Chapter 78

In a flash, it was afternoon.

After presiding over the ceremony, Sang Gui came with Song Huawen to pay respects to Zhang Gui and report to him how successful the effect of his "Spiritual Chicken Soup" was across the country.

Soaking in the boiling water, Zhang Gui grabbed the molten ore with his hands and rubbed it hard against his body;

While baring his teeth, he said:

"I actually already had a premonition that this troop training might have the effect of uniting people's hearts.

I just didn't expect the result to be even better than I anticipated.

It seems I was conservative.

In addition, through the first large-scale refining of Stone Corpse Soldiers, I discovered that I can already bestow some other Divine Cluster abilities upon the Stone Corpse Soldiers through rituals.

It's that giant transformation.

I feel it should be very useful when fighting wars.

Song Gong is a scholar, so it doesn't make much sense to add such patches.

But Sang Gui will be able to have one more ability next time he is promoted to a Hundred-Stone Corpse Soldier.

Also, the "Shadow Water Spirit Wall" in the opposite palace can already be used preliminarily.

In the future, every serving officer and soldier will have the benefit of ten hours per week to practice Dao-entry techniques in front of the "Shadow Water Spirit Wall."

The same goes for graded civil officials.

As for you two, Song Gong and Sang Gui, you are special cases and can practice whenever you arrive, without time limits.

Furthermore, any citizen who successfully enters the Dao can also enjoy the benefit of practicing at the "Shadow Water Spirit Wall" whenever they arrive.

This does not count as a privilege.

The Guiyang Palace is my residence, which is my private property.

The "Shadow Water Spirit Wall" is inside the Guiyang Palace, so it is naturally private property as well.

I am opening it to some citizens with special status to a limited extent, which is my kindness.

I am opening it to you for life because of our private friendship."

Hearing this, Song Huawen and Sang Gui were naturally moved to tears.

This makeshift True Dragon team first had the territory to establish a nation;

Then they had cities and a food source that fell from the sky like a pie;

Afterward, they had a sound bureaucratic system and citizens with extremely high obedience and a cultural quality that was quite high for this era;

Now, the final shortcoming, national cohesion and the people's confidence in the country and their personal future, has finally been filled.

Calling it an empire is, of course, still a joke.

But to say it is a small island nation vassal state in the Outer Wild Ocean is already well-deserved.

At this point, Zhang Gui's real-life "Age of Empires" game has achieved its initial success.

He felt secretly proud and continued to discuss his arrangements for the True Dragon Kingdom's next major strategic policy.

Afterward, completing his Divine Cluster cultivation, he teleported back to the Deep Mountain Mushroom Valley in the Dongsheng Continent.

From the perspective of the Mysterious Domain, this is also within the national borders ruled by Zhang Gui and can be influenced by his "Territorial Divine Authority."

Therefore, he immediately sensed something unusual.

Although Giant Serpent Head Island is extremely sparsely populated, there are still quite a few overseas ports and towns scattered across the giant island of over one hundred thousand li.

Coupled with the fact that the island's many human strongholds are all biased toward trade purposes, the flow of people is endless.

It is very normal for the population to be a few hundred more today and a thousand less tomorrow.

Zhang Gui would not care if he sensed it.

But the Mushroom Valley has become completely deserted since he raided "Wangbei Manor."

Suddenly, someone appeared again; not to mention a few, even half a person would be clearly abnormal.

And at this moment, the person who arrived also discovered Zhang Gui's presence.

A sword light broke through the air and transformed into a human figure, landing in front of him.

And this person was Rong Yexiang of the Shuanghu Rong family.

After Rong Anshan and Rong Anqiu feigned death and fainted, because no clues were asked,

He could only redouble his efforts to interrogate those attendants who went to the Siyang Commandery Government Office with Rong Anshan and Rong Anqiu during the grand festival.

Finally, through torture, he obtained an unbelievable answer.

Rong Anshan and Rong Anqiu took over a hundred supplicants, manor guard chiefs, personal attendants, and maids to leave "Wangbei Manor" for the Siyang Commandery Government Office for the New Year, not to facilitate networking.

But to indulge in debauchery in brothels for over ten days.

This result shocked Rong Yexiang, who felt that he had grasped the flaw of this playboy young master, Rong Anshan.

However, he still did not act rashly.

Instead, he went to the Siyang Commandery Government Office to report the case, saying that the manor just bought by the Shuanghu Rong family had been robbed by villains, causing heavy losses.

In the past, when such incidents of "Imperial Merchants" being robbed occurred, as long as it was within the "Ming Song" borders, whether it was the northern frontier or the southern kingdom.

From the province down to the town and county, there was no one who would not exert their full effort.

But this time, it was the exact opposite.

Even if one could see that the government office head appointed by the imperial court wanted to exert some effort.

But the clerks, yamen runners, and eighth or ninth-rank subordinate officials below were all like spinning tops—they wouldn't move unless whipped.

This is like a person's body; although the head is the leader of the six yangs and can command the whole body.

But if it wants to get things done, and all other parts of the body do not cooperate, what can be done?

Rong Yexiang, with his brains and experience, actually knew that this robbery of Wangbei Manor was related to the family's overall layout of taking root in the southern kingdom and shifting from merchants to an aristocratic family.

And purchasing land on a large scale from the Pingyang Zhang family from the very beginning offended the taboos of the local aristocratic snakes in the Siping Commandery and even the entire Eastern Yue Sea Province.

The government head appointed by the imperial court, as a rotating official, could still have some autonomy.

But the eighth or ninth-rank local officials, clerks, and yamen runners in the locality were many of them children of local powerful clan branches.

Even if they were not, if they wanted to live comfortably and prosperously, they would inevitably have intricate connections with them.

Now that this matter, which was like sand in the eyes of many southern frontier aristocratic families, had suffered a setback, how could they possibly exert effort to straighten it out again?

Instead, they would obstruct it, making the Shuanghu Rong family even more troubled.

But knowing is knowing; Rong Yexiang did not expect that it would be commented on by the Shuanghu Rong family's think tank as:

"The Siping Commandery, where the power of aristocratic families in the Eastern Yue Sea Province is the weakest and there is an opportunity to be exploited."

The title of "Imperial Merchant" would become so worthless when clashing with local aristocratic families.

So much so that a commandery government catcher who went to Wangbei Manor to investigate the case said openly to Rong Yexiang:

"The disappearance of stewards, slaves, and livestock in the manor is completely different from property being stolen or robbed while traveling as a merchant.

Ten thousand slaves have hands and feet, and they are all young and strong, so how could they be robbed?

Perhaps it is because they could not bear the master's abuse and colluded to escape and became rebels.

This is not something our local government office should manage.

Instead, you should find the military prefecture or local militia to search and prevent it before it happens."

This sounded quite reasonable at first hearing.

But the local government office was unwilling to manage the robbery case it should manage, and let the victim find the military prefecture government office.

Once Rong Yexiang, who was in charge of this matter for the Rong family, took the bait, it would likely turn into a situation where the locality and the military prefecture kicked the ball to each other.

That would undoubtedly be even worse.

Under these circumstances, Rong Yexiang could only work hard himself.

He led those subordinates who were willing to follow him to use the most stupid method, starting from Wangbei Manor, bit by bit to find traces, and took action.

And the movement of ten thousand people, even after a long time and after several rains and snows, could not be without traces.

After two days of hard work without sleep or rest, they finally found several ruts leading to the Xuanling Mountain Range.

Continuing to track, they arrived at the Deep Mountain Mushroom Valley.

They happened to bump into Zhang Gui.

(End of Chapter)