After the festivities, the developing nation regained its tranquility as the sun went down.
Late at night was taboo during the ancient period.
Evil spirits and demons especially like to act late at night. Therefore, finding a safe place to stay before sunset was the basic rule of survival in this wildland.
The not-so-large city seems asleep, with only a few lights flickering. Those were the lights from the textile mills, the royal palace, and a few essential workshops.
It was not that there was a shortage of oil to light up the whole city, it was because lights in the middle of the night were full of deadly temptation, and it could attract unknown dangers from the sky. These were the lessons that Yang Xu had learned with his blood and life.
Back at the palce.
It is said to be a royal palace, but it is actually a large mansion with a courtyard. The mansion is huge, covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters, in the Chinese garden style.
The front courtyard handles official business, the backyard serves as a residence, and the left and right courtyards have dozens of compartments where the servants and guards live.
The palace was made of wood. However, it was much more exquisite than ordinary wooden houses back in the streets. There were exquisite carvings of sweet flowers that looked like a trumpet on the doors and windows.
Sweet flowers were a specialty of the wildland. They were the size of a palm, pink in color, and shaped like a trumpet. They were sweet when chewed and could replenish one's energy, so people loved them.
The door and windows were filled with detailed and lifelike carvings of sweet flowers, symbolizing a sweet and healthy future.
The walls are also wooden, but the surface of the wood has been polished, so you can't see the slightest hairline. It is smooth as if it were a mirror. There are even exquisite empty windows on the wooden wall, which overlook the street outside the wall.
At this moment, in the Town Hall, two beauties from the Qing Qiu Fox Clan stood delicately by the council chamber door, waiting to listen to Yang Xu's orders. They have dressed in uniform moon-white high-cut slim short-sleeved cheongsam, slender legs as if carved out of jade, in the soft oil lamp seemed to reflect a layer of fluorescence, let people dazzling.
The two of them stood there elegantly, like models.
The maids of the royal palace were able to wear cheongsams thanks to those handy beauties of the fox clan.
Yang Xu only needed to tell them his thoughts and the general look and feel of the clothes, and they would be able to make the clothes that Yang Xu liked.
In addition to cheongsam, there were also all kinds of Han clothing, even western and Roman styles.
But in the end, Yang Xu chose the cheongsam, not because the improved modern version was the most beautiful, but because it used the least materials!
In this wilderness, fabric is a scarce resource. Although the country has a textile factory, it was limited as Yang Xu did not have much knowledge of textiles. Whether it is the Qin and Han style or the Sui and Tang style of Chinese clothing, they all require large amounts of fabric. Relatively speaking, women's cheongsam is the most cost-effective.
Of course, it was also very pleasing to the eye.
The only decoration in the town hall was the rectangular table in the center.
It was 2 meters long and 1.5 meters wide and made up of several tables.
On the table was a massive sandbox. The sandbox was highly detailed. In addition to geographical markings such as mountains and rivers, towns, and fortresses, models of various creatures indicated what species lived in this area.
This sandbox was the result of Yang Xu's efforts over the years.
With Great Xu nation as the center, the map of more than a hundred miles around was where Yang Xu had explored so far!
Yang Xu stood in front of the tray and looked at the beautiful tray with a serious expression.
The location of the Great Xu nation was very clever. It was located in a fertile valley.
A wide and rapid river came from the East, and when it passed through the mountain range, it changed its course to the North, forming a winding river channel that was a hundred miles long. It then turned to the West and entered the sea.
To the South was a towering and majestic mountain range that extended from the East to the West. It extended from the Far East to the Western coastline. It was like an indestructible giant shield that blocked most of the dangers from the South for Great Xu nation.
To the West was the vast ocean.
The valley where the Great Xu was located was an irregular square surrounded by mountains, rivers, and seas.
The core capital of the nation was located in the mountain stream at the edge of the mountain range, in the lower right corner of the square.
Steep cliffs and mountains surrounded the nation. The top was shrouded in clouds all year round, like a sinkhole.
The exit was located in the North. It was a narrow canyon, easy to defend and hard to attack.
"Your Majesty," An old voice came from outside the door.
Yang Xu looked up and saw an old fox with white hair and white beard walking in.
He had no flesh on his cheeks, and his face was cunning and fierce. His eyes were narrowed into slits as if he was taking a nap. His body was so thin that his ribs could be seen.
The old fox wore a white hooded robe, which looked like a Central Asian style. However, the sacred and solemn robe did not give him the solemness he should have. Instead, it looked funny and ridiculous.
He wore wooden clogs on his feet but landed silently, light as if a ghost.
Yang Xu frowned and looked confused when he saw who it was.
This old fox with white hair and a beard was called Qing Qiu Che. He is seemingly insignificant, but he is the high priest of Great Xu.
He had an ability that regular Qing Qiu foxes did not have, foresight!
That's right, just as the name suggested, he could predict the future.
Although it can't accurately predict events, it can predict good or bad luck.
If not for Qing Qiu Che's powerful prediction ability, Yang Xu would have died on the plains on the other side of the river many years ago. Because he believed in Qing Qiu Che's prediction, Yang Xu migrated to the river's safest paradise with his subjects.
However, because foreseeing required a lot of energy, Qing Qiu Che's body had always been weak.
He usually stayed in the courtyard near the palace to recuperate and rarely came out.
Although Qing Qiu Che's courtyard wasn't far from the palace, this was the first time he had come so late at night.
Yang Xu was concerned not only about Qing Qiu Che's health but also about the reason for his arrival. He asked concernedly, "Why are you here?"
"Did something happen?"
Qing Qiu Che limped to the sandbox and squinted his eyes.
A moment later, he stretched out his shriveled right hand, which looked like a chicken's claw, and pointed in the Northwest direction of Great Xu. He said cautiously, "I see a change in the Northwest, and it is unpredictable."
Yang Xu stared in the direction Qing Qiu Che was pointing at, deep in thought. A dense ancient forest a dozen miles wide in the Northwest of Great Xu. It was extremely dangerous.
But the most dangerous thing was still the giant beasts living in the forest's depths.
It had the body of a lion, eagle claws, bat wings on its back, and a body length of ten meters. Its scales were red and they acted like indestructible shields. Its feet were like the claws of an eagle, and they were extremely powerful. They could easily crush rocks.
Its speed was extremely fast, and it pounced down from the nine heavens. It was like an unstoppable meteor falling from the sky and extremely fierce.
Yang Xu named this giant beast the sphinx.
Yang Xu had paid a considerable price to deal with the sphinx, but he had only injured it and had not destroyed it. However, after that battle, the sphinx knew that Great Xu was not to be trifled with, so they no longer came in this direction to hunt.
The sphinx was one of the biggest threats to Yang Xu's unification of this valley.
"The sphinx spawn date should be happening very soon," Yang Xu said as he stared at the plate of sand.
"Could the threat come from the sphinx?"
Qing Qiu Che shook his head, "That's not the case. I saw an unknown danger coming from the sea."
Yang Xu was stunned.
From the sea?
His gaze passed through the territory of the sphinxes and arrived at the vast and boundless West Sea.
Across the sea, there was a large island less than twenty miles away, full of all kinds of poisonous snakes.
Therefore, Yang Xu named the island Snake Island.
Even for Yang Xu, the further the area, the more unknown it was.
He stared at the sandbox and remained silent.
The threat is coming from the West Ocean.
However, the poisonous snakes could never cross the ocean. Therefore the possibility of them being a threat was not high.
If it wasn't snake Island, could it be an unknown area?
Yang Xu's brows were tightly locked together, and he was quite worried.
It was not good news to face an unknown threat right after the establishment of the Great Xu nation.
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In the Northwest Sea area of the Great Xu nation.
The sun rises in the east, and the warm sunrise is cast onto the sea, broken piece by piece by the mischievous waves, turning the sea's surface into countless golden scales.
Lifeboats passed through the thick fog and floated on the calm and vast sea, drifting with the current.
They were the passengers and crew of Seidel.