The World Online

3rd month, 1st day, afternoon, Shanhai City.

Within the Wenhua Palace of the Nanjiang Governor-General House, Ouyang Shuo had gathered Cabinet Grand Secretary Jiangshang, Xiao He, Wei Yang, Fan Li, and Du Ruhui to discuss matters.

The matter of their discussion was the Capital City upgrade quests.

After learning that Shanhai City was about to upgrade to Capital City, these five important officials all felt emotional. The moment Shanhai City upgraded to Capital City, it meant that the establishment of the country was imminent.

Hence, no matter how difficult the quests were, they needed to work wholeheartedly.

In the morning when he left the main hall, Ouyang Shuo’s quest interface showed detailed information about the three quests.

The Imperial Court examination quest was set in the middle of the 3rd month but the exact date was not shown. There was a high chance the officials would sneak over or silently arrive in Shanhai City.

Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Shanhai Guards to strengthen their monitoring during this half a month. The moment they noticed any suspicious people, they needed to immediately report it to prevent the secret visit from succeeding.

More importantly, Ouyang Shuo instructed, ”From this moment on, Shanhai City will make preparations to be evaluated. Only then can we not give them a chance to find fault with us.”

Xiao He and the others were all extremely experienced officials, so they obviously knew what would happen when the Dali Imperial Court officials came over to Shanhai City. All of them were solemn and treated the matter seriously.

”We still have a little time, so let’s conduct a self-evaluation and improvement phase.” Ouyang Shuo looked at Jiang Shang, ”Five days later, Grand Secretary Jiang Shang will organize an independent evaluation group to conduct a mock evaluation of Shanhai City.”

Ouyang Shuo took how modern day societies treated superior evaluations and brought it into the game.

”Yes Monarch!”

After Jiang Shang agreed to be the Cabinet Grand Secretary, he had taken up the role really quickly.

Apart from the Imperial Court examination, the 36 industries quest gave Ouyang Shuo a headache.

The quest interface clearly showed, ”36 industries quest: 35/36 completed. Friendly Reminder: Shanhai City temporarily has no witchcraft industry.”

What does the witchcraft industry do?

After asking people in the know, Ouyang Shuo found out that the so-called witchcraft industry referred to fortune tellers. The mountain barbarian tribes had witches that could perform divinations but they were not recognized by Gaia.

That made the matter truly difficult.

Based on the quest rules, the moment one accepted the quest, Shanhai City was not allowed to go to the system imperial cities to recruit talents. Hence, this fortune teller could only be found through the refugees or through a full territory search. Ouyang Shuo chose to target both, recruiting from all over the prefecture to see if there were any fortune tellers.

Worst comes to worst, Ouyang Shuo could only hope that he could recruit a fortune teller from the Recruitment Hall.

However, such a chance was too low, and he only had one chance a month. As a result, the hope was not too high.

Ouyang Shuo disliked uncertainty the most. The fortune teller’s appearance was something he could not control, which made it tough for Shanhai City to upgrade to Capital City.

As for the last quest, Ouyang Shuo handed it over to Du Ruhui.

During the two hour meeting, Ouyang Shuo gave all five of them jobs to do and also made a detailed analysis of the upgrade quests.

Now, Ouyang Shuo needed to patiently wait.

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

During dinner, Song Jia raised a topic with Ouyang Shuo.

”Wuyi, the Jiangshan Beauty film has been completed and is now in post-production. Wu Pingcheng thinks that it can be published by the end of 4th month at the latest.”

Ouyang Shuo drank a mouthful of soup, ”That’s great.” This was two months faster than the last life, probably because of the support of the Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings.

”When the time to promote the movie comes, you need to help us out.” Song Jia had a reason for telling Ouyang Shuo that.

Ouyang Shuo agreed without hesitation, ”No problem. In a few days, I’ll write an article in the Quick Daily News to evaluate the entertainment industry, and I’ll bring up the movie in the article.”

Song Jia smiled, ”That’s great, if you open your mouth, it’s better than any promotion.”

Ouyang Shuo was the strongest Lord in the wilderness, and he possessed excellent foresight. The article he wrote would obviously cause a lot of discussion in the wilderness.

Who knows, perhaps the entertainment industry explosion would be revealed right there. The Mountain and Sea Entertainment Holdings could use this to set sail.

Song Jia continued, ”Also, one more thing, the movie Huo Qubing is being shot, and if we are quick, we can release it early in the 6th month.”

Currently, the Guards Legion Corps had moved back to Shanhai City, making it rather convenient for the production crew.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he was also looking forward to whether these two movies would achieve better results with his influence.

”Oh yeah.” Song Jia said excitedly, ”Little aunt sent a letter to me in the morning, and she said she was going to open up the Kunlun side map. She asked me to rush to Jianye in the morning.”

The Kunlun side map was a Wuxia map and was obtained by Xie Siyun for 850 thousand during the world auction. Ouyang Shuo had invested 200 thousand to obtain a slot for Song Jia.

Seeing his lady’s excited expression, Ouyang Shuo smiled, ”Then go. I’ll let Tianqi arrange people to protect you. No matter what, this is the first Wuxia side map, and it should be quite interesting.”

”I also think so.” Song Jia was looking forward to it. Since she learned about the start of the side map, she had looked through everything on the forums.

Not mentioning others, just the legendary secret manuals and God Weapons was enough to make one drool.

The two of them talked as they ate dinner.

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

3rd month. 2nd day, Jiangnan Province, Zhoushan Port.

At 4 PM, a flagship with the Statue of Liberty flag slowly docked at the port. This was the Free City battleship that had just left Japan.

On the dock, Di Chen, Chun Shenjun, Xiong Ba, Zhan Lang, Sha Pojun, and Wandering Magic had all gathered. The others all had excited expressions, and only Wandering Magic had a complicated expression.

Before the Satellite City battle, Wandering Magic had finally learned of the existence of a special organization known as Silver Hand behind his family, shocking him.

Under Xiong Ba’s persuasion, Wandering Magic took the silver token. However, in his heart, he still felt rather uneasy. With the way Silver Hand did things, he saw that they aimed to protect the interests of aristocratic families.

If country interests goes against the interest of Silver Hand in future country wars, what choice would Di Chen and the others make? Thinking about that, Wandering Magic felt a chill run down his spine.

Working together with Di Chen and the others was like working with a tiger, making him rather apprehensive. However, he was already on the Yanhuang Alliance ship, and he could not get off it.

Wandering Magic had a new understanding of the power of Silver Hand during the Satellite City battle. The current top Lord of America sending a ship thousands of miles to pass technology to them left him surprised.

While he stood there stunned, the Man O’ War battleship docked. From the battleship, a ladder was placed down and two men walked off. Beside them were soldiers carrying handguns.

When Di Chen and the others saw them, they all welcomed these people with smiles.

Next, a reception occurred and the planned trade was carried out. The moment the Free City secretary passed over the three technical manuals, Di Chen’s hands shook.

With these three babies, Shanhai City’s technology advantage was gone. Before this, Di Chen had already thought of using these three items to say something to threaten Shanhai City.

The next morning, the warship set off and left.

Di Chen and the others had not left. Although they spent the whole day drinking and entertaining the two Americans and did not have any sleep, they were all extremely energized and held an alliance meeting.

Apart from discussing how to trap Shanhai City, they also talked about Xunlong Dianxue. Xiong Ba said that he had already achieved decisive progress.

The gift from Jake Dawson was a lethal blow.

Xiong Ba looked around, ”That little fox only gave him the sewing machine technology. As for the steam engine and the warship making techniques, he locked them up. It made Xunlong Dianxue really unhappy. Think about it, if we use these three techniques as chips, won’t that kid just join us?”

Zhan Lang did not understand, ”But if we all release the three technologies, it would break the maximum of five. Naturally, it would be common in the entire China region.”

Xiong Ba smiled, and his smile was filled with craftiness, ”Hence, our internal spread of the technology can slow down. After Xunlong Dianxue joins us, spreading the technology would not be too late. Once both sides sign a black and white contract, even if Xunlong Dianxue learns that he has been conned, it would be too late.”

When Wandering Magic heard that, he felt a chill in his heart. These aristocratic family children were all good at schemes. If they really did that, it would be forcing Xunlong Dianxue onto the road of no return.

Thinking about this, Wandering Magic felt sad for Xunlong Dianxue.

’Why? For a small matter, you quarreled with Shanhai City., Now you end up working with Yanhuang Alliance, and they’re pushing you to death.’

Wandering Magic warned himself that he could not become the next Xunlon Dianxue.

”This is a good idea!”

Chun Shenjun and the others were really supportive of the idea as they were not interested all along in trying to turn Xunlong Dianxue. Rather, only Xiong Ba had pushed for it. If they could con Xunlong Dianxue without doing anything, they naturally would not reject it.

At the very least, making their enemy feel bad was great.

Xiong Ba was delighted, ”So that’s settled. Do not worry; I’ll get it done quickly.”