Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Hesitating slightly, Lian Fan said, “I heard about this place when I was at Cloud Saint City! Has Young Master heard about Lianhai City and Fenghua City?”
Zong Shou thought back. The other “Zong Shou” was someone who didn’t know about world matters, so there would definitely be nothing in his thirteen years of memory.
All that he could rely on would be the large amounts of books he had read in his last life. After a long while he finally found the information.
They were all average size cities, a few grades lower than that of Cloud Saint City. They each managed around a thousand miles of territory, with each having a population of three to five million, and could be considered countries.
Although their population was large, they were different from the Monster race. Everyone in the Monster race practiced martial arts, and relying on their talents, they all had great skill.
Gantian Mountain had four million people under them; deducting the old, young, and women, there were at least a million who could wear armor. There were a million Grade Three Martial Warriors, a hundred thousand Martial Masters, and three thousand Mythic Masters!
And apart from that, there were the subordinate troops of the various cities, which could casually number in the millions.
That was why when they were prosperous they could control seven provinces. Even after havig shrunk now, they still spanned four provinces, and were true top power in the west of Donglin Cloud Continent.
Based on what Zong Shou had deduced, the reason why Zong Weiran didn’t send the army to unify Donglin was because he was disturbed by the various sects and forced to turtle up in a corner.
On the other hand, cities like Lianhai City and Fenghua City, although there had millions of people, they could only put two hundred thousand onto the battlefield. As for the number who could compete with the Gantian Mountain Monster race soldiers, it was less than three percent of that number. They only had a hundred Mythic Masters, at most!
However, for a human race city, their strength was quite decent.
In his memory, these two cities had been long destroyed before the spiritual energy wave began.
Since Lian Fan opened up on the topic, he didn’t worry anymore, “Cloud Saint City is quite well informed, which was why I heard about it. This Lianhai City and Fenghua City are competing for a mind stone mine. The war continued on and on and there has been over ten battles already. News has it that surrounding cities also interfered, sending over more troops. Two months ago, the number of troops they sent were around five hundred thousand. These refugees mostly escaped for that reason. Everywhere the army passed, nothing lived. They were already in a drought and didn’t have much stored up grain, even that was taken away. News had it that there are already a hundred thousand who died from hunger…”
Zong Shou frowned, waves crashing through his mind. Mind stones? Those things were much rarer than beast crystals. They could be used to craft talisman weapons and Spiritual Artifacts, refine pills, display magic, or obtain true qi. One could also directly absorb them and increase cultivation.They were really pure and thus rare, which was why all high Grade martial and spirit cultivators saw them as treasures.
However there were just too few mind stones, which was why even those Shrines and Spirit Houses craved them.
This close to million man war was mostly orchestrated by those sects to obtain these mind stone resources. The ones who were harmed were the people who lived in the area.
What he forgot was that this era was one where the strong ate the weak, a chaotic time where the weak were usually eaten up until even their bones were gone.
He expressionlessly looked at the dirty-clothed, exhausted, and despairing people. Most of them were holding onto their children and kids, wobbling like they were about to fall down at any moment.
When those people looked at the two carriages, it was like they had seen some hope. But once they saw that the foals and carriage was hanging in mid air forty feet from the ground, they continued on their way in disappointment.
Zong Shou was thinking solemnly as he took off a bag from his body. He took out a portion of the things inside and causally threw them towards Lian Fan. “These few hundred beast crystals, help me pass it to those two City Lords. No matter what, at least let some of these people live!”
The price of grain in war-torn areas would definitely be really expensive. Although the hundreds of Grade Three beast crystals were a gigantic fortune, it was still not enough.
Even with the few Grade Five crystals from Cloud Saint City Lord Xu Zhengyuan and tens of Grade Four crystals, it was barely enough.
What was unfortunate was that this place was secluded and there probably wasn’t a branch of the Sanlu bank. He had a huge fortune, but no way to use it.
Within the Donglin Cloud Continent, fifty silvers was enough for a person to live for a month. A Grade Four crystal would be worth a hundred Grade three crystals, worth a hundred thousand silver.
Which was why in Cloud Saint City, when Zong Shou shouted out a bid of ten thousand Grade Three beast crystals, Zong Ling scolded him for wasting money.
The reason was because in this era the number of beast crystals were just too little. The ratio between beasts killed and crystals earned was less than ten to one, and there were also many cultivators who needed these crystals. All these beast crystals were sold for sky high prices.
Calculating it precisely, there was one Xiantian per million people in the Cloud World. And a Xiantian expert who went all out to hunt, disregarding cultivation would only get no more than ten Grade Four beast crystals in a year. As such one could naturally imagine their value.
Within that bag there were a total of sixty Grade Four beast crystals. Even in this era where grain prices exploded, it was enough to support a million people for a year.
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Zong Shou expected that the two City Lords wouldn’t use it all to solve the crisis and most probably half would be lost due to corruption.
But as long as these two people weren’t willing to let all their people die, they would more or less leave some.
Just that small amount would be enough to save some people.
When Lian Fan took over the bag, he was startled. He looked over at Zong Shou in disbelief, not understanding what he was trying to do. But he didn’t say anything, taking a Windrider Foal and leaving quickly.
When Li Yunniang saw that, she drove the carriage and parked it at the side. After hearing what was happening, she subconsciously mocked, “I didn’t think the Prince would be so kind! The beast crystals from you are gathered from the millions from Gantian Mountain. These people are not your people and not of the Monster race. You giving these crystals to show your kindness, did you consider the welfare of the millions of your Gantian Mountain?”
When Chuxue heard that she was really furious, “They are about to die from hunger, are we just not going to care? Li Yunniang, do you even have a heart?”
Li Yunniang burst out laughing, saying disdainfully, “These people are leaving their homes are because their City Lord is useless. The Prince is the Prince of Gantian Mountain, he shouldn’t care about them and should just let them die. It’s better for useless people to die, how can the Prince save them all with just his own strength? Even if he sends these crystals, over half would be eaten up. Why not just buy the grain and give it out yourself…”
Chuxue was infuriated at the start, but at the back she was moved and felt that it made sense. Turning her head, she made a curious expression.
Zong Shou felt that it was funny and glanced at Li Yunniang, but he didn’t say anything.
She really was a women. If he really bought the grain, in the eyes of the two stupid City Lords, wouldn’t that be him trying to buy over the hearts of the people? Even the sects behind them would be wary!
More importantly, they didn’t have the time, nor the energy. He wouldn’t be so dumb as to risk his own life trying to save some people.
However, Li Yunniang’s previous words did make some sense.
But his soul after all came from ten thousand years from now, from that peaceful world. So how could he not do anything at all?
In his last life, although there were a lot of killing and slaughter, cultivating in the Styx River Death Sword made him indifferent to life and death. He didn’t care about life, be it others or his own.
It was why he was really wary. If one had such a heart, what difference would there be between him and a beast or madman?
In his memory, the riches that Zong Weiran left him were not related to the income of Gantian Mountain. Even Yin Yang said so. Naturally he could do whatever he wanted with the money.
Furthermore, he was someone who had a bottom line when he did things and did as he wished, following his heart… so why would he need others to teach him?
Everyone had their own views and he didn’t want to evaluate whether Li Yunniang was right or wrong, and naturally wouldn’t think that he himself was in the wrong.
Patting Chuxue’s head, Zong Shou looked expressionlessly into the distance, “Dumb brat! How is their life and death not my concern? They aren’t my people now, but they will be in the future! When I am in the mood I will take down this Donglin Cloud Continent and become an overlord. I will also chase the Lingyun Sect away…”
Li Yunniang glanced at him and was astonished. She suddenly realized that this half-Monster teen wasn’t someone she could casually mock. Hearing Zong Shou’s words, she was enlightened. She couldn’t muster up any intention to mock him and was instead moved by his heroic spirit, thinking that if this kid grew up, unifying Donglin Cloud Continent wasn’t an impossible thing.
It was too exaggerated to chase Lingyun Sect out of Donglin Cloud, but there was a ninety percent chance he could become the overlord of the continent.
To be able to kill the Hundred Thousand Blood Killer at thirteen, he naturally had the talent to look down on all the experts in the world.
Zong Shou smiled, only feeling the breeze on the roof, smiling in disinterest. Just as he was about to turn around to return to the carriage, he saw Xuanyuan Yiren’s beautiful eyes look over. Her eyes were shining brightly as she revealed a praising and joyous expression.
Zong Shou frowned instantly as he sighed, only to feel his body lose all his energy and all the heroic spirit from before was gone. He restlessly returned back into the carriage.
His thoughts were filled with the mind stone and beast crystal matter.
He had forgotten about all the Grade Four crystals he had in the Sanlu bank. Only now, when he heard about the mind stone mine, did he feel a need for them.
In just a few years, hundreds of mind stone mines would appear in Donglin Cloud Continent. Once the spirit wave began, this number would increase.
The huge amounts of mind stones was the main reason why beast crystals would fall in price.
Thinking about how these hundreds of thousands of people were fighting over such a small mine, leading to heavy casualties, he was really amused.