Chapter 5- More Progress!

Inside the inn, there was a lady who was clearly out of place with her dignified composure unlike the rowdy crowd of people drinking and eating in the background. 

Turning her head sideways, "So you've came".  Although anyone would think that she is a kind and gentle lady, she is actually a cunning two face Yao Jing (6)*

Taking a seat while ordering a simple meal, "Speak, don't say anything irrelevant." Liang Chen was suspicious of the inn in general, it was somewhat far away from any residential housings and was near business that already closed. Plus the restaurant looked brand new. 

Not everyone with a brain could figure out these points if they didn't pay attention, which was exactly what Yu Yan wanted to happen. 

Yu Yan made up some gibberish about how she gained the favor of a direct disciple which was partly true, and how she will vouch for him to return to the sect and fight back against Tian Ming. 

The entire time, she encouraged Liang Chen to keep drinking while faking sips herself. Now that Liang Chen had the system, he could easily identify what he was drinking. The same old poison, but more potent this time. He simply bought an antidote and secretly poured it into his drink

System prepare a protective formation around me but only activate it when I say so.

[Affirmative]

Liang Chen pretended to be drunk while Yu Yan carried him to her room. Suddenly, with lightning quick speed, a sharp black needle flew out of Yu Yan's sleeves. She was confident that Liang Chen would be too slow to dodge or block because he was heavily drugged. 

-Ssssssh

The thin needle immediately melted upon touching Jiang Chen's skin a strange tiny beetle crawled out of the needle also burned. Jiang Chen sneered inwardly, although he expected something devious, he did not expect Yu Yan and Tian Ming to actually try to possess him. 

Jiang Chen chained up Yu Yan and forced her to tell him everything. It was worse than he expected, there was a deeper conspiracy behind his death but Yu Yan and Tian Ming was only pawns of the chess game. A 4 dimensional chess game that is full of layers and holes. 

Jiang Chen knew that he escaped the first hole now he has no choice but to delve deeper into this mystery. He would have to take over several prefectures before destroying Hua Prefecture.

He killed her before using her voice transmission to tell Tian Ming that she killed Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen found in Yu Yan's sea of information that Tian Ming was actually the bastard son of the 3rd concubine of the Tian Emperor, so he was not ready to fight back yet. 

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-Inside General Zhou's hall of honor

"Yuck I'm actually seeing that pig again, why does my wedding have to come so quick?" Thought Yin Yue as she looked at Zhou Ling with a wrinkled brow.

Zhou Ling paid no attention to her as he know towed to his father. Yin Yue does the same. 

"You may rise"

Zhou Ling and Yin Yue might not like each other but they both know what their marriage was really about and showed respect in front of General Zhou. They chatted about the coming days of the wedding and who to invite.

They invited all the nobles in Zhou and Tang Prefecture. Obviously they also invited the Emperor knowing very well that he can decide not to attend. It was only a matter of formalities for the Emperor.

"Well father, I'll be leaving now… take care Yin Yue." Zhou Ling did not want to waste too much time and quickly walked out to find his real lover.

Yin Yue merely nodded before heading to her room. 

"Haisss, there will be a massive tribulation coming forth, I can only do this to protect you my son."

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-Jiang Chen's City/Base of operation

Jiang Chen sat on his richly sculpted mahogany Ivory chair while nodding approvingly at his base set up on the system map. In front of him was his loyal generals who stood upright with respect in their eyes. 

By only a few days, the generals were adept in several fields of studies, thus becoming worthy generals of the soon to be Myriad Heavens Empire.

Jiang Chen decided to buy several hundred more troops from the system ranging from swordsman, archers, poison masters, formation masters, alchemists, and much more. Of course they are all Peak 1st golden gate cultivators since he can just train them up with his unlimited supply of food and training manuals. Even the Zhou prefecture did not have an entire army of just cultivators, after all cultivators were not grown like vegetables. But for Jiang Chen, they did.

Jiang Chen also created better roads that would last centuries and split his city into sections.

The entire city looked like an enormous dart board with each section becoming smaller as it nears the bullseye.

The first section was the one closest to the walls, it was were the farms and markets are. Also military buildings to deploy ordinary soldiers. 

Jiang Chen also bought more land up to 500 by 500 li roughly. Each section of the walls also had formation spells that activate using spirit stones or spiritual power instilled by the soldiers. Jiang Chen sold most of his low level monster cores for gold and spirit stones that he could easily refine himself. 

Sadly, he still couldn't use his own gold as money and had to trade it for gold coins. Which resulted in huge net losses. 

He bought a total of 1000 Peak 1st golden gate cultivators. He hoped by the end of the year they would all at least be at Peak 8th golden gate cultivators. He supplied them with the best environment and resources just the pampered princes. 

The second section is in the lower middle of the city, it contained housing for his soldiers and also contained better permanent shops so their can be jobs and an economy. There wouldn't be any farms or mine or anything of that nature, since he bought the automatic farms for that. 

Jiang Chen didn't really understand the economy or anything like that so he handed this responsibility to one of his more intelligent generals, Guan Yin. 

The middle section contained the training fields and major military buildings including, alchemist workshops, blacksmiths, core refining making workshops, inscription workshops, and military schools handled by the Ancient Sky Sect.

The inner section contained housing for the generals and future officials that would handle the city matters. 

The center section would obviously be an enormous pagoda that Jiang Chen and his most trusted advisors would reside in. 

So far not everything has been implemented. The sections were drawn out and done, but most of the buildings in the middle section were not bought since Jiang Chen did not have enough after he spent most of his wealth on buying cultivators and housings and improving defenses. 

Although Jiang Chen was passively earning money from his shop in Zhang City, he needed more so he decided to go on a two month trip to visit every city in the Zhou Prefecture. 

He also wanted to find some steeds and monsters for his troops. And he believed that there must be remnants of powerful cultivators who failed to ascend beyond the mortal realm.

He remembered that the hidden dragon and phoenix list fight would take place at the capital of the Tian Empire a year later and he wanted to shock the entire Empire by then.

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-Old Hag's Cave 

The old hag flew returned to her cave after observing Jiang Chen for many days. Her mission was to find heaven's favorites and bring them to the Feng Long Alliance. But so far Jiang Chen had not shown any special abilities or constitution or legacy other than a speedy cultivation, which she assumes must've come from the saint level seal he obtained. 

"Sigh, although that boy is mysterious he does nothing all day at his home he only built a few structures. But he cultivates incredibly fast I guess he will do as my champion." Yao Jing took off her disguise which revealed a stunning figure with a mature charm, not a smelly old lady anymore. 

Then she chanted some unknown words and a portal appeared in front of the dark pedestal then she left to another realm .

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"Finally that old hag is gone, I can't even detect her anymore so she could either be dead or super far away," thought Jiang Chen as he looked at his system map and stats, "Good thing I casted an high-level illusion formation that even trick those up to Peak of True spirit realm. Damn I didn't know that an old hag could be so tough!"

Jiang Chen created a teleportation square outside his castle so he can return when he is in danger. 

Jiang wanted to go back to the Howling Forest first, he intended to make it his territory for the first step of his empire takeover plan. 

(6)* An evil seductive demoness