Another thing that he noticed was that the population of the Douluo Continent was much lower compared to that of the Dou Qi Continent.
This had a lot to do with the vastly different cultivation systems because the Dou Qi System provided a steady increase in lifespan, which allowed people to live much longer, thus gradually increasing the population count.
This was rather problematic in the long run because the bigger the population, the greater the possibilities for development. The Spirit Hall was rather strongly constrained by a rather lower population under their rule, though that was something that hardly changed in a short time.
Even though Hun Tiandi managed to convince Supreme Pontiff Bibi Dong to invest more resources into developing their surrounding lands and growing the population, because, from that, they could then draw more Spirit Masters from the bigger population.
The higher the population was, the higher the chances were for the powerful Spirit Masters to appear. Fortunately enough, the additions that he was already making to the Spirit Energy Cultivation System weren't really that far from reality.
Right now, the Spirit Hall directly managed the territory around the Spirit City that was as big as the average Dukedom on the Douluo Continent, and next month; he was to lead part of their Knights Templar to clear several of the petty Lordships and territories that belonged to the independent nobles and local warlords.
Between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire, there was one huge region that was home to a whole bunch of petty Kingdoms, Principalities, Dukedoms, and Lordships ruled by the various nobles and factions.
In the end, it was decided that the Spirit Hall would acquire some that were nearest to them and create their own territory so they could start properly cultivating their population and generating more and more Spirit Masters.
Hun Tiandi learned during the time that the Douluo Continent was actually pretty big, not as big as the Dou Qi Continent, but it wasn't really that far from its size. For the conquest of the Moonlight Principality, Stromland Dukedom and some petty lordships that were not really cooperative with the Spirit Hall.
Thus, it was decided that they needed to be put down, and because neither of them was reported to have powerful Spirit Masters, Hun Tiandi was going to be sent as the commander of the Knights Templar that would be attacked by the enemies of the Spirit Hall.
Apparently, the Stromland Dukedom had a good number of powerful Lightning-attributed Spirit Masters with the Lightning-aligned Martial Souls. None of these petty factions were faring rather well, because of the tacit agreement of the Star Luo Empire and Heanve Dou Empire.
Even though the two Empires hated each other to the core and often fought against each other when the opportunity arose, they also had a solid agreement with each other, which was to suppress the continual and possible development of the various Kingdoms, Principalities, Dukedoms and Lordships.
The last thing that they needed was for one of them to rise to power and become a real threat.
The rulers of the Star Luo Empire and Heaven Dou Empire, through the entire generations across many centuries and millennia, adhered to this agreement because both of them considered themselves to be worthy of unifying the continent under their banner, and soon enough, the two superpowers of the Douluo Continent were preventing any of these petty nations from becoming too powerful or too rich.
Obviously, he would have a few Titled Douluos under his command, but they would act only when a Titled Douluo appeared on the battlefield, if he was in danger of losing his life, or if the situation got out of hand.
"Where are we going first, Elder Brother?"
Qian Renxue asked as he held her little hand and looked around the bustling streets of the Spirit City's Merchant District while he was deciding where they would go as their first stop.
"We are going to the headquarters of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce to check on something, and afterward, we can go to shop for some things; what do you say?"
Seeing her nod her head, they went to the headquarters of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, which was located in the middle of the Merchant District of the Spirit City.
It was a huge building, a very luxurious one, because the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce was one of the fastest-growing and most profitable chambers of commerce in the Douluo Continent during the past centuries.
There were countless people going in and out of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce's headquarters as they were doing business and their own things.
Various Alchemy products were something that was selling too well, and the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce was the sole producer and seller of the Pills, Elixirs, and other things made through the Alchemy that Hun Tiandi 'developed'.
The coins were just flooding into the coffers of the Spirit Hall due to the enormous profits of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce. Money was also another form of power; even the Hun Clan, as detached as they were from everything around the world, still had many businesses under them to keep money flowing.
Contrary to that, the financial capabilities of the Spirit Hall were...
While not really the worst around, but they were far from being excellent and could be higher by several levels. He never understood why the Spirit Hall in the past didn't exploit this to greater depths.
Within the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, there was one man to whom he had entrusted the leadership of the Chamber of Commerce, Han Long. A rather fat middle-aged man who looked like he could eat the whole warehouse alone, and really fit all of the stereotypes of the rich and greedy merchants when he looked at him.
Yet despite his looks, he was a relatively powerful Spirit Master at the Spirit Rank 81 and reached the Soul Douluo Rank. He had a particular Martial Soul of the Attack System of the Beast Type called Great Golden Panda, which was also a very rare type of Spirit Beast.
But most importantly, he was a very skilled and capable merchant who just didn't have much luck in a life later down the road.
The Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan, which had almost a monopoly on the business done within the Heaven Dou Empire, didn't really like that the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce was spreading too fast within the Heaven Dou Empire, which was their home turf.
Thus, Ning Fenghzi asked their Titled Douluo to cause trouble for the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce.
Obviously, the chamber of commerce without any Titled Douluos didn't have any means to protect themselves against the Titled Douluos as their caravans were ambushed, warehouses robbed, and auction houses mysteriously lit on fire.
This caused the Han Long to fall into rather severe debt, and in the end, the entire Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce went bankrupt faster than anyone could think. Coupled with the death of the most trusted subordinates that Han Long cultivated at the hands of the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan, he was forced to flee the Heaven Dou Empire.
As he was still Soul Douluo at the Spirit Rank 81, which was a very high Spirit Rank, he fled to the territory of the Spirit Hall, where he joined the Spirit Hall and worked in the trade department of the Spirit Hall even before the establishment of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce.
When Hun Tiandi was contemplating the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce under the Spirit Hall, he went through a lot of possible candidates for the position of the General Manager of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, and in the end, Han Long was the most suitable one.
One could say that Hun Tiandi changed the man's entire life, and now, Han Long was running one of the largest Chambers of Commerce on the entire Douluo Continent.
Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce was slowly expanding through the entire Douluo Continent at a steady rate, and soon enough, their Chamber of Commerce would be everything.
It was certainly helping that the Spirit Hall was already the oldest faction that existed in the Douluo Continent and also had the deepest roots. Their branches and Spirit Masters of the Spirit Hall were practically everywhere, so it wasn't really that hard for the Spirit Master to help the expansion of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce.
"Young Master Tiandi, what can this Han do for you?"
Han Long noticed that Hun Tiandi was standing in the middle of the headquarters of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, holding the hand of a little blonde-haired girl who looked to be around 7 years old or so.
As soon as he noticed this, he immediately rushed to greet Hun Tiandi, who gave him this life-changing opportunity, aside from being General Manager of the Celestial Trade, one of the benefits was exclusive access to all top-notch cultivation resources that the Spirit Hall had to offer.
The leaders of the subsidiary organizations under the Spirit Hall had the same status as the Bishops or Cardinals of the Spirit Hall, depending on the strength and status of the subsidiary organization itself.
The Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, while being the only one which was the subsidiary organization of the Spirit Hall, because the Sacred Dragon Clan and Elephant Armored Clan were directly assimilated into the Spirit Hall, though nobody knew about it.
They were still playing their part as the Great Clans of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Their presence was valuable within the Heaven Dou Empire because they were able to supply the Spirit Hall with some internal intelligence, and with the appearance of some Titled Douluo within their Clans, their status got even higher.
Subterfuge was one of the best ways of weakening the enemy, especially when the enemy was unaware of anything that was taking place in his realm.
"I am here on the control of the business ventures for the past quarter and also discuss something with you."
One of the reasons why they went to the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce was to see how the Chamber of Commerce was doing financially for the past few months, but the most important one was to discuss the impending war between the Spirit Hall and a few nations that were not really adhering to the rules of the Spirit Halls.
Among them, the Moonlight Principality and Stormland Dukedom were the real threat, if it could even be called that, because, in front of the might of the Spirit Hall, it was nothing.
But it would be the test of the might of the Spirit Hall and the changes that were implemented and being applied during the past ten years. Hun Tiandi found it rather oddly satisfying to observe the fruits of his hard work.
"Of course, Young Master. Please follow me to my office."
The General Manager Han Long then led Hun Tiandi, who was still holding Qian Renxue by her hand, to his office, which was located on the highest floor of the Headquarters, os there were a lot of stairs to walk.
Unfortunately.
When they arrived at the office, which had a nice view of the panorama of the Spirit City, Hun Tiandi put Qian Renxue on the sofa and gave her something to read while he spoke with General Manager Han.
While he could see that she was unhappy with the treatment, but she also understood that he was here on the business of the Spirit Hall. She was very smart for her age and knew that there were times when she should just do what she was told.
"Tea?"
General Manager Han Long asked as Hun Tiandi nodded his head and took a cup of green tea from him. Afterward, they started talking about the business ventures of the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce.
Because the Celestial Trade was his pet project, within the Spirit Hall Hierarchy, he was responsible for the oversight of the Spirit Hall.
"Now, let's start as time is money."
Han Long sipped from his tea before he took out several sheets of paper and passed them to Hun Tiandi. The future Holy Son of the Spirit Hall really appreciated that the man was going straight to the matter and not wasting any more of his time.
"On the front of the Star Luo Empire, we are doing rather good, but the Star Luo's Imperial Family has a rather strong grip on the trade within the Empire, so we are limiting our activities in the border and frontiers. On the front of the Heaven Dou Empire, things have become rather complicated over the past months. As a result, everything is going according to the predictions with zero changes."
Hun Tiandi knew that expansion into the Star Luo Empire was something that would take a lot of time because the Star Luo Empire was a different breed of beast compared to the internally unstable and weak Heaven Dou Empire that was able to exist only due to the presence of its sects.
And when Han Long spoke about the complications in the Heaven Dou Empire, Hun Tiandi immediately knew what was happening.
"It's the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan again?"
The Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan controlled most of the trade and business within the Heaven Dou Empire through the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Chamber of Commerce, which Hun Tiandi really found ridiculous...
In his eyes, Xue Beng was just the Emperor in name.
The entire Imperial Family of the Heaven Dou Empire had only two Titled Douluos, and even they were just Average Titled Douluos; one was ranked at the Spirit Rank 90, and another at Spirit Rank 92.
Compared to the might of the Sects in the Empire, the gap in power was really ridiculous.
"Yes... They are becoming restless because they are losing influence within the petty nations of the continent, the places where their Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Chamber of Commerce held an absolute monopoly on everything from Spirit Tools to food. Now, the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce has essentially pushed them out of the business there, and they are becoming nervous."
While the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan was powerful, they were not all-powerful, because they had only two Titlted Douluos. While both of them were relatively powerful Hyper Douluos of Spirit Rank 95, there were only two of them.
Compared to many and many Titled Douluos of the Spirit Hall, the power of the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan was really abysmal. With the new power of the Spirit Hall, the power of the Three Upper Great Sects of the Heaven Dou Empire really wasn't anything serious.
However, even if that wasn't taken into consideration, the sole reason why the Heaven Dou Empire remained as it was, if not for it, then it would have collapsed long ago.
"Ts... right now, it's not an appropriate time to deal with the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan, but we will send them a few warnings. Do we have confirmation about who exactly is attacking the shipments of the Celestial Trade?"
Hun Tiandi was rather sure that the attacks were not carried out by the Titled Douluos because such work was way beneath them, and, in fact, the rest of the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan wasn't really worth much.
"The Spirit Hall's intelligence managed to trace two sources of the attack. One is mainly compromised from the various bandit groups and mercenary groups that are too blinded by their own greed, though some are supported by the nobility of the Heaven Dou Empire, while the other source is coming directly from the troops of the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan personally."
General Manager Han Long said that the agents of the Spirit Hall were rather fast at uncovering who was robbing their merchant caravans and for what and for whom.
He quickly managed to find out who was attacking them, who was using who, and even where the resources that were captured by the attackers were going. With the most extensive information network in the entire Douluo Continent, it wasn't really that hard to find out.
"I will talk to the Supreme Pontiff about that and tell her to order a few Titled Douluos to go and clean up all of the attackers from the first category. Some lowly Imperial Nobles from the Heaven Dou Empire are thinking that they could rob the Spirit Hall? Really audacious..."
Contrary to some Noble Clans of the Dou Qi Continent, like the Eight Ancient Clans that held enormous military power and had the highest number of most powerful Dou Practitioners, the situation was rather different on the Douluo Continent.
Most of them were just hereditary titles within their respective nations, and in Hun Tiandi's opinion, they were no better than leeches.
"And about the forces of the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan? They are rather active in the robbing... approximately 60% of the operations across the Heaven Dou Empire, Chaotic Lands, and borders are conducted directly by the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan."
Chaotic Lands was a nickname for the specific area that consisted of many, many petty Kingdoms, Principalities, Duchies, Lordships, and other self-proclaimed noble domains.
"Due to the increased number of the Titled Douluos of the Spirit Hall, I will arrange for some of the newly advanced Titled Douluos to be assigned to the caravans to protect them together with detachments from the Knights Templar. I can predict that after a few unsuccessful attempts to rob us, the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan will increase the number and power of the Spirit Master that they are sending, but so we shall... in the end, after a few raids, the losses to the Seven Treasure Tile Glazed Clan would be so high, that they would be forced to drop their efforts altogether in this area."