Chapter 160 - 122: Silk Road
"..."
Accompanied by Lame Monkey, Chen Fan rode his Skeleton Horse out of the canyon. He stood at the entrance, gazing toward the sea and contemplating his next steps.
The sky was cloudless.
The sun warmed his body, dispelling much of the chill.
But on the other three horizons,
dark clouds loomed—the rainy season in Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Jiangdong.
The canyon entrance was about a thousand meters from the coastline.
He planned to build a new city to the left of Nameless Mountain.
After some deliberation,
he quickly selected a new site.
The only issue was...
the size of the new city. Even for the lowest-level, Level 1 City Wall, one meter cost 10 Ghost Stones. A thousand meters would be 10,000 Ghost Stones. To build a city with four walls, each a thousand meters long, would require 40,000 Ghost Stones for the walls alone.
Not only was the cost immense,
but the result would be a small town. It would be more like a large outpost than a proper city.
This location was not a Natural Ghost Fire Zone.
Maintaining the daily Ghost Fire would also consume Ghost Stones.
"..."
Chen Fan sat silently atop his Skeleton Horse, gazing out at the sea. ’The Yunling Pavilion’s upgrade requires a Sea Embryo, which, as the name suggests, must be found in the sea. Now that the rainy season in Jiangbei is over, the ocean is calm and peaceful. It’s time to start exploring. I’ll find a few people who are good swimmers and see if they can dive into the sea and find anything.’
"This is the spot,"
Chen Fan said softly, pointing to the open space to the left of Nameless Mountain. "We’ll build a small city here for now. The workers Xiaoyu brought back can get started. If they need any materials, the mountain is full of them. They can source everything locally."
"Understood."
...
Soon, the spectral outlines of four thousand-meter-long, Level 1 walls slowly materialized on the open ground. As 40,000 Ghost Stones shattered and flowed into the ethereal structures, the walls quickly solidified, enclosing an empty space.
Chen Fan ascended the wall.
He took a Terrain Card from his robes.
It was one of the few Exotic Treasures he had acquired recently.
-
[Exotic Treasure Name]: Flat Terrain Card.
[Exotic Treasure Level]: Green.
[Exotic Treasure Effect]: Can transform a one-thousand by one-thousand-meter plot of land into flat ground.
-
The next moment—
The Terrain Card shattered.
The dry, cracked wasteland inside the walls began to rapidly transform. A few breaths later, the ground was perfectly flat, with no fissures in sight.
"Interesting,"
Chen Fan murmured as he observed the scene before him.
This was the first time he had obtained an Exotic Treasure like a Terrain Card, and it was indeed magical. A faction’s foundation was largely determined by its reserve of Exotic Treasures, which could be decisive at critical moments.
Immediately after,
standing on the City Wall, he began to construct Wooden Houses in straight lines.
A thousand Wooden Houses, all of them the lowest-grade Level 1 Wooden Houses, were arranged neatly within the city. Each required only 2 Ghost Stones, for a total cost of just 2,000 Ghost Stones.
In addition,
he also reserved empty plots for other special-purpose buildings, such as an open space for a trade district and areas for inns and the like.
In the blink of an eye,
the city already had its basic form.
"Mm."
Chen Fan stood on the City Wall, a smile spreading across his face as he looked at the scene. The city was much larger than he had expected. He originally thought a city with thousand-meter-long walls wouldn’t be that big, but now it was clear the area was quite substantial.
There was more than enough space to fit a thousand Wooden Houses.
Plenty of room remained,
which could be used for Farmland, breeding grounds, and so on.
The Mortal Realm didn’t have that many people at the moment. These Wooden Houses were primarily for the Mortal Realm’s rank-and-file personnel, such as the newly recruited group and the mortals who would move here from other cities.
"That’s about done,"
Chen Fan said as he descended the City Wall. "The workers can enter and begin constructing the basic infrastructure. Tell them to hurry; it needs to be finished in a month."
Building a city required more than just City Walls and Wooden Houses.
There were many other things,
such as streets and a sewage system. All these miscellaneous items would be produced by the Life Workshop and then given to the workers to install and finish.
It was a troublesome project.
As for paving materials, they were not in short supply. They had dug up and taken a large amount of the jade stones that paved the ground of the Pill Sect, along with other infrastructure they had salvaged from there.
He then spent another 463 Ghost Stones to create a Level 5 Ghost Fire, which he placed in the center of the city. It perfectly covered the entire city, automatically adjusting to fit its boundaries.
Work continued through the night.
...
After finishing all this, Chen Fan returned to the Celestial Pit through the canyon. From now on, the canyon would be the core area of the Mortal Realm. Merchant guilds from other factions would all stop at the city he had just built. He planned to turn it into an economic hub, using the large number of trade caravans to dump his high-quality, low-cost goods into Jiangnan and even more distant regions.
Relying solely on Wang Mazi’s merchant guild to make money for him was too slow.
By offering a reasonable profit margin,
he could get more merchant guilds to willingly make money for him.
After the month-long rainy season ended,
he would leverage three things to attract a large number of factions to his auction: the Mortal Realm’s reputation, the long-advertised auction, and the gimmick he had deliberately spread about himself being a High Level Architect.
Then, he would display his high-quality, low-cost goods.
After that—
these factions would send their own merchant guilds here to purchase goods and sell them in faraway places. He would essentially gain instant access to the trade routes these factions had spent years building. As for Wang Mazi, he would only need to focus on selling high-value items.
For example, Skeleton Horses.
In Jiangnan, one sold for 3,000 Ghost Stones, sourced mainly from two factions.
He wasn’t sure if those two factions had colluded on the price or if the production cost was genuinely higher for them.