Chapter 7- Trouble Incoming

***

-Somewhere in the ministry of states affairs building in Zhou Prefecture Capital

"Who dares to establish their own pathetic backwater city!" Spat an angry old official who was the right hand man of General Zhou as an advisor.

"I'm, I'm, I'm not sure who it is Official Xi, I heard from my spies that it was someone from the Tang Prefecture," stuttered a middle-age man wiping his sweat nervously. He had no name, or rather a stable name. 

"You better find out! Or your name will be Ben Zhu!" 

"Yes, yes of course this subordinate will surely accomplish this task." The middle age man hurriedly ran out of the office and went to work.

"If this fellow is truly from the Tang Prefecture and dares to set up a city in Zhou Prefecture's territory, then General Zhou might need to rethink his plan." Official Xi murmured as he decides to send a message to warn General Zhou, "But it is strange, Tang Prefecture supports the 9th prince just like the Zhou Prefecture, this could be a misunderstanding… or the Huang Prefecture trying to frame Tang Prefecture and create Discord!"

The old man praised himself for such genius counter-intelligence. Little did he know, he was only partly right. 

***

- Myriad Heavens City

In the next few days since the day of the first wave of immigration, the citizens were all happy and excited for their new life. Most of them never enjoyed hot showers or clean clothes.

Jiang Chen also set up several community centers where anyone can go to meet their neighbors and hopefully build bonds with them and the city.

Jiang Chen wanted his people to not only enjoy life but to have a purpose so he decided to host a dinner with all 3,000 newly recruited citizens. 

***

- POV of a soldier

"Hey man, how long do you think we will stay in this city?" whispered a young man as he walks past the final fields and past the second city wall.

"I don't know man, so far I want to stay forever and start a family. To be honest I was super skeptical in the beginning," replied another young man. 

"Yeah me too, but I heard we get actually work and become a cultivator, isn't that crazy!"

"Well here we are the sub-Ancient Sky sect. This is where we can become master cultivators. On the pamphlet it says that the real one is deeper in the city, but those are for cultivators who reached at least 4th golden gate."

"Show your identifications please," said a statue.

"Man and there are talking statues and puppets, I hope I can make a puppet, those are seriously so cool," said the young man as he flashes his name-plate.

The other young man does the same, "Heh, I can already loan for a house since I'm actually a 1st level painter," boasted the other young man.

"No way! You can already have a free shop right?"

"Exactly. With the city's resources I can reach 2nd level soon and create pictures that come to life!"

"Thats level 4, master told me!"

"Hehe that's what I meant that I meant."

The two young men were best friends since they were little kids, they were raised by a master painter who unfortunately passed away. Being at an age where adventure is of importance for young men, they went to visit the city and were shocked at the quality of the streets and houses.

The streets were paved like the capital city of the Zhou Prefecture, layered by several layers of sediments and rocks smooth stone. There were also gutters that collected rain water. 

There nice looking lanterns on the wide streets for people and carriages, the houses and shops were lined up in a neat fashion, and the majestic city walls created a city that was comparable to the capital. 

***

The soldiers perspective was similar for most of the new citizens. The city patrols were at least Peak 4th golden gate so any fights or disagreements would be handled easily. 

In this world, cultivators were extremely rare so massive war machines like spirit stone powered ballistas, rocket arrow launcher, and rarely used alchemist black powder that caused devastating explosion without spirit stones were used.

All of these weapons were practical and widespread except for weapons relation to black powder weapons. 

Jiang Chen couldn't buy them from the system store, so he had to find people who are adept in the ways of smithing. 

He wanted to send three people to each border cities of Zhang City; Hui, Lao, Guo, Yang. These cities not only was close to Zhang City but also had close diplomatic and economic relationships. 

But first he needed paintings, shining gold and books of higher knowledge to truly convince alchemists, dan and pellet refiners, inscription master, formation masters, and other profession such as those. 

I should have enough money after the first year of crops and materials. I should have monthly conquests of the Sky-piercing mountains islands beyond the southern border. Jiang Chen decided after his shipbuilders were adept and well trained, he would give them blueprints that used the steam engine but replaced coal with spirit stones to travel faster and safer.

Ahhh there's so much to do, I really want to go out but I need to make sure the city will do fine without me. I won't need the illusion border anymore as I have better protection now. 

Jiang Chen looked at his system and choose 30 cultivators to the Howling forest to gather information and resources. He equipped them each with a high-rank spatial ring and 5 communication talisman. 

After a few weeks, the people no longer found the city foreign but rather close to their hearts. Many of them had chances to train in the sect and of those that were not qualified, they felt pride for those that did. 

They cheered every time the soldiers came back with corpses of monster that would be converted to medicine, dans, pellets, potions, inscriptions, part of formations, and others. 

In those weeks Jiang Chen had gathered an enormous collection of such resources. The crops are also growing faster and miners have laughed heartily at the magical mines the system provides. 

Upon entering the mine, there would be a large makeshift room with all kinds of mining tools and equipment. 

The people received special silk cloth masks that greatly improved the air quality they breathed in. 

The mines were actually in the mountains in the northern part of the Tian Empire. It shared Borders with the Shui empire, only the emperors knew that they were part of the Feng long alliance. 

The alliance was established for the fight of the divine will among the myriad of races on the extremely large planet. 

So the mountain ranges provided basically infinite amounts of resources for the city. 

On the 100th day since the people came, Jiang Chen hosted a huge party for the 3,000 something people. Over the course of the weeks, some actually messaged their friends and families to move in too.

"I heard the city lord is going to host a party in the center city!"

"Me too! The newspaper was given by the 'post office'."

"Yeah, there are so many strange but wonderful things about this city. It's so familiar yet not."

"Exactly, honestly I have never lived better days even though I was a merchant."

"Hey there's our friends! Let's head over there!"

All the citizens woke up early in the morning and ate their plentiful breakfast. Some went to restaurants, some ate at the sect courtyards, while some ate at home. Everyone was excited for the day and night.

Many also woke up even earlier to set up stalls in the open field of the center city to sell their goods. After few weeks, the city was equivalent to those cities of hundred years of development. It was truly a sight to behold. 

Jiang Chen did not send envoys for alchemists yet, he wanted to defeat all cities in Zhou Prefecture all at once to prevent the Empire from retaliating immediately. He wanted them to be wary and respect his future empire.