Third Progress - Expand (2) and Guan Qing Han's Departure

"Jie Hu. I suggest you return to your tiny Jie's County to strengthen your own force. Based on your ability alone, the Tiger City is still far from able to compete on even ground against the Pheonix City and Ancient Dragon City." Beiping Long warned Jie Hu in a frank manner.

Each of the words he spoke turned into an ethereal dagger that pierced through Jie Hu's heart. And its because his word is accurately hitting on Jie Hu's weak point! As the smallest force inside the Jie's County, the Tiger City often faced with the situation they have to compromise in the distribution of resources and goods.

Although the amount they compromise is not too much, they're not small either. When such a compromising approach is practiced for too long, the visible differences between their allocation of resources become significant to a point it affects the number of cultivators they can focus on growing their strength.

Different from Seven Star Sect that only nurtures their own sect disciples, the Jie's County is filled with people that were also a member of Jie's Clan. Which means, the allocated resources are not for one to monopolize. An even distribution is a must, and a proper report is needed to make sure no monopoly of resources is practiced between the three cities.

This is why Jie Hu planned to outsource the resources that can be distributed back to his own Tiger City. With a sufficient amount of resources once more, he can start focusing in the rebuilding of his own militarized forces, and ditch the position of having to compromise with the other two cities in term of resources.

And gotten warned an outsider like Beiping Long, this is a complete slap on his face. In the term of difference in cultivation strength, he's far pale in comparison against the Inner Qi King. And if to compare their differences in military power, their differences are even worst.

How can a tiny Jie's County with only 3 million population be qualified to fight against the Marquis of the North that commands over 1 million Northern Imperial Army, and his personal troops of 4 million? Even the number of the population in the land belonged to Beiping Clan can easily drown them with a spit from each person.

"Marquis Beiping Long! As an outsider, I don't think you're qualified to muddle with us in this kind of matter!" Jie Hu hesitates to give up. He gathers all the remaining hints of bravery in his body to bring up this question.

"Jie Hu, did I say I am here to join with your little scuffle? I am here not for the sake of my brother in law nor because of my little sister. I am here because you're trying to harm a person important to my beloved goddaughter!"

"I don't see the problem for me to stop you because your action may lead my goddaughter's path in her cultivation bothered by her Inner Demon! Tell me, did I do anything wrong in this matter?" Beiping Long stated his reason to stop them from continuing, plus saving Zhang Wu Ji from harm.

"Since today is quite a good day for me to make an announcement, let me introduce my goddaughter to everyone. Xiao Qing Han, come and meet all these seniors!" following with his ending sentences, Guan Qing Han came forward to everyone to take a look on this young goddaughter of the Marquis of the North.

"Master Liang Tian, City Lord and Commander of Militarized Force, Elder Jie, Cultivator Lanshan Lanyue, this daughter of Marquis Beiping Long pay respect to every elder in this occasion." her manner changed into the much more refined version. Perhaps it was due to the differences in their conduct, she seems changed.

"Humph! Since the Marquis of the North is here on a fortuitous celebration, this Jie Hu will bother the Marquis no longer! It will be rude for this elder to leave without leaving a gift, so, I hope Marquis Goddaughter will not despise this elder's inconsiderate gift!" the elder made an excuse for him to leave this place. But before that, he tosses a bottle with a pill stored within.

Guan Qing Han took the bottle into her hand, and uncork the cap to allow the medicinal Fragrance to spread out of the bottle.

"Qing Han thanked Elder Jie Hu for blessing this Marquis Goddaughter." she bowed at Jie Hu. After he received her reply of intention, the elder left like a flying arrow. The Flying Sword on his feet flies like no tomorrow in a hurry.

Left with Lanshan Lanyue remained staked on the ground, his fate is almost as expected. After the City Lord and Commander of Militarized Forces handled him personally, Zhang Wu Ji and the others were invited into the Flying Ark.

Possessing the width and length three times greater than Zhang Wu Ji's Iron Kong-Que, this Beiping Battle-Ark's presence is many levels above his so-called privatized Flying Ark. The moment the four of them is escorted into their main floor, they're surprised by the existence of not only seatings, even blacksmithing room, Pill-making Room, and Martial Training Room is included in their building plan.

It's was a complete build of a Flying Base.

After the surprises, the main reason for the arrival of this Flying Ark is explained to the three of them. Other than purposely delivering Beiping Ruolan back to her husband, the Marquis of the North is here for two matters.

First of all, is related to the power fighting in the Seven Star County. Under the constant begging from Beiping Ruolan, Beiping Long was forced to make his appearance known to the people for the sake of borrowing somebody else fame to build his own strength.

As for the next reason, it was made up at the last minute before Zhang Wu Ji met his end. Under the begging of his recently adopted Goddaughter, it was impossible for a godfather to reject her wish when she mentioned it. Noticing how much in the affection between the two, he failed to steel his heart to stop the two from seeing each other once more, before they separate.

With her status now, she's no longer a member of the Guan Family any longer. The arrival here this time is for the sake of bidding farewell to her family, who insist to not leaving the Seven Star County no matter what. Given the support from all her family and parents, Guan Qing Han decides to follow where her fate brought her, and renounce her status as the daughter of Guan Family.

This means the marriage agreement between the two families is nullified as well. Although it was sad for the parents of both families, this matter did not end up separating them from keep supporting each another. Added with a sudden burst of wealth into their family, the Guan Family entrusted the Zhang Family to handle their wealth, which make the Li Jiang Town prosper even more.

Based on how it looks, the procedure for the Li Jiang to transform from town into a city is soon to happen. With the number of townsfolk now reaching 800,000 high. But in exchange for this sudden boost in population to happen they absorbed the residents from five villages.

Which means, there will be 4 cities, 18 towns, and 22 villages at the beginning of next year. The changes will assure the increase of population from 4.8 million to 6.02 million in the upcoming year, meaning that the Seven Star Sect is performing excellently in handling their county.

But does this achievement still belonged to the current Seven Star Sect? At this moment, nobody dares to bring up this matter into an open discussion because of the lacking in control and responsibility shown by the sect. Furthermore, they're lack of talented personnel to handle all these days to day matters.

"Erm... Paying respect to the Marquis Goddaughter, how are you doing recently?" it been more than two month Zhang Wu Ji did not meet with her. Although the feeling of longing is not there for some unknown reason, he feels a little lost in his emotion. And because of their differences in status now, Zhang Wu Ji cannot help but to address her is such a way.

While those adults are holding their own discussion, the youths get together at another side to begin their own talk. With Guan Qing Han initiating the conversation, she explained about what happened during the period she wasn't around with everyone in the Apprentice Hall.

In fact, she was taken along with Beiping Ruolan to met her master's family in the Northern Imperial Kingdom. Riding the Flying Sword together, the master and disciple pair traveled across few counties before they reach the outer area of Ping An Peak.

It was here Guan Qing Han's talent in cultivation and chemistry attracts the lone general, Marquis of the North. As a fatherless cultivator, he gets very comfortable with Guan Qing Han and felt that if this girl willing to become his Goddaughter, he can nurture her to become the next potential general for the Northern Imperial Kingdom.

Although the fact she was born as a citizen of the Southern Imperial Kingdom, this doesn't mean she's tied to them at all. With the matter of her parents and clan is settled, her departure from the Southern to Northern will not raise any obstruction from any side of the Imperial family.

Out of his curiosity, Zhang Wu Ji questioned the young lady about when they were younger. Because his attitude did change drastically about ten months ago, Zhang Wu Ji acted like he lost a portion of his memories, and that's included between him and Guan Qing Han's relationship.

Sighing because of disappointment, she begins to narrate the story between the two of them. In fact, when she started to tell the story, Zhang Wu Ji felt he's the one that failed to uphold the promise, and not her. Because up until now, she did not break the promises between the two of them.

The story happened two years ago when Zhang Wu Ji and Guan Qing Han was still too young. Between the two of them, a form of marriage is settled privately between the two of them. To make sure their parents agree with that, they came out with a very sneaky plan.

The moment both of them reaches the consent age for marriage, they come out with a plan that allows their parents to wed the two of them to each another. This plan is where Deity Pavilion come in as a part of the culprits.

As the instigator for this plan, Guan Qing Han first obtains the support from some misses working inside the Deity Pavilion to provide the two with a room that they can have their best moment together. Being a woman that been ill-treated by men daily, they gave their complete support to the pair of lovebirds.

Using the reason to visit the brothel, Zhang Wu Ji went in there first. Following behind is Guan Qing Han, who use the reason for going to fulfill a prayer to escape from the House of Guan for a period of time. There, the two enjoyed their best moment of life.

Although at the end of the week, Zhang Wu Ji was carried home using a stretcher, Guan Qing Han enjoyed it. Transforming from a little lass to a complete woman, she prepared herself to get married to him the next moment when they come to propose.

But who knows! Guan Qing Han's father rejected the proposal! Taking the reason Zhang Wu Ji possess a Trash Martial Body, he felt Zhang Wu Ji not suitable for his daughter!

This is also why in return to vent his lover's anger, Zhang Wu Ji hired some thugs to burn the Botanist Hall! Unexpected to everyone, the one that planned for the burning, is actually the little lass from the Botanist Hall herself, Guan Qing Han!

And with thing escalated from bad to worst, the relationship between the two get more heated when he transmigrated here! Void of any idea between his relationship with this little lass, Zhang Wu Ji treated her like a tigress, plus at the same time, she acted like one of them!

Unfortunately, their status is different from this moment onwards. The further Guan Qing Han goes, more difficult for Zhang Wu Ji to follow, especially when he finally understand the fact, this woman is actually his woman!

"I'm leaving the Southern Imperial Kingdom soon and will become a part of the Northern Imperial Kingdom. Because of my godfather's position in the kingdom, my status will be much different compared to how it was here." Guan Qing Han mentioned about her soon to change status.

And from the way she mentioned this issue, it indicates the fact that she will no longer mingle with Zhang Wu Ji in relation with all of these love and relationship matter.

Hesitated but forced to let go, Zhang Wu Ji left the Beiping Battle-Ark with the Wen Wu City Lord, Commander of Militarized Forces, Headmaster Liang Tian and his wife, Lady Beiping Ruolan. This departure also means that from today onwards, the gap between himself and Guan Qing Han will be distant now.

In a blink, three days passed. With the collapse of Lanshan Lanyue and the dispersal of people from the Lan Shan Clan, the Orchid Mountain has now opened their traveling route once again for the residents of Seven Star County. This means the path to villages and towns under the jurisdiction of Wen Qing City is now accessible.

And under a mutual understanding between the Wen Wu City and Apprentice Hall, the four Inner Qi Lords agreed to expand their power into the northern area of Seven Star County. Since this location has been developed independently without receiving any support from the Seven Star Sect, their opinion against the incoming power may differ from what they expected.

"Zhang Wu Ji! Are you still not coming out from that damn room?" Meng Ran shouted outside of his room. Since the departure of Guan Qing Han from Wen Wu City, he's been keeping himself inside the room for three consecutive days now.

"Is it not working?" his eight attendants asked the lady living beside their master. From the way they look at it, the shock he got this time must be quite significant for their master to hole himself inside the room for so many days.

Noticing that nothing can be done by continuing to stay here, Li Jing, Li Yin, and Li Tong returned to the blacksmithing department .aThe remaining five of them went to collect the completed Nutrition Pill scattered all over the place on order to help speed up the growth of the Yantai County's Mandrake Plant.

Meng Ran continues to educate and train the interested disciples to study the Formation Art. With Yong Lie and Miss Mu returned to their Mystic Engineer Establishment, everyone carries on with their own responsibilities.

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.

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Inside the room where Meng Ran is shouting not long ago, A youth is busy spending all his time and energy to upgrade an item. To understand why he was doing this kind of thing without bothering to answer the call from everyone, we will have to rewind the time back to three days before this.

After returning to the Apprentice Hall, Zhang Wu Ji excused himself and returned to his room. The moment he's inside the room, Zhang Wu Ji felt a hint of loss. He did not know how to describe this feeling, but it was empty for a moment.

In his mind, the anger of hating the previous Zhang Wu Ji for obtaining such a gem in his youth, and even needed to be carried back to their Zhang Manor on a stretcher shows how excited he is to have Guan Qing Han's virginity taken by him.

But in another part of him, he felt happy, for the crazy lady to get out from his life. He has been busy and tired of long, and still have to entertain her antiques which filled with aggressiveness, questions, and weird temperament changes depending on the second, minute, and hour of the day.

Still, his heart is empty. Hating such kind of emotion bothering him, Zhang Wu Ji went to his writing table and begin to fill his loss and emptiness with a serious row of rewriting and upgrading.

Perhaps it was because he's a cultivator at this moment, his photogenic memory and the amount of information he could remember clearly in his head helps him to rewrites the book one after another. At the middle of the rewriting, Zhang Wu Ji though about something ironic.

"How can I remember the content of the books but forget about what I am given with?" he laughed. He feels like he was somebody asking for granted. As a person with [UPGRADE] System in hand, how can he actually forget about upgrading the item he made?

With the Longfeng Jade Ruler in his hand, he whispered [UPGRADE]. But to his disappointment, nothing happened. The Longfeng Jade Ruler still maintained their basic stats. He tried it next on the Bronze-Grade Nourishment Art, and his Martial Tyrant Body Art, but nothing happened to all of them.

After making out a few copies of the manuals, Zhang Wu Ji proceeds to fill his time with something else.

Engraving.

This is what filled his time the most. By exhausting himself to engrave the Ironwood plate with the improved Spatial Formation Inscription, Zhang Wu Ji quickly produces another two hundred Wooden Universal Plate. Trying to upgrade them again, he failed.

"Failed. How does this upgrade work?" Zhang Wu Ji felt there must be something wrong in between his approach in upgrading the items. Does he have a limitation, or because his strength is too weak? By making another copy of his Upper and Middle part of the Seven Star Sword Art, he tried to upgrade them.

[Upper] Seven Star Sword Art +5

[Middle] Seven Star Sword Art +5

"This one can be upgraded instead. What is the problem here?" Zhang Wu Ji upgrades them on purpose until they're failed at +6 and +7. Looking at the two pile of ashes of Failure, Zhang Wu Ji decided to pop a few Yin Essence Pill before going to sleep.

Yin Essence Pill +1

Yin Essence Pill +2

+3

+4

+5

[Ding!]

[Congratulation! You finally succeeded in upgrading 100,000 times! As you have understood the essence in Upgrading, the lock on Tier 1 Material upgrade is now opened.]

[You may now upgrade the lowest tier 2 material to obtain Tier 2 experience.]

[Information Corner!]

[Do you know that the when you reaches the limit for the first 100,000 successful upgrades you will unlock the ability to Upgrade item for that particular stage?]

[Do your best to upgrade everything you see to unlock the +10% Bonus of the tier! It wasn't much, you only need to success 10 million times on that Tier!]