Mythical Scroll Artist: Starting with the God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming

Chapter 224 Fude Zhengshen - Earth God Temple

It was at this moment that Wu Xian understood the root cause of the soaring grain prices.

"What? The recent surge in grain prices is all the work of the Wang family?" Wu Xian exclaimed in surprise. "They can even control the grain supply?"

Chen Shilong helplessly spread his hands: "Our Yaoyang City can withstand the Wang family's small grain industry, but the problem is that major grain merchants in the province will give the Wang family some face because of the power of the higher-ups."

Rumors are flying everywhere in the city now, and I'm almost unable to contain them."

"Just because we discovered his secret last time?" Wu Xian looked at Cui Wenxuan with suspicion.

“I guess so,” Cui Wenxuan frowned and shook his head, “but I didn’t expect them to dare to act so recklessly and directly target the lower classes.”

"Don't the provincial capital and the higher-ups care?" Wu Xian couldn't understand.

“Normally speaking, we definitely can’t do things like this,” Cui Wenxuan said with a headache. “But the key is the special circumstances of Yaoyang City’s independent autonomy, so the higher-ups and the provincial capital don’t have to take responsibility.”

To put it bluntly, the Wang family's move has hit Yaoyang City where it hurts.

"..." Wu Xian was speechless for a moment, then asked, "Strange, why is Yaoyang City in an independent and autonomous state?"

“This involves some long-standing historical reasons,” Chen Shilong said, clearly concealing something. “It’s not just our Yaoyang City, but several neighboring cities are in a similar situation.”

"Can't we break away from autonomy?" Wu Xian asked, puzzled.

Chen Shilong helplessly spread his hands: "Several mayors have thought about it, but they simply wouldn't accept it unless they led three million people to abandon the entire Yaoyang City and move to other cities within the system."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Chen Shilong pondered. "Perhaps the new cities built by the upper echelons are quite different from our old cities?"

"Are you saying that all those cities within the system today were created by the upper class?" Wu Xian gasped, suddenly feeling a chill run down his spine. "Could there be some kind of secret hidden in those cities?"

Cui Wenxuan said, "There have always been suspicions from all sides, but no one has yet discovered the problem."

Wu Xian couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

They are only willing to take in civilians, but not to accept Yaoyang City, an ancient city.

That means the people are useful to the higher-ups, but Yaoyang City, an old city outside the system, is meaningless to them.

Could it be that those cities within the system are collecting offerings through some special means? Or perhaps the power of faith?

Or perhaps, what more brutal truth and conspiracy is hidden?

"Let's not talk about that," Chen Shilong said with a worried expression. "The most urgent task at hand is how to solve the food problem. Do any of you scroll painters have any temporary solutions?"

The association's scroll painters present looked at each other in bewilderment.

"My few domain scrolls can produce some meat and water, but the output is limited."

“I have a plant-themed scroll that can improve the soil to some extent, but the process is slow. Some farms in the city are also using my scroll.”

"What about the Mechanical Engineering department?" Cui Wenxuan asked, his face wrinkled. "Does the Mechanical Engineering department have any solutions?"

"There are no problems with hydroponic vegetables, but the main issue is that greenhouse production of grains is more complicated and it is difficult to achieve mass production."

As Wu Xian listened to the discussion among the scroll painters present, his heart sank.

Having lived in a shantytown, he knew he had enough to eat, though he didn't eat well. Now that he has money, he realizes that the world also has problems with basic needs.

Logically speaking, given the abilities of a scroll painter, they should have already solved their basic needs for food and clothing.

But some people are maliciously creating survival problems behind the scenes.

Wu Xian took out his phone and searched for some information about the Scroll Farm.

As he expected, the world's food, supplies, and even water were all generated by the scroll. Through the power of the scroll, the various spiritual substances produced by the monsters from another world were transformed into corresponding food resources.

Therefore, there are no farmers in this world.

Or rather, ordinary people are simply not qualified to be farmers.

This is the fundamental reason why residents of shantytowns would rather scavenge for garbage than cultivate farmland. Firstly, urban land is limited.

On the other hand, even if there is abandoned land, it has long been polluted by the invasion of another world and cannot be cultivated.

After some research, Wu Xian discovered that the biggest problem lay with the land.

As long as arable land is created, various advanced technologies can be used to produce food.

This led to two approaches: either provide land using high-quality domain instances, or purify and improve the land in existing cities.

The former is basically firmly controlled by the upper echelons, serving as the core resource for ruling the world of the scroll painting.

Even with Wu Xian's current abilities, he can't create it. No scroll painter in the lower world has been able to create it yet.

Because this level of land requires the land-related laws to be perfected to a certain extent, ordinary land in dungeons cannot support the normal growth of food crops.

Therefore, Wu Xian could only approach the problem from the second angle.

"Mayor Chen, how much idle land does Yaoyang City currently have?" Wu Xian suddenly asked.

Everyone present immediately turned their excited gazes towards them.

"Does your little grand-disciple have an idea?" Cui Wenxuan's eyes flickered.

"We can give it a try," Wu Xian pondered.

Upon hearing this, Chen Shilong was overjoyed. If the food problem could be solved, it would be a tremendous blessing for the entire Yaoyang City.

Because of Yaoyang City's autonomous status, successive mayors have tried every means to sell off various resources, just so that the people of Yaoyang City would not have to worry about food and clothing.

This is also the fundamental reason why Yaoyang City has developed slowly and has not been built much over the years.

However, thanks to this, there is still a considerable amount of idle land in Yaoyang City.

After returning to the villa, Wu Xian began to organize his thoughts.

The laurel tree here can definitely purify the soil and even allow various spiritual herbs to grow in the surrounding land.

However, the cost of even a single rubbing is currently exorbitantly high, making it difficult to equip a large number of them.

"Improve the land?" Wu Xian chuckled to himself.

It just so happens that research on the scroll depicting the special area of ​​the City God Temple has made some progress in the past two days.

Let's not rush into building the City God Temple; let's try building a local earth god temple first.

I refuse to believe that with the help of the Earth God Temple, we still can't grow crops.

For two days in a row, Wu Xian was completely immersed in this line of thinking.

With the help of materials sponsored by Chen Shilong and Cui Wenxuan, as well as a batch of otherworldly outpost and domain materials sponsored by the alliance bigwigs.

After several failures, a special scroll combining character illustrations and domain illustrations was finally created.

Buzz~!

The moment the scroll took shape, the laws of heaven and earth trembled violently, and visible waves of laws surged toward the scroll.

The neighbor, Master Xue, was startled once again and curiously jumped through the window to watch, thinking that Wu Xian had created some amazing scroll again.

But when he saw what the scroll looked like, he was stunned.

"This is... a scroll painting? Why does it look like this?"

Wu Xian was also taken aback by the new scroll in front of him. Rather than a scroll, it was more like an exquisite model of a local temple. Moreover, it did not have the grade distinction of gold, silver, and bronze scrolls. The entire "model" exuded a unique scroll-like atmosphere.

It has the feel of both a landscape scroll and a character scroll.

Like the Domain Scroll, this [Land Temple] Scroll did not form a "scroll imprint" in the sea of ​​consciousness. Instead, it formed a point of light containing wondrous laws on the outer edge of the void of the sea of ​​consciousness.

(End of this chapter)