"Dammit! That bastard was only a few minutes faster than me."
At this moment, within Cloudpetal County in Dawnstar Province, the former Duke Xu Jiezhi was visibly pissed off.
After the world had changed, he had adapted quickly. He'd always intended to usurp the king's throne, and now this was his opportunity. Everyone's strength was low in the early stages. The playing field was level.
But even after his quick reaction, he'd still been a few minutes short of creating the first territory in the new Desolate Martial World.
Xu Jiezhi, who was also full of dreams of being "the first village in the world," roared in anger when he heard the emotionless tone of the system announcement.
His fist slammed into a nearby tree, bark splintering under the impact. His Qi flared, unstable with rage.
But good things don't come in pairs, and bad things come in doubles. At this moment, the world announcement rang out again.
[Global Announcement: Dawnstar Province's Cloudpetal County player, Xu Jiezhi has successfully established the second village in the Desolate Martial World. We hereby encourage and reward a Random Summoning Card of Grandmaster Military General.]
The announcement repeated once more, echoing through the minds of every living being.
At this moment, Xu Jiezhi's face wasn't just angry. It had turned blue, like he'd swallowed poison. The anger had completely occupied his brain.
Even though he was the second village in the world, it didn't mean much to him. He was just the second village in the Verdant Cloud Kingdom.
Only the first three villages created in the new Desolate Martial World could get system rewards. And the subsequent rewards for the last two villages were incomparable to the first village.
In general, the rewards obtained by each village were different, showing a decreasing trend. First was best. Second was acceptable. Third was barely worth it. Every village created after that was void of rewards.
The Epic-Tier village building token that he'd luckily gotten his hands on had given him lots of confidence. But now, compared to that bastard with the first village, it felt almost useless. He'd only received a Grandmaster Military General as a reward.
Xu Jiezhi took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. His mood stabilized, though anger still simmered beneath the surface.
He'd have to quickly stabilize his village and start recruiting residents. Especially the commandery soldiers to aid in conquering nearby settlements. And hopefully, that bastard with the first village was in the same province as him. If so, he'd have to create a strong army to launch an attack in the near future.
Whoever this Yun Kai was, he'd make him regret being born.
---
Naturally, Yun Kai also heard the voice of the world announcement, but he wasn't surprised. All this was actually expected. What did surprise him was that the person was in the same province as him.
The Verdant Cloud Kingdom was made up of twelve provinces and over sixty counties. Those twelve provinces were: Deep River Province, Stormjade Province, Dawnstar Province, Thunderpeak Province, Northern Spirit Province, Moonblade Province, Spiritroot Province, Scarlet Wind Province, Silver Moon Province, Blackflame Province, Sacred Willow Province, and the location of the royal capital, Verdant Cloud Province.
This Xu Jiezhi was actually the youngest of the seven dukes in the Verdant Cloud Kingdom. The village he built represented the commandery stationed in Dawnstar Province to protect the border and guard against the forces of the Yunlan Kingdom.
Unlike Yun Kai, a single person with a low starting point, Xu Jiezhi would have countless humans willing to seek refuge in his territory. He also had financial resources and connections.
For example, right now, Yun Kai's village most lacked villagers. He still needed to slowly wait for the arrival of refugees. But Xu Jiezhi could directly use stationed soldiers to fill the vacancy.
The advantage was obvious.
Yun Kai pushed these thoughts aside. No point dwelling on what others had. He needed to focus on his own village.
Perhaps no one in the world would have thought that the most famous village in the world was hidden in this remote place. The system had only mentioned his name and village name, nothing about location. No one would think that the village was built with a God-Tier village building token.
The tier of a territory could never be disclosed to prevent obvious outcomes. This was one of the system's warnings that had appeared when he'd first established the village.
In fact, even the most basic Common-Tier villages were divided into large, small, and medium-sized categories. They should be gradually upgraded before they could become towns.
Looking at the village in front of him through his sensory bubble, Yun Kai didn't feel disappointed at all. If this village was revealed to the world, everyone would be shocked speechless.
There were only a few buildings in the whole village. Most of them weren't flashy or impressive looking. Outside the village, high sturdy fences surrounded the perimeter.
As for these walls, let alone mountain bandits, maybe even some Spirit Realm demonic beasts couldn't break through easily.
The occupied area of the village wasn't very big. In the center stood the only brick structure building, the primary village hall. Everything else was wood.
The new Desolate Martial World was quite different from the past world. If laborers wanted to build a village before, they needed to build it slowly from foundation to roof. But in this new world, it was much simpler.
As long as the title deed and the village building token were available, the prototype of a village could be built immediately. This saved a lot of time and effort.
"This saves a lot of time and effort," Yun Kai said to himself. "Probably, the First World King thought it better to give us a sense of mystery."
He paused, suddenly noticing something strange.
"Wait. Why do I feel strange? My body is changing. I seem to have grown stronger?"
Yun Kai focused inward, sensing his own cultivation and physical state.
"This God-Tier village building token can improve the residents' potential. My potential has increased by a level to SS-Rank."
His mind felt clearer, sharper. Problems he couldn't think through before now seemed to resolve themselves naturally. Solutions appeared where there had only been confusion.
Yun Kai threw a few punches at the air. His fists cut through the space with audible whooshes. The force was different, more substantial than an ordinary Qi Gathering Realm cultivator.
"I feel that the strength of my cultivation seems to have increased by a sub-stage to mid-stage Qi Gathering Realm."
"Haha!" Yun Kai laughed excitedly, unable to contain himself.
Originally, Yun Kai's potential was S-Rank, but now he had been upgraded to SS-Rank.
Generally speaking, there was only one S-Rank person in every 100,000 people. One SS-Rank in every 1,000,000 people. One SSS-Rank in every 1,000,000,000 people. The rarity increased exponentially.
However, the God-Tier village building token had directly reduced the scope by one-tenth, which was absolutely abnormal. Perversely overpowered in the most literal sense.
For example, normal occupations like civil servants, military generals, and counselors still accounted for a large proportion of the population. At least those affiliated occupations did.
Pharmacists, shipbuilders, tailors, blacksmiths, these were all affiliated professions. However, these were the most important subsidiary occupations, indispensable talents in the construction of any territory.
"I didn't expect that I'd get such great help from the beginning," Yun Kai mused. "In the future, only relying on this function alone can make my territory develop rapidly. Not to mention that I still have a Legendary Military General summoning card."
He paused, reality settling in.
"Although the construction of the village has been completed, there are no residents yet. It's difficult for a seasoned chef to cook without ingredients."
Yun Kai thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"I'm not in a hurry. Let's have a look at what the divine beast pet egg looks like."
In these troubled times, as long as there was shelter, there would be many refugees eventually. This was the time of uprising in the Verdant Cloud Kingdom and the Desolate Martial World at large.
The ministers, dukes, and high nobles had likely already disrupted the royal court by revolting. The whole Verdant Cloud Kingdom was crumbling.
The displaced people numbered in the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. Mountain bandits and thieves would be rampant. For the people in troubled times, being able to survive was already a hope worth clinging to.
Especially in some counties where the mountains were high and the king's reach was far away, the officials were insatiable. Countless people had left their hometowns because of heavy taxes and corruption.
Thinking of this, Yun Kai felt a little sad. He directly changed the original tax rate from three out of ten to one out of fifteen.
As a man with a modern ideology, he knew that if a leading organization wanted to have money, it must not be through high taxes on farmers. Business was the fundamental source of wealth.
At the foot of Spiritbone Mountain, there were abundant products and some rare alchemy materials. These could be used for commercial exchange, which was also one of the reasons why Yun Kai was thoroughly satisfied with this place.
As long as Yun Kai could stabilize his territory, when the rebellions reached here in a few months or weeks, Spiritrock Village would have grown rapidly and be able to protect itself from the chaos.