Shixuan was about to say something when Ji Li looked at them "Your territory indeed. How will you take responsibility for having an eunuch attacked in the territory of both your lords? Eight Talent Refining Stage wild boars attacking us, charging like there is no tomorrow!
The empire might allow hunting as a source of life! This is mere entertainment for two sons that have not even awakened their talent, why should they go out, see their guards hunting them? This is beyond bold! Not only are you being careless when hunting and letting them charge at innocent bystanders, you even fault us for crossing territories?
No forest, no jungle, no swamp, no mountain or even a hill is owned by anyone inside the empire! It is under the control of the emerald spirit tree, a gift of life to us! A noble is only allowed direct control in their city, since when have the dukes of this region forgotten this? They are even neglecting to teach their children properly!"
Ji Li looked at them with cold anger – in his previous world, the nature wasn't honoured at all. He was someone who enjoyed it beyond measure to take a walk and take a break from the disgusting smell of the city. If he had gotten any proper inheritance from his family, he wouldn't be living right in the middle of the city, just to be closer to his work!
When he learned of the rules in the empire, he was beyond happy with it. No natural scenery was owned directly by anyone – they might be in the territory of someone, that allowed them to harvest resources and do similar things, they could even build houses in them, as long as they didn't disrupt the scenery too much.
Still, in the end, ownership lay with the empire, and they had no direct rule over it. Any adventurer was allowed to venture the sceneries, hunt and strengthen themselves. But for the simple 'enjoyment' of seeing people chase and murder beasts' way below their league? This was spitting on the gift of nature, and Ji Li loathed exactly such behaviour.
It came close to the poaching in his past world, but even the poaches wouldn't do it out of joy, except some extreme cases, they mostly did it for rare resources. Naturally that was also wrong, but murder just for the sake of joy was behaviour that strictly went against the empire's agenda.
The reason it was so strong in the first place wasn't only because it had so many higher stage experts – no, it was because every citizen was from their birth taught how to behave properly, every genius treasured and every average one living their lives to the fullest. The empire cared for all their citizen – it has seen what bad management brought to the world.
The mechanic federation and merchant republic were two of the worst cases in this. They had their focus entirely on their highest personnel, everyone less was treated as a slave of sorts, their live partly worse than the true slaves of the Bandit Junta or the cannon fodder of the Warmonger Tribes. The united strength of the empire that was split into so many categories made them what they are today – if it was came to single strength of any country, they were by far the strongest.
The Bandit Junta would come after them, the Beastkin Alliance would come third. Of course, if one talked about true and long-lasting alliances, then the Beastkin and Merfolk alliance was able to rival the empire and tie with it… maybe they would be stronger in offense. Even then, the empire's defence was something that would be the hardest to penetrate – their whole country blessed by the emerald spirit had several measures that ensures they would be the last country to lose territory, not to mention a case where they would be conquered.
Looking awkward, the young lords didn't know how to reply, while the guard had sweat running on his back, he tried to apologize again "Esteemed eunuch, it is our fault- "
Before he could finish, he was once again stopped by Shixuan "It is your fault and acknowledging it only after being accused is the same as not doing so. Leave and don't enter the forests for the next month. You will hear about a complaint from the Eunuch Palace."
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The guard became even paler and tried to say something, when earth below him suddenly shot up and made him somewhat lose balance, he was quick to stabilise when another piece of earth shot up and pushed him down into a piece of damp earth, dirtying his armour.
With a look from Ji Li, Shixuan took down the fortress and revealed the carriage and the horses which were somewhat restless. Ji Li took out a few seeds from his robe and let them bloom. A fresh and sharp smell came from the small flowers till they grew up fully and froze. With small ice-spikes covering the flower, it looked surprisingly soft.
They were peppermint flowers, common flowers that had a strong yet calming smell. Although they were common plants, with Ji Li's ability, he was able to push the plant to be temporarily a stage five Essence Allure, equivalent to a low Essence Awakening one. It was only as long as he poured essence in it, but a part of his Talent entailed giving common flowers his cultivation stage minus one minor stage.
Of course, that also meant that he could only influence plants that are equivalent to one minor stage below his cultivation. If he poured a lot of essence and time in it, he could go beyond that to those that are even higher than him – of course such situations were rarer, and even if he had a higher essence field due to his wood element, it didn't mean he could constantly pour enough essence into plants to keep their strength.
But at least he knew one of the goals of his for the Talent Refining Stage – he would make it so that he could strengthen plants stronger than him just as easy as he could do with those weaker than him. After all, the Talent Refining Stage wasn't where he would awaken his Talent, as he had done so already, no, anyone that awakened their Talent prior would use this chance to strengthen their foundation and enhance their Talent.
Ji Li signalled for the guards to get on their horses now that they had calmed down. Then, he went to each individual boar and pulled the Dahlia flower out of them. This were naturally Essence Allure's and had only been strengthened temporarily by Ji Li. The Dahlia flowers true worth lays in being able to absorb blood to build a foundation for their other natural ability – creating illusions.
The harvested flowers could be used as main ingredients for several craftsmanship like alchemy, blacksmithing… and formations! He would give them all Shixuan so he can experiment with them and have fun. Plants such as the peppermint would do nothing if they weren't constantly supplied with specifically Ji Li's essence, they would just disperse the energy than have any use for any craftsmanship or even direct consumption.
Ji Li also pulled away the wood essence from the vines and pushed them into each boar respectively to heal them. This ensured they recovered from their loss, although they would be weakened from all the blood loss, the Dahlia was still only a rank five Essence Allure in the end, nowhere near enough to consume the origin of Talent Refining boars.
Using a special spatial treasure, he got from his Mentor and the absent Tian Xuan, for his promotion, he was able to store living organisms, like the Dahlia Fowers, in it. That was not possible with basic spatial treasures, although his robe would probably eventually also get that ability as he moved up the ranks.
The guards of the duke were still around them and the young lords had not moved away either, so Ji Li just waved them away "Disperse! Do not enter the forest for the next month, I have no intention of visiting either of your duchies."
Ji Li played with the thought of commanding them to make a proper road, but that would somewhat disturb the forest, and if it wasn't for the duchy chasing the boars towards the road, nothing of the sort would have happened. It would be the individual's fault if they suffered when going off-road, naturally Ji Li knew the risk beforehand, and clearly, he was able to handle it with his entourage… but that didn't mean the duchy was any less faulty for their way of hunting.
With this, Ji Li and Shixuan entered the carriage, as the guards either pulled it or rode behind it. Once inside the carriage, Ji Li used the jade talisman to build up the formation as he held Lila in his arms, who had been quiet the whole time.
He looked outside the window as he contemplated for a bit before he said "Shixuan, go out in a bit and tell them to avoid the city that serves as a tradepoint between the duchies. I don't wish to be invited or talk with the duke at all. He would most likely be busy with war preparations or something else, it would be better to see the reaction of his guards and the duke towards the issue. I sure hope the duke takes it seriously."