At that thought, Tie Zhongtang waved his hand, and the spiritual light over the Fifteen Northwestern Circuit Provinces on the dark iron sand table suddenly blazed.
The mountains, rivers, and cities of one province after another emerged. Spirit fields resembled jade-green chessboards, mine veins looked like golden threads and silver sinews, and the market wards and trade routes wound like roaming snakes between provincial capitals, military towns, oases, and passes.
"In terms of prosperity, the Fifteen Northwestern Circuit Provinces naturally cannot compare with the Seven Capital Region Provinces, or the fertile lands of the Southeastern Circuit and Central Southern Circuit."
"But measured against the lands beyond, it is still a great slab of fat meat."
A string of figures appeared beside each province on the sand table.
"The fifteen northwestern provinces each have seven or eight prefectures at the least, and more than ten at the most."
"Each prefecture has at least two billion mortals, with two or three million cultivators at the low end and three to five million at the high end. Taken as a whole, even one province has at least thirty million cultivators."
His voice paused, and his gaze bore down on Qing Chen. "The entire Northwestern Circuit has at least five hundred million cultivators!!!"
Even Qing Chen's eyelid twitched at that.
At least five hundred million cultivators-no collection of maritime islands like the Gouwu Sea could compare with that number.
If only I could refine them all.
Tie Zhongtang seemed to notice the change in his eyes and continued, "In the past, each province in the Northwestern Circuit paid the Governor-General's Office and Yanmen Pass an annual spirit stone tax ranging from over eighty million to a hundred and fifty million. Together, the fifteen provinces brought in at least 1.6 billion Low-Grade Spirit Stones in