When Wu Qi killed King Zhang Qiu with a sword, Liu Bang, who had gone millions of miles away, suddenly gave a cold snort. He rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a string of twelve red jade beads, and saw that one of them had burst into powder, falling off his wrist.
Zhang Liang, who had fled with him, frowned. A faint sneer hung on his lips as he said in a low voice, "Oh, King Zhang Qiu is dead? What a waste! He was such an obedient chess piece!"
Brushing the dust off his wrist, Liu Bang said indifferently, "He's no more than a chess piece of little importance. Well, Zhang Qiu's death does serve a purpose. At least now no one will fight against that one for the right to the throne, and he will have no other choice but to do as he's bid."
He sighed as he narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, "This Zhang Qiu does have quite a few beautiful consorts whom I've long wanted to hook up with, but he had been getting in my way...But, things have changed now. According to Great Yu's laws, these consorts can always choose to remarry. Aye, they should be glad to marry me as my concubines, for I'm the descendant of noble blood!"
Zhang Liang smiled indifferently. Like Liu Bang, he did not care about King Zhang Qiu's death at all. To them, it was like one of their dogs had just died. They never lacked the people they could use; King Zhang Qiu was just one of those, and not even considered the most important one.
Gently running his fingers across the remaining eleven red jade beads on his wrist, Liu Bang smiled faintly and shook his head. The Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos gave a shrill whistle as it abruptly transformed into a shadow and tore through the void. The group flew away at a speed that was almost a billion miles a second, heading straight in the direction of Liangzhu.
The destructive forces produced from the self-explosion of the fire gourd were gradually absorbed by Pangu Continent while the massive sinkhole created by Gonggong Huang was recovering, ten feet at a time. The earth wriggled with motions visible to the naked eyes as it was rapidly repairing the damage done by Gonggong Huang and Yu You.
Wu Qi had withdrawn the sword formation. One after another, Kunwu Swords flew back into his vital meridian nodes, where they were nourished by his blood essence while constantly drawing in the rich Pangu Sacred Energy from the outside world to feed back to him. The Dark Yin Celestial Tower spat out Yu Mu, Huang Liang, and all the others, including the colossal Jade Armor Dark Turtle flying ship. Huang Liang and the soldiers felt as if they just had a nightmare. They were still at the Ghost Realm when they were knocked unconscious, but when they woke, Wu Qi had already brought them back to the Pangu Continent.
Streaks of light could be seen flashing in the distance as fleets of flying ships were swarming this way. Earlier on, King Zhang Qiu's soldiers had sealed off the border, so that no neighboring provinces could detect what was happening. But now he was dead, all his trusted captains were killed, and his soldiers were fleeing in disarray like rats leaving a sinking ship. So, upon detecting such a massive commotion, provinces near and far immediately sent their best men to investigate.
Wu Qi scratched his forehead in distress. This place was once a flourishing sixth-grade province, but now, its Prefecture Overseer was slain, and his whole clan went with him. Hundreds of cities and towns were wiped out, with a massive sinkhole dug out where its capital city once stood. Together with the destruction caused by the explosion of the fire gourd, no matter how he looked at it, this was one nasty trouble to solve.
After matching his testimony with Yu Mu as fast as he could and putting all the blame on Yu You, Wu Qi did not waste his time in dealing with those Great Yu's soldiers who were coming at them. He just hurriedly ripped through the void with his Dark Yin Celestial Tower and sped away in the direction of Dong Hai Province, bringing with him Princess Zhang Le, Huang Liang, and all his men. Yu Mu remained here to brief those officials, taking the opportunity to put more blame on Yu You and making sure that the blame stayed firm and solid.
What puzzled Wu Qi was that he did not find Lord Long Yang when the gourd exploded. Could it be that he had already escaped? As he was too busy dealing with King Zhang Qiu to keep an eye on this man, Wu Qi did not know how he managed to escape. For a moment, he had a feeling that Lord Long Yang was full of mystery, and he had decided to heighten his guard against this man.
Halfway through the trip, Wu Qi sent away the captains and soldiers sent to the princess by Ji Ao, ordering them to report what had happened to their master. As a token of appreciation for their hard work of assisting Princess Zhang Le in the mission of hunting down Yu Miao, he gave them many rewards. Most of them were gold, silver, and other worldly materials, but he also gave them many special products he brought back from the Ghost Realm.
Well-fed by Wu Qi, the captains and soldiers made their way back to Liangzhu happily, bringing with them the news that Wu Qi had slain King Zhang Qiu. They knew that it was a piece of welcoming news to Ji Ao, and their master would certainly shower them with rewards when they reported it to him. Since Ji Ao was conferred the title of King, he and King Zhang Qiu were basically foes of each other; openly and secretly, they had fought many battles. Ji Ao would definitely be delighted to learn about the death of his foe.
Breaking through the void with the Dark Yin Celestial Tower was a great divine ability that only the Supreme Oracles could have. But, Wu Qi could do it as well. Sparing no magic power of his, he kept the void-shattering array in the tower running at all time as they sped further through the void. He was fortunate to have Princess Zhang Le with him, for she was constantly drawing natural energy from the surroundings and replenishing his consumption. That was why he could keep traveling across the void without a stop.
A few hours later, when the sun had just risen from the horizon and the people were leaving their homes for work, Wu Qi and his company returned to Dong Hai Province, which was vastly different in size compared to before. He handsomely rewarded Huang Liang and the others, ordering them to return to their camps and barracks for rest or entertainment. Then, he and Princess Zhang Le went to the newly constructed Prefecture Overseer's mansion, calling all those who were close to him for a meeting.
Today's Dong Hai Province was very different from the Dong Hai County Yu He had given him. Although Dong Hai County was large, it was only thirty percent the size of a proper province, with a small population of a few million. But, Wu Qi had been working hard over the years, and as Ji Ao was trying to rope him in, Dong Hai Province had received a large amount of uninhabited land from a few of the neighboring provinces. As a result, its current size was larger than four to five adjacent provinces combined.
After Wu Qi was elevated to the rank of third-grade Marquis of Province by Emperor Haozun, Dong Hai Province was declared a third-grade province. A third-grade province had strict population rules; so when Wu Qi was away, Great Yu's officials had begun to move people to Dong Hai Province from all three hundred provinces governed by Zhong Province.
Of the three hundred provinces, those second and third-grade provinces had given him eight hundred million to a billion people each, while the smaller provinces—those eighth and ninth-grade provinces—had given him three to five million people each. Today's Dong Hai Province might not be as populous as those thriving provinces, but when all the numbers were combined, it had a population of nearly a hundred billion.
The one hundred billion people could not fully fill the huge Dong Hai Province though, and in fact, all of them now lived on a peninsula that stretched tens of thousands of miles into the ocean, where Dong Hai City stood. Princess Zhang Le had been busy with Yu Miao these days, so she did not have the time to handle the province's affairs. Fortunately, they had Lu Chengfeng, who proved to be a hardworking chief executive. He had been working hard day and night to get the province running in order.
Dong Hai Province was now divided into a thousand counties by Lu Chengfeng, each with nearly a thousand cities, big and small, as well as towns and villages arranged in perfect order. After all, they were building everything on wild and virgin land, so the arrangement of all the cities and towns and villages was as neat as a chessboard, and was managed in the most convenient way.
The County Governors and administrative officials of the one thousand counties were all the juniors of Great Yan's imperial clan and noble clans, chosen by Lu Chengfeng himself. As Princess Zhang Le held very high seniority in Great Yan's imperial clan, the loyalty of those from the imperial clan was unquestioned. As for the juniors from the noble clans, they were all Lu Chengfeng's good friends from when he was young. There was a deep relationship between them, so he had no problem putting them to good use.
These people did not know Wu Qi very well, and they did not have affection or loyalty toward him. But, Wu Qi did not care; he just needed them to properly manage the affairs of the territory that they were assigned to. Lu Chengfeng was his brother and Princess Zhang Le was his betrothed; so, as long as these people were loyal to both of them, he would not ask more of them.
And, he did not worry that they might try to plot against his property or revolt.
He held the military power and the strongest fighting force of Dong Hai Province, and he himself was the most powerful presence. As long as he had the strongest power, he was not afraid at all that someone might try to seize his property.
It was no more than a hundred billion mortals. An immortal from the Fiend League, whose cultivation base was equivalent to that of a first-tier Heaven Immortal, would have killed more than a hundred billion mortals to just craft a supreme-grade fiend artifact. To an expert like Wu Qi, mortals were nothing more than numbers. It was a joke to say that mortals could pose a threat to someone as strong as him.
Besides, Wu Qi knew the way to dispel the Black Celestial Forbidden Curse, his backer was a King of Great Yu, and he had recently struck up an acquaintance with the Sacred Emperor of the human race! With such a fearsome background, why should he be worried that he could not control Dong Hai Province?
Inside the Prefecture Overseer's mansion, Wu Qi had summoned Lu Chengfeng, Lord Xiansheng, the Dragon King of the East Sea, Catfish, Patriarch Jiang Yun, the Elders of the people of Long Bo, and some other important figures. He had a detailed discussion with them about the future development direction of Dong Hai Province.
According to Wu Qi's supreme directive, there were only two things Dong Hai Province needed to focus on in the future.
Firstly, they needed to produce more children. Whether it was the demons of the East Sea, the demons of Underhand Sect, the common people of Dong Hai Province, or the people of Long Bo, they all had to work hard to produce more offspring. Wu Qi would offer generous rewards for families with more than three children. The more children they could produce, the more rewards they would get.
Second, they needed to grow more armies. Whether it was the naval force of the East Sea, the cultivators of Underhand Sect, the immortals under Patriarch Jiang Yun and Daoist Qing Xin, or the local powers in Wu Qi's territory, they all had to work hard to train their armies. They could not survive in Pangu Continent without a mighty army.
After seeking opinions from everyone, Wu Qi tasked all the people who served him with different duties.
In the future, when Wu Qi ascended to a height that none of the people here today could have imagined, these people still bore the same duties as they did today. It was only then that this group of people, who were nobodies on Pangu Continent, had their fame spread across the universe.