Chapter 503

The silkworms raised on these mulberry trees consumed silk that was seized by the royal family and woven into a fabric, the absolute pinnacle of textiles!

Far superior to the linen, cotton, or wool garments worn by nobles of the Hiling Kingdom!

But the price of this silk was exorbitantly high!

Ordinary cloth garments, worn by commoners, typically cost between dozens of silver coins and a few gold coins each.

Nobles' garments generally cost anywhere from several dozen gold coins to hundreds of gold coins.

But a garment made of this silk cost several thousand gold coins, and the more expensive ones reached over ten thousand gold coins!

That equaled the annual income of a minor noble!

Such an exorbitant price may also be tied to low production volume.

In fact, Yan Kingdom is now planting mulberry trees on a massive scale.

Yan Kingdom is vast but sparsely populated; many forests remain uninhabited, and some resource-poor forests are better off entirely converted to mulberry cultivation, far exceeding Hiling Kingdom's scale.

This was the plan of the fox girl Qing Ling, inspired by Lin Yan, to open a "Silk Road" from Hiling Kingdom to the Eternal Night Empire, expanding trade and making the land of the Flame Lord more prosperous!

Yes, the larger the trade volume, the more people involved, the richer the goods, the wealthier the people, the higher their happiness, and the more devout their faith naturally becomes.

With wealth, more mages, knights, and warriors will inevitably emerge—these three types of elites all require resources.

Moreover, only when food and clothing are assured will the population grow dramatically!

In short, the more prosperous a nation, the greater its contribution of faith—this is certain.

With the nobility and commoners of Hunhe Duchy cooperating fully and the Church completely withdrawn, Hunhe Duchy stabilized at the fastest possible speed.

The original royal family of Hunhe Duchy was also interesting.

This royal family likely realized the Church was doomed, so they recalled their army from the battlefield to avoid sharing its fate.

After recalling their army, they apparently realized that still wasn't enough, so they swiftly deposed the old king and installed a new one.

Yes, the new king was the old king's daughter.

For the past two days, this new king did nothing but stay in her chambers, reading accounts of the Flame Lord.

To her surprise, the more she read, the more she became obsessed, worshipping the Flame Lord intensely.

So when Qing Ling and Meng Ying's armies finally arrived at the capital of Hunhe Duchy, the new king personally met them at the city gate, warmly welcomed them inside, pledged allegiance to the Flame Lord, and…

She wanted to become the Flame Lord's Holy Maiden!

This new king's name was Zhen Na!

She had even built a new temple already.

The fox girl Qing Ling and Meng Ying exchanged glances.

This matter could only be decided by the divine.

After all, a Holy Maiden cannot be chosen arbitrarily—there are strict criteria.

Zhen Na's external qualifications met the standard, but the most critical point was the depth of her faith.

If this criterion failed, no matter how perfect her external conditions, it would be useless.

Then Qing Ling and Meng Ying brought her to the new temple and prayed to the Flame Lord.

After receiving a response, Zhen Na offered a drop of blood onto the altar, waiting for the covenant to be sealed.

During this process, Zhen Na was extremely nervous.

Yet since months ago, she had been curious about the Flame Lord and had already begun studying him—this was precisely why, among several daughters, the youngest, her, was chosen as the new king.

After these two days of deeper understanding, her faith in the Flame Lord had indeed met the standard.

Then, the covenant was sealed.

Zhen Na became Lin Yan's ninth official Holy Maiden.

Her strength was not particularly strong—only Third Rank, similar to Luo Ying's original level.

But with her joining, Hunhe Duchy could be integrated into the realm faster.

Shortly after Hunhe Duchy was incorporated, the fox girl Qing Ling, Meng Ying, and Luo Ying began discussing the formation of a small empire.

Many matters needed discussion.

Including the administrative system after establishing the small empire.

Eventually, the deliberations concluded.

The four realms merged into one small empire: the Flame Empire!

The original names of the four realms were also changed.

No longer called "kingdoms."

Instead, they were called "provinces."

That is, administrative provinces.

Yan City became Yan Province.

Hiling Kingdom became Hiling Province.

Hunhe Duchy became Hunhe Province.

Horden Kingdom became Horden Province.

In other words, the current Flame Empire now has four provinces!

Compared to the Eternal Night Empire's twenty-four provinces, it was indeed a miniature empire.

The smallest province of the Eternal Night Empire was half the size of Hiling Kingdom, but Princess Long didn't mention one thing: the Eternal Night Empire had only four provinces smaller than Hiling Kingdom, while many provinces were several times larger.

In other words, overall, the Eternal Night Empire was several times larger than the Flame Empire—possibly over ten times larger.

There was no help for it—after all, the Eternal Night Empire ranked among the top ten empires of the Gods' Continent!

But the Flame Empire had now found its direction for expansion.

As long as it continued expanding, catching up to the Eternal Night Empire would not be difficult!

The heads of the four provinces had also been confirmed.

Yan Province was naturally Sister Qing Ling, and this region would become the very core of the Flame Empire.

Xiling Province and Houdun Province were under the charge of Luo Ying.

Hunhe Province was under the charge of Zhen Na, the new addition.

Economic plans for these four provinces had also been drawn up.

Sorghum would henceforth be primarily cultivated in Houdun Province, as this adjustment was made because Houdun Province was dominated by highlands, better suited for sorghum cultivation.

Hunhe Province, with its numerous water systems and flat terrain, would yield higher grain output.

As a reward for the founding of the small empire, on this day, Lin Yan used his Virtual Divinity to develop a new variety of rice for the Flame Empire.

This rice was a variant of the hybrid rice Lin Yan had known well before his transmigration.

As a top student, Lin Yan had originally studied hybrid rice; with the aid of his Virtual Divinity, he produced it effortlessly, and its yield was even slightly higher than that of hybrid rice.

After all, the soil of this world contained varying amounts of magical substances, and with magical growth acceleration and pest control, the yield was extremely high—nearly double that of the original rice of Hunhe Principality.

Of course, Lin Yan had left divine traces within this rice, ensuring that breeding rights remained firmly in the hands of the Church—no one could steal them.

He did not want to expend divine power and labor so hard only to have others reap the benefits.

Once this new rice appeared, it quickly won the favor of the people in Hunhe Province.

Hunhe Province still had three major edicts, and commoners had reclaimed vast tracts of land.

These people soon discovered that the returns from rice cultivation were not much lower than those from sorghum.

Most importantly, mulberry trees could now be planted alongside rice paddies, enabling a second sideline industry.

Xiling Province's function was more comprehensive.

It had rice, divine beans, mulberry trees, and also a new item.

Tea!

Of course, Yan Province was the largest grower of tea and mulberry trees!

As the entire empire's economy began to turn, Yan Province required vast resources, which it would purchase from noble traders; naturally, Sister Qing Ling would grant these nobles some profit as compensation for their efforts.

Yet purchasing resources still required enormous amounts of gold coins; a single gold mine was insufficient—its reserves amounted to only a few hundred tons, equivalent to tens of millions of gold coins, which was negligible on a national scale, and more gold could only be earned through trade.

The products of Yan Province were largely acquired by the City of Miracles, precisely to earn vast sums of gold to further manufacture more weapons and equipment!

After Lin Yan's several Holy Maidens reached their decisions, Sister Qing Ling prayed to Lin Yan and received the official founding date of the empire.

It would be one week from now.

The capital of the Flame Empire would be established at the new city built by Luo Ying in the eastern part of Xiling Province, and its scale would be further expanded.

The reason it was not set in the City of Miracles was simple: the City of Miracles did not need to become the capital—it would remain the Divine City of the Flame Lord!

Yan Province was the core of the entire empire, and its situation was unique; it would remain relatively isolated for a long time and was unsuitable to serve as the capital.

The new capital was named Flame City.