High Above

"It's indeed them."

When Ian saw Ying Guang, Hui Sword and Redemption Light coming to his lord's mansion, what he thought in his mind was 'sure enough'. Sure enough, they were three old acquaintances.

To be honest, Ian thought that these three people would stay in the Xiahui Territory from the beginning. As Huaiguang's eyes to observe him, he was already prepared, and even gave them the observer position within the Chongling Sect. They stayed, but in the end, these three people went to the Holy Mountain Headquarters for further training and came back two years later.

In fact, this is a relatively normal rhythm. Generally speaking, if ordinary people take over the territory, it will definitely take one or two years to establish authority before carrying out the subsequent management and stability maintenance and related expansion and development work... In other words, during this period, the clergy are What is useless is that they will also become dissatisfied with each other because of the struggle between religious authority and territorial sovereignty.

Two years later, when Ian had secured his position as lord and accepted Huaiguang's help and cooperation, he seemed much more friendly.

But who could have guessed how quickly Ian would improve? In two years, the entire territory has changed so much that it is as incredible as changing a city.

Judging from the remaining surprise on the faces of the three of them, they definitely saw many things beyond their imagination in Xiahui City.

"From now on, I will serve the people in your territory, Lord Earl."

"Look out for each other."

Sister Yingguang bowed to Ian solemnly, and the two paladins also bowed slightly. Ian accepted it calmly, and then led everyone to take their seats with a smile.

The banquet to receive the Huaiguang envoy was very sumptuous, with meat cooked in various ways, high piles of fruits and vegetables, buttered bread, salads sprinkled with mustard and sweet sauce, and a basket on the side contained a roasted chicken wrapped in long leaves. , the juice overflows from the cracks in the golden skin, exuding a rich fragrance.

Although it is rich, it is not luxurious. Ian doesn't like to eat luxury food that may taste better but is more than ten times more expensive. He likes the word 'cost-effective' very much.

At the dinner table, he told Huaiguang one by one about the natural disasters he might have encountered.

For example, the ‘Duke Thorin’ located underground and the possible ‘Evil of the Void’.

For example, the disaster of light far away in the sky has a vague relationship with the "devil".

"My brother Mahdi once communicated with Dragon Island."

Ian lied without the slightest trace of guilt. He spoke very smoothly and naturally, without even the slightest fluctuation in his mind: "Other dragon kings gave the answer of 'possibly', but there is no evidence at the moment. It's just my prophetic hunch. Tell me, the disaster of light is definitely not a natural disaster, but a disaster that occurs only when someone destroys it."

"...We will determine that."

The Archbishop took this very seriously. She is not very tall, so she is sitting in a booster chair, but this does not detract from her majesty: "The Holy Mountain has plans to communicate with Archduke Thorin, but the devil is related to the Disaster of Light... This possibility does not exist. Exceeded our expectations.”

"Thank you for your suggestion."

"As a Terran who also lives on this land, this is my duty."

Ian said modestly.

During the following banquet, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves. Ian accurately grasped everyone's personality, constantly raised interesting topics, and kept the atmosphere at a level where everyone was comfortable at all times.

And during such a pleasant exchange, Ian 'inadvertently' mentioned that he had predicted a 'disaster' about the Xiahui Territory.

"I think this is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster. I have many enemies, and each of them has the ability to destroy half a city."

He said straightforwardly: "I'm not saying that I hope Huaiguang can break his own principles and help me - I mainly want to know whether the three priests who will stay in my territory can protect the people at that time. Not affected by the aftermath of the battle?”

"It would be better if you can cooperate with our medical staff to treat the injured."

On the surface, Ian seemed to just want Yingguang and others to express their stance, but in fact, the content of his inquiry was much more than what appeared on the surface.

After swearing and Tian Yan looked at each other, Archbishop Tian Yan turned his head and said seriously: "Whether it is a man-made disaster or a natural disaster, it needs to be verified. No matter what the outcome is, we will inform you. This is an agreement between prophets."

"As for protecting civilians who have nothing to do with the battle, this is something that anyone with a conscience will do. But even so, our clergy will not act as the 'Huaiguang Church', but as local residents Action, please understand this."

"that's enough."

Ian was very pleased with this.

After all, he is actually not sure whether it is the Flying Flame Land, an attack by the elves' pillar party, or simply some super natural disaster... Terra is a place where nothing is strange, so we can't always think of problems on people. .

Huaiguang, who specializes in examining natural disasters, is willing to try and judge for him, which can reduce a lot of calculations for him... And the fact that the priests are willing to protect the "healing team" is the greatest good news.

If everything really comes to the worst end and the enemy causes great damage to Xiahui City, then the priests who protect the healing team will find that the healing ability of this team is far beyond everyone's imagination.

After that, Ian’s opponents will understand what ‘kill first and heal first’ means.

After the banquet was over, Ian arranged a special residence for the envoys - it was a forty-story residential building located near the commercial street on the east side of the city. It could overlook Xiahui Lake and Yinfeng in the distance. Look at each other.

This is Ian's idea for a 'residential building', and it is also a test of whether the Xiahui Ling construction team has the ability to build high-rise buildings.

The test results are very good. With the help of the earth sublimator and the iron man exoskeleton, the construction team built quickly and well with excellent quality. Even the internal decoration is high-quality, which proves that Xiahui Ling is now very good in civil engineering. It is not inferior to international standards in terms of performance.

But reality has proven that even in residential buildings, property management is more convenient, water, electricity, energy and various material arrangements are also simpler, and even decoration has been arranged.

But for Xiahui leaders, as long as they can live in a detached house, even a shabby small detached house, it is definitely better than living in a building.

after all……

"Your Excellency must be right. I think living in such a building must be very comfortable."

According to a City Hall survey of passers-by, almost 99% of people think that the residential building designed by Ian is very comfortable. They have even tried to move in, but gave up later.

the reason is simple.

"This building is too high - wouldn't it collapse immediately during a war?"

The passerby said bluntly: "Our territory is so good, I don't want to die so early."

That's it.

Since then, Ian has given up on replicating the high-rise buildings of the Earth or the civilization of the previous era on Terra... Yes, it is too stupid. As long as the enemy's Ascendants have no holes in their heads, they will definitely target this kind of building. Buildings with extremely high crowd density are bombarded indiscriminately.

You know, Terra is not like Earth. When the war machine here is activated, it doesn’t matter whether you build civilian buildings or not. It is better to say that they hit civilian buildings. As long as the enemy troops hide in the city, then even the city will be razed. Flat ground.

condemn? It’s a joke. The war on Terra is aimed at the destruction of the country and the annihilation of the species. There is no bloody battlefield that does not deserve the existence of fifth-level forces. Who cares about condemnation? Even ordinary people themselves don’t think there is anything wrong with it. They All you have to do is suppress your sense of existence as much as possible and live.

So, since then, Ian has devoted himself to studying underground living areas and shelter structures.

Only then did he understand why there were so many 'mazes' in the civilization of the previous era... It was not that there were many mazes in the dungeons, but that only the ruins of the dungeons had escaped the disaster of falling from the sky and could become mazes!

Following the staff of the city hall, the Huaiguang envoys settled into the welcome wine of this building named 'Chongling Building', a high-rise building with 'worrying safety'.

Warm rooms, perfect decoration, simple but comfortable beds and bedding...these ordinary details moved this group of bright people.

"The territory they built doesn't seem to indicate that anyone is oppressing anyone."

The other four clergymen who acted separately from the three-person team of Yingguang were elite clergymen from the Imperial Capital Cathedral under the Archbishop of Oaths. During their free movement, they traveled throughout Xiahui City and observed things including Construction sites, interactions between commercial street managers and vendors, patrolling guards, and the operation of alchemy workshops and other areas.

The leader, a cleric wearing flying wing armor and dressed as a knight, said: "The workers at the construction site do not have a 'slave foreman' to whip and scold. Even for the simplest transportation work, the workers have an 'iron man exoskeleton' as a Tools were used and safety regulations (by Terra's standards) were adhered to on the job site, clearly with workers' lives at the forefront."

The second person reported was an old nun. She was about sixty years old. She had a kind face but a serious tone: "The vendors also obeyed the rules very well. No one even littered the whole commercial street. Everyone behaved well." Go to the special trash cans and put the garbage into categories..."

"This is very unbelievable. I even suspected it was some kind of psychic brainwashing. However, after observation, I found that Xiahui's leader had indeed used the 'artificial soul' technology as reported in the intelligence. There was no trace of brainwashing."

This old nun is a psychic, and the light green halo flowing in her eyes can see many truths: "And the managers of the city hall never 'reprimand'. They just make suggestions, and most vendors will obey them." Suggestion. This is wrong, because their hearts are obviously full of fear of some kind of 'punishment'..."

"We don't know the content of the punishment yet, but even by the most stringent standards, the laws of the Xiahui Territory are not considered evil laws. They are even the most kind laws among the hundreds of cities I have traveled to."

"Even the people can be regarded as good citizens, but there is not even a single unruly citizen... In the past, the lords of cities without unruly people relied on violent means to forcibly clear them out, but not in Xiahui City."

"That's not all."

A young warrior of sea origin said: "Because Qingchao, the guard leader of Xia Hui leader, is also a sea origin, and the guards on the road are also willing to chat with me. I learned from them that although they are two Fourteen hours of patrolling, but divided into three shifts, each person only needs to work eight hours a day, overtime is only required at critical moments, and overtime must be paid."

"There must be overtime pay!"

The sea warrior emphasized, his tone was extremely emotional: "Even we don't necessarily get overtime pay!"

"Becoming a paladin means that you voluntarily contribute to the church." Archbishop Tianyan opened his eyes at this moment and reminded: "I work overtime for four hours in the middle of the night every day for more than thirty years, and there is still no overtime pay."

"But you get free coffee every night!" "That's not overtime pay, it's the episcopal benefit."

The position hierarchy within Huaiguang obviously does not exist at all.

But there is also the sequence of seniority and merit.

"alright."

Archbishop Swearing raised his hand and motioned for everyone to stop.

From just now, a light blue halo enveloped the room, preventing all information from being transmitted outside.

She looked around at everyone present and said calmly: "So, our prophet lord is indeed as rumored, using technology to recuperate his manpower, and when he gets the resources, he uses part of them on ordinary people... and Inaga Two similar but different people?”

"indeed so."

Archbishop Tianyan had been meditating just now, and now he nodded as if he had fully understood it: "The most critical part of Xiahui City is the alchemy park - they sent almost all the extra wealth there, and there It also continuously spits out all kinds of brand-new technologies and wealth.”

"Technology is easy to say. Ian Yinfeng has definitely mastered quite a lot of pre-era civilization technologies. Even if some parts are not easy to use in today's high-source and high-energy environment, with his talent comparable to that of a great craftsman, he is absolutely Many new technologies can be improved.

"This is indeed the case. In my opinion, the technology of today's Xiahui Territory is only inferior to the relics of pre-era civilizations like the Imperial Capital. In another five or six years, there will probably be another nascent empire on this land." The whole sky is a 'moving royal court'."

The sky is the main city of the Capital of Learning, which is also the origin of its name. The Mobile Royal Court is the mobile capital of the Cangtian Royal Court. It is a steel fortress that stretches across the Great Plains of Terra. It is a legacy of the civilization of the previous era.

Having said this, Archbishop Tianyan paused, and after confirming that everyone was listening, he emphasized: "But the most important thing is this wealth, and Ian has distributed it all to all the people in the territory."

"If a lord does not oppress his subjects and does not gain wealth from his subjects, then there will be a big problem. Don't forget how the previous lord of Xiahui, Baron Ryan, treated his subjects ... He is not oppressive on the surface, and he also distributes money to everyone."

"What Tianyan means..." the knight in the flying-wing helmet pondered: "Earl Yinfeng is also using his subjects for experiments? Indeed, he popularized artificial souls. If he did not use this to conduct psychic experiments, he would It’s something strange…”

"That's what I suspected at first."

Sister Yingguang coughed. As the person involved, she naturally had the right to speak: "But it turns out that Ian Yinfeng did not conduct any involuntary experiments - there is a notice recruiting experimenters at the door of the laboratory, and the pay is quite high. Heartbeat."

"If someone sells himself for the money, then we can't say anything. What's more, the contract of Xiahui Ling Laboratory includes 'protecting the life of the experimenter'."

Sister Dragonman said solemnly: "I don't think Ian Silverfeng is a villain with ulterior motives like Baron Ryan. On the contrary, we believe that Count Silverfeng is indeed 'paying' at the moment, but this payment is not in vain. A gift, but an ‘investment’.”

"He regards his territory as a farmland. It will naturally cost time and money to open up wasteland and cultivate it. Planting and fertilizers also cost a lot, not to mention the time required to wait for the crops to grow... But if one step goes wrong, the gamble will be lost. ."

"But Earl Yinfeng dares to bet - he is a prophet, of course he dares to bet. This is where he is different from Inaga II."

This conclusion is the result of the exchange between Yingguang, Huijian, and Redemption.

They believe that what Ian is doing now in Xiahui Territory is essentially a big gamble - he is using the resources that are enough for him to grow rapidly to cultivate the territory, so that the territory can better support him in the future. myself.

It may take more than ten years, but as long as he succeeds, in ten years, his power may be able to replace the "Western Grand Duke" in the southwest region of the empire and become the "Southern Grand Duke" entrenched in Nanling.

This may be Ian's true purpose.

To be honest, from this point of view, it is enough to prove that the quality of the clergy of Huaiguang Church has reached a rather terrifying level - they are keenly aware of everything that is wrong in Xiahui City, and their final conclusion is almost correct. .

But unfortunately, the only thing they didn't expect was that Ian's goal was not Nanda Gong at all.

His purpose is to conquer all of Terra.

Because there are hundreds of millions of mistakes in this place, the following inferences are completely wrong.

"Then write the report like this."

Archbishop Swearing couldn't possibly have thought of this. She nodded slightly and announced the end of the meeting: "I have to say that this city did give us a different feeling... the words Earl Yinfeng said goodbye to us, I remember it very clearly."

"Welcome to Xiahui Territory, the birthplace of the new order. You will be pleasantly surprised."

Repeating Ian's words slowly, the archbishop smiled vaguely: "That's true. He is smarter than everyone who tried to take this path in the past."

"Can he change the world?" Archbishop Tianyan asked, and all the other clergymen turned their heads and looked at Archbishop Swearing.

"We don't care."

The archbishop gave the same answer as always: "Humanity chose Ian Silverfeng... In this case, we will not care."

"No."

After thinking for a moment, Archbishop Swearing felt that his words might be wrong: "It was Ian Silverfeng who chose humans."

"This is the most important thing that the First Knight and the White People of Harrison Port have done... They have chained our Earl of Silver Peak... to make 'him' willing to become a human."

"That's Tyra's luck."

at the same time.

The top of the Xiahui Lord's Mansion.

The 'Earl of Yinfeng', who had long been identified by Huaiguang as having 'chosen human beings', looked down at his territory. The silver-green halo of light flowed in his eyes, like the stars in the sky, staring indifferently. .

Ian needs time. His influence will spread with the expansion of Chongling Sect and the gradual improvement of the Heart of Terra. A preliminary systematic alchemy industrial park will be established in Xiakou, where information terminals and various types of information terminals will be mass-produced. Various standard parts.

The artificial intelligence in the virtual realm will gradually take over all the mining areas in the mountain people's territory through this mechanical hand, and will spread from the Xiahui Territory to the entire "Silver Peak Territory".

At the same time, the 'first generation Xiahui leaders' who have experienced war, suffering, and despair on this land are being fed by Ian's continuous information frenzy, through games, radio, newspapers, communications, and television. and various means of 'brainwashing'.

Yes, the human brain does not need to use spiritual energy to brainwash at all. It only needs to be infused with enough information, and people will become the person they want to be.

A person who is loyal to 'happiness and peace', a person who firmly believes that 'Silver Peak Leader is the only light in the world' and 'Ian Silver Peak is the only torch and direction in the world'.

Ian wasn't lying. He is indeed such a person, and he believes it himself, far more than anyone else.

"Disaster...attack. I'm starting to understand the Earthkeepers a little bit."

Standing alone on the armored shoulder of the Cyclops, his long white hair swaying back in the wind, he whispered to himself, showing a cold smile: "A disaster originating from the enemy, a defeat with room for counterattack, It can unite everyone's hearts like never before, making everyone share the same hatred and wish they could eat the enemy's flesh raw and drink the enemy's blood."

"At that time, after passing the test of blood and fire, there will no longer be people from the Mountain Empire in the Yinfeng Territory, only Yinfeng people."

"Whether we want to let it happen or not."

He asked himself this, but Ian already had the answer.

The answer is of course 'no'.

Earthkeeper Axel is just a mortal with insufficient abilities, a weakling who has no choice but to choose this path. He was powerful, but his heart was always full of doubts. He couldn't believe his own charm or his own prestige.

He did not believe that he, like Inaga II in his heyday, could raise his arms and the entire empire would obey his orders, so he could only adopt this cunning, almost sacrificial method.

Use the blood and tears of his people and soldiers to shape the direction of the empire's hearts.

But Ian is different.

"I don't need to do this, I can still win."

Closing his eyes, Ian suppressed his instinctive 'rational' choice. He began to be a little glad that he chose the Fairy Heart... If it weren't for the Fairy Heart, he would probably be more and more inclined to choose the 'theoretical optimal'. 'future', rather than believing in a less likely but 'better future'.

Because rational people will not make the judgment of "believing in their own charm and prestige".

The arrival of the Huaiguang Church envoy is just a prelude.

As time goes by, the envoys of one family after another and one force after another are either single or leading a team.

They either examined or stared at the city curiously, and then were surprised by this new look that was completely different from any other area in Terra, and then began to observe.

Whether it is people or cities, buildings or planning, everything is so new and interesting to other lords on this land...or it may make people uncomfortable.

Xiahui Ling gradually became lively.

The enemy also started taking action at this moment.