget that Jiaqi Rumeng is the sect leader of a sect. She has many little boys..."

"Wuwu~~"

"This little girl is crying. Nearby brothers, please help her!!"

"Is Dongli Sword Sect accepting disciples?"At this point, Song Jia had dispersed her disciples. She held the Qingfeng Sword in hand and walked toward Ouyang Shuo, "Blockhead, tell me the truth. What's Brother Wuyi Fanclub?"

When he saw this beauty emit such a killing aura, he had to give a serious answer. However, he was giggling inside. As a man, having so many girls idolize him felt good," Jia Jia, I swear I really don't know."

"Hmph!" Her man being so capable was originally something to be happy about. However, Song Jia didn't find it so in this a case. It wasn't easy for her to become famous, but this stupid blockhead had stolen half of her fame.

It was also very busy in the alliance channel. Be in Sun Xiaoyue or Song Jia, they were all added in to make it convenient for everyone to communicate.

"Sister-in-law is so amazing!" Gong Chengshi was playing around again. Every since he saw Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia acting intimately during the Battle of Muye, he would tease them and bring it up.

The others all sent their congratulations. After she created the Dongli Sword Sect, Song Jia finally had the ability to stand on the same level as Bai Hua and Feng Qiuhuang. She no longer felt so pitiful and lowly.

Ouyang Shuo took the chance to take a look at the stats of the new title.

[Home of Martial Arts: Raise body quality of residents by 20%

Ouyang Shuo nodded, it was as he had expected. Although they had the same title, Ouyang Shuo guessed that the buff of the Swordsman City would be stronger. After all, they were the first territory to set up a sect.

After building the sect, there were many things that she needed to do. Before she settled all this, most of her time would be spent in the sect. As a result, she would have less time together with Ouyang Shuo, which made him feel a little melancholy.

After congratulating her, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay for any longer and went down the mountain.

After he went down, he didn't choose to return to the main camp. At the foot of a mountain, a squadron of Guards awaited him. Ouyang Shuo planned to make a trip to Yishui Town and Gushan Town.

Ever since he conquered them, a month had passed. As the lord, Ouyang Shuo hadn't even visited once, which was somewhat a neglection of his duty.

Yishui Town was built at the side of Qiushui river. After the residents of Gushan Town moved here, the population of the town had passed 10 thousand.

After Ouyang Shuo reached Yishui Town, he officially renamed it Yishui City. As for the position of city magistrate, he wasn't in a rush to appoint one. He temporarily allowed the current head to take charge of daily duties.

The merger of Yishui Town and Gushan Town was also a merger of administrative personnel, which made the political structure well filled.

The current head of Yishui Town was a normal official in the past, so how would Ouyang Shuo be at ease if he let this person be in charge? If it was before, he might have taken someone from the main city and given him an opportunity.

But now, Cui Chamber of Commerce had sent the news that recruiting had been going well. It wouldn't be long before they could send a batch of people to Shanhai City.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, he naturally wanted to choose an official from this batch of people to take up the position of city magistrate. These plans included Yongye Town and Guangshui Town in the west.

As the castle on the east side, Yishui Town held the responsibility of monitoring the player territories on the east side, so he naturally couldn't forsake its defence. After both towns merged, Yishui City followed the standard rules and built a city protection unit.

Ouyang Shuo's arrival, apart from just taking a look, was to check the training of the city protection unit. What he saw made him displeased. The soldiers were rookies that remained from both towns. Even when they included their affiliate territories, they only barely managed to form a unit.

To raise their combat power, Ouyang Shuo chose 10 elite soldiers from the Guards squadron to join the Yishui City city protection unit. These 10 elites would act as lieutenants and majors. As for the original ones, Ouyang Shuo demoted them to sergeant.

He gave them a goal—eradicate the raider camps and raise their combat power.

Apart from the city protection unit, he couldn't overlook the city protection facilities either.

Compared to Tianfeng City, Yishui City's city wall was really bad; it was just a mud wall.

After Ouyang Shuo saw it, he decided it was necessary to start a city wall building project.

Based on his long term plan, the future Yishui City would be a second grade city. Hence, its walls must follow the standards of a city and be 5 kilometers long.

After he made these changes to Yishui City, Ouyang Shuo spent the night there.

The next morning, Ouyang Shuo left and brought the Guards. They rushed to Gushan Town, which was a little further away. There were a bunch of mountain barbarian tribe leaders waiting for him.

After he destroyed the mountain bandits in Er'Shi Ridge, Shanhai City's reputation and position in the hearts of the mountain barbarians had soared to new heights. Especially the resources he had left them, which had helped to solve many of their problems.

After the mountain tribes took the resources, they burned the mountain stronghold down. From this, one could see how deep their hatred for the mountain bandits ran.

Mountain barbarians were a race that clearly differentiated friend from foe. They would hate those who bullied them, while they would forever remember those who helped them.

With the previous example of mountain barbarian soldiers joining the military and the example of the Qiushui City mountain barbarian settlement, Tian Wenjing easily convinced a large scale tribe, three medium sized tribes, and seven small sized tribes to move down the mountain. These were pretty much all the tribes in this region.

These eleven tribes will all settle down in Gushan Town; they would form a small, self-ruled community.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's promise, apart Four Seas Bank branch, the officials in Gushan Town would all be mountain barbarians. The only thing that Shanhai a City interfered in would be the building of the city defence unit.

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Chapter 241- Violence

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

When Ouyang Shuo and his group reached Gushan Town, it was already 3 PM.

With the large-sized tribe leader Lei Fan at the lead, all the leaders of the tribes welcomed Ouyang Shuo. The tribal alliance had chosen Lei Fan as the head of Gushan Town.

The short interaction let Ouyang Shuo see that Lei Fan was special.

Based on what he knew, Lei Fan became the leader of his tribe at 24 years of age. 10 years had past, and his reputation and prestige were very high in the tribe. Not only that, even the other tribes all respected Lei Fan.

Compared to the conservative spirit of Shi Xiong from the Xuanniao Tribe, Lei Fan was much brighter and had better foresight. His tribe had headed down the mountains as a result of his planning.

He realized that if the mountain barbarians wanted a better life, their best choice would be to mix with the humans.

When Tian Wenjing visited his tribe, the two of them immediately grew close.

After some simple greetings, Ouyang Shuo renamed Gushan Town as Gushan City. Then, he appointed Lei Fan as the city magistrate with the authority to appoint his underlings.

The same night, Ouyang Shuo met Lei Fan alone and the two of them had a deep conversation.

Ouyang Shuo promised that the main camp would provide a batch of grain for Gushan City. The duty of Gushan City would be to build a wall to increase the defences and reclaim farmland in preparation for the spring planting season.

As the population of Gushan City broke 30 thousand, and was still about a year until the first rice harvest, they would probably need around 10 million units of grain.

Obviously, the main camp could not provide for such a huge demand for grain. Ouyang Shuo suggested that they borrowed from the Material Reserves Department. After the first harvest of the next year, they could repay the department.

Apart from that, Lei Fan's most important task was to continue to promote Shanhai City's mountain barbarian plan. He needed to contact more tribes and get them to come down to Gushan City.

They had practically swept up all the south side mountain barbarians.

To contact the mountain barbarians, they either had to venture deep into the forest or head north. Either way, Lei Fan would play a bigger part than the Xuanniao Tribe. As the leader of a large-sized tribe, he still remained in contact with the other large tribes. So, he was undoubtedly the most effective choice.

In truth, as the tribes started to rebuild and reorganize Gushan City, the position and importance of Xuanniao Tribe began to drop. They could only help out in the Langshan Minefields.

As for contacting the other tribes, the Xuanniao Tribe was only a medium-sized tribe, so they had limited power and connections. They were already unable to help Tian Wenjing much.

As for the other small and medium-sized tribes that didn't agree to descend the mountains, Ouyang Shuo decided to not care about them and let them destroy themselves.

The next day, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and left; they returned to Shanhai City on the same night. Ouyang Shuo rushed back because of the mid-autumn festival, which he couldn't miss.

Gaia first year, 10th month, 4th day, 8th month, 15th day of the lunar calendar, mid-autumn festival.

Xinan University, Fallen Star Island.

Only a few stars shone in the night sky; it was dead quiet. Jiang Shang sat alone on a rock and looked at the moon, as he contemplated many things.

The one he longed for had passed on, and only the moon remained unchanged.

"The Lord's Manor sent these mooncakes." The servant held a box of exquisite mooncakes.

"En." Jiangshang's expression changed slightly. Then, he turned expressionless and motionless once again.

The young servant didn't want to disturb him, so he placed the mooncake at the side and quietly left.

After the servant left, Jiang Shang picked up a piece of mooncake and muttered, "You still haven't given up?"

The moon didn't make a sound, nor did the man as the night breeze blew by.

Lord's Manor, back garden.

After the feast, Ouyang Shuo invited everyone to the back garden to admire the moon.

The cool autumn breeze brought with it the scent of flowers. Bing'er held a bunch of Osmanthus Flowers in her hand and ran to Zisu, "Sister Zisu, I want to eat Osmanthus cake!"

Zisu nodded and laughed, "Ok, tomorrow, I'll ask Auntie Wang to make some for you."

Ouyang Shuo looked at them in amusement; it had been a long time since he felt so relaxed.

Recently, the duties of the territory had made him so busy. Many changes had occurred inside and out.

Sha Pojun's probing attack had ended in failure, and Ouyang Shuo had forced him back. Weirdly, when Sha Pojun went back, there was no news about him. It was like he was a rock that fell into the ocean.

After that probe, Di Chen and the others became more careful. If one said that these people had given up on their schemes toward Shanhai City, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't believe it. The storms in the future would grow more mysterious and vicious.

As for the territorial matters, Ouyang Shuo slowly felt like he was overworked himself. He planned everything for Shanhai City and also had to pay attention to the alliance, which made him exhausted.

As the affiliate territories increased, Ouyang Shuo needed a talent that could help him control the big picture. Jiang Shang, who was on Fallen Star Island, was such one person, unfortunately...

"Brother, eat the mooncake." Bing'er took a mooncake and passed it to Ouyang Shuo.

"Good Bing'er!" Ouyang Shuo took it and smiled. All his thoughts and problems instantly flew to the back of his mind.

"Blockhead, these few days, I've received some letters from my old classmates," Song Jia suddenly said.

"Old classmates? How did they find out your ID?"

"Most of them are high school friends. I suspect that Yuanping revealed it. Before the migration, he had pulled many of them to live in his territory."

Ouyang Shuo nodded; it was as he had expected, "They want to join Dongli Sword Sect?"

"That's right, what do you think?" Song Jia would seek his opinion for this kind of important matter.

"We welcome them, but remember to keep a lookout." Ouyang Shuo would rather be safe than sorry.

"En." Song Jia naturally knew what to do.

After the mid-autumn festival, the grain crisis exploded. Grain prices rose up to 30 copper per unit.

Lord players had to spend all their money and live on the edge, while the merchants made a lot of gold.

The end of the 10th month would be the second harvesting season. Obviously, everyone clearly knew that grain prices would fall after that.

The 10th month was going to be the hardest month for lord gamemode players.

Many territories were already forced to the edge. They had spent their resources and those that could be sold were sold. They had no choice. Helplessly, they started to sell equipment to adventure mode players to gain gold to buy grain.

Compared to lord gamemode players, adventure gamemode players weren't affected. They weren't like lords who had to care about residents; they only needed to care about themselves.

As they had no choice, some lord's started to raise the taxes. Not only that, they sold the grain they bought at high prices to the residents.

Shanhai City, the price of grain at the grain shop remained at 11 copper.

The high prices affected these lords because they needed to lower the grain prices in the territory. If it rose along with the market, it would result in a huge blow to residents, and it could easily cause riots. The farmers naturally wouldn't sell the excess grain so easily to the territory. Instead, they would accumulate them.

Hence, these lords had no choice but to use their own money to make up for the difference in prices.

Ouyang Shuo's allies also faced the same problem.

At the end of the 9th month, Ouyang Shuo had to further invest in the Four Seas Bank to save his allies.

Mulan City and Black Lion City were still okay, as they had just upgraded. They could barely make it. As for Tianshuang Town, which was still at grade 3 Town, they still had sufficient funds as the branch of the bank was just built.

The ones that had it the hardest were Fallen Phoenix City and Xunlong City. They had to pay the loans from the bank every month. Now, they struggled thanks to the grain prices.

Wufu's Stone City also found it hard to get by. A Four Seas Bank branch wasn't built there, so it was rather remarkable for them to survive all by themselves.

After the mid-autumn festival, Wufu finally couldn't take it and asked Ouyang Shuo to save him.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate. He sold the 60 million units of grain he had accumulated. After the 10% tax deduction, he obtained 161,000 gold.

In addition to his original funds, he now had 177,000 in his storage bag.

Ouyang Shuo immediately invested 40,000 in the main branch, and 2,000 in the five branches. Overall, he invested 50,000.

The one time investment of 40,000 gold made the main branch of Four Seas Bank start to have the grandeur of a central bank.

As the city continued to run the bank, the views of the people slowly changed. They started to learn how to save up.

Based on Yingyu's data, in the 9th month, the Four Seas Bank had a total of 9,000 gold in savings.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's plan, this was the last time he would inject money. From now on, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't bother with the Four Seas Bank. He would let its members and officials do their job.

Apart from that, the Four Seas Bank branch in Stone City had opened up. Ouyang Shuo gave them a starting amount of 5,000 gold.

After such actions, Ouyang Shuo still had 122,000 gold left.

Based on his plans, he would not touch 100,000 gold. He planned to spend these funds on the year end auction three months later.

Compared to the first system auction, the year end auction would be bigger and have more rare items. Naturally, he didn't want to miss it.

He had to make proper preparations to purchase what he wanted during the auction. If it wasn't for the grain crisis that used up a lot of the other territory's gold, Ouyang Shuo would have prepared more in case of uncertainties.

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Chapter 242 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Gaia first year, 10th month, 8th day

The people the Cui Chamber of Commerce had recruited finally reached Shanhai County.

This batch of talents totalled at 1,200 people, including 1,000 blacksmiths, carpenters, and tailors.

For them and their family, Ouyang Shuo had to pay 5,000 gold in teleportation costs.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's instructions, the artisans were all sent to the military workshops in the eastern district. As for scholars and officials, they were sent to the various departments, most importantly to form the organizational structure of Tianfeng County and the other affiliate territories.

The military personnel were sent to the various regiments to take up the roles of majors or lieutenants.

Out of the talents, Ouyang Shuo paid a lot of attention to two people. One was the civil servant Cui Shoushi and the other was General Sun Chuan Lin. Cui Shoushi was the cousin of Yingyu and was a scholar. Out of the whole family, he was one of two scholars. Before this, he worked in the court of Dali Region.

His arrival surprised Yingyu.

She didn't expect that her family would make such a huge decision. The Cui family were merchants, hence they placed a lot of importance on their children's education, hoping they became scholars and officials to provide them with political cover.

Cui Shoushi was the most successful example from the Cui family education.

Ouyang Shuo could roughly guess what the Cui Family was thinking, and without hesitating made him the city magistrate of Yishui County.

Name: Cui Shoushi (Gold Rank)

Identity: Yishui County County Magistrate

Occupation: Civil Servant (Scholar)

Loyalty: 85

Command: 35

Force: 25

Intelligence: 50

Politics: 65

Specialty: Agriculture Persuasion (raise efficiency of agriculture industry growth by 20%)

Evaluation: Cui Family child, very knowledgeable, good foresight, good morals and hardworking.

Although Cui Shoushi was a gold rank talent, he only had one specialty; it seemed lacking. Luckily, his specialty was very compatible with Yishui Town, whose main goal was agriculture.

If one said that the Cui Family had planned for Cui Shoushi to come over, then Sun Chuan Lin was an unexpected surprise.

Name: Sun Chuan Lin (Gold Rank)

Identity: Shanhai County Resident

Occupation: Intermediate General

Loyalty: 80

Command: 60

Force: 65

Intelligence: 40

Politics: 25

Specialty: Projection (increase range of archers by 5%), Strong Shooting (Increase archer combat power by 10%)

Cultivation Method: Youji Archery Technique

Equipment: Luoyan Bow

Evaluation: He was a lieutenant in the army but was replaced by his disciple because he wasn't pleased by military rewards. He exposed the dirty behaviors and acts in the military and got his rewards, but in turn was treated coldly. As he was demoralized, he decided to quit.

The special thing about Sun Chuan Lin was that he was the only general who specialized in archery. This made him think of the territory bow and crossbow cavalry squadron when the territory was at its village stage.

Ouyang Shuo didn't hesitate and appointed him the colonel of the 5th regiment, and also the vice head of the city's eastern camp in charge of building a bow and crossbow cavalry regiment.

With that, Shanhai County's 1st division was completed with 5 normal regiments and 1 Guards regiment, its total strength reaching 15 thousand people. It was in charge of guarding the 4 directions.

As the organization of the military got into place, Ouyang Shuo started to look to the north of the Lianzhou Basin.

After the Battle of Muye ended, Mulan Town had upgraded to a grade 1 city. One and a half months had passed, and Mulan County had reached the upper limit, successfully upgrading to a grade 2 city.

Mu Guiying felt that the time had come for them to take down Zhennan Pass.

Mulan County had just formed their city protection regiment, which included 2 sword-shield soldier units, 1 cavalry unit, and 2 archer units. With their strength, to take over the Zhennan Pass might not be enough, and it would probably result in heavy casualties.

Hence, they needed the help of Shanhai County.

If Ouyang Shuo sent all his troops, this was naturally a straightforward victory. The problem being that it was expensive to do so. With an army of 5000 as an example, the teleportation costs would run up to 10 thousand.

Ge Hongliang suggested to not teleport and directly go past the wild lands.

His suggestion also had many problems.

Firstly to launch a siege, the core would be infantry. They had slow movement speeds and even if they rushed, they needed to cross 400 kilometres of wild lands and would require over a week.

Apart from that, crossing the wildlands mean that they would definitely cross paths with tribes. As the wild lands was complicated, it was best not to disturb them at the moment.

Ouyang Shuo thought about it and decided that the best idea was to send an elite squad to help Mulan County. In the end, he decided to send the 2 trump card units: the 1st unit of the Guards regiment and the 1st unit of the 1st regiment of the 1st division. Apart from that, 5 sets of three-bow arcuballistas and 10 scaling ladders would be included.

As the military scale increased, war preparations couldn't be done quickly and took a long time.

The Feng bird of the Military Intelligence Division brought Ouyang Shuo's orders and flew to the city west camp. When they received the orders, they had to gather the troops and rush to the main camp, taking 2 days.

The city's western camp was helping to destroy raider camps along the Tianhai Road construction area.

The money they gained would be given to the main camp and to Ouyang Shuo. To raise their motivation, Ouyang Shuo ruled that 10% of the gold will be given as rewards to the soldiers who participated.

The prisoners would either be sent to the Military Affairs Department and into the reserve force, or sent to Yongye Town or Guangshui Town to increase the population.

This batch of prisoners was pretty much also made to join the construction of Tianhai Road.

10th month, 11th day

Ouyang Shuo brought the 1000 elites, and the combat resources and teleported to Mulan County. As the scaling ladder was huge, even after dismantling it, Ouyang Shuo had to make several trips.

"Brother Wuyi, you are here!" Mu Lanyue waited for him at the teleportation formation.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and asked, "Are you all ready?"

"En, Sister Mu is waiting for you at the barracks." Mu Lanyue laughed.

"Lets go!"

In the barracks, the Mulan County city protection regiment had gathered up.

Before leaving, Mu Guiying called Ouyang Shuo and the others to the meeting hall to discuss.

Mu Guiying invited Ouyang Shuo to sit on the higher seat, but he refused. "General Mu, you are in charge of this battle. All my forces will listen to you." As he said this, he introduced Wang Feng and Shihu to her.

Mu Guiying had paid close attention to Zhennan Pass and had far more knowledge about it than Ouyang Shuo. She already had a well thought out plan on how to attack it.

Ouyang Shuo naturally wouldn't say too much as he was the guest.

Mu Guiying didn't refuse and said, "After a period of observation, we have found out much about Zhennan Pass. There are around 3,000 mountain bandits, and the leader is called Li Anbai. He was originally a swordsman, but he was schemed against and chased out of his sect, being forced to live in the wilderness and ending up a bandit. He has strong skills but also has a heart of righteousness. After conquering the pass, he told his men to not kill any innocent people.

"The problem was that he had internal injuries that didn't heal. Soon, he will be unable to control the men under him."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. No wonder Mu Guiying wanted to deal with them quickly. One could foresee that the moment he died, the one that would be badly affected would be Mulan County.

"Li Anbai has a daughter called Li Feixue. She's 28 years old and was given birth to after he became a bandit. He loved her and taught her everything he learned. This Miss Li, under her father's teachings, became very pure and righteous, not affected by the bandits. Because of that, Li Anbai is worried that once he dies, his daughter wouldn't be able to gain a footing in Zhennan Pass and even her purity would be taken away by those wolves."

Ouyang Shuo had never expected that there would be such a story.

"Because of that, Li Anbai had many sleepless nights. Coincidentally, a spy was spotted by him and he instead gained knowledge of Mulan County from the spy. After thinking about it, he was emotional and made the decision to give up Zhennan Pass to protect his daughter."

Ouyang Shuo was hit with a bolt of realization, no wonder she knew so much, even those secrets she was so clear about. What he didn't understand was that since Li Anbai was willing to give up Zhennan Pass, why would Mu Guiying need assistance from them?

"What was the change that occured?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mu Guiying sighed deeply. "Your guess is right, there was really something that happened. A few days ago, his plan was revealed and an uprising occurred in the pass. Although the bandits respected him, giving up the pass was something they couldn't accept. Added with some people fanning the flames, based on the last information by the spy, both of them were captured. The mountain bandits also spread word that they want to attack Mulan County as punishment."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. "These bunch of mountain bandits are too arrogant, they should've just stayed in the pass; once they get out, how could they be a match for Mulan County? Such an impractical idea."

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Chapter 243 - Taking Down Zhennan Pass Part 2

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Mu Guiying nodded. "I also think that it's not practical."

When one didn't have good advisors, the detriments were already there to see.

Not only did they have to take over Zhennan Pass in this battle, but they also had to save the lives of Li Anbai and his daughter. After all, he already had the intention to surrender, which meant he was an ally, so they had to save him.

"General, what plan do you have?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mu Guiying confidently and resolutely said, "I don't have a plan; just attack."

Ouyang Shuo was shocked, he looked at Mu Guiying in awe and amazement. Since they had already riled up the enemy, they should just destroy them outright, as it was the righteous thing to do.

"Good!" Ouyang Shuo got up. "Let's stick to what the general has said. Lest there be changes as time passes, let's go!"

"Yes!" The many men echoed.

The big army rolled out of Mulan County and toward Zhennan Pass.

At 1 PM, without any attempts to hide, they arrived in front of Zhennan Pass.

The canyon was only 50 meters wide, so they could spread out their forces.

At the front of the formation, the 10 scaling ladders were put in place; closely behind were the 5 three-bow arcuballistas which were being aimed and zeroed.

The bottom of the scaling ladder had a base of wood with 6 wheels underneath; the main ladder was fixed to the base at a certain degree. At the sides, there was protection and was strengthened using leather. Soldiers could effectively defend against arrows while pushing the scaling ladder.

The main ladder was split into two parts, making use of a folding structure where the middle joined up the two parts with a shaft.

When sieging, as long as one placed the main ladder under the wall, and then make use of the secondary ladder, they could easily climb up the wall and reduce the danger and difficulty.

Additionally, as the scaling ladder was placed on the wall, soldiers could prevent the enemy from sabotage only when they were ready to climb.

Standing in front of the forces was the 1st Guards unit that Ouyang Shuo had brought. Their duty would be to made use of the step arrows that the arcuballistas shot along with the 2 sword-shield soldier units from Mulan County to take down the city wall.

Following closely behind the sword-shield soldier units were the two archer units, who were in charge of cover fire. Further behind was the heavy armored infantry. They were in charge of using the wooden ram to take down the city gates.

The wooden ram had a wheelbarrow attached such that it could be pushed forward. The wooden ram was covered with two layers of iron skin. Many shiny spikes were welded on it.

At the back of the force was the cavalry unit from the city protection regiment who acted as a reserve.

The huge army didn't bother about the mountain bandits on the Zhennan Pass, and slowly made their preparations for the war ahead.

Such a huge commotion naturally alerted and shocked the mountain bandits.

The mountain bandit leader who had successfully staged the coup had received the report and brought a bunch of people to the city wall. Upon seeing the huge army outside he muttered, "Who can tell me where in the world this army appeared from?"

The mountain bandits on his right and left looked at each other, but they all didn't know what to say.

"Leader, was, was it, was it the old head of the stronghold?" One mountain bandit stammered as he said. Although Li Anbai was locked up, he still had high prestige in the mountain stronghold and was still regarded the head of the stronghold.

The leader froze and scolded, "There's an 80% chance that it is that old fogey. He's going to die but still wants to go against me. I'll go and kill him now."

The mountain bandit beside him immediately stopped him and persuaded, "Leader, what's most important is to stop their advance. We can settle the old fogey at any time."

For him to be able to successfully stage the coup, he naturally wasn't stupid. He knew that killing Li Anbai at this time would not only not help the situation, but it would make those who liked him not listen to him.

The reason why he was so emotional was because of the sudden situation. It wasn't easy for him to become the leader, and he hadn't enjoyed it long before facing such a thing. As such, he felt frustrated.

After calming himself down, he started giving orders and organizing the defense. He ordered all the mountain bandits up the city wall to fend off the enemy invasion.

Zhennan Pass, which was an old ancient pass, not only did it have high city walls, but the city protection resources in its storage were also in sufficient amounts. They had large amounts of rolling wood and stone pieces, which was where the confidence from the leader came from.

After the mountain bandits went off to prepare, the mountain bandit called a confidant and ordered, "Dao Ba, quickly go down and find 20 dependable brothers, prepare horses and food. Take out the jewels from the storeroom and rush to the back gate and wait for my orders. If things go wrong, we leave immediately."

Dao Ba was shocked and asked, "Big brother, don't tell me we might not be able to defend the pass?"

The leader stared at him furiously. "What do you know! I took a brief look and they actually had scaling ladders and arcuballistas, they are obviously prepared. Whether we can defend or not is a mystery. This time, we must prepare for a way out."

"Big brother, I understand."

"Go quickly!" The mountain bandit leader waved him off.

After Dao Ba left, the leader regained his calm demeanour and stood on the city wall.

Just as he was planning their backup plan, a tune sounded out in the courtyard in which Li Anbai and his daughter were kept in.

A young mountain bandit was holding a food box and sneakily rushed to the courtyard.

Two of the leader's trusted men were guarding the courtyard outside. Upon seeing him, they warned, "What are you doing here? Don't you know that this is a restricted place?"

The young mountain bandit looked around and upon seeing that there was no one around, walked beside the guard and said softly, "Brother did you hear? The lord that the old stronghold head contacted has brought their troops to attack the pass."

The guard impatiently said, "Who doesn't know that? Speak the truth, what exactly are you doing here?"

The young bandit didn't get riled up and continued, "Hey, Brother don't you know that the leader is very angry and wants to rush here to kill the old head. Unfortunately, some brothers stopped him.. He didn't want to go against everyone so he agreed to let him off, but in truth he is still furious. Hence, he secretly arranged me to come here to send them on their way."

The young bandit pointed at the food box he was holding, not saying a thing but doing the hand signal for killing.

The guard was astonished, with his understanding of the leader, this was something that he definitely would do. He instantly believed it and nodded. "Since that's so, I'll follow you in."

"No, you definitely cannot." The young bandit immediately shook his head and said softly, "Think about it. Such a secretive thing, how can everyone see it? Both of you better just guard outside so people wouldn't suspect anything. If this is revealed, and the leader blames us, we will probably all be in big trouble."

Thinking of how the leader handled things, both Guards felt cold inside and said thankfully, "Brother has thought about it carefully, quickly go in!"

Under the thankful eyes of the Guards, the young mountain bandit entered the courtyard.

This courtyard was where Li Feixue lived and where the father and daughter were locked up. Li Anfei was really sick and struggled to get off the bed.

"Who?" The arrival of the young bandit was spotted by Li Feixue.

Her reaction was quick as she grabbed the treasure sword at the side and charged forward.

He walked into the room and upon seeing such a situation gave a bitter smile. "Miss don't be afraid. I'm a spy from Mulan County, and I've some important news."

Li Feixue was astonished. Her father had told her about the thing with Mulan County, and she also knew that there was a Mulan County spy in Zhennan Pass. It was only that she didn't know whether the person in front of her was trustworthy or not.

The young mountain bandit, upon seeing the doubts in her face, took out a token and passed it to her. "This is my identity token, you can check it."

Upon receiving it, the token looked very basic without any symbols. Only at one corner were 3 crooked lines.

Li Feixue calmed down and heaved a sigh of relief. She knew that he was a spy from Mulan County.

"Are there any changes outside?" Li Feixue thought about why he entered.

He didn't dare to waste time and said directly, "That's right, my lord and the Lianzhou lord has brought their troops to attack the pass."

Li Feixue was delighted and muttered, "That's great, my father no longer needs to suffer."

The young mountain bandit shook his head, as he wasn't as innocent as her. He said solemnly, "Missus doesn't know that the old stronghold head survived an incident. The leader wanted to kill him, but his men stopped him. I'm afraid that once the situation gets out of hand, he would use you two as hostages."

"Then what should we do?" Li Feixue was a young girl, so she didn't know what to do.

"Cough, cough." At that moment, Li Anbai woke up.

"Dad, you are awake!" Li Feixue was delighted and leaped toward the bed. She was on the verge of crying.

A leader of a generation opened up his hazy eyes and looked at his daughter with pity. He wanted to reach out, but he couldn't. He struggled to look toward the young mountain bandit and struggled out, "I've heard your words. I'm ashamed that I'm unable to fulfil my promise. Your lord is righteous and immediately sent people to save my daughter and I. For that, I'm grateful."

"Your words are too serious. As for how to escape, do you have an idea?" The young mountain bandit was so nervous and worried that the leader would take them as hostages. Hence, as a good spy, he had to take the risk to meet with them to try and solve this problem.

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Chapter 244 - Taking over Zhennan Pass Part 3

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

A bright light shone in Li Anbai's cloudy eyes. As if he could see through the heart of the young mountain bandit, he said with his hoarse voice, "Young man don't worry, I've been staying here for 10 years and know everything about this place. There's a hidden room in this courtyard where we can hide."

The young mountain bandit felt as if his thoughts were all crystal clear in front of the old man, forcefully suppressing the awkwardness and laughing, "That's great, can you two move there now?"

"There's something I need to remind you about."

"Old stronghold head, please speak!" The young mountain bandit treated this very seriously.

"I'm very clear about the character and actions of the leader. He's a very smart and careful person. I'm very sure that he would definitely arrange a way out to escape. Zhennan Pass is within the canyon, and one could escape from the southwest. Once things go awry, he might actually just give up the pass and leave." No wonder people said that the one that knows you best is your enemy.

The young mountain bandit's face turned white. If the leader escaped, then he would have failed as a spy. "Thank you for your help!"

Li Anbai blinked as a form of reply. Him reminding the young mountain bandit also had a little bit of selfishness. If the leader escaped, it would be bad for his daughter.

After discussing everything, Li Anbai struggled and fiddled with the edge of the bed, only to hear a cracking sound and the walls suddenly splitting open, revealing a hidden room. It was 4-5 square meters wide and had a bed and a chair. Apart from that, there was nothing else, just a simple room.

As time was of the essence, he didn't dare to waste time and together with Li Feixue, carried Li Anbai onto the bed.

Although once the hidden room was closed one wouldn't be able to spot a difference, the young mountain bandit was still worried. He looked around and touched up the place before carrying the empty lunch box out of the courtyard.

Before leaving, he one again reminded the guards not to let anyone check and also not to leave their post in case others grew suspicious.

Now in his heart, he was pondering about how to stop the escape of the leader.

Outside Zhennan Pass, the bells of war had already sounded.

The first to attack were the 5 three-bow arcuballistas and the archer unit. Their rain of arrows drew an arc in the air as they headed for the city walls.

The arrows from the arcuballistas were fast, like that of a machine gun as they flew out from them one after another, taking away life after life.

As long as the mountain bandits dared to show their faces, they were mercilessly shot down.

"Cover! Cover!" The leader hid under a shield and hollered.

Hearing the order, the mountain bandit archers didn't dare to go against it and stuttered out of the cover of the shields and without aiming, fired out. The arrow rain was like the knife of the god of death, striking from above.

"Raise your shields!" The commander shouted.

"Shua," the men raised their shields and if one looked from above, it was like the ground had a layer of a shield.

Some unlucky souls didn't hold their shields properly and slipped to the left when the arrows hit, so the arrows mercilessly pierced them and claimed their lives.

Taking the chance that both sides were engaging, the 10 scaling ladders were slowly pushed towards the edge of the city wall. Hiding within the scaling ladder was the first unit of the Guards regiment.

At the same time, the arcuballistas changed targets and started to fire step arrows. The huge arrows penetrated the wall and formed a closely lined arrow forest.

The step arrows were a signal as the sword shield soldiers behind braved the arrow rain and started to advance towards the city wall.

The scaling arrow was stopped beside the wall and with a "pa" the stacked secondary ladder was raised and hooked onto the city wall.

The soldiers from the Guards unit started to walk out from the scaling ladder and climbed up. To raise the efficiency, they held the Tang Swords in their mouths and used both their hands to climb.

"Leader, they are climbing up the scaling ladder!" The mountain bandits panicked.

"I'm not blind, I can see that." The leader was furious. "Rush up and push the ladder away, kill them."

The hook on the scaling ladder was specially designed, and it was difficult to push away. The mountain bandits that rushed out weren't trained in the methods of pushing the scaling ladder, and upon seeing the bloodthirst of the soldiers climbing up, they were terrified.

"Throw rocks at them!" The leader realized his tactical mistake and immediately made adjustments.

"Yes!" The mountain bandits raised up stone rocks and threw them down.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The soldiers were already near to the top and the rocks only hit the ones in front. Those at the back quickly rushed up and made use of the opportunity to climb up.

The held the Tang Swords in their hands and stood on top of the ladder, fighting against the mountain bandits.

The soldiers in the Guards regiment were all very experienced. The first unit were the elites of the elites, each one being at least a rank 10 war elite soldier. Their killing ability were shocking.

10 scaling ladders, 10 killing spots.

Wang Feng led the way and got onto the city wall first.

He shook his spear and shouted, "I am Wang Feng, whoever isn't afraid to die step out!"

"Kill him!" The mountain bandit leader didn't personally step out.

"Kill!" There were many evil men amongst the mountain bandits. They weren't afraid of anything except people saying that they were afraid. Wang Feng's words infuriated them.

"He!" Wang Feng was unfazed. With a sweep, he cleared out a huge area in front of him.

During the battle at Er'Shi Ridge, Wang Feng's breakthrough increased his combat power. Be it sweeping or stabbing, he claimed life after life; no one could get close to him.

He was like an asura, defending the area close to the scaling ladder so no mountain bandit could get close. Taking the chance, the Guards regiment soldiers swiftly followed behind and climbed onto the wall.

Seeing their general show his skill, these bunch of battle crazy men waved their Tang Swords. Not bothering about the number of men, they directly charged forward.

The strength of the Guards regiment terrified the mountain bandits.

When one side was broken, every side was slowly broken.

The soldiers on the other ladders started to climb up and start fighting with the mountain bandits.

It seemed like they wouldn't be able to defend, so the leader pulled back the mountain bandits who were throwing rocks and told them to surround the soldiers.

What they didn't know that the sword-shield soldiers were waiting for the opportunity. Under the leadership of their lieutenants, they either climbed up the scaling ladder or the step arrows to assist their allies.

In a moment, Zhennan Pass became a slaughter, and blood flowed endlessly.

Seeing the sword-shield soldiers successfully climb up the wall, Mu Guiying ordered the heavy armored infantry of Shanhai County to breach the gates.

When Shihu received the order, he hollered, "Brothers, charge!"

"Charge!" The mountain barbarian soldiers raised their shields and pushed the wooden ram and charged towards the city gates.

"Hong!!" As the wooden ram smacked into the gate, an earth-shattering sound resounded which shook the pass.

"Hei!" The soldiers shouted out the signals, pulling the wooden ram back before ramming into the gate again.

Although the city wall was covered in iron, under the striking of the wooden ram, it started to creak and crack.

The mountain barbarians were famous for their strength, and the wooden ram they pushed produced a force of more than 5,000 kilograms.

"Dang!" The first city gate was finally broken.

The Zhennan Pass had 3 city gates. Once the outermost one was broken, there was still one in the middle. Luckily, now the soldiers had the cover of the hole and could charge with ease.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Shout after shout came out from the doorway, following by an earth-shattering blow, making one terrified.

The leader, upon hearing such sounds, frowned. He looked up only to see large amounts of troops had rushed up the wall, and although their numbers were half of theirs, they weren't at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, the mountain bandits were afraid and didn't look like they could hold on.

"Haiz!" The leader let out a long sigh and slowly retreated as per his retreat plan.

At this moment, the 2nd city gate was broken.

At this time, Shihu had two choices. One was to climb up the city wall through a path in the doorway and help the troops. Another was to continue to break through the 3rd city wall and block off their retreat path.

Shihu considered for a short time and thought of a plan. He sent someone to report the situation to the commander. Following which, he left a squadron to breach the last gate while he brought the rest up to the city wall.

Receiving his report, Mu Guiying frowned, not knowing how to choose.

Just at this moment, a signal bullet rose up from within the Zhennan Pass.

Mu Guiying was astonished. She knew this was the signal from the spy, which meant that it was an emergency.

She didn't hesitate, and apart from leaving a cavalry squadron in case, she sent the 4 remaining squadrons through the doorway to the back to cut off the retreat path.

Ouyang Shuo and Mu Lanyue stood at the side and didn't say a word; they trusted her.

The cavalry unit thought that they wouldn't have a part to play in this battle. When they received the order, their blood boiled and rushed out on their horses toward the city gates.

At this moment, the city gate was in a state of chaos, the mountain bandit archers couldn't shoot outside peacefully and were embroiled in the chaotic battle on the wall. Hence, the cavalry were able to rush to the city gate smoothly.

In this period of time, the 3rd city gate was broken down.

The cavalry unit gave the mountain barbarian warriors a thumbs up as they went past the city gate and continued south to cut off the enemy.

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Chapter 245 - Summer Flowers

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

On the Zhennan Pass city gate tower, as Shi Hu arrived with the reinforcements, the tide of the battle had turned in their favor.

Wang Feng was freed up. He looked around and noticed that the commander of the bandits had disappeared. He shouted, "Your leader had cowardly fled, surrender yourselves!"

The bandits naturally had a weaker willpower than an ordinary military. Even before the casualties reached one-tenth, their morale had started to disappear. As Wang Feng shouted, his words became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The bandits turned and looked. Sure enough, their leader was long gone, and their will to resist immediately vanished.

The cowards surrendered instantly; the evildoers ran and fled.

"Chase after them!" Wang Feng gave his order to pursue the ones that fled.

"Understood!" the soldiers received the order, and they went on a pursuit.

From that moment onward, Zhennan Pass had turned into a city of chaos.

One have to say that the measures taken by Wang Feng were much like Ouyang Shuo's.

In the midst of chaos, the bandit leader led over 20 of his trusted subordinates to try to find their way out. Even in such critical moments, the wicked leader still tried to snatch the little beauty Li Feixue along with him.

The bandit leader arrived at the courtyard. He saw the guards were still there and he was about to enter. The guards were puzzled. Didn't the leader order the old-leader to be poisoned? Why is he still coming here?

The leader walked into the courtyard only to find it emptied. His voice was taut with anger and he shouted, "Where are they? Where have they gone?"

The guards felt this was odd, so one of them rushed in. His voice trembled, and he said, "Lea..Leader, there was a man not long ago, he came with your orders to poison the old-leader…. and he did not allow anyone to enter the courtyard."

The bandit leader knew instantly he was caught in a trap. He lashed out at the guard in anger and scolded, "Idiots!" Time was ticking away, but there wasn't anything he could do. His eyes were filled with hatred as he gave one last look at the courtyard. Then, he turned and ran.

Beauties were precious, but his life was more important.

Sadly, one couldn't always get what he wanted.

Before the bandit leader and his followers even ran far enough, the cavalry unit had chased up to them.

The captain of the cavalry unit was excited when he saw them. He knew they were a bunch of running human prizes in front of him, so he shouted, "Take them down!"

"Understood!" the cavalry charged and surrounded them.

The bandit leader saw the cavalry. He sighed in helplessness and surrendered without putting up a fight.

By 3:30 PM, peace was once again restored to Zhennan Pass.

Ouyang Shuo kept his hands off the after-battle matters, such as the handling of resources and captives. Those were all handed to Mulan Yue and Mu Guiying. As he had stated earlier, Shanhai County was only here as a helper and nothing more. It would not participate in the distribution of loot.

Ouyang Shuo did not even plan to take back the scaling ladders and acruballistas. He intended to give them away to Mulan Yue. Five arcuballistas would be stationed in Zhennan Pass to improve its defensive capability.

According to Mu Guiying's arrangement, a unit of soldiers would be stationed in Zhennan Pass during the early stages. The numbers weren't big, but it was significant enough for Mulan County.

The military of Shanhai County pulled out from Zhennan Pass under Ouyang Shuo's order and gathered outside.

After counting, 50 soldiers from Guards regiment were gone forever in the battle, most of them died from the stones during the siege. Because the 1st regiment's 1st unit did not participate in the intensive battle, only 5 soldiers were lost.

Ouyang Shuo ordered the soldiers to take good care of their fallen comrades, as their dead bodies would be brought back to Shanhai County's cemetery to be buried.

"Brother Wuyi, let's go in together!" Mulan Yue hopped toward Ouyang Shuo with a bright smile.

Ouyang Shuo was stunned, he did not plan to enter at all. In fact, he was ready to depart back to Shanhai County. He asked, "Yueyue, is there anything?" Do not underestimate Mulan Yue as a teenager, after over half a year of her journey as a lord, her mentality had matured. If she were to hold Ouyang Shuo back, there must be a reason behind it.

"Brother Wuyi, just come!" The inwardly evil little girl did not explain. Instead, she pulled on Ouyang Shuo's sleeve and dragged him into Zhennan Pass. Ouyang Shuo could only smile bitterly and follow her.

Zhennan Pass, Council Chamber.

In the middle of the hall sat tens of boxes. The father and daughter, Li Anbai and Li Feixue were also there. Li Anbai's face were pale, and he seemed like he was going to exhale his last breath at anytime. Tears rolled down Li Feixue's cheeks, as she looked at her father.

Mulan Yue dragged Ouyang Shuo and sat him beside her in the council chamber.

Mu Guiying sat down. She cupped her fists and said, "Reporting to the lord, we have a total of 2,140 captured prisoners, and plundered a massive quantity of resources and weaponry. The most precious loot are these 12 boxes of treasures. I have roughly counted them. Among the 12, 2 boxes contain gold, 8 boxes contain silver, and 2 boxes have jewelry."

The resources in Zhennan Pass were massive and abundant, ranging from basic needs such as foods and forages to the defensive materials like burning oils, stones and wood. They also had military goods like bows, swords, and armor.

Other than that, there were also a variety of jewelry, gold, and silver.

Some of these treasures had long existed in Zhennan Pass; others were brought along by Li Anbai after he occupied Zhennan Pass; the rest were plundered by the bandits from the caravans that passed by.

These treasures were the reason Mulan Yue had dragged Ouyang Shuo here, to discuss the distribution of the 12 boxes of treasures. In her heart, she was crystal clear that elite troops of Shanhai County were the foremost contributors in the battle taking down Zhennan Pass.

Although Ouyang Shuo declared long ago to give up the distribution of loot, Mulan Yue still couldn't allow herself to swallow all of the loot. Mu Guiying also agreed with her in this matter.

Ouyang Shuo was astonished. The treasures in Zhennan Pass even surpassed those of the Er'Shi Ridge stronghold. Honestly speaking, if one said that he was not moved by the treasures at all, one would be lying. Even so, the treasures were only icing on the cake to Ouyang Shuo. On the other hand, it would mean baskets of charcoal in snowy weather to the Mulan County that was under rapid development.

"Brother Wuyi, the gold and jewelry will be yours to take, how is that?"

Her distribution plan looked exaggerated, but it was reasonably fair. The value of the resources she had plundered from Zhennan Pass was way greater than only 2 boxes of gold, especially the various weaponry.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in determination. He fondly looked at Mulan Yue and said firmly, "Yueyue, there is no need for this. How about this, I will take 1 box of gold, and the rest belongs to you."

Mulan Yue was about to voice something, but Ouyang Shuo raised his hands and stopped her words in her mouth, "This shall be it."

"Alright, thank you brother Wuyi!" Mulan Yue rolled her eyes and accepted his decision with a smile.

After they settled the distribution plan, Ouyang Shuo rose and was about to leave.

"Cough, cough…." Li Anbai faked a cough, reminding them of his existence.

"Is there anything, old leader?" Mu Guiying asked.

Even simply nodding his head required great effort, and his voice was hoarse as he spoke. "I am dying; there is not much time left for this old man anymore. The only worry I have left is my lovely little daughter. I beg for the general and the two great lords to take good care of her."

Mu Guiying turned to Mulan Yue, waiting for her call.

Mulan Yue said in a cute voice, "This won't be a problem. Little sister Feixue is so cute and innocent. She will definitely not be bullied in Mulan County. May the old leader be at ease."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head in amusement. He didn't know that Mulan Yue was like him, having the hobby to adopt little sisters.

"If that is the case, I am thankful." After Mulan Yue gave her promise, Li Anbai was finally at ease.

When he saw that everything was settled, Ouyang Shuo rose to leave.

Before he left, Mulan Yue gave Ouyang Shuo a token.

"What's this?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Mulan Yue mysteriously smile. "This was found when Sister Mu was searching the secret chamber in Zhennan Pass, have a look."

Ouyang Shuo took the token and had a look. At that moment, his jaws almost fell off.

[Token of Territory Merging] (3/3) : After use, subordinate village creation token can be used to merge existing territory, saving the need to build everything from scratch.

Needless to say, [Token of Territory Merging] solved the biggest problem that was troubling Ouyang Shuo. He could actually extract subordinate village creation tokens from Qiushui, Beihai, or Friendship County, then merge them with an existing territory such as Tianfeng County, restoring the potential of these territories.

"Yueyue, do you know the value of this token?" His tone was solemn and serious.

Such a token defied nature. If it were placed on the auction platform, it would be the tossed stone that raised a thousand ripples.

She seemed to be unconscious of the value of the token, as she laughed as usual. "I am well aware of it. But, in my opinion, Brother Wuyi you need it more than I do. And only you can maximize the full potential of this token." News regarding Ouyang Shuo's success in capturing 5 territories had reached the lords of Shanhai Alliance, which naturally included Mulan Yue.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. All of a sudden, he held out his hand and patted her head. Then, he smiled and said, "Well then, I will take this token." He did not speak of any repayments, as he openly received the gift. The relationship between the two suddenly became closer, while the estrangements disappeared, and they became much like a true brother and sister pair.

Her smile bloomed and resplendent like a summer flower, which warmed the hearts of those around them.

When Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai County, he dispersed the military and turned into his office alone.

The [Token of Territory Merging] could be used 3 times. That meant 3 village creation tokens. Matters regarding on how to use, when to use, and which 3 to use would depend on Ouyang Shuo's future plan for the territory and his own jurisdiction.

The first that crossed his mind was Beihai County. As a harbor city, Beihai County should not scatter its attention. Furthermore, the surroundings of Beihai County were nothing but a long narrow coastline. It was simply unsuitable to expand its territory.

Therefore, the 3 black-iron level village creation token from Beihai County could be freed out and taken by Ouyang Shuo.

Secondly, he had to consider which subordinate territory he would merge the tokens with. Out of the 5 subordinate territories, Gushan County was an autonomous city by the mountain barbarians, so it could be taken off the list. Gushan County was purposed to attract populations from the tribes of mountain barbarians in the woods. The rate of population growth would not be lower than the other subordinate territories, so it didn't require the system migrants.

Of the rest of the 4 subordinate territories, Tianfeng County was a must. The only problem was whether Ouyang Shuo should use a token on Yishui, Yongye, or Guangshui County.

In his plans, he has no intention to spend all 3 chances at once. He would need to save up at least 1 token for Ba Dao's Broken Blade County. He couldn't claim it yet, but it would be his in the future.

As the eastern central city of Ouyang Shuo's plan, he naturally would not allow its potential to get wasted.

In the end, Ouyang Shuo decided to merge Tianfeng County and Yishui County.

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Chapter 246 - The King's Path

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

Gaia First Year October 12th.

Ouyang Shuo led his guards and arrived at Beihai City. It had been half a year ever since the establishment of Beihai City and this was the first time Ouyang Shuo had visited it.

The skiff sailed through the canyon, twisting and turning along the way but still moving toward its destination steadily. He raised his head and all he could see were the cold stones and hard rocks which were partially tinted dark green by moss. The atmosphere around was dead and dull; he looked straight up. The steep cliffs took up half of his sights, forming a blue skyline in between.

The gushing torrents of the river washed its anger onto the stone cliff walls, sounds of water rippling could be heard as the water splashed onto the hard cold rocks and splattered around in all directions.

A sudden sharp turn was made, and an upright skyline rose above from the ground all the way up as it joined the blue bright sky. As the little skiff sailed through the breathtaking skyline, the view became open and clear. The sky was high and the land was wide, shimmering warm sunlight shone down to the earth. The thick white-line of coast could be seen from afar, thundering sounds could be heard as the waves rumbled in the sea. A couple of seabirds flew across the skies bringing an immense feel of liveliness.

The narrow and the wide, life and death, so abrupt yet harmonious, they all existed side by side. Ouyang Shuo was astonished as he looked at all these great creations of mother nature.

At a riverside next to the sea, a majestic city stood in between the heaven and earth; its existence within this land subdued every living being in the area.

The city magistrate Gu Xiuwen and the commander of the Beihai navy Pei Donglai, along with their trusted subordinates were waiting at the dock for Ouyang Shuo's arrival.

The skiff slowly reached the dock, and Ouyang Shuo walked down of the skiff under his guards' protection.

"Greetings to the lord!" The officials bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo nodded and said, "All of you are the humerus and backbone of Beihai City. Beihai City could not possibly be what it is now today without any one of you. Your hard work and contributions are much appreciated. Today, I am not here to show off what I have achieved, so you may be dismissed!"

"Understood!" The officials dared not delay, and they all dispersed. Only Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai stayed back.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't in a hurry to enter the city. He smiled and said to the two, "So, let's take a walk!"

In actual fact, even Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai knew little of the purpose behind why Ouyang Shuo visited Beihai City.

The night before, the two had received an emergency mail from secretary Lang Bainan. In the letter, it was stated that the lord would pay Beihai City a visit, but it did not clarify the reason behind the sudden visit.

Naturally, the two wouldn't decline their lord's request, so they answered in unison, "Yes!"

The group of three walked toward the beach, while the guards kept a distance away from them and watched over their safety closely.

While they walked slowly around, Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Gu Xiuwen, "Xiuwen, how is Beihai City doing lately?"

Ever since he had occupied Tianfeng and the other 4 cities, Ouyang Shuo had abolished the need for the heads of subordinate territories to personally report to Ouyang Shuo in the main city on a monthly basis. He had changed the debriefing report to once every half a year.

Therefore, it was quite some time since Ouyang Shuo had met Gu Xiuwen, his trusted right-hand man.

Gu Xiuwen was startled for a moment. Then, he bowed and said, "Reporting to the lord…"

"Ey," Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. "This isn't the imperial court, Xiuwen can skip the formality." This was also the reason why Ouyang Shuo did not rush to the magistrate office; he didn't want things to get too solemn.

Gu Xiuwen nodded and he started to report to Ouyang Shuo in a casual manner the main points and issues of Beihai City.

During the last military and governance meeting, Ouyang Shuo had proposed a plan that they would have to diversify their industries. After the meeting, the clerk office had organized the proposal into an official document and sent them to the subsidiary territories.

The heads of the secondary territories knew exactly what Ouyang Shuo meant. They started to figure out ways to diversify and also develop their unique industrial planning.

In this matter, Beihai City was placed in a bad position. As the saying went, 'Those living on a mountain live off the mountain, those living near the water live off the water'. Beihai City was located beside the sea, so it was natural for them to exploit the fisheries and salt industry. But other than that, it was hard for them to develop another new industry. Their industrial structure was very simple.

Needless to say, the salt industry was limited by the beach area by the sea, so it had long reached a bottleneck.

The fisheries were not going so well either. The fishermen had to worry about bad weather and face the threats of the pirates, so the industry itself wasn't too stable. They could only fish within the area of the navy cruise waters.

An estimation of half a month was needed before Beihai City could be upgraded to a grade 3 city. This was while Qiushui City had caught up to them, and was already a grade 3 city as of last week.

Although the migration of mountain barbarians played a big role in it, Gu Xiuwen was still not convinced. As the first subordinate territory of Shanhai, Gu Xiuwen had always looked at Beihai City as the benchmark and model example of the subordinate territories.

In order to catch up to Qiushui City, Gu Xiuwen had a small discussion with Pei Donglai to launch a military operation to exterminate the pirates. They could capture the fugitives and increase the population of Beihai City at the same time, eliminating the obstacles faced by the fishermen.

Pei Donglai had that idea in mind for a long time, and as he listened to Gu Xiuwen, the two immediately saw eye to eye with each other.

However, after a few defeats, the Black Shark pirates started to retreat. For a long period of time, they stopped sending scout ships over to monitor the movements of Beihai City.

In order to avoid unwanted events from happening, the two requested help from Ouyang Shuo, hoping that he could approve the military operation to exterminate the pirates.

Seeing the two beating around the bush and in the end coming back to the topic of exterminating pirates, Ouyang Shuo laughed and shook his head. "The two of you, stop giving me a two-man comic show. The battles that took place on the land lately have indeed affected the operation to exterminate the pirates. However, along with the fall of Zhennan Pass and Er'Shi Ridge, the battlefield on the land can now enjoy a momentary peace. And that is why I am here today, to discuss with the two of you about the matters regarding the extermination of Black Shark pirates of Moon Island."

Listening to his words, Gu Xiuwen and Pei Donglai were overjoyed.

As they were talking, they had reached to the beach. The seawater was crystal clear and the beach was clear of rubbish.

In the brick and mortar world, such a clean and spotless beach was long gone. Seeing the paradise-like beach, Ouyang Shuo had a sudden urge to dive deep and immerse himself in the sea. He gazed at it and thoughts flowed in his mind. He could bring Bing'er here for a vacation in the future.

"Xiuwen!" Ouyang Shuo called.

"Here!"

"Do me a favor. Build a wooden hut near the beach. Next time, I will bring Bing'er here for a vacation, and we will stay in the hut," Ouyang Shuo instructed.

Although he was the great lord of Shanhai, he did not want to be tied by the endless void of military and governing affairs. When it was time to relax and enjoy, he would not hesitate at all to do so.

"Understood!" Gu Xiuwen took the words into his heart. He'd decided that he would build and embellish it into the best wooden hut ever, so that his lord and the third young lady could enjoy the most comfortable living environment.

"Alright, let's head back to the magistrate office." After he visually fed his eyes with all the breathtaking views, Ouyang Shuo had decided to return to the city.

Beihai City, Council Chamber.

As Ouyang Shuo whispered for the heartstone in his heart, the crystal-white heartstone heard his call and slowly rose above the ground. On the face of the heartstone, three glimmering ancient Chinese words that spelled Beihai City were written.

He placed his right hand on the face of the heartstone and whispered "Subordinate village." Then, the system prompt rang in his ears.

"System Notification: Beihai City belongs to a grade 2 city, possess 3 village creation tokens, do you wish to use one?"

"Yes!"

"System Notice: Village creation token of Beihai City is silver-level, village creation token of subordinate territories will automatically be reduced by one level into the black-iron level, do you wish to extract?"

"Extract!"

Three black lights flashed on the crystal-white heartstone, slowly congealing and falling into the hands of Ouyang Shuo, turning into 3 black-iron level village creation tokens. Then, Ouyang Shuo took a look at the properties.

Name: Village Creation Token (Black-iron)

Features: 25% increase in attracting immigrants; 10% increase in attracting special talents; 25% increase in crop production; 10% increase in skilled worker productivity; 10% increase in military promotion.

Evaluation: An unique item, cannot be dropped, untradeable.

The properties of a black-iron level village creation token was only half of a gold's. The quality was a lot lower. But Ouyang Shuo didn't mind at all. He kept the 3 tokens in his storage bag, as even a black-iron level village creation token was better than none.

"Is the lord going to establish new subordinate territories?" Gu Xiuwen, who was standing to the side, asked.

Only then Ouyang Shuo did remember that he had not explained matters regarding the [Token of Territory Merging] to Gu Xiuwen, so a slight sense of embarrassment lurked in his heart. He could recall that Gu Xiuwen had not only once but twice requested for permission for Beihai City to establish new subordinate territories, but he declined all of them.

"Xiuwen, there is something I need to tell you." Ouyang Shuo pondered for a moment before he continued on. "Beihai City need to focus on its main base; the top priority is to develop itself, so there is no need for the later subordinate territories. I have other plans for these 3 village creation tokens."

Gu Xiuwen was stunned. His face paled, and he looked like a strangled person. He thought that Ouyang Shuo was only doing this because Ouyang Shuo was unsatisfied with Beihai City's current development.

"I am sorry, I have failed to reach the expectations of my lord. Please punish me!" Gu Xiuwen was half-kneeling down onto the ground, and said in panic and fear.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head. This was the bad thing about scholars; they liked to brainstorm and too many thoughts flowed in their minds. Sometimes, they would blindly overthink situations. If it were Zhao Dexian or Zhao Dewang, they would not be like this and would just ask directly for the reason.

"Get up, do not misunderstand the situation. I am not doing this because I am dissatisfied with your performance. This is nothing but the official arrangements done in accordance to the future planning of the territory. Beihai City stands beside the sea, so it is only naturally for it to center the developments around itself. This is the only right way for Beihai City." Ouyang Shuo had to explain it nicely. To leave any ill feelings or creating barriers between him and his trusted subordinate was something he did not like to see.

"Understood!" Gu Xiuwen was feeling more relieved; his heart finally at ease.

He couldn't be blamed for being so anxious. The fact that Beihai City was superseded by Qiushui City made the competitive Gu Xiuwen feel unpleasant. It had caused him to feel a little jittery and panicked lately.

Ouyang Shuo also noticed that Gu Xiuwen was now in an emotionally imbalanced state. But matters like these were hard for an outside person to comfort. The more one comforted, the worse the unpleasantness might grow. The only way was to allow Gu Xiuwen to self-regulate and calm the waves in his sea of emotions.

As the lord, Ouyang Shuo couldn't favor any one side, be it Qiushui, Beihai, or even Friendship City. Both the palm and the back of his hand were his own flesh, so any good news or developments of the three cities were worth celebrating.

As long as the competitions between the cities were kept within limits and stayed as healthy competition, Ouyang Shuo would not intervene. But if any one of the cities crossed the line, Ouyang Shuo would not hold back his fists; he would severely punish the personnel in charge and show no mercy.

As the subordinate territories increased in numbers and strength, it would be a profound art to balance the relations, resources, and arrangements between the subordinate territories.

That was why Ouyang Shuo was hurrying the construction of Tian Hai Road, to strengthen his control over the subordinate territories so that they would not grow out of his control.

In this regard, Ouyang Shuo was still immature, and he could only take things step by step with great caution, slowly and steadily teaching himself how to do it.

In actual fact, Ouyang Shuo needed a teacher, a mentor who could teach and enlighten him on the the righteous way of a king's path. Even Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing were quite clueless in this aspect.

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Chapter 247 - Navy

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

After he left the magistrate office, he went straight to the Beihai Port under the guidance of Pei Donglai.

Beihai Port was a mixed port located at the southeast corner of Beihai City. Half of it belonged to the civilian fishing port, and the other was the military navy port. It was also the station point of Beihai Navy fleet. The previously shifted advanced shipyard was relocated to Beihai Port.

As he walked into the navy port, he asked Pei Donglai to invite the shipyard advisor Elder Sun and manager Zhou Dahai over to discuss matters regarding the expansion of Beihai Navy fleet.

Naval Port, Council Chamber.

Ouyang Shuo sat on the floor, and he looked around before he said anything, "Long ago, I had decided to expand the scale of the navy fleet, a strategy aimed to dominate over the ocean. During these periods of time, the territory had built an advanced shipyard and the Beihai Port, established a fleet of navy sailors, crafted our primary warships—Meng Chong warships, everything was seemingly fine. But what was happening? We couldn't even take down a small island, couldn't exterminate a small group of pirates, why is that so?"

His question was so sharp that it stagnated the atmosphere.

"General Pei, you are the navy commander, so tell us your opinion." Ouyang Shuo started naming people.

Pei Donglai knew he needed to give something with actual content. He rose, first bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo, then he said, "Reporting to the marquis, if we were to point out excuses, I could name quite a few of them. For example, the lack in troops, the lack of combat experience and the unfamiliarity of the surrounding waters. But these were not the main causes. The navy fleet can overcome these obstacles if we desire it. The crux of the problem lies within the lack of variety of warships. There is only a single kind of warship in the territory. We couldn't organize a large-scale naval battle."

Pei Donglai's points brightened Ouyang Shuo's eyes, "Continue."

As a former navy general of the imperial court, Pei Donglai was very experienced in naval battles. He had a clearer idea than anyone else on the problems that lay within the Beihai Navy fleet.

Pei Donglai tidied up his thoughts in his mind, as the thoughts were sorted out, he continued, "To form a complete organizational structured navy fleet, we need at least 3 varieties of warships. The first will be the command ships—Tower warships, they're the primary warships, and they also carry the logistical support of the naval fleet. Only then comes the second kind, the attack warships—Meng Chong warship, their defense capabilities are weaker than the tower warships. The weak point is that they can't individually engage in a naval battle far away from the home-base as they can only carry a limited amount of logistical resources. Lastly, the third kind will be the scout warships—Chima boats. They are small, light, fast, and easy to hide."

"Only with reasonable coordination between the 3 variety of warships can we exploit our full potential in a naval battle. The organization structure of the navy fleet shall not be the replica of the ground forces. Instead, the navy fleet will be grouped into units of fleets. In a unit of fleet consists of not only soldiers but must also be separately equipped with sailors. Beihai navy fleet is now only equipped with Meng Chong warships. Therefore, we will be facing great risk if we were to sail across the sea and attack Moon Island."

Ouyang Shuo nodded as he understood the crux of the problem, he was taking it too lightly before.

Among the 3 warships, the small scout warships were not much of a concern. The main issue would be the large command warships—Tower warships.

To build the tower warships, they had to face two obstacles. The first was to acquire the and the second was to build a premium shipyard. The advanced shipyard he had now could only manufacture mid-sized warships.

The biggest obstacle to upgrading the shipyard into the premium level was cleared off as Zheng Dahai was already a master shipbuilder. The only thing Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to spend 5000 gold on the premium shipyard building blueprint.

The main key was still the . It belonged to the special class, and one could only pray one could lay hands on such a rare item. Ouyang Shuo could hope that it would appear in the next system auction. However, the distant waters could not quench his present thirst. The aid would be coming in too slow to be of any help.

Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Zheng Dahai. "Is there anything to report about the shipyard?"

Zheng Dahai rose, bowed, and said, "Reporting to the marquis, the shipyard has stopped manufacturing Meng Chong warships and is now only producing fishing boats."

"Why is that so?"

"It was because the demand for Meng Chong warships had been fulfilled. Other than those that were delivered to the Beihai Navy fleet and the Xila lake navy unit, there are still 20 extra Meng Chong warships docked in the port. We barely fit them in."

Ouyang Shuo was stunned since when did the shipyard had such a high efficiency? They mustn't be underestimated. Ouyang Shuo asked, "What are the levels of the shipbuilders in the shipyard?"

A proud look came onto his face as Zheng Dahai answered Ouyang Shuo's question with a bright smile. "Reporting to the marquis, after half a year of cultivation, the shipyard now has a total of 870 shipbuilders. Among them is 1 master, 12 advanced, 54 intermediate, 228 basic, and 575 apprentice-level shipbuilders." To nurture such a big team truly wasn't easy.

"Not bad." Ouyang Shuo nodded with approval.

At last, Ouyang Shuo turned to Elder Sun and asked, "Elder Sun, how's the transformation of the warships going on?"

Other than his usual research job in Research Institute No.7, Elder Sun had spent most of his time in the shipyard. Sun Xiaoyue had grumbled to Ouyang Shuo over this matter, saying that Ouyang Shuo was oppressing and exploiting the last residual value out of her grandfather.

Ouyang Shuo could only answer her with a wry smile.

The truth was, ever since entering the game, the elders were lifted off the from restraints of the real world. Each and every one of them was filled with spirit and endless energy. Ouyang Shuo couldn't even slow them down.

Elder Sun, with his face filled with enthusiasm and his voice loud and clear, shook his head and said, "Just as General Pei had described, the types of warships are too few. There were a lot of technology transformations that couldn't be used. Specifically, on Meng Chong warship, we had equipped it with a compass, upgraded the sails. At the same time, I have plans to enhance the ship's structure with inner metal plates, fitting them with naval rams to increase the impact damage capability of the Meng Chong warships."

He continued. "The most important research of all is the watertight bulkhead technology. With this technology we can increase the drafting of water. Otherwise, it will be useless to install the metal plates if the water draft can't follow up."

Ouyang Shuo was overjoyed. He didn't expect Elder Sun to implement so many upgrades in such a short period.

"Elder Sun is too humble, such transformations are worth more than tens of thousands of gold." Ouyang Shuo said as he smiled.

Elder Sun waved his hands. "Ouyang, you don't have to apple-polish me."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He turned and looked at the others again, especially Pei Donglai, then he said, "Leave the matters regarding the tower warships to me. This is not something that can be done overnight. It will not be able to take part in the extermination of pirates on Moon Island. We can only rely on the Meng Chong warships. About the naval battle, I will personally partake in it and take charge of the logistical support. General Pei, you will need to take in considerations and draft a plan to ensure the smoothness of the naval battle."

"Understood!" Pei Donglai answered, and he felt immense responsibility placed on his shoulder.

During the afternoon, Ouyang Shuo returned to Shanhai City.

The moment he arrived back home, a concierge came running. "Reporting to the marquis, important guests came. The madam has asked marquis to make way to the garden in the backyard once the marquis has returned." The 'madam' the concierge referred to was naturally Song Jia.

Ouyang Shuo was startled for a moment, if the guests were taken in by Song Jia, then they must have been friends of Ouyang Shuo and Song Jia.

Ever since the founding of Dongli Sword Sect, there was a continuity of schoolmates that came attracted by the name. Especially after Song Jia's identity was revealed on the forums, the players came like an endless stream.

A large portion of the people who came were attended to by Song Jia, with Ouyang Shuo not even appearing. Since Song Jia had specially asked him to appear, it meant that this person must have been a classmate and one which he had a good relationship with.

Ouyang Shuo walked into the backyard, and he as saw Zi Su, he asked, "Who are the guests?"

Zi Su first greeted Ouyang Shuo, then answered, "Reporting to the marquis, according to the madam, they are your schoolmates, 2 females."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He had an idea of who they were, so he waved his hand and said, "Alright, you can get back to work."

"Understood!" Zi Su left after replying to Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo walked past the backyard into the garden. From far away he could hear the chit chats and laughter of the ladies.

"Wuyi, over here!" Song Jia's eyes were sharp as she noticed Ouyang Shuo immediately.

In the middle of the garden stood a gazebo, in it sat 3 ladies. Other than Song Jia, the others also dressed in outfits of chivalrous experts. As they heard Song Jia calling Ouyang Shuo, they turned around and gazed at him.

"Woah, it is Ouyang Shuo, wuwu~," the lady who was slightly fatter said. She had more of an elegant demeanor than her other friend who was tiny and cute, but even though her friend was quiet, she still couldn't hide the surprise in her eyes.

Ouyang Shuo wasn't too sure before, but he could recognize the two now. He walked towards them while he smiled and said, "Well well, and I thought who are the important guests. So, it's the two beauties, welcome!"

That's right. They were the two ladies who accompanied Ouyang Shuo during the student gathering, Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei.

The two ladies were stunned, disbelieving the truth.

Ouyang Shuo helplessly shook his head and sat down beside Song Jia.

Song Jia obediently poured a cup of tea for Ouyang Shuo and asked, "Wuyi, how was the trip?" Song Jia knew Ouyang Shuo went over to Beihai City for an inspection.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, not wanting to elaborate too much. He raised his head and looked at his two friends, and said self-deprecatingly, "What? Am I a monster? Why are you two looking me like this?"

"You are a monster!" Song Jia made a joke.

Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei nodded together in agreement.

"Old friends, I have never thought that we would meet each other again," Ouyang Shuo said with deep feelings.

Speaking of deep feelings, Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei should be the one with deeper feelings. Before coming to Shanhai City, they knew nothing of Ouyang Shuo's identity; they were only here for Song Jia.

But after they arrived, Song Jia told them the true identity of Ouyang Shuo, and for a moment it was truly hard to believe.

"Hmph, not bad, snatching away the class flower secretly." Tan Xiaoli was a big-hearted lady. She was the first to accept the truth, and she jokingly said, "We were still thinking, who is this Qiyue Wuyi, what charm does he have to capture the love of our class flower? Who knew that man was one of us."

Ouyang Shuo shook his head, as the friendships between old classmates were not that simple. No one would know what was the true intention of her words. How much of it was pure and innocent intentions, or was she just secretly sweet-talking to Song Jia?

But Ouyang Shuo didn't care too much, he let his thoughts drift away and had a casual talk with the two.

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Chapter 248 - Rattlesnake

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

The arrival of Tan Xiaoli and Meng Feifei was only a little spindrift in the ocean in the life of the great lord of Shanhai.

With the identity and status he had now, Ouyang Shuo need not entertain the others. He acted and moved according to his own will; every decision made was well-directed without the slightest distractions from external elements.

The Dongli Sword Sect was given to Song Jia with full authority, so Ouyang Shuo would not intervene in it. He believed that Song Jia had the ability to handle matters well.

On the second day, the cousin brother of Cui Yingyu, Cui Shouren, sent Ouyang Shuo a parcel of gratitude. Based on Ouyang Shuo's conjecture, the Cui Chamber of Commerce had made a fortune during the food crisis.

The Cui Chamber of Commerce was grateful for Ouyang Shuo's help, and was thinking of ways to repay the debt. As gold and silver were too common as reparations, they had prepared a special gift.

Ouyang Shuo opened the parcel; a book laid quietly in it. He picked it up and inspected the properties of the book.

: After use, grants the user the knowledge of pearls cultivation technology.

According to the historical studies, the ancient Chinese pearls cultivation technology had started to embark during the Song Dynasty. As time flowed, the pearls cultivation technology was nearly fully matured during the late Ming Dynasty, and it held a certain economic value.

The raw materials were mainly the 'Tridacnidae' or more commonly known as the giant clam. However, ordinary calms could be used too. The pearls cultivation technology was relatively simple, the pearls' cultivating cycle ranged from months to a year.

Ouyang Shuo was still thinking on how to develop Xila lake, and this gift was just the timely aid he needed. If the cultivation of pearls were implemented on a large scale in Xila lake, it would then turn into another industry with a bright future.

Ouyang Shuo called over Yingyu to explain his plan for the cultivation of pearls. According to Ouyang Shuo, the cultured pearls would be placed under the jurisdiction of the Industry Division of Finance Department, while Tian Feng City would be in charge of the cultivating operations. Ouyang Shuo would assign 1000 gold to support the establishment of the cultured pearls industry.

Cui Yingyu was in joy after listening.

After the discussion, Ouyang Shuo called over the secretary Bai Nanpu and handed over a black-iron village creation token, the , and 1000 gold to him. Bai Nanpu was instructed to deliver the items through official couriers to the Tian Feng City. The city magistrate, Zhao Dewang, would then take over and be in charge of matters.

The village creation token he handed to Bai Nanpu had been merged with the [Token of Territory Merging, so it could be directly used without Ouyang Shuo having to present himself on the spot.

As the 3 black-iron village creation tokens were merged with the [Token of Territory Merging, the token had disappeared into thin air in a flash of white light.

Along with the items was attached a letter handwritten by Ouyang Shuo. In the letter, Ouyang Shuo explained his plan of the pearl cultivation industry, and he instructed Zhao Dewang to revive the potential of Tian Feng City with the token. After the revival of the city, the refugees spawned would have to be sent to work on the cultivation of pearls. It was purposed to develop it as the core industry of Tian Feng City.

Other than that, Ouyang Shuo did not forget to send Yishui City a village creation token. As the cousin brother of Cui Yingyu, Cui Shousi had been sent there to act as the city magistrate. Ouyang Shuo believed that he could decently maximize the use of the token.

As for the last village creation token, Ouyang Shuo kept it in his storage bag, leaving it for another use.

After everything was settled, Ouyang Shuo went over to the relay station and sent his little aunt 5000 gold, and he requested her to purchase a premium shipyard building blueprint. In the letter to his little aunt, he also stated that he would like to ask her to put up a bridge and contact the Rattlesnake mercenary group, as there wassome cooperation he would like to discuss about.

The Rattlesnake mercenary group, although not listed in the top ten list of mercenary groups, were still very famous as they were true mercenaries in the real world.

However, the Rattlesnake mercenary group was still low key, and only a few knew of their background. Thanks to his past life, Ouyang Shuo had some understandings about them.

The cooperation he mentioned was that he would like to hire the members of Rattlesnake as the instructors of Shanhai's military. Their job would be to help the Shanhai military by providing training to the scouts and special forces.

In regards to this matter, Ouyang Shuo could not work along with Zhan Lang, who was supported by the military. Hence, his only shot was the mercenaries.

Ouyang Shuo requested his little aunt to act as the middleman. As his little aunt and the Rattlesnakes were all adventurers, they could communicate with each other better. If Ouyang Shuo had approached the Rattlesnake mercenary group in person, it would seem a little odd.

Jian Ye, Base of the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group

Lin Jing frowned upon receiving Ouyang Shuo's letter; she mumbled to herself, "What sort of business does this brat have with the Rattlesnake mercenary group, how did he come by this name?!"

"Jingjing, what are you mumbling about?" Xie Siyun who was beside her asked.

Lin Jing raised her head and said awkwardly, "Siyun, do you have any contacts with the Rattlesnake mercenary group?"

"The Rattlesnakes?" Xie Siyun frowned. "From what I know, they're also based are in Jian Ye. I had seen their leader once, Black Mamba, during the gathering of heads of Jian Ye. I heard that they're keeping an unusually low profile, why do you ask?"

"Little Ouyang Shuo wants us to put up a bridge between him and the Black Mamba. It seems like he have intentions to cooperate with the Rattlesnakes, but he had not specified what."

"Cooperation?" Xie Siyun lowered her head and pondered. She said slowly as she recalled, "From the clues and trails, the Rattlesnakes should be a fixed group in the real world; they don't take in new members and remain around 500-600 in number, not even the size of a medium guild."

As the president of the Jian Ye Overlord guild, Xie Siyun was familiar with each and every guild in the city, but there was an exception. She only knew a little about the Rattlesnake mercenary group.

Xie Siyun shook her head and also shaking her thoughts away, she said with a wry smile. "What a mysterious nephew you have, thousands of miles away and yet he is still so familiar with the mercenaries in Jian Ye. Since he mentioned it, he must have his own reasons. Alright, I will contact the leader Black Mamba and see what does he has to say."

"Alright." Although Lin Jing grumbled about Ouyang Shuo, his requests weren't taken lightly.

The base of Rattlesnake mercenary group was situated in a humble courtyard in the city of Jian Ye. If Snow-War Rose wasn't a large party in the city, they might've not been able to find it at all.

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing had decided to personally visit the Rattlesnakes.

"Who are you?" The guard were alert.

In a situation like this, it was always handled by Xie Siyun. She answered their doubts with a smile. "We are from the Snow-War Rose; we have something for your leader. Please pass the words."

To the adventure players in Jian Ye, how could they not know the name of Snow-War Rose? The guard of course knew who they were. His heart skipped for a beat, but he remained calm on the surface, "This way please!"

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing glanced at each other, both of their eyes filled with surprise. The quality of the members of Rattlesnakes were so high. Even an ordinary guard was so calm and steady; the Rattlesnakes were deeply hidden, and must not be underestimated.

Xie Siyun was even more surprised. There exists such an elite mercenary group in Jian Ye and yet she was clueless about it. It seemed like she had to reevaluate the Rattlesnake mercenary groups.

It was also one of the reasons why Ouyang Shuo requested Lin Jing to act as middleman. Other than the fact adventurers communicate better with their own, he also wanted to tell them that the Rattlesnake mercenary group was not as simple as they thought it was.

The mercenary Rattlesnakes' main businesses were assassination contract, kidnap, assault and any other requests by their employer. They were a bunch of dangerous men.

The guard led the two ladies into the meeting room, and he said, "Please wait for a moment, I will now report to the leader."

Xie Siyun nodded and answered, "Thank you."

A short moment later, laughter came from outside of the meeting room. The man wasn't there but the sound had reached them.

"Haha, guests of importance, welcome welcome!" The sound was like the bright and sunny sun, clear of gloomy dark atmospheres, warming the hearts of those around.

A man walked into the meeting room. He was dark-skinned, had a strong physique, was tall and buff with an army of hair, giving off an aura of masculinity.

Xie Siyun and Lin Jing stood up, their hearts filled with doubts. The black mamba snake was venomous and insidious, but the man who stood before them was nowhere close to that even though he carried the name of Black Mamba.

"We are sorry for the sudden visit." Xie Siyun said.

Black Mamba nodded. He sat down, smiled and said, "It is an honor for the two great leaders of the Snow-War Rose to pay me a visit." In actual fact, he was also surprised and curious about the sudden visit.

The two parties had simple greetings and Xie Siyun went straight into the topic, so she said, "We are here today for two reasons. The first is to enhance the relationship between the two mercenary groups, and the second is that we were requested to do so by someone."

His sights congealed and his aura changed. The warm bright man was no more and the atmosphere was stagnated; it could almost suffocate the weak. Black Mamba was astonished. They kept a low profile but in the end they were still noticed by someone.

"Who is it?" in a solemn voice Black Mamba asked.

Xie Siyun was shocked. Her heart trembled, but she was no ordinary woman either, she stayed calm and said, "Lord of Shanhai City, Lian Zhou Marquis Qiyue Wuyi."

"What a man of high prestige, no wonder he can instruct the two of you." Black Mamba gazed carefully at the two ladies. His sights were filled with questions, wanting to know what was the relation between the Snow-War Rose and Shanhai City.

Xie Siyun ignored his wordless questions, and summarized the situation. "Lord Wuyi would like to have cooperation between Shanhai City and the Rattlesnake mercenary group, what do you think?"

"Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?" Black Mamba asked curiously. He felt that the Shanhai lord from thousands of miles away had his eyes on him. This feeling, to be honest, didn't feel good.

Xie Siyun shook her head. "The details will be discussed between you and the Shanhai lord. But, with his high prestige, he will not say meaningless words."

Again his sights congealed. Even without Xie Siyun saying so, he would still pay a visit to the legendary lord of the Chinese server. His heart would never rest at ease without knowing who the lord was and what business he had with the Rattlesnakes.

"Alright, Rattlesnake as a mercenary group will naturally not decline business. May the President of the War Rose pass the words to Lian Zhou Marquis, I will am always ready to pay Shanhai City a visit." Black Mamba reverted back to his usual image of a bright and warm gentleman, and answered like a businessman.

Xie Siyun nodded; she stood up and left with Lin Jing.

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