"Silk Road."

"5"

Accompanied by the Crippled Monkey, Chen Fan rode the Skeleton Horse out of the Canyon, stood at the Canyon entrance, looked out to the Seaside, and pondered his next plan.

The Clear Skies.

The sun's rays felt warm on my skin, dispelling much of the chill.

Meanwhile, in three other places on the horizon.

Dark clouds filled the sky, marking the Rainy Season in the Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and East River regions.

The Canyon entrance is about Thousand Meters from the Coastline.

He plans to build a New City on the left side of the Nameless Mountain.

After thinking for a while...

He quickly selected a new location.

That is...

The question is how big this New City should be. Even the lowest level Level-1 City Wall requires 10 Eerie Stone per meter. 1,000 meters would require 10,000 Eerie Stone. To build Four-Sided Thousand-Meter City, it would require 40,000 Eerie Stone to build the City Wall.

Not to mention the enormous consumption.

It was built as a small town, more like a large Station than City.

This is not Natural Eerie Fire Zone.

The daily Eerie Fire also requires Eerie Stone.

Chen Fan sat on the Skeleton Horse, gazing silently at the Seaside. The upgrade of the "Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion" required "Sea Embryo," which, as the name suggests, must be obtained from the sea. Now that the Jiangbei Rainy Season was over, the Sea was calm.

We can begin exploring.

Find a few good swimmers and see if they can dive to the Seabed and find something.

"This is fine."

Chen Fan pointed to the Open Ground on the left side of the Nameless Mountain and said softly, "Let's build a small town for now. The workers that Little Qiu brought back can start construction here. Whatever materials we need, there are plenty on the mountain. We can just use what we have."

"Clear."

Soon.

Four illusory images of Level-One Enclosure Wall, each Thousand Meters long, slowly appeared on the Open Ground. As 40,000 Eerie Stone shattered and poured into the illusory images, the City Wall quickly solidified, enclosing a City Wall Open Ground on all four sides.

Chen Fan climbed the wall.

He pulled a terrain card out of his pocket.

These are some of the Exotic Treasure he has acquired recently.

"Exotic Treasure Name": Flatland Terrain Card.

"Exotic Treasure Grade": Green Grade.

"Exotic Treasure Effect": Can transform a piece of land, each Thousand Meters long and wide, into flat land.

The next moment -

The terrain card is broken.

The previously cracked wasteland within the city began to be rapidly transformed. After only a few breaths, the terrain was flat and Fissure.

"That's interesting."

Chen Fan looked at the scene before him and said softly.

This was the first time he had obtained Exotic Treasure like a terrain card, which was indeed quite amazing. A large part of a power's strength depends on how many rare Exotic Treasure it has stored up, which can have a decisive effect at crucial moments.

Immediately afterwards.

He stood on the City Wall and built Wooden Hut along a straight line.

A thousand Wooden Hut were neatly arranged in the City. They were all the lowest level Level-1 Wooden Hut, requiring only 2 Eerie Stone, and a total of only 2,000 Eerie Stone were consumed.

Besides.

Some spaces were also reserved for other special-function buildings, such as an open Open Ground for a trading area and some areas for Inn.

In the blink of an eye.

The City is already taking shape.

"Um."

Standing on the City Wall, Chen Fan looked at this scene and couldn't help but laugh. The City was much larger than he had imagined. He had thought that City Thousand Meters long wouldn't be too big, but now it seemed that its area was not small at all.

There is more than enough space to house a thousand Wooden Hut.

There's still plenty of space left.

It can be used to relocate Farmland, Breeding Farm, etc.

Currently, there aren't that many people in the Mortal Domain. These Wooden Hut are mainly for some grassroots personnel in the Mortal Domain, such as the newly recruited people, or mortals who have moved here from other City, and so on.

"Almost done."

Chen Fan walked down the City Wall: "The workers can now enter the site to build the basic structures. Work quickly; it needs to be completed in a month."

Building a City is not just about having City Wall and Wooden Hut.

There's still a lot more.

For example, streets, Sewage System, and other miscellaneous things are created through the Life Workshop and then handed over to workers for repair and resettlement.

It's a troublesome project.

As for paving materials, they had no shortage of them. They dug up a lot of the jade stones that were paving the ground at the Pill Sect and took them with them, as well as other infrastructure, all of which were dug up from the Pill Sect.

He then used another 463 Eerie Stone to create a Level-Five Eerie Fire, which he placed in the center of the city, covering the entire City and automatically conforming to and adjusting to the City's boundaries.

They worked through the night to finish the project.

After doing all this.

Chen Fan returned to the Canyon along the Sinkhole. From now on, the Canyon would be the Core Area of the "Mortal Domain". Other forces and Trade Association would all settle in the City he had just built. He wanted to develop this place into an Economic Center and use a large number of Caravan to sell his high-quality and inexpensive goods to Jiangnan and even further afield.

Relying solely on King Mazi's Trade Association to make money for him is too slow.

Appropriate concessions.

This can make more Trade Association willingly make money for him.

After the Rainy Season ends in January.

By leveraging his reputation in the Mortal Domain, the pre-announced Auction, and his deliberate use of the gimmick of being a senior Builder, he attracted a large number of powerful figures to participate in his Auction.

Then they would display their high-quality, low-priced goods.

Next -

These forces would send their own Trade Association to purchase goods here and then sell them to more distant places. He would essentially have access to the Trade Route that these forces had built up over many years. As for King Mazi, he only needed to sell the high-value goods.

For example, "Skeleton Horse".

A single stone from Jiangnan costs 3,000 Eerie Stone, primarily sourced from two different factions.

He wasn't sure if the two forces had colluded to set the price, or if the production cost was genuinely higher.

But it doesn't matter.

He can create a Skeleton Horse with the cost of only 100 Eerie Stone.

That's a difference of 2900 Eerie Stone in total.

He sold them to other forces for 1,500 Eerie Stone, who then resold them to Jiangnan and even further afield. He only needed to earn 1,400 Eerie Stone; he was content and not Greed.

The rest is all profit for these forces.

As long as we sell 1,000 horses.

That is...

Profits from 1.4 million Eerie Stone!!!

With so much power in Jiangnan, taking down 1,000 Skeleton Horse would be no problem at all. And with so many Eerie Stones, he could turn the entire Jiangbei into Restricted Zone for Strange Entities!

Not to mention.

Besides the Skeleton Horse, he has many other great value items at reasonable prices.

At the time, the destruction of the Pill Sect did not yield many Eerie Stones. This was partly because the liquid assets of a force would not be too large. Some of the medicinal herbs, Pills, and Martial Technique were not intended to be liquidated, while others were difficult to liquidate. In addition, the Pill Sect had shops in other cities.

He didn't go either.

This resulted in him not reaping much reward.

But if this plan succeeds, then a continuous stream of Eerie Stone will surge towards Jiangbei from all sides.

He named the project "..."

"The Silk Road."

"Hey-hey"

Thinking of this, Chen Fan, who was standing still with his cane, looked at the distant rock wall and couldn't help but chuckle absentmindedly. He had already imagined that he would have so many Eerie Stones that he could use them all, surrounding the entire Jiangbei, and happily staying in Jiangbei counting the Eerie Stone.

Just thinking about it makes me happy.

"Domain Lord?"

"Domain Lord...?"

Just then -

Hearing the monkey's soft call, Chen Fan snapped out of his daze and looked at Zhou Mo and his group standing behind him, as well as the hundreds of people standing in the Open Ground in front of him.

The candidates have been selected.

Everyone has found their proper place.

It was his turn to speak.

"Cough."

Coming to his senses, Chen Fan stood there, leaning on his Jadeite Staff, and looked at the group of people in front of him, saying softly, "Today is your first day officially joining the Mortal Domain."

"The Mortal Domain is an emerging power, and many of its rules and regulations are yet to be established."

"But one thing is certain."

"The Mortal Domain will surely dominate Jiangbei and even Jiangnan in the future. As long as you all work diligently, the Mortal Domain will certainly not treat you unfairly."

"Next."

Find your respective Pavilion Master, and they Pavilion Master assign you tasks.

"That's it, it's over."

He said a few words briefly and then left the rest to the various Pavilion Master.

However, he noticed something in the last few days.

That means this world is indeed a makeshift operation.

Little Qiu.

He used to be just a Station Master's Attendant; to put it bluntly, he wasn't someone important.

But...

After becoming the Pavilion Master "Logistics Pavilion," he seemed to be quite respectable. This made him vaguely feel that as long as a person sits in a certain position, they will automatically look like someone who should be sitting in that position. The difficulty lies in how to sit in that position.

Or rather...

It's not that I'm in this position because of my outstanding abilities, but rather that I seem to have become outstanding only after sitting in this position.

He shook his head.

After clearing my mind of all the jumbled thoughts...

He walked up to Weiwei, patted Weiwei head gently, and pointed to the center of the Sinkhole, saying, "There might be 'Earth Gold' underground here, which is a kind of black- Gold Grade, extremely solid Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures."

"Could you help me dig it out?"

Weiwei watched Chen Fan's gestures intently, thought for a moment, then nodded emphatically and scrambled to the center of the Sinkhole to begin digging.

The ground here is extremely hard.

Even Cannon Tower would struggle to blast a crater, yet its hard ground was easily breached by Weiwei's forepaws.

I learned this from my stepmother that day.

The That One smashed a mountain with Hammer, creating Sinkhole and compressing a large portion of the mountain over many years, may have formed Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures "Earth Gold."

He didn't know what "Earth Gold" was.

But I know it's a good treasure.

We definitely have to dig it out.

"Young Master."

Just then -

The Monkey One with the tumor limped over and stood beside Chen Fan, suddenly saying with some emotion, "Shao Qiu, the newly joined Pavilion Master of the 'Shadow Pavilion' in the Mortal Domain, is also an orphan who lost both parents at a young age."

"I used to say that most of us are orphans."

"You're the only one who has a father, Young Master."

But after today...

"Young Master, you too have become an orphan, without parents."

Chen Fan turned his head expressionlessly to look at the Crippled Monkey: "Are you out of steam?"

Don't force a conversation if you have nothing to say.

"No..."

The Crippled Monkey realized it had said something wrong, shrank back, and whispered, "What I really meant was that we're all family, and I wanted to express a feeling of warmth or something."

The excavation work is still ongoing.

Chen Fan wasn't in a hurry.

So I simply moved a table and chairs over, sat down to the side to leisurely bask in the sun, and supervised the construction at the same time.

"You seventeen people were carefully selected from 237 People. You will be the first batch of seeds for the Mortal Domain Shadow Pavilion, and the backbone of the Mortal Domain Shadow Pavilion in the future."

Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion.

Shao Qiu stood before seventeen naked men and women, pacing back and forth, speaking each word with a chilling tone.

"The Mortal Domain originally had no plans to create Shadow Pavilion."

"I was the one who persuaded the Domain Lord to create the Shadow Pavilion. I don't want to disappoint the Domain Lord, and I hope you won't disappoint me either."

This is the Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion.

"Most of you come from the Wild Wolf Gang. All you need to know is that there are no forces ten times stronger than your Wild Wolf Gang that Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion, yet the Mortal Domain does. It is your good fortune to be able to cultivate here."

"When you leave Jiangbei in the future."

"Only then will you realize the preciousness of the Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion."

My name is Shao Qiu.

"You can call me Young Pavilion Master... uh, let's call me Pavilion Master Qiu."

Shao Qiu paused for a moment before continuing, "You are all Level-One Cultivator. There are many with higher Cultivation than you, but I specifically chose you because you have clean backgrounds."

"The highest-grade Cultivation Manual in the Mortal Domain is currently Green Grade."

"And the Cultivation Manual to my teachings is..."

"Yellow-Grade Cultivation Manual: Shadow-Killing Seven Apertures Formula!"

"The Shadow Pavilion training is brutal."

"It's extremely demanding on one's mental fortitude."

"Of the seventeen of you, I will only keep ten. As for those who remain in the Shadow Pavilion, I can assure you that you will all become famous throughout the land. The world will tremble at the mere mention of your names."

"After the training in January, I will leave ten people behind and personally give you code names."

"Did you all understand?"

"I understand!"

The seventeen naked men and women standing in the Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion responded loudly, some nervously and some expectantly.

They were naturally excited to join the Mortal Domain Shadow Pavilion.

They were all teenagers.

No one wants to be unsuccessful; no one wants to be famous worldwide.

Only...

Why take off your clothes?

There are 17 people standing here: fourteen men and three women.

Being naked is somewhat inconvenient.

This is especially true for hot-blooded teenagers.

"Perhaps you're wondering why I'm taking my clothes off."

Firstly.

"The Shadow-Killing Seven Apertures Formula requires complete nudity during practice."

Secondly.

"As Assassin, you must abandon all thoughts of men and women. This is especially true for female Assassin, who mostly target lecherous old men. You must strike with a fatal blow just as they are about to pounce and reach the peak of their lust."

"Letting go of shame is a necessary step."

"Next one"

"I will orally instruct you on the Shadow-Killing Seven Apertures Formula. Remember the Cultivation Manual and try to feel that profound, mysterious sensation."

"This is not merely a cultivation Cultivation Manual for improving one's Cultivation. After mastering this Cultivation Manual, learning other assassination Stealth Martial Technique will be twice as effective!"

After a pause, Shao Qiu's voice, light and ethereal, slowly echoed through the Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion.

"Shadow-Killing Seven Apertures Formula, Chapter One."

"The Concealment Chapter"

"Observe death with your eyes, listen to the wind with your ears."

"Nose sensation, tongue touching the crown of the head."

"Body like stone, mind like emptiness."

"Shadowstep, following the traces of darkness."

"Looking at the dead means lowering your gaze, unfocusing, and viewing living things as dry stones. When focusing on the target, don't stare directly at them. There are many experts out there; if you stare directly at them, they will notice."