Chapter 57: Chapter 57 – Humbling.

It took a few minutes, but Xiulan managed to convince Yanlin that whatever pressing news he had could wait until they had all gathered for an early breakfast. The Sun was just starting to rise when they all sat down to eat.

The assembled crowd looked grumpy for having been awoken so early. Yanlin was pacing around looking shaken. Xiulan sighed and said, “well now that we are all up what was so shocking about the mainland?”

Yanlin steadied himself and began, “firstly, trying to find a ship to travel to the mainland was almost impossible. The Prince’s minions almost caught up to me before I could find one ship that was sailing that way.”

The Princess interjected, “I told you we do not do much business with the mainland. There is not much point.”

Yanlin nodded but continued, “when I finally did find a ship, I had to charter it outright before they would consent to take me to the mainland. The whole way there the general level qi rose. I thought that the Capital was qi dense but by the time we reached the closet mainland port, I felt practically crushed by the density of qi.”

He took a breath and resumed his tale, “I assumed that the Prince’s men were still following me so a decided to lose myself in the city. From what I heard the port city was not particularly large by the reckoning of the mainland, but it was at least twice the size of the kingdom’s Capital.”

Xiulan interrupted, “none of this sounds ground-breaking. We already knew the mainland had more people and cultivation resources than the kingdom.”

Yanlin sighed and addressed his real concern, “the issue is that while I was only there for a few hours, I encountered dozens of golden core cultivators. I would not go as far as to say they were common but considering that we only have one or two of them in the entire kingdom…”

Xiulan had a realisation and said, “if they decided to invade then the kingdom would be crushed.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Yanlin, “at the moment the only reason nobody has invaded is that the Kingdom is to qi deprived to be worth their time. If you change that then the Kingdom will be valuable territory.”

Xiulan thought about the problem for a while before she replied surprising everybody, “so what? A change in government would not necessarily hurt us. Most of our interests are commercial.”

The princess sputtered, “but… but…”

Xiulan laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, “I am sorry but is true Lijuan. I am still going to help you against your brother but the only reason you are doing it is so that he does not have despotic control over the kingdom. Once you take charge, we can transition the kingdom into a decentralized government. Give the people a chance to control their own destiny and operate under the notice of any cultivators that do migrate from the mainland.”

The Princess seemed conflicted, “but if we are conquered then the cultivators will want control.”

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Xiulan shook her head, “there is a reason that cultivators tend to organize into sects and not governments. Administration is not generally a path to immortality. If you make it clear, you have no intentions to prevent them from taking up residence then perhaps you can even maintain a ‘mortal’ government.”

Yanlin nodded and added, “from what I saw that seemed to be the arrangement that the city I visited had come to. The admiration of the city was done by officials, some of them mortal. The majority of cultivators were wanders looking for opportunities to further their cultivation or sect cultivators that tried to monopolise the most qi rich hill in the city for their territory.”

Xiulan grimaced and noted, “this will probably quash the idea to make the tallest peak the headquarters for the Golden Hand. I imagine that when the mainland cultivators will want to fight for that mountain peak.”

Yanlin shrugged, “we were only going with it because of your instructions. To be honest we do not really need a tall peak for bragging rights.”

Xiulan smiled sheepishly. She really had just found the idea of controlling the peak appealing for the grand spectacle. She had started to think more like a cultivator than a merchant. A cultivator or a feudal lord. That was a mistake though. Her power grew when she earned money and there were more ways to do that than holding territory. If she became involved in prestige wars with other mainland sects, she would lose money, not earn it.

Xiulan looked to the Princess and asked, “are you okay with giving up the monolithic control the Royal family has?”

The Princess sighed, “if I can keep the population prosperous then I suppose so. The only control I would really be giving up is the right to punish the sects’ crimes but if the royal family is not strong enough to enforce those laws, then there is really no difference.”

Xiulan comforted, “perhaps you can negotiate some kind of treaty with the sects after things stabilise.”

Xiulan clapped and turned back to Yanlin, “for now the most important question is how common were the trade of spirit stones in the mainland city?”

Yanlin replied with disbelief, “considering how hard I had to bargain with the prince I assumed that they would be some precious commodity but spirit stones where so common in the city that they were used to buy food. Nobody even used metal currency.”

Xiulan almost drooled at the prospect. She addressed the assembled group, “that decides it then. In the short term our goal will still be to get the Princess on the throne but long term we would do better to focus commercial power instead of terrestrial power. Once we have some basic infrastructure in place here then profiting from the wealth of the mainland will make us all better off.”

Zheng Ling nodded and said, “it would be nice to go back to being just a doctor.”

Yen Wen concurred, “fighting against a horde of Golden core cultivators does not sound like a good prospect.”

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