This had nothing to do with guilt or innocence—it was simply the nature of the Demonic Path.
Such a perfect excuse for exploitation.
You say it's unrelated? I say everyone's guilty. Just ask Steward Xu, who once had his entire fortune confiscated while under detention. He knew the drill.
"City Lord is magnanimous. For disciples of the Guan Clan to be accepted as your students is their great fortune. Might I ask if there's a limit? We have a hundred juniors currently cultivating at home."
"The Jiang Clan also has a hundred candidates for your selection."
Wang Yu raised an eyebrow.
"No rush. The disciple selection will take place in half a month. Two from each clan will suffice."
Then he turned to the representative from Dreamcloud Pavilion.
"Before entering the city, I encountered your colleague Daoist Chao. She did me a great favor.
"For now, I'll entrust the northern district to your pavilion. Help maintain order. Once the formal documents are in place, everything will be made official."
Me?
The Dreamcloud envoy was a petite beauty, the delicate sort. Her cultivation was only at the second layer of Foundation Establishment—equal to Wang Yu's—and her rank was likely beneath Chao Yun-niang.
To suddenly receive such favor and authority from the new City Lord filled her with joy… and dread.
Wang Yu had publicly stated that Chao Yun-niang had helped him before entering the city. How? Considering Dreamcloud Pavilion's business, it was clearly intelligence.
Once word spread, Dreamcloud Pavilion would be seen as tied to Wang Yu's storm-tossed vessel.
To accept or not to accept—that was the question.
But… she didn't seem to have a choice.
The young woman sighed inwardly, but her face beamed with gratitude. "Xiangxiang thanks the City Lord for your trust. I will do my utmost to maintain order in the northern district."
After all, too many minor faction leaders had died in the north. Most of those groups had only one Foundation Establishment cultivator—and they were all gone. Chaos was inevitable.
"Since that's settled, I won't keep you. Please return here in half a month."
Only then did the crowd realize—they'd have to come back?
This place, once the formation was activated, was a death trap. Wouldn't they be at his mercy? Their hearts trembled, though their mouths responded with ease.
Wang Yu knew. Next time, they'd send representatives. No one would dare come in person.
All thanks to that bastard Tuoba Lei—causing trouble even in death.
—Serves him right.
The storm within the City Lord's Manor had passed, but the storm outside would rage for some time. Wang Yu saw the guests off, shut the gates, and prepared to take stock of the manor's assets.
He summoned the Three-Tailed Snow Fox and gave an order.
"Xueyu, freeze all this meat paste and body parts. Stack them in the corner."
"Yoo~"
With no subordinates, he had to clean up himself.
The spoils—over five hundred storage pouches—formed a small mountain before him. He examined them one by one, a tedious task, but the final tally was enough to replenish his dried-up purse.
"Over 110,000 spirit stones. More than 600 first-tier magic artifacts. Eighteen second-tier artifacts, mostly low-grade. Only Tuoba Lei and the Bai Clan head had second-tier high-grade items."
One was the saber he'd seen earlier. The other, a sword.
Upon inspection, Wang Yu found the sword inferior to the Bluewater Sword he'd taken from Old Lan. After all, it was a Sword Sect product—far superior to common blades.
As for cultivation methods and spell arts—there were plenty.
It was the largest haul Wang Yu had ever collected.
"Azure Dragon Fortress Technique", "Blazing Fire Body Refinement Art", "Greenwood Vitality Method", "Pureheart Jade Maiden Sutra".
These came from the fallen Foundation Establishment leaders of the northern district. The cultivation paths were complete, but the accompanying spell arts, secret techniques, and artifact inheritances were all fragmented.
By Blood Reversal Sect standards, they weren't full inheritances. But for rogue cultivators, a functioning cultivation route was already considered complete.
Different standards for different worlds.
These weren't useful to him personally, but they could enrich the City Lord's collection and be used to train subordinates. Foundation Establishment methods still held decent value.
Among the spell arts, only one caught his eye.
"Pureheart Mantra"—as the name implied, it calmed the mind and focused the spirit. Perfect for his upcoming soul-tempering session using the backlash from devoured evil spirits.
With this mantra as support, the process would be much safer.
Ultimately, these people were too low-level. Their belongings held little value. Even the Bai Clan head and Tuoba Lei had no inheritance jade slips in their pouches.
The Tuoba Clan had risen from rogue roots. Their rapid growth over the past century hadn't built deep foundations. Good items were scarce.
With the battlefield loot sorted, it was time to inventory the City Lord's Manor itself.
Treasure Vault, General Storage, Scripture Hall, Advanced Herb Garden.
These four were the core. With the City Lord Token, Wang Yu had full access to all of them.
The herb garden was likely Tuoba Clan's private property. It held mostly second-tier common herbs, with only three or four rare ones—enough to meet Wang Yu's daily needs.
Not bad.
The general storage was meant for clan members and hired cultivators. It was packed with miscellaneous items—artifacts, pills, talismans, formation flags… everything.
Unfortunately, all first-tier. Useless to him.
Mediocre.
The treasure vault was the Tuoba Clan's true collection. Only two Foundation Establishment cultivators had access. When Wang Yu entered, the dazzling spiritual light nearly blinded him.
Rows of storage chests, crafted using spatial expansion techniques, each the size of a small house. All filled with spirit stones—low-grade and mid-grade alike.
After counting, Wang Yu found a total of 1.36 million spirit stones. Converted to mid-grade, that was 136,000.
Perfect!
But then he sobered.
"Wait… these are tribute stones meant for the Blood Reversal Sect."
Of course.
The sect's territory spanned four provinces. Cities built atop spiritual veins numbered in the tens of thousands.
Depending on the vein's grade, tribute was due every five years. First-tier veins owed 100,000, second-tier owed 500,000.
Spiritridge City sat atop a third-tier vein. Its tribute was one million every five years. It sounded like a lot, but cities like Spiritridge could easily meet the quota.
"So only 360,000 of this belongs to me. Still, better than nothing."
Wang Yu calculated the calendar. This year marked the end of the five-year cycle. No wonder the stones were piled up. With the Tuoba Clan wiped out and no staff remaining—who would deliver the tribute?
That was a problem.
No time to dwell. More treasures awaited.
Beyond spirit stones, the vault held other valuables. Shelves embedded in the walls, protected by formation-linked restrictions—all under his control.
One by one, he examined them—and found a surprise.
Third-tier treasure material: Blood Dragon Essence!
Legend said this gem formed from the condensed blood of a powerful flood dragon upon death. Deep crimson, it radiated faint draconic might.
For Wang Yu's Nether Serpent Spine, it was a supreme treasure—able to enhance his foundation and forcibly elevate his body refinement level.
The gem was the size of a fist. A single shaving would suffice to brew Dragonblood Elixir. Wang Yu stored it carefully.
Next—
Third-tier spiritual herb: Golden Qi Root!
Extremely rare. Born only in places rich in metallic qi, where sharpness had long faded into dormancy.
Its applications were narrow. The Tuoba Clan hadn't known how to use it, so they stored it away.
But Wang Yu knew of an ancient pill recipe.
[Exquisite Treasure Pill]—Golden Qi Root was its primary ingredient. He'd seen the formula in a batch of secret texts exchanged at the Enforcement Pavilion.
He only had general info. To get the full recipe, he'd need to redeem it later. Still, he stored the root.
The rest of the vault held mostly second-tier items.
Wang Yu left one million spirit stones behind for tribute. The rest became his personal wealth. As he left, he muttered—
"So poor… truly poor!"
"A City Lord's Manor, and this is all it has?"
He turned and entered the Scripture Hall.
It held not only the Tuoba Clan's century of accumulation, but also some manuals from Zhuo Kuangsheng's tenure. The quantity was decent, though not vast.
Mostly first- and second-tier. No third-tier manuals.
One technique did catch Wang Yu's attention—a movement art called [Violet Dragon Earthstride Technique]. The name alone revealed its origin: Violet Dragon Mountain.
No wonder Zhuo Kuangsheng had once dueled the mountain's master.
"Violet Dragon" referred to loaches. This earthstride technique was a secret legacy of Violet Dragon Mountain—a true heir's art. A high-level earth movement technique.
It allowed subterranean travel, wall-passing, and rock-swimming. A versatile spell.
Wang Yu owned an earth spiritual root, so learning this technique wouldn't result in wasted effort due to elemental mismatch. It was a versatile, high-tier movement art—perfect for his needs.
With that, the City Lord's Manor's foundations were fully inventoried. Though mixed with the Tuoba Clan's legacy, the total value of Wang Yu's personal assets now approached fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones.
It sounded like a lot, but when converted to mid-grade spirit stones, it was only five thousand. And if converted to high-grade spirit stones, it was a mere five hundred.
Still poor.
The conversion rates were brutal: ten low-grade stones equaled one mid-grade, but one hundred mid-grade stones were needed for a single high-grade stone.
High-grade spirit stones only circulated among Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators. Only those realms could "hand-refine" them. They were essentially a separate tier of currency.
It was almost unheard of to exchange low- or mid-grade stones for high-grade ones.
Next, Wang Yu headed to the Administrative Archives of the manor.
He retrieved the ledgers detailing past income and expenses, development records of Spiritridge City, and the distribution of surrounding resources and profits.
This portion belonged to the Blood Reversal Sect.
As City Lord, Wang Yu was effectively a manager—tasked with overseeing the sect's holdings. The sect provided a five-year budget of one million spirit stones. Any surplus was his to keep.
The income was divided into three main categories.
1. Tax Revenue.
This included contributions from the three major clans, cultivators in the five districts, visiting rogue cultivators, merchant caravans, and more.
It encompassed five types of taxes: goods tax, tribute tax, security tax, administrative tax, and gate tolls.
This alone brought in nearly thirty thousand spirit stones annually. Over five years, that totaled one hundred fifty thousand.
But the math wasn't that simple—there were many expenses.
City maintenance, formation upkeep, personnel salaries, special casualty compensations… all of which added up to a significant sum.
(End of Chapter)