Chapter 149 Fire Phoenix Base and the Phoenix Lord

Over the course of more than half a month, a brand-new leadership hierarchy had formed in Fenghe Village.

Yu Yan deservingly assumed the position of village chief.

However, the title of village chief sounded far too insignificant. When dealing with other bases in the future, where titles would undoubtedly sound more impressive than the last, how would it sound for her to introduce herself by saying, "Hello everyone, I am the village chief of Fenghe Base..."

Ugh, that mental image was simply too dreadful.

Lou Yuhui, Yu Yan's most devoted loyalist, was the first to stand up in opposition.

Eventually, leading the twins and the others to steer public opinion, he went ahead and changed the name of Fenghe Village altogether.

Henceforth, the base they established would be called Fire Phoenix, and Yu Yan would be the Sovereign of the Fire Phoenix Base.

As soon as this title came to light, the villagers broke into animated discussions, feeling that Yu Yan was being far too presumptuous. Even Yu Yan herself felt rather embarrassed; wasn't a title like Sovereign essentially declaring herself the absolute master of the Fire Phoenix Base? Jumping straight from a village chief to a supreme ruler felt like a rather drastic leap.

Yet, Lou Yuhui managed to persuade her.

"Had it not been for the Sovereign's emergence, not even one in a hundred of Fenghe Village's thousand-odd residents would have survived."

"With the double-S-grade dungeon, the Phoenix Singing Ruins, blocking our path ahead, and the S-grade dungeon, the Firefly Soul-Consuming Sea, looming behind us, my estimation is already quite conservative. It is fair to say that the Sovereign's arrival saved the lives of nearly every single villager in Fenghe Village."

"If it were merely a matter of survival, their pride alone would not be enough to make them pledge allegiance as loyal subjects."

"However, the Sovereign distributed vast quantities of high-tier spirit beast meat, directly granting them the ability to survive within the dungeon worlds."

"Such a profound grace is higher than the heavens and broader than the oceans!"

"Because this signifies that the Sovereign has given them the chance to take control of their own destiny, sparing them from being reduced to mere prey hunted by dungeon monsters. It even allows them to reverse their status and grow into beings capable of hunting dungeon monsters in return."

"The Sovereign has bestowed so many blessings upon them; is it not only right that they pledge their allegiance to you?"

"If that were not the case, the Sovereign could simply go outside and issue a single rallying cry. As long as they pledged allegiance to you, they could obtain a piece of tier-five spirit beast meat and become powerful transcendent beings. I am certain that responders would gather like clouds!"

"These villagers merely happen to share the fortune of being your fellow townspeople, which is why they obtained the opportunity that outsiders can only dream of."

"Furthermore, the Sovereign's kindness toward them goes far beyond this."

"A tier-seven spirit lizard guards the base; apart from our Fire Phoenix, which other base can provide such a guarantee? In just the past half month alone, the Sovereign has given out four precious water-light butterfly blood crystals, ensuring that injured members of the hunting squads receive proper and meticulous care."

"Soon enough, the Sovereign also intends to distribute spirit armor to enhance everyone's safety coefficient."

"With the Sovereign racking her brains and worrying so much for the villagers' sake, does she not deserve to be addressed as Sovereign?"

"If not, the Sovereign could simply lead us away from the village and let them fend for themselves. Why exhaust your mind and effort trying to forge them into an iron-clad army? With that much energy, wouldn't it be far more rewarding to go anywhere else and start over from scratch?"

"The people outside have already suffered enough hardship in the dungeon world."

"I am certain they will be far more sensible and worldly-wise than these villagers."

Listening to Lou Yuhui's impassioned speech, had Yu Yan not possessed a remaining shred of composure and rationality, she almost would have let it go to her head.

She almost felt that the villagers of Fenghe Village were utterly ungrateful for not acknowledging her as their sovereign!

If she didn't drag them out and have them shot, it wouldn't do justice to all the sacrifices she had made.

However, she quickly regained her clarity, realizing that the villagers' perspective was also quite understandable. After all, in their eyes, Yu Yan was just the young girl they had watched grow up. Suddenly, this girl wanted to take charge, and considering her formidable strength and ability to lead everyone toward a good life, even though the townspeople felt somewhat aggrieved, they swallowed their pride and endured it.

But as for becoming some sort of Sovereign?

That truly felt like having someone climb over their heads to shit and urinate, causing their mental state to fracture.

Even so, after the initial shock and embarrassment subsided, Yu Yan felt that Lou Yuhui's proposal played right into her hands; this mindset of the villagers treating her like a mere child had to be changed.

Over the past half-month or so, countless people with distant, far-fetched connections had been coming to her home.

Yu Yan was busy outside every day, either scouting paths and searching for suitable dungeons to serve as bases, or leading Lou Yuhui and the others in and out of high-level dungeons to hunt monsters, nurturing their strength through combat in order to elevate their capabilities as swiftly as possible.

Unable to catch Yu Yan in person, these people directed all their efforts toward Chen Biqing and Zhang Zhenye.

How could Chen Biqing and Zhang Zhenye have ever handled such a situation?

Flattery was piled on wildly, one compliment after another, and soon they lost all sense of direction.

Chen Biqing secretly gave away a few unrated spirit armors.

For Chen Biqing, this was a relatively easy matter to manage. When reporting damaged materials to Yu Yan, she simply exaggerated the consumption of spirit beast hides, effortlessly covering up the missing armor pieces. Had it not been for Yu Yan's numerous loyal subordinates, and the fact that those who received the armor foolishly wore it out to show off, Yu Yan might not have even known that Chen Biqing had done such a thing.

Water that is too clear has no fish.

A mere few unrated spirit armors were well within Yu Yan's capacity to absorb.

She could just treat it as compensation for Chen Biqing, an ultra-grade talented armor-smith.

To be completely honest, as an ultra-grade talented armor-smith, the "salary" Chen Biqing received from her—compared to the arrogant armor-smiths of the top ten bases in her past life—cough, was actually quite pitifully low!

What worried her was that if this trend continued, the day would come when Chen Biqing crafted spirit armors of profound grade or higher.

If someone flattered her a couple of times and she casually gave away a few profound-grade spirit armors...

Worse still, what if she handed out something like the Mirage Dragon Divine Armor? That was a scenario Yu Yan simply could not accept.

Furthermore, this situation was extremely detrimental to her governance of the Fenghe Village base.

If she told the members of the hunting squad just moments ago that a tier-two spirit armor would be issued only upon completing certain tasks, but then someone else managed to acquire one simply by flattering Chen Biqing, would the hunting squad members still listen to her?

In short, it was imperative to reshape her image in the eyes of the people of Fenghe Village!

And so, it would begin with changing her title.

Once Yu Yan gave her consent, the rest was simple.

Lou Yuhui slightly adjusted his rhetoric, drilling the arguments he had used to persuade Yu Yan into the twins and a few others until they memorized them thoroughly. When they presented these arguments to the six hunting squads under their command, the squad members naturally came to feel that their logic was entirely sound!

The twins and the others had been sharing meals and lodging with the hunting squad members over this period.

Whenever they entered dungeons, they went out of their way to risk their lives protecting the safety of their team members. It was fair to say that every single hunting squad member had been rescued by the twins at some point.

Their authority within the hunting squads was unquestionable.

And the hunting squads consisted of a full three hundred and sixty people.

Every single one of them was the pillar of their respective household; pacifying these three hundred and sixty people was equivalent to pacifying every single resident of Fenghe Village. Of course, there would still be various discordant whispers reaching her ears, but they no longer affected the bigger picture.

Under the momentum of the prevailing trend, Yu Yan's title of "Sovereign" was universally acknowledged.

Even if some people harbored internal dissent or even sneered at it in their hearts, they did not dare act overly defiant on the surface.

After all, while Lou Yuhui and the others cared deeply for the villagers and protected the members of the hunting and special operation squads fiercely inside the dungeons, that was one matter. Whenever team members made mistakes, or villagers violated the thirty-six village rules posted by Yu Yan, they never showed the slightest bit of mercy when executing punishments according to those regulations!

From twenty lashes with a whip, to the shattering of hand and foot tendons, and even the stripping of transcendent abilities—anyone who violated the village rules over the past half month received the punishment they deserved.

Of course, aside from the stripping of abilities, all other injuries could be treated. Even if one's hand and foot tendons were shattered, at most, after treatment by the team's healer, they would simply have to recuperate for half a month and sit out a few dungeon runs...