Chapter 1591 IF Scenario: What if Shen Tang woke up earlier (Part 5)
Ji Sunyin's lips moved.
It's rare for a young person with a firm goal to be caught in a dilemma.
Wei Cheng was acutely sensitive to emotions; he could clearly sense the struggle, hesitation, and pain his lord was experiencing. Though he was a skeleton without flesh and blood, he was far more soft-hearted than Wei Lou and couldn't bear to see his lord in such a state. He tugged at Wei Lou's sleeve, bracing himself against his uncle's cold, intimidating gaze, and said defiantly, "Uncle, why not give our lord some time to think things through? If you keep pushing him like this, he might make a decision he'll regret for the rest of his life in a moment of impulsiveness. One wrong step, and everything will follow."
Wei Cheng deliberately emphasized the last word.
Wei Lou was indeed moved.
He loosened his grip on Ji Sunyin's sleeve with his right hand.
He turned his face away, his expression cold and hard as he got up and left.
Seeing this, the others unusually refrained from adding fuel to the fire and hindering their colleague. Some sighed outwardly, while others inwardly expressed their feelings, and they all found excuses to disperse, leaving their lord alone. Wei Cheng hurried to catch up with Yun Da, who stopped tacitly upon hearing the commotion: "What is it?"
"I do have something to ask you."
Yun Da pursed his lips and gestured for Wei Cheng to continue.
Wei Cheng: "How strong is that Lady Shen?"
Yun Da lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then said seriously, "Unfathomable. I suspect she didn't use her full strength at all, and always held back. What level of cultivation would she be at? A seventeenth-rank Siche Shuzhang, a nineteenth-rank Guannei Hou, or perhaps a twentieth-rank Che Hou?"
When the topic turned to the 20th rank of Marquis, a hint of apprehension appeared in Yun Da's eyes.
It carried a hint of longing.
That's the pinnacle of martial arts; which brave martial artist wouldn't yearn for it?
Wei Cheng: "Do you think it's possible?"
"It seems the Gongxi clan has a deep foundation and a mysterious origin; it's truly hard to say. I was secretly observing the lord's expression just now; even the lord probably doesn't know the details of that female ruler." Yun Da held the ice spear in his arms. "What will the lord choose?"
Wei Lou's question can be simplified into a multiple-choice question.
Should we choose the Gongxi clan or their subjects?
Wei Cheng said, "I can't guess, and even Uncle isn't sure."
"What if the lord chooses the Gongxi clan?"
Two flames flickered in his eyes, revealing confusion: "I don't know."
My uncle probably doesn't know what to do either.
Just pack up and leave?
It's not that easy.
There are countless entanglements in this world that are impossible to untangle.
No one expected that this dilemma, comparable to the choice between saving your lover or your parents if they fell into the water, would be resolved that very night. However, it wasn't Ji Sunyin who made the choice, but Shen Tang. Everyone reunited in the tree hole meeting hall, where Shen Tang directed the vines to lower the large screen.
The large screen displayed a rough drawing.
Wei Lou stared at the painting for a long time but couldn't understand what it was.
The family-inherited script within the Gongxi clan?
Upon closer inspection, one could vaguely discern that they were small figures drawn in a hasty, scribbled style. Other colleagues also looked up at the enormous "screen."
Qin You: "Where is this map from?"
With a flick of her wrist, Shen Tang unfurled her retractable pointer.
Forced to employ the relentless, competitive spirit of a workaholic, she skipped her afternoon nap and quickly drafted a plan. This plan was a brief analysis of the three steps: "Build high walls, store up grain, and delay declaring yourself king": "How much grain does the tribe currently have stored? How much gold, silver, copper, and iron? If the reserves are plentiful, we can directly recruit soldiers and horses; if the reserves are insufficient, we should first seize a territory and manage it with peace of mind."
Farming, farming, and more farming.
There are tricks to how to snatch it.
Randomly select a landlord or powerful family whose crimes are beyond description, go to their door and persuade them to buy their land at a low price. If they refuse to sell, kick down their fortress, arrest or kill those who should be arrested, and inherit their land and tenants. With tenants, there will be people.
They were given land, and a thousand pieces of gold were used to buy horse bones to attract refugees from the surrounding area.
If there are extra people, send them to raid other landlords' strongholds.
If you have no money or food, just keep running around and you'll get it. Oh, and you should specifically target those who do inhuman things, so you don't have to bear any moral burden. Maybe by skinning people alive, you can even win over the tenant farmers.
Wei Lou and his group weren't interested in this.
How much wealth could a small clan of less than two thousand people possibly have? Instead of using that wealth to recruit soldiers, they might as well rob someone of their own. If this Shen Tang is truly a 20th-rank Marquis, letting her lead two thousand elite Gongxi warriors would certainly be a lucrative business for them.
Unexpectedly—
The High Priest of Jimo took out a thick ledger.
He read out a long, long, long string of numbers with some uncertainty.
Ji Mo Bai remained calm on the surface, but his heart had been racing for a while: "Your Highness, the clan is not large, and the consumption of so many people is also low, which is far from enough to keep up with the annual harvest. Therefore, the income from farming is always more than enough. In earlier years, we would organize the storehouse and carefully register and record the contents, but we haven't done that for the last twenty or thirty years. The grain stored in the storehouse is more than this, but we will have to recount it to know the exact amount."
The high priest's divine power is extremely compatible with the earth.
Therefore, even though the clan's cultivated land was not extensive, the annual harvest was quite considerable. In addition, the Gongxi clan also engaged in business in the secular world, owning a vast amount of cultivated land. The cultivated land outside was extremely polluted, with low yields, but its large area made up for it.
After the Gongxi clan was forced back to their ancestral lands, they transported all their accumulated wealth back, truckload after truckload, and preserved it all using special methods. If Shen Tang were to go to any hilltop in the ancestral lands and dig a hole, she might just find a granary dug up sometime in the past, with stored grain.
Shen Tang: "..."
She didn't understand the units of measurement in this world, but judging from Wei Lou's comical, almost ghostly expression, she knew this was a fortune beyond imagination. The Gongxi clan not only had astonishing grain reserves, but also countless gold and silver treasures. Qin You instinctively retorted that it was impossible. Although the Gongxi clan members all had rosy complexions and ate well, their clothing certainly didn't look like that of wealthy people.
He believes there is food.
He doesn't believe it's true that you have money.
Ji Mo Cong, standing to one side, pointed in a direction.
Wei Lou and the others: "..."
The entire tree hole plaza was draped with sheer, gossamer-white gauze, as light as a cicada's wing. The crowd assumed it was just decoration and didn't bother to look closely. But when Ji Mo Cong pointed, they noticed a two-zhang-tall "figure" standing behind the gauze in that direction.
Qin You: "What is that?"
Ji Mo Cong: "The golden statue that my clan commissioned for Your Highness."
Qin You: "Not interested."
Ji Mo Cong: "Pure gold, solid."
Qin You: "..."
Others: "..."
Their curiosity was piqued, but none of them got up to investigate, a move that would have been somewhat offensive. Shen Tang, however, had no such reservations. Her eyes lit up at the mention of solid gold: "Really? Are you sure it's 24K pure gold?"
The guard lifted the thin veil, revealing the true face of the golden statue.
Sure enough, it was so golden that it was dazzling.
Qin You couldn't help but ask, "Isn't it just gilding and gold leaf?"
Upon hearing this, Ji Mo Cong also showed displeasure, saying, "This concerns His Highness's golden body; how could we possibly try to fool His Highness with such a thing?"
The statue was not only made of pure gold, but also inlaid with countless gemstones.
Qin You wanted to say something, but was stopped by his lord's gaze.
Shen Tang's eyes shone brightly, just like the jeweled eyes of the statue, and he kept muttering "rich" and "we've struck it rich." Wei Lou also recovered from his great shock and said in a deliberately indifferent tone, "The Gongxi clan is not only incredibly wealthy, but their smelting technology is also second to none."
Such pure gold is hard to come by.
Ji Mo Cong said, "That's not it."
The high priest possessed a secret technique that allowed the seeds of the sacred tree to take root and sprout in heavily polluted soil. If that soil contained gold or silver, the tree's fruit would be gold and silver bars. The original intention was to purify the land for cultivation; the metals were merely a minor byproduct.
Little by little, great things come from small beginnings.
Over generations, they've accumulated such a large statue.
Seeing that Shen Tang was pleased, the high priests were naturally delighted.
Shen Tang asked, "Can we melt it down?"
Ji Mo Bai asked, puzzled: "Does Your Highness intend to melt it down and recast it?"
Shen Tang: "No, no, I just think it's a waste to leave it standing here like this. It would be better to use it for future military supplies, which might play a greater role. Gold should be used in the right place."
"Your Highness need not worry, there is still plenty in the storeroom."
There are still many, many, many gold nuggets in the warehouse.
Your Highness can use these first; there's no need to melt down the statue.
"Any more? How many?"
"That's enough to cast four or five more statues of the same size." Actually, the clan was planning to rebuild a pure gold temple and move the statues there, and also change the altar to pure gold. However, after Ji Sunyin ran away from home, the high priests Ji Moshuang and the others had to select and train new high priests, so they didn't have the energy to build the golden temple altar for the time being.
Everyone: "..."
Not only was Shen Tang numb, but Wei Lou and the others were also numb.
There's so much gold, not to mention silver.
The silver has spread to the point that the stone slabs under the thresholds of every household are now covered in silver.
That thing is heavy; it's okay as a threshold.
Everyone: "..."
Shen Tang wanted to see what the gold and silver vaults looked like, so Ji Mo Bai and the others led her there, and Wei Lou and his guests also got to see them.
Qin You rubbed his eyelids: "It's making my eyes hurt."
He leaned closer to Wei Lou, who had somehow fallen to the back of the line, and whispered, "If I'd known we were this rich, why did we even bother with dividing the family property..."
If the lord leaves the Gongxi clan, he will not receive a single share.
If they stayed, even if they only received one in two thousand, their wealth would be astonishing, enough to make even Qin You and his group envious.
Wei Lou: "..."
He could scoff at ill-gotten gains.
But Ji Mo Bai took the curious Shen Tang lady to experience "farmhouse fun" and led her to pick gold and silver bars.
Whose gold and silver bars are growing on trees?
Qin You and the others suspected it was fake.
But after a cursory inspection, damn, it's real gold.
Qin You squatted there muttering to himself, feeling an urge to steal the gold bars when no one was looking, but he managed to resist with immense willpower: "Damn, I've never seen gold of such high quality before."
Colleagues: "..."
How could they have ever seen it before?
After all, the smelting technology outside is indeed not yet up to par.
If these events only left them stunned and numb, then what followed left them utterly envious.
All of this wealth belongs to Shen Tang.
Use it however you want.
The two thousand warriors of the Gongxi clan also belonged to her.
They can command however they want.
"...I've never fought such a rich battle in my life." Shen Tang felt an inexplicable urge to cry, an indescribable emotion continuously stimulating her tear ducts. "Really, it's so wonderful!"
Shen Tang almost burst into tears of joy.
Why bother building up your wealth step by step without having to start from scratch? What's the difference between that and joining the Wind Spirit Moon Shadow Sect from the very beginning and maxing out your stats?
Qin You: "Jealousy."
He was so jealous that he became unrecognizable.
Ji Sunyin scratched his head, a thousand words condensing into a sigh.
With ample funds, Shen Tang went back and secluded himself to revise the business plan. Ji Sunyin and others also held their second small meeting.
Qin You felt increasingly distressed the more he thought about it.
"Can't my lord just act a little coquettish with the Dowager Lady?"
The Dowager Lady was also one of the High Priests.
Based on observations over the past two days, the High Priest holds a transcendent position and wields considerable influence within the Gongxi clan. Qin You wasn't overestimating himself by trying to seize the treasury from Shen Tang, but even a little extra would be enough to live comfortably. Surely the Grand Madam couldn't have accumulated no personal savings over the years?
High priests must receive a salary, right?
Ji Sunyin: "Are you going to go looking for a fight?"
Qin You: "My lord is her own son."
Ji Sunyin said quietly, "An unfilial son who ran away from home?"
Qin You: "..."
He finally understood what Ji Sunyin had given up when they started their business together. He learned that their lord had once been a candidate for High Priest; if their lord successfully succeeded—
Even Qin You couldn't help but feel his heart pounding.
Sigh, I really want to plunder the Gongxi clan.
Qin You not only thought this way, but he also dared to say it, only to be intimidated by a glare from his lord. He said sheepishly, "My lord knows that I, Qin, just can't keep my mouth shut. We are, after all, from your family; you wouldn't dare to do such a thing even if you had ten lives."
Ji Sunyin: "You can do this if you want to die."
Several high priests were present, and Qin You had no idea how he died.
Qin You awkwardly shut his mouth.
Because Ji Sunyin wasn't part of Shen Tang's plan, and Ji Moshuang had no intention of letting her son return, Ji Sunyin and his group stayed in the clan for a few days before setting off back to their territory. Before leaving, they were given a task: to find out where the local landlords were the most wicked.
"His Highness's orders are to be as bad as possible."
Ji Sunyin: "...Is Mother really going to be born with His Highness?"
Ji Moshuang calmly said, "Isn't this what you wanted?"
She understood why Ji Sunyin hadn't been chosen. His heart had wavered, he had hesitated, and he wasn't as resolute as Ayu, who had been chosen as the successor to the clan chief. Ji Sunyin's decision to leave the world was well-intentioned. Now that the Gongxi clan had also left the world, weren't they heading towards the same goal, albeit by different paths?
If that's the case, why ask such a redundant question?
“In all these years in the secular world, I have seen too much filth that my people may not be able to understand. I have come to a deep understanding of one sentence: people’s hearts are fickle! Mother, once the people of the Gongxi tribe come into contact with those things and their hearts change, they will never be able to return to even the last paradise on earth.”
Ji Mo Shuang: "I know."
"That mother and the other high priests also..."
"If we follow Your Highness, we will never get lost."
Ji Sunyin: "..."
Ji Mo Shuang said, "Actually, there's something else you might not know. When you two brothers were born, I saw a prophecy in you: the Gongxi clan would be destroyed because of one of you. I didn't tell anyone about this."
Ji Sunyin: "Because of my younger brother and me..."
Ji Mo Shuang: "To be precise, it's you."
Ji Sunyin: "..."
Ji Mo Shuang: "The crisis came from outside. A Yu never intended to leave, but since you left, it must be your turn."
Ji Sunyin: "...What did Mom see?"
Ji Moshuang said, "What we see is no longer important. Besides, we are different from ordinary people in the mortal world. Death is not the end, and whether we are destroyed or not is not important. Your Highness's awakening is an accident outside the course of fate, and the situation can't be worse than what I saw back then."
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I spent 30 yuan to customize the cover; they said it would be ready in 48 hours. I'm looking forward to it.
(End of this chapter)
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