The World Online

The red clouds hung overhead, and the cooling breeze blew down.

Ouyang Shuo led his troops and walked through the wilderness, feeling the different and more warm atmosphere of Wuzhou Prefecture.

When he went past the Devil’s Slope, he could smell the slight scent of osmanthus flowers. In this serious wilderness, such a smell jolted one to their senses and helped them regain focus.

”Where is this place?”

”This slope is where Chiyou stopped his troops.”

”Does the mountain have osmanthus flowers?”

”That’s right. On the mountains, there is a whole patch of osmanthus trees. However, because the weather in the wilderness changed, all the osmanthus flowers that bloomed withered in a day.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he looked at the peak in silence. Others could not see through his expression.

After a long while, he opened his mouth once more, ”Since this is where Chiyou and his troops stayed, and there are also Osmanthus flowers, it can be considered a treasured land. Let’s just bury Chiyou at this peak!”

Originally, Ouyang Shuo planned to bring Chiyou back to the city to bury. However, he had changed his mind.

”Yes, my Lord!”

The army stopped and conducted a simple burial for Chiyou.

The moment the burial ended, a system notification sounded out in his ear.

”System Notification: Congratulations player Qiyue Wuyi. Burying mountain barbarian leader Chiyou, displaying values and virtues, and touching the mountain barbarians. Loyalty of all mountain barbarians increased by 10.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard this notification, he let out a long sigh.

Ouyang Shuo had learned a lot from what happened to Chiyou. In the wilderness, one’s personal strength was limited. In order to achieve what one wanted, they needed good people by their side.

Do not just pay attention to Ouyang Shuo’s strength increasing by the day. His heart remained as resolute as iron, and he would not let his achievements get to his head.

As the wind blew across, it brought away Ouyang Shuo’s sigh and the fragrance of the osmanthus.

As the army left, the Devil’s Slope fell quiet once more.

From this day on, every 10th month of the year, the osmanthus flowers on Devil’s Slope would bloom exceptionally beautifully, as their fragrance spreaded far and wide, making this a popular scenic location.

Everyone knew that the devil of a generation was laid to rest here.

Gaia 2nd year, 10th month, 25th day, Chiyou City.

After four days of traveling, Ouyang Shuo arrived outside of Chiyou City. A day earlier, Shi Hu had already led the vanguard group and rushed here, announcing the results of the Battle of Wuzhou.

When they heard the news that their leader, Chiyou, had died in battle and the army had fallen, the mountain barbarians in the city fell totally silent at first. Then, an uproar broke out. Especially the news that Ouyang Shuo was crowned as Barbarian King; it caused a huge wave in the city.

All their shock and surprise was gathered into one sentence.

”Chiyou City was going to change!”

At that moment, there were actually people sowing chaos in the city, but Shi Hu suppressed them.

As the vanguard officer, Shi Hu’s duty was to ensure that before the Lord arrived, Chiyou City would be under Shanhai City rule and there would not be a second voice.

If not, it would mean that he had failed to perform his duty.

Of course, some people were happy. At the very least, those Han people felt delighted. However, they could not display their feelings.

The mountain barbarian rule over the past year had left a large shadow in their hearts.

At the south gate, Shi Hu had gathered up the various tribe leaders, including some core people. They lined up orderly on both sides of the city gate to welcome Ouyang Shuo.

Based on the olden city concept, the south gate was the most important gate. The true south gate of the country was called the ‘country gate’. The Big Ming Gate during the Ming Dynasty and the Big Qing Gate during the Qing Dynasty were true south gates.

Ouyang Shuo entering the city through the south gate was a very clear signal. After today, he would be the new owner of Chiyou City and Wuzhou Prefecture.

The various tribal leaders stood outside of the city, bearing the cold winds. Although their faces did not dare to show any complains, they were unhappy in their hearts. They had not truly recognized Ouyang Shuo, this new king.

However, they were helpless, as Shi Hu had led the vanguard force to coerce them into this; they had no other choice.

Chiyou had moved the army in Chiyou City. Only some scattered forces remained, and they were totally not a match of Shi Hu’s forces.

In the hands of all the tribes, there were not any powers or troops that could compete with them.

Chiyou defended fully against all the tribes, and he drafted all their elites into the army. The various tribes were not allowed to keep soldiers.

Even then, they still held a sliver of hope in their hearts that this was a lie. Or rather, when the mountain barbarian army returned, the tribal leaders hoped to get their members back.

Unfortunately, when the huge army appeared outside the city, the numerous tribal leaders were stunned.

In the serious and disciplined military formation, Ouyang Shuo wore the Mingguang Armor with his red cape. He rode on the King Qingfu Horse and slowly approached under the protection of the Divine Martial Guards and the mountain barbarian soldiers.

Undeniably, the various mountain barbarian warriors had already recognized the rule of this Barbarian King.

With no troops in their hands, there was nothing they could do.

The faces of the various tribal leaders suddenly turned ashen white. In their hearts, they felt really bitter.

As he past the various tribal leaders, Ouyang Shuo did not even dismount; he just proceeded directly into the city.

The huge army waltzed into Chiyou City.

At this point, the Han race people in the city could finally confirm that Chiyou had really died. The new ruler of Chiyou City was a Lord. Most crucially, he was from the Han race.

Instantly, numerous Han people walked into the streets to view the celebrations of the army.

Occasionally, they would let our cheers and each cheer was louder than the next.

This was the first time Ouyang Shuo had received such an intense welcome. The Divine Martial Guards and the Guards Division held their chests up high like heroes returning victorious.

The mountain barbarians, on the other hand, looked toward this huge army with complicated expressions.

Some were confused, others in awe.

After he entered the city, Ouyang Shuo immediately ordered the four independent divisions led by Shi Hu to move into the barracks. No other random people or strangers were allowed in or out.

Including the mountain barbarian warriors, they were not allowed to contact their family.

Ouyang Shuo was not ready to give the various tribes a chance to contact their tribesmen.

The Guards Division would take over the defence of Chiyou City. The guards of the Lord’s Manor would naturally be taken over by the Guards Division as well. With that, no one could stir up problems in the city.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo act so careful, those tribe leaders who were planning something looked worse and worse.

When everything settled down, Ouyang Shuo still had not asked to meet all of them. He was hellbent on leaving them out to dry. On the other hand, he asked people to move all the files of Wuzhou Prefecture into his reading room for him to browse.

The more he saw, the worse his expression grew.

On the way here, Ouyang Shuo had already predicted the horrendous situation that awaited him. The people struggling to survive, the rulers suppressing them, and the conflicts between mountain barbarians and Han people.

After looking at the file, Ouyang Shuo felt even more speechless.

The entire Wuzhou Prefecture was not a system. Rather, it was Chiyou’s personal territory.

The various cities did not have officials.

It only had the royals of the various mountain barbarian tribes abusing their power.

The entire prefecture did not even have a decent industry.

Apart from agriculture, it was mining and equipment crafting, there was not a single merchant.

The population of Wuzhou Prefecture was the lowest out of all the prefectures, at around half of Lianzhou. A large number of the Han people had left their homes, as they would rather leave everything behind to try and escape this place.

Ouyang Shuo grew more and more frustrated. In the end, he just threw the book aside. This whole mess would be up to Fan Zhongyan to handle.

The only thing that made Ouyang Shuo happy was probably the Chiyou City Treasury.

Wuzhou Prefecture had its back facing the one hundred thousand mountain, and the mountain barbarians had found two large-sized gold mines in it. As there was not any commerce, the gold was not spent, so it was just gathered in the treasury.

Preliminary estimations had the total gold at no less than one hundred thousand.

At least that would settle the starting construction fees for the prefectures.

Ouyang Shuo had used the income of the territory for these few months to purchase iron ore and coal, so he did not have any extra funds to support the construction of Wuzhou.

Originally, Ouyang Shuo was getting ready to borrow more money.

In Chiyou’s room, Ouyang Shuo discovered two books.

One was called the ‘Jiuli Blood Domain True Manual,’ which taught one how to train the mountain barbarian Blood Guards.

Ouyang Shuo took a closer look before closing it. The training methods described were simply too cruel and immoral.

Thinking about it, Ouyang Shuo decided to just burn the entire book in a fire. Such an evil technique should not be allowed to exist. He should destroy it in case it caused problems.

The other book was called the ‘Jiuli Nine Crafting Method.’ It described the crafting methods of the Jiuli tribe. The armors of the mountain barbarian army was crafted from this technique.

This was decent.

If he gave it to the Combat Logistics Department, the research of the Shanhai City weapons would have some progress.

Other than that, there was just some random stuff that was not worth mentioning.

Strictly speaking, Chiyou was not a Lord that abided his power. The place where he stayed was really humble.

Even maidservants were rarely seen.

The only flaw was that he was just too violent. Based on what the servants said, Chiyou still liked to eat raw meat. Huge pieces of beef, dripping with blood; he would directly eat it raw.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this, he felt speechless.

After taking a short walk in the manor, Ouyang Shuo got up and left. He decided to take a look at the courtyard where Chiyou trained the Blood Guards.

Although he had destroyed the manual, Ouyang Shuo did not want to leave without seeing this place.

Everyone had curiosity in them.

The entire courtyard had no one living near it in hundreds of meters. Even when Chiyou led his troops and left, no one dared to enter and take a look.