I established the Eternal Immortal Clan by taming beasts.

Twenty years later, in late spring.

Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the map of the Southern Region has been completely rewritten.

As the morning light spread along the ridgeline of the eastern section of the Fulong Mountains, a silver-white commercial airship was traveling south along the newly opened air route.

The arrays of spiritual light on both sides of the ship flashed at a steady frequency, marking its position on the flight path. The light in the morning mist was like silver foil that had been repeatedly wiped clean, and each flash re-outlined the outline of the flying ship.

Several merchants dressed in brocade robes stood on the deck, talking in hushed tones, their gazes occasionally sweeping over the outline of the land below, which was gradually becoming clearer in the morning light.

Their conversation was hushed in the morning breeze, with occasional bursts of laughter drifting away with the changing wind, only to be quickly drowned out by the hum of the engine.

As time went by, spirit ships flew past this point.

The spirit boats varied in size; some carried large amounts of cargo, while others carried passengers with their lightweight, streamlined hulls.

They are arranged in a continuously flowing sequence along the air route at even intervals, like a string of elongated beads moving at a fixed interval in mid-air.

Below the shipping route was a wide official road paved with bluestone, with a low stone pillar standing every five li on both sides.

A guide stone, used to indicate direction, is embedded at the top of the pillar, gleaming with a continuous, flowing light in the morning glow.

The arrangement of these road marker stones on both sides of the official road forms two parallel streaks of light, like markers fixed in place, constantly confirming the location of passing travelers.

Several wagons pulled by steeds were traveling south along the official road. The wheels made a continuous rumbling sound as they rolled over the bluestone surface, forming a steady echo in the morning air. The goods on the wagons were covered with waterproof tarpaulins, and the edges were firmly tied to the frame with hemp rope.

Today, the eastern front of the southern region is no longer the wasteland that was repeatedly turned over by war twenty years ago.

Since the Battle of Baicao Valley, the Fang family has been severely weakened. It took them nearly ten years to barely regain their dominant position in the Southern Region, but they are no longer able to be as powerful as before.

Under Qin Wudao's leadership, the Rebellious Demon Palace has solidified its position as a Nascent Soul sect, while Hundred Herbs Valley and Azure Cloud Sword Sect have regained their footing, creating a new balance among the four forces.

The Lin family found its place precisely within this balance.

Without relying on or directly confronting any party, it focuses on trade and spirit beast breeding, building a barrier that no one can ignore on the eastern front of the Southern Region.

This trade route, which runs through the heart of the Southern Region to Chuyang City, is one of the Lin family's most important achievements in the past twenty years.

After renovation, Burning Bone City has been restored to most of its functions before the beast tide. Today, it is the core commercial center of the Burning Bone Pass area and the first stop after leaving the pass.

The abandoned shops have been reopened, and new businesses are opening one after another. The foot traffic on the main street has recovered to two-thirds of its peak. At the current rate of growth, it will definitely recover to its peak in five to ten years.

The streets were bustling with pedestrians, and spirit beast carriages and cultivators moved back and forth on both sides of the main street.

The storyteller in the teahouse is recounting the story of the Battle of Baicao Valley twenty years ago.

The newly arrived caravan members paused at the food stalls along the street, holding hot soup in their hands. Their eyes lingered for a moment on the newly hung signs before they continued on their way, urged on by their companions.

Here, the Lin family's Green Wood Chamber of Commerce organizes two large-scale auctions every year, attracting chambers of commerce of all sizes from all over the Southern Region.

During the auction, dozens of stalls will be temporarily set up on the main street of Burning Bone City. Merchants from all over the country will move between the stalls, and the shouts and bargaining will create a noisy but orderly sound that will continue until late at night before gradually subsiding.

On ordinary days, caravans of all sizes would travel south from the Southern Plains to Fen Gu Pass. After identity verification and cargo registration, they would continue along the official road towards Chu Yang City.

Large merchant guilds' flying boats filled the entire route, while smaller caravans passed through Fen Gu Guan via the official road.

Those small caravans usually consist of only three to five spirit beast carriages, with a dozen or so guards, but they are still willing to take this route.

Because the security along this trade route has been continuously improved over the past twenty years.

Every few hundred miles, the Lin family's patrol teams regularly patrolled both sides of the official road, which greatly reduced the risk of caravans being attacked.

It has changed from a frequent occurrence to an occasional event, and now caravans are almost never forced to turn back due to monster attacks.

As the war entered a new phase of development for all parties, the Green Water Gorge monster alliance on the eastern front became an obstacle and was driven out of the Maple Leaf Mountains by the joint efforts of the Lin family, the Rebellious Destiny Demon Palace, and the Fang family.

Now, there is no longer any threat of monsters on this trade route.

The caravan continued its journey, passing through Chuyang City, a key hub, and then through Qingfeng Pass, it could directly reach the five new cities that the Lin family had built over the past twenty years for trade.

This trade route, stretching over ten thousand miles, connects the spiritual materials of the Southern Plains with the spiritual beasts, herbs, and mines of the surrounding development zone of Chuyang City.

The total amount of goods transported through this trade route each year has already exceeded the commercial scale of Burning Bone City at its peak.

The spiritual materials, elixirs, and cubs of spiritual beasts were flowing steadily in both the north and south directions, like a bridge being continuously pumped, exchanging resources at an almost constant rate between the two ends.

Qingfeng Pass remains the gateway to the southern defense line. The array patterns on the city walls have been re-engraved three times, with each time adding a new defensive layer on top of the original.

The Dawn Army's permanent troops had a camp here, interspersed with checkpoints for passing caravans on the inner side of the pass, giving Qingfeng Pass both the discipline of a military town and the vitality of a commercial port.

As you walk through the walls, you can hear the sound of hammers striking the base of the gate and the shouts of vendors trying to attract customers. These two sounds coexist in a strange harmony in the passageway inside the walls, each occupying a different time period and spatial location.

The five new cities are the most prominent landmarks along this trade route.

The most expansive area is the pioneering zone six thousand miles south of Chuyang City, where five new cities are situated from north to south along this pioneering zone that runs through the outer and central parts of the Fulong Mountains.

The new city closest to Qingfeng Pass, the first foundation on the river valley plain twenty years ago, has long since lost all traces of the rammed earth of that time.

The city wall is built of bluish-gray Lingyan stone, and the array patterns on the wall surface cover the entire length of the wall with continuously flowing light patterns. These light patterns flow from the base of the wall to the top of the wall in the morning light, and then flow back from the top of the wall to the base of the wall, forming a continuous cycle.

The city's layout remains unchanged from the original, but its size has more than doubled.

The vacant land originally reserved on the east side of the city wall has been filled with newly built residential areas and shops. The houses, built with a mixture of spirit wood and bluestone, maintain the same spacing and orientation as the original plan, giving the expansion of the entire city an orderly rhythm.

The city’s main street is one of the busiest sections of the commercial road.

The spirit beast caravans flowed endlessly on both sides of the street, and in the teahouses along the street, people were always discussing the latest prices of spirit materials.

These prices fluctuate among tea drinkers, with each fluctuation sparking a brief discussion.

In the city's central square stands a stone monument with the city's name engraved on its surface—Wangbei.

The two characters “望北” are taken from the meaning of “looking back to the north and not forgetting the way we came”. The stone surface of the stele has already shown traces of erosion by wind and sand, and the characters on the edge appear lighter in color than those in the center under the sunlight.

The second new city was named Woye City.

This area is the second development zone, a vast expanse of fertile land with large, flat areas that are extremely suitable for developing spiritual fields.

Now, viewed from the air, it resembles a flat chessboard, on which a large amount of spirit rice and spirit herbs are planted. The ridges extend from north to south at parallel intervals, and during the harvest season, they present a continuous expanse of golden yellow, shimmering with a constantly flowing luster under the sunlight.

The third new city is named Tielin City.

The third development zone has a large, undulating terrain, making it unsuitable for large-scale development of spiritual fields, but it does have extensive ironwood forests.

Most of these ironwood trees are over a hundred years old, with straight trunks and dense wood that gleams with a dark metallic luster in the sunlight, making them a high-quality spiritual material.

The name "Iron Forest City" also comes from this.

The fourth new city was named Qingmen City.

Since the Lin family's mount-type spirit beast breeding base was located here, and the terrain was too complex for large-scale cultivation of spirit fields, the Lin family established their military camp here.

The Dawn Army's camp is located a hundred miles outside the city. The layout of the barracks is similar to that of twenty years ago, but the scale has expanded several times. From a high place, it looks like a dark block that has been neatly divided, distributed in the valley at regular intervals.

The fifth new city was named Chibi City.

A reddish-brown ridge running east to west traverses the development zone. To the north of the ridge lies a valley, and to the south, rolling hills. The surface is covered with large areas of red sandstone, a high-quality building material.

The base of the city wall is built of red sandstone, which gleams with a dark reddish-brown luster in the afternoon sunlight, creating a striking color contrast with the surrounding vegetation.

The five new cities each have their own positioning, yet they are interconnected, forming a complete industrial chain.

……

As for the Lin family's most crucial mount breeding secret realm, it has reached full maturity after twenty years of development.

The spirit beast cubs that hatched from the egg chamber back then have now entered adulthood and become an indispensable part of the Lin family's spirit beast system.

The Cloud-Stepping Black Steed has bred to its third generation, with a population exceeding ten thousand. It has become a commercial spirit beast, and cubs are now being sold in the Lin family's merchant guild.

Before being sold, the cubs undergo three months of acclimatization training, during which they learn to cooperate with humans by alternating between jogging and brisk walking in the training field. Selected buyers observe their gait and rhythm, and only pay the remaining balance after confirming that their physique and stamina meet their expectations.

The quality of the new spirit steeds far surpasses that of common goods on the market, giving them a competitive edge in terms of transportation speed and endurance. More than 60% of the land-transported spirit beasts in the entire caravan are purchased from the Lin family.

The number of Azure Cloud Cranes has exceeded five thousand. In addition to being ridden by the clansmen when they go out, they are also regarded as a new product of the Lin family.

When the black crane takes off in the morning light, the silver feathers at the tips of its wings refract tiny specks of light under the sunlight, like scattered silver pieces in the air. These specks are gradually diluted into invisible light within a few breaths after takeoff.

Due to her outstanding appearance, she is highly favored by various powerful forces.

The Sky-Splitting War Wolf, a gregarious battlefield mount, has been bred and trained for twenty years and has now been deployed to the Lin family's personal guard.

The rest were incorporated into the Dawn Army, giving the Dawn Army a completely new mobility capability when facing large-scale ground combat.

The images of the "Wolf Warriors" completing charge drills in coordinated formations on the training field have become one of the most impressive subjects in the Dawn Army's new recruit training.

The Xuanjia Longxi has the longest breeding cycle. After twenty years of gradual cultivation, the current number of adult Xuanjia Longxi has exceeded one thousand, all of which have been incorporated into the heavy armored assault battalion of the Imperial Guard.

After donning spirit armor, those enormous beasts' destructive power during their charge far exceeded what was originally anticipated.

The populations of the Crimson Feathered Golden Roc and the Frosty Night Bat have also reached a considerable size.

The former, as the main force in air combat, occupies an irreplaceable position in the Dawn Army's organization;

The latter is standard equipment for the Lin family's scout units. Their ability to fly silently at night allows the Lin family's intelligence network to maintain a superior information gathering efficiency compared to other forces during nighttime reconnaissance.

The breeding of marine mounts has made breakthrough progress, and they are now playing an increasingly important role in intelligence reconnaissance and long-range shipping routes in the South China Sea.

The development of spirit beasts has led to a comprehensive improvement in the Lin family's strength in all aspects.

The total strength of the Dawn Army has expanded to 100,000, not counting the reserve force. Each of these ten units is equipped with at least one mount spirit beast, making the Dawn Army one of the top combat forces on the eastern front of the Southern Region.

The garrison of Chuyang City was maintained at around 50,000 men, mainly responsible for the daily defense and security along the Fen Gu Pass and in the pioneering area, and no longer undertaking large-scale combat missions.

The division of labor between the Dawn Army and the Garrison Army has developed into a mature system over the past twenty years, with the former focusing on external deterrence and the latter on internal stability.

……

The Lin family's population has grown from over three hundred to nearly two thousand.

The island in the middle of the lake was no longer big enough, and most of the clansmen were resettled in newly built residential areas around Shattered Star Lake.

The residential areas, built with bluestone and spirit wood, stretch out along the east, south, and north sides of Shattered Star Lake, forming a ring-shaped settlement centered on the island in the middle of the lake.

The younger generation in the clan grows up in the clan school, and after reaching the foundation stage, they are assigned to various departments, gradually accumulating experience through actual combat and work.

Some of them went to the five new cities to take up grassroots positions, some joined the Dawn Army or the Garrison Army, and some entered the fields of spirit beast breeding and array repair.

The Lin family, like a great tree, is flourishing at a rate exceeding expectations.

With the opening of trade routes, the formation of five new cities, and the maturation of spirit beast populations, the Lin family has firmly established itself on the chessboard of the Southern Region, no longer requiring him to personally handle everything.

Lin Che himself focused more on cultivation.

His cultivation at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm had been stabilized eight years ago, and he was not far from reaching the late stage.