Chapter 439: The Growing Dragon

The setting sun, like a giant ruby, slowly sank into the distant horizon, draping Swamp Town in a layer of golden afterglow.

The once-limited town, following Luoning's arrival and his cost-no-object investment in development, now not only had more residents and expanded farmland, but also a constant stream of merchants coming and going.

Before anyone realized it, Swamp Town had become the outpost of Wubei Territory, the liveliest place in the north.

Oumai, the population officer who had been in office for several months, took one of his assistants and carried the thick population registers they had recently compiled toward Swamp Town.

"Mr. Oumai, why do you think the Lord wants us to compile this information?"

Sixteen-year-old assistant Naier had asked himself this question many times in his heart, "If these papers were taken out to be sold, they could be traded for so much food!"

"How could our Lord be short of this little bit of paper money?"

Oumai tapped the other's head, his tone earnest and instructive, "As long as we carefully compile detailed data on population numbers, structure, and distribution, the Lord will be able to better formulate and adjust various territorial policies, strengthen territorial security management, and so on."

In truth, he had heard this from Wilson, and Wilson had learned it from Luoning.

Oumai looked up at the golden mountain flag fluttering on the castle; he did not know when it started, but he felt a sense of great intimacy whenever he saw this flag.

"There is deep learning in this, study hard, Naier. As long as you have the ability, there will be good days ahead following Lord Luoning!"

Naier gave a hum of agreement, "I am taking time every day now to learn more characters!"

The two spoke as they walked, entered the castle, and under Tangmu's guidance, arrived at the Lord's study with nervous hearts.

Luoning offered a few words of encouragement, then reviewed the results Oumai had compiled.

Currently, there were nine towns under his rule: Shanlin Town, Sanfang Town, Heitu Town, Swamp Town, Jushi City, Chishan Town, Jiliu Island, Wubei City, and Zilei Territory.

As it stood, Zilei Territory had the largest population at nearly eighty thousand, while Chishan Town, with only twelve thousand, ranked last.

After some calculation, the number of people living in his territory reached 304,000.

Only with many people can there be development; this was a quite considerable number!

It was at this moment that a line of numbers appeared before Luoning's eyes:

【"Population Prosperity" achievement reached, Attribute Point +5000, Energy Essence +10000】

He quickly checked his Attribute Panel; he already had 5420 Attribute Points and 10345 Energy Essence.

Although it could not allow him to break through to the ninth rank, it was enough to allow the dragon to advance to the seventh rank.

In this way, Wubei Territory gained another high-end combatant, and not an ordinary one at that.

"The population of Wubei City is currently only twenty-four thousand?"

Luoning looked at the population numbers of the various towns in Wubei Territory; the largest was Swamp Town with over forty thousand people.

Oumai said solemnly and respectfully, "Yes, my Lord. During this period, a large population has flooded into Wubei Territory, bringing significant pressure on clothing, food, housing, and transportation, especially since Wubei City relies entirely on outside towns for food and water, making it impossible to accommodate too many people in a short time."

"A while ago, the water source near Wubei City was polluted and caused a disease, killing over a dozen people. Fortunately, Lord Aierlong was there to stop the spread of the disease in time."

Luoning nodded; the people Lulansi sent over were dispersed to several towns, which was likely the reason.

Sending in these tens of thousands of people indeed brought no small amount of pressure regarding food, drink, waste, and sanitation.

To be honest, Aierlong, Wilson, Oumai, and the others had put in a great deal of effort to settle so many people.

"You have done well!"

Receiving this affirmative praise, Oumai and his assistant Naier felt very good, but Luoning's next sentence made them feel immense pressure.

"Before long, one hundred thousand people will be sent to Wubei Territory in succession; they should be disembarking at Wubei Port."

Luoning said, "Go find Wilson and Chahaer; you must prepare to receive them."

Transporting one hundred thousand people from Jianjiao City to Wubei Territory involved too long a route and too much consumption.

If they switched to the sea route, using more ships and making a few dozen more trips should save quite a lot of resources.

Of course, to accept these one hundred thousand people, Wubei Territory still had to prepare a great many things, with food being the primary issue.

Although the food production of the entire Wubei Territory had increased and farmland had expanded, with the addition of potatoes and rice, it was still insufficient in the face of the surging population.

Therefore, they would still need to purchase a significant amount of food from places like Linchuan Cheng this year.

Oumai left under immense pressure.

Luoning used Wind Wings to arrive above Swamp Town, calling for Kaierluosi while adding points for himself.

After he exhausted his Attribute Points, his progress as a Mage increased to (9561/15000), still over five thousand Attribute Points away from a breakthrough.

Luoning looked at the Achievement Tasks.

Currently, only "Slay a Ninth-Rank Extraordinary Unit" and "Possess a Population of Five Hundred Thousand" could grant ten thousand Attribute Points at once; the others were a bit lacking.

"Ninth-rank extraordinary unit..."

Luoning searched his mind; the only ninth-rank he had encountered so far seemed to be Beiluola Xierwa, and she was not hostile.

"If I take Moonlight Valley, I wonder if I can break through the five-hundred-thousand population mark."

While he was thinking, the dragon arrived at high speed from the direction of Shanlin Town.

"Master, what are your orders for calling me over?"

Luoning smiled mysteriously, "You will know in a moment!"

He did not dawdle, glanced at Kaierluosi's Attribute Panel, and then used 2282 points of Energy Essence on the dragon.

In an instant, the water and fire elements in the sky became abnormally violent.

Kaierluosi seemed to become the eye of a vortex, absorbing all these violent water and fire elements.

Boom! Boom!

Luoning heard a strong and powerful giant heartbeat, and at the same time, Kaierluosi's body grew explosively at this moment!

It was a true explosive growth!

The previous Kaierluosi was just over thirteen meters long, but at this moment, its torso alone reached twelve meters, and with its eighteen-meter tail, its body length reached thirty meters!

Luoning used his Mental Power to collect the falling Dragon Scales while unable to help but ascend to a higher altitude, looking down at this behemoth whose wingspan had surged to seventy-two meters, his heart filled with shock.

He had originally thought the dragon's body length would only increase slightly upon breaking through, but he had not expected such a massive change.

It was like a malnourished dwarf suddenly transforming into a national-level basketball player.

This breakthrough allowed the dragon to completely cast off the shackles brought about by the miserable experiences of the past few hundred years.

"It's a good thing we're at such a high altitude now; otherwise, wings this large would definitely cause quite a stir."

Luoning had not yet finished secretly rejoicing when Kaierluosi, seemingly unable to suppress the pleasure brought by its surging strength, opened its blood-red maw and let out a massive roar.

This sound rang out across the entire Swamp Town like a thunderclap from the nine heavens, causing people to stop their work one after another and look up at the sky in terror.

"What is that?"

"Is that an eagle? Will the five little chicks I raise at home get eaten?"

"Do you have any brains at all? Have you ever seen an eagle this big?"

Although it was at a high altitude, people could still see a massive black shadow.

As the current Guard Officer of Wubei Territory, Ruige nervously gazed at the black shadow in the sky; his intuition told him this was a Magic Beast, and it even seemed to be the Lord's dragon.

But he had seen the dragon before, and it wasn't this big.

Whoosh—

Kaierluosi not only let out a dragon roar but also spewed flames like molten lava.

These flames "poured down for a thousand miles," burning the vast sky completely red, as if it were a fire cloud under the setting sun.

This scene made the commoners even more panicked and distraught, and they dropped their hoes one after another to find places to take shelter.

"Alright Kaierluosi, put away your raging flames!"

Luoning landed on Kaierluosi's head, "Go to the uninhabited Zhaoze."

"Yes, Master!" (End of chapter)