Chapter 93: Jingzhong City
Xu Qianghua smiled as he left the study room.
"Well, it seems like things are going well so far."
He knew the girls would have many questions, but what mattered right now was getting them to think of this world as their own and hopefully join his family.
The rest could be sorted out once Huang Xinyui became the City Lord.
As without a City Lord, players cannot use their family tokens, as no one can approve the change.
Because of this, Xu Qianghua did not use his Family Token. However, this would change after Huang Xinyi became the City Lord.
He would be allowed to create the Xu family and make this the base city.
If she became the City Lord, he would have an easier time expanding the family's influence, which is one of the major requirements for improving their family levels.
As for Yan Yuehua, from the Status, he could see she has the skills and strength to be part of Shadow and even lead it.
This was good news for him as he did not want to be the leader of the Shadow.
He was planning to let someone else do it instead. But now, with Yan Yuehua, he would not have that problem.
He could just let her be the leader and lead Shadow to a much higher level than in his previous life.
He was not worried that these two ladies would betray him, as family cards above the legendary rank give the summons a high loyalty when they are summoned.
This means that unless the summoner kills their family in front of them, they will not betray the summoner.
As he was thinking about all this, they reached the entrance of the Mansion and passed through it without any obstacles.
He then started walking towards the city center while explaining to the girls what was happening.
"Well, I guess I will explain some things to you about this world," he said, and both girls nodded as they looked at him.
"I am sure you both have many questions, and I will try to answer them the best I can," he continued as they nodded again. "First, this world has evolved with Spiritual Qi in the air, and humans and monsters have become powerful enough to destroy mountains and fly.
However, that does not mean that this is the end of the world, as this is the normal process every world goes through in this void without fail.
But our situation is different as this world changed from the inside out in a short amount of time while the other worlds need decades or even more to evolve."
This surprised them as they did not expect the change to be this big, and this was not part of the information given to them by the World's Will.
The World's Will did this on purpose, as it wanted the summoner to have more opportunities to interact with their summons and form bonds with them.
"The world has also changed drastically since the evolution," Xu Qianghua continued. For example, a city's population has grown much larger than it used to be.
Many cities in the old world used to have around three hundred thousand people, which is the maximum that can live in a city without making it too crowded.
But in this new world, the city's population starts from 500,000, with the capital cities starting from a million.
And this is still when the world has just been upgraded. After a few decades, the population will increase exponentially, which is why the city looks so deserted right now."
He said as he looked around to find the city deserted, even though more than 500,000 people live there.
However, he was not too worried, as the population would increase as more players used the Family card and other items that had similar effects.
"That should give you a good idea of how the world has changed, and we will roam around the city so that Huang Xinyi can better understand what she must do if you decide to become the City Lord." Huang Xinyi did not object to this, as after the conversation in the City Lord Mansion, she had already decided to become the City Lord.
This is because she likes this job. In her previous life, she was an empress, so for her, the City Lord role is the best possible role.
She will need to learn more about this world before making any decisions.
After all, the new world is much bigger than the old one, and while humans and monsters can cultivate, she will have to face huge challenges.
Similarly, Yan Yuehua also had the same thought, but her situation was special. Although she had led people before, those people were assassins.
When she brought up this point, Xu Qianghua told her about Shadow and how he wanted her to lead that organization in his stead.
He did this because he knew that he was not fit to lead Shadow, which he had brought up in his last life.
This is why, even after they found each other, he did not become the leader and instead left the job to Su Lian, who also hated it as it would leave her with less time to spend with Xu Qianghua.
As for Yan Yuehua, she was excited about leading Shadow as she had led a similar organization when she was alive.
However, she did not show any excitement on her face; instead, she had an aloof but determined look.
While the three of them had different thoughts, they reached the reaction to the first Challenge, The Trial of Strength.
And as they did, many citizens who were hard to be seen started to appear more often as they were notified by the Spiritual copy that a new City Lord Challenger had arrived.
This has led to the area that used to be deserted being filled up with many citizens excited and gearing up to meet the challenger.
When they arrived at the location, they were immediately spotted, as Xu Qianghua's clothes were different from those of others.
However, this situation did not make the citizens want to go and mock him like in those novels where the protagonist needs to be mocked after a couple of chapters to show his importance. Instead, they had a curious look on their faces.
"Hello, citizens of Jingzhong!" Xu Qianghua said, waving at them.
"My name is Xu Qianghua. Next to me is Huang Xinyi, the City Lord Challenger. We will be here for a while before we go and challenge the first trial, so feel free to talk to us and ask any questions you might have."
With these words, many people gathered around him. Xu Qianghua did not act like a normal Gold Core cultivator who would distance himself.
He wanted the citizens' first impression to be positive since these people would be their customers once Liu Meiying set up her Chamber of Commerce.
And there might be some people with special talents and with his attitude, they might be more inclined to surrender to him.
They answered many questions from the citizens, ranging from important to trivial matters. After some time, Xu Qianghua and Huang Xinyi entered the arena. Yan Yuehua separated from them to find the Shadow captains and understand their situation.
Initially, Xu Qianghua planned to fight the Sentinel himself, as its cultivation realm was at the Late Foundation Realm.
However, since Huang Xinyi was at the Peak Foundation Realm, he left the challenge in her hands while observing from the sidelines.
Soon, they arrived at the area where the fighting would take place. A loud voice echoed from the ground.
*To be the City Lord, the challenger must prove that they have enough personal strength to handle the responsibilities of a City Lord.
To test that, a City Lord made a clone of the Spiritual Copy of the Guardian of the City. The challenger must defeat the clone before moving on to the next challenge.
The challenger must demonstrate their physical prowess and combat skills by defeating the Sentinel, a warrior whose strength has been fine-tuned to suit this test.*
The Sentinel's voice boomed without leaving the stage.
"Good luck, Huang Xinyi," Xu Qianghua said. "Remember that your well-being is important. If it seems like you might lose, just quit the match. We can retry it later."
"Yes, Master," Huang Xinyi replied with a smile. She knew she could not afford to lose, as it would negatively impact the citizens' perception of their City Lord.
But before she went up, Xu Quanghua gave her a sword he had bought from the game mall before the merge.
This is because she did not get summoned with a weapon, which is not good as the Sentinel has a sword while she is left without one.
So when she got the sword, she thanked him with a smile as she prepared herself.
After a few minutes, she ensured she was ready before climbing up to the fighting ground, where the Sentinel awaited her challenge.