Fragmented images flashed before her eyes.
To her surprise, this "mortal" had an unexpectedly vast soul, as if it had existed for thousands of years.
The soul is not ancient, but from another perspective, it is surprisingly decaying.
It was as if his soul had been cut countless times, with fine cracks within it, as if it were about to shatter and perish.
But he did not; his soul was bound together by a powerful force, tightly bound to it.
call--
The darkness before her eyes vanished, and she suddenly found herself in a study.
No, it wasn't her.
She didn't actually arrive at any place; rather, her will entered a memory and began to watch from Ning Feng's perspective.
Her perspective began to move on its own, and she came to the bookshelf, casually pulling out a thick booklet with a cowhide cover.
There was no name on it, only a family crest engraved in gold paint.
Only true descendants of the Golden Family can use gold paint to depict their family crest; no one else has the right to do so!
Turning to the title page, there was only one line of stylized artistic lettering.
"This is dedicated to our great gods..."
"This is... a record of offerings to the church?"
Bang.
She laid it out on the table, randomly flipped to a page, and heard Ning Feng muttering to himself.
He was reading the above record, or rather, a memoir:
“I am Ross Hikaran, the thirteenth patriarch of the Hikaran family. This is the proudest thing I have ever done in my seventy-year career.”
"In the 24th year of the Ceylon calendar, the noble church asked us to offer three times more tribute than in previous years to celebrate the centenary of the appearance of God on earth."
"It's tough! But that won't break us."
"The Hikaran family, upholding the fine traditions of the Golden Age, will never give up! I hereby swear in the temple, in my capacity as patriarch and with the dignity of my noble family, that I will definitely complete this challenge!"
The writings of this Roth patriarch of the Hikaran family are filled with strong self-confidence, the pride of being a nobleman, and an unwavering belief in the face of difficulties.
“Taking this opportunity, I issued a notice in the name of God and the Church, increasing taxes in all territories fivefold.”
"Because I know very well that those cunning and despicable lowly people will not be able to complete their task no matter how much mercy I show or how generous the conditions I offer."
"A bunch of lowly people! Worms in the dark corners! Rats that only know how to gnaw on grain!"
"They have no morals whatsoever, they only ever think about taking shortcuts, and they can only collect 60-70% of the taxes each year."
“Then I’ll increase it to five times. As long as they can complete 60%, that will be enough for me to deliver to the church.”
Ross felt proud, moved by his own cleverness, and incredibly proud and elated.
"As expected, everything is just as I thought."
"Although there were four or five untouchable riots in the months leading up to the announcement, those voices disappeared after the bodies of all the participants were nailed to racks and paraded through other villages."
"As for the families of those criminals, I, being magnanimous, did not convict them of the same crime, as that would have been far too bloody and barbaric!"
"But while the death penalty may be waived, punishment is inevitable; those who make mistakes must pay the price!"
"For those people, I simply doubled the tax on top of the original amount. No matter what means they use, as long as they can make up the difference by the end of the year, I will pretend that nothing happened."
"Otherwise, I will take back the land and sell it all to slave traders."
"Speaking of which, I have to admit to one of my bad habits—I'm just too kind!"
"I actually gave them a chance to atone for their sins!"
Ross was deeply moved. He felt that there were too few nobles like him in this era who were generous and compassionate towards the people. The rest were just a bunch of brutes who only knew how to rule with bloodshed.
"However, what made this challenge even more difficult was the unexpected incident in the second half of the year."
"A sudden snowfall covered ninety percent of the territory in white. Although it looked beautiful in the castle, it was not good for the harvest that year."
"But this still did not stop us from moving forward!"
The heavy snow did not break Hikaran's fighting spirit; on the contrary, it aroused his competitive spirit.
“I personally led the guards to clear the heavy snow in the solemn place and distributed a large amount of food to the disaster victims so that they could get through the most difficult time.”
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"I'll treat the distributed grain as an advance payment for next year, and I'm even mercifully waiving the interest on it!"
Ross was smug about his shrewdness and adaptability.
"Although the process was difficult and there were many obstacles, the Hikaran family still paid the full amount of tribute required by the church that year."
"I, Ross Hikaran, withstood the pressure! Overcame countless difficulties! And finally succeeded in upholding the dignity of the Hikaran family!"
What follows is a lengthy self-praise and endless praise from later generations for the great achievements of their ancestors.
The man stopped reading and, after a moment of silence, asked the waiter to bring two books.
It is written in a book:
In the 24th year of the Ceylon calendar, the territory of Hikaran was hit by a blizzard, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries, and the grain harvest was only 30% of that of previous years.
The other one is:
In the 24th year of the Ceylonian calendar, the export of slaves from the territory of Hecaran increased dramatically, reaching fifteen times that of the previous year.
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