The World Online
chapter-221

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

After the discussion, the members of the Sky Blade Alliance all left unhappily and brought their various troops back to their territories.

This result forced Heise Pifeng up the cliff. He had no choice but to directly write a letter over to Di Chen. He promised that as long as Di Chen was willing to help, Yongye Town would become a vassal of Handan.

Handan County, lord's manor.

Di Chen passed Heise Pifeng's letter over to Fenghua Juedai and asked, “So, what do you think?"

Fenghua Juedai took the letter and scanned through it, “This lord's motives are obvious. He wants to use us to protect his base."

"That's right, but this is also a chance for us. A chance to lock up Shanhai County, right? As long as we nail down this nail, we will gain control over future events," Di Chen had seen through everything.

"The situation isn't clear, and it isn’t easy to make a move. If we provoke a lion, we must have confidence in killing it. If not, it might retaliate and bite us—even swallow us."

Di Chen frowned, “Your idea is to join up with the rest of the Yanhuang Alliance and work together?" The military power of Handan County was definitely not enough to go against Shanhai County, let alone destroy it. As for Yongye Town, it was not even part of his considerations.

Fenghua Juedai shook her head and said, “No, if we use the strength of the Yanhuang Alliance, this could turn into a large scale war between their alliance and ours. Now is not the right time to have a full-scale confrontation with the Shanhai Alliance. We should only fight when the time is right. If we fight now, only the smaller territories will benefit."

"Then, what is your idea?" Di Chen couldn't understand.

"It's very simple. We can't show ourselves in this, so we need to let another person go ahead."

"Sha Pojun?"

"That's right! He has already developed a deep hatred toward Qiyue Wuyi. If we let Heise Pifeng meet up with Sha Pojun, they will immediately click. With this, Handan County will be totally uninvolved, and we will remain unaffected whether they succeed or fail. If it succeeds, it’s naturally a happy thing. But if it fails, we could take the chance to understand their strengths." Fenghua Juedai's tactic of using another to kill her target was incredibly scheming.

"Amazing!" Di Chen was delighted, “We still need to plan the specifics so that it will be enough to hurt that Qiyue Wuyi."

Fenghua Juedai kept quiet and didn't say anything.

8th month, 30th day. Shanhai County collected 8,500 gold in the latter half of the month. In addition to the 4,500 gold that the 1st regiment acquired from raider camps, and the deduction of the class change costs, Shanhai gained a total of 11,500 gold. The Financial Department sent an official to bring four thousand gold to rush to Tianshuang Town and build the Four Seas Bank branch.

Ouyang Shuo kept a thousand gold and passed the remaining 6,500 to the Financial Department. As various projects came to an end, the construction costs would have to be paid on time. The sum that he passed to the Financial Department was totally not enough. Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to the east raider operation to acquire another sum to pass to the Financial Department.

Based on the final calculations, it cost 2,000 gold to build Xinan University, the five bridges cost 500 in total, and the inner city roads also cost a large sum. Even though these roads weren't completed, the invested amount wouldn't be less than five thousand gold. As for the big bridge that connected Shanhai County, Qiushui County, and Friendship County, it cost 1,500 gold.

As the profits from the wine workshop and the colored silkworms increased, the profits grew more and more optimistic. Every month, it already brought in 500 gold. The Four Seas Bank interests rates were also rising, and the monetary help they needed had lessened. If not for that, the profits from the mine and the saltpans alone could never sustain the expansion and growth of the territory.

This round of Shanhai County's basic buildings cost over 10 thousand gold in construction fees. Ouyang Shuo also wanted to start the plans on the outer city roads after the inner city structures were completed. The building of the roads was a bottomless pit, so this wasn't something a normal territory could afford.

Gaia first year, 9th month, 1st day. It was the start of the school season.

"World Notification: the holidays are over, and classes are officially opened. Kids of age can choose whether or not to go to school. They can freely choose their standard and when they go to school, as well as the subjects they will take. Each subject will have tests and marks will be given. The grades will affect their achievement value. As for the specifics, players need to explore for themselves."

In reality, their bodies were frozen, which was similar to time being stopped. Even if players weren't willing to go to school, it wouldn't affect their learning. Hence, the federal government didn't force the students to go to lessons in the game. And from primary school all the way to university, grades would be used to separate students. Thus, they had a huge freedom of choice.

The virtual classes were similar to quest spaces, except time flowed at the same rate as the real map.

Ouyang Shuo had already planned out Bing'er's learning quests. In the morning, she would learn science and cultural knowledge; in the afternoon, Mr. You would teach her Sinology in the lord's manor. He realized that this little brat was slightly rebellious, so he needed to keep her in check. If not she would grow a lot worst.

Ouyang Shuo didn't expect Bing'er to have great achievements when she grew up. He let her learn Sinology to help her develop good values and culture, shaping her into an upright person.

On the same day, Song Jia selected 500 nominal disciples from the 1,000 people that signed up. The design of the Dongli Sword Sect was already completed, and the Construction Division had already sent people to start working on it. The uneven mountain roads added a lot of difficulty to the project. Zhao Dewang predicted that it would take at least a month to complete.

Helplessly, Song Jia could only use a large courtyard in the official residence area to house the 500 nominal disciples and teach them the sect’s techniques.

Song Jia looked really scary when she became serious. This lady took charge of everything that had to do with the sect, and everything had to go through her.

Apart from the sect grounds, there were also other issues to settle when building a sect. Firstly, sect ranks and standards must be set up. Uniforms must be designed based on their positions. Secondly, a set of weapons must be made for the disciples, mainly swords and knives, but also hidden weapons.

Most importantly, the future income source of the sect must be solved. Their daily expenses and the costs for weapons and uniforms all required large amounts of money. Especially weapons, a good exquisite iron sword cost 3 gold. Since Song Jia 500 had nominal disciples, each one having a sword would mean 1,500 gold.

The sects of old would have vast quantities of farmland at the bottom of their mountains, which they would utilize to earn money through agriculture. Alternatively, they would have their junior disciples run hotels, inns, or brothels in the city; or they would sell salt or transport goods—all profitable businesses. They could also be a beggar sect and ask the lower ranked disciples to beg for money, resulting in a sizeable income. The worst case was for them to do some robbing to earn money.

What about Dongli Sect? The bottom of the lone peak could be reclaimed as farmland, but no farmer would be willing to do so. As Shanhai County had large amounts of arable land waiting to be reclaimed, unless their brains had a problem, they would not go and be a tenant and rent a piece of farmland under the Dongli Sect. If one talked about shops, most shops in Shanhai County already had owners, and it was hard to get into businesses. Furthermore, they needed talent and money to run a shop, neither of which the sect had. As for transporting and selling salt, the authorities handle both of these, and Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make an exception even for Song Jia.

Thanks to the current situation, Song Jia finally realized that it was tough to run a sect. Helplessly, she could only take 1,000 gold away from Ouyang Shuo.

Song Jia was from the Song Family Financial group, so she had a mind for business.

She knew that she couldn't randomly spend the 1,000 gold, and she couldn't just ask Ouyang Shuo for money every time she needed it. He had given her the secret manual, he had chosen the sect location, and even the recruiting of members used the name of the lord's manor. His city’s Construction Division had built her sect, and he had paid the fees. If this continued, she wouldn't be helping him. Instead, she would be causing problems for him.

After she pondered for awhile, Song Jia thought of a good idea.

As the Chinese said, if you face a mountain, you depend on the mountain; if you face the water, you depend on the water.

To earn money, she had to make use of the lone peak—other ideas were not dependable. The lone peak platform was a pleasant environment to grow herbs, and there were suitable spots for both herbs that liked the sun or the darkness. If they could build a medicine garden, it could let the money roll in.

As for the sales of the medicine, the Medical Department wouldn't reject them.

After Ouyang Shuo heard Song Jia's idea, he was very supportive. He personally brought her to greet Dr.Song and the manager of the medicine garden. Then, he asked them to send men to guide them on how to build a medicine garden on the mountain.

The medicine garden in the territory was built in the east suburbs, as it was a basic building. Its environment was naturally bad, and the medicines didn't grow well. As such, it couldn't keep up with the needs of the medical department. This problem had annoyed Dr.Song, so he obviously supported this suggestion wholeheartedly.

Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also specifically found Tian Wenjing and asked him to contact the mountain barbarians. They would be tasked with collecting seeds and seedlings. Then, they would pass the collected items to Song Jia and ask her to let men plant them on the mountain.

Ouyang Shuo moved a lot of resources to help Song Jia build a 1,000 mu medicine garden on the lone peak platform.