I Can See Your Combat Power-Chapter 1682 - 121: Husband Sings, Wife Follows

The representatives of the sacred lands received satisfactory answers and left; although the strange demand from Qianyuan Daoist Master caused puzzlement, no one dwelt on it too deeply.

For thousands of years, the Xuanji Sect has been acting peculiarly, abandoning the promising path of martial arts to pursue the odd direction of unity with destiny weapons.

Although it was unclear why they were collecting spiritual information from the warriors of the Fierce Realm, thousands of years of cooperation had built a trust that far exceeded curiosity.

In any case, the Xuanji Sect wouldn’t do anything detrimental to the stability of Xiehe, so there was no need for the others to inquire.

And if they didn’t ask, Qianyuan Daoist Master had no intention of telling, briskly seeing off the first group while still having to receive the various major sects.

However, after the initial disappointment in the first round, the chief of Dayuan Peak no longer expected a group of martial artists to understand the grandeur of Dragon Gate, delivering a product introduction in a flat tone and then quoting a price; the rest was just waiting.

Unlike the confidence of the sacred lands who could agree without a second thought, for most middling and inferior sects, the data of ten thousand Fierce Realm warriors was no small sum, especially for some reclusive sects whose entire population barely numbered ten thousand.

But giving up on Dragon Gate was also hard to accept, resulting in a somewhat deadlocked situation.

As a representative from a reclusive sect, Lu Shaolin felt that Xuanji Sect’s pricing was deliberately making things difficult for their Formation Cultivator community.

As everyone knows, Formation Cultivators with their rare talent are sparse, and even if you scraped the entire Xiehe, it would be hard to say whether you could gather ten thousand Fierce Realm Formation Cultivators; where were they supposed to get such data?

Qianyuan Daoist Master, being stared down by the representatives of the reclusive sects, had no choice but to helplessly say, "Dayuan Peak is only collecting open data; it does not have to be specifically from the Fierce Realm of particular sects."

With the misunderstanding cleared up, the sect representatives happily placed their orders, and both guests and hosts were pleased.

At the same time, having returned to Red Cloud Mountain, Yun Xiu began overseeing the internal governance of Unparalleled City.

To say she oversaw it was actually to distribute the gains from this trading voyage.

Having experienced the grand occasion of many tribes paying tribute, the city officials of Unparalleled City did not initially take this voyage too seriously. After all, a merchant fleet setting sail with only a cargo of Red Cloud crystals hardly seemed competitive.

Even with a fleet accompanying them, the goods of a hundred ships, the officials did not perceive it as the result of trade, and assumed the Lady had simply resumed her old practices.

After all, following the conquest of Tang Clan by Longzhou, all of Xiehe knew what had once given rise to the Tang Clan’s wealth. A family that was once poverty-stricken had such determination, let alone the Lady now supported by a Void Grandmaster.

Nevertheless, as subordinates, it was inappropriate for them to remark upon this, much less place blame.

After all, they had personally experienced how distressed Unparalleled City was more than half a year ago. The Lady had led the merchant fleet out for the sake of family business; even if the methods were somewhat forceful, it was understandable.

But now, Unparalleled City had completely transformed and no longer needed to acquire wealth through plunder. They only hoped the Lady would consider the reputation and benefits of the academy at this moment and return to the proper path sooner.

Watching the officials of Unparalleled City twitching their mouths, hesitating to speak upon hearing the trading gains, Yun Xiu could roughly guess what they were thinking, feeling both amused and exasperated.

This was probably the secular prejudice against women. She had experienced too much of this.

If it was a man, no matter how astonishing the achievements, it would have been taken for granted.

But for a woman, the constituents of success must include doubt and scrutiny.

If it were just herself, of course, there would be no need for an explanation. But now, she was not alone. Her husband, for the sake of his aspirations, also had to make nice with the despised noble families. What were these things in comparison?

"These materials were not plundered; they are the first tribute of dozens of tribes from Chengzhou. In addition, there are pastures, mines, salt flats, and orchards."

A simple explanation, yet it left everyone exchanging puzzled looks. Chengzhou, being broad but sparsely populated, has been poor since ancient times. The only notable resources were salt flats and mines, regarded as treasures and held dearly. How did their fleet come back from just one voyage, and the other party was willing to part with these?

Without explaining the source of the supplies, Yun Xiu continued, "The young tribespeople who returned with the ship are students sent by various major tribes from Chengzhou. Next, we are going to start classes and teach this group of students."

"...Madam may not be aware."

With some difficulty, Du Ting said, "Currently, there is a severe shortage of teachers in the business department, and the Soul Casting courses are filled to capacity. I’m afraid it will be difficult to arrange for these disciples in the short term. Moreover, according to the tuition fee set by the headmaster, even if we liquidate this hundred-ship cargo, we can only recruit a few dozen disciples at most, no more."

"Who said anything about teaching them Soul Casting?"

Yun Xiu waved her hand helplessly and explained, "Chengzhou has been sparsely populated and barren since ancient times. Dozens of tribes graze on the boundless grasslands. Too many warriors are a burden for the tribes. Therefore, the first problem we need to solve is that of productivity. Only when the tribes of the Chengzhou grasslands become prosperous can we talk about the future."

"This..."

Yun Xiu’s words put Du Ting in a tough spot. Chengzhou was mostly mountainous, with grasslands, cold winds, arid land, and scarce water sources, with only a few areas suitable for farming.

This was the root cause of Chengzhou’s longstanding weakness, and this regional characteristic was not man-made. Therefore, expecting them to come up with ways to make Chengzhou prosperous was clearly a mistake.

Luckily, Yun Xiu hadn’t actually been counting on them to come up with solutions. She simply requested a few newly constructed schools and then declared the meeting over.

Shen Dafa, who purposely stayed behind until the end, approached Du Ting with a dilemma, asking, "Elder Du, what does the madam plan to teach those barbarians?"

"I am not quite sure either."

Shaking his head, Du Ting replied, "I reckon it might be some methods to stimulate livestock breeding."

"I’ve heard that the Beast Taming Sect has some secret techniques for raising livestock that allow meat animals to grow to over two hundred pounds in just two or three months!"

Shen Dafa’s eyes lit up as he said, "If the madam knows such secret techniques, why bother teaching them to others? We could send people to Chengzhou to enclose a piece of the grassland. Then we wouldn’t need to buy a large number of livestock from Chaochang anymore!"

"Brother Shen, you’re confused!"

Shaking his head, Du Ting said, "Chengzhou’s grassland is so far from Unparalleled City, with mountains blocking the way. If we were to go around Longzhou by sea, the meat would spoil before it even arrives."

"Think about it this way!"

Shen Dafa shook his head and said, "From the cargo unloaded by the Chengzhou tribes this time, there is a lot of sealed, frozen meat. It seems they must have found a way to freeze the meat on a large scale."

"Hmm?"

Surprised, Du Ting exclaimed, "If that’s the case, Brother Shen’s idea might be worth trying."

...

Merchants are also categorized. Some have wondered why merchants from the Yun Clan are stronger in business than others.

In fact, it all comes down to the intent behind their actions.

Unlike other merchants who pursue maximum profit with all their heart, Yun Clan merchants have never seen making money as their goal.

The plan to change Chengzhou had already been devised by the legendary Yun merchants. However, the catastrophic disaster that led to the clan’s demise came too suddenly. Before the impoverished and backward grasslands of Chengzhou could become a land of fish and rice, the Yun Family was driven to decline by the Dutian Heavenly King.

In restarting the Chengzhou plan, Yun Xiu had also given it a great deal of thought. The most important consideration was that if her husband wished to realize his ambitions, the small expanse of Red Cloud Mountain was far from sufficient.