In the end, Cole chose to end his speech quickly not because he was afraid of the cost of the operation but because he felt that his speech is extremely amateur!
Cole immediately cut it so to stop on embarrassing himself.
And the moment he finish his speech, the system immediately sound inside his head.
[You have completed the Mission : Name the Faction.]
[You have receive the following rewards;]
[Undying Faith Phoenix Divine Parasol Guardian Nation Flag x1]
[Beast God Shrine x1]
Unlike the first series of reward he received, he only acquire two of them this time. However, Cole won't say that it was inferior to four divine artifacts;
Undying Faith Phoenix Divine Parasol Guardian Nation Flag [True-Rank]
Affinity : Faith, Fate
Potential : ∅
Abilities : Human Faith Artifact, Undying Faith Phoenix Descend, Divine Protector Parasol Tree Guardian, Fateful Warrior, Golden Merit Providence Wisp, Undying Devotion Kingdom, Duplicate Flag Creation, Martial Spirit Human Inheritance, Prosperous Human Imperial Land
The first one is the familiar flag the same as earth. It was rectangular and is attached to wooden pole.
The flag were created with unknown but extremely valuable material. A parasol tree, the home of phoenix, were depicted on the middle of the flag. It was massive that covers a vast land under its shade. On the top were a depiction of divine phoenix, its wings were fully spread, encompassing the whole land. Its phoenic tail were like a ribbon in the sky.
No one could deny that the flag were beautiful and even Cole like it very much.
But aside from its appearance, its value lies on its ability.
The flag were like a growth-type weapon, like the one he gave to his contracted beast. But this one only needs the faith energy.
Faith is an special energy produced by strong emotion of every creation. Religions was usually created by the sole purpose of amassing this certain energy.
In this case, this flag were also capable of absorbing faith.
But setting aside its unusual ability to gather faith as its main source of energy, its capability is as wondrous as its existence is.
First of all, the faith flag were capable of summoning a two avatar-a undying phoenix that is responsible for offense and the parasol tree that could grow and cover the whole land under the nations rule. Both the phoenix and parasol tree were capable of producing a powerful attack depending on the faith energy it gathers. This means that as long as it didn't erupt and for a long time, the banner could produce an attack comparable to Great Saint. This ability is without a doubt a good trump card.
Secondly, the faith artifact itself also have ability and affinity that regards to mysterious Fate. Both Divination and Fortune were under the category of Fate but the ability of the flag didn't fall under the said two path. Instead, it could control Fate to some extent to produce a talented and full of potential human.
Talent and potential is extremely important aspect of cultivators since it could indicate the upper and lower limit of their future cultivation. Cole don't have the idea the extent of this ability but it'll be more than enough if it could produce a Emperor-Rank talent.
Emperor-Rank talent is equivalent to Emperor-Rank Beast and it was more than enough to become a overlord figure in Azure Territory.
It also has the ability to boost and increase luck. This was also a extremely powerful ability and only become inferior with Lucky's presence.
The flag also has the ability to turn a faithful soul into spirit. The spirit will be absorb in the flag and will be nourished with spiritual energy and faith energy, and will be transformed into undying soldier. And if there's someone suitable, the undying soldier will even become martial spirit, giving all the knowledge and inheritance of the soul.
The flag is undoubtedly powerful but it'll shine even more as time pass by and his faction grew in number.
After learning the general ability of the flag, Cole then set his eyes on the second one;
Beast God Shrine [True-Rank]
Affinity : Faith, Space, Soul
Potential : ∅
Ability : Fated Beast Summoning, Seal of Loyalty, Contract of Equality
[Introduction : A shrine and a gift of Beast God of unknown world to its believer.]
Unlike the Undying Faith Phoenix Divine Parasol Guardian Nation Flag, this Beast God Shrine only have three abilities, its information were relatively shorter.
However, to say that it was inferior is not true. Its abilities is as significant and important as the flag. At the least, this shrine would solve the issue of his subordinates' companion beast.
After reading the descriptions of the rewards he just receive, Cole nodded his head in satisfaction. He temporarily forgot his short, unskilled, structureless speech. It was like he received compensation for the embarrassing thing he just did.
With faint smile, Cole enter the [Inner World] and brought out the two items he just acquire.
But suddenly...
...
While Cole were feeling satisfied, the supposedly always quite night become active and restless.
The commoners immediately gather and talk on their own. They were puzzled, confused and according to their common sense, they shouldn't believe what they just heard. However, all the action of the new city lord are all beneficial to commoners; they can't help but think that all the word they just heard were true. In the end, eventhough they don't admit it themselves, they were starting to get hopeful-expecting for the promised better future.
The impact of Cole's short speech were massive and the one that got impacted the most were cultivator family.
That was because majority of their business usually suppression the commoners...
It is to be expected that they'll be greatly impacted if the city lord truly protect the interest of all commoners.
The cultivators family immediately call their leaders and proceed with abrupt meeting.
Usually, a city contains a balance force. Although the city lord of the city is the leader, he can't just disregard the interest of the cultivation family in the city since they also hold important force and resources the city needs. Most of the time, the city lord were just like the former fatty-sitting on the highest position but don't do anything impactful for everyone.
And definitely no one try to prioritize the interest of commoners who don't have significant contribution in the city than them cultivation family.
Cole's, or city lord's action for the past few weeks show his stance.
No officer of the city mansion visit their home like those with commoners-though there was a high chance that they'd deny their permission and chase the officers-and they weren't given a food supply relief.
At first, they didn't care about the so called food supply relief. They thought that it was just the move of the city lord to help the commoners from starvation due to increase of prices of staple food. However, it didn't even take a week before everyone show some signs of improvement like smoother skin, glossy hair and vigorous body.
Several hundreds of people showing signs of improvement won't have any impact but what if almost every commoners show them?
After short and simple investigation, according to the word of the commoners, the changes could only be attributed to one thing-the foods distributed by the city mansion.
After acquiring some of the distributed supply through buying and forcing, every cultivation family learn the truth...
The whole food supply distributed by the city lord were all spiritual crops!
It was the kind of food that was supposedly to be eaten for them but they can't due to scarcity of it supply but lowly commoners were actually enjoying the luxury they didn't think of enjoying even in their dream!
Upon learning the fact, all of the cultivation family have their eyes turn red due to greed.
But in the end, no one makes a move. The ice that can even froze a Core Formation stage cultivator is something that they greatly dreaded.
However, they won't be able to sit still when a fact that commoners ate a divine food but they were eating scraps. Their eyes turn more redder when they seeing the improvement brought by the spiritual food.
Unfortunately, they can't use any underhanded method in the open. Without a choice, they could only 'buy' them from the commoners.
But just a days after, when the officers distributes food supplies again, those that sell what they receive, either willing or forced, didn't receive anything.
When they ask the officers, what they heard is generally like this, "The city lord distribute food supply to help the commoners that got affected at the changes that happen when he take control of the city. Since you sold your part, it only means that you didn't need any help."
After that, no sane commoner sell the supply they receive. After all, although they didn't know what it was, they could see and feel the sudden improvement of their overall state. Adding to the fact that powerful family were 'desperately' buying the supplies, they finally learn, or guess, the reason why.
There were some that got blinded by high price the family offers and discreetly sell food supply but they were still found out and didn't receive part the next distribution.
By the fourth week, literally no one try to sell the food they receive.
This time, the family were holding a meeting to talk about their future action. Some propose to leave the city and relocate somewhere else but this wasn't an easy thing to do. This action paramount to relocating a deep-rooted tree into somewhere else. They have to fight for territory and resources with the local snakes.
Usually... Family migration will only be use when family face possible extermination.
Although the city lord is giving them troubles, it wasn't to the level that they were being suppressed to the limits, not giving them the chance to live. Instead, they could feel and see what the city lord want to happen and why they were being troubled.
The city lord... definitely want them to submit.
Not submit to the point that they have to prostate but submit to follow rules and the likes. For instance, they shouldn't have increased the prices of basic commodities that'll greatly affect the commoners and the economy of the city as a whole.
There were three prominent family in Towering Tree City. The Carmelo Family, the Lim Family and Canlaan Family.
All of them occupy different resource point near the Towering Tree City but it wasn't enough. The profit they acquire is not enough to support cultivation which is why the three family also dab in trading.
The Carmelo Family and Canlaan Family holds 80% of the staple food market. Most of the farmers were under their control in which they control their products and production through different schemes. Agricultural products produced by farmers immediately fall under their hands.
Lim Family, on the other hand, control the entire market of products that the city don't have the ability to produce which is mainly salt and luxury products like sugar.
The Carmelo Family and Canlaan Family concludes the same decision.
"All of the business of our family in the city will return all the prices back to normal. Do not make any action that'll angry the city lord. Instead, we'll try to reach out with him and talk about possible cooperation."
No matter what, the city lord especially announce his sovereignty and autonomy of Towering Tree City and the area near it.
If they were powerful enough, they don't need to immediately reach out cooperation since it'll put them on unfavorable position.
Unfortunately, not only the background of the city lord is still a mystery which further amplify his strangeness, he also have someone in command that could freeze and kill a Core Formation super expert in a second. It was a force that they can't contend at all, much less defeat.
As the saying goes, 'If you can't defeat them, join them'.
Besides, in this world, it wasn't just the commoners that vanish overnight for no apparent reason. Cultivators, even a whole clan of them could vanish overnight and no one will care about them. Instead of investigating the reason of their demise, the others won't care about wiped out force but try to take a share of the pie that is the resources of the killed powerhouse or faction.
The city lord can even take a piece of territory from Heavenly Flame Empire and it was enough testimony of how powerful the new city lord is.
On the other hand, the Lim Family were just a branch family. They can't make its own decision and have to wait for instructions.