Chapter 300: The plan!

After a few discussions on what Duan Li's clone, Utmost Being, must do as the Imperial Overseer, they finally talked about what they had done with Duan Li's money so far.

"Thanks to your money, we are able to purchase significant resources at four times the quantity from the foreign traders this month than our average last year. This includes herbs, pills, metals, construction materials and the necessary ration to expand our military might. In addition, under the pretext of investment from the Jiu Bank Company, I have managed to secure contracts with the various transportation companies for a joint-venture to build more rails for the airtrains!" Liu Sheng Juan said.

He was the Managing Director of the Jiu Bank Company, and through his insights of financial regulations and market exchange, as well as his immense influence, he was able to convince every single figure that he proposed the plan to.

"You invested them into the military?" Duan Li asked in confusion.

He could understand the rationale to build more access points for the airtrain to travel to, which could be used by both civilians, cultivators or just about anyone to travel to any place within the Jiu Empire quickly. This in turns will speed up business activities and would only benefit the empire greatly in the long run.

As for investing into the military, Duan Li had a hard time of thinking the proper reason behind it.

The military consists of cultivators with varying realms and they form the bulk of the fighting power for the Jiu Empire. However, what the empire has right now were mostly average people with average fighting power.

In other words, quantity over quality!

In fact, the reason why the military was not sent out to subjugate the recent monster stampede was because their combined strength was far too inferior compared to the students of the Jixue Knights Academy itself!

While Subjugation Army exists, similar to the Subjugation Squad, and their numbers amount to more than a hundred thousand strong, their cultivation realm were mostly in the Early Stage of the Qi Condensation realm!

Against monster stampede consisting of 1-star rank that could threaten even the toughest cultivator at the Foundation Establishment realm, the Subjugation Army would only be sent to their deathbed if they were to be sent over to fight!

After all, not everyone was lucky enough to be able to enrol and become students of the Jixue Knights Academy. Out of the tens of millions of the citizens of the Jiu Empire, more than 90 percent of the population were fated with a Mortal grade potential, which was the lowest grade below the Inception grade, the minimum required to enter the academy.

In reality, one would be lucky enough just being able to step into the Qi Condensation realm with such a potential in their lifetime since they have to depend on themselves to find the proper cultivation resources to do it.

This situation wasn't unique to just the Jiu Empire though, but to all the other eight empires around the Tian continent as well. However, what makes the other empires stronger than the Jiu Empire was because of the number of true experts they have. For example, the number of Nascent Soul realm experts in the Qin Empire was at least 20 times more than the Jiu Empire!

It's not as if investing heavily into the military would necessarily overcome their potential, and even if every single warrior with a Mortal grade potential was able to miraculously leap into the Qi condensation realm, a single Nascent Soul realm expert could still slaughter a thousand of them easily!

Therefore, why did they invest into the military?

As if being able to read Duan Li's thoughts, the Emperor chuckled.

"It might sound quite the useless endeavor, but we have our reasons." he said while smiling.

"Firstly, the amount of money we have right now is quite staggering, to the point that even if we invest into each sector in the empire, we would still be left with plenty of them to use. It's not to say that we plan to juice up everybody in the military as that would be unrealistic, but we are conducting a special program to selectively choose among them that passed certain criteria." the Emperor flicked his finger and a paper containing the list of criteria appeared on his hand before handing it to Duan Li to assess.

"That's right." Liu Sheng Juan nodded and continued explaining after the Emperor.

"As you are probably informed, about 90 percent of the military consists of people from humble background with no backing at all. Therefore, although most of them only have Mortal grade potential, there are some with Inception grade!" he said with a slight agitation could be heard from his voice.

Hearing this, Duan Li pondered for a moment before asking, "I see.. now I'm beginning to understand it, but that's weird, I thought all the academy in the empire would accept those with Inception grade and above to enrol?"

In the Jiu Empire, the Jixue Knights Academy wasn't the only academy to nurture cultivators, there are many others. The only difference was that Jixue Knights Academy graduates has the potential to become Knights in the future!

The Emperor shook his head, "That's indeed the case. However, resources in the empire is finite, thus we have imposed quota on the number of students each academy could accept every year. Furthermore, each academy has their own criteria and guidelines in accepting students. Take for example the Jixue Knights Academy where you came from, there are three official trials in which one has to overcome before being accepted as a student of the academy."

"For those that failed the trials, they are presented with the opportunity to either enlist in the military as a warrior, or to try again next time. However, because the cooldown period for them to do the latter was three years, which by that time they would have grown older and they needed income to sustain themselves and their family, most of them chose to enlist in the military instead." the Emperor sighed.

The needs of a strong military power couldn't be underestimated just because experts at the Nascent Soul realm could dictate the lives of a few thousands. After all, there could only be so much an individual could do to protect their empire, not to mention the limited number of Nascent Soul realm experts to cover the vast territories of each empire.

In addition, if a war between empires were to occur, experts would have to clash with experts of the opposing party. By then, their hands would be tied. This was where the military comes in. Therefore, possessing superior military might was equally important to possessing a lot of Nascent Soul realm experts!

Contemplating the Emperor and Liu Sheng Juan's words so far, Duan Li suddenly came to a realization.

"Wait... are we preparing for war?" his eyes widened in surprise.

The Emperor and Liu Sheng Juan looked at each other before nodding and replying simultaneously, "We are!"

CRACK!

The tile floor beneath Duan Li's feet suddenly cracked. Upon seeing Duan Li's face that immediately darkened, the Emperor swiftly explained, "Please don't misunderstand. We are not going on the offensive! In fact, we only chose to do this after considering a lot of things together."

Duan Li was enraged to hear that his money was used in preparation for war. After all, war could decimate lands and kill millions of people in its wake! Before the Sun Dragon could descend, perhaps humans might have long perish by their own undoing instead!

Still, he reckoned that they must have their reasons, so he suppressed his anger and urged them to continue.

"Explain!" Duan Li's cold voice permeated the throne hall. This was the first time he acted like this towards them, causing sweats to drenched their backs!

Gulp!

By the looks of it, if they were to say something wrong here, there is a high chance that Duan Li would run amok! Who could stop someone that could stood toe to toe with an immortal?

Liu Sheng Juan took the initiative to start, "I mentioned before that we invested to build more rails for the airtrain right? The moment this project is completed, there is no doubt that the area it touched would prosper in a matter of months, and our economic activity would sharply increase. In this case, the other empires would surely find it weird that our small empire suddenly have the means to become rich overnight. Therefore, what do you think might happen?"

"Enlighten me!" Duan Li replied, not bothered to answer as he wanted the truth directly from their mouths.

Noticing that Duan Li was still upset, Liu Sheng Juan continued, "One, they will investigate our source of money for such rapid developments, and I have no doubt that they will uncover that we have several Superior Quality spirit stones. Two, they will start to focus their attention to our empire and three... they might declare war on us!"

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