Huo Yuhao walked into the highest-level office of the Passionate Headquarters amidst the eager gazes of countless Passionate members.
Currently, Huo Yuhao was still using Huo Qiqiang's alias.
Only a few of his "hangers" in the Sea of Spirit and that little red-clothed planet spirit knew his true appearance.
No one knew that the young man before them was only eleven years old; people only knew that this man was the uncrowned king of Xilu City.
Huo Yuhao sat in his office, casually flipping through the various documents submitted by the Passionate cadres.
These documents covered all aspects of Xilu City's taxation, education, economy, and agriculture.
Xilu City was definitely not a small city; if all the cities in the Heavenly Soul Empire were ranked by GDP, Xilu City would definitely be in the top ten!
Because it was adjacent to the Star Dou Great Forest, the soul beast resources alone were enough to make them overflow with wealth every year.
Not only that, through these documents, Huo Yuhao realized that Xilu City was also an important granary of the Heavenly Dou Plain!
Huo Yuhao immediately became excited; as an older generation of Earthlings, he was truly terrified of hunger!
When the Wandering Project was launched, a large number of engineers were needed to maintain the planetary engines!
Huo Yuhao was among the first batch of repair personnel to go to the planetary engine outpost.
The outside temperature was minus eighty degrees Celsius! In the Douluo Continent, even the coldest core area of the far north was only minus seventy degrees Celsius.
No crops could survive at such temperatures; only the underground city on Earth preserved a small amount of experimental crop fields.
The genetically modified plants in these experimental fields carried the promise of ecological recovery after Earth returned to warmer temperatures!
The food in the underground city was mostly chemically synthesized; it didn't taste good, but it was enough to sustain life.
Previously, some had proposed building nuclear fusion agriculture, such as vertical farms.
However, this was ultimately rejected. Chemical synthesis was sufficient to sustain the food supply for all of humanity; there was no need to waste precious energy on gluttony.
Every ounce of energy had to be used precisely for the operation of the underground city and the planetary engines.
Huo Yuhao vaguely remembered that the outpost where he stayed only had a small amount of nutritional paste each month.
Occasionally, they could get dried earthworms from the transport trucks, and even then, a bunch of people had to gather together and thoroughly gut them!
Among that group, Huo Yuhao's good friend Wang Dong was the youngest, having just come of age.
His parents had also died in the lunar crisis, reportedly killed by a meteorite, their deaths extremely gruesome, their bodies never found intact. He himself had lost his memory.
Even the name Wang Dong was given to him by the kind director when he and Huo Yuhao were sent to the Hefei No. 1 Underground City Orphanage.
So everyone often saved the best strawberry-flavored dried earthworms for him, while they all munched on the plain dried earthworms, which were jokingly called "poop-flavored."
At those times, everyone would gather to reminisce about Earth's past, that sun-drenched era.
And once a group of people got together, a few "idea kings" would always come up with ideas to start the conversation.
One such idea king once spoke eloquently about what Earth's once most fertile black soil was like.
He rattled off various data, even claiming that his family in the underground city still possessed some black soil.
His father had brought it from the surface to the underground city during the Golden Age, and it was said to be a family heirloom, to be passed down through generations.
Huo Yuhao flipped through the documents related to agriculture in Xilu City, and nearly exploded with shock upon seeing them.
The black soil that was considered a family heirloom in his previous life was the least valuable land here, the lowest grade of arable land.
Vast tracts of black soil around Xilu City were left uncultivated and abandoned, because there was simply no need to cultivate this wasteland.
Yes, the document used the term "wasteland."
Huo Yuhao was certain his Chinese comprehension was sound.
The reason Xilu City could serve as the granary of the Tiandou Plain was because it possessed an even more exceptional type of land—Emerald Soil!
Emerald Soil was a completely emerald green soil, brimming with vitality!
No one knew the exact mechanism of its formation, but everyone knew it was regenerative.
Even if a patch of Emerald Soil was hollowed out, it could be replaced with new soil within a month.
However, once Emerald Soil left the Xilu City area, its vitality would continuously diminish, turning it into ordinary black soil.
Furthermore, the effects of Emerald Soil were explosively powerful. If the Earth's government had seen this in his previous life, they would likely have seized it at all costs.
Emerald Soil had only one function—ripening.
A ripening function so powerful it would have driven agronomists in his previous life to despair.
Any crop that didn't involve soul power would mature in Emerald Soil within a month, with extremely high yields per acre.
Normal rice would mature in Emerald Soil in half a month, regardless of season or weather.
As long as it's planted and protected from being eaten by insect-like spirit beasts, it can yield 1000 kilograms of rice per mu in half a month.
What does that mean? In his previous life, this would have caused the whole world to fight tooth and nail.
Xilu City has 500,000 mu of such land, and there are also nearly 6 million mu of black soil.
Huo Yuhao couldn't understand this, because the next document was about famine.
This really overheated Huo Yuhao's brain.
"What the hell?"
"Rice ripens every half month, yields 1000 kilograms per mu, and there are 500,000 mu of this stuff."
"And famine?"
"Hiss, how can these words form a sentence?"
"How did this famine arise?"
"Eating one portion of this grain and throwing away one portion could feed the entire Tiandou Plain!"
"The entire population of the Tiandou Plain is barely 20 million!"
"I have to sit up and read this!"
Huo Yuhao shook his head and focused intently on the report about famine.
His powerful mental strength allowed him to read the extremely thick document in just one minute.
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After reading it, Huo Yuhao couldn't help but smile.
It was a perfect illustration of an old man on the subway with his phone.
The Green Land was almost entirely controlled by nobles, and farmers could only rely on them to cultivate the land.
This was actually quite in line with the social background of Douluo Continent.
However, these nobles in Xilu City were a bit too anthropomorphic!
They collected 80% of the land tax from the farmers!
There were also a bunch of outrageous taxes, besides the previously mentioned rainwater tax and walking tax, there were life taxes, meeting taxes, and other absurd taxes.
These taxes meant that even though Xilu City possessed the Green Land, a divine agricultural resource, there were still many starving people!
Huo Yuhao's hand gripping the document was bulging with veins!
He hadn't expected humans to be this wicked! His
powerful mental energy created a tense atmosphere throughout the Passion Headquarters!
All the Passion members dared not even breathe!
Realizing their boss was angry,
several Passion cadres rushed to the office door, but no one dared to go in.
They all waited with their heads down.
Huo Yuhao rubbed his temples and withdrew his mental energy.
A cold voice addressed the doorway:
"Zhang Heng, come in!"
"Everyone else, leave!"
Zhang Heng, whose name was called, was a middle-aged man with a square face, tall stature, and a spirit spirit of the Wind Chaser Falcon, a level 53 Soul King.
Because of his reliable work ethic and his willingness to join Huo Yuhao's team, he was made a trusted cadre.
"Boss, please give your orders!"
Zhang Heng bowed impeccably.
"I've reviewed the famine situation." "
How's the situation with the Green Soil and Black Soil in Xilu City?"
Zhang Heng raised his head, meticulously replying, "Boss, everything is under control."
"Those nobles didn't take their land deeds with them when they fled."
"Even if they did, it doesn't matter; no one will recognize the land deeds of evil spirit masters!"
"We've already labeled those fleeing nobles as evil spirit masters and reported the list to Shrek Academy."
"According to the cadres stationed in Shrek City, Shrek Academy has already sent inner court disciples to eliminate them."
"We don't need to lift a finger after that."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao sat up straight; he truly hadn't expected Shrek Academy to employ such tactics.
"They have no suspicions?"
Zhang Heng said confidently. "Boss, don't worry, it's not the first time."
"Previous city lords used this method to eliminate many enemies."
"Shrek doesn't care whether the other party is actually an evil soul master."
"As long as they're on the evil soul master list, that's enough."
"And the key to getting on the evil soul master list is how well the report is written!"
"As long as our report is well-written, with rich arguments, a complete structure, and beautiful language, plus a little bit of insignificant evidence, making Shrek think it makes sense,"
"they'll be on the evil soul master list!
And we have the best talent in this area!"
"This trick always works!"
"I guess the Heavenly Soul Empire has already received this list, and no one will protect them."
Huo Yuhao nodded thoughtfully and said,
"Well done, Shrek is quite useful!"
"Go and tell Kong Yang to release some grain to relieve the starving people."
"Then abolish all those damn taxes!"
"Let these farmers return to the land."
"I don't want starving people in my city. "
"Don't play word games with me! Drive the starving people away!" "
Taxes will be collected according to the Heavenly Soul Empire's laws. Anyone who dares to increase taxes arbitrarily will be thrown into a vat of boiling oil!"
Huo Yuhao activated his spiritual eyes, his powerful mental energy locking onto Zhang Heng, sending chills down his spine.
He knew all too well his boss's methods. As a Soul Master who had voluntarily surrendered, he hadn't been branded with a mental mark.
But for those cadres who had been branded, any act of defiance would be a fate worse than death.
He didn't want another mental mark on his head.
"Yes, Boss!"
Huo Yuhao nodded, withdrew his mental energy, and took out a Wind God Fruit from his storage Soul Guidance Device, playing with it in his hand.
Zhang Heng's Martial Soul was immediately activated; he recognized it at a glance as a rare wind-attribute fruit—the Wind God Fruit.
He involuntarily swallowed, a natural instinct of his bloodline!
Huo Yuhao looked at him and said, "The matter of the starving people is your responsibility."
"If you do a great job, this Wind God Fruit is your reward." Zhang
Heng suppressed the elation in his eyes, bowed deeply to Huo Yuhao, and said,
"Boss! I will definitely complete the mission!"
Then, at Huo Yuhao's signal, he left the office, and almost immediately after leaving the headquarters, he activated his Martial Soul and flew straight to the City Lord's Mansion.
(End of Chapter)
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