Bringing The Farm To Live In Another World - Chapter 16134

Chapter 16132. Iron Sand Market

The Divine Kingdom, in essence, is a nation. Any ruler of a nation, unless completely delirious, should understand that stability is paramount. Regardless of the reason, once internal strife erupts, it marks the beginning of the nation’s decline, potentially leading to a descent into the abyss.

This is certainly true for the Divine Kingdom. They desire domestic stability and therefore will not allow sects to act recklessly. Besides prohibiting sects from causing trouble, the Divine Kingdom has another crucial rule: cultivators can engage in battles outside, but their fights must be far removed from ordinary people. While ordinary people can cultivate in the Divine Kingdom, their strength generally doesn’t reach the “Power Level.” Such strength isn’t even sufficient to become a rogue cultivator. The Divine Kingdom is teeming with powerful experts; to become a rogue cultivator requires immense strength… One must at least reach the “Power Level” to be considered a cultivator. If you can’t even reach that level, what kind of rogue cultivator are you? A cultivator at the Power Level can already inflict significant damage on civilians. Furthermore, civilians are not adept at fighting, so a single rogue cultivator at the Power Level could easily wipe out an entire village – this is quite normal. Therefore, the Divine Kingdom has regulations that if a fight between cultivators affects ordinary people, all participating cultivators will be punished, even to the point of death. So, in the Divine Kingdom, even if cultivators fight, it generally won’t affect civilians.

However, there is one exception: if these civilians live within the territory controlled by certain sects, then the Divine Kingdom will not concern itself with their lives.

For example, if there were civilians living within the Jade Sun Sect, and their battle with Feng Wuya affected these civilians, the Divine Kingdom wouldn’t interfere. The Divine Kingdom’s reasoning was simple: these civilians chose to live within those sects, thus considering themselves members of those sects, and their lives were of no concern to the Divine Kingdom.

The Divine Kingdom did this to prevent civilians from entering the sects’ territory. If civilians voluntarily entered the sects’ territory, they wouldn’t interfere; however, if the sects abducted people from outside, then the Divine Kingdom would intervene.

Therefore, many sects lure commoners into living on their territory. Once these commoners do so, they rarely escape the sect. Of course, if they join an ordinary or righteous sect, it’s manageable. But if they join a demonic sect, they’re doomed; they might even be used as expendable resources. Yet, many commoners still fall for it because they don’t want to be commoners forever. They want their children to become cultivators. So, even knowing they’re being deceived, they’re willing to try. What if it’s not a scam? Their children could escape being commoners and become cultivators, rewriting the fate of their entire family. Because

of this, countless commoners, clinging to a gamble, fall for it. The Divine Kingdom can’t control this situation; after all, they’re courting death, and the Divine Kingdom can’t do anything about it.

The main reason the Divine Kingdom doesn’t issue an order prohibiting sects from having commoners is that these sects were of great help when the Divine Kingdom was first established. They reached an agreement with the current founders: the sects would provide people to help them build the Divine Kingdom, but in return, the Divine Kingdom would grant them preferential policies. One such policy was allowing sects to support commoners, and another was allowing them to manage markets.

In fact, after so many years of development, the Divine Kingdom has already suppressed those sects to a great extent. For example, previously, sect disciples could hold official positions in the Divine Kingdom, serving in various levels of government. But now, sect disciples are almost nowhere to be seen in the Divine Kingdom’s government offices; instead, they are filled with members of powerful families.

The development of the Divine Kingdom over the years has essentially been a process of struggle between families and sects. Ultimately, the families prevailed, ousting the sect disciples from the Divine Kingdom’s official system. Of course, they couldn’t completely exterminate the sects, as their strength was considerable. If they were to wipe them out, the sects would rebel, plunging the entire Divine Kingdom into chaos. Therefore, the people of the Divine Kingdom have consistently suppressed the sects in their own ways, but dare not go too far.

It is precisely for this reason that sects, large and small, have become like states within a state within the Divine Kingdom. They have their own territories with their own industries. The number of markets and districts each sect operates depends on its strength. If two sects attempt to merge, it’s best to avoid causing too much disturbance, otherwise, the people of the Divine Kingdom will intervene.

Just like this time, the Changchun Sect publicly claimed that the Yuyang Sect had asked them to help drive away the villains who wanted to seize their sect. The Changchun Sect intervened, and then the Yuyang Sect joined the Changchun Sect. This way, it didn’t cause too much of a stir. Under these circumstances, even if the Changchun Sect occupied the Yuyang Sect, the Divine Kingdom wouldn’t say anything or send anyone to intervene. However, if the two sects officially went to war, and the fighting lasted for many days, then the Divine Kingdom would intervene. They could even use this incident as an excuse to directly eliminate both sects.

It is precisely because of this territorial division that the size of each sect’s territory is very clearly defined. The Shahe Sect is not a large sect; they only have two Kingdom-level experts, and they control only thirteen markets, more than the Yuyang Sect.

Zhang Long is an elder of the Jade Sun Sect. He looks quite old, and his dark complexion makes him appear like an old rogue cultivator. However, his strength has actually reached the Royal Palace level, which is considered a considerable expert in some smaller sects. Because this operation is extremely important, Zhang Long was dispatched.

He entered a market called Iron Sand Market in the Sand River Sect. This Iron Sand Market is quite famous because there is a river next to it called the Iron Sand River. It is named this because iron sand can be panned from the silt in the river. This iron sand is a superior material used to forge weapons, so many rogue cultivators go to the river to pan for iron sand, which is a major source of income for many of them.

Upon entering Tiesha Market, Zhang Long immediately found a place to stay. He then began observing the movements of the Shahe Sect disciples within the market. The Shahe Sect disciples’ movements were unremarkable; some were on duty, patrolling the market twice a day to resolve disputes between independent cultivators, while others, not on duty, would simply wander around. All of them lived together in the very center of the market, an area that independent cultivators were not allowed to easily enter. However,

Zhang Long’s observation revealed that this area seemed to have only one defensive array, which wasn’t easily activated. It was usually maintained by the Shahe Sect disciples themselves. Since the independent cultivators didn’t want to offend the Shahe Sect, they also avoided that area, making it even safer and preventing anyone from venturing there.

However, Zhang Long saw this as an opportunity. If others couldn’t enter that area, he could. With this in mind, Zhang Long observed for two days and found that there were indeed no other magic arrays in that area. Only then did he feel relieved. That very night, he directly sneaked into that area. With his strength, coupled with the various methods of the Blood Slaughter Sect, the disciples of the Sand River Sect would have no chance of discovering him. After entering the area, he immediately found a courtyard. Each of the Sand River Sect disciples here had their own independent courtyard. The courtyard that Zhang Long found was not on the outer edge of the area where the Sand River Sect disciples lived, but in a slightly more inward location. This was because the courtyards on the outer edge all had defensive magic arrays, probably to prevent theft by rogue cultivators. Therefore, the courtyards near the rogue cultivators’ living areas had defensive magic arrays. Conversely, some of the inner courtyards did not have defensive magic arrays.

Zhang Long glanced at the courtyard. After confirming there were no defensive formations and that someone was indeed living there, he began his operation. He took out his Heavenly Sphere and used a radar array to reconnoiter the courtyard. The energy fluctuations generated by this radar were extremely small; even Zhang Long couldn’t sense them, let alone the Sand River Sect disciples whose strength had just reached the Throne level.

Relieved to find the Sand River Sect disciple asleep, Zhang Long released a Sleeping Rune. After confirming the disciple was sleeping soundly, he released a Necromancer Rune, instantly turning the disciple into an undead.

Having done this, he entered the courtyard and went directly to the Sand River Sect disciple’s room. The disciple, now an undead, was still asleep, having been affected by the Sleeping Rune. Zhang Long immediately used an Awakening Rune to wake him.

The disciple from the Shahe Sect had just finished processing what was in his mind, so when he woke up and saw Zhang Long standing by his bedside, he wasn’t too surprised. He simply got out of bed, stood up, and bowed to Zhang Long.

Zhang Long nodded and said, “Put on your outer robe; I’ll take you to the sect.” Because he had been sleeping, the Shahe Sect disciple was only wearing his inner robe. Upon hearing Zhang Long’s words, he immediately responded and put on his outer robe. Zhang Long then led him directly into the Blood Slaughter Sect, and had the Blood Slaughter Sect disciples take the Shahe Sect disciple to the Real Illusion to learn about the Blood Slaughter Sect and collect its benefits. Zhang Long, on the other hand, left the Blood Slaughter Sect and returned to his room in Iron Sand Market.