Chapter 331: City Expansion Order (2/2)

”The Elders Guild has issued a city expansion order: any family, group, or individual who registers with the Elders Guild will be permitted to build a city in the Wilderness. Since cities in the Wilderness do not have the typical elemental energy system in Avalon of Five Elements, the Elders Guild has decided to sell the blueprints for building all five types of elemental energy pool. As long as they can build their own elemental energy pool, each city will be able to operate independently. The cities constructed will belong to the settlers, themselves.”

”In addition, the mayor of the first city to build and operate elemental energy pools of all five elements will become the next Great Elder of Elders Guild.”

Jiang Wei finished the announcement in one breath.

Everyone instantly turned to look at Duanmu Huanghun.

His mouth was wide open in surprise.

”Wow, who would have thought that you’d have such foresight!” Shi Xueman exclaimed excitedly. ”Looks like you’ve been actively engaging in petty political discourses during these past three years!”

Duanmu Huanghun’s eyes almost rolled out of their sockets. Was this how you praise people?

Upon seeing Ai Hui’s awestruck face, however, Duanmu Huanghun felt much better. After suffering all that humiliation due to him, Duanmu Huanghun finally managed to amaze Ai Hui.

Ai Hui rubbed his chin pensively and muttered out loud, ”Looks like the Elders Guild is risking everything on this!”

Everyone nodded their heads spontaneously. Although the aristocratic families were powerful, they were still under the control of the Elders Guild. Now that the Elders Guild was allowing them to build their own cities, it meant that they would be able to set up their own independent regimes.

Furthermore, even the position of the next Great Elder was up for grabs. The Elders Guild actually had the drive to take such bold actions.

Duanmu Huanghun sneered. ”Drinking poison to quench the thirst. They won’t be able to take their power back once it’s been given away. If everyone has their own city, who is going to give a hoot about the Elders Guild? The Elders Guild has to consider the welfare of all elementalists, but the aristocratic families are more likely to only be concerned with themselves. Take the Shi family for example. All they need is a water elemental energy pool. By giving up their absolute control over elemental energy, the Elders Guild is giving up their power as well. Nonetheless, the Elders Guild doesn’t have any other choice. What they are trying to do is to subtly tell everyone that they no longer have the power to control everything and that everyone needs to find their own way forward.”

Wry smiles could be seen throughout the group. Duanmu Huanghun’s words were harsh, but they were the truth.

”The elemental energy in the Silver Mist Sea and Palette Cloud Village have dwindled significantly. If the lesser Avalon of Five Elements isn’t ready in a few more years, these two places will wither away. The Elders Guild is probably trying to divide these issues and take alternative steps to address each one.”

As he continued his speech, Duanmu Huanghun’s voice changed from one of contempt to one of helplessness. Compared to the prospering Blood of God, the Avalon of Five Elements was like the setting sun, destined to fade away.

Ai Hui shook his head defiantly. ”There can be no construction without destruction. We’ll just have to make a new path if the current one cannot be trod upon.”

Shi Xueman asked, ”What about us?”

All of the others, including Duanmu Huanghun, were looking expectantly at Ai Hui for an answer.

Ai Hui thought for a moment before replying, ”Everyone needs to find out more information first. The Bigtree Decree has just been announced, so things will take a while to happen. Developing a city in the Wilderness isn’t a simple task, so we’ll need to make preparations.”

All of them nodded their heads in response to Ai Hui’s reply and immediately got to work. They tapped into their different networks to get as much information as they could.

Ai Hui fell into deep thought.

Come to think of it, things were really as Huanghun said. The Elders Guild had run out of options. The destruction of the lesser Avalon of Five Elements left the Elders Guild in a bad state.

The Avalon of Five Elements was hanging by a thread.

The five elemental cyclical system was truly ingenious, but a single missing link would affect the entire cycle. In the short term, the wood, fire, and earth elementalists would be the ones giving the Elders Guild the greatest amount of pressure. However, if the cycle continued to be broken, then in the long run, even the strength of the metal and water elementalists would be lost.

The Silver Mist Sea had already begun to dry up.

The present Avalon of Five Elements was like a wounded person, weakening as the blood continued to pour out of his wounds. Was he going to wait for death or fight for life before his blood ran out?

The Elders Guild chose to fight, but could this plan really save the Avalon of Five Elements?

Nobody knew.

Something this big was not going to be so easily addressed by an individual. It was better to just focus on something more realistic.

Upon hearing about the decree, the aristocratic families and new citizens would both rush to develop the Wilderness. The benefits promised by the Elders Guild were sufficient to motivate everyone. Just the reward for being the first mayor to establish a five elemental city was already enough to spur the aristocratic families into overdrive.

It looked like there were wise men in the Elders Guild!

Wasn’t building a city that had all five elements operating pretty much the same as building the lesser Avalon of Five Elements?

Ai Hui now understood that the Elders Guild had turned the internal conflict into a public competition. Furthermore, the end goal was still the creation of the lesser Avalon of Five Elements.

Location was the key factor in building a five elemental city. The location had to contain extremely pure forms of all five elements that were in the right amounts and in the right places before they could be incorporated into a cycle.

Ai Hui was struck by a sudden flash of inspiration. Perhaps there was someone who knew about this.

The old prisoner!