22: Chapter 22 Geographical Records of Jin Dynasty Counties and Prefectures

In his past life, Jiang Yan had visited many Mortal kingdoms.

The Jin Kingdom, Liang Kingdom, Yue Kingdom, Chu Kingdom—these Mortal kingdoms were ostensibly ruled by royal families, but in reality, they were all backed by Cultivator Sects.

This was no secret; everyone in the cultivation world knew it.

Mortal kingdoms were the most basic link in the resource chain of a Sect.

The logic was simple.

A Mortal kingdom covered anywhere from a few prefectures to dozens of them.

The territory was vast enough, and the population was large enough.

Although the Spiritual Qi was thin, the sheer size of the land made up for it—deep forests and ancient woods would always produce some Spirit Medicine, such as century-old Polygonum multiflorum, deep-mountain Lingzhi, and wild ginseng; if one was lucky, one might even encounter true Spirit Medicine.

Deep underground, there would always be buried Ore, such as gold essence, black iron, and cold jade; although their grade was not high, their advantage lay in their abundance.

Rivers and lakes would always have deposits of spiritual Materials, such as Yin-Sha stones at the bottom of the water, sunken jade beneath the riverbeds, and embryos of water spirit pearls in the heart of the lakes.

These resources were scattered across the vast territory.

It was impossible for a Sect to send Cultivators to search inch by inch; that efficiency was too low. Ten Cultivators searching for a hundred years wouldn't be able to finish searching a single Jin Kingdom.

Letting the Mortal royal family collect them was the most cost-effective method.

The royal family had armies, officials, corvée labor, and taxes.

With a single imperial decree, all the medicine merchants, mine owners, and jade collectors in the country had to send their best goods to the capital.

The Sect only needed to send a few Cultivators to be stationed in the imperial palace and come to collect the goods every once in a while, saving time and effort.

Besides Spirit Medicine and Ore, there was another more important resource.

People.

Mortal children with Spiritual Root.

Spiritual Root was innate and had nothing to do with the concentration of Spiritual Qi.

Mortal kingdoms had a large population base, and although the proportion of children born with Spiritual Root each year was extremely low—one in a thousand was considered high—the sheer total population was there.

The Jin Kingdom had tens of millions of people, and at the very least, dozens of children with Spiritual Root could be born in a year.

These children were the most important source for the Sect to replenish its Cultivators.

Without fresh blood, even the largest Sect would slowly decline.

Old Cultivators would die, fall, or get stuck at a Bottleneck, unable to advance any further.

Without newcomers to take their place, a Sect would be a stagnant pool of water.

Therefore, every Mortal kingdom was backed by at least one Cultivator Sect.

The Sect would send Cultivators to be stationed in the imperial palace.

Firstly, to protect the royal family—after all, the royal family was the dog doing the work for them; if the dog was beaten to death, who would collect the resources?

Secondly, to supervise—to prevent the royal family from privately hiding true treasures and to prevent anyone from lining their own pockets.

Thirdly, to deter—to let the surrounding small Sects and Loose Cultivators know that this territory had an owner and they shouldn't come to stir up trouble.

The Jin Kingdom should be no exception.

Although the Jin Kingdom was a small country, the standard of a "small country" was relative to Cultivators.

The Jin Kingdom was four thousand li from east to west, two thousand three hundred li from north to south, with a population of tens of millions.

With such a large territory, it was impossible for there to be no Cultivators stationed there.

It was just unknown which Sect was behind the Jin Kingdom.

What was its strength? And what was the cultivation level of the Cultivator sent to be stationed in the imperial palace?

Qi Refinement Stage? Or Foundation Establishment Stage?

Jiang Yan tapped his finger on the boundary marker. His knuckles knocked against the rough bluestone surface, producing a dull thudding sound.

The possibility of it being the Foundation Establishment Stage was not high. A Mortal kingdom of this scale in the cultivation world could not be considered a wealthy territory—the Spiritual Qi was thin, and the resource output was limited.

Those capable of sending a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to be stationed there were at least major Sects with a Nascent Soul expert.

Such Sects would look down on small places like the Jin Kingdom; they were eyeing large countries with populations of over a hundred million.

It was most likely a Cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage. A Late Stage Qi Refinement, or perhaps Qi Refinement Perfection.

Of course, this was just speculation.

Jiang Yan withdrew his finger and continued walking forward.

Before dark, he arrived at a small city.

The city walls were not high and were built of blue bricks; clusters of withered yellow foxtail grass grew out from the gaps between the bricks.

The city gate was wide open, and there were no soldiers guarding the gate—in such a small place, the city gate was just for show; it was open during the day and closed at night, and no one could be bothered to check who came or went.

Jiang Yan walked into the city gate.

The streets inside the city were not wide, and most of the shops on both sides had already put up their door panels.

Only a grocery store at the corner of the street was still open, with a paper lantern hanging at the entrance; the candlelight flickered inside the paper shade, illuminating a small patch of ground at the entrance of the shop in a dim yellow light.

The shopkeeper was an old man of about sixty, as thin as a bamboo pole, with a few sparse white whiskers on his chin.

He was sitting behind the counter using an abacus, and the beads of the abacus clattered loudly.

Hearing footsteps, he raised his head, his turbid eyes turning toward Jiang Yan.

"What does the customer need?"

Jiang Yan swept his gaze over the shelves in the shop. Cloth, salt jars, oil lamps, fire steels, straw sandals, and hemp ropes were piled together in a mess.

In the corner hung a few ready-made clothes, made of coarse cloth, with a dusty gray color.

"A change of clothes," Jiang Yan said. The voice came from vocal cords adjusted by the Thousand Illusion Demon Mask, which was lower than his original voice and carried a hint of hoarseness.

The shopkeeper stood up, pulled out a dark gray short jacket and a pair of black trousers from the corner, and shook the dust off them. "This set is sturdy and durable. Eighty wen."

Jiang Yan didn't bargain. He also asked for a pair of new cloth boots, a coarse cloth cloak to block the wind, a water skin, and a few pieces of dry rations.

Finally, his gaze fell on a dusty bookshelf behind the counter.

"Do you have any geographical records of the Jin Kingdom? Or a map?"

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment and turned to look at that bookshelf.

There were not many books on the bookshelf; he rummaged for a while and pulled out a thin, blue-covered booklet.

"《Records of Geography and Figures in the Counties and Prefectures of the Jin Kingdom》, an old book from ten years ago. It records the names, locations, distances, famous figures of each county and prefecture, as well as the local products of each place."

"However, it hasn't been updated for ten years, and some newly established counties are not recorded."

He placed the booklet on the counter, blew the dust off the cover, and asked, "Does the customer want this?"

Jiang Yan picked up the booklet and flipped through it. The paper was rough and yellowed, and the printed text was somewhat blurry, but it was still legible.

He flipped to the chapter on "Prefecture Cities" and scanned the prefecture names and locations listed on it.

That was enough.

"How much?"

"This book... let's say eighty wen. It's just sitting there anyway."

Jiang Yan took a small piece of broken silver from his bosom and placed it on the counter.

The shopkeeper picked it up, weighed it, bit it with his teeth, and then fished out a handful of copper coins from under the counter, counting the change one by one.

Counting halfway, he raised his head, his turbid eyes turning on Jiang Yan's face again.

"The customer is from out of town, right?"

Jiang Yan gave a hum of acknowledgment.

"Your accent doesn't sound local," the shopkeeper continued counting the copper coins. "Where are you heading?"

"The capital."

The shopkeeper's hand counting the money paused. "The capital? That's very far. Heading north from here, you have to pass through several prefectures, which will take at least over a month."

Jiang Yan tucked the booklet into his bosom, took the change, and picked up the pile of clothes.

The shopkeeper watched him walk out of the shop and suddenly shouted from behind: "Customer, take the official road when heading north, don't take the small paths. It hasn't been peaceful lately."

Jiang Yan did not stop walking.

Not peaceful.

In his hundreds of years of traveling north and south in his past life, he had never seen a place where the world was peaceful.

Even the kingdoms under the so-called Righteous Path Sects were just as unpeaceful.

He found an inn in the city and stayed for one night.

The room was on the second floor with walls made of wooden boards. Someone in the next room was snoring, and the sound of snoring came through the thin wooden boards, sounding like sawing wood.

The bed board was as hard as a stone slab, and the bedding was damp, carrying an indescribable musty smell.

Jiang Yan sat cross-legged on the bed, not lying down.

He opened the 《Records of Geography and Figures in the Counties and Prefectures of the Jin Kingdom》 and read it page by page by the moonlight shining in from outside the window.

The Jin Kingdom was divided into nine prefectures.

The capital was in Luo Prefecture, located in the heart of the Jin Kingdom.

Heading north from his current position, he would have to pass through Yu Prefecture and Huai Prefecture in turn before reaching Luo Prefecture.

There were seven or eight prefecture cities along the way, and the number of county towns was countless.

The book also recorded the local products and specialties of each place.

Yu Prefecture produced iron, Huai Prefecture produced jade, and Luo Prefecture was the capital region, with the richest products—medicinal herbs, silk, porcelain, everything was available.

Jiang Yan's gaze lingered on the page for a long time.

He was not looking at the products. He was looking at the fiefs of the princes and nobles.

Most of the princes and nobles of the Jin Kingdom were concentrated in Luo Prefecture and the surrounding wealthy prefectures.

The book recorded the locations of the fiefs of more than a dozen marquises and counts; some were in the suburbs near the capital, some were on the wealthy plains in the southern part of Huai Prefecture, and some were in the mountainous and forest areas in the northern part of Yu Prefecture.

In the residences of these princes and nobles, there would more or less be collections of rare treasures.

Of course, most of them were items of great value in the Mortal world—famous calligraphy and paintings, ancient porcelain and jade, gold, silver, and jewelry. These things were of no use to a Cultivator.

But there was a small probability that there would be some things that were useful even in the cultivation world.

For example, aged Spirit Medicine. Some old medicines were just "medicinal Materials of excellent quality" in the eyes of Mortals, but in the eyes of Cultivators, they were semi-Spirit Medicines containing Spiritual Qi.

For example, special Ore. Some mineral Materials were just "stones with peculiar colors" in the hands of Mortals, but in the hands of Cultivators, they were raw Ores from which Artifact Refining Materials could be extracted.

For example, incomplete Magical Artifacts. Some princes and nobles had prosperous ancestors, and their families hid a few low-grade Magical Artifacts that had drifted from unknown places, passed down from generation to generation, yet no one knew their true purpose, only treating them as ordinary divine Sharp Weapons.

These things were scattered in the various residences of the princes and nobles, like gold grains in the sand.

What Jiang Yan needed to do was to sift them out.

He closed the booklet and closed his eyes.

Moonlight leaked in through the cracks in the window lattice, casting long, thin bands of silvery-white light on the floor.

The snoring next door was still sounding, one high and one low, like a bellows.

A night watchman passed by outside the window, and the clapper struck three times. It was the third watch.

Jiang Yan opened his eyes.

He had decided.

He would plunder these princes and nobles all along the way. He would not take gold, silver, or jewelry, but only things useful for cultivation.

Spirit Medicine, Ore, Magical Artifact fragments, Jade Slips, Pill Formula—as long as it was stained with Spiritual Qi, he would take it all away.

The Jin Kingdom was so big, and there were so many princes and nobles; by searching them one by one, he would surely be able to accumulate a considerable amount of cultivation resources.

As for whether those princes and nobles were willing to give them—

Jiang Yan's right hand unconsciously touched the animal skin wrapped around the scabbard at his waist.

The animal skin was warmed by his palm, and the texture under his fingertips was rough and clear.

That would not be up to them to decide.