The problem of food shortage in Bei’an City did not just arise today.
It had become apparent over ten days ago.
Wen Zhiyuan spread his hands, saying with a sincere expression, “The city’s grain reserves are about to be depleted. If this problem isn’t resolved, Bei’an City will be ravaged by famine in a few days.”
His implication was clear: if An Qian were to become the City Lord, she couldn’t possibly ignore the people’s hunger.
It wouldn’t be appropriate to grandly proceed with the inauguration ceremony before solving the grain issue.
Tan Anguo chimed in, “Now, the insects have completely surrounded Bei’an City, making it impossible for us to search for supplies outside. If we can’t solve this problem, we’ll truly be trapped and starved to death.”
From their accounts, Qin Shilei learned that Feng Yuxin of the Tianmo Sect had left Bei’an City yesterday with over 300,000 people, heading south.
Currently, Bei’an City had about 1.2 million people remaining.
These over a million people consumed an astronomical amount of grain daily.
Qin Shilei said calmly, “Tomorrow, arrange for An Qian’s inauguration as City Lord in the grand hall of Tian’an Prefecture. As for the grain problem, I will solve it.”
“You’ll solve it?” Wen Zhiyuan asked with disbelief. “How will you solve it? This isn’t about twelve thousand people, but feeding over a million.”
Qin Shilei glanced at Wen Zhiyuan and said plainly, “Is ten thousand tons of grain enough? If not, how about twenty thousand tons?”
Grain, to him, was not a problem at all.
Not only did he have tens of thousands of tons of grain in his Qiankun Ring, but the genetically modified corn was already being planted on a large scale. With the rich energy of the modified corn, there would be no food shortage once it was harvested.
Tan Anguo asked hopefully, “Can your City of Hope really provide twenty thousand tons of grain, and can it be transported to Bei’an City quickly?”
He had lost a lot of hair worrying about the grain issue these past few days. Now, hearing that Qin Shilei could solve it, he felt a wave of relief.
Qin Shilei shook the Qiankun Ring in his hand. “The grain is in my ring. However, this grain isn’t free. I will provide a portion as disaster relief, and the rest will be purchased by everyone with their crystal cores.”
Everyone’s expression turned to shock.
They were astonished by the large capacity of Qin Shilei’s spatial ring, and even more so by the immense amount of grain he possessed.
Had this fellow emptied a large grain base?
Qin Shilei then asked, “Director Tan, shouldn’t the country have many grain reserve bases? Why don’t you transport the grain from them?”
Tan Anguo replied, “We’ve taken what we could. The rest has either been destroyed or occupied by strange beasts and zombies. Some are still too far away to be checked.”
Qin Shilei proposed, “Give me the maps of those material bases, and I’ll give you five thousand tons of grain.”
Tan Anguo considered it for a moment and nodded, “Alright, I’ll have someone organize the maps right away.”
Even if those materials weren’t destroyed by strange beasts, they would only become useless if left there.
Now, exchanging them for a large amount of grain from Qin Shilei would not only solve Tian’an Prefecture’s food problem but also allow those materials to be utilized. Why not?
Of course, he wouldn’t hand over all the material reserve base maps to Qin Shilei; he would keep those he might have a chance to retrieve in the future.
Qin Shilei spoke again, “As for the insects surrounding Bei’an City, organize people to clear them out. Eventually, they can all be killed.
I have also found the spatial rifts from which the insects are appearing, and I will find a way to curb their rate of appearance.”
With the grain problem solved and relying on the city walls, clearing out the insects was no longer a major issue.
The two problems raised by Wen Zhiyuan and the others were basically resolved.
Everyone then proceeded to arrange An Qian’s inauguration.
Qin Shilei and the other two decided to use the former site of the Tianmo Sect as the City Lord’s mansion.
After selecting the City Lord’s mansion, An Qian opened its gates to recruit talent. The first group they accepted was Jin Hongye’s Canglang Gang.
Besides the Canglang Gang, many small and medium-sized forces also pledged their allegiance to City Lord An Qian.
These smaller and medium-sized forces had previously survived by a thread under the major powers of Bei’an City.
Now that the City Lord’s mansion was newly established, it was the perfect time to seek patronage.
If they could latch onto the City Lord’s mansion, they might soar to success and live a life of prosperity and wealth.
Qin Shilei and An Qian completely disregarded the calculations in these people’s minds.
They simply selected over thirty thousand people to form the City Guard.
To assist An Qian in managing the City Guard well, Qin Shilei specifically returned to the City of Hope and brought Zhang Qiang, Xie Haimei, and over a dozen captains from the Rock Solid Battle Group to Bei’an City.
Zhang Qiang and Xie Haimei were now both Silver Nine-star, ranking 79th and 83rd respectively on the leaderboard.
In Bei’an City, they were top-tier formidable experts.
With their assistance, plus the presence of over a dozen Rock Solid Battle Group captains, the City Guard would surely be trained into a reliable force in no time.
Speaking of the leaderboard, Qin Shilei and An Qian were still far ahead of everyone else.
Cultivation Ranking.
First place: Qin Shilei, Cultivation: Gold Two-star.
Second place: An Qian, Cultivation: Gold Two-star.
Third place: Steve, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Fourth place: Caesar the Great, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Fifth place: Mary, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Sixth place: Ye Litian, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Seventh place: Zeus, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Eighth place: Apollo, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Ninth place: Ito Hirobumi, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
Tenth place: Jin Changtai, Cultivation: Silver Nine-star.
After advancing to the Gold realm, the experience required for further upgrades is immense. It takes a full million experience points to advance from Gold One-star to Gold Two-star.
This is because the spiritual energy on Blue Star has increased by nearly a thousand times compared to before the apocalypse.
Besides absorbing crystal cores to level up, humans can also cultivate by absorbing the spiritual energy in the air.
Perhaps An Qian intentionally yielded, or perhaps Qin Shilei was more diligent in his cultivation. Three days ago, Qin Shilei finally surpassed An Qian again, reclaiming the first position on the leaderboard.
Zhang Xiaoli and Kong Qingshu ranked 18th and 25th respectively.
Another person from the City of Hope entered the top hundred on the leaderboard: He Kaige, at 94th place.
In fact, the top forty to fifty individuals likely had similar experience levels, all at the peak of Silver Nine-star, just one breakthrough away from advancing to the Gold realm.
.......
[Prestige Ranking]
First place: Qin Shilei, Prestige: 210953
Second place: An Qian, Prestige: 207549
Third place: Zeus, Prestige: 31792
......
On the prestige leaderboard, Qin Shilei and An Qian were also far ahead of everyone else by a significant margin.
An Qian’s inauguration as the City Lord of Bei’an City proceeded without any major disturbances.
The survivors in Bei’an City, after watching the related videos on the chat channel, enthusiastically shared their thoughts and then threw themselves into the action of clearing the insects outside the city.
As long as the insects outside Bei’an City were not eliminated, everyone could not feel at ease.