Chapter 1223: Scorched Land of Liaodong
Chapter 1223: Scorched Land of Liaodong
November 4th, 2017
Bingzhou, Huaxia City.
After inspecting the results of the Talented Scholar Tower, Lu Hai Kong did not return immediately. As the leader of these top-notch talents under his command, he decided to take the opportunity to interact with them.
Lu Hai Kong not only delivered a series of speeches to these elite individuals, focusing on themes such as 'Diligent Cultivation', 'Anti-Demon Warfare', and 'Loyalty and Faith', but he also personally taught them Martial Arts classes for three consecutive days.
During these three days of Martial Arts classes, Lu Hai Kong, with his exceptional Martial Arts talent, solved the various Martial Arts-related issues faced by these individuals. More importantly, he utilized this time to thoroughly assess this group of talented individuals.
However, getting to know these top-tier talents born from the Talented Scholar Tower was not necessarily a positive experience for Lu Hai Kong. It turned out to be a significant blow to his expectations.
After three days of interaction, Lu Hai Kong realized, to his dismay, that his initial thoughts had been overly optimistic.
While the Talented Scholar Tower did provide him with 375 top-tier talents, it did not guarantee that he would have over 300 more generals with Strength breaking through the 90 mark within three to five years.
Talent and cultivation are two entirely different matters.
Having talent does not ensure a breakthrough to the 90 mark; Martial Arts cultivation relies on more than just talent—it also requires other factors, such as insight!
Lu Hai Kong initially believed that talent and insight went hand in hand, but during these three days, he realized his thinking had been too simplistic. Although the insight of the 300 top-tier talents had improved, the progress was minimal, falling short of what Lu Hai Kong considered the standard for top-tier talent.
After the three days of Martial Arts classes, Lu Hai Kong disappointedly concluded that with the current level of insight these individuals possessed, it was unlikely that they would all reach the 90 mark within three to five years. He would consider himself fortunate if even half of them achieved that level.
Despite Lu Hai Kong's repeated disappointments with the Talented Scholar Tower's results after its implementation in Huaxia, the tower's effects were still quite impressive. At the very least, the 500 million gold coins he invested were not spent in vain.
Lu Hai Kong's repeated letdowns were simply because his expectations for the Talented Scholar Tower had been set too high from the start.
Moreover, this was just the first time the Talented Scholar Tower had been used, and there were still three to four years before the foreign demons would launch a large-scale invasion. Lu Hai Kong had three to four more opportunities, and the effectiveness of the Talented Scholar Tower was always subject to a certain degree of luck.
Perhaps, in the next three to four attempts, Lu Hai Kong might be pleasantly surprised.
...
Youzhou, Liaodong Prefecture, in the scorched land ravaged by foreign demons.
Ever since the foreign demons descended a year ago, the four counties of Liaodong had become a desolate wasteland.
Although Lu Hai Kong had been developing this scorched land during this time, his efforts started from Lingzhi City and progressed at a rather slow pace.
After a year, Lu Hai Kong had only managed to reclaim a mere two to three hundred square kilometers of plain, a minuscule fraction of the vast million square kilometers that made up the four counties of Liaodong.
Despite the lack of development and governance in Lu Hai Kong, and the fact that the people of the four counties of Liaodong had either fled or remained in the scorched land, there were still some inhabitants in the region at this moment.
Some were indigenous NPCs who had narrowly escaped to the grasslands or found refuge in caves during the previous invasion from beyond the realm, while others were wanderers from all over the world.
This land, polluted by foreign demons, was like hell for the indigenous NPCs, but for these wanderers, it was a treasure trove waiting to be explored.
They were well aware that such a place would undoubtedly spawn numerous mutated dungeons and leveling points.
As it turned out, their guesses were spot on. Upon entering the scorched land, they discovered that many things had changed.
The most common and ordinary leveling point, the Mountain Stronghold, had transformed into the Demon Army Camp in this scorched land, while the Refugee Camp had become the Shelter.
The change from Mountain Stronghold to Demon Army Camp was not significant; it merely replaced the ordinary data monsters, the Bandits, with Undead, and the Bandit Leader with creatures like Blood Ghosts or Blood Demons.
In contrast, the Shelter underwent a more substantial transformation.
The Shelter, which replaced the Refugee Camp, was indeed a place where talented individuals could be found. However, unlike the previous Refugee Camp, the Shelter was filled with infected people, and most of them were beyond saving. Only a small portion of the population remained uninfected.
Of course, typically, wanderers discovering such Shelters wouldn't bother distinguishing between infected and uninfected individuals. They weren't lords, and the talents held no value for them.
In theory, wanderers shouldn't have bothered identifying which talents were infected. Upon encountering a Shelter, they would simply slaughter everyone.
However, in reality, wanderers rarely massacred those in Shelters. When they discovered one, they would diligently differentiate between the infected and the uninfected.
The reason for this was simple: Lu Hai Kong's influence had already reached this scorched land.
As a large number of wanderers flooded into the area, Lu Hai Kong quickly responded by dispatching the House of Oddities, led by Zhang Daoyi, to control the situation.
Within a short year, the House of Oddities had established numerous outposts in the scorched land, effectively becoming the official channels of Lu Hai Kong's power.
Through these outposts, Lu Hai Kong provided various services to the wanderers, such as supply storage. In return, Lu Hai Kong purchased a significant amount of items produced in the scorched land, even including talents from the Shelters.
The wanderers in the scorched land eagerly sought out these talents to exchange them for supplies, food, water, equipment, and other resources at Lu Hai Kong's outposts.
In less than a year, the official forces of Lu Hai Kong and the wanderers in the scorched land had formed a tacitly harmonious and mutually beneficial cooperation.
(End of Chapter)
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