Game World: I Can Share Talents

Westheid could hold absolute dominion at the developer conference. Witches, noble madams, their daughters—even if all the maids in his mansion came at him at once—they were all complete pushovers, easily handled.

But every creature has its predator, and Westheid was now being completely dominated by Mivana.

It wasn’t that he was a poor fighter; Mivana would actually activate her [Cursed Source Blood] and enter a sort of berserk ravaging mode, leaving Westheid no room to fight back whatsoever.

He could only let the Wolf-eared Maiden give free rein to her Beastman instincts, marking what she liked with her bodily fluids.

Conversely, Mivana was more than happy to be marked by Westheid in return.

Of course, the Lady Knight euphemistically called these acts "training his willpower" and "challenging his weak spots."

What could Westheid do? Since he couldn’t resist, he could only submit.

It wasn’t that he had been taken so forcefully that he’d grown numb. The main reason was that these activities increased Mivana’s affection for him and raised her conquest meter.

During this time, [Heart and Soul’s Gift] had shared a few more Specialties with him, one after another. He even got something as nonsensical as [Wilderness Survival Specialization], but the most important one, [Cursed Source Blood], was not among them.

’Seriously, what’s with you being so multitalented? The things you’ve learned are way too random!’

There was nothing to be done. A "pure" share like the one from Reiya was a rare opportunity you couldn’t seek out. Most of the time, the sharing ability just randomly picked some bizarre things.

’I’ll just have to take it slow. As they say, persistence pays off. Even an iron rod can be ground down to a needle.’

It’s worth mentioning that when Mivana dragged Westheid into the woods, Reiya was already asleep. In the dead of night, only Luyetan was curious enough to come over and take a peek.

As a result, the peeping Yuanshi Lord was thoroughly shocked, her reaction no better than Shamuel’s.

This made Westheid feel like he had scored a point, so much so that when he saw Luyetan off the next morning, he did so with his head held high and his chest puffed out.

"In any case, Rozana will remain here with you for now. As for the Celestial Vault People... I will pass the intelligence on to them, but they aren’t easy to deal with. The most I can do is put in a few good words for you."

"The Celestial Vault People have always been swift and decisive. If this is truly effective, they will contact you immediately. If not, I’m afraid Qinghui Territory will be added to their blacklist."

Luyetan said this before boarding the Floating Battleship. However, her gaze shifted slightly, and she didn’t dare to meet Westheid’s eyes. A faint, rosy blush colored her pretty, snow-white cheeks.

’Heh. For all her posturing and provocative airs, she gets completely flustered when she sees the real thing.’

’Amateur.’

Westheid scoffed inwardly but smiled on the surface. "I’ll be looking forward to it, then."

After seeing off the delegation from Yuanxi Palace, it was time to officially begin the fervent reconstruction efforts. To this end, Westheid deliberately moved his personal residence from the Ying Riverbank to the Holy Land in Purity Forest.

Although rebuilding the entirety of Qinghui Territory was an arduous task, the small area from the Ying River to Purity Forest had already mostly recovered. This was especially true for Purity Forest itself; though it had been ravaged and riddled with wounds by the Chaos Hundred Forms, as long as the corruption was purified, the Holy Spirit could activate the Magic Pool to repair it, and the results were visible to the naked eye.

Therefore, Westheid planned to rebuild this area first. His residence next to the Holy Land would serve as his administrative center, and it was there that he promoted a group of the Purity People, led by Roy.

Those who had performed exceptionally in the battle of reconquest—whether they were front-line Warriors or logistics personnel, laborers or officials—were all granted an audience, promoted, and assigned to various parts of Qinghui Territory to carry out the reconstruction.

"Don’t be stingy with expenses. Request whatever materials you need, and I will do my best to fulfill those needs."

"Rebuild the infrastructure according to the standard template. Don’t worry about whether there are people to fill it yet; build it out on the framework of a major city first..."

"This will indeed create a manpower shortage, so we must continue to attract outsiders. In the Borderland, there is no shortage of unaffiliated people trying to make a living. We must also aggressively promote our immigration policies in the core provinces of the Imperial. We have plenty of land."

"..."

Westheid gave a long stream of instructions, but the core meaning was simple.

Engage in massive construction and welcome a large population. At first glance, he looked like a devout believer in the [Radiant Holy Tree], taking the "Prosperity Law" to its absolute extreme.

"My Lord... are you trying to build a Qinghui Territory even larger and more prosperous than before?"

Roy asked after listening to Westheid’s arrangements.

"This scale... it’s just too big. So big it’s unrealistic. Even if we recruited all the displaced people in the Borderland, it would be difficult to fill, wouldn’t it?"

Westheid said, "Don’t worry about the population. Just build according to this scale."

’Was he kidding? When the End of the Dharma Era arrives, there would be as many high-quality refugees as I could want. My only fear would be not having enough territory to settle them all.’

"As for the issue of technology, don’t worry about that either. I will negotiate with the Celestial Vault People later. Their advanced technology will be more than enough to support our construction."

However, Roy was still not reassured. He said worriedly:

"Less than a tenth of our Purity People remain; at most, we number one million. If we follow your plan, we’ll need a population of at least ten million. At that point, our people will likely no longer be the dominant group."

Luyetan had also brought this up. The clans of the Branch of Prosperity all had conservative leanings, quick to spout phrases like "despicable outsiders" or "if they are not of our kin, their hearts must be different."

Westheid was a man destined for great things, so naturally he wouldn’t be held back by narrow-minded nationalism. The problem, however, was that this was more than just an issue of nationalism... The reason a Divine Ancestor was called a Divine Ancestor was due to the influence of a Celestial God, either through a direct bloodline connection or a spiritual memetic contagion.

Obviously, as the Clan Leader of the Purity People, this mortal bearing the Blood of Qinghui was Westheid’s best foundation. If he were to grant any buffs to his subjects, only the Purity People could receive the full effect. Therefore, the more Purity People there were, the better.

"What do you think defines the Purity People?"

Westheid asked his advisors and administrators, stroking his chin.

"Bloodline? Or culture?"

"Well... both, I suppose."

Westheid continued, "If it’s culture, then we shall assimilate them. Even members of the Barbarian Race can become civilized. As the saying goes, ’Those from the outside who enter Qinghui become Qinghui People.’ Our traditional culture is deep enough, and our system of government is superior enough. Why worry that we cannot make outsiders willingly become Purity People?"

"Or do you believe that with its two thousand years of history, the Great Qinghui cannot even assimilate mere Naturalized People?"

Disappointed that they couldn’t see the bigger picture, Duke Qinghui slammed his hand on the table and rose to his feet.

"Blind exclusion only makes one look pathetic and insecure! True strength is demonstrated through absolute tolerance and openness."

"Qinghui People, you must be confident!"

Hearing this, Yolanda shot him a surprised, sidelong glance.

’Wait, since when does Qinghui Territory have two thousand years of history? Even if you count from the moment the Clan was founded, it’s been seventeen hundred years at most, right?’

"Round up, and it’s two thousand years."

Westheid knew his sister too well; he could guess what she was thinking just from her expression. He said nonchalantly:

"Don’t ask. If you ask again, I’ll start counting from when Purity Forest was formed, and then we’ll have five thousand years of history."

"As for bloodline... haven’t we already seen results?"

Roy’s eyes lit up in sudden realization. "Do you mean the New Path you created? But doesn’t that transformation only deepen the bloodline concentration of the Purity People? Could it be that even outsiders who aren’t Purity People can..."

The prowess of the Qinghui Knights was plain for all to see, but everyone else had assumed it was an enhancement exclusive to the Purity People.

’So it can be used on people of other clans, too? How is that any different from a forbidden experiment?!’

"Shhh—we can’t have you saying such things."

Westheid raised his index finger and said:

"Don’t go spreading rumors about things that don’t exist yet. I don’t have the ability to do that... at least, not right now."