Chapter 89: The Heart of the City

Three years later, with the completion of the city walls, Li Hongshen and the others gradually secured their footing on the million-li plains.

The moment the main city was finished, Li Hongshen also faced a trial: three days later, he would have to withstand the assault of a beast tide.

This was part of the trial mechanism for a main city. A settlement was only called a main city because once its construction was complete, the lord would place the altar at its center and convert it from tribal mode to city mode. The altar would then become the heart of the city, an object of importance no less than that of the lord’s heart.

After the altar transformed into the heart of the city, it gained many marvelous uses. The most basic among them was that it could spread an energy circuit across the entire city, raising the energy density within the urban area and providing the most fundamental energy supply.

Of course, this was a voluntary choice. The lord could finish building the main city without converting the altar, but then he would fall behind those who passed the main-city trial.

After discussing it with Li Fuzhen, Li Hongshen decided to complete his own main city first and only then proceed with hers after he had passed the trial. After all, the beast tide lured by the transformation was already gathered around them.

Once Li Hongshen passed, there would inevitably be a great vacancy in the surrounding beast packs, and that would greatly reduce the difficulty of converting the heart of the city afterward.

This time, Li Hongshen did not first borrow Li Fuzhen’s strength. Instead, he had her warriors and spellcasters wait inside the city, only ascending the walls to assist if any unexpected situation truly arose.

Once everything was ready, Li Hongshen went to the center of the city, to the square before the lord’s manor.

He unfolded the altar that had been moved over from Phoenix Perch Valley, then began the conversion of the lord’s heart. The lord’s heart automatically floated out from within Li Hongshen’s body, circled the altar three and a half times, and then smashed it apart in a single blow.

The fragments burned in midair, slowly turning into countless points of light: gold, silver, purple, and red-green alike.

Thread after thread of light spread out from the lord’s heart. Drawn by those filaments, the points of light began to gather, and at last a crystal took shape.

The moment it appeared, the crystal immediately plunged downward and, like a drop of water, merged into the ground of the square.

Then the lord’s heart hovered in the air, directly above the place where the crystal had fallen, and a pillar of light rose from below to join it.

In the next instant, lines and patterns appeared across the ground, spreading outward. They first wrapped around the nearest spirit-gathering tree and the memorial monument, then crossed streets and passed through rows of buildings.

At last they climbed up to the outermost city wall, then plunged back into the earth and returned to the city’s center.

Slowly, those patterns began to ascend along the pillar of light toward the air. Just as they neared the lord’s heart, the pillar contracted, the lines folded inward, and in the end a crystal column was formed.

Finally, the lord’s heart drifted out from within the crystal column. Its color had faded somewhat; its original radiance seemed to have been rubbed away, leaving it faintly misted over.

Watching the lord’s heart sway as it returned to his body, Li Hongshen felt a pang of regret. To empower the main city, the lord’s domain seemed to have spent a great deal, and the energy density, once so rich, had also fallen considerably.

This was the price of raising a main city. It was also why the native tribes of the Endless Wasteland, though they had altars and even great tribes that built far larger cities, still could not be called main cities.

Because the natives did not possess a lord’s heart. Once empowered through the lord’s heart, a lord’s main city would feel, to those who faced it, like the entire lord’s domain itself.

At this point, Li Hongshen could be considered a true lord. But before he could even check the city’s information, the distant roars of countless beasts and the sound of thundering footsteps came rolling in.

Li Hongshen’s expression remained unchanged, with not a trace of surprise. Earlier, when the pillar of light rose, he had already sensed a wave-like fluctuation sweeping outward toward the periphery.

That should have been what drew the beast tide. Even so, there was nothing he could do about it in advance. If it could have been handled, the elders before him would have handled it long ago, and there would have been no need for him to take on the task now.

This fluctuation would either strengthen or weaken according to the lord’s main city. A senior brother from the Elite Assembly had once told him that building a main city on the million-li plains was a matter of how bold a person was, and how much he could reap from heaven and earth.

The larger the main city he built, the stronger the corresponding wave would be, and the more beast packs it would ultimately attract.

By now, the nearest pack should already be arriving. Judging by the sound, they were not far off. But Li Hongshen had long since made detailed arrangements for this; Ma Wu and the others were already in position, waiting for the beasts to arrive.

Li Hongshen glanced at Li Fuzhen, who stood nearby with a worried look on her face, and smiled helplessly.

“Don’t worry. Trust me, it’ll be fine. Isn’t there still you?”

“Honestly, I already told you not to make the main city this huge. We could have taken it step by step. We’re not in a rush.”

“You, really. The emperor isn’t anxious, yet the eunuch is about to die of worry.

“I am taking it step by step, aren’t I? It’s not as if I didn’t calculate all this before, and you went over it too. So why are you worried again now?”

“Hmph, you’re the eunuch, not me. And you still want to be emperor? Better be a proper lord first. I’m worrying because I care about you, understand?”

“I understand, of course I do. My dear wife, you’re the best. If you’re still uneasy, go stand guard up front. I’ll take a look at the city’s information first.”

“Fine. Hurry up. I’m going ahead.”

Seeing that Li Hongshen still seemed unhurried, Li Fuzhen said no more. She had always been the sort to fret over things, especially at times like this, when the stakes were high.

When Li Hongshen watched her lead her people toward the city gate, he shook his head with a faint smile. Back when construction was underway, she had been the one clamoring for him to make it bigger, saying the larger the better. Now that it was finished, she was also the one saying it was too large, worrying about this and that. Hah—women.

Li Hongshen walked up to the crystal column that had risen from the ground, placed his palm against it, and slowly closed his eyes. He summoned the data template within the lord’s heart and loaded it into the main city.

Name: Red River City

Area: 8.6 square kilometers

Population: 15,010

Warriors: 3,983

Spellcasters: 9

Buildings: Clan Memorial Monument, Spirit-Gathering Tree, City Walls, Eight High Towers, Beast Park, Clinic, Martial Training Ground, and more

Resources: iron ore, grain, meat, and more

This template had been created by Li Hongshen after drawing on the framework of certain strategy games from his previous life. As for the levels listed there, only the spirit-gathering tree had truly reached the second tier through cultivation; the rest were merely labels he had assigned for convenience.

The remaining resources could not be entered into the information panel in real time. After all, everything was still being recorded manually, and he did not yet have the authority to grant data-upload permissions to the staff within his territory.

Thus those columns were little more than decorations. Still, Li Hongshen believed that before long, he would definitely be able to achieve detailed data statistics.

After checking the information, Li Hongshen turned, mounted Great Ha, who had been waiting nearby for a long time, and, seated upon the newly made beast saddle, rode swiftly toward the front line.

The End