The eighth year of Great Xia, the first day of September
The deep integration of the Nine Towns of Moao South Slope was not just superficial.
Interactions, marriages, alliances, and treaties certainly deepened the connections between the towns, but the core of their integration was trade.
With trade, the Nine Towns could exchange resources, ranging from precious cultivation resources, to armor and tools used for hunting, to various daily necessities. This flow of goods gave the townspeople more options, such as the southernmost Bashang people being able to wear the exclusive red gauze garnts from Muyin Town, while the northernmost Beishuo people could use the exclusive Dragon Carp Pill from Jiangxia Town, and so on;
Thanks to trade, the Nine Towns could learn from each other, from managent systems and position designs of the towns’ domains, to martial arts and hunting techniques, common issues and challenges in cultivation, down to so everyday life tips. The exchange of information driven by trade greatly facilitated life and cultivation for the towns’ people;
Because of trade, the Nine Towns could integrate resources, not only significantly boosting productivity but also occasionally bringing sothing new to light.
There are many examples of increased productivity, such as silk cloth:
Silk cloth is a specialty of Beishuo Town, with its main material being mulberry silk. Known for its soft and delicate texture, it offers windproof and thermal properties, making it one of the top clothing fabrics in the Nine Towns.
Mulberry silk cos from the white mulberry tree, which is common in Moao Mountain. However, each tree produces only three to five pounds of silk per year, and thirty pounds of silk yield rely one ter of silk cloth.
In the early days, when Beishuo Town had just developed silk cloth from mulberry silk, it sold for 50 taels of silver per ter. Considering that an adult’s clothing required at least two ters, the raw material alone was costly, let alone the finished clothes.
Back then, garnts made from silk cloth sold for at least 120 taels, and if crafted by a famous artisan, the price could easily increase by an additional 30 to 50 percent.
However, as trade routes opened between the Nine Towns, mulberry silk from the Eight Towns flooded into Beishuo. The production of silk cloth in Beishuo Town imdiately surged. Initially, Beishuo tried to keep this a secret to continue profiting from high silk cloth prices. But as the secret of mulberry silk being the raw material for silk cloth beca known to the other Eight Towns, who then raised the prices of mulberry silk, and as Wuchuan Town developed its own silk cloth production technique, Beishuo had no choice but to lower prices.
Now, the price of silk cloth has decreased to 5 taels of silver per ter, a tenfold decrease from before.
This price reduction ans more people can afford it. When it was 50 taels per ter, only those at the Cold Resistance Level could wear it. Now, with the tenfold price drop, even those at the Earth-digging Realm Limit, or even Earth-digging Realm, can wear it.
The hallmark of increased productivity isn’t just quantity, but also the ergence of new things after resource integration, with the most representative being the Tiger Power Pill from Jinshan Town.
People with peak Cold Resistance Level cultivation now have three choices for further advancent: the Tiger Power Pill, Dragon Carp Pill, and Green Cod Pill, but more than fifty years ago, there was only the Green Cod Pill from Bashang.
Sixty years ago, Xiahou Ming, father of Xiahou Zhang, risked his life to open a water area for Jiangxia Town. Thanks to that water area, Jiangxia Town successfully developed the Dragon Carp Pill, providing a new option for those at peak Cold Resistance Level in all Nine Towns.
The Tiger Power Pill from Jinshan Town is entirely a product of resource integration.
Jinshan Town developed a dan dicine for Cold Resistance Level cultivation called Tiger Yang Pill.
Twenty years ago, Dragon Valley Town discovered a spirit plant called Tiger Pattern Grass deep in Moao Mountain. After years of futile research, they eventually decided to sell it to the other Eight Towns for study.
After acquiring the Tiger Pattern Grass, Jinshan Town researched for a few years and unexpectedly developed the Tiger Power Pill formula.
Thus, those at peak Cold Resistance Level in the Nine Towns finally had a third option.
.........
"Official trade among the Nine Towns began over seventy years ago, a move that not only strengthened the towns but also enriched everyone’s material life and significantly elevated the average cultivation of the people.
It’s no exaggeration to say that the human civilization progress on the South Slope of Moao Mountain began to rapidly develop after the Nine Towns started trading. You young people have no idea how hard it was over seventy years ago.
Back then, the Nine Towns barely interacted. Any interaction usually ant war, with village-level camps being obliterated at any ti, and deceitful monsters frequently wreaking havoc, making human life miserable."
At night, on the Bluestone Road north of Hongn.
A team of about a hundred people pressed on with two large four-wheeled wagons, braving wind and snow to head south slowly.
Since the team was already within the Great Xia Town territory, the snow on the Bluestone Road wasn’t thick, evidence of regular clearing by nearby village-level camps.
Most of the people in the team were pushing or pulling the wagons, with only about a dozen decently dressed individuals leading the way. The elderly leader was narrating the trade story of the Nine Towns to a group of young people nearby.
The dozen or so people listening to the elder nodded slightly in agreent.
Only two youths in casual attire seed distracted, their eyes constantly fixed on the direction of Hongn to the south.
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