Chapter 163: Taking stock of family assets (monthly ticket plus updates)

This has nothing to do with whether there is a murderer or not, but rather it reflects the underlying nature of the demonic path that everyone understands.

Such a good excuse for me to exploit you.

You think it's irrelevant just because you say so? Even if you're innocent, you're guilty! Deacon Xu, who was detained and had all his wealth confiscated back then, has a lot of experience with this.

"The city lord is very generous. It is a blessing for the Guan family members to be able to become your disciples. I wonder if there is a limit on the number of people? There are still a hundred young people in my Guan family practicing at home."

"The Jiang family also has a hundred people available for the city lord to choose from."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow.

"No rush. The matter of opening the academy and taking on disciples can be postponed for half a month. Two people per clan will suffice."

After saying that, he looked at the representative of Yunmeng Pavilion.

"Before entering the city, I met a fellow Daoist from your esteemed pavilion, who did me a great favor."

"In the northern part of the city, I'll trouble you to help maintain order for now. Once the official documents are in place here, they will be issued naturally."

Huh? Me!

The woman from Yunmeng Pavilion was petite and a delicate beauty. Her cultivation level was only at the second level of Foundation Establishment, on par with Wang Yu, and her status should be below that of Chao Yunniang.

Suddenly receiving such great goodwill and power from the new city lord, he felt both joy and apprehension.

Because Wang Yu said in front of everyone that Chao Yunniang helped him before he entered the city. How did she help? Just think about the business of Yunmeng Pavilion, and you can immediately guess that it was intelligence!

Once the news got out, Yunmeng Pavilion and others were essentially on Wang Yu's lone boat in the storm.

To eat or not to eat? That is the question.

But she... didn't seem to have any other choice.

The woman sighed inwardly, but on the surface she wore a happy expression: "Xiangxiang thanks the City Lord for his trust. I will certainly live up to your expectations and do my best to maintain the North City."

After all, too many leaders of small factions have died in the North City. These forces only have one Foundation Establishment cultivator each, and if they all die here, it will definitely cause a wave of unrest.

"In that case, I will not see you off any further. Please come back here again in half a month."

Only then did everyone realize with a start that they were going to come in?

Once the formation is activated here, it's a dead end. Wouldn't we be at the mercy of others? He felt uneasy, but he readily agreed.

Wang Yu knew that the next time they met, they would at most send a representative, and they would never dare to come in person.

It's all that damned Tuoba Lei's fault; even on his deathbed, he wanted to bring trouble upon them.

--Should!

The storm at the City Lord's Mansion had ended, but the storm outside would continue for quite some time. Wang Yu saw everyone off, closed the gates tightly, and prepared to take stock of the City Lord's Mansion's wealth.

He summoned the three-tailed snow fox and gave the order.

"Xueyu, freeze all this minced meat and body parts and pile them up in that corner over there."

"Yo~"

With no one to help, I had to clean it up myself.

More than 500 storage bags of spoils were piled up like a small hill in front of Wang Yu. He examined them one by one, which took a lot of effort. In the end, the total amount of spoils was enough to replenish his empty pockets.

"More than 110,000 spirit stones, more than 600 first-tier magic artifacts, and 18 second-tier magic artifacts, mostly of low grade. Only Tuoba Lei and the Bai family head have high-grade second-tier magic artifacts."

One was the horse-slaying saber we had just seen, and the other was a sword.

After examining it, Wang Yu found that it was not as good as the Azure Water Sword he had seized from Lao Lan. After all, it was a product of the Sword Sect and was of much better quality than the magic swords outside.

In terms of cultivation techniques and methods, there are many.

This was arguably the largest haul Wang Yu had ever made since he began his cultivation.

"Azure Dragon Connecting City Skill", "Blazing Fire Burning Body Technique", "Azure Wood Nourishing Yuan Skill", "Pure Heart Jade Maiden Scripture".

These books were dropped by Foundation Establishment leaders in the Northern City. The cultivation paths are complete, but the accompanying spells, secret techniques, and magical artifact inheritances are all incomplete.

According to the standards of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, it cannot be considered a complete inheritance, but for independent cultivators, having the operational route of the cultivation method is already complete enough.

Different perspectives lead to different standards of judgment.

These are of little use to him, but they can enrich the city lord's collection and be used to train his subordinates in the future. Foundation Establishment techniques already have considerable value.

In terms of magic, there's only one that's useful to him.

As the name suggests, the "Heart-Cleansing Mantra" has the effect of purifying the mind and calming the spirit. It just so happens that he recently needs to take advantage of the opportunity of being possessed by a malevolent spirit to hone his divine consciousness.

Using this incantation as an aid will make things even more secure.

Ultimately, this group of people was too low-level and didn't have anything good in their hands. Even the Bai family head and Tuoba Lei, who were of a higher level, didn't have any inheritance jade slips in their storage bags.

The Tuoba family also rose to power from the ranks of independent cultivators. They developed rapidly only in the last hundred years, but their foundation was too weak, and they didn't have many good things.

After taking stock of the spoils, it was time to go to the city lord's mansion.

A treasure trove, storeroom, scripture repository, and premium medicinal herb garden.

These four things are of utmost importance. With the City Lord's Token, Wang Yu is the person with the highest authority in this area and can go anywhere.

The herb garden within the manor should be the private property of the Tuoba family, mainly containing ordinary second-tier spiritual herbs, with only a few rarer ones to meet Wang Yu's daily needs.

good!

The storeroom inside the mansion was probably prepared by the Tuoba family for their clansmen and those who served them. It contained a wide variety of items, including magical artifacts, elixirs, talismans, and array flags.

Unfortunately, they were all Tier 1 items, which were useless to him.

ordinary!

The treasure vault is entirely filled with the Tuoba family's precious collections. Only the two Foundation Establishment stage cultivators have the right to enter. When Wang Yu arrived here, he was almost blinded by the dazzling spiritual light.

Each box, crafted according to the methods of refining storage bags, has an expanded internal space, each with the capacity of a room, and is filled with spirit stones, including both low-grade and mid-grade spirit stones.

After counting, Wang Yu found that there were a total of 1.36 million, which was more than 136,000 mid-grade spirit stones.

Perfect!

After the initial joy, Wang Yu calmed down.

"No, these are tributes to be handed over to the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect."

Yes.

The territory of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect spans four states, and the number of cities built with spiritual veins far exceeds ten thousand!

Depending on the grade of the spiritual vein, an offering must be made every five years. The offering for a first-grade spiritual vein is 100,000 spirit stones, and for a second-grade spiritual vein it is 500,000 spirit stones.

Guiling City is a third-tier spiritual vein, requiring a tribute of one million spirit stones every five years. While this seems like a lot, it varies from place to place. In places like Guiling City, it's easy to gather enough spirit stones to make the tribute.

"In other words, of the 1.36 million, only 360,000 belong to me. That's fine, it's better than nothing."

Wang Yu calculated the days and found that the end of this year would mark a full five-year period. No wonder the treasures were piled up in the treasury. The Tuoba family was extinct, and he had no manpower. Who would he send to deliver them this year?

This is a problem.

There was no time to think further; there were many more treasures waiting for him to count.

Besides spirit stones, there are other collections here, with shelves embedded in the walls and the restrictions on them derived from formations.

Still under his control, Wang Yu checked everything and received another pleasant surprise.

Tier 3 Treasure Material: Blood Dragon Essence!

Legend has it that this is a gemstone formed spontaneously from the essence of a dragon with rich bloodline after its death. It is blood red and has a faint dragon's might.

For his Yinming Demon Dragon Spine, this was a top-grade treasure that could enhance his fundamental strength and also forcibly elevate his cultivation level in body refinement.

This Blood Dragon Essence was the size of a fist; scraping off just a little powder would be enough for him to refine the Dragon Blood Elixir. Wang Yu carefully stored it away.

Next item.

Tier 3 Elixir - Golden Qi Root!

This item is quite rare. It can only be born in a place where the metal element is extremely rich but has been in a dormant state for many years and has lost its sharpness.

This thing has a rather narrow range of applications. Given the Tuoba family's resources, they didn't know how to utilize it at the time, so they kept it in their treasury.

Wang Yu happened to know an ancient elixir formula.

Its name is "Exquisite Treasure Pill", and Golden Qi Root is one of its main ingredients. However, the pill formula is recorded in the pile of secret ancient books that can be exchanged at the Law Enforcement Pavilion.

He only knew the general information; if he wanted the actual pill formula, he would have to go back and exchange it. He also kept the treasure safe.

Next, almost everything left in the treasure vault consisted of second-tier spiritual items.

Wang Yu left only one million spirit stones in the treasury; the rest he turned into his own wealth, muttering as he left.

"Poor...so poor!"

"The city lord's mansion, a place of great importance, has absolutely nothing."

Turning around, he entered the library again.

This includes not only the accumulation of the Tuoba family over the past century, but also some cultivation techniques and secret manuals that Zhuo Kuangsheng acquired during his tenure. The quantity is considerable, but not excessive.

It mainly focuses on first and second order, with no third order books.

Among them, there was a technique that made Wang Yu suddenly realize its meaning. It was called the "Purple Dragon Earth Travel Technique." As you can tell from the name, it was a legacy of Purple Dragon Mountain.

No wonder Zhuo Kuangsheng once fought against the master of Zilong Mountain.

The so-called Purple Dragon refers to the loach. This earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of escape technique) is a secret transmission of Purple Dragon Mountain, equivalent to a true mastery, and is a relatively profound earth-遁 method.

It can burrow underground, pass through walls, and move among rocks, making it a versatile technique. Wang Yu, who possesses an earth elemental root, can also learn this technique without experiencing difficulties due to attribute issues.

At this point, the City Lord's Mansion's resources had been fully assessed, including those of the Tuoba family, which caused Wang Yu's net worth to surge to nearly 500,000 spirit stones.

This amount seems like a lot, but if you convert it to mid-grade spirit stones, it's only 50,000. If you convert it to high-grade spirit stones, it's only 500, which is still poor.

There is only a tenfold difference between low-grade spirit stones and mid-grade spirit stones.

There is a hundredfold difference between high-grade spirit stones and mid-grade spirit stones.

Moreover, it only circulates between the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stages, and only cultivators at this level can "manufacture" it by hand. Generally speaking, it serves as an equivalent for another level.

It is extremely rare for a mid-grade spirit stone to be exchanged for a high-grade spirit stone.

Next, Wang Yu went to the archives of the city lord's mansion.

They found the ledgers of the mansion's past income and expenditure, as well as the development records of Guiling City, the distribution of benefits from surrounding resources, and so on.

This portion belongs to the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's property.

Wang Yu, as the city lord, is essentially a manager, responsible for managing the local industries. The sect has allocated a standard of one million spirit stones over five years, and any excess naturally belongs to him.

Firstly, income is divided into three aspects.

1. Taxes.

This includes cultivators from the three major families within the city, cultivators from various markets in the five districts, independent cultivators from outside, merchant caravans, and so on.

It includes five major taxes: commodity tax, offering tax, security tax, administration tax, and transit tax!

This alone can bring in nearly 300,000 spirit stones to the city lord's mansion every year, which would amount to 1.5 million spirit stones in five years. But the accounts can't be calculated that way; there are still a lot of expenses.

City maintenance, formation maintenance, personnel expenses, special casualties... and so on, this is not a small amount of money.

(End of this chapter)