New City 2015

  He had roughly finished arranging the mountains and rivers, Lin Xu stopped his seemingly effortless mountain-moving work, panting heavily. He lifted his arm in an ungraceful manner to wipe away non-existent sweat from his face with his sleeve, pulled out his own data and took a glance, feeling somewhat melancholic in his heart.

  It's indeed similar to the previous experiment, using "Hurry Mountain Whip" consumes nearly ten spiritual power points per minute on average. The little spiritual power that Lin Xu had accumulated over a short period of time was almost depleted in just this short moment, fortunately, he didn't make any serious mistakes that would require him to redo it earlier.

  The overall feng shui layout of the city has been formed, and the remaining things are relatively simple, no more than arranging for some people to live in this place.

  Lin Xudan dares to guarantee that this piece of land is very suitable for human habitation, ensuring a bumper harvest and prosperity of livestock. The children born here will be numerous and uncountable. This land is used to nurture followers, of course, it's best to increase population growth, other additional functions are just icing on the cake. Although the Feng Shui treasure land is genuine, due to the attributes of the nine peaks being interdependent and conflicting, good and bad luck change unpredictably, it won't be like some people expect, easily producing a true dragon or high-ranking officials. However, ensuring peace and safety in one area, avoiding all natural disasters and human calamities, is more than enough.

  The gods require incense from their followers, and humans are the most superior potential followers, so raising humans is a very cost-effective investment.

  For deities that require a large amount of willpower to offset the consumption of divine power, cultivating believers is an investment business with huge inputs and rich returns.

  It's just like the principle of grazing sheep, a good shepherd must always pay attention to his flock in order to ensure stable returns. A qualified shepherd not only lets the sheep eat and drink enough but also guards against external wolves coming to eat them, no matter how much effort is put into it, it can't be considered redundant. If you don't want the old story of losing sheep and mending fences to happen to yourself, a good sheepfold is an indispensable material foundation.

  This is exactly why Lin Xu spared no expense in building this feng shui treasure land. If it weren't for this reason, he wouldn't have much motivation to engage in charity work!

  The withered grass is sparse and scattered, the autumn wind is mournful and whispering.

  The Qin Direct Road, which was once the pride of the Great Qin Empire, could reach all states, counties and cities across the country during its heyday. The secondary branch roads also extended down to most county towns. However, with nearly a hundred years of government neglect, funds allocated for road maintenance and water facilities by various levels of government have been embezzled one after another. Except for areas like Guanzhong Jingji and Hebei, Sichuan and other central regions, the road system in other areas has generally existed for many years with dilapidated conditions due to lack of repair.

  A large number of public works have appeared in a state of disrepair, as if to demonstrate that the body of this old empire is accelerating its decline, and the time of its demise is not far off.

  The trend is as such, and it's not something that can be reversed by human effort. The efforts of individual honest and responsible officials can only delay this process, but they cannot stop the inevitable outcome.

  Even today, on this main transportation route that was originally used to connect the Jiujang and Nanyang prefectures, which is still quite important, after a autumn rain, the road surface is filled with thick yellow mud and large areas of accumulated water, making it difficult for people to find a place to step.

  When a great empire is on the decline, the process is usually long and painful, with few examples of sudden collapse.

  It can be said that in most cases, a country is like a patient with a chronic illness, originally healthy and full of vitality, gradually losing its vitality under the erosion of incurable diseases, and finally walking towards death without any suspense.

  Not knowing the true face of Lushan, only because one is in this mountain. Many subjects of the Great Qin Empire have not even thought about whether the empire will perish or not. Anyway, this decadent situation that is neither dead nor alive has been maintained for a long time, and perhaps in one's lifetime, one cannot see the end of the story, so most people are not too concerned about these seemingly unrelated matters.

  Travelers who have to travel far during this ghostly season are faced with extremely poor road conditions. Although they worry about delaying their journey, they can only choose to rest on the side of the road first and wait for the accumulated water on the road surface to recede before starting again.

  With a sense of helplessness, it seemed that the three generations of men and women, old and young, all had more than ten mouths to feed. The whole family sat around a stone table outside a tea shed on the side of the road. This family relied on the shop's clearly marked price of one and a half coins for a sufficient supply, although the taste was rough and bitter, but at least it was scalding hot tea water, eating dry rations from their personal bundles that were hard enough to crack open a person's skull.

  In this family, the eldest son, who is around 40 years old and has a worn-out look on his face, is now cautiously negotiating with his father, saying in a low voice:

  "Dad, I heard the storyteller in that teahouse say that there's a wealthy family in these mountains recruiting tenant farmers. Why don't we go try our luck?"

  As the head of the family, the old farmer with a speckled white hair let out a sigh and said:

  "Wait a minute! Your third uncle has gone to Shen Prefecture to gather information. Perhaps he can find a better place."

  Ancient people said: It is better to be a dog in peaceful times than to be a human in chaotic times.

  Under the double pressure of a rugged fate and a difficult life, the old man's face showed an unhealthy grayish hue. Perhaps he himself was very clear that at this age, it is difficult to find a paradise wherever you go. Even if they are currently planning to flee to Shen State, in reality, it may not be much better than their hometown. However, the terrifying legend of the monster eating people in Huo Mountain is a classic horror story that people from surrounding counties have been listening to since childhood, and its ferocity can completely serve as a deterrent to stop children from crying at night. As long as there was still another option, the old man did not want to take his whole family into the mouth of that extremely dangerous tiger to make a living.

  Not only did the old man who brought his whole family to take refuge with relatives have such thoughts, but also other refugees who were forced to stay in the tea house due to the recent heavy rain and were hesitant about the novel proposal of settling in Huoshan.

  These refugees, who were still hesitant, did not notice that the shopkeeper and apprentices in this teahouse, as well as the storyteller and others, silently arranged everything in an orderly manner, cooperating with each other like the left and right hands of one person working together.

  It's a fact that these people, who differ in figure and appearance, are actually Lin Xu's incarnations in disguise, and this teahouse is also one of his propaganda points.

  Logically speaking, recruiting refugees and other trivial matters should be delegated to subordinates. However, Lin Xu, this mountain god, is a newcomer who is struggling to make ends meet, and his team is too thin, so it's not possible to rely on them for such tasks.

  Now, under Lin Xu's command, except for the two deputy generals Zhang Xin and Wang Liang of the Mountain God Temple, who looked no different from ordinary people, the remaining dark soldiers and ghostly soldiers were all ferocious and evil, not like human beings at all. It would be a compliment to say they had green faces and fangs.

  It goes without saying that such a terrifying face would be fine as cannon fodder on the battlefield, but using it for public relations is just not suitable.

  After much thought, Lin Xu abandoned his lazy idea of taking a shortcut and specially placed several avatars near Guangzhou, at the foot of Mount Huo. For this purpose, he even found an intersection of north-south and east-west roads and built a humble tea house that was not eye-catching, temporarily serving as a propaganda base for external use. The task undertaken by these avatars was not to earn back the meager cost of selling rough tea to passersby every day, but to vigorously publicize to groups of passing migrants that there were wealthy households recruiting tenants in the depths of Mount Huo, or that some non-existent workshops were hiring craftsmen to return.

  Since the previous god of Huo Mountain disappeared more than 300 years ago, the mountain people also lost the protection of the gods' wings. From then on, Huo Mountain became a paradise for monsters.

  It is said that the village originally built in the mountains has long been reduced to nothing, and even some greedy medicine merchants who promised high profits to enter the mountain to collect medicine, most of them also ended up with no return. Just because of its notorious reputation, over the past 300 years, Huo Mountain's evil name is not inferior to Beimang Mountain. It is precisely because of this that if it were placed in a peaceful year, even if Lin Xu had broken his mouth, he would not be able to persuade these frightened refugees to settle in the mountains.

  The current key is that the situation is stronger than people! Who let the world under us now be a scene where people eat people?

  Born in a chaotic world, being at the mercy of others has become a harsh reality that everyone must face. Whether rich or poor, regardless of background, people live with bated breath. Countless individuals go to sleep at night not knowing if they will wake up the next morning with their heads still attached. In such a perilous environment, the once-feared and avoided Huo Mountain no longer seems so intimidating.

  Although most of the audience took Lin Xu's boastful agitation as a mere rumor, if only a few people were moved by it, then he didn't work in vain.

  "Murder!"

  With the rapid hoofbeats sounding like muffled thunder, the long sword flashing with a cold and menacing light in the sunlight, recklessly slashing and killing those pedestrians on the road who were unable to dodge.

  These galloping knights, one by one, had ferocious faces as if they were the reincarnation of the God of Murder. Many frightened refugees thought they were bandits from a nearby mountain stronghold coming to plunder. But then, suddenly, one of the knights reined in his horse and shouted loudly:

  "Brocade-clad Imperial Guards are on a mission outside the capital. All civilians, quickly disperse! Those who disobey will be beheaded without exception!"

  At the mere mention of the name "Brocade Guard", the refugees resting by the roadside seemed to have been brutally whipped with a leather whip, and they fled in all directions without looking back, not even daring to glance at the knights again.

  As the sound of galloping horses faded away, the old man, still trembling with fear, gazed at the retreating figures in the distance. After his initial shock, he felt a surge of bitterness and helplessness.

  It is said that "when one thing is hurt, its kind will mourn". The refugees on this road are in similar situations, and the pedestrians who were unjustly killed by the Imperial Guards still lie dead on both sides of the road. The bright red blood flows freely in the deep ruts, dyeing the mud and stagnant water, forming a highly abstract and frightening scene, like a transformation from hell.

  In these days, the government is more ruthless and merciless than bandits. At least bandits know not to be too cruel, they haven't fallen to the point of killing people without reason, it's just a sigh, indeed the officials are more ruthless than bandits!