“Those who leave will no longer be considered residents of Qingguang City and will not be allowed to settle here again.”
“Those who stay—ordinary mortals for ten years, cultivators for fifty years—may not leave Qingguang City without my permission.”
After making these final additions, Ye Qingxuan withdrew his gaze.
Before his city was established, he would need these people in the short term, so naturally he wouldn’t allow them to leave the city easily.
Once his city developed, whether these people stayed or left would no longer matter.
Hearing Ye Qingxuan’s words, a clamor immediately rose in the city.
Although the ordinary residents of Qingguang City hesitated, not a single one chose to leave.
They had no cultivation. Even if they left Qingguang City, they had no way to find another stable place to settle.
Besides, Ye Qingxuan had just saved their lives, so he didn’t exactly fill them with fear.
So basically all of Qingguang City’s residents chose to stay.
The rogue cultivators in Qingguang City, however, fell into a dilemma.
A strange expert had suddenly appeared and taken over Qingguang City, leaving the current situation unclear.
On top of that, these rogue cultivators had never had any long-term fixed residence to begin with.
So most of them didn’t have much attachment to Qingguang City.
Most of the rogue cultivators chose to leave, while a small number chose to stay.
Because of the question of staying or leaving, a very few cultivators even got into arguments:
“Old Li, are you and your wife really not coming with us? You’re staying in Qingguang City?”
Old Li glanced at his pregnant wife beside him, a trace of tenderness flashing through his eyes.
Turning his head, he looked at his group of friends before him and said firmly:
“Old Wang, stop trying to persuade me. I’ve already made up my mind to stay.”
Old Li’s name was Li Yuan, and Old Wang’s name was Wang Xing—both were Foundation Establishment cultivators.
The two of them, along with several other friends, had come to Qingguang City decades ago to make a living.
Among them, Li Yuan had found his life partner in Qingguang City over a decade ago—Mu Qingqing.
So Li Yuan still had some attachment to Qingguang City.
On top of that, his wife Mu Qingqing was now pregnant and shouldn’t be making long journeys.
Even if they left Qingguang City, they might not find a better place to settle.
In Li Yuan’s view, Ye Qingxuan, who had saved Qingguang City, had impressive cultivation, and staying in Qingguang City under Ye Qingxuan’s command might be a good choice.
A large city with a Nascent Soul ancestor overseeing it wasn’t somewhere you could just enter at will.
For a cultivator to settle in such a large city, just renting a cave dwelling required paying expensive spirit stones every year.
Although most cities in the Eastern Extreme Region were mixed settlements of cultivators and mortals, there were clear distinctions.
The areas where mortals lived didn’t have abundant spiritual energy.
The cave dwellings where cultivators lived, on the other hand, were connected to nodes opened along spirit veins.
The cost of living in each was naturally different.
Right now, Qingguang City had few cultivators. Staying here might even earn some benefits for his unborn child.
So, considering all these factors, Li Yuan decided to stay in Qingguang City and not leave.
Seeing how resolute Li Yuan was, Wang Xing stopped trying to persuade him and sighed:
“Ah, alright then! Take care of yourself. We’ll be going now.”
With that, Wang Xing and the other friends quickly left Qingguang City.
Watching his friends depart, Li Yuan simply gently held his wife in his arms and said nothing.
Soon, the rogue cultivators had all made their decisions.
Those willing to stay in Qingguang City numbered less than twenty percent of the original.
As for Qingguang City’s several hundred guard squad cultivators, they looked at each other, none making a private decision.
In the end, they all turned their gazes toward Zhou Qingguang, Black Wind, Qingyu, and Xueyu.
Feeling the guards’ gazes, Zhou Qingguang was also caught in indecision.
He wanted to leave Qingguang City, yet his heart was reluctant to let go.
But if he didn’t leave, he would be living under someone else’s roof from now on, without freedom.
Moreover, Zhou Qingguang also worried that if he left with most of the guard squad members, Ye Qingxuan might suddenly strike them down.
Just as Zhou Qingguang was hesitating, Ye Qingxuan suddenly spoke:
“How should I address you?”
Hearing Ye Qingxuan suddenly speak, Zhou Qingguang immediately snapped back to attention and said nervously:
“Junior Zhou Qingguang!”
Ye Qingxuan nodded:
“Do you have a detailed map of Xingluo Prefecture?”
Although he had taken over Qingguang City, Ye Qingxuan didn’t plan to use it as his base to establish himself in the Eastern Extreme Region.
Beneath Qingguang City there was only a fourth-tier spirit vein, which wasn’t enough to satisfy Ye Qingxuan.
So Ye Qingxuan intended to choose a new location and build a new city from scratch.
Choosing the location was of utmost importance. Naturally, Ye Qingxuan wouldn’t be foolish enough to run all over the world searching blindly like a headless fly.
If he could obtain a detailed map of Xingluo Prefecture, it would undoubtedly save Ye Qingxuan a great deal of time.
“Senior, this junior only has an incomplete, rough map of Xingluo Prefecture—not a detailed one.”
Although Zhou Qingguang didn’t know what Ye Qingxuan wanted the map for, he honestly took out a map and handed it to Ye Qingxuan.
Ye Qingxuan took the map and looked it over, his brow furrowing slightly.
This map was indeed very rough, recording only one-third of Xingluo Prefecture’s territory.
And the terrain was extremely simplified—apart from over a hundred large cities or famous mountain ranges, other places weren’t marked in detail.
Glancing at Zhou Qingguang, Ye Qingxuan asked again:
“Do you know where a detailed map of Xingluo Prefecture is sold?”
Hearing this, Zhou Qingguang thought for a moment and then replied:
“Qingli City has one. Qingli City is the prefectural city of Qingli Prefecture, where we’re located. The Treasure Pavilion there sells detailed maps of Xingluo Prefecture—it’s just that the price is rather steep!”
“Qingli City?”
Ye Qingxuan lowered his head and located Qingli City on the map, then unconsciously asked:
“Is there a teleportation array from Qingguang City to Qingli City?”
“No.”
Zhou Qingguang shook his head somewhat awkwardly.
Because he was unwilling to submit to other major factions, no major faction was willing to build a teleportation array for Qingguang City or connect one to it.
At present, Qingguang City didn’t have a single teleportation array connecting to any outside city.
Xingluo Prefecture did have five neutral major cities with Nascent Soul cultivators overseeing them, open to all factions.
As long as one was willing, once the population of one’s controlled city reached over a million, one could connect a teleportation array to these five top-tier cities at any time.
But building a long-distance teleportation array required at least a fifth-tier array master to set up.
Zhou Qingguang didn’t have that kind of spare money to set up a long-distance teleportation array.
Hearing Zhou Qingguang’s answer, Ye Qingxuan wasn’t disappointed.
Checking the distance to Qingli City, Ye Qingxuan dropped a sixth-tier puppet in the center of Qingguang City, left a trace of his divine sense, and announced in a loud voice:
“Three days from now, I will return. Those who wish to leave should make haste in these three days.”
He, Ye Qingxuan, had his own pride.
He would never force anyone unwilling to join him.
Once the city he built developed, Ye Qingxuan believed that those who left today would regret it sooner or later.
With that, Ye Qingxuan left Qingguang City directly, heading toward Qingli City.
