After Spark City, the Taros Family soon established two more cities, Black Stone City and Black Iron City. But "established" was putting it generously—they had simply taken over other cities and changed their names.
The Taros Family now had three cities. Though they were all only ordinary cities, the combined population of the three was an astonishing twenty million, enough to make people gasp—and delight many others.
Of those twenty million people, Spark City alone accounted for more than half. Without the land and support Carl provided, life for commoners in the magical world of the Yulan Continent remained difficult. Many small towns had populations of only a few tens of thousands, while even the larger ones had no more than a hundred thousand or so.
As the ruler of the three cities, the Taros Family's founder, and its only Saint Realm powerhouse, Carl had greater ambitions for them. With the three cities supporting one another, Carl expanded her territory on a much larger scale, using her own manor as its center. Anyone within the area she had claimed who considered themselves under her rule was automatically counted as a resident of her territory once they reached Level 3 Warrior.
But Carl was no longer in the position she had once been, when she could not even fill a quota of tens of thousands. With the addition of the other two cities, the number of Level 3 Warriors under her command had truly surpassed one million.
After all, this was a top-tier magical world. As long as ordinary people were not born with disabilities or plagued by poor health, everyone on the Yulan Continent trained diligently from a young age. In this environment, fifteen- and sixteen-year-old Level 1 Warriors were a dime a dozen. The continent seemed peaceful, but that was only true for those at the Saint Realm. For ordinary people, life was harsh, and becoming a warrior was the only way to change their circumstances. Once they became warriors, the fastest way to improve their lot was to join the army.
Even though the mortality rate among soldiers was no less than fifty percent, parents still considered a son who had become a Level 1 Warrior at sixteen and returned after ten years of military service to be a capable man in their territory. If he never came back, they might grieve for a while, but life had to go on.
This was the cruelty faced by the lowest strata of the Yulan Continent. Under Carl's rule, at least, she would do everything she could to prevent such things from happening.
As ruler of the three cities, Carl used the area covered by the system's territory as the basis for her domain. In the presence of nobles from the three cities and envoys from several counts, dukes, and marquises, she named it Tianfeng Prefecture.
Carl named it after her own Saint Realm attribute. Spark City, Black Stone City, and Black Iron City would all serve as defensive cities guarding the prefectural capital. After taking control of a prefecture, the Taros Family's highest priority was naturally to take control of a proper prefectural city.
After the Anlan Kingdom fell, some prefectural cities were left without rulers. Carl soon took complete control of one of them, and the Taros Family moved once again.
Perhaps years later, members of the Taros Family would speak of their ancestral home in Spark Town. But for now, no one gave it a thought.
A prefectural city had a sphere of influence far greater than that of a county seat. To the Saint Realm, Level 9 Warriors might seem insignificant, but in truth, they wielded enormous power.
Carl's decision to occupy a prefectural city made some Level 9 experts who had been considering it halt in their tracks as soon as they heard the news. In their eyes, the Taros Family had three Level 9 Warriors, one of whom was believed to be at the Peak of Level 9. Though other Level 9 experts coveted the profits that came with a prefectural city, the Anlan Kingdom had already fallen, leaving plenty of unclaimed prefectures and counties across its former territory. There was no need to provoke a powerhouse believed to be at the Peak of Level 9 over a single city.
Yulan Calendar, Year 8325.
On an ordinary day, no different from any other, Carl finally completed the last step after accumulating Battle Qi for nearly thirty years.
[Auto-Cultivation System] [Host: Carl] [Age: 300] [Level: Saint Realm (10000/10000)] [Family: Taros (Level 2)] [Territory: Spark Town (Level 2)] [Faith: None] [Cultivation: Saint Realm (10000/10000) Momentum of Heaven and Earth (10000/10000)]
"At last, the day has come."
Carl looked at the progress she had made over nearly thirty years. She had gone from being under two hundred and seventy to three hundred. The time she had lost along the way had been for the sake of her eldest son, after all. He was her only son, and she had delayed her own progress so he could live long enough to see her reach the Peak of the Saint Realm—and perhaps even have a chance to reach the Saint Realm himself one day.
"It was only a few years."
Her Battle Qi had reached its absolute limit. It was as if her body had been filled to capacity, with no room for even the slightest increase. This was the limit of the Early Saint Realm.
Along with it came Carl's understanding of the Momentum of Heaven and Earth. There were many aspects she felt she already understood, yet could not say she truly grasped.
It was like an exam paper. She had seen the original form of every question or solved one like it before, but how many people could really hand in a perfect paper?
In Carl's eyes, the Momentum of Heaven and Earth was like an exam paper, and the entire world was its question bank. When she fully comprehended the Momentum of Heaven and Earth, it would be as if she had seen every question in the world.
But to comprehend the Mysteries of the Laws through the Momentum of Heaven and Earth, she would have to turn in a perfect paper.
"Too bad I don't need to comprehend them myself."
How could training on her own compare to the solid gains from spending system points?
"System, give me the upgrade!"
Carl's gaze fell on the Elemental Seed in the Mall, which she had coveted for a long time.
She still felt a little regretful. The system was ultimately too rigid.
Ten million points vanished in an instant, and a seed belonging to the [Wind Element] appeared before Carl's eyes.
As the [Wind Element] merged into her soul, Carl immediately felt it tremble.
It felt like a transformation of life itself. When she looked up at her surroundings, she could see that something had changed.
"So this is what they mean by seeing a mountain as a mountain, then not seeing it as a mountain, and finally seeing it as a mountain again."
After the [Wind Element] merged with her soul, Carl could clearly sense a pale green element appearing throughout the world around her. She knew it was the Wind Element.
"Is this an increase in elemental affinity?" Carl wondered.
After all, by common reckoning, it was almost impossible to reach the Saint Realm without high elemental affinity. Even the protagonist of the original story had first entered the Saint Realm as a warrior. Only after gaining the eternal life that came with the Saint Realm—and undergoing the resulting transformation of soul and body—had his magical abilities successfully reached the Saint Realm level. Later, relying on his Peak Saint Realm defensive abilities, he entered the Yulan Continent's hundredfold time accelerator and ultimately reached God Level in a short time.
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