Passing through the dilapidated city walls, the first sight was of crumbling streets.
Cracked stone bricks stretched forward until the eye could no longer reach.
The ground was littered with household waste discarded by the city's residents, and the putrid smell in the air made the three brothers frown.
The entire town, apart from the City Lord's Mansion in the center, had no high-rise buildings.
"Beiya, this place is really poor."
"Yes, it seems we three have a lot to do."
Lin Beiya nodded in agreement with Shi Nuo's point; the overall environment here gave him a sense of his previous life's Indian curry style, highlighting its dirtiness, disarray, and poor condition.
It's just that there weren't as many people bustling in the streets.
Clearly, even with the Heaven Dou Empire's relief, the people of Saliker Province still lived very frugally.
After walking for 10 minutes towards the town center, the group successfully arrived outside the City Lord's Mansion.
They had the Spirit Saint under Qian Renxue take the handover documents, approved by Xue Ye, to the current governor of Sarikel.
The imagined scene of the other party being unwilling to be removed from office did not occur.
The current governor not only warmly welcomed everyone, but his face also revealed ecstasy, as if finally being able to get rid of the mess that was Sarikel was an exciting thing for him.
"How should I address this gentleman? I am Augus."
The current City Lord extended his hand towards the Spirit Saint under Qian Renxue, his eyes unable to hide his pity.
He seemed unable to imagine that such an unlucky person would come to take over the mess of Sarikel; he had been here for nearly ten years, cautious every day, and had originally given up all hope of promotion.
Unexpectedly, the arrival of the group not only accepted Sarikel but also brought his transfer papers.
Although being transferred to a small town in the Heaven Dou western region as a town mayor was a demotion, he felt that his future was bright, finally able to leave this damned place. Augus wished he could sprout wings and fly away immediately to take up his new post.
Of course, the necessary formalities still had to be done.
The Spirit Saint also extended his hand and lightly shook the other's, then looked at Lin Beiya. Seeing that he had no objections, he replied:
"My name is Jiang Rui, and I am here by Your Majesty's command to take over all affairs of Sarikel."
"You can go to your other post after we complete the handover."
Seeing that the other party had no intention of keeping him lingering, Augus became even happier.
"Good, good! I will now tell Brother Jiang about the situation in Sarikel City."
"There are a total of 61 city guards, all stationed on the city walls in various directions to prevent Evil Soul Masters from invading."
"The City Lord's Mansion armory has over 500 sets of various weapons, which Brother Jiang can distribute as he sees fit."
"The accounts in the mansion still have 7,000 gold coins to maintain the payment of salaries for various positions."
"There's nothing else."
Augus was afraid that Jiang Rui would go back on his word and refuse to take over the affairs of Sarikel, so he had no thought of embezzlement at all, leaving all the money in the accounts intact.
Jiang Rui didn't express any opinions; after all, he didn't need to stay here.
He completed the handover work with Augus very straightforwardly.
With a look in the other's eyes as if he were seeing his reborn parents, he sent Augus out of the city gates of Sarikel City... Inside the City Lord's Mansion, Jiang Rui respectfully bowed to Lin Beiya.
"My Lord, do you need me to do anything else?"
"That's not necessary. You can take the army that escorted the supplies away in batches; they are not needed here."
"Yes, then I shall take my leave."
Having received Lin Beiya's approval, Jiang Rui slowly left the City Lord's Mansion and began to summon the army to depart.
Meanwhile, the three brothers began to settle the hundreds of construction craftsmen; at least their food, clothing, housing, and transportation needed to be arranged, and there was no rush to start construction immediately.
They also had to find nearby quarrying sites, otherwise, the craftsmen would be like clever housewives without rice to cook.
Fortunately, Lin Beiya had long since used Phantom Demon Emperor Fist to control many birds to scout the surrounding terrain, as well as the gathering places of Evil Soul Masters and criminals.
There were many natural stone mining areas nearby, but the three brothers only needed to ensure the safety of the mining personnel.
"Starting tomorrow, we will begin our operations."
"Our goal is to clear out all the evil elements in the surrounding area."
Shi Nuo and Ming Xin had serious expressions; they understood that the time had come to test the results of their half-year of cultivation, and both nodded, indicating their understanding.
The two had never fought alone against desperate criminals, so Lin Beiya was still somewhat worried.
"First, calmly assess whether there is a gap between your strength and the opponent's. If you encounter a large number of or a strong group of Evil Soul Masters, you can return first, and then the three of us will go together to resolve it."
"Don't worry, Beiya, I won't act rashly."
"Brother Beiya, I will also be careful."
The day after the craftsmen were settled, Lin Beiya and his two brothers each chose a side of Sarikel City and, led by the birds, set off to quell the unrest.
There was a reason why this place was so dilapidated and no merchant caravans were willing to come; in just a few days, the birds had discovered no less than hundreds of gathering places for Evil Soul Masters and criminals in the surrounding area.
As for why there were so many criminals but they didn't choose to occupy Sarikel City, Lin Beiya wasn't puzzled.
These people didn't engage in production at all; if Sarikel City remained, Xue Ye would have to continuously allocate funds to aid it.
If Sarikel were occupied, they would have no supplies to plunder.
These evil elements gathered in groups of as few as three to five, and as many as dozens.
Of course, there were also a very small number of Evil Soul Masters who preferred to act alone, but these people were generally very strong, and they decided to deal with them last.
Lin Beiya chose to search to the north. According to the birds' description, there was a criminal group of nearly a hundred people gathered there.
He decided to deal with this group first.
Flying thirty kilometers north, a building resembling a mountain stronghold came into view.
Lin Beiya spread his mental force to investigate for a moment and found that there were indeed many enemies here, and the aura of bloodlust was extremely strong, clearly indicating they were all ruthless killers.
"Hmph, being able to gather so many people means their strength is indeed not that great."
Lin Beiya had long thought that powerful Spirit Masters could not gather in large numbers, otherwise, resources would be completely insufficient for them to distribute.
In this Evil Soul Master group, apart from one Spirit Emperor, there were only two Spirit Ancestor-level powerhouses remaining; the rest were at most Spirit Elder level.
And that Spirit Emperor was clearly the leader of this group.
After a moment of thought, Lin Beiya decided to deal with that Spirit Emperor first.
Inside the mountain stronghold, these evil elements had already received information about a batch of troops transporting supplies into Sarikel City.
"Boss, the Heaven Dou Empire seems to have sent some new aid; we absolutely cannot miss out."
"Hmm, you're right. Tomorrow, we'll go and extort Augus, hahahaha!"
The gaunt man at the head spoke with extreme arrogance, completely disregarding Augus, who was also a Spirit Emperor. Of course, this was also because he didn't know that the other party had already left Saliker Province.
Just as a group of Evil Soul Masters in the main stronghold were fantasizing about making a fortune soon, a figure in golden armor slowly appeared in the center of the hall.
"Extort? I don't think you'll have that chance."