Lin Yonghua: "???"

He couldn’t understand, but he was greatly shocked!

After a long silence, Lin Yonghua slowly asked:

"Is the money in the accounting office not enough for you to draw? Why do you have to open the family treasure vault to get money?"

Lin Yanluo responded as a matter of fact: "Tax payment, of course. It’s already halfway through the year, and our family hasn’t paid any tax yet."

Lin Yonghua, feeling a bit enlightened, laughed easily:

"So it’s for paying taxes. In previous years, our family’s taxes, including passage tax and landing tax, didn’t exceed one tenth of our total profit. Just pay it."

"Even though one tenth of the tax hurts a bit, we didn’t pay it in the past few years. But with such a powerful county magistrate this year, it’s like spending money to buy peace."

Saying this, Lin Yonghua took a brass key from his inner pocket and handed it to his daughter.

"Dad, what are you talking about? What do you mean by less than one tenth, clearly it’s a ninety-four percent tax, okay."

"I’ll first take enough money from the treasure vault, then go find each of our family members one by one to collect the previously unpaid taxes."

"Anyone who dares to hide income to evade taxes, I won’t let them get away."

Lin Yanluo spoke as if it was a normal thing, her tone extremely calm.

As she spoke, she directly took the treasure vault key from her dumbfounded father’s hand and turned to leave.

The ancestral hall suddenly became silent.

Lin Yonghua kept his hand in the gesture of handing the key, not retracting it for a long time, as if he had become a statue.

Regarding his daughter’s earlier attitude and tone, he couldn’t muster any anger.

On the contrary, his heart was filled with emotions of fear and despair.

Because rationality told him, the words his daughter said just now were definitely not from her own will, but rather her mind and perception were twisted by some bizarre means.

As for who did such a terrible thing to his daughter, even with his toes he could figure it out, it must be that damned Su Youlin!

Through his daughter’s changes, Lin Yonghua despairingly realized one thing.

— Su Youlin intends to enslave the minds of the landlords and aristocrats in Dragon City County, to gradually extract their essence until they’re completely drained.

"Lin Yanluo and the Lin Family are the first, but definitely not the last."

Lin Yonghua suddenly stood up:

"No, I absolutely cannot let that demon Su Youlin continue to poison us."

"I happen to be retreating under the pretense of seclusion, perfect for secretly informing the four great families and six great sects’ leaders."

"The safety of all Dragon City County hangs by me alone!"

With this in mind, Lin Yonghua quietly left the ancestral hall.

He disregarded the chaos caused by his daughter to the Lin Family, heading as fast as he could towards the Li Family, the closest of the four great families to the Lin Family.

But when he quietly infiltrated the Li Family, he found that the Li Family’s patriarch had already left.

No need to think, they must have been called away by Su Youlin’s people.

He then went to Zhao and Zhang families, only to find that their patriarchs were also gone.

Compelled by circumstances, Lin Yonghua could only take a risky path towards the road leading to the Dragon City County Government Office, hoping to intercept the three family heads before they entered the county office.

However, something unexpected happened to Lin Yonghua.

The Dragon City County’s Xiang Army, constables had already tightly sealed the roads leading to the county office, and with Assistant General Wang De personally stationed there, he couldn’t get through.

Lin Yonghua also thought of heading out of the city to inform the six great sects’ leaders, but even the city gates had been completely sealed.

If he dared to fly out, he’d immediately be detected by the lookout magical treasures in the city and then be pursued.

As a weak bourgeois, Lin Yonghua was quite protective of himself, naturally unwilling to risk being hunted to save those outsiders.

Though the county office’s apparent forces couldn’t harm him, considering Su Youlin’s relationship with Lord Fan, plus the bizarre mind-twisting methods, Lin Yonghua had reason to suspect that a mid-to-late Golden Core expert was secretly by Su Youlin’s side.

Thus, he very sensibly pulled back to a safe place, watching the events unfold.

In his covert observation, he saw familiar landlord strongmen, sect leaders enter the county office, then saw them hastily rush out of the county office, opening family treasure vaults to take money out continuously.

Large sums of spirit coins were carted to the county office.

Yet these heads of clans, heads of sects seemed to relish it, as if they believed from the bottom of their hearts that paying taxes was glorious.

Whenever their sons or wives tried to stop them, they would sternly reprimand them, earnestly explaining the necessity of merchants paying ninety-four percent tax, leaving their listeners bewildered.

And these were not the most terrifying.

What terrified Lin Yonghua the most, was the changes in Sect Leader Liuyang before and after entering the county office.

He turned out to be no different from those Foundation Establishment clan heads and sect leaders, he fell for it too!

This sent a shiver down Lin Yonghua’s soul.

Because he had known Sect Leader Liuyang for many years, well aware of the other’s true strength, no weaker than his own!

Yet such a strong figure had no room to resist against Su Youlin?

The entire Dragon City County, had been completely overshadowed by Su Youlin!

Lin Yonghua looked at all this in despair, feeling like an incompetent husband who could only watch helplessly as his wife entered his boss’s room. After enduring tortures he couldn’t imagine, her mind was completely twisted by the boss.

As he watched, he saw his daughter taking a large sum of money, escorted to the County Government Office.

This scene made Lin Yonghua’s heart feel like it was being cut with a knife.

As the only Golden Core of the Lin Family, over sixty percent of the family’s income was under his name. Now, having to pay back nearly half a year’s taxes, the loss was undoubtedly his greatest burden.

But after feeling heartache for just a few seconds, he suddenly realized something even more frightening!

His daughter had already turned into Su Youlin’s shape; would she directly report him and say that he hadn’t actually gone into seclusion?

If that happened, wouldn’t he be hunted down by the entire city?

The more Lin Yonghua thought about it, the more scared he became, and the more he felt it was possible. So, without hesitation, he returned to the Lin Family, rushed into the treasury, fiercely plundered spirit coins and various Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, then fled with these goods, breaking through the city gate leading to the sea and escaping far away.

Because he rushed so quickly and forcefully, by the time the gate guards relayed the news, Lin Yonghua had already vanished without a trace.

"County Magistrate, the head of the Lin Family pretended to go into seclusion, but secretly knew everything; now he has absconded with goods worth over fifty thousand spirit coins from the Lin Family treasury and fled to sea."

Assistant General of the Imperial Guard Wang De rushed to the county court to report Lin Yonghua’s escape to Su Yuan.

Hearing the report while reporting on the Lin Family’s owed taxes, Lin Yanluo’s pretty face turned pale, and she hastily knelt down to confess:

"County Magistrate Su, I... I didn’t expect my father to be so unwise."

"He reacted so drastically to merely paying ninety-four percent of the tax. What a disappointment as my father!"

Su Yuan waved his hand casually and said:

"No matter, you have already brought the taxes your father should pay as well. His escape hasn’t affected the tax plan of Dragon City County in any way."

Lin Yanluo let out a sigh of relief.

But then, Su Yuan continued, changing his tone:

"However, Lin Yonghua escaping with over fifty thousand spirit coins shows he has a guilty conscience and must have serious tax evasion issues. He must be caught and investigated thoroughly!"

"Send the order to intensively train the Dragon City County Navy, and set out to capture the fugitive Lin Yonghua at sea soon."

"As you command!"

Wang De nodded solemnly and went to pass the order.

Su Yuan continued to sit calmly in the hall, continuing to count the taxes submitted by the powerful and wealthy as if nothing had happened.

The so-called Lin Yonghua escape incident was, of course, no oversight by Su Yuan.

How could he not know that Lin Yonghua’s seclusion was just an excuse?

The reason for letting Lin Yonghua run around was to scare him away, letting him send word to the pirates about the changes in Dragon City County.

To reclaim his family estate and save Lin Yanluo and other family members, Lin Yonghua would surely collude with the pirates, using violent means such as attacking the city to take back everything that belonged to him.

And this was exactly what Su Yuan wanted to see.

He was not afraid of fierce pirates, but rather that the pirates might be too timid to fight.

Now, with Lin Yonghua on the pirates’ side, the pirates had three Golden Core experts.

As it’s said, with a sharp blade arises a killing intent. With a paper advantage over Dragon City County, how could the pirates resist the urge to plunder?

After nearly two days of counting, Su Yuan tallied up the total amount of taxes received this time.

A full two million spirit coins!

The promotion target of three million spirit coins was suddenly two-thirds complete!

One could only say that the wealth of the four major sects, the six great families, and the numerous landlords and powerful households was much higher than he had imagined.

However, these two million taxes were the total for half a year, and thereafter, only about thirty thousand in taxes could be received each month.

But even so, Su Yuan could gather the three million needed within three months without doing anything.

However, Su Yuan did not plan to pocket all two million.

With a decisive wave of his hand, he withdrew a quarter of the revenue, a full fifty thousand spirit coins, handing it to the County Government Office.

Half of these fifty thousand spirit coins were distributed as bonuses to the county’s officials, and the other half was turned over to the central hub as Dragon City County’s tax revenue for the month.

In this way, not only did the officials receive high salaries, but a month’s taxes for the people were also waived.

With such tangible benefits, how could the subordinates and the people not hold him in high esteem?

As for where to make up the used-up fifty thousand?

Simple, fight the pirates, catch the dodgy businessman (Lin Yonghua).

Spend where necessary, save where possible, as long as three million are gathered within three months, no more is needed.

Three months is just enough to catch up with his master Taibai Phecda leading the Evil Extermination Sword Sect students to conquer the Cold Plum World.

"By the way, if I weren’t this Celestial Patrol Envoy, the external person Taibai Old Deng would surely be discovered by the Cold Plum World Governor, and even the entire Celestial Law World."

"But if I deceive the upper ranks and mislead the lower, everything becomes uncomplicated."

Su Yuan sighed inwardly:

"I am truly the world’s best disciple. Even while executing such a dangerous mission, I’m still worrying about my careless master. Taibai Old Deng just steals joy while I toil."