Protect Our Patriarch

……

Longyuan Commandery, Haiwei Residence.

"Haiwei Residence" is a thousand-year-old establishment, known as the most luxurious and high-end restaurant in Longyuan Commandery, specializing in various seafood delicacies.

Its history can be traced back to the early days of Longyuan Commandery's founding.

The reason it has stood tall for so many years is because its owner is the Cao's Clan from Longyuan Commandery, a fifth-grade Purple Mansion Clan.

On this day.

The top floor of Haiwei Residence, with the best view and most luxurious decor, welcomed two distinguished guests.

One of them, a middle-aged man dressed in elegant attire with a refined demeanor, was Cao Bangning, the head of the Cao's Clan from Longyuan Commandery and the owner of Haiwei Residence.

The other, with a sharp face and shrewd look, sporting a small goatee, was Liu Tianming, the head of the Liu's Clan from Qing'an Commandery, a sixth-grade clan.

The manager of Haiwei Residence, accompanied by several attendants, served the dishes and carefully poured the wine. After paying their respects, they respectfully withdrew, instructing the waiter outside to guard the door and not let anyone approach the private room.

The waiter naturally did not dare to slack off and repeatedly assured them.

Meanwhile, inside the private room, Cao Bangning began enthusiastically pouring wine and serving food for Liu Tianming, warmly inviting him to eat and drink.

"Come, come, Master Tianming, you only come here twice a year. It's rare for us to gather. Today, I'm the host. Eat and drink to your heart's content. We have plenty of good food and wine here..."

"Master Tianming, try this. It's a top-grade fourth-tier Dragon Lobster, freshly delivered from the sea today, specially prepared by our chef using a secret method. It's tender and flavorful without any fishy smell. This is a specialty of Haiwei Residence, you won't find it elsewhere..."

"And this, it's the Sea Toad Spirit Fish, one of the three treasures of the deep sea. It's only available this season every year..."

Cao Bangning spared no expense for this table of dishes. The money was secondary; the key was that several of the ingredients were rare tributes, which he usually couldn't bear to eat himself, but now he used them all to entertain Liu Tianming.

The kitchen of Haiwei Residence had been busy since the previous night, working tirelessly to prepare this sumptuous feast.

Liu Tianming was indeed enjoying himself, eating and drinking heartily.

After several rounds of wine and five courses of dishes.

Liu Tianming, having eaten his fill, finally put down his wine cup and looked at Cao Bangning, "Master Bangning, you've really gone all out today. Rest assured, I'll give you the best price for this year's grain. I'd rather earn a little less myself than let you suffer."

Longyuan Commandery had a large population but limited land, and a significant portion of its annual grain consumption had to be purchased from other commanderies. Naturally, Qing'an Commandery, known as the "granary" of the Great Qian and located next to Longyuan Commandery, became the primary source of grain for Longyuan Commandery.

Liu Tianming's business involved the trade of grain between the two regions.

As one of the largest clans in Longyuan Commandery, the Purple Mansion Cao's Clan purchased a substantial amount of grain from him each year.

However, upon hearing this, Cao Bangning couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Old fox."

He didn't believe Liu Tianming was unaware of the recent troubles the Cao's Clan had encountered. Saying this now clearly indicated he was feigning ignorance, waiting for Cao Bangning to personally ask for help.

Even though he knew this, Cao Bangning had no other choice. He put on a shameful expression, stood up, and made a deep bow, "Master Tianming, to be honest, I invited you here today because I have a favor to ask. Considering the long-standing marriage alliance between our families, please lend me a hand."

"Oh, Brother Cao, there's no need to be so formal. We're family, no need to talk about favors." Liu Tianming quickly helped him up, "Stand up. Just tell me how you want me to help, and I'll do my best."

He appeared very enthusiastic on the surface but was secretly pleased.

Cao Bangning, relying on his status as the head of a fifth-grade clan and his aunt being a core disciple of the Holy Land, often looked down on others. Now that he was in trouble, he had no choice but to seek Liu Tianming's help.

After a long back-and-forth, showcasing their "deep affection" for each other, they finally got down to business.

"Brother Tianming, isn't your youngest daughter married into the Zuoqiu's Clan? I heard she's part of the main branch." Cao Bangning poured Liu Tianming a glass of wine and said, "Can you help me pass a message to your daughter, asking her to mediate?"

"Well..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Tianming, who had been very generous earlier, suddenly looked troubled.

What a joke! He had worked hard to marry his daughter into the main branch of the Zuoqiu's Clan, and it was because of this that the Zuoqiu's Clan was willing to allocate some high-quality grain for him to sell.

He wouldn't waste his hard-earned connections for the sake of the Cao's Clan's troubles.

Of course, he wouldn't say this outright. Instead, he said tactfully, "Brother Cao, you know the Zuoqiu's Clan is different from our families. Their head is at least in the Celestial Realm, and each head serves for one or two hundred years, resulting in many descendants in the main branch. My daughter married into the main branch, but she's just a granddaughter, not even the eldest..."

Cao Bangning knew he wouldn't agree easily, so he smoothly took out a gold note from his storage ring and stuffed it into Liu Tianming's hand, sincerely saying, "Brother Tianming, you must help me! You're my only hope now! I don't ask for much, just for your daughter to put in a good word for me, to ask the Zuoqiu's Clan's Purple Mansion Ancestor to meet with our ancestor and talk. That's all I ask."

"Oh, how can I accept this?"

Liu Tianming felt the texture of the gold note and found it to be a top-grade gold note. His smile became much more genuine. Hearing that Cao Bangning only wanted to talk with the Zuoqiu's Clan, he felt relieved.

He immediately pocketed the gold note and assured, "Brother Cao, don't worry. I'll definitely ask my daughter to help. But I must clarify, I can't guarantee success. I need to make that clear."

"Of course, of course. Just agreeing to help is already a big favor. Whether it succeeds or not, I won't blame you."

Cao Bangning nodded repeatedly, without any objections.

After a few more casual conversations, the meal was almost over. Soon, Liu Tianming left Haiwei Residence.

After he left, the forced smile on Cao Bangning's face finally disappeared.

"Sigh~"

He sighed heavily, unable to hide his worry.

His aunt's rash action of killing Zuoqiu's Clan's prodigy had deeply offended them.

Although, in theory, family members who joined the Holy Land or academy were considered part of the Holy Land, and the family wouldn't be implicated. But the Zuoqiu's Clan, having lost a prodigy and becoming a laughingstock among many clans, wouldn't let it go easily.

Unable to retaliate against the Holy Land, they would surely take it out on the Cao's Clan. Even if they didn't act openly, they would certainly punish the Cao's Clan in secret.

Compared to the Zuoqiu's Clan, which dominated Qing'an Commandery and had four or five Purple Mansion Ancestors, the Cao's Clan was just an ordinary fifth-grade clan with only one Purple Mansion Ancestor. Their resources and industries were completely outmatched by the Zuoqiu's Clan.

If the Zuoqiu's Clan decided to punish the Cao's Clan, they wouldn't be able to withstand it.

The most reliable solution he could think of was to have their ancestor meet with Zuoqiu Qingyun's Purple Mansion Ancestor. If they could reach an agreement, the Cao's Clan would have to pay a price but could survive this crisis. If not...

Sigh~

Cao Bangning sighed again.

Liu Tianming was known for his cunning and might not be reliable. He couldn't put all his hopes on Liu Tianming and needed to prepare a backup plan.

He paced back and forth, thinking of countermeasures, and slowly walked out of Haiwei Residence.

"Farewell, Master."

At the entrance of Haiwei Residence, the manager and several attendants stood respectfully in a row. They only relaxed after seeing Cao Bangning get into his carriage, feeling as if they had survived a disaster.

……

The entanglements between the Zuoqiu's Clan from Qing'an Commandery and the Cao's Clan from Longyuan Commandery, and the resulting changes in the situation, had nothing to do with Wang Shouzhe for now.

After becoming a great prodigy and resolving his troubles, Wang Shouzhe returned to his family and threw himself into intense work.

The Changning Wang's Clan, which had accumulated strength for over twenty years, finally began a new round of expansion.

For the Wang's Clan, this was a necessary endeavor.

Although the Wang's Clan now had an annual income of several million top gold, after deducting massive expenses, they could only save a little under two million top gold. It seemed like a lot, but as the family's prodigies and great prodigies gradually reached the Celestial Realm, this amount would become insufficient.

Moreover, the new generation of the Wang's Clan was continuously being born. Under the principle of having more children and raising them well, future expenses would only grow larger.

Additionally, the total population of Ping'an Town had exceeded 150,000, becoming somewhat crowded, and internal development had reached a bottleneck.

The only way to continue the legacy of Ancestor Zhouxuan and achieve further development was to expand outward.

Shouzhe Pass!

It was a pass built by Ancestor Zhouxuan with immense resources and effort, protecting generations of Wang's Clan disciples and tens of thousands of people in Ping'an Town.

Beyond Shouzhe Pass was a narrow cliff corridor, the only route to the outer regions from Ping'an Town.

For years, rogue cultivators and clan disciples had ventured out from here to explore and seek adventure. Those with bad luck would perish in the wilderness, while those with good luck would reap significant rewards.

Now, a four-zhang-wide cement concrete road was being laid in this corridor. (In the Great Qian, the term "yang" simply means foreign, without any positive or negative connotations.)

Building the cement road required first compacting the dirt road with a stone roller, then laying a thick layer of crushed stone, compacting it again with the stone roller, and finally pouring the cement concrete layer and smoothing the surface.

The process was relatively simple, with cement being the core material.

Currently, the price of cement sold by joint industries was about two large copper coins and fifty small copper coins per hundred jin, only half the price of ordinary grain.

This showed that cement was a luxury building material. Not every clan could afford to build cement roads.

In Wang Shouzhe's plan.

This high-quality cement road, named "Shouzhe Road," was over four zhang wide, enough for five carriages to travel side by side, and stretched for eighty li! On Earth, an eighty-li widened cement road wouldn't be a major project.

But for the Wang's Clan, the internal construction cost of this road was estimated at 216,000 top gold, involving 3,000 laborers and a construction period of six months.

The "Shouzhe Road" project had a tight schedule and needed to be completed before the next rainy season. Otherwise, if delayed until March of the following year, the construction difficulty would increase significantly.

It would traverse the outer regions, ending at an open canyon eighty li away, a corridor formed by two parallel mountain ranges.

When developing outer regions, the first choice was always to build a pass in a canyon. Otherwise, no matter how well the land was developed, it would be vulnerable to beast tides, resulting in catastrophic losses.

Frankly, the current construction site of "Shouzhe Pass" was not ideal.

After surveying the terrain within a radius of two to three hundred li, the construction site of Shouzhe Pass was the best of the worst. The other locations were far inferior.

The main reason the construction site of "Shouzhe Pass" was considered less than ideal was that the canyon corridor was too wide. Even the narrowest and best construction site required a pass ten li wide!

A ten-li-wide pass! Such a scale was rare even in the Great Qian.

The previously proud "Zhouxuan Pass" of the Wang's Clan was only a little over a hundred zhang wide, far less than one li.

This showed the grandeur of the yet-to-be-built "Shouzhe Pass."

This was why no clan had developed the outer regions beyond Zhouxuan Pass for over a hundred years. The difficulty and cost of building such a pass were beyond the reach of ordinary seventh-grade clans.

Even most sixth-grade clans couldn't afford it.

The Wang's Clan, led by Wang Shouzhe, dared to ambitiously build "Shouzhe Pass" because their annual income was high, and they had extensive experience in concrete construction.

According to the blueprint estimates.

The construction of "Shouzhe Pass" and its barbican would require 40 million jin of cement, 80 million jin of crushed stone, 2 million jin of steel rebar, and 90 million jin of high-quality thick stone blocks for the walls and paving.

The project would involve 10,000 people.

The total construction period for "Shouzhe Pass" and its barbican was estimated at ten years, with a total cost of about 14 million top gold. This did not include future costs for installing Divine Might Cannons on Shouzhe Pass.

(Now, Old Ao drew a rough sketch and roughly calculated the project volume, material quantities, and costs. There's no way around it; Old Ao used to be an unprofessional project estimator for a year or two in his youth and even took certification exams, which were simpler back then... Hence, he has a bit of an obsessive-compulsive disorder.)

Such a massive amount of materials couldn't be transported via "Shouzhe Road." The transportation volume was too large, and the costs were too high.

Therefore, before building "Shouzhe Pass," they needed to construct a cement factory, quarry, and laborer dormitories around the construction site.

Of course, these weren't the biggest challenges of outer region construction.

The biggest challenge came from the danger and uncertainty. The Wang's Clan had to conduct a large-scale sweep of the area within Shouzhe Pass during the autumn and winter seasons, clearing out all dangerous flora and fauna.

While building "Shouzhe Road," they also needed to patrol and clear the route to ensure the safety of the laborers.

Given all these factors.

Relying solely on the Wang's Clan for development was too strenuous.

The marriage alliance clans, led by the Wang's Clan, also joined this grand development plan. Each clan had to contribute manpower and mobilize their people to join the labor force, as well as bear part of the costs.

Of course, the Wang's Clan would contribute the most funds and mobilize the most laborers from their 150,000 people. The Wang's Clan would go all out in this outer region development, and they would also receive the largest share of future benefits.

The Wang's Clan machine roared into action.

Longzuo Commandery City, Tianyuan Pill Workshop.

As a key family-trained alchemist, Wang Shouye was busy with his tasks.

"Brother Wenshan, thank you for taking the time to refine these 100 first-grade 'Detoxification Pills.' Here are 2,500 top gold for you."

"Brother Jingfu, thank you for taking the time to refine these 200 first-grade 'Healing Pills.' Here are 4,000 top gold notes for you. I hope you can refine more when you have time."

Outer region development was a highly dangerous and uncertain endeavor. Detoxification Pills and Healing Pills were essential strategic supplies. The former could neutralize most low-level toxins, while the latter could effectively heal and save lives.

However, these first-grade pills were only effective for Qi Refining Realm cultivators and mortals. They had little effect on Lingtai Realm cultivators due to their higher life levels and resilience.

If they were poisoned or injured, low-grade Detoxification Pills and Healing Pills wouldn't be effective.

Therefore, they also needed to prepare a considerable amount of third and fourth-grade pills like Transformation Pills and Creation Pills. These could be refined by Wang Shouye himself or commissioned from other high-grade alchemists.

With Wang Shouye as a high-quality alchemist, as long as the Wang's Clan was willing to spend money, they wouldn't lack pills below the fourth grade. Only fourth-grade and above pills, due to their rare and precious ingredients, might not be readily available.

Additionally, Wang Shouye was mass-producing third-grade "Enlightenment Pills." A single Enlightenment Pill usually cost six to seven hundred top gold. However, with the main ingredient being the Purple Crystal Royal Jelly supplied by Luo Jing, he could produce them in large quantities, significantly reducing costs.

For most clans, Enlightenment Pills weren't very useful.

Their main function was to increase the chances of someone with near-lower-grade aptitude to reach lower-grade Ding aptitude.

Although lower-grade Ding aptitude was still the lowest among Basalt cultivators, with a low chance of breaking through to the Lingtai Realm, it still made them Basalt cultivators. Many ordinary retainers and even some low-grade clan members were at this level.

Additionally, Enlightenment Pills could slightly improve the aptitude of those with lower-grade bloodlines, with better effects for those with lower bloodline levels.

Of course, the first Enlightenment Pill was the most effective, with the second having minimal effect.

Even so, Enlightenment Pills were invaluable to the Wang's Clan. They had their own Spirit Testing Platform to roughly determine if those with unranked aptitude were close to lower-grade. If so, they could be trained with Enlightenment Pills to become clan soldiers, alleviating the Wang's Clan's manpower shortage.

For clan members' bloodline cultivation, Enlightenment Pills had some effect, albeit limited.

While Wang Shouye was stationed in the commandery city, purchasing and refining pills and sending them back to the Wang's Clan via Shouda Trading Company, other clan members were also working hard.

For example, the family blacksmith Wang Zongyao was overseeing the forging of hoes, shovels, axes, saw blades, bows, crossbow bolts, spears, iron-plated shields, machetes, and iron sand for shotguns for clearing and developing the outer regions.

Meanwhile, Wang Luotong and her husband, who managed the family's large ranch, were breeding and training heavy draft horses and warhorses, as well as raising large numbers of pigs, cattle, and sheep to provide more meat for the developers and laborers.

Hunting for meat was no longer feasible, as the nearby outer regions had fewer wild and fierce beasts. The wild meat they obtained wasn't even enough for the hunting teams.

Additionally, the family's fishing brigade Additionally, the family's fishing brigade and the fish farming team at Zhuhui Lake had stopped selling fish and meat products to the outside. Instead, they were stockpiling these resources to supply the outer region development teams, ensuring daily nutritional intake.

Everything was focused on the grand task of outer region development.

Time flew by.

Early October.

The weather gradually cooled, and the lush green landscape began to turn a waxy yellow.

The construction of "Shouzhe Road" in the outer regions was in full swing. In just a few months, it had already progressed fifty li. The project was ahead of schedule.

Wang Shihai, who was staying with the Changning Wang's Clan, was a restless and passionate young man. He volunteered to join the development and clearing teams, leading a group of family guards and clan soldiers to patrol and clear dangerous creatures in the outer regions.

With his prodigious talent and considerable strength, he had earned the admiration of the family guards and clan soldiers.

Wang Shihai had mixed feelings about the Changning Wang's Clan. He loved the place for its endless new and exciting things, but he also found the high status of the clan members somewhat intimidating.

Of course, there were also members like Wang Shining and Wang Shicheng, who made him feel more at ease. Unfortunately, the "Shi" and "Ying" generation members of the Changning Wang's Clan were still young children. Even though Wang Shihai felt a sense of kinship, he couldn't spend all his time with little kids.

One day.

Wang Shihai returned triumphantly with his team, heading back to their base.

Suddenly!

On the partially completed and partially operational "Shouzhe Road," a woman in a light green dress appeared. She wore a veiled hat, had a flute hanging from her waist, and a string of bells on her wrist.

With each step she took, she seemed to appear several zhang away, the clear sound of the bells carried by the wind.

A gust of wind blew, revealing half of her delicate and beautiful face.

In that instant, Wang Shihai was entranced, feeling as if he had been struck by her ethereal presence.

……

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