Chapter Ninety-Six: The Capital

As Zhou Tian had expected, once he let word out about his recruitment and the待遇 he was offering the troops, the church where he lived was immediately surrounded by a great crowd of people who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

To serve as a soldier in a border town was indeed dangerous, but no matter how dangerous it might be, it could never compare with the peril of being a mercenary. In the Monster Forest, there was no doubt that the most dangerous profession of all was that of the mercenary. And even so, with the exception of a small number of them, most mercenaries could not even earn a single gold coin a month. From this alone, one could see how great an attraction Zhou Tian’s terms of service held for the people of the border town.

What troubled Zhou Tian now was no longer whether he could recruit enough soldiers. His present concern was how, with so many people gathered outside, he could possibly pick out those who were truly suitable.

After carefully drawing up several plans and making all the preparations, Zhou Tian first had the applicants taken to an open space. Only then did he finally make his slow, unhurried way over.

Without saying a word, he sat upon the high platform and let the soldiers below make their noise for a while. Then, all at once, he pointed out nearly ninety percent of the crowd and said, “You, you, you... and you. You may all go back now.”

“Why?” someone demanded.

“Yes! We came here to serve as soldiers as a courtesy to you, and now you’re just kicking us back out like this. What do you take us for? If you don’t give us an explanation, then I’m sitting right here and not leaving.”

“That’s right. An explanation. You have to give us an explanation!”

“...”

“Too noisy.” After enduring their uproar for a while, Zhou Tian grew fed up. He directly ordered the venomous snakes to bite to death the few who were shouting the loudest, and only then did he cast a cold gaze over the crowd below and say, “From today on, remember one thing: in this border town, I am the absolute ruler. You need only obey my orders. An explanation? Why should I explain myself to you? I’ll say this one last time: everyone I have pointed out, leave immediately. I do not wish to be forced to kill again.”

At his words, a collective swallowing sound rose from below. After fearfully glancing at Zhou Tian once, those people no longer dared to say another word. They silently memorized his face with awe, and then, without further ado, departed in groups.

Only after every one of the rejected applicants had left did Zhou Tian look down at the remaining people and say, “Very good. I had already been watching you before I came over. You are the few who gathered here without making a commotion. Though you are still far from the standard I require for soldiers, you have at least earned yourselves an admission ticket.”

Having said that, and seeing that the soldiers below did not react much, Zhou Tian nodded in satisfaction and went on, “A soldier is but a single piece in the machinery of an army. In your minds, it is enough that you know obedience. When you can carry out orders instantly and without question, then you will have the qualifications to join my army. Over the next month, I will send people to train you. I hope you can endure to the end.”

With that, Zhou Tian turned and prepared to leave.

But just as he had taken only a few steps back, he seemed to think of something and suddenly turned around again. “Right, I nearly forgot to tell you: soldiers in my army are graded as well. I won’t go into the details of how the ranks are divided, but if you can rise in rank, then every time you advance a level, your pay will increase tenfold.”

Most of those who had come to enlist had done so for different reasons, but the majority had ultimately been drawn by the salary Zhou Tian offered. Now that they heard his monthly pay of one gold coin could still rise even further, longing inevitably appeared in their eyes.

Seeing their reaction, Zhou Tian could not help but reveal a faint smile of success. After giving the soldiers one last glance, he turned and truly left without looking back.

When he returned to his study, Zhou Tian discovered that Vivian was actually sitting in his chair. The moment she saw him enter, she hurriedly rose and, like a dutiful wife, took his coat and hung it up before offering him a cup of tea and asking, “Has everything been settled?”

“Mm, more or less.” Though Vivian’s behavior struck him as somewhat strange, Zhou Tian still answered honestly, nodding. “I’ve already selected a group of people and they’re undergoing training. For now, I’ll have them drilled in discipline. Once I have complete control over them, I can begin building an army that truly belongs to us.”

“Why not just recruit people at random? Why make things so troublesome?”

“What’s troublesome about it?” Zhou Tian glanced at her and spoke frankly of his thoughts. “With our abilities, raising an army is indeed easy. But don’t forget who we are. No matter how well the Yanhuang Empire may promise to treat us, if the number of troops under our control becomes too great, I’m afraid their attitude will change sooner or later.”

“Besides, we don’t need to defend any territory. What would we need so many troops for? Soldiers are meant to be elite, not numerous. Rather than raise a huge band of ordinary troops that we can’t even use, I would rather spend that salary on a truly elite force. I want to build an army composed entirely of professionals!”

“You’re mad. How could that possibly be done?” Vivian shook her head in disbelief and flatly rejected Zhou Tian’s idea.

It was not that no one had ever accomplished such a thing. In truth, most empires and churches possessed one or several trump cards of this very kind. But the reason those powers had managed it was their immense influence and vast wealth. For Zhou Tian alone to try to assemble a corps that even some kingdoms could not establish successfully—naturally, Vivian did not think highly of such a plan at all.

Zhou Tian paid no heed to her doubt. After giving her a casual glance, he did not continue on that topic, but instead changed the subject and asked, “Have you finished everything I asked you to prepare?”

“It was a small matter.” After answering him lightly, Vivian looked at Zhou Tian with curiosity and asked, “Why did you ask me to notify those nobles that you have all kinds of alchemical products here? Do you want to sell them?”

“That’s right.”

“You really intend to do that?”

“Why not?” Seeing Vivian’s incredulous expression, Zhou Tian could only shrug helplessly. “Isn’t that what all alchemists do? With one’s personal wealth, how many experiments can one afford? If we want the materials and research funds we need, isn’t it perfectly natural to sell our own alchemical products?”

“But... but you’re not an ordinary alchemist. You’re the bishop of our Church of Light.”

“And what’s the problem?” Zhou Tian shot her an irritated look and asked in return, “Even if I am the bishop of the Church of Light, how does that conflict with my selling my own alchemical products?”

“That may be true, but...” Vivian could hardly tell Zhou Tian that the pope had once told her that, if possible, it would be best not to let outsiders get their hands on Zhou Tian’s alchemical products. So after stammering for a long while, she still could not think of a suitable reason to stop him.

Zhou Tian ignored her. Though he did not know exactly what Vivian was thinking, he could guess roughly why she wanted to dissuade him. He regarded the church far less seriously than she did, and so of course he would not sacrifice his own interests for the sake of the church. As if he did not understand her intentions at all, Zhou Tian simply acted as though, no matter what she said, he would remain firm in his present decision.

After a period of silence between them, Zhou Tian found the atmosphere rather stifling and, wanting to break the deadlock, asked, “Anything else?”

“Oh, right.” As though suddenly remembering something, Vivian gave a small exclamation and asked, “There is one matter I need your opinion on. Since this border town has already been placed under your name, it can no longer continue to be called just like all the other border towns. So we thought we should give it a proper name. As the lord, the choice should be yours.”

“Snake Village?”

“What a terrible name. No!”

“Dragon City?”

“Do you want those dragons to destroy this place?”

“Then how about Beast Village?”

“What sort of ghostly names are you coming up with? Be serious!”

“If this won’t do and that won’t do, then what name do you want me to choose so you’ll be satisfied? Why don’t you decide among yourselves? I’m not very good at naming things in the first place!” Rejected again and again by Vivian, Zhou Tian found his face growing somewhat heated. Looking at her with clear displeasure, he simply threw the task back to them.

“No!” Vivian immediately refused his attempt to dodge responsibility, then chastised him, “You are the leader of this border town. How can you be so irresponsible as to dump even something like naming onto us? No, think carefully again and come up with a better name. You are the lord, so the name can only be given by you.”

Seeing that he could not wriggle out of it, Zhou Tian had no choice but to nod helplessly. In the end, he could only begin, as Vivian wished, to think up a name for his border town.

“As my base of operations, if I can develop it in the future, then this city will become the core of my entire power. Since that is so...” Thinking that he was not very good at naming things anyway, Zhou Tian slapped the table and decided, “Let’s call it Capital City.”

“Capital City?” To Vivian, the name Zhou Tian had chosen was unquestionably strange, so after hearing it she looked at him and asked, “Does that name have some special meaning?”

Naturally, Zhou Tian could not tell her that Capital City meant imperial capital. If she truly understood the meaning of the name, then even if she did not turn against him, she would certainly never agree to it.

So when Vivian asked the meaning of the name, after a brief pause Zhou Tian could only lie. “The first part sounds like the word for gold, doesn’t it? So Capital City means Golden City. I chose that name simply because I hope wealth will pour into our hands in the future. There’s nothing else behind it.”

“Vulgar.” After hearing his explanation, Vivian muttered a complaint, but in the end she did not object further to his decision. Perhaps in her heart, the name Zhou Tian had chosen was not especially good, but at the very least it was still better than the ones before it.

And so, under Zhou Tian’s formidable talent for naming, although everyone apart from Zhou Tian was dissatisfied with the name he had chosen, when they recalled the other names he had come up with, each and every one of them could only accept his decision with resignation, and the border town where they lived was officially renamed Capital City.