Dragon Tamer - Chapter 519
Chapter 519: Chapter 521 Unusual Changes in Li Chuan
But these did not stop the Imperial Dynasty’s people from continuing to explore the Ancient Ruins of Li Chuan. These Ancient Ruins were not deserted valleys like the tea-colored grounds; they were likely similar to the ancient temples of the Cloud Dragon Country, allowing an imperial dynasty to stand gloriously through the ages, maintaining its ruling position.
…
Upon arriving in Rui Country, this nation of grasslands and lakes, it seemed to have undergone a significant change. After suffering a defeat, they appeared even more prosperous. The city walls stood tall and mighty, the army was orderly, the cultivators adhered to their own precepts, and the common people, riding the wave of influence from Li Chuan, began to display and sell their treasured Lingzhi, Spirit Fruit, Spirit Flowers, and Spirit Beasts, selling as much as they could.
The power of the people was immense, especially in the area of Spirit Gathering. The rich lands of the city states could even collect more spirit resources from the people each year than those forces that monopolized the Spirit Veins and secret realms.
“Old man, what are you selling?” Zhu Minglang was about to enter the city when he saw a stall set up by the city gate and, out of curiosity, asked.
“Spirit Sweet Potatoes!” the old melon seller said proudly.
“Such a large sweet potato, how did you grow it?” Zhu Minglang asked, puzzled.
“Young man, are you going to buy? If you are, I’ll tell you,” the melon seller said.
“Give me one, I’ll feed it to a dragon,” Zhu Minglang said.
“All right, let me tell you, our Li Chuan Kingdom is blessed land. One night, the moon was especially full, the moonlight was incredibly bright, and all the crops that were bathed in the moonlight, they all grew out the next day, all of them containing Spiritual Energy. No exaggeration, my sweet potatoes are comparable to a three-hundred-year-old Lingzhi!” the old man boasted while weighing a sweet potato for Zhu Minglang.
“Old man, that’s quite the tall tale you tell, starting with the very first sentence,” Zhu Minglang couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s wrong with it?” the old man said, a little displeased.
“This is Rui Country, how did it turn into your Li Chuan Kingdom?” Zhu Minglang said.
The people of Rui Country really had some nerve; for the sake of riding the wave of popularity, they didn’t even care about their own country’s name.
Now the old man was even more displeased. He stood up and pulled Zhu Minglang to the very center of the road, then pointed towards the city gate, directing Zhu Minglang to look inside along the main road that led into the city.
Following his gesture, Zhu Minglang suddenly saw a statue made of relatively new stone material erected along the entrance road. That statue… although he could only see the lower half, that skirt and jade foot looked so familiar!
“Do you know who that is?” the old man asked.
“Could it be the Female Monarch?” Zhu Minglang ventured.
“Exactly. Rui Country is no more. A bunch of incompetent rulers; when they were around, we, the people of Rui, were so poor we had to eat grass. Now that the Female Monarch has unified this grassland territory, it has been officially renamed Li Chuan Kingdom. Look at the divine grace we feel now; even the soil is infused with Spiritual Energy not found anywhere else. Whatever you plant grows, toss any seed and it’ll sprout the next day. Where before we saw one Spirit Seedling in several years, now we get at least two or three from a single harvest. Rui was just bad luck, so now we are also citizens of Li Chuan Kingdom!” the old man said, beaming with pride.
“…” Zhu Minglang held the extra-large sweet potato and was at a loss for words for a good while.
The little Li Chuan truly couldn’t contain Li Yunzi’s ambitions.
Rui Country really lacks spirit, to think that after facing defeat, not only did they change their national title, but they even erected the symbol of the Female Monarch’s rule directly on the city walls—a statue of the Female Monarch!
It turns out that Rui Country was just another Wutu, ultimately unable to escape the fate of being conquered.
No wonder the uniforms of the troops patrolling the city walls looked somewhat familiar, they’ve all become the Female Monarch’s Army Guards.
“What did you mean earlier when you said the moon was particularly round, and the moonlight exceptionally bright?” Zhu Minglang continued to ask.
Zhu Minglang cracked open the sweet potato, and sure enough, it contained a trace of spiritual energy. It indeed had a significant effect when used as food for Juvenile Spirits that preferred such fare, although it certainly fell short of the legendary three-hundred-year Lingzhi.
But sweet potatoes are very easy to cultivate, unlike Lingzhi, which requires very harsh growing conditions. If the soil could contain such spiritual energy after being bathed in moonlight, wouldn’t this place be capable of nurturing countless cultivators with high Cultivation Base, and breeding many Dragon Lords and Dragon Kings?
Zhu Minglang then visited a few more stalls and discovered that the crops these old farmers were selling all contained a trace of spiritual energy. Even ordinary fruits and vegetables, leave aside their spiritual energy, were two to three times larger than normal.
Dragons are gluttons, and some regional rulers would even seize half of the peasant’s crops to feed the dragons in the army, and to serve the powerful battlefield Dragon Shepherds.
Dragon Food came from the common people, as did some spiritual resources. Once a land exhibited this phenomenon of spiritual energy, its prosperity could grow at an impressive rate!
No wonder Rui Country, even though newly ruled, seemed to have undergone tremendous changes.
“Could it be that streets of gold and hills full of spirit treasures are real, that Li Chuan has truly witnessed a miracle?” Zhu Minglang murmured to himself.
…
As he continued walking across the Li Chuan Continent, the biggest difference Zhu Minglang could feel was that the route to Li Chuan’s West Cliff seemed as bustling as a marketplace…
As the lava receded and the mist vanished, West Cliff had transformed into a border city beside West Cliff, with towering stone buildings and established roads, and some powers had even set up their base there!
Had it not been for the visible traces of the collision between the continent’s Veins of the Earth and the ground, Zhu Minglang would have thought he was on the wrong path!
After passing West Cliff, Zhu Minglang saw Westland, which was originally a territory of Lingxiao City State but now had become a part of Li Chuan Kingdom, ruled jointly by the Imperial Dynasty and Li Chuan Kingdom.
More than half of Westland’s people died in that battlefield, and those who survived had fallen into slavery. Once order was established, the slaves were freed, turning into laborers and toiling farmers. While life was still hard, it was certainly better than the inhumane conditions they endured as livestock-like slaves before.
Westland also saw the appearance of spiritual energy in the land, primarily in the sand’s green plants. The flowers that grew from these green plants contained dense spiritual energy, and if some Cultivators absorbed their essence, they could increase their Cultivation Base by several years.
Thus, the cultivators who had just entered Li Chuan madly searched everywhere for these desert green plants’ flowers. But they weren’t the only ones vying for these Spirit Flowers; some previously unknown and now powerful demons also joined in the competition!
Westland was still in a state of semi-chaos, with no power to exterminate the demons. The demons could even appear near the dwellings where people lived, similarly attracted by the green plants’ flowers emitting spiritual energy.
Cultivators could advance their Cultivation Base, but these demons, cultivated into essence through long years, were even more demanding…
