All Heavenly destiny reduced to ashes
Chapter 611 - 212 Heavenly Sword Mountain Range Matters

Chapter 611: Chapter 212 Heavenly Sword Mountain Range Matters

Heavenly Sword Mountain Master, hereditary succession.

These eight characters, once spoken, can be said to represent the highest rank just below the Town King in the official aristocratic system of Da Chen.

In the hierarchy of Da Chen, the levels are fairly straightforward. The lowest rank who can receive the Granting Talisman is a City Lord, followed by Prefecture Government officials who manage all the cities within a province, next are the Dao Supervisors who oversee all the Prefecture Governments within a circuit, and then the Town Kings and their direct subordinates who manage all the administrative circuits within a domain.

The Town Kings are utterly loyal to the Imperial Court, fully devoted to the owner of the Mysterious Heavenly Palace, the Emperor Xuantian of Da Chen.

If there’s a domain without a Town King’s jurisdiction, it directly falls under Shenjing’s Imperial Administration, which operates a different system of governance from the local ones.

Furthermore, all Divine Repository level officials, or the "Large City and Prefecture" level Wenwu officials, must leave a trace of their Divine Sense in Shenjing. When needed, they are summoned by the Imperial Court to report on their duties, ensuring the Imperial Court maintains control over all officials within their jurisdiction.

This multitier management, though seemingly meticulous, is actually quite lenient. The Imperial Court is only responsible for assigning tasks and collecting taxes. They need to ensure peace and prosperity within the territory, and gather sufficient Dragon Qi. How to accomplish these tasks, maintain prosperity while collecting taxes, and ensure a steady supply of Dragon Qi are concerns for the local officials and Town Kings.

Hence, especially in areas like the Northern Border and Southern Border, one can often see autonomous villages and cities. The managers within these cities and villages are not necessarily Da Chen officials, but are martial families. They represent the ’martial nobility’ of the Da Chen dynasty, many of whom are Martial Artists who settled and founded towns and villages after serving in the Martial Army.

An Jing’s ancestor, founder of the An Family from Gufeng County, could be called ’a martial nobleman managing An Family Village’. He possessed Martial Meridian strength, capable of defending a region, only needing to regularly pay taxes to the Prefecture Government of Xuanque State. As long as the Earth Vein Node was stable, all matters could be managed independently.

Of course, the strength of the ancestors was only of an ’unexpected Martial Meridian’ level, hardly comparable to today’s An Jing, and lacked hereditary succession.

Following the death of An Jing’s ancestor, as Gufeng County and its surrounding towns developed further, the prefectural government began taking over management. Sir An An Qianshan also had to participate in the civil service examination to hold a minor official position locally. However, the An Family’s influence in Gufeng County and surrounding areas remained, thus An Jing’s childhood was relatively stable; he could practice martial arts and study, leading a rather comfortable life.

This treatment was already exceptionally good, going further up would mean ’master of a city, inheriting through several generations’, which is generally the highest treatment the Da Chen government provides to ’outsiders’ who are Martial Artists.

However, the treatment proposed by the Virtuous King was entirely different.

Changing Broken Blade Mountain to Heavenly Sword Mountain was natural. ’Broken Blade’ was merely a descriptive term; now that the world knows that fragments of the Heavenly Sword are buried here, it certainly should revert to its original name.

Next, the Virtuous King decreed throughout heaven and earth, appointing An Jing as the Heavenly Sword Mountain Master, governing the surrounding three cities and seventeen towns, with hereditary succession... This was almost akin to a minor kingship!

In Dingzhou, where the entire Heavenly Sword Mountain Range is located, there are thirty-six large cities and two hundred fifty-three small cities. Thus the three cities and seventeen towns around the Heavenly Sword Mountain Range don’t seem many, but those were historically part of the ’Broken Blade Mountain Range’. Now, with the Heavenly Sword Mountain Range receiving feedback from Heaven’s Will, possessing a strong Earth Vein, Blessed Lands, and Spirit Lands, holding core resources, it is destined to become the central hub of this state.

With An Jing governing this territory, this is tantamount to saying that An Jing has become almost half an actual Provincial Governor in the practical sense!

Even purchasing a horse’s bones for a thousand gold is understated; even with ten thousand reasons, it is generous. An Jing was somewhat baffled as to why the Virtuous King would be so magnanimous.

The Virtuous King’s thoughts were simple: he hardly had many subordinates to manage the region anyway and if left untouched, it would certainly be slowly encroached upon by other forces.

Thus, it would be better to directly hand it over to An Jing.

These thoughts remained private within their minds, and on the surface, both the Virtuous King and An Jing maintained extremely solemn and serious expressions. The proclamation by the Virtuous King echoed far and wide, amplified by the Emperor’s Blood Divine Power, even reaching across the entire state domain, truly representing the ’Heavenly Sound’.

In the surrounding villages and towns, all the old residents of Linjiang City were stunned for a moment, then burst into cheers.

"Mountain Master An!"

They all had served under An Jing and knew well what kind of person he was. Not to mention, their hometown transformed from an unremarkable city into a Spiritual Vein Blessed Land due to Heaven’s Will feedback. Although Linjiang City was half-destroyed, their past accumulations might have all been consumed by the fire but this only allowed the new Subdue Evil City to have more room for expansion.

They were not fearful of the future. An Jing had proven his righteousness and responsibility with his sword multiple times. He was a hero in everyone’s eyes, his actions devoid of cruelty and absurdity. Even though An Jing acquired more vast powers and freedom than a general city lord, they believed he wouldn’t act recklessly, and they too could enjoy peace under his command.

This was an unspoken, undeniable ’trust’, simply derived from observing An Jing’s actions.

And on the other side, the situation was a bit awkward.

This included the group of Iron Li captives guarded by Hang Mofeng around Linjiang City.

These captives, mostly devoid of any ideas to rebel or escape, could hardly be said to be cooperative, mostly just listlessly consuming food in the camp, clueless about what to do, simply living day by day.

Some captives were killed by the residual effects during the Heavenly Demon battle, but most were still alive, aimlessly unsure whether they should seize this unmanaged opportunity to return to Iron Li, or simply stay local... the former option meant many would die on the journey, and for the latter, they didn’t know how to start.