Chapter 187: The Three-Year Period Has Arrived, the Dragon King Returns to His Seat

【Congratulations, you have gained some experience in Artifact Refining.】

Following the sound of a familiar, cold electronic voice, the level of Artifact Refining on Ruan Xing's character panel changed to Tier 3.

She let out a soft sigh of relief.

Three years had passed; she had finally reached Tier 3.

Originally, she had planned to stay in the Xumi Realm for these three years to practice artifact refining and cultivate a bit, saving her points for later.

But she had never left, and she didn't have any good materials on hand, so she could only rely on her old stock; furthermore, the materials scavenged from the Six Suns Study's warehouse were mostly for pill refining.

The Six Suns Study never really valued the individual combat strength of its disciples anyway—since they were all going to be fertilizer once they reached the Golden Core Late Stage, it didn't matter if the disciples had Dharma Artifacts or if the quality was good.

Therefore, aside from the Sumeru Mirror and some materials for low-grade magical artifacts, she hadn't gained much.

The Dharma Artifacts belonging to those two Elders and the Study Master had also been blown to bits, leaving only scraps.

Consequently, after refining intermittently for three years, the accumulated experience was still not enough to reach Tier 3.

In the end, she had no choice but to use the Simulator.

Her cultivation had already reached the Yuaning Late Stage; as for why she hadn't reached Spirit Severing, it was mainly due to issues with her cultivation method.

Even with such careful, thrifty usage, she had still simulated many times, emptying her points and leaving her with only ten thousand-plus Spirit Stones; if not for the contract with Wanbao Tower, which allowed her to have them deliver pill-refining materials to Yunyang City so she could open the furnace and refine over a dozen batches of Fifth-Tier pills herself, she probably would have been poor enough to start using the Spirit Stones from the Sect's treasury.

However, there were gains; Ruan Tao and Hu San had both been equipped with mid-grade Dharma Swords.

It is worth mentioning that Hu San had also reached the Golden Core Stage a few months ago, and Ruan Xing had personally guarded the array for him, allowing him to pass the Heavenly Tribulation without any mishaps.

She had also distributed all the rewards she had promised the disciples, but what surprised Ruan Xing was that the first disciple to reach the Foundation Establishment stage was not one of those who had started cultivating five years ago, but the latecomer Liu Shouye.

After the reforms within the Xumi Realm were completed, it took less than three months for Xu Can to use the National Teacher Palace and the Red Head Gang to weaken the influence in the imperial court.

Originally, the National Teacher Palace's word carried more weight than the Emperor's, and now it was even more absurd: the National Teacher Palace ranked first, the City Lord Mansion and gang forces ranked second, and the imperial court was basically ignored; even if officials had opinions, they could only grumble during court meetings, as they held no martial artists in their hands—this was the benefit of the former imperial family's tight control over Luoqi Pills.

Except for the imperial family, no one could use Luoqi Pills; to practice martial arts and reach the Innate realm, one had to rely on the Emperor, so only the Patrol Division could be fully controlled by the Emperor, and only by becoming a Qianling Guard could one become the Emperor's confidant, though Liu Shouye was an exception.

Unfortunately, those Innate-realm eunuchs and Qianling Guards had already been quietly crippled by Ruan Xing using Magic Arts on the day of the coup, leaving them to die by the sword.

The voices of the noble families grew weaker and weaker, and after half a year, there was no need to hold court meetings at all.

The Inner Court took over the work of the Household Tax Division, while the City Lord Mansion and the gangs replaced the Political Affairs Department and the Patrol Division; the inaction led by Xu Can and Liu Shouye had unexpectedly turned all the officials into mere mascots with empty titles.

The rest was simple: the Three Lives Academy merged with the private schools previously managed by the Government, and in terms of ideological education, there was the Three Lives Fairy and the Three Lives Academy; students who possessed Spirit Bones went to the National Teacher Palace, while those without them stayed at the school or entered the Inner Court.

The Patrol Division's secretaries and guards were all disbanded and placed into the City Lord Mansion and the Red Head Gang.

The management model was already eighty percent similar to the towns within the Cultivation world, though Ruan Xing felt that her method was gentler and fairer to the commoners at the bottom compared to those towns governed by sects; at least more than half of the managers were commoners, unlike the Cultivation world, where it was impossible to hold a position without cultivation, and most cultivators with cultivation looked down on commoners, creating a vicious cycle.

Thus, the feudal dynasty within the Xumi Realm existed in name only.

Xu Can had once asked her what she thought of the current national title and whether she wanted to change it.

Ruan Xing waved her hand dismissively and said, "What's the point of changing it? It's something that will disappear sooner or later."

And so, from beginning to end, she never knew what the name of this country was.

Because the progress had accelerated, Xu Can and Liu Shouye returned to the Fengling Yueying Sect in less than a year, leaving only the Fairy, Sun Xian, and a group of newly initiated disciples in the Xumi Realm.

This made Ruan Xing sigh at what kind of heaven-defying, ghostly luck Liu Shouye had.

To go from a beginner to Foundation Establishment in just over two years, and he was cultivating Immortal Methods, not Demon arts.

By calculation, he was even faster than the male lead in the original plot.

However, given that Liu Shouye was considered one of her own, Ruan Xing was quite happy to see it happen.

The other two who reached Foundation Establishment were Xu Can and Wang Dongxing; they were both rewarded with a low-grade magical artifact and were quite excited for a while.

The few disciples who reached Foundation Establishment later were all Demon Cultivators practicing in the Righteousness Manor within the Xumi Realm; although they couldn't receive Dharma Artifacts, Ruan Xing still gave them a few bottles of pills as a token of comfort.

According to the current progress, it was estimated that in a few more years, the scale of the Fengling Yueying Sect would be able to catch up to the Nanzhou Xuanbing Sect of six years ago.

One Nascent Soul Sect Master, two Golden Core Elders, plus over a hundred Foundation Establishment disciples and nearly a thousand Qi Refining Outer Sect Disciples—heh, quite a coincidence.

These three years had been like spending money like water; the taxes from surrounding towns and the proceeds from disciples hunting Monster Beasts simply couldn't sustain the Sect's expenses, and the original two hundred thousand Spirit Stones in the treasury had already been spent by over ten thousand—this was still because there were too few disciples above the Foundation Establishment stage; once there were more, it was conservatively estimated that it would cost around ten thousand a year.

The entire Sect couldn't rely on Ruan Xing alone to make money; there had to be more sources of Spirit Stones.

Other people's sects had Secret Realms, Spirit Veins, Mines, and the like.

The Six Suns Study had nothing, just a tiny bit of a Spirit Vein, which was occupied by the Boundary Tree; those disciples of theirs could only use the Spirit Gathering Array to eat the scraps of the Spirit Vein.

The B-grade and C-grade people left behind by the Six Suns Study were basically people sent by small families from various towns in Nanzhou; upon hearing the news that the Six Suns Study had changed hands, they came one after another to take their people back, and Ruan Xing had the Boundary Tree modify their memories before letting them go.

Naturally, the Spirit Stones were not refunded; if they wanted the money the Six Suns Study had collected, they should go ask them—why come to my Fengling Yueying Sect? Of course, they didn't dare to ask; the transaction was shady to begin with, and they weren't clear about the strength of the Fengling Yueying Sect, so they slunk away.

As for the A-grade person who died, when they sent Spirit Stones in the second year, Ruan Xing simply played dumb, saying she didn't know and didn't recognize them; that person didn't pester her either and went back with the Spirit Stones, and Ruan Xing had the Sword follow that person for a distance, discovering they were returning to Xizhou.

After waiting for another period of time, she didn't see any follow-up, so she guessed that the people over there didn't want to cause more trouble.

As for the last remaining A-grade person, when they came to deliver Spirit Stones in the following two years, they didn't say a word, threw the Storage Bag at the mountain gate, and left in a hurry; both times, it was unfortunate that Ruan Xing was inside the Xumi Realm, and by the time she returned, it was too late to find anyone.

After thinking it over, she simply had that A-grade person cultivate as a Demon.

He originally had no Spirit Bone and had been a guard in the Patrol Division, only one step away from the Innate realm; after feeding him Luoqi Pills for a few months, she sent him to the Righteousness Manor to become a Demon Cultivator, and he was among those who reached Foundation Establishment this time. Thinking about it, now that this person had cultivated as a Demon, it could be considered a handle; as long as the person who sent the Spirit Stones still wanted him after investing for so many years, there would be something to talk about.

However, the person who came from Xizhou did give Ruan Xing a bit of an idea.

Xizhou was popular for eating Spirit Food; any cultivation family over there with a bit of strength would stuff it into their mouths.

On this mountain of the Fengling Yueying Sect, there were only a few acres of land where Spirit Rice and Spirit plants could be grown, and the disciples couldn't even divide it up; most disciples had nothing to do besides cultivating, and seeing that they were about to reach Foundation Establishment but didn't have enough contribution points to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill, they were worried too!

And then there was the National Teacher Palace in the Xumi Realm, which had nearly a thousand people, all of whom only cultivated and didn't work; how could the Fairy need so many disciples to serve her alone?

There were large areas of open land in the Xumi Realm that could be utilized to grow Spirit plants, preferably Spirit Fruit trees; Spirit plants and fruits needed to be kept in jade boxes to isolate Spirit Qi and prevent it from dissipating, but Spirit wine didn't—anyway, they were all low-tier products; brewing them into Spirit wine and transporting them to Central Province or Xizhou to sell should bring in quite a bit of income.

Thinking of this, Ruan Xing planned to go out to the Xumi Realm to mention this idea to the Fairy and Sun Xian.

Most of the disciples in the National Teacher Palace were taken in by the Fairy, while those taken in by the Demon Lord stayed in the Righteousness Manor.

To get this done, Sun Xian would have to be the one to do the hard labor.

She hurried to the National Teacher Palace, and the Fairy agreed as soon as she heard it, "That is fine; the number of pills consumed by the disciples for cultivation has increased sharply, so it is time to have more income."

Sun Xian, however, frowned in worry, "Where should we set the location?"

Actually, this problem wasn't too hard to solve, because Xu Can had confiscated so many properties in the Capital that five or six out of every ten noble residences were empty; after the reputation of the National Teacher Palace and the Three Lives Fairy spread, the gentry and merchants from the other five cities spontaneously gathered toward the Capital, and Xu Can sold the houses to these people, but unfortunately, what he got in exchange was only Silver and banknotes, and the amount converted into Spirit Stones was pitifully small.

The Capital is becoming increasingly prosperous, and the population within the five cities is slightly sparse; it can be estimated that the more people who engage in Cultivation, the fewer who marry and have children, and I fear that in a few decades, these 150,000 to 160,000 people will decrease by more than a fifth.

However, as for the population, quality is better than quantity; if there are too many people, resources won't be enough to go around, and if everyone can't even eat and acts like beasts of burden all day, where would the sense of well-being come from?

It is normal for it to decrease, and Ruan Xing does not care.

During this time, Sun Xian has also regained a bit of the feeling of being an official while managing the mortals; he is considering whether to relocate the residents living on the land of one city to use as a planting base for Ruan Xing.

"Is that necessary? Since every city has a Righteousness Manor and cemetery, and there are enough disciples to look after them, wouldn't it be fine to just mark off a piece of land in each city?" Ruan Xing said while stroking her chin.

"Then how can we ensure that the commoners won't take the opportunity to steal?" Sun Xian sighed. "According to what the Sect Master said, what is being planted are all low-grade spirit plants, so there is no need to set up arrays; it would be a loss that outweighs the gain, but relying solely on disciples to patrol day and night might not be enough to strictly guard them, as they have only just begun Qi Refining and are not much stronger than mortals."

An Acquired Realm martial artist can handle a Cultivator below Qi Refining Layer 3 as easily as pinching a chick.

It is no wonder Sun Xian has such concerns.

"Then write a few more stories and create a few cases to make them feel awe," Ruan Xing said. "Since the Three Lives Fairy can enter the dreams of the National Preceptor and the Emperor, why can't she enter the dreams of mortals to punish evildoers?"

As long as we can fool them for these few years, that will be enough.

The cultivation techniques of the Six Suns Study are too focused on quick success; Sun Xian has never left the house or fought anyone from Qi Refining to Golden Core, so naturally, he looks down on the Qi Refining stage.

But Ruan Xing knows that after Qi Refining Layer 6, one can project their Divine Sense; with something like Divine Sense that is comparable to infrared surveillance, who could steal? It is just that disciples above Qi Refining Layer 6 are currently too rare.

I have to think of a way to deal with this.

"Since that is the case, I will go handle it immediately, but I do think there is one place where it can be implemented in the first batch," Sun Xian said.

"Where?"

"The Imperial Palace."

After Xu Can left the Imperial Palace, only three concubines, one child, and a bunch of eunuchs and palace maids remained; they were locked inside, left to fend for themselves.

Sun Xian explained: "The Imperial Palace is of no use now, but the place is spacious, and it still has the previous barrier that can be temporarily used, so it is the most suitable."

Moreover, those eunuchs and palace maids can be put to use; some old buildings and palaces can be directly torn down to become land suitable for planting.

"That works," Ruan Xing nodded. "And the underground water bubble of the National Teacher Palace..."

Sun Xian's expression became somewhat strange.

The scene he saw in the underground water bubble has already become a shadow over his entire life.

"It can be used to raise fish; I remember there is a type of Monster Beast in Xizhou called the Silver White Fish. Although its Spirit Qi is weak, the meat is delicious, the nature is mild, it is suitable for children who have not yet drawn in Qi to eat, and it reproduces quickly, likes shade, avoids light, and the price is not low. Try raising some."

Ruan Xing remembers seeing the fish when she was in Xizhou shopping with Qintai He.

Moreover, this fish is an industry of the Qintai Family itself; it shouldn't be difficult to ask him for advice on farming methods and buy some fish fry, as long as she doesn't sell them to Xizhou and compete with the Qintai Family for business.

The area of the underground water bubble is not large, so not many can be raised, but after the Boundary Tree died, the place under the stairs became empty, and almost all of it turned into mud at the bottom of the water.

As for the seed, she transplanted it next to the pool in the basement; it has just sprouted, the exposed branches are less than a meter long, and now the barriers of the Xumi Realm and the Fengling Yueying Sect all rely on it for support.

However, its intelligence is much clearer than when it was a seed.

It is already able to distinguish people.

It remembers that Ruan Xing is not the person who made a promise to it, but Ruan Xing helped it find its mother, so it is still quite close to Ruan Xing.

It just doesn't like A Jiao and the Sword.

So every time Ruan Xing looks for it, she has to go alone, otherwise the little seed will pretend it hasn't woken up and ignore her.

Ruan Xing was immersed in her own thoughts when she heard Sun Xian say with some pleasant surprise: "The Sect Master is allowing me to leave the Xumi Realm? This disciple is willing to go to Xizhou to share the Sect Master's burdens!"

Ruan Xing rolled her eyes. "How many connections do you have in Xizhou? I don't need you."

Sun Xian then laughed sheepishly, lowered his head in disappointment, and turned to go handle the matter of the planting base.

Sigh, it has already been three years; when will the Sect Master finally trust him and treat him as one of her own!