I Build a Shelter in the Eternal Night

No, they hadn’t even done anything.

"Of course."

Chen Fan looked at the people who had gathered around him and smiled. ’These guys have sharp eyes, figuring out the benefits of the high-speed rail so quickly.’

"The Mortal Realm expects to spend half a year blanketing the Four Areas of Jiangbei with a high-speed rail network."

"But—"

"The construction costs for the high-speed rail network are quite high, so it’s impossible to run it to the doorstep of every one of your factions."

"Dozens of stations will be set up along the routes."

"The locations of these stations are still under consideration and have not yet been finalized."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Pavilion Master of the World Pavilion, the Valley Master of Medicine King Valley, and the others exchanged a look. They all understood the determination in each other’s eyes. They had to secure a station, no matter the cost. This wasn’t just about economics.

It represented far more hidden benefits.

As long as they could secure a station...

Their faction would rise!

’The construction costs are high?’

’They could just bear the costs themselves! They’d pay for it out of their own pockets and would only need Domain Lord Chen to handle the construction. After it was built, they would still pay to use it. All the expenses would be quickly recouped once the high-speed rail was operational.’

To put it more bluntly, women from Jiangnan used to fetch an extremely high price in the brothels of Jiangbei.

They were tender and succulent.

Coupled with the allure of being from Jiangnan, many men flocked to them.

But from now on...

...women from Jiangnan would no longer command such a high price in Jiangbei. A massive number of them would travel to Jiangbei on the high-speed rail. Once the railway was complete, every single trade and industry would be affected.

Furthermore, in the past, if the rainy season arrived early, you could only stay put and wait to die, praying to all the gods and buddhas in the heavens.

Now, if the rainy season arrives early?

You survive the first, least dangerous night, and the next day you just hop on the high-speed rail to another region. Who gives a damn about your rainy season? I’m out of here, what are you gonna do about it?

You can have the house.

What good is a house, anyway?

And another thing. In the past, an unopened white-grade Exotic Treasure might only sell for a few hundred Ghost Stones in Jiangbei, but it could fetch over a thousand in Jiangnan. This price difference was due to the distance, and the Jiangbei Commerce Association used to monopolize the Exotic Treasure trade in Jiangbei.

Aside from the Jiangbei Commerce Association,

no smaller merchant group had the ability to transport Exotic Treasures all the way to the distant Jiangnan to sell them.

The distance was just too great.

But from now on,

that would no longer be the case. The Jiangbei Commerce Association, whose monopoly had already been broken by the Mortal Realm recently, would be completely unable to continue this line of business. Anyone could buy a high-speed rail ticket and take their Exotic Treasures to Jiangnan to sell.

The prices of goods in Jiangnan and Jiangbei would gradually converge until they were nearly identical.

In this great upheaval,

many factions would be driven to ruin. They could either adapt or wait for death. There was no third path.

...

Chen Fan had already left.

The Architect conference continued.

But no one was discussing architectural insights anymore. Everyone was talking about the "Mortal Realm High-speed Rail." The Mortal Realm managed to pull out something new every so often, and each new thing they produced affected countless factions.

The last thing they pulled out was the Silk Road.

And with the boost from the high-speed rail, the explosive growth of the Silk Road would be even more terrifying.

They could already feel it.

A ceaseless tide of Ghost Stones would surge toward the Mortal Realm. The Mortal Realm was located on Nameless Mountain in the northernmost part of Jiangbei, a remote backwater within an already remote region, yet it was aggressively drawing in Ghost Stones from all Four Areas of Jiangbei.

This process was unstoppable.

All they could do was try to get a piece of the pie.

Whoever got a piece would take off.

This was the trend of the era.

No one knew what the Mortal Realm would pull out next, but everyone understood they had to leave people stationed in Mortal City year-round to get the latest news and modify their own faction’s development plans accordingly.

At this moment, everyone knew with absolute clarity that the Mortal Realm wasn’t just some faction that had risen during the rainy season by slaying a Ghost King.

It was a faction

that was changing the entire power structure of the Four Areas of Jiangbei, and it had already become the region’s new center.

The Jiangbei Wilderness would gradually be developed.

Not by the Mortal Realm alone, but by the many other factions that would rush to the area. In the future, this place would no longer be a remote backwater of Jiangbei.

The Mortal Realm was rising at a speed they could barely comprehend.