Chapter 947: The Great Development

He Lingchuan accepted it without any hesitation, considering it a fee for his hard work.

After working from dawn until dusk, He Lingchuan finally returned to Blade Harbor with Zhu Xiuer, Dong Rui, and the others.

With the evening breeze brushing against his face again, He Lingchuan sat at the bow of the boat, feeling refreshed and invigorated.

The troubles had been resolved one by one; the first territory he possessed, which the Lu family viewed as a tasteless scrap, was about to become a hot commodity and could soon be thrown into a bustling, full-scale development.

He could begin to recruit soldiers and horses and accumulate strength; the future was promising.

The mirror in his bosom asked him: "There are three pirate leaders in Yangshan; why did you accept the surrender of Min Tianxi and Huang Zhao, but didn't even give Yue Pinghe a chance to negotiate? Don't tell me it's because his character is bad; I don't think it's that simple."

With neither Huang nor Min by his side at the moment, He Lingchuan said with his eyes half-closed: "Congratulations, you guessed right."

The mirror felt a bit smug and immediately asked again: "You killed him so decisively, why?"

Yue Pinghe was willing to offer up money to buy his life; thirty or fifty thousand silver taels was three to five million in cash—many people couldn't earn that much in a lifetime! He Lingchuan had only spent eighty thousand to buy the Yangshan Archipelago from the Lu family.

Yet, this huge sum of money failed to move He Lingchuan.

The mirror knew that its master's temperament was not at all one that treated money like dirt. So, how exactly did the man surnamed Yue offend him?

He Lingchuan propped his feet on a low stool and changed to a more comfortable sitting posture:

"Facing this group of pirates, only killing can establish authority."

When you arrive at a mountain, you must sing the songs of that mountain.

If he used bloodless methods too often, others would mistakenly think he was soft-hearted. "Look, didn't Yue Pinghe keep thinking that I would negotiate with him and allow him to bargain with me?"

"The three pirate leaders are none of them good people, and Yue Pinghe just happens to be the one with the worst character; if I don't kill him, who do I kill?" He Lingchuan chuckled, "So, who says character and credibility aren't important?"

When the power of choice is in the hands of others, those with poor credibility and character are easily 'eliminated' at the critical moment of survival of the fittest.

"Besides, I don't need three pirate leaders under my command, and the Yangshan Archipelago needs more labor."

There were over a hundred captured pirates from the three factions.

They could not yet enter He Lingchuan's guard battalion; instead, they would be sent to the islands to mine, reclaim wasteland, or extract palm oil.

As captives, their status was below that of hired workers and residents; they were the labor force most needed by the Yangshan Archipelago at present. But He Lingchuan did not forget to give them hope: after six months of forced labor, they could choose for themselves whether to leave or join paid production.

In this way, the overseers guarding the captives would also be a bit kinder and would not truly treat them like beasts of burden.

￥￥￥￥￥

Two days later, He Lingchuan took his confidants and once again sailed into the depths of the Yangshan Archipelago.

The time agreed upon with the King of the Yin Serpents had arrived. From today on, he would extract the baleful energy from the entire archipelago and turn this place into a habitable land for humans.

Through his previous conversation with the King of the Yin Serpents, he knew that there were a total of seven Yin-baleful exits in the entire Yangshan Archipelago, distributed across five islands. Among them, the main island, Dragon Spine Island, alone accounted for three.

Whenever it was rainy or night, the baleful energy would drift and scatter, which was what had turned the depths of the archipelago into a no-man's-land.

This meant that as long as He Lingchuan controlled the concentration of Yin-baleful energy in these seven places, he could control the habitability of the entire archipelago.

He had an agreement with the Yin Serpent clan; the southwest end of Dragon Spine Island had already been marked off for them to live in, so there was no need to worry about the Earth-baleful exit at the Heavenly Pit of Baiyuan; the actual Earth-baleful exits that needed to be controlled were only six.

The strategy He Lingchuan adopted was to place the Dragon-Binding Pillars deep within these six earth fissures; the Yin-baleful energy would be sucked away as soon as it emerged, leaving it no chance to spread to the surface.

The gushing volume of Yin-baleful energy from the six fissures varied, but generally speaking, each eruption could fill half the capacity of a Dragon-Binding Pillar.

Combined with the frequency of the Yin-baleful eruptions, it would take more than four months on average to fill one Dragon-Binding Pillar. If He Lingchuan threw two Dragon-Binding Pillars into one earth fissure, they could last for more than half a year.

And he had made dozens of them at once.

After the Dragon-Binding Pillars were filled, he just had to throw them to the Divine Bone Necklace. It would drain the Yin-baleful energy inside and then return the Dragon-Binding Pillars to He Lingchuan.

So, theoretically speaking, of the forty-two islands in the Yangshan Archipelago, at most thirty-eight and a half could be safe and free of baleful energy.

Of course, the secret of the Dragon-Binding Pillars was currently known only to He Lingchuan's confidants, namely Zhu Xiuer, Dong Rui, the Rongshan disciples, and a dozen others.

The group took the Dragon-Binding Pillars and acted separately.

In less than two days, the baleful energy on the fourteen islands from the center to the north and northeast of the Yangshan Archipelago had been cleared away, making them ready to be opened to all living beings.

This was also by He Lingchuan's deliberate design.

The fourteen islands on the periphery were close to the normal shipping lanes, forming a natural loop. Apart from these, the other twenty-plus islands were still immersed in Yin-baleful energy.

There were three reasons for this:

First, the Yangshan Archipelago was excessively vast, and He Lingchuan admitted that with his current financial and material resources, he had no ability to take care of everything.

If you take too big a step, you're liable to tear something, right?

Secondly, there were not many islands with truly vast areas, fertile soil, and suitability for farming; the others were either only suitable for gathering, had only mines, or were simply too small and scattered to be useful.

In short, he had to concentrate his strength to get things done.

Finally, the open sea south of the Yangshan waters not only frequently had fierce winds and waves but also had sea demons; some particularly liked to attack merchant ships and particularly liked to eat people. Originally, the archipelago was shrouded in Yin-baleful energy, which they feared deeply, so they dared not approach. Once the baleful energy disappeared, who knew what big monsters might swim into the archipelago's waters?

With the obstacles of Yin-baleful energy, pirates, and Yin Serpents resolved one by one, the great development of the Yangshan Archipelago began impatiently.

He Lingchuan asked Ding Zuodong: "What do we lack the most right now?"

Ding Zuodong replied without hesitation: "People!"

"Reclaiming wasteland and farming requires people, extracting palm oil requires people, building houses and warehouses requires people, and logging and mining require people." He said with a serious face, "Casting weapons and building ships also require people, but those two can be postponed for now."

"Recruiting soldiers and horses is imperative, but not the most urgent priority; as for shipbuilding..." He Lingchuan pressed his forehead, "With insufficient manpower, we can only go to Blade Harbor to rent ships first."

All three pirate factions had been incorporated by him, and the dozens of pirate ships of various sizes also belonged to him, but it was still far from enough.

Currently, the Yangshan Archipelago was developing over a dozen islands; the movement of supplies and the transport of personnel all relied on sea ships; there was no second mode of transport.

"Miss Lei Ni has already urged us several times; the palm fruit on the island is ripening in large quantities, but the extraction tools, labor, warehouses, and ships have not yet kept up." Ding Zuodong stated the grim situation, "If we miss this autumn's harvest, the next bumper harvest of palm oil will have to wait until the spring and summer of next year."

That was all bright, shiny silver; it would be a pity not to pick it up.

(End of chapter)