Bringing the farm to another world

Chapter 16132 Iron Sand Market
Ultimately, a divine kingdom is a country. As long as the rulers of a country are not delusional, they should understand that the most important thing for a country is stability. No matter what the reason, once the country starts to fall into chaos, it is the beginning of the country's decline, and it may even slide all the way into the abyss.

The same applies to the Divine Kingdom. The Divine Kingdom also desires domestic stability, so they certainly won't allow those sects to cause trouble. Besides prohibiting sects from acting recklessly, the Divine Kingdom has another crucial rule: cultivators can engage in battles outside, but their battles must be far removed from ordinary people. Although ordinary people can also cultivate in the Divine Kingdom, generally speaking, their strength hasn't reached the "Power Level." With such strength, they can't even become rogue cultivators. Keep in mind that there are too many powerful experts in the Divine Kingdom; to become a rogue cultivator requires immense strength... You need to reach at least the "Power Level" to be considered a cultivator. If you can't even reach the Power Level, what kind of rogue cultivator are you? A cultivator at the Power Level can already cause great harm to ordinary people. In addition, ordinary people are not good at fighting. A rogue cultivator at the Power Level can easily wipe out an entire village by himself. This is quite normal. That's why the Divine Kingdom has a rule that if a fight between cultivators affects ordinary people, all the cultivators involved will be punished, and may even pay with their lives. So in the Divine Kingdom, even if cultivators fight, it usually won't affect ordinary people.

However, there is one exception: if these civilians live within the territory controlled by those sects, then the divine kingdom will not care about their lives or deaths.

For example, if there are civilians living in the Jade Sun Sect, and if the battle between the Jade Sun Sect and Feng Wuya affects those civilians living in the Jade Sun Sect, the Divine Kingdom will not interfere. The reason given by the Divine Kingdom is very simple: if these civilians are willing to live in those sects, then they consider themselves as people of those sects, and of course the Divine Kingdom will not care about their lives.

The reason the divine kingdom does this is to prevent ordinary people from entering the territory of those sects. If ordinary people voluntarily enter the territory of a sect, the divine kingdom will not interfere. However, if those sects abduct people from outside and bring them into their sects, then the divine kingdom will intervene.

Therefore, many sects lure commoners into living on their territory. Once these commoners do so, they rarely leave that sect. Of course, if they join an ordinary or righteous sect, it's fine. But if they join a demonic sect, they're doomed. They might even be used as expendable resources at any time. However, many commoners still fall for it because they don't want to be commoners for life. They want their children to become cultivators. So even though they know they're being deceived, they're still willing to try. What if they're not being deceived? Then their children will escape being commoners and become cultivators, rewriting the fate of their entire family.

That is why countless civilians, clinging to a侥幸心理 (a gambler's mentality), still fall for this scam. The divine kingdom can't control this situation; after all, they are courting death, and the divine kingdom can't do anything about it.

The main reason why the Divine Kingdom did not issue an order prohibiting those sects from having civilians is that those sects were of great help when the Divine Kingdom was first established. They reached an agreement with the current founders of the Divine Kingdom: the sects would provide people to help them establish the Divine Kingdom, but the Divine Kingdom had to give them some preferential policies. One of these was allowing those sects to keep civilians, and another was allowing those sects 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, in the past, sect disciples could become officials in the Divine Kingdom and enter the government offices at all levels. But now, you can hardly see sect disciples in the government offices at all levels. On the contrary, the government offices at all levels are full of people from big families.

The development of the Divine Kingdom over the years has actually been a process of struggle between those families and sects. In the end, the families gained the upper hand. They kicked the disciples of the sects out of the Divine Kingdom's official system. Of course, they couldn't completely wipe out those sects because those sects were still very powerful. If they were to wipe out those sects, and those sects really started to cause trouble, then the entire Divine Kingdom would be in chaos. Therefore, the people of the Divine Kingdom have always been suppressing those sects in their own way, but they dare not go too far.

It is precisely for this reason that sects of all sizes have become like states within a state within the Divine Kingdom. They have their own territories, and their territories have their own industries. The number of markets and districts in each sect depends on the strength of that sect. If two sects try to annex each other, it is best not to make too much of a fuss, otherwise, the people of the Divine Kingdom will intervene.

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

It is precisely because of this territorial division that the size of each sect's territory is 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 Yuyang Sect. He looks quite old, and with his dark complexion, he appears 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 town called Iron Sand Market in the Shahe Sect. Iron Sand Market was quite famous because there was a river next to it called the Iron Sand River. It was named this because iron sand could be panned out from the mud and sand in the river. Iron sand was a high-quality material used to forge weapons, so many rogue cultivators would go to the river to pan for iron sand, which was also the main source of income for many rogue cultivators here.

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 Shahe Sect disciples were on duty, patrolling the market twice a day to resolve disputes between independent cultivators. Other disciples, not on duty, would also wander around the market. All of them lived together in the very center of the market, an area that independent cultivators were not allowed to easily enter.

However, after Zhang Long's observation, it seemed that there was only one defensive formation in that area, and this defensive formation was not easily activated. Usually, it was just the disciples of the Shahe Sect who kept an eye on it. However, the rogue cultivators did not want to offend the Shahe Sect, so they would not enter that area. As a result, that area was safer, and naturally no one would enter that area.

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 that there was no defensive formation and that someone did live there, he began to act. He took out his Heavenly Sphere and used a radar formation to scout the courtyard. The energy fluctuations generated by the radar when scouting the courtyard were very small, so much so that even Zhang Long could not sense them, let alone the disciples of the Sand River Sect whose strength had just reached the Throne level.

After confirming that the Shahe Sect disciple in the courtyard was asleep, Zhang Long breathed a sigh of relief. He then released a sleep stun rune. After confirming that the disciple was sleeping even more soundly, he released a necromancy rune, which turned the disciple inside into a necromancer.

After finishing all that, he entered the courtyard and went directly into the room of the Shahe Sect disciple. The Shahe Sect disciple, who had become a member of the undead race, was still unconscious, as he was under the influence of a sleeping rune. Zhang Long used a wake-up rune to rouse him.

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

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