The Magus Era

Yao Mountain territory was way, way too enormous.

The military exploits Ji Hao built in Chi Ban Mountain was no trivial matter at all. The sword formation had exterminated almost all Qian Family’s elite forces and completely broke the spine of the few powerful Blood Moon families. Therefore, Emperor Shun discussed with all his ministers and finally decided to award Ji Hao with such a huge piece of land.

The Yao Mountain territory was nearly a million miles squared. To powerful beings like Ji Hao himself, this area could be covered in merely a day of traveling, but to those people Ji Hao brought here, only the distance from the east to west or from the south to north of this area would be unimaginably huge. An ordinary person couldn’t possibly make it, not even in their whole life.

With the magic cast by a few Magi Palace’s Magi and the help given by Po silently, the moving speed of Ji Hao’s migratory troop raised much further. After over two months of traveling towards the northeast, a magnificent mountain range could be seen in the front. That was Yao Mountain.

Ten million people in the migratory troop cheered out together. Some elderly people even kneeled on the ground and kowtowed to Yao Mountain, which was shrouded by faint mist. This place would become their homeland, their children, their children’s children would be growing up and developing in this area. They would all have their own kids and pass their bloodlines on, generation after generation.

Yao Mountain territory was so boundless that many of these people probably wouldn’t have a chance to travel across this entire area and see all of its beauty. However, from among their descendants, some Senior Magi would always emerge, and even more powerful beings like Magus Kings or Divine Magi would emerge and grow.

One day, those talented kids would smile proudly and confidently, engraving their own names on this fertile piece of land, and leave legends about themselves that would last forever.

Today, they came to this virgin land. They would break open a way through brambles and thorns and build a homeland. They would have children in here, and their children would have more children. They were just like a seed. Today, they silently rooted in this land and started to grow, and in the future, their children would eventually become a towering tree!

Some old people were overwhelmed by waves of strong emotions. For unexplainable reasons, tears gushed out of their eyes.

Without being told to, they started to sing an ancient song of praying which would be sung by people when worshiping their ancestors’ souls, nature, the Gods in heaven and all mysterious beings in this world. They were singing the song for the new clan, for Ji Hao, their leader; they prayed for Ji Hao, for all-powerful beings in this world, to protect the peace of this land.

Compared with countless other mountain ranges in Midland, Yao Mountain wasn’t too high, the main peak was only around five-thousand meter tall. However, Yao Mountain’s soil was extremely rich. On the mountain, one could see beautiful plants all over the place. Rare herbs could be found everywhere. The landform was rather smooth and gentle, no soaring cliffs could be seen. Between mountains were deep lakes and great rivers; earth meridians and water meridians were concentrated in this area, because of which, caves that fully contained pure essence natural powers could be seen everywhere. This great Yao Mountain area was highly nourished by gathered natural powers.

The soil was rich and the land was fertile, so treasures would naturally be produced.

The east side of Yao Mountain was abundant in pure gold, while the north side was rich in high-quality jade; the west side teemed with bronze and iron mines while many mines of different kinds of magic crystals and gemstones were located on the east side. The reserves of those mines were extraordinarily huge, could even be seen as inexhaustible resources that would never run out. Not matter for crafting armors, weapons, farm implements, tools, or building machines, or serving as supplies for Magi daily cultivation or for sale… these resources would be just perfect.

With these resource mines, Ji Hao’s would not need to worry about money for the long-term development of his Yao Mountain territory.

In the north, west and south sides of Yao Mountain were broad plains and highlands covered by thriving woods and decorated by countless rich grassland, which could serve as excellent pastures. The resources of wild animals and plants were also abundant. Water resources covered the whole area, and potential places of residence that had great environmental conditions could be found everywhere. Any spot of this whole area could be a wonderful choice for building a homeland and starting a new life.

In the east side, Yao Mountain extended for thousands of miles then into a vast water area.

There was an unnamed lake, its area seven to eight times larger than Yao Mountain territory. On the map given by Emperor Shun when he enfeoffed Ji Hao with Yao Mountain territory, this ocean-broad unnamed lake was also circled up as a part of Yao Mountain territory.

In the Midland, people only calculated areas of their territories in terms of area of lands, and instead of being counted in as a part of territories, water areas like this would usually be given for free as annexations. Therefore, this giant lake became a part of Ji Hao’s personal territories too, along with all aquatic products produced by it.

Emperor Shun once sent people to do a rough survey of this lake, which happened a hundred years ago. According to the result they gained back then, this lake could produce tens of thousands kinds of aquatic products. Fishes, shrimps and crabs produced in this lake were extremely delicious. The largest fish living in this lake reached five-hundred Zhang in length. A single fish like this could feed a ten-thousand people clan for three to five years.

This vast lake also produced lotus roots, water chestnuts and other kinds of water-based vegetables. The annual output of these products was more than enough to feed a hundred million people.

Additionally, this lake also produced pearls. Although those were freshwater pearls and not as smooth and shiny as the ones produced in the East Ocean, there was no lack of top-grade pieces. Pearls produced in here would be rather popular in the markets in Pu Ban city. These pearls could also serve as an income source of Yao Mountain territory.

In the coming big half a year, Ji Hao had been busy as a beaver, not even having the time to eat.

For settling these ten million people down, Ji Hao made construction plans for a city, ten towns and a hundred villages, centering the main peak of Yao Mountain. These plans were made based on the suggestions given by Shaosi and assistances sent by Emperor Shun, and after discussions with some experienced elderly people among the ten million people.

The city called Yao Mountain City would be located on the south side of Yao Mountain’s main peak, depending on the mountain and facing a great river. That area was fertile and rich in natural resources, and millions of acres of land could be opened up into rich farmlands. In addition to all this, this area was also surrounded by thriving woods and grasslands.

Yao Mountain City would be a big city that could contain a million people to live and work in it. In Ji Hao’s plan, a five-hundred meter tall, pure metal fence wall would be built up. Coordinating with defensive magic formations, it would be able to resist direct attacks launched by three to five ordinary Divine Magi together.

People who would be living in Yao Mountain city were those young and men and women that Ji Hao purchased in Pu Ban city. Those people entirely belonged to Ji Hao, and would also become the root of Ji Hao’s future clansmen. If Ji Hao wanted his new clan in Yao Mountain territory to develop and expand, he would need to depend on these young and healthy people to reproduce.

The ten towns would be much smaller than Yao Mountain City in scale, yet each would be able to contain two-hundred thousand people to live in. The ten towns would line up along Yao Mountain range, and every one of them would be located in a fertile spot with abundant natural resources. The town in the far east was more than a thousand miles away from the one in the far west, and in between these towns, a hundred, different sized villages would be distributed in this broad territory.

The hundred villages all had different scales; the biggest one would have the population of over a hundred thousand people, while the smallest one would have tens of thousands of people living in it.

Elders were elected from people who would be living in these villages. They would deal with all kinds of daily affairs of each village, and over a thousand elite warriors would be stationed in each village to protect them from beast attacks and potential enemy intrusions.

Each of the ten towns would have five thousand warriors stationed in it. Among these warriors, at least two hundred Senior Magi would serve as the main force. These warriors would be enough to fend the towns against all kinds of general dangers and support villages around each town anytime in need.

As for Yao Mountain City, the main force of the army Ji Hao purchased would be stationed in a fort outside the city. These warriors would form an army under Ji Hao’s direct command. With tens of experienced Senior Magi added with top-grade armors made by Xiu Clan people, and a batch of large-scale, highly lethal armaments that Si Wen Ming gave Ji Hao especially as a reinforcement, this army of Ji Hao would indeed be mighty.

Ji Hao spent big half a year and finally got the site selections of all towns and villages down while basically finalizing the name lists of elders and warrior commanders of these towns and villages.

When Ji Hao was doing all this work, elders had already started arranging people to open up farmlands and plant crops. Some people also began pasturing on grasslands and building different sized corrals. In the time Ji Hao got all basic work done, crops planted in new farmlands had already been harvested twice.

While everything moved onto the right track, Ji Hao had to face a huge problem:

He had to build Yao Mountain City.