When they heard Yuan Chen, the villagers—who had been indignant over his betrayal—fell into a brief silence.
The so-called counties were, in fact, the major cities of Ixialia. Though both villages and counties had been established in Ixialia's Primeval Jungle, there was no comparison between them.
To put it simply, it was the difference between the city and the countryside. Each county in Ixialia was governed by a wise and virtuous Yuentar elder chosen by vote. Sometimes, it was even ruled directly by Yuenales with a claim to the succession.
A county represented more than just political power. For ordinary people, being born in a county and being born in a village in the wilderness meant two completely different lives.
Each county had its own Elemental Pedestal, usually built according to the concentration of magical elements in the region.
They somewhat resembled the pyramids Yuan Chen had seen in his previous life, only far more ornate, solemn, and mysterious.
Since they were built in the Primeval Jungle, they perhaps had something in common with the Maya Temple in terms of their surroundings. Even the smallest Elemental Pedestal, however, was several times larger than the biggest Maya Temple.
With an Elemental Pedestal nearby, county residents never had to worry about the necessities of life. Its power meant that even a frail old woman could wield powerful Elemental Magic to help her get by.
Newborns received a good education from the very start, and even assessments of Magic Talent were completely free. In the larger counties, tens or even hundreds of thousands of apprentices studied at the Elemental Pedestal...
That was why Yuan Chen believed Ixialia was so powerful.
Although Ixialia had no conventional army, it could easily gather over a million elemental mages, each with an average level of at least LV2, if war broke out.
It wasn't that Yuan Chen looked down on other nations. Even Demacia, with its Mana Stone, couldn't withstand a magical bombardment from a million mages at once...
Especially on home ground. With an Elemental Pedestal there, Ixialian mages never had to worry about running out of mana. If not for their limited stamina, they'd have practically unlimited firepower.
Yuan Chen was certain the counties would appeal to the villagers for a simple reason...
While buying supplies—having blades custom-made and purchasing armor—he'd made a point of asking around about the village.
Whether they were blacksmiths or stonemasons, they spoke of the counties with undisguised envy.
The boys needed no explanation. If they'd been born in a county, they might already have had access to a better education and become true Element Apprentices, instead of still relying on a crude Yuan Chu Axiom to catch fish...
But...
In Ixialia, becoming a city-dweller wasn't easy. Someone like Lupe, a political prisoner exiled to the mountains, couldn't even leave the surrounding area without permission from the local county governor.
The blacksmith beside them couldn't help speaking up:
"Join a county? Kid, let me make this clear: it's not that easy!"
Yuan Chen nodded in understanding.
Becoming a true city-dweller took a great deal of effort. Just look at Milio in the background story—he was certainly talented. After awakening his Trait, he was likely the youngest Elemental Master since Qiyana.
And yet, in the end, he still had to set off alone. His grandmother Lupe, a former Ixialian elder, couldn't even accompany him, let alone put him in touch with old family friends.
It was only Milio's personal story, but it offered a glimpse of the bigger picture.
Ixialia's traditions were no less conservative than Ionia's. On top of that, it was ruled by a magical autocracy. The Royal Family, which had governed Ixialia for ten thousand years, held absolute dominion over the land.
Even the Yuentar elders, part of the ruling class, wouldn't risk the slightest conflict with the Royal Family over this...
Political prisoners were doomed to miserable lives... They'd already been sentenced to death.
"We have a chance! Right in front of us!"
Yuan Chen said:
"Ordinary achievements won't earn us a place in a county. And even if some ordinary opportunity did get us in, the real county folk would still think we were a bunch of country bumpkins competing with them for a living!
"But now, we have a chance to become respectable county residents—and earn the respect of everyone in the counties!"
"But first, I want to ask everyone in the village...
"Do you want to join a county? Earn everyone's respect? Give your children a better education instead of making them wander the wilderness, rocky hills, and ships, worrying every day about how to make ends meet?
"Do you want your children to rise above their station—to walk the splendid library corridors of the Elemental Tower Base, ask the noble Yuentar elders questions without fear or deference, and perhaps even become one of them, bringing honor to your family?"
Even without borrowing or invoking Oshirresh's Pain Ascetic power, Yuan Chen was still one of Oshirresh's Great Demons.
His actual strength might be debatable, but in this situation, his every move carried an infectious force that stirred happiness, excitement, and exhilaration.
Combined with his expressive gestures and impassioned delivery, the villagers' buried desires surged up many times over.
As a dancer, Yuan Chen instinctively knew how to sway people through body language. The key to Ionia's traditional war dances was their dazzling, stirring movements, designed to draw every eye and command every bit of attention.
Yuan Chen's dancing had long since reached master level! And with his manipulation of Water Element to make the air warm and humid, even the elders who usually kept their composure felt their emotions stirring.
Lupe noticed his little trick with Elemental Magic, but she wanted her family to regain its former glory. Their goals happened to align, so she was on Yuan Chen's side.
Not only did Lupe refrain from exposing him, she even helped amplify and sustain the effect, concealing the magical fluctuations.
With Lupe helping from within, the villagers could hardly contain their curiosity and longing.
The burly, bearded blacksmith, who considered himself on friendly terms with Yuan Chen after helping forge his weapons, couldn't hold back his doubts. He voiced the question on everyone's mind:
"Of course we want to become respectable county folk. But you've said all that—what's the opportunity? Hurry up and tell us!"
"Exactly! Tell us! If it works, we'll forgive you!"
"My son's nearly seven. If we join a county, he can become an Element Apprentice! Tell us your plan!"
Seeing that he'd worked the crowd up just enough, Yuan Chen grinned.
"The chance comes in two months. That's when Ixialia will hold its Elemental Festival, which happens once every three years. To celebrate, every county will hold a grand festival, and at the end, each one will present a gift to Yishuaoken.
"If we can offer a worthy gift, we'll have a chance to be promoted."
When they heard Yuan Chen's proposal, the villagers' excitement suddenly cooled. After a moment, the blacksmith at the front looked troubled.
"Easy for you to say, kid. Ixialia's enormous, and people in every county are trying to present gifts in much the same way.
"Our little village barely even sees a Road Protector come by to maintain the roads. How could we compare with the larger villages?
"And we'd have to deliver it to Yishuaoken, too... It's the capital of Ixialia. What treasure hasn't His Majesty the King seen?"
"What if the gift were an Elemental Dragon?" Yuan Chen asked, looking at them.
An Elemental Dragon...
At his words, the villagers fell into a brief silence.
If this had happened before, or if Yuan Chen had brought up the Elemental Dragon right away, they wouldn't have taken him seriously. They would have thought it was an absurd fantasy, a joke, or the ravings of a fool...
But now that his words, gestures, and magic had worked them into a fever of excitement, they didn't think it was impossible.
Instead, carried away by the moment, they swallowed nervously and stammered like gamblers at a table: "But it's an Elemental Dragon... How could we possibly defeat it so easily..."
"That's why I found them!"
Yuan Chen swept an arm toward the Fleshfang Hunters beside him, drawing everyone's attention to them as he spoke with fervor:
"They're hunters from the Carnivore Beast Tribe! Just look at them—they're born hunters! And they've come here to hunt an Elemental Dragon!"
"But you all know how powerful Elemental Dragons are. Even these natural-born hunters aren't completely confident, because they don't understand the mysteries of this land. They don't know the Yuan Chu Axiom!"
"But we do!"
Yuan Chen raised a finger. "We're Ixialians! We know this land, this jungle, and the creatures of these mountains better than anyone!"
As he spoke, Yuan Chen gave Mordas a look. Mordas nodded briskly, then pulled back the canopy of the nearby wagon, revealing the gear they'd prepared.
Rows of polished Giant Arrows lay beneath the canvas. Their huge, barbed steel heads caught the light even in the night, gleaming coldly.
Barrels of Hunting Poison gave off a sinister aura. At the back, the enormous crossbow—which was still massive even when dismantled—drew gasps from the villagers.
"Good heavens, how did they get those in here?" the burly blacksmith exclaimed.
"A two-man crossbow! It could bring down a city wall! And that exquisite steelwork... How did you get your hands on it?"
"It's the hunters' ingenuity."
Yuan Chen clapped his hands.
"The hunters know how to hunt, and they have powerful weapons, but they don't know this jungle or Ixialia—
"But we do! No one understands Ixialia better than we do!"
"Of course! We've lived in this jungle since we were children!"
The Ixialians might not have much confidence in their hunting skills, but their familiarity with and faith in the land beneath their feet were rooted in every one of their hearts.
To the common folk of Ixialia, everything outside it was a battlefield, wasteland, land of upstarts, disease, and chaos. It was no wonder they were so insular—and so proud of their homeland!
Pushed along by Yuan Chen's words, they'd even completely forgotten that he was an outsider too... But it hardly mattered. Compared to the Carnivore Beasts, Yuan Chen at least looked human, even if he was a little fairer and smoother-skinned than the Ixialians.
And now, playing on their pride, Yuan Chen pressed on:
"These hunters don't know how to live in harmony with this land! But we do! Their weapons rust in this humid jungle, but we can fix that easily with the Yuan Chu Axiom!
"They get tangled up in all the dense bushes and vines and can't move forward, but we can simply wave a hand and clear a path! And with our strengths combined, what's one Elemental Dragon to us?"
"On top of that, we've already got a Magic Item that can weaken the dragon!"
Yuan Chen held up a glass jar filled with red liquid.
"This is a secret potion from the Carnivore Beasts! It's made with incredibly precious ingredients. Even a dragon will be poisoned and weakened if this is splashed on it! They have only one chance, too!
"That's why I brought them here. This village took me in when I washed ashore after the shipwreck, so I want to help my family prosper!"
What a load of nonsense. Yuan Chen simply didn't want to reveal Azure Starfire to everyone.
As for the liquid in the jar...
On the journey, Yuan Chen had scooped some dirty water out of a random pool and mixed it with Pack Beast blood. With Azure Starfire to suppress the dragon, he could just as easily claim the jar held divine magic dust as some miraculous potion.
"And now, the choice is yours."
Yuan Chen looked solemnly at the villagers before him.
"This chance is hard to come by... I hope everyone in the village will think it over carefully!"
Caught between their dreams for the future and their fear of the dragon, the villagers couldn't agree on what to do. In the end, the burly blacksmith turned to Lupe.
"You're the village's eldest, an Elemental Master, and the wisest among us. Please, tell us what to do!"
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