Above the mage

Chapter 444 Returning to the Golden Bird Flower

Thirteen months ago, nine months ago, five months ago.

Following Master Yang's instructions, Sunafa subconsciously went through the thought process in her mind.

Then, in the next instant, she realized the special nature of these three time points.

The Sacred Tree!

Thirteen months ago was the time when Gaode planted the sacred tree Yoghathira.

Nine months ago was the time when Yugathira advanced to the first rank and gained the ability of "Astral Teleportation".

Five months ago was the time when Yugathira advanced to the second tier and awakened the "Enlightenment" ability.

It matches perfectly.

Once or twice might be a coincidence, but if it matches three times, then there's no need to doubt anything anymore.

More importantly, once it was confirmed to be Yugathira, Master Yang's statement that he "possessed the powerful ability to change the North" was completely accurate.

She knew Yugathira's abilities all too well; they were abilities that could be described as earth-shattering, and changing the North was naturally within her grasp.

Thinking this, she glanced at Yarna again from afar.

Sunefa is a clever man.

She knew all too well that the discovery Yarna claimed to have made was just a desperate lie, a way for Yarna to incite conflict between herself and Master Sheep.

Even if she had ten times the courage, Yarna wouldn't dare send anyone to approach Phoenix again.

But coincidentally, Yarna's prediction actually came true.

What Master Yang is looking for is indeed in the Zhenbing tribe.

The question now is, can she take Master Sheep to see Yogg-Sarah?

The answer is definitely no.

Although Master Yang's attitude remained friendly throughout, he didn't seem like an evil or unreasonable person.

But Yogg-Sarah was far too important for Sunefa to gamble on the humanity of a stranger on something so crucial.

Various thoughts flashed through her mind, and she quickly sorted out the relationships between them, but Sunafa showed no change in expression.

Not showing one's emotions is a basic quality for a war mother, not to mention that Sunefa herself is a calm or even extremely composed person.

"What you are looking for is not among my people. Everything Yarna has said is a lie," she said calmly.

"If you don't believe me, let her call out the person in my tribe who discovered this item so they can confront me."

Master Yang was slightly taken aback.

"Just as she said, my clan is powerful; how dare her clansmen investigate my clan?"

"Yarna, you said you found out that what I'm looking for is in the Zhenbing tribe. Who found it?" Master Yang had already sensed something was wrong and turned to Yarna with slight displeasure, asking her.

Yarna was stumped by this question.

This was entirely a spur-of-the-moment idea she made in a moment of desperation; where could she possibly find someone to agree with her words so readily?

"This..." Yarna stammered.

Seeing her behavior, how could Master Yang not know the truth of the matter?

Fortunately, he was well-mannered and had some connection with the Iceborn bloodline and the ancestors of the Winter's Hammer, so he was able to control his anger.

"I'm sorry, it was my presumption." He apologized to Sunefa first.

"You said your clan has some connection with me, what do you mean by that?" Sunefa automatically skipped over this topic and asked "probingly".

Master Yang pondered for a moment, seemingly hesitant, but finally revealed a little secret: "The master craftsman my clan follows, and the guardian of your Iceborn clan, are the earliest beings born on this land of the North. The two of them have crossed paths and can be considered friends."

"The guardian of my race?" Sunafa's eyes flickered slightly.

The Iceborn race has guardians?!

If so, who is it, and where did it go? Is it still alive?

If the Guardian is still alive, why has the Iceborn bloodline been declining all these years, yet the Guardian has never shown himself?

Or is the decline of the Iceborn bloodline related to this guardian?

In that instant, a series of questions flashed through Sunafa's mind.

The existence of the Guardians is not recorded in the ancient texts of the Zhenbing tribe.

Clearly, either it was too secretive to be recorded, or this part of history was lost over time.

"That's all I can say to you, as an apology for my earlier offense," Master Yang said, bowing to Sunafa. His meaning was clear: he had said all he needed to say and asked Sunafa not to press him further.

After this incident, Sunefa didn't press the matter further. She gave Yarna a cold look and then chose to leave.

She didn't say anything harsh, but that one look sent chills down Yarna's spine.

Once outside the range of Winter's Hammer, Sunefa immediately increased her flight speed.

This time, she came to demand an explanation, but because of the sudden appearance of Master Yang, the attempt to demand an explanation was aborted.

However, this trip wasn't entirely in vain.

Knowing about the existence of the Guardians is one thing, but it's just anecdotes. Paying a little attention to it won't have much impact on the current situation.

The key point is that they learned a powerful tribe was searching for Yogg-Shira, but their intentions were unknown.

This is tremendous news.

Putting everything else aside, at least knowing this news allows us to take targeted measures, strengthen information security within the clan, and resolutely prevent the news of Yugathira's existence from spreading. At the same time, it also further strengthens the "security" of Flora Forest.

Otherwise, if you are completely unaware of the situation and someone takes advantage of you without your knowledge, it could be disastrous.

Thinking of this, Sunafa felt a vague sense of unease again.

From her brief interaction with Master Yang, she could deduce that Master Yang's tribe was not located in the western part of the North, and that they were exceptionally powerful.

His strength was almost enough to make him the number one person in the western part of the North, but he was not particularly prominent in his own tribe.

It's hard to imagine what a powerful tribe that must have been.

Even more terrifying is the master craftsman that Master Sheep mentioned.

"The earliest beings to emerge from this land of the North."

It is important to know that the Iceborn have been living on the permafrost of the North since ancient times.

Since it can be called the earliest existence, it must have existed even earlier than the Iceborn.

Even earlier than ancient times, countless millions of years have passed since then, yet according to Master Yang, this master craftsman is still alive.

If he wasn't lying, one can imagine how terrifying this master craftsman must have been.

"My king, what do you think?" As soon as she returned to Phoenix, Sunefa told God everything she had seen and heard on her trip.

Gao De pondered for a moment, silently processing this astonishing news in his mind.

"If they are only slightly stronger than us, we will naturally be fully prepared and pay attention to any signs of trouble."

Then, he shrugged and said in a very natural or rather "laid-back" manner, "But this is a being who has lived from an even earlier point in time in ancient times. With such a long lifespan, his power has far exceeded our ability to cope with."

"In this situation, we should actually stay calm, because if he really comes to Zhenbing in person, nothing we do will make a difference."

That made so much sense that Sunefa was immediately convinced, and her tense heart relaxed: "However, we still need to strengthen the security and secrecy of Flora Forest, at least to prevent other people from spying on us."

"The safest approach is to expand the scale of Flora Forest as soon as possible," Gao De nodded in agreement.

A tree can't be hidden in the desert, but it's hard to find in a forest.

"Ever since Minister Flora discovered the Ever-Frozen Oak, the number of mages in the tribe who have mastered nature magic is growing rapidly. At this rate, Flora's Forest will become a true forest in just one year," Sunefa nodded.

The discovery of the permafrost oak was the most important thing for Phoenix.

Because the "Art of Nature" is a secret art that can truly and effectively promote the development of the North.

This is the foundation.

"I was originally planning to take advantage of this to directly acquire Winter's Hammer, but it seems I'll have to reconsider," Gao De sighed.

In his mind, since there was already a legitimate reason for his actions, he could use this as a pretext to subdue Winter's Hammer by force. However, the appearance of Master Sheep forced him to put the matter on hold.

They didn't even know how long it would be put on hold.

Master Sheep came to find Yogg-Sarah and sought the help of Winter's Hammer.

He will most likely not leave Winter's Hammer until he finds this item.

With Master Sheep overseeing Winter's Hammer, the plan to subdue the enemy by force is out of the question.

"Fortunately, everything is normal at the Frostwolf Clan and is proceeding as planned."

"Yes," Sunefa said immediately, as she was well-informed about all matters, big and small, within the clan. "In the past year, the birth rate of wolf cubs in the Frostwolf Clan has increased by about 50% compared to the same period last year."

Birth rate and the same period are both concepts popularized by Gaode Maps.

According to him, in a mature governance system, all documents and reports must contain a large amount of accurate data and introduce many data concepts, such as same period, year-on-year, month-on-month, etc.

At first, it was a little difficult to get used to, but Sunefa quickly mastered how to use this data and became proficient in its use.

The reason for using words like "approximately" is that the Frostwolf Clan is, after all, an "enemy," and the information available to them cannot be precise.

"This is just the beginning. The birth rate of wolf cubs in the Frostwolf Clan will increase this year, and by a significant margin. Last year, they were still in a wait-and-see state and were relatively conservative about purchasing Northwest Barley No. 1."

But after we, as you suggested, initiated a counter-purchase of wolf milk, wolf fur, and even wolf blood produced by the Frostwolf Clan, they firstly lowered their guard, and secondly, the enormous economic benefits before them blinded them, completely unleashing the breeding of snow wolves.

"In at most two years, the Frostwolf Clan will become absolutely dependent on our Northwest Barley No. 1 variety."

"As soon as we stop supplying them with Northwest Barley No. 1, they will either choose to surrender or personally kill most of their snow wolves to alleviate the food pressure." Sunafa was still amazed when she said this.

She was an excellent ruler with a natural talent for governance, but this was truly the first time she had ever heard of such a tactic.

This, to some extent, opened up new avenues for Sunefa's thinking.

People like her are very good at applying what they've learned to other situations; they just need a little inspiration.

"If it's the former, then there's no need to say anything. If it's the latter, then that will be when they are at their weakest. Even if we use force, the damage will be minimized," Gao De said with a smile.

The situation with the Frostwolf Clan is basically settled; now his only concern is Winter's Hammer.

"Plans really can't keep up with changes," he sighed.

"My King, you seem to value the Winter's Hammer particularly highly?" Sunefa couldn't help but ask.

Winterhammer and Frostwolf Clan are both large Iceborn tribes, with similar strength, resources, and even population. In fact, Sunefa believes that the Frostwolf Clan is more valuable.

Their skill in taming snow wolves is absolutely priceless.

In addition to Phoenix's current abundant food resources, and the gem berry trees that Flora Forest is cultivating (one gem berry can satisfy a snow wolf's food needs for a day).

Once they subdue the Frostwolf clan and obtain the method to tame snow wolves, they can quickly increase the number of snow wolves several times over, bringing a visible increase in the tribe's strength.

In comparison, the forging technique of the Winter's Hammer seems less useful and doesn't directly improve Phoenix's stats.

"Their forging techniques were important, their access to minerals was important, and the power of fire was also important."

Gao De naturally knew where Sunefa's doubts lay, and explained in the simplest way possible: "A Winter's Hammer is related to Phoenix's next two departments."

Sunafa raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.

Currently, Phoenix has only five departments at most: the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, the Department of Public Security, the Office of the President, and the Department of Construction.

The creation of each department either brings visible changes to Phoenix or solves Phoenix's most pressing problems.

And a single Winter's Hammer is actually related to two new departments?

"The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Finance." Gao De didn't keep Sunefa in suspense; once he started, he began to explain.

Phoenix has always been a "publicly owned" society, where everyone shares the fruits of their labor, eats from the same pot, and food is distributed by the rulers.

Given the limited food and scarce resources, this system was reasonable, as the unified distribution of limited grain could ensure the survival of the tribe to the greatest extent possible.

But now that the food problem has been solved, this system will hinder Phoenix's development.

To unleash productive forces, private ownership is urgently needed.

The foundation of private ownership is money.

Without currency, private ownership is meaningless.

"We need to control the fire power of the Winter's Hammer and the gold mines to be able to mint enough currency to implement private ownership."

"As for industry, it's hard to explain in a short time. It's difficult to understand even if you explain it before you see the actual product. In short, industry is the leading force in the national economy and has an irreplaceable core position in the development of a power or even a country," Gao De said.

"Of course, the Winter's Hammer isn't that important," seeing Sunefa deep in thought, God added, fearing she might misunderstand, "Their stuff is just the starting point for the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Finance. It's great to have it, as it can save some effort, but we can start on our own without it."

"I understand," Sunefa nodded.

"There's another matter. Things here are almost settled for now. I've been back in the North for a while now. I'm afraid of being exposed if I'm away for too long and haven't shown up in the Golden Flower Kingdom. I'll probably be going back in the next day or two," Gao De said to Sunaifa.

"It will be another month before the next astral teleportation recharge is complete. I'll have to trouble you during my absence." As a hands-off manager, he still felt a little guilty.

Sunafa didn't complain at all, and even added, "You can rest assured here in the North with me here, but you'll be all alone in the Plantagenet Kingdom, so be careful."

(End of this chapter)