Chapter 31

Luo Sen Empire’s engineers proposed building a steel smelting plant in the port zone; Sakavi rejected it without a second thought—what nonsense, placing it there was asking for death? If enemies launched an all-out assault with no regard for casualties, the entire operational system of his domain would collapse.

But smelting steel in the minotaur territory was also unsuitable—the minotaurs occupied the upper reaches of the Bohe River, making coal transportation extremely inconvenient. Su Lai De recalled that during his days as an adventurer on the Funa Plateau, he had seen iron ore mined there, smelted into ingots first, then transported for further processing or sold directly.

Grap opposed this suggestion, arguing that smelting and forging should be centralized at the Blackwater Dock in Claw Hills, establishing a large processing center integrating coal washing, coking, iron ore smelting, and forging; relocate the plateau’s minotaurs down to settle there, improving efficiency and strengthening control.

Sakavi considered this proposal too risky—not to mention the minotaurs frequently fought bloody battles with the goblins over unpaid coal purchases, and now they were even seizing their territory—would they even agree? Concentrating everything in one place risked total system collapse from a single accident, far more dangerous than placing the smelter at the port.

Still, he couldn’t outright refuse; instead, he asked what contingency plans Grap had for racial reconciliation, how security would be ensured, and how to respond if hostile forces deliberately launched large-scale sabotage.

Grap gave a two-word answer: suppression. Whoever resisted would be killed until they submitted; turn the entire hill region into a military base complex, relocate all plateau races here for centralized management, making control and brainwashing—no, cultural identification and sense of belonging—easier.

He had originally planned to assign Grap to oversee the transport hub’s construction, but now he dared not. Yet upon reflection, since Grap had followed him twenty years ago, he’d done nothing but kill, burn, and plunder—he’d never managed territory. And the swamp toads, being inherently chaotic evil, naturally preferred solving problems with violence.

Fortunately, the Blue Sapphire Dragon from the Astral Plane was present; he seized the chance to ask him to plan it. But the dragon said he was too busy—he’d leave after completing the port construction; just send him the blueprints, and Sakavi could hire others to build the transport station. Even raising the gold to one hundred thousand didn’t convince him to stay.

With no alternative, Sakavi ordered Yaru Zi to ship construction materials and machinery, and began work immediately. The Luo Sen Empire was currently in economic ruin, overrun by bandits—it couldn’t possibly muster the resources to build a port all at once. It wasn’t that the empire was so poor it couldn’t scrape together these resources; rather, jackal-men and centaurs, like vultures scenting carrion, ravaged the war-torn land.

Luo Sen Empire merchants could no longer form large caravans; no one knew how long the empire’s weakness would last, and Sakavi had little time. If the Luo Sen Empire emerged from the shadow of war, its first target would surely be the ambitious Sakavi himself—for plundering Weilincheng and Lokar Plain had caused outrage far beyond ordinary bounds.

While building the port, Sakavi decided to begin reclaiming the abandoned farmlands of the Bohe Plain. It was already mid-October; by March next year, he could plant cassava. The reclamation task would be handled primarily by ogres and lizardfolk; accordingly, Sakavi ordered an additional 150,000 lizardfolk northward and 200,000 ogres southward to clear land.

Normally, losing so many laborers would doom many tribes of these two races through winter—but Sakavi had anticipated this and already purchased vast quantities of wheat from the Luo Sen Empire. Relying on Sakavi for food throughout winter and spring would greatly aid his control over the northern plateau.

Reclaiming farmland was usually a skilled, time-consuming task, but this plain had only lain fallow for three years; the old irrigation canals and wells still stood, needing only repairs to be functional again.

Sakavi ordered the lizardfolk to reclaim land on the eastern bank of the Bohe River and the ogres on the western bank. Though both races were poor farmers and notoriously disobedient, he had no other races better suited for land reclamation.

Things must be done step by step; over-investing at once would cause chaos. After all, these races came from the wilds—asking them to perform unfamiliar tasks was extremely difficult.

After arranging the Bohe Plain reclamation plan, Sakavi intended to personally visit the Blackwater Marsh—construction there was impossible for now, but preliminary preparations were still needed.

Sakavi was curious whether the goblins of these hills knew metal smelting. Though goblins were often skilled at mining and smelting in many regions, their forging was crude—still, better than nothing.

These hills primarily produced coal, and the goblins mainly mined coal. Due to inefficient extraction techniques and broken tools, their coal output remained low. Not knowing how to wash or coke coal, they earned little to buy better tools, worsening their poverty.

Fortunately, the hills weren’t entirely barren—at least near some goblin tin mines, there were smelting kilns. Since copper didn’t grow here and copper ore was scarce across the domain, tin ore was hard to sell; powerful goblin tribes had all chosen to mine coal instead.

After surveying the entire Blackwater Marsh, Sakavi ordered the goblins to drain the water and dig out the sludge, paving the way for future work.

Goblins were creatures who loved bullying the weak; a towering black dragon standing nearby would make them work with extraordinary zeal. If it were Su Lai De, they’d show him exactly what “dragging their feet” meant.

Clearing the Blackwater Marsh would take at least three months. The entire domain grew colder the farther north one went; the marsh would freeze solid by December, making construction exponentially harder.

Sakavi decided to personally oversee the operation, pushing the goblins to drain the marsh before it froze—and to teach these chaotic creatures what discipline meant.

Perhaps sensing the value of the upcoming coal and iron transport hub, the minotaurs upstream unexpectedly came to help. Sakavi was astonished—he’d assumed these wild subhumans would despise his large-scale construction.

On the surface, the minotaurs seemed pleased to assist; curious, Sakavi began chatting with their leader.

“What’s your name?”

“My Lord, I am Geer · Heijiao , chieftain of the Black Horn Tribe near the Crimson Delta.”

“Are all these men from your Black Horn Tribe?”

“No, my Lord. They come from tribes near the Crimson Delta—all tribes sent people.”

“Why did you send people? How many came?”

“We heard you’re building a coking plant and thought such a good thing should be finished quickly. My Lord, I heard workers get meals—wheat porridge. Do you serve food here?”

“Yes. Anyone who follows orders gets food. Soon, every resident of my domain will eat wheat porridge.”

“My Lord, we’re used to freedom—can we skip the household registration and those towns? Don’t worry, we’ll pay our taxes.”

“Fine. Those who don’t register pay taxes; those who do, pay only transit fees for merchants.”

“My Lord, if you take taxes and we get peace and freedom, isn’t that better for everyone? Why bother with this thankless task?”

“How do your minotaurs generally feel about this?”

“We’re used to following orders when smelting and forging, but everyone thinks this is unnecessary. The ogres up north say worse things—they claim you’re gathering us to torture us.”

“How many newborns die in your tribe each winter?”

“We’re lucky—we lose about half.”

“Half is already too many. If you followed my orders, not one would die.”

“My Lord, we know you have money—what you do with it is your business. We have no such luxury.”

“Do you know what this place will become?”

“Yes. The traders who buy coal said you’re building a coking plant—it’ll make iron smelting much easier. When word spread, our people were thrilled.”

“It’s not just a coking plant—it’ll be a smelting plant too. You’ll only handle forging and production—output will increase.”

“More isn’t better! Too much drives prices down and wastes effort.”

“I’m building an army. I’ll never have enough.”

“Exactly! My Lord should build an army—draft all those ogres up north, make them stop causing trouble, and those centaur bandits too. I heard you mobilized five hundred thousand ogres to reclaim land—I say it’s too few! You should send a million.”

“Do ogres even number that many?”

“Hahaha! My Lord, you’re joking.”

One month after the minotaurs arrived, a vast horde of ogres came too—whole families, claiming that since minotaurs were accepted, they too were the Lord’s loyal claws, and they too wanted to contribute and eat wheat porridge every meal.

Unexpectedly, by March of the 1139th year of the Crimson Calendar, the transport hub—Black Iron City—was already built. Sakavi had assumed winter work was too inefficient and planned to wait until spring, but the ogres declared: whoever denied them wheat porridge would face death.

In this encounter, Sakavi discovered that among all his subjects, ogres were the most cooperative after goblins and fishfolk—if fed, they’d do anything, though discipline remained terrible.

Through the ogres’ tireless efforts, the port at the river’s mouth was completed by October. Sakavi named it “Nolasi’en”—in Draconic, “Treasure’s Mouth”—hoping it would bring him great wealth.

With the port built, the entire Bohe River transport system was now connected. After six consecutive years of losses, Sakavi finally saw the glimmer of profit. Money spent was money earned—this had always been Sakavi’s principle.

Of course, this was only the initial phase of construction. His domain remained a tangled mess, demanding far more spending. But with this golden waterway, Sakavi could now use economics to break the most stubborn spiritual fortresses of the subhuman races.