The team escorting spirit items stopped outside Puppet City for half a day before the City Lord chased them away.
A few more days passed. Once everything in Puppet City had been settled, Xia Yunzhao prepared to leave as well. Before his departure, the civilians followed him reluctantly for a long time and only stopped after hearing him promise that he would come back to visit every year.
Once they returned to Qingxi City, the group plunged straight back into work.
Qingxi City had gained enormously from the battle at Yunjiangguan, and naturally all those gains had to be digested and transformed into strength of their own.
Qingxi City had never even possessed a proper city wall before. Now it did. Not only that, the wall was fairly high-grade, made entirely from material stripped off Yunjiangguan’s wall without wasting a thing, and it could even withstand attacks from Nascent Soul cultivators.
Besides that, Qingxi City itself began expanding at high speed.
Their City Lord was now a Nascent Soul cultivator, which meant Qingxi City was a Nascent Soul force. A radius of three thousand li automatically fell under Qingxi City’s territory, and that did not even include Yunjiangguan’s former lands.
All in all, Qingxi City’s power had increased dramatically.
Everyone in the City Lord’s residence was so busy their feet barely touched the ground. The city needed expansion, the Guard needed more manpower, the newly added forces throughout the territory had to be sorted out…
Fortunately, everyone was a cultivator. Even working around the clock would not exhaust them to the point of collapse.
Cart after cart of newly acquired spirit resources poured back into Qingxi City like flowing water, only to be consumed almost before they had time to warm the storerooms.
Qingxi City grew larger and grander by the day. The civilians looked more energetic too, and even the population was climbing at a startling rate.
Countless small sects and clans submitted declarations of allegiance, hoping to put down roots in Qingxi City. Many other small forces asked to become dependents as well… The city flourished like a tower rising in a blaze of prosperity, and before long no one mentioned the name Yunjiangguan anymore.
They stayed frantically busy for three straight months and somehow even stumbled through a New Year in the middle of it.
By the time Xia Yunzhao came back to his senses, the weather outside had already warmed and the flowers were blooming.
Shang Shuangze had just come in from outside when he saw Xia Yunzhao staring blankly through the window. A branch covered in cheerful pale-yellow flowers poked inside.
“What’s wrong?” Shang Shuangze looked at the blossoms. “Those are the spirit flowers we planted the year before last. They finally bloomed.”
Xia Yunzhao pouted. “I haven’t gone outside in three months. Spring is about to leave me behind.”
A smile appeared in Shang Shuangze’s eyes. “How could it?” He took Xia Yunzhao’s hand. “Come on. There happens to be nothing urgent today. Let’s go enjoy the spring.”
Xia Yunzhao looked at the documents and jade slips covering the table and happily stood up. “Where?”
“The garden of the City Lord’s residence?” Shang Shuangze said. When Xia Yunzhao’s mouth immediately began pouting again, he laughed. “Liancui Mountain, then.”
“That’s more like it.” Xia Yunzhao instantly brightened. “Let’s secretly stop by Zhao Family Restaurant and pack some wine and food!”
Shang Shuangze thought, With you going to Zhao Family Restaurant, there is absolutely no chance of doing it secretly… But seeing how excited Xia Yunzhao looked, he kept quiet.
Sure enough, the moment the two stepped into Zhao Family Restaurant, the civilians eating lunch spotted them and nearly dragged them away in the crowd. They finally squeezed through the people, only for the restaurant chef to stuff two food boxes, each half a person tall, into their hands.
The chef knew these two well. If they walked through the door, their City Lord wanted something delicious. He only needed to cook good food and send it over. There was no need to worry about making too much. Cultivators had enormous appetites. The only problem was never having enough food, not having too much.
Xia Yunzhao took the food boxes and ran. He and Shang Shuangze did not stop until they had rushed all the way outside the city, where he finally patted his chest in lingering alarm. “I haven’t seen them in three months and the people are still this enthusiastic!”
Shang Shuangze smiled without answering. They’re enthusiastic toward you. Nobody else from the City Lord’s residence gets this treatment when they go out.
Speaking of which, everyone in the City Lord’s residence found it strange. As a Nascent Soul cultivator, Xia Yunzhao possessed an imposing presence and overwhelming pressure. And as Qingxi City’s City Lord, he naturally carried the unquestioned authority of someone accustomed to having his word obeyed.
Many cultivators who broke Qingxi City’s laws showed no fear when anyone else arrested them, yet the moment Xia Yunzhao personally questioned them, they confessed to everything.
Despite being such a powerful City Lord and one of Qingxi City’s highest-cultivation cultivators, the civilians were not afraid of him in the slightest. Not only were they unafraid, they doted on him almost absurdly, as though he were something so precious they were afraid he might melt if they held him too close.
Many elderly residents of Qingxi City had developed a habit. Every day after finishing their work, they would sit for a while on the streets near the City Lord’s residence, chat with one another, and try their luck at crossing paths with their City Lord. If they happened to see him pass by, the exhaustion of an entire day vanished.
Eventually, everyone in the City Lord’s residence learned about it. More and more elderly people began waiting nearby, until Xia Yunzhao had no choice but to make a circuit around the residence every few days so everyone could get a look at him.
It had become one of Qingxi City’s peculiar sights.
Xia Yunzhao had not left the city in a long time, so even familiar things felt new. He looked down at the stone-paved road. “Was the road rebuilt too?”
Shang Shuangze nodded slightly. “More and more merchant caravans are coming to Qingxi City. The old roads were too narrow, so they were widened during the expansion.”
The moment Shang Shuangze mentioned it, Xia Yunzhao remembered. He had read that document before, but so many documents passed through his hands every day that it had slipped his mind.
In fact, Qingxi City was not the only place being renovated. Many settlements throughout their territory had changed as well. Wider roads were secondary. Defensive formations and defensive magical artifacts had been installed everywhere. What happened to Puppet City could not be allowed to happen a second time.
Moreover, perhaps because people were grateful, or simply because life had become more stable, the civilians worked even harder. After the formations were installed, tax revenue from those settlements increased by more than ten percent, and some cities were even turning in thirty percent more!
When Xia Yunzhao first saw the numbers, he assumed the local administrators were squeezing the civilians dry and immediately sent the siblings Wei Tu and Wei Ling to investigate in secret. Only then did he learn that the increase was genuinely the result of the formations.
A group of people approached rapidly through the sky, each standing on a flying magical artifact. The artifacts came in different shapes, but every one was a Level-Two magical treasure. The cultivators themselves were not weak either. There were more than twenty of them, every single one at Foundation Establishment, while the two leading them were even Golden Core cultivators!
The group rapidly approached Qingxi City. The city’s defensive formation and the red Heart-Discernment Dharma Seal lit up simultaneously, then opened to allow them inside. The cultivators landed atop the city wall.
Seeing Xia Yunzhao watching them, Shang Shuangze explained, “Members of the Guard are returning from patrol.”
Xia Yunzhao sighed with feeling. “The Guard already has more than two thousand people. I can’t even recognize everyone anymore. I need to properly learn who they all are sometime.”
Shang Shuangze wanted to laugh. There was probably no other City Lord under heaven who wanted to personally recognize every one of his subordinates.
He added, “Those two thousand are formal Guard members. Qingxi City has also hired local cultivators as auxiliary personnel. There are more than three thousand of them, so altogether the number exceeds five thousand.”
And the number was still rising quickly.
Qingxi City’s strength was expanding so rapidly that every region needed additional personnel stationed there. There was no avoiding it. If none of your own people were present, after two months the territory might no longer count as yours. For instance, if Xia Yunzhao had not deliberately left people stationed on the spirit mountains once occupied by Yunjiangguan, someone else would have seized them long ago.
Such rapid recruitment would eventually create problems in almost any other force, but Qingxi City was different. Their City Lord was himself a master artifact refiner and had previously refined a batch of Karma-Illuminating Jade Tallies. Now everyone in the City Lord’s residence carried one.
On top of that, they had the mysterious Zhong Yundu and the Heart-Discernment Dharma Seal. Under its light, no malicious intention could stay hidden. They had little reason to fear that newcomers would harbor disloyal thoughts.
Hearing the number five thousand, Xia Yunzhao sighed too. “That’s a lot of mouths to feed!” The pressure was enormous!
Then he remembered something. “Right, we talked before about testing the city civilians’ aptitude and training our own people, but we never found a Spirit-Testing Stone. Didn’t Yunjiangguan have one either?”
Yunjiangguan had single-handedly fattened Qingxi City up in one enormous meal. There were so many spirit items hauled back from the sect that Xia Yunzhao had no way to inspect them one by one. He had taken only the most valuable batch. Xing Wenyu distributed the rest according to merit, and whatever remained after that went into the City Lord’s residence treasury.
Yes, Qingxi City had a treasury now! Xia Yunzhao simply had not gone inside to look at it yet.
The question stumped Shang Shuangze. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Then let’s ask Brother Xing when we get back!” Xia Yunzhao said, then leaned closer to Shang Shuangze with a grin. “We agreed we were going out to have fun. Why are we talking about work again? You didn’t even remind me.”
Shang Shuangze let him reverse the blame and replied gently, “My mistake. Where would you like to go? Shall I accompany you?”
Xia Yunzhao thought for a moment, then remembered a recent report and immediately became interested. “A cultivator reported seeing a golden spirit beast on Liancui Mountain. It was extremely fast and he couldn’t catch it. Brother Zhong later took people to search the area but couldn’t find it either. The place is inside Liancui Mountain. Why don’t we go look?”
How could Shang Shuangze object? Xia Yunzhao grabbed him and flew toward the heart of Liancui Mountain.
Elsewhere, Wei Xuening had something to report to the City Lord. She pushed open the door and found the table covered in documents, reports, and jade slips, but no sign whatsoever of the City Lord himself.
While she was still wondering where he had gone, footsteps came from behind. She turned and saw Jing Ruyun and Xing Wenyu approaching together.
Seeing Wei Xuening there, Jing Ruyun said, “Perfect timing, Fellow Daoist Wei. The Deputy City Lord and I have something to report to the City Lord.” She looked past her toward the room. “Where is he?”
“Uh…” Wei Xuening pointed behind herself and lowered her voice. “Senior Shang is gone too.”
The two paused, exchanged a look, then both turned toward Xing Wenyu.
Xing Wenyu had been exhausted lately. He was a Golden Core cultivator, so the workload could not physically wear him down, but it consumed plenty of mental energy. Zhong Yundu had spent every day recently complaining that Xing Wenyu’s temper was getting worse and his dark circles were heavier than those of mortals who could neither eat nor sleep properly.
The moment Xing Wenyu saw the empty desk, his brows drew together.
Wei Xuening hurriedly said, “The C-City Lord may have gone to eat…”
Jing Ruyun immediately joined in. “Exactly, exactly. The City Lord never misses his three meals a day.”
Xing Wenyu waved a hand. Under their nervous gazes, he said calmly, “The City Lord has gone out on an inspection. Pass the word along. Anything urgent today should be reported to me or Zhong Yundu. Also, the City Lord’s inspection will probably run late, so he instructed the kitchen to prepare dinner later than usual.”
Wei Xuening and Jing Ruyun: “…”
What exactly had they been worried about just now?
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze flew all the way above Liancui Mountain.
The Liancui Mountain Range was enormous. Even now, the two of them had explored only about one fifth of it.
Comparing the report with its accompanying map, Xia Yunzhao pointed at one location. “That’s where the cultivator said he saw the golden spirit beast. Come on, let’s go down and look.”
With that, the two descended together.
This place was already very close to the center of Liancui Mountain. It was extremely dangerous. The nearby slaughter beasts were mostly Level Three, with plenty at Level Four. If they went farther inward, they might encounter Level-Five or even Level-Six slaughter beasts.
If a spirit beast truly lived here, its level certainly would not be low either.
The moment they landed, the light dimmed. The trees here were tall and dense enough to block out the sun.
Xia Yunzhao immediately spotted several spirit herbs. His professional instincts took over and he ran over to gather them one by one. “These are such high quality! People definitely don’t come here often!”
Shang Shuangze kept watch on their surroundings as he answered, “Anyone who comes this far needs at least Golden Core cultivation.”
They continued forward. More spirit herbs appeared, and Xia Yunzhao continued harvesting them.
Shang Shuangze did not hurry him. They had come out to have fun in the first place. Whether Xia Yunzhao wanted to gather spirit herbs or look for the spirit beast, all that mattered was that he enjoyed himself.
Xia Yunzhao gathered happily. His medicinal garden already grew every one of these herbs, but anything picked outside was effectively free, and free things always smelled sweeter.
He even considered placing a Hundred-Hunt Trap nearby and catching a few uncommon slaughter beasts to bring home and add to their meals.
He was still having the time of his life when Shang Shuangze called softly, “Yunzhao, come here.”
“What is it?” Xia Yunzhao moved his feet and simply used a movement technique, appearing beside Shang Shuangze in an instant. Following the direction of his finger, Xia Yunzhao looked ahead and raised a brow. “Oh? This place…”
They had never personally come to this spot, but both of them recognized it.
This was the place where Sun Ergou, the “evil god” they had captured, had swallowed a fragment of the Mountain God.
Sun Ergou had committed every kind of evil in his hometown and been driven away by his neighbors. He came to Liancui Mountain hoping to strike it rich through treasure hunting, only to accidentally swallow a godhead fragment and gain supernatural divine power.
And this was the very place Xia Yunzhao had seen in the memories carried by that godhead fragment.
So much time had passed since then, and Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had experienced many more things. They understood godhead fragments far better now.
They both knew that if a godhead fragment had appeared here, then a deity must have fallen in this place.
Perhaps, just as the Great Ox God had protected the plains, the Liancui Mountain Range had once possessed a Mountain God of its own?
Xia Yunzhao reached inward with his senses. Xiao Qing was still snoring inside his dantian and showed no other reaction.
Shang Shuangze closed his eyes as well and spread out his divine sense. Xia Yunzhao watched his expression closely. When Shang Shuangze’s brow shifted almost imperceptibly, Xia Yunzhao immediately knew he had found something.
Sure enough, Shang Shuangze opened his eyes and looked downward. “There’s something underground.”
“Underground?” Xia Yunzhao looked down too. “Something alive?”
“No. But its aura is unusual. It feels…” Shang Shuangze thought for a moment. “Similar to what I felt from the Great Ox God’s remains.”
“Then let’s dig it up and see!” Xia Yunzhao beckoned, and an iron shovel appeared in his hand. He looked at Shang Shuangze, summoned another one, and offered it to him with a grin.
Shang Shuangze accepted it helplessly, sorely tempted to ask why Xia Yunzhao carried things like this in his Hundred-Compartment Pouch.
The two bent down and started digging.
Cultivators worked quickly. In less than a quarter-hour, a pit as deep as a person had appeared on the spot.
Xia Yunzhao did not dare use spiritual energy to dig, but using spiritual power to clear away loose soil was harmless. He carefully removed the dirt from the pit, revealing an enormous stone underneath: square, sharply edged, and covered in carved patterns that were obviously not natural.
They dug for another quarter-hour before finally exposing the stone completely. Only then did they realize it was not a stone at all, but a stone chest.
The chest stood as tall as a person. A huge stone lock hung from it, while the patterns carved across its surface were related to sealing and confinement. Aside from that, it looked like an ordinary boulder and did not emit the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy.
Xia Yunzhao circled the chest. “Is this what you sensed?”
Shang Shuangze nodded.
Xia Yunzhao pressed an ear to the stone chest and listened. Nothing. Then he examined the lock. It did not even have a keyhole and clearly had no intention of being opened.
After thinking for a moment, he circulated a palm strike and cautiously slapped it against the chest.
He had not used his full strength, but even an ordinary palm strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator was no small thing. The stone chest did not move at all. The blow landed as though he had struck cotton, without a trace of spiritual power leaking outward. The chest absorbed every bit of it.
Xia Yunzhao’s eyes instantly widened. “Now this is interesting!”