Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

"Are you selling the Spirit Stone?"

"What!?"

Before she could finish speaking, Xu Yang interrupted her succinctly. Zhang Yan was taken aback, then regained her senses, looking at him uncertainly: "What do you need the Spirit Stone for?"

"Of course it's useful!"

Xu Yang's expression remained unchanged, cutting straight to the point: "So, are you selling or not?"

"This..."

Zhang Yan showed a troubled expression: "I promised the student council, the Spirit Stone is only for trading with them. If they find out I sold it to you..."

Xu Yang's expression remained unchanged, and he was even more direct: "How much more do I need to add?"

"It's not about the money."

Zhang Yan shook her head, glanced in the direction where everyone was leaving, and then spoke to Xu Yang: "I can increase the mining, sell you a bit, but not too much. Otherwise, the student council will definitely pursue it, and you don't need to add money. I just hope you can sell me the Jin Country horse farm."

"Jin Country horse farm?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Fearing that Xu Yang might refuse, Zhang Yan hurriedly explained: "Although Song State Civilization can train cavalry, and even has special cavalry like the Heavy Iron Cavalry, there are no horse farms in Song's buildings. Training cavalry requires a lot of extra funding, so I need this Jin Country horse farm."

The urgency could be heard in her voice.

This war, although they had achieved a great victory, the cost had been extremely high, especially for her as the lord. The troops of Song State she had expensively trained lost more than half, and the city's defenses were severely destroyed by the opponent's catapults—now only seven of the twenty towers remained.

This made her realize that although defending the city was good, it wasn't enough. There must be a cavalry force capable of field battles as a countermeasure; otherwise, facing an opponent skilled in building siege weapons, a few or even dozens of siege machines bombarding them would leave her nothing but passively taking hits.

Though that might be the case, a field force, especially a heavy cavalry unit such as this, was Song State Civilization's weak point. Even she, who was quite wealthy, couldn't afford the extra cost of training cavalry, which is why she aimed for the Jin Country horse farm.

To this, Xu Yang also was straightforward: "It's settled then!"

He agreed very eagerly.

He couldn't help but be eager; Yellow Turban Civilization not only lacked troops like "archers", but he didn't even have "cavalry".

Thus, the Jin Country horse farm wasn't very significant to him—just a strong economic structure.

But Spirit Stones were different...

"That high?"

Looking at the price Zhang Yan quoted for Spirit Stones, Xu Yang was somewhat surprised.

Zhang Yan smiled, slightly smug: "That's how high the price of Spirit Stones is. I'm giving you the internal price of the student council; if we took it to the trading house, the price could even be one or two points higher."

"Alright then!"

Xu Yang shook his head: "Let's skip the middlemen who make a margin. These weapons, equipment, hero captives, do you want them? I want to exchange them all for Spirit Stones!"

"Yes, of course, I want them!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yan's eyes lit up.

As a legit charm-style lord with the "Trade" special effect of the Song State Civilization, trading was also one of her income sources.

After all, she possessed the "Charming Beauty" talent, gaining extra charm attributes and skills upon leveling up: oratory, trading, and captives management being her main focus.

Xu Yang was wholesaling these weapons, equipment, and hero captives to her in exchange for Spirit Stones. She could then sell these goods in the Tower of Heaven, making a tidy profit back and forth, offsetting the losses from this war.

How could she possibly refuse?

Hearing this, Xu Yang was also straightforward. Apart from a few sets of equipment reserved for heroes, he sold all other spoils of war, including the hero contracts (captives) of several Jin Country generals to her.

That was still not enough; Xu Yang then took out the Ten Thousand Arrows Military Book he had previously acquired: "Do you want this too?"

"Military book?"

"Ten Thousand?"

"An epic level legion skill?"

Zhang Yan's eyes brightened even more, ecstatically nodding: "Yes, yes, yes, how much?"

Xu Yang looked at her, skeptical: "Do you have that many Spirit Stones right now?"

"This..."

Zhang Yan hesitated, then came to her senses, looking at Xu Yang small: "How about we do it in installments? I ensure to supply you first. It won't take many installments to complete, and additionally, from this battle, I also obtained a few Rare Level Conquest Orders, nearly no risk of territory falls, allowing full-force mining."

"And the student council..."

"I will find an excuse to handle it, don't worry!"

"Alright then!"

"..."

Thus, the two quickly finalized the transaction of the Spirit Stones. Xu Yang sold most of the spoils of war to Zhang Yan in exchange for an installment agreement of Spirit Stones.

In this way, the only things left from Xu Yang's battle spoils were the Tiger Talisman, Supply Car, an Epic Hero Contract, Jin Country's Blacksmith Shop, the Refined Iron-Backed Bow, and a few sets of Iron Cavalry and Escort Army's weapons.

Good things, indeed, do not have to be numerous. Having taken the hundred Spirit Stones handed over by Zhang Yan, Xu Yang turned towards the city wall, ready to lead his soldiers back to his territory.

But unexpectedly, just as he reached the city wall, he saw a freckled-faced young man portraying melancholy amidst the bloody and burnt stench of the cold wind.

"Yang, I wish you and the Squad Leader happiness..."

"Go get treated if you're sick; is there nothing else in your mind besides love and affection?"

Before he could finish, he was interrupted. The lovesick young man stood there dumbfounded as Xu Yang shook his head helplessly, without trying further to persuade him, and walked straight towards his soldiers.

Out of thirty Yellow Turban Foot Soldiers, only nine remained. This was the result of Xu Yang deliberately protecting them from being on the frontline.

It couldn't be helped, the Yellow Turban troops were just that weak!

However, as Civilization Units, they also possessed a special Rank.

Xu Yang waved his hand grandly, turned the remaining Yellow Turban Foot Soldiers into cards, and then returned to the Sky-reaching Tower, transitioning back to his Territory World to upgrade them.

In this way...

Yellow Turban Foot Soldiers

Troop Order: First-Order (Heroic)

Troop Attributes: 18 Physical Strength, 5 Intelligence, 3 Charm.

Troop type skills: Yellow Turban

Troop Skills: First-Order Strong Body LV5, First-Order Strong Strike LV5, First-Order Combat LV5, First-Order Shield Defense LV5, Mastery of One-handed Weapon

Troop Equipment: Yellow Turban Iron Helmet, Yellow Turban Iron Armor, Yellow Turban Vine Shield, Yellow Turban Ring Head Knife.

Troop Description: Yellow Turban Heroic, the courage of the volunteer army!

...

The Physical Strength was raised to eighteen points, and Combat Skills along with weapons equipment were also enhanced, but overall still pitifully weak, not the absolute worst among the special Rank Civilization Units, but still third-rate.

So here lies a problem!

As a civilization, if the Yellow Turban troops are so weak, having only Sword and Shield Soldiers and Spear Soldiers as basic troop types, lacking archers and cavalry, and not even having many civilization structures apart from the core Yellow Turban Camp and a Yellow Turban Training Ground (Military Camp), what about the other regular buildings like taverns, city walls, Arrow Towers, or even logging yards and Blacksmith Shops, which are common to all in the Tower of Heaven?

Look at the likes of Jin Country, with guards of the Escort Army, Iron Cavalry, and horse races along with Blacksmith Shops as their civilization Buildings, the gap is more than just slight.

So, is the Yellow Turban Civilization at the bottom in the ranking of First-Order Civilizations, discarded far behind by stronger civilizations like Jin Country?

Wrong!

The Yellow Turban Civilization is not only not at the bottom, but it is also a top presence among First-Order Civilizations, standing even above strong civilizations like Song and Jin.

Because...

Taiping Temple

Building Type: First-Order (Civilization Wonders)

Building Civilization: Yellow Turban (Taiping Taoism)

Building Special Effects: Yellow Heaven Must Be Established (can train civilization's special troops, Yellow Turban Warriors, and Taiping Magicians, automatically obtain a certain number of Yellow Turban Warriors and Taiping Magicians each month, and produce a certain number of Yellow Turban Talismans)

Construction Requirements: Number of Yellow Turban Army reaches 10,000, 20,000 units of Wood, 5,000 units of Stone, 2,000 units of Iron Ingots, 500 units of Spirit Stones.

Building Description: The blue sky has perished, Yellow Heaven must be established, in the year jiazi, it's a great fortune for the world. The Great Virtuous Master Zhang Jiao obtained three volumes of the Taiping Heavenly Book and established the Taiping Taoism with divine methods. Taiping Temple is its symbol, the birthplace of the Yellow Turbans, and it's said to be protected by the divine power of Taiping Yellow Heaven.

Special Note: This building is a Civilization Wonder of the Yellow Turban, once the construction starts, small "Han Dynasty" troops will appear in your territory to cause destruction, and after completion, a large Han Dynasty army will come to subjugate it. From then on, Han Dynasty forces will attack your territory every month, and all Han Dynasty territories can launch conquests against yours, with successful conquests yielding significant rewards.

...

The Taiping Temple, a Civilization Wonder, is also what allows the Yellow Turban Civilization to defy the odds and stand above strong civilizations such as Song and Jin, becoming a top First-Order Civilization.

Do you realize the significance of a Magician's weight in gold?

Yellow Turban Warriors, Taiping Magicians, they are both "Magic" troop types!

What about archers and cavalry, what about heavy and light equipment, in front of Magic Type Soldiers, they hardly measure up, this is the cumulative experience of the Tower of Heaven Lord over millions of years.

So the strength of the Yellow Turbans is undoubted.

But it's this wonder's construction cost...