Chapter 1000: Land of Martial Arts

Chapter 1000 – Land of Martial Arts

The Tang Dynasty had three unparalleled things.

Li Bai’s poems, Pei Min’s sword skills, and Zhang Xu’s cursive script.

Immortal Poet Li Bai was not only good in the literary department, but he also had really great sword skills. He started liking the sword at 15. Following which, his skills flourished and developed, becoming second in the Tang Dynasty, only lower than Sword Saint Pei Min.

Maybe even Gaia loved him, as Li Bai’s sword techniques were strengthened a second time, becoming an authentic secret manual, making him a true sword master.

Li Bai did not come over to Shanhai City for any name or reputation but to visit a friend. Even so, it was enough to shake the world.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to keep this Immortal Poet. However, the prerequisite was to find some place for him.

“Mister is good at the sword. Naturally, you do not want others to dictate your actions. On the east of the city, there’s a mountain known as Dongli Mountain. On it is a sect known as Dongli Sword Sect. Since my wife is pregnant, she cannot act as the sect master, and the position has been empty till now. Will you be able to lower yourself to accept this position, it’s both unrestrictive, and you can also visit your friends,” Ouyang Shuo said.

When Li Bai heard that, he was instantly interested.

“Was the name of Dongli taken from Mister Jingjie’s drinking wine poem?” Li Bai asked.

Mister Lingjie was the East Jin Poet Tao Yuanming, who was called the ancestor of poets. He was the true master of the poetry circle, and he was the senior of Li Bai and Du Fu.

“That’s right!”

“Great!” Li Bai had made his decision, “I’ll accept this position.”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, “Congratulations, mister. The Dongli Sword Sect now has a chance of rising up.” With the current status of the underworld, the Dongli Sword Sect could only rise up with a stellar sect leader.

Li Bai was undoubtedly a good choice.

Name: Li Bai (Saint Rank)

Title: Immortal Poet

Dynasty: Tang Dynasty

Identity: Dongli Sword Sect sect master

Occupation: God Rank Swordsman

Loyalty: 75

bone structure: 20

Comprehension: 20

Luck: 10

Charm: 18

Specialty: Wine Sword Immortal (raises sword dao talents by 80%)

Cultivation method: Qinglian Sword Code (God Rank)

Weapon: Qingping Sword (God Rank)

Evaluation: Given the nickname of Immortal Poet, his brush astonishes the world, and his poems are on another level.

Gaia really loved Li Bai. It granted him a God Rank cultivation method and a God Weapon. Along with Li Bai’s exceptional stats, Gaia had created a sword god.

One could foresee that Dongli Sword Sect, under the leadership of Li Bai with the support of Great Xia, would be able to shine in the underworld. Crushing Shaolin and Wudang were not an impossible matter.

Just as Li Bai took charge of Dongli Sword Sect, a System Notification broke out.

“System Notification: Sword God Li Bai moves into Great Xia and takes charge of the Dongli Sword Sect, original title of Home of Martial Arts automatically upgraded to Land of Martial Arts, congratulations player!”

…

The moment the news spread out, the world was in an uproar.

Players were astonished by the fact that Li Bai was a sword god, and they were shocked that such a character would take charge of the Dongli Sword Sect.

“The underworld is going to be a mess!” some people muttered.

Some people already predicted that an even more chaotic underworld was about to draw close.

Along with the various sects appearing in the wilderness, the Dongli Sword Sect that Great Xia made was not in the eyes of the players. As such, they obviously would not expect such a change.

Dongli Sword Sect made use of its name as Great Xia’s official sect, having a sword god in charge, and the sect secret manuals that they already had to instantly become a hot choice for adventure gamemode players.

Especially to those who had already moved over to Great Xia, the Dongli Sword Sect was the best choice.

This time, the underworld was going to have a new shuffling of cards.

…

Ouyang Shuo had such thoughts in mind when he asked Li Bai to take charge of the Dongli Sword Sect. He wanted to help the sect become the top sect in the world and suppress the underworld.

Since ancient times, strength was what spoke, and if no one controlled them, it would become chaotic.

Using the name of Li Bai, he could control the underworld. Ouyang Shuo’s plan was exceptional.

Ouyang Shuo tossed aside his thoughts and looked at the new stats.

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Land of Martial Arts: Raises dynasty civilians’ body quality by 50%, raises martial artists’ skills familiarity by 30%, raises cultivation comprehension by 40%.

So amazing!

Originally, to upgrade Home of Martial Arts to Land of Martial Arts, they needed to obtain at least two single type martial art titles like home of sword, home of spear, and the like.

Li Bai’s arrival saved all the trouble.

Hence, after Home of Philosophers, Land of Artisans, Land of Poetry, Great Xia had now gained a fourth land title.

************

Gaia 5th year, 1st month, 22nd day, Xia Palace.

The wave of Tang Dynasty poets joining Great Xia eased. Shanhai City slowly entered the New Year period. Be it normal civilians or nobles, they all started to purchase New Year goodies to welcome the arrival of the Lunar New Year.

The entire wilderness stopped all its wars; it was a sign of peace and prosperity.

The Lunar New Year was a really meaningful time to the Chinese, and no one wanted to start slaughtering at such a time.

To welcome a festive season with the smell of blood was inauspicious for an individual and also a dynasty.

At the end of the An Lushan Rebellion, Feng Qiuhuang successfully obtained Guo Ziyi, getting what she wished.

The day that they returned to Fallen Phoenix City, Guo Ziyi was appointed as the marshal of the Flaming Legion Corps, becoming the top person in the Fallen Phoenix City Army.

With Ran Min, Zhuo Bo, Wang He, and other famous generals, the Flaming Legion Corps was well-equipped.

With this legion corps taking charge, Ouyang Shuo did not need to worry for Feng Qiuhuang.

…

In the morning, Ouyang Shuo was in the Imperial Reading Room.

The navy generals were still discussing matters, and there were many things that needed Ouyang Shuo to decide. He needed to decide how to make use of the resources of the entire dynasty to ensure that the transformation of the navy went smoothly.

As this core project concerned the fate of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo would naturally go all out.

Apart from that, as the Chinese New Year neared, the yearly official evaluation was in progress. The results directly involved the promotion and demotion of officials. Although there was Zhang Tingyu in charge, Ouyang Shuo still had to keep a lookout on it from time to time.

Especially the Shu Lands, Chuanbei, Xiangnan, and Jiangchuan, which were just taken under the dynasty’s rule. There was a large gap compared to the other provinces.

Shu Lands, Chuanbei, and Xiangnan; they all used different organizational structures before this. To reorganize them would require a lot of work to be done.

Not to mention that just changing the name of an organization could change the thinking of the officials.

As the matter within was simply too complicated, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zhang Tingyu and the Official Ruling Department to make use of the evaluation to fix the four provinces.

Those who failed would all be fired.

Hence, it was said that Zhang Tingyu was facing a lot of pressure this time, and there were many people who looked for him every day.

That was because the evaluation results were simply pessimistic, corruption, abuse of power, failure in work, and the like. If they did not fix it now, something big might happen in the future.

Not only the four new prefectures, but even Yunnan, Chuannan, Lingnan, and Minnan all faced their own problems.

When the forest was big, there would be all kinds of birds in it.

Even to say that as Great Xia grew richer and more prosperous, local powers would form at the same time. No matter how good the system was, it would not be able to stop greed.

Although Ouyang Shuo believed that Zhang Tingyu could withstand the pressure, he could not just do nothing. He had to show a clear attitude to support the Official Ruling Department in their work.

Those who entered the city to beg for help was not limited to the officials that failed but also their superiors, and it even reached the Prefecture Governor level. After all, no prefecture would be willing to have so many officials removed at once.

Ouyang Shuo’s attitude was really resolute, “Whichever one of them wants to beg for their subordinates, ask them to look for me. I want to see what excuses they can give.”

Looking at the entire Great Xia, there probably was no one that was this bold.

The moment Ouyang Shuo’s words spread out, there were many officials that quietly returned to their own areas.

They knew that the king was serious.

Any official who had worked for long in the dynasty would have the utmost respect for the king. They would not dare to go against his orders.

Along with the recent update, Gaia gave NPCs more sentience and stronger desires, which would give the officials an even bigger challenge.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo especially summoned the Regulatory Department director and Censorate minister to let both organizations increase their monitoring on the local offices.

In the dark, Ouyang Shuo also instructed Shen Buhai.

Till date, some of Ouyang Shuo’s thinking had changed. He hoped that through the Censorate and the Regulatory Department, they would be able to control and monitor the officials.

He wanted to do this instead of going through intel organizations like the Shanhai Guards.

Since he had ascended to the position of king, Ouyang Shuo did not want to rule by fear. Hence, he even specifically told Shen Buhai to tell the Shanhai Guards to keep their swords.

Of course, monitoring was still necessary.

Apart from monitoring officials, there was also a need to keep in check the matters of the various areas. The Provincial Governor offices lessened the workload of the Imperial Court but also gave Provincial Governors thoughts that they should not have.

How to balance the relationship would depend on Ouyang Shuo’s skills.

A huge dynasty spreading for tens of thousands of miles, with close to a hundred million people. Naturally, Ouyang Shuo could not manage this on his own. Hence, he needed to make use of the Cabinet to lead the civil servants.

Along with Yan Song entering, the Cabinet already had three elders, each with vast experience.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo split the jobs of the three of them.