There was no grand scene of officials gathered in a collective welcome. Outside the west gate of Tieshi City, a few soldiers stood alone, yet the entry of Prince of Shicheng Hua Tianxiong and his entourage of over six hundred people still brought an extraordinary stir to the city. Never before had so many people entered the city at once. Fortunately, all the officials of Tieshi City had long since received word of the impending arrival of Prince of Shicheng Hua Tianxiong. Therefore, after a simple inspection of the official documents, the garrison soldiers ushered the entourage of Prince of Shicheng Hua Tianxiong into Tieshi City.
Walking along the east-west avenue, Hua Tianxiong gained a clearer understanding of the condition of Tieshi City, where he was soon to take up residence. The ancient city was dilapidated; its city walls, lacking long-term maintenance, were overgrown with green moss, and along the way, repairs were urgently needed in many places. A few scattered pedestrians walked along the low, uneven, and wide streets. Aside from a few chambers of commerce, apothecary shops, weapon shops, and restaurants, it was virtually impossible to find any decent stores. Yet this brought no pessimism to the procession, for arriving in Tieshi City alive was already the greatest fortune for these ordinary soldiers.
Guided by the soldiers at the city gate, Prince of Shicheng Hua Tianxiong soon arrived at the City Lord's Mansion near the east side of the city. In truth, it was merely a scaled-down version of Tieshi City itself, measuring one hundred and fifty meters on each side, situated at the very end of the avenue with its back against the rear city wall.
"His Highness the Prince of Shicheng has arrived! Quickly call your City Lord out to greet him!" General Wu Tian, utterly unable to tolerate the City Lord's discourteous behavior, shouted slightly sternly at the soldiers at the entrance of the City Lord's Mansion.
"No, General Wu. Old City Lord Li Gang is aged; let us go in and pay him a visit," Hua Tianxiong stopped Wu Tian's order.
With that, Hua Tianxiong took the initiative to step into the City Lord's Mansion. There were buildings on both the left and right sides of the interior, and the courtyard was clean and orderly. Seasonal flowers and plants were arranged under the corridors on both sides, their reds and greens making them particularly striking. The gate guards led the Prince of Shicheng toward the main hall facing the gate. Entering the side chamber of the main hall, the Prince of Shicheng saw six officials wearing the official attire of the Qin State standing on either side of a large bed, obviously listening to instructions from the person lying upon it.
"His Highness the Prince of Shicheng has arrived. Which one of you is the City Lord? Step forward to pay your respects!" General Wu Tian announced in a ringing voice.
They saw an emaciated old man over sixty years of age, lying in bed, trembling as he struggled to sit up. Seeing this, Hua Tianxiong hurried forward two steps to support the old man and said modestly,
"You have worked hard, Old City Lord Li. Just lie down, just lie down. I, Hua Tianxiong, have arrived; I beg the Old City Lord to forgive us for our late arrival!"
"Your… Your Highness the Prince of Shicheng, please forgive… forgive this old man for his inability to greet you. It is not that… any of us were remiss; rather, it is because my body is frail, and having recently caught a chill, I feared my time was near and I would not live to look upon Your Highness once more. That is why I summoned the officials of various offices to settle matters of the afterlife. Never did I imagine that this old man would indeed live to see Your Highness arrive in person. Having beheld you with my own eyes, this old man can now depart in peace!" Li Gang said earnestly.
"Why should the Old City Lord speak thus? For more than twenty years, you have spared no effort and worked with unremitting diligence to guard this city for our Great Qin Empire, and it is only right that I, your junior, hold you in high respect," Hua Tianxiong said modestly.
"Your Highness's personal arrival is the great fortune of Tieshi City. These are all the officials of Tieshi City: Wang Yuan in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, He Jiong of the Ministry of Personnel, Zhuge Zhan of the Ministry of War, Gongsun Shang of the Ministry of Works, Ma Chen of the Ministry of Rites, and Qu Zhong of the Ministry of Punishment. Though the sparrow is small, it has all its internal organs. Although Tieshi City is small, the local customs are good, and all my subordinate officials are conscientious. Most of us are officials who were squeezed out by the imperial court; while not every one of us is incorruptible and unyielding, at least none engage in malfeasance or break the law for personal gain. Since I have already served as the City Lord of Tieshi City, I never intended to return to my hometown; I am willing to live and die with Tieshi City. Now that the Prince of Shicheng has arrived, this old man shall naturally step down to the second line, and Your Highness may directly arrange personnel to manage things!" Although Li Gang had not returned to Yanjing for a long time, he knew a thing or two about Hua Tianxiong's situation, and he understood all too well the truth that the imperial family is the most merciless of all. Seeing that Hua Tianxiong spoke with an open and unpretentious manner, and treated men of virtue with lowered status, he naturally rejoiced from the bottom of his heart that the people of Tieshi City were blessed.
"Old City Lord Li, you are mistaken. Although I, Hua Tianxiong, have been enfeoffed as the Prince of Shicheng by the Emperor, with Bohai Commandery as my fief and Tieshi City as my garrison, I will not replace Old City Lord Li in the direct administration of Tieshi City. I ask only that Old City Lord Li tend to his health and on no account decline; though I am unworthy, I still request that Old City Lord Li continue to serve as City Lord, and that all the officials continue in their respective duties. Once I have settled matters for this Prince, we shall make other arrangements for rewards and appointments," Hua Tianxiong spoke frankly and sincerely.
"Many thanks for the Prince of Shicheng's instruction. This old man shall naturally exert himself so as not to cause Your Highness worry, but lately my health has been deteriorating day by day, and I fear my time is short!" Li Gang said with heartfelt conviction.
"Old City Lord Li need not decline. We shall presently summon the military physicians to provide treatment," Hua Tianxiong earnestly urged Li Gang to stay.
Through subsequent communications and discussions with Old City Lord Li Gang and the officials of the various ministries, they gained a concrete understanding of the situation in Tieshi City: Tieshi City had a jurisdiction of forty square kilometers, with over five thousand households of residents outside the city who mostly made their living by hunting and gathering medicinal herbs; within the urban area, there were over two thousand households, also largely making a living through the trade of medicinal herbs, Demonic Beasts, and their byproducts. Although the common people did not starve, most were still at the stage of merely subsisting on food and clothing. In years when the Beast Tide was severe, many died. The primary commercial activities were limited to the trade of Demonic Beasts and medicinal herbs, with only 156 business establishments in the entire city. Moreover, when the Beast Tide approached, everyone had to evacuate to nearby Lincang City to escape it.
Tieshi City had a total of 151 officials and staff members. Aside from the 100 soldiers of the Ministry of War, each of the other ministries had 10 members, plus the 1 City Lord. At present, the Ministry of Revenue held a certain amount of silver in reserves, with annual tax revenues of a certain amount. The City Lord and the heads of the six ministries received fifteen taels of silver per month, while soldiers and other personnel received three taels—far below the salaries of officials in other regions of the empire. However, the total tax revenue of Tieshi City was no longer even sufficient to cover expenses.
Having understood these circumstances, Prince of Shicheng Hua Tianxiong made his first decision upon arriving in Tieshi City: he directly incorporated the 100 soldiers of the Ministry of War under the command of General Wu Tian, and selected 200 soldiers familiar with construction from the total of over 700 troops, assigning them directly to the Ministry of Works under the leadership of Gongsun Shang. Starting from that very day, they began the construction of the Temporary Prince's Mansion, primarily extending the northern city wall outward by 200 meters to serve as the building area for the mansion. The center would be built into the main hall of the Prince's Mansion, flanked by side halls, bedchambers, and barracks. All construction funds would temporarily be provided by the Tieshi City Ministry of Revenue, to be later reimbursed and subsidized by the Prince of Shicheng's estate.
Having made this decision, and after temporarily arranging for the Prince of Shicheng and his bodyguards to stay in the City Lord's Mansion, evening was already approaching. Fortunately, the Prince of Shicheng's entourage carried their own dry rations; after a hurried meal, Hua Tianxiong entered his room to rest.
Because their carriages had been destroyed and they had traveled on horseback, Hua Tianxiong had been unable to cultivate for the past two days. Ever since he had regained the ability to cultivate, Hua Tianxiong thought of nothing else day and night except how to rapidly grow stronger. Therefore, after entering his room and instructing his personal guards to rest, Hua Tianxiong quickly entered the Star Domain Cauldron to cultivate. After all, the time ratio between inside and outside the cauldron was twelve to one; one day of cultivation in the outside world allowed for twelve days of practice within the cauldron.
Sitting cross-legged on the open ground in the center of the Star Domain Cauldron, Hua Tianxiong rapidly circulated the Star Domain Formula. As the Star Domain Formula rotated, the spiritual qi around Hua Tianxiong became visible to the naked eye like moving dust, voluntarily approaching and entering every inch of his skin, instantly passing through his skin into the meridians throughout his body. Once gathered in the meridians, the qi flowed like a babbling brook toward Hua Tianxiong's Dantian. As the spiritual qi continuously poured into the Dantian, it circled the Dantian once before merging into the spiritual power stored within it. At this moment, Hua Tianxiong's Dantian was the size of a soybean. As more and more spiritual power integrated, the Dantian slowly expanded by a fraction, and as it held more spiritual power, he naturally felt his strength gradually increasing.
In this manner, Hua Tianxiong sat like an old monk in meditation, cultivating with a famished and thirsting urgency. After running about twenty major heavenly cycles, Hua Tianxiong felt his Dantian swelling intensely. With his past cultivation experience, Hua Tianxiong knew he had reached the ultimate peak of the Fourth-Rank Martial Disciple stage. Sensing that he could not contain a single shred more of spiritual qi, Hua Tianxiong stopped compressing the spiritual power within his Dantian and swiftly directed it, according to the circulation method of the Star Domain Formula, to charge against the barrier of the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage. With a crisp pop—utterly without suspense—the barrier of the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage was instantly shattered, and Hua Tianxiong's martial cultivation officially entered the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage.
Upon entering the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage, Hua Tianxiong did not stop his cultivation. Instead, he continued to absorb the spiritual qi within the cauldron, steadily operating the Star Domain Formula until he felt his cultivation at the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage was thoroughly consolidated before finally halting. After taking a slight meal and resting briefly, he continued into a new round of cultivation.
Thus the night passed without incident. Hua Tianxiong did not know how many major cycles of the Star Domain Formula he had run before dawn broke the next day. Rising to his feet, he tested the gains of his cultivation: overnight, he had unexpectedly advanced from the peak of the Fourth-Rank Martial Disciple stage to the initial peak of the Fifth-Rank Martial Disciple stage. Feeling this tremendous progress in his cultivation, Hua Tianxiong could not help but reveal a happy and satisfied smile. Although he had not slept much, his mental state was excellent, glowing with vigor and entirely devoid of any sense of fatigue.
After a full night of uninterrupted cultivation, Hua Tianxiong finally concluded his practice and emerged from the Star Domain Cauldron. Following breakfast, Hua Tianxiong had Wu Tian assemble the remaining five hundred-odd soldiers, organizing them into groups of one hundred. Led by eight bodyguard captains including Zhuge Zhan and Wang Jie, they were dispatched from Tieshi City as the center, moving in five directions to slowly march and explore the Tieshi Mountains. The time limit was two months, and they were not to venture further than four hundred miles from Tieshi City. Their primary task was to search for the ironwood tree and fine iron ore specified by Hua Tianxiong; their secondary task was to eliminate the Demonic Beasts surrounding Tieshi City, expanding the scope of human activity around the city. At the same time, this would also solve the food and supply issues for the five hundred-odd soldiers and increase Tieshi City's financial revenues.
Back when he was in the royal capital of the Qin State, after his meridians were severed and his Dantian shattered, Hua Tianxiong had abandoned any thoughts of becoming a Martial Practitioner. Yet, under the influence of Hua Zhengchun, his determination to become an imperial powerhouse remained steadfast. Under the tutelage of Imperial Tutor Zhuge Kunyun, Hua Tianxiong had gained a thorough mastery of the distribution of empires across the Eastern Continent of the Huaxia mainland, the local customs and practices, as well as the distribution of natural resources and social development. To describe him with the phrase "knowing astronomy above and geography below" would be no exaggeration at all, and even Imperial Tutor Zhuge Kunyun confessed himself inferior.
The reason Hua Tianxiong wasted no time in dispatching five groups to search the surroundings of Tieshi City for ironwood trees and fine iron ore was something he had learned from the text "Territorial Resources of Qin State in Dongzhou" within the imperial palace: "The ironwood tree is slender, about fourteen meters in height, with few branches and leaves. Its wood is tough yet resiliently strong, making excellent fine bows and arrows for ordinary martial practitioners. It is distributed within the Tieshi Mountains, and appears in large quantities in multiple Qin prefectures and counties adjacent to the mountain range." "Fine iron ore is distributed throughout the hinterland of the Tieshi Mountains, serving as the raw material for forging high-grade ordinary weapons." Both of these resources had been discovered in the vicinity of Tieshi City, but not in large quantities. Therefore, Hua Tianxiong wished to utilize these two resources to increase Tieshi City's revenues and commercial development, while these same resources were also essential prerequisites for making Tieshi City a prosperous state with a powerful military.
During the days when the Ministry of Works was constructing the royal city in Tieshi City and the Ministry of War was searching for resources, Old City Lord Li Gang's health also gradually improved thanks to prompt and effective treatment. Every day, Hua Tianxiong would meet with City Lord Li Gang, Wang Yuan of the Ministry of Revenue, He Jiong of the Ministry of Personnel, Ma Chen of the Ministry of Rites, Qu Zhong of the Ministry of Punishment, and General Wu Tian to discuss and study the future development direction of Tieshi City and the resolution of practical problems.
After a month of understanding, Hua Tianxiong had gained a very clear and detailed grasp of Tieshi City's specific conditions, and his framework for the future development of Tieshi City gradually became clear: namely, to expand Tieshi City's commercial projects, develop its weapon manufacturing industry, and simultaneously enlarge the existing businesses of medicinal herbs, Demonic Beasts, and their derivative products. This would increase the population of Tieshi City and strengthen the development of its power.
Every single night, Hua Tianxiong worked diligently on cultivating the Star Domain Formula. Truly, hard work pays off: one month later, Hua Tianxiong officially stepped into the Seventh-Rank Martial Disciple stage. Having jumped two levels consecutively, he had reached the cultivation level of an ordinary soldier, but his actual strength already surpassed the level of a First-tier Martial Practitioner. Given that ordinary soldiers were eighteen years old, compared to Hua Tianxiong who was not yet sixteen, his talent and Star Domain physique were thus seen to be astonishingly high.
Along with the elevation of his cultivation, subtle changes also occurred within the Star Domain Cauldron: its spatial area expanded to seventy meters in radius, and more plots of land gradually appeared. Looking at the dormant phantom and feeling the thin spiritual qi within the Star Domain Cauldron, Hua Tianxiong was nevertheless unsure what it could be used for. Several times he wanted to ask Elder Xuan, but in the end Hua Tianxiong held back, unwilling to disturb him.
On this day, Hua Tianxiong, Li Gang, and Wu Tian were inspecting the local conditions among the people on the main street. Although Tieshi City was situated on the edge of the Tieshi Mountains in a remote and barren place, it had to be said that Li Gang's administration of Tieshi City was quite orderly. Although the local residents were fierce and bold by nature, their mindset remained relatively simple and honest. Li Gang and the other officials shared weal and woe with the people of Tieshi City; whenever a Beast Tide approached, all the residents outside and inside the city would travel together to nearby Lincang City to take refuge and resist the tide. Consequently, the residents entered the City Lord's Mansion as casually as visiting relatives, and naturally the gate guards were familiar with everyone in the city. Walking down the main street, all the passersby greeted City Lord Li Gang, while at the same time marveling at the Prince of Shicheng's youth and approachability.
When passing by the Tieshi City branch of the Continent Chamber of Commerce, Hua Tianxiong was astonished by the power of the Continent Chamber of Commerce—even in this remote Tieshi City, a branch of theirs existed. Long troubled by the empty land within the Star Domain Cauldron, Hua Tianxiong suddenly conceived an idea, and he pulled Li Gang along as he stepped into the branch of the Continent Chamber of Commerce.