Inside the city.
"My lord!!"
Jiang Ning sat inside the carriage, and suddenly, the joyful voice of Xie Xiaojiu came from outside the window.
Hearing this, he opened his eyes, interrupting the flow of his Mastery of Fire and Water technique.
[Skill]: Mastery of Fire and Water (Second Limit Break 133/3000) (Trait: Water and Fire Immortal Robe, Mastery of Water and Fire)
He lifted the carriage curtain and immediately saw Xie Xiaojiu's bright, beautiful face poking out from the window.
"My lord, it's you!!" Xie Xiaojiu's face bloomed with a radiant smile.
Jiang Ning smiled in return. "What a coincidence!"
"Yes! What a coincidence!" Xie Xiaojiu's smile widened.
Then she asked, "My lord, may I come over?"
"Of course!" Jiang Ning nodded.
A moment later.
Xie Xiaojiu climbed into the carriage, hanging her white fox fur on the side of the carriage.
"My lord, what made you suddenly decide to visit the Inspection Office today?"
Jiang Ning smiled faintly. "I earned some contribution points yesterday, so I have to go collect my reward, and distribute some rewards to the brothers under me. They've been following me for the past few months, and since they've not failed me, I naturally have to repay them with a thousand gold!"
"My lord, your heart is truly kind!" Xie Xiaojiu's eyes sparkled.
Kind-hearted?
Upon hearing these words, Jiang Ning sneered inwardly.
He never considered himself a purely good person.
The good deeds he performed were just convenient actions after all, everyone has a bit of compassion.
At this moment, sitting in the carriage, Xie Xiaojiu kept smiling brightly.
After a while.
The carriage slowly stopped in front of the Inspection Office.
Stepping out of the carriage and looking around, the world was covered in a blanket of white, with only the snow in the square at the front of the Inspection Office being cleared.
At one corner of the square, Jiang Ning couldn't help but glance over, noticing more than ten figures.
At this moment, Xie Xiaojiu also poked her head out from beside Jiang Ning and looked.
She lightly jumped out of the carriage and landed on the clean, snow-free road.
Jiang Ning followed and jumped down as well.
"Benefactor! It's the benefactor!!"
Suddenly, some noises came from a distance.
Xie Xiaojiu looked up in surprise.
She immediately covered her mouth. "My lord, it's those children from yesterday!"
Jiang Ning's expression remained calm. "And their families."
Moments later.
A group of more than ten people arrived before Jiang Ning and Xie Xiaojiu.
The elderly woman leading the group suddenly dropped to her knees with a thud.
"Thank you, my lord, for rescuing my grandson from the den of demons!"
The others followed suit, kneeling as well. Among them, some had their eyes gouged out, others had their noses mutilated, some had their legs broken, and others had lost their hands.
Apart from the elderly woman, none of them were in perfect health.
Xie Xiaojiu looked at this and glanced at Jiang Ning.
Jiang Ning slightly shifted to the side, allowing the elderly woman to kneel.
At this moment, he felt a pang of guilt in his heart!
He stepped forward to help the elderly woman up.
"There's no need to kneel, madam."
With Xie Xiaojiu's help, the elderly woman slowly rose to her feet.
She trembled as she spoke, "My lord, you've saved the only life of the Wang family, the only heir to our line. This favor is greater than the heavens!"
"This is what I should do," Jiang Ning comforted her.
At this point, the elderly woman reached into her chest with her wrinkled, bark-like right hand, carefully pulling out a small pouch containing eggs, clearly protecting them.
"My lord, these eggs are a small token of my gratitude. Please accept them!"
"Are these eggs from your family's hen?" Jiang Ning asked as he took the pouch.
The elderly woman smiled, her skin wrinkling in the process.
"Our family doesn't even have a hen anymore."
With that, she led her grandson away slowly.
The other children followed her as well.
"My lord!" Xie Xiaojiu spoke softly as she looked at Jiang Ning, who seemed lost in thought.
Jiang Ning smiled, opening the cloth pouch in his hand.
Inside, there were five eggs, with straw filling between them to prevent them from cracking.
The eggs still held a faint warmth from the elderly woman's body.
"Take these eggs, cook them, and bring them to me when they're ready."
Jiang Ning handed the cloth pouch to Xie Xiaojiu and spoke.
"Yes, my lord!" Xie Xiaojiu carefully took the pouch.
As they walked towards the Inspection Office, Xie Xiaojiu suddenly spoke.
"My lord, why do you think they are so kind and honest, yet they live such a hard life?"
Jiang Ning responded, "Kindness and honesty cannot change their fate. The common people at the bottom, how could they not suffer?"
As he spoke, Jiang Ning had already entered the main gate of the Inspection Office, with Xie Xiaojiu closely following him.
"Xiaojiu!"
"Here!"
"Go gather the people. I'm heading to the Internal Affairs Department."
"Yes!" Xie Xiaojiu responded excitedly.
Department of Internal Affairs.
"Senior!" Jiang Ning cupped his hands in salute.
The old woman looked up, glancing at Jiang Ning with a faint expression. "You're here, kid."
"I've come to receive my reward!" Jiang Ning replied.
"You did well yesterday!" The old woman showed a hint of approval.
"It was something I should do!" Jiang Ning said. "The members of the Worshipers Sect are deceiving people and disturbing the order; they deserve to die!"
"I wasn't talking about that!" The old woman smiled lightly.
"Then what are you referring to, Senior?" Jiang Ning asked, puzzled.
The old woman said, "To have compassion for the weak, to stand against the powerful for the sake of beggars, that's rare. You're a good person!!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ning smiled. "Senior, you're flattering me. What I did yesterday was just a small effort on my part."
"A truly good person knows what can't be done but still worries for the country and the people, saving the masses from disaster," the old woman suddenly sneered. "Knowing it's impossible but doing it anyway is foolishness! To help the weak within one's capacity is already good!"
"Being able to protect oneself is the mark of a wise person!"
"If you don't even know how to protect yourself and act on impulse, it's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot sacrificing for nothing and even dragging those around you into tragedy."
Jiang Ning stood by, slightly bowing in respect.
"Senior, your words make a lot of sense. I deeply understand."
The old woman smiled, then reached into her sleeve and tossed a cloth bag toward Jiang Ning.
"Take this. It's your reward for your meritorious service yesterday. Inside, there are 107,000 contribution points."
Jiang Ning caught the cloth bag that was the size of a palm.
He opened the bag and took a look at its contents.
Inside were several gold-and-jade medallions and two silver-jade medallions.
From his knowledge, the silver jade medallions represented 1,000 contribution points each, while the gold-and-jade medallions represented 10,000 contribution points each.
He carefully counted them and understood.
There were 10 gold-and-jade medallions, totaling 100,000 contribution points.
Aside from those, there were eight silver jade medallions, representing 8,000 contribution points.
The 7,000 contribution points came from the fact that he killed a seventh-grade warrior of the Worshipers Sect and four eighth-grade warriors.
The extra 1,000 points came from his mission where he destroyed an important stronghold of the sect.
As for the remaining 50,000 contribution points, they were awarded for the statue he had found.
The remaining 50,000 contribution points came from the sixth-grade martial artist he killed in the Worshipers Sect.
After counting, Jiang Ning took out the silver jade medallions.
"Senior, would it be possible to exchange these silver jade medallions, each worth 1,000 points, for bronze coins, each worth 100 points?"
"Of course!" The old woman nodded.
She waved her hand, and eight piles of bronze coins appeared on the table in front of her.
Each bronze coin represented 100 contribution points, for a total of 8,000 contribution points.
Then, Jiang Ning put the 8,000 contribution points worth of bronze coins into his pouch and cupped his hands in gratitude before leaving.
Watching Jiang Ning's retreating figure as he walked out the door, the old woman muttered to herself.
"He's a good seed, it rare to see someone with a sense of justice and yet not too rigid!"
"His martial talent is frighteningly high, and his mental strength is equally strong!"
She sighed again.
"A once-in-a-hundred-years talent!"
At the courtyard.
Jiang Ning glanced around at the people present.
"Everyone did well yesterday!"
"It's because of your excellent leadership, Lord!" someone immediately spoke up.
Hearing this, Jiang Ning couldn't help but smile, thinking of those sycophants in the workplace of his previous life.
At this moment, he somewhat understood why those people managed to succeed.
"Good medicine tastes bitter, but it's good for the illness; honest words are unpleasant but beneficial for action."
Who would want to hear bad things?
Just like those scammers, they know to speak flattering words.
Afterward, Jiang Ning walked to the stone table in the courtyard.
He raised his hand and waved.
Clink clink clink...
A pile of bronze coins suddenly appeared on the table.
Seeing the pile of bronze coins, with a few silver jade medallions mixed in, the people immediately became excited.
"That's a lot!!"
"With all these, there must be a few thousand contribution points, nearly 10,000, right?"
"Definitely over 10,000 points. Just those three silver jade medallions are worth 3,000 contribution points."
"Over 10,000 points! If we exchange it for silver, that's over 20,000 taels of silver!!"
The moment these words were spoken, everyone in the room gasped in surprise.
None of them had expected that Jiang Ning would offer a reward equivalent to more than twenty thousand taels of silver in contribution points all at once.
Among them, although most of them came from wealthy families, their wealth was considered substantial only when compared to ordinary people. In reality, the wealth of most of them was equivalent to the modest fortune of someone like Cheng Ran.
A modest family could afford to raise someone like them to the level of a Ninth-Rank martial artist, but it would deplete all their resources, leaving nothing for future support.
To go further down the martial arts path, they would have to rely on their efforts.
Therefore, in their eyes, the pile of contribution points on the stone table was not small at all it was, in fact, quite a large amount.
For most of them, even if they emptied their entire family savings, they wouldn't have as much as what was on the stone table.
At this moment, Jiang Ning picked up three silver jade tokens from the stone table.
He tossed two of them to Feng Jiuge.
"These are yours!"
Then he tossed the other one to Xie Xiaojiu.
"This is yours!"
Feng Jiuge caught the two silver jade tokens that Jiang Ning had tossed, holding them as if they were hot potatoes.
"My lord, this is too much!" Feng Jiuge said.
Jiang Ning responded, "This is what you deserve! If it weren't for you finding that stronghold, we wouldn't have had such a successful outcome yesterday."
Hearing this, Feng Jiuge immediately replied, "My lord, if it weren't for you, we would have been completely wiped out yesterday. In some sense, you saved our lives."
Jiang Ning shook his head, "There's no need to say such things."
He then looked at Feng Jiuge and Xie Xiaojiu and said, "You two divide the bronze coins on the stone table."
"Understood, my lord!" Xie Xiaojiu and Feng Jiuge immediately responded.
After giving the instructions, Jiang Ning turned and walked into the house.
He just needed to make an appearance and let them know that the contribution points came from his hands; that was enough.
As for how to divide them and how much each person should get, Jiang Ning couldn't be bothered to worry about it.
Inside the house, Jiang Ning counted the contribution points stored in his spatial ring.
After a moment, he nodded.
"Not bad!" He had over 120,000 contribution points left!
These contribution points, if converted to silver, amounted to over 120,000 taels. If he used these silver taels to purchase rare herbs and treasures, it would significantly boost his source energy points.
But this thought flashed through his mind for only a moment before he dismissed it.
Source energy points, he still had ways to gather more.
However, contribution points were much harder to come by.
The divine statue he found had already yielded as much as it could. The remaining contribution points from the martial artists of the Worshipers Sect in Luoshui County were sparse.
Without enough contribution points, his standing within the inspection office wouldn't improve, and his authority wouldn't increase.
Without proper authority, he wouldn't even be able to access the detailed explanations for Fifth-Rank martial arts techniques.
Let alone plan his path forward in martial arts.
So, he couldn't casually spend these contribution points.
As for source energy points, he wasn't without methods to increase them.
With his increasing strength and improved water affinity, his perception range in the water was expanding. In Luoshui, he could find rare herbs and treasures.
For example, he had previously found snow lotus flowers and mysterious black stones in the waters of Luoshui.
The waters of Luoshui were vast enough to allow him to search slowly for treasures hidden in the water.
Additionally, in his spatial ring, there were still unused golden boxes.
These golden boxes were made of pure gold and weighed over a pound equivalent to more than ten taels of gold.
More than ten taels of gold could be exchanged for over ten thousand taels of silver.
He thought to himself that at some point, he could use that gold to buy rare herbs and treasures, increasing his source energy points and temporarily alleviating his urgent need.
Looking at his panel, he noticed:
Source Energy: 374.11
After checking, he closed the panel.
At that moment, he could hear the discussions of the others in the courtyard.
"I'm lucky, I got five bronze coins! With that, I can exchange for a body technique!"
"I'm lucky too, based on merit, I got four bronze coins, which I'll trade for silver to cover my cultivation expenses for the next few months!"
"Being with Commander Jiang is great! Yesterday, we went on a task without any danger and got rewards worth over a thousand taels of silver. I bet others will envy us."
"Of course! Commander Jiang is the genius of Luoshui County. Being under his command is the way to go!"
…
Hearing the praise from the team members outside, Jiang Ning felt a twinge of guilt.
In yesterday's mission, he had taken most of the rewards for himself, and the bulk of the contribution points had been claimed by him.
Out of the 107,000 contribution points, he had only distributed a little over 10,000 as rewards.
"I'll make it up to them later. When the chance comes, I'll properly compensate them!" Jiang Ning thought to himself.
His mind wandered to the Qinghe Marquis' residence.
He had killed He Jinyun, and now He Jinyun's second brother had arrived in Luoshui County.
Though he hadn't seen any signs of him in a few days, the invisible pressure of that situation lingered in Jiang Ning's mind.
"I don't believe that with the support of the Inspection Office, the Qinghe Marquis' residence would dare to act against me!" Jiang Ning muttered to himself after a moment of reflection.
Then, he opened his panel and checked it again.
Skills: Five Animal Fist (First Limit Break: 1153/2000) (Traits: Five Organs Store Essence)
"As long as my strength is strong enough, I can face any challenges!"
"The second limit break for Five Animal Fist requires 200 source energy points, which I have enough for!"
"At the current speed of my grind experience, I should be able to complete the second limit break for Five Animal Fist in the next couple of days!"
"I hope the second limit break will boost my strength!"
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