Matters involving two behemoths were almost always like this. The negotiations had taken four years, and receiving the reparations would require even more waiting. Ultimately, the vast majority of those reparations ended up in the mouths of those from Cloudveil Prefecture City.
Only a tiny portion went to Guiding Spirit, and that was only because Wang Yu was directly involved. If he hadn't been clever enough to seek aid, he wouldn't have even made it to this stage.
The more likely outcome would have been the Yellow Springs Temple simply slipping away.
As for Elder Earth Treasury's true purpose, Elder Xuan Yan might have known, but Wang Yu was never told. It seemed to involve some secret of the land here in Cloudveil Province.
Though he didn't know, he could guess.
The goal of hijacking the Sacred Tribute had been to lure him out of the city and capture him alive, secretly taking control of Guiding Spirit.
Therefore, it had to be related to Guiding Spirit. What was nearby? Only the **[Ancient Ruins: Eastern Extreme Capital]**!
He suspected that the struggle for the Transformation Spirit inheritance last time had allowed Elder Earth Treasury to discover some hidden secret. This suspicion was reinforced after they ceded territory and cities, expanding the border further into Netherflow Province.
Several cities originally belonging to the Yellow Springs Temple were now to the even further east. This diluted Guiding Spirit's uniqueness. Cultivators exploring the ancient ruins now had more choices.
Being away from the center of the storm wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
After all, the geographical advantage still existed. If anything happened at the Eastern Extreme Capital ruins, it would be impossible to escape Wang Yu's notice.
Of course, all of this was just his speculation.
If he guessed wrong, then Elder Earth Treasury would definitely not give up after a single failure and would continue to plot against Guiding Spirit in the future.
That would conveniently allow him to verify his theory.
For now, there wasn't too much to worry about. The negotiations had just concluded, it was a sensitive time, and the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect's surveillance of the Yellow Springs Temple would increase.
This would be a rare period of peace and quiet.
Seizing this excellent opportunity, Wang Yu moved the long-planned Guiding Spirit Market project to the top of his priority list. Choosing an auspicious day, he rallied all the forces of his interest alliance—and opened for business!
He restructured the entire industrial layout of Guiding Spirit. The central district would no longer house mortals; it was now entirely reserved for cultivators, including the City Lord's Manor itself.
He had constructed twenty third-grade cave dwellings, three hundred second-grade cave dwellings, and one thousand eight hundred first-grade cave dwellings, distributed in inner, middle, and outer rings.
This would be the start of his cave dwelling rental business.
The east, west, and south districts were originally ruled by the three great families of Guiding Spirit. After the Bai family perished, their assets were divided between the Guan and Jiang families. However, their influence could hardly cover an entire district.
Scattered shops, even in the best locations, were of little use. Establishing the Guiding Spirit Market was an inevitable step, as was separating cultivators and mortals for management.
Concentration was needed to gather foot traffic. The rebuilt central district served this function perfectly, with shops from various families gathered here, greatly increasing the land's value.
Formations, construction, spirit gathering, relocation, and so on.
The various scattered forces of the former north district also had to relocate to the central district. This was especially true for the business of the Cloud Dream Pavilion. Wang Yu received a substantial annual tribute from them and secured them a prime location.
Although Madam Zhao Yun had gone to Three Thatched City to scheme against Luo Chen, Xiang Xiang was still here. She was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator, sufficient to maintain the pavilion's basic operations.
The Blood Saber Gang had essentially become his own black-gloved enforcers. With the Blood Saber Guest gone, only a few minor figures remained, whom he had also settled appropriately.
As for the Purple Gold Chamber of Commerce, it had been completely absorbed by the City Lord's Manor. Wang Yu put Qing Yang Zhenren in temporary charge, maintaining the trade connections with the Yama Ghost Market. Even if it operated at a loss, keeping this channel open was important.
The original north district was rebuilt into an industrial base: alchemy rooms, artifact forges, paper-tanning and beast hide workshops, the Guan family's stationery workshops, exotic stone processing, formation banner production... too many workshops.
Among them, alchemy and artifact forging workshops were the most numerous and were also available for rent to rogue cultivators.
The Guiding Spirit Market would be the main source of spirit stone income in the future.
Wang Yu also invested heavily in formation funds. Labor was cheap; he used the city guard army as a construction crew, which didn't waste the salaries he paid them.
Fighting to the death for that amount of spirit stones wasn't worth it, but doing construction work was fine, right?
Having been City Lord for a while, he was gradually learning the correct methods to drive his subordinates to work.
Taking advantage of the market's opening, Wang Yu conducted a major census of the cultivator population within the city. The total was over 120,000, with Qi Refining cultivators making up 99%, most of them at the early stages.
Only about 50% truly owned property in Guiding Spirit, mostly houses passed down through generations. The other half were a transient population.
They stayed in Guiding Spirit for various reasons, for periods ranging from a few months to several years, sometimes even staying for over a decade.
With the market's opening, they all came to join the excitement, gathering these potentially disruptive elements in one place.
This actually made management easier and could reduce patrol expenses. It was also a good time to phase out some of the earlier recruited rogue cultivators and promote the more loyal ones.
The number of transient cultivators slightly exceeded Wang Yu's expectations.
He immediately ordered the construction of more first-grade cave dwellings. He estimated he would need at least ten thousand to meet basic demand. If the central district's area was insufficient, they would build upward.
If that still wasn't enough, they would build underground. At worst, they could offer discounts for basement dwellings.
These people also had the right to operate shops within the market.
For temporary stalls, Wang Yu specifically designated three streets for their use, charging daily rent—just a few spirit stones, which would also add up to a significant sum.
Unified market management had another advantage: no transaction, however small, could escape the City Lord's Manor's notice. They would all have to pay taxes!
Before the market officially opened, most of the fixed shop spaces were already sold, making City Lord Wang suddenly wealthy. His spirit stone reserves skyrocketed. The central district had always been his territory.
Not only did individual shopkeepers have to pay, but so did everyone in the interest alliance. However, since this was a major initiative for Guiding Spirit's development, the alliance members gave up their shops in their own districts.
Choosing to fully cooperate with him naturally meant receiving substantial discounts. The east, west, and south districts thus became areas exclusively for settling mortals, with annual spirit root testing ceremonies.
Through this round of land sales, Wang Yu amassed a fund of five million spirit stones in one go. This was also inseparable from his previous operations.
The rivalry between the Golden Pavilion and the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, his policies of conceding profits and earning less, the influx of external funds from the Eastern Extreme Capital exploration boom... all had made Guiding Spirit City much more prosperous than before.
Harvesting at this time was simply too comfortable, and this was the result of him exercising considerable restraint!
The Guiding Spirit Market was prosperous from the day it opened. Various discounts and promotions lasted for a full month. The Heavenly Treasure Pavilion also cooperated with Wang Yu's operations. Everyone had a bright future ahead.
......
......
The 3rd month of Wang Yu's 31st year as an Affairs Manager!
On this day.
Wang Yu was within his Niwan Palace, condensing the thirty-third Soul-Gouging Evil Boat. Thanks to his powerful spiritual sense, this soul-searching secret art had already reached the minor mastery stage and could achieve the effect of searching souls and seizing memories.
It seemed to have formed a subtle connection with the secret art, Heavenly Soul Primordial Qi, as if the two complemented each other naturally. His speed in cultivating this art was unexpectedly fast.
"City Lord, a distinguished guest has arrived. She requests your presence at the Greeting Pine Hall."
"A distinguished guest? Has the Yellow Springs Temple's envoy arrived?"
Wang Yu ceased his cultivation and pushed the door open.
Outside was Xu Ruozhou. Blessed with the rare dual-spiritual root aptitude and nurtured by the City Lord's Manor's resources, he had already reached the peak of the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
He had hopes of attempting a Foundation Establishment breakthrough within ten years. If successful, he would become the first true Foundation Establishment cultivator belonging to the City Lord's Manor. Of course, Wang Yu could only provide him with resources up to the Qi Refining stage.
Foundation Establishment stage resources, including Foundation Establishment Pills, were not something an ordinary official's salary could cover.
He would have to rely on himself, or contribute much more, to obtain advanced resources from Wang Yu. Simply doing odd jobs was far from enough.
Faced with the question, Xu Ruozhou shook his head. "Not someone from the Yellow Springs Temple. It's a female cultivator with an unfamiliar aura. She's at the early Core Formation stage."
"Oh?"
Now Wang Yu was truly puzzled. He could only go to the Greeting Pine Hall to see for himself.
Soon.
A woman wearing a veil, with meticulously styled hair, came into Wang Yu's view. Her eyes were a captivating, watery crimson, seeming to hold a thousand unspoken words within them. Her long hair was a mix of black and white.
Her robes were primarily black with silver patterns, fitted at the waist and wrists, giving her a rather efficient appearance. Her chest was full, revealing fair and delicate collarbones.
Though her aura was unfamiliar, he could sense a wave of familiar killing intent. His Lunar Yin Ghost Eye opened silently. Within a vision of crimson mist, he saw a point of spiritual light, unmoving as a mountain under the protection of her spiritual platform.
Wang Yu revealed a smile.
"Daoist Friend Jin, it's been a long time."
That's right, the visitor was none other than Jin Miaoshan, whom he hadn't seen for many years. The last time they met was... the last time. It seemed a bit hard to remember clearly.
The relationship between the two couldn't be called friendly, but they had moved past the conflict of life and death. After the transaction involving the Heavenly Soul Sect's inheritance, Wang Yu unilaterally acknowledged this "friendship."
He had planned to extract more benefits from her. Unfortunately, Jin Miaoshan was plagued by troubles, remaining in seclusion and not showing her face for a long time, even attracting further schemes from Jin Lin.
Compared to before, the overbearing, domineering aura that Jin Miaoshan once carried had diminished significantly. Up close, he could even catch a faint scent of blood about her.
Her expression could only be described as detached, devoid of joy or sorrow. Her temperament had almost completely changed.
The influence of the **[Asura Slaughter Sacred Sutra]** raised Wang Yu's great vigilance. A Transformation Spirit inheritance—truly terrifying!
Fortunately, his **[Lesser Asura Slaughter Fist]** wasn't so exaggerated, nor was it a pure mental-path divine ability. It was more of a path he had comprehended from the Slaughter Intent Stone Slabs.
It focused more on restraint, with only a small part dedicated to release.
This probably had a lot to do with the state of self-restraint Venerable Asura was in at the time.
Hearing his form of address, Jin Miaoshan remained silent for a good while.
Then she sighed.
"Just over a decade feels to Miaoshan as if an entire lifetime has passed. I haven't yet thanked you for the matter regarding Master Tranquil Water."
Wang Yu's smile was warm and gentle, his handsome face full of amiability.
"Daoist Friend Jin, there's no need for such courtesy. Ruozhou."
"Your subordinate is here."
Xu Ruozhou hastily bowed and presented a recording stone, then quickly retreated, closing all the hall doors.
"This is…"
"Daoist Friend Jin will understand after seeing it."
The images within were precisely the scenes of Tranquil Water using the Lightning Tribulation Pills to destroy the central district, and then… the ruins!
**(End of Chapter)**