Longzang

Chapter 180 Magistrate of Yong'an County
With nearly 100,000 people traveling north, it's natural that they can't move quickly.

Wei Yuan only gave them a quarter of an hour to pack their belongings, and even then, many people were still covered in things, acting as if they valued money more than their lives. If they had been given a little more time, they would have definitely dismantled the shed and moved it away.

As they traveled north, the knights remained silent and impartial, whipping anyone who was slow to move.

Anyone who dares to throw a tantrum will be half-dead with a single whipping. Those who are beaten too badly or are too exhausted to walk can take a carriage, but they must discard all their belongings. Everything, not even the immortal silver.

These personal belongings were clearly not of any interest to the War Knights. The immortal silver was casually thrown on the ground, but the rest of the group was not allowed to pick it up.

As a result, many people quietly discarded their unnecessary burdens, keeping only their last bit of valuable possessions.

Wei Yuan did not travel slowly with the main force, but instead returned to the realm first. This time, they had plundered 80,000 people in one go, and the number of mortals in the entire realm was about to exceed 140,000. How to settle so many mortals was a major issue.

Yong'an City is already saturated, so Wei Yuan has planned five new city sites. These people will be settled in these five sites after they move in. All five sites are located on the edge of the boundary, protecting the central boundary. If there is an invasion by foreign enemies, these five new cities will be the first line of defense.

Upon returning to the realm, Wei Yuan discovered a new vitality. That vitality came from the herb garden, where a Heavenly Star Dragon Sunflower had finally sprouted!

After Wei Yuan finished explaining the arrangements for the mortals, he rushed to the herb garden and saw a new sprout emerging from the ground. The sprout was star-blue, but the first leaf had a distinct platinum line.

Wei Yuan remembered that the thousand-year-old Heavenly Star Black Nightshade he had seen at Bao Yun's residence did not have platinum lines on its leaves. Could it be that this Heavenly Star Black Nightshade, which sprouted first, has also changed?
Wei Yuan examined the new shoots carefully, but spiritual plants were not his forte, and he couldn't discern anything.

But at that moment, a new bud also sprouted on a vacant lot next to Jade Mountain in Daoji. Its leaves also had a white-gold thread, just like the new bud in the medicine garden.

As soon as the new sprout appeared in the Dao Foundation, it began to exhale strands of pure life force, shortening the time it took Wei Yuan to reach the mid-stage of cultivation by more than ten days. Wei Yuan was both surprised and delighted, and immediately searched carefully in the Dao Foundation. After a while, he indeed found a patch of exceptionally fertile soil next to the new sprout.

Beneath this land, a new bud was also being nurtured, its aura profound, carrying the scent of ancient annihilation. This aura was extremely unique, almost impossible to find in spiritual plants, so Wei Yuan wouldn't mistake it for another Heavenly Star Dragon Sunflower.

Wei Yuan then carefully searched the vicinity with his divine sense and finally discovered more than a dozen faint signs of life. Although these signs of life were very weak, they already possessed obvious wood-elemental Dao power, clearly corresponding to the Wood Spirit Ginseng.

It seems that the spiritual plants that grow in the Azure Netherworld will gradually appear in the vast rivers and mountains, while accelerating the absorption and release of spiritual energy, thus speeding up cultivation.

Around these spiritual plants, much more wasteland had clearly transformed into fertile soil. But the withered branch remained rooted in the platinum-colored water, occasionally showing a flicker of life, but when Wei Yuan tried to sense it carefully, he could detect nothing.

Wei Yuan withdrew from his sea of ​​consciousness and continued to arrange various matters within the realm.

The priority now is to cultivate more spirit fields. The first batch of millet has grown to over a foot tall and has begun to sprout ears; it will be ready for harvest in another month. Next to the first batch of fields, Wei Yuan arranged for cultivators to continue cultivating, directly increasing the number of spirit fields to five thousand mu.

Wei Yuan has already plundered all the Liangmi seeds within a radius of several hundred miles, and he has also taken all the Ningxi Xu family's stock. There is no longer any possibility of expanding to a larger scale.

After processing the spiritual plants, Wei Yuan plunged into the organization of the troops. This was a massive undertaking; theoretically, anyone in the Azure Nether Realm, from eighty years old to eight months old, could be combat-ready, so it was necessary to organize them into an army. They would work in peacetime and go into battle in wartime.

After working for an unknown amount of time, Wei Yuan had already memorized the 1,022nd squad leader. This was the most basic unit in the boundary military system, a leader who managed ten soldiers.

The troops currently being organized are those already within the territory. Soon, the Quliu Town detachment will arrive, and tens of thousands more troops will need to be newly organized.

A group of people appeared on the road leading to Yong'an City.

Yong'an City had only been established for less than a month, and this road leading to the outside world was created by the passage of pedestrians and caravans during that time. The so-called road was actually just two deep ruts, and it was all mud and deep puddles.

The guards were covered in mud and water, with only a few mounted officers looking somewhat clean. The carriage swayed and creaked constantly, as if it might suddenly fall apart at any moment.

Suddenly, a dozen or so knights appeared ahead, galloping towards the caravan. They blocked the caravan's path and shouted, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The guard officer's face darkened, and he shouted, "Are you blind? Can't you recognize the banners? Can't you see the armor on this officer? I am here on orders from the imperial court to escort Lord Niu to his post. Who are you to dare to obstruct an official of the imperial court? Are you all tired of living?"

The knights blocking the road exchanged glances, their imposing manner weakening somewhat. One of them said, "We are the city defense troops of Yong'an City, ordered to patrol the border. However, we haven't heard of any official coming to take up a post. How about this, you wait here for a while, and we'll report to our captain and see what he says."

At this moment, someone in the carriage said, "I am the magistrate of Yong'an, how come I don't know that Yong'an has any city defense troops?"

Upon hearing this, the patrol captain retorted, "Nonsense! Our city lord is clearly Lord Xiao, and our local official is also Lord Xiao. Where did this 'Lord Niu' come from?"

The carriage door opened, and a burly man with a fierce, menacing face stepped out. Even his official robes looked like those of a bandit. Upon seeing two female cultivators among the patrol, the official's eyes lit up. He shouted, "You audacious commoners! How dare you impersonate government troops! Guards, seize them all! Anyone who resists will be killed!"

Upon receiving the order, the guards immediately swarmed forward.

The patrol team from Yong'an City consisted mostly of cultivators at the Body Refinement stage, while the government troops' captain was already at the Foundation Establishment stage. In the blink of an eye, several members of the patrol team were defeated. The remaining patrol members were shocked and turned to run, simultaneously firing a whistle into the sky, which exploded into a cloud of red smoke.

Seeing that everyone was trying to escape, the official grinned maliciously, leaped up, and conjured a bear claw the size of a millstone. It flew dozens of feet and knocked two female cultivators from their horses among the fleeing patrol members.

The other patrol members dared not stop to rescue the people and sped away. In front of all the soldiers, the officer tore open the clothes of the two female cultivators and then carried them into the carriage.

The captain was stunned.

While such things are not uncommon, I've never heard of anyone doing it so openly in front of hundreds of officers and soldiers.

The official, with one foot already inside the carriage, turned back and said, "Lieutenant Liu, don't you understand why we were sent to this place? If we die in office, our families will at least receive some blessings. If we return alive, the best outcome will be a silent death in prison."

Captain Liu was stunned for a moment, then gave a wry smile.

"Don't blame me for not warning you, we're all going to die anyway, these two girls are our last bit of fun. If you don't come, I'm not going to take care of you!"

Captain Liu gritted his teeth and climbed into the carriage, whereupon bursts of angry curses erupted.

At this moment, Wei Yuan was constantly marking on the map, planning which troops were training in which place and where they were stationed. He suddenly sensed a disturbance among the city defense troops in Yong'an City, who were rushing out of the city in large numbers.

Wei Yuan frowned, put down his work, and flew towards Yong'an City.

The city guards were heading outside the boundary, but Wei Yuan's perception of the area outside the boundary was very vague. At this moment, there was no large-scale enemy army, nor any powerful cultivators or demonic beasts.

In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan arrived at the scene of the incident and saw dozens of government soldiers in a circular formation, confronting hundreds of city defense troops. Among the government soldiers were two Dao Foundation Establishment cultivators, one of whom was wearing the official robes of the Western Jin Dynasty, the same color as Sun Chaoen's, and was also a county magistrate. Dozens of government soldiers lay on the ground around him, groaning continuously.

The burly man in official robes, with a fierce face, was jumping up and down, shouting: "You've rebelled! I am an official appointed by the Prince of Jin. You unruly commoners who assaulted me are guilty of a crime punishable by the extermination of your entire family! I risked my life to save the Right Chancellor. If anything were to happen to me, the Right Chancellor would surely make sure that your entire family is buried with me!"

The official's loud and boisterous manner made the city's garrison hesitate. Although the people of the Western Regions were known for their fierceness, this area had been under the rule of the Western Jin Dynasty just a few years ago, and it wasn't impossible for the imperial court to send people back now. Even the most ruthless bandits would have to bow down before the government.

Wei Yuan spotted Yun Feifei in the crowd, beckoned her over, and asked, "What happened?"

Yun Feifei said, "This guy surnamed Niu led more than a hundred soldiers straight to Yong'an, saying he was going to take up his post there. On the way, they were stopped and questioned by our patrol team. Who knew that when that guy saw that two girls in the patrol team were somewhat pretty, he actually attacked and scattered the patrol team on the spot and bullied the two girls! The patrol team members who escaped reported the news, and then all the city defense troops on duty rushed out. I just arrived."

Wei Yuan glanced at the several smashed carriages not far away, and then noticed two disheveled young female cultivators. These two girls were, to put it mildly, decent-looking, and their figures were quite good for body-tempering cultivators.

Neither of them cried; instead, they stared at the official and the captain, their eyes filled with hatred. The people of the Western Regions were known for their free spirit, and with years of war, matters between men and women were nothing to them. The two young female cultivators, after being humiliated, didn't react with tears; instead, they wanted to grab their swords and retaliate.

Wei Yuan said to Yun Feifei, "Go and bring that guy here."

Yun Feifei nodded, and in a flash, she appeared in the ranks of the soldiers. The officials and captains tried their best to resist, but their Taoist power was far inferior to Yun Feifei's, and all their Taoist techniques were dispersed by Yun Feifei's magic power.

Yun Feifei picked up one in each hand and threw them in front of Wei Yuan.

"Who are you?" Wei Yuan asked.

The official was a burly man with a face and body full of fat. He shrugged and said, "Your grandfather's name is Niu Jinbao. If you have the guts, kill me right now. I'm the county magistrate appointed by the King. Even if you kill me, you won't live long. I'll be waiting for you on the road to the Yellow Springs!"

Wei Yuan frowned slightly and asked a few more questions, feeling that this guy seemed to be a complete fool. He kept repeating that he had saved the Right Chancellor's life, been received by the Prince of Jin, and even been given several jugs of imperial wine.

At this moment, Yun Feifei searched the official's luggage and found an official seal and an appointment edict. The official seals of the nine kingdoms of the Great Tang each had a fixed design and contained Daoist charm, making them difficult to forge.

This Niu Jinbao was indeed the magistrate of Yong'an County appointed by the Prince of Jin.

(End of this chapter)