Chapter 356: Jingtan Temple (2/2)

There was a knocking on the door and Zhou Bao's fingertips twitched. The door opened suddenly, to reveal a maidservant, who was dressed in the palace costume. She walked towards him, bearing a wooden tray.

”Your Highness, you didn't have lunch. Her Highness is afraid that you will be hungry. She asked me to bring you this meal!” The maid looked timidly into Zhou Bao's eyes.

She was one of the maids who was part of Yan Yunfei's dowry. Since Yan Yunfei was one of the most distinguished princesses of the Great Jin, naturally, her wedding regulation level was extremely high. There were hundreds of maids included in the dowry. On the wedding day, even Zhou Bao was stunned at the sight of so many people. How was he going to feed them all?

Fortunately, Zhou Bao had amassed a huge fortune already. He had settled the Cool Breeze Gang and the prairie tribe. Anyuan Store was also on the right track, and he had plenty of money and goods. Besides, for this arranged marriage, Yan Yuntian had granted a lot of properties in order to win over this new expert, so Zhou Bao was very well-off. Although money talked, many hardware conditions could not keep up.

Wuyang Region used to be a wasteland. Although there had been a slight improvement, it was almost impossible to bring over so many people from Great Jin to Wuyang Region as there was not enough accommodation for all of them. Hence, Zhou Bao let Yan Yunfei select twenty capable servants to come along with them. The little maid in front of him was one of them.

The people brought by Yan Yunfei had all born in the palace and were generally arrogant. However, when they were in front of Zhou Bao, who had almost taken down Mingyi School, everyone only felt fear in their hearts. Zhou Bao treated them very cordially and was not as vicious as what he was reputed to be. However, he was already notorious for being fierce, so all the little maids and eunuchs were very timid around him. Zhou Bao could not do anything about this.

”Just put it down!” Looking at the timid little maid, Zhou Bao gestured to her to put the food down. ”Well, is there anything else?”

”Heyang Princess is here,” little maid said nervously ”and she is chatting with Her Highness!”

Yan Yunyan, Princess Heyang!

Zhou Bao frowned gently and a flicker of disdain briefly crossed his face. With his current strength and spiritual mind, there was nothing that could be concealed from him. He had met Yan Yunyan before. Naturally, he could easily identify the person who appeared in his mansion was Yan Yunyan, Princess Heyang. He had a bad feeling about Yan Yunyan, but Yan Yunfei, who was a charming princess, had married him and had been brought to such a desolate place. Frankly speaking, he was not good at getting along with a woman. As she was alone here and was only surrounded by maids and servants, she had very few opportunities to have a heart-to-heart talk with anyone. Even if Yan Yunyan, Princess Heyang harbored some bad intentions, her arrival could divert Yan Yunfei from boredom. Therefore, Zhou Bao did not bother too much. In fact, he did not want to meet Yan Yunyan at all.

Therefore, he just nodded his head and said, ”Princess Heyang is here! That's fine!” After that, there was silence. The little maid stood there as if in a daze, not knowing what else to say.

”Well, is there anything else?” As the little maid remained standing there, Zhou Bao frowned and wondered whether Yan Yunyan was looking for him as well

”Her Highness sent me to tell Your Highness that she would go to Jingtan Temple to pray with Princess Heyang tomorrow morning!”

”To pray at Jingtan Temple?” Zhou Bao raised his eyebrows. He had heard of Jingtan Temple which was built by Wuyang Region's refugees at the foot of Jilei Mountain.

Zhou Bao's Wuyang Region was a desolate and cold place in the northwest. Originally there were no inhabitants at all. It was because Kelsang was acquainted with many persons and he called for some exiled shepherds to inhabit that desolate prairie. The population was initially extremely small. However, with Zhou Bao's growing strength and reputation, more roads leading to Wuyang Region had been constructed. And the scale of Anyuan Store was increasingly becoming larger. Wuyang Region's population had increased by leaps and bounds. By now, there were up to 10,000 people.

If it had not Anyuan Store, which was engaged in human trafficking into Wuyang Region be it openly or covertly, the government would have arrested them already. However, when they heard that it was Anyuan Store, the officials around the country all turned a blind eye to it. They even made it easier for Anyuan Store to go about their transactions. Therefore, there were lots of people in Wuyang Region.

In addition to the first town, there were a growing number of villages around the area. Most of these people had brought in by the traffickers. The population was made up of all kinds of people such as bandits, criminals, abductees, and kidnappers. Anyway, these people were part of the unfortunate bunch in the Central Plains and could not survive there. With the help of Anyuan Store, they all rushed to the Wuyang Region.

When they arrived at Wuyang Region, Zhou Bao treated them equally and without discrimination. But there was no advantage to be there. Wuyang Region was desolate and cold. In the beginning, the conditions were hard. But thanks to the huge financial support from Anyuan Store and Jiang Xiao, a competent person, no one died of hunger or cold in the first winter. They manage to survive through the winter. Once Zhou Bao opened the passageway to Blacktail Plain, Wuyang Region had become one of the most prosperous places in the northwest and the most important transportation route to all parts of the northwest. The trading business was gradually flourishing. The surrounding prairie had been cultivated, and the whole territory had become very vibrant.

If this had happened in other places, it might have made Wuyang the target of attacks by people who coveted the place. However, because it was Zhou Bao's territory, no one dared to make any trouble.

Although there was no external threats, there were many matters to attend to with the ever increasing number of people in the territory. In terms of security, due to Zhu Ba's style of keeping law and order, much like a vicious god, no one dared to run wild. However, with the increasing stability of life, they tended to look for more things to fill their lives. Somehow, religion became popular. And among the thousands of people, there were different types of religions and a great number of persons believed in the Sect of Flame. For this matter, Jiang Xiao had brought it to Zhou Bao's attention. But Zhou Bao did not bother about it and said to let it go because he believed in freedom of worship.

Jiang Xiao also knew that once Wuyang Region was run by Zhou Bao, himself a great God, no one would create big problems. Therefore, as long as these devotees of Buddha did not run wild, they did not bother about them. It was this attitude of indulgence that led to the massive growth of some of the religious forces. One of these was Jingtan Temple.

How the monks and devotees managed to buy land to build a temple, Zhou Bao did not really care. But to his surprise, even his wife was planning to visit Jingtan Temple to pray.